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.

a moment

"man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow."
~Psalm 144:4

it seems like the last two years have gone by in the blink of an eye. i'm not sure that i've done much good in that time. i believe that God can use even the poor things of my life for His glory, but if you took it on the whole, i feel like ephesian church in Rev. 2, knowing doctrine and striving for truth, but having lost my first love.

i randomly found an old note from last summer from a piper sermon on Romans 1 and the divide between eternal life and death. this kind of truth jerks me back into reality when i am lulled to sleep by my comfortable american life. it reminds me that my time is short.

and it's slipping away.

my grandmother is 89 years old. i visit her a few days a week for a half-hour or so, to break up her day in the nursing home with some company. i could say a lot about that, but one thing God has granted me through this is to really hate dying, the wasting away of life. and i know, death has lost it's sting because of victory in Christ. but death per se is still evil. it ought not be. it is the result of a sinful, fallen world. and one day, it will be no more, when sin is no more.

but for now, it's coming.

and i need to live in light of that. i need to be proactive. i need not to lose myself to the comfortable, fun things of this world. if i don't move now, i won't get where i'm going. it won't just happen; it's not inevitable. i refuse to stay where i am, for if i do, i disqualify myself. God's glory and my joy in Him are at stake. eternal things are in the balance.

it's time to move.

God, help me.

wg09: the God of worship

so the main sessions from worshipGod09 are now online. 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 days, i'll be posting 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. so, here is session 1, the God of worship, by john piper:

"
-mindset [jwr: heartset] of flesh (or secular mindset, sm) (on self, my rights and desires as starting point) vs. Biblical mindset (Bm) (on God, His rights and purposes as starting point)

-take time to contemplate on the absolute existance [jwr: aseity] of God: unconditional, independent, before and without all things

-"if you were able to embrace all the universe with benevolence, leaving God out of account, you would be infinitely parochial" ~jonathan edwards
->"galaxies are God's pinky-work" ~jp

-what's the riddle/big problem of the universe?
->sm: solve man's problems, preserve his rights
->Bm: display all the manifold wisdom of God
***-Rom. 3:25-26 -> unintelligible to sm. hard even for many Christians influenced by the world

-below justification and reconciliation, the God-centered cross displays and vindicates His righteousness in the face of forgiven sins
->the cross must be God-centered before and in order to be for our sake (cf. 2 Sam 12:12-13) God passes over sins - how is He then a just judge
-->[jwr: i am uriah's murderer]
->to be righteous, God's glory must be rightly valued
-worship flavor: no one has ever been wronged by God
->God's God-centeredness is love, because the only eternal happiness is a happiness focused on the glory of God in the face of Christ
"i don't play games in the pulpit...bash their ideas, and pursue them"

-the reason that the cross is folly to the world is that it's the end of self-exaltation, and the beginning of human exultation in God's exaltation.
"

this session greatly helped me understand why God's God-centeredness is not egomania and is, in fact, love. it pointed me back to the cross, the blazing center of God's glory, and the greatest display of His love for sinners. it was also a real treat to finally be able to sit under piper's teaching live. he is indeed a presence on stage. it was a great kick-off to a conference which i hope will bear much fruit for a long time to come.

roman piper

i really enjoy the fact that john piper, in 3 of his 6 messages on romans 1:16-17, spent significant time passionately urging his people to think and use “their God-given brains” to wrestle with the argument and meaning of the text. i need to learn how to do it humbly, but this gives me hope that you can say stuff like that and not chase everyone around you away.

he also talks about needing to fight to believe the gospel every day. it comforts me to know that “even someone like him” does. i hate to admit it, but i do set those guys (podcast preachers) up on a bit of a pedestal. but it is encouraging to know that men who have been at this for many years and can think circles around me theologically have this struggle as well, and are "fighting the good fight of faith". on the other hand, it scares me a bit. but Got is faithful, as it is written, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever."