Sermon Tone Analysis

Objective:

Jesus is in the village of Sychar and he is having a conversation with a women who is a Samaritan.

The Samaritan were a mixed breed of Jews.

They were strictly hated by the Jews who were considered to be pure.

As I highlighted on Sunday;

a.

When Ezra led the Jews back from exile in Babylon, the first thing the Jews did was to start rebuilding their temple.

The Samaritans offered to help them, but the Jews rejected their help, declaring that the Samaritans—through intermarriage and worship of false gods—had lost their purity and forfeited their right to worship the only true God.

This severe denunciation embittered the Samaritans against the Jews in Jerusalem.

b.

The Samaritans built a rival temple on Mount Gerizim to stand in competition with the Jewish temple at Jerusalem.

c.

The Samaritans twisted both the Scripture and history to favor their own people and nation.

⇒ They twisted Scripture in that they accepted only five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch.

(Just imagine!

They missed all the richness and depth of the Psalms and prophets.)

⇒

They twisted history in that they claimed three great events took place on Mt.

Gerizim that set it apart as a place of worship.

It was the place where Abraham offered Isaac, where Melchizedek met Abraham, and where Moses built his first altar after leading Israel out from Egyptian bondage.

So Jesus is on this Worship Campaign trying to educate this women on what true worship is all about.

My assignment is to ignite a Worship Campaign in our Church that will spread to your families.

I’m teaching from this subject: LEADING A WORSHIP CAMPAIGN FOR JESUS

Introduction:

What is the definition of Worship in the bible?

(Worship) Proskyneo — to prostrate; bow down; in the presence of a divine or supernatural deity.

This bowing down is an act of worshipping a deity.

It’s a physical act as well as a spirit act.

It’s a verb!

What is a verb!

A verb is a action word.

It is something you do, not just something you read.

So when you see the word Worshippers or Worship — you must get into your mind the physical act of worship.

Is Worship Important to God:

You see I like to find out whats important to God.

Because if it is important to God and I learn this; I like to make it important to me.

I believe this is one way of really and truly getting close to God.

Making whats important to him, important to me.

We can learn whether or not a thing is important to God from his word.

Remember bow down is the same as worship.

You see the devil understood how important worship is to God.

So this is why he is always attempting to keep us from worship.

Because real worship should affect your life.

If your in church and your giving God proper worship, it should affect your life.

Now lets seal this with some examples of the scriptures.

When Jacob got ready to meet Esau and he wanted to show him respect look at what he did.

When Joseph’s brothers found out he was still alive

When Moses greeted his father in law

When the Wisemen saw Jesus for the first time.

When Jesus was on the ship and he rebuked the wind and the waves.

Matt

Let me see if everyone will agree with me on this.

You can pray standing up.

You can even pray sitting down.

It’s no problem.

However something changes when you bow down.

If you have never bow before the bible declares that one day you will.

Every family, every house, every nation, should have this element of bowing down before God.

Worship changes the life of the Worshipper

John 4:

You see worship should have been changing her life, but it was not.

I believe it was probably because she truly did not know who or what she was worshipping.

I say that because this women had been through a lot.

You would not believe the amount of people coming to church; singing in the choir, praise dancing, and the like who’s worship has had not true impact on their lives.

Emphasis on the Word True Worshipper

Real Worship Causes Reform

Noah saved his family thru worship

Hannah got her son from worship

Job sustained his mind during his sickness in worship

I want to give you one example of Worship Reform.

Time would fail me to give them all, but consider this.

Hezekiah was unique.

Hezekiah's time as king was sandwiched between two very unholy reigns.

Since Hezekiah was a godly king, this made him a sharp contrast to the kings before and after him.

His father Ahaz, Hezekiah's predecessor as king, was a very wicked king and his son Manasseh, Hezekiah's successor as king, was also a very wicked king.

Hezekiah was a good son of a bad father and a good father of a bad son.

Bible Biography Series - Bible Biography Series – Hezekiah: The King of Survival.

This lets me know that no one can affect your worship when you really desire to be true to God.

The destruction in Hezekiah's worship campaign involved the destruction of the places of evil worship and the destruction of the objects of evil worship.

The destruction of the places of evil worship.

"He removed the high places" (v.

4).

The high places were special locations on hills where people gathered to worship.

It was a heathen tradition to worship on high places.

They thought being on a hill made them closer to God.

Other places, especially the high places, were forbidden.

But people continued to worship in high places and this worship usually led to idolatry.

And when the people defected to heathen idolatry, it always led to an increase in the worship in high places.

In the record of the kings of Judah, some kings were given high compliments for their conduct but with an exception to their good conduct regarding failing to destroy the high places.

We noted this exception earlier in this study.

The kings with this condemning exception were Jehoshaphat (); Jehoash (); Amaziah (); Uzziah (); and Jotham ().

But Hezekiah did not fail in this work, for "he removed the high places."

The practice of worshiping in high places was still a problem in the time of Christ.

We learn of this in the conversation between Christ and the woman at the well in Samaria.

She said, "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain [a high place]; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship" ().

Jerusalem was indeed the proper place to worship then; but Christ used that comment to inform the woman that it was more than the place of worship that mattered but what mattered the most was the who and how one worshiped.

The destruction of the objects of evil worship.

"He... brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan" (v. 4).

Three objects of worship are mentioned here.

They are the images, the groves, and the serpent.

First, the images.

The word "images" here refers to various idols.