The Non-Negotiables of Authentic Worship

I want to begin this morning by asking a series of questions to prime the pump of our thinking…(hopefully y’all know what priming the pump means…if not, you can google it)

I’m not going to ask anyone to raise your hand if this is true of you…but I think it would do you well to be honest with yourself and with God...

Why did you come to Open Door Bible Church this morning?

Whether you articulate it or not, every time you walk in those doors, you expect to get something...What are you expecting?

What is your typical response if your expectations are not met?

Why today?

Share stats of attendance…these numbers reflect the total of individuals we ministered to that day…includes all the children....

1st Sunday — 143

2nd Sunday — 116 (difference of 27 people)

3rd Sunday — 133 (difference of 10 people)

Typical pattern here is the first Sunday of the month is more well attended than the rest of the month…why?

What was your reasoning for coming this Sunday and not other Sundays?

When the musicians play and the vocalists sing, and the sermon is preached, do you see those as an end in themselves?

In other words, do you see them as integral parts of the whole of corporate worship or could you truly worship if we decided to eliminate one of them?

Which one would you eliminate?

Music or preaching...

In some churches, the view of music is that it is too corrupted by secular culture, so they eliminate music in the church completely

During the Reformation, there were “worship wars” over the concept of should congregations sing? That is why you see great hymns written by Martin Luther…because he believed God’s people should sing...

In some churches, music is often the dominant wheel of what happens in corporate gatherings that if there is no sermon, or teaching from the Scripture, they are okay with that.

Do you INTENTIONALLY prepare your heart for worship?

When you’re getting dressed, and getting in your car, and proceeding here on Sunday, is your heart eager to worship God?

Hopefully now I haven’t ticked you off, but the pump is primed and we are ready to hear God speak to us about this much needed understanding of authentic worship, we find ourselves in a very important text regarding worship…John 4.

The word worship appears in one form or another 10x in this passage…so it is essential we understand this text.

A little bit of background of John 4 is that this is the wonderful story about Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well...

We read a very interesting statement in John 4:4 “And He had to pass through Samaria.”

Geography lesson: From chapter 3 we see Jesus is in Judea and in chapter 4 John tells us he is going to Galilee.

Judea is in the southern region of Israel…Galilee is in the North…Med. Sea is to the west, Jordan river is to the east...wedged in between these two regions, is Samaria.

The shortest distance between two points is what?…a straight line…so it would make perfect sense that to get from point A…Judea…to point B…Galilee, you make a straight line which goes through Samaria.

However, in Jesus’ day, the Jewish hatred of the Samaritans forced them to go east across the Jordan river, then go North, around Samaria, and then go West again towards Galilee…

Jesus chooses the route directly to and through Samaria intentionally because the gospel needed to get to Samaria…his journey brings him to the city of Sychar near a plot of land that Jacob gave to Joseph in Genesis 48:21-22 where a well was dug.

Jesus strikes up a conversation with a “stranger”, and in that culture, a social outcast…women did not come to the well alone unless they were social outcasts…Jewish men did not speak conversationally with women like this…she is a despised half-breed...and she is amazed…

John 4:9 “Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)”

Samaritans were the offspring of the Israelites intermarriage with Gentiles during the captivity of Israel under Assyria.

The Jewish desire for a pure and loyal people of God, particularly after the return from the Babylonian exile, led Ezra to develop a segregation policy that excluded Samaritans and others of mixed backgrounds from worship. (Ezra 9–10).

The Samaritans, in response to their rejection developed counter restrictive policies and set up their own worship system…they only accepted the five books of Moses known as the Pentateuch and promoted a competing temple cult on Mount Gerizim (where Abraham offered Isaac)…which could be seen from this well.

Jesus went here intentionally to make a very important point about the universality of the gospel message, Jesus tells this social, ethnical, political, religious outcast about salvation...Jesus looked beyond all that and saw an individual person who needed to hear about the Living water...

let’s pick up the story at verse 17..READ John 4:17-24...

this woman’s question provided the context through which our Lord gave us some very important truths about Worship.

Many have looked at this point of the text and think this Samaritan woman is changing the subject to avoid talking about her sinful lifestyle...

That is possibly a reason for her question, but I also think that as she perceives him to be a prophet (which Samaritans were reluctant to do since Moses) and one who knows the truth, she is nearing the point of salvation, but the cultural atmosphere of her day created a quandary for her… she wants to worship…but where and how...

This is a quandary by the way that still exists today....There is an epidemic of confusion, not only about where one should worship, but how.

So in answering her question, Jesus provides insight into the “non-negotiables” of authentic worship.

Jesus views the matter of worship as of the utmost importance...

Main Point: Authentic Worship Only Occurs When It’s Done God’s Way!

4 elements…non-negotiable(s)…of authentic worship

How can we ensure our worship is authentic?

Remove All Man-made Presuppositions About Worship (21-23)

A presupposition is a belief, a pattern of thinking that we develop over time regarding certain topics and issues...

Everywhere you go you will encounter someone with presuppositions about practically everything…it is how they interpret what they see and experience.

The Samaritan woman reveals her presuppositions about worship...The Jews had theirs as well.

We have them too...we could go around the room and ask what do you think authentic worship looks like…how will you know if you have experienced it…

growing up, I heard “you can’t have drums in worship, because truly godly music doesn’t have a beat” (if you know ANYTHING about music, ALL MUSIC has a BEAT)

In certain parts of our country, there are churches that use no instruments at all, some who play secular AC/DC songs as their first selection on Sunday mornings, snake handling, jumping up and down in place, barking like dogs, casting out demons, conducting healing services, and the list goes on…all in the name of “Authentic worship”…

Let’s take a look at some modern day presuppositions this text demolishes.

Jesus broke every external barrier to unite all genuine worshippers into one body.

We cannot overlook the fact that Jesus, a Jewish man, broke all the social norms to talk to a despised non-Jewish woman!…look at what Jesus says...

John 4:21–23 “Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”

an hour is coming and now is…speaking of his death and resurrection, Jesus’ point is that He is inaugurating a new form of worship…where authentic worshipers will be identified, not by a particular shrine or location, but by their unified worship of the Father through Him...

Ethnicity doesn’t matter…Jews and Gentiles alike are united together in Christ...

Gender doesn’t matter....male and female are united together in Christ.

Socio-economic identity doesn’t matter…poor or rich, slave or free

Denominational preferences do not matter

(side note: denominations existed in the New Testament…Paul dealt with them in the church of Corinth…some who followed Apollo, some followed Peter, etc…those are preference choices…which is what a denomination is…you prefer to follow the teaching and practices of this group over that group for whatever reasons)…

It doesn’t matter if you are a member of the 1st Presbyterian Bapticostal Methodist Holy Roller Snake Handlers Cowboy Church

…the truth is, in EVERY DENOMINATION, and in every church, you will find a mixture of both authentic and non-authentic worshippers.

Jesus demolishes all man-made EXTERNALS regarding worship.

Mission Trip to Navajo in Arizona…the worship was in the Navajo language, they prayed in Navajo, they sang in Navajo, the pastor preached in Navajo...

The place of worship is not important.

True worshipers are all those everywhere who worship God through the Son, from the heart...Philippians 3:3 “for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,”

Gone are the days when worship required a trip to the temple or holy sights…how that applies today is that there is no one church that has it all together…that is the only place one can worship…

Worship is not about what you get, it is about what you give.

Worship, simply put, it is honor paid to a superior being.

It means to give homage, honor, reverence, respect, adoration, praise, glory to a superior being.

In the Scripture worship is used indiscriminately;

it’s used of people who gave that kind of homage to idols, to emperors and kings, as well as to the true God.

So the word in itself is not a holy word as such, it only describes honor given to a superior being.

Everyone worships…even the atheist worships his own ideologies and himself...

The common New Testament word is the word used here which means to kiss toward and it came from that ancient custom of kissing the hand of a superior

It also is used to convey the idea of bowing down, or prostrating oneself with a sense of respect, reverence, awe, and honor.

In a Christian context we simply apply that to God.

We bow in respect and honor before God, paying Him the glory due His superior character…Kiss the Son

Essentially then, worship is giving.

It is giving honor and respect to God and that is why we gather here.

So everything that happens here on Sunday morning is designed to be a catalyst that stimulates the desire in our hearts to give honor God.

When you enter those doors on Sunday morning, you ought to enter with a desire to give, not get.

Worship is a consuming desire to give to God.

And it first begins with the giving of ourselves, and then of our heart attitudes, and then of our possessions.

Sad truth is that I’m afraid that most people come/go to church for what they can get.

There are some people, you know, who church hop...and see who’s playing where on a given Sunday and go for what they think will appeal and benefit them.

Or when they are disappointed with the music, or sermons they conclude “That service didn’t do anything for me, that sermon was really flat today, I just can’t worship there anymore…they made worship about getting, not giving.

We’re here to honor God and that’s giving, not getting....when we give, we often receive don’t we....so if you’re here to get, you’ve missed the point of worship.

Worship is not about how it makes you feel.

John 4:22 ““You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”

Jesus is emphasizing the object of worship is to be the God of the Bible…nothing and no one else

The Samaritans had rejected the rest of Scripture and did not have the full picture of God…they worshipped a god of their own making…although their object was God, it was an incomplete view of God…it was wrong.

The Jews worshipped the God of the Bible…to some degree they had it right because salvation was from them…in other Words, they had the truth about redemption and God…and the fact that Jesus is Jewish...

The object of your worship is of utmost importance...

…so many people in our time make worship about how it makes them feel at the moment.

Expecting an emotional experience in worship often becomes the driving force behind what they do in worship…looking for the “good feeling”, the “closer to God feeling” then becomes the object.

...how you know that is the object is by gauging your response when it doesn’t happen.

If your expectation of worship rises or falls based upon the feelings you have at that moment then, you’ve replaced God as your object!

There are perhaps many more presuppositions people have regarding worship that we do not have the time to address here this morning…so let me challenge you to truly think about worship and ask yourself “What thoughts do I have regarding worship and are they biblical?

Engage in Worship with Your Whole Heart (23-24)

John 4:23–24 ““But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.””

Authentic worship begins internally

The Greek is quite clear here.

It does not say “the Spirit” but “in spirit.”

In other words, Jesus is not talking about worshiping in the Holy Spirit.

He is talking about worshiping in the spiritual realm with the fullness of every part of your spirit in contrast to going through the motions of external rituals.

That means any external acts of worship are worthless without the whole heart fully engaged in those externals…it is worship at the very depth of our inner being—in spirit.

Outward performance may or may not be worship.

As Spurgeon said, “God does not regard our voices, he hears our hearts, and if our hearts do not sing we have not sung at all.”

Sometimes we sing but do not worship.

Sometimes we pray with our lips, but worship does not take place.

Sometimes we give, but we do not worship.

And sometimes we do none of these things but are in the deepest worship!

Outward circumstances cannot determine the authenticity of our worship.

In other words, you could kneel in the most beautiful of cathedrals, listen to the most concise Biblical message, and get lost in the refrains of music sung by Mercy Me and still not be truly worshiping.

This is not to say that externals are not helpful.

Notice what Jesus says in Matthew 15:6-8

Matthew 15:6–8 (NASB95)

...And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.

Do you see the danger…we just sang songs honoring God with our mouths..but it is possible to still have a heart that is far from him.

Worship is not about the songs we sing, it’s not the routines we go through, it’s not the seats we sit in, what makes corporate worship worship is what comes out of our heart.

It is possible for us to be gathered in this place and faking it!

Worship transcends externals.

Any external expressions of worship are to reflect what is happening internally…we want to have hearts that are turning to Him

That doesn’t mean that every Sunday you’ve got to have this red-hot zeal, this passion that explodes out of you…we’ve all been there...

The week was just so hard, your heart just struggles to worship but you come anyway because you know God is still there walking with you.

There are times when we gather together that our passion and zeal is not as hot as we would like it to be...

It is okay to come to worship burdened with a heavy heart and then lay them down at the throne of God…He can handle all of them.

It’s okay to say God I’m out of it, but bring me back…increase my desire for you...

It’s okay to say God I’m confused, but I turn to you and your wisdom and sovereignty in my life.

Although we don’t focus on the external expressions of worship, it is only natural that if our heart is fully engaged, the rest of who we are will find ways to express what is happening internally.

Engage in Worship According to Truth (23-24)

John 4:23–24 ““But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.””

We need to be people of the Word

“Truth” means that we are to worship what is true about God.

In other words, worshiping “in truth” occurs when we worship in accordance with what God has revealed about himself…how has God specifically revealed Himself…in the Scripture.

We must be people of the Word, because the clearest revelation of God that we have is in his Word.

John 17:17 ““Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

We don’t have the right to determine who God is…that’s why theology matters!

you have the responsibility to measure the teaching and practices of the church you frequent with the revealed truth of Scripture.

Is God’s Word the final authority of all matters of faith and practice or something else?

That is why we spend a significant amount of time in study and application of the Scripture.

We need to make sure our view of God aligns with what He revealed about Himself...Every failure in worship, or in doctrine or practice, can be traced back to wrong thoughts about God.

Wrong thoughts about God were the source of Cain’s failure to worship God as he should.

Somehow Cain supposed God to be other than what he is, and he brought a sacrifice (an act of worship) to fit his misconception.

We don’t know Cain’s thoughts and attitudes directly, but in his own understanding, Cain distorted the truth about God and what was acceptable worship.

Wrong thinking about God is in fact idolatry because an idolatrous heart assumes God is other than he is.

Just because we do not bow down to physical images doesn’t mean we are free from idolatry.

Romans 1:21 (NASB95)

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Some see him only as a cosmic force.

When we conceive of God in this way, we will worship him with an icy reverence.

On the other hand, some conceive of God as a “God Pal.”

Everything in religious life is essentially centered on me and what God can do for me.

God becomes a kind of cosmic slot machine, but instead of inserting quarters we put in Scripture verses to get what we want from him.

This is by far the most popular concept of God today—the God who gives me whatever I want, the God who is my buddy.

We’ve lost the awe and reverence of God he deserves when we bring him down to our level of understanding of friendships.

Make sure your view of God is informed by Scripture.

We need to be people who think biblically.

Worship is not a mindless activity…

It includes mental interaction with the truth about God.

It is having our mind renewed by the gospel…Ephesians 4:23 “and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,”

Jesus calls us to love him with what?...all our mind…Matthew 22:37 “And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”

Romans 12:1–2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Romans 8:5–7 “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,”

Authentic worship requires both…it is not spirit or truth…it is spirit and truth.

Worship without truth is dangerous because then we are held captive by our emotions.

Our view of worship is relegated to how we felt that day.

We begin to accept all forms of worship based on what we want instead of what God desires.

Worship without spirit is equally dangerous because it makes our heart cold and indifferent to the reality of God’s worth and work in our lives.

Without a heart that is turning to Christ we fight against living the way God desires.

Make Christ-Centered Worship A Priority.

John 4:23 ““But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”

This is NOT in the sense that people have MADE THEMSELVES worshippers worthy of God and He is searching for them...

It is in the sense that GOD keeps on INTENSELY YEARNING for HIS PEOPLE so HE CAN MAKE THEM THIS WAY!…and without Jesus Christ in our life, we cannot be the worshippers God desires.

IT is God taking the initiative to develop His people into individuals who WANT to worship Him…WANT to glorify Him…WANT to give others the right opinion of Him

We’re talking about the authentic worship that takes place in the rough and tumble of everyday life because no matter the circumstances, your life is found in Christ alone.

So you look for opportunities in your heart, and your mind, and your words, and your deeds...to demonstrate to God and others how worthy you view Him to be.

The central reality in worship is God seeks us…we don’t seek Him as we ought…so that means we must be intentional about our worship.

Zephaniah 3:17 ““The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.”

God makes us a priority…should we not pursue Him with that same passion?

Lesson for Life: There is nothing more important than what you think about God and how you worship Him.

John will go on to tell us that this woman eventually believed and many more Samaritans believed because of her testimony.

So you need to receive him just as that woman did, in the revelation of the truth of what he is—the God who holds the universe together, the God who became man and died and rose again for you.

You need to be born anew. When that happens you will be able to worship “in spirit and in truth.”

Believer, what about you?

Is your worship lacking truth, lacking spirit, or both?

What steps do you need to take today to be the kind of worshipper God desires?

He wants to be worshiped “in spirit and in truth.”