Sermon Tone Analysis

Word Based & Worship Driven

I know of a man who was born into a large family in the Midwest.

His mother had mental problems, and his father was murdered while he was still young.

He went to live with his sister in Boston, where he fell in with a crowd that was quite unsavory.

Before long, he found himself in prison in Massachusetts.

There he met some men who told him he needed to have his life changed.

They told him about a messiah and urged him to believe and submit, but he couldn’t.

Then one night, he had a personal, vivid encounter with this messiah, and his finally bowed the knee.

From that moment, his entire life changed.

He became a model prisoner and received an early release.

He went on to become one of the most famous preachers in America, and he was personally responsible for opening more than one hundred houses of worship.

To this day, there are streets named after him in major cities across the country.

—> His name was Malcom X, and he eventually came to realize that his messiah, the honorable Elijah Muhammad, was a fraud.

So he abandoned the Nation of Islam to become an orthodox Muslim, and the Nation of Islam had him assassinated.

That encounter in his prison cell was fraudulent, and yet he based everything on it.

He had an experience, and it changed his life.

But at the end of that life, he knew he was wrong” (Voddie Bacham: Why You Can Believe the Bible).

I know of a man who was born into a large family in the Midwest.

His mother had mental problems, and his father was murdered while he was still young.

He went to live with his sister in Boston, where he fell in with a crowd that was quite unsavory.

Before long, he found himself in prison in Massachusetts.

There he met some men who told him he needed to have his life changed.

They told him about a messiah and urged him to believe and submit, but he couldn’t.

Then one night, he had a personal, vivid encounter with this messiah, and his finally bowed the knee.

From that moment, his entire life changed.

He became a model prisoner and received an early release.

He went on to become one of the most famous preachers in America, and he was personally responsible for opening more than one hundred houses of worship.

To this day, there are streets named after him in major cities across the country.

—> His name was Malcom X, and he eventually came to realize that his messiah, the honorable Elijah Muhammad, was a fraud.

So he abandoned the Nation of Islam to become an orthodox Muslim, and the Nation of Islam had him assassinated.

That encounter in his prison cell was fraudulent, and yet he based everything on it.

He had an experience, and it changed his life.

But at the end of that life, he knew he was wrong” (Voddie Bacham: Why You Can Believe the Bible).

Many people today are looking at their experience and personal transformation stories as proof that whatever system of truth that they believe in is accurate.

Experiences and accounts of personal transformation can be powerful, but they are not sufficient substitutes for the truth.

… personal transformations don’t always point back to the truth.

People around the world today are basing their identities… who they are… on their their preferences, passions, experiences, and desires.

But none of those things are able to serve as a foundation of genuine truth.

Malcom X is a good example of how personal transformations don’t always point people to the truth.

His life was changed… he helped so many people… he did many “good things” in the eyes of the world… but, it was all based on a lie.... and in the end.... he knew it.

Malcom X is a good example of how personal transformations don’t always point back to the truth.

Experiences can be misleading because they are subjective.

If our experiences and stories of personal transformation cannot always be trusted to point us to the truth… to give us direction… to be our foundation… then, as believers, what is our foundation?…

and what is to be the driving force behind our lives?

Then, as believers, what is our foundation?…

and what is to be the driving force behind our lives?

What is our character… our very DNA as the body of Christ?… as a people who claim to be born again followers of Christ?

As believers, what is our foundation and what is to be the driving force behind our lives?

What is our character… our ethos… as people who claim to be born again followers of Christ?

Is it to be our experience… our preferences….

our passions…our own created truth?!

Over 2000 years ago, during a conversation about worship with a woman around a well, Jesus Himself speaks about this topic in amazing clarity and gives us the answers to these important questions.

As you open your Bibles to the gospel of John chapter 4, let me remind you about what is going on in this chapter.

(reintroducing ourselves to John’s gospel…address Derek’s message and that God’s Word is so amazing that you could have 5 messages prepared on the same text and each message would be unique, but still based on the same biblical truths)

Samaritans religious structure:

Worshipped on Mt.

Gerizim (where Moses had looked into the Promised Land)

Mt.

Gerizim to worship because that was the mountain that overlooked a place called Shechem, where Abraham built an altar to worship God (, ).

This was also the same place where the Israelites had shouted the blessings promised by God before they entered the Promised Land (, ).

They only considered the Torah as authoritative (5 books of Moses

Jewish religious structure:

Worshipped in Jerusalem

Considered the entire OT as authoritative… Therefore, they chose Jerusalem as the place where the Temple should be built and that God should be worshipped (; )

Jesus and his disciples have just gone out of their way to pass through the town of Samaria.

Which, by the way no self-respecting Jew would have done.

Jewish people went out off their way to avoid Samaria.

(show map)

Once Jesus meets this woman, the conversation quickly comes to a point of confrontation when Jesus exposes the woman’s sin and need for spiritual cleansing.

In verses 16-18, Jesus confronts the woman about her sin.

How does she respond?

Look at verse 19...

She changes the subject!

She is confronted with the reality if her sin and she deflects the attention off of herself by trying to start a theological debate… that any proud Jew would have been happy to argue.

The conversation between Jesus and the woman began by talking about water but has quickly shifted to the topic of worship.

Worship is something that everyone instinctively longs to do.

Depending on a person’s spiritual condition, the object and process of worship will be debated.

Whether a person is a Christian or not, the desire to be involved in worship has been designed into the very DNA of each created image bearer of God.

Let’s begin with a working definition of what worship is: What is worship and whom do we worship?

Worship is a celebration of our covenant relationship and unity with Christ, in response to God’s revelation (God’s Word), rejoicing in all that He has done and in all that He will do.

(Worship is based on Scripture, empowered/ led by the Spirit, and focused on God through Christ.

God’s Revelation is the foundation… The Holy Spirit is the One who provides motion… and the object of our worship is the Lord God.

All worship is service to the Lord.

But not all service is worship.

True worship flows from our obedient response to the revelation of God.)

Worship is something that everyone instinctively longs to do.

Depending on a person’s spiritual condition, the object and process of worship will be debated.

Whether a person is a Christian or not, the desire to be involved in worship has been designed into the very DNA of each created image bearer of God.

Sadly, because of sin and a fallen world, there is much confusion about worship.

People have different opinions about how to worship, when to worship, and even what to worship.

Those who possess a biblical worldview, based on their personal relationship with Christ, have much less confusion but still need to wrestle with the theological, logistical, personal, and corporate aspects of worship.

Sadly, because of sin and a fallen world, there is much confusion about worship.

People have different opinions about how to worship, when to worship, and even what to worship.

Those who possess a biblical worldview, based on their personal relationship with Christ, have much less confusion but still need to wrestle with the various theological and practical aspects of worship.

God has called us to worship Him! Through God’s Word, we are commanded to worship. is just one example of a passage full of imperatives commanding its reader to respond in obedience… to respond in worship.

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!

It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.