I say this without a shred of hyperbole: nearly all the problems of contemporary Christendom can be traced back to a defective view of worship.

Even most of the best churches, that otherwise seriously believe the Bible, don't pay attention to what it says about worship.

What the contemporary church believes worship is for:

Evangelism
Outreach
Marketing
Entertainment
TEDtalks w/Bible verses
Theology lectures
Impressive rock concerts
What the Bible says worship is for:

God's people gathering before His presence
God renewing His covenant relationship with His people
God's people receiving grace from Him
God's people responding with praise
God's people returning a portion of the grace He has given
If you want a simple, one-sentence definition of what the Bible says worship is it is this:

GOD'S PEOPLE DRAWING NEAR TO HIM.

Read that again, and again, and again. THAT is what worship according to the Bible is.
God gave His people a pattern of how He is to be approached.

He CALLS us into his presence (Lev. 9:3-5).

He speaks, and we respond by gathering before His face.

Historically, this is where the "call to worship" is derived.
Next, as we draw near to a holy God, we do so as sinners in need of grace so he CLEANSES us (Lev. 9:8-11).

Historically, this is why a confession of sin was ubiquitous in worship.
Having confessed sins, God CONSECRATES his people (Leviticus 9:12-16).

They ascend into His presence by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Hebrew ascension offering was a shadowy picture of this.

We are cut up by the two-edged sword of the Word and ascend up to God.
That is the proper place for the sermon. We are being consecrated with God's Holy Word.

It is not the time for neither a lecture nor an infotainment self-help talk.

It is the time for God's people to be shaped by His Word.
Having ascended into God's presence in the heavenly places, we sit down and COMMUNE with Him, enjoying a meal (Lev. 9:18-21).

When we read the whole Bible, worship without food is UNTHINKABLE.

We shouldn't get the peace offering less often than those in an inferior covenant.
Finally, God sends us out of His presence and COMMISSIONS us to go out and conquer His world (Lev. 9:22-24).
That is the pattern that God has given us to draw near.

Historically, the church followed it closely.

But since the disaster that is the Second Great Awakening, worship became what it is now: a spectacle that may or may not be well-meaning.
The single greatest need in the church is a reformation of worship.

Everything else (restoring sound doctrine, refusing to adopt cultural mores over and against God's Word, etc.) will flow from worshiping God as He has commanded, and not by our own design.
I preached about this a few months ago, and cover these things here:

https://t.co/r04t6IloVy

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Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?

A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:


2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to

- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal

3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:

Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.

Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.

4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?

To get clarity.

You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.

It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.

5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”

Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.