True worship

From the famous dialogue with the woman at the well: Jesus replied, “The time is coming, ma’am, when we will no longer be concerned about whether to worship the Father here or in Jerusalem. For it’s not where we worship that counts, but how we worship—is our worship spiritual and real? Do we have the Holy Spirit’s help? For God is Spirit, and we must have his help to worship as we should. The Father wants this kind of worship from us."

We're not standing at any well this morning. But the question about worship still is very much a challenge to us.

According to Jesus, and of course he was referring to the Jerusalem versus non-Jerusalem cage match, it doesn't matter where we worship. No, it's the how not the where that matters. He wants spiritual and real worship, and according to the Man, we might just need the Holy Spirit's help to worship God in the first place in a real and authentic way.

I'm going to do some confessing now, because I've learned (and read) that it is like a spiritual self-cleaning oven.

There are times when I'm absolutely flat in worship. When that happens, I've come to church, not to the Lord. I pray so hard that the Holy Spirit joins me, and all I feel is tired. I ask God to preach through me, and I know it ain't happening. Doesn't happen often, but in total truth, it seemed to happen to me last week. As I told many, suddenly I felt I had a good 10 minutes but I had written 30. It was like I was in the middle of an Aaron Sorkin screenplay where the dialogue I had written was simply un-sayable. 

At the point of collapse after the first church service, I simply skipped whole sections of the prepared material and went with my gut, and my emotions, and my God. Things changed a bit, the sermon went better, and I suddenly, very suddenly, felt his presence again.

It is not in our buildings, and I preach at one of if not THE most beautiful church I've ever been appointed to, that we find God. Instead, it is in the mystical attraction then connection that we sometimes but not always get on Sundays. No building can do that for you.

I return over and over to the phrase, "For God is Spirit, and we must have his help to worship as we should."

HE helps US worship HIM. What a formula. 

If we're in a church that hoots and hollers, like my daughter described one, you still need God to worship Him.
If we're in a church that stresses silence and respect when walking into the sanctuary, you still need God in the silence to worship Him.

Can you get all that apart from the church? It depends on what you see the church as. If the building is the be-all and end-all, you might need to check yourself. He's not moved by beauty of walls and even stained glass depictions of his Son, no matter how beautiful.

Nah. He is moved by love pouring out like water from a pitcher.
He is moved by true devotion, true intimacy, true relationship, and most importantly true worship.

So, this Sunday when you get duded up and head off to show your duds to the friends that you always sit by in church, remember that He's watching and listening. The service is not about the pastor, not about the choir, not about the praise band, not about the music or the decor. The service is about Him, and Him alone.

I am sure of this.