What kind of church is this?
Pillar #1 Proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology
Pillar #2 Lifting high the name of Jesus through worship
John 4:24 - God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
Preaching with AUTHORITY demands...
- I was created to WORSHIP.
Isaiah 43:21, 1 Peter 2:9, Hebrews 13:5, Matthew 4:10, John 4:23, Revelation 4-5, Psalms - Jesus answers the worship QUESTIONS. (John 4:21-24)
- Where should I worship? ANYWHERE. (Jn 4:21)
- Who should I worship? The God of ISRAEL. (Jn 4:22)
- How should I worship? In SPIRIT and TRUTH. (Jn 4:23-24)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:18
The title of today's message is "Harvest DNA, Unrestrained Praise." And that's what we're going after this month, asking the question, "What kind of a church is this?" Now I have a visual here that… is that good?
00:19-00:20
A little to the left?
00:21-00:22
Oh, now somebody's saying a little to the right.
00:23-00:24
Oh, come on, I think you're messing with me now.
00:26-00:27
What kind of a church is this?
00:28-00:33
A couple of weeks ago we said we are a church that has a mission from Jesus Christ.
00:33-00:34
And what is our mission?
00:35-00:40
Is to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.
00:41-00:45
And Harvest Bible Chapel stands on four pillars.
00:46-00:55
And last week we talked about the first pillar, which is proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
00:56-00:58
Is God sorry that He said some things?
00:59-01:00
Is He?
01:00-01:01
No.
01:01-01:03
God is not sorry that He said anything.
01:04-01:08
God is perfect and God is holy and God is truth.
01:08-01:14
And when we stand up to proclaim the Word of God, we're not sorry for the things that He said either.
01:15-01:15
Okay?
01:16-01:18
So we proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.
01:19-01:28
Today we're going to talk about the second pillar, which is lifting high the name of Jesus in worship.
01:31-01:53
You know, many years ago, many, many years ago, when I was just a young preacher, I remember sitting in a preacher's meeting, and there were a whole lot of older preachers at this meeting, and this was the question that was on the table.
01:55-01:57
Why don't people really get into worship?
01:59-02:08
And the preachers all sort of went around, and I'm just paraphrasing here, but basically what every preacher said was, "Yeah, worship's pretty lame at our church.
02:09-02:12
Yeah, people in our church don't really seem to get into worship.
02:12-02:15
They don't really get excited about worship.
02:15-02:17
They don't really get what worship's about.
02:17-02:24
And at the end of the meeting, everybody just kind of took a sigh like, "I guess that's just how it is.
02:25-02:27
And how do we fix it?
02:27-02:28
And I don't know.
02:29-02:48
People are people." I walked away from that meeting, again this was very early on in my ministry, but I walked away from that meeting thinking, "Something's just not right about that." And I didn't have the answer, believe me.
02:51-03:09
But I knew there's something seriously wrong when you have a room full of preachers that are just like, "We don't get the worship thing." It took me many years before I realized what was missing, and here the whole time the answer was in the Bible.
03:11-03:15
So if you're taking notes, write this down first.
03:17-03:20
I was created to worship.
03:24-03:26
I was created to worship.
03:32-03:33
That's why you're here.
03:35-03:37
That's why you're on the earth.
03:37-03:41
That's why this morning God gave you permission to take a breath.
03:42-03:45
You are here to worship.
03:46-03:48
That is your reason for being.
03:49-03:54
And you're like, "Pastor Jeff, if you're going to make a claim like that, you better be able to back it up." Okay.
03:55-03:56
Challenge noted.
03:58-03:59
Here's a few verses.
03:59-04:00
These are just a few.
04:00-04:05
If I was going to list all of the verses, we'd miss the Steeler game tomorrow night.
04:06-04:06
Okay?
04:06-04:07
Here's just a few.
04:09-04:14
Isaiah 43, 21, "The people whom I formed for myself that they might," what?
04:15-04:18
"Declare my praise." Oh, that's so Old Testament, Pastor Jeff.
04:18-05:02
First Peter 2, 9, New Testament, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." Hebrews 13:5 says, "Through Him," through Jesus then, "let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name." Matthew chapter 4, when Jesus was being tempted by the devil, one of the temptations was Satan challenged Jesus to just bow down and worship him and he'd hand him every kingdom of the world.
05:02-05:04
Remember Jesus' response?
05:04-05:04
Do you remember?
05:06-05:08
"Be gone, Satan, for it is written," what?
05:09-05:24
"You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve." In 423, Jesus, talking with the woman at the well, said that the Father is seeking what?
05:25-05:26
What's God seeking?
05:27-05:28
He's seeking worshippers.
05:30-05:31
He's seeking worshippers.
05:32-05:35
We're going to talk about that passage here in just a couple of minutes.
05:38-05:42
Revelation chapters 4 and 5, what's happening in heaven right now, do you know?
05:43-05:44
Do you know what's happening in heaven right now?
05:46-05:47
Shout it out if you know.
05:49-05:49
Worship right!
05:50-05:56
In heaven right now is the loudest, most exciting worship service.
05:56-06:00
This is the mother of all worship services and I can't wait to be there to be part of it.
06:01-06:04
I'm not that great of a singer but I am so going to be part of that worship service.
06:05-06:12
When I shed this body of sin and get the glorified body, I'm going to be able to worship much better than I'm able to now.
06:12-06:16
And I am so looking forward to that because what's happening in heaven right now, worship.
06:17-06:19
Worship is happening in heaven.
06:19-06:22
Cover to cover in your Bible, it's worship.
06:22-06:22
It's worship.
06:23-06:27
Actually, the biggest book in the Bible is what?
06:29-06:33
The book of Psalms, the one that's right in the middle, and that is Israel's worship book.
06:34-06:36
Those were their worship songs.
06:40-06:45
And everybody said, "Okay, I'm convinced." Really?
06:47-06:49
I'm going to give you another run at that.
06:49-06:50
Okay, I'm convinced.
06:52-06:53
Some of you aren't yet.
06:57-06:58
What is worship?
07:00-07:01
What is worship?
07:04-07:05
Well, here's an answer.
07:06-07:11
is the most controversial, debated, and church-dividing topic that there is.
07:11-07:12
True or false?
07:13-07:13
True or false?
07:14-07:15
True.
07:16-07:16
True.
07:19-07:29
You talk to any pastor of any church, ask them, "What are some hotly debated topics in your church?" Obviously, one is money, right?
07:34-07:38
But almost entirely across the board you're going to hear something about worship.
07:40-07:43
Worship it's controversial, it's debated, it's church dividing.
07:44-07:45
What is worship?
07:45-07:49
Well first of all, let's get this right off the table here.
07:49-07:51
Here are some worship fails, right?
07:52-07:54
And I took a run at this last week.
07:54-07:59
I always turn to Justin Cady to find out what's hip, what the young kids are saying because I'm a lot older than I look.
08:00-08:02
And they're still saying fail, right?
08:03-08:17
Like when people attempt something and it just doesn't work out, they're like, "Fail." So here are some worship fails, or some top complaints about worship for us older people.
08:19-08:20
Worship fails, jot these down.
08:22-08:23
Worship is too repetitive.
08:24-08:25
Have you heard that complaint?
08:26-08:26
It's too repetitive.
08:28-08:29
It's too repetitive.
08:31-08:32
Thank you, Pastor Jeff, too repetitive.
08:35-08:58
Isaiah chapter 6, when Isaiah saw the Lord, the worship that was happening around the presence of God, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." Interestingly, Revelation 4:8 says, "And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within." These are angels, these are heavenly beings.
08:58-09:13
It says, "And day and night they never cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.'" Never cease to say.
09:17-09:22
Another worship fail, another complaint about worship is, "Worship is too long.
09:23-09:33
It's too long." It took me many years to realize that there were some hymns that had a third verse, right?
09:34-09:35
Anybody else grew up in a church like that?
09:37-09:41
Get out your hymnals and we're going to sing first, second, and last verse, right?
09:45-09:47
I'm like, "What's happening with the third verse here?
09:48-10:21
Is it like heathen verbiage in that or something?" Like you know what, the hymn writers, you take your Wesley's, you take your Isaac Watts, you take your hymn writers, they started off the first couple of verses really strong and they ended strong, but it seems like every time they got to the third verse of the hymn they just had a complete brain freeze and just put the most incomprehensible drivel down, "We hate the third verse." Well let's just do that.
10:21-10:23
In fact, let's not even do first, second, and last.
10:23-10:24
Let's just do first and last.
10:24-10:26
You know, let's just cut to the chase and do the last.
10:26-10:56
we just sing three words and get right to the sermon, worship is too long. Oh, you mean it feels like eternity? Oh, you mean like heaven? We are not going to abbreviate the worship at this church. We're not. And you'll find out why here in a few minutes if you're still not convinced because I have a sense that some of you are not, we are not going to abbreviate the worship.
10:58-11:01
Because listen, that's why we're here.
11:03-11:04
That's why we're here.
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We are here to worship.
11:09-11:13
Here's another complaint, too new.
11:14-11:15
Too new.
11:15-11:16
Have you heard this complaint?
11:16-11:17
Maybe you've said it.
11:18-11:19
"I don't like these new songs.
11:21-11:22
I don't like these new songs.
11:22-11:23
Can't we just sing the hymns?
11:27-11:31
I promise you there is not a person in this room that loves the hymns more than I do.
11:32-11:33
I love hymns.
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Love hymns.
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I love modern rendition of old hymns.
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Love.
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However, do you know there's only one song that the Lord tells us to sing in the Bible?
11:46-11:47
Did you know that?
11:48-11:58
Psalm 96 and verse 1 says, "Sing to the Lord a new song." Sing to the Lord a new song.
11:58-12:02
I was just reading this in a different psalm last night, I believe it was Psalm 144.
12:02-12:05
Singing to the Lord a new song, what's that all about?
12:05-12:09
Well, I'm sure Charles Wesley had his thing, right, with God.
12:09-12:10
He had a good relationship with God.
12:10-12:15
He had a relationship and a growing relationship with God.
12:15-12:17
I'm sure Charles Wesley had his thing going on.
12:19-12:31
So you mean to tell me, church, that there hasn't been a fresh experience, a fresh, joyful response to the goodness and the majesty and the love of the Lord?
12:31-12:34
There hasn't been a fresh response since Charles Wesley's day?
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Please hear me.
12:39-12:48
I love the hymns, but I really struggle with people that believe that hymns are the only types of songs that you can have because God says to sing a new song.
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Bring to me a fresh expression of praise.
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Too new.
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Here's our fourth worship fail.
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Worship should make me feel good.
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How do you evaluate worship?
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Well, really it should make me feel good.
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That is a result.
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True.
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That is a result, but that is not the motive of worship.
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You understand that?
13:16-13:19
The worship team is not up here to try to make you feel good.
13:21-13:22
That's a result, but that's not the motive.
13:22-13:29
The motive is entering into God's presence as a congregation and lifting up our voices.
13:36-13:37
Last worship fail.
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And this usually happens at the end of the service.
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People leave saying, "Well, I didn't really get anything out of that.
13:48-13:58
I was in that worship service and these guys were obviously all talented musicians, but I really didn't get anything out of it." That is a huge fail because worship is not for you.
14:03-14:11
Worship is about, this is so important, that worship is about giving, not getting.
14:15-14:23
And this is a tough thing to try to convince people of in our consumer culture.
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Because we base everything, whether it's the retail store or the restaurant or whatever, it's what did I get out of it?
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What benefits me?
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And what's in it for me?
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And how did that make me feel?
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And me, me, me.
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And sadly, we come to church and we say, "Well, I didn't really get anything out of that." Well, maybe that's the problem.
14:44-15:00
Maybe you came expecting that you were going to get something instead of coming saying, "I'm going to give something." Worship is something you give, and you experience the joy when you pour yourself out in giving it.
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And I know that doesn't seem to make human sense, but I can't think of any of the ways of the Lord that make human sense, can you?
15:11-15:12
You want maximum joy?
15:13-15:14
You have to give it.
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Worship is about giving.
15:16-15:19
Do you know what the first reference is in the Old Testament to worship?
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The first time the word "worship" is used in the Old Testament, Genesis 22, Abraham said he was going to worship when he was going to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice.
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We are going to worship.
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Abraham knew that, and you know the rest of the story, right?
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Spoiler alert, God shows up, don't sacrifice your son, and I'm sorry if I ruined that for anybody.
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Incredible, incredible story with so much meaning.
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But here's what I want you to get.
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In Abraham's mind he said, "I'm going to worship, man.
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I'm going to give God something.
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I'm going to give." First time worship is used in the New Testament is in Matthew chapter 2, when the Magi show up to toddler Jesus, and they come to what?
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"Hey, Jesus is born.
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What did I get?" Oh, that's America, right?
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That's what we do.
16:19-16:20
"We're going to celebrate Jesus.
16:21-16:25
What did you get me for Christmas?" Well, when the Magi showed up, they came to worship, and they came to do what?
16:26-16:27
Give, right?
16:27-16:29
Worship is about giving.
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And if you're not ready to give, you're going to leave saying, "Well, I didn't really get anything out of that." So let's get it right biblically.
16:41-16:41
All in favor?
16:43-16:45
All right, let's get it right biblically.
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Here's the biblical definition of worship.
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Actually in the Hebrew, the word that you find in the Old Testament, the word "worship" literally means to fall before someone.
16:58-17:05
That's literally what the word means, that you get down on your face, head on the ground.
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That's the Hebrew word for worship.
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I am in the presence of somebody greater than I am.
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That's worship.
17:15-17:18
In the New Testament, there are really two words that are used.
17:19-17:30
One, proskuneo, is literally "kiss toward," like kissing the hand.
17:34-17:49
Latreo is "giving homage." That's the other New Testament word, "giving homage." Again, it's the idea of I am in the presence of someone greater than myself.
17:50-17:57
And some will say, "Well, you know what, Pastor Jeff, you know when I worship, to me cutting the grass is worship.
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That's really when I worship.
17:59-18:04
You know, when I cook a meal for my sick neighbor, that to me is worship.
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You know, when I go to work and try to do the right thing, that to me is worship.
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Now all of those things may invoke an awareness of God, but those things are not worship.
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You can do them to the glory of God, for sure, but those things are not worship.
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Worship is the conscious, direct, specific adoration of one greater than ourselves.
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It's a completely selfless emotion.
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So when we come to this worship service, whether this is your 50th time or your first time, certainly worship includes praying.
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Worship includes giving the offering.
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And worship even includes preaching.
18:55-19:07
But again, pausing there, for some people the worship time, the music time is the thing that we kind of hurry up and get out of the way because the preaching is the main event.
19:08-19:31
And I completely disagree with that. I ran into this pastor who was talking about his church and he said, he goes, "You know what, the worship at our church is just absolutely fantastic but I'll tell you what, it's just the purpose of that music is just to get you ready for the sermon.
19:31-19:32
That's the main reason we're there.
19:32-19:42
That music is just to get you ready for the sermon." And I just told him, I'm like, "Man, we are on completely different pages here." I said, "It's actually the exact opposite at our church.
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My job as a preacher is to make you better worshipers.
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And I would suggest to you that the most worshipful thing that we do is collectively ascribing worth to God.
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And why do we do it to music?
20:03-20:05
Why are the Psalms set to music?
20:08-20:12
Well, that's to keep worship from being just merely an intellectual exercise.
20:13-20:28
See if that's all worship was, was an intellectual exercise, we could just get together and say, "Okay, everybody, we're going to stand up here in a couple of minutes and open your Bibles and we're just going to read the words out loud and you can be on your way and we'll say that we worship today.
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I think that could be done worshipfully.
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However, the reason that we worship in music and the reason that the Psalms were set to music is because that brings the emotions into it.
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We don't just sing about God.
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We should be singing to God.
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Okay?
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So first thing, I was created to worship.
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Now I want you to turn to your Bibles.
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Second point here, Jesus answers the worship questions.
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Alright, is there a greater expert on the topic than Jesus Christ?
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Then I would suggest maybe we see what he says about worship.
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I want you to turn to John chapter 4.
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Come on, turn nice and loud.
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That's better, thank you.
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John chapter 4.
21:32-21:46
We're going to be looking at just a few verses, but this passage is really, really the center piece of Harvest Bible Chapel.
21:47-21:55
I've shared this with you before, but the harvest symbol actually comes from John chapter 4 and verse 24.
21:55-21:57
That symbol, the flame, represents spirit.
22:00-22:03
And the book representing the Bible represents truth.
22:04-22:09
And this symbol is sort of a reminder for us that this is who we are as a church.
22:09-22:11
Our church is about worship.
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And we'll see why here in a second.
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Many people associate Harvest Bible Chapel with preaching because you listen to James McDonald's podcasts on the radio or you read his books and you typically associate it with preaching but he will tell you that his job as a preacher is to make you a better worshiper.
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So in John chapter 4, I want to give you the context.
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I could preach about 30 different sermons from this passage.
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It's so rich and Jesus is teaching so much.
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But I want to give you a little context here.
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Jesus was actually passing through Samaria and He stopped in a town called Sychar.
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And He was sitting beside a well and it was around noon and verse 7 says that a woman came to the well.
22:59-23:07
Now most of the woman would have come to the well early in the morning or later in the evening when it wasn't the heat of the day.
23:10-23:17
But she came when no one else was there, we'll find out later here in the passage, because she was disreputable.
23:17-23:20
She didn't have a lot of friends, she was looked down on.
23:25-23:41
And so she comes to the well to draw water and Jesus is sitting there and he asks her water, which completely shocked her because Samaritans, which she was, and Jews, which Jesus was, Samaritans and Jews did not get along.
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You know why?
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You ready for a quick history lesson?
23:50-23:56
I mean how many times have we heard like, you know, the preacher say, "Well, Samaritans and Jews didn't get along." Like, do you want to know why?
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Here's why.
23:59-24:00
were actually half Jewish.
24:01-24:04
And it goes back to King Solomon's day.
24:04-24:15
Right after his rule, remember the kingdom split, the northern kingdom was actually renamed Samaria by King Omri.
24:15-24:17
That happened in 1 Kings 16.24.
24:19-24:44
What about 722 BC, the nation of Assyria conquered northern Israel and they brought many non-Jews, Gentiles, into Samaria, and they intermarried the Jews that were still there, and they created a race of people that were half-Jewish, the Samaritans, and that resulted in racial problems with full-blooded Jews.
24:47-24:51
So really the whole Jewish-Samaritan thing, it's really a race issue.
24:54-25:04
And it didn't help that the Samaritans actually withdrew from worship in Jerusalem, and they established their worship in a different place at Mount Gerizim.
25:09-25:20
So in this passage, after she expresses her shock that a Jewish man would talk to a Samaritan woman, Jesus offered her living water, which is eternal life in verses 14 and 15.
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She says, "I'd like some of that." And Jesus said, "Call your husband." And she says, "I have no husband." And Jesus pointed out to her who she really was.
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But then look at verses 19 through 20.
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We'll pick it up here.
25:40-25:43
The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
25:43-26:02
Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship." Interestingly, after Jesus points out her sin, like, you know, "Call your husband.
26:02-26:19
I have no husband." That's because you've been bouncing around, and you've had a lot of husbands, and you're with somebody now who's not your husband." It seems as if the woman just says, "Let's change the subject.
26:21-26:27
We talk about something else." I don't believe she was insincere, but I do believe that she was feeling the heat.
26:29-26:30
She goes, "Let's talk about something else.
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Let's talk about worship." Jews, right, you Jews are all about Jerusalem, but Samaritans are all about, you know, Mount Gerizim.
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So let's talk about worship and Jesus said, "Let's." So here are the questions that we're going to answer.
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You ready?
26:49-26:50
Drop these down.
26:50-26:54
The first question Jesus answers is this, "Where should I worship?
26:55-26:57
Where should I worship?" Look at verse 21, we'll find the answer.
26:59-27:02
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe." Okay, so which is it?
27:02-27:04
Jerusalem, Mount Gerizim, where should we worship?
27:04-27:15
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father." So where should I worship?
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The answer is anywhere or everywhere, right?
27:25-27:31
Jesus was saying it's not about the mountain, it's about the motives, and it's not about the address, it's about the attitude.
27:32-27:37
And once upon a time when you wanted to worship, when you lived in Old Testament times, where did you go to worship?
27:37-27:39
There was a place, right?
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We went to Jerusalem and we went to the temple and that's where God's unique presence dwelt.
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God lived in the temple.
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Okay, question church, where does God live now?
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Where does God live?
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Right.
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The Bible says that God's Holy Spirit dwells in you.
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The Bible says your body is a what?
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Temple.
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Isn't that neat?
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God lived in a temple in the Old Testament and things haven't changed.
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God still lives in the temple, but now the temple isn't a building of stone and brick and marble.
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Now the temple is your heart.
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Jesus said it's not about where you go to worship, it's about who you worship.
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So we can worship here at Marshall Middle School.
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We could go to your house after church, worship at your house.
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Any takers for that, by the way?
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Who wants to have us all over after?
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Nobody?
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Okay.
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We're going to the Miller's house, and we're going to keep worshiping after church, all right?
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But you see, we can.
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We can.
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Or we could go out into the middle of a field and worship.
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And I think we have a hard time letting go of this idea that worship is about the external features, and that's kind of what this woman was driving at.
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And somehow in 2013 we still hold on to some of these things, right?
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These external features.
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Like when it comes to worship, let's talk about the externals.
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What about instruments?
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What about instruments?
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Which are the biblically appropriate instruments that we should use in worship?
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Some would say, "Well, just the organ, man." Right?
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"Just the organ.
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Just the organ." Some churches believe that if you even have a drum set, this is like the altar of Baal up here, right?
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the organ or just the piano or acoustic guitar and piano.
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Some instruments, some churches use no instruments.
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I had a guy get on my case about that one time.
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He says, "The New Testament doesn't say to use instruments, so you shouldn't use instruments in the church." Focusing on externals.
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You know, is worship about stained glass and candles?
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We don't have that here.
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There's worship about other externals like shirt, tie, and suit coat, right?
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Shirt, tie, and suit coat.
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By the way, I've been chewed out for that one too.
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On a particular Sunday I was just wearing a shirt and tie but didn't have a suit coat.
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And I had a man tell me that that was unacceptable.
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Well Jesus here took the externals off the table.
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It's not about the externals.
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So where should I worship?
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The answer is anywhere.
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Secondly, who should I worship?
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Look at verse 22.
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Who should I worship?
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Look at what Jesus says about worship.
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He said, "You worship what you do not know.
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We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews." Let's pause there for a second.
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Who should I worship?
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The answer is the God of Israel.
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That's who you should worship, the God of Israel.
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And you notice Jesus having a conversation about worship with this woman.
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You really can't have a conversation about worship without talking about salvation.
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You know in America we have a very politically correct and generic view of God, right?
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God bless America, that's not offensive is it?
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You don't offend anybody with that, right?
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God bless America.
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Or if you sneeze, God bless you.
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But you can talk all about God and it's all comfortable until you mention Jesus.
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Then it starts to get uncomfortable.
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But you see, people are comfortable with this idea of this generic God.
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We're not really sure exactly what He's like, but He may or may not be up there and He may may not be involved in it.
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People are okay with that.
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And Jesus said to this woman, "You're worshipping what you do not know." Because God is a person, and God gave us a book.
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That's why we talked about this last week.
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God gave us a book.
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We don't have to sit and wonder, "What is God like?
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What is God like?" Bob, what do you think God's like?
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You know, Justin, what do you think God's like?
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We don't have to do that.
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God told us in His book exactly what He is like.
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And your thoughts about God apart from His Word are meaningless.
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They just are.
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You're like, "Oh, I think God's like this." Well, it doesn't matter what you think about God.
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"Well, I think God's more like this." It doesn't matter.
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What matters is how has God revealed Himself in His Word?
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Jesus said, "You worship what you do not know." The God we worship is a person.
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He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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He is the God of Israel.
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Listen, anti-Semites.
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Did you know the God of the universe became a Jewish man?
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Did you know that?
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this whole notion of the church being anti-Semitic and the church replacing Israel and the sad history of anti-Semitism even in the church.
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Pathetic.
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Because He is the God of Israel.
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Jesus said, do you see that last phrase in verse 22?
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"Salvation is from the Jews." Without sounding overly unpatriotic, we do not worship the God of America.
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We worship the God of Israel, if you believe the Bible.
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His name isn't Allah, His name isn't the Great Spirit, His name isn't the man upstairs.
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Please don't use that phrase around me.
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I won't say anything to you, but deep inside I'm crying when you say that.
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The man upstairs.
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Well according to Jesus, there is no "anything goes" when it comes to worship, right?
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Anything goes, worship how you want, who you want, where you want.
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Where you want is fine, but who you want won't fly.
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It has to start with not knowing about God, but knowing God.
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Maybe there's some here that leave a worship service and sort of feel like, "I didn't really get anything out of that." Well, the first question you have to ask yourself is this, "Do you know God?" Not do you know about Him, not can you list some Bible facts.
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Have you come into a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ?
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Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
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Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross, taking the full payment for your sin, and He rose from the dead so that you can have eternal life?
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Do you believe that?
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Have you been born again?
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Because if you haven't, you can't worship.
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You're just here for music time.
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And you leave going, "Well, those people sure seem fired up, but I didn't really, I guess I didn't really get into it." Well, maybe you don't know the Lord.
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That has to be step one.
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with knowing God, salvation.
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Then finally, how should I worship?
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How should I worship?
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Here it is, verses 23-24.
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All of that was introduction for this.
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Here it is.
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Jesus said, "But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
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For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.
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God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth." So like we do in just about everything, people tend to go to extremes.
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How many people here came from a church where worship was more about Spirit than it was about truth?
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Anybody come from a church like that?
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about spirit than truth? Nobody? Not surprised, because I grew up in this area. We'll get to that in a second. But in some churches, it's all about the spirit, it's all about the emotion, it's all about, you know, whether it's laser shows and fog machines and, you know, "Oh, let's -- I'm going to do a little interpretive dance for Jesus, okay? I just we're just gonna play this little song and there's really no words or anything, but I'm just gonna do this interpretive dance for Jesus, and that's worship. And no substance, just a sentimental outpouring of emotion. That's just worshiping in spirit. Now how many of us came from a background of worship that is more truth than spirit? Yeah, that's what I thought.
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More truth than spirit, or dare I say, no spirits. That's also defective worship.
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When we were kids, the church that we attended growing up, I guess you could say it was a more truth than spirit kind of church because it was always the hymns for a second and last verse, right?
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And the one Sunday in particular, we were muddling through some hymns.
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And muddling is a bit of an understatement.
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It was a lot worse than that.
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But the organ was kind of playing the songs and everybody was just kind of mouthing the words and trying to pronounce these hard words.
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It was just, it was so much worse than that.
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I'll never forget it.
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The preacher actually stood up right in the middle of the hymn, and he said, "Stop.
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Stop.
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Stop playing.
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Stop singing.
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I'm not going to let you ruin another one.
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Sit down." Everybody sat down and was kind of looking at each other, right?
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Everybody was just kind of like, "Okay." went right into the sermon. He's like, "Open your reader's digest or whatever, we're getting right to the sermon." Like, "Oh, that's a fail on two fronts." That's defective.
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Hymns filled with wonderful truth, but the problem is the truth raced by so quickly, there was often no time for it to sink down into our spirits, right? Like, "A mighty fortress is our God." How many people know that hymn? "A mighty fortress is our God." You want to sing it? "A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate on earth is not his equal." Okay, like, what did you get out of that?
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Seriously, like, what was that about?
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What's a bulwark?
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Does anybody know what a bulwark is?
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What's a bulwark?
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Okay, protective wall.
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Okay, I didn't know that.
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Maybe that's why I didn't get into this hymn.
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Okay, so that makes sense.
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Okay, but by the time I figure that out, I'm on like verse four already, and when you put it that way, there's beautiful truth here, right?
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God is our shield and our refuge.
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But the problem is when you get done singing a hymn like that, you just kind of step back and go, "You know what?
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That was just so true.
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Just mighty fortress is our God.
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That's just so very true.
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But there's no emotion behind it.
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Listen, my wife doesn't want to be told that I love her because it's time to say it again.
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Right?
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Every night, 10 o'clock, I have a little alarm that goes off on my phone.
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"Aaron!" "This is the time of the day that I tell you that I love you." There, said it.
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And we laugh at that, but honestly that's what some people do when they come to church, isn't it?
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"God, it's 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning.
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This is the time that I show up and tell you how much I love you, and I will see you next week." Well, if that wouldn't fire my wife up, I would suggest to you that it wouldn't fire up the Lord to hear worship like that.
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Isaiah 29, 13, God says, "These people honor Me with their lips, but," what?
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"Their hearts are far from Me." So church, true worship, true worship, Jesus said, is spirit and truth.
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True worship is spirit and truth, spirit with my whole heart, with everything that's in me, with my emotions.
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I have come to pour myself out before the Lord.
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That's spirit, but it's also according to God's truth.
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Our worship team is coming up to lead us in a time of worship.
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But I'd like to remind you that this isn't music time.
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This is the highest human experience.
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is expressing love to the most worthy of that affection. This is a time of adoration to the one who made you. This is a time of thankfulness to the one who saved you. This is expressing the joy over the one who is with you always. This is a rehearsal for heaven. This is a prelude for eternity. So I invite you to stand. And let's worship God in spirit and in truth.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 4:21-24
What has been your past worship experience / understanding in the church? More spirit or more truth?
Why is worship such a controversial subject? How would you answer someone who says, “It doesn’t really matter how you worship. You can worship doing anything.”
Breakout Questions:
Rate yourself as a worshiper on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 = passionate, 1 = desert dry). Why would you give yourself this number? What can you do to be better prepared to worship with the congregation Sunday?
Pray for one another.