How to Worship part 2

Pastor Mike will be continuing his lesson on how to worship. He will be in John 4:15-24

We’re all worshipers, no matter who we are. Whether we’re believers or not, we either worship God or we worship ourselves or things in this world, but we are all worshipers. But let’s today dedicate ourselves to worshiping God and do it in spirit from our hearts and do it in truth according to the Bible.

And may our lives glorify Him. You’re listening to Hope Worth Having radio program and this is Pastor Mike and we are thankful that you are with us today. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for being a part of this ministry.

Maybe this is the first time you’ve heard us. We want you to know that this is a ministry about teaching and preaching God’s word verse by verse and we do not want to take the Bible out of context, we’re not preaching preferences or politics or personalities.

We’re just bringing you God’s word straight forward and we’re hoping that it will do its work in you. The Bible promises that God’s word will not return void. We’re confident that as you and I are under the word of God that it shapes our hearts and our minds to be more like Jesus Christ.

Well, today we’re gonna be in John chapter four, verse 15 through 24. We’re continuing our study on how to worship God. And so in the midst of Jesus reaching out to the woman at the well, they have a debate about what is true worship.

And Jesus reminds us that God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in truth and in spirit. And so we’re gonna break that down. What does that mean? And how do we apply that? And how do we make sure that we are authentically worshiping Jesus Christ?

so I want you to get your Bible and I want you to get your notebook and let’s get right into the Bible and learn about this how to worship God Jesus teaches us that we can be far from God that everything can be whitewashed on the outside but our heart can be far from God and so it requires that each of us make sure that as we come to the house of the Lord that we’re authentic but also that when we leave the house of the Lord that we’re authentic that we’re true to who we are and what is the key to that it is a full surrendered life to Jesus Christ Romans 12 once as I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present yourself as a living sacrifice unto God And the Bible goes on to say that this is your reasonable service.

Some translators put it like this, this is your act of worship to God. And it’s a great way to put it because it really captures what the Greek is saying, the Greek words are saying, and that is this, that as I am surrendering my heart to God and I am putting my life on the altar to God and saying, Lord, here is my life and I want to live my life as a sacrifice unto you.

It is an act of worship to God every day. So every day of my life, God is calling me to surrender. Now you might be just like Mike Sanders and that there are times in your life that you want to be selfish.

And there’s times that you get off that altar and say, I want to do it my way. But you know what God says to us? He says, Mike, get back up on that altar and be a living sacrifice for me. And that is your act of worship to me.

So as you interact with people throughout this week, as you are doing things, even some of the minutest and mundane things that you may have to do, even at your job, even in your responsibilities of, I think about young mothers who are raising their children and they may feel like just all this effort of raising their children may be meaningless and mundane, but I’m telling you, it’s all an act of worship to God.

That even as we are at the job and we’re doing our responsibilities and we may feel very frustrated with our responsibilities or we may feel like we’re being asked to do too much that you’re really not doing it unto any human being.

You’re doing it as unto the Lord and that you begin your day and say, Lord, here’s my life and whoever you put in my path and whatever you put in my path, I’m going to just strive to bring glory to you in how I handle it, how I respond to it, and how I accomplish what you want for me to do.

The second thing about worship, when we’re learning how to worship, not only is it to be authentic, but God seeks those who would worship Him accurately. So the Bible, again, as we look at our text and we understand what Jesus says in verse 23, He says, the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit, which is being authentic, and in what?

Truth, which means to be accurate. My worship must be accurate. You see, remember the Apostle Paul taught us that God is not a God of confusion and He is not a God of chaos. Now we sometimes think worship is just, you know, losing control of your emotions or losing control of your mind or losing control of your body, but none of that is true worship to God.

The truth is that our worship is to be in line with His truth. that God is not calling us to worship Him in a confusing way or a chaotic way but rather He is calling us to worship Him according to His Word.

Some people might say, well I just want to worship God in my own way. No, no. We must worship God in His way. We must worship God according to His revelation in His truth. This is why people say to me all the time as a pastor and it’s just the life of a pastor and they say pastor you ought to do this and you ought to do that pastor and if you would change this pastor and if you would change that pastor and pastor let me tell you they’ve never been to Bible college just like I never been to plumbing school and I don’t go to the plumber and I don’t say plumber let me tell you how to do plumbing but everybody feels compelled to tell the pastor how to do church and you know what I want to say to them here’s how we’re gonna do church we’re gonna do church like God’s Word says okay if I find it in the Bible that I’m all for it okay and the rest I’m just you know indifferent to it to be honest with you and I don’t feel like it’s the kicker I don’t think that the church is looking for a silver bullet I don’t think that the white horse the the Savior’s coming in on a white horse in the sense of he’s gonna bring all the right answers that we have some person some program some personality is gonna just have all the answers for us you know what I think the church ought to do I think the church ought to get back to the Bible and I think we ought to worship God as he says in his word but you say pastor why can’t we be like so -and -so church and why can’t we be like that big church and that big pastor personality why can’t we do it like him because God calls us to be who we are first of all we shouldn’t be insecure that we feel like we got to be like everybody amen I mean if you’re like that and you’re somebody who’s always trying to be like somebody and you’re always trying to keep everybody happy in your life guess who’s most miserable you are that’s right so I don’t live like that myself personally.

I’m not gonna lead the church like that, not striving to be like anybody. It’s not that I can’t learn. It’s not that I can’t grow. It’s not that I can’t be teachable. I’m all for all that. But I want you to know, friends, I want the open door to be the open door.

I really do. I want the open door church to be the open door church. I don’t wanna make it like any other church. I want it to be a local fellowship that loves God, that worships God, that honors God, and that worships according to His word.

What we need in our hearts is we need sincerity, but we also need truth. We need integrity, but we also need God’s word. We need to be authentic in our worship, but we also need to be accurate in our worship.

That is where the Samaritans got it wrong. Did you catch that in the passage of scripture? that in verse 19, the woman said unto him, sir, I perceive that thou are a prophet. She knew Jesus was different.

Verse 20, our fathers worshiped in this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. And so the Samaritans believed that they were called to build a temple where Abraham made his first altar and that that is where they were to gather, excuse me, they were gathered to worship.

The Jews believe that Jerusalem was the city of God and that that is the place where the anointing of God was and that the temple was commanded to be built and that that is where they were to worship.

And so again, this woman was trying to redirect the conversation because Jesus had exposed her sin. And then she wanted to talk about worship. She wanted to debate worship. You know what in the church, you know what the number one debate in the church is?

It’s not theology. It’s not even about the Bible. You know what the number one debate is? It’s worship, it’s music. Buddy, if you wanna get people fired up, you start talking about music to them. You start saying, look, I’m a Southern gospel music style.

Another one says, no, I’m bluegrass style. Another one says, no, I’m contemporary style. Another one says, I only like hymns. And another one says, I only like the hard stuff and you go on and on and it’s all over the map and buddy, that’ll get God’s people mad or anything.

You want people probably, if they would have had more problems at Thanksgiving, not talking about politics, but talking about worship styles. That would make people mad. Churches divide over it. As a matter of fact, churches separate over it.

You don’t believe me, man. I mean, I have seen it so many times. Churches have three, four different services and they say, you come to this. service, we have this music style, you have this service, we have this music style.

I’m not condemning them, I’m not judging them, so don’t get upset with me. I just talk to the pastors I listen to, and here’s what they say to me. They say, pastor, we pastor three different churches.

That’s what we do. And the older people are mad at the younger people, and the younger people are mad at the older people, and they all are constantly fighting over one thing, we don’t like your music.

Wow. Wow. I’ve had people tell me that they are going to leave the church because they didn’t like our music. They didn’t like that we sang too many hymns, or they didn’t like that we didn’t sing too many contemporaries.

Here’s the thing, here’s what I’m saying, is this true worship? I know that this may frustrate you, but I’m just trying to ask you, are we truly worshiping God? That we’re so consumed with style, we’re so consumed with outward things, there’s no sincerity within us, we turn the objects We turn the style, we turn people, we turn things into the objects of worship rather than giving worth to our almighty God.

That’s what happens church. Somehow we have to grow up beyond what a particular style. Friends, styles are all over the map. You travel the world, you travel different countries, you travel different churches and people are gonna have different styles.

Doesn’t matter, man, when I grew up in Oklahoma, man, if you wore a nice pair of jeans and a nice shirt and a cowboy hat, you were dressed up for church. Did you know that? And some of you, you’d be infuriated.

You would struggle with that. That’s the way we did it in Oklahoma, but praise God, I got saved in Oklahoma, that little church. They didn’t worship like you. They didn’t worship like you. When I pastored at Calvary Baptist Church, man, if I said Mary had a little lamb, I mean the altars would be full.

People just love to come to the altar and pray. The open door is different. When I bring my sermon to a close, 40, 50 people get up and walk out. That’s just the way it is. I’ve been for 13 years trying to change it, it doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter. It’s the way the church is. Every community is different. Every people group is different. And so you can’t impose yourself. What you got to do is say, look, we’re here to worship God.

Now what hinders worship in my life? I want you to write this down. Number one is ignorance. Ignorance hinders worship in my life. In verse 22 of chapter 4, Jesus said to the woman, you worship what you do not know.

See, the truth is the Samaritans did have it wrong. They had it wrong because they did did not follow the entire Word of God. They just picked out certain parts of the Bible that they like, and Jesus said to the woman, you worship what you do not know.

And so you know what it is? Sometimes people worship out of ignorance. And it hinders their worship because they’re not maturing, they’re not growing in their faith. Sometimes what hinders our worship is our own hypocrisy.

Look at verse 16. Jesus said unto her, Go call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast in thou is not thy husband.

In that, saidest thou truly. Here’s a woman who was living in sin. And that’s what hindered her worship. And you know what can hinder our worship is when we are living in sin. Here’s a woman who was living with a man who was not her husband.

And she had chosen to cohabitate with this man and she had gone from one relationship to the next relationship, hoping to find meaning, hoping to find purpose, hoping to find happiness, and all she found was hurt and loneliness and trouble.

And sin in her life was hindering her from authentically and accurately worshiping God. And so it is in my heart and in your heart is that sin can be a great barrier that limits our worship to God. But the third thing I would say that limits our worship is apathy, it’s apathy.

Verse 23 says, the hour come and now is. When the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him. You see what Jesus was saying is that God is looking for true worshipers.

He is seeking out those who will authentically and accurately worship Him, that they have not become indifferent or apathetic towards the things of God, but they wanna participate in bringing worth to God and glory to God.

They wanna make God big before others. And in my heart, I have to make sure that in my worship that I don’t get caught up in these nonsensical debates about music, about styles, about instruments, that I don’t get wrapped up into those things because of my ignorance of the word of God.

Listen, folks, the Bible is full of many examples of many styles of worship and many instruments of worship. Okay, so don’t get… wrapped up in that stuff. You know what? I’m not a bluegrass guy, okay?

But you know what? I appreciate the talent. I thank God that people sing bluegrass style and I know they’re singing from their hearts and I know they’re worshiping God. God doesn’t say, well, if it’s bluegrass, I can’t accept it.

God doesn’t say that. And the same thing, I appreciate the young people and their contemporary music as long as it is authentic and it lines up with the Bible. I’m okay with it, church. Now you might struggle with it and you say, well, I grew up on this hymn and I grew up on that hymn and I’m cool with that too.

But you know what? A lot of the young people, they may have gotten saved under another song and now that’s their song that sticks and is meaningful to them in their hearts and it helps them as they’re authentically worshiping from their heart and I’m cool with all that.

I’m not gonna be so ignorant. of the Word of God that I cannot appreciate different styles and different methods of relating to worshipping God or different instruments. I praise God for the piano. Did you know that at one time the piano was considered to be the devil’s instrument?

Did you know that? Charles Spurgeon, one of my favorite preachers, you hear me quote from him a lot, but did you know that he would not allow a piano in any of his services? Because he thought it was the devil’s instrument.

And see, all I’m trying to say to you is see how foolish that can be. See how foolish now if we, if I ever got rid of the piano, you guys would have coronary attack. You would. You would say, our pastor is a heretic and let’s put him on the cross and carry him out of town.

He is a nut job. But did you know that, I know this is going to be hard, but you travel to a third world country. Did you know they don’t have big grand pianos sitting on their platforms? I don’t know how they worship God without a piano.

I don’t know how they do it. But somehow, some way, they still worship God without a piano. Do you think it’s possible to worship God without a piano? It is. If our young people like a guitar and they want to use a guitar to worship God, I’m fine with that.

If they want to use a drum to worship God, I’m fine with that. Just, you know, they need to do it several blocks down the road, amen. Just kidding. All I’m trying to say to you is this, don’t be ignorant.

Don’t be immature. That hinders your worship. The second thing is the hypocrisy is making sure that my life is in line with God and rather than judging everybody else’s worship and rather than finding fault with everybody else’s worship, how about I work on Mike Sanders?

How about I work on my own sin? How about I deal with what is hindering worship? in my own heart, what is hindering worship in my own life, it might be my attitude, it might be something I’m participating in, it might be a relationship I’m involved in that’s hindering my worship to God.

How about apathy? Did you come in here desiring to love on Jesus more? Did you come looking forward with great anticipation celebrating His resurrection? Now my third and final point that I want to leave with you this morning is that God seeks those who will worship Him holistically.

And here’s what I mean, is that every aspect of our life, every aspect of our life is worship to God. And this is what Jesus wanted the woman to understand. The hour is coming that it’s not going to be in the mountain, it’s not going to be in Jerusalem.

He says you worship in verse 22 ignorantly, but he says the hours coming in verse 23 and now is when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. Here’s what the spirit and truth the every essence of my life, everything that I do is worship to God.

Jesus said in Mark 12 verse 30 thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. Someone defined worship as this.

Worship is responding to all that God is with all that we are. I want you to leave this place understanding that your worship is not finished this morning. Your worship is not just on Sunday. It’s not done when we say amen and walk out of this building.

Worship isn’t passive. Worship isn’t something that I come and I get entertained and I just get people just move me emotionally, but it’s participatory meaning that I am participating. I am a part of it.

I am the one expressing love. I am the one expressing praise. I am the one expressing glory to God. Every aspect of my life is to be in worship to God. So what does that mean? I need to dedicate my life and every part of my day to the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s not just my gifts, my money or my finances that is worshiped to God. It’s my talents. It’s my abilities. It is my time. It’s all worship to God. See, this is the mistake we like to do. We like to do the 10% thing.

So people say, I’m gonna give 10% of my giving. I’m gonna give 10% of my time. I’m gonna give 10% of my talent. No, give it all to Jesus. Give it all to Jesus. Every day is for Him. Every day is for His glory.

And that’s what I want to encourage you to do. I want you to be fully committed to God, church. And I believe there are five basic commitments that we should always be making. As a matter of fact, we’re building this church around these five commitments.

And number one is I need to give my life to Jesus Christ. If you’re here this morning and you have never trusted Christ, the only way you can worship Him is first to be saved. To be saved from your sin.

To recognize you’re a sinner in need of a Savior, Jesus Christ through his great grace and his love towards you went to that cross and died on the cross for you. And the first commitment that you need to make to him is to receive him as Lord and Savior of your life.

The second commitment that you need to make to the Lord Jesus Christ is commit your life to his family, to the church family by becoming a part of this church. Many of you have already trusted Christ, you have already been baptized, and now it’s time for you to take the step and the act of worship by being a part of a local church family where you can minister to others and others can minister to you.

Some of you have grown up in this church and it’s time now for you to make that decision. You’re an adult and you need to decide where is gonna be my home church? Where is gonna be my local family where I spiritually am fed and nurtured and cared for?

The third commitment is choosing to grow spiritually and becoming more like Jesus Christ every day in my character. You must choose to grow. It does not naturally happen and it is an act of worship to grow in the Lord and to be like Christ every day.

Our fourth commitment is using my talents in helping others, we call that ministry. I mean, I think the most miserable life is to live for self but the most meaningful life is to serve others, is to invest your abilities in helping others and then finally the fifth commitment is to share the good news with other people by fulfilling the mission.

that God has given me fulfilling His purpose in my life. I am here for a reason. God has a plan for my life and I want to make a commitment that God would use my life for Him. You see friends, if you will build your life around those five commitments, every day of your life will be an act of worship.

Every activity of your life will be an act of worship. So where are you? What is your next step? What is your next step? We’re all worshippers. No matter who we are, whether we’re believers or not, we either worship God or we worship ourselves or things in this world, but we are all worshippers.

But let’s today dedicate ourselves to worshiping God and do it in spirit. from our hearts and do it in truth according to the Bible. And may our lives glorify Him. So when we worship God, it’s not only got to be authentic, but we’ve learned already that it’s got to be accurate.

So worship cannot go against the Bible. Worship cannot be in contradiction to God’s truth. And so when I worship, I have to make sure that it is aligned with the truth of God. And I know that it’s easy for us to sometimes just get on the emotional bandwagon and to be a part of worship in some context of using our emotions.

And I’m not against emotions, but emotions have to be discerning. And we have to renew our mind and make sure that as you are studying the Bible, that as you worship God, that it is aligning with His truth.

God’s not going to ask you to do anything that goes against the Bible. That’s just, you know, false. Anybody who believes that. And so the bottom line is that I want my worship not to be something that pleases me or something that I enjoy.

I want it to be truthful and I want it to be from my heart. And so, so many times people say, well, you know, I’m going to go to this church because I like their music or I’m going to go to this church because I like the worship service.

Well, you got to make sure that first of all, is that even aligning with the Bible? And number two is, am I trying to please myself or am I trying to please God? And so make sure that your heart is true to Jesus and that as you worship Him, you recognize it’s more than a song.

It’s more than music, but really, Worship is my entire life and it’s from my heart and everything I do is an act of worship to God and I offer myself to Him every day yielding my life that everything is for Him and about Him.

And when we do that, God’s going to use us in a great way so I want to make sure that you’re encouraged and follow that path. Now I want to remind you if you’d like to receive a copy of this sermon, How to Worship God, there are two parts to it, we couldn’t get it all on the air but we want you to have a copy of it so feel free to reach out to us at hopeworthhaving .com, simply let us know that you’d like to receive a copy of the CD,

How to Worship God. In addition, you can call us at 717 -264 -3266, extension 120, that’s extension 120, or you can write us at Hopeworth Having, 600 Miller Street, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 172. And for a small donation, a donation of any size, it doesn’t matter to us, we just will send you a copy of this great CD so you can learn how to effectively worship God.

This is Pastor Mike reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.