WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH

Sunday mornings I am teaching a series on Worship. It is based on the John 4 passage where Jesus says two very important things about worship. First, our Father is seeking you to worship Him. He wants you, desires you and is waiting and expecting you to come to Him in worship. Far from being a fearful experience, He looks for us as a long awaited family member or friend coming to visit and spend time. That changes our perspective. We don’t “have to” worship; we don’t just “get to worship”…we love to worship; we long to spend time with Him who longs to spend time with us.

Second, we worship Him in spirit and in truth. We worship him with our head and our heart, with emotion and well as logic. We express our love to God with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our strength. Some may be a little intimidated by worshiping God in spirit, with emotion. I grew up in a church tradition and time when we were taught the following verse about worship: “the Lord is in His Temple, let all the earth be silent”. So speaking out, clapping hands, raising hands, saying amen or hallelujah was all but forbidden. The problem is that is not the majority of worship as portrayed in God’s Word. We are not just a mind, a brain or just purely logical. We are also emotional, expressive, and spiritual. We need to clap, shout, sing, dance and be fully engaged. If you have ever seen Jewish people at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, you see them swaying back and forth, rocking with abandon. They are praying with their minds and worshiping with their bodies, their whole being. 

I am taking my four favorite Bible passages about worship and using them to show Biblical worship…in spirit and in truth. Worship cannot be optional for us, it must be primary. It cannot be a spectator sport, we must be full participants. It is not something we do only on Sunday mornings. Sunday mornings becomes the time we offer him all we did the previous week as a sacrifice of worship. Sunday morning is the time we seek to give Him the honor and the glory He is due. In doing so, by His grace, He can give us the power we need to face the week ahead. Join us as we continue to focus on the invitation to Worship Him in spirit and in truth.

See you this Sunday, good Lord willing.

BTW, you can still join me on Wednesday nights at 6:15 as we survey the Old Testament. We finished Judges on January 16 and will introduce the Book of Ruth on January 23. Great group, great study, come on and join us.

Pastor Tom