Worship is about delighting. Worship is about being filled with God. Worship is driven by the gospel. As I delight in God, I get lost in wonder, awe and praise.

How many conversations have I had in the past sixth months where my friends have told me that their chief desire is to get to know God better this year? The Apostle Paul’s daily habit was to ‘weigh’ the infinite privilege of knowing Christ against every temporal thing this world offers; from earthly security to personal honor and reputation… He refused to know Christ theoretically – Paul could certainly be described as ‘panting after God.’

Course Notes: Part of our problem as believers today is that we have allowed the culture to define ‘normalcy’ of pursuits in this life. We live in a Culture of Immediacy as if it is normal to live for the present without being controlled by eternal hope. WE TEND TO BE RULED BY THE TYRANNY OF THE URGENT.

Worship is a tactic or strategy for knowing God. In it, we are filled and satisfied – “God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.” (Piper) I want to ‘pant’ after God. I want my soul to be ravished! This happens as I immerse myself in Christ’s attributes, for it’s there that God’s abstract attributes are on perfect display in Christ! Hebrews 1:3 says that Christ is “the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.”

I must insert a quotation here from the Course Notes, as it identifies God’s attributes in Christ in eternity: “Consider the centrality of Christ in the sweep of human history – Christ as Logos is Creator. Christ as Lawgiver is the covenant-maker of the O.T. Christ as Lamb is Redeemer of the elect. Christ as Judge is conqueror of the enemies of God and His people. Christ as Lion is eternal King of men and angels.”

So how can I get to know God while so often succumbing to the “tyranny of the urgent?” Well, I must radically alter my lifestyle to resist the tyrant and instead focus my thoughts through meditation.

          Meditating upon Scripture means I will have to be SILENT,

          with patient concentration, until our thought processes

          and affections are captive to the Word of God.

Getting to know God better comes through contemplating Christ’s Saving work. This is a 4-strand of Grace:

1.     Who Christ is (supremacy)

2.     What Christ has done (atonement)

3.     Who we are in Him (union)

4.     How we are to live (abiding)

By nature my flesh is incurably ‘religious.’ I am always trying to provide my own atonement/justification. Only the glorious gospel message of grace revealed has the power to take me off of self; off of religiousness; off of self-righteousness; off of self-conscience striving – and into God-intoxicated worship.

The message of grace in Christ cannot coexist with the ‘fig leaves’ we use in an attempt to cover our moral nakedness. The gospel comes claiming that God has taken our salvation out of our hands and placed it into His own hands. It humbles us, devastates us; then it thrills us with the prospect that God wishes to love us, cleanse us, and pour out His kindness upon us for Christ’s sake.

We were created to be in awe of something. If we go along for too long without being in awe of God, we are in trouble... we must be in awe of something else!

CN: We are communing with God when we keep taking Christ for all the reason God gave Him to us. The gospel is NOT designed to ‘jump-start us’ and then abandon us to the impotence of flesh power. No, the promises in the gospel are designed to equip us to ‘live upon Christ’ as He is offered in the gospel. OH! how this answers the quiet desperation of the average Christian who is often mired in self-recrimination, bemoaning his lukewarm-ness, carnality, and unfruitfulness.

We will want to ‘meet’ Him at the gospel promises to learn more of His heart toward us. This is the believer feeding upon Christ – for CHRIST is the bread of heaven; the food of the regenerated soul. (CN)

This last paragraph will wrap it up for today:

            Our growing knowledge of the Lord is not merely an academic exercise, nor can it be reduced to an experience. It is actually intensely practical. To grow in the knowledge of the Lord is a rectifying, sanctifying process. It weans us from the world. It gives us a growing desire to mortify indwelling sin and smash all of our heart idols. It shakes us out of our stagnancy and spiritual apathy. It perfects our ability to live as true reflexive, spontaneous worshipers. It convinces us that we are carried by Christ – thus freeing us up to be burdened on behalf of others.

After 3 hours of this last night at class, I was humbled, convicted, and energized! Oh how great the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure! That He should give His only Son, to make a wretch His treasure!

(excerpts are taken from Jay Wegter’s study materials for the Grace-Driven Sanctification class)