Believers are Worshippers: The heartbeat of God’s Word is worship.
This morning, Jesus defines believers as WORSHIPPERS! So, the driving message of salvation is worship. Jesus tells us the only thing God seeks is worship. So, the purpose of salvation is worshiping the God of Heaven.
The Scriptures open in Genesis with God walking and talking with His Worshippers.
The next book, Exodus, contains elaborate plans for a tent whose sole purpose was to bring worshippers to God.
The longest book at the heart of God’s Word is a manual on ways to Worship the God of the Universe.
The rest of the Old Testament is a series of prophets lamenting the neglect and abandonment of worship by God’s people who were to be a kingdom of Worshippers (priests).
The Gospels open with the God of Heaven on Earth, seeking creatures willing to be worshippers.
The Book of Acts records what happens when ordinary people from every walk of life, every stratum of society, and every depth of sin are bound together with a shared passion of being lifelong Worshippers.
The Epistles are a manual on how to grow as worshippers.
And God’s Word closes with all of God’s Worshippers at last Home with their Creator and Worshiping HIM!
Is your heart the heart of a worshipper? The word worship is full of meaning, expressing the idea of falling down, prostrating oneself, and kissing the feet or the hem of the garment of the one honored. We should ponder William Temple’s definition of worship :
“[Worship is] to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open up the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.”
Listen again to Jesus in John 4:10, 14, and 24.
What possibly has happened to us? Someone once said, "The immense tragedy of the contemporary church is that most people worship their work, work at their play, and play at their worship".
A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), a pastor for 44 years across the USA was a prophet to the modern church. This is what he preached:
We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, “Be still, and know that I am God,” mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshiper in this middle period of the twentieth century.
This type of worship that focuses on God and God alone is true spiritual worship. Worship that is energized by the Spirit of God.
How do we know we are operating in the power of the Holy Spirit? Here is a test.
o When Spirit reigns, believers relate to the Word – this is Spirit-filled teaching;
o Where the Spirit reigns, believers, relate to each other – this is Spirit-filled fellowship;
o Where the Spirit reigns, believers relate to God – this is Spirit-filled worship;
o Where the Spirit reigns, believers relate to the world – this is Spirit-filled evangelism;
THE WOMAN AT THE WELL IS THE BACKDROP FOR ONE OF THE GREATEST PASSAGES ON HOW TO WORSHIP THE LORD. Verse 24. God is a Spirit
o God is the cause of all things-the fountain of all perfection-without parts or dimensions, for he is ETERNAL-filling the heavens and the earth-pervading, governing and upholding all things: for he is an infinite SPIRIT!
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