Faithful in Worship | Part 1

From the Love Refining studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler, here with Kerry Vaughn, the CEO of Love Refining. Kerry, did you know that our greatest need, privilege, and supreme duty as Christians is to worship God? It's the very reason we were created. Well Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and that's the first door. And I think many people pray to receive Christ and they think, okay, I'm done, that's it. There's another door, Byron, and that's the door of worship.

That is the door. And that's what we'll talk about today. Faithful in worship with Adrian Rogers. Get your Bibles and turn to John chapter 4, verses 3 through 24. And I like what Adrian Rogers says, if you want to be utterly miserable, turn your life inward. If you want to be filled with joy, turn your life upward.

Look into the face of God and learn to worship. Amen. You know, we become like what we worship, and that's a true statement. And this is what the sermon talks about today. Kerry, there's something happening in the month of May here at Love Refining. It's our love offering.

It's our love offering month. If you go to Matthew 28 and we see the great commission there, right? Go ye therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What we're saying here is, don't keep the gospel, hand it off, give it away.

Almost like a relay race, right? We're kind of handing the baton or we're passing the baton to the next person or to the next generation. You know, we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That's the good news.

But what good is the good news if it sits idled or if it sits on a shelf? We want to give it away. And so what we're trying to do is challenge our constituents, our supporters to come alongside us in the month of May, go above and beyond the call of duty, and give the ministry away.

And the best way you can do that is support Love Worth Finding. And we're going to take those proceeds, we're going to take that support, and we're going to pour it back into the ministry so that we can reach the world for Christ. Amen? Kerry, we are a team and we need each other to advance the gospel. Those gifts help us to continue the work here at Love Worth Finding.

You know, Adrian Rogers was one that didn't talk a lot about giving, but he wasn't ashamed to do so either. I will not promise you that I will be the best preacher in the world. There are other people who can preach the gospel better than I, but there's no one who can preach a better gospel than I can. And I will promise you this, that what you give will be used with integrity.

It will be used prayerfully and carefully for one purpose, and that is the glory of Jesus Christ and the spread of the gospel if we know our heart. And so, would you do this? Would you pray, sincerely pray, and ask God what He would have you to do? Not what He wants others to do. Just ask Him what He wants you to do. And then whatever He lays on your heart, then do it.

And we'll rejoice one day at the feet of Jesus. I love you, and God bless you. I think there's three ways people can be a part of this love offering. Number one, give personally. Number two, give as a way of life. And number three, tell 50 people in your circle of influence who will go tell 50 people, who will go tell 50 people, to give to the ministry of love worth finding because we are passing the baton and we are giving away the ministry.

Kerry, that is so well spoken. And our listeners are such a valuable part in this project of giving, as you said, and we love hearing from them. And we have one who said this about the ministry of love worth finding.

I make listening to LWF a part of my daily devotion. Pastor Rogers' method of teaching the Word was, and still is, so relevant, practical, and profound. I pray I can be a greater blessing to your ministry this year because it has blessed me. What a great testimony.

I think people are looking for ways to be engaged, to be connected, and this is the way to do it, right? This love offering is a great way to segue and to give and to be a part of the ministry and know that it will go tenfold for the kingdom. Well, she wanted to be a blessing, and she is a blessing. Kerry, with today's message, Faithful in Worship Part 1, here's Adrian Rogers. Now why is worship so important? Simply this, we become like what we worship. The Bible tells us that when a man makes an idol and worships that idol, he himself becomes like the idol that he worships. But the Bible tells us that when we worship the Lord Jesus Christ, and behold, in his face, as though we were looking in a mirror, and rather than seeing ourselves, we see Jesus, then we're changed into the same image from glory to glory. To put it down simply, we would be better people if we worshiped better. Now, there's a story here, 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. Begin reading with me here in John chapter 4, and I'm going to read beginning in verse 3, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee. Now the he refers to Jesus, and he must needs go through Samaria. Now Samaria was a city where they hated the Lord Jesus, and they hated the Jews, and when the Bible says he must needs go through Samaria, it wasn't geographically that he must needs go through.

As a matter of fact, it was the more dangerous and the more difficult route. He went through, I believe, to meet this woman and to tell her about himself. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, set thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink, for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?

For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman said unto him, Sir, thou is nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, and whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.

But the water that I give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go call thy husband, and come hither.

The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou hast now is not thy husband. In that saith thou truly, The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. And then she takes up the subject of worship.

Listen. She says, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me. The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what? We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now, again I remind you that worship is the ultimate privilege, the greatest duty, and the deepest need.

You know what is wrong in many churches in America today? They're telling us that the way to reach people is to try to get the service more man-centered and less God-centered. They're saying talk less and less about theology and talk more and more about people and their needs. And then you will have what they call a seeker-sensitive service. That is, tell people about their needs.

Tell them how to understand self-esteem and self-fulfillment, how to enjoy self-love. And that's the way to pack them in. Well, friend, let me tell you that our first responsibility is not to fill the pew but to fill the pulpit. And we have gone from theology to me-ology in America. And Americans today want to use God rather than worship God. And much of our worship is self-centered rather than God-centered. And that's the reason that people are so miserable. Here was a woman who was a self-centered woman and a miserable woman.

Why? She had not understood true worship. Now, look at me and let me tell you this. You will never be what you were intended to be. You will never know true joy. You will never know true fulfillment. You will never understand what life is about until you learn to worship. I say that with no stutter, no stammer, no hesitation, no equivocation, no apology, and not one scintilla of a doubt when I say that you will never understand life, you will never have fulfillment, you will never have true joy until you learn to worship.

Believe me, I'm telling you the truth. That's what God created you to do. God made a fish to swim in the sea, God made a bird to fly in the air, and God made you to worship him. You take a fish and put him in a tree, he's an unhappy fish.

You take a bird and put him under the water, he's a miserable bird. You take a man and let that man fail to worship, and he will never have true fulfillment, never have true joy, for the apostle Paul said, in Acts chapter 17, speaking to those Athenians who were so ignorantly worshiping, he said, don't you understand that it is the true God that you don't even know that we must worship, and then Paul said this, for in him we live and move and have our being. That is, he is our element. Just as the water is the element of a fish, just as the air is the element of a bird, God is the element of a human being. In him we live and move and have our being, and until you learn to worship him, to know him intimately, not just know about him, but to know him, to love him and fellowship him, you be like a bird in the water. You be like a fish in a tree. You be like a round peg in a square hole. Listen for your welfare and for God's glory.

Pay attention to what we have to say, and learn with me today the importance of worship. Now here was a woman, you have to feel sorry for this woman. She had 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. For example, there is idolatrous worship.

There's a lot of modern day idolatry. Exodus chapter 34 verse 14, for thou shalt worship nor the God, for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Have you ever thought about God's name being jealous?

That's one of the names of God. Well, you say, I thought jealousy is a bad attribute. It is for you, but not for God.

Why? Because there are many humans, but only one God. No athlete can be jealous of another athlete. No singer jealous of another singer. No preacher jealous of another preacher because there are other preachers, other athletes, other singers, but there is one God.

One and only, and his name is jealous. And God says, I will not give my glory unto another. What is an idol?

Anything you love more, fear more, enjoy more, praise more, spend more time on, serve more than you serve Jehovah God is to you an idol, and no man can serve two masters. Some people have made a God of themselves. They call themselves a self-made man.

Douglas was debating with Lincoln. Douglas said, I am a self-made man. Abe Lincoln said, well, I'm glad to hear you say that because it relieves the creator of a fearful responsibility that you're a self-made man.

Man says, I'm a self-made man. And then he worships his creator. He worships himself. There's idolatrous worship. There's insincere worship. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 15, in vain do you worship me. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, but their heart is far from me. We glibly sing, take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold, and we hold it with all of our might.

Isn't that true? We sing all to Jesus, I surrender, all to him I freely give, and then we live for self as if Jesus Christ had never lived, never died, and never risen from the dead. We sing faith of our fathers, holy faith. We would be true to thee till death. And then we're ashamed to bow our head in the restaurant and thank God for the food.

True to him till death and don't even get back to prayer meeting. This people honoreth me with their mouth and with their lips, but their heart is far from me. We sing all, all that thrills my soul is Jesus. Then we find ourselves in the back alley eating tin cans with the devil's billy goats, trying to find our thrills in the things of this world. There is idolatrous worship. There's insincere worship. There is iniquitous worship. That is trying to worship God with unconfessed, unrepentant of sin in our hearts and in our lives.

I was looking at this passage in Amos chapter 5 verse 21. God says, I hate, I despise your feast days. I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer to me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beast. Take away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy vials.

That is your instruments. But let judgment run down his waters in righteousness as a mighty stream. Do you think that you can ascend to the holy hill of God today with a double heart and filthy hands?

You can't do it. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, when you come to bring your offering to the Lord, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, leave your offering there and first go be reconciled to your brother and then come and make your offering. If you're here today and your heart is headquartered for hate, and you make your offering to God, that's vain worship.

If you're here today and there's somebody that you've wronged and you've not made it right, don't think that you can bring your money and buy God or bribe God. God says leave your gift there. He doesn't say take it with you. He says leave it. He doesn't say go spend it. He says leave it.

Go make it right with your brother and then come and make your offering. It's tainted money. It taints yours, but God won't receive it until you make things right with somebody else. You see, Jesus spoke of vain worship, idolatrous worship, insincere worship, iniquitous worship is wrong. What is true worship? What is true worship? What is the meaning of worship? 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 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.

May I tell you something? If you want to measure the way you value God, you'll see it in your worship. How and what a person worships is an indication of what is valuable to him. Now, if you miss the worship service easily, it's because worship is not valuable to you. If you today feel that worship is boring, what that says is something very terrible about your heart. If you have no desire to worship, it is because God is of no value to you. Many times we confuse the prayer of petition and the prayer of thanksgiving for worship.

These are elements of worship, but they are not the heart of worship. I told you before of a woman who was in an apartment building. That apartment building caught fire. The firemen came. A woman stood at the window, this woman, and called out for help to be rescued. A strong fireman, a brave fireman, went up an extension ladder, took that woman who was ready to perish in his arms, and brought her down and set her on the pavement in safety. God cheered. He was a hero. Later, she went to the firehouse and found that man and thanked him. They got acquainted, began to date, fell in love, and got married.

And I trust lived happily ever after. Now, when she was standing in that window saying, help me, help me, save me, that's like a prayer of petition. And many times we cry out to her, oh, God, help me, and thank God he does.

But we need to pray those kind of prayers. When he had delivered her and she went to the firehouse and she thanked him, that's like praise and thanksgiving. And we ought to praise God, shouldn't we? We ought to thank him that he has delivered us. But when they fell in love and got married, she not only was asking him and thanking him, she was loving him not for what he had done, but for who he was. And when she gave all that she was to all that he is, then that's akin to worship.

Worship is loving God, just loving God, giving all that there is of us to all there is of him. Yes, we can say save me. Yes, we can say thank you. But oh, do we say, my God, I love you.

You are more precious to me than silver, more costly than gold. Worship is all that I am responding to all that he is. What an inspiring word for us today. Worship is all that I am responding to all that he is. Coming up tomorrow, we'll continue with Faithful in Worship and we'll hear part two next time. Maybe you have questions today about who Jesus is, about what he means to you, about how to receive the forgiveness that he's freely offering you today. Go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio.

You'll find resources and materials that will answer questions you may have about your faith. As you continue with your day, remember these inspiring yet convicting words from Adrian Rogers. If you want to be utterly miserable, turn your life inward. If you want to be filled with joy, turn your life upward. Look into the face of God and learn to worship. And we'll hear the conclusion of this important message tomorrow right here on Love Worth Finding.