wG09: the heart of worship

back in august, i started posting stuff from the worshipGod09 conference, hosted by sovereign grace ministries. it was truly a blessing to be there, and my intention was, and now is, to share some of that with you. you can find the main sessions audio here. i would highly recommend listening to all of them. they were great fuel for my soul in worship while at the conference, and i pray the Spirit's fire will continue to use them to burn for the glory of Christ.

over the next few mondays, i'll be posting the rest of my notes for the sessions. i tried to keep them concise, both so i could pay more attention to the actual speaker (many of them *cough piper cough* were very animated) and so that i wouldn't have to pour over pages of notes to remember what God taught me there. anyway, here is session 2, the heart of worship, by john piper:

"
-John 17: Jesus' high priestly prayer. loving, in and by its focus on Christ's glroy (v. 1-5, 24)

-2 Cor. 4: satan blinds us from the glory of God in Christ. Jesus sets us free to see it. this is the gospel. (cf. "a divine and supernatural light" by jonathan edwards, and "God is the gospel" by john piper)

-Matt. 15:18 - "these people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me." beware of this, specifically in your own life.

-OT is full of commands and instructions on forms of worship. NY is stunningly silent.

-proskunew - main word for worship in LXX (greek OT), is only Gospels and Revelation, not in the Epistles. why? Christ isn't there. worship is focused on the heart.

***-worship of the heart = experience of satisfaction of all that God is for us in Christ.
->"i don't write as one who has arrived, but as one who is desperately hungry."
-->i have seen it, tasted it, and desire it (which means i don't already have it)

-(1) Phil. 1 - defense of "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."
->death half: if you are so satisfied in Jesus that losing all in death is gain, He is glorified.
->life half: cf. Phil. 3:7-8, satisfied enough to count all else as skubala. "you must pursue your joy. God threatens terrible things if you are not happy."
-->Phil. 2:14 "do all things without grumbling" because you are satisfied in Christ and count all things as loss (like piper's lost Bible).

"my understanding of preaching is music without the music." piper's gestures are equivalent to jumping in music

-(2) come to worship not to give, but to get from God. come empty desiring His fullness.
->a deer brings nothing to the stream it thirst for except its desire
->rose story (scroll to the highlighted part at the bottom)

-(3) worship is an ends, not a means to another end.
->[jwr: don't use worship to do things, do things in order to worship]
->wife, or supper? playing ball with son, or mowing grass? where's your desire?
-->other things improve with true worship, but worship isn't done in that hope [primarily]

-Rom. 12:1 - explained by Matt. 5:16 : outward life comes from inward heart.
->how is God the focus in good deeds? they are done out of rejoicing in Christ.


[note: Matt. 5:11 only makes sense if that kind of persecution for Christ's sake is a confirmation of our reward in Him.]
"

this message helped balance piper's first message, by showing how our pursuit of our joy in God was not detracting from being God-centered, but rather is necessary for God to be glorified in us. this has been very helpful for me in understanding the seeming tension between the two. it is more-or-less piper's foundation for his view of Christian hedonism.

i hope you are freshly affected by the grace and glory of God today, and that you may pursue your joy in Him with renewed vigor.

regularity

a couple months ago, a friend of mine set up a system of regular posting on his blog, to keep himself accountable to his readers, to write more regularly, and probably to make things interesting and a little challenging by requiring certain topics be written on certain days. i like it, so i'll honor him by imitation.

here's the pattern i'd like to keep to:

• mondays, i'll post up notes/comments on a message i've heard that i've found particularly impactful. i'd like to do this somewhat thematically, so i'm starting by continuing posting the notes from the worshipGod09 conference from back in august.
• wednesdays, i'll post up either a song that God has impressed upon my heart, or some poetry i've written, as i would like an excuse and new motivation to write more of that.
  
• fridays, i'll post something prose-ish from my mind, most likely in the form of random tidbits of thought from the week, especially gleaned insight into familiar Scripture, which i'm glad God has been giving me abundantly recently.
  

feel free to bug me to stay on this, because on top of the reasons i've mentioned, i'd like to use this as an exercise in faithfulness and consistancy. we'll see how this goes.

God bless you guys.