Faithful in Worship | Part 2

What's the real reason we go to church?

Listen closely to Handel. And more than that, not only did you come to worship, you brought your worship because it's very hard to come to worship service on Sunday when you haven't been worshipping six days a week. Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring the timeless truth of the gospel presented through the messages of Adrian Rogers. Our greatest need, privilege, and supreme duty as believers in Christ is to worship God. It's the very reason we were created. We are invited, commanded, encouraged, and and empowered to worship God because we become like what we worship. In part one of today's message, we began learning the meaning of true worship.

How can we practice it? What's our real motivation? If you have your Bible, turn to John chapter 4 as Adrian Rogers concludes this powerful message, Faithful in Worship. I think the finest story in all of the Bible that tells about worship is here in John chapter 4, it's about a woman who had a wasted and a ruined life, a woman who was the finished product of the devil's art, a woman who was on the trash heap of life, a woman who had unsatisfied desires, a woman who had been going from affair to affair, from marriage to marriage, trying to find satisfaction, and she never found it until she found it in biblical worship. Now here was a woman, you have to feel sorry for this woman, she'd been blinded by Satan. He had promised her so much and she had gone from husband to husband and from affair to affair, but her burned out life was a monument to the lies of Satan. She had become a slave of sin and now she's like a faded flower thrown away in the garbage can. She has become the dirty plaything of a dirtier man.

Like so many today, we call it the new morality, it's not new, it's very old and it's certainly not moral, led by Hollywood and these actresses that have faces like angels and morals like alley cats. This woman today, married five times, maybe today they'd give her the Academy Award. She had been blinded by Satan, she'd been broken by sorrow, she's discarded, thrown away, she's filled with emptiness, disillusionment, she has to come out to fill her water pots even at a time when other people are not there in the middle of the day because she doesn't want to be seen, she's a social outcast and she's bound by sin. She's tried religion, she knew religion, she wanted to talk about religion, but she didn't know God. Jesus said, what you worship, you don't even know. Her religion had not worked. She's like so many today who have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof and to this woman blinded by Satan, this woman broken by sorrow, this woman bound by sin, Jesus taught her, listen, what we need to learn today, the wonder of worship.

Three things. First of all, we must learn the meaning of true worship. Look in verse 22. Look at this, Jesus said to this woman, you worship, you know not what. And there are a lot of people today who worship, but it is vain worship because they don't understand the meaning of worship.

What they worship, they don't even really know. True worship is the adoring contemplation of God through Jesus Christ. True worship is all that I am responding to all that He is. My body, my soul, my spirit responding to God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

My mind, my emotion, my will, my whole heart lifted to Him in praise, adoration, and thanksgiving. Our English word worship comes from an old English combination, worth-ship. That is, our worship is because of the worth that we see in our Lord. We worship what we consider to be worthy. Revelation chapter 5 and verse 12 speaks of those in heaven worshiping, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Worship is all that I am responding to all that He is. Now that is the meaning of worship. Let me speak to you for just a moment about the method of true worship. Jesus in this passage said in verses 21 through 23 that we must worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Now He said that in response to her question. She wanted to get a theological debate going as to where the true place of worship was. She said, our fathers worship in this mountain. She was in Samaria at Mount Gerizim where there was a rival altar to the altar built in Jerusalem. She said, you say that you ought to worship in Jerusalem. Now which is the right place to worship, in Jerusalem or in Samaria? It's like some people when you go to tell them about Jesus to get them saved, they want to say, well, who's right, the Baptist or the Methodist?

She just wanted to start a kind of an argument about religion. Well, where's the right place? Who has cornered the market on worship? Where is the right place to worship?

Now what's the significance of these two places? Well in Samaria and Mount Gerizim, those Samaritans who worshiped there had jettisoned most of the Bible. All they had done was to accept the first five books of the Bible.

We call that the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And they didn't believe the rest of the Bible, but they had a very fervent worship. They didn't know what they were worshiping. They were worshiping in ignorance.

It was ignorant worship. Now the Jews in Jerusalem, they believed it all. They believed Moses, the prophets, the Psalms, they believed it all. And they knew how to cross every T. They knew how to dot every I, but they couldn't spell love because while they were theologically straight, they had the truth. They didn't have the Spirit of God in them. They had dead orthodoxy. Now in Samaria, they had spirited worship, but it was ignorant worship. They were worshiping.

They didn't know what. In Jerusalem, they said, well, we have the truth, but they didn't have the Spirit. Jesus said, the hour is coming and now is when you're not going to say there or there, but you're going to worship God out of your heart in spirit and in truth.

One is not a substitute for the other. We must worship God in spirit and in truth. Now what is the meaning of true worship?

Here it is. In order to worship truly, you must be regenerated by the Father. You must be regenerated by the Father. Jesus said you're to worship the Father. Now how does God become the Father when you're born into His family?

Jesus over 70 times called God Father. God is not like a Father. God is Father.

That's God's description. He is the Father. But how does God get to be your Father?

You must be born into His family. God is not your Father merely because you're a human being. Jesus said in John chapter 8 and verse 44 to these Pharisees who worshiped at Jerusalem, you are of your Father the devil and the lust of your Father you will do. How does God get to be our Father? Well again Jesus said in this same Gospel of John, it says of him, He came unto his own and his own received him not, but as many as received him to them gave he the power to become the children of God. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes unto the Father but by me. And so when the Word of God comes into your heart like a seed to impregnate you, you are born again of the Spirit. You are born into the family of God. And then because you're born into the family of God, you have the nature of God and the Spirit of God in you Christ as a Father.

Now so number one, you must be regenerated of the Father. To worship you must worship the Father. And to worship the Father you must know the Son, the Messiah that this woman met this day. To know the Lord Jesus Christ who is the living water, who is the water of life, who regenerates you so that you can know and worship the Father.

Now question, answer it truly. Do you know the Father? Have you been born into the family of God?

Do you have a new birth? Can you bow your head and pray it and say it and mean it? Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You must be regenerated by the Father. Number two, you must be activated by the Spirit.

For Jesus said you must worship the Father, how? In spirit and in truth. Now it is necessary that you be born again, but you must also be Spirit filled. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit. And then when you're filled with the Spirit, here's the result, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, not in Jerusalem, not in Samaria, but in your heart. You see, it is the Holy Spirit of God that energizes your worship. Again, let me tell you this, if you have no desire to worship, you're not saved. You're not saved because you don't have the Spirit of God in you.

Well, let me put this caveat here. Let me say that you just may be saved, but you're so terribly backslidden, you have no right to believe you are. I mean, God sends forth His Spirit into our hearts crying, Abba, Father, you want to praise Him.

It's one of the birthmarks of the believer. You have a desire to worship the Father. If you today think that worship is boring, incidental, unnecessary, you don't desire to worship God, you better get alone and check up and find out if you know the God of heaven. And if you do, you better say, well, I must not be Spirit filled. And when you get saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, you'll have to backslide to keep from worshiping.

I mean, you can't be silent. You want to praise Him because you will be worshiping Him in Spirit and in truth. You say, well, how do you fill with the Holy Spirit?

Well, I want to ask you this question. What is the purpose and the desire of the Holy Spirit? Jesus said, He will not speak of Himself, He'll take the things of mine and He'll show them to you. He will glorify me. Do you know what the office work of the Holy Spirit is?

To glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. When the desire of your heart is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, when the one consummate burning desire is to glorify Christ, the Holy Spirit of God will fill you and flood you and enable you to do that. You must be regenerated by the Father, you must be activated by the Spirit.

Thirdly, you must be regulated by the Word. You worship the Father how? in spirit and in truth.

Now one is not a substitute for the other. Some people just want all spirit worship. They want to come together and they want to sing and they want to praise and they want to clap their hands and they want to testify and they want to share, but they don't study the Word of God. That's the reason that when we come to worship service as an integral part of our worship service is to open the Word of God and study the Word of God.

Why? Because Jesus said we're to worship in spirit and in truth. And if you worship in spirit and not in truth, you'll become a fanatic. If you worship in truth and not in spirit, you'll become a Pharisee. If you worship in spirit and in truth, you will become a worshiping Christian when you worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Dr. Vance Havner spoke of those who are legalists and those who are fanatics and he said, thank God we don't have to freeze in formalism or fry in fanaticism. We can just simply worship God in spirit and in truth. So to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God is the way to worship and to be filled with the Word of God is the way to worship.

Psalm 145 verse 18, the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. That's the reason we spoke about one of the very fundamentals and factors of faithfulness is the Word of God. That's to worship in truth. Today we're talking about worshiping in spirit.

Now let me give to you the third thing that I have to say very quickly and I'll be finished. First of all, we said we must know the meaning of true worship. Secondly, we must understand the method of worship, to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Now thirdly, I want you to think about the motive for worship and how important this is. Look in verse 23. There it says, the Father seeketh such to worship Him.

May I ask you a question? Did you come to church today seeking something? Did you?

If you did, I'm glad you did. But God came seeking something also. God came to this service seeking something. The Father seeketh such to worship Him. See, God is a God of love. What good is it being a God of love if there's no one to love and not to be loved by anyone?

How can love express itself? That's why we're here. You say, why did God create us? You say, well, God created us to serve Him. Well, angels do a better job than we can. No, God created us not primarily to serve Him but to know Him and to love Him and your love and your worship meets a great need in the heart of God and a great need in your heart and so God seeks such to worship Him for what worship will do for the heart of God and for what worship will do for you when you come into the King's chambers and to have that intimate fellowship with the Lord.

That's the great motive. Soren Kierkegaard, whose theology I don't buy completely, told a story that I completely agree with. He said in many services that people think like it's a great play and somehow the preacher on Sunday morning is the actor in this play and he's on the platform. And the people sitting out there are the spectators. And they're like critics to acclaim or to criticize. And so they critique the music. They critique the service. They critique the sermon because they are the critics.

He is the actor and they're watching Him perform. But Kierkegaard said that's not the way that worship is. If you make it analogous to a play, the people sitting out there are the actors. The preacher is the prompter behind the wings and God is the audience. You see, you don't come to church to hear a sermon primarily. You don't come to church to criticize or critique a solo. You come to church to worship God. And if this music helps you to worship God, then it's fulfilled its purpose. If the preaching of the Word has encouraged you to worship God, then I fulfill my purpose. But my friend, you have come to worship. And more than that, not only did you come to worship, you brought your worship when you came because it's very hard to come to worship service on Sunday when you haven't been worshiping six days a week. We come in here and we bring our praise into the house of the Lord.

One of the most tragic stories I ever read was this. In a wealthy Boston suburb, they were having a christening party for a little baby. And they invited the guests after the christening. And they were all there in this wealthy, beautiful apartment. They were eating and drinking and enjoying themselves when somebody said, by the way, where is the baby? The mother's heart jumped. She ran to the back bedroom where she had put that baby in the middle of that huge, expansive bed, knowing the baby could not roll off. But in the darkness, the guests had come in there and thrown their heavy winter coats on that bed.

Frantically, she dug through those coats and brought out the suffocated and dead body of that little baby, whose christening they'd come to celebrate, smothered beneath the coats of the guests. I have to say, that's a tragic story. I hate to tell you that. But I tell you, in the spiritual realm, I believe it's almost as tragic when we have assemblies. And we come together, theoretically, to worship and give Him praise. And He Himself is smothered under our activity. We slap backs and drink coffee and talk about ball games and come in here and do everything except give Him the glory and the praise. Brethren, we have met to worship and adore the God we love, and all is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down.

We are to give Him praise and give Him glory, individually and corporately. We are a worshiping community, and a factor of faithfulness is that you worship. When you miss the worship services, you're saying, God, you're not very important to me. But when you come and when you truly worship, you're saying two things. You're saying, God is important to me, and my brothers and sisters in His family are important to me. Let me talk to you just a moment about how to make God your Father.

You make God your Father when you repent of your sin and receive Christ as your personal Savior and you're born into His family. And you can pray right now where you are this moment, and God will save you instantaneously and forever. Not only will He save you, He will keep you, and He'll put His Spirit in your heart where you can worship Him in spirit and in truth, which is your deepest need and your greatest privilege.

Would you pray a prayer like this if you're not certain that you're saved? Dear God, I know that you love me, and I know that you want to save me. Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God. I believe you paid my sin debt with your blood on the cross. I believe God raised you from the dead.

And I believe that salvation is a gift, and I receive it right now. I repent of my sin. I'm sick of my sin. I turn for my sin. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. Come into my life.

Take control of my life. Begin now to make me the person you want me to be. Save me, Lord Jesus. Pray that. Save me, Lord Jesus. Save me, Jesus.

Did you ask Him? Then by faith, pray this way. Thank you for saving me, Jesus.

Thank you. And Lord Jesus, you're now my Savior, my Lord, my Defender, my Redeemer, and my friend. And Jesus, because you died for me, I'll live for you.

You hung naked on a cross for me. I'll confess you openly. I'll do it, Lord. I'll make a public profession of my faith. I'll not be ashamed of you, Lord. You died for me.

I'll stand up for you. In your name I pray, Amen. And if you prayed to receive Jesus just now, we would love to celebrate with you and invite you to our Discover Jesus page on the website. You'll find answers there that you may need about your newfound faith.

There's a response section as well. You can share your testimony with us or tell how this message has helped change your life. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says Discover Jesus. Welcome to God's forever family.

We can't wait to hear from you today. Now, if you'd like a copy of today's message, request one by the title Faithful in Worship when you call 1-877-LOVEGOD. This message is also part of the insightful Factors of Faithfulness series. For the complete collection, all seven powerful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVEGOD. Or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio.

Or you can write to order at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. What does your worship life say about how much worth you've placed on God? What are the meaning, method, and motive of true worship as you glorify God in your faithfulness to Him? And we hope you'll join us next time for more profound truth simply stated by Adrienne Rogers right here on Love Worth Finding. We received a testimony from a listener that was so encouraging, I want to share it with you. Over time, I have veered away from my relationship with Christ.

The things of this world have pulled, ripped, and tugged at me, but I am fighting to get back to Him. I listen to Adrienne Rogers preaching at least once a day, share the biblical truths with my coworkers, and strive to be the light for those around me. You know, Adrienne Rogers said, your faith is the measure of your victory and success. We are passionate about providing resources to help you in any season of your faith journey. Whether you're new to the faith or struggling in it, we're here to offer unchanging truth through the messages of Adrienne Rogers. As a way to say thank you for your gift right now, we want to send you our Tapestry Faith and Forgiveness Journal. Request a copy of the journal Tapestry Faith and Forgiveness when you call with a gift at 1-877-LIVE-GOD.