How in the world does somebody worship alone?

Steve Brown:
How in the world does somebody worship alone? Let’s talk about that, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life. We’re here to communicate the freeing truth that God’s not mad at His children. Steve invited our friend Pete Alwinson to teach us all this week. Pete is a former pastor, founder of ForgeTruth.Com, and the author of Like Father Like Son.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey. How you doing?

Steve Brown:
This has been, I’ve loved this time with you. I asked Pete if he would teach us on worship and the Psalms and connection with the Scripture and cause we’re made for that.

Pete Alwinson:
We are.

Steve Brown:
And we don’t talk about it very much. So, we’re going to talk about it some today. I get worship. You talked about how when you’re sitting, you see me over there and your other friends. And there’s something that’s so good and right about corporate worship. Does that mean we don’t have to do it or shouldn’t do it when we’re by ourselves?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, I think that in a very real sense, our Sunday worship, the first day of the week kicks off a pattern for the rest of the week.

Steve Brown:
That’s good.

Pete Alwinson:
And all of life. And so, I think that’s the way God intended it to be, whether it’s for the Jews, the Sabbath or for us. And so, Monday morning then I wake up and I’m meeting with the Lord. It ought to be a beginning of worship that goes through all the day. And I think that this is where a lot of Christians struggle. We get up, we check our iPhone. We take a shower, we eat breakfast, and we’re out the door with a cup of coffee maybe. We’re moving, we move way too fast. And what I really need, what we really need is we need to meet the Father and meet our Lord before the day starts. And when we do and focus upon His attributes and the work of Christ, we then have the ability to put ourselves into perspective, our identity. We can remember who we are in Christ before we go out, into the real world. Because what is a problem is that too often what we are trying to do is find our identity in our work, and yet we can only find our true identity in Christ and in what Christ has done for us.

Steve Brown:
And that’s what worship does.

Pete Alwinson:
And that’s what worship does. So, as we come before the God of the universe, my pattern, and I want to know what yours is, but I read a Psalm a day and then a Proverb. And that’s what jumpstarts me. And I started out with five minutes a day and then the more you do this, the more you want more.

Steve Brown:
I know, it’s addictive.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s addictive. And this is what, it’s a discipline that becomes a delight. And this is what we want people to grasp is that God wants to be your Father every day. So, start your day, pick a Psalm. And right now I’m not only reading the Psalm, but I’m also reading through Tim Keller’s, The Songs of Jesus, he and his wife wrote, and it’s a great, it’s a real short, just real short. You read the Psalm and he’s got like a paragraph and then a prayer, boom. Amazing insights that come from that. And then, but what you can find is that after you read a Psalm, you can move to worship and praise right there. By after you read a Psalm by saying, Lord, you, well, for instance, let me read a little bit.

Steve Brown:
All right.

Pete Alwinson:
So, in Psalm 37, and by the way, there’s so many Psalms that actually fit the real world in which we live.

Steve Brown:
Oh yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
Right. So, Psalm 37.

Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they’ll fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He’ll give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. He’ll bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

And so, you could stop right then and there. And you could worship. You say, Lord, you know, I am, right now, I confess, I am so bent out of shape about the political state of our country.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, and Lord, I just get so, I’m going to go out and watch the news before I go to work and I’m going to get mad. Help me Lord, not to fret.

Steve Brown:
So good.

Pete Alwinson:
Help me not to be upset. Help me to know you’re in charge. Help me to trust in you, and today as I go out, to just do good. Help me to go out today, Lord, and praise you, to dwell in the land and be a faithful man. Help me just to delight in you. You give me the desires you want in my heart. And give me the desires that you want me to have. And so, there’s a, that’s dialogue. It’s worship. And then you could pause and just listen and see if there’s a response that the Father gives you through His Spirit. It probably won’t be audible.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. That is so good.

Pete Alwinson:
Do you find that experience yourself?

Steve Brown:
Yeah, I do. In fact, it matches your experience, but it’s different in the details. I spend a good deal of time in the Scriptures, but not so much in devotional time. I have a liturgy that I’ve used for years that’s a part of the Church of Scotland and their worship book, and I found that very helpful. In terms of what we’re talking about, worship, some of those prayers are amazing, and they’re old prayers. And my problem, and I know that’s yours, and all of us that are professional religionists, is that we’re always praying our prayers. And sometimes it’s good to go to those old prayers that have been prayed by Christians for centuries.

Pete Alwinson:
Yes.

Steve Brown:
And to pray those. So, that’s a part of my worship. A part of my worship is also the attributes of God, just thinking of who He is and who I am in relation to that and being glad for that.

Pete Alwinson:
Yes.

Steve Brown:
You and I both, and we have to be careful here because we’re sounding like spiritual giants or something. We don’t want to do that. I mean, I get kind of uncomfortable when I start talking about this because it sounds so pious. It’s not that.

Pete Alwinson:
No, no. In fact, most mornings I wake up, I’m, you know, Chuck Swindoll once said there’s two types of people in the morning, there’s springers and sleepers, right? Now, if I’ve got to go teach in the morning, I’m a springer, but most of the days I’m a sleeper. So, I wake up, turn the holy cup of coffee on. And I have to get that, and my wife doesn’t talk to me. We say, hi honey, we hug. Then I grab my coffee and I go into the other room. And I sit down and I say, Lord, I just feel awful today. You know, I do not feel good when I first wake up. I’m not awake. I’m not a springer. And so I say, Lord, you’re the only one that can give me sanity today. You’re the only one that can put me on a right path. And so, I pray, wake me up. Thank you for this cup of coffee. Wake me up and speak to me.

Steve Brown:
You know, another element of morning worship for me is authenticity before God. You know, and by the way, Tony Campolo said the difference between us was he wakes up in the morning and says, good morning Lord. And I wake up in the morning and say, good Lord, it’s morning. But you know, in the, in the being honest, there are very few places where we can be honest about how we feel. I have said to God, and often, I don’t love you, especially this time of the morning. And if you loved me, you would treat me better than you do. And or somebody I know, you would treat, their your kids, you’d have more friends if you treated the ones you had better, St. Teresa said. And I think sometimes we make our worship in the morning phony.

Pete Alwinson:
It can be, it can be perfunctory and phony. And that’s why the grace in Christ changes everything, right? The gospel changes everything.

Steve Brown:
It gives us freedom.

Pete Alwinson:
We don’t have, it occurred to me one morning that the one person I can tell everything to, is the Father. And He will never judge me because it’s already been judged.

Steve Brown:
And He’s never surprised.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
He doesn’t say, Pete, I had such high hopes for you.

Pete Alwinson:
And you’re not living up to your potential.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, that’s right. It’s not that, ever.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s never that. And when a Christian grasps, that worship is not just doing something because God is desperately waiting to gain approval. No, He doesn’t need our approval, but that it’s for us to enjoy Him. You know, the Westminster Confession was right in the Shorter Catechism. Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
And personal worship, personal interaction is enjoying Him. And so, when we just tell him what’s really on our hearts, he can handle it. He doesn’t ever get thrown.

Steve Brown:
That’s right.

Pete Alwinson:
I can tell you just about anything and you won’t get thrown off.

Steve Brown:
But there’s some things you’re keeping to yourself.

Pete Alwinson:
I’m not going to tell you everything.

Steve Brown:
But I will God.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. And he’s completely protective of us. And then sometimes after you say something very authentic, he’ll go, yeah, I know you’ve been feeling that way. And I hear you. And sometimes in our devotion times of worship, we can say, Lord, I’m so fearful of this. And I don’t want to admit that I’m fearful. Or I’m angry. I remember one guy I had to forgive, and it took months to forgive.

Steve Brown:
Oh, I’ve been there, done that.

Pete Alwinson:
And I’d say, Lord, I’m not there yet. Well, I’m a little further along. And he never, he’s going, we’ll get there. You know?

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
We’ll get there.

Steve Brown:
Have you ever? And this is another subject, we can’t cover it, but praying by contract to say, Lord, make this a contract before you, because it’s not the way I feel. And then conform my heart to this contract.

Pete Alwinson:
I love it. I love it.

Steve Brown:
And the great thing about that kind of prayer and what we’ve been talking about on this broadcast is that it’s all about worship. It’s the place where we go that is still and bright and important. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Thank you Steve Brown and Pete Alwinson for that reminder. We are in a series this week called It’s All About Worship. Still one more day to go. So, hope you’ll meet us here again tomorrow for that. And by the way, if you’d like to re-listen to any of this week’s broadcasts with Steven and Pete, great news. All of our shows, podcasts, articles, and videos can be found at keylife.org and while you’re there, take a look at our transcripts. They’re available for each and every episode of Key Life. We use artificial intelligence to do a first pass on those. It’s fancy, right? Then we go back and meticulously double check those transcripts by hand, line by line, word by word. Is it a lot of work? Yeah, it is. But is it worth it? Well, if it helps you in your study, then yeah, it’s definitely worth it. Those transcripts, along with all our other features on keylife.org are still free thanks to the generous support of listeners just like you. If you’d like to donate, then call us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. Or if you’d like to send your donation by mail, then go to keylife.org/contact to find our addresses for the U.S. and Canada. Or you can e-mail [email protected] you can also charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or simply text Key Life to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.