The key to praising is Prizing.
Notes
Transcript
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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
John Piper summarizes the Christian life with this simple the phrase: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. God created the universe so that it would display the worth of his glory.
So today we are going to talk about what it means to love the Lord your God correctly.... Kind of a weird wording. but I think you’ll understand more here in a min.
The other night I thought itd be a really good idea to come home after work and lavish my wife with some kind words and a compliment. To really tell her how much i care about her… So when I got home I said, Sara i love you so much. I love your long dark black hair, your dark brown eyes. I love that you are short and not the same height as me. I love the 3 kids you have given me. I love everything about you.
she promptly stomped out of the room ticked off.
Yes some of you are laughing because everything I just said was wrong. She isn’t any of those things. She’s tall blonde, with blue eyes, who has given me 2 kids....
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
3 Things I want you to gather from this verse.
John gave three points about true worship based on this verse.
1. God is seeking worshipers.
2. God needs to be worshiped in spirit.
3. God needs to be known truly.
John gave three points about true worship based on this verse.
1. God is seeking worshipers.
2. God needs to be worshiped in spirit.
3. God needs to be known truly.
1. God is seeking worshipers.
1. God is seeking worshipers.
I think the most important thing in this verse is that God is seeking worshippers. That can sound offensive to people.. I bet I could make a list of people who would be offended by that and it would be pretty long.
It is not megalomania it is our greatest joy as well as his greatest honor.
2. God needs to be worshiped in spirit.
2. God needs to be worshiped in spirit.
Does he mean in my spirit or in his spirit? what does that really mean.
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
That which is born of the spirit is spirit. You must be born again… When we are dead in trespasses and sins. and need born again. and when we are born again we are born of the spirit. We are now living by the spirit.
Our spirt which was dead… (in sin) now comes alive!
So i thing when jesus says He (God) wants to be worshiped in spirit… he means by the power of the holy spirit authentically in your spirit. Mere outward movements of the body is not worship. not prayer, not signing, not bowing down, not coming forward. those are not the essence of worship.
the essences is: is it coming from your spirit, animated, powered and enabled by the holy spirit.
3. God needs to be known truly.
3. God needs to be known truly.
The third thing that needs to be noted is that Jesus needs to be worshiped in truth.
What makes true worshippers, is that their spirit inner being, is responding and treasuring true views of God. God in truth
false views of God don’t honor God. huge emotion to a false view of God means the real true God isn’t worshipped. Which is why theology is always serving doxology. True and correct thinking is always feeding affections and emotions. If we flip that around we get it all wrong. we can’t have our affections and emotions feeding our thinking. Theology serves our doxology!
You guys are so fortunate to be at a school that wants to teach you God’s Word. To be surrounded by teachers and faculty that love you and want you to grow in your knowledge and love for the Lord. This is an opportunity that I didn’t have. I begged my parents to let me go to Open Door but we just didn’t have the means to make it happen. Don’t waste this time. Don’t allow it go to by.