Sermon Tone Analysis

Heartfelt Worship: A Core Value

John 4:19-26

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).