A. W. Tozer - Worship: The Reason We Were Created-Collected Insights from A. W. Tozer

2017 by
THE MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

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All Scripture quotations in the body text are taken from the King James Version.

All Scripture quotations in epigraphs, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Edited by Kevin P. Emmert
Interior and Cover Design: Erik M. Peterson
Cover art by Unhidden Media, unhiddenmedia.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson), 1897-1963, author.

Title: Worship : the reason we were created--collected insights from A. W. Tozer / A. W. Tozer.

Description: Chicago : Moody Publishers, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017025070 (print) | LCCN 2017028820 (ebook) | ISBN 9780802496126 | ISBN 9780802416032

Subjects: LCSH: Worship.

Classification: LCC BV10.3 (ebook) | LCC BV10.3 .T695 2017 (print) | DDC 248.3--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017025070

ISBN: 978-0-8024-1603-2

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A . W. Tozer was a man who encountered the living God and made it his highest goal in life to worship Him in spirit and truth. Besides God, worship is perhaps the most important theme in Tozers writings, and the eleven selections that follow are a small sampling of his teachings on the topic.

Tozers main goal as a pastor and writer was to help people love and worship the God who created them. With prophetic vigor, he urges us to recognize Gods call to us so that we might live life as He intended in His presence and for His glory. What you will encounter in the following pages is a call to recognize that worship is the chief reason we were created and that the object of our worshipthe triune Godis far greater than we could ever imagine. As Tozer himself said,

Yes, worship of the loving God is mans whole reason for existence. That is why we are born, and that is why we are born again from above. That is why we were created, and that is why we have been recreated. That is why there was a genesis at the beginning, and that is why there is a re-genesis, called regeneration.

That is also why there is a church. The Christian church exists to worship God first of all. Everything else must come second or third or fourth or fifth. (Whatever Happened to Worship, p. 50)

While these are the words of one man who died decades ago, they testify to the timeless truth that everything in this life and all our ambitions pale in comparison to knowing and magnifying the one true God who is the Lord of all. Tozer would want you not to focus on him or his writing, but on the ever-loving and almighty God. May each selection in this volume point you to Him and inspire you to worship Him in awe and gratitude.

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarmneither hot nor coldI am about to spit you out of my mouth.

REVELATION 3:1516

C hristian churches have come to the dangerous time predicted long ago. It is a time when we can pat one another on the back, congratulate ourselves, and join in the glad refrain, We are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing!

It certainly is true that hardly anything is missing from our churches these daysexcept the most important thing. We are missing the genuine and sacred offering of ourselves and our worship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the message of the Revelation, the angel of the church of the Laodiceans made this charge and this appeal (3:17, 19): Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

My own loyalties and responsibilities are and always will be with the strongly evangelical, Bible-believing, Christ-honoring churches. We have been surging forward. We are building great churches and large congregations. We are boasting about high standards and we are talking a lot about revival. But I have a question, and it is not just rhetoric: What has happened to our worship?

The reply of many is, We are rich and have need of nothing. Doesnt that say something about Gods blessing? Did you know that the often-quoted Jean-Paul Sartre describes his turning to philosophy and hopelessness as a turning away from a secularistic church? He says, I did not recognize in the fashionable God who was taught me, Him who was waiting for my soul. I needed a Creator; I was given a big businessman!

None of us is as concerned as we should be about the image we really project to the community around us. At least not when we profess to belong to Jesus Christ and still fail to show forth His love and compassion as we should. We who are the fundamentalists and the orthodox Christians have gained the reputation of being tigersgreat fighters for the truth. Our hands are heavy with callouses from the brass knuckles we have worn as we beat on the liberals. Because of the meaning of our Christian faith for a lost world, we are obligated to stand up for the truth and to contend for the faith when necessary.

But there is a better way, even in our dealing with those who are liberals in faith and theology. We can do a whole lot more for them by being Christlike than we can by figuratively beating them over the head with our knuckles. The liberals tell us they cannot believe the Bible. They tell us they cannot believe that Jesus Christ was the unique Son of God. At least most of them are honest about it. Moreover, I am certain we are not going to make them bow the knee by cursing them. If we are led by the Spirit of God and if we show forth the love of God this world needs, we become the winsome saints.