What Does The Book Say? What is Worship? John 4:7-43

I. What a True Worshipper Looks Like vs. 7-18

A. When we think of worship, we think of music, stained glass, and a building, or gathering.

B. But worship goes beyond that, and goes to our life, every aspect of it.

C. When we think of true worshippers we think of the typical Southern gentleman/lady. But Jesus sees things differently. “Sometimes spiritual sleepers, need to be shocked. If you want them to hear what you have to say, you might even need to scandalize them. Jesus is especially good at this. When he wants to teach us something about worship, he uses a whore!”- John Piper.

D. Jesus goes to those who know they’re a sinner, either a lost sinner or a saved sinner who longs for something more and/or better!

E. This water is the Holy Spirit coming in us and creating a thirst for Yahweh. We keep drinking from the overflow of our relationship with Yahweh. If we’re empty it’s not Jesus’ fault. Ps. 63:1

Psalm 63:1 NASB95

O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

II. The Heart of True Worship vs. 16-26

A. “The quickest way to the heart is through a wound”- John Piper.

B. When you hit a nerve one of two things happen. 1) Some get defensive. The harder the hit, the harder the push back. 2) They try to distract. Notice Jesus goes with the flow while still commanding the conversation.

C. Jesus is honest about what was wrong with her worship. Worship isn’t about a building or appearance or tradition it is about spirit and truth.

D. Spirit is our emotions, while truth is scripture. Spirit without truth leads to shallow people in a frenzy about a God they know little about. It may fill pews, but it will be a revolving door. Truth without spirit leads to dead orthodoxy that goes through the motions, and fills up the cemetery not the pews.

E. True worship changes every part of our life. It causes us to want God over everything else.

III. What True Worship Looks Like vs. 27-43

A. True worship is a lifestyle. It’s not just singing songs, coming to church, and hearing a preacher. It is so much more than that.

B. The fields can be the church house, but these fields know no bounds. Get up, get out and get to work as an act of worship. Go to those who you think are the least to come, and witness, invite, love on until Jesus saves them. The difference between a nuisance, and a faithful witness is you don’t nag, you make them feel loved so that they will want to come.

C. If we reach 1, many may believe from that 1.

D. If the woman at the well came today, would she be welcomed here, or would we just gossip about her? If we are truly worshipping, anybody will feel loved and welcomed here and elsewhere in our lives, but their sin won’t. The world knows the difference, do we?