1. As God above all, the Lord Almighty is our Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer and Deliver; and as the Sovereign of the universe, He is worthy of our worship and deserving of our praise.
2. As His creatures, we are called to worship (a) by the logic of our dependency upon Him, (b) by the glory of His Exceeding beauty and goodness and (c) by the grace and love of His redeeming kindness toward us.
3. Despite these facts, it seems most Christian worship is approached as an academic duty-affirming faith through holy observance, rather than as a dynamic moment anticipating life through holy expectation.
4. The objective in our worship is not merely to fulfill a prerequisite acknowledging our place in the created order, but worship is a God-ordained means for advancing our restoration and reinstatement in that order.
5. Worship is God’s gift to us for our blessing more than His. His objective is not the securing of our adulation but our discovery and realization of advancement in His intended purpose for our fulfillment.
6. Worship is not only a means of reaffirming man’s relational dependence upon, submission to and obedience before God; but it is also the means (through grace) to the reinstatement of man’s partnership with God in ruling the world - one which begins in a present, practical, yet partial, realization, and will succeed after Christ’s coming unto a complete and full realization.
7. For the redeemed, worship is the essential key to welcoming the rule of the kingdom of God into human experience - i.e., our daily affairs, our homes, our congregations, our business affairs and our cities and our nations.
8. Thus, worship is the primary means for the establishing of an atmosphere (a) for the transforming entry of God’s presence, (b) for the clear entry of God’s Word, (c) for the loving entry of God’s Spirit and (d) for the dynamic entry of God’s works of power.
9. Accordingly, worship should be approached by the leadership with conviction that we are not providing an optional moment, but we are determining a pivotal moment.
10. With this understanding, we must confront the fact that biblical worship (a) will always require the humbling of human pride through worship, (b) must appropriately be conducted according to divine guidelines for worship and (c) will regularly manifest in the transforming joy and humility distilling from worship.
