WORSHIP: Part 4
Why, How and Whom We Worship
(Wednesday Evening Bible Study April 26-May 17, 2023)
- Whom do we Worship and Denounce
- Why is Everyday Worship of God vital
- How do we Worship OUR God
Most everyone uses John 4:23 as a go to scripture for defining or explaining Worship. Without exception, we too will use this verse to help us understand How we should worship the One and True God. In this verse ties together the theme and messages of our previous weeks of knowing WHOM we should worship and WHY.
John 4:4 - Jesus NEEDED to go through Samaria
Vs. 6-18 Here is an interesting back and forth between this lady and Jesus, wherre she is going from offended to embarrassed to exposed to convicted to receiving revelation.
Vs. 19 After Jesus reveals her past and current situation that is NOT in a right standing with God, she recognizes this man must be a prophet.
- Is she responding with conviction?
- Is she trying to hide from her sin by switching the subject?
- Is she possibly saying, "I go to church . . ." by stating where her people once worshipped before Jews tore it down?
- The division between Jew and Samaritan is about to become obsolete
- Location is about to become obsolete
- Many today say they are Christian ONLY because they are raised in a home with Believer Parents
- attend Children's Church or attend Christian schooling k-12 or Higher Education
- They themselves may not even know the Lord or His ways personally
- Samaritans were always exposed to but never know God for themselves either
Why did Jesus say "They worship what they don't know"?
The king of Assyria brought from Babylonia, from Cush, from Arva, from Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and he settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the Israelites, so they took possession of Samaria and lived in her cities. It happened that when they began living there, they did not fear Yahweh, so Yahweh sent lions among them, and they were killing them. So they said to the king of Assyria, "The nations whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the customs of the God of the land, so he sent lions among them, and now they are killing them because they do not know the customs of the God of the land." Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, "Release one of the priests whom you deported from there, and let him go and settle there. Let him teach them the customs of the God of the land." So one of the priests went, whom they had deported from Samaria, and he settled in Bethel and wwas teaching them how they should fear Yahweh
Yet every nation was making their gods, and they put them in the shrine of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they were living.
- Serve YAHWEH, while also serving the deity of their choice! Everything mixed together
Until this day they are doing according to their former customs; none of them are fearing Yahweh, and none of them are doing according to their statutes, to their decsions, to the law, or to the commands that Yahweh commanded the descendants of Jacob to which he had given the name Israel. Yahweh had made a covenant with them and commanded them, "YOU SHALL NOT FEAR OTHER GODS, NOR SHALL OU BOW DOWN TO THEM, NOR SHALL YOU SERVE THEM, NOR SHALL YOU SACRIFICE TO THEM. Rather, Yahweh, who brought you out from the land of Egypt with great strength and with an outstretched arm-him you shall fear, and to him you shall bow down, and to him yoiu shall sacrifice. The statutes, the decisions, the law, and the commands that he wrote to you, you shall observe to do always, and you shall not fear other gods. The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, and you shall not fear other gods. But Yahweh your God you shall fear, and he will deliver you from the hand of all of your enemies" They did not listen but kept on doing according to their former customs. SO THESE NATIONS WERE FEARING YAHWEH, BUT THEY WERE SERVING THEIR IDOLS, AS WERE THEIR CHILDREN AND THEIR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN; AS THEIR ANCESTORS DID, THEY ARE DOING UNTIL THIS DAY.
- Jesus needed to go through Samaria to Save lost people from their confusion and their Generational Hand Me Downs
- He needed this woman to get things right in her life . . . with the Lord
- Salvation is of the Jews because Jesus came as a Jew. Not a Samaritan or Gentile
- The Father is looking for those who want to know, understand His Way!
- There is no longer a Holy or High place
- God is spirit, so no longer is there a limit to WHERE & WHEN we worship only HOW
- God is looking for those who worship exclusvely how He wants to be worshipped through the Truth of His Word