Dr. John Piper on Matthew 15:8-9-
“‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Our problem…..is that we do not realize that there is no genuine worship where feelings for God are not quickened. There is not true worship where the heart is far from God. But the heart’s approach to God happens in the quickening of our feelings for God. Therefore, where feelings are dead, so is worship.
Now let’s be specific. What are these feelings that make the outward acts of worship authentic? What are the feelings toward God that turn learned forms into genuine worship? For a sampling of the extraordinary, rich emotional responses in worship, we do best to look into the world’s richest book of worship, the book of Psalms. Some of the highest worship begins with the feeling of brokenness and contrition and grief for sin. “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17). “I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin”(Psalm 38:18). Mingled with the feeling of genuine contrition is the feeling of longing or desire. “As a hart longs for the flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1, 2). “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25, 26). Also mingled with our sense of sin and our longing for his mercy is the feeling of fear and awe before the holiness and magnitude of God. “I will worship toward thy holy temple in the fear of thee” (Psalm 5:7). “Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him” (Psalm 33:8). And as he approaches, forgiving all our iniquity, crowning us with honor, satisfying us with good (Psalm 103:3–5), our hearts well up with the feeling of gratitude. “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, and bless his name!” (Psalm 100:4). And mingled with our gratitude are the feelings of joy and hope. “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart” (Psalm 32:11). “Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God” (Psalm 42:5). These are examples of some of the feelings that come from God and move us to God in genuine worship: contrition, sorrow, longing, desire, fear, awe, gratitude, joy, hope. When these feelings are quickened, the heart is no longer far from God. Worship is no longer lip-service. It is genuine and authentic.
Feelings Are Not Stepping Stones to Another End
And now perhaps, coming full circle, it is clearer why I must say true worship is an end in itself. If that which turns habitual forms into true worship is the quickening of these feelings in the heart, then true worship cannot be performed as a means to some other experience. Feelings are not like that. Genuine feelings cannot be manufactured as stepping stones to something else.
If the telephone rings and the voice on the other end says, “Johnny, this is Bob, good buddy; your mother and dad were in a serious bus accident. Your mom didn’t make it, and your dad is hurt bad,” you don’t sit down and say, “Now to what end shall I feel grief? What can I accomplish if I cry for the next half-hour?” The feeling of grief is an end in itself. It is not performed as a means to anything.
If you have been floating on a raft without water for three days after a shipwreck on the sea, and there appears a speck of land on the horizon, you don’t say, “Now to what end shall I feel desire for that land?” Even though the longing in your heart may give you the power to get there, you do not perform longing in order to get there. The longing sweeps into you from the value of the water that is on that land. Even though longing is always for something we do not yet have, nevertheless it is not an artificial concoction of the will; it is not planned and performed as a means to getting what we desire. It rises spontaneously in the heart and as a feeling is an end in itself.
If you are camping in the Boundary Waters and awaken to the sound of snorting outside your tent, and then see in the moonlight the silhouette of a huge bear coming toward your tent, you do not say, “Now to what end shall I feel fear?” You do not calculate the good ends to which fear can be a means, and then perform the act to accomplish those ends.
When you stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon and watch the setting sun send the darkness down through the geological layers of time, you don’t say, “Now to what end shall I feel awe before this beauty?” It is an end in itself.
When a little child on Christmas morning opens his first gift and finds his “most favoritest” rocket he has wanted for months, he does not think, “Now to what end shall I feel happy and thankful?” And when that little boy enters kindergarten and starts getting picked on by some second graders,
but then his big third-grade brother comes over and stands beside him, he doesn’t decide to have confidence and hope swell up in his heart. They just do. They are not an act performed as a means to some other end. And so it is with all genuine emotion (i.e., emotion springing from appropriate causes) and, therefore, all true worship. Worship is an end in itself; because God is the voice on the phone. God is the island on the horizon. God is the bear. God is the setting sun. God is the “most favoritest” rocket. God is the big brother.
Authentic Worship and Worship Services
And now to go back and pick up our earlier question: if fellowship, preaching, and giving of offerings are not ends in themselves, why are they integral parts of our worship service, since worship is an end in itself? The answer is this: what makes a worship service authentic and genuine and pleasing to God is the quickening of our hearts with appropriate emotions. But this quickening does not happen in a vacuum. On the one side, it is caused by true perceptions of God’s manifold glories. And so there must be substantial theological content in the service: in the lyrics of our hymns, in the prayers, in the Scripture, the sermon. And right here is where the communion of the saints plays a crucial role. A heart-quickening truth may be heard from a hymn but perceived with power when seen in the face of a sister or a brother across the room. So on the one side, there are elements of a worship service which are necessary in order to help the heart perceive the life-quickening reality of God. On the other side, the heart quickened with feeling for God must often express itself. And, therefore, our worship service must include vehicles of that expression: opportunities to give, sing, recite, pray, and probably a good bit more that we have never tried.
In conclusion, by way of summary, Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Therefore, even though worship can refer to a form of activity in which the heart is distant, yet true worship which delights God is the drawing near of the heart to God, or, to put it another way, the quickening of the heart with genuine feelings in response to God’s glory. Such feelings are never performances of will power calculated to accomplish other ends. They are ends in themselves. Therefore, since they constitute the heart of genuine worship, worship is an end in itself. And our Sunday morning service is unique in its focus on God who is greatly honored in such worship. And it is for his name’s sake that I ask you all very earnestly to take time Saturday night and Sunday morning to prepare yourselves to meet him here, praying with the psalmist, “Open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things in your word” (Palm. 119:18). And: “Unite my heart to fear thy name” (Psalm 86:11).
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 