TRUE WORSHIP
by Mark Hardgrove
Text: John 3:23-24

INTRODUCTION:
	Every Sunday in America, millions of people will get up, get ready, go
to the building where the church meets, and do what we call "worship." 
Yet, I wonder, if we asked those millions of people to define worship,
could they do it?  I believe most of the Sunday church goers are
sincere.  However, it may be that many are sincerely wrong.  I believe
there is something innate within us which drives us to worship just as
surely as their is something in the Canadian geese which compel it to
migrate.  
	Geese, butterflies, fish, whales, and thousands of other species in the
animal kingdom are born with instincts.  There is something in their
genetic make-up, something they were created with which insures that
their species will survive.  They will not starve in the cold tundra of
the north because there is an urge, an internal drive to move south for
the winter.  If the various migratory species do not obey this inner
drive, they die.
	Similarly, I believe there is something in us humans, something
instinctive, something which drives us to search for God, or for some
substitute.  Archaeologists have found that every known society ever
discovered has some sort of religious system, and they worshipped some
form of deity.  Atheists declare that it was superstition and
ignorance.  The man of the enlightenment now claims to understand how
the universe was created, he understands the chemical processes and no
longer needs to worship God.  But here we are, approaching the year
2,000 and we are still an extremely religious world.
	Why is that?  With atheistic scientists, and humanists dominating the
educational system, with the supreme court demanding that the government
do nothing to promote religion, in fact, in many cases trying to quash
religious freedoms, why are millions of Americans getting up Sunday
after Sunday and going to worship God?
	I believe God created humanity for the purpose of worshipping and
serving Him.  We have a free will, a right to decide whether or not we
will respond to the inner urgings of the soul to worship, but the soul
of man cannot find solace in an empty universe.  We must worship or we
will wonder through life empty, hopeless and lost.

I	WHAT IS TRUE WORSHIP?
	As Christians, we understand the emptiness of the world.  We understand
that they are in a desperate search to find something to fill the void,
the God shaped hole in their heart that cannot be filled with the things
of the world.  We understand that the lost are suffering from a cosmic
loneliness.  We can explain their emptiness, but what about the
prevailing emptiness which haunts so many churches?
	When we look at so many churches where programs have substituted for
praise, and works have substituted for worship, what we see are churches
trying to do what the world is doing.  We see churches trying to fill a
God shaped void with world shaped ideas and the church, the people who
are flocking to religious services every Sunday, they are empty because
they have forgotten what true worship really is. 
	That is what was going on during the life of Jesus.  The Jews insisted
that theirs was true worship because they worshipped at the Temple on
Mt. Zion.  The Samaritans declared that the Jews were worshipping in the
wrong place, therefore their worship was false.  Instead, the Samaritans
insisted that the true place to worship was on Mt. Gerizim where they
had build their own temple.
	We have to be careful that we don't stand on the mountain of our
traditions and declare everyone else's worship false.  True worship is
not determined by the place or time.  True worship is not determined by
the style of music.  True worship is not determined by the speed of the
songs or the volume of the worship leader.  True worship deals with
issues and realities that go far deeper than these things.
	What is worship?  To begin with, there is worship, and then there is
"true worship."  Jesus told the woman, "But the hour is coming, and now
is, when true worshippers will worship the Father . . . ."  What is
Jesus saying?  First of all, He is saying that "true worshippers will
worship the Father."   True worship begins with who is being
worshipped.   It is not the worship of a mountain which is true
worship.  It is not the worship of tradition which is true worship.  It
is not the worship of my way, my will, my wants which is true worship. 
True worship begins at the foot of the throne of God.
	Second, Jesus is telling us that true worship ends at the foot of the
throne.  It is not God plus my denomination.  It is not God plus the
pope.  It is not God plus the preacher.  True worshippers worship God,
and beside Him there is no other God.
II	HOW IS TRUE WORSHIP EXPRESSED?
	If there is such a thing as "true worship" and if any other type of
worship is insufficient, then the question is, "How is true worship
expressed?"  How do we know that our worship is "true."  How do we know
that our expressions of worship are right?  
	Jesus went on to say, "true worshippers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth."  These are the only two qualifiers.  Once we
recognize who we worship, we must attend to how we worship.  Not
everything being done in the name of worship today, qualifies.  Singing
is a legitimate way to worship, but not everyone singing is
worshipping.  Some people sing to hear themselves sing.  They are more
concerned about themselves than they are with the One to whom we sing.
	Praising God is a legitimate way to worship God, but not everyone
making a lot of noise is worshipping God.  Sometimes the noise is simply
a means to manipulate the emotions of the people.  Or, even worse, an
attempt to manipulate God.   We shout real loud and long and we tell
God, "You have to visit us, because you said you would inhabit the
praises of your people!"   In this case the praise is a vain attempt
force God into attending a meeting where He is not the center of
attention, we are.
	Jesus tells us that two things make worship real: spirit and truth.  
There is nothing in these two qualifiers which say which type, or style,
of Christian music is appropriate.  There is nothing in these two words
which say what type of  building is appropriate.  There is nothing here
addressing denominational differences.  There are simply two words,
"spirit and truth."
	It is important that we understand what Jesus means.  It as vital to
the life of the church that we experience true worship, as it is to the
life of the geese that they fly south in the winter and north in the
summer.  Without true worship we cease to be the true church and our
forms and our works mean nothing.   We must worship God in spirit and in
truth.  So what does that mean?  "spirit and truth?"

A.	TRUE WORSHIP IS IN SPIRIT
	To begin with, Jesus is saying that true worship is spiritual.  He goes
on to say that God is a Spirit and they who worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth.  Worship is a spiritual act which requires the
response of man to the upward call of God.  By saying that it is
spiritual He is saying that the spirit of man is to commune with the
God, who is a Spirit. 
	True worship is the flesh of man in the background while the spirit of
man moves to the foreground and on that spiritual plane man experiences
and honors God.  True worship has to move beyond the sound of the music,
the tempo of the music, the temperature of the building, the personality
on the stage or time on the clock.  In true worship we enter a spiritual
dimension and there, and only there, we truly worship God.
	Some folks recoil at this thought.  For them it is too other worldly,
too supernatural, too mystical.  But Jesus said, there is no other way
to worship, than in spirit and in truth.

B	TRUE WORSHIP IS IN TRUTH
	There are two worlds in which we live.  There is temporal material
world.  It is a world which is passing, it is decaying turning to dust. 
Then there is the spiritual world.  It is in the spiritual realm where
true worship occurs, but there are two realities of the spiritual
world.  There is the kingdom of God and there is the kingdom of
darkness.
	Jesus said our worship must be spiritual, but it must also be truth. 
Jesus said of Himself, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man
cometh to the Father but by me" (Jn. 14:6).  For our worship to be true,
we must come by the cross.  We can only come boldly to the throne of
grace when we come by Jesus.
	True worship is build upon the foundation of truth which Jesus came to
build the church upon.  True worship is not built upon what flesh and
blood hath revealed, but what the Father in His Son was revealing to the
world.   It is the truth that we cannot save ourselves.  It is the truth
that we need a Savior.  It is the truth that Jesus is the way.  It is
the truth that will set us free.  It is the truth of the Gospel which
will liberate our spirits from the kingdom of darkness so that we will
have the liberty to worship God.
	Spiritual worship without truth leads to emotionalism or even to
occultism.  Truth without spirit leads to ritualism, formalism and
legalism.   But when we worship in spirit and in truth, our worship is
always fresh and it is always real.  When we worship in spirit and
truth, our worship is in the right place, with the right God at the
right time, for the right reason.  
III.	THIS IS WHAT THE FATHER SEEKS
	Notice, finally, that Jesus said, "for the Father is seeking such to
worship Him."  "Seeking" simply means, "looking for."  When you see
someone going around like something is lost, you ask them, "What are you
looking for?"   Jesus is saying that the Father is looking for
something.  What is He looking for?  True worshippers.  It implies that
although many are religious, and many are going through the ritual, and
many are singing and doing church "stuff," God still has to look hard to
find true worshippers.
	It is my desire that we become a worshipping church.  What does that
look like?  It can take on many forms.  Some Sundays it may take on a
shout.  Other Sundays it may be found in tears, but every Sunday it will
be in spirit and in truth.
	Let the Father find you here, willing to rise above the present
pressures of the flesh, willing to lift up your soul into the heavenlies
and find yourself communing spirit to Spirit, deep calling unto deep
until we are beholding the face of God.  Let it be true, let it be
through the Word of God and let it be in harmony with the will of God,
and let it be true worship.
	There is something in us--something spiritual, something innate,
something God created you with--which cries out to worship the Creator. 
The world will pervert it if it can.  But the void of our heart will
never be filled until we become true worshippers.
	This is my desire.  I want to be a true worshipper.  I want to move out
of my selfish awareness of my wants, and into the spiritual realm of
God's presence.  I want to worship Him and I want to be changed by the
experience.  
	True worship liberates us and changes us.  True worship brings us
closer to the one whose image we bear.  In worship the concrete floor
beneath our feet truly becomes holy ground.  In worship truth becomes a
person and lives in our heart setting us free from the loneliness and
the search for significance.

CONCLUSION
	Are you empty?  Is there a void in your life that nothing has been able
to fill?  Has coming to church become a burden?  Is religious activity
wearing you out?  Are you like the woman at the well, coming to fill up
the water pots, only to find them empty at the end of the day?  Jesus
told her that if she could become a true worshipper, she could have "a
fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (Jn. 4:14).
	If you want to today you can trade your water pots for a fountain.  You
can stop going through the motions and find meaning and fulfillment in
worshipping God in spirit and in truth.  God is looking for you today.