INTRO: A divine rest stop for Jesus designed to be a divine appointment with a Samaritan woman.
I. Worship with a right heart (in spirit)
A) Relationship required
1) Samaritans didn’t know God
a) ritual not based on relationship
-- idol, dove, fire…
b) In words they professed God, but in actions they did not glorify God in their bodies.
c) Vance Havner “God places high value on holiness, reverence, and worship. . . He approves neither idol worship or idle worship but ideal worship in spirit and truth.
2) Samaritan woman came to know God through Jesus.
a) She moved idol, and idle worship to ideal
b) Worshipping the unknown to knowing the worshipped.
c) Matt 15.8 “This people honors Me with their lips But their heart is far from me.”
1) Not Lip service
2) Life service.
Anyone can say they serve and worship God.
It is another altogether to show it!
Not just a relationship, but an honest sincere relationship.
B) Sincerity Demanded
1) True worshipers Must John 4.24 Must dei /die/
--Necessity established by the counsel and decree of God
2) Psalm 15.1-2
“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on you holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts.”
Joshua 24.14 “Fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth.”
a) Sound, wholesome, unimpaired, innocent, having integrity
Winston Churchill, “Insincere praise is worse than no praise at all.”
John Lancaster Spalding, “A hypocrite never intends to be what he
pretends to be.”
3) Sincerity defined (ala Bro Bill)
a) “Sincerity is being truthful about you sin before God and man. Only God can open the door for you to truly worship.”
b) God seeks it
John 4.23
c) World seeks it
4) Sincerity demonstrated
No matter the situation:
You tithe (recognition God provides and is in control)
You attend Church (recognition of need of community of believers)
You pray
You study your Bible
Illustration: Sincere sports fans. (guys that take shirts off paint bellies and put little hogs on their heads are serious!!!!)
If you are truly sincere you will not have to shout who you know by you life it will show!!!
II. Worship with a right mind (in truth)
A) Jesus is the Truth
1) John 14.6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father but through me.
2) We enter into worship of the father by way of the Son.
B) Jesus is the focus of Worship
1) Every thing should come to us through the lens of Jesus Christ.
2) Everything should go out of us with the filter of Jesus Christ!
C) Jesus is the foundation of Worship
The rock and foundation
The cornerstone of worship
III. Worshippers with a right heart and mind sought by God.
A) When we worship in spirit and truth God will reveal wonderful things
1) John on the isle of Patmos in the revelation
a) Revelation 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.”
b) Jesus saved, Jesus saves, Jesus will save.
2) God will reveal to us as He did to John what He did, what he is doing, and what He will do.
3) God will reveal reality to us
a) amplified Bible.
b) reality
c) God is seeking true worshipers
d) He will not accept insincere, half-hearted worship
4) God wants to reveal to us what Vance Havner said
“The living faith of the dead had become the dead faith of the living.”
God wants us to worship in spirit, where we get life eternal, and truth Jesus who brought us life eternal.
Conclusion:
Do you have a relationship with God, are you sincere about your sin before Him and man?
God is seeking sincere relationships with those who would focus all of their lives on the work Jesus did on the cross.
Have you?
Will you?
