Worship

00:01 Well, you will notice this morning there's no clock on the wall. I don't know what that means. I guess it means you can go as long as you want. No, I have a clock up here on the podium, so we'll watch it. At any rate, I want to greet you this morning in the name of Jesus and wish you God's blessing as a congregation. 00:22 And for those of you that are visitors here this morning, we want to welcome you. And we're glad that you chose Living Water this morning for your August 19th, 2018 Sunday morning worship experience. And we're glad to have each one here. I'd like for you to think about this question. 00:42 If God was seeking someone to do some great thing, would you be willing to do it? 00:50 Would you be willing if God had a message he wanted you to deliver to the president or to a king, or you would travel around the world to India and save a soul and you knew that God was calling you to do some great thing that would be significant, 01:08 the kind of thing that maybe they'd write articles about or have interviews with you about, those kinds of things? Would you be willing to do that? And I don't know what your answer would be, but many would say, "Here I am. I'm ready. I'm willing. 01:25 I'm willing to do that because God asked me to do it and he wants me to do it and he seeks me out to do it." And I think many of us would be willing to do those kinds of things. God is seeking someone to do something this morning that I want to preach about, 01:45 and that is found in John chapter 4. And he specifically says that he is seeking out this person to do this. 01:58 John chapter 4, verse 23, "But the hour is coming and now is." This isn't something that you have to do in the future. It's not something that you might have missed in the past and then dropped the ball on it. 02:17 But he is now seeking this when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship him. Now, did you realize that God puts a great premium on worship? 02:39 And when we think about this, that God is seeking someone to worship him, we would do some great things, but would we do something as seemingly insignificant as worshiping God? 02:52 I think this shows not how insignificant it is, but how significant it is that God would seek out true worshipers. My question for you this morning is, are we a true worshiper? God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 03:13 And he's seeking those who, regardless of place, regardless of time, 03:19 regardless of impact or visibility, would seek to worship God, where worship is seen as a part of our spiritual life, a part of our call to follow God, a part of our normal Christian life. 03:38 Would you be willing to be one that God would seek to worship him? We began this morning several months' endeavor to preach through certain articles in our church covenant that we have said are important to us as a church to keep in front of us. 04:00 Now, we're not preaching the church covenant. We're preaching the scriptures in relation to some of those articles. And whether you remember it or not, and this won't be an every Sunday thing, it may be a once-a-month kind of thing, but whether you remember it or not, one of the first articles in our church covenant is on worship. It's not on dress. 04:21 It's not on lifestyle. It's not on many things that maybe you think about in a church covenant, but it's on worship. And it says this, "We believe in the scriptural injunction to worship God in the heart, in the home, 04:43 and in the church. We recognize the biblical principles of worship to be as follows. 04:50 Worship must be from a pure heart and life with the gathered congregation regularly, decently and in order, and in spirit-directed glory to Christ." And there are some verses attached to that I want to share with you. We believe that the scriptural injunction to worship God in the heart, 05:11 the Bible says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, singing to the Lord from the heart and in the heart, 05:29 and whatsoever ye do in word or deed." It's interesting that he goes right from singing in the heart to the Lord, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." There's a connection, as we're going to see this morning from this text. There's a connection. And others. 05:48 And there's a connection between worship and what you do in word and deed. We believe that worship should be done in the home. Deuteronomy chapter 6 says, "And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart." There you have the heart again. "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, 06:08 and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liethest down, and when thou risest up." If it's in the heart, it ought to spill out in times of family worship, but also in times of personal worship and in times of corporate family instruction. 06:29 It should come out of the heart. And then it says that we should worship God in the church, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Even back then in the first century, they were already beginning to forsake the assembling of themselves together. He says, "It's the manner of some to do this, 06:48 but you shouldn't do that, and you should exhort one another so much the more as you see the day approaching." So part of our worship experience is exhortation. As we were this morning, encouragement. Word exhortation means encouragement, encouraging one another in the faith as we have done here this morning. We also say that biblical worship, 07:10 principles of worship should be as follows. Worship must be from a pure heart. The Bible says in Psalm 66, verse 18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." The Bible talks in a number of places about where there's sin in one's life, the Lord disregards their prayers. 07:30 He says, "You cover the altar with tears, and yet you're living in unrepentant sin." He said, "That hinders your prayers. I'm not going to listen to you." And so worship needs to be from the heart, from a pure heart and life. It needs to be done in spirit and in truth. And we see that here in our text this morning. 07:47 The Father is looking for those who will worship in spirit as a spirit of man and the spirit of God connect, God touching our spirit, us connecting with God's spirit and doing it in such a way that pleases him, not satisfies us. And so we want to do that with the gathered congregation decently and in order. 08:09 First Corinthians 14:40 says, "Let all things be done decently and in order." You don't have two people talking over here and several people talking over here and competing with each other for attention on the floor of the gathered congregation. No, we have order. We have decency. 08:27 You don't have people meeting at 9:30 and another group coming at 9:45 and another group coming at 10:15. That makes for chaos. What we have is we need to have this done decently and in order, but it also needs to be according to what we've written out and said, specified in spirit-directed glory to Christ. 08:47 And so we want to have the Holy Spirit directing our worship and listening to his voice. And our worship leaders have a tremendous calling to listen to the Holy Spirit, not only as they implement their worship leading and lead us in worship, but also as they prepare. 09:07 And so you ought to pray as much for the worship leaders as you do for the pastors for your Sunday morning service. And speaking of glory to Christ, John 16:14, "He shall glorify me." That's the spirit. When there's spirit-directed worship, there's glory to Christ because the Bible says of the spirit, 09:27 the Holy Spirit, that he shall glorify me. That is Jesus. "For he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you." So he takes the things of Christ and reveals that to the heart, and then the heart responds in gratitude and adoration to the Lord. We go on to say because of the human voice, 09:49 and this is more of the practical side of that statement, because of the human voice as a God-given gift, we encourage a cappella singing in our corporate worship. Any use of instruments is to be subject to the following principles. The music must be played in such a way as to enhance the words and messages of the song. 10:09 Musicians and worship leaders must display holiness in life and consistency with their message. And since worship is to be in spirit and truth, the beat or rhythm is not to unduly excite the body or manipulate the soul. What does that mean? Well, we'll talk a little bit about that. 10:29 The Bible says in Psalm 34, verse 3, "Let us exalt his name together." There is a congregational exaltation of the name of the Lord. So true worship, what is it? He says the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers, true worship shall worship the Father. 10:49 What is true worship? What is worship anyway? Worship, the English definition comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning worthship, worthship, something that is worthy, something that is of ultimate worth and value. 11:04 And so when we worship, we are to be attributing supreme worth or value to something or someone. 11:12 "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and serve the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve and worship." Him only, meaning that there's nothing else that comes close to a being of the value and worth that God is. 11:29 That's part of our adoration to him is to recognize and to confess to him that of all the things that there are in the universe to value, of all the experiences there are in the universe to seek after, the relationship with God, the person of God, 11:48 the Holy Spirit, God the Son, God the Father is of ultimate value, and to seek him is the ultimate experience. Do you believe that this morning? If we're going to really worship in spirit and in truth, to really worship means that of everything else in the universe, God is our obsession. 12:10 He is our possession, and he is our focus. He is that which gives meaning and purpose to life. It fits very well with our Sunday school lesson this morning. The reason that we value spiritual things, the reason that we value the kingdom of God above all else is because we value God above all else. 12:30 We value God above our wives. I value my wife greatly. We value God above our children. I value my children greatly. I value my grandchildren greatly. But above all of that, the ultimate worth and value to the Christian is God himself. He is our treasure. 12:51 And to really worship means that we place him on the highest place. We value one another. We value the things that God gives to us to take care of and to use in his kingdom. We even value the kingdom, but we value the king more because the kingdom without the king is nothing. 13:14 These things that we have without him are nothing. And so to really worship means that we place in our hearts the place where we value things and people, that God sits there. We don't sit there. He sits there. 13:30 The Hebrew definition of worship is, and Hebrew is a very descriptive language. It's very picturesque. In fact, the words in Hebrew have pictures and word pictures that go along with them. The Hebrew word is the word shakhah, which means to depress or prostrate or bow down, 13:51 to fall down flat, to make, to stoop, or to humbly beseech. It has the idea of something lesser coming under that which is greater. And so that's the idea. It means to bow down. 14:07 And in ancient times, people of persons of equal rank would kiss one another in greeting on the lips. Those with a slightly different rank would kiss one another on the cheek. One who was much inferior fell on his knees and touched his forehead to the ground. Or if you really wanted to show that you were inferior, 14:28 you would prostrate yourself fully in the presence of the other. And so it is with God. We do not kiss him on the lips. He has invited us to kiss him on the cheek, as it were. Kiss the sun unless he be angry with you, but that's not necessarily a cheek greeting. That's a hand or a foot greeting. 14:49 Kiss his feet, kiss his hand, kiss his signet ring, as it were, which is an expression of his authority. As we speak of true worship, this is what is done in spirit. 15:02 The Greek definition of worship comes from another word meaning a dog or a hand licking or a hound licking the master's hand. Now, incidentally, as a word of instruction here, cats don't do that, but dogs do. Dogs give worth to the master. 15:21 The cat thinks he's the center of the universe. The dog thinks his master's the center of the universe. Difference between dogs and cats. 15:31 Someone has said that if you feed a dog, you'll be his friend forever. If you feed a cat, he thinks he's Lord of the universe or something to that effect. But it has the idea of a hound licking the master's hand to fawn or to crouch, to do reverence and adore, to prostrate oneself before the master. 15:53 That's the picture of worship in the New Testament. And so we may say that the significance of the bowed head, why do we bow our heads in worship? Why do we bow our heads when we pray? Now, we tell our children, "Fold your hands. Close your eyes. Bow your head." Why do we do that? 16:13 Well, we would not want to minimize the fact that it does minimize distraction. So children, while you're praying at the table, you're not kidding your brother or sister or poking them or playing with your food or your utensils. You fold your hands so you focus. You focus. 16:29 And you close your eyes, not so you can go to sleep and take a little nap while Dad or Grandpa prays a long prayer, but you close your eyes so you think about God and how great and wonderful he is. And you bow your head. Why do you bow your head? To minimize temptation to look around? You could still do that with a bowed head. 16:48 But why do you bow your head? You bow your head to recognize that my thoughts and my mind and my being are under the authority of Jesus. They're under Jesus, that he is above us and we are below him. 17:09 Why do we bow our knees? To indicate that our steps and direction in life is ordered by the Lord. Why do we bow our hearts? To recognize that our will is surrendered to the Lord. 17:25 Now, I think we can safely say that if we do not bow down and ultimately ascribe ultimate worth and value to Almighty God, the risen Lord, and the Holy Spirit, that we have not truly worshiped. What we have done is go through a form or an exercise. 17:47 The Father is seeking those who will worship him in their hearts, with their lips, in their minds, with their bodies, with their actions, with everything, to live a life in such a way that we recognize that God is the worthy one. That's what worship is all about. 18:09 Now, I want to give you four considerations about true worship in the time that remains this morning. Number one, God is the object of our worship. We don't worship the church. We don't worship our families. We don't worship our wives or husbands or children or parents or siblings. 18:29 We worship God. He is the object of our worship. And we don't worship ourselves. We don't worship ourselves. In fact, worship should be such a mentality that when we come to worship, we should be asking the question, not what pleases me, but what pleases God. 18:49 What does God get out of worship? We may go home and say, "Well, I didn't get much out of that service." Did you give anything in it? Did you give service to God? Because the question is not what we get out of it. The question ought to be what he gets out of it. That's the issue. 19:09 Father is not seeking for those who will worship themselves. He is not seeking for those who will think that this is about us. He's not looking for cats. 19:21 He's looking for dogs who will think that he is the greatest master in the universe and love to sit at his feet, to lick his hand, to fetch when he says fetch, to sit when he says sit. Has a cat ever been trained to sit? 19:42 I don't know. Can you do that to a cat? Can you teach them to fetch? Can you teach them to stand on their back legs and beg? Probably not. God's not looking for that kind of person. He's looking for a person who is in love with his master. And that's who the Father is seeking. 20:02 God is the object of our worship. What pleases him, the Bible says, is a broken and contrite heart and spirit. 20:10 What pleases him is separation from the world's values and forms and giving to God our value, recognizing his value. Let me say this while I'm on that subject, that I believe worship ought to cost us something. It ought to cost us something. 20:30 It ought to cost us something when you don't feel like singing. Sing anyway. When you don't feel like giving, give anyway. When you don't feel like testifying, testify anyway. When you don't feel like going to church, go to church anyway. 20:50 When you don't feel like fellowshipping, fellowship anyway. You see, part of worship is a discipline. It's a discipline. And when you invest your treasure, your heart gets turned. How many of you have ever said, "Well, I really don't feel sometimes like going to church on Sunday nights, but when I go, oh man, it's so good. 21:10 I'm glad I didn't stay home." Why is that? Because you invested something in worship. You invested something in coming. You invested something in that service. And when you invest, your heart gets turned toward that which you invest in. We can evaluate some of the songs that we sing. 21:32 I believe every service ought to have songs in it, and not that we can't have the others, but every service ought to have songs in it that are simply and strictly about God. We sing a lot of songs. There's a lot of songs in our hymn books. And a lot of those songs and a lot of contemporary worship songs—and I'm not here to bash contemporary worship songs, 21:55 and I'm not here to defend them—but I'm just saying listen and look at the words that we're singing and make sure that every service has something in it that is about God and not just about us 22:10 because it's about him. So worship, true worship, is about God. The second thing I want you to remember about is that God wants more than singing. He says, "The hour is coming, and now is when the true singers will worship the Father in spirit." Is that what it says? 22:33 No, it doesn't say that. He's looking for singing, but he's looking for more than that. I love singing. Grew up with singing. Grew up with music. It's been an important part of my life, an important part of my family. Music has been a crucial part of what we have emphasized as a family through the years. 22:55 But singing is only one part of worship. It's only one part of worship, but it is an important part. The Bible does use the term sing or singing over 125 times. He does command this: "Serve the Lord with gladness. 23:14 Come before his presence with what?" Sing. Is that an option? It's not an option. If you come to worship, you come to sing. Amen? Even if it's just mouthing the words because you're afraid that somebody is going to get frustrated with your inability to carry a tune. 23:33 Don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. Mouth the words. At least let some sound come out. But he says, "Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing." And so singing is an important part. Sing to the Lord. Psalm 46 says, "Sing to God." Sing praises to God. 23:53 Sing praises. "Sing praises unto our King. Sing praises." Four times in one verse he says, "Sing." Now, if you figure out a way to get around that in your worship experience, then let me know how. 24:08 Why do we sing? Goes on to say, "For God is the King of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding." So sing praises with understanding. But having said that, God is interested in more than singing. He is interested in reasonable service. 24:32 Go over to Romans 12:1. You know it by heart, but it might do you well to look at it on the page. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies." God is interested in what we do with our body in worship. 24:52 He's interested in that. 24:56 "That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto the Lord, which is your reasonable service." Now, interestingly enough—and you've probably heard me say this before—but some of the newer translations translate that this is your spiritual worship. 25:18 The word here for reasonable is logikos, which means rational. It implies intelligent meditation or reflection. When we come to worship, we don't just enter into a mantra, a mind-numbed mantra with God. 25:32 He says, "This is an intelligent meditation and reflection on the goodness of God and the scriptures, what God has said about himself." The word service means to serve or to worship. It can be translated either way. So some of the translations, 25:52 when they look at the Greek, they translate that word latria as service. Some of them translate it as worship. The NIV translates it as spiritual worship or true and proper worship. The New American Standard Bible translates it as your spiritual service of worship. 26:14 You get both of those in there. The ESV translates it as spiritual worship. The Christian Standard Bible translates it as true worship. True worship. I think I like the NASB the best because it includes both dynamics of spiritual worship, your service of true—excuse me, how did that say that? 26:35 Your spiritual service of worship. Your spiritual service of worship. That God is expecting his worshipers to serve him. And so as we serve the Lord, we are worshiping. We are worshiping. And that goes together. You say, 26:55 "How does that work?" Well, I want you to think about this. Scripture makes it clear that all the creation worships the Lord. How does creation worship God? Well, creation worships God by doing what it was created to do. 27:14 Trees are created to 27:17 sway in the wind. They're created to give shade. They're created to replenish oxygen, take carbon dioxide out, replenish oxygen. What are cows created to do? Cows are created to give milk and all of its byproducts. What do dogs—well, we already talked about them. 27:37 They're created to serve their masters. What is the created world created to do? And when it functions in its realm, it is worshiping the Creator when it does what it was created to do. And I would suggest to you tonight or this morning that when we do what we have been created to do, we're worshiping. 27:59 We're worshiping. When we live for God, we're living for God in a way that God ordained, serving in the gifts that he has given, functioning in the realm that he has called us to function, functioning with a lifestyle that's transformed as a Christian. We worship God. And much could be said this morning. 28:16 We won't take time to say about the division of the sacred and the secular. One of the truths of the Reformation was that it brought back the unification of the sacred and the secular, that our job, our vocation, is sacred. It's not just what we do outside of worship. We actually worship God by living our vocation. 28:41 So that is a part of worship. 28:46 Number three, godliness must accompany worship. True worship must come from a pure heart. Isaiah 1:11-18, "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices," says the Lord. "I have had enough of burnt offerings and rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. 29:06 I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings, incenses and abomination to me, new moon and Sabbaths and the calling of convocations. I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly." Do we get that? 29:27 "I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly." So we come in a solemn assembly, and if there's sin in our midst, God cannot abide that according to Isaiah 1. "Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them." Verse 15 of Isaiah 1, 29:48 "When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. 30:08 Plead the widow's cause. Come now and let us reason together," saith the Lord. "Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." So come, have your sins forgiven, washed in the blood of the Lamb, and then worship the one who is forgiver of sins. 30:30 Yes, true worship must encompass proper theology. We are worshiping the true God as he has revealed himself, not a God that we wish he would have revealed himself as. 30:43 I remember a time when I was referring to God as Father. Some people don't like to refer to God as Father. They want to call God our Mother God, our Creator God, our Mothering God, or something like that because they resist the term Father. 31:04 It comes out of the feminist movement. We're not at liberty to choose how God has revealed himself. God revealed himself as Father. So we worship him as Father. We want to create a God in our own image. That's not worship. That's idolatry. 31:23 So we worship the God as he has revealed himself in his holy word. That's part of what it means to worship God in spirit and in truth, the holiness of God, the deity of Christ, the head of the church. And much could be said about that. 31:42 Let me just suffice it to say that God is a holy spirit. He is a holy spirit. And if we're going to worship a holy spirit, we must also be what? 32:01 Holy by the blood of Jesus Christ. 32:08 Number four, and I'll close with this this morning, 32:14 but God does not live in a form. God does not live in a form. Back to our text this morning, what really spawned this statement by Jesus or what motivated it was a statement that she made—that's the woman at the well, 32:34 the idolatrous or the adulterous at the well—having an encounter with Jesus. And she brought up the subject of worship. And you're acquainted with this where she said, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet." Verse 20, "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, 32:53 and you Jews worship on this mountain in Jerusalem." And that's the place, you say, where worship ought to be. And Jesus said to her in verse 21, "Woman, believe me. 33:04 The hour is coming when you will neither worship on this mountain nor in Jerusalem because God is not into the place of worship as much as he is into the heart of worship." He 33:22 said he's looking for someone who will worship him from their heart. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know or we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is. And of course, we read that this morning. 33:42 What a lot of people look for when they worship is they look for the form. What form do you use? 33:54 You have churches that use a liturgy where on the bulletin or it's printed a responsive reading. You read this. They read that. You read this. They read that. You read this. And they go down through. Some of those liturgies are very beautiful. 34:11 But they can quickly become a form absent from heart worship. So the Catholics have the Mass, and the Mass can quickly become a form absent of true, genuine worship. 34:31 Some people say, "Well, if we replace the form with another form, then we'll be able to worship." The only problem is that new form becomes a form, and people end up entering into without heart connection. By the way, 34:53 two songs, devotions, offering, prayer, sermon with no creativity, no enthusiasm, no spontaneity, 35:01 no room for the Holy Spirit can also become an idol and have no heart connection, 35:11 but also a 35:19 free form of worship like you might find in charismatic circles where they just let the spirit lead, just let the spirit lead can also become a form because the form does not guarantee that people are connecting with God. 35:35 So how do we connect with God? We connect with God not in the form, but in the presence of his spirit touching our spirit and connecting us with God. That's how we connect with the Lord is by the Holy Spirit entering into our spirit, 35:55 living in the spirit of people who connect with his spirit, who have humbled themselves, who ascribe to him ultimate worth and value, and who willingly serve him as a result of their worship experience. 36:10 Now, I want to ask you a question for you to think about because we have said in our statement that 36:22 since worship is to be spirit and truth, the beat or rhythm is not to unduly excite the body or manipulate the soul. What does that mean? What does that mean? That means that there is a difference between spiritual worship and soul worship. 36:42 We ought to worship God with our whole spirit, soul, and body. Yes. But worship begins in the spirit. It does not begin with a beat. It does not begin with an instrument. It does not begin with a trumpet or a guitar or a piano or an organ. 37:04 It begins with a decision to ascribe to God ultimate worth and glory. That's where it begins. And that happens in the spirit. So my question to you this morning is, what kind of props do we need to have to worship? What kind of props do we need to have to worship? 37:26 Some people need, "Well, we got to have an organ. I mean, we got to have an organ. When that organ goes off, man, I feel like worshiping." Or, "We got to have prelude music. And when that prelude music starts, boy, I feel like worshiping." Or, "We got to have a praise song. 37:46 Boy, when that praise song starts, I feel like worshiping." Do you notice the dynamics, the common ingredient in all those statements? I feel like worshiping. Worship is a decision that's made in the spirit. 38:01 It is not dependent on the soul or a feeling or a hypnotic effect or 38:12 something out there that comes to me, something in here that responds to God's spirit impacting me. 38:25 I'm not sure if I can communicate this well or not. 38:30 One of the best illustrations I have for this was years ago at a meeting, a promise keepers' meeting. I remember all these men in the stadium worshiping, and finally the worship ended, and they had somebody that had a birthday. And they recognized this guy having a birthday. 38:50 He was somebody on the platform or somebody important. So they all said, "Let's sing happy birthday to this important man." And the music started, and I watched the audience. And there's a guy over here who was, as soon as the music started, his hands went up. He's raising his hands to happy birthday. I'm saying, "Do you even know what you're doing?" He needed a prop. 39:11 As soon as you do this, then this happens. I don't want to judge his heart because I don't know the man. Maybe he was just caught up in the spirit of the meeting. I don't know. But we can soon develop props instead of remembering that worship is a decision that can be done in a jail cell. 39:33 When it's spiritual worship, it can be done on a jail cell as much as it can be done on a mountain watching a sunrise. Some people say, "Well, if I just watch the sunrise, I just feel like worshiping." That can be. It can be a very soulish, 39:53 emotionally based worship that has nothing to do with connecting with God or little to do. And so that's why we say spiritual worship starts in the spirit and works itself out. Now, we can criticize the charismatics, 40:13 but I'm also going to criticize us Mennonites because I have heard people say, "Boy, a cappella four-part harmony music just makes me feel like I've really worshiped." That choir that came through, "Oh, I just wanted to worship." What have we done? 40:35 We've said God lives in the form, and when the form is there, then I can really go into worship. When it's not there or I don't like the form, I can't worship. Now, maybe I'm being a little critical. I'm trying not to be. I'm just trying to say we have to evaluate not just what goes on out there in the other churches, 40:55 but what happens in my church, in my thinking, in my worship. It's not about critiquing this morning other people. It's about where are we at when it comes to soul worship or spirit worship? So my question is, what kind of props do you need in order to really worship? 41:15 And what if you don't get those props? Maybe it's a sunset. Maybe it's a beautiful picture, a beautiful painting. Maybe it's a beautiful spring, summer day, or the beauty of the snow. What do you get when you don't have those things? Can you still worship? It was a a cappella of music, and you're in a setting where there's no a cappella music, 41:36 or it's four-part harmony, and you're in an Amish setting where they're just singing slow and in German, and you can't understand the words. I believe that a person who understands how to worship in spirit can be in an Amish setting where they sing a single verse slow, can't understand the words. Can we still worship? 41:58 The Father is seeking someone who will worship him in spirit. Ask the Apostle Paul if he could worship in a jail cell with nothing. 42:11 I want to encourage us this morning, pay attention to our worship. Pay attention to our worship. Pay attention to your heart in worship. Do I just do this because it makes me feel good? Do I just do this because it makes me look good? 42:25 Or do I really do this because I want to connect with God, and he is the ultimate one that I value? Let's pray. Father, this morning we value you. We honor you. 42:45 In fact, brothers and sisters, I think we ought to kneel for prayer. Let's kneel for prayer. 42:52 Father God, precious Jesus, Holy Spirit, we honor you as the Triune God of the universe, the one who has no creator but who is the creator, 43:12 the one who needs no one to give life to but you give life to us, the one who has no equal, the one who has no rival, the one who sits in resplendent glory and brightness, in whom is no darkness at all, 43:34 in whom is no variation or shadow of turning. We recognize you today. We honor you. We give unto you our hearts. We ask, Lord, that you will teach us to worship you. 43:51 Teach us what it means to worship you in spirit and in truth, the truth about who you are, the truth about who we are in relation to you, the truth about the God of eternity. 44:12 Lord, show us how to worship. And may we be willing to worship, for you're seeking not for people who will do great and grandiose things, but you're seeking people whose hearts are to connect with you and follow you in willing, 44:33 obedient 44:36 worship and service. And so, Lord, I pray that you will convict us in this area of worship, that you will show us what it really is, that you will show us that as we leave this place, we not only go forth to serve, but we go forth as a continuation of our worship. 44:56 As we go to work tomorrow, we go forth as a continuation of our worship. As we lay our heads on the pillows at night, we worship. As we gather the family together at the family altar and the family table, we worship. 45:12 As we encourage one another, we worship and make us willing to invest a treasure into God as though we could give you anything which we can't. But we recognize that in a contrite, humble heart and spirit, that you do receive and welcome the gifts that we bring, 45:33 not that you need them, but that you delight in the heart that wants to give like a child who brings his little picture that he drew to his daddy and mommy. 45:47 And we're so pleased with that as moms and dads because it came from a heart of love from that child that wants to connect with us. 45:57 Lord, we recognize much of what we offer you is just really weak and frail, but you delight in it when our hearts 46:11 are in tune with you. And so, Lord, would you bless us and make us a blessing and teach us and lead us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.