Unstoppable - True Authentic Worship Series

Unstoppable – Worship in the Spirit

11/19/17

Acts 16:16-34

Sunday AM

There’s much confusion today about worship. Should we sing w/ the lights on or off? Do we sing w/ a choir/orchestra or w/ a band? Do we sing hymns or contemporary songs?

But what if worship had nothing to do w/ music – or w/ our venues/technology? What if worship was an issue of the heart instead of a preference of style?

In Jn. 4, w/the Samaritan woman Jesus said:

A time is coming… when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they’re the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. Jn. 4:23-4

What does it mean to worship in the Spirit & Truth?

In Acts 16, we find one of my favorite passages in the Bible regarding true Spirit-inspired worship – Paul/Silas in jail.

We’re in Acts learning about the unstoppable power of the H.S. and how the Christian life isn’t a matter of human ability/ingenuity but submission to the H.S. This means the gift of salvation and the ministry of the church have never been, nor will ever be, a work of human effort/ability, but solely the work of the HS

The same is true of authentic God-honoring worship – it doesn’t begin w/ us, it begins w/ God abiding w/in us. Listen to Jesus’ words again in John 4:24 – God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.

In the Spirit means true worship is inspired/authored by the H.S. abiding w/us – and our role is the surrender of our mind’s ATTENTION, our heart’s AFFECTION, our will’s AMBITION, and our body’s ACTION to the H.S.

I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true/proper worship. Rm. 12:1-2

offer (paristemi) to release. It’s a technical term used by priests in the temple when they placed an animal on the altar for sacrifice as an act of worship. So when the priest offered the whole burnt offering it meant the entire animal was placed on the altar to be sacrificed and nothing was w/held.

Paul’s saying a Christ-follower is to voluntarily “release” his/her life completely into God’s hands w/out reservations. The verb tense means we make this offering on a continual basis to remain surrender.

Any human attempt at worship offered independent of the H.S. in flesh is idolatry b/c you can’t worship in the Spirit if you don’t walk in the Spirit.

Talk about a scary proposition? This means any attempt at worship authored in the flesh isn’t a fragrant offering to God but a self-centered, self-gratifying slap in God’s face.

It reminds me of a worship video spoof – Lord I lift My Name on High and I Exalt Me.

Jesus described worship as loving God w/ all your heart, mind, soul, and strength… what He was saying wasn’t love God w/ all of your human ability – but love God out of the love He has poured into you thru the Spirit.

love (agape) God’s unconditional, sacrificial love

We know from Galatians 5 that agape love is a fruit of the Spirit bearing evidence of a surrendered, spirit-led life. So we’re to love God out of the love He’s imputed/invested in us thru the H.S – we worship b/c God first loved us.

So w/ this in mind, let’s look at Acts 16 and Paul/Silas. Paul/Silas were in the city of Philippi sharing about truth of Jesus and the love of God. After several days of being harassed by a demon-possessed fortune-teller, they command the demon come out – and it did! Only the men abusing this woman’s skills aren’t too happy about it and they have Paul/Silas illegally arrested, beaten, and put in stocks in the local Roman jail.

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At once the spirit left her. When her owners realized their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul/Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in the attack against them, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped/beaten w/ rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.