Made to Worship: Spirit + Truth
We’re jumping into a new series here at VFC for the entire month of June: Made to Worship. Throughout this summer series, we’re covering why we worship, how we worship, and who we worship as we discover fundamental truths about this aspect of our life-long commitment to and relationship with God. We were made to worship, friends!
This week, Alexa Jones shared an insightful word that highlights what it really means to worship God as we were designed to do. In her message Spirit + Truth, we learn how God wants to be worshiped as He reveals His desires to us through His Word.
Worship is when we gather together in church and we sing to worship God on Sunday mornings. But worship is also so much more than that!! And that’s exactly what we’re covering today in Spirit + Truth.
Discovering God’s Desires
Alexa kicks off her message by highlighting the details of Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages and shares a must-hear personal story from her’s and Eric’s first year of marriage. The takeaway from her reflection is this: With our children, our spouses, our friends, our families, we often try to love others the way that we want to be loved. But…the way we want to show love is not always the way people in our lives want to receive love.
This principle raises this question for us in our lives as Christians: How often do we worship God in the way that we want instead of the way He wants? Thankfully, God makes it perfectly clear to us through His Word exactly how He desires to be worshiped. We see His guidance for our worship in our foundational passage for this week:
John 4:4-26 (NIV) 4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,14but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,”Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Check out Spirit + Truth at timestamp 9:17 where Alexa provides us with some context and history of this passage of scripture that helps us to put ourselves in this conversation with Jesus so we can better understand what He’s saying.
Many of us have heard before that we “worship God in spirit and we worship God in truth.” But what does that actually mean? Worship is simply what we give our affection, our admiration, our attention, our hearts, our time, and our money to. The truth is, whether you’re a Christian or an atheist or somewhere in between, we all worship something. But God didn’t just create us to worship something, He created us to worship Him.
The world pulls and pushes us to worship so many things–our subculture, politics, financial gains, fame, careers, and even ourselves. So how do we, as followers of Jesus and disciples of Christ, worship God in spirit and in truth? Let’s find out!
Discussion:
What point was Jesus trying to get across to the Samaritan woman?
How does that same point apply to us in the present day?
How do we worship God alone and not worship things of this world?
1. Worship God in Spirit
John 4:19-20 (NIV) 19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
In our foundational passage for Spirit + Truth, we see the Samaritan woman being very concerned about where people were supposed to worship. But Jesus wanted to turn her attention to how people are supposed to worship instead. When Jesus questioned the woman, she deflected and redirected. However, Jesus was not distracted by her attempted diversion because He was on a mission. This is how Jesus replied:
John 4:23-34 (NIV) 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Jesus was making a transformational statement here: worship is no longer about a physical location, but it is all about a heart connection. Jesus emphasized a time when worship would no longer be focused on places or temples or specific locations.
At timestamp 17:50 in Spirit + Truth, Alexa reflects on her time in Spain when she saw people flocking to cathedrals, making a pilgrimage to a holy spot that meant something to them. In this experience, she realized that every religion has a so-called “holy place”...every religion except Christianity. Why? Because Christianity isn’t about religion; it’s about relationship.
In every other religion, people have to make their way to a person or a place but the Gospel truth that we base our lives on is that Jesus came to us. He left heaven to come to earth because God so loved the world. When we believe in Jesus and become born again Christians, Jesus makes His home in our hearts.
Acts 17:24 (NIV) 24God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands.
1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV) 16Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in your midst?
God does not dwell in temples or buildings; it’s not about a physical location because it’s about a heart connection. Our church building is not God’s house; we are God’s house! When we leave VFC on Sunday mornings, the church leaves too because we are the church, we are His buildings. In the New Testament, in our new covenant, God resides within us.
We worship Him in spirit–it’s not about a physical location, it’s about a heart transformation. What this means is that when we gather together in the house on Sunday’s, worship isn’t just something that starts in the morning and ends before lunch.
Worship doesn’t start and stop; worship is something that we enter into because God is continuously being worshiped 24/7 around the clock in heaven. So when we come to church on Sunday’s, we join the chorus with all of heaven. We can join the chorus at any time! Any day of the week, any time of day.
Knowing that we can worship anywhere makes us wonder, why do we even have to come to church? Something supernatural happens when we gather together as the Body of Christ and worship God in spirit together. We need to gather together as believers before we scatter into our week–we need community and we need to be taught the Word of God!
Hebrews 10:24-25 (NIV) 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
We need one another! God created us to do life together and be in relationship not just with Him, but with our church family, too. Worshiping in spirit means that worship is no longer confined to the walls of a building. We establish a heart connection with God and enter into worship at any place, any time. Amen!
Discussion:
What does worship look like for you, outside of the physical confines of our church building?
How does gathering with a family of believers influence your attitude of worship?
2. Worship God in Truth
John 4:22 (NIV) 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
You see, the Samaritans believed that the Jewish scriptures were corrupted by time and no longer held value. The Samaritans had similar views as the Jews, but their views were so different in all the ways that mattered…which isn’t far off from what we experience in our own culture today.
The Samaritan woman thought she was worshiping God, but she wasn’t worshiping the one true God. She wasn’t worshiping God as He had revealed Himself through His scriptures and instead was worshiping a God that the Samartians created according to their preferences. The Samaritans’ knowledge of God was inaccurate, so they couldn’t worship Him accurately.
Worshiping God in truth means worshiping Him for who He has revealed Himself to be through scripture. No more, no less. We can’t add in and we can’t take out and we can’t change the internal makeup of God’s Word. We see this exact warning in Colossians:
Colossians 2:8 (NIV) 8Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
We are created in God’s image; He is not created in ours. We have to worship Him for who He is in truth! God is. We can’t make Him something that is better for us or easier for us or any alteration of the one true God.
In Spirit + Truth, at 27:07, Alexa depicts what it looks like in our world today to worship like the Samaritans and clearly explains why that is not the worship God desires! We have to see God in the fullness of His Word, according to the whole counsel of God. We worship the one true God!
So what does it look like for us to practically worship God in truth? Worshiping the one true God looks like laying our lives down before Him, like we see below in Romans 12.
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV) 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
By offering our goals, our marriages, our finances, our relationships, our dreams, our desires–all of our things–down before God, we’re participating in true and proper worship. When we worship in truth, we lay our lives down and submit our lives to the Word of God. This is how we honor Him!
We believe God for who He has revealed Himself to be through scripture and we have an accurate understanding of the one that we worship and, in turn, in view of His mercy and His goodness and His love, we offer our lives back to Him. We can live sacrificial lives because Jesus died a sacrificial death for us.
In Spirit AND Truth
Worshiping in spirit is a major piece of God’s plan and intention for our lives as His followers. He loves when we connect our hearts to Him and worship with song and praise. But if we just worship in spirit, and we don’t submit our lives to scripture, then we’re never tethered to God’s call and plan for our lives. We need both!
Romans 12:1 (MSG) 1So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.
Worshiping in spirit and in truth is something all of us can do! When our song and our lives are in harmony, that is worshiping God in spirit and in truth. We were all made to worship God!
Prayer:
Father, we love you and we are so grateful to be a part of a worshiping church; a church who loves to worship you. As we open our hearts to your Word and study scriptures together, please teach us God to be worshipers of you with all of our hearts and guide us to live lives full of your truth and your love. As the Word goes forth, we pray that it would not return void as we learn how to worship You in spirit and in truth. We love you, Lord! In Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
