Now Is The Time Series

One of my favorite songs is entitled “Heart of Worship.” The Lyrics of the song imply that we have gotten away from worshiping God and let other things replace our worship with things that are less important. Many of God’s people have let the pandemic dampen their desire to Worship God. With the beginning of the New Year and the expectation of putting an end to that which separates us from worshiping God and the mandate of worshiping together. “Now is the Time” to come back to what is important to all who love God. God’s sent Jesus, His Son that we would no longer be separated from Him by the sin in our lives. What is keeping you from worshiping God?

Worship can be defined as “the reverence or adoration that one shows toward something or someone; holding a person or object in high esteem; or giving a person or an object a place of importance or honor.” There are hundreds of scriptures in the Bible that speak about worship and provide guidance as to both who and how to worship. (What Exactly is Worship? (biblestudytools.com)

In the realm of Christianity today the buzz word is worship. There is a lot to be said about “Worship.” The act of worship is more than just praise and worship songs. The act of worship is not limited to a single day but to an entire lifetime. Worship becomes more focused as we gather together as the body of Christ, the Church. Yet worship for the Christian believer worship should be a daily part of our Christian life. Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:21 that worship was not limited to the mountain where they were or in Jerusalem, we were to worship God in spirit and truth.

(Read Sermon Text) John 4:21-24

21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." NKJV

True Spritual Worship

Today we see the various types of worship. The word “denomination” seems to impose the various types of worship limitations or expectations in our Churches today. There are those who believe that they have a special focus on worship just like the woman at the well. She apparently believed that the worship of God was limited to a specific local. But true worship of God can’t be limited to a geographical location or group of people or any other category. Worship is lot limited to the denomination, or education or location.

ILLUSTRATION: Worship-Isaac Watts wrote fifty-two books, twenty-nine of them on theology. But he is best remembered for his hymns. He wrote more than seven hundred, and even today the average modern hymnal will have twenty or more of his songs--276 years after they were written. When he died, he was reciting one of his favorites: "I’ll Praise My Maker While I Breathe." (James Cox, The Minister’s Manual, HarperCollins, 1996, p. 328.)(Copied from Sermon Central)

There are two questions we need to search for the answer. What is worship and what does it involve? Many believe that worship is just sing praise songs and lifting hands and hearts to God. But that is only one part of what true worship is. As believers we are to worship God with everything with-in, with-out and around us. The word of God uses the word worship 105 times in 112 verses in the Bible.

The first reference to the Worship of God is in Genesis 22:5 when Abraham takes his son Isaac at the direction of God to the mountain to offer Isaac up to God as a sacrifice to test Abrahams commitment and obedience to God. God’s intention was not for Isaac to be sacrifice but to see if commitment to Him was complete or on equal to what God had given him. Worship is a way to express our total commitment to God. Let’s us consider what it means to worship God in spirit and truth.

ILLUSTRATION: Authentic Worship-In his article ’Celebrating God in Authentic Worship’, pastor Glenn Wagner (Calvary Church, Charlotte, NC) points out: "I believe that one of the most evangelistic tools the church possesses, one desperately needed today, is authentic worship. People want to know, first, if God exists; then second, can they relate to Him? If God exists, is it possible to connect with Him in a vibrant, dynamic way? In genuine, authentic worship, observers see real people connecting powerfully with the real God."