The Truth about Worship

Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to John 4. John 4, we're doing a miniseries through this section of John's Gospel, John 3 and 4, seeing Jesus encounters with two people, Nicodemus, a religious Pharisee in John 3, and then a Samaritan woman in John 4. And today, my goal is to look at John chapter 4, verses 20 through 26. And if you want To give a title to the message this morning, it would be the truth about worship, the truth about Worship.

Just to recap, Jesus is seated by a well outside of the city of Sicar in Samaria. He's tired and a woman comes in the heat of the day by herself to this particular well to draw water. Jesus says to her, could you give me something to drink? And she's stunned and says, What are you, a Jew doing talking to me, a Samaritan woman?

And Jesus says, if you only knew the gift of God and who it is who's asking you for a drink, you would have already asked him for a drink, and I would have already given you that drink. And the woman then looks at Jesus and says, Well, you don't have anything to draw with and the well is deep. So where do you get this water that you're talking about? Let's pick up in verse 13 of John 4.

And Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. And the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.

And he said to her, Go call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have correctly said, I have no husband, for you have had 5 husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.

And the woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me. An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people, the Father seeks to be his worshippers.

God is Spirit. And those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. And the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When that one comes, he will declare all things to us.

And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, am he. This is the word of God, and may God open our hearts to receive all that He has for us from His word today. The truth about worship. That's what we're going to encounter today in this passage, the truth about worship.

How many of you have heard of a guy named David Foster Wallace? Raise your hand. OK. Anybody?

He's a really famous writer. Who's not that famous after all. David Foster Wallace was by no means a Christian. nor religious, but he was a brilliant observer of the human condition.

He wrote a number of books. He had a keen intellect. He was a great writer. He was somewhat unorthodox in his writing.

In one of his books, he had a sentence that was over 1000 words long. In September 2008, David Foster Wallace committed suicide by hanging himself. At the age of 46. In 2005, David Foster Wallace delivered a commencement address to the graduates of Kenyon College in Ohio and, I and my wife and our two children who are at home, we, we listened to this commencement address about a month ago as a family.

And amazingly, David Foster Wallace, a non-Christian, non-religious man, doesn't believe in moral absolutes. He brought up the subject. Of worship as he spoke to this graduating class. And listen, I want you to listen to what he says on the subject of worship here.

And as you do so, keep in mind that this is not John MacArthur that I'm quoting, or John Piper or Timothy Keller. This is coming from the lips of a non-religious, non-Christian thinker, approximately 3 years before he brought his life to an end by suicide. Listen to what he said to this graduating class. Everybody worships.

The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some go to worship is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth.

Worship your own body, and beauty, and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age starts showing, you will die a million deaths before your loved ones finally plant you. Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, and you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.

And the insidious thing about these forms of worship is that they're unconscious. They are default settings. David Foster Wallace makes some great points here. Namely, everybody worships.

It is the default setting of the human condition. Wherever you go to tap meaning in life, that's what you worship. And you don't really get a choice in the matter of, will I be a worshiper or not. You don't get a choice in that.

You do get a choice in the matter of what you will worship and how you will worship. You and I can literally wake up in the morning and look at ourselves in the mirror and say to ourselves, my name is so and so, and I am a worshiper. What will I worship today? And how will I worship?

Today You get a choice over that. But you don't get a choice over the fact that you are a worshiper. Everyone in this room, every one of us, whether you're a Christian, or an atheist, is a worshiper. And so knowing that I'm speaking to a room full of worshippers.

This passage that we come to today. Provides us very practical help because this text is all about worship. In fact, it's interesting to notice how frequently the word worship shows up in these few verses here. Verse 20 Our fathers worship.

Verse 21, you will worship, verse 22, you worship, we worship. Verse 23, true worshippers, worship the Father, His worshippers, verse. 24 those who worship and must worship, I believe 9 times we see this word worship showing up in these few verses. That's what this passage is all about.

And what initiates this teaching from Jesus on the subject of worship is this Samaritan woman in the course of a dialogue with Jesus, she brings up the issue to him. And basically, here's what she says, Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, they're standing in full view of Mount Gerasim. And she's saying, my ancestors, our fathers worshiped in this mountain. And you people, in other words, you Jews, say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

And then the implied question from this woman is, what do you think? What do you say, sir, regarding this dispute, regarding the location, Where people are to worship. One of the questions that scholars have pondered as they have studied this exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, is why does the woman bring up this topic right now? In the course of the conversation, is she changing the subject?

Is she uncomfortable with what, Jesus has just said, and so she's trying to quickly change the subject. There are some who would say that's exactly what this woman is doing. She's trying to get off the subject that Jesus was on. And to talk about something else, Jesus has just brought up this woman's five failed marriages and the fact that she is now with a man who is not her husband.

And There are some who would say what the woman is basically doing right now, at this point in the conversation, is after Jesus brings up her sin, her response is, hey, since we're on the topic of my adultery, where do you think we should worship? And she's changing conveniently the subject. We guys, we experience this, don't we, when we're witnessing the people, and we're trying to press home the claims of the gospel and maybe even talk about the sin problem of man and people will respond by saying, hey, what about evolution?

What about homosexual marriage?

What about those Christians that are hypocrites? What about the contradictions that are in the Bible? What about the problem of evil? And they'll bring up these issues sometimes as distractions.

And there are some who would say that's what the woman is doing here. But I don't think she is. I think what this woman does in bringing up the topic of worship is exactly the right thing to do at this exact point of the conversation. In fact, let me give you 3 reasons.

This is not in your notes, but 3 reasons as to why I think this is the appropriate topic for this woman to introduce at this point of the dialogue between her and Jesus. Number 1, because worship has everything to do with thirst. Worship has everything to do with soul thirst. Jesus has been talking to this woman about living water, and quenching her soul's thirst.

And it's actually, in my opinion, quite insightful for this woman to bring up the topic of worship at this point of the conversation, because worship and our souls thirst intersect profoundly. In a myriad of ways. Mark this down, guys, we worship what we thirst for. Wherever you go to get your soul thirst quenched, that's what you worship.

One way of defining worship is worship is the act of confessing thirst. Running to something or someone to get that thirst quenched, and then extolling or praising that thing or person that quenches your thirst. That is one way of defining worship. Read through the Psalms, there are times where the psalmist is saying, my soul longs for you.

As for the water brooks, says the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul longs for you, the psalmist says in Psalm 42. Psalm 63:5, the psalmist says, My soul is satisfied, as with marrow and fatness. So at times, the psalmist is worshiping and expressing, confessing thirst. And running to God to get that thirst quenched.

And then in other places, the psalmist is extolling and praising God for being so satisfying. That's worship. This is what worship is. This is a woman who's been worshiping men and relationships up to this point of her life.

It's progress now that she's thinking about worshiping God and she wants to know where and how to go about doing that. There's another The reason why I think this is very appropriate for this woman to bring up at this point of the conversation, and that is because worship entails getting right with God. Jesus has just brought up this woman's sin issue. This woman has had 5 failed marriages, 5 broken marriage covenants, and she's now with a man who is not her husband in an immoral relationship.

I think this woman is ready to get right with God. But where do I go to do that? Do I go to Gerizim to this mountain? In or do I go to Jerusalem?

We've talked before how, there was a temple on Mount Gerazim that was constructed in like the 5th century BC. It had been destroyed around 128, 129 BC, but some of the stones were still there. Parts of the foundation were still there. And so Samaritans up to this day, in John 4 were still going there to offer sacrifices and to worship.

By the way, To this day, 2014, there's still a small group of Samaritans that show up at this place and do their worship still. And so back in this day, the Samaritans showed up at this place on this mountain, Mount Gerasim in Samaria, in order to do their worship and offer sacrifices and to get right with God. but the Jews said, no, you can't do that. That doesn't count.

It's got to be the Jerusalem temple, and they had biblical justification for that, because it's taught in Scripture, God put his name in that place, the temple in Jerusalem. So this woman is likely thinking, I want to get right with God. I've probably got some sacrifices that I need to offer, but where do I go? Do I go to this mountain here, which is where my ancestors have gone for 500 years, or do I go to the temple in Jerusalem.

This is no sidetrack. This is no dispassionate, hey, how do you settle this theological dispute, Jesus? This is something of profound implications for this woman. Because here's the deal, guys, listen carefully.

If Jesus says Gerazim is OK, then this woman's OK, she can go there. She's a Samaritan, she can get right with God. If Jesus says what all the Jews said, and says, no, you got to go to Jerusalem to the temple there. This woman is out of luck.

She can't get right with God, the sacrificial system. In Israel, in Jerusalem was not for Samaritans. A Samaritan could go to Jerusalem, and she could enter into the court of the Gentiles because she was considered a foreigner, but she could not enter into the court of Israel. She could not enter into the temple proper and offer sacrifices for atonement for her sins, and to be made right with God.

In fact, over the entryway, there's a wall that separated the court of the Gentiles from the court of Israel from the temple proper. And over one of the gateways, the openings was basically a sign that said, no foreigner shall enter here. And if any foreigner does, they will die and they will have themselves to blame for their sudden death. They're saying if you're a foreigner and you walk through here, we will kill you and it will be your fault.

Talk about seek or sensitive. That's just the way the Jews were. And so this is a woman who's a Samaritan, she was considered a foreigner. She, if Jesus says, no, it's got to be Jerusalem, then this woman's like, then I, there's nothing I can do.

I am shut out. I am shut out. And so this is a very important question for her. She's asking, where do I go to get right with God?

Jerusalem or Mount Gerasim? And I hope it's not Jerusalem because I'm not allowed to get in there. There's a third reason why I believe that she's asking the right question here. And that is because Jesus goes there with this woman.

When she brings up this issue, sir, I perceive you're a prophet. our ancestors said to worship in this mountain, but you Jews say Jerusalem, basically implying, what do you say? Jesus doesn't say, Come on, lady, I know what you're doing. You're trying to change the topic.

I'm talking about sin. You're trying to go elsewhere. Let's stay on your sin problem. I don't want to go there.

I'm not going to be distracted. No, Jesus goes right along with this woman and views the topic that she introduces. as a topic worthy of him speaking extensively about at this point of the conversation. So let's view this issue that she introduces with respect, that it's an appropriate issue that fits the context and the flow of the conversation between the two of them, and she lays this before Jesus, and I love this.

She's a great model. Hey, here's what my Ancestors have always done for the last 500 years. Here's what my fathers, my ancestors have believed and practiced. And I as a part of the Samaritan culture, this is the way I've done worship.

Up to this point, I'm presenting this to you and asking you to speak to this issue. Wonderful example. Jesus responds, and basically the first words out of his mouth. are the words believe me.

Believe me, I, what, I'm going to address this issue. But I'm going to ask you upfront to believe me, to believe what I am about to say. Jesus is establishing right off the bat, whatever you believe about worship, whether you're this Samaritan woman, or sitting here today, whatever you believe on the subject of worship, It needs to come from Jesus. Whatever he says on the subject of worship, you need to believe him.

And if anyone at any time says anything about worship that contradicts what Jesus says here, don't believe them. And instead, believe him. Does that make sense? Basically, this woman is asking Jesus to direct her on the subject of worship.

And Jesus is happy to oblige her and give her direction. But he says, you got to believe me. What I am about to say here on this subject. And as the passage unfolds, we find what amounts to 7 statements or 7 truth claims that Jesus makes to this woman to direct her into the worship, the true worship of God.

He's going to fix her worship disorder here and direct her into the true worship of God. Let's try to go through these. truth claim number one, is this an hour is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father, neither in Gerizim, nor in Jerusalem. says Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you, plural, you people, you Samaritans will worship the Father.

this is so amazing. Here. Jesus is saying something. He's making a very positive promise or pronouncement here.

He's basically saying to this woman, the hour is coming when you and your fellow Samaritans will genuinely worship the Father. There's a revival of true worship that is coming upon the people of Samaria, and you and they will truly worship the one true God. The Father, and when you do, it won't be on this mountain and it won't even be in Jerusalem. No Jew would have ever answered this question this way.

This woman's expecting Jesus to say, Well, Jerusalem, of course, and she would go, Well, that's the typical Jewish answer. But he's saying, you want to know which it's neither. The day is coming when you're going to be worshiping the Father, and it won't be in either of these locations. Notice Jesus uses the word Father here.

It's interesting that Jesus 3 times makes mention of the Father as he speaks to this woman about, worship. and I think there's so much that Jesus is conveying here. Part of what he's saying and referring to God as the Father is, is basically this, we know with regard to God, based on our understanding of the Trinity, that where there is the Father, that implies the existence of the Son, right? And so with God, we know that there is a Father, and there is a Son.

So God is the Father, he must have a son somewhere, and Jesus is that Son. And Jesus is indicating that true worshippers will worship. You Samaritans are one day going to worship the Father. Who has a son, and your worship will be constructed around this father-son relationship.

Let's go further. When Jesus refers to God as a father, he's implying the existence of sons and daughters of this Father. What he's saying is there's a day coming when God is going to be bringing people to life, causing them to be born again, and bringing men and women. In his family, and they will relate to him as children relate to a father, and they will worship him, not merely as God, but as Father to them.

And underneath that is the reality that you have to be a son or daughter, in order to worship your Father, the Father God. In this way, you have to be born again into that relationship. And Jesus is saying, there's a day coming when you and other Samaritans will be born again into the family of God, and you will have God as your Father, and you will relate to him and worship him as such. It's interesting how Jesus shifts the focus.

This woman in verse 12 said to Jesus, you're not greater than our father, Jacob. And in verse 20, our fathers worshiped on this mountain. This woman was really into the Fathers. And Jesus said, let me put your focus where it should be.

And that is on the Father, who is the object of your worship. And the day is coming when you will worship Him. As your father, and it won't be in this mountain or Jerusalem. Real quick, why can Jesus say this?

Why can he say it's going to be in any location? It won't necessarily be bound to Mount Gerasim or to Jerusalem. There's a reason for that. And what Jesus is basically building this upon is the reality that there is a new temple that is coming, that people will flock to and enter into and worship God from inside this new temple.

And what that new temple is? It's Jesus. It's Jesus. We're not surprised at this because in John 2, Jesus came in and cleansed the temple, and the Jewish leadership said, By what authority do you do these things?

And Jesus said, Destroy this temple, and in 3 days I'm going to raise it up again. And they're like, Wait a minute, it took 40 some odd years to build this temple. How can this be? But Jesus was talking about the temple of his body.

He was talking about Himself as the temple. Jesus is the new temple. People will gather to Him and enter into Him, and they'll worship God from the location called Jesus. Jesus' heart right now is probably wanting to say to this woman, you don't realize it just yet.

But you are staring in the face of the new temple that you can enter into. And from inside of me, worship the Father in a way that is not tied to any geographical location. There's a second truth claim that Jesus makes to this woman that he wants her to believe. And this is a rather blunt statement, and that is you Samaritans don't know what you're worshiping, but we Jews do.

He says in verse 21, you worship what you do not know. We worship what We know Jesus is making a blunt statement, and he's saying, you, you plural, you people, you Samaritans, I'm going to just tell you straight up, you don't know what you're worshiping. Why would Jesus say this to the Samaritans? One quick answer, partial answer is we saw last week that the Samaritans rejected all of the Old Testament except the first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

They embraced that as God's revelation. They rejected the rest of Old Testament revelation. And as a result of that, they cut themselves off from all of the knowledge of God that is revealed there, including in the Psalms, which is God's divinely inspired worship manual, right? And so Jesus is basically saying, because you've cut yourself off from all of God's revelation of himself, you don't know what you worship.

However, we Jews by and large, do know what and whom we are worshiping, because we embrace all of God's revelation. So this woman is wanting to know where to worship. Jesus draws her attention to a defect in the Samaritan's knowledge of the home. that they were worshiping And he's saying you need to go beyond asking where to worship and recognize that there's a defect in your knowledge of who you're worshiping, and that needs to be addressed.

That's why this is really amazing when you look at Jesus' words to her, he puts so much focus on the object of worship, not on the location of worship. Verse 21, worship the Father, verse 23, worship the Father. verse 23, his worshippers are literally worshippers of Him. Verse 24, God is spirit, verse 24, worship Him.

And in verse 22, he's like, you don't know what you worship. We Jews do know what or whom that we worship. Jesus is focusing on the object of worship. Now, Let me talk about this for just a couple of minutes here.

I'm struck. And instructed. By Jesus' willingness, in the course of conversation with the Samaritan woman, And speaking to her as a representative of all the other Samaritans and Jesus. is willing to bluntly say, you don't know what you worship.

You don't know what or whom you worship. We as Christians need to be willing to be just as decisive as we speak to people about their religion, and about their worship. We need to be willing to convey the bluntness of Christ as we speak against Other forms of worship and objects of worship. We live in a day where all truth claims are supposedly equal.

And, let's just respect and be polite and, and whatever your truth claim is, I'm not going to put that down and that's probably just as true as whatever I believe. So good for you. that's the culture we live in today. Jesus, though, says you don't know what you worship.

You don't know, and we do. We render no service to non-believers. For example, we render no valuable service to our Muslim friends, to say, oh, you, what you worship. In fact, we worship the same God.

After all. There are many professing Christians who say that type of thing because they don't want to be blunt or offensive. Several years ago, our president was being interviewed. On Arab television in an outreach effort to the Arab world and Our president said these words.

First of all, I believe in Almighty God. And I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God. That's what I believe. I believe that Islam is a great religion that preaches peace.

Oh, I should have said former president. That's George W. Bush. Who said that in 2003.

It's the way people talk right now, you make friends, and you make peace with that talk. Contrast that with Jesus' words to the Samaritan woman, you don't know what you worship, and we do. Is that arrogant? Or is that love?

If people are worshiping the wrong God, We love them by telling them that straight up. If people are misguided, and they don't know what they should know about the God that they are worshiping, we need to tell them that straight up. And you can learn a lot about a person and where their heart is, by how they respond to being told that bluntly, especially if the weight of that bluntness is coming from Jesus. Amen.

Now, I know there's probably some who are thinking, oh good, I get to be blunt when I'm talking to non-Christians, it's just my gift., I'm a prophet. It's just the person I am. And man, when I'm, when I'm talking to non-believers, I just bust them up with the truth and I am blunt, it's just the way that I am. And they get mad, they persecute me, but what, I'm being persecuted for Christ.

Let me just quickly say, when this woman shows up at the well to draw water, Jesus did not start off by saying, hey, you Samaritans don't know what you're worshiping. And we do. He didn't start off that way, did he? He started off by saying, hey, could you give me a drink of water?

And he's crossing these barriers and giving himself to her in friendship. And she's like, what are you doing talking to me? He's like, oh, if you just knew the gift of God, if you knew who it was who's talking to you, asking you for a drink right now, you would have already asked him and I would have already given to you living water. And thus begins this exchange between the two of them.

He's giving himself to her in courtesy, in friendship, and relationship, and now that he's created that context, he can now be blunt with her. So there's bluntness. But there's a relational context now for that. We should follow his example in both ways, the courtesy, the relationship, the friendship, and the bluntness.

there's a 3rd truth claim that Jesus delivers to this woman, and let's word it this way, at the center of true worship is the promise of salvation, which ultimately comes from the Jews. Jesus says, you worship what you do not know, we worship what we know for or because salvation is from the Jews. Grammatically, that's just a tough one to fully figure out. We know what we worship because salvation is from the Jews.

In all likelihood, what Jesus is saying is this. We Jews, by and large, know what we worship, because at the center of our belief system is a certain knowledge that we need salvation. We know from our scriptures, including scriptures that you Samaritans reject, that we need to be saved. We know from our scriptures what we need to be saved from, and we believe that this salvation is coming, and that it will come from the Jews as foretold in the full body of Old Testament Revelation.

At the center of Jewish theology, rightly understood from the Jewish scriptures was the white hot core that man needs to be saved. A salvation is needed from sin, and Jewish theology should have. And on some levels did center around this idea that we need salvation. God's going to provide it, it's coming, and it will come from the Jews.

The word salvation is preceded by the Greek word that's the equivalent of our word the. Jesus is saying the salvation is from the Jews. In other words, the ultimate salvation, the one and only salvation, the ultimate one and only saving one, the Messiah will come forth from the Jews. And Jesus is saying, we know what we worship because our worship is centered on a Messiah, who is coming, who will bring us salvation.

The Samaritans, get this, guys, they were expecting someone to come in fulfillment of the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:18, I believe. But they didn't really use the word Messiah. To describe him. They called him the restoring one.

And the Jews use the word Messiah, the word Christ, but the Samaritans thought of him as the restoring one who's going to be the prophetic teacher who's going to explain things. That's what they were waiting for, someone who's going to come and explain things, who will explain the law, who will restore us to faithfulness. To the law of God at the core of their theology was not the need for rescue or salvation. But Jesus is saying, we know what we worship, because our theology is centered in this reality of our need for salvation, and that that salvation is coming in the Messianic one.

So we know, we know what we worship. By the way, if you want to be a true worshiper of God, you got to be centered in this reality that salvation is needed. You need to be saved, others need to be saved. You need a rescue.

And you must worship God in a way that is centered in that reality, that leads to a 4th truth claim that Jesus delivers to this woman. And, let's say it this way, an hour is coming, and now is when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Jesus says an hour is coming, and it's, it's now even here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Notice the expression, true worshippers implying That there are two categories of worshippers on planet Earth.

There are false worshippers, and there are true worshippers. And Jesus says there's a day coming. It's now even arriving, when there will be this category of true worshippers who will worship the Father. They'll worship the true God.

And when they worship him, they will worship him in spirit. In other words, they will worship him with a worship that comes from the inside out. They will worship him with a worship that engages their spirits. Their spirits are fully engaged, their hearts are fully engaged, as opposed to just delivering a worship that is merely wrote.

And it's a bunch of physical material rituals. It's a worship that comes from someone who in their spirit has been brought to life by God. That made a child of God. And they are worshiping God from the inside out in their spirits as much as through the vehicle of their body.

He also says true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. That idea of in truth could speak of sincerity. They're going to be real, they're going to be genuine. they're going to worship God with openness, with honesty.

They're also going to worship God according to the truth of his revelation, all of it, not just some of it. And they'll worship God in a way that is according to the one who is the truth, Jesus Christ, who himself says, I am the way I am the truth. If you're going to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, To worship him in truth, you must worship God in a way that is consistent with and based upon not only the truth of Scripture, the truth of the Bible, but the truth of Jesus and who he is.

That leads to a 5th truth claim that Jesus makes.

And that is that the Father is seeking people to be His worshippers, in spirit and in truth. This is an amazing thing here. he says in verse 23, for such people, people who worship in spirit and in truth, for such people, the Father seeks to be his worshippers. The Father is seeking worshippers.

God the Father doesn't just accept. Such worship. He seeks such worship. The Father doesn't just accept worshippers, he seeks and makes worshippers.

It's not like God is in heaven. Doing what he does, and he looks down on earth and he's like, oh my goodness, look, there's someone who's actually genuinely worshiping me in spirit and in truth. Well, what, from all indications, their worship is genuine. Wow, this is great.

what, I guess I'm going to accept and receive their worship. That never happens. God doesn't merely accept worshippers. He makes worshippers.

And anyone who is genuinely worshiping him has been fashioned by him into a worshiper. He doesn't merely accept worshippers, he seeks people, and he brings them to life, makes them his children, and turns them into worshippers of him. The Father is seeking worshippers right now in this room, he's seeking worshippers of Him. There are many churches today.

That Consider themselves to be seeker sensitive churches, right? Cornerstone needs to be a seeker, sensitive church. But the seeker that we need to be most sensitive to is our Heavenly Father, who is seeking people. To worship Him.

Amen. And that doesn't let us off easy. In fact, that imposes an even heavier burden upon us. We know theologically that nobody seeks after God.

Unless they've been regenerated by God, brought to life by God, and led to do so. So the seeker ultimately that we want to be most sensitive to and in tune with is our Heavenly Father who seeks and makes worshippers of Him. And we want to be like Him and thus we want to seek out sinners and invite them to join us in the true worship of God. That's the essence of evangelism.

It's us orbiting our life around God, the fountain of living waters. We worship and adore and pay homage to Him. And then we go to the lost who are worshiping a million other things, and we invite them to join us in worshiping Him. That's what evangelism is.

And keep in mind that if we do that, it's not like we're going to people who aren't worshiping anything. And we're like, hey, I noticed you're not worshiping anything. Would you like to join us in worshiping God? No, Everyone already is a worshiper.

Everyone is always worshiping something, worshiping money, sex, pleasure, entertainment, beauty, popularity, drugs, alcohol, relationships, or they worship their schedule, or the next big event. And what we do in evangelism is we approach them, build relationships with them, and invite them to come away from these idols that they are worshiping and to join us in paying homage to and orbiting our lives around God, who is the true fountain of living water who can truly satisfy.

The heart and the soul. He is the only true thirst quenching fountain.

He's the only God who will never let you down. And he's the only God who will freely forgive you whenever you let him down. CS Lewis describes God in this way. This is a part of what he says, God is not an impersonal thing, nor a static thing, not even just one person, but 3, a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a drama, a dance, the pattern of this three personal life, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

is the great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. And we live our lives as Christians orbiting around and coming to this fountain at the center of reality. And evangelism is God through us seeking people to join us in the worship of this deity. Who can quench our soul's thirst.

There's a 6th truth claim Jesus delivers to this woman, and that is that anyone who worships God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Jesus says God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in a particular way. They must. It's essential.

This is non-negotiable. They must worship Him in spirit. And truth. God is a spiritual being.

He is not bound by time and by space, by the limits of fleshly existence. He is eternal. He is a life-giving being. He is invisible.

And no one can know him unless he reveals himself to them. No one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten God, who's in the bosom of the Father. He has come and explained him. God is a spiritual being.

He is spirit, so he cannot be confined to an earthly house or dwelling place. In fact, it's interesting, I believe it's in 1 Kings 8, Solomon, after all this money is spent in In building this beautiful extravagant temple as a dwelling place for God. After all the work was done, Solomon is praying this prayer of dedication. Everyone's gathered there and what he basically says in a part of his prayer?

He's like, what are we doing? Building God a house. The heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot even contain Him. And we just built him a little house to dwell in.

That is God. He is a spirit. He cannot be confined to geography or to a particular space. He's more than that.

And anyone who worships God, Jesus says, you must, you must believe me, he says, when I tell you that if you want your worship to be acceptable to God, you must worship him. In spirit and in truth. You get, you get the vibe sometimes when you talk to people that a lot of people who are non-Christians, and they're all over the map, and their beliefs and practices. That when, when people stand before God, that God's just going to say, listen, did, did you worship anything?

Anything? Did you do any worship in your life? The mother goddess Sophia, Zeus, anything? Oh, Sophia, OK, good.

You can come into heaven because you were a worshiper. And as long as you were a worshiper, then that's good enough. Or that God will say, did, did you worship me at all? Like, even if your heart wasn't in it, did you go through any rituals?

Did, did you, did you worship me in any way at all? Your heart might have been a million miles away, but Did you do anything in the way of worshiping me? If you did, oh, I'm so grateful for that. Enter into heaven.

But Jesus says, you got to believe me. I'm the heaven sent one. I know my Father. You have to do it this way.

You must worship Him in spirit and in truth. You've got to have your spirit made alive by God. You have to be born again, you have to become a child of God. And then worship him in a way that engages your whole being, and it must be according to the truth, according to the truth of God's word, according to the truth of who I am.

I am the truth, according to the truth of what I'm saying to you right now. You must Do this. There's no other way. To worship.

If you want to worship God in a way that pleases Him, you must worship him in spirit and in truth. Real quick, this helps us a lot, even as Christians, because we realize that the one that we need to please in our worship is God. Unfortunately, we spend a lot of energy fretting over whether worship is acceptable to me. We show up on Sunday mornings and We're asking, is the worship acceptable to me?

Does it satisfy what I want to get out of worship? And I'm not saying that that's all bad. We just need to remember, folks. That we're not the audience of worship.

We're not the audience. In fact, when we gather on Sundays, and we're singing to the Lord, we're not the audience. God is the audience, and we are the choir. The congregation is the congregation of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit that we as the choir are singing our praises and giving our worship to.

And our goal should be in our worship to satisfy Him and to please Him. And God gives us a twofold standard. It's not this ridiculous list, just worship me, worship me in spirit with your whole being made alive by my Spirit, having been born again, worship me according to the truth of who Jesus is, according to the truth of my revelation, worship me with honesty and genuineness. That's what I want.

That's what pleases me. There's a 7th and final truth claim that Jesus makes to this woman. Let's say it this way, I am the Messiah, your worship director. I love this.

Jesus is saying all this stuff about worship. And the woman's like, man, he's reminding me of someone that's coming. look what she says. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming.

So she uses Messiah because the Jews referred to him as the Messiah. He who is called Christ, like she didn't necessarily always use that term, but she knew that. This one who's coming was called the Christ, especially by the Jews. I know that Messiah is coming.

He who is called Christ, when that one comes, I know that he will declare all things to us. sir, that the very things you're talking about and explaining, that's actually the stuff that the Messiah when he comes, is going to explain to us and make clear. You're, you're doing the very thing the Messiah is going to do when he comes. And what an incredible moment this must have been when Jesus said to her, I who speak to you.

A he I am the Messiah. I am the Christ. I am the one who explains everything. I am the one who answers the questions that you have come to me with.

I am the one who addresses topics like this. I am the one who has the right to tell you whom and how to worship. I am your worship director. In closing, David Foster Wallace says everybody worships.

The only choice we get is what to worship. I think that's largely true. I'm going to add one thing to that. You do get one other choice, and that is you get to choose who you allow.

To direct you. In your worship. You get a choice over who will be your worship director. Every one of you in this room are worshippers.

Some of the things that some of you are worshiping are eating you alive. God is in this room right now, and he stands ready to make alive. To make people his children. To make worshippers of him.

He's seeking worshippers as he works his way through this room. And Christ is the heaven sent one with full authority to be your worship director. If you want to worship the true God in the right way, you need to let Christ direct you in that. And so I ask you this morning, have you believed in Jesus as your worship director?

Have you believed in him? As your worship director. Do you believe him when he says what he says in this passage about how to worship? And how to worship the true God.

Let's bow our heads in prayer. Lord, if there are any that are here today who have never come to you as the fountain of living water and Given themselves to just To worshiping you, to orbiting around you. I pray that you would awaken them and make them alive and ready to live their lives. Centered upon you, Lord, the fountain of living waters.

That they would find their soul's refreshment, their thirst quenched in you like nothing else and no one else could ever do. Save them from their idols. I pray that you would save us as Christians from the idols. We should be worshippers of you, Lord, and on many levels we are, but our worship is imperfect, and we find ourselves going to other things to quench our thirst.

Deliver us Christians from idols. And make us true worshippers of you. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you at this point in our service. I pray that you would bless these brothers and sisters as they give.

We ask, Lord, that you would meet the needs that we have as a church financially. With where we stand with the shortfall in our general fund, Lord, we're placing that need before you and asking you to address this need through the giving of your people, bless us and prosper us that we might be able to give to your work that you're doing here. That the ministry of the gospel would be fully supplied, and your name would be glorified. For it's in your name, we pray, Lord Jesus, and all God's people said,