In Worship God brings to us, we bring nothing

In our pursuit of worship are we pursuing a “transcendent” experience where we emotionally feel a certain way or are we coming to worship knowing the power of God to work on us despite our emotions, attitudes, or failures? This “transcendent” experience might be described as “God was on the move tonight at worship” or “I felt His presence, tonight” or just “Wow”. Although experiencing God in a “transcendent”, or emotional way are often a powerful and glorious part of worship, these things are not the goal of worship. When we come into worship, we come to God with nothing. We cannot muster up a worthiness to be in His presence. This is the awesomeness of the Gospel, we come to God only with the work and worth of Jesus. We can come to him with our false motives, doubt, distractions, insecurities, failures, knowing we are accepted and loved. Worship is not something we bring to God, it is coming to God empty handed realizing that He brings everything to us. It is knowing that God is on the move and that He madly loves us, despite our wrecked up feelings, attentions, and motives. When we come to worship, we come to a God who loves us, who says that because of the work and worth of Jesus, we can, now, come boldly before His throne. And that is the key, the sweet surrender of dying to ourselves, our efforts, our struggles and trusting in the extravagant love of God, who delights in us and who enjoys us as we come to worship. So regardless of whether or not I feel a “transcendent” experience in worship, I know that God is powerfully on the move as I worship. My faith is not based on my experiences, but instead on the promises of God, through the scriptures. Oh, How great is the love of God for us.

Here is our daily struggle – the Gospel is hard to believe. We lose hope as our affections ebb and wane, placing our hopes on the love we feel for God. We so easily forget this. Instead, we struggle with how easily we lose our affection for Jesus and how easily we are distracted by the love of this world. It is a daily battle . . . no, it is a moment by moment battle. And in this battle, instead of putting our hope in the Gospel and beholding Jesus, we tend to focus inward struggling to overcome our doubts and wondering love. We forget that in the midst of these loss of affections, there is one who has won the victory, one who has loved God perfectly for us, one who has made us complete, even in our failures. So when we come to worship, we come with all our wondering affections, failures, and doubt and believe in the Gospel.

Here is where we can do some prep work. Believing in the Gospel does not come natural for us. And how it works our way into our hearts is through the declaration of the gospel. God in His wisdom has chosen to use the scriptures, prayer, and the body of Christ to declare the Gospel and to help us grow in believing the Gospel in our lives. We pray, knowing that God will not give us a stone when we ask for bread. In the body of Christ, just as the seraphim cry out to one another about the glories of God, we, too, cry out to each other the glories of the Gospel. And we come to the word of God, knowing that it powerfully works on us by grace, declaring the Gospel to our hearts. And by these means God grants faith. So while it is called, today, let us not fail to speak the wonders of the work and worth of Jesus into each others life.

True worship is growing closer to Jesus, beholding Him. It is not a feeling or and experience (although these things often happen). There is a faith that transcends all feelings or experiences. It is the powerful work of God in our lives through the work and worth of Jesus. We come to worship knowing that despite where we are in pursuing God, He is pursuing us granting us the faith to worship. In worship God brings everything, we bring nothing. God takes our focus off our own works and places our focus on His works, His pursuit, and His love for us. This is an amazing and powerful love. Knowing that He loves us despite of what we bring, transcends all experiences.

The Power of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit doesn't point us to some "great experience", the Holy Spirit's passion is to point us to Christ, where we are at. This is the power of the Gospel. This is the power of the Holy Spirit. 

 

How do I receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit? - Tim Conway

Shaken bottle

You have heard the saying comparing trials to a container filled with liquid that states that when we are shaken who we truly are comes out. This is true . . . but I am finding out that who I truly am is not so great. And when I am shaken, sin is right there with me. I am so thankful that this life we live is not about who I am, but it is about who He is. And as I trust in His grace, He glorifies Himself in my life, because He is bigger than all my faults and sins. He is God and I am not.

A reason to believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit

“. . . The temptation to want to have signs and wanders, the temptation to want to have gifts of healings are gifts of miracles because they sound neat because they sound like they might make goose bumps go up and down your back, because they might make you real as a Christian is a deadly desire. . . .” - - John Piper

Paul wrote the Christians in Corinth, who practiced the gifts of the spirit and were passionate about those things, and said that they were “carnal”. He also said that they were nothing, no matter how great they practiced those gifts, without love. And in there seeking to do things by their wisdom and experience, he called them “puffed up” and asked them “was it from you that the word of God came” and told them to put away their childish thinking. I think this is a powerful message, both for those who do not believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and for those who do.

For those who don’t believe in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, I think the message here is just because the person who is practicing the gifts of the Holy Spirit (are even the majority of people one encounters) is carnal, it doesn’t make the work of God less real or less important. I know; it has caused me to struggle with what I believe in this area, but my heart and mind are not bound by my experiences or what I see, instead they are bound by the word of God. I should not disbelieve the scripture because of men. And here we see Paul dealing with these same issues as he writes a church who is strong in practicing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but weak in maturity and faith. So in this letter, I find that it should not shock me, when I see that in my own life, but like Paul instead of running away from these things, I should run to the truth of God’s word, in love. And in love run to build up my brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul instead of rebuking them for practicing the spiritual gifts calls them to bring there focus not on the spiritual gifts, but on love and building each other up in the maturity of the faith; to come closer together to Christ in whose image we are being transformed into from one glory to another. The “love chapter”, 1 Corinthians 13, is about this, to show the more excellent way. And as a warning to those who might despise the gifts, Paul says that we are to earnestly desire spiritual gifts. This is a command for the children of God. “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts”. I cannot harden my hearts, but must be tender to the word of God and what it has to say about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is especially the case for those who know the word of God and have sound doctrine. For those who know the scripture and have solid, sound doctrine, have a responsibility to be leading out in these things and teaching about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that the church might be built up by them.

This message is also for those who do believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit do not make you mature on their own, you must press into the authority of scripture with love and not your experiences. Do not be “puffed up” with pride thinking you are something because you say that you are “spirit filled”. Do not hold it as the highest thing to be attained. Do not be proud, and say this church is great because it is “spirit filled” Or say that being “spirit filled” makes you more mature. You can be very “spirit filled” and yet be rebuked by God for being carnal and unspiritual. The most spirit filled people, the most passionate, the most victorious, the most used by God people, I know are those who submit to God’s authority and to the scripture in love, who know God’s character deeply and have sound doctrine and a strong character from beholding Jesus and who love others deeply and with their lives. And this is regardless of whether or not they have believed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are the great men and women of God. No matter how often the gifts of the Spirit are used, they should never surpass the use of the scriptures, sound doctrine, or love, these are the things that make one mature in the Lord. And without them the person is carnal, no matter how much of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are seen in them. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are good and wonderful, beautiful, and amazing, and they should not be quenched, but they are not the center of who the church is. The Gospel is the center or another way of saying it is Christ, who is the Gospel, is the Center of the church. The gifts are not to glorify themselves or to get us focused on them. They are to glorify Christ, and Christ alone.

What ever side we are on this (sometimes I think I can fall in either), we can base our actions on our experiences, or we can base our actions on the scriptures and sound doctrine, having faith in the word of God. The scripture teaches us to pursue the most excellent way and that is to build one another up in Christ through our love for one another by the word, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are a part that. And so let us press into those things build the body Christ.

Here is a link to a sermon series preached by John Piper. I think he does a wonderful job at giving a good beginning glimpse into this issue.
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/BySeries/36/