Sermon Tone Analysis

These are verses from the song we will sing immediately after the message today…and we also sang on Wednesday.

Let our praise be Your welcome

Let our songs be a sign

We are here for You, we are here for You

Let Your breath come from heaven

Fill our hearts with Your life

We are here for You, we are here for You

If you have been around me long enough you know that I believe Words matter...

This is especially true when it comes to God’s Word…the Bible.

God does not waste Words...every single Word…every dot…and every iota of the Word of God…is of utmost importance.

The God of all creation has spoken to us His people…and we can not ever let that become common or boring…it is one of the most amazing truths in all of life.

God…the all powerful God who created us and the universe with words…also had His Words written to us us and we are able to read them and study them and teach them…and each and every one of God’s words are powerful…like creation powerful…so every one matters.

The words we speak…the ones that come out of our mouths are important too.

Listen to these verses…

NO SLIDES

And from Jesus in Matthew 15.

And why is that…why do the Words we say matter so much?

There is a connection between the words we speak and our hearts and from last week we also knows that there is a strong life giving and eternal connection between the words we hear and our hearts...

Because we also know that speaking and hearing of the the Gospel is how God saves...faith comes from hearing…words matter.

Even little words can mean a lot.

They sometime can make the difference between good and evil, between heaven and hell.

One of the most important Words in understanding the Bible…especially the NT letters…is a small three letter word...

This Word also makes a big difference in these song lyrics I mentioned…

We are here for You, we are here for You

The 3 letter word I am talking about is the word for.

What does it mean for us to sing in Worship to God...that we are here for God.

I assume we can all agree that we are here not primarily for us but we are here for God?

So what does that mean?

It could mean something like this.

Imagine that you are in great need…you are in a desparate situation…and you need help.

And I call you and I say…I am here for you.

What does that mean?

I am telling you that I am here to provide you with whatever you may need and do not have in your situation.

To provide something for you.

You are in need of something…from me and I am here for your benefit.

Therefore after I provide for you…you will likely thank me.

Is that what we mean when we say we are here to worship…we are here for God.

To provide God with something He needs from us?

Well no…because God needs nothing from us.

We are not here to provide Him with something HE needs from us.

If we are here singing and praying and praising and preaching in order to do something for God because He needs us to…then we are obviously here for the wrong reason.

Listen to Paul in Acts 17.

That is the God we are here to worship…that is who we are here for.

Or more bluntly…God does not need you or me or us.

He is not lonely without us...or lacking anything.

He is, in fact, the one who is responsible for our very existence…our salvation...our life…our breath…our everything...

He is the reason you are here right now at this moment…wehter you know what that exact reason is or not.

So I hope we can agree that to arrive on a Sunday morning and declare to God, “We are here for you,” means something much different than we are here to provide for God or to give Him something.

There is one other reason that we may be here that should not be what we mean…and would not be worship....but is an extremely common reason people go to a church building on Sundays.

We could be here primarily for us…and what God or others can do for us.

The singing and listening and fellowship could be not for God or for others…the building up of the body of Christ…but for our selves.

We could come here with hearts that say…God I have lived for myself this week…done what I please…worked really hard…given all I have...and I am tired…so I am here for you…to give me something…so I can do it again next week…as though God is a battery charger or a gas station.

This is subtle…but if we are honest…this is an easy trap to fall into.

God…make this good for me…I want you God…but primarily for what you can give to me.

Not simply to have more of you God…and certainly not to serve others…and do all of the one anthers...

I am always doing that…this is for me…God…so I am “”here for you.””

This happens often now and in the history of God’s people…but we need to hear from God’s Word this morning...listen to how God respond’s to this kind of worship in Amos 5.

They are meeting for the day of the Lord…having an assembly.

Bringing God offerings…and singing…but not for the right reason.

They are not there truly for God…for true worship and the serving the body…and God tells them.

So God is saying…why are you even here…why are you even doing this?

Woe to you for even showing up...

Then He tells them...

Take away your offerings and even your songs…I will not accept them or even listen says the Lord.

So we are not here for God in a way that means we are to provide God with something...

And we ALSO are not here for God in a way that is primarily about us…and our needs…our preferences…our desires...

So then how are we here for God?

Or more specifically what is worship?

SLIDE

What is worship?

Let’s go back to our scenario...

Let’s assume (because it is true) that we are the ones in great need again…and we see someone to give us thing we desperately need…and we run up to them and they say what?

And this time we...as the ones in need...say…we are here for you!

We are desperate…we need you…like a stream of living water…we need your life giving…soul sustaining love and power…we are here for you.

That is how we are here for God in worship.

We are not simply here for Him to give us what we think we need in order to live the rest of the week on our own…in our own way…

He is what we need for life and breath and everything.

We are not here for entertainment or to have our preferences fulfilled…if we are truly here to worship…we are here for God.

He is infinite and immeasurably abundant and needs nothing from us.

Rather, we are here for God in the sense that we need him…desperately...

As a severely dehydrated man desperately crawls towards a flowing stream after a week lost in the desert…or a starving orphan in Ethopia needs food and a family....or a bankrupt homeless woman needs money...

Or more accurately....as a guilty soul needs who forgiveness, as a broken heart that needs healing, as a lost sinner that needs salvation.

Or as a victorious saint needs to praise…or a born again believer that needs to give thanks…or as a Spirit filled follower that needs to sing for God.

That is worship…that is why we are here for God.

This is why we worship…because we know and need and love and desire more of...the one who we worship...

And we are here for Him.

So with that let’s ask the question...How?

SLIDE

How are we to worship?

Let’s go to our text.

Let’s look at maybe the most significant single biblical text for guiding the essence of what we’re pursuing together when we gather to worship…let’s reads Jesus’s words in John 4:23–24…with ears to hear from our Lord what it means when we say we are here to worship…we are here for God.

He says it twice…and tells us that God the Father is seeking this type of worship from His people.

Jesus is telling us that there are true worshippers and therefore there are false worshippers...

And the time is now here that, Jesus says, those who truly worship...must worship in Spirit and truth…

True worship, says Jesus, is in spirit and truth.

Many fall more heavily on one side of this or the other…and call it worship.

So how do we get this right?

How can we be what Jesus calls true worshipers...

We must worship in Truth...

3 times in the book of John the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth…and the one we worship…Jesus...is the truth.