Simon Cox Blog: Worship Matters

Wednesday, 14 December 2016

Worship Matters

We were created for worship.

Worship is one of those fascinating topics that can both unite and divide the church. I've heard it said that “worship matters most” - seemingly a bit of a strong statement, but is it true?

John Piper, in his well-known book Let the Nations Be Glad, wrote this about worship: “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.”

Obviously, the entrance of sin into the world has somewhat clouded our picture of worship. Yet, the fall did not eliminate the need or desire for worship. It only warped it.

Regardless of where you go in the world - even in places where there are no Christians - you will find worshipers. Worship is something all people do all the time, everywhere.

We were created for worship, and all people need to worship. The key is the direction of our worship.

In a sense, the gospel is an effort to point people from the worship of self toward the worship of God. Jesus, after all, talks about the difference between false worship and true worship.

Something special happens when a believer worships “in spirit and truth.” When a person is made new in Christ, he or she begins to understand the transformative effect of true worship.

LifeWay Research conducted a study about the impact of worship and the influence it has on our walk with Christ. The study found 75 percent of churches that were seeing regular, consistent transformation in the lives of their people saw evidence ...