Joyful Giving: Worshiping Through Our Dependence on God
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"Yeah, that's really key. He uses us, and in using us, we meet no need in God. If that's true, then comes the question: what do we do with all the texts that talk about what we give to God? That's the dilemma in the mind of a listener named Jeff thinking about Sunday mornings." [00:00:20]
"It's true that I have said very often that I think pastors make a mistake if they scold their people for coming to worship to get rather than to give. That's a mistake; they shouldn't do that. If I hear a pastor say, 'If you people would just come to give to God rather than get from God, we would have meaningful worship services,' I think that's a serious mistake." [00:01:24]
"I have argued that the very essence of worship, and not just the outward acts of worship, but the inward essence of worship is being satisfied in all that God is for us in Jesus. Therefore, the way people should come to worship, if I'm right, is to come hungry to be satisfied in God, to see God more clearly, to taste God more sweetly, to be amazed at the way God is." [00:03:16]
"And the right posture of that kind of getting is a sense of hunger and neediness and desperation and longing and praying for more of God, more of Christ, more of grace, more power. That's the kind of getting I'm talking about, and my point is that when we assume that kind of needy, expectant, godward posture, God gets glory, not us, and that's the essence of worship." [00:04:08]
"If we read our English Bibles, we will see 'give praise to God' (Joshua 7:19), 'give thanks to God' (Psalm 75:1), 'bless God' (Psalm 103), 'give glory to God' (Romans 4:20), 'give power to God' (Psalm 68:34), 'offer sacrifices to God' (Hebrews 13:15). I know these texts are in the Bible. I love them. I aim to obey them." [00:05:19]
"So I think what we ought to mean when we speak of giving God glory or giving honor or giving strength or giving wisdom or giving power is that we are ascribing those things to God, not adding anything to God. We are, in essence, receiving those things as gifts for us to enjoy and echoing back to God our admiration and enjoyment that we call 'give God glory.'" [00:08:27]
"The Bible teaches that all our gifts to God, whether ourselves or our resources, our praises or our thanks, are already God's, and he himself is giving us the willingness and the ability to give him what is his. First Chronicles 29:14, when the people of Israel gave generously, David says, 'But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly?'" [00:09:04]
"Paul says in Romans 11:35, 'Who has given a gift to God that he should be repaid?' Of course, the answer is nobody, and then he gives the reason, verse 36: 'For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever.' In other words, the Bible really wants to discourage us from thinking of ourselves as originating any gift to God." [00:10:07]
"C.S. Lewis expresses why it is that our giving in worship is really a getting. Our giving praise to God is really getting joy in God. Here's this famous quote that I've quoted, you know, so many times. I love it. The psalmists, Lewis says, in telling everyone to praise God, are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about." [00:10:49]
"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. That's the right there, John Piper token. That's the key. Okay, here's Lewis again: 'It is appointed so the praise is the joy's appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are.'" [00:11:41]
"So I end where we started. Yes, we come to worship to give praise to God, but the essence of that praise is being satisfied in all that God is for us in worship, and the overflow in outward acts is the completion of the joy, joy in God, which is a gift from God to us." [00:12:19]
"Our giving praise to God is really getting joy in God as a remarkably profound point about praising him and how his glory and our joy are bound together, profoundly bound together, which is what we're all about as Christian hedonists." [00:12:50]
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"It's true that I have said very often that I think pastors make a mistake if they scold their people for coming to worship to get rather than to give. That's a mistake; they shouldn't do that. If I hear a pastor say, 'If you people would just come to give to God rather than get from God, we would have meaningful worship services,' I think that's a serious mistake." [00:01:24]
"I have argued that the very essence of worship, and not just the outward acts of worship, but the inward essence of worship is being satisfied in all that God is for us in Jesus. Therefore, the way people should come to worship, if I'm right, is to come hungry to be satisfied in God, to see God more clearly, to taste God more sweetly, to be amazed at the way God is." [00:03:16]
"And the right posture of that kind of getting is a sense of hunger and neediness and desperation and longing and praying for more of God, more of Christ, more of grace, more power. That's the kind of getting I'm talking about, and my point is that when we assume that kind of needy, expectant, godward posture, God gets glory, not us, and that's the essence of worship." [00:04:08]
"If we read our English Bibles, we will see 'give praise to God' (Joshua 7:19), 'give thanks to God' (Psalm 75:1), 'bless God' (Psalm 103), 'give glory to God' (Romans 4:20), 'give power to God' (Psalm 68:34), 'offer sacrifices to God' (Hebrews 13:15). I know these texts are in the Bible. I love them. I aim to obey them." [00:05:19]
"So I think what we ought to mean when we speak of giving God glory or giving honor or giving strength or giving wisdom or giving power is that we are ascribing those things to God, not adding anything to God. We are, in essence, receiving those things as gifts for us to enjoy and echoing back to God our admiration and enjoyment that we call 'give God glory.'" [00:08:27]
"The Bible teaches that all our gifts to God, whether ourselves or our resources, our praises or our thanks, are already God's, and he himself is giving us the willingness and the ability to give him what is his. First Chronicles 29:14, when the people of Israel gave generously, David says, 'But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly?'" [00:09:04]
"Paul says in Romans 11:35, 'Who has given a gift to God that he should be repaid?' Of course, the answer is nobody, and then he gives the reason, verse 36: 'For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever.' In other words, the Bible really wants to discourage us from thinking of ourselves as originating any gift to God." [00:10:07]
"C.S. Lewis expresses why it is that our giving in worship is really a getting. Our giving praise to God is really getting joy in God. Here's this famous quote that I've quoted, you know, so many times. I love it. The psalmists, Lewis says, in telling everyone to praise God, are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about." [00:10:49]
"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. That's the right there, John Piper token. That's the key. Okay, here's Lewis again: 'It is appointed so the praise is the joy's appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are.'" [00:11:41]
"So I end where we started. Yes, we come to worship to give praise to God, but the essence of that praise is being satisfied in all that God is for us in worship, and the overflow in outward acts is the completion of the joy, joy in God, which is a gift from God to us." [00:12:19]
"Our giving praise to God is really getting joy in God as a remarkably profound point about praising him and how his glory and our joy are bound together, profoundly bound together, which is what we're all about as Christian hedonists." [00:12:50]
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