Living The Spiritual Life Part One

Central Christian Church of St. Petersburg

November 28 2001

Tell Bears and Buccaneers joke.

One of the ideas I was given for Sermon topics was the question: "How do I live the Spiritual life."

The statement was made that "I still struggle with temptation and sin."

Jesus said" John 4:23 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

John 4:24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

What in the world does that mean?

John the apostle who wrote The Revelation begins the letter with this statement: Rev 1:9 I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,

What did John mean, it was the Lord’s day and he was in the spirit?

Were there other days he was not in the Spirit and living by the flesh?

Over the next few weeks, I will spend some time examining the Spirit led life, the worldly led life, the differences between the two and we will look at God’s word together to find out how we too can lead a life that worships in Spirit and in Truth. We will seek to find out how we can overcome temptation and sin.

Tonight let us look at our first question: What in the world does it mean to worship God in spirit and truth?

We have to start by understanding worship. What does it mean to worship something or some one?

Worship- in the Hebrew( shahah) the word literally meant to bow down before, prostrate and that is consistent with one of the Greek words proskuneo- denoting the worthiness of the individual to be worshipped and although proskuneo is the most common translation found in the bible for worship occurring some 71 times the word I like best is found in Romans 12:1 and in 10 other passages I like it, best to describe true spiritual worship.

Here is the Spirit led life in:

Rom 12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

The word here for worship is LATREUO la true o and deals with worshipping God by the Spirit of God. Through service to God- those literally are the ones who are worshipping Him.

So we see from this text that to worship God- truly requires service to God.

I believe we see two pictures of worship the bowing down, which tells God we have humbled ourselves before Him and we know He is who He says He is.When we bow down it is presumed that we live according to the Master’s commands.

We know that He is God and we are not.

We also know that He sits on the throne and we do not. We know that we can trust Him for everything.

And then we see, this component of our worship coupled with the truth that true worshippers will worship god in Spirit and in truth. I believe Isaiah put both of the components of worship together in the presence of God.

Open your bibles to:

1. Isa 6:1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.

Isa 6:2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

Isa 6:3 And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory."

Isa 6:4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.

Isa 6:5 Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."

Isa 6:6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs.