Point of Grace Worship 3.9.25 Sermon Notes – Lent Series on Worship – “He is God, i am Not”
“Gentlemen, This is a football.” – Vince Lombardi
The fundamental truth – the foundation of true worship centers around God and not around us. It is not human centered it is God centered. It is a space, place and human experience where we are declaring and intentionally living like “HE is God and i am not!” Notice the “i” is not capitalized in that sentence. My keyboard didn’t like me writing the pronoun “I” without capitalizing it. Our psyche does not like it either…. Our broken sinful nature is a powerful force constantly working to make us the “center” of our existence. “Other” centeredness is not natural for sinful human beings. True worship is “other – centered” …. And not just any ole “other”….. True worship is centered on the one true God who has revealed Himself is Jesus and is now Present by His Spirit.
Eden to Jesus
Life in God’s Presence – The Tree – Worship “You are God, I am not!” - Sin – Presence lost
The Story of God graciously “represencing” Himself and calling His people to worship Him at the center.
His Presence in pillars of cloud and fire, Ark, Tabernacle, Temple, ….. then ….. Jesus
John 4 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in Truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in Truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I AM he.”
John 4:23-24 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in Truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in Truth.”
Jesus is the new location for the Presence of God.
Since this new true worship is centered around Jesus, empowered by the Spirit offered to the Father then what He wants, what He loves, what He desires shapes everything.
“You are God, I am not” is the fundamental cry of the worshiper. And what a rescue that is.
The Obstacles are Powerful
Consumerism with its glorification of the “self” and self’s “preferences” subtly destroys the worshiper’s capacity for worship.
Discipleship to the Internet (excerpt from “Experiencing Jesus. Really.” By John Eldredge)
“You are God, i am Not” Worship is such a Rescue and Refuge
In His Presence –
We are not in charge – He is!
We and our needs are not in the center – He is!
Our preferences don’t prevail – His do!
He comes how He wants according to every promise He has ever made.
In this seemingly powerless place – called worship – we discover Him, we discover life in all its fulness.