Our Podcast

How to Worship

Pastor Mike will be speaking on How to Worship. The text is John 4:15-24

I don’t think that the church is looking for a silver bullet. I don’t think that 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, he’s 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. This is Hope Worth Having, and this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church welcoming you to our radio broadcast today.

Thank you for being a part. We’re excited that you could be with us today, that you are tuned in. We want you to join us as we study the Bible today. We’re gonna continue our study in the Gospel of John, chapter four.

We’re gonna be in verse 15 through 24. We’re gonna talk about how to worship. You know, there are different worship styles, and there’s different people that claim that they worship God, and here, there, and there’s all kind of things going out there about what they think is worship.

But let’s look to the Bible. What did Jesus say is true worship? When he talked to the woman at the well, she kind of disputed with him a little bit about what is authentic worship, and Jesus defined it, and then he helped us to understand how we can demonstrate true worship in our life.

And so I think you’re gonna enjoy this as we study God’s Word. Let’s grab our Bibles. Let’s get our pen, paper, cup of tea, coffee, and let’s get into God’s Word today. If you have your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in the Gospel of John, and we’re gonna continue our study and through the Gospel of John, chapter four, verses 15 through 24 is our text.

While you’re turning there, I want you to ponder this question, what does it really mean to worship God? What does it really mean worship God. The word worship comes from an old English word that is simply worthship, which means that we are to give worth.

And when we think about giving worth, the Bible calls us to give worth to God. And when we think of the essence of what worship is, it really is giving worth to God. He deserves our worship because He is an awesome God.

He is the great God. The Scriptures remind us in Revelation that thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Our purpose in life is to bring glory to God. The Bible tells us that in all things that we do, no matter whether we eat or drink, that we are to bring glory to God. And so every part of my life is to bring glory to God and really that is wrapped up in my worship to God.

And when I think about every day beginning my life, as I start on this new journey, this new day that God has blessed me with, I have a responsibility to give glory to God, to worship Him by giving glory.

God deserves my highest loyalty and my highest love. The Bible tells us that Jesus was asked a question and that question was simply this, what is the most important commandment in all of the Bible? And when Jesus answered that question, He simply said these words, that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind and strength.

That is the highest commandment. It is the most important commandment. The truth is this, that it is the bottom line of the Bible. A lot of people complicate the Bible. They sometimes create confusion about the Bible and they try to interpret it in ways that it does not even was meant to be interpreted as applied to our lives.

But I want you to know that when you love God with all of your heart, you are fulfilling the law of God. When you love God with all of your strength and all of your soul and all of your mind and every essence of who you are, you are loving Him every day, worshiping Him every day, and you are expressing worth to Him every day that you are fulfilling the most important command in all of the Bible, because God deserves our highest loyalty and He deserves our highest love.

Now, when we come to God, our text in this passage this morning in John chapter 4, in verse 15 through 24, Jesus Christ is in a conversation with a Samaritan woman at the well. And what is interesting at this conversation that it is the longest conversation that is recorded in the scriptures that Jesus had with anyone.

And here in this conversation, in the midst of it, the subject of worship comes up and Jesus gives statements in this passage of scripture that help us to understand what true worship is. So I want you to pick up with me in verse 15 and notice what the Bible says, the woman saith unto him, sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

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 has had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband, in that saidest thou truly.

The woman saith unto him, sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto her woman, believe me the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.

You worship, you know not what we know, what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship Him.

God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Jesus Christ in this is a spirit, and so many times we get that all wrong. We think, boy, we’re going to go to church and worship God, but it’s really not the place.

Sometimes we think that worship is all about simply defined in a certain time frame, that we’re going to go to church from this time to this time, and that’s when we’re going to worship God. But Jesus reminds her that worship is not limited, not only to a place, it’s not limited to a simple time frame.

And when we go to worship and to the church, sometimes we think that worship is singing out of a hymn book or worship is singing a song and Jesus reminds us again that worship is not limited to a place.

It’s not limited to a time frame and it’s not even limited to a certain activity. But worship is so much more than that and that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning is how to worship. How to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so if you’re taking notes I want you to write this down because the first thing I want you to see is that God seeks those who would worship Him authentically. God is seeking those who would worship Him authentically.

Did you catch what Jesus said? He said this. He said that they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now don’t misunderstand. what Jesus is saying because so many people can really miss it.

When Jesus says that you’re to worship Him in spirit, He’s not talking about the Holy Spirit, but certainly the Spirit of God is a part of our worship. And certainly as we worship the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, as we worship God, it’s the Triune God that we worship.

And we recognize that, but really what Jesus is talking about here in this text is He is talking about our spirit. He is talking about how we are to worship authentically from our heart. He is saying to us that when you worship God, it’s not about the outward stuff.

It’s not about the place that you go to. It’s not about the song that you sing. It’s not even about a certain time frame. It’s not about all this stuff on the outside that so many people get wrapped up to.

But He says worship comes from the heart. Our spirit, our inner life, our emotions, our will, our heart, everything that is about who we are. When we come this morning, we understand that we are worshiping God.

But even as we leave this morning, did you know that in everything that you are doing throughout the day, that you are worshiping God? And it must be genuine. It must be authentic. It must be from the very core of your being as you are worshiping God.

We as people, we so much want the tangible. We want the material. And that’s why we’re enamored by the liturgical ritual services. And we become kind of captured by these different techniques or methods or traditions that might be incorporated into a church service.

And we think, wow, that is neat. And that made me feel like I was worshiping God. But the truth is none of those things are true expressions of worship. worship comes from the heart. Genuine worship is heartfelt and it is honest before God.

True worship is transparent before the Lord Jesus Christ as we are expressing our love to Him and we are expressing worth to Him. The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 16 verse 7 that the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on His countenance or on the height of His stature because I have refused Him for the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the what?

The heart. God is looking at your heart this morning. You know when we sing, we sing songs. God is looking at your heart. If you came in with a complaining heart. If you came in with a heart that was comparing, maybe comparing to another church or comparing to other Christians or comparing to what you heard on the radio, then friends, you’re not really authentically worshiping God.

God knows you can mouth the words, you can even say the words, and you can praise God with the words and your way of how you do it, but if your heart is far from God and is not focused on the Lord Jesus Christ and it’s not all about Him, then it means nothing to God.

It means nothing to God. When we came this morning, we had the privilege, and I hope all of you did, you had the privilege to give to worship God. But did you know that if you gave this morning and you gave and you said, you know what, I really am frustrated that I have to give this, or you gave because your wife told you to give, or you gave because you felt like you had this guilt upon you that you had to give,

then I want you to know God already knows your heart, and what you did outwardly meant nothing to God. And that’s what we have to capture is that worship comes from the heart. Worship is being authentic before God.

We can sing and not worship. We can give and not worship. We can sit and hear the teaching of God’s Word and not worship because worshiping God is in our spirit, and it must come from our heart, and it must be the outgrowth of how we are expressing our love to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul was explaining to the Corinthians that God is not a god of chaos, and he’s not a god of confusion. As a matter of fact, in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 33, he reminds the Corinthians that God is not a god of confusion, but of peace.

And so the Bible teaches us that confusion does not come from God, chaos does not come from God, but rather peace comes from God. And by the way, in your own heart, if you’re confused about anything, it’s not from God.

If there is confusion about what you should do, it is not from the Lord. Confusion comes from the world, confusion comes from our own flesh, and confusion comes from Satan. But peace comes from God. Peace comes from God.

In his effort to explain to the Corinthian believers how service should be conducted, the Apostle Paul gives us a little insight about worship. In verse 15 of 1 Corinthians, he says, what am I to do?

I will praise with my spirits, but I will pray with my mind also. Will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also And so the apostle is saying that every essence of who he is that as we stand and we sing and as we are Worshiping God it comes from our spirit.

That’s what it’s supposed to come from it comes from our mind It comes from our heart. It comes from who we are within God has invited his people to come He has invited them to come into his presence and worship him the psalmist said in 147 Psalm 147 verse 1 Praise the Lord for it is it is good to sing praises to our God for it is pleasant and praise is beautiful How wonderful it is to sing unto God?

but you can’t worship God until your heart is in tune with God and Many people are religious and many people have bought into rules and rituals and they think they’re okay before God But the truth is they’re not authentically worshiping God They’re just following a list of rules of do’s and don’ts or they have bought into some religious Ritual that they think makes them spiritual and none of these things are true in their life It’s just all outward how many times are you and I shocked to find out about somebody that we thought we knew for years and we knew we thought we Knew their life,

but it turns out that they were somebody different than what we really knew and what they portrayed to us. I Wonder what God thinks when he knows who we really are and yet we’re portraying to others that we’re somebody else and The truth is that our heart is far from God and we don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ you can only Truly worship God when your heart has been changed and you have received Christ as your Lord and Savior and as believers We must draw near to God God and be connected to God as we worship God.

If God doesn’t have my heart, then nothing else that I do, whether it’s on Sunday morning or it is on Monday morning or throughout the rest of the week. If God does not have my heart and I have not fully surrendered to Him, then nothing that I do brings worship and glory to God.

Now people like to compartmentalize their life. They do. And they say, this is my life when I’m at the workplace. This is my life when I’m at home, and this is my life when I’m participating in this activity or that activity.

But the truth is, for the believer, our life is to be one pure, authentic demonstration of love and glory to God. every part of our life 24 -7 we are not playing we are not pretending we are real with Jesus Christ and we are real with him from our hearts and we are not trying to portray that somehow we are different for we surrender our life fully and freely to Jesus Christ 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 1 says 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 might 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 gonna 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, and 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 wanna 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’ve 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 wanna 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, then I’m all for it, okay? And the rest, I’m just 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 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 gotta 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 going to 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 want to 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 to gather 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 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 want to 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 know, 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 them, 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. Wow. I’ve had people tell me that they are gonna 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 the 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. At the heart of worship is our heart, but it’s important for that heart to be authentic, to be real with Jesus.

There is no true worship without a true heart, and so people can go through ceremonies, rituals, they can sing all they want, they can recite and read and all the different things that we do when we participate in a worship service, but none of that means anything if your heart is not true to God.

And sometimes our hearts get crowded with the problems of life, with the sins of the world, and our heart gets stained. And so it’s so important we make sure that our heart is authentic before God. And that’s what this message is about, is really that worship is from the heart.

and it’s got to be true to Jesus Christ so I hope that as you study this that you’re learning that you’re thinking and that you’re letting God renew your mind because I know as he does that he’s going to continue to help you to have real worship with him.

Hey I want to remind you that you need to check out our website Hopeworthhaving .com and right there we have listed all of our radio times what stations we’re on and in addition to our tv times and the times we’re on social media streaming on the website and Hopeworthhaving is a ministry that uses four platforms to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ one being radio second is television and in third being the internet and finally social media and our goal is to simply spread the good news of Jesus Christ preaching and teaching God’s Word verse by verse so that you and I can grow and be drawn to Jesus Christ closer.

So I hope you’ll take advantage of that. Learn more about how you can be a part of Hope Worth Having Ministries by going to our website hopeworthhaving .com. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

Thanks for watching!

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