Blessings of Following Christ
#1 – We Get to Worship (Part 1)
John 4:19-26
October 14, 2007
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT USED IN MY MESSAGES IS BORROWED FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."
Me: I grew up going to church pretty regularly, most of the time.
I grew up Catholic, as most of you know, and church was an important part of our lives, if for no other reason than we were afraid that missing church might get us sent to hell. Really.
And you know what? It’s really hard to focus on God and loving Him when you’re stuck in church because you’re scared of Him.
That’s not worship, folks. That’s fear-filled duty.
We: I think that all of us have known times when we went to church not because we were all excited about actually worshiping God, but because we were forced to by our parents or by our siblings who threatened to tell our parents if we didn’t, or because it had just become a duty.
But I’m here to tell you that the more I learn about what worship really is and what it really involves, the more excited I get.
It’s more than just sitting in a church, and it can literally change your life for the better, allowing you to get a glimpse of God like nothing else will.
Because once we understand that worship has very little to do with us and everything to do with God, then we can open our hearts to really hearing from God when we do come for worship.
And so my hope for today and the next week or so is to help us gain not just a better perspective on worship, but also to gain a sense of anticipation that God is among us, ready to be glorified in our hearts, lives, and lips, so we will enter and leave with the knowledge that we have been in the presence of God in worship.
God: There’s simply no way we’re going to be able to cover everything the Scriptures say about worship and how it should impact us, so we’re going to take at least a couple weeks just on the blessing of worship.
The phrase “church service” doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible. I searched two dozen translations and paraphrases, and found only two instances of that term, one discussing a church service held in a person’s home, and the other talking about letting godly men pray.
Gotta love the benefits of software, don’t you? I was able to run this search in about 10 seconds.
Speaking of software, I came across this while I was working on the message. Have you ever had to contact Tech Support because you were having problems with some software you had installed? Check this out:
Dear Tech Support,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance -- particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0, and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I’ve tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed, Desperate
Dear Desperate,
First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. Please enter the command "http: I Thought You Loved Me.html" and try to download Tears 6.2 and don’t forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.
Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources). Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.
In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Food 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7.
Good Luck, Tech Support. (SermonCentral.com, contributed by Kent K Kessler)
You can’t do a word study on the phrase “church service” in the hopes of finding out how to worship in church. Because worship isn’t about a church service. It’s about living for Christ and exalting the Lord in everything we think, do, and say.
Next week we’re going to talk a little bit more about the “nuts and bolts” of worship – what it is, what it involves, maybe talk a bit about the issue of styles of worship.
But today I want to focus on the fact that because of Christ, we get to worship.
The basis of what I want to discuss is found in John 4:19-26 (p. 753) –
19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
Jesus points out three benefits we gain because of the fact that He has come:
Benefit #1 – We can worship the Father anywhere.
Verse 21 – “…a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”
Why is that? Because the temple of God isn’t a stone building in Jerusalem anymore.
Anyone know where the temple of God is now? It’s you. If you are a believer and follower of Jesus.
1 Corinthians 3:16 –
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
This brings to bear an important truth: if you can’t worship here (heart), then you can’t worship here (church building). Because worship is an issue of the heart, not an issue of the building.
Dr. Tony Evans had this to say:
“If you limit worship to where you are, the minute you leave that place of worship you will leave your attitude of worship behind like a crumpled-up church bulletin.” (SermonCentral.com. Contributed by Mike Hamilton)
Ouch. But think about it. Please don’t raise your hand when I ask this, but how many of you, truly, in your heart, leave “worship” behind when you walk out the door on Sunday?
Let me tell you, I do sometimes. I’m wiped out after church, and sometimes all I can think about is my afternoon nap!
So I’m asking God to help me remember that worship is not to be limited to this building on Sunday mornings, but it needs to be a lifestyle.
A church building can enhance or hinder your worship, but worship takes place in the heart.
Benefit #2 – We can worship in knowledge, not ignorance.
Verse 22 –
22 “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.”
I got my degree in Sociology. Talk about a pretty useless degree in terms of a career, unless you want to go into research.
And just in case you didn’t know, sociology is the study of people and how they interact with others. Psychology studies the individual, sociology studies groups and societies.
Bet you can’t wait to get home and discuss that wonderful discovery over lunch, huh?
In one of my classes, my professor said something that has stuck with me all the years since. She said that there were some common traits among every society ever discovered:
First, they had laws against certain things. In every culture and society there were laws against theft, murder, adultery, and homosexuality. Second, they all worshiped someone or something.
If you were to stumble upon a tribe of people never before discovered, you would find that they have these things as part of their culture.
Anyway – these people worship. It might be trees, clouds, idols, or whatever. But they do worship.
Michael G. Moriarty, in his book, The Perfect 10: The Blessings of Following God’s Commandments in a Post Modern World, says this:
“It is reported that pockets of semi-organized ‘Elvis worship’ have taken hold in New York, Colorado, and Indiana, where worshippers raise their hands, spell and then chant Presley’s name, working themselves into a fervor and praying to the deceased star.
Many followers believe Elvis watches over them. If someone reports seeing Presley, the high priests at the Church of the Risen Elvis in Denver hold Elvis worship services. In an altar surrounded by candles stands an enshrined look-alike doll of Elvis.” (SermonCentral.com)
The really sad thing is that these people think Elvis is actually dead…
Unfortunately, all these people in all these societies worship in ignorance, just like the Samaritans.
But because of Christ, we worship what we know – or rather, who we know. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Samaritan’s religion was basically a mixture of paganism and Judaism, and originated when the kingdom of Israel split after Solomon died, and Jeraboam, the first king of the northern tribes of Israel led the people into idol worship.
But since they were Jews, at least at first, they didn’t totally abandon Judaism, but rather added to it, especially after the area was repopulated after the exile in Assyria.
So anyway, here they are, worshiping in ignorance, not worshiping the God of the Bible.
We, on the other hand, worship what we know. Not only because we have the Scriptures that point to Christ, but also because Jesus Himself gives us insight into worship through His words and example.
The woman at the well at least knew that the Messiah would come around to clear things up, and wouldn’t you know, here He was!
And so she was opened up to a whole new world – salvation through the Messiah and the ability to worship in knowledge instead of ignorance.
Benefit #3 – We can worship the way God wants us to: in spirit and truth.
“In spirit” refers to the idea that worship that is not defined by the rites and rituals of the temple, and the pomp of external worship.
It refers to the idea that we are spiritual beings, made to worship the Creator from the depths of our being, not just with our lips.
Jesus hit on those who worshiped God with only their lips but not with their lives.
“In truth” means to worship the Father through Jesus – because Jesus is the Truth.
I think that it can also mean that we are to worship the God of Scripture, not the god of society or convenience – recognizing God’s character and nature as well as our need for Him.
Notice that this has really nothing to do with the “style” of worship in a service.
Jesus doesn’t say, “use only a certain style of music,” or “meet in a certain style of building,” or “have a certain style of furniture on the platform.”
The issue with this third benefit is that we can truly please God in how we worship, and it’s not an issue of the style, it’s an issue of the heart.
Are we worshiping in spirit and in truth or are we just here for an hour or religious duty or entertainment?
We can come together as brothers and sisters in Christ to honor and glorify God in ways that please Him.
And isn’t that what it’s all about anyway – pleasing Him? In everything? In our life, our work, our play, our finances, and our worship?
Folks, if your only goal in coming to church is “get blessed,” then you’re going to be disappointed. Unless you gain your blessing from seeking to please God as we gather.
I believe that we are blessed when God is pleased. We don’t please God so we can get blessings. We please God because He is worthy and deserving. And He chooses to bless us in return, in spite of the fact that we are unworthy and undeserving.
That’s love, folks. The love of God.
You: I’m not going to spend a lot of time giving you a bunch of steps to help you apply what we’ve looked at today.
I just want to leave you with something very simple. Ready? Here it is: take some time each day this week to thank God for all the benefits of worship we gain because of Christ.
Part of worship throughout Scripture is recognizing the blessings He’s given us and pouring out our thanks for them.
So just spend some time – a few seconds, a minute or two, whatever, to say, “Thanks, Lord, that because of Jesus I can worship You – anywhere, in knowledge instead of ignorance, and the way You want to be worshiped – in spirit and in truth. I don’t worship something I don’t know – I worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because Jesus the Messiah made it possible. Thank you for that.”
We: Folks, we just spent the last number of weeks looking at mistakes Christians make that frustrate God and entertain the devil.
Minimizing the importance of worship and the fact that Christ makes it possible to worship God correctly would be a mistake of the same caliber as those we looked at over those weeks.
The fact that we can worship at all, and worship God the way He wants are tremendous benefits.
Psalm 103:2 –
Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--
Take some time this week to “forget not” the benefits of worship, okay? Let’s pray.
