There has been some great conversations going on in Reformed/Protestant circles about the nature and purpose of Christian Worship.  This isn’t about the style of music or length of sermons (that’s an entirely different conversation). Rather, its about why we worship in the first place.

Along these lines, I share with you this video of David Platt speaking at the Sing! 2018 conference, an event hosted by songwriters Keith and Kristyn Getty to help people grow in their understanding of Gospel-centered worship.  Platt is an author and pastor of McLean Bible Church in Washington D.C.

I encourage you to watch the video, and I’ve written up some bullet point notes below.

• The Psalms is a hymnbook that God wrote for Himself (the illustration is great!)
• God blesses His people for the sake of His own praise and glory.
  • Isaiah 43 – He blesses for His glory.
  • Ezekiel 36 – Its not for your sake, but for my great name.
  • Matthew 28 (and others) – You are saved so that you may be a witness to all nations.
  • Galatians 1 – God revealed His Son to me so that I may proclaim Him.
• The Danger we need to be aware of:
  • We who are blessed are prone to disconnect God’s blessing in our lives from God’s purpose for our lives.
  • The Church is prone to disconnect God’s blessing in the church from God’s purpose for the church.
  • A self-centered Christianity, with grace centered on us, misses the purpose of God.
• How do we disconnect the blessing from the purpose?
  • We say the message of Christianity is God loves me so much he sent His Son
    • This is not the complete message!
    • If the story ends here, the point of Christianity is all about me.
• The message of Christianity: “God loves me so that His glory may be made known to all the nations.” God is the object of Christianity.

May our worship of God, both corporate and private, delight in His blessings, and make His glory known to all the nations.

SDG