Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines:Chapter 5 worship

Spiritual
Disciplines for
the Christian
Life
Donald S. Whitney

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Worship...
for the
purpose of
godliness
Chapter 5, Donald Whitney,
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life


Assume that the church service you
attend on a Sunday morning is intended
to honour, praise and glorify God.
Do you give 100%, or do you hold back
(perhaps because of other people?)
Would he feel like it was all for him?
Is he neglected?
Do you go through the motions without
ever exerting yourself?
Do you sing songs?
Do you enjoy what other people do more
than you enjoy the guest of honour?
Does what happens there give all glory to
God - or is someone else often the focus
of attention?

Matt 4:10 “Jesus said to him, “Away from me,
Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord
your God, and serve him only”
Psalm 95:6, “Come, let us bow down in
worship, let us kneel before the Lord our
Maker;
Let us be clear - God expects worship-
godliness without worship is unthinkable -
but it is possible to worship God in vain!
Matt 15:8-9, “‘These people honor me with
their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain; their teachings are
merely human rules.’”
In order to avoid this we have to learn the
spiritual discipline of worship.

Worship is...focussing on and
responding to God
Before offering a deﬁnition let us look at
what the Bible says worship is:
Thomas sees the risen Jesus and worship
happens - John 20:28, Thomas said to him,
“My Lord and my God!”
Rev 4:8, shows unceasing worship,Each of
the four living creatures had six wings and was
covered with eyes all around, even under its
wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’
who was, and is, and is to come.”

Then we see the elders casting their crowns
down in worship and declaring, Rev 4:11,“You
are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and
honor and power, for you created all things, and by
your will they were created and have their being.”
Then we see thousands upon thousands
worshipping, Rev 5:12-13, In a loud voice they
were saying:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive
power and wealth and wisdom and strength and
honor and glory and praise!” Then I heard every
creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth
and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To
him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise
and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”

The word worship comes from the Saxon
word weorthscype which later became
worthship: to worship God is to ascribe the
proper worth to God, to magnify his
worthiness of praise, to approach and
address God as he is worthy.
He is worthy of all the worth and honour we
can give him - for he is the Lord of all the
earth, the creator and sustainer of the
universe, the judge of all the earth.
“The more we focus on God the more we
understand and appreciate how worthy he
is” as a result we respond (as we might to
something else of beauty) by worshipping -
just as angelic beings do continually.

We are not yet in heaven - so how
do we “see” the Lord now?
- in creation, Rom 1:20
- in his word, the Bible, 2 Tim
3:16, 2 Pet 1:20-21
- in Jesus Christ, Jn 1:1, Heb 1:1-2
In each case we need to ask the
Holy Spirit to guide us in
worshipping, to aid us in
understanding, that we might see
him as he is.
It is clear that we need to know
and understand the Bible in order
to worship God in truest form.


“Worship often includes
words and actions, but it
goes beyond them to the
focus of the mind and
heart. Worship is the God-
centred focus and response
of the inner man; it is being
preoccupied with God...you
are worshipping God only
when you are focussed on
him and thinking of him.”


Worship is...done in spirit and truth

The most profound text on worship in the NT
is John 4:23-24,Yet a time is coming and has now
come when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the
kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit,
and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and
in truth.”
To do this we must have Christ living within us
through repentance and faith - something that
comes through the action of the Holy Spirit
leading us to confess “Jesus Christ is Lord”.

Whitney says, “To worship God in spirit
means to worship from the inside out. It
means to be sincere in our acts of worship.
No matter how spiritual the song...if you
aren’t sincere then it isn’t worship, it’s
hypocrisy.”
The truth part of this comes in
worshipping according to the truth of
scripture - we worship God how he is
revealed in the Bible - in mercy and
justice, love and wrath etc.
“Where feelings for God are dead,
worship is dead” John Piper - who
goes on to suggest how emotions
should be involved in worship...

Consider the analogy of a
wedding anniversary. Mine is
on December 21. Suppose on
this day I bring home a dozen
long-stemmed roses for Noel.
When she meets me at the door, I
hold out the roses, and she says,
“O Johnny, they’re beautiful;
thank you” and gives me a big
hug. Then suppose I hold up my
hand and say matter-of-factly,
“Don’t mention it; it’s my
duty.”


What happens? Is not the exercise of
duty a noble thing? Do not we honor
those we dutifully serve? Not much.
Not if there’s no heart in it. Dutiful
roses are a contradiction in terms. If
I am not moved by a spontaneous
affection for her as a person, the
roses do not honor her. In fact, they
belittle her. They are a very thin
covering for the fact that she does
not have the worth or beauty in my
eyes to kindle affection. All I can
muster is a calculated expression of
marital duty...


...The real duty of worship is not the outward duty to say or do
the liturgy. It is the inward duty, the command: “Delight
yourself in the Lord”! (Psalm 37:4). “Be glad in the LORD, and
rejoice!” (Psalm 32:11).
The reason this is the real duty of worship is that it honors God,
while the empty performance of ritual does not. If I take my wife
out for the evening on our anniversary and she asks me, “Why
do you do this?” the answer that honors her most is “Because
nothing makes me happier tonight than to be with you.”
“It’s my duty” is a dishonor to her.
“It’s my joy” is an honor...
How shall we honor God in worship? By saying, “It’s my duty”?
Or by saying, “It’s my joy”?


Head and heart, thought and emotions -
should be involved in our worship. If
we have a bias towards one it can distort
and mislead our worship - e.g. Emotions
can lead to warm feelings but a lack of
truth - truth over-emphasised can lead
to grim, dull “hard” services.
We have to get the balance right for our
worship to be in spirit and truth.
What if we feel spiritually dry - do we
stop attending worship services, aren’t
we hypocrites? No, we persevere
because it is the right thing to do (and
even our “best” worship is always
ﬂawed)

We should still be looking for a
refreshing, a renewal of our
experience, but we should continue to
worship with other people and bring a
sacrifice of praise to the Lord.
Jesus promised a flow of the HSp in
the lives of every believer - sometimes
it just takes longer to get through the
dry times - Jn 7:38
Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let
anyone who is thirsty come to me and
drink. Whoever believes in me, as
Scripture has said, rivers of living water
will flow from within them.” By this he
meant the Spirit...

Worship is...expected both publicly and
privately
Heb 10:24-25And let us consider how we may
spur one another on toward love and good
deeds, not giving up meeting together,as some
are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one
another...
...makes it clear meeting to worship
regularly with other believers is essential.
The body 1 cor 12;2, building Eph 2:21, and
household Eph 2:19 ideas all seem to back
a non-isolationist view of the Christian
faith - relating an individual to the whole.

If you are able to be present there is no
substitute for meeting together - not
cd’s, tv or the internet.
Your personal devotional life might be
wonderful - but still you should meet
with other believers. There are many
blessings which come when believers
meet together.
However there are also blessings
which are to be had in our own private
times with the Lord.
- Jesus withdrew to lonely places to
pray Lk 5:16
- “public worship will not excuse us
from secret worship” Martin Luther

Many argue that you cannot worship
publicly on one day each week if you
do not worship privately each day.
“Is it because we do not worship well
in private that our corporate worship
often dissatisﬁes us?” Geoffrey Thomas
Whitney emphasises that private
worship is a source of great blessing -
strength, guidance, encouragement,
peace are all available each day - most
importantly is the chance to spend
intimate time in the presence of our
Lord Jesus Christ - Jesus “selects” you
each day for this honour because he
wants to be with you.

Worship is...a discipline to be
cultivated
Without discipline our life of
worship will be thin and
inconsistent. Worship comes from,
ﬂows from, a heart full of love and
devotion for God. Yet we have to
resist the danger of making it an
emotional choice - we discipline
ourselves to do it - just as we are
disciplined in all other
relationships in our lives if we want
them to remain healthy.

Worship is...a discipline to be
cultivated
Worship is an end in that it focusses
on, and responds to, God/ It is a
means in that as we worship God we
become more like him. To become
more like God we have to focus on
him more - look at him more. Do not
worry if you have some “failed” quiet
times - remember you are looking at a
relationship, do the “right” things and
do the relational things. If stuck - ask
a mature christian for help.

More application

Will you commit yourself to the daily
discipline of worship?
“If you do not worship God on seven
days a week, you do not worship him
on one” AW Tozer
Many disguise their poverty of
worship by disciplining their worship
every Sunday, yet ignoring it the rest
of the week. The result is a lack of
growth in Christlikeness.

Will you put actual worship into your acts of worship?
David Clarkson, “What you do in public worship, do it with all
your might. Shake off that slothful, indifferent, lukewarm
temper, which is so odious to God. Think it not enough to
present our bodies before the Lord. The worship of the body is but
the carcass of worship; it is soul worship that is the soul of
worship. Those that draw near with their lips only shall ﬁnd God
far enough from them; not only lips, and mouth, and tongue, but
mind, and heart, and affections; not only knee, and hand, and
eye, but heart, and conscience, and memory, must be pressed to
attend upon God in public worship. David says, not only “my
ﬂesh longs for Thee,” but “my soul thirsts for Thee..” Then will
the Lord draw near, when our whole man waits on Him; then
will the Lord be found, when we seek Him with our whole
heart.”

Remember in heaven worship is
24 hours /day for all eternity - if
it is dull for you, maybe you are
missing something of God?

US president Calvin Coolidge:
“It is only when men
begin to worship that
they begin to grow”


Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines:Chapter 5 worship

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