3. What Is The Best Way To Worship God?
Notes
Transcript
Me:
Me:
Welcome back or maybe for the first time to part three of our sermon series, The Gospel of John. In this series we are looking at five core verse from the book of John that helps us better understand what it means to follow Jesus. If you are new or if you have missed out on the previous ones, you can always catch them by going to our web page.
I grew up going to church all of the time. One of the ideas that was constantly drilled into my brain was that when I was in the church building I was in the house of God. So as a kid if I ran around the church building I was told not to do that because this was God’s house and you don’t run around in God’s house. You were to go outside to run. So I went out and ran around in God’s yard…I guess. I remember one Christmas season when I was in the 6th grade. I had a nerf football and wanted to play catch. All the adults were downstairs having this fellowship meal. My friend and I went up stairs to play catch in the sanctuary. Two ladies saw us, and scolded us and told us that we had to go outside to play catch, not in God’s house. I remember the two ladies whispering as we sulked away: “What if that football hit the nativity and broke baby Jesus! In God’s house!”
For me, the church building was were God was, and we went to church to be with and worship God.
You:
You:
So how did you grow up thinking about worship? Most of you went to church for a worship service. We have a worship leader, and we play worship songs. We focus on God. We even use the verbiage God’s presence and his house. Intentional or not, we tend to think that worship takes place at a certain time and in a certain place.
Others of you may be thinking: I’m new here and I don’t really worship. Or maybe some of you may be thinking about how you believe in God but worship really isn’t your jam. Or maybe your just not into worship. Let me share with you a simple definition of worship:
Worship - To give reverence or worth to something.
Is it possible that you do worship..just not God. Let’s do a quick test.
Picture of Celebrity - Dwayne Johnson
Picture of Athlete - Steph Curry
Favorite Team - Hawkeyes
Favorite Device - Crowd waiting for iPhone
Picture of Family
Picture of house.
Here’s the deal. Everyone worships something. It’s in our DNA. You were made to worship, your heart is pulled to honor or give worth to something. Here are three typical criteria we use for finding something to worship: 1. Gives Us Joy. 2. Something We Fear. 3. Something that Gives us Significance. Think about it. We worship our family or our favorite team because there are these moments where they give us great joy. We worship thing, or people greater then us, people who are powerful. We worship money or our career because they make us feel significant. We put our teams logo on our car because it makes us feel significant.
The problem is that all of those things let us down. They don’t fulfill or satisfy that longing for worship. So we go and chance down something out to give reverence and worth to. We were made to worship, but it’s as if we keep chasing down all these other things because we don’t know how to worship God.
The theologian John Calvin says it this way:
“The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.” ~ John Calvin
Here’s the problem: Everyone worships. The issue is what and when. If we could answer those two questions, it would change not only how we worship, but also the trajectory of our lives.
God:
God:
If you have a Bible or device, go find John chapter 4. If you are using the YouVersion Bible app go to the bottom right hand corner and click on More. In the new menu look for Events. Iowa City Church should pop up. Click on it and all the Scriptures and Notes will be right on your device.
Jesus and his disciples are walking through Samaria and he stops and takes a break while the 12 disciples head into town to get some food. While Jesus is at this well, a woman comes all by herself to draw water. Jesus begins a conversation with her about water from the well, and living water that Jesus provides. Then in an awkward moment, Jesus asks about her husband and the woman says that she doesn’t have one and Jesus says that he knows. He tells her that he know about her five previous husbands and how the man she is with now is not her husband. Her past and mistakes have been put on display. She then shifts attention to a theological question which I honestly think is still connected to her brokenness. Here’s her question.
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
The Jews worshipped God in the Temple in Jerusalem. They believed that God’s presence was in the Temple. The Samaritans worshipped God in their temple on mount Gerizim…literally right above where Jesus was talking with this woman. You can go and see this place today. What this broken, hurting woman is asking is more then just a theological question, it’s personal. She’s asking: “When and where do I go to meet God?”
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time 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, for salvation is from the Jews.
Here’s an example of how the Jews and Samaritans viewed worship of God. There was the temple. God was in the temple. People went to the temple to worship God. Make sense?
Jesus is going to shatter the old perspective on worship. It’s not a time and it’s not a place. It’s a person. Listen to what he says.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Let’s define a few words here. The word worship means to “kiss towards or prostrate ones self towards a person or deity of worth or value.” To humble or submit towards who or what? Jesus says, the Spirit and in truth. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit. The big change coming is that God is going to put his Spirit in people who come to him. If you are familiar with the OT, that was the plan laid out in the prophets. The truth always kind of threw me off, but here is what Jesus is talking about. The truth is him. Truth can be what Jesus taught, but it can also be Jesus himself.
So worship isn’t about time and place, it’s about the person of God in people through faith in Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul drives home this point really well in his letter to the Corinthian church.
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
When you put your faith in Jesus, the truth, you become a temple where the Spirit of God dwells. Here is what the shift looks like.
God is now inside of you. You don’t have to go to God, he is in you. And when you go to church, you aren’t going to church to find God or even worship God you are going to church to share in the community God has given you.
However, there is a huge issue we need to think about. We are very comfortable with thinking about worship as a time and place. We call it a worship service. Nick is our worship leader. We have worship band. We call these worship songs. But all of this is a very narrow perspective of worship. God isn’t here because we have a building with a cross on it. God is here because his people are here and God is in his people.
Here is how it has to change in your mind. This isn’t the worship service. YOU ARE THE WORSHIP SERVICE.
Remember, worship isn’t time or place, it’s humbling, serving, prostrating yourself before the Spirit and Jesus…saying…what can I do to honor you with my life.
Here is how the apostle Paul talks about it.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
This means you worship God by doing your work well. Being faithful and loyal and doing your very best. You worship by how you treat your neighbors or friends. By serving them, and not gossiping about them or stealing from them. You worship God when you drive, and it has nothing to do with the worship music. It’s by being patient and kind even when others are not. It’s how you live your life when no one is looking. It’s about what you watch or do. This is all worship because your life is a worship service.
So, here is where the tension builds. We were made worship and most of us, struggle with worshipping other things. For me, most of my struggles aren’t about sin but about what I choose to worship.
Here is what we need to do if we want to turn our lives around and redirect our lives onto the right path, listen to this:
When you give your loyalty to Jesus, your life becomes a living, breathing, walking worship service.
You:
You:
Here are some ways you can make it happen.
What is the idol that needs to be removed from your life?
What part of your life do you need to place back on the altar to worship God?
Are you ready to put your life on the altar?