10 Tweets on "Worship" (Psalm 18) and 5 Whys of Worship

Here's the sermon from last weekend in 10 Tweets.

1/ Christian worship is declaring God’s glory with our words, our thoughts, and our actions. 

2/ Worship requires an awareness of God.

3/ The more we’re aware of God in our daily lives, the more we will be able to genuinely worship.

4/ You will never be genuinely aware of God here until you’re aware of God out there.

5/ Worship gathered fuels the vision worship scattered. 

6/ Worships greater distractions: the place, the music, the sermon can all become the focus. We need to see through them.

7/ Worship is responding to God. In worship, God comes first. 

8/ Worship is responding to God’s initiative toward us and God’s initiatives around us.

9/ Peterson: "The devil can be defined as that species of theologian who knows everything about God, but we'll have nothing to do with him."

10/ Worship is entering into God's story. The Israelites in the Bible are us 

The Five Whys of Worship

I covered this only on Saturday night.

Why do we worship? Because God tells us to.

Why does God tell us to worship? Because he wants what’s best for us. One of the early church fathers put it this way: “The glory of God is a fully alive human being” (Irenaeus). One of the early confessions of Christianity says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” Pastor and theologian John Piper famously interprets this as “Man's chief end is to glorify God by enjoying him forever.” Worship is about deepest joy and the deepest satisfaction.

Why is worship best for us? Because we were made for it. Human’s worship. All humans worship without exception. The main difference is whom or what they worship.

Why were we made to worship? Because we are made in God’s image and God worships. He worships within himself—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit continually give glory to each other. Jesus said that bringing glory to the Father is his chief end. By the way, this isn’t about being self-centered because, first, it’s three persons in one and, second, there is literally nothing higher of worth. 

Why are we made in God’s image? Because God is love and in his love he wanted to share his glory with us. Jesus not only said his life was about glorifying the Father, but that he would share his glory with us. We would be included in his glory sphere.