Series: The New Humanity
Message: Worshippers
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira
Reflection: Tim Gillespie
Live Wonder: Verity Were
Live Adventure: Zan Long
Live Beyond: Moe Stiles
Live Purpose: Vanessa Rivera
Editor: Becky De Oliveira
Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.
Read: John 4:1-26 in the New Testament for Everyone (NTE). Note 1–3 insights or questions.
Reflect: “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).
This is perhaps the apex of our text for this week. What in the world does it mean to worship God in Spirit and truth? This subject has been preached about for thousands of years, there are millions of sermons that explain what this means from every possible angle. Perhaps we can break it down simply for a Wednesday.
Heart and head.
Keeping it simple, we must worship with both our hearts and our heads. Our understanding of God through study, doctrine, and the like is important, but so is worshipping with our whole attitude, our emotions, and our presence. These things together give us a 360 degree worship experience. However, it must be focused on Jesus if those two things are going to become aligned in our lives.
The essence of true worship is not external, but internal—emotion and thought, spirit and truth. Whether we are talking about all of life as worship (Romans 12:1) or our corporate gatherings for worship.
Our hearts and our heads have to be aligned in order for us to be 100% present with God through our worship.
Sometimes we have allowed our head to be the only thing that we engage in worship, and if this is the case, worship becomes as dry as old crackers. However, when we engage only our emotions our worship is passion without informed understanding of Whom we are worshiping.
Each of us has at times prioritized either the head or the heart in our worship, causing it to lack something in its expression of God in our lives. Bringing both the heart and the head together in worship means being 100% fully invested in the experience and its expression.
Recalibrate: Can you remember a time where you engaged only your head or only your heart in worship? What was lacking as a result? How can we work harder to bring those two elements together?
Respond: Take stock in the next worship you are involved with to notice where your head and heart are aligned and why. Is it the space you are in, the way you are being led, the way you prepared both you heart and your head? Reflect on the worship experience.
Research: Read this book on designing worship services: The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services.
Remember: “God is spirit. Those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24, ICB).
Dr. Timothy Gillespie is lead pastor of Crosswalk Church in Redlands, CA. He also teaches at several universities and consults on mission integration for Adventist Health.
Try a game of recognizing emotions. Show what it looks like to be happy or sad, surprised or scared. Know that at this age your little one feels everything. Whatever range of emotions you are both going through today, know that Jesus’ love for us is big enough and strong enough to cope with all of them. Rest in that. With a thankful heart bring all that you are, however you are, to the feet of Jesus. This is worship.
Yesterday we talked about worshipping in Spirit and in truth. This is the rule Jesus gave on how to worship. But what are Spirit and truth? Put your hand on your head. Your brain is where everything you know is kept. Put your hand on your heart. Your heart is where you feel all that you know. Worshipping in Spirit and truth is putting your head and your heart together. You know who Jesus is and feel how much He loves you. Your head and your heart work together and help you know who Jesus is and feel how much He loves you. Worship is what you do to say thank you to Jesus. It is worshipping in Spirit and in truth.
I often have a serious case of hanger (combination of hunger and anger—I’m angry because I’m hungry—hangry)! My husband has learned that when I say I am hungry he needs to find me food or get me to food pronto! I find myself with a headache, irritable, low in energy, angry, irritable, snappy, sad, dizzy—and not necessarily in that order sequentially but experiencing all those symptoms at once! And so we have learnt to carry snacks in our car, especially when we know we’re going to be out for a bit, and especially after worship services. More often than not, I will be given snacks (Cheetos, Sunchips, crackers, etc) rather than “proper” food, but in my desperation to satisfy my hunger and lesson my angst I will happily eat all the junk food presented to me! But then of course these snacks do not provide my body with nutrients and they fail to truly satisfy my hunger. There are times when I find myself in the hangry situation and I am given food with substance. My body thanks me!
The story of the Samaritan woman and Jesus gives us a glimpse at what satisfaction looks like when Jesus is all that we have. Young man and young woman of God, you are at an age of decision making—and you will only grow to make more decisions as you age! I know the best decision I ever made was to follow Jesus. While life hasn’t always been peachy, knowing I have Jesus gives me great satisfaction. My prayer for you young man, young woman, is that as you grow you will grow to always make Jesus the center of your life. He will satisfy your being. Trust Him with your life!
Recently I was putting together a song service with a friend for a youth service. We got pulled into doing this at the last minute so we were quickly thinking of songs we could sing that everyone knew. I was struggling to think of one but he suddenly thought of a very popular worship song most people knew. When he asked me if I knew it, I said, “Oh, of course I know that song.” So he strums the chords and we start practicing. As we started singing, I couldn’t believe I actually knew all of the words to the song. I later had to write them down and noticed how deep the words are. I had been singing this song since I was five years old at most but I had never paid attention to what I was singing. There was one line that stuck out in particular: “There isn’t a moment or a day that passes when I am without my Jesus. He loves me so.” Anyone can sings words to a song or repeat prayers but do you mean them? How much more impactful would it be if you actually meant what you were singing? Or better yet, what if you believed in what you were singing? Think of the last song you were singing—religious or not, what were you singing? Did it represent you? Did it represent Jesus?
Verity Were is a registered nurse at the largest pediatric intensive care unit in Sydney, Australia. She attends Kellyville Adventist church with her husband and two toddlers.
Zan Long is GRC director for faith development for ages 0-17. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and serves at her local church in nearby Kellyville.
Moe Stiles is lead pastor at Oasis Church in Vancouver, WA. She is married to Adrian and is mother to Caleb and Johnny.
Vanessa Rivera is a therapist at a community mental health center in Denver, CO, and serves as the faith engagement pastor at Boulder Church.