Worship is something that we do with every area of our life. The primary time worship is focused on is in the corporate setting of the Sunday morning worship service. This designated time has the opportunity to be the most dynamic part of your week, primarily because this is when believers join together and connect with God. When we worship corporately, we are joining our collective hearts to His heart!
This week Pastor Don set a biblical foundation of exactly what it looks like when our hearts are engaged in worship.
Perspective of Worship
The entire Bible is full of different types of worship, but Jesus only directly mentions it twice: once to the Devil and once to the Samaritan woman. His response to the woman cut past her surface-level distractions right to the heart of the matter. We get distracted as well, but there is one certainty without doubt: We all worship something! Who and how you worship is far more important than where and if you worship.
Jesus's response to her was that the day would come when people would "worship in spirit and truth." This type of worship is based on the truth of who God is but cuts past the stoic nature of thought alone, embracing the fullness of emotion and the physical posturing of surrender. A helpful analogy here is offered up by John Piper. Your Spirit is a worship furnace which you fuel with knowing the truth of a sovereign and gracious God and activating the fire of the Holy Spirit, producing the affections of "heat," including reverence, adoration, contrition, trust, joy, gratitude and hope.
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:19-24 NKJVPush into His presence in a deeper way this week! You will be surprised the difference in your experience with God when you connect with a Spirit-filled community to encourage you and spur you on when things get difficult. The Holy Spirit is moving around the world, and we are preparing for a great local move of His Holy Spirit here in Durham before Jesus's soon return.
God's Word is both timeless and powerful today!
We hope that you will consider this week's message in greater depth in the days ahead and meditate on God's Word in the attached pdf outline. (You have been given a "Perspective of Worship" preview above through the outline's Sections 1-4)
You can find the sermon and all resource attachments by clicking here. (Continue reading for the results of true worship!)
True Worship
Wow! We have much to learn when it comes to applying these principles! May we take the steps of faith required to step out of our comfort zone and into a deeper relationship with Him! As we do that we will be engaging our collective hearts around the heart of God and all the more tangibly experiencing His manifested presence all around us. The atmosphere will shift to open vulnerability, where we can know and be fully known. We'll have softer and more fertile hearts to receive God's Word with immediate results and we will demonstrate God's love in power, as walls fall in our communities. Oh, that we could have this excitement! Our faith will rise with each passing day and each stretching step beyond our comfortable limits. Let's place Jesus at the center rather our circumstances. His resurrection power should be our perspective as we walk boldly through this world!
