Juliet, a podcast listener, writes in to ask this. "Hello, Pastor John. I have a simple question for you. So what does it actually mean to be a worshiper?" Pastor John, what would you say? The key text for me is Matthew 15, 7 and 8. "You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me.'" So from that I see first that worship is about honoring God. A worshiper is one who honors God. "This people honors me with their lips. In vain do they worship me." In other words, they're failing in what they're attempting to do rightly. So it's right to want to honor God.

That's what worship should be, to show God to be of highest honor in the universe, highest value, highest worth, highest worthy of praise, worthy of most admiration. That's what God is, and worship shows Him to be that, reflects that. Worship is an echo of those excellencies of God, and worship should be a way to think about it.

And then the second thing I notice in that text, besides honor God, is the prominence of the heart. "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me." Their worship is empty because they're doing it with lips without heart.

There is no authentic worship where the heart is not engaged. It's empty worship. It's vain worship. So the essence, I'm going to argue in answer here, that the essence of worship is not the movement of your lips, not the movement of your hands, not the movement of your knees, not the movement of your tongue.

The essence of worship is the movement of your heart, that is, your affections, your spiritual emotions. And those other acts, those outward acts, are not in worship when they are expressing what the heart is authentically feeling. And what is that? Well, it's not mere willpower, because these folks had enough of that because they were doing this lip moving.

"This people honors me with their lips." They had the willpower to go to church and move their lips and sing the songs, and so that's not worship. Worship is not the willpower to make yourself do stuff that is religious. What's missing is spiritual affections. Their heart is far from me.

They are not the direct product of willpower. You can't make yourself feel gratitude if you don't feel it. You can't make yourself feel admiration from somebody you find boring. You can't just turn it on and off like a switch. It's not willpower. These are real, genuine, authentic emotions that are quickened and awakened by true perceptions of God.

And so here's some examples of what I mean. "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise. I confess my iniquity. I am sorry for my sins." So the emotion of contrition and the emotion of sorrow for sin is a beautiful act of worship because it reflects the value of God from which we've fallen so short.

And then we mingle with those feelings of contrition, feelings of longing and desire, as a heart longs for the flowing stream, so my soul longs for thee. And then we mingle with our contrition for sin and our longing for mercy. We mingle fear and awe. I will worship toward the holy temple in the fear of thee, Psalm 5:7.

And then we approach him with fear and trembling, and he crowns us with his mercy, and we enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name, and then mingled with all that gratitude and joy is the hope. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him. So those texts combine contrition, sorrow, longing, desire, fear, awe, gratitude, joy, hope. These are the things that are the essence of worship. These are the heartfelt affections that respond to the beauty of God.

So here's my answer to her question, Juliet's question. So a worshiper is one who experiences these affections for God and more. Worship happens when we see God truly and feel him duly. It's worship in spirit and truth. Truth shows us true views of God, and the spirit awakens with the kind of affections that correspond to that truth.

So that's what it means to be a worshiper. Yes, amen. Thank you, Pastor John. But, of course, that then raises a perplexing question of its own. So if I feel no affection for God, can I truly be worshiping him? We'll tackle that on Monday. If you have a question for Pastor John, please email it in to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org, and please check out DesiringGod.org to find thousands of books, sermons, articles, and blog posts from John Piper, always free of charge to you.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke, wishing you a great weekend of worship. . . .