Heartfelt Worship: A Core Value

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Introduction:

How many of you know what our mission statement is at Brookdale? How many of you know what our purpose statement ? How many of you know what the core values are? If you

If you have not had an opportunity to visit the Brookdale website yet, I encourage you to do so. In fact, on the website you will find our mission statement, “Reaching and teaching others for Christ” and our purpose “To help children, teens, and adults in Fargo/Moorhead take their next steps in following Christ.” That is our goal and motivation in doing the things that we do here during the week and on every Sunday.

This is our focus and our motivation for everything we do here at Brookdale. It drives each and every ministry that occurs during the week . Our desire is to reach the community in which God has placed Brookdale Baptist with the life-changing and soul-satisfying message of the gospel. We want to see people come to the Lord and by His grace, we want to see them also grow spiritually in Him.

Immediately following this purpose statement are our core values. These core values are based upon core principles found in the bible and they also serve a greater purpose in accomplishing the work that goes on within the ministries at Brookdale. These core values are biblical. They are God-centered, Scripture-focused, and people-orientated. It is the biblical model of how Christ intends His church to conduct itself.

These core values help us to keep focused on our mission and express the biblical priorities that influence our decisions, plans, and programs as a church.

Our five core values are:

1. Heartfelt Worship- Since Christ taught us to worship God "in spirit and truth" (John 4:24),we want to magnify God's goodness and greatness through reverent, vibrant worship together on Sunday and conscientious personal choices throughout the week which honor God's presence in our lives.

2. Biblical Authority- Christ said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matt 4:4). Therefore, we study, teach, discuss, and apply what the Bible says as God's unchanging, life-changing message for us today.

3. Close Relationships- Christ said, "Whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). This statement motivates us to draw together through the joys and struggles of life as a spiritual, intergenerational family who connects, spends time with, and mentors one another in all aspects of life.

4. Devoted Service- Christ insisted that he "did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Following his example, we commit our resources, time, and abilities to accomplish our mission, believing that every member plays a vital role.

5. Compassionate Outreach- Knowing that Christ was frequently "moved with compassion" for people (Matt 6:34-42), we desire to share his love with the people around us by meeting their needs and - most importantly - introducing them to the good news of salvation from sin and the hope of eternal life.

We will look at each one of these core values one at a time so that we all can understand with unity of purpose why we do what we do here at Brookdale. Each one is vital to the life of Brookdale and each one is rooted in sound biblical principles. This morning I want us to focus our attention on the first of these core values, heartfelt worship.

What is worship? If this question were to be asked to each one of us, I would venture to guess that there would be a variety of answers. When we think of worship we often think of the time we gather together on Sundays at this specific time. We sing, pray, and listen to a sermon. Yes , this is a part of worship but it is just a snapshot of a much bigger picture. This is the idea of worship for many, however worship is a major component of the believer.

Biblical worship is about the believer’s awed response to God’s saving grace and His praiseworthy character.

When I speak of worship that is heartfelt, I speak of the believer and how every aspect of their life is worship to the Lord.

The decisions you and I make are to be reflective of our faith.

The conversations you and I have are to be graceful and honoring to God.

The thoughts you and I have are to be centered on God.

The way we make use of the resources God has given to us

Our money

Our time

Our efforts

The believer is also called to live a life of holiness

So what do we do on Sundays then? We worship! But we worship together as one body. We come together collectively

to serve one another

to sing praise to God

to spur one another on to love and good deeds

to bear one another’s burdens

to hear the preaching and admonition from God’s word

Sunday worship then is just a group of believers who have been worshipping all week by themselves and now are worshipping together in unity of spirit. When our individual worship is vibrant and heartfelt, then our corporate worship will automatically follow and be vibrant and heart felt.

Together, I want us to not only understand what it means to worship, but I want us to understand that worship just does not happen between the 10 am and 11 am hour here at Brookdale. Worship is a way of life. It is not something we turn on and off when we want to. Worship is the believer’s expression to all that God has done for us and a right response to who He is. When we rise up in the morning to the time we lay down to sleep, we should be worshipping. Then we gather throughout the week and as many who are worshipping we together worship in one unifying voice to our God.

Turn with me in your bibles to John chapter 4. As you are turning there, the question I want us to ponder is “What does it mean to worship God?”

Jesus deals precisely with a question like this in His encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. He precisely answers this question, “what does it mean to worship God?” In this passage we will see the two requirements God has for His people in worship. There is the spiritual aspect to worship and there is a truthfulness aspect to worship.

Jesus does not give a long exhaustive list of the things to do or not to do. He doesn’t give and recommendations to avoid this or that. Why do you suppose that is? I would argue that when we worship in the spirit and in the truth then we don’t need a list of everything we need to avoid or do. T

CONTEXT OF THE PASSAGE

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of what we want to look at today, let us look at where we are at in the narrative of John. Jesus has just come off a discussion with Nicodemus in Jerusalem about being being born again into salvation. He and His disciples moved to the Judean countryside for a time to teach and baptize. There was some contention caused by the Pharisees about Jesus’ and John’s baptism. Because of this, Jesus decided to leave Judea and head up to Galilee. In-between Judea and Galilee was this place called Samaria.

Jesus and His disciples chose to go the more immediate route through Samaria instead of going the longer route around. Whether this was determined by divine foresight on the part of Jesus or whether it was just simply faster is unclear and wasn’t a concern of John’s when he wrote his gospel since he did not mention the reason why. What is clear is that Jesus saw an opportunity to have a discussion with a person that a normal Jewish man would never have a conversation with at that time. Jesus and His disciples arrive at Jacob’s well near Sychar, being tired and hungry, Jesus sends His disciples off to town to buy some food. It is around noon time, which isn’t normally the time to draw water from a well. It is almost the hottest part of the day and people did that in the morning when it was cool. But here Jesus is sitting and here comes the Samaritan woman. She comes to draw water when no one else is around. Why is that? She has a reputation and she is shunned by those in her community. One person that will not shun her is Jesus. Jesus, being God, knew this exact moment will happen and He took the opportunity to have a conversation with her.

Because of what is about to happen we must put on our cultural context hats to understand that the conversation that will take place just didn’t happen in that culture. First of all, Samaritans and Jews do not get along and that is putting it mildly. There is a long history between them. We know, from Scripture, that the Jews really detested the Samaritans, and I am sure the Samaritans detested the Jews just as much. The feud really began back when Ezra and Nehemiah were rebuilding the wall and temple in Jerusalem. Both parties claimed to be the chosen people of God and both parties claimed to be the keepers of God’s truth, in fact the Samaritan’s derive their name from שמרים (the keepers of the Law). A major contention between the two was who held the correct place of worship. There was the temple built in Jerusalem and there was some sort of temple built on Mt. Gerizim. The Samaritans believed that they controlled the true place of worship on Mt. Gerizim and it was only here that true worship occurs. Meanwhile, the Jews correctly proclaimed that Jerusalem was the only place God has chosen for worship.

Jesus, of course, knew the animosity between the Samaritans and Jews, but He did not allow this cultural riff to come between Himself and ministering to an outcast, thus bucking the trend that Jews and Samaritans should never interact. Secondly, He was also talking to a woman alone. Again, culturally, this was not done in that time. To be alone with a woman and talk to her was not something that was done and was often looked down on with contempt. Women were not looked well upon, even by the Jews. Believe it or not, this even occurs today in our modern world. Among some of the modern more traditional and conservative Jews women are still looked down as inferior and they even pray and thank God that they were never born a woman. To be in such a situation would ruin a man’s reputation. But Jesus did not care about His reputation, and He did not care about how this would be perceived by others. He saw an opportunity to have a spiritual conversation with her and He took advantage of it.

This encounter is really a great example of how to do evangelism correctly. Jesus prompts her with a spiritual analogy about living water and then confronts her sin. By the end of the discussion, He reveals to her that He is the Messiah. Sometimes we over-complicate evangelism. Look at Jesus’ example. It wasn’t complicated. He didn’t worry about saying the correct words. He didn’t worry about the things we tend to worry about when we share the gospel. He spoke the truth with love and compassion for someone who was considered unlovable at the time by society.

Jesus confronts her with her sin. She was adulterous. She claimed before Jesus that she was not married to a man. Jesus agrees that she has no husband because she has had five husbands and the person, she is with now is not her husband. She was caught red-handed and she either had the option to continue with her lie or come clean with the truth. But there was a third option, and she took that third option. Trying to outwit and be cunning, she threw all her eggs in one basket in an attempt to switch the topic. Quick on her toes, she turned the conversation off herself and onto theology.

Here is where I want to pick up for today and here is where we shall come together and see God wants His people to worship Him.

The Samaritan woman had an incorrect understanding of worship.

John 4:19–20 ESV

The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

“Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet”

The woman begins by acknowledging that there is something special about this Man that is talking with her. At first, she doesn’t believe He is the Messiah, the Samaritans didn’t believe in the Messiah since they only held the first five books of Moses as Scripture. None of the psalms or prophets which speak to the Messiah are held as part of their scripture. She instead confesses that He is something special, like someone who has heard from God, like a prophet. Can you imagine having a conversation with Jesus. The way He spoke and the foresight He would have? Nothing could be hidden or beyond His understanding? She knew and understood that this Man was not like any other man he has met.

“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

She now poses the theological question of her day, “where is the correct place of worship?” “I have always been taught that we worship here on Mt. Gerizim, and you have always been taught that Jerusalem is the place of worship. Whose belief is right? Are we correct or are you Jews correct?”

Her focus was on the place of worship rather than on the heart and object of worship who was standing right before her eyes. She, like those around her, were so consumed with issues like this that they lost focus on the God whom they were supposed to worship. Here is God in flesh and He spoke and did miracles that only God could do, and she and others did not see Him for who He truly is.

We get like that as individuals sometimes, don’t we? We get so consumed with life in that worship of God is thrown in the back seat and our hearts are so far from worship that we aren’t even aware of it until we pause and think about it. We make excuses for this. Well, I was just so busy that I didn’t have time… fill in the blank. What about here at Brookdale? Do we become so focused on the things we do and how to do them that we neglect the worshipful aspect to why we do them?

I have been there have you? For example, we worship through our giving. I have been challenged recently to reevaluate this in my life and my family’s life. It is so easy just to write a check or click on a link and not give thought to giving as a form of worship. Instead of just going through the motions in my giving, I want to really pause and meditate on the many blessings God has given to me and my family and out of response to His goodness to us, I want to give back to Him as a form of worship. Many examples like this can easily lose their worshipful aspect.

John 4:21–22 ESV

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

Jesus is not insulting the woman or her intelligence here. He is confirming the impending obsolescence of what is about to take place after His death on the cross. There is eschatological aspect to it when Jesus states, “the hour is coming.” It wasn’t there quite yet because Jesus needed to do what He was sent to do. In order for this new form of worship to come into existence, He needed to suffer and die on the cross. He needed to be resurrected. He needed to ascend to the Father, and He needed to send the promised Holy Spirit. At the time of this encounter, all this was still a way off. Jesus is saying that her question as to the correct place of worship is pretty much moot because there is a new and better way of worship that will soon take place. Soon to be gone are the days of pilgrimages up to Jerusalem and instead a true worshipper of God has the ability to worship Him anywhere.

One thing Jesus did not have is fear and He wasn’t intimidated. If you are like me, there have been times when I hesitate to confront people on truth out of fear. I fear what they will say or think. Jesus does not do that here. He just stated that worship is about to change, but he answers her question with the truth. “The Samaritans had it wrong this whole time. Your worship is wrong and frankly you don’t understand how wrong it is.” At the same time, He affirms the Jews are the holders or keepers of the truth. The Jewish people at least worshipped based on the truth God has given to them even if their hearts had become distant from Him. It is also because salvation is from the Jews. The Jewish people were the instrument in God’s perfect plan of salvation. God has specifically and uniquely called the Israelites to be the holders of truth and to proclaim salvation to all the nations. The woman misunderstood worship to be something of national or tribal pride. It was not this, rather the issue was how God has decided to reveal salvation through history by means of the Jewish people and His chosen place of worship at that time was Jerusalem.

Worship unites the spirit with the truth

John 4:23–24 ESV

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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

When Jesus came to earth , He changed the course of human history. Everything Israel and the world knew up to that point would be upended. God Himself came to demonstrate His perfect righteous love for mankind and to sacrifice His life for our sins, but while doing so He also was able to set many things straight that otherwise got distorted, such as worship. Worship that has since become focused on the ritualistic and legalistic aspect of where and when and “how” to worship was now about to change.

“The hour is coming and now is.”

Worship, as the Samaritan woman understood it, was not going to be concerned with the location any longer. Worshippers of the true and living God were no longer going to have to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem or Mt. Gerizim. Worship is about to change. The true worshippers of God can worship Him anywhere.

Worship that pleases God involves both the spiritual aspect and the truthfulness of God and His Word. We are not to divorce one from another, but instead we are to worship in the spirit and in truth. In the original language, these two words are connected as if they were one thought or one point. John is not saying that we are to worship “in the spirit” and then we are to worship “in the truth” as if they are two distinct things. Instead, we are to worship in spirit and truth because you cannot have one without the other. They are perfectly connected as a part of the whole worship of God, and both exist because of the other and both bring awe and reverence in worship.

There is a little debate as to what the spirit is in reference to here. Does it mean the Holy Spirit or is it more of a reference to our human spirit? I honestly think either option has truth to it. The Holy Spirit indeed gives every true worshipper of God the ability to worship the Father.

He provides the believer with so much:

the ability to understand and interpret scripture

conviction of sin

fellowship with other believers

helps in our prayers

gives us gifts and talents to help in ministry

gives us strength and power

There is also the individual spiritual aspect . The individual aspect approaches worship centered around how I live my life day to day. Am I truly worshipping God by living my life in a way that honors and glorifies Him or am I one way when I am with my “church friends” and totally different when I am outside that group? We are to be consistent in our spiritual walk. As God matures and grows us into an exact representation of Him, we should see steps of maturity in out as our lives. As newborn believers we stumbled, made poor decisions, and wavered but as we grow we look for opportunities to worship through our speech, our actions, and our motives.

We must get our individual worship correct if we want to get the worship at Brookdale correct. We can have a very vibrant worship that sings all the newer and upbeat songs and who hits every single note all the time but if our individual walk as part of worship is not there than all that will be merely just show. But you can apply that to any ministry we do here at Brookdale. If I don’t walk consistently in worship as a teacher, then it is also just

“when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth”

Jesus is not only setting the record straight with the Samaritan woman, but He is also setting it straight with the culture. Jesus is telling the woman that there is in indistinguishable mark that separates false worshippers from true worshippers. It is worshipping in the spirit and in truth.

Just as much as our spiritual lives are important to worship, so is the truth. Truth is what helps guide us in our spiritual walk and that truth comes through the revealed Word of God. It is not just an instructional guide on the the “to do or not to do’s” of our spiritual walk, but it is also our guide to understanding why we should do or not do those things.

Don’t you just hate it when you are told to do something and you have no reason why you should? Whether it is work or not, I want to know the reason behind something I am doing and why I should be doing it. God gives us this in the bible. Our daily lives should be of worship because when we walk in a worshipful way our lives in turn glorify God.

“we must worship Him in spirit and truth.”

We must, I repeat, we must get worship right here at Brookdale. God cares so much that we get it right. Jesus emphasizes His point to the Samaritan woman that “we must worship Him in spirit and truth.” He repeats this to the woman as an emphasis on worship. This is the expectation of God and we must not seek anything but His approval and how He expects His people to worship Him. Of all the ministries that take place during the week here at Brookdale, how we worship God when we are alone is the most important. He should be our focal point and seeking to please Him in all things should be our goal.

Conclusion:

Our core values are important to us here at Brookdale. They keep us on track. This first core value we looked at today is first for a reason. Our love and worship of God is more important than anything and should be at the forefront of everything we do at Brookdale. Corporately, we reflect that by coming together and worshipping Him. But how are you doing individually? Has worship become mundane to you? Are you more concerned with the types of songs and pace of the songs we sing instead of your own personal worship?

What do most Sundays look like for you? Do you wake up in Sunday morning and let out a sigh because you have to go to church again or do you wake up with enthusiasm and excitement because you have the privilege to be with other believers and together worship God in a passionate way? What about the ministry you are currently in? Are you ministering in that position because there was just a need and no one else would do it or do you approach that as another aspect of your personal worship which manifests in the time you dedicate and the effort you put in to your studies and lessons?

As we close this morning, I want to remind ourselves that worship begins with me, and it begins with you. This is the personal aspect to worship. Are you truly worshipping God with your speech? Do you say the things you shouldn’t say when you are with your coworkers? Are you truly worshipping God with your thoughts? Are the thoughts you allow yourself to meditate on worshipful? Is daily walk consistent with Scripture and the character of God so that those around you see others may see the God whom you worship?

Let us continue to strive together to have Brookdale be that place where people can come in one way and leave having been changed by being engaged in worship that was from the heart. Imagine the day that we all stand before our Savior in eternity. What will we spend eternity doing? Worshipping Him and it will be perfect. Just imagine how that worship will be. Should our worship today be any less?

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