It was great to be together yesterday morning and join our voices together in a joyful response of praise and worship to our great God, who has saved us and transformed our lives through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s sermon, the second part of our “Worship His Majesty” series, entitled: “The Expression of Worship” is available to listen to or download from here, via our iTunes podcast feed.

For those of you with children in the Generations Sunday School, here’s the “Weekly Info” that we hope will serve you in following up with your children on what they sang and learned this week, and the verse to memorise for next week’s Sunday school.

Here’s the quotes from the sermon:

Nancy Leigh De Moss:
“Worship is a believers response to God’s revelation of himself. It is expressing wonder, awe and gratitude for the worthiness, the greatness and the goodness of our Lord. It is the appropriate response to God’s person, His provision, His power, His promises and His plan.”

John Piper:
“Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.”

John Piper:
“Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of his worth. It is not a mere act of willpower by which we perform outward acts. Without the engagement of the heart, we do not really worship. The engagement of the heart in worship is the coming alive of the feelings and emotions and affections of the heart. Where feelings for God are dead, worship is dead.”

Jonathan Edwards:
“If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart. He who has only doctrinal knowledge and theory without affection, is never engaged in the goodness of faith. We find that people exercise the affections in everything else but religion! When it comes to their worldly interests, their outward delights, their honour and reputation, and their natural relations, they have warm affection and ardent zeal. In these things their hearts are tender and sensitive, easily moved, deeply impressed, much concerned, and much engrossed. They get deeply depressed at worldly losses, and highly excited at worldly successes. But how insensible and unmoved are most men about the great things of another world! How dull then are the affections! Here their love is cold, their desires languid, their zeal low, and their gratitude small. How can they sit and hear of the infinite height, depth, length, and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus, of His infinitely dear Son offered up as a sacrifice for the sins of men, and yet be so insensible and regardless!”

Bob Kauflin:
“God is particularly interested in our joy. He tells us, “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!’ (Ps 32:11). When the church gathers, the sense of confident joy in God should be pronounced. When we fail to demonstrate delight and satisfaction in God, we’re not only dishonouring God, we’re disobeying him. More than anyone else on earth, Christians have a reason to celebrate.”

Vaughan Roberts:
“Those of us who come from the United Kingdom can be more British than biblical. We tend to be scared of showing any emotion. We can sing of the most wonderful truths with an expression on our faces that would be appropriate in a morgue!”