SUSTAINING WORSHIP (part 3 of 3)

PREPARING TO WORSHIP?
John 4:20-24

INTRODUCTION
A. True worshippers worship God “in spirit and truth”. True worshippers today are saved scripturally baptized people who are members of a true New Testament church.
B. While “truth”, that is church membership is a necessity to be a “true worshipper”, it does not mean that all church members worship.
C. God’s people must prepare to worship if they are going to worship.
D. Worship is not coming to church. Many come to church and never worship. It is sad that many of God’s people never truly worship God. There are some church members that show up Sunday mornings thinking they are going to worship God, but in reality all they are doing is assembling themselves together—which is good and biblical—but it is not worship.
1. Remember that worship is coming into the presence of God acknowledging who He is and accepting whom we are.
2. When we do this we do not go into the presence of God singing and shouting but on our faces, humble and lowly, thankful that He allows us to breath each breath, thankful that He loved us enough—in spite of our sins—to send Jesus to the death of the cross.
a. Some examples of those who worshipped, Exodus 4:31; 12:27; 34:8, 1 Chronicles 29:20, 2 Chronicles 29:28-30* (They sang, praised God, they worshipped God—when they worshipped God what did they do? They bowed their faces in humblnesss) Nehemiah 8:6, Nehemiah 9:3 (confessed and worshipped) Matthew 2:11 (fell down)Matthew 8:2 (if thou wilt—a plea) Matthew 9:18 (pleading for his daughter) Matthew 12:25 (Lord help me) Matthew 28:19 (They held Him (Jesus) by His feet)
3. They whom worshipped God came into the presence of God with a humble spirit. We see them confessing, repenting, making pleas and thanking. There is one similarity with all who worshipped God, REVERENCE.
E. Who is God? Get a response and discuss God in creation, salvation, adoption, justification, and glorification
F. This is the God whom we worship. He is worthy of all glory, honor, and reverence.
G. If we are going camping, hunting, fishing, etc—what must we do before we go?
1. We must prepare ourselves. We must equip ourselves with all necessities needed.
2. Sometimes this is quiet painstaking, but we don’t mind.
H. If we are going to worship God we must prepare ourselves.
PREPARING TO WORSHIP
1. Let us take the thought of preparing to worship God with the idea of preparing to worship God in the worship services of the church.
2. True worshippers can worship God anywhere. You do not have to be in church to worship God. This statement does not, however, teach that God’s people do not have to come to church. On your deer stand, in your office, in your recliner, etc—at any given moment God’s people can worship Him.
a. Keep in mind that when this happens it is not just something out of the blue or spontaneous, were we say “hey I think I will worship God”.
b. Something, prayer, Bible study, confession and repentance of a sin, something causes us to acknowledge God for who He is in light of who we are.
A. When do we begin to prepare to worship in our Sunday morning worship services?
1. At the latest we should begin to prepare to worship God when we awake Sunday morning.
a. But how many wake up Sunday morning with God on their mind?
b. How many wake up and say today I will go to God’s house and worship Him.
c. How many wake up with great anticipation of communing with God—listening to the preaching and teaching of His word that it might bring us close unto Him?
d. How many wake up saying “I hope the preacher has prepared something from God’s Word just for me today?—I need to make some changes in my life—I need to see God this morning that I might remember His greatness and realize that He has blessed me.
e. How many wake up and pray for the worship services? For the pastor? For the lessons and message? for the people? For decisions to be made?
f. How many wake up and say “today someone is going to get saved, come for baptism, church membership, or just get their hearts right with God?
g. If is stopped giving an invitation the church would vacate the pulpit—but it is okay for the church to use the invitation as a time of getting ready to go and planning out their day—it is okay for the church not to expect anyone to move but the preacher cannot stop giving the invitation.
-The invitation is when many come to the point of worshipping God
2. Instead of preparing to worship God when we awake we begin to dread the old Sunday morning routine.
a. After we convince ourselves to get up an go to church we start our rituals, getting dressed, wondering who will be at church and who wont, putting on our smiles—that kills some Baptists to do, and finally we go to church to worship God.
B. Sadly many times we arrive at God’s house Sunday mornings having not prepared to worship God.
1. When we arrive at God’s house we fellowship—this is good—it is good to fellowship with God’s people.
2. But there must be a time when we focus on what we have assembled to do.
3. There must be a time when we erase all thoughts of those things that do not pertain to God and worship.
4. There must come a time when we give ourselves unto the superintending of Holy Spirit.
a. To use the songs, lessons, prayers, and message, to bring me to a place where I can worship God.
b. But this cannot happen if we are allowing our minds to be consumed with other things—our minds hinder us from allowing God to speak to our spirits.
C. When do you prepare to worship if you show up at the worship service unprepared?
1. When do we get God and worshipping Him on our minds?
2. When we focus our mind on God and worship we begin to walk in the spirit, we give our minds to God that in our spirit we might worship Him.
3. Many times we go completely through the worship service thinking about other things.
D. The worship service is designed to bring people to a decision.
1. Prayer, devotion, SS lesson, songs of praise, prayer, message, invitation
a. Pastor is the worship leader—He is responsible for directing the worship service that it might be effective.
2. The song director should have the pastor’s entire message that he might look over it, pray over it, and select the songs for the worship service.
a. How about specials? Pray about singing a special—pray that God would lead you to sing a song that would aid in the worship service, a song that would enhance the message.
b. The song director has a privilege during his part of the service that the pastor doesn’t—he brings an element of fellowship, a laugh with congregation—not in that he tells jokes out of context but softens the congregation—it is good to laugh with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
3. When it is time for the message the pastor should stand up and proclaim God’s Word.
a. This point of the worship service is a time of sharing God’s Word and allowing it to cause us to reflect on our lives.
b. We have prayed, sang with joy, now it is time for us to allow God’s Word to reveal to us who God is and whom we are—along with our spiritual condition.
-I would rather listen to the song leader tell me something funny about the
preacher rather than the Holy Spirit use God’s Word to show me my sin.
4. When we arrive at the invitation it is decision time—you don’t have to wait until the invitation to make a decision but the invitation is an opportunity for decisions to be made public, such as salvation, baptism, church membership, apologies to the church
5. All parts of the worship service brought us unto this place of decision.
6. If we are not prepared to worship we may miss an opportunity to make a much needed decision in our spiritual life.
7. The worship service is a spiritual service for a spiritual people—it takes more than physical attendance.
Summary: When do we prepare for the worship service? We need to prepare before we arrive at God’s house. Prayers should have been offered and hearts set on God and what He might reveal unto me today.

Paradigm of Biblicle Worship

Some say that the Bible does not specify how a worship service should be conducted.
Because of this belief God's people have made a mockery of worship.

The Bible gives many examples of true worship.
In Revelation 4-5 John sees a heavenly vision of a real worship service.
Though the vision was futuristic and took place in heaven...it should stand as a paradigm for God's people today.

Read these two chapters--Take notice of God's people--their attitudes and actions
If we would pattern God's worship services today after this and other biblical examples, there may be more worship taking place and less playing.
LLL

SUSTAINING WORSHIP (Part 2 of 3)

WHAT WORSHIP IS AND WHAT WORSHIP IS NOT
John 4:20-24

(sorry: the Greek words did not paste in the proper font
INTRODUCTION
A. There is much confusion today concerning worship. True worship is when a member of the Lord’s New Testament church worships God in spirit and in truth. Having looked at the meaning of spirit and truth we learned that true worship is when in our spirit we come into the presence of God and commune with Him—another words “in spirit and truth” reveal that worship is not something of the flesh—one may become emotional during worship, however, though we demonstrate this emotion in our flesh, it is of a spiritual nature—in our spirit we recognize who God is and all He has did for us—we may weep when speaking of the cross—get excited about the rapture—these emotions are caused by getting close to God, but they are not a necessity for worship—these emotions are of a (passive nature) Example: The message made me emotional. We did not make ourselves emotional but the content of the message caused us to become emotional.
B. Today many are entering into worship expecting an emotional event. Some worship services are designed to move the emotions—this is not “in spirit and truth”.
C. At this point we need to look at the word “praise”. We have praise services. This is the part of the worship service where we get a little excited—we teach that it is okay to get excited and a little crazy during the praise service because this is what praise is.
1. When you do a word study on the word “praise” in the Bible you will discover that our definition of praise is different from the biblical definition.
2. There are 9 Greek words translated “praise” in the Bible.
PRAISE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
136 aio translated “praise” 2 times in the New Testament (Matthew 21:16; Luke 18:43) meaning a saying, proverb—praise, laudatory discourse
134 ainew translated “praise” 9 times in NT (Luke 2:13, 20; 19:37; 24:53; Romans 15:11; Acts 2:47; 3:8, 9; Revelation 19:5) meaning to praise, extol, to sing praises in honor to God
1391 doxa translated “praise” 4 times in NT translated “glory” 145 times in NT—“praise” John 9:24, John 12:43 (two times), 1 Peter 4:11) meaning a good opinion, judgment or view, resulting in praise, honor and glory
1868 epainos translated “praise” 11 times in the NT (Romans 2:29; 13:3; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 8:18; Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14; Philippians 1:11; 4:8; 1 Peter 1:7; 2:14) meaning approbation, commendation, praise
1867 epainew translated “praise” 4 times in NT (1 Corinthians 11:12, 17, 22 (two times) meaning to approve, to praise
5214 umnew translated “sing praise” 2 times in the NT (Hebrews 2:12; Acts 16:25) meaning to sing the praise of , to sing a hymn
133 ainesis translated “praise” 1 time in the NT (Hebrews 13:15) meaning praise, a thank offering
2127 eulogew translated “praised” 1 time in the NT—translated “bless” 143 times in the NT (Luke 1:64) meaning to praise, celebrate with praises, to invoke blessings
703 areth translated “praise” 1 time in the NT 1 Peter 2:9 meaning a virtuous course of thought, feeling or action
D. Praise is done with a jubilant heart, however, it is directed at God and it is not about us. The praising of God is not something to make us feel good but it is done because we are thankful to God, we acknowledge God for all He does for us and who He is—a proper praise service is not a service directed to excite the emotions of those involved or to offer the one praising something but to offer God something
E. Worship differs from praise—while both acknowledges God, praise is not worship and worship is not praise.
WORSHIP IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
4352 proskunew translated “worship” 60 times in 54 verses in the NT meaning to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence—to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence—in the NT by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance—from the root 4314 & 2965 meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand
Matthew 2:2, 8, 11; 4:9, 10; 8:2; 9:18; 14:33; 15:25; 18:26; 20:20; 28:9, 17; Mark 5:6; 15:19 ; Luke 4:7, 8; 24:52 ; John 4:20-24; 9:38; 12:20 ; Acts 7:43; 8:27; 10:25; 24:11 ; 1 Corinthians 14:25 ; Hebrews 1:6; 11:21 ; Revelation 3:9; 4:10; 5:14; 7:11; 9:20; 11:1, 16; 13:4, 8, 12, 15; 14:7, 9, 11; 15:4; 16:2; 19:4, 10, 20; 20:4; 22:8; 22:9
4576 sebomai translated “worship” 6 times in the NT Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:7; Acts 18:13; 16:14; 18:7 meaning to revere or worship
1391 soza translated “worship” 1 time in the NT Luke 14:10 meaning opinion, judgment, view
3000 latreuw translated “worship” 3 times in the NT Acts 7:42; 24:14; Philippians 3:3 meaning to render religious service or homage, to worship
2151 eusebew translated “worship” 1 time in the NT Acts 17:23 meaning to act piously or reverently
1479 eqeloqrhskia translated “worship” 1 time in the NT Colossians 2:23 meaning will worship
2323 qerapeuw translated “worshipped” 1 time in the NT Acts 17:25 meaning to serve, do service
4573 sebazomai translated “worshipped” 1 time in the NT Romans 1:25 meaning to fear or be afraid
4574 sebasma translated “that is worshipped” 2 times in the NT 2 Thessalonians 2:4 meaning whatever is religiously honored, an object of worship
F. Jesus said that the Father desired for true worshippers to proskunew Him-- to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence—to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence—in the NT by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance—from the root 4314 & 2965 meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand
I. WHAT WORSHIP IS
A. Worship is coming into the presence of God and acknowledging Him for who He is and remembering who we are.
1. He is God—we are sinners—How do you go into the presence of God, taking into account of who He is and who we are and not be humble? How can we enter into the presence of God in any other manner than as a dog licking his master’s hand?
2. We stand just before God because of Christ, however, we still sin, we still fall short of the glory of God—knowing where you are at this moment in your life, can you stand before God and proclaim total innocence? Can you walk into His presence with your head held high and proud?
3. When we come to worship God we are coming into His presence—When we do this we must recognize and honor Him for who He is.
Illustration
You are driving to town. You are traveling 100 miles and hour and passing cars on the right and left. In your mirror you see a cop and he pulls you over. What is your attitude towards the cop? You know you are guilty of something bad. Do you get an attitude or start begging when he approaches you?
B. So how can we come into the presence of God without humbling ourselves before Him?
C. I am driving down the road, a deer jumps out in front of me, I swerve and miss it. I am happy, relieved, I say with exclamation “praise the Lord!” This is praise—I am thankful for His protection
D. But when I come into His presence to worship I come in a different manner. I come before Him to worship knowing that I am not worthy to be saved from anything. I deserved death, but God, who is rich in grace and mercy saw proper to let me live—even though fall and stumble—worshipping God is realizing that we exist because He allows—He is God and we are but sinners saved by grace, grace He gave unto us.
II. WHAT WORSHIP IS NOT
A. It is not about us but God.
B. Worship is for God
C. Anything outside of reverence is not worship
D. We may sing and shout when we praise Him but when we worship we stand before Him knowing that at any moment He could take the breath of life in which He gave us.
1. Understand, however, that this fear of the Lord is a reverent fear and not a fear as of the “boogieman”
2. It is an honoring fear a reverential fear that gives recognition to God for His greatness, His mercy and loving kindness
3. Though art worthy O Lord to be honored, to be reverence—I owe you my life—my eternal state is because of You—and I worship you Lord—I bow in your presence and recognize who You are in light of who I am.
Summary: Worship is not about us but about God. Worship is honoring God for who He is. Worship is coming into the presence of God—How do you come into the presence of an almighty God? Many today think that worship should be this or that—worship should be as God intended. A time of devotion to Him in recognition of who He is.

SUSTAINING WORSHIP

SUSTAINING WORSHIP
John 4:20-24

WHO IS TO WORSHIP?
A. We have read this text, heard it taught, maybe even taught it ourselves. It is a popular text. To often only a surface teaching is taught. The surface teaching is usually taught as (God seeks, or desires, to be worshipped, and if you are going to worship God you must worship Him in spirit and in truth)
1. This is not a false statement but it does not reveal all of what Jesus is teaching the woman at the well.
B. We need to look at the context. The woman states that there were discrepancies as to where God is to be worshipped—the Jews say Jerusalem, while the Samarians say in the mountains (most likely the place where Jeroboam set up worship when the kingdom divided)
1. Jesus tells her that she don’t know what she worships. He then teaches the woman that the time has come when God is going to be worshipped in spirit and in truth.
a. No longer in a place but through the spirit of man and in truth
2. Jesus tells the woman that the Father seeks (desires), not for any and all but for the true worshippers to worship in this manner.
a. Yes it is God’s will that all men live according to His will—in that they accept Christ, baptism, church membership, live for Him—
3. However, Jesus refers to a certain type of people that God desires to worship Him. He desires for true worshippers to worship Him in spirit and in truth. (antecedent of “such” is “true worshippers”
C. Now before Jesus how was God to be worshipped? In Jerusalem ONLY
1. Only those who went to Jerusalem were true worshippers—those in Samaria were false worshippers—before they could be true worshippers they had to accept the truth concerning worship.
D. Jesus ushered in a new dispensation of how God was to be worshipped. God still desires true worshippers to worship Him
true worshippers: In OT those who worshipped God according to how God commanded—under the law it was in Jerusalem at certain times with ceremonies etc—(they were in the will of God) In the New Testament those who worship God through His Son—saved, baptized, member of Lord’s New Testament church. (in a position to worship God)
in spirit: Spirit (πνεῦμα) is the highest, deepest, noblest part of our humanity, the point of contact between God and man (Rom_1:9); while soul (ψυχή) (seat of emotions) is the principle of individuality, the seat of personal impressions,
in truth: every aspect of truth—motive, manner— To worship in truth is not merely to worship in sincerity, but with a worship corresponding to the nature of its object.
1. In spirit—as apposed to worship conducted through rituals and ceremonies. In truth—as apposed to worship that involved types and shadows instead of reality.
2. True worshippers worship God in spirit and in truth. Worship should center in the worshipper’s own spiritual nature, moved by the Holy Spirit and focused on the unseen but omnipresent God (Romans 8:14, 16, 26)
3. Acceptable worship calls for:

a. regular and frequent assembling of oneself together with the church (Hebrews 10:25)

b. total dedication of oneself to God as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1)

c. offerings of praise, good works and monetary gifts (Hebrews 13: 15, 16)

d. prayers for all kinds and classes of people (1 Timothy 2:1-3; Revelation 8:3, 4).
E. What about exciting services that amp you up?
1. The only part of the flesh that is acceptable in worship is the part of the flesh that houses our spirit.
2. God cannot be worshipped with, in or by emotions—therefore creative worship services are unscriptural—adding something to appeal to the flesh.
Summary: The Bible establishes that not all men can worship God, but only those who will accept God’s truth concerning worship—one who is a true worshipper of God. God desires true worshippers to worship Him in spirit and in truth. As members of the Lord’s New Testament church we are responsible to sustain the worship of God. We do this by worshipping God in spirit and in truth—anything outside of this is false worship.