Worship in Spirit and in Truth

2024 Spring Branch

Worship in Spirit and Truth

John 4:1-30 (Read only 20-26)

The Lord is looking for His worshippers today.

I believe that every human being on the planet is created for worship. I believe that you are created to worship God and to enjoy Him forever.

If you are not a Christian: You will chase people and things. You will make idols. You will pursue whatever you think will make you happy, satisfied and or content. You are chasing satisfaction for your soul and your hearts are forever restless until your hearts rest in God.

Even as a Christian… you may try to do these things.

People will chase pastors or leaders. People will church hop and go from location to location… believing it is all about location, people, and different experiences.

(Story) The great preacher/orator Henry Ward Beecher took off a Sunday and a visiting preacher was there instead. When time for the message came, the visitor approached the pulpit and people began making their way to the doors… But not before the visitor spoke loudly:

“All who have come here today to worship Henry Ward Beecher… may now leave the sanctuary. All who have come to worship God, keep your seats!”

It’s not about people, or location…

This woman thinks it is all about location. This woman and the Samaritan people have had debates with Jews about the proper place of worship.

They will argue, “This is what pleases God….” “No, this is what pleases God…” Its got to be here, and done this way...

The woman wants to have a theological debate, but Jesus takes her mind to where she needs to be.

Now, keep this in mind: Jesus just read her mail. Jesus knows about the 5 husbands she has had, and He knows about the man she is shacking up with...

We want to talk about us, just as long as we don’t talk about our faults or sins. We want to talk about theology until our theology calls us to change our lives...

Jesus knows what goes behind close doors… He knows what you are doing, don’t try to hide it, and don’t change the subject… If Jesus points it out.

She may be wanting to change the subject, quick, “Sir I perceive that You are a prophet… lets’ have a theological conversation and get off of me and my baggage...”

Jesus get’s to it quick: It’s not about the location. That’s not the issue. I could say that it is about the location of your heart. But, its not about a temple or a mountain.

It is about worshipping in spirit and in truth.

Church family, it’s not about about the location. It’s not about temples or church buildings. Its not about denominations.

God is not concerned with the building that wraps around you.

God is looking at the worship/heart inside of you.

What is worship?

Worship is a state, or an attitude of your spirit or heart.

It is an internal and individual action. The external is not in view here. Jews and Samaritans focused on the external and did not give attention to the internal.

But this is exactly what Jesus give attention to.

Jesus spoke to the Jews, to Jewish leaders over and over about this. (You are white-washed tombs)

The nature of Christian worship is from the inside out and has two equally important parts. We must worship “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).

First, we must be born again. You cannot worship God without being first being Christian.

Without the Holy Spirit residing within us, we cannot respond to God in worship because we do not know Him. “No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11b).

The Holy Spirit within us is the one who energizes worship making us alive to the things of God and causing us to love and glorify Jesus.

God is Spirit. Your spirit must connect with God. But you cannot connect with God if you are separated from God by your sin.

Only those who are forgiven, made clean, made holy, by the work of Christ can enter into the presence of God. You must be made spiritually alive in order to please God and live by faith.

So, therefore, if you are worshipping anything or anyone without Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior… You are not worshipping the Living God.

You might be worshipping something else… but it isn’t God.

You will look at other religions, and we will say, “They are worshiping.” And rightly so… They may be worshipping something, demons, angels, false gods, etc., but they are not worshipping the True God of the Universe.

True worshippers are Christians. True worshippers have been saved. True worshippers have the Holy Spirit and love Jesus.

Second, worshiping in spirit requires a mind centered on God and renewed by Truth.

Romans 12:1-2 - Paul exhorts us to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

So, we come to faith in Christ. We are born again. And then we are to renew our minds in truth. The Word of God is truth. Jesus washed His disciples with His word, and His word is truth.

What does the Word do? The Word reveals God. The Word reveals His will, His ways, His character, His attributes, His plan, and His desire. The Word is pure and holy, a doubled edged sword that discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart, that cuts and heals… that will correct, rebuke, exhort and train you in righteousness.

If you do not know the Word of God, you cannot worship God as he desires to be worshipped.

What comes into our minds when we think about God? This is foundational. Our answer not only affects our worship but our living. Every failure in worship, in doctrine, or practice, can be traced back to wrong thoughts about God.[4]

Listen: Worship is not a mindless activity. Christianity is not a mindless lifestyle. It includes mental interaction with the truth about God. [5]

A right thought about God is going to take you somewhere and a wrong thought about you is going to take you somewhere.

A wrong conception of God is the root of idolatry. “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God …” (Romans 1:21). Instead they created images.

Idolatry begins with a wrong idea of who God is.[6]

Sunday’s have been called the greatest day of idolatry. Why? Because people gather to worship a God they do not know...

Until you know God… You will have wrong ideas about God. You will form images in your mind that do not depict God. You will not pray, praise, or sing what is right unless you know the truth about God...

“Summarize worship for us brother...”

John Piper summarizes His thoughts about worship in this way: “The inner essence of worship is to know God truly and then respond from the heart to that knowledge by valuing God, treasuring God, prizing God, enjoying God, being satisfied with God above all earthly things. And then that deep, restful, joyful satisfaction in God overflows in demonstrable acts of praise from the lips and demonstrable acts of love in serving others for the sake of Christ.”

We will live out what we have in. We will do what we do for God or not for God depending on what is going on inside of us.

We will work and honor God, do things for the glory of God, because we love God… Or we will work for self and others only. We will go throughout our day enjoying God, delighting in Who He is and what He has done, or we will just focus on ourselves. We will come to church, lay down our lives to serve Him and others, sing songs of praise and adoration… or we will come and go through the religious motions.

One of them is worship and the other is not.

God is looking for worshippers. God is looking for worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth. God is looking for hearts that scream for Him, live for Him, long for Him, enjoy Him, delight in Him, are satisfied by Him, that have joy in Him… God is looking for people who long for Him… Who will do all things for Him… Because they love Him.

This is what you were made for. Not cold dead religion. Not meaningless, vain, and repetitious activity.

You were made to worship.

“Christian worship is the most momentous, most urgent, most glorious action that can take place in human life” (Karl Barth). It is the highest function in which our souls can be involved. The very highest![1]

We are here today to worship. We are here today to serve God and to serve for God, to love God and to love for God, to give to God and to give for God, to teach and preach for God, and to lift our voices together by spirit and the truth that we have inside of us...

*But your 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 tithes and offerings, but we do not worship. And sometimes we do none of these things but are in deepest worship![8]

God seeks worshipers! Not just singers. Not just players. Not just performers. He seeks worshippers… Worshipers that know Him and love Him with all their soul, mind, and strength.

True Worshipers can and will worship all throughout the day, every day, 7 days a week… Not just on Sunday and not just in a Church building… It’s not about location! It is a lifestyle!

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God. Where from? First Baptist Jerusalem? No, in prison, and the other prisoners were listening to them” (v. 25). They held a gospel service in that Philippian jail!

Despite the difficult circumstances, there was worship in their spirits that bubbled into life!

Worship can happen anywhere if you are a Christian. Worship is our lifestyle… Not our music style.

“Wait brother, what about the music and singing? What about the playing? What about songs and instruments.”

What about them?

They are tools, the means, and they are gifts to be used. They are means, through which we can worship. Music, instruments, and singing have always been used to worship.

In the Bible: You can see God’s people using music when celebrating, mourning the deaths of loved ones, praising and worshiping God.

You have all kinds of instruments in the bible: pipes, horns, cymbals, drums, bells, trumpets, stringed instruments like the harp, lyre. Read Psalm 150 and it is like this, “Praise God with every instrument you have; praise Him everywhere, and everything that has breath must praise Him!

If you Read all the Psalms, you will see, “Praise Him with New songs; sing a new song, and so on…” People made up songs on the spot and the new songs became old songs. So, they sung old songs and new songs back then…

Then you get into Ephesians 5:19 – “Speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” These are the songs of the past and songs that are being created in the here and now, spiritual songs formed by the Holy Spirit working in and through the Christians during their modern time.

You mean you can actually worship through both? They did.

Did they sing them in spirit and in truth? Are the songs God glorifying? Are they truthful?

If the answer is “yes,” then, yes… Christian, the issue is never about styles. The issue is not about location. The issue is not about instruments...

The issue is this: Are you worshipping in spirit and in truth?

Years ago, song writer and worship leader Matt Redman was leading the music ministry in his church and the pastor at that time believed that the emphasis was too much on the music...

So, what does he do? He strips it all away down to bibles and voices… To do what? To get back to the Heart of Worship.

To get back to what God is looking for, not with what we are looking for. To get back to worshipping in spirit and in truth.

We can make worship something that it’s not very quickly.

I wonder what would happen if we took away every instrument, and we sang the psalms… What would happen? Would we worship? Could you worship?

When you leave the church, dear Christian… Do you continue to worship God throughout the week, expressing your love and adoration through all that you do? Do you only sing and give praises to God on church days?

May it never be! But if it is… You need to get back to the Heart of Worship. We must get back to what pleases God.

God is looking for worshippers today. God is looking at hearts today. God is looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth today.

Have we turned worship into the wrong thing?

Today is the day to get back to the Heart of Worship.

Sing the song.