Sinclair B. Ferguson

Sadly, at least in my experience, what people are often talking about when they assess worship

is really only whether the singing was enthusiastic or if there was a choir, whether the anthem was good or we liked it or whether the organist was capable or the band was good or played well or the person who nowadays seems to be known as the worship leader was outstanding or whether the liturgy was well crafted.

I've had more than one minister tell me they've had expert church analysts into their church who have told them that the worship in their morning service is excellent.

And almost before they pronounce the T, I'm wishing that the heavens would open and a voice would come from above saying, let me be the assessor of the quality of your worship.

Because at the end of the day, what they are assessing is largely a performance factor, not a sense of the majesty of God and His glory, a sense of the exaltation of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

That's why what was important to the Apostle Paul, as he says to the Corinthians, is that when people come among us in our worship, they find themselves bowed down and saying, surely God is among you.

And when that happens, we ourselves are inwardly humbled in heart, filled with a sense of awe before God, and realizing we have had the extraordinary privilege of joining with the angels and archangels, led by our exalted Savior Jesus Christ,

to adore our glorious God, to be, as the hymn says, lost in wonder and love and praise and wanting it all to go on and not wanting to leave.

And I suspect that if you've ever tasted that in worship, you feel that much of our worship, our own worship, not just other people's worship, but much of our worship seems flimsy and horizontal.

So, as we reflect on these things, this is a real exhortation to us to recalibrate our thinking about worship.

Worship is about Him, and how badly we need to hear, at least in our hearts if we no longer hear them in our churches, these great words, let us worship God.

We've been thinking this week about the way the Bible places a premium on our ability to remember.

And yet the question we've been asking and trying to answer in different ways is, how do we do that?

It's all very well to be told, remember.

But how can we begin to remember when our problem actually is that we keep on forgetting?

This week I want to think with you about some of the things that Scripture urges us to remember, things that we shouldn't forget.

If you looked up a Bible concordance, I think you would find that the words related to remembering and forgetting appear about 200 different times.

And obviously remembering is a fundamental Christian spiritual duty.

Some of these verses may come to your mind, probably one of the most famous, remember your creator in the days of your youth.

And there's another one I think should come to mind, but I'll mention it later on.