The Heart of Worship
Matt Redman is a world-renown
worship leader and songwriter. Many people attended Matt’s home church, Soul
Survivor, in Watford, England, simply because they wanted to listen to his
music. The senior pastor and the congregation felt that there was a dynamic
missing. One day the pastor did a pretty brave thing. He suggested to the
worship team that they would get rid of the sound system and band for a season
and gather together with just their voices. His point was that they’d lost
their way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip
everything away. Initially, it was hard, embarrassing, awkward. Many people
stopped coming to church. The bubble burst. But eventually, the congregation
began to join in a capella songs and heartfelt prayers. They encountered God in
a fresh way. The song “The Heart of Worship” written by Matt Redman simply
describes what occurred at that time:
When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come
Longing just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless your
heart…
I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You, Jesus.
It’s all about You, Jesus.
Getting to the Bottom of Your Joy
In his sermon Getting to the Bottom of Your Joy, Pastor John Piper asks the
following question: “What’s at the bottom of your joy?” “What is the feeder of
your happiness?”[1]
All of our joys have a foundation, except one, the one that has no foundation,
that’s the bottom. What does it mean by that? Let me give you an example. Recently,
Lydia got a good report card. That made her very happy. Suppose Lydia and I
have a conversation something like this. I would say, “Lydia, why are you happy about making an A on a
test?” She would say, “Because it helps me to get into school to be an author.”
Then I would ask, “Why do you want to
be an author?” She would reply, “Because I want to help children that way.” I would
ask, “Why does that make you happy?”
If we continue this “why – because” conversation, we eventually get to the
bottom of what makes us happy. At the
bottom there are only two possibilities of our joy: making much of me, or making much of God. Self or God.
It’s quite possible to do good and enjoy worshiping God while I am still at the bottom. It’s quite possible to enjoy worshiping God, because at the bottom, this God that I am worshiping is committed to making much of me. For example, I’ve always wanted to be wealthy and I’ve always sought it in the wrong places. My hard work, or the lottery, or whatever. But now, I went to church, and I heard there’s a way to have what I’ve always wanted, Jesus, is the way, and I sing, and I sing, he’s the way to give me what I always wanted: money. In this case God is not at the bottom. I am at the bottom. So what’s at the bottom of your joy?
Oftentimes, it’s hard to know what’s really at the bottom. Perhaps we just don’t want to know it, or we just assume that God is probably at the bottom. In his great love God often uses suffering to uncover what is at the bottom of our joy. Not only that, God uses suffering to strip everything away, and to remove self at the bottom and replace it with God at the bottom.
“If” to “Though”
The Prophet Habakkuk struggles. At
that time the Babylonians were preparing to invade Judah, God’s chosen people.
This was a direct judgment from the Lord, because the Israelites had
experienced rapid moral and spiritual decline. But Habakkuk questions God’s
justice, asking, “How could a good and just God use a more wicked nation in
Babylon to punish a less wicked one in Judah?” At first, Habakkuk complains and
informs God how to run his world. ‘If
God is good,’ the prophet says, ‘he would not punish his chosen people,
especially through a more wicked nation.’ ‘If
we are God’s chosen people,’ the prophet says, ‘he would be committed to giving
us peace and security instead of judgement.’ But by the end of the book,
Habakkuk is a changed person – he has learned to wait and trust God.
Through his suffering, through prayers in many sleepless nights, he has learned
to trust that God knows best and will
make it right in his time. He has learned to exult in God and treasure God as
the bottom of his joy in the midst of trouble.
The key phase of the book is, “The righteous will live by their faith” (2:4). You see there are two types of faith. There is an ‘if’ faith, and there is a ‘though’ faith. Now the 'if' faith says, “If all goes well; if life is prosperous and happy, then I'll have faith in God, then I'll be alright.” That's the 'if' faith. And there is a 'though' faith. The 'though' faith says “Though things go wrong; though evil is temporarily triumphant; though sickness comes; though healing doesn’t come, neverthless! I am going to trust God anyway. I am going to have faith anyway” The ‘though’ faith says, “Though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling… The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge” (Ps 46:3, 7).
Habakkuk begins his spiritual journey with an ‘if’ faith, saying, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?” (1:2). But he ends his journey with a ‘though’ faith. “Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation” (3:17-18).
God’s Gifts to God Himself
One of my mentors, Pastor Tim
Keller shares with us how God is growing his faith in the face of death.[2]
Earlier this year he wrote a small book, On
Death, relating a lot of what he says to people in such times. But about a
month after the book was published, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He
spent a lifetime counseling others before his diagnosis. But he didn’t dare
open the book to read what he had written. He asked himself, “Will I be able to
take my own advice?” Since his diagnosis, the prayers of the Psalms gave voice
to his feelings, “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?” “Wake up, O Lord, why are
you sleeping?” “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” He felt like a
surgeon who was suddenly on the operating table.
As death becomes his personal reality, Tim Keller is surprised by what happened to his joys. Since his diagnosis, his wife Kathy and Tim have come to see that the more they tried to make a heaven out of this world – the more they grounded their comfort and security in it – the less they were able to enjoy it. For instance, Kathy finds deep consolation and rest in the familiar, comforting places where they vacation. Some of them are shacks with bare light bulbs on wires. Tim finds deep satisfaction in professional goals and accomplishments – another book, a new ministry project, another milestone at the church. But now, since his diagnosis, they are not able to do those things that they used to enjoy very much. But to their surprise and encouragement, Kathy and Tim have discovered that the less they attempt to make this world into a heaven, the more they are able to enjoy it. Yes, they had to give up so many things, slowly and painfully and through many tears, but they have found that the simplest things – from sun on the water, and flowers in the vase to their own embraces and conversation – bring more joy than ever. And most importantly, they have learned to savor God himself instead of God’s gifts. They have learned that when we turn good things into ultimate things, when we make them our greatest joys and consolations, they will necessarily disappoint us bitterly. Tim Keller says, “I can sincerely say without exaggeration that I’ve never been happier in my life, that I’ve never had more days filled with comfort. But it is equally true that I’ve never had so many days of grief.” I think these are the words of the person whose self at the bottom is replaced by God at the bottom of his joy.
Yet I Will Exult
What are you going through today? We
don’t choose what we go through, but
we can choose how we go through it. No
matter what we face, we can choose to trust God who is able. We can choose joy
in him. We can choose to say, “Nevertheless. Though. Yet. I will rejoice in the
Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength.” May
the Lord help us to trust him, love him, be satisfied in him, savor him, treasure
him as the bottom of our joy. Amen.
[1]
John Piper, “Getting to the Bottom of Your Joy,” (Passion 2011), DesiringGod, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/getting-to-the-bottom-of-your-joy
[2] Tim Keller, “Growing My Faith in the Face of Death” (March 7, 2021), The Atlantic Magazine, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/tim-keller-growing-my-faith-face-death/618219/
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