"Adoration: Taste and See" (Matthew 6:5-9)

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. In our final series of the Spring semester we are looking at how to relate to God through prayer, using the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 as our guide. As we begin the prayer, Jesus focuses our attention on God himself, the audience and object of our adoration and worship. And we see that Jesus doesn’t just tell us to praise God, he shows us why he’s worthy of praise.  We should praise God, because He is both a better audience and a better object for our adoration.  Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 117.  Q. What is the kind of prayer that pleases God and that he listens to? A. First, we must pray from the heart to no other than the one true God, revealed to us in his Word, asking for everything God has commanded us to ask for. Second, we must fully recognize our need and misery, so that we humble ourselves in God’s majestic presence. Third, we must rest on this unshakable foundation: even though we do not deserve it, God will surely listen to our prayer because of Christ our Lord. That is what God promised us in his Word. “Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.” — Eugene Peterson “The One whom we most need to behold has made himself known. He has traced with a fine hand the lines and contours of his face. He has done so in his Word …. By fixing our gaze on that face, we trade mere human glory for holiness:” ― Jen Wilkin “God is a delicious good.”- Thomas Watson “To change people most profoundly, we must change what we worship. Thinking, arguments, and beliefs are crucial as means of moving the heart, but ultimately we are what we adore. We are what captures our imagination … We must love God supremely, and that can be cultivated only through praise and adoration.”- Tim Keller