Worship Series

INTRODUCTION

- Today, we will dive into the subject of worship.

- What is worship?

- The dictionary defines worship as the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity, the acts or rites that make up a formal expression of reverence for a deity, or a religious ceremony or ceremonies.

- In the context of our faith, what is worship?

- Is worship a location?

- Is worship about style (type of music)

- Is worship about having that hallelujah feeling?

- Worship is a fundamental aspect of our faith, a profound response to God's character and what He has done for us.

- It’s more than just a ritual or a routine; it’s a deep, heartfelt connection with our Creator.

- In John 4:23-24, Jesus reveals to us the true essence of worship.

- The context of our passage is that Jesus was left by a well as His disciples went to get supplies.

- Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for water, and a conversation ensues.

- I want to read some of the passage for context/

John 4:10–18 (NET 2nd ed.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do you get this living water?

12 Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.”

13 Jesus replied, “Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty again.

14 But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16 He said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.”

17 The woman replied, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said, ‘I have no husband,’

18 for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”

- This is where the conversation gets interesting and takes a turn.

- Have you ever had a conversation with someone, and the conversation starts to get uncomfortable?

- What do you do when that happens?

- YOU CHANGE THE SUBJECT!

- The woman changes the subject to a question concerning worship.

John 4:19–22 (NET 2nd ed.)

19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

22 You people worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews.

- This conversation is significant.

- These words were spoken to a Samaritan woman, breaking the barriers of cultural and religious divides.

- In this conversation, Jesus defined the heart of worship.

- He pointed her—and us—to the reality that worship is not confined to a place or a specific set of actions but is a profound spiritual experience that begins with God Himself.

- In our passage, we will examine three essential truths concerning worship.

- Let’s turn to our passage.

John 4:23 (NET 2nd ed.)

23 But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers.

SERMON

I. Worship begins with God.

- Back to the question about what worship is, worship is, first and foremost, about God.

- Worship begins and ends with God as the center of our worship.

- Anything less is not worshipping God; we would be worshipping ourselves.

- The Samaritan woman’s question was about the form of worship and where the proper place to worship was.

- Do we worship on Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem?

- Is worship only about location, style, and ascetics, or is there more to worship?

- The question was not a bad one.

- Up until that point in history, the nation of Israel's worship was centered on the Tabernacle and then the Temple.

- For the Samaritans, worship centered on Mount Gerizim.

- We typically worship at church together.