They That Worship

“They that WORSHIP”

By

Bishop M.L. Maughmer, Jr.

SCRIPTURE:- John 4:24 “God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth”.

Opening:- This morning I want to look at this scripture and I am going to ask a question that each person needs to internalize and ask themselves “Am I truly worshipping God in spirit and in truth”.

We live in a time of change, technology, demands, and stresses that if we stop and look truthfully at it our worship of God has been reduced to and equated with a Sunday morning experience.

We place great emphasis on what transpires during the service. We say things like we had a good time, the spirit was high, and people shouted that hadn’t moved in a long time, the pastor didn’t even get to preach because we had that good of a time. All of that is good, but often times we focus more on program and activities than adoration of God.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BISHOP??????????

WATCH THIS:- church starts at 11:30 you have praise and worship for 20 minutes, offering, a solo, a dance, a poem reading, the choir, announcements, and then the preacher has to get up and not be longer than 20 minutes or else they will lose you and all of this has to be done before 1:00 because the game is coming on and you need to be at home to see it.

It is this mentality that has reduced our worship from in spirit and in truth to an hour and half in a building on Sunday morning.

So many times we can sing songs of praise with enthusiasm, but never once really think about the words. We can hear the word of God coming from the man or woman of God but have our minds actively engaged in thoughts about work, finances, family, food, or even sexual activities. We try to push these thoughts out and worship God, but find that at the core of our life we truly worship career successes, performance, productivity, wealth, adventure, and everything else that brings pleasure to our lives, instead of us being pleasing unto Him.

John 4:24 “God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth”.

TO UNDERSTAND THIS:- Let’s look at the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle represents the Body – the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:19 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own”.

WATCH THIS:- The Tabernacle was a movable structure where God dwelt among His people, the Temple was a permanent structure, your body is the permanent structure now.

There were three different compartments in the Tabernacle. 3 represents fullness. Past, Present, Future – Outer Court, Inner Court, Holy of Holies - Body, Soul, Spirit, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Thanksgiving, Praise, Worship.

When people want to have an experience of God come with a thanks offering and offer it in the outer court and expect God to bless them Micah 6:6. This is what we do on Sunday Morning. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving….. Sadly many people are satisfied with just an outer court level.

Outer Court – Body - UNDERSTAND:- The offering in itself was not as important as the attitude of heart with which they bring the offering. Some brought turtle doves, some brought lambs, and some brought bullocks. The attitude of heart that God expects the worshipers of Him is to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God Micah 6:8. It doesn’t matter if we sing from a screen or from hymns the attitude by which we do it is important. Outer Court or Body Service = Thanksgiving.

THANKSGIVING:- is our attitude of gratitude that we express towards our God, for all the things that He has done for us. He woke you up this morning – Thank You, put food on the table – Thank You, cloths on your back – Thank You your attitude of gratitude for the things he has done for you. Thanksgiving is like a offering we do when God blesses us either with an answer to our prayer or has given a promise to answer us in the future Psa50:14; Phil 4:6.

Our body is presented as an outer court thanksgiving living sacrifice and a reasonable service of our priesthood before the Lord Romans 12:1.

WATCH THIS:- in the outer court was the Burnt Altar and the Brazen Laver, there was sacrifice and baptism if you will. A lot of church folk are stuck here, they bring sacrifice of praise, the fruit of their lips and are even baptized and settle for this. There is more.