WG09 – Worship in the Valley

For the second afternoon session on Thursday afternoon, Matt Mason led a session on worshiping God even through trials and sufferings.  Being the pastor of a church in New Orleans, he told firsthand of the trials they went through during Hurricane Katrina and how the entire church there learned to minister to one another even in a time of great suffering.  To be able to endure hardships, we must have a heart-orientation toward God.  Mason quoted John Owen:

“Men love to trust God (as they profess) for what they have in their hands, in possession, or what lies in an easy view; place their desires afar off, carry their accomplishment behind the clouds in their sight, interpose difficulties and perplexities – their hearts are instantly sick.  They cannot wait for God; they do not trust Him, nor ever did.  Would you have the presence of God with you?  Learn to wait quietly for the salvation you expect from Him.” (John Owen, “God’s Presence with a People the Spring of Their Prosperity”, Sermons of John Owen)

The main takeaway from this was actually in a question and answer time afterward.  Someone asked the question of what to do or how to help someone who may be going through a difficulty and quite honestly isn’t ready for a theological lesson.  The Bible says to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.  Sometimes, it is simply enough to listen and pray with those who are struggling.  Too often we are ready to launch into “Romans 8:28 mode” – while these truths are certainly still true, sometimes it is wiser to listen and empathize.  Additionally, we can serve them even in our praying for them by reminding God of His promises to us, and the individual listening may be encouraged while listening to you pray.

WG09 – Do You Thirst After God

Thursday afternoon after lunch, we had separate sessions on various topics.  The first one I chose to attend was one led by Donald Whitney called “Do you thirst for God?”  The three kinds of thirst a person can experience are:

1. The thirst of the empty soul – a person may go from one thing to another looking for fulfillment and satisfaction – new job, new home, new car, etc – without ever being satisfied.  This thirst is an eternal thirst that will only be met in the person of Christ.
2. The thirst of the dry soul – this may come through being emotionally, physically or mentally exhausted.  Perhaps for some reason (such as sin), God has withdrawn the sense of His presence, leaving the Christian feeling dried up.
3. The thirst of the satisfied soul – this almost seems like an oxymoron – how can someone be thirsty, yet satisfied?  Matt. 5:6 says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  The satisfaction found in Christ isn’t a one-time fill up, but rather keeps us coming back for more.  We’ll never have enough of Christ.

The main takeaways from this session for me were the “practical steps for thirsting after the Thirst-Slaker.”  Whitney mentioned three things:

1. Meditating on Scripture – not just reading, closing our Bibles, and forgetting what we just read, but rather spending time thinking over what we’ve read.  If all the time we have is 10 minutes, take 5 minutes reading and 5 minutes thinking about what we’ve read.
2. Pray through Scripture – this is perhaps the one that helped me the most.  Whenever I’ve heard people talking about praying through Scripture, I envisioned someone basically reading a psalm in a prayerful tone.  It didn’t make a whole lot of sense.  But Whitney used an example of praying through Psalm 23.  “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want, etc.”  Praying through this psalm might look like this: “Lord, be the Shepherd for my family.  Lead us in the way you would have us go.  May we not desire anything but you.” Or perhaps using Psalm 51, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity” might look like this: “Lord, forgive the sins of my family.  Forgive my disciplining my son in anger.  May I teach him to delight in your truth and help him to learn wisdom (v.6).”
3. Read thirst-making writers – read authors who lead us to see the greatness of God.

WG09 – Thursday Morning

We had the privilege of being led in the worship music by Keith & Kristyn Getty.  If you are not familiar with their music, stop reading right now, go out and purchase their album.  They have rightly been considered modern day hymn writers.  As Piper pointed out later, there seems to have been a resurgence in God-honoring music being written lately, and the Gettys are leading the way.  They sang four songs from their new album and again, it was absolutely awesome to be surrounded by believers all lifting our voices to praise the wonders and glory of God.  One song, called By Faith, is based on Hebrews 11, the great “Hall of Faith” passage.

John Piper spoke again on worshiping God because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This has been something I have greatly appreciated is that the focus has continually been on the glory of God through the gospel of Jesus.  Like looking at a cut diamond in the light, each session emphasizes a different aspect of the gospel, continually pointing back to the greatness of our God.

Piper’s topic was the Heart of Worship and the satisfaction we should find solely in God.  He contrasted the Old Testament worship laws where everything was about the externalities of worship – even down to the threads of the priests’ clothing.  But now in the New Testament, Jesus has fulfilled every part of those laws and we can come before God through Christ’s completed work on the cross.  In the transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament, there has been a massive migration from the externalities to the internalities, to the HEART.  AS Piper stated, “The New Testament is stunningly silent on the forms of worship” but has everything to say about the condition of the heart.

If I had to choose, I would say that the main takeaway from this session was that worship is not giving to God, but rather getting from God – getting the fullness of Christ and our response is simply gratefulness.  Piper used the illustration of the deer in Psalm 42:1 – “As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”  The deer doesn’t come to the water to give something back to the stream, but rather to be satisfied in the water.  So to we come to God to be satisfied in Him.

Worship God 09 – First general session

You could feel the excitement as the conference goers milled about and filed into the auditorium.  In all, there were supposed to be about 1,600 people attending.  We came a little early and were able to listen to the musicians practice.  It seemed a little surreal to watch Bob Kauflin warming up with his band, which included his son and daughter.

At 7:00 (give or take a few minutes), the musicians launched into “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and the excitement in the audience exploded into praise.  Thaw was incredibly awesome to hear and be a part of, to say the least.  The entire next hour (it seemed like only minutes!) was spent standing and singing praises to God.

John Piper then spoke on Ro. 3:25-26 on the problem God was solving in the death of Christ – namely, the obscuring of His righteousness.  2 Cor. 4:4-6 says that Satan’s goal is to hide “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God” from us.  And God’s purpose is to show us this glory by revealing it through Christ.  Piper made a great  statement when he said that “forgiving our sins was a secondary issue – first and foremost to God was that His glory be revealed!  Piper showed how it is not some sort of egomania that drives Christ to say “Love ME, worship ME, follow ME” but rather it is love for us that we would see Him who is BEST.

When we start with the Biblical mindset that everything centers on God and his glory instead of on man and what God can do for me, it should only drive us more to worship and praise him.  We don’t deserve anything yet God gives us EVERYTHING in Christ.

Stay tuned for more.  On a side note, I’ve hand limited internet access which is why these posts have been a little behind.