The Way of Worship
We worship in Truth
We worship in Spirit
We worship by Choice
Slide 1
Intro
Thanksgiving is over, our bellies are full and now our attention begins to turn to Christmas.
And even in the church,
with so many things to do in preparation for
getting together with family,
exchanging gifts with one another,
preparing holiday meals,
shopping,
it is easy to lose our focus on the reason that we are doing all of these things,
the birth of the Savior and worshiping Him.
Going back to that very first Christmas, the wise men were looking for the newborn Babe so that they could worship Him.
That is the real reason that we need to keep our focus on, worshiping the babe in the manger.
In light of that, over these next 2 weeks we are going to be talking about worship. We will talk about the Way of Worship, by which I mean,
how is it we really worship the Lord in a way that pleases Him.
Next week we will talk about the Way of the Worshiper, talking about the various ways that we express our worship.
Undoubtedly, whenever many of us hear the word worship, we think about music. And while one of the ways we worship is through music,
music is only an expression the way of worship.
To find out the way of Worship, lets see what Jesus has to say in His word.
Turn with me to
John 4:19-24
Slide 2
Jesus has been traveling with the disciples through Samaria and they have come to a well. The disciples go into town to get some food while Jesus rests at the well.
Now in the middle of the day a Samaritan woman comes out to the well to get some water. Jesus asks for a drink and they get into a conversation about Jews and Samaritans.
Jesus tells the woman about her past with her many husbands and then the conversation continues as follows.
John 4:19-24
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."
The first thing that we learn about the Way of Worship is that,
We must worship in Spirit
Slide 3
John 4:23
What does it mean to worship in Spirit?
I believe what Jesus is saying is that true worship emanates
from within us,
from our spiritual self,
from the part of us that was created in the image of God.
Paul writes in
Romans 1:9
9 God, whom I serve (latraeu – serve or worship) with my whole heart (pneuma – spirit) in preaching the gospel of his Son,
We need to be like Paul and worship with our whole spirit, that inner part of us that is created in God’s image, which is made up of
our intellect,
our emotions, and
our will.
We worship God in all of those aspects.
So what does that mean?
That is where our worship needs to begin from.
True worship starts in our spirit and emanates out to our physical self.
There are many that were caught up with the form of worship, and not that that is unimportant.
Jesus talks about the place of worship to this Samaritan woman and says that the Jews have it right at that time. They had some of the outward forms of worship correct.
The problem was where they stemmed from.
They did not come from the spirit, from their heart.
They were only external forms of godliness and worship.
Jesus in speaking to the Pharisees and religious leaders of Israel said this about their worship.
Matthew 15:7-9
7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 "’These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’"
(from New International Version)
They had all the right moves on the outside, but none of it stemmed from a heart or spirit of worship.
Sure they knew,
What to say at the right time
When to wash so they were ceremonially clean
When to fast
When to pray
Putting that in today’s terms,
They knew when to raise their hands
They knew when to say amen.
They knew when to bow their heads.
They knew when to kneel.
They knew all the external moves to make that made it look like they were worshiping.
But Jesus says that if those don’t emanate from within,
they are simply rules taught by men and we worship in vain,
we are not worshiping in spirit, from the heart.
I want you to ask yourself,
“Where is your mind in doing the things you do?”
Is it on God or
is it on some other thing?
When you are singing praises to the Lord, are you
thinking of Him, or are you
thinking of where you are going to eat?
When we listen to the message, are we
thinking of how the Lord wants ME to respond to this, or are we
thinking of how someone else needs to hear this message?
When we are serving the Lord in our ministry, are we
thinking how this glorifies the Lord, or are we
thinking how come I have to do this or
I hope people know how much I give and sacrifice?
The Father is seeking those who worship Him in spirit, not as rules taught by men.
The Second thing we learn about the Way of Worship is that,
We Must Worship in Truth
Slide
John 4:23
The Father seeks those who worship in spirit and in truth.
What does it mean to worship in truth?
By this we are to worship in the way God’s word prescribes.
Jesus, when he was praying before his arrest asked the Father to Sanctify the disciples by Your truth. And then Jesus said “Your word is truth.” (John 17:17)
We need to worship in the way prescribed in the Word of God.
It is not enough to really be sincere in our worship, worshiping from our hearts, if it is worshiping something that is false.
This is where many people get tripped up. They believe that as long as you are sincere, God will honor that no matter what you believe.
That is not true.
We need to be sincere in our worship, and worship from our hearts, but we also need to worship in truth.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman that she was worshiping what she did not know. She was not worshiping in Truth,
They had some truth, but that is not how we worship God in truth. We need the whole truth.
And the whole truth is that God’s word has told us Who we are to worship.
Jesus when He was being tempted by Satan said in
Matthew 4:10
10 Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ’Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’"
We are to worship the Lord God only.
There were people in that day where the God of the Jews was one among many gods they worshiped.
That is not worshiping in truth.
There are people today where God is one among many that people worship.
That is not worshiping in truth.
Here are some of the things the Bible tells us about who to worship and what not to worship.
The Bible, God’s revealed truth tells us not to worship men
Acts 10:25-26
25 As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. 26 But Peter made him get up. "Stand up," he said, "I am only a man myself."
Tells us not to worship idols
Ex 20:4-5
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
(from New International Version)
Tells us not to worship angels
Revelation 22:8-9
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9 But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!"
(from New International Version)
To worship in truth, we must worship the Lord, God almighty, and Him alone, as is revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
Those who worship Allah, or Buddah, or claim a Jesus who in not God, are not worshiping in truth.
To worship in truth, you must worship the one true God as revealed in Scripture, God Almighty who showed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. That is worshiping in truth.
Worshiping
Money
Career
a statue, or
a dead person, or
even a dead saint, or
even the mother of Jesus,
is idol worship.
It is not true worship.
We worship the Lord God almighty and Him alone!
That is worshiping in truth.
Transition
So we see that the Way of Worship is to Worship
in Spirit, with our whole self, our whole heart and spirit; and
in Truth, worshiping the Lord God almighty and Him alone, as He is revealed in Scripture.
That is the Lord’s teaching to the Samaritan woman.
But we also see something else here, in the way of worship.
This Samaritan woman could have chosen to just leave and never return, or at least to not go back and talk to the other Samaritan’s from her town and have to dredge up her history and remind everyone of who she was, an adulterous woman who has had 5 husbands.
But instead she made a choice
to go and tell others and
to respond to what the Lord was doing in her life.
And that is the last thing we learn about the Way of Worship.
We Must Worship by Choice
Slide
In fact it is impossible to truly worship without choosing to do so.
It is like being forced to apologize.
You are not really sorry, but only saying it to make it look like you are seeking forgiveness.
In the same way you can’t be forced to worship. Sure you can be forced to give an appearance of worship, but you are not really worshipping because it is not sincere, from the heart, in Spirit.
Joshua
Joshua tells the Israelites this same thing, to make a choice in who they will worship.
In the Hebrew, there is a word, Abad (aw bad’) – which means to serve, but is also translated as worship.
It is an active form of worship, worship by serving and obeying.
This word is used by Moses when instructing Pharoah to let the Israelites go so they could (Exodus 7:16-10:7) “worship” the Lord
Exodus 7:16
16 Then say to him, ’The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship (aw bad’) me in the desert.
This same word is the one used by Joshua in Joshua 24:14-15
Let me read you what Joshua tells the people of Israel.
Joshua 24:14-15
14 "Now fear the LORD and serve [abad] him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped [abad] beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve [abad] the LORD. 15 But if serving [abad] the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve [abad], whether the gods your forefathers served [abad] beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve [abad] the LORD."
Joshua tells the people to Choose for yourselves this day whom you will worship.
Worshiping the Lord is a choice. And in fact, it is a choice that we have to make each day.
What is your choice?
Conclusion
So the type of worshipers that Father is looking for are those who Worship
In Spirit
In Truth
By Choice
Are you worshiping in spirit?
Is your outward physical worship emanating from within you?
Is your mind on the Lord when you are worshiping.
Are you worshiping in truth?
Do you worship the Lord God Almighty and Him alone?
Could someone else look at you and say something different about your worship?
They worship money or things or false idols?
Are you making the choice to worship the Lord God Almighty?
My challenge to you today is the same as Joshua’s.
Choose this day whom you will worship.
Will you choose to worship in spirit and in truth?
Will you choose to worship with
your spirit,
your heart,
the part of you that is the real you,
the part that is created in the image of God,
the part that makes up your
intellect, emotions and will,
your spiritual self?
Will you choose to worship the Lord
in truth,
fully devoting yourself to Him and nothing else,
or will you only give Him lip service?
Choose this day whom you will worship, and worship in spirit and in truth.
We are going to pray, and after we are going to end in a song “You are worthy of our Praise, but first, I want us to pray that the Lord would help us worship Him
in Spirit,
in truth, and
give us the strength to make that choice each and every day.
Let’s Pray.
Ending Song - “You are worthy of our Praise”
