True Worshipers (eBook)

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TRUE WORSHIPERS MATTER

WORSHIP AND REALITY

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

JOHN 4:23

The year was 1975. I was standing in an open field next to my future wife, Julie, in Front Royal, Virginia. Along with a few thousand other people, we had come to experience Fishnet, one of the first outdoor “Jesus festivals.” More specifically, we had come to experience the music.

Converted rock bands, singer-songwriters, and folk musicians had started singing about Jesus without missing a beat. And their songs were making their way into the church. “Worship,” as we started calling it, became almost indistinguishable from what was being played on the radio. Traditionalists questioned and feared it. Young people devoured it.

Fishnet and festivals like it were the first signs that a worship tidal wave was about to crash upon the shores of the church. Conversations about worship then were relatively few. In just a few years, “worship” would hit the big time.

IT’S A WORSHIP WORLD

Decades later, an ever-increasing number of books, magazines, websites, and blogs are devoted exclusively to the topic of worship, or at least worship music. Worship has become a thing, if not the thing. It’s a movement, a phenomenon, and in many places, an industry.

There have been undeniable benefits. This heightened focus on worship has produced resources that help us think about it in a more biblical and comprehensive way.1 The outpouring of new worship songs has been astounding. Although most will be forgotten, some modern hymns show signs of being around for decades, if not centuries. Congregational singing has been revitalized, and a new generation of musicians are being raised up to use their gifts for the church. Young people now fill large arenas to worship God with songs that unabashedly proclaim a passion for Jesus Christ.

But it hasn’t all been good. Heated arguments about worship-music styles have divided or destroyed congregations. Performance is often valued over participation, and technology over truth. Many songs have been written by musicians who don’t know their Bibles very well, resulting in songs that lack gospel and theological clarity. Worst of all, worship has been reduced almost universally to what happens when we sing.

Whether you see the “worship phenomenon” as a good thing, a bad thing, or somewhere in between, this much is certain: the worship of God matters. It’s never irrelevant. It’s never unimportant. The worship of God should always be a hot topic. And from God’s perspective, it is. There is nothing more foundational to our relationship with God and to our lives as Christians.

And not surprisingly, we’re not the first generation of Christians to think about it.

THE END OF OUR EXISTENCE

“We should consider it the great end of our existence to be found numbered among the worshipers of God.”2 These words first appeared over 450 years ago, penned by the French theologian and pastor John Calvin. He wasn’t imagining a guitar-driven band playing the latest worship hits, or a pipe organ accompanying a choir. I don’t think music was even on his mind. But his words are as relevant to us today as they were to his original audience. And they sum up why I wrote this book.

Most of us don’t give “the great end of our existence” much thought. The duties, distractions, joys, trials, and temptations of this life are more than sufficient to keep our minds occupied every waking moment. Consider eternity? We don’t have the time.

When we do think about the afterlife, we often look forward to things like being reunited with loved ones, singing our favorite worship songs endlessly, devouring all the chocolate we want without gaining weight, or playing unlimited rounds of golf on the perfect course. Atheists say we’re simply going to cease to exist, so there’s nothing “great” about it. We just die.

As a Christian, I believe Calvin’s words are true for all of us, religious or not. He isn’t saying that everyone will be found numbered among the worshipers of God. Rather, he’s encouraging us to see this as our highest goal, our loftiest aim—the great purpose of our existence. Better than having all the power, wealth, talent, intelligence, or pleasure you could ever imagine is being a worshiper of God forever.

I suspect worshiping God is at least on your radar, given that you’re reading this. More likely, your relationship with God has only stirred your desire to know him in deeper ways. Your love for God has only made you want to love him more.

Maybe you’ve been unexpectedly overcome with gratefulness while singing with your church. Perhaps you’ve sensed God’s presence so strongly at times that you wanted to kneel down in silent awe. Or in the middle of reading your Bible one morning it struck you how amazing Jesus is, and you were undone. Maybe while you were studying, working hard, or caring for a friend, you realized you were doing it for God’s glory, not your own, and it felt oh so good.

I’ve experienced all these things and more. When I do experience them, I’m grateful that at least for the moment, I’m wholly focused on the God who redeemed me. And at those times, I think, yes, it is the great end of our existence to be numbered among the worshipers of God. For all eternity.

WORSHIP THEN . . . AND NOW

But being numbered among the worshipers of God then and being numbered among them now are two very different things. In this life, worship isn’t always what it could be. And you might be thinking, In my experience, it’s never what it could be!

I get it. I’ve been a Christian for more than forty years and have known the highs and lows of what it means to be a worshiper of God. I’m also aware that the idea of worship, depending on who you ask, can sound incredibly exciting, unspeakably boring, mildly confusing, or at best, irrelevant. For some, the word worship is pregnant with eager expectation; others have to stifle a yawn.

However you define it, we can all struggle with worshiping God this side of heaven. Maybe you can identify with some of these perspectives:

• Worshiping God is difficult, if not impossible, due to your challenging circumstances, unfulfilled hopes, or ongoing suffering. Your experience seems to contradict God’s goodness.
• You’re not totally clear on how Sunday morning worship relates to worship in everyday life.
• You’ve seen tensions rise because of the music we connect with worship. Conflicts erupt, musicians seek the spotlight, churches split. You wonder if music is overblown.
• You’ve seen the music we connect with worship affect unbelievers, strengthen the impact of biblical truth, and deepen people’s responses to God. You wonder if music is undervalued.
• The “great end of our existence” seems insignificant when it comes to the pressures, demands, and responsibilities you face every day.

I’m sure you can add to this list. But even with all these challenges and questions, John Calvin was right. We can have no higher goal than to take our place among those who revel—unceasingly, joyfully, wholeheartedly, and eternally—in our great and awesome God. That’s where every Christian is headed, according to the Bible’s last chapter: “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him” (Rev. 22:3).

So if eternal worship is where we’re headed, what does it mean for us now? Does it make any difference? What does it even mean to be a worshiper of God? I hope to answer these questions and more in this book. And to start, I want to drop in on a familiar conversation that took place two thousand years ago.

A WOMAN AND A WELL

It’s a sweltering, dusty day somewhere in the Middle East, and Jesus is thirsty. He sits down at a well to wait for a woman from Samaria he’s never met.3

Give me a drink.

It’s a simple request. But those four words cross religious, ethnic, and moral lines that have been in place for generations. The woman is dumbfounded.

How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

She has good reason to wonder. In the eighth century BC, Assyria conquered the Samaritans and brought in idolaters from other nations to intermarry with them. Since that time, the rest of the Jews have viewed Samaritans as half-breeds, religious mutts. They are people you avoid, not pursue. They use an edited Bible and worship God at a different temple.

On top of that, Jesus is a man. Jewish men are never to be overly familiar with women, and speaking to a woman alone would look very suspicious. Jesus is undeterred.

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

Jesus doesn’t answer the woman’s question. He’s not even asking her for a drink...