Worship Is Living Out Lives of God-centered Praise

Back in 1998, the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology devoted an issue to Foundations for Worship. There are articles by Albert Mohler, Mark Dever, John Broadus, Kent Hughes and James Spiegel, plus a "forum" in which certain individuals answered questions on "The Current State of Worship" (pdf format).

We are now eight years from the "current state" talked about in the journal. But I found this tidbit in Don Carson's response to the question, "What concerns and/or heartens you when you consider the current issues in worship?"

In the Scriptures, corrupt worship includes everything that replaces or relativizes God (e.g. Eze 8-9); there is much less concern for whether one chooses a pipe organ or a guitar. Under the terms of the new covenant, genuine worship includes living our lives in God-centered devotion to our Maker and Redeemer (Ro 1:1-2). Thus corporate worship is not supposed to encourage the people of God to do something they have not been doing all week (i.e., worshiping). Rather, corporate worship in the New Testament finds the people of God doing together what they are supposed to be doing individually and in their homes all week—living out lives of God-centered praise.

Carson mentions Ezekiel 8-9 in his response. I heard him preach on it once, and somewhere I have the cassette (!) of the message. If anybody knows if the message is on-line, I'd like to link to it.