THEOLOGY OF WORSHIP 2 Worship in Spirit

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1 THEOLOGY OF WORSHIP 2 Worship in Spirit Parkdale Grace Fellowship Sunday PM, June 2, 2013 Worship Must be in Spirit John 4:23-24, "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. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." With this statement Jesus was radically changing the meaning of worship. Jesus was saying that our meeting place with God would no longer be limited to physical buildings, or to sacred locations or to sacred times of the year. Worship would no longer require animal sacrifices, priests, or holy places. To worship God in spirit and in truth means we must worship God by means of Jesus Christ. (Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters, p. 70) Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me (John 14:6). The place we now worship in is the Spirit of Christ. Not a temple. Not a church building. Not a sanctuary or auditorium. Jesus is where and how we meet with God. Every aspect of our worship of God now focuses on and revolves around Jesus it s all about Jesus. What does it Mean to Worship in Spirit? To worship in spirit is to offer unto God that which is of the Spirit of God. (Rom. 11:35-36) It is the opposite of worship that has its origin in the flesh of man. Worship that is in spirit is the Holy Spirit ministering through the spirit of man. Prayer is the first step in worshipping in spirit. We show our dependence upon the Spirit by asking God to enable us and empower us by His Spirit before we ever begin to worship or before we ever step in front of a congregation to lead in worship. There is a misconception that worship is something of ourselves that we offer to God. But true worship is not to give unto God but rather it is coming to God to receive from Him, or to thank and praise Him for what we have already received from Him. (John Piper, The Dangerous Duty of Delight, p ) Remember our definition of worship, it is gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth. Therefore, we do not offer something of ourselves in worship, other than our yielded bodies, (Rom. 12:1) but we reflect back to Him what has come from Him. Acts 17:24-25, "God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things." There was no sacrifice that we could offer to God that was acceptable to pay for our sin; the only acceptable sacrifice was the one God provided through the Lamb of God. Likewise there is no offering of worship that we can bring that is pleasing and acceptable to God except the ministry of His Spirit being expressed through our yielded bodies. Apart from Him we can do nothing of any eternal value (Jn. 15:4-5). Any attempt to worship God by offering Him that which has its origin in our flesh will only produce flesh. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Jn. 3:6 To worship in Spirit can be expressed in many different forms, styles and traditions and it can be expressed through great talent or through no talent. In fact to worship in spirit does not require

2 2 natural ability; it is yielding your body and soul to God allowing His Spirit to express Himself through you. The gifted musician has no advantage in spiritual worship. To worship in spirit is spiritual as opposed to physical or natural. It is something that comes out of the innermost depths of my being. In light of this truth, what styles of music would be the most spiritual? What instruments are the most spiritual? What speed or volume is the most spiritual? Honestly, the answer to each of the above is, that which the Holy Spirit leads us to use in expressing His heart. It will vary from culture to culture but spiritual worship will not be distracting from a Godward-focus but it will be effective in moving the hearts of the worshippers to express genuine adoration to the Lord. So worship that is in spirit is spiritually discerned. But this becomes very subjective; are there not some tangible characteristics that we can look for? Yes there are: First of all, true spiritual worship is Christ centered and God glorifying. Secondly true worship in the spirit is based on the truth of God s word, not based on pagan or manmade religions practices, and it expresses God-glorifying truth. (We will look at this in our next study.) Thirdly, the expressions of the Spirit in worship are God-ward emotions or affections that are expressed in a manner that is opposite to indifference (that is key); worship that is in spirit moves us, often with emotion and zeal. What do I mean by our affections? Our affections are things like: longing, tears, fervent singing, desire, awe, confession, exuberant shouts, bowed heads, lifted hands and zeal, sorrow over sin, trust, gratitude, passion, desire, joy and rejoicing, etc. That means the expressions of the Spirit at work in us to worship cause us to be interested and responsive to the truths of God, energetic in our expression, and concerned about God s honor; our affections will be inclined toward God. The fuel of worship is the truth of God; the fire of worship is the Holy Spirit; the furnace of worship is the spirit of man; and the heat of worship is the emotions (or affections) of reverence, sorrow over sin, trust, gratitude, zeal, passion, desire, and joy, etc. (all affections are contrary to indifference). If there is a lack of fuel (truth) there will be little substance with which to generate a blazing fire of worship. However, the fuel of truth in the furnace of our hearts alone does not automatically produce the heat of worship. There must be both the work of the Holy Spirit to produce ignition and fire resulting in the emotional heat of passionate worship expressing itself in confession, longing, tears, songs, shouts, bowed heads, lifted hands and fervent lives. (John Piper, Desiring God, p. 82) All the outward forms without the fervor of a heart set on fire by the Holy Spirit is empty, pointless, useless, vain worship. Jesus rejected the worship of the Pharisees with these words in Matthew 15:8-9, These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me " This is why we use the word gladly in one of our definitions of worship: Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth. (John Piper, Desiring God, p. 84) The emotions of our heart must be engaged in true worship. Where feelings for God are dead, worship is dead. How do we ensure that our worship is spiritual? First of all, as was mentioned earlier, prayer is vital to worship in spirit. Prayer is deliberately inviting God to become active in a situation. Acts 4:31, "And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit..." (Also see Acts 16:25-26.)

3 3 Secondly, to worship in spirit we must deliberately yield our bodies to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. Romans 12:1, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." ESV Third, to worship in spirit we must constantly trust Him to minister and worship through us. Spiritual worship takes place when we genuinely trust and believe that God is in us expressing Himself through us in word, song and deed. It is no longer I worshipping but the Spirit of Christ in me who is stirring me and expressing Himself through me. Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe... Hebrews. 11:6 Worship originates in man s hunger for intimacy with God (an awareness of my need for God). David discovered that God delights in man s passionate pursuit of God. Many people think that lots of excitement and action in worship is excessive, mere emotionalism, or unnecessary. But the Bible strongly expresses that we are called to truly love, worship and enjoy God with all of our heart and all of our strength! What is the difference between carnal emotionalism and the true expression of spiritual worship? The difference is primarily in the source of the emotion. If we are being emotional or enthusiastic in the hopes of producing spiritual worship, that is carnal emotionalism. But if it is truly the sincere response to what God is prompting in your heart then that will most often be spiritual and God-honoring. (Though it is possible to respond inappropriately to a genuine inner prompting of the Spirit.) As worship leaders and musicians your target should first of all be the spirit (accomplished through prayer) and secondly the mind (expressing biblical truth) and lastly you encourage a response expressing godly affections. But the affections/emotions are the heat that results from combining the Spirit and the Word. Emotion without Spirit and word is not worship. You cannot start with emotion and hope to generate something spiritual; that is backwards and won t work. But, If in response to God s truth we do not feel in our heart any grief or longing or hope or fear or awe or joy or gratitude or confidence, then we may dutifully sing and pray and recite and gesture as much as we like, but it will not be real worship. We cannot honor God if our heart is far from Him. (John Piper, Desiring God, p. 92) Matthew 15:8-9, " These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me... " To be genuinely spiritually and emotionally involved with God is not fanaticism. It is the heart of worship. Psalm 5:11, "But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You." Psalm 47:1, "Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!" (What does the voice of triumph sound like?)

4 4 2 Samuel 6:14-16, "Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. 16 Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart So David said to Michal, It was before the Lord... Therefore I will play music before the Lord. 22 And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. " What are these emotions/ affections/ or feelings that are vital to worship? They are not mere physical sensations. They are the stirring up of the soul by the ministry of the Holy Spirit in response to revealed truth of God. It is not the external tears or the loud voice or the trembling hands that are vital to worship, but rather the inner heartfelt affections of gratitude, fear, awe, joy and so on that are important. If these affections of the heart are missing from your worship begin to correct the situation with prayer, asking God to fill your heart with affection for Him. The Psalms give us great examples of the inner passions of the heart which are vital for worship, all are contrary to indifference but are an inclining of the will toward God: Psalm 33:8, "Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him." Psalm 51:17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart These, O God, You will not despise." Psalm 42:1-2, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." Psalm 73:25, "Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. " Psalm 63:1, "You are my God; early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water." Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!" In the end the true spirit of worship produces in us longing, not for any of God s good gifts, but for God Himself. A heart that does not treasure and enjoy Christ cannot truly worship Him. Psalm 27:4, "One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple." Psalm 16:11, "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 37:4, Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart."

5 5 These are some of the affections of the heart that keep worship from being in vain. Are all emotions and passionate feelings in a typical worship service true worship? If it makes you feel great is that the identifying sign of great worship? No! Sometimes true worship is expressed in sorrow or repentance, or the feelings may not necessarily be strong in a way that would cause you to think that the experience was great. Discerning Spiritual from Carnal How would you identify worship that is in Spirit? What does spiritual worship look like? What does it sound like? How can you distinguish true spiritual worship from a carnal imitation form of worship; what are the identifying marks of worship that is in Spirit? Though worship that is in spirit has many forms of expression it cannot be recognized or identified simply by some particular external form or expression (such as hands raised, tears, hymns, shouts of halleluiah, eyes closed, loud music, soft music, etc.) All of these externals can also be imitated by the flesh. Spiritual worship is not easily distinguished from the carnal counterfeit by means of our physical senses alone though they can often both share the same expressions. With your eyes you may see raised hands and tears being expressed in both carnal and spiritual worship; with your ears you may hear praises and even prophesies and tongues in both carnal and spiritual worship (there is such a thing as counterfeit prophesies and counterfeit tongues); you might even feel shivers up your back, sweaty palms and a rapid heart rate but you can experience all of these physical sensations watching a secular movie. Though there are many expressions of spiritual worship, because these can all be imitated, true spiritual worship must be spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says that the things of the Spirit of God are spiritually discerned. If we are spiritually sensitive there will be a confirmation in our spirit when we are in the presence of true spiritual worship. Psalm 37:4 says, Delight yourself in the Lord! Psalm 32:11 says, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice! That is worship. Worship that is in Spirit will seek Him for the sheer joy of savoring Him, the way a thirsty deer pants after the streams of water. (John Piper) Copyright 2013 by Parkdale Grace Fellowship Permission: You are permitted to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.