HAVE YOU MET GOD?
John 4:21-24
S: Worship
Th: My Life as God’s Light
Pr: GOD DESIRES TRUE DEVOTION.
?: How? How is it done?
KW: Ways.
TS: Since God desires true devotion, we will find in John 4:24, two ways that it is accomplished.
The _____ way true devotion is accomplished is…
I. SPIRITUALLY
II. TRUTHFULLY
RMBC 7/01/01 AM
INTRODUCTION:
1. Have you ever felt ripped off?
ILL Notebook: Worth (money’s worth)
There was a 70 year old woman who had to call a furnace repairman. After a quick inspection the man put some oil into the motor and handed her a $70 bill for labor. "Labor charges!" she exclaimed. "It only took you five minutes." The repairman explained that his company had a minimum one-hour charge on every house call. "Well, I want my remaining 55 minutes of labor," the lady responded, and she handed him a rake. The repairman spent the next 55 minutes in her yard bagging leaves.
Well, this woman made sure she wasn’t ripped off, didn’t she?
Nobody likes to be cheated.
But…
2. I wonder if God has ever felt cheated by our worship.
I wonder if God has ever looked into our gathering and been disappointed.
I wonder if God has watched our worship of Him and been dissatisfied.
ILL Notebook: Worship (jewelry store)
John Bisagno, pastor of Houston’s First Baptist Church tells the story of his coming there to candidate for the position of pastor many years ago. He said that as he entered the auditorium it was dimly lit, with just a few people huddled together. They were singing some old slow funeral type song that was depressing. Later that day he took a walk in downtown Houston and came upon a jewelry store. It was some sort of grand opening and there were bright lights and a greeter at the door to welcome you in with a smile. Inside there was a celebration going on. There were refreshments and people having a good time talking and laughing with each other. They welcomed him and offered him some punch. He said that after attending both the church and the jewelry store, if the jewelry store had offered an invitation, he would have joined the jewelry store!
It is true.
We can be dull in church.
It can be seen as lifeless.
It can be uninviting.
Even to God…
TRANSITION:
You know…
1. The psalms tell us a lot about worship (Psalm 100).
A couple of Sundays ago, our Pre-K Bible School department gave us instructions on how to worship when they quoted Psalm 100.
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
Come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
And his courts with praise;
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
That is a call to enthusiastic worship.
It is also a call to center our worship on God and His blessing.
But, you know…
2. We live in a culture that worships happiness.
We often bring that culture into this very room.
We want to come here and be made to feel good, perhaps even entertained.
We end up viewing God as Santa Claus, giving us what we want.
So when I am happy, God is happy.
This view too often bleeds into our services.
We say, “I didn’t get anything out of the service today.”
Have you ever caught yourself saying that?
Most of us have, I am sure.
But interestingly, it does beg the question of just what did we put into the service of worship?
This one thing is for sure…
3. GOD DESIRES TRUE DEVOTION.
He desires authentic worship.
He wants us to get worship right.
He wants us doing it because we want to do it.
But how is it done?
In the original language, the word worship means to bend down, to kiss or to prostrate oneself.
It is an act of humility.
It is a display and expression of honor and respect.
So…
4. Since God desires true devotion, we will find in John 4:24, two ways that it is accomplished.
Note our text today…
(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."
Interestingly…
5. The fact that the Father seeks true worshippers means that few do it.
But how much He desires to meet us!
He desires it.
But it is more than being in a right place as the Samaritan woman had hoped.
Jesus says it is not the place.
It is something more.
For…
OUR STUDY:
I. The first way true devotion is accomplished is SPIRITUALLY.
1. Worship is to engage the whole person (Mark 12:30).
Jesus quotes the Old Testament when He says…
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
We are to demonstrate a genuine love in our worship.
We worship Him because we love Him.
And we are to do this worship with all that we are—heart, soul, mind and strength.
It is the whole person.
You see, we got your body here, but that is not enough.
If you think that the fact that you are here is enough, you are missing something.
Because worship is a matter of heart…it goes on in our inside.
And…
2. Worship is, by nature, supernatural.
Isn’t that an interesting perspective?
God is, in essence, spirit.
He is independent and present everywhere, and so, our worship must essentially be spiritual in kind.
So in turn, we worship with our spirit as we are led by the Holy Spirit.
What we do here today is characterized by the supernatural.
It happens inside and outside the realms of our natural world.
We communicate with the greatest power of the universe.
Now…that is awesome!
ILL Notebook: Motivation (frog)
A frog was caught in a deep rut on a muddy road, so the fable goes. In spite of the help of his friends, he couldn’t get out. They finally left him there in despair. The next day one of his friends saw him hopping about outside the rut as chipper as could be. "What are you doing here? I thought you couldn’t get out" said the friend. "I couldn’t," the frog replied, "but when I saw a big truck coming down the road, I was powerfully motivated to get out.”
Do we have that kind of motivation in our worship.
You see…
3. Worship is to be passionate.
We easily get caught up in the external.
We can be caught up in the mere mechanics of worship.
But when we do so, we miss the spirit of worship.
For worship is to be full of passion.
Worship is to be the full of expression of our hearts.
It has always struck me as funny how we change when we come to church services.
In church, we are all solemn and grave.
But take us to a social gathering like an office party, birthday party, block party, or ball game, and we suddenly become excited and enthusiastic, and in the case of a sports event, raving lunatics.
We are emotional people and emotions are good.
In church, I believe we should be free to be enthusiastic in our praise to God.
We certainly should be joyful and happy.
There is much to be excited about.
But let’s admit, there is a danger in all of this.
We Baptists don’t often get caught up in this, but there are dangers of emotionalism.
We can overemphasize inward feelings.
We can look to experience the right sensations and feel happy and fulfilled.
But we need to be reminded that our feelings are legitimate only if they are based on accurate information.
This brings us appropriately to…
II. The second way true devotion is accomplished is TRUTHFULLY.
ILL Knowledge: umbrella
Life in a small town has its rewards, but anonymity is not one of them as Phyllis Boggess of Shinnston, WV discovered. One rainy evening, they had a dinner guest who was quite well-known in the community. During his visit he received a call. Surprised, he took the phone and asked how the caller had been able to find him at their home. The man on the other end of the line replied, "We saw your umbrella on the front porch."
Well, there are apparently no secrets in that town.
In the same way…
1. Worship requires knowledge of God.
For how can you fall down, surrender yourself, and pay homage to a God that you have no knowledge of?
God wants us to know Him.
He wants to be intimately involved in this relationship.
He doesn’t want worship that is based on our own subjectivity and imagination.
He does not want worship that is based on our opinions and feelings.
He wants worship that is based on the truth of who He is.
And I believe this as well…that a mind committed to knowing God will become a mind into which God will pour His wisdom and His knowledge.
But this is not all…
2. Worship demands the truth about Jesus (4:25-26).
The story of the Samaritan woman moves on…
(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."
With simple, but profound dignity, Jesus discloses the truth of His Person.
He says literally, “I that speak to you, I am.”
In one simple statement He says yes to being the Messiah and yes to being God.
This was something He would not do again until His trial.
He never even told another Jew outside of His disciples that He was the Messiah, but He did tell a Samaritan woman when they were discussing worship.
You see, for the worship to be right, we must be right about Jesus.
We can’t be wring here, for…
3. Worship recognizes that wrong thinking is idolatry.
We are worshipping something else, and it is sin.
We cannot dodge the issue of sin here.
For we cannot worship truthfully and be living a lifestyle of lies.
It is inconsistent.
We worship a lie.
We worship an idol.
Either externally or internally, we worship an idol.
But let’s be careful about all of this as well.
We can be centered so much on the truth, that we miss the heart of worship.
We can do everything right and go through all the rituals and mechanics, and still miss.
We can emphasize an outward obedience and do the right thing and miss because our spirit is not there.
Our deeds are only acceptable if they come from a loving heart.
In a moment, we are coming to the communion table.
It is a time of worship for us as we gather together.
It is a time to worship in spirit and truth.
It is a time to recognize the truth about Jesus.
It is a time for our hearts and spirits to listen to the Holy Spirit and remember the greatness of His sacrifice.
Let us sing together “I Will Glory in the Cross.”
COMMUNION:
Scripture Reading: I Corinthians 11:23-29
Now is a time to glory in the cross!
We are here because of Jesus.
We are here for Jesus’ sake.
We come to glory.
We come to worship.
We come to honor a holy and righteous God who sent His Son on our behalf.
So, we come to this table because we are testifying of the truth of who Jesus is.
We come to this table because we are testifying that the Spirit of God leads us to this place.
We worship in spirit and truth.
This is what we have in common today.
Those of us that know Jesus are invited to share in the elements of the table.
If you do not have a relationship with Jesus today, we ask that you let the elements pass you by and that you wait until the time comes when you do have that relationship.
We practice “communion” because we are to remember the death of the Lord Jesus.
We take the bread to remind us that it was by the body of our Savior that our salvation came.
He died in our place.
He became our substitute.
We take the cup to remind us that it was by the blood of our Savior that our salvation came.
He died for our sins.
He became our sacrifice.
Come to this sacred table, not because you must, but because you may;
Come not to testify to your righteousness, but that you sincerely love our Lord Jesus Christ and desire to be His true disciple;
Come not because your goodness gives you a right to come, but because in your frailty and sin you stand in need of heaven’s mercy and help;
Come because you love the Lord a little and want to love Him more;
Come because He loved you and gave Himself for you;
Lift up your hearts, above your cares and fears;
Let this bread and juice be a sign of God’s grace to you and a pledge of your love to the Lord Christ;
Receive the love of God and consecrate your life afresh to Christian obedience and service, to discover and do the will of God in humble faith.
Being led in prayer by ______________________ let us take a moment and thank Him for being our sacrifice.
(Prayer)
The apostle Paul writes, "The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."
Let’s partake together.
___________________ will now come and lead us in prayer.
Again, the apostle Paul writes, "In the same way, after supper he took the cup saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
Let’s partake together.
“I Will Glory in the Cross” [change to we and our]
APPLICATION:
1. Remember…worship is not optional!
What we do here today is not meant to be optional.
We need worship.
But recognize…that it is a choice that we make.
We have a choice to prepare adequately before we come—to be well rested.
We have a choice to pray earnestly.
We have a choice to sing joyfully.
We have a choice to listen more intently.
Yes, worship is a private matter, but that is not all.
2. Worship is a private matter that expresses itself publicly (Psalm 122:1).
The psalmist says…
I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD."
Worship is not meant to be cold and formal, but rather warm and free.
Again, we need it.
It is like a filling station.
We get refueled, so we can keep the engine going.
It is like a huddle in a football game.
We get reorganized so everyone knows how they are going to work together.
But most importantly…
3. Worship changes us (Isaiah 6:1-8).
Note the testimony of Isaiah:
(1) In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. (2) Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. (3) And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."
(4) At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. (5) "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." (6) Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. (7) With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." (8) Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
God wants to change us to make us better.
For He helps us overcome our tendencies to rely on our own insights.
He gives us much needed perspective on His holiness and our total inadequacy.
But graciously, He cleanses us.
He gives us insight into His will.
He helps us get our priorities right.
And He opens up the opportunity to respond and obey.
God desires your true devotion today.
Is it something you can give?
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Be truly devoted—worship your Holy God today---He is the Lord God Almighty and is worth every effort of your worship;
Be truly devoted—worship the Lord spiritually—love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength;
Be truly devoted—worship the Lord truthfully; rejoice that God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
