Worship: Touching The Eternal Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• Why are we here today?

• When we gather together each Sunday, what to we hope to obtain or accomplish?

• This is a fair question to ask because the way we answer it will determine what we will expect out of this morning as well as each Sunday morning we come.

• How we answer the question will also determine what, if anything we bring with us and what if any preparation we will make before we come each week.

• When our time together is completed this morning, in your mind, what will determine if it has been a good morning?

• Will it be the song service? Will it be whether I wear a suit or jeans and a sports jacket? Will the message this morning be the determining factor?

• Maybe it will be how much your children enjoyed Children’s Church or Wee Worship?

• The simple answer to the introductory question, “Why are we here today?” is simple, we are here to worship God through His Son Jesus, with the assistance of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who God gives to you when you are baptized into Jesus!

• According to Bing Dictionary worship is defined as follows: the adoration, devotion, and respect given to a deity; the rites or services through which people show their adoration, devotion, and respect for a deity; to treat somebody or something as divine and show respect by engaging in acts of prayer and devotion

• We really need to understand that worship is about God and not us, BUT when we come together to worship God, we can have the opportunity for our worship to be something special.

• Our time of corporate worship, can help us to touch the eternal, it can help us to catch a glimpse of our eternity. PRAISE GOD!

• In Isaiah 6 when Isaiah found himself in the presence of God, it changed his life!

• When we come together for the purpose of worship, we want to experience God and His presence, we want to experience the joy of being closer to Him. In the book of Revelation we examined last week, we see that worship is a central theme of Heaven!

• It is nice to be able to practice now what will happen for eternity!

• Together let us ponder four thoughts that can help raise our level of worship the level of it being able to touch the eternal!

• Today we begin a short series entitled the Rhythm of Life we will be in John 4:7-24, Jesus is tired and thirsty, so He has a conversation with a woman, a Samaritan woman at the well in which Jesus was seated!

• SLIDE #2

• John 4:7–9 (HCSB) 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give Me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 for His disciples had gone into town to buy food. 9 “How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

For your worship to be able to touch the eternal you need to understand…

I. Worship is available to all people.

• This may be a strange thing to start off with, but it is important for us to understand so that we can fully grasp the heart of God.

• Jesus is doing something that was culturally unacceptable. Jews just did not talk to Samaritans, much less Samaritan women.

• Ever since the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC, the Jews and Samaritans have had an intense dislike for one another.

• Jesus, on the eve of talking about the subject of worship, opens the door to the Samaritans by simply having a conversation with this women. This was a social taboo.

• The Bible tells us that God desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:4!

• It will be difficult for our worship to touch the eternal if we willfully ignoring people we need to share the message with because of some prejudice or fear.

• It is my prayer that if look across this auditorium that we are happy to see each and every person who is here!

• Our desire should be to reach people of all races and from all economic backgrounds for Jesus! Believe it or not, not all churches feel that way!

• If we have people we are not willing to share the gospel with, it will inhibit our ability for our worship to touch the eternal!

• Jesus made sure that there were no social, economic, racial or any other barriers that would keep people from being able to worship Him! Anyone who wants to be a Christian can be a Christian.