“The Worship of God as a Primary Motivation for Evangelism”

Grace Meditation # 13

“The Worship of God as a Primary Motivation for Evangelism”

Psalm 96:1-3; Psalm 27:4

Psalm 96:1-3

Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!

² Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.

³ Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

Psalm 27:4

⁴ One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

For the next several weeks at New Philadelphia, we will be focusing on the theme of worship. Actually, not just “worship” as something we humans do, but the “Biblical Worship of our Triune God”-Father, Son, and Spirit. As Scotty Smith often says, worship must have an object. And the only true worship is the worship of the living God as He has revealed Himself to us in the Bible, according to manner in which He deserves and desires and even prescribes to be worshiped.

It just so happens that our first week in this “Worship of the Living God” series, we have a guest speaker-Kelly Jackson, our RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) Campus Minister at FSU (Florida State University). And Kelly will be focusing on the worship of God as being the primary reason for evangelism. We share the gospel with unbelievers in order to gain more worshippers for God! We long to see God worshipped! We long to make His glory known! Sure, we share the gospel because of a heart for the lost, but our strongest motivation should be a heart for God. A desire to see God worshipped and glorified by as many of our fellow image bearers as possible!

The only way for us to desire to see more worshippers for God is for us to understand and believe how uniquely and supremely worthy He IS of our worship. That’s actually where we get the English word “worship” from-from the Old English word “worthship.” We declare His “worth”-His “worthiness”-by worshipping Him.

We say (and sing) all the time that God is worthy. But do we really believe it? We pray “You alone are worthy of our worship.” But then we make idols of so many “unworthy” lesser, passions and pursuits. Our hearts are “idol factories” according to Calvin. And until the new affection of a love for God drives out lesser passions, our hearts will remain divided. But when we truly love the Lord our God with ALL our heart, mind, soul and strength, His worship becomes our highest priority, and our highest joy. Or as the Westminster Confession of Faith says: “Man’s chief (highest) end (primary purpose) is to glorify God and fully to enjoy Him forever. We share the gospel so that others might glorify and enjoy Him with us! He alone deserves to be glorified and fully enjoyed!

So, the question is, do we ourselves appreciate the weightiness of His glory? (The Hebrew word for glory comes from the root of weightiness/heaviness, density.) Do we enjoy Him? Is He beautiful to us? Is He dear to us? Do we long to be in His presence? Do we long to hear His voice? Do we long to communicate our love to Him? Do we long for His return and the consummation of all things in eternity where we will indeed “glorify and enjoy Him forever?!”

As we grow in our love for Him our “one” desire becomes “to gaze upon His beauty and to seek Him in His Temple” as David sang in Psalm 27. The Holy Spirit, who lives within our hearts through faith in the finished work of Jesus, changes our desires into “one desire,” and motivates and inspires our worship of God. We’ll get to the point where we wish church was every day all day-not just an hour on Sunday morning! And the more we love worshipping God the more we will desire to see the nations come to know and worship our beautiful, glorious, and ever worthy-to-be-worshipped God!

Lord, may this be true of me! Lord, may this be true of New Philadelphia Presbyterian Church! Amen!