Worship at its essence is not an outward thing. It's an inward cherishing of Christ as gain,

in living, and in dying. Why is worship primarily an inward reality of cherishing?

And what implications does that hold for us when we gather as believers on Sundays?

Those are the questions John Piper answers from Philippians 1, 18 to 24 in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on November 16, 1997.

If worship in the New Testament essentially is not an outward location, or posture,

or liturgy, or act, not essentially that, but essentially something inside, what is that?

That's what we're going to ask today. What is that thing inside? What happens in

here, where only God can see until it finds some expression, what is it?

Now I take it as a given this morning that whether worship is inner or outward in expression,

and both are real and both are important, whichever one is engaged in at the moment, only inner

or inner plus outer worship is a magnifying of God.

Choose a word, magnify not the only word you could use. You could use the word glorify.

You could use the word honor. You could use the word reverence. You could use the word esteem.

You could use the word admire. You could use the word adore. You could use the word make great.

you could use the word lawn, you could use the word praise dozens of word you could use

to say that when it happens, God and his son and the Holy Spirit are made to look great.

Their greatness is revealed and expressed or if you like, worth ship as a way of helping

you remember what worship is, worth ship, the worth ship of God, his worth, his value,

is revealed and expressed in worship.

If that's true, then the question becomes, what inner experience does that?

What inner experience expresses and reveals the greatness or the worth or the beauty or

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