(Overhead 1) This time of year is a time for love, romance, and passion. Millions of dollars are spent on Valentine’s Day gifts. In fact a 1998 report from Ball State University indicates, “Valentine’s Day ranks second behind Christmas in total sales of candy, flowers and cards.”
Love is important to us isn’t it? We want to love and we want to be loved and one of the ways that we show love is by buying gifts this time of year.
One of the things about love is that it makes us passionate, it gets us excited! The people or things we love, we get passionate about!
I sent an e-mail question to those of us who have e-mail and I asked you the question, What Gets You Excited?
Here is what some of you said: (Overhead 2)
•something that keeps me busy
•my family, the birth of a new baby and love
•music, sporting events that relatives are playing in, and shopping!!
•God working in my life
•Seeing the sanctuary full of worshippers
•seeing someone new participate in God’s work
•Knowing I’m doing what God wants
Others of you said:
ü Knowing that what ever happens, God is still in control.
ü Hearing how God is working in the lives of others
ü The sunshine of Spring, especially when it’s this cold out.
Let me suggest this morning that from the very start love and passion was a part of God’s plan. He wanted to create creatures that would love Him as well as one another. He wants us to enjoy the life that He has given to us. It is a part of God’s purpose for our lives and our very existence. But how do we love God?
In both the Old and New Testaments, God has commanded us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength.” In the New Testament Jesus calls it the Great Commandment and among His last words to the disciples, Jesus said that the best evidence they were following him was by loving as well as obeying Him. As John 15:10 indicates, “When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love.” (NLT)
A very important way that we love God is through worship. Worship, true worship, honest worship, is pleasing, extremely pleasing to God. It makes God smile. God rejoices and gets great pleasure in our worship.
In a passage that is commonly used to talk about outreach, there is a discussion about worship. And I think that we need to look at the link between the two because there is a very important link between outreach and worship as follows: We worship what we believe in and what we believe in we are going to tell others about.
The passage, John 4:19-26, has already been read, and now I want to set it in the proper context. Namely, that Jesus has met a Samaritan woman at a well in the mid-day heat.
And a dialogue ensues between the woman and that leads Jesus to disclose to the woman that He knows about her martial status. And that is where we pickup our text for this morning.
Christ’s disclosure unsettles her. And may be because of this unsettledness she tries to change the topic and asks a question, “Why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?” Or maybe, in her search for God, the issue, or rather the conflict, about worship is keeping her from fully committing herself to God. Or maybe it is a little of both!
Anyway, a discussion ensues about worship. And Jesus says to her several important things about worship that we need to be reminded of today.
Basically Jesus says, “Where you worship does not matter. It’s who you worship and how you worship that does matter.” Let’s first look at the whom.
Now a second question that I asked earlier this week in my e-mail was Growing up, what was your picture of God? Here is what you said: (overhead 3)
•was up in the sky somewhere
•could do anything and sees everything
•a sense of love, kindness, someone to embrace you, and he would always be there to protect me
•always thought of God as a man high up on a cloud, listening to my prayers
•A little blond boy in blue and white-stripped pj’s kneeling by a bed praying.
•An old man in the sky who sees everything I do
Others of you said:
ü A judge on a throne. Was never informed of His love.
ü God was like a very loving father
In response to Jesus’ prophetic statement about her marital status, the woman says in verse 10, “Sir, you must be a prophet.” She does not yet understand or realize that Jesus is the Messiah. She thinks that He is a prophet, a Jewish prophet and I think that we can safely say that is implied in the wording of her question about “you Jews” and about the object of her worship – which we assume is God.
But it is not until after Jesus makes clear that true worship is a matter of the heart and not location, she admits in verse 25 that she believes in the Messiah and that “He will come and explain everything to us.” And then as we read in verse 26 Jesus says “I am the Messiah!”
This Samaritan woman represents us so well. Many, many people are just like her. They believe in God, or about God, even though their lives may not be fully committed to Him like God desires. They have questions, they need answers, they want to worship God in the right way. But they are confused. They are confused for a couple of reasons: 1. They really don’t know who God is. 2. The issue of worship confuses them.
Let’s think about it for a minute. At this time of the week, those who are unchurched in our community could come to our church or First Baptist next door or Grace Christian down the street and perhaps become confused. Our congregations worship differently and we have different expectations of worship and have some different beliefs about worship! And herein lies a critical question – just whom is worship for? The correct answer is: It’s for God! It’s about God! Not us!
There has been so much energy wasted on worship preferences. Now I know in our congregation for as many different people as there are present this morning, there are that many different worship preferences. Some of us like fast paced upbeat music only and others of us like a more meditative style only. Others of us like some of everything.
What matters to God is that all this singing, no matter how fast or slow it is, all of this singing is for Him! Why? Because it is not how we worship (how being concerned about style and preference) but whom we worship, we worship God! Good and God-honoring worship brings a smile to God.
It pleases Him!
But, we also need to be concerned about the how of worship. And that involves the how of our motives and attitudes that we bring to worship.
In our text, Jesus makes it very clear that those who truly worship God “do so in spirit and in truth.” What does this mean?
When a person dies, according to the Christian faith, his or her spirit leaves this world and goes to either heaven or hell. But, there is more to this issue of spirit than just our traditional views. Spirit also deals with our attitudes and values and motives. And this aspect of our spirit is what Jesus is addressing in our text.
“Worship that honors God, worship that pleases God,” he says, “is worship that is honest, faithful, true, and God-centered worship. And that can only come from hearts that are truly devoted to God.”
Now, at this point we need to do some soul searching in regard to worship because if we are going to be a fully following and faithfully functioning church, then worship must be a part of our individual and congregational life because worship, God-honoring and God-centering worship, is central to experiencing God and then living for Him.
(Overhead 4 up) On the overhead are some questions for personal reflection regarding worship. Take a moment and rank yourself, 1 low to 5 high, on each of the items
How Well Do I Worship?
1 (Low) to 5 (high)
I experience God’s power and presence more often
I faithfully attend worship to worship God
I have a great desire to please God in every area of my life
I am learning to accept those things that I can’t do anything about and have a greater share of gratitude
In becoming a fully functioning church, worship is a foundational element because in worship as well as in outreach, discipleship, fellowship, and service, the focus is on God not the church or the pastor or someone else. God is the founder of our faith and the Church and it is He and He alone who is to be worshipped and followed. So, good worship is critical in helping us to fully function in God honoring ways.
(Overhead 5 up) We are already addressing this important function through our worship ministry team that is currently led by Kathy. In addition to Kathy there are at seven other persons who serve on this team. They are:
1. Betty Awho gives leadership and service to our nursery ministry.
2. Susan , Phyllis , as well as Kathy who gives leadership and service to our worship planning team.
3. Tausha who gives leadership and service in the area of special events such as mother and father’s day and other special events.
4. Nicole , Dave and Dawn who give leadership and service to our children’s church ministry.
There is also the praise team that has Maxine Poynter and Cindy Headley as part of it. And then there are the numerous persons who give leadership by taking their turn with childcare help in the nursery during worship. Thanks to all of you.
The purpose of our worship ministry is to help persons personally experience God. And in addition to weekly worship they are working toward the following three and five year goals with regard to worship. They are as follows:
3 Year: Develop more opportunities for the youth and teens to participate in worship leadership.
5 Year: Develop a variety of special occasion, choral groups to augment worship.
I believe that these goals are a part of the important function of worship in our church but there is much more than can be done. Maybe the Lord has and is calling you to become involved in this area of ministry. If so, Kathy or I would be happy to talk with you.
(Overhead 6 up) The heart of our worship is not what but who – God! It’s not how but why. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Let us conclude today by reaffirming that in our hearts. Amen.
Overheads are available from pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and ask for 021603 svgs How well do I worship is adopted from Saddleback’s 40 day purpose-driven life program.
