The following message was recorded at an event hosted by Desiring God.

More information about Desiring God events, conferences and resources is available at

www. Desiring God.org. So what we've seen now is that the inward essence of worship is being

satisfied in God. What are the implications of that for worship?

And I've got four of them. I think these are in your booklet if you have it.

And these are where the rubber starts to meet the road.

This means, and I'll tell you it is life changing for worship when your people start to get this.

The pursuit of joy in God is not optional, it is our highest duty.

That was the liberation in 1969, 1970, in reading Lewis, reading Edwards, reading

the Bible, to discover that all of my guilt feelings during college

of enjoying worship and enjoying ministry and wondering, is that okay? am I messing it up by enjoying it because if I enjoy

it seems like it's satisfying to me and not really done for God and all that stuff was just messing me up in the head for four years plus and suddenly

I hit upon these truths. That pursuit of joy in God, of course is the key, not in his gifts. This is not a

prosperity gospel. When I wrote the book, Desiring God, a mission leader at the time,

I didn't even know what to become of him.

I heard him, heard him for 20 years.

He just lashed out at the book in a missionary magazine, Desiring God.

As another typical American self-centered health wealth kind of book.

I read the review and I thought, I don't think he read the book.

I wrote to him I think but I don't know if he ever changed his mind. So when I say

your highest duty is to pursue your joy in God, I mean pursue the kind of satisfaction that

enables you to suffer and die for Jesus.

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