True and Holy Worshipers

Leviticus 10:1-3

John 4:19-24

Holy - “set apart” - SEPARATE

True - “agreeable to truth; truthful” - shows up 8 times in the Gospel of John. Jn. 1:47 “Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”; Jn. 20:27 “Do not be unbelieving, but believing”

True Worship is about the heart

We cannot truly worship Him with our hearts withheld from Him. Num. 14:24; Jn. 4:16-18; Mk. 5:15-18

Caleb was totally with God. He knew that God could and would protect them going into Canaan.

Numbers 14:24 NKJV - "But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.

The Samaritan woman was distanced from God, not just by cultural boundaries, but by her own imposed boundaries.

John 4:16-18 NKJV - Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' "for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly."

If we keep our distance from God, He will distance Himself from us. Just like you cannot force a friendship, God will never force us to be His children.

Mark 5:15–18 Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine. Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region. And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him.

We cannot truly worship Him with our hearts set on “place”. Ex. 3:5; 33:12-13; 34:6-7; Jn. 4:21; Heb. 10:24-25

Exodus 3:5 NKJV - Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." -holy because Moses was in GOD'S PRESENCE!

Exodus 33:12-13; 34:6-7 – Moses desired to know God

Note what Jesus says to the Samaritan woman:

John 4:21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.

Location is irrelevant; we are ALWAYS in the presence of God.

WHY is location irrelevant? Because the nature of the heart is what matters.

We do not assemble at this building because this is the church; we assemble here because we are a congregation of God’s people. The brick and mortar doesn’t matter at all, except as a matter of convenience.

What does matter is the PEOPLE.

Hebrews 10:24-25 NKJV - And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

We cannot truly worship Him with compromised hearts. Matt. 5:23-24; Jn. 4:25

If we refuse to work our problems out, and simply try to ignore them, they do not go away; more than that, they inhibit our worship to God.

Matthew 5:23-24 NKJV - "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, "leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

The woman’s heart was compromised by her sinful background (five husbands!), but her heart was open to the Messiah.

John 4:25 NKJV - The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things."

True Worship is about the truth

Jesus upholds the truth about worship

John 4:22 "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

In this statement, Jesus settles the matter. Salvation (Jesus) was of the nation of Israel, and He came to fulfill that worship system, proving that Jerusalem was indeed (at this time) the prescribed place of worship.

NOTE: Jesus is not debating points of worship; He is getting to the core of the matter.

We must be willing to ask: Are there right and wrong ways to worship God?

Most of the religious world:

Labors in ignorance, worshiping in ways that they conjure in their hearts

Assumes that what has been handed down through family, culture, etc. IS the prescribed worship.

ANYONE can fall into this mindset - even those who have grown up among “true worship”.

1 Kings 12:26-33 - Many in Israel during the days of the Divided Kingdom must have believed they were properly worshiping God.

This is the great danger of “Burger King” worship (have it your way); it robs God of His proper place and makes worship into something WE define.

Worshiping God in whatever way we wish leads to our spiritual destruction.

1 Kings 13:33-34 After this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.

Our sin will find us out. If we do not worship God has He has asked, we will face dire consequences. Nadab and Abihu understood this, but too late.

True Worship is about the Spirit

Worship of God is dependent upon His nature Jn. 4:24; Col. 3:1-17

To worship God in Spirit is to have OUR spirit/soul completely aligned with Him.

John 4:24 NKJV - "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

This is not accomplished by how we feel or our emotional response, but by being raised with Christ.

Colossians 3:1-17 - Being raised with Christ means that we look at our entire lives through a wholly different viewpoint than what we had before.

Emotions are not wrong, but our emotion is informed by our faith, not the other way around.

Being raised with Christ, we no longer look at life with worldly interests; we seek the interests of the Spirit.

This motivation is manifested in the actions of our life.

The nature of God should determine the nature of our worship. Jn. 4:13-14; 5:30 ; Rom. 12:1-2

This connects back to what Jesus previously said to the woman.

John 4:13-14 NKJV - Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

One unchangeable truth is that the Christian is to be motivated not by looks, reputation, or feelings, but motivated by his FAITH. That is the fountain of water within us!

If we serve God because of FAMILY, FRIENDS, CULTURE, WORK, etc., the result will be merely a mechanical response to God. That is not what God desires.

If all we can claim is that we worship God in the “right way”, we have nothing, in reality. WHY do we worship Him in this way? HOW can we show someone else the truth of these things? The answer is in being allied to His Spirit - tied to “I will do nothing except what He reveals.”

John 5:30 I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

The actions I take in worship and in life are not determined by what others think, or what looks good, or what appeals to my emotions. The actions I take should be “self-motivated” by a proper understanding of who God is and who I should be. My faith is the fountain of water that God has given me!

Romans 12:1-2 NKJV - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service [ASV - “spiritual service”]. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The Samaritan woman’s HEART was affected by Jesus, she responded to Jesus with a thirst for TRUTH, and by her faith, she reacted in the SPIRIT by inviting others to listen to the Messiah.

John 4:28–30 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him.