The HEART of Worship

Intro

May 20th - Dwelling Place - All are welcome.

Show me a youth group that’s serious about their faith and worshipping God with sincerity and I’ll show you where revival is happening.

If you’ve got your Bibles tonight, and I hope you do, turn with me to John chapter four verse 19. While you’re turning I’ll catch you up to speed on where we are at in the text tonight. Jesus had been travelling and came across a well where he sat down for a rest. Then a Samaritan woman came along. Now, we could get into the fact that there were several cultural boundaries that Jesus crossed by initiating this conversation, but that’ll have to be included in another sermon. Essentially Jesus presents her with the Gospel and tells her He is the long awaited Messiah, but during this conversation some cultural differences concerning worship come to light. And that’s where we will pick up in verse 19, so if you would stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word, that’s where we will jump in.

TEXT

John 4:19-24

John 4:19–24 CSB

“Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”

PRAY

Illustrate

Have you ever had a moment where you realized that the “how” part of something getting done didn’t matter so much, only that it NEEDED to be done?

I remember working at Chick-Fil-A back in my North Carolina days and being in charge of the drive through. Now for those of you who don’t know or maybe you’ve never worked fast food, the drive thru at my store on a normal day brought in over 80% of our sales. Now during the middle of COVID (which seemed to last for like 2 years in North Carolina but I think only lasted like a week here..) we had closed our dining room. This meant that now 100% of our sales depended on how quick we could get cars through. We had competitions daily and regularly would get over 200 cars through in less than an hour. But it wasn’t always like that.

When I was first placed in charge of the drive thru we rarely hit 160 cars in an hour, let alone 200. I had to come up with some ideas for how we could do better.

I remember having a conversation with one of my bosses where I began to explain one idea I had to get more orders in faster. His reply? “Kent, it’s the middle of our busiest hour. I don’t care how you do it. Quit talking to me and make it happen!” So I did!

I’m afraid we tend to have a lot of these conversations in our own circles of what worship ought to look like or how we should worship, when in reality, the “how” doesn’t matter near as much as long as we focus on the two areas mentioned here by Jesus: Spirit and Truth.

1. Spirit

What does it mean to worship in Spirit? When we give our lives to Christ, we become born again of the Spirit. It is aligned with this Spirit that we are called to lay aside our flesh and as one theologian put it “participate in the revelation of divine reality.” What on earth does that mean Pastor Kent?

- Divine reality says God is good when life seems like it’s falling apart.

- Divine reality says that our end is Heaven when all we can see is chaos.

- Divine reality says that for those who call on Christ for salvation, ultimate healing will always come, even if it doesn’t take place during our time on this earth.

When we are miserable and nothing seems to go our way, divine reality says “Better Is One Day in Your Courts than THOUSANDS Elsewhere”

When the doctor comes in and gives the news that we feared most, divine reality says “There’s NOTHING That Our God Can’t Do”

When we can’t seem to shake a feeling of guilt or shame, divine reality says “Amazing Grace How Sweet The Sound”.

AND When we feel like we are too far gone for salvation, divine reality says “The Cross Has the Final Word.”

- Divine reality says that no matter what is going on around us, the tomb is EMPTY and we serve a King who is “Mighty to Save”.

But there is also a warning here left unspoken. Matt Chandler likes to point out that when we see warnings in Scripture, they are often followed by an invitation to a better way. Here, the warning is kind of left unsaid, but nonetheless remains, and that warning is this: worship cannot take place in the flesh. There is no room for selfishness in worship. This means when we approach worship with an attitude of “what can I get out of this today?” we are COMPLETELY missing the entire point of worship.

When we look to the invitation to enjoy all of the wonderful attributes of our Heavenly Father in Worship through a focus on divine reality, we experience a freedom and an admiration for our Creator that worship was intended to fulfill.

So we must worship in Spirit, but we also must worship in Truth.

2. Truth

How do we worship in truth? We have to understand who it is we are worshipping.

I was born in 1997 in North Carolina. Whether or not I was going to be a NASCAR fan was decided for me geographically. However I did get to make one choice - who to pull for! I chose a winner and instantly became a diehard Jeff Gordon fan! As a Jeff Gordon fan I’ve learned all about his team owner, Rick Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports. I got to meet Jeff Gordon at a race in 2005, I’ve visited the HMS shop where they prepare all of the race cars multiple times.

For reference, here is a picture of me nearly 20 years ago at my very first NASCAR race in October of 2004 wearing my Jeff Gordon gear.

And here is a picture of Wesley and I in front of one of Jeff Gordon’s cars this past February at the Hendrick Motorsports Shop.

So one could say I have a working knowledge of Rick Hendrick. In 2020 Ali and I needed to purchase a vehicle, so naturally we looked at Rick Hendrick Subaru in Durham, North Carolina. When the salesman prepared to make the sale, he opened by saying “Do you know who Rick Hendrick is?” - to which I replied, “do YOU know who Rick Hendrick is?”

You see I knew the reputation of the man who’s name was on the building before I ever showed up to purchase the car - but how often are we concerned with knowing who God is when we come to worship?

There are two things that we need to keep in mind as we seek to worship in truth.

The first is a continuing working knowledge of Who it is that we are here to worship. Are you spending time getting to know Him?

The second is a desire to worship the true character of God with our words. You see, this is why the words we sing matter. This is why I ask Pastor Kevin about the lyrics of songs I would like for us to sing in worship one day. This is why we can’t sing every song you hear on the radio. And this is why I have changed minor details within the lyrics of the songs we sing to reflect the truth about God.

MY DESIRE (CONCLUSION)

My desire for you all tonight is not to be fixated on a style, but on the substance of our worship here at Rock Branch. My goal is to incorporate songs into our worship sets that allow us to reflect on God’s character as we seek to encounter Him in Spirit and in Truth.

INVITATION

As we close, I want to acknowledge the fact that in a room this size, there is a high possibility that there is somebody who can’t worship in Spirit because you’ve never been born of the Spirit. John 6:37 says:

John 6:37 CSB

Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.

You see Christ came to offer His life as a sacrifice for the sins we have committed against the Father. After all, this is why He is worthy of our praise. But if tonight you’ve never called on Him for salvation, please don’t leave until you’ve spoken with Pastor Kevin, Pastor Tim, myself or any number of individuals in this room who love Jesus and would love to see you enter into a loving relationship with Him tonight.

Let’s pray.