I ask you a question what is life’s highest good the bottom line are you listening of all of life life’s ultimate priority life’s highest good life’s Supreme Duty life’s greatest privilege is worship profound truth simply stated This is Love Worth Finding with Pastor teacher and author Adrien Rogers take your Bible find John chapter 4 and look up here in these climactic days in which we’re living in the life of our church I have been trying to distill and focus on the things that I have told you for 32

years what kind of a church should our church be what is the Church of my dreams what is the Church of my aspirations what is the church that I hope will be the future church I spoke to you one Sunday on a unified church and then I spoke to you on a steadfast church and then I spoke to you on a miracle church and then last Sunday on a Praying church today a worshiping Church take God’s word John chapter 4 and look if you will in verse 23 Jesus said but the hour cometh and now is uh 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 we’re going to revisit this morning a passage of scripture that I’ve shared with you down through the years over and over again it is a pivotal passage and it is a basic passage on worship now I say this is a classic passage on worship and I’ve mentioned it to you down through the years many times but today I want to drive the nail in turn it over and bend it

back I want you to learn as a church over and over again to worship the only way we can learn as a church to Worship Is to learn as individuals now this is a marvelous chapter this fourth chapter of John Jesus is on a journey and the Bible says he must needs go through Samaria now that that was not the easiest way uh that was a mountainous way if he’d wanted to take the easiest way he would have gone down the alongside the River Jordan and I’ve made both trips many times but Jesus must needs go through

Samaria now the Samaritans were uh left over from the Exile and they intermarried and the Jews thought of them as a mongrel race and looked down upon them and the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans the Samaritans were hostile to the Jews and vice versa but now Jesus is going through Samaria and in the middle of the day he’s hot tired worn he’s sitting on the curbing of a well it’s called a well of u a Jacob or Jacob’s Well it’s a deep well I’ve drunk water out of that well it goes way down

deep you can take some water and pour it and wait a long time before you hear it Splash in the bottom now that well is still there today and Jesus was sitting on the curbing the parit around that well uh the disciples had gone into the city to get some food because it it was lunch and uh they were hungry and there was not a McDonald’s in sight and so they’ gone into the city to buy food and this woman comes out there now now this woman was what we would call a Shady Lady she’s the Shady Lady of Samaria she

has been married five times today we’d give her an Academy Award she’d been married five times and now she’s living with a man without even the benefit of a marriage ceremony and she comes out there not when the other women came out to draw water because uh they would look down upon her maybe spit on her so she comes out there by herself to draw water and Jesus is there and Jesus says to her would you give me a drink of water she said how is it that you being a Jew would speak to me a Samaritan and

ask of me of water he said well if you knew who was talking to you you’d ask him and he’d give you living water she said what do you mean Living Water you don’t you don’t have anything to draw with the well is deep and Jesus now begins to speak to this thirsty woman about real living water a drink that would satisfy her forever and ever and ever and ever because Jesus Christ is what every soul thirsts for he’s the Water of Life look at this poor woman there she was bound by sin she’d gone from husband

to husband and the husband and uh she got deeper and deeper into sin the cords of sin had bound her Not only was she bound by sin but she was blinded by Satan she didn’t know the way out she she had religion but religion was a wash out to her it had not satisfied her hungry thirsty Soul Bound by sin blinded by Satan and broken by sorrow think of this woman think how pitiful her life was Jesus heart went out to her in compassion as he goes out to you in compassion and this woman needed to lift her eyes from the things of this Earth

and learn how to worship and so Jesus teaches her now about worship and Jesus said God is Spirit not a spirit the the Bible the King James says a Spirit but may be better translated Jesus Is Our God is spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth three things I want you to learn about worship today may God the Holy Spirit impress them upon your soul rivet them into your Consciousness and cause you to remember them forever and ever first of all I want you to see what I’m going to call

the meaning of true worship the meaning of true worship now this woman knew about worship but she didn’t understand true worship look if you will in verses 19 and 20 the woman saith unto him sir I perceive thou art a prophet our fathers Worship in this mountain and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship now what she wants to do is to get up a discussion about worship she didn’t know anything about real worship but uh she knew about about religion as I said religion had been a

wash out to her now what she wants to do right now is to argue about religion to argue about Worship You Jews say that Jerusalem is the place to worship we say here in Samaria our mountain is the place to worship now if you’re a prophet you tell me which is the right place to worship and I want you to see the uh the tension that was here you remember obviously the Jews and the Samaritans are not getting along now the Samaritans worshiped in ignorance and Zeal now notice what Jesus said look down in verse 22 ye worship ye know not

what we know what we worship for salvation is of of the Jews the Samaritans worshiped in ignorance but they worshiped in zeal matter of fact I have been to Samaria there’s still a group of Samaritans to this day who have the five books of Moses and an ancient scroll I’ve seen it the the Samaritans had rejected all of the Bible all of the Old Testament except for the five books of Moses and they were so certain that they knew the truth they were so certain that their worship was the right worship and nobody else’s

worship was the right worship so what they had was Zeal and ignorance may I tell you that today the world is saturated with that it’s not that people don’t worship or they have Zeal but it’s ignorant worship do you know what a fanatic is somebody who has lost his Direction and doubles his speed that’s what these Samaritans were doing Jesus said you’re worshiping in ignorance you don’t know what you are worshiping now that’s the Samaritans what about the Jews why the Samaritans had ignorance

and Zeal the the Jews had the truth but they didn’t have any Zeal the Jews had dead Orthodoxy now you I I would reference to you Mark 7: 6 Jesus is speaking to them he answered and said unto them well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrit as it is written this people honor me with their lips but the heart is far from me over here you have ignorant Zeal over here you have dead Orthodoxy now that’s the other part of the world today some people are worshiping with ignorant Zeal and others with dead Orthodoxy some

fry in fanaticism and some freeze in formalism but they don’t have the Vitality of the Lord Jesus Christ now folks listen the answer here is not formalism or fanaticism it is true worship true worship we don’t have to have enthusiastic heresy we don’t have to have lifeless Orthodoxy we don’t have to have heat without light or light without heat we need true worship do you know it’ll be a great day in your life it’ll be a great day in any church when you stop enduring religion and start enjoying true

worship I want you to understand this folks this is the bottom line This is the highest good this is the ultimate privilege to worship God in Sp spirit and in truth now look again if you will in verse 23 Jesus said to this woman the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers underscore that the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth now look at that word worship do you see it that word comes from really two words worth and ship you see worship deals with worth you show me how you

it is worshiping God in in spirit and in truth now secondly what is the motive of true worship why do we do this look again in verse 23 but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth if you don’t mind marking your Bible Mark the word spirit and mark the word truth but then it goes on to say for the father seeketh such to worship him now why would we worship because that’s what God seeks that’s what God seeks that’s what God wants of you say

to yourself God wants me to worship the father seeks that for two major reasons reason number one is for what worship does for the worshipper what worship will do to you you see we become like what we worship that’s the reason idolatry is such a sin first the man molds the idol and then the idol molds the man we become like what we worship now that’s true in the negative sense is also true in the positive sense the more you worship God are you listening the more you worship God the more you will become like

God the need for worship is rooted in the very nature of God how did Jesus describe God In this passage on worship listen very carefully and don’t miss this the father seeketh such to worship Him the father seeketh such to worship him now you’re going to get an idea of why God desires worship and let me say this father is not what God is like father father is what God is you see when we worship we’re just responding to the Father’s love I love my father because he first loved me there’s something about a Father’s

Heart that wants the love of his children this past week we had a banquet here at the church it was a fatherdaughter banquet the fathers brought their girls to this banquet I wish you could have seen those beautiful little girls all dressed up with their daddies at that banquet it was wonderful and my daughter Janice and I were the program and Janice stood up first and spoke of what her father meant to her I cannot tell you how my heart was blessed How Deeply moved I was how grateful I was to hear my child speak not only

privately to me but openly and publicly of her love and her Devotion to her father now friend that’s the way God’s Great heart is you see God wants us to worship first of all because what worship does for us it changes us and then what worship does for God it gives him pleasure the father seeketh such to worship him a father wants love now I’ve got some good news for you every Father’s Day little children wonder what can I get for Daddy what can we give Daddy well you can give him some slippers or

you can give him a necktie but you know what your daddy wants love love what can you give to God today you say well I can’t sing like these people sing I can’t preach like so and so I can’t do this I can’t do that there is nobody who can love God better than you can and that’s why God wants more than anything else isin’t that great nobody on Earth can love God better than you can and that’s what God wants more than anything else the father seeketh such to worship him now let’s move to

the third and final thing I’ve talked to you about uh the meaning and the motive let me talk to you about the method of true worship look again that verses 23 and 24 but the our cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth Truth for the father seeketh such to worship Him Now Jesus is speaking to this woman now she she talks about worship but she doesn’t have real worship it is ignorant worship what is the method of true worship Jesus said we’re to Worship

in spirit do you see that he’s not talking about the Holy Spirit he’s talking about the human spirit that is worship comes out of the Inner Man Romans chapter 1 and verse 9 Paul said for God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit he’s talking about the human Spirit now the human Spirit cannot worship unless it is enjoined with the Holy Spirit but God the Holy Spirit comes into the human Spirit to help us to worship that’s the reason you have to be saved and Spirit-filled to truly worship now if you’re having trouble

worshiping I tell you what your problem is is in your spirit if you get bored in church the problem is your inner Spirit some people say well what are we going to have today are we going to have a Bible study or a worship service yes some people think well when we sing and pray and praise and fellowship that’s worship friend the preaching of the word of God is worship we worship God in truth and if we don’t do that the church becomes uh serpy it becomes subjective rather than objective now we to worship him with

songs and worship him with understanding here’s a great verse for you and all in our music department for this is Psalm 47:7 for God is the king of all the Earth sing ye Praises with understanding that’s spirit and that is truth if you have all emotionalism you blow up if you have all truth you dry up but if you have spirit and truth you grow up Jesus said we’re to Worship in spirit and in truth well very quickly I must close Jesus gave us the great commandment and it deals with worship Mark 12:30 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God

now listen with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength this is the first commandment remember I said what is the highest good what is the bottom line what is the AL ultimate privilege here Jesus is saying it so clearly we to love God how are we going to love him I want you to write down four words and put them in your purse your pocketbook your shirt pocket and carry them with you this week the first word is passionately we’re to love our God passionately that is with all of our

heart as much as in US ear halfhearted worship is an insult to almighty God does God have all of your heart passionately number two you to love him selflessly with all of your soul the soul is the self you’re not to be self-centered you’re self-centered by Nature have you ever heard anybody say well I came to church and I didn’t get anything out of it huh who said you were supposed to get anything out of it ask yourself this question did God receive anything from My Worship did God get something out of

it we’re here to glorify God we are to serve him selflessly when you take your mind off of yourself and put your mind on God stop saying what am I going to get and begin to say what am I going to give the church is transformed into a worshiping church and we are to love him thoughtfully with all of our heart a Full Hearts no excuse for an empty head serve the Lord with knowledge and wisdom love him in spirit and in truth and then we’re to love him practically with all of our strength everything we do whatever you

do in word or deed do all to the glory of God what is worship it’s giving God glory you can change the place where you go to work tomorrow morning if you just change your bosses you don’t worship for that you don’t work for that man you work for God that’s exactly what the Bible teaches the Bible says serve your Masters according to the flesh as if they were Jesus for you serve serve the Lord God your workplace can be your temple of devotion your lampstand of witness as you worship God with all of your

strength that’s what Jesus was telling this woman she said do we worship here or do we worship there Jesus said woman you Worship in spirit and in truth there is no place that is not a holy place there is no ground that is not sacred ground there is no time that should not be a time of worship so when we come to church to the worship service we don’t come merely to worship listen church we bring our worship to church when you come in here with a heart of flame you come in here hardly can wait to sing these songs to

Fellowship to love to study the word of God then this becomes a worshiping church and that my friend will make Belleview Church in the future the church that God desires her to be let this church be a worshiping church amen amen bow your heads in prayer our father and our God we pray as individuals and I pray for myself that you will teach us Lord to Worship in spirit and in truth with true worship in your holy name amen [Music] [Music]