Gary D. Kinnaman - The Beginners Guide to Worshiping God

2013 Gary Kinnaman

Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com

Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

Bethany House Publishers edition published 2014

ISBN 978-1-4412-6652-1

Previously published by Regal Books

Originally published as The Beginners Guide to Praise and Worship.

Ebook edition originally created 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.

P SALM 27:4

The World Series! Were at the World Series! I screamed at my wife, Marilyn.

I had to scream! The place was rockin!

We love baseball, were over fifty, and this was a first for both of us. After just four years in the league, the Arizona Diamond-backs were playing the New York Yankees in the unforgettable fall of 2001. You know, the fall of the World Trade Center towers. And now our hometown was being swept away in the great river of American tradition and the flood of tragedy and emotion.

I had begged my friend David for tickets. Having mercy on his poor pastor, he took us to the sixth game. The seats were way out there in left field, behind the bleachers, the last row before standing room only. But we were there!

More than an hour before the game, the stadium was thumping with sound and electric with energy and emotion. After fifteen runs and a whopping lead in just five innings, everyone had a reason to go home early. Yet this was the World Series! No one left the ballpark until long after the last out. We strutted to our car, exhilarated by the win but emotionally drained from nearly four hours of nonstop baseball madness.

Fine Christian leader that I am, Im ashamed to admit that this event was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. In fact, I cant remember anything quite like it... except... well...

The night I was in another stadium a few years ago in Cali, Columbia. Forty thousand people inside, not an empty seat in the house, and a crush of ten thousand people outside, still trying to get in. No, it wasnt a World Cup soccer match. It was a monster prayer and praise service, and these Christian believers came to worship God literally all night. Like the World Series, nobody left early, not even the ten thousand in standing room only outside the stadium.

Just to be with God.

Years ago, before the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, I preached to a standing-room-only crowd in a midweek service in a huge church in Oradia, Romania. A couple thousand people were standing, not because all the seats were taken, but because they had taken all of the seats right out of the building so more people could crowd into the house of God. There they stood, jammed shoulder to shoulder, men on one side of the room, women on the other, for two hours.

Just to be with God.

Is there something inside you wanting desperately to know and experience more of God? Are you longing for the indescribable joy of being in the presence of the Lord of the universe? Are you yearning for an encounter with eternity, where time stands still and your life is changed forever? St. Anselm wrote, Let me seek Thee in longing; let me long for thee in seeking; let me find thee in love, and love thee in finding.

Known as a man after Gods own heart, King David declared, One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple (Ps. 27:4). Only one thing: just to be with God. As the much-quoted Westminster Confession of Faith declares, our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Listen to King David again:

Praise be to you, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand (1 Chron. 29:10-14).

Maybe right now, in this moment, youre alone in some place where you can read aloud Davids extraordinary exclamation of praise. Or maybe you can at least whisper it softly to yourself. Go ahead. This is a book about praise and worship, so lets get right into it! Use this passage right now to talk to God. After each sentence, close your eyes for a few moments to reflect on its meaning. Tell God how much you love and adore him. Tell him how much you need him in your life. Welcome his presence. Let the healing of his holy nearness flow into your anxious thoughts and troubled emotions.

Do you feel a little unworthy during intense times with God? Even insignificant? Take heartKing David did, too. At the end of his praise song he feels like he is at the end of himself: But who am I, he concludes in humility, and who are my people? (1 Chron. 29:14). So, who do we think we are? Especially when we consider God. You, O Lord...

Our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him (Ps. 8:1-4)?

So, just who do we think we are? One of the best-loved Christian writers of the last hundred years, A. W. Tozer, answered the question in his book Whatever Happened to Worship: 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.

Weve been made in Gods image. Thats who we are, created for devotion and praise to God. Worship is the hub of human life because God is the Center. The fear of the Lord, weve heard again and again, is the beginning of wisdom. Anything less is godless. One of the greatest tragedies that we find, wrote Tozer, even in this most enlightened of all ages, is the utter failure of millions of men and women ever to discover why they were born. Oh, the pain, never to make that discovery. Or to make it late in life. Or to know it in your heart but live like it isnt true.