Goals

          1.  Open and close class with time of worship

          2.  Understand the nature and practice of Personal Worship in the life of the Christian

          3.  Understand the relationship between Corporate and Personal Worship

          4.  Understand the contribution of Personal Worship to Spiritual Growth

          5.  Close class with time of worship

Goal #1

Worship Weeks 6

          PP Unison Reading: The Apostle’s Creed

                Prayer

Goal #2

PP Importance of personal worship to the life of the Christian…to the life of the Church?

Question: From what we have studied so far, is personal worship important to the life of the                     believer?   If so, how?

Evelyn Underhill (a scholar and one of the most respected writers and practioners of personal worship) said ‘The praying Church is made up of praying souls’ [1]

Question: Where do you think Underhill got the idea of ‘praying church’ from…

                        where in Scripture?

PP Read: Lk. 19:46

If Evelyn Underhill’s statement is true, then great importance should be given to the individual praying souls within any given local congregation.

Matthew Henry writing on the importance of personal worship wrote:

PP     We are to look upon our daily worship, alone and with our families, to be the  most           needful of our daily occupations and the most delightful of our daily comforts and, if           therein we keep our communion with God, the outgoings both of the morning and of the           evening are thereby made truly to rejoice.[2]

Henry and Underhill place a high value on personal worship in the life of the Christian.

As we learned last week from the biblical and historical timeline personal worship has been a consistent practice in the lives of many great men and women of God. I am making the assumption that their personal worship practice, in some way, contributed to their spiritual maturity.

·        If that is true, and I believe it is, then it can be argued that the practice of personal worship is important to every Christian’s spiritual growth and maturity.

Goal #3

PP The growing argument as to the place of personal worship in the life of the Christian

A problem within the church when it comes to matters of theology is that of taking sides. For many there almost always has to be a right and wrong, a left and right and either/or, there is often little room for a middle, a both/and.

·        When we speak of personal vs corporate worship, this is a case where there must be a middle, a both/and.

Historically we have seen the struggle…corporate worship is preferred but personal worship is important.

Robert Webber in his writings seems to imply that Christians who practice personal worship, while it may be helpful to them, even vital to the life of the gathered church, they must place their individual concerns aside and come as the gathered body of Christ, with their only concern to corporately and with one united voice honor God with their worship.

Question: Would you agree?

                        What are some of the differences between Corporate and Personal worship?

          Basically, Corporate worship is corporate and not individual. Underhill stated that

PP     The worshipping life of the Christian, whilst profoundly personal, is essentially that of a person who is also a member of a group. The Christian can not fulfill his spiritual    obligations in solitude.[3]

However, it (the gathered body of Christ) is made up of individual Christians who if they have experienced the power and presence of God during the week through personal worship, will perhaps, be better able to express the honor and worship due God.

Why? Because rather than coming to receive from God they will be coming to give to God. Give what? Their response to a weeks worth of personal worship.

PP Corporate worship is empowered, fueled by the collective experience of individual personal worship, and individual personal worship experience is punctuated, perpetuated, by the practice of corporate worship.

Arthur W. Pink , writing about Matthew 6:6 says

PP      We are to pray in the closet as well as in the church: in fact if the former be neglected, it    is not at all       likely that the latter will be of much avail.[4]

Pink holds that the individual practice of personal worship will and does affect the life of the local gathering of the Body of Christ. There can not be an either/or, it must be both/and. 

PP Lifestyle Worship

Question:  What church background do you come from?

                   What was the corporate worship service like?

                    What was said about personal worship/devotions/quiet times?

                    Does your past experiences of corporate and personal worship influence how                            you think corporate and personal worship should be?

I have stated earlier that worship is often defined by our individual personal experiences. If this is true, and I believe it is, then for many worship is something done on Sundays in a local meeting place called the church. For all intent and purpose, this relegates the experience of God in worship to a 60-90 minute segment of our lives one day a week, Sunday.

Question:  Is this what God intended when he created humanity to worship him?

                   Is that what Acts 2:42 intends when it says  ‘They devoted themselves to the                              apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.’

I don’t believe so. However, this is not far from the truth considering the worship life of many Christians today.

A.W. Tozer wrote:

PP     You are not worshipping God as you should if you have departmentalized your life so       that some areas worship and other parts do not.[5]

Question: What was Tozer implying here?

What Tozer was implying is we can not limit our worship of God to a particular day or time, to a particular location or space. Worship is a whole life activity. Lifestyle worship is the practice

of daily offering all of who we are, to all of who God is.

William Law (another great preacher and practioner of personal worship) adds:

PP     Devotion is neither private nor public prayer; but prayers, whether private or public, are           particular parts or instances of devotion. Devotion signifies a life given, or devoted, to           God. He, therefore, is the devout man, who lives no longer to his own will, or the way       and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who       serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his common life parts of piety, by      doing everything in the Name of God, and under such rules as are conformable to His    glory.^[6]

Enoch lived what William Law is describing. Scripture tells us that "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." ^[7] The Hebrew word for walked suggests an intimate fellowship with God. A literal translation of this text could be ‘they walked back and forth together’. Enoch not only worshipped God at specific times and places, he lived a continuous relationship with Him.[8]

In the New Testament, Peter reminds Christians

          As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy   priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.^[9]

Question: What is the doctrine of the Priesthood of the Believer?

The doctrine of the priesthood of believers suggests that all Christians are priests, which is our primary spiritual vocation. This was not a job in Scripture; it was a life, a lifestyle. It was who you were, not what you did. Since we are also temples of the Holy Spirit, and since the Temple was the place for worship, it seems to intimate that we are to be a people who continually worship God. (1 Cor. 6:19; 3:16-17)

Forrester, McDonald and Tellini, referencing the early church fathers said that uninterrupted worship is the goal of the Christian who is the temple or dwelling place of God.

PP     A strongly incarnational theology led the early Church to see the perfect temple of God in the ‘spiritual man’. Individual Christians became such a temple when they…gave God   ‘uninterrupted worship in His own temple, that is in the body of man.[10]

PP 1 Corinthians 10:31 reminds us that

          ‘So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.’ ^[11] 

Giving God glory is worship. Doing it in everything is lifestyle worship.

PP In Matthew 22:37, Jesus tells us that we are to 

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’^[12]

To love God in action and in heart is worship. To do it with all your being is lifestyle worship.

Scripture, over and over again, exhorts us to continually seek the face of God, to offer him our worship. (Ps. 34:1; 35:28;145:1-2; Heb. 13:15)

Furthermore, the doctrine of the Incarnation, itself, speaks of lifestyle worship. Underhill remarks

PP     On the theological side, the very principle of incarnation requires that the whole of our           human nature, and not one bit alone, shall be gathered into the worshipping life;[13]

Underhill is saying that because Jesus’ life was lived in total response to the self-revelation of God (This was demonstrated by Jesus saying that he always did the Father’s will and that he does what he sees the Father doing) since we are in Christ, through faith and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we too should devote all of our lives to honor (worship) God.

A related argument for lifestyle worship is found in Romans 12:1. Paul Bradshaw discussing worship in the early Christian church said

PP     There are precedents for this way of thinking in the New Testament itself. For example,     St Paul urges Christians to ‘present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable       to God…’ (Rom. 12:1) Moreover the idea that Christians constitute a priesthood (1 Peter      2:5,9) also encouraged them to view the oblation of their live as their priestly sacrifice to    God. Christians of the second and third centuries therefore naturally thought of their     times of prayer as part of this offering.[14]

Bradshaw is implying that since the early Christians thought of themselves as a priesthood, their times of prayer was an act of worship.

Bradshaws connection of Rom. 12:1 and 1 Peter 2:5,9 is significant as the two texts address the issue of priests and their duties in worship. Combining them shows that the life of the Christian is a life of worship.

A survey of extra-biblical literature concerning the intent and meaning of Romans 12:1 is varied but the majority seem to agree, at least in part, with Bradshaw. Romans 12:1 was written to encourage Christians to live their faith as an act of worship to God.

What I find significant in Romans 12:1 is that many of the words are associated with Tabernacle and Temple worship, words also associated with the work of priests. Paul, not unaware of other words, intentionally chose words that would give the reader the idea that the life of the Christian is a life of worship.

Question: What is meant by ‘cultic’ words?

          Having to do with the Tabernacle/Temple rituals.

·        Anchor Bible Commentary: Joseph A. Fitzmayer, author of the commentary on Romans titled it  ‘Spirit-Guided Christian Life Must Be Worship Paid to God’[15] Specifically, the heading for Romans 12:1-2 is ‘Life in the world as Worship of God’ Fitzmayer states that  the words holy and acceptable to God are an implicit comparison between the Christian and the animals used in sacrifice in the Jewish cult.[16]

He sees the phrase ‘spiritual service of worship’ as being spiritual worship, cultic in origin.

·        Romans: Ernst Kasemann heads this section in his commentary ‘The Righteousness of  God in Daily Christian Life’[17] He states that the verb and context here in Rom. 12:1 are cultic language making reference to the bringing of a sacrifice. He states that this is not a bloody sacrifice but a living sacrifice offered to God daily.[18] He concludes by saying  ‘Either the whole of Christian life is worship, and the gatherings and sacramental acts       of the community provide equipment and instruction for this, or these gatherings and          acts lead in fact to absurdity. It is not the cultis which sustains life, although the latter     needs the strengthening, comforting and ever-new anchoring in the specific event of       worship.’[19]

I do not think it a stretch to say that there is a common thread found in many if not most of the commentators’ interpretations of Romans 12:1. That common thread is the same thread I have been following throughout Scripture and the lives of significant Christian thinkers throughout history.

PP It is the thread that

·        PP God created us to worship him with all our lives and that worship is not limited to a corporate gathering of God’s people.

·        PP It is lifestyle worship and while it may manifest itself in many different ways, the core is the same…

·        PP as we meet with God, God reveals himself to us and we respond to that self-revelation in various ways.

·        PP This meeting, whether corporate or personal is worship.

·        PP When we make a habit of meeting with God at times other than our corporate gatherings on Sunday, it becomes lifestyle worship.

Question: How do you think the interdependedness of corporate and personal worship constitutes lifestyle worship?

PP Our personal worship practice leads us to and fortifies our corporate worship experience. Corporate worship then edifies the believer and encourages him/her to live the rest of the week as an offering to Christ (lifestyle worship) 

Robert Webber, commenting on worship as a way of life has said

PP     Worship is not only an action. It is also a way of life that the church experiences in each    of its members day by day. When worship is central, all of life proceeds toward it and           issues from it again, in blessed   rhythm. [20]

It is this sacred rhythm of corporate and personal worship that is the life of the Christian.

Question: Is there any argument that God is deserving of our worship?

               Is there any argument that God is deserving of our worship each day?

               Is there any reason why Christian should not give to God what he deserves?    

Goal #4

PP Personal worship and spiritual formation and growth

Question: What do you think would happen if we had consistent and meaningful Personal Worship practice?

Larry W. Hurtado describes the benefits of personal worship this way

PP              The first and chief need of our Christian life is, Fellowship with God. The Divine life           within us comes from God, and is entirely dependent upon Him. As I need every     moment afresh the air to breathe, as the sun every moment afresh sends down its light, so     it is only in direct living communication with God that my soul can be strong. To this      end, let your first act in your devotion be a setting yourself still before God. In prayer, or         worship, everything depends upon God taking the chief place. I must bow quietly before        Him in humble faith and adoration, speaking thus within my heart: “God is. God is near.        God is love, longing to communicate Himself to me. God the Almighty One,

          Who worketh all in all, is even   now waiting to work in me, and make Himself known.”           Take time, till you know God is very near.^[21]

In the business of life, in the midst of the tyranny of the urgent and of the immediate, Hurtado calls us to remember that personal worship helps place us on solid ground, brings comfort that we are not alone and the assurance that God is bigger than either I or my problems. 

What could happen if we practiced personal worship in our lives on a daily basis? Ruth Senter statres:

PP     For one thing, maybe we’d hear and see things about God we’ve never heard or seen           before. Maybe we’d stop doing all the talking to God and let Him talk to us. Maybe we’d           know more clearly what’s really important for us to do. Maybe we’d carry calm back into           our workplace. Maybe we’d speak more softly to our children, not being quite so           demanding of our spouses. Maybe we wouldn’t have to work so hard at trying to find           significance. Maybe…[22]

Donald Whitney, (writer of Celebration of the Disdciplines) in a lecture given at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary had this to say concerning personal worship and its contribution to the Christian’s spiritual growth.

PP     Private worship is an essential part of a healthy relationship with God…How can once-a-          week worship satisfy the heart of those who know and long after God?...In private worship God reveals himself through his Word, shining divine light upon the divine     books that we might find our minds instructed by God, our hearts encouraged by God,       our hopes refreshed by God and our spiritual hungers satisfied by God.[23]

Finally, scholar Arthur Pink reminds us that God blesses those who meet with him in private.

PP     It is striking to note that God has often granted the freest communications of Himslef to           those who were before him in secret. It was so with Moses on the mount when Jehovah           gave him the Law. It was so while Daniel was engaged in private prayer that God sent his           angel to reveal to him the secrets of his counsel concerning the restoration of Jerusalem…           It is in the closet that God usually bestows his sweetest and choicest blessings. Cornelius           was highly commended and graciously rewarded upon the account of his private prayer.

          Peter was granted that wondrous vision concerning the Gentiles while   praying alone.[24]

Even a cursory examination of the lives of those men and women of the faith who have practiced personal worship as a part of their lives will show that God has brought them great spiritual growth and maturity. Was it all the result of a practice of personal worship? No. But if you were to re-read the examples given earlier  you will find that all agree that their personal worship practices contributed greatly to their spiritual growth and maturity.

My claim to you this morning is that

·        if God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, and

·        if God is not a respecter of persons,

·        then I believe the Christian who practices personal worship will grow spiritually, will mature in their faith and in their relationship to God.

Goal #5

Worship Week 6

PP     Sing: Fairest Lord Jesus