{"id":44665,"date":"2010-04-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worship-make-love-make-war\/"},"modified":"2010-04-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-19T00:00:00","slug":"worship-make-love-make-war","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worship-make-love-make-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Worship: Make Love, Make War"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Worship songwriter Brian Doerksen writes of a time when God placed in his mind a surprising, provocative picture that has since defined for him biblical worship. The picture seemed as though it had been ripped right from the memorable scenes of the hippie movements of the &#39;60s. There was a crowd of &quot;bedraggled-looking young people&quot; holding up signs that said, &quot;Make Love, Not War.&quot; But as Doerksen looked closer, one of the words on the signs changed so that they all read &quot;Make Love, Make War.&quot; Doerksen thought to himself, <em>Could God possibly be saying something that provocative [about worship]?<\/em> Doerksen concluded that he was&mdash;that God was using the image to call on Doerksen and his church to rise up. He writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The gathering of the church is meant to be a number of things: a hospital to heal the sick and wounded; a family where everyone is accepted; a school where we are taught the Word of God; and an army that engages and defeats the Enemy to see the kingdom of God advance.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Becoming a worshiper means becoming a warrior. And by toning that down&mdash;or cutting it out altogether&mdash;we have sent men and women away from the church in droves. It&#39;s time to call them back. We need warriors to return. But we need them to return as worshiping warriors. That doesn&#39;t mean that all we do is sit around and sing. What I mean the most by the phrase <em>worshiping warriors<\/em> is warriors who are surrendered to God. Warriors who know that their authority comes because they are under authority&mdash;warriors willing to wait (even when everyone else is rushing ahead) or act decisively to walk in obedience.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>We can be little <em>w<\/em> warriors because our King is a capital <em>W<\/em> Warrior. He&#39;s a warrior, not because he loves to kill and destroy, but because he defends and protects his own. Our King is a warrior because there is a rebellion against his rule and reign.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3601,3614,3775,3903,3907,4324,4618,4670,4677,4883,4984,5064,5230,5260,5283,5300,5302,5305],"tax_ctp_topics":[378],"class_list":["post-44665","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-church","tax_ctp_tags-church-life","tax_ctp_tags-devil","tax_ctp_tags-evil","tax_ctp_tags-exaltation-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-kingdom","tax_ctp_tags-pearl-harbor-day","tax_ctp_tags-power","tax_ctp_tags-praise","tax_ctp_tags-satan","tax_ctp_tags-singing","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-warfare","tax_ctp_tags-veterans-day","tax_ctp_tags-war","tax_ctp_tags-witness","tax_ctp_tags-world","tax_ctp_tags-worldliness","tax_ctp_tags-worship"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Worship: Make Love, Make War - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/worship-make-love-make-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Worship: Make Love, Make War - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Worship songwriter Brian Doerksen writes of a time when God placed in his mind a surprising, provocative picture that has since defined for him biblical worship. 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