When you have the notion that high moral acts have to be free from self-interest, then worship, which is one of the highest moral acts possible, is reduced to a duty and when worship is reduced to a duty it vanishes.

One of the great enemies of worship in our church is our own misguided virtue. We have the vague notion that seeking our own pleasure is evil and therefore our virtue imprisons the longings of our heart and causes worship to shrivel up and die.

For what is worship, if not the feasting of the soul upon the manifold glories of God.

Try this definition for a general overarching one for worship.

Worship is an inward feeling and an outward action that reflects the worth of God.

An inward feeling and an outward action that reflects the worth of God. And the inward feeling is the essence because Jesus

said, you remember, with their lips they honor me, but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me.

Worship is vain, empty, hollow, when the heart is not moved to God.

I think it's possible to describe in three general ways how the heart is moved in

worship. And I think these three, if you understand them in their general sense, cover all

the inward acts of worship. Let me try them on you. Number one, in worship the heart can delight in God and his character and his manifold glories.

As the Psalmas said, my soul is feasted as with marrow and fat.

My mouth praises thee with joyful lips when I think of thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the watches of the night.

Delighting in God. Second, the heart can respond in worship by longing for God, longing that our delight would be richer,

fuller, deeper, wider, more intense, more consistent.

As the Psalma says, as a heart pants for the flowing stream, so my soul longs for thee, oh God, my soul thirsts for God for the living

God, when shall I come and behold the face of God?

Third, the heart can worship in response to God by sorrow for not feeling any longing or any delight.

That too is worship.

That too reflects the worth of God. The Psalmist says, when my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in my heart, I was

stupid and ignorant, I was like a beast toward thee. Dead, dumb, blank, empty. But he repented of it. He was sorry

for it. And that too is worship. So if you feel no delight in God, if you feel no longing for deeper

...