Religious to Relishing

Sermon Transcript

Well, good morning. Thank you so much for choosing to worship with us today. Before we go to the Lord in prayer, could you help me welcome our Broomfield campus who's worshiping along with us? It's so great to have you today. I'm so thrilled about this series, so thrilled about the opportunity to worship the Lord and preach his word this morning. Let's prepare our hearts to hear exactly what God has for each one of us. Would you pray with me? Lord Jesus, thank you so much. Lord, thank you for the privilege of being able to come together and worship you and tell you how worthy you are to receive our praise.

And Lord, we pray today, as we take this journey, as we shift our focus as disciples from rules to a relationship with you, Lord, show us our next step. Teach us what your word has to say. Lord, speak to each one of us individually. If there's any known sin in your life you're aware of, just confess it right now before the father who promises through his son to forgive all of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Lord, give us attentive ears to hear this morning. We want to hear you. We want to know you better, and we want to do what you show us to do.

And so now, if you're listening to your child of God and you want to be who God says you are, and you want to do what God tells you to do, and you want to put into practice the very thing he tells you this morning, would you agree with me by very loudly saying the word Amen? Amen. Prior to being a pastor, I was an itinerant evangelist. I would travel around from place to place and would preach the gospel at different places. And one of the places that I went over and over was to the nation of India. And I remember one morning when we were in India, I was at a church service where I was going to be preaching.

And they ushered us to the front of the church, and we were in the front of the church. And as we were in the church, we were sitting there, and the worship service began. And when the worship service began, it looked like this. All of the guys, young guys that were walking in, a lot of the young boys that were like 10 or 12 years old were all wearing brown robes, crosses around their neck, they were carrying crosses and flags. They walked up in an aisle, nice and neat, put all the flags in, went and sat down at the front of the stage where they were obviously told to go sit.

And throughout the worship service, I kept watching them as we went through this liturgy. And I was familiar with the liturgy. I grew up in a Lutheran environment, I went to a Methodist church, I went to a Lutheran grade school. We had chapel services at the Lutheran grade school every Wednesday. It looked exactly like what we did at my Lutheran grade school in Peoria, Illinois. And I was looking at the look on these 10 and 12-year-old boy's faces, and they looked just as bored as I looked when I was 10 or 12 years old. And I nudged my ministry director and I said, "We didn't export the gospel here to India, we exported religion, because none of these people get what we're doing here. They're just going through a liturgy or the motions of what church is supposed to be, but they're clearly not excited that there's a God in the house who's alive, who's demanding and wanting their worship."

And oh, I wish I could say that only happens in India, it happens all around the world. Guess what, I wish I could say it only happens out there, it happens at BRAVE Church every single weekend. It happens on both campuses where people come in and they go through the motions of what's supposed to happen and how we're supposed to sing some songs. And then we'll sit still and maybe listen to the pastor preach for a little bit, and then we'll have a refrain and we'll go on our merry way without ever encountering the living God.

We've been talking about shifting our focus from rules to relationship. From, this is what you got to do, to, this is why you must do it because you have a relationship with the eternal son of God. Last week, we talked about step number one. And number one was surrendering to Christ's authority. It was choosing to yield or choosing to surrender to Christ's authority. It was talking about Matthew 16:24, where Jesus said, "Anyone who comes after me must do this, deny himself, take up his cross, follow me."

We talked about denying ourselves, we talked about dying to ourselves, we talked about following the Lord and how 95% of what God wants us to do is written right there in the pages of scripture. And in order to be a follower of Jesus, that's where it all starts. It's a life surrendered to his Lordship so that he is our leader. And no one can cause you to do that. There's a choice on your part to allow your life to be surrendered to the Lord. Today, we're going to talk a about step number two, and I'll give it to you right up front. And step number two is to choose to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just be surrendered to him, but to give him all of your adoration and praise, to become a worshiper, to give your allegiance and your adoration and your mouth to him because he is worthy of your praise.

Now, take a look at this step this morning,. We're going to be in John chapter four. John chapter four. If you have a copy of the scriptures, I encourage you to open your Bible. There's one under every other chair here in Inglewood. And Broomfield, just raise your hand, one of the ushers will bring it by for you. Get a copy of scripture. Read along with us. John chapter four will really set up the next two weeks. This first 19 or 20 verses is really setting up the next two week sermons for what we're going to do so that you can see what God is after in your life individually.

Now, if you open up to John chapter four, this is going to give us our setting for what's taking place. And Jesus is the center of this story. Notice what it says, "Therefore, when the Lord 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." Meaning this, Jesus is in the Judea area, near Jerusalem, he's making all these disciples. The Pharisees who are the religious leaders of the day are getting jealous because what they're concerned about is allegiance to their form of worship and they're learning that Jesus is even making more disciples than John the Baptist and that he's baptizing more.

Although it says here in God's word, that Jesus himself wasn't doing any of the baptisms. In other words, baptism's important, but Jesus, wasn't doing the baptism. Why is this important? Because there's some people out there that believe if you're not baptized, you're not saved. If that were true, Jesus would've baptized everybody he ever saw. Jesus didn't baptize anybody. Baptism's important, we see it in the great commission, we're to be baptized, but it's not salvific, it's an act of obedience for those who know the Lord. Now, notice what it says in verse three, "He left Judea and went away into Galilee."

And notice verse four, "And he had to pass through Samaria." Now, if you were a Jew and you read that, "And he had to pass through Samaria," this would be your verbal response, "No, he didn't." The text says and he had to pass through Samaria. You would say very loud, "No, he didn't". Could you help me this morning really loudly say that after I read verse four. Let's participate together. This will also help us next week when we know who wasn't here this week. All right? And he had to pass through Samaria.

No, he didn't.

Yes, he did. Do you know why he did? He didn't have to pass through Samaria. Geographically, he certainly didn't have to. As a matter of fact, most of our Jews would never go through Samaria. Most about Jews, even though it was the shortest distance from Judea to Galilee, most would go all the way around Galilee into Perea to get there through the pagan cities of Perea. And here's why, because that part of Israel, the northern kingdom was sacked in the 700 BC-ish range by the Assyrians and they took off all the great leaders from that city, and they left others there. And the ones who left there intermarried with people who weren't Jews. So from that time on, Jews looked down at them as not being pure Jews. They were half breeds, they were no good.

As a matter of fact, when Ezra and Nehemiah all come back to rebuild the temple hundreds of years later, the Samaritans say, "Hey, we'd love to help you rebuild it." And they're like, "No, we don't want your help," which only furthered tensions. So when you get all the way to the New Testament time, Samaritans are those group of people that no Jews like, they hate them. They avoid them. They go around them. They don't want any dealings with them. Remember the story of The Good Samaritan? That's why Jesus uses that. Nobody likes Samaritans, no Jew in the right mind would've done it. Nobody went through Samaria.

But it said, "And Jesus had to go through Samaria." No he didn't. But he did because he only did what he saw his father do. And his father was telling him, "I have a divine appointment for you in Samaria." So Jesus had to go. He had to go because that's what God the father was telling him to do. So he came to a city, verse five, of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground 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. So Jesus is traveling the 60 miles back, stops in Sychar in the city of Samaria buy a well.

Six hour of a day is noon. Jesus is tired. He's by this well at noon. That's the setting of our story. He didn't have to go that way geographically, he had to go that way because the father was calling him there. I wonder what else happens. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink," for his disciples had gone away in the city to buy food. Therefore, the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you being a Jew ask me for a drink, since I am a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans?

Here's what's going on here, Jesus had to go there because his father said go there. This woman comes to draw water at noon, no woman ever drew water at noon. They would either draw it in the cool of the morning or the cool of the evening. They would usually do it together. You're going to find out later in the story why she didn't. But she's there at noon drawing water. Jesus is there. She comes to draw water. He says, "Give me a drink." She says, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask me for a drink? How could you, a Jew, ask me for something? Y'all hate us. All your comedians tell jokes about us. You make fun of us, you mock us. You never let us do anything with you. You don't want anything to do with us. You travel around us. How is it that you, a Jew, could ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?"

Furthermore, men don't talk to women in that culture. How is it you, a man, could talk to me as a woman, ask me for a favor? That's the problem. Here's what it's showing. Jesus is willing to cross any cultural boundary or norm to get his mission done. He will go anywhere that the father leads him to accomplish anything that he needs to get done. That's what it's all about. Now, the woman is going to be talking about the physical and Jesus is going to be talking about the eternal. You're going to see this contrast during the entire story. So notice what Jesus said to her in verse 10, 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've asked him and he would've given you living water."

Jesus says, "Give me a drink." She says, "Hey, how can you ask me for a drink since you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan?" Jesus said, "If you knew who I was, the eternal son of God, you would've asked me for a drink, I would've given you water that would well up to eternal life in you. I'm the God that can grant life to your deadness. I'm the God that can fix all your problems. I'm the God that can do it all. And I'm standing right here." But she's still thinking about the physical. She said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you get this living water?" "How are you going to get water? When you don't even have a pot to draw with? You don't even have anything to do with what you said you're going to do. You can't do what you said you're going to do."

That's her view of God. "You can't do what you say you're going to do. You're not greater than our father, Jacob, are you? Who gave us this well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle." She's like, "I know Jacob, Jacob's one of our heroes. We know you're not greater than Jacob. There's no way you're... " She's talking to the eternal son of God, and she's telling him, "I know you're not greater than one of our ancestors. That's not who you are." So how does Jesus respond to that? Jesus answered her and said, "Everyone who drinks of this water," talking about the water she's about ready to draw, "will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

He keeps drawing her back to the eternal. He keeps letting her know that no matter what she's done or who she is, he can fill a need at her deepest level from the inside out. That's what he's going to do. He's wanting to perform a miracle in her heart by letting her know she has value and significance and worth and he can fill in her what she currently doesn't have. The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw." So she's still thinking physical, like, "If you got some water that's going to fill me up so that when I drink I never get thirsty again and I don't have to come to this silly well and I don't have to travel the distance it, then go ahead. If you can do this thing, then give it to me because I never want to come back here."

Now, you're going to find later why she doesn't want to come back here. Not only is it a long journey, but there's a reason that she's drawing at noon. There's a reason nobody else is drawing with her. So she's saying, "If you can give me a shortcut... Hey God, if you can give me a shortcut, I'll take the shortcut. If you can give me what I want right now, I'll take that." That's her view of God. So Jesus says to her this, very interesting, "Go call your husband come here." Now, that seems odd, doesn't it? Unless you're the God of the universe who knows her story, "Go call your husband come here."

The woman answered and said, "I have no husband. I don't have a husband." "See, he doesn't even know who I am." Here's Jesus' response, "You have answered correctly, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands and the one that you now have is not your husband, you have said truly." Jesus says... he's dealt with the fact that he wants to offer her something eternal while she's still focused on the physical. A lot of people come to worship just wanting something in the physical. "Heal my body, give me more money, give me more health, make me better, make my family good. Give me, give me, give me, give me, give me."

Jesus is offering something greater, he's offering something from the inside out that's eternal, and he's wanting to give that to her. But before he can give that to her, he's got to deal with her greatest place of sin, "Go call your husband." "Yeah, I don't have one of those. Let's not talk about that." There's shame. There's guilt. There's aggravation. There's frustration. There's pain. There's wound. "I don't want to talk about this. I don't have a husband." "You've answered correctly, you don't have a husband. I know you've had five and the man that you're living with is not your husband. Good job. You've answered correctly."

What's her response? Notice what she says. "Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. Maybe you're a fortune teller, maybe like one of those spiritual people. Nobody really knows that about me, I haven't told anybody." See why she's drawing water at noon now? Because there's no other woman in the community that'll go draw water with her. And even if there were, then she would've to tell her story of shame. She's talked about at the well everyday by the other women. She lives consistently in shame. She has no relationships that are good back in her town.

You can go there today, the well of Sychar is still there. You can see right where it is. Jesus met her there. And what's he dealing with? He's dealing with the sense that she has no eternity in her soul. He's dealing with the fact that she feels empty, that she feels wounded, that her act of worship is only, "What can I get from God?" There are some of you that come to BRAVE Church that act just like this. "What can I get from you, God? Can you make my life a little better? Fill me up a little bit today so I can just get on with my life. Just give me something."

And Jesus wants to deal with your sin. And we say, "I don't want anything to do with that. I didn't like what the preacher had to say. I didn't like what he wanted to say." And that video you saw today with Jordan. I was talking to him as he was doing the video, thanking him for it. He's like, "Yeah, I remember the day that I left this church." He said, "You were preaching on the beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit." And he goes, "I was so angry with you, I was ready to sit on my hands because I wanted to come punch you in the face because you were meddling with my sin."

That's what Jesus is doing with this woman. And she's like, "Well, sir, I can see you're a prophet." He's being gentle with her. He's loving her. And this is where we get into what her worship's all about. Because when she sees that he's a prophet, now she starts talking about her worship experience. And notice what she says. She's like, "Well, our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place that men ought to worship." Now, we're going to get the true story. This is when Jesus starts meddling with eternity and sin and all this. And she starts spelling out, "Here's what I think worship's all about."

And what's she talk about? She talks about worship as a place, and she talks about it as a ritual, and she talks about it as a routine, and she talks about it as a generational thing. She talks about it as if to say this, and she's standing at the well, she's looking over on Mount Gerizim, which is in Samaria where the Samaritans built their temple, because the Jews wouldn't let them be part of the rebuilding of the temple. And she's looking at the Mount Gerizim, she's like , "Our forefather said to worship there at Mount Gerizim. Y'all say we're supposed to worship in Jerusalem. Who knows?"

It'd be like today when you ask "Do you worship?" "Yeah, I'm Catholic, I'm Baptist, I'm Methodist. My parents went to this kind of church. My dad's always done this. We sing these kind of songs." They're talking about something that's out there. Let tell you something about worship. Worship is not a geography, it's not a place, it's not a ritual, it's not a routine. Worship is all about a person. It's about the Lord, Jesus Christ and giving adoration to him. Now, you may ask yourself, "Well, how do I know if I'm a worshiper of God?" Let me tell you what worship is.

We're going to talk about four points this morning. And the first is this, worship is giving adoration to God for the good news of your salvation. Worship is giving adoration to God. For the good news of salvation we could stop at worship is giving adoration to God. That's what worship is. Worship is giving adoration to God. Worship is when, in my heart, from the inside out, I am giving God praise, glory, honor, adoration because he is worthy of all my praise. He's worthy of it all. That's what worship is. And it starts when someone is saved. Non-believers cannot worship God, non-believers do not worship God.

You can go through rituals and routine, you can do it fervently and passionately and still not be a worshiper of God. A worshiper of God is one who gives praise directly to God. They're not just singing out God, they're singing to God, they're talking to God, they're telling God that he's worthy. That's why all over the Bible you see, "Clap your hands all ye people. Raise your hands, shout to the Lord, sing a new song." God gives us depictions what we feel in our heart, how we can express it outwardly, and what that looks like in our life. And this is what Jesus is trying to get the woman to see. Notice what he says in verse 21, 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 from the Jews."

He's telling her this, you have the Godman of the universe telling her, "What I'm looking for is people that are going to worship me. An hour is coming, and it's really soon, as a matter of fact, it's right now, where people won't worship on this mountain, they're not going to worship in Jerusalem, they're going to worship me everywhere that they gather." And any time that a person who is dead in their trespasses and sins surrenders their life to the Lord Jesus Christ, the very next step is to give God praise for all that he is and all that he's doing. Worship is simply this, it's giving God glory for all that he is, all that he's done, all that he's doing, and all that he's ever going to do."

And let me just tell you something else about worship, God doesn't need your worship. God doesn't call you to BRAVE Church because he's on the throne in heaven saying, "If they don't come today and give me really good worship, I'm really going to be weakened by that. No. God can worship himself. God is so awesome that he's worthy of being worshiped. And when see who he is and we get to know who he is and the more you grow and who he is, you can't help but want to worship that God. We just have too small of a view of God. And so we turn worship into a religion where, "I like this song. I don't like that song. I like this style. I don't like this style." Worship is not a style, it's in a allegiance, it's an inward praise that goes to who he is.

And if you have a small view of God, your worship will be small. If you have a big view of God, your worship will be big. Just think about this. Have you ever been driving down the road at a certain time of day where the sun's about ready to set or the sun's about ready to rise and it hits your eyes while you're driving and it's almost blinding? The sun is just one sun in our solar system. It's 93 million miles away. And that sun, that one sun that was created by our great God is so powerful that 93 million miles away from you, it can cause you to do this and put your visor down. That's how powerful the sun is. You know how far 93 million miles is? You can check my math on this.

If you got in your car and drove 70 miles an hour today when you left church, it would take you over 150 years to get there. That's how far away the sun is causing you to cringe, and that's just a little thing God made. That's nothing. You start looking at all the galaxies out there and all the world's out there and all the things that we don't even know out there, and our God made all that. That's how glorious he is. We have the wrong view of worship. Someone like, "So in heaven, all we're going to do is like worship? We're just going to sit around like in a and sing K Love songs and that's like it? I don't know that I'm looking forward to that."

No, it's going to be like this. It's going to be like what happened to Isaiah and Isaiah chapter six when he saw the glory of the Lord and his train filled the temple and he saw Cherubim and Séraphin and all these angelic beings worshiping the Lord and crying out, "Holy, holy, holy are you Lord, that heaven and earth are filled with your glory." And he was so enthralled. It was the most majestic display of anything he'd ever seen. And he was falling on his face and said, "I'm ruined. I have no business being here. I'm a sinner. How can I even see this thing? A man of unclean lips. I come from a people of unclean lips." And so one of the Cherubim came down and touched his lips, cleansed him.

So that's the power of the gospel. If we really knew the glory of God and the more you grow in the glory of God, the more you will give him worship. When we gather as a church, we gather to give him worship, that's who we are. Now, unfortunately, because the sun's so powerful, we have to take measures to protect ourself from the sun. Recently, I was on vacation and when we're on vacation, you put this stuff, this lotion on your skin called, what? Sun screen. And you put that on so that the penetrating rays of the sun can't get too deep and cause a problem because son is so strong that left to yourself, you would burn up.

Unfortunately, some of us come into church with sunscreen on, screen from Jesus Christ, "I'm not going to give you worship, I'm not going to give you praise. I'm going to stand there, I'm going to sit there. If you got something good for me, just let me know about it, but I'm not coming to give you anything." See, a lot of us think church is like a restaurant. We're so accustomed to going to a restaurant where people serve us, they wait on us. Another way to say that is they minister to us. So it's their job to lead us to a table, it's their job to seat us, it's their job to greet us, it's their job to ask us, "What would you like to drink?" It's their job to bring the menu and explain it. It's their job to cook the food, their job to bring it on time. It's their job to do it.

And the tip is our response to what they do to us. And sometimes some of us come into church and we think God's the server. "God, what do you have for me? Are you going to give me a good word today? Do you have good children's ministry? What am I going to get out of this? I hope it's good. I hope it helps my life. I hope it helps me. And if it's good, God, I'll give you a tip, maybe I'll throw some change in the offering plate." We've got it reversed. You're the servant, you're the minister, you're coming to bring God your best for all that he's been doing in your life. You're coming to clap. You're coming to sing. You're coming to praise. You're coming to give him adoration.

The response of God, oftentimes during worship, when you sense his presence among us, is his tip, like, "Yeah, I see what you're doing and I'm so thrilled with who you are. We get it backwards. We're supposed to come and give God everything we have." The guy at our Saturday night service like last week that came in and told me afterwards, "This is the first religious service I'd ever been to in my life." And he said, "It was weird. It was like the coolest energy I've ever felt." And I told him, "It might have felt like cool energy, but that's the Holy Spirit of God telling you that Jesus Christ is Lord and he wants a relationship with you."

He came back last night with four different friends because he can't help, but want more of what he's experiencing, so we're walking through the gospel together so he can understand the truth of God's word. We're called to be worshipers of God, we're called to give him praise. Many of us will even travel around to other worship venues so that we don't have to worship, but we can experience others' worship and then we can feel it. God's calling you individually to be a worshiper of him. Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman saying, "I want you to worship me with everything you have. I want you to be the one who brings that to me." And I'll tell you something else about worship. Worship is a lot like a sponge, picture your heart and the inside of your life like a sponge. The more you worship, the more the eternal life and the water of God will fill that thing up. The less you worship, the more that thing will dry up.

And many of us when it comes to our life and we wonder, how come my kids aren't working? How come my marriage isn't working? How come my finances aren't working? How come this isn't working? And we go to ring out that sponge, we got nothing to ring out because we haven't spent any time worshiping. After you've surrendered to Christ, the most important thing in your life is to become a worshiper of God. Now, I want to ask by show of hands on either campus today, but you know in your own heart, some of you are here today who are believers who have surrendered your life to Christ, but yet you struggle with the exact same sin that you've struggled with for the last five weeks, five months, five years, and it ain't going away.

And you've read your Bible, and you prayed, and you've sought counsel. Here's my question. Have you ever worshiped God and started praising him before he takes it away that he's going to take it away? Become a worshiper because it's hard to continue a pattern of sin while at the same time giving Jesus Christ all glory, honor and praise. Married folk, when's the last time you and your spouse sang hymns of praise to God, read the Bible, praise God with your voice, told him how awesome he was, and what a blessing it was to have each other in your life? When was last time? Well, we don't want that. I just want to get some counseling.

We want human beings to solve what only God can do. It's always while we're ministering and giving God our best that God delights in giving answers. If you read the New Testament, "And while they were ministering to the Lord, God set aside Paul and Silas to go out." What were they doing? They're praising God, they're glorifying him, they're not having a strategic meeting about who needs to go be a missionary. They're praising God, they're glorifying him. And during the prayer and praise, God's saying, "Take these two men and go." And everybody's like, "Yeah, go, go, go. It's always while you're ministering.

Some of you came here today to get answers to life's problems, I'm giving you the answer, start worshiping. It's while you worship that God will do it. Now, some of us are like, "I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. I am not doing that. It's a little embarrassing." I was one of those people, I'm just being honest, I'm being candid. For me, when I would go into environments, worship felt very effeminate to me as a man, I'm being honest. I'd see women, they'll be like, "Oh, praise you God. So awesome." And I'll be like, "That ain't me. That ain't me. It doesn't feel right, it feels against the grain. So I don't want to really worship and I'm not really good in music. So it's not really my thing."

And so I remember when I was being trained to be a youth director for a church and they were teaching us how to lead choruses, and this is back in the day, like, Lord, I lift your name on high and humbled myself in the side of the Lord, and some of you my age know all these chorus. I remember thinking, "Hey, when I get to the church, I'll find somebody to play guitar because I'm never doing that." And my tagline when I went into ministry to all my friends that I went to college with, when they would ask me like, "What do you doing now? You're leaving all your money and your career to go do what? And I said, "Well, I'm going to go tell young people about Jesus Christ and grow their faith."

And then I would add this tagline, "But don't worry, I'm not going to be one of those geeky youth directors that sits around and plays guitar on the weekends." That's what I said to everybody. Geeky was a word we used back in the day. And so I'll never forget getting to my church, we decided to do the Saturday night service for all the kids in the area, guess how many people play guitar? Guess how many people could lead worship? Zero. But as I pray, God said, "I want you to lead worship." I'm like, "I ain't doing that." I remember the first time I started learning guitar, I know about five chords, I can play okay, I can sing okay, but I'm not great. I remember playing Humble Myself in the Side of the Lord, E minor and D, two different chords.

I'm singing, humble of in the side of the Lord. Then the girls would echo and all that stuff, but in my mind, here's what I'm saying, you are a sissy in the side of the Lord. It was awkward. But God grew my worship to a place where I got to understand the vastness of God, where now to clap to him, to raise my hands because I picture Jesus Christ as being here alive on his throne, and if he was, how would I want to respond to him? That's worship. And Jesus is telling this one, "Believe me now, woman, I'm telling you, an hour is coming and it's right now when people won't worship in this mountain or that mountain," they're not going to worry about what denomination they are, because it doesn't matter, because there's no denominations in heaven, there's no BRAVE Church in heaven."

Don't look for the BRAVE Church sign, you won't find it when you get there. There's the church of Jesus Christ with a bunch of people that are going to be worshiping God from every tribe, tongue and nation. And when you see his glory from the inside out, you can't help, but worship him. Everyone will worship him. Some of the people that you see in church that are very casual in their worship, you might see them doing Cartwheel somewhere or jumping up and down because of what's going on the inside because they can't take it when they get to heaven.

The good news is, God, doesn't say, "Wait till you get to heaven and then you can worship me." He says, do it now, do it everywhere you are. Give me your greatest allegiance, give me your greatest praise when you're driving down the highway, when you're in the shower, and collectively, when we come together as a church, we worship God with our best because there's something powerful. When God looks down from heaven, with all the angels and demons to see what's this group of people that God created actually going to do and the praises start going up and God's glory starts surrounding us and we start experiencing it together where even in that mix, we're like, "That was our best service I've ever been a part of. It was so great. It was so awesome. Did you sense God among us?"

That's what worship does. That's why we're called to worship. That's what it's all about. Now, here's what it looks like. If we're really going to minister to him, it's not about what we minister to each other, it's about what we're ministering vertically. I was listening Tony Evans message this week and Tony said, "Church has become a place to minister to people who don't want to minister to God." In other words, church's become a place where we want to help you get on with your problems, but you don't want to worship God. That's not the place that God seeks. Church is a place for us to come them together to minister, to God.

It's the place to grow our leadership. Now, worship isn't just in the walls of the church. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God." Romans 12:1 tells us, "Therefore my brothers in view of God's mercy, I ask you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship." What is a living sacrifice? All sacrifices are dead. There's no such thing as living sacrifice unless we're talking Christianity, because if you've died yourself and Christ come in, you you're dead, but now you're alive. You're a living sacrifice.

The more you learn to worship outside there, the more fervent your worship will be here. The more fervent your worship is, the more fervent it will be outside. It continues to tag team. And if you are a worshiper, you will crave it. When we were on vacation, the first two weeks we were there, we didn't have a car and we couldn't go to church. And on week three, I was telling Kim all week, "We got to go to church. We got to go to church. I got to be around other believers, I got to worship."

And we found a church online. I'm like, "I don't care if it's that great, I don't care how good the worship is, it doesn't matter to me. They love God, they're going to preach from the Bible. Let's go. It was refreshing just to be with other saints. Not everybody raised their hands, we raised our hands. That's how we worship. I don't care what other people think. I want to bring God what he deserves because he deserves my best at all times. If you can walk into a worship service and sit on your hands always and say, "It really doesn't matter. I hope I get something out of this." You're not a worshiper of God. And one of the reasons you're not experiencing the joy of your salvation is that you're not a worshiper. Jesus just wants you to be a worshiper of him.

It means authentically from the inside out however you would like to worship you worship. You want to raise your hands, raise your hands. You want to clap, clap. You want to shout, shout. You want to whistle, whistle. Do it genuinely. No fake, but genuine however you want. Worship is giving God adoration for the good news of his son, Jesus Christ and our salvation. Secondly it's this, worship is giving adoration with great fervency and intensity, with great fervency and intensity. And if he tells you, you don't know what you're worshiping just like a lot of people in our culture, they don't know what they're worshiping, they're just going through the motions.

Jesus said, "But an hour is coming and now is, it's right now, 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 him in spirit and in truth. You will never see God the father when you die, God the spirit. Jesus Christ is God's eternal son. That's who you'll see, Holy Spirit spirit. What makes God transcendent is that the God had came in the person of Jesus Christ, that's who you're going to see. God is spirit. Those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. And the spirit here is talking about the internal fervency and passion with which you worship.

This is the kind of worshipers that the father seeks. You see, you asked me, "Pastor Jeff, are we a secret church?" I would say, "Yeah, it depends on how you define it. Yeah, we're a secret church. We're trying to be the kind of church that the father would seek. We're trying to be the kind of church that God would look down from heaven and said, "That's what I'm talking about. These people worship me with fervency and they worship me in truth." And it says, "This is how you what? Must worship him." Anyone who wants to follow after Jesus must take up his cross, deny himself and follow me.

Notice what he says in this verse. He says this, "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," there's a word, "Must worship in spirit and truth." This is how God demands our worship, spirit and truth. Well, Jeff, it's just hard to have fervency, what do you mean by fervency? What's it mean? Let me tell you, right now all across our country, there are cathedrals that are beginning opening, they're starting preview services. The National Football League calls it the pre-season.

There are huge cathedrals where people will go and give allegiance and worship and praise with everything they have on any given Sunday. It even happens here in Denver and the allegiance is so strong that it's not like, "Hey, what time does it start? What time does it end? Is it longer than an hour?" No, that's not what people say. They go to these events, you got to understand, if kickoff for this cathedral starts at 1:20, people get up at 8:00 in the morning and they begin to get dressed, and they begin to listen to sports talk radio, to talk about the worship they're about ready to experience. Then they dress in clothes that are appropriate for where they're going to go worship.

And when they drive, I want to let you know, they might check the weather, but they're not checking the weather to see if they're going to go, they're checking the weather to see what clothes they need to wear so that they can go. Rain, sunshine, Sleet, snow, we're there, it don't matter. It's on the calendar, it's worship. And then they get in their car and most people don't live right across from the stadium, so they drive miles, and miles. Some people 30, 40, 50 minutes, some people from out of state come, they pay absorbing amounts for their tickets to get to this event.

Do they arrive right at kickoff time? Oh heck no. They get there a couple, three hours early, because when you get there, then you got to set up a stage so you can cook food, so that you can be physically prepared for the worship that you're about ready to experience. And then most people don't get to park right next to the stadium, you get to walk an entire mile. And if you can't afford to walk, you can pay somebody to cab you there and you get all the way there. And when you walk in, you start high fiving other people that share your same allegiance, because there's such intensity and there's such program about is ready to happen. And when the team comes on the field, people cheer and they shout out and they go mad.

Oftentimes, this event will go into what's called overtime, which is extra worship. And during this time, nobody leaves the stadium. They stay till the very bitter end. And then when the game ends, guess what they do, they have to walk the mile back to their car to get in their car, to drive the 30 minutes back to where they were. And if they're real worshipers, then they listen to sports talk radio all the way home to figure out what really took place on the field. And if they're true worshipers, they get home and watch the NFL Network and ESPN to see what other pundits are saying about the worship that they had.

But that's not enough because on Monday they form small groups at work and they get together and talk about the worships service that they just experienced and where worship's going to take place next week and if they're able to get to that cathedral and worship again. Now, if you can worship like that for a group of people that can do absolutely nothing for you, what can you bring to the king of kings and the Lord of Lords who has saved your life, giving you all eternity and honor him? He's worthy. And if you study this game of football, you'll understand it's four or 15 minute quarters, but the only amount of action that takes place on the field is about 17 or 18 minutes.

People will give their life for that. Now, I confess I enjoy going to games and I confess I enjoy doing that and I worship. My allegiance is to the Lord, Jesus Christ. Do you bring God more allegiance than you do for that? That's what it means to worship in spirit. That's what it means to give God your allegiance. When we read things in the Bible like clap your hands and sing to the Lord and all these different things we sometimes say, "Well, I don't know. I don't know." God wants you to bring whatever you have from the inside out that's authentic. Which means sometimes when we're in church, it means that you should get down on your knees and kneel during worship.

Other times it means you should come forward as if Jesus Christ is standing right here and just kneel before him and just give him praise and adoration. Sometimes it means you should stand. Sometimes it means you should clap. Sometimes it means you should raise your hand. Sometimes you shouldn't be moving like, "That was awesome." And you say, "Well, I'm just not that type of person." Oh yes, you are. I've been to so many concerts in my life, I was just at one at [Crowfield 00:39:31] this week, 60,000-ish people that were there. As mu music was played, I saw people clap, sing, dance, move, groove, high five and nobody was good at any of it. At least from where I was sitting, it was unlike they had a skill in it, they were moved from the inside out.

And yet when we come into church, we've been trained to be reserved, "Don't do that in church. Don't clap. We're in church." God loves a cheerful giver. That's why offering is part of our giving. And even if you're like me and you give online regularly and stuff like that, I still clap for the offering because I'm praising God that I get to bring him something. The reason we include offering during our service, you can bring God something. It doesn't matter how much you bring, it matters if that you bring that you're engaged in what you're bringing. Everything we're gearing on this platform is for you to experience and have an opportunity to worship the God who wants or has given your life.

It's totally worth it. Worship fervently, worship in spirit. But notice what else he says. He says this, "Worship in truth." It means point three is giving adoration that centers on the truth of God's word. Well, how should I worship? He tells us in his word? Now, give me give me an applause, how many of you believe that God's word is true? Give me an applause if you believe it. In reading the Bible, it's saying, "Clap your hands all you people," it means you can clap in church. Shout to the Lord, it means you can shout in church. Say it louder. Now, you can do that. You're welcome to do that here.

I want to take you back to Psalm 96. We're going to go to a lot of different places today, but knows what Psalm 96 is. I'll read you a few verses from Psalm 96. First verse is this, "Sing to the Lord a new song." How about that first one? Sing, sing means this. Some of you, I get the privilege of sitting over here and I get to see your faces, some of you. And I understand, there's sometimes and I do this too. Sometimes when I'm reflecting on a song, I don't want to sing, I'm reflecting on the words. That's fine. I'm talking about you, especially you men that I see come in here month after month, week after week, all the time and you worship like this.

Here's the command from God, you clap. You said you believe his word, Sing. Well, I don't know how. Sing anyway. Sing anyway. Give God what he didn't give to you. Now, he may not have given you a great voice, he doesn't say sing to the Lord if you have a really good voice. It doesn't say sing to the Lord if you're a performer, he said sing. There's something different about singing than there is about speaking. Sing. Well, I don't want the people in front of me to hear, let the people four rows front of you hear. Sing. What are we supposed sing? Sing to the Lord, sing directly to him. What are we to sing? A new song? Pastor Jeff, I don't know that song. Yeah, because you're supposed to sing a new one.

Do you know why you're supposed to sing a new song? Because God didn't just create one generation of people that had the market on what songs need to look like. It means God is birthing songs from all sorts of people. Do you know that I sing jingles to the Lord all the time that will never be recorded and I'll never sing in front of you sing? Sing. I'll sing about my marriage, I'll sing about my kids because there's something about singing. Sing the Lord a new song. It's not if you know it, it's not for the right style. Isn't interesting worship is the most important step after surrendering our life to Christ, we're the biggest fights in church about all the time. Worship, is contemporary? Is it traditional? It's worship.

I can worship with hymns, "All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all." Praise God. I can sing, "The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation by water and the word. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride, with his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died." I know all the verses. I sing those songs. We sing hymns here. But some of you that are so rooted, "Oh, such rich theology. It's so good. Those new songs are like 711 songs. It's like you ring seven choruses 11 times. It's just so bad."

Have you ever read the Bible? Read Revelation sometime in four and five where here's the repetitive chorus? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. Heaven and earth is filled with his glory. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. Heaven and earth is filled with his glory. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. Heaven and earth is filled with his glory. There's going to be nobody in heaven's like, "Dude, I'm so sick of that song. Get a new lyric or I'm not going." Sometimes it's those simple chorus that stick in our heart throughout the whole week. Both are true. Worship, worship truth.

Men, how about you? I'm just having fun with the guys today, "I'm not a hand raising, Pastor Jeff. I can't get there." Okay. You clapped, you said you believed the Bible, so let's read it first. 1 Timothy 2:8, "Therefore, I want the men," He want the men, men listen up, "I want the men in every place." That's here in Denver, "To pray lifting holy hands without wrath or dissension." Who should be the one leading the hand raising in the church? Hey men, it's us. Our wives and our kids should see us lifting hands and praying. It's not a feminine thing, it's a command from God to us to lead the worship of God. Amen.

That's what God's called us to do. And so when we read the scriptures, it gives us depictions of how we're to do it. And guess what? You can do it any way you want. Nobody's going to come by your seat. "No you didn't lift your hand on that last song. Maybe you're not worshiping." "I know she didn't clap hard enough during the offering." nobody's looking at you, God is. And the question is, are you bringing him your best allegiance? See, oftentimes we think worship is simply this, we think worship is about getting us ready for the preaching. And worship can definitely elevate preaching, but preaching gets us ready to worship.

See, in heaven, I'm unemployed. When I die, my career is over. You don't need me to preach in heaven, you got Jesus, but what's going to go on forever and ever, and ever and I'm going to be part of is, is the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Preaching is what stirs us in our soul so that we want to respond to Jesus. Can I say this, and I'm going to say this as a pastor, I want to say this as gently as I possibly can. I realize sometimes during worship service that at the very end of service, there can be a time, "I got to pick my mother up at the airport. I made a plan with a friend, we got to be at lunch by... "

I get that happens from time to time, but how can it be every single week that when the preaching is done and God says, "Here's what I'm telling you, and I love you so much. And you're awesome," that when it comes time to respond by worshiping God, you get up and turn your back and walk out that door? How? And I'll tell you why it grieves to my heart as a pastor, because I sit in and say to myself, "You stink as a pastor, because if all you're doing is feeding your people Bible knowledge and they don't know how to worship and seek my faith, I've failed as a pastor."

The purpose of my preaching and is for you to love God more so that you love him with your whole heart and so you want to explode with praise when the service is over. That's what it looks like. Not because you have to. Remember, it's not rule like, "Oh, we can't leave church, not until... " No, it's relationship that you've been stirred so much on the inside out that you can't help but, "God, I want to worship you, I want to give you all that praise that's been stored up in my heart while I've been listening to you. I want to clap, I dance." And I'll be honest when I read about the dance in the Bible, a little uncomfortable with the public expression myself.

But it's okay if that's how you feel. Nothing, contrived, nothing, you better, nothing, I'm going to do this so people notice me, none of that. But from inside out, as you feel moved by the Holy Spirit to do that very thing. And here's how you know if you really are worshiping in spirit and in truth, if you're giving God all the praise. If you're not worshiping God, and everybody's gifted to worship, if you're not worshiping God, then you're this, you're an idolater, because everybody's a worshiper. You're worshiping something.

I wrote down a few things I think you can worship. I think you can worship your clothes, your house, your car, shopping, money, influence, prestige, vacations. It's the thing in your that if it was taken away from you, you'd be angry. If someone took that from me, I'm angry. That's your worship. Did you know you can worship your kids, did you know you can worship another person? If God took away my wife and my kids, I would be devastated, I would be broken, I wouldn't be angry. I'd be saddened, I'd be devastated. I'd still love God. What's that thing in your life, if God took this away, I'd be so... If God took away my TV, there's no way I could even live.

When we were on vacation, my kids would come to me and say, "Dad, can I borrow your phone? Dad, can I borrow your phone? Mom, can I borrow your phone? I need to see your phone." "Why?" "I want to play a game, I want to play a game." So I would start by saying, "Do you know that when I was a kid," "I know dad, I know. You guys didn't even have cars back then and you rode to school and a horse. I know dad, I know." And I'm like, "No, no, no." I'm like, "Do you see what you want to do?" I'm like, "You're always wanting to look at it and to see it and touch it and experience it and engage with it, it's called worship. Quit worshiping the dad gum phone."

That's what Jesus wants from you. Nothing wrong with a phone unless it's drawing your heart. If something in your life is drawing your heart, cut it off. It's idolatry. Start worshiping Jesus instead. That's what it means. God wants us to worship him and him alone. So what's choking out your worship? What's keeping you from giving God your best. That's the question here. God wants people that worship in spirit and truth. That's what he's seeking. And then finally, it's this, number four, giving adoration right now to the God who is seeking your worship. Giving adoration right now to the God who is seeking your worship.

Notice what he says, "The woman said, 'Hey, I know that Messiah is coming, I've heard about this, he was called the Christ. And when that one comes, he will declare to us all things.' And Jesus said to her, 'I who speak to you, I'm he'" The word he there is in the translation so we understand. He said, "I who speak to you am." Here's what Jesus is saying, I am. Heard that before? How about next to this three, when Moses said, "Who am I going to tell the Israel has sent me?" "And you tell them, I am who I am." What's Jesus saying? I have always been and I will always be, and I am the I am. I'm the great I am. That's who I am.

And I'm standing right before you, so worship me like right now. It's not about the mountain, it's not about your denomination, it's not about your form, it's not about your practice. It's about the fact that allegiance from your heart burst forth with worship. That's what it means. That's what it looks like. Right now God is seeking your worship. He's seeking your worship. He wants your best, he wants your truth, he wants your spirit. Some of us want to know, well, what's God's purpose for my life? How do I experience God's power of my life? How do I know God's secrets in my life? What's he really speaking? Worship him. It's while you minister to him, he begins to speak to you.

Ministering is adoring him. My answers went to a whole new level when I started worshiping God. I prayed, I read my Bible. God is faithfully is good. But when worship happened, it changed everything. And it don't matter where you're at, God moves when we worship. Next chapter 16, Paul and Silas were in prison, they were in prison because they were in a town where there was this woman who was a fortune teller. She was a person who was gaining profit for her masters and she was annoying the heck out of Paul. Paul got so annoyed with her one day when she was saying, "These are the men that are teaching the way of salvation."

And after weeks of this happening, Paul turned to her and said, "I command you in the name of Jesus, be gone." Well, the demon that was driving her life left. Her masters lost all their profit. They turned the whole town upside down. So they locked up Paul and Silas. And notice what happened in verse 22 of Act 16, "The crowd rose up together against them. And the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded in order to have them beaten with rods. When they had struck them with many blows and threw them into prison commanding the jailer to guard them securely. And he having received such a command through them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks."

Here's what happened, they cast out a demon, prophets went down in the town. They lock up Paul and Silas, but before they do, they nearly beat them to death. The jailer is told, "Put them in prison." He knows if they get out he's in trouble. So he puts them in the inner sanctum, fastens their feet in the stocks. Now, you think about this. You're in the inner sanctum where there's no toilet, there's no nothing and you're tied to another jailer. It's midnight.t, you've been mistreated, you're beaten, you're hurt, you're tired. What happens? Notice this. I love this. Well, I don't know when church starts, it started right now, Because about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God and the prisoners were listening to them.

And suddenly there came a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's chains were unfastened. And when the jailer awoke and saw all the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about ready to kill himself supposing that all the prisoners had escaped, but Paul cried out in a loud voice saying, "Don't harm yourself, we're all here." And he called for the lights and rushed in and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, "Sir, what must I do to be saved?"

What's going on? After Paul was beaten, mistreated, mishandled, tortured, put in prison, he and Silas have a worship service that everybody hears. When that happens, everybody's chain fall off, people are asking, how do I get saved? Why? Because worship took place. It's worship. The purpose of BRAVE Church is to make better worshipers of God. That's what we're called to do. That's what God's calling you to do. So here's the question, how will you respond? Because I know some of you're already looking at your watch like, "Man, it's been a long sermon today. I hope he is about ready to wrap it up and pray it up, we get out of here, get on with our day."

It's not what's going to happen. I'm going to tell you what's going to happen right now. On both campuses, we're going to sing two more songs because I just want to know that for some of you here that have heard God, perhaps you're chained up or the person next to you is chained up, or somebody here needs to know the way of salvation, how are we going to let God move and answer all those things? Through praise and worship. Now, you'll hear me sometimes and I'll say this in church, "Hey, the front is open, the altar is open." What does he mean by that? If I just walk down the carpet and crawl, what difference does that make? Here's what it means.

It looks like this, here's what I want you to picture for a minute. I want you to picture in heaven as if Jesus Christ himself came down here in all of his glory at the end of our service and stood right here and said, "You heard me, you've heard what I've said. What are you going to do with what I said? I'm right here." I'm inviting our prayer team up here in just a minute, they'll be up here. For some of you, there's a sin you need to repent of. You just need to come by yourself, you don't need anybody else to pray for you. You just need to be present with Jesus. And it's an act obedience to say, "God, I heard you, I'm going forward. I don't care what anybody else thinks. I just want to get prayed for."

Some people are like, "I just need to know how to get saved." That's why the altar is open. That's why we do this. It's an invitation for those who want to respond to Christ. And it doesn't mean that every single week you need to run down, but there are certain times where God prompts you from the inside, "Get down there and start worshiping." You've been scared to raise your hands, I'm asking you to come forward and raise your hands in front of the whole church today, it'll change your life. So in a minute on both campuses, we're going to sing two songs. I know we're going over, and in Broomfield, I know we're going way over. I get that and I apologize, not at all.

Because the God I serve is worthy of all of our worship and you were called here today to give him praise, not just hear a word and leave. So I'm going to invite you on both campuses to stand. I'm going to invite the prayer team forward on both campuses. I'm going to pray for us. And then let's worship the Lord with everything we have. Dear Jesus, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are this morning. And God, we pray that in these next two songs we would give you from BRAVE Church worship that is so deserving of your name, that the angels in heaven, that the demons that are looking on will see that we're sincere about the worship we're giving to you.

And that Holy Spirit, you would draw worship to the son, and son, the father will be glorified through what we're bringing to you with all that we have. We give you praise and worship. In Jesus name. Amen. Can we give him praise this morning for who he is?