John Piper on the Duty of Worship

"The real duty of worship is not the outward duty to say or do the liturgy.  It is the inward duty, the command: 'Delight yourself in the LORD!' (Psalm 37:4).  'Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice!" (Psalm 32:11).

"The reason this is the real duty of worship is that it honors God, while the empty performance of ritual does not.  If I take my wife out for the evening on our anniversary and she asks me, 'Why you do this?' the answer that honors her most is 'Because nothing makes me happier tonight than to be with you.'

"'It's my duty' is a dishonor to her.

"'It's my joy' is a honor.

"How shall we honor God in worship?  By saying, 'It's my duty'?  Or by saying, 'It's my joy'?

"Worship is a way of reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth.  Now we see that the mirror the catches the rays of His radiance and reflects them back in worship is the joyful heart.  Another way of saying this is to say, 'The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever'"  (John Piper, Desiring God).

John Piper on Worship as an End in Itself

"A non-treasured Christ is a nonsaving Christ.  Faith has in it this element of valuing, embracing, prizing, relishing Christ.  It is like a man who finds a treasure hidden in a field and 'from joy' sells all his treasures to have that field (Matthew 13:44). . . The locomotive of fact is not headed for heaven if it is not followed by a faith that treasures Christ and if it is not pulling a caboose-load of new, though imperfect, affections.

"Now what does this imply about the feast of worship?  Surprisingly, it implies that worship is an end in itself.  We do not eat the feast of worship as a means to anything else.  Happiness in God is the end of all our seeking.  Nothing beyond it can be sought as a higher goal.  John Calvin put it like this: 'If God contains the fullness of all good things in himself like an inexhaustible fountain, nothing beyond him is to be sought by those who strike after the highest good and all the elements of happiness.'

"If what transforms outward ritual into authentic worship is the quickening of the heart's affections, then true worship cannot be performed as a means to some other experience.  Feelings are not like that.  Genuine feelings of the heart cannot be manufactured as stepping stones to something else" (John Piper, Desiring God).