I want you to listen to the following poem and see if you can guess its subject:
I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.
Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me, and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.
I am easily managed; you must merely be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want something done,
and after a few lessons I will do it automatically
I am the servant of all great men,
and, alas, of all failures as well.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.
I am not a machine,
though I work with all the precision of a machine,
plus the intelligence of a man.
You may run me for profit, or run me for ruin;
It makes no difference to me.
Take me,
train me,
be firm with me,
and I will put the world at your feet.
Be easy with me, and I will destroy you.
Who am I?
I am HABIT! [1]
Habits can make you, or they can break you. The one habit of a highly effective Christian is the habit of worship. Now worship is more than a habit, but it should be a habit. It should be a holy habit. It should be a hallowed habit. It will be a healthy habit. Just as God made a bird to fly, and a fish to swim, God has made you to worship.
But I am convinced as I have studied the subject and turned it over in my mind, that many people, if not most people, really do not come to church to worship. A. W. Tozer once said, "Worship is the missing jewel of the evangelical church." I want to make something very plain today.
Your first obligation as a Christian, above all else, is to worship God. The first obligation of our church is to worship God. The last part of our Mission Statement says that we are "to exalt the Lord in Spirit-filled worship." Though that statement may be last in order, it is first in priority.
In John 4 we read the story of the Lord Jesus meeting a woman at a well. She was a Samaritan woman, but worse than that she was a sinful woman. This woman had been blinded by Satan, she was bound by sin, she was burdened with sorrow, and she was broken by shame. The Lord Jesus talked to her about one subject that radically and eternally changed her life, and that subject was worship.
Nothing will change your life like getting in a position where you can truly worship the true God. In order to do that, you must remember the three truths that the Lord Jesus shared with this woman. For just as they changed her life, they will change yours as well.
One is a negative truth, one is a positive truth, one is an imperative truth.
I. Worship Is Not Localized In A Place
The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.'
Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.'" (vv.19-22)
Now the background for the beginning of this discussion on worship is very important. In 1722 B.C. God judged the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, which was called Israel, and allowed the heathen nation of Assyria to conquer the land and to take the people captive. But not all were taken away; some were left behind. At the same time, the Assyrians settled many of their own heathen people in the land of Israel.
Down through the years those heathen Assyrians and the Jews began to intermarry. They produced a culture of people who were half-Jew and half-Gentile.
These people came to be known as Samaritans. They were despised by the Jews. The Jews who were pure-bloodied looked upon these Samaritans as "half breeds." As a matter of fact, the Jews called them the most despicable thing you could call them back then—"dogs." (Today that's a great compliment)
Down through the years these Samaritans had developed their own system of worship, because they were not welcome at the temple in Jerusalem. So they built their own temple there on Mount Gerizim. Even today there are still about 400 of these Samaritans left, and they still worship there on Mount Gerizim.
So her question simply put was this: "Where should I worship, here or in Jerusalem, in our house of worship or in the temple?" Jesus gave her an answer that absolutely boggled her imagination. "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." (v.23)
What Jesus was saying was this: "Worship is not tied to where you are, but who you know." You see, there was a time that the Jews considered that if you wanted to worship you had to go to Jerusalem and you had to worship there in the temple. But since Jesus came, there has been a radical change. In the Old Testament God had a temple for his people. In the New Testament God has a people for His temple.
1 Cor. 6:19 says, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" 11 Cor. 6:16 says, "For you are the temple of the living God." Do you know what your body is twenty-four hours a day? It is a place of worship. Your body is the house of God.
You see, worship is not localized in a place. You don't have to go to any certain church, or any certain place in order to worship God. Now that immediately raises the question: "Did you just tell me that I don't have to go to church to worship God?" That is exactly what I said.
But let me quickly add this: If you are saved you will want to go to church. Heb. 10:25 makes it plain that we are not to "forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhort one another, and so much more as we see the Day approaching."
I've got news for you. If there is in your heart a desire to worship God, there is also a desire to worship God with other people who want to worship God.
I worshiped in the hills today
where God in greatness stood;
Revealing all His majesty
in water, stone, and wood.
I heard His voice speak from the brook,
I saw mountains He had made;
His aspen trees clapped golden hands—
I rested in their shade.
I saw the graceful trees He made,
the balsam and the birch;
But all the while my conscience cried,
you should have gone to church.
The church is a place where we come together to worship God corporately, but individually, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you worship God anywhere you go.
II. Worship Is Centralized In A Person
"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." (v.23) Now there is an incredible statement made in v.23. It says "the Father is seeking such to worship Him." Did you know that God is looking for worshipers? More than workers, and more than witnesses, God is looking for worshipers. The reason is so simple. When you become a worshiper, you will become a worker, and you will become a witness.
Now you would think that people would voluntarily line up around this world to worship God, knowing that God is looking for worshipers. But I think today God is still looking for worshipers. God is not looking for churchgoers. God is not even looking for church builders. God is looking for worshipers; people who will come and link their heart to His heart. Now when you understand what I mean by worship, I think you will understand why God is looking for worshipers.
Dr. Warren Wiersbe has defined worship in this manner: "Worship is the believer's response of all that he is—mind, emotions, will, and body—to all that God is, and says, and does."2
But you notice that God is not only looking for worshipers, He is looking for "true worshipers." There is such a thing as true worshipers and false worshipers. How do we know the difference?
Well, the God that we are to worship is called repeatedly here "the Father." Well, the Father of whom? Well, obviously, it is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus calls the Father over seventy times just in the gospel of John alone.
This is going to sound extremely intolerant, and it's politically incorrect. But if the god that you worship is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are not worshiping God. You are neither a true worshiper, nor is your worship true.
You see, a Muslim really does not worship God. A Buddhist does not worship God. A Hindu does not worship God. They may worship a supreme being, but they do not worship God, for the God that we are told to worship is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus said about the Father, "The Father and I are One." Therefore, a Jehovah's Witness does not worship God, because they do not consider Jesus Christ equal to the Father. The Mormons do not worship God, because in their system man becomes a god.
Now lest you doubt the truth of what I am saying, let me put it to you this way: To worship the Father you must know the Father; to know the Father you must be one of His children; to be one of His children you must know the lord Jesus Christ. Because the Bible says in Jn. 1:12, "But as many as received [Jesus] to them He gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in His name."
You see, unless you have been born again, it doesn't matter where you worship, because you are really not worshiping at all. But if you are born again, you can worship God anywhere you please.
But the point that I want to make is that worship is focused on the Father. Worship is not listening to sermons about God, it is not singing songs about God, it is not teaching lessons about God; worship is the honor and the praise and the glory of God Himself.
Archbishop William Temple gave us one of the most beautiful definitions of worship you will ever come across. He said:
Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by the holiness of God, the nourishment of the mind by the truth of God, the purifying of the imagination by the beauty of God, the opening of the heart to the love of God, and the submission of the will to the purpose of God.3
III. Worship Must Be Actualized With A Passion
"God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (v.24) Now this may be the single most important and exhaustive statement on true worship found from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation. The Lord Jesus Himself, who is God, tells us in the first person exactly what He expects true worship to be.
First of all, true worship is spiritual worship. He says, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit." Keep in mind that just as God is a trinity, man is a trinity. He has a body, soul, and spirit. But true worship must take place in man's spirit.
Now there many people who worship God with the body. They've got the idea that if they just come to church, if they just show up, if they just sit down in a pew, they have worshiped God. If they just come to the right place, and do the right things at the right time, their worship is complete.
Now I want to make it plain that you are to worship God with your body. You are to use your voice to sing. You are to use your ears to hear. You are to use your eyes to see. You are to use your hands to clap. But those things are the expression of worship, not the essence of worship.
Then there are those who worship God with their soul. They have the idea that worship is tied up in how they feel. So they believe that if they laugh at a joke, or cry at a story, or say amen at some point during the sermon, that they, too, are worshiping God. Now once again, all of those things are well and good, and I believe that true worship should be emotional, but that is the expression of worship, it is not the essence of worship.
Well, you see, God is a Spirit, and those who are going to worship Him must worship Him in their spirit. Worship is when your spirit connects with His Spirit through the Holy Spirit.
Without the Holy Spirit in your human spirit, you cannot worship God. You can clap to the songs, sing with the choir, say amen to the sermon, but you cannot worship God. Because true worship first of all must be Spirit-filled. The Bible says in Eph. 5:18, "Be filled with the Spirit." But then it goes on to tell what the filling of the Spirit leads you to do.
It leads you to be "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." (v.19) What I also want to say that true worship ought to be Spirit-felt. The Bible says your heart only has three temperatures.
Mt. 24:12 speaks of cold hearts; Rev. 3:14 speaks of lukewarm hearts; and Luke 24:32 speaks of burning hearts. Worship is both a thermometer and the thermostat of the Christian life. If your heart is cold or lukewarm, it will show up in the way you worship God. Your worship will be routine, it will be dull, it will be boring. Instead of looking at your Bible during the sermon, you will be looking at your watch. But if your heart is burning and on fire for God, it is amazing how fast the time flies when you're worshiping.
That's why I believe that real worship in a church sets that church on fire. I remember Dr. W. A. Criswell telling the story of how one time he was on vacation in North Carolina. On Sunday morning he got us and went down to a particular church, and he said that church was dead, the preacher was dry, the people were cold, the service was boring, and nobody spoke to him.
After the church service was over, he said he went down to a restaurant to get some lunch. He said the building was bright, the people inside were happy, the waiters were friendly, the food was good, the service was excellent, they thanked him for coming, asked him to come again. Dr. Criswell said, "Neither place gave an invitation that day, but if they had, I would have joined the restaurant."
I don't understand churches that have dead worship services. As a matter of fact, if it's dead it's not worship. I heard about a paramedic who was asked on a local TV talk show program, what was your most unusual and challenging 911 call?"
He said, "Well, recently we got a call from that big white church down on Main Street. A frantic usher was very concerned that during the sermon an elderly man had passed out in a pew, and appeared to be dead. The usher could find no pulse and there was no noticeable breathing."
The interviewer said, "Well, what was so unusual and demanding about that particular call?"
The paramedic said, "Well, we had to carry out thirty-seven people before we found the one who was dead."
But true worship should not only be spiritual, it should also be scriptural. Jesus said we should also worship the Father "in truth." Now that is referring to the truth of the word of God.
Worship is not only to be spiritual, it is to be scriptural. That is, anything we do in our worship services should have some scriptural basis and should be scripturally justified. I'm both amused and amazed when I see on television what some churches call a worship service. Now too many churches have the truth, but they don't have any spirit, and they're like a morgue. But there are a lot of churches that have spirit, but they don't have any truth, and they're like a circus. We are to worship God in spirit and in truth.
Did you know that every worship service is to revolve around the truth of the word of God. The core of any church service is not the music, the praise, the amens, the clapping, or the hallelujahs, it is the word of God.
When you come into a church like this one, you will find the pulpit right in the center of the building. It is the vocal point. There is a reason for that. The Protestant Reformation took place because men like Martin Luther and John Calvin re-discovered the priority of the word of God. They began to notice that there were many traditions and ceremonies that had crept into the church that had no scriptural basis whatsoever.
For centuries the altars, which were the center of the Latin mass, had dominated the architecture of the building. John Calvin came along and ordered those altars removed and that pulpits with Bibles be placed in the center of the church. They were not to be on the side of the room, but in the very center where every line of the architecture would cause every worshiper to look to the pulpit and look to the word of God, which alone contains God's truth and God's way of salvation.
You can take this principle wherever you go: Whenever the word of God is de-emphasized, to that extent the worship of God will be falsified.
One Sunday night a little boy knelt down beside his mother and daddy to say his evening prayers before he went to bed. Here's what he said: "Dear God, we had a great time in church today. I wish you had been there." Well, dear friend, any time true worship takes place, you will find the true God right there, and the true worship of our true God is the one habit of a highly effective Christian. Ps. 45:11 says it all, "Because He is your Lord, worship Him."
1 Hiram W. Smith, The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management, pp. 124-125.
2 Warren W. Wiersbe, Real Worship, p. 27.
3 William Temple, quoted by Ravi Zacharias, Cries of the Heart, p. 207.