Worship in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23–24) | Eyes to Heaven (Part 4)

Transcript

AT 8
Worship in Spirit and Truth
John 4:23-24
2/8/2026
Andrew Thomas

Well good evening everybody. We do welcome you back to Indian Hills. Thankful you are here. It is such great joy and freedom that we have to gather together. We often forget that there are many countries in the world in which you are not allowed to do what we get to do multiple times a week and that is to gather together corporately and worship our Lord.

It’s such a blessing to be singing. Such a blessing to be studying God’s Word. Such a blessing that in your lap, or at least on your phone, you have a Bible. You can know God’s truth. I am certainly thankful for that. There’s really not much stopping us from gathering in fact. There is this one sickness that you may have heard of way back when, when we tried not to gather but we still made a way and I’m thankful for that. Often, it’s our own lack of desire that often gets in the way of gathering together as Believers. Either that or it’s a self-imposed busyness. It can be a good thing to be busy, but sometimes we can let that get in the way of gathering together as Believers. Either way, except for our own faults, there’s really not much stopping us from gathering and how great that is. We get to worship our Lord. We get to worship Him.

There’s going to be a day when we’re going to be standing in front of Him praising His name, face to face, no sin to hold us down. Yet God has blessed us in a way where today, right now, and for the rest of your life, you get to worship your Lord in many different ways. There is something special about gathering together as Believers because God has made special instructions in Scripture for it. We see many letters to the epistles that we see to churches that talked about what we should do when we gather. We bring special encouragement to each other as we gather and as we worship our Lord in the same room. You saw it even tonight in the singing that we have. We’re doing it right now in the studying of God’s Word, the praying for each other, the encouraging each other, the talking about how you really are, rather than just the pleasantries of how are you, I am fine. I am busy, I need to get to where I need to go. As pastors, we’re here to take every hinderance out of the way so that you may come and worship the Lord. What hopefully seems to be seamless. We’re not here to make any false environment for you to get these false feelings in your heart but we want to take out the hindrances that might get in the way.

The best example that I can relate to is the musicians. We work very hard if you don’t know, every Sunday, usually every Sunday, we’re practicing both on Wednesday and on Sunday morning to prepare for the Sunday morning service. To do so first for God, for His excellence to do our very best work that we can bring to bring the most delightful music that we can bring for His glory, for His honor. But it’s also for the congregation. It’s so we can do well and not be a distraction for you so that you can purely focus on singing the truths that we’re singing together. The same goes for the pastor that’s preparing the message this week. That man’s going to work very hard to prepare God’s truth in a way that’s not just boring and we don’t want to do fun fancy words just to trick you into listening to God’s Scripture. We are going to present it in a way that is pleasing so that you will open your ears and open your hearts to the application of God’s Word. We want to take away those hindrances that may get in the way.

The point of gathering together is to worship God. It’s about worship. We use that word all the time. You’ve probably seen it on your bulletin. I’ve seen it so many times that I forget what it says but on the left side of your bulletin it says, “Worship God in Spirit and Truth.” That’s what we are going to talk about tonight.

But sadly, so many people stop their idea in their head of worship, and it stops on Sunday. I should say it stops on Monday and it starts again on Sunday. They stop it at church. They think about the physical building as the place in which we worship. But the idea that worship is limited to the confines of this building on a Sunday is really rooted in the idea that you are not willing to give your full life to God. In that statement I’m not talking about salvation necessarily, but we’re going to come back to it and really unpack it. The idea that worship is limited to the confines of this building on a Sunday is rooted in a lack of willingness to give your whole life to Christ, to God.

What is worship anyway? We have a countdown timer that we use every Sunday. It’s kind of something that happened after the covid days, and it just stuck. It’s been a helpful tool to get people here on time to get my musicians here on time. It’s a good thing. But we used to not do it every service, and we would only use it for the special services, like the Christmas service, maybe an Easter service. So, I would go looking on the website that has as many countdowns that we can choose from. Over half of them in my mind would be immediately eliminated. I wouldn’t be able to choose then because they would say “Worship begins in…” and then it would have the countdown. Now I understand what they are saying. It’s the idea that corporate worship begins is a little clunky. I understand what they are saying. But that’s the idea. That’s what we’ve been thinking as worship begins at a certain time on Sunday and ends at a certain time before lunch. When did we stop worshiping? Does worship end after lunch? We don’t know.

In the same line of thinking, I have tried for many years to stop using the title “worship leader”. I’m not going to get on your case if you call me worship leader. That’s okay. It’s worldly accepted as a decent title for the music guy. But I just don’t think it is very accurate. If anything, Pastor Jesse is the guy that’s preaching up here, is going to be more so the worship leader for us and then we need to be careful. Let’s call him the “corporate worship leader.” It gets messy. That’s why I don’t talk to many people about it.

So again, what is worship? In Scripture, we see it can mean “to revere, it can mean to be in awe, to be in devotion to, to give praise to.” Many times, in Scripture it pertains to giving due honor to the true position of God. I think we make God too little, too often. For example, humility. Often, we can think it’s, oh I’m just bad at that. And you’re being humble when you say that and that’s not the case. Humility is the idea of recognizing the true position of lowliness that you are in. Kind of in the same vein, worship is not a puffing up of God, rather it’s a recognition of His true worthiness. His true position. In Revelation, we see it with John, where the question is asked who can break the seal on the scroll, and he thinks no one is worthy, but there is one who is worthy! His true position is hard to grasp. That’s what we do when we worship, is we recognize how high and mighty He is.

The point is that worship is giving due reverence, due devotion, and honor to our God. It is proper as I mentioned in announcements. It is the natural thing to do as created beings, to worship. We were made to worship our Creator. We do not worship on Sunday alone, although Sunday is important, and it’s a special time of encouragement and gathering together. I’m not belittling the gathering on Sunday. I’m saying add to it. We are designed as humans to worship!

A couple of the songs we even sang tonight presented this great truth. We sang,
Great Are You Lord
You give life, You are love You bring light to the darkness. You give hope, You restore every heart that is broken; great are You Lord. It's Your breath in our lungs; So (what do we do) we pour out our praise to You only.

In light of these great truths, we pour out our praise to you. Another one we sang.

It’s Your Grace
It's Your grace from beginning to the end.
It's Your grace, we will never comprehend
Why You drew the ones who ran from You;
(and then there’s the question) What can we do but offer You praise?

The reaction, the natural proper response in our hearts is to lift up songs of praise, to lift up lives of worship to our Lord.

Centuries of history, we both see this Biblical and secular stuff, show that mankind longs to worship something. It’s in our blood. It’s the design that God has given us. If they refuse to recognize their Creator, then they’re going to make up their own idol to worship. Even God’s chosen people, the people of Israel, they had their moments in idol worship. I’m sure you know. When God felt far from them. The fascinating thing about worship is that God in a way has changed how we go about worship over the years. I’d like to set up our main points today from a story, that’s not just story. It’s from the Scripture. Turn to John 3 to start. We are going to the Gospel of John. I find that whenever I am studying to preach, it’s really hard to stay away from the book of John. It’s too good. It’s a great place to go. There’s a reason why we often send new Believers to be reading here. It is so rich with truth and yet so simple to understand and see who Christ is. We get to see our Savior. We get to see His heart. We get to see Him in action.

So, we’re going to be going to John 4, but it’s worth backing up to John 3. We’re going to look at John 3 to start and we’re going to see a very popular passage of Scripture. Here, we meet a man named Nicodemus. Simply put, he is a man of the Pharisees who see rules and regulations as the path to holiness. This is honestly somewhat understandable, because God for many years has told His people exactly how to worship Him through these different rules and laws and ceremonies. Different things that they must do. However, the point has been obviously missed by the Pharisees that they must follow God and maybe even more so look for that coming Messiah. We must remember we use the Gospels often as New Testament passages because they’re technically in the New Testament. But John is set in Old Testament times. This is not the church. What this is, is a moment in history where the way in which followers of God worship Him is going to be completely flipping on its head. The way that worship comes about to the Father is going to be changing entirely. When you think about it like that, it makes a lot of sense why Christ came and made big problems in society. Because He was changing the way it had been done for years.

Starting in John 3:1-2, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

So even Nicodemus the man of the Pharisees, the ruler, knows that this man is from God because of His miracles. He’s recognizing something is happening with this man that has come, Jesus Christ. There is no denying Jesus, we can’t ignore Him anymore. So, Nicodemus comes to Him at what seems to be in secret, at night. Maybe it’s so he could have more time to talk to Him, but he asks. We see the conversation that gives us very deep truths such as verse 3. Jesus tells him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” A truth that we know super well today, but not something, it would have been something completely new in their day. Verse 16, if I had all the Adventure Club kids here, they would all shout it out, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Before getting into chapter 4, I just wanted to point out why we went to chapter 3. It’s because I want to see this fascinating shift that we have in Scripture, in the Gospel of John. From a ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee, who we don’t know how he ended his days. We don’t get an auditorial response from him. Then we switch to chapter 4 where we see this woman of Samaria who has a very noteworthy response. Big difference in ruler of the Pharisees, thinks its all by these different rules and regulations, a worthy man some may say and no response, to this woman who we’ll see is very very lowly in society and yet she has a great response.

John 4:1-4 we’re just starting in verse 1. “Therefore, when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were, He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria.”

We must stop there. Had to? Why did He have to go through Samaria? As it turns out Jesus did not have to go through Samaria due to His travel. It wasn’t the only way to get to where He needed to go. You might already know this, but the Jews would often actively avoid going through Samaria in order to avoid having dealings with the Samaritans. In fact, they would often take the longer route which would obviously require more resources in order to avoid it. It was worth it to them. I’m keeping it overly simple, but these people did not get along. The Jews held to the entire Old Testament. The Samaritans hold to the first five books only. The worship systems were different; the belief systems were different. As we’ll see in the verses to follow, they had no dealings with each other. So no, Jesus by culture or by route didn’t “have to” go to Samaria. It wasn’t really a move that made sense. So, what does this mean? Well, this “had to” is a submission to the will of the Father. We see in many other times more explicitly that that’s what’s happening here. There was a plan. What’s amazing is there might have been even more things that happened that weren’t taken into account here in the Scriptures, but what we get to know is that there was this one meeting with this one woman that He had to go to. Jesus knew this. He knew that He had to go to Samaria.

We’ll keep reading here, John 4:5-14, “So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there. So, Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.  Therefore, the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How do You, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, being a Samaritan woman?” (and here’s the preface I gave earlier) For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.  Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’  She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?    Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 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 will never thirst, ever. But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

Now to start, I’m not going to be giving every detail of this passage. I do have trouble when I go to these passages to want to just switch what I’m preaching and go and preach this. But I’m going to refrain from it. Jesus, a man and a Jew, was speaking to this Samaritan woman alone. This would have been entirely counter cultural. It wouldn’t have made sense; it wouldn’t have happened.

So now even from this woman we see that she agrees, and John declares in verse 9, Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. But now we get to the living water part of this passage. Jesus is clearly offering to her eternal life, and she’s stuck in the idea that He doesn’t even have something to draw from the well from. He’s offering salvation in His name if she would ask for it. Now this part of the passage is often the most important, it’s the peak part, the name of the sermons in this section would be living water or living waters, because it is an important part of the section.

But our focus tonight is a little bit later where we talk about how worship is going to be shifting. So, let’s keep going. Verse 15. (John 4:15-22)  The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come back here to draw.”  He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come back here.”  The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”  The woman said to Him, “Sir, I see that You are a prophet.   Our fathers worshiped on 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.

To make sure, just backing up a little bit, that she knew who He is, Jesus tells her things that He could not possibly know. Of course, he could not possibly know that there have been five divorces and the man that she lays with now is not in fact her husband. To this she responds and she does understand that there is no way that He could have known that. Something must be going on and the easier answer than He’s the Messiah, is well He’s a prophet. She seems to lean into this by getting clarity on what worship is and how there can be different places of worship. We can’t really know the heart behind this woman as she asks this question. But whether in skepticism, or in true inquiry, this woman sets up Jesus to give us what worship is now and will be from now on. As we’re looking at our main two verses to set up tonight’s message. Verse 23, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.  God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

What worship is now as Christ is here to provide a way of salvation as I said earlier is flipping all ways of understanding with how worship goes on its head. No longer is it that mountain for the Samaritans that Jesus and the woman probably would have seen from where they are standing, which is so cool to think about. But God seeks those who worship Him in spirit and truth. And further, because God is spirit, those who worship Him, not can worship in spirit and truth, but must worship Him in spirit and truth. Her response to this could be seen as further skepticism or she’s simply saying “well, I’m too confused so I’m not going to try to understand this right now.

Verse 25, The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when He comes, He will declare all things to us.” (Jesus clears it up real easily) Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

This is one of the few times in Scripture when Jesus very clearly declares Himself as the Messiah. Many times, He speaks in words that are meant to be confusing for some. But He’s very clear here to this woman, that He’s the Messiah.

So now I’ve finally made it to our two main points for this evening. As we’ve looked at what worship is. We are now going to ask two questions surrounding this verse. I want to answer them. The two points tonight are, how do we worship God in spirit? What does it mean to worship God in spirit? And how do we worship God in truth? What does it mean to worship God in truth?

It’s really fascinating to see that “worship” is not very clearly defined in Scripture anywhere. We have lots of examples. We get many ways in which what worship is and what worship isn’t. But there’s no clear definition. We’ve talked about how it’s to give reverence, to be in awe, to give praise, but it seems that worship changes based on the context that we’re in. And we’ve even seen that practical shift in this very chapter, John 4. It’s amazing. Only God can make such a change, however the recipient of true worship never changes. That being God.

Our first point tonight, How do we Worship God in Spirit? I want to clarify one thing first, what is spirit here? At a quick reading of the passage, especially when you hear it read to you and you don’t see the words on the page, some may see that this is the coming work of the Holy Spirit. But just a little bit of study shows that this isn’t the case. It wouldn’t make sense here. The permanent indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit begins in Acts 2. So, the church hasn’t even been established yet and the worshiping in spirit and truth is happening as early as right now, we saw in verse 23. “But an hour is coming and now is.” So, this spirit is in reference what I believe to be the human spirit. Much more than that we’re going to see that spirit is to be all of who we are. Everything that you are. All of our faculties are going to be in use for the glory of God as we studied this morning. We are going to use them for the adoration of our Creator. That includes our mind, that includes our thoughts, and our actions, and our desires. Don’t be scared when I say it also includes our emotions. Everything that we are. We can manage all of these things and use it mightily for the Lord.

Let’s turn to Hebrews 12. You may even be able to predict the passages I’m going to go to this evening but that’s a good thing. That means I picked the right ones. Hebrews gives us reason after reason to be worshiping our Lord. If you’re not there yet, why don’t you go back to Hebrews 9. Sometimes we’re told to simply trust, have that childlike faith. Do what I say, trust in me. But sometimes we get all kinds of evidence, so many reasons and pieces of evidence that push the idea that we must fall at the feet of Christ and must worship Him. In light of getting to Hebrews 12, we’re looking at chapter 9 first. We’re first going to see that our Savior is better. I’m starting in Hebrews 9:11. Just for reference, we’re talking to Jews who are talking about the old covenant. That’s the context here. That is what we are talking about as Jesus has come and He’s changing things and Christ is better.

Hebrews 9:11-15, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy places once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the trespasses that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

Our Savior is better. Specifically, we see this plea to the Jews here who followed the Old Covenant ways. They would have worshipped in the Holy Place. That is the presentation here on that truth is no longer do we have to do these things. There is one true ultimate sacrifice given for the washing away of the sins of the world.

Again, we’re just getting context here, so chapter 10 continues on with this focus on Christ being the One that pays for sins. Hebrews 10:19-22, More encouragement. “Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,  and since we have a great priest over the house of God,  let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” 

It is not the way it used to be anymore. That’s what we are seeing here. Now look to Christ, the author of salvation. The encouragement here in light of what has been said with Christ always being better, draw near to the Holy of Holies. Draw near to God. Draw near to Christ. In sincerity of heart come to Him, your Creator. With a way of salvation provided, come. Now the end of chapter 10 encourages those who draw near to turn away from sinning willfully. This is an encouragement that the old habits must die. We must stop living in the old ways.

To give even more evidence of why Christ is better, we get the Hall of Faith in chapter 11. Person after person, reason after reason is given as proof of following God and how it is worth it. Remember all these people that we see here are ones that followed God the Father, but again we see that Christ is better. If you look at Hebrews 11:39, after all these examples of those who walked in faith, Hebrews 11:39-40 says, “And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.” Christ was the one who was coming for them to perfect their salvation. Christ is better! In Christ’s coming they are made perfect. Those who have gone before and had faith in the Lord before Christ, they came as witnesses to the reward that comes along with faith in God. They can point to God and show very clearly that it does pan out if you endure and have faith in the Lord.

The author is saying in light of these that have come before us, let us set aside sin and run, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Again, reason after reason to which we should be praising, we should be worshipping, we should be fixing our eyes on our Lord and running our race.

We’re still not to the verse I wanted to get to yet. Continuing in chapter 12, we speak to how fatherly discipline is a good thing even though sorrowful for the moment as it says in verse 11. I’m looking at verse 25 now of Hebrews 12. This is where we get to the passage that I wanted to get to, the unshakable kingdom. Remember to read these words as we have seen the context in light of the good and better Christ.

So, here is Hebrews 12:25-29,
“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven. Now this expression, yet once more, indicates the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.”

To be very brief on this, do not close your ears. Do not turn away from the truth, is what’s being said here. For God is speaking clearly that you must turn to Him. Do not refuse it, for the things that you see today will be no longer one day and as we’ll see, the only lasting things shall be those who accept Him, and the place in which we’re going to be resting one day. Just to re-read the last couple of verses there, verse 28-29. “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; (worship to Him) for our God is a consuming fire.”

I don’t want to just skip over that last verse there, for our God is a consuming fire. We’ve seen in other Old Testament passages, our God is one of consuming fire against those who do not turn to Him. So, this is an interesting thing to be tagging on to the end of the context of talking to those that are turning to Christ, because as Believers who have placed their faith in Him, we are not under the wrath of the consuming fire that is God. But it still is a warning. It can be a warning to those who are turning away from Christ to not go back to the works based supposed salvation that they were working in. Turn to Christ unless you will be at the receiving end of His destruction. However, this really is in context of talking to those to those that are receiving the unshakable kingdom to come. We are not afraid of being destroyed by God because we know that we can have faith in Christ’s protection and Christ’s salvation provided on the cross. And yet we have proper respect. We have a proper fear of God because of His holiness. His blamelessness. This doesn’t mean we’re going to cower in fear of being destroyed, but we understand that the God that we serve is going to destroy the sin and all that is unholy one day and that can be a scary mighty thing.

There is a kingdom unshakable to come. If you have received Christ’s message of salvation, then this passage says that the right, the true, the proper natural response is service to Him both in reverence and in awe. What a tremendous response. Yet it’s such a natural response. As history says and shows, we have been created to worship. The gift has been given to us, and because of it we properly recognize His position. His perfect, blameless, holy, and kind being. That brings us to be in great awe of Him.

Have you ever been truly saved from something in life that is not Christ? I just give the simple examples of have you ever been drowning and picked up in the last second? Or maybe you were going on a crosswalk when a car had no care for the red light that coming and you got pulled back? What would your natural instinctual response be? You stretched out my shirt. No, I don’t think that would be our response. It would be deep gratitude. Thank you, you saved my life. What can I do to repay you? How much deeper this simple reality goes when we consider what Christ has done for us. What a deep, true and genuine response that rises, and should rise, from our souls when we consider His work on the cross when we consider what he’s done for us and for our sins.

There’s a great quote from D.A. Carson about worship. “Worship is not merely a formal ascription of praise to God: it emerges from my whole being to this whole God, and therefore it reflects not only my understanding of God but my love for Him.” Not just something we do because we’re supposed to do it, although God does want you to obey, and if you’re at that point do it and obey. But He wants us to give Himself ourselves. It’s not some light and temporary thing that we do to please God. It’s a natural deep response to the truth of God’s grace. In great gratitude, we lift our life up as a sacrifice to Him. We can often put our arms out and say Lord, let your will be done with me with me. You are my God. You are my Lord and I need to dedicate my life to you. What’s amazing is that it’s so ingrained in these Scriptures that we’re going through tonight that I could just keep going if you look in chapter 13. We can see even more application about how to be worshipping our Lord. After these great truths and reasons which we should follow, we see chapter 13.

Hebrews 13:1, “Do these things. Let love of the brothers continue.” We see verse 2, “do not neglect to show hospitality.” Verse 4, “marriage is to be held in honor among you.” Verse 7 talks about “remembering your leaders.” Verse 9 talks about “not being carried away by varied and strange teachings.” We see verse 17, “obey your leaders and submit to them.” There are so many different ways. Can you see how we are called to worship our Lord in spirit? All of who we are. This, as we see in John 4, is who the Father seeks to be His worshipers. Remember because God is Spirit, “we must worship Him in spirit and truth.” That’s what John 4 says. This is who the Father seeks after. It’s not just an option for those that desire to worship in this way. And then some can just go follow all those rules and regulations and earn their own holiness. That is not an option. The Father seeks those worshippers, his worshippers, to worship in spirit and truth.

So, we’re still on our first point. How do we worship God in spirit? What does it mean to worship God in spirit? Let’s go to Romans now, chapter 10 to start. We continue studying what it means to worship God in spirit. All of who you are. Everything that you can give is what we are called to lift to our Lord. I do want to look at context again. Romans 10 is where I want to start. It’s very similar truths and similar contexts here. Remember that this letter was not written to us in this day. But it was written to Jews at the time. They are trying to grapple with the reality of the simplicity of salvation, that Christ is better. You see well known verses right here such as Romans 10:9-10. “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the Lord and will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses leading to salvation.” And Romans 11 just before our passage that I’d like to get to, again we’re talking about talking to the Jews. We’re talking about how Israel has not been rejected, but at the same time there is a place for the Gentiles to be grafted into salvation. That’s the mind-blowing thing that the Jews are having to work through at this time.

I don’t want just to jump over the idea of grafting. If you’ve never experienced what grafting is in real life with trees, it’s a pretty cool experience. Grafting’s the idea that you can take a root system from one tree and if it’s in a certain species, you can take a branch from another tree and give it life. It’s as simple as clipping off a branch of one fruit tree, the fruit you want to produce, cutting it in such a way that it can interlock with the branch of the root tree that’s going to give life. You wrap it so the tree takes time to accept that branch and in doing so it will actually make it be it’s own branch and it won’t know the difference, and it will feed it all the nutrients it needs and it will bear fruit.

We have two trees in my family’s lawn. One’s a cherry tree and one’s a peach tree and they are too young to bear much fruit yet. But each tree was grafted very young to have three different varieties of peach and three different varieties of cherries on it. It’s fascinating because they can actually bloom in different seasons. Yet it’s the same tree. A really neat thing what grafting is and really a perfect example for us and the Gentiles being grafted on. The point is, the root, the salvation provided for Israel, is now being shared with the Gentiles. We are the branch that has been grafted onto the tree of salvation through the Jews, through Christ.

Now let’s look at Romans 11:28. We’re continuing on in the context; we’re trying to wrap our heads around what’s going on here. I actually want to real quickly look at verse 25 first. I don’t want to jump over this. There is also a partial hardening of Israel that’s happening here. This would be another confusing thing. But what we’re going to see in the Scriptures to come is that all have the opportunity for mercy. That’s what Jesus is bringing in His providing salvation. All have opportunity for mercy. Even through this partial hardening of Israel. Some that are not accepting the truth.

Ok I do want us to go to Romans 11:28-32, “From the standpoint of the Gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (there’s no going back on what God has said) For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” There’s that provided mercy available to all. And this concept is just so confusing for them. We just got through the context of Gentiles being grafted in. Now there’s this partial hardening of Israel, and they don’t understand that how can there be mercy for more than just us, but also the Gentiles. That is when we get this great truth that a lot of us know and love that we actually read tonight already and I love the context that it is in, how unsearchable our Lord is.

Let’s look at verse 33, right where we left off. Romans 11:33 – 12:1,
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be repaid to him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Therefore, I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” We got to remember those chapter breaks are not inspired by God and this was a letter. It can go in context and that’s why I wanted to read over that chapter break. By God’s mercy. It is all by God’s mercy. It is amazing that God’s knowledge, His ways, His thoughts are far too deep for us to completely understand. An amazing dichotomy is that our God is knowable and yet unsearchable. That’s all thanks to what He has done for us in reaching down to us and providing that way of reconciliation. It’s amazing that His being is inexhaustible. We could never find His end. It is amazing that we are going to spend eternity future with Him, if you have accepted Christ as your Savior. In eternity future, if I can put a date on it, we still will not know the depths of the mercy and love of our Lord, of our God. Talk about unsearchable.

Then Romans 11:36, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” Because of this, all glory be to Him. All worship, yes we are talking about worship tonight, worship be to Him. In light of this, do the following. Romans 12:1, “Present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. It’s by God’s mercy that we present ourself to Him. We give Him our life, give Him your emotions, give Him your thoughts. It all goes to Him. He is your Savior, He is your Lord, and as we’ve seen all over Scripture, He is worthy. He is worthy of what we are giving Him. These things that we can do in service of Him; to worship Him, are pleasing to Him.

Growing up, many of us can probably relate whether for good reasons or not. We wanted to please our parents. We had made decisions in light of what our parents wanted. Maybe we got to that rebellious stage of course but we maybe in a moment when our parents wanted us to do something, made the decision based on wanting to please them. Yet now in this life when we have the one true Father residing in us through His Spirit, through the Holy Spirit, and now we do have someone that we do want to please and we have every reason to please Him and every reason to make decisions based on glorifying Him and worshipping Him. We often fail, all the time fail and we make these life decisions based on what’s convenient for us. We make these decisions based on what would be pleasing to us in the moment. I think of our mornings, our nights, when we arise in new strength given by the Lord, or when we barely make it through the day and we realize that it was only through the strength of our Lord that we made it to the bed that night. Are you considering your day as a sacrifice for God? Now when I say sacrifice, I’m not saying that day in and day out it must “be in sorrow and misery.” That’s not necessarily what I mean although we can go through troubles as we offer our lives as a sacrifice to God. But are you putting on the Father’s will? Are you thinking about God each day as you decide what to do? Is He truly your ruling Lord as you walk? Are you walking worthy in line with who you are?

We say our citizenship is in heaven and then we act like we need to live, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. We need to act like the children of God that we are. Something I said at the beginning of this evening was that the idea that worship is limited to the confines of this building on a Sunday is really rooted in a lack of willingness to give your life to God. Now I’m not declaring that you’re an unbeliever if this is your mindset. I have no power there. Only God knows your heart. But I am challenging you in your walk. God wants you to grow and He wants you to see that He wants your entire life. He wants you seven days a week. You are the living and holy sacrifice that can be pleasing to God. So many times we, in our minds, try to segregate the deeds that we do as being the things that are pleasing to God, and forget that it’s us who are the holy living sacrifice. We are the ones that need to be pleasing to the Lord. We need to give Him everything that we are. We need to make sure that every day’s focus is on giving Him due reverence and due awe in your service.

That was all under the umbrella of How do we Worship in Spirit. What does it mean to worship in spirit? A little bit shorter this evening will be How do we Worship God in ruth? What is truth? The reason that it’s a little short is it’s a little simpler.

In John 4, Jesus tells the woman that there is no longer in this mountain or Jerusalem in which the Father is worshiped, but it is in spirit and truth. So maybe you know that you are to worship the Lord with all that you are. You want it to be about everything that you are. You want every decision that you make, every family decision or every act and thought you have, you want it to be dedicated to the Lord. Ok good. What does it do if your service to the Father is not rooted in truth? I imagine it’s like a soldier who pledges his allegiance to a king, to only then be in the act of battle and upon receiving a request from the king, a demand from the king, decides well it doesn’t fit in my plans so I’m not going to follow him in this way. But I’m still in allegiance to the king. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not rooted in truth. That’s when we decide that my truth, your truth, there is no truth, everything is truth. That makes no sense.

This pairing of spirit and truth is how we worship. So, what is truth? Who is truth? What is especially interesting about Jesus saying that worship is in spirit and truth is that Jesus is the One who is true. At the same time, God’s word is truth; and Jesus is the word which has become flesh. We went there this morning. Let’s turn to John 1. It’s worth going to. It can be confusing to say yes to both, and yet they are distinct, but that’s what we have been given. John 1. It’s a great place for us to go as we are nearing the conclusion this evening.

In John’s gospel we see a wonderful introduction into Jesus being the Creator of all things, the giver of life, and the word incarnate. John 1:1-5, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.”

If it’s not clear yet, Jesus Christ is the word here. He is the message. He is the truth incarnate. Come to us. Even clearer is down in verse 14, often made in connection with the first section of John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And if you look in verse 16, we continue in that idea. “For in His fullness we have all received grace upon grace for the law was given through Moses.” Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. What a picture there. As we seek to figure out what truth is, we have to look no further than our Savior, what He’s done for us. We know our Savior from the Scriptures, both of which are the truth we’re looking for. I want to be careful when I say we look no further than our Savior. We look to God’s inspired Word as the truth that is from God. But we have that relationship with Him because of the Savior that He has sent in Christ.

We also, I think, need to turn to John 14. After just discussing with Peter that he’s going to deny Christ (three times), Jesus encourages the disciples here in John 14, another passage that you probably know well. John 14:1-6, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” (Of course they’re confused) Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.” What is truth? It’s simple. God is truth. God is the source of all truth. He decides what reality is. Humans so badly want to know truth in life. We see it all over the planet. And yet they seek everywhere but God’s Scriptures. They seek everywhere but our Savior, the Son of Man. We do not decide what is true and what is not. Only God does, for God is the way and the truth and the life.

We don’t need to turn there, but just a few chapters over in John 17, pastor Mike’s going to be preaching that next week, but in there it says John 17:17, “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.” Not only do we worship our Lord by relying on our Savior for He is truth, but God’s Word is truth. Another passage you might know, we don’t need to turn there, I’m not going to read it tonight but II Timothy 3, we see that “All Scripture is inspired by God and it’s profitable so that we can be equipped and fully ready to work for our Lord.” Not for our salvation, but to work for our Lord. To live for Him, to be ready so that we can give Him the glory. Give Him the due praise that He deserves.

So, a little recap here. How do we worship God in spirit? We willingly give ourselves to our Creator. That’s what we must do and that’s what God demands of us. We were made to worship. Our bodies were made for it, we long for it. So, we give our praise and adoration to Him. We do not attempt to hide parts of our life away from Him. We give ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice that is pleasing to our Lord. To worship God in our spirit is to have our emotions, our thoughts, our actions, and our motives under our own control and in a way at the ready so that we can use them to glorify the Lord in every situation. To worship God in spirit is to have reverence for Him and to recognize His true high position. It’s not trying to puff Him up and make Him bigger. It’s realizing how enormous and far above our understanding He is.

Then, how do we worship God in truth? We look to God, we look to His Word, we look to Christ, as the source of truth. God is truth. There is no other who decides what reality is. So, when the world is completely against this truth that we have, we have to fight it. We see in Scriptures no matter in season or out of season, we are to be preaching the truth of God’s Word. Sometimes it will be in line with society, the truth of God. As many of us think today it seems like we’re too far gone now, and it will never be back. Society is not coming back to the truth of God. But even so God is who decides truth.

Worship God in spirit and truth. Let’s go to 1 John goes through many different things. But we again see how Christ is better. It goes through how God has come through Jesus Christ becoming flesh just in the first chapter, first few verses. In Him we have an advocate before the Father. I mean chapter 2 what an encouraging passage. 1 John 2:1-2, “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” Incredibly encouraging.

It’s all about serving the living God with our lives. In Him in truth. And the majority of this book is actually a plea and really a declaration to those that are wondering if they’re saved. Wondering if they know Christ. They’re going to be characterized by your deeds. The one that has accepted the truth of God is going to not be characterized by sin, but rather righteous deeds. Now these deeds as we’ve seen in chapter 2 are not the saving work that we need to do in order to accomplish salvation. But it’s expected from the believer. It’s all rooted in the fact that Christ is truth.

If you go to the end of the book, 1 John 5:20, we will see with truth is. “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”

We are in the Son, and we know the Father because of that reconciliation through the Son. Truth is found in God. Truth is not found in what I am feeling today. Truth is not found in what society declares today. God is truth, and in Him we find wisdom to worship. We worship Him in spirit and truth. He is the one true God that we find eternal life in only Him. So now our proper and natural response is to worship Him. To lift up praise in spirit and truth. We delight in the things of God. We love the things that He loves. We hate the things that He hates. We dedicate our lives to Him by waking up every day with Him in mind, putting on the will of the Father, and we don’t hold back any part of us. We don’t hold anything secret away from Him.

Now to some here, a lot of the things that I’ve been saying may actually hit you as a little bit discouraging. I stand here reading Scripture, reading truths that say it is natural, this should be pouring out of you. It’s proper to start each day focusing on pleasing your Savior, and yet you might be having the thought that I can’t remember the last time that I ended my day, really happy with the way that I walked it for the Lord. It’s a struggle. When we read Scripture we have to remember that we are creatures who, although we are able to conquer every sin that comes our way, we are still able to fail. When we read Scripture, we have to remember that. Of course I would never say, Scripture would never say that it is okay to sin. But God in His unending forgiveness is constantly working in You as His child.

So if you are struggling with how to start your day, how to end your day with the focus of worship to the Lord, I just want you to remember these two quick things. These are all from Scripture. Just remember these.

Relay and rely. That’s how I’m going to sum it up. Relay and rely. Relay those burdensome thoughts and anxieties on the Lord. It’s basically a fancy way of saying pray. Go to the Lord. Pray to Him, for He cares for you. The Lord wants to have your everything. He doesn’t want anything hidden from His sight. Although it is not possible, we try to hide things. He wants everything that you are. In an active worship, give over everything to Him. Pray to Him. Relay all these thoughts that are bouncing around in your head and take them to your Father who cares.

Once you’ve relayed all your thoughts and troubles to Him, then rely on Him. Have you ever really had to depend on someone? Maybe it’s something as simple as I forgot this at home. I’m depending on you to bring it. I have no power to go and get it. Or maybe it’s something more important than that. But it’s the idea, I have no power. I need you to come through for this, please. That’s reliance.

When you rely on God, you do not also at the same time lean on your own strength. Yes, of course we work hard to run from sin. Yes, we are told to fight that good fight. Yes, we are told to walk worthy of our calling that we’ve been called. But in those acts we cannot lean on our own human strength. A silly example such as we rely on that brake pedal to work when we’re about to crash into someone. We would never jump out of the vehicle and slam our feet on the ground to try to stop the car. That’s trying to live our lives in our own strength. We need to rely on God.

Thankfully we have been sent the Holy Spirit. So, we can rely on the spirit. We have been permanently indwelt as Believers in Christ. No longer are we alone. He resides in us and in Him we find an endless well of mercy, of grace, and of strength to do these things. To worship our Lord in spirit and truth.

No matter how your previous days may have been going in light of this idea of worshiping the Lord, how are you going to start tomorrow? How are you going to end the night today? What are your prayers? Worship your Lord, in the Lord’s strength, in spirit and truth. Remember God has given us a straight and guaranteed path to salvation. So let us relay all those thoughts to the Lord. Pray to Him. Be on your knees begging to Him. He wants to hear it. In thankful prayer we come to Him. Then let us depend and rely on the Holy Spirit to give us strength. We have been sent a seal of the Holy Spirit and we are thankful. So let us worship both as a church body, but also as individuals day in and day out. Worship Him in spirit and truth. Let’s pray.
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