by Pastor Glenn Layne

November 10, 2002
(John 4:21-24)

The Joyful Discipline of WORSHIP
Worship as the WRENCH in Spiritual Toolbox

Worship is about getting a heart adjustment in a Godward way: to be more fully fitted together with the Lord by the habit of gathering to honor Him.

Elements: worship in song (to offer our hearts), prayer, fellowship, the ordinances (Lord's Supper, baptism), the teaching of the word (offer our minds).

Ever leave worship and say to yourself, "Man, that was a powerful time of worship!"

Why? What was different? What was special?

What happened was that you were touched on various levels: your mind was challenged, your heart comforted (or maybe convicted!), your, spirit was blessed.

Good worship is motivational in the best sense: good worship moves us to be a more complete follower of Jesus Christ, and to live for Him, and to love Him even more.

Good worship ups our YES quotient to Jesus Christ. A true experience of worship makes us more inclined to live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The POWER of Worship as a Spiritual Growth Habit

What happens in our lives when we make regular worship-attentive, expectant, joyous worship-a part of our lives? What's the impact in our lives and in the lives of even those who haven't trusted in Christ as yet?

1. We come to enjoy God more and more (Psalm 16:11)

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

There is joy to be had in the worship of the Lord. Joy is bigger and better than happiness. Joy happens when we come into contact with the real. When a baby is born, there's joy. When you say, "I do," there's joy. There's the joy of seeing old friends and the joy of healing a conflict. All these are bigger than happiness; there's joy here.

Worship is a joy experience. It comes from being in the presence of the Lord of glory. We stand at awe in His presence, but we also stand in a state of joy.

2. We taste unseen spiritual wonders (Hebrews 12:28-29)

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29for our "God is a consuming fire."

God's kingdom cannot be shaken. It's His work and will in the world. His kingdom can never be localized. You can't take a picture of the kingdom of God. Like a strong wind, it's invisible-but nonetheless powerful.

In worship, we taste unseen spiritual powers. We see a little of heaven-in our hearts. We sense the moving of the Spirit of the living God. That causes us to worship "with reverence and awe." Reverence is not always silence: sometimes reverence for the Lord causes us to cry aloud to the Lover of our soul. In worship, the unseen becomes seen through the lens of our own spirit.

3. God works in our lives in a special and intense way (Ephesians 5:19-20)

19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This passage speaks of the act of worship. The sharing of "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" bounces back and forth from one Jesus-follower to another. God's Spirit is at work in other believers to speak to me, to encourage me, to challenge me, to make me grateful for all the things God has done.

That doesn't ever quite happen this way when I'm alone. Solo worship is important-essential! But something different happens when we come together. There is a pure intensity to real worship that's can't be matched. As a matter of fact, real worship has no rival on planet earth. Real worship should indeed be an intense and consuming experience.

That's one of the reasons that I enjoy worship in the Black church. By in large, Black folks worship better than White folks. It's just a fact. Asians and White people are just emotionally constipated compared to Black folks. White folks can learn a lot about worship from Black folks. For Black folks, worship is not just a verb; it's a contact sport! It's spiritual football.

Hispanics are kind of halfway there. It's not maybe football, but maybe it's at least futbal (what a gringo like me calls soccer!) That's why I love the dash of salsa that our Hispanic folks add to our worship here. In real worship, we should expect that in the presence of God, we experience Him in a new and mighty way. ("Goal!")

4. The reality of God is presented to spiritually open non-believers (1 Corinthians 14:25)

…and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"

Paul here is describing the experience of worship from the viewpoint of a non-believer. The ideal, says Paul, is that nothing so "in-house" happens that that non-believer says, "These people are freaks!" Instead, that ideal is that that person who doesn't yet know Jesus says, "This is real! This is real! Your God is the Real Deal!"

Jesus (the Expert!) on worship (John 4:21-24)

Let's turn to the ultimate expert on worship-Jesus. In John 4, he meets a Samaritan woman. The Samaritans were a half-Jew, half-Gentile people living in the hill country north of Jerusalem. Jews despised them and would walk an extra 50 miles to avoid Samaria on the trip from Galilee to Jerusalem.

In those days, the center of Jewish worship was the Temple in Jerusalem. The Samaritans had their worship center on Mt. Gerizim, near the city of Sychar (the ancient, Old Testament city of Shechem; the modern city of Nablus).

Jews and Samaritans had a different "take" on worship. On top of it, this woman had not exactly lived a disciplined life. She was kind of the Elizabeth Taylor or the Jennifer Lopez of ancient Samaria: moving through marriages at the speed of light. She had been married five times, and at the time Jesus encountered her she was "shacking up" (to use Dr. Laura's term) with guy number six.

Jesus has just told here that He knew all about her checkered past, so she changes the subject: where's the right place to worship-Jerusalem or Mt. Gerizim? She figures that that will get the heat off her. But what Jesus says blows her away.

1. The place (and other details) of worship is irrelevant (21)

21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

The clock is ticking, says Jesus, on the whole "right place of worship" issue. Soon the temple in Jerusalem would be irrelevant. God can be worshipped anywhere. You don't need a special place, a so-called holy place, to worship the Lord.

For over 1000 years, Jerusalem had been the place. Right now Jew stand against Arab over the supposed holy hill where the temple used to be. Jesus says that's all obsolete.

Throughout history, people have made this mistake. Worship, they think, can only be done in a special place, in a certain way. If someone comes up with another way, we think that they're wrong-even sinful. Usually, they're just different, and we've confused what pleases us-what we're comfortable with-with what is pleasing to God.

2. Real worship has real "God-content" (22)

You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

Now while place is irrelevant, truth is very relevant. Samaritans had scrambled certain Biblical truths. They only accepted the five books of Moses and rejected all the books of the prophets; they rejected the temple at Jerusalem.

Truth is essential for real worship. If God's word is not represented well, or as truth, worship is compromised. If the words of songs or prayers do not convey Biblical truth, then worship is compromised. If falsehood is represented as truth, then worship is compromised. And if this happens consistently, worship is more than compromised; it is destroyed.

3. Here's HOW to worship (23)
1. in Spirit
2. in truth

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth,

These are the two essential ingredients to worship, according to Jesus. True worshippers are to worship God "in spirit and in truth."

To worship in spirit is to worship with the heart fully engaged-not just to show up and mumble through the motions. To worship in spirit is to fix the mind and the heart fully upon God; to think through the words you sing; to allow God to get your emotional self. It means to open your mouth and sing even if you have a lousy voice.

To worship in truth is to worship with the mind fully engaged-not just to turn off the brain or to only wallow in spiritual feelings. To worship in truth is to fix the mind upon learning the truths of the word of God. It means to be focused upon God and the knowledge of God's ways.

Jesus says that these are the two wings of the airplane we call worship. Just try to fly a plane with just one of these wings. Won't work! You need both wings to fly high in worship-both spirit and truth.

3. God seeks Spirit & truth worshippers (23b)

…for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

Two-winged (spirit and truth) believers are the kind of worshipper that the Father seeks! That's exciting! When God looks at you, does He say, "Hey, that's the kind of worshipper I'm looking for! That worshipper is engaged in worship-in spirit and in truth!"

4. We are COMMANDED to worship in Spirit and in truth (24)

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

Not only that, God commands that we worship in spirit and in truth. If you say you follow Jesus, then here's the Lord's command: make worship in spirit and in truth a real priority. One-winged (or zero-winged!) worship just won't fly.

What Happens Through and After Worship?
Witness!

The Samaritan woman (John 4:39-42)

39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.

42They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

This woman encountered Jesus. She heard Him say that He was indeed the Messiah (the Samaritans used a different term, but believed in the idea of a Messiah). Her spiritual lights come on and she runs back into town telling everyone that Jesus could tell her all about her, and asking, "Could this be the Messiah?"

Let me tell you something: good worship will motivate you to share Jesus. Ever go to a restaurant you never went to before and loved it? What did you do then? "Hey, we went to this new place, and they have the best shrimp, and the bread was so good, and the dessert was great-you've got to try this place!"

God is too good to hoard. In good worship, we get a taste of God and heaven and we want to share that good taste with other people. Now in this woman's case, her way or style of sharing was invitational or testimonial. Her worship encounter with Jesus impelled her to share Him. Different people have different styles of sharing Jesus-we're not all the same. But I think they all are grounded in the joy of the Lord that we experience in worship, and then explode out from there.

Styles of witness that explode out of worship:

Here's a quick taste of these styles (I'll say more about worship styles next week, and in the weeks to come):

• Confrontational (Peter-Acts 2) "You killed the Messiah, now repent!"
• Intellectual (Paul-Acts 17) "Let me explain to you what you don't understand."
• Testimonial (Blind man-John 9) "Once I was blind, now I see."
• Interpersonal (Matthew-Luke 5) "Hey buddies, guess what I did? I met Jesus and you can too!
• Invitational (Samaritan woman-John 4) "Come see Jesus."
• Serving (Dorcas-Acts 9) Few words-but she impacted people by making clothes for poor people.

I mention all this to make this simple point: all these people encountered the living Jesus (which is the point of worship), then shared Him with others, but they all shared Him differently because they all had different kinds of personalities. Worship, though, was the gunpowder in their cannon!

One last thought: Worship is UNIQUELY powerful to point us to God! God has ordained worship as a tool to grow us and to make us useful in the world.

Worship is a romance, people. If I brought roses home to my wife and she said, "Oh Glenn, they're beautiful!" that, in a sense is worship. I proclaim by my actions that she is worthy. But what if I said to her, "I brought them to you because it's my duty." Those roses would wilt in the spot. Let's bring our roses in joy to the Lover of our Soul, shall we?

© Copyright 2002, Pastor Glenn Layne, www.templecitybaptist.org