Point of Grace Online Worship - March 23, 2025

 “Worship with Wonder – Worshiping God in Spirit – Given Wonder”

Message Notes March 23, 2025

Rev. Mike Coppersmith

WORSHIP WITH WONDER Worshiping God in Spirit-Given Wonder

John 4:23-24 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship in Spirit and in truth.

“You're God, I'm not!”

GOD IS A GOD OF WONDER

Isaiah 29:13-14 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. 14 Therefore, once more will I astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

Luke 2:47-48 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished.

Mark 9:15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.

GOD WANTS US TO BE PEOPLE OF WONDER

Luke 11:33-36 (The Message) No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It is put on a lamp stand, so those entering the room have light to see where they’re going. 34 Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. 35 Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. 36 Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.

Mark 9:15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.

THE NEED FOR WONDER IN OUR WORSHIP

Matt Redman “You can’t have worship without wonder. Otherwise, it’s something lesser, like appreciation. When it comes to true worship, there has to be that element of wonder. There are many elements about our worship expressions that I think we do really well, but when it comes to wonder, reverence, mystery and awe—I don’t think we excel at that. Perhaps we don’t excel at that because we live in a culture that doesn’t always lend itself to wonder.”

THE BLESSINGS OF WORSHIPING WITH SPIRIT-GIVEN WONDER

1. DRAWS YOU INTO A DEEPER LOVE AND INTIMACY WITH GOD

"I love you, Jesus!"

2. INSPIRES JOY, PRAISE AND GRATITUDE

Psalm 65:8 The whole earth is filled with awe at Your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, You call forth songs of joy!

3. CREATES EXPECTANCY

Exodus 15:22 Who among the gods is like You, Lord? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?

4. FACILITATES FREEDOM

Acts 3:8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and leaping and praising God.

5. CULTIVATES HUMILITY AND SURRENDER

Isaiah 6:8 “Here am I, Send me!”

6. LEADS TO PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

SIX PRACTICAL THINGS TO DO WITH THE HELP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO RE-AWAKEN WONDER IN YOUR LIFE AND WORSHIP

1. Pray Every Day for God to Re-Awaken Your Wonder

2. Spend time Daily in Scripture

3. Intentionally Set Aside Time for Personal Worship

4. Anticipate and Focus on God's Presence in Your Life and Worship

5. Commit to Be "Present" in His Presence

6. Recall Not Only Who Jesus Is, But What Jesus Does

Point of Grace Online Worship - March 16, 2025

Point of Grace Worship 3.16.25 Sermon Notes – Lent Series on Worship – “He is God, i am Not”

“Gentlemen, This is a football.” – Vince Lombardi

Fundamentals of Worship

“He is God – I am not!”

“Come Hungry!”

Psalm 42 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

Psalm 63 You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. 6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. 8 I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

Psalm 84 How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. 7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

This soul-deep “desire” for God, to be with Him, fuels the worshiping heart. The Psalmist’s reveal the depth of this desire with powerful words and metaphors like hunger, thirst, wanting, needing, seeking, longing, clinging, yearning, panting…!” This is fuel for worship!

Worshiping God out of “duty” without “desire” grows cold … as God lamented to Isaiah, “they worship me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” Worshiping God out of “desire” will do its “duty” with ever increasing joy!

Uncovering Desire

John 4

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.”

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.”

Down deep every human being “desires” God – His Presence … but this true desire is often buried under layers of “debris and deception”.

Into this reality Jesus enters with His invitation, “If anyone is thirsty let Him come to Me and drink ..(John7)”

This invitation is to let the “desire” rise to the surface… and then by faith we turn toward Jesus bringing our desire, our hunger, our thirst with us to … the one who said “for I am gentle and humble in heart”…

“Come Hungry…”

God knows how much we need rhythms of worship weekly, daily and as a lifestyle. Our soul needs to be able to count on us to bring it to worship. Our soul desperately needs a safe place to “Come Hungry”… don’t eat before you get there!

Have you eaten?

Jesus,

Jesus I love You!

Jesus I need You!

Jesus I want You! I bring my heart’s desires to You!

I love You! I long for You!

I worship You and You alone! You are Life!

I come to You….. Help me come hungry!

Point of Grace Online Worship - March 9, 2025

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.