Revival at Asbury

• Timothy Beougher >> How do we know if what we think might be a revival is a genuine work of God? One unmistakable sign will be repentance. J. Edwin Orr, the great historian of revival, once remarked that we really don’t understand what we are praying for when we pray for revival – we think we are praying for ecstasy, and yes, joy is a by-product of revival. But true revival doesn’t begin in ecstasy, it begins with agony. It doesn’t begin with laughter but with tears. The Bible teaching this afternoon and several of the testimonies focused on repentance – not just feeling sorry for our sin but with the Lord’s help seeking to remove it as far as we can from our lives. [How do we measure revival?] It’s not how high you jump, it’s how straight you walk when you land. It’s the fruit that comes from it.
• Our topic for today is “Worship.” How do we understand worship as a central element of the Christian life, particularly when we look at it in the context of the other disciplines we have looked at thus far (Bible intake, meditation, prayer)?

What is worship?

• Worship is what we were

to do.
• All creation exists to worship (Psalm 19; Romans 1) >> worship points to the creativity and

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of the Creator
• Human beings, made in God’s image, are the crown of God’s creation. This means our worship is unique and

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above and beyond the rest of creation. How?
• Right

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is EXTREMELY important when it comes to informing our worship >> “The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.” (A.W. Tozer)
• Because Jesus is Lord and Redeemer of our entire lives and because we were created to

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Him, Jesus restores us to a lifestyle of worship.

// Romans 12:1-2 | I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
// 1 Corinthians 10:31 | So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

• Therefore, we define worship as a whole-life response to the glorious mercies of God.

The practice of worship is about

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God.

• Whitney >> To worship God means to ascribe the proper worth to God, to magnify His worthiness of praise, or better, to approach and address God as He is worthy.
• William Temple >> To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.
• Foster >> It is God who seeks, draws, persuades. Worship is the human response to the divine initiative.

Therefore, worship demands a decisive life response

• Foster >> One reason worship should be considered a Spiritual Discipline is because it is an ordered way of acting and living that sets us before God so he can transform us.
•

worship >> We must cultivate our minds to privately focus on God fueled by meditating on His truth.
•

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worship >> “While the corporate worship of Jesus by the church universal is an essential element in our great destiny, it is the corporate worship of Jesus by the church local that is a vital means of God’s grace in getting us there.” (David Mathis)
• Acts 13:2-3 | While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Summary >> Ultimately, worship is about

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.

• The practice of worship reveals what we value most. This is how God created us. Even though sin has corrupted our purpose, so that, as John Calvin said, “The human heart is an idol-making factory,” Jesus restores us to God’s original purpose to live each moment in the presence of God.
• How do I enter the presence of God? It begins with the

of your mind and the treasuring, desiring, or valuing that takes place in your

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.
• Worship God by focusing your Scripturally-informed mind on His

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.
• Worship privately by beholding God, thinking about Him, and responding to Him.
• Worship corporately by beholding God together, thinking about Him through singing and listening, and responding to His movement with others.

Isaiah 6:1-8 | In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”…8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”