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00:01 We continue our um journey through the book of John. Uh we're going to be looking at the fourth chapter today. I
00:07 know it's a long chapter, 30 verses, but I'm just going to one can preach many
00:13 sermons from the same 30 verses, but today I'm just going to focus on one aspect of it. Um and and draw little
00:20 threads um and basically we're going to talk about true worship. So let's start with a word of prayer. Lord, we ask that
00:27 this morning that you guide us. We thank you so much for the worship. We
00:34 thank you so much for the testimony which was worship because it moved us towards the truth, how God's truth moved
00:42 in our sister Yoshika's life. We pray oh Lord as the truth is presented here that
00:47 it will help us worship you in spirit and truth. We ask for Jesus sake. Amen. So let's start off. There are three
00:53 points I want to make this morning. One is what is worship? Two is why do we
00:58 worship and three how do we worship? Very simple. Um what is worship? If you
01:05 look here at the verse uh verse chapter verse 4 uh before that we
01:12 have a situation where Jesus is uh traveling to Samaria and most people
01:18 will avoid Samaria because it's full of Samaritans. Samaritans are basically the mixed race. They were the northern
01:25 kingdom. They have been taken over by the Assyrians and the Assyrians had brought their people down and they
01:32 intermarried and no they were no longer pure Jews. So therefore the Jews looked
01:38 down on them. Nobody wanted to associate with them and and they also in turn
01:43 developed their own kind of religion uh and started worshiping in their own place rather than Jerusalem. So a lot of
01:50 animosity there. Most people would never spend time with a Samaritan, much less a
01:56 Samaritan woman. So, here we have a woman by the well, and it's noon, it's
02:03 hot. She comes to take water when everybody else has taken water early in
02:09 the morning and throughout the better part of the morning. They've taken the water. She comes at the hottest part of the time. Why? Because she's not a woman
02:16 of good repute. She's had numerous affairs, gone on CNN,
02:23 you know, told her story or sold her story, you know, uh, numerous times and had non-disclosure acts, you know, uh,
02:31 but she comes at, you know, at, uh, 12:00 and she's probably alone and Jesus
02:37 is there and of all people, Jesus spends time to talk to her. And you'll find
02:43 that uh if you look through one of the beautiful things about looking at the book of John is that you see how Jesus
02:49 interacts with individuals. One chapter ago he interacted with the
02:54 chief theologian of the whole of Israel. Nicodemus was called what? Teacher of Israel. A man with all his theological
03:03 learning, all his expertise, all his energy, all his brilliance, all his political savvy. He was a member of
03:09 Sanhedrin. And yet when he came to Jesus, Jesus showed him how empty he was
03:14 that he needed to be born again. Today he meets someone on the other side of
03:21 society, a woman who comes from a race when everybody despises.
03:29 A woman who comes from a gender where males are superior and females become
03:34 like shles or owned by men. a woman who's had five previous husband, a
03:40 dubious past, someone that right at the bottom side, he's got nothing. And Jesus
03:46 approaches her and gives her something that she actually needs. And we come up
03:53 to the stage here where the woman talks to Jesus about this. The woman said to
03:58 him, "I perceive you are a prophet. Our fathers worship in this mountain, but I say to you in Jerusalem is a place where
04:05 people ought to worship. woman, believe me, the hour is coming, neither on this mountain nor in the Jerusalem will you
04:10 worship the father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. She moves
04:18 the topic uncomfortably away from her sexual life onto worship. And she
04:24 thought she could get away with it. But actually uh I'm going to focus on the word worship. Worship comes from the
04:29 Greek word procano which means to do reverence or homage by prostration giving respect to superiors, kings and
04:37 dietes which is basically worship is a response. It's a human response to
04:43 revelation. And we can see this many times in scripture. If you look at uh revelations uh chapter one, this is the
04:51 image. This is a vision of Jesus to John. In his right hand he held seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp
04:56 two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. This is a vision of Jesus. He presents
05:02 himself in all his glory. And what is the response of worship and I saw him I
05:08 fell at his feet as though dead. This example of slain in the spirit they say
05:14 but he falls forward. Um here's another one. Isaiah, in the year of the king
05:19 Hosea died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and a train of
05:24 his robe filled the temple. This is a vision by Isaiah. And his response, woe
05:30 is me, for I am lost. I a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen
05:37 the King, the Lord of hosts. This is a response. So what is worship? Worship is
05:42 a response to revelation. Worship is a response to
05:47 truth. Worship has an object. It actually comes from an Anglo-Saxon word
05:52 called Anglo-Saxon. And then we change that to worship and then becomes worship. It's
05:59 basically attributing worth to something. So therefore the Lord mayor of London is called the Lord the worship
06:07 his the mayor. Worship is a active response to God whereby we declare his word. When we come to a worship meeting
06:14 like this, we do two things. We see what God is worth and we give him what he is
06:21 worth in terms of response. That's what worship is. So um Job 23:12, I have not
06:26 departed from the commandments of his lips. I've treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food. The
06:32 response has to be appropriate to the worth of
06:37 the object. So it is treasuring. It is worshiping something of infinite value.
06:45 Someone of infinite value. The only appropriate response is to treasure. So
06:50 that's what worship is. Why do we worship here? Verse 423-24.
06:57 The hour is coming and is here now when the true worshippers of God will worship the father in spirit and truth. For the
07:02 father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must be worshiped in spirit and
07:09 truth. So why do we worship? Because the father seeks worshippers. Not just any
07:16 worshipper, true worshippers. It's built into our DNA. And we might be thinking,
07:22 oh, a lot of think people misinterpret this is the father needs worshipper. Oh,
07:28 oh, it doesn't say the father needs worshipper. The father seeks worshippers. Why? because it is built
07:35 in. Look at Acts. I want to bring you to Acts and in the book of Acts uh in
07:40 Athens, Paul comes across a an altar and they're worshiping so many gods in
07:47 Athens that one of them, you know, some worship uh this God, that God, this guy
07:52 worships to the unknown god. I mean, he covers all his bets. And and Paul writes
07:57 and speaks to them to the God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth does not live
08:03 in temples made by man nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all
08:10 mankind life and breath and everything. You can't say God needs your worship
08:16 because he's the one who gave you breath and gave you life. He seeks true worshippers but he does not need your
08:23 worship. Some of us act as if, you know, God, I had a good time during the week.
08:28 I guess I got to come on Sunday, right? I got to give you your two cents worth, then I can get my 50 cents worth the
08:35 rest of the week. So, you come suitably late and you leave suitably early. I I see this attitude and and it's not what
08:42 it's meant to be. When you're actually worshiping, God doesn't need the worship. I mean, doesn't make God's day
08:47 when Mary comes and sit in front, right? Or Chuchang leads worship. It doesn't make his day. All right? He doesn't need
08:54 it, but he seeks it. Why? It's for your own design. If you look here, and made
09:03 from one man, every nation of man kind to live on the face of the earth, having
09:08 determined a lot of times and the boundaries of the dwelling place that they should seek and perhaps feel their
09:14 way and find him. So we actually created why we're in an automatically inbuilt
09:21 DNA that we should seek God. You see when we're made in the image God what
09:27 does it mean to be mean what does it made mean to be made in the image God is it means that we are to be reflecting
09:34 relating to the same God. You autom it's like a baby baby is born within a couple
09:39 of months automatically every day what are you screaming about mommy or daddy
09:44 it's an automatic response so when God made us he just didn't make us as independent creatures he made us so that
09:51 we will find our fulfillment in God so therefore that they should seek God
09:56 treasure him and find him Jonathan Edwards says uh
10:02 worship affects all of us when we worship we share in his infinite love
10:07 and delight. Here you have the father, son, and the holy spirit in eternity past both all of them loving one
10:15 another, supporting one another and and and interacting in the most self-
10:21 sustained system. God is love because God is a community and out of that
10:26 loving community comes out an outflow of us and we are human beings. He created
10:32 us so that we will find the greatest treasure and greatest enjoyment and greatest fulfillment when we are in
10:38 contact with him. That's why Jonathan Edwards says to share his infinite love and delight. So when when we asked we
10:45 were asked to come and worship God, God is inviting us to come and share the joy
10:50 that is in his heart that he wants to pour into your heart. So worship is not something that you had to come pay your
10:56 dues to God and then you can scarcely wait for the sermon to be over and you run off. He's inviting you to feel the
11:04 love. He's inviting you to share in his power and his grace. That's what worship
11:09 is. Um CS Lewis writes God has invited us to enjoy him and he says we delight
11:16 to praise what we enjoy because the praise is not only merely expresses but
11:22 completes the enjoyment. It is a point of consumation. When you see something wonderful says
11:28 Louis saying you have to express it. Half the enjoyment is what is expressing it and expressing what you enjoy is
11:35 basically worship. So, would you go for dinner? I hear it was me and my famous
11:41 friend. Uh, if you want to know somewhere to eat, ask Andrew. All right.
11:46 So, we go out and it's imagine we go out with Andrew and we have a meal and we're
11:52 all eating quietly. Okay, finish. Bye-bye. That's half the
11:57 fun. You've got to tell, wow, the meat is fantastic. The wine is scintillating. Oh, I'm so giddy. you know uh when you
12:05 express what you enjoy that's part of the enjoyment isn't it all right so
12:11 basically what that's what worship is it is actually not for see God calling you he's so you know egotistical that you
12:18 got to come and worship me look at me you know sometime we feel God is so needy and so egotistical that we make
12:24 his day no god invites us so when we worship we ourselves transform we enjoy
12:30 it worship is appropriate to our being. Yet he actually is not far from us uh
12:36 from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. And even
12:42 some of your own poets have said we are indeed his offspring. Then being God's offspring, we ought not to think of that
12:48 the divine beings like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. So he actually
12:55 quote, we see in God we live and move and have our being. We cannot live apart
13:01 from God. We are made for him. Even their own poets, a non-Christian poet say we are indeed his offspring. CS
13:08 Lewis writes again, let me quote to you. Creatures are not born out are not born
13:14 with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exist. If a baby feels
13:20 hunger, there's such a thing as food. If duckling want to swim, there's such a thing as water. If a man feels sexual
13:27 desire, there's such a thing as sex. And if I find myself within myself, find myself within myself a desire which no
13:34 experience in the world can satisfy the only probable explanation is that I was
13:40 made for something in another world. So I mean we will never be satisfied until
13:47 we find what we are actually created for. Let me talk about while the Paul
13:53 quoted a Greek poet I will quote an American poet. This is uh David
13:59 uh um Foster Wallace. He is based arguably one of the brightest American
14:05 uh novelists in the last century. Uh he lived a short life. Uh this is what and
14:12 basically he um was a genius. He won actually he's won many prizes um and uh
14:19 one of the most influential writers in the world. non-Christian though led a
14:25 very turbulent life uh obsessed with sex he even stalked one of his students got
14:31 into drugs and alcohol age of 46 he hung himself couldn't handle all the
14:37 difficulties of life but his writings are actually revered this is what he actually writes as a non-Christian
14:44 because there's something else that's weird but true in the day-to-day trenches of adult life there's actually no such thing as atheism there's no such
14:51 thing as not worshiping everybody body worships. The only choice we have is we get is what to worship. Even a
14:57 non-Christian poet, just like Paul quoting a non-Christian poet, we are his offspring. We're derived from God. So
15:03 that is relationship. We're not fulfilled until we are connecting with God. David Wallace says, we there's no
15:10 such thing as as not worshiping. Everybody is made to worship. All humans
15:15 are created to be reflecting beings. they will reflect whatever they're ultimately committed to, whether the
15:21 true God or some other object in the created order. So, we're all like, David Foster says, we're all like mirrors. You
15:28 shine your mirror and you find what you want to reflect and hopefully you will reflect something beautiful, isn't it?
15:34 If you shine in the gutter, then you will look like the gutter. And he writes, "If you worship money and
15:40 things, they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough.
15:47 It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age
15:54 start to show, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. Unless you have plastic surgery, of
15:60 course. U so this is the woman's spiritual need. All right. Jesus said to
16:07 her, "Go call your husband and come here." And woman answered her son
16:12 answered him, "I have no husband." And woman said to her, "You are right in saying I have no husband. You have had
16:17 five husbands. And the one you now have is not your husband. What you said is
16:23 true. This is a woman who comes. Nicodemus comes. Even though he's got all the teaching in life, all the theory
16:30 in life, all the political progress in life, he still was not satisfied. This woman comes and and Jesus connects with
16:37 her. And how many husbands does she have? She has five husbands. You think
16:42 she's easily satisfied? No. One is too tall, one is too fat, one
16:47 is too stingy. One divorce after another and she's looking for the ultimate
16:52 husband, isn't it? Because as David Wallace says, if you're looking for
16:58 something in this world as it were, it will never actually satisfy. You'll never satisfied with yourself or
17:05 satisfied with a person or never satisfied with life. This is the new heavenly man. If you this is Scott uh I
17:12 can't remember it's a astronaut called Scott Murray came down after living one year in space and the wonderful thing
17:19 about living one year in space he actually has a twin brother
17:24 and they found that 7% of his DNA has changed can you imagine you can live in
17:30 an environment a weightless environment far away from the world and after a year you come back they actually measured his
17:36 DNA and compared it with his brother's DNA Okay. And 7% became heavenly DNA. I
17:43 don't know what kind of DNA, but it's but it can change you. Is absolutely
17:48 changes you. And that's right, isn't it? We become what we worship. And the
17:53 reason why we are made to worship is because we're made in the image of God.
17:58 We represent him. We reflect him. Okay? And and and basically we revere him. And
18:05 if we actually worship God, Paul writes, "And we all with unveiled faces
18:11 beholding the glory of Lord, being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this
18:17 comes from the Lord who is the spirit." So it's written in our DNA that we are made in the image of God and we we
18:23 interact in God and see God in Christ and worship God in Christ that we become
18:29 like what we're made to be God. image of God reflecting the attributes of God.
18:34 Goodness, love, grace, mercy. You see, that's what we're made to be. We have a
18:39 great destiny. That's what we are supposed to be. However, if we worship
18:44 anything else other than God, let me show you Psalm 115. Their idols are silver and gold, the
18:51 work of human hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak, eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear,
18:57 noses, but do not smell. They have hands they do not feel. uh feet but do not walk. They do not make sound in their
19:03 throat. Those who make them become like them and so do all who trust them. So
19:09 therefore psalm says if you worship idols the idols can't hear you when you
19:15 pray. The idols can't taste the worship or the sacrifice that you give. The
19:20 idols can't speak into your soul. The idols cannot help you when you cry when
19:26 you're in trouble. They can't do that. And the worst thing about idols is that
19:31 if you worship idols, those who make them become like them.
19:36 Your DNA gets changed. You become like what you worship. If you worship
19:42 supermodels, then you will be superficial and shallow. If you worship
19:48 corporate Malaysia and being those topflight business person, you will be materialistic, greedy, oppressive.
19:55 if you worship uh this is oh I was listening this song this morning how many of you know this song it's quite
20:01 nice then you're too old uh Shane Ward you
20:07 know this is a song he he sings very famous it feels like nobody ever knew me
20:13 I can't sing it though uh until you knew me feels like nobody ever loved me until you loved me feels like nobody ever
20:19 touched me until you touched me baby nobody nobody until you baby just took one hit of you now I'm addicted You
20:25 never know what's missing till you get everything you needed. So we we have songs like this today. I'm not bashing
20:31 Ed Sheeran anymore. I'm going for Shane Ward. But this is what the world's like, isn't
20:37 it? Because he's putting all his hopes on this wonderful girl who has really
20:42 filled his imagination, put him on cloud nine for the time being. And the two
20:48 problems will happen. One, if you put all this hope on a human being,
20:53 that human being will never live up to your expectations. You will crush that
20:58 human being. And number two, after a while, because that human being cannot fill all of you, you will then move on
21:05 like the Samaritan woman for the fifth husband. That's the problem. The wrong idols become shallow like
21:12 them. Uh we also have a Malaysian idol recently, Lee Chongwe. How many of you seen the movie?
21:19 Oh, not very patriotic, right? So, if you follow Lee Chongwe and
21:25 worship him, then you'll be like him. You look like him. Not a good thing. Maybe you'll play
21:31 bminton like him. Uh the Old Testament background, even though the Jews are
21:36 supposed to have worshiped at the right place, the sad fact is in Jeremiah quotes, "For my people have committed
21:43 two evils. They have forsaken me. The fountain of living waters has healed out
21:49 systems for himself. Broken systems that can hold no water. They worship God in form in their heart.
21:57 They they sought their glory. They sought their self-esteem. They sought their their their satisfaction in life
22:03 from something else from all the other idols in life. All right? And that's why when Jesus talked to this woman, he
22:09 said, you know, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I'll give him will never be thirsty. the water I
22:16 give to him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life and the woman said to him sir give me this
22:22 water so I will not be thirsty I have to come to the water to draw I'll come to the well to draw so basically Jesus is
22:28 focusing on her that she is the kind of person like the Jews have sought her own
22:33 water from broken systems rather than a spring of water which comes from God which is the Holy Spirit now how do we
22:40 worship since worship is a response all right um The hour is coming and is now
22:47 here when the true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and truth. The father is seeking such people to
22:52 worship. So Jesus is saying here that's it's coming and it's future which means he's
23:01 basically referring to himself. He's now here and is also coming. And when he
23:08 refers to the hour, whenever Jesus in John, every part in John, whenever Jesus refers to the hour, it means it is the
23:15 time of crucifixion. And Jesus said to them chapter two, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. So
23:22 Jesus Christ is the temple. What do you do in the temple? You worship. So worship in the New Testament is focused
23:29 on Jesus. Why? Because no one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the father's side, he has made him known. He
23:37 is the ultimate worship. Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except
23:44 through me. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation from Jews." And what the the
23:50 the sincerity is not enough because the Samaritans were worshiping instead of in Jerusalem. They were worshiping here at
23:57 Mount Jerusm. This is where the scene with Jesus takes place. That's where the Samaritans worshiping. The Samaritans
24:05 were very sincere. They actually only worshiped God using
24:10 Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus and Numbers. All the rest of the New Test Old Testament they threw away. You
24:17 know why? Because they hated the southern kingdom. Any mention of sudden kingdom they cut it out. So they
24:22 worshiped a truncated god. So actually they were actual idol worshippers. So truth is very very important. Um, but
24:31 Jesus said to her,"Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor on Jerusalem will you
24:37 worship the father." The the the Samaritans were sincere, but sincerely
24:43 wrong. They didn't have the right worship because they didn't have the truth. The
24:49 Jews had the truth. They worshiped in Jerusalem, but they were not sincere.
24:55 Their hearts were far from God. You need to worship in spirit and in truth. And
25:01 so therefore the next the new worship which Jesus talks about is neither in Jerusalem nor in Mount Jerusalem. Uh it
25:07 is a spiritual worship. And you can see here the true worshippers will worship father in spirit and truth for the
25:14 father seeking such people to worship him. And uh so we begin with Nicodemus
25:19 the man who has got everything. And Jesus says you got to start again. And a woman who's got nothing you must have
25:25 living water. When Nicodemus he tells him, truly I say to you, unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom
25:32 and the wind blows where it whises. You hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is
25:37 with everyone who's born of the spirit. So for Nicodemus, his life requires the spirit. Same thing for the woman. For
25:44 everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The water I give him will
25:50 become a spring of water welling up to eternal life. And this is basically the Holy Spirit. You want to worship God,
25:56 you need to worship the God in the power of the Holy Spirit. So worship in spirit and truth is basically God- centered
26:02 worship made possible by the spirit and the personal knowledge and conformity to Jesus which is God's truth. Carson wrote
26:11 God- centered worship God- centered more possible by the gift of the Holy Spirit in personal knowledge and of conformity
26:19 to our Lord Jesus Christ. What is the greatest scientific instrument ever
26:24 built? Anybody tell me motocar?
26:31 No. Computer. Yes. Een is right. It is the telescope.
26:36 They actually call the Hubble telescope put up about 27 years ago the greatest
26:42 scientific instrument ever built. Because if you actually look in the sky,
26:47 you will start seeing lots. you don't see very much and you see a lot of black spaces and the reason why that happens
26:54 is that you've got the atmosphere, you've got the clouds, you've got all this interference and you can't really
27:01 see. Now, if you actually Edwin Heaven was very smart, you put a telescope up in space, nothing in between, and you
27:09 send those rays right out into sky into the rest of the universe and you can see so many beautiful images. Every year
27:16 we've got more and more beautiful images that the Hubble telescope brings us that
27:21 the explosion of knowledge has been fantastic. You know in the past we thought we have the big bang theory. You
27:27 know you've got one singular point in time when you've got a great explosion when the entire mass of the universe is
27:34 is flung out. So as explosion goes out the all the all the stars all the planets will go faster and after it'll
27:41 slow down and one day it'll wind down. Right? That's exactly what we thought. But using the Ed the Hubble telescope,
27:47 we actually find that instead of decelerating, the universe is
27:52 accelerating. Can you imagine? It's getting faster and faster faster. Why? Because 70% of the
27:57 universe is contains dark matter which causes more acceleration. Can't work it
28:03 out. It it defies all your laws physics. How do we know? Because the Hubble
28:08 telescopes gives us the images that prove it. Well, now why do I bring it up? I bring it up because the Hubble
28:15 telescope hangs on the cross. You cannot see God. You cannot
28:21 understand him. You cannot be blown away from God by uh God unless you see God
28:26 through Jesus Christ. How do you know God how God thinks? How do you go? How
28:32 do you know how God feels? By looking at the cross. If you look at
28:38 the cross, you will know what God feels
28:43 about you. So on the cross, God b his soul through
28:50 his son Jesus. And every time you look at Jesus, it's like every time you look through the Hubble telescope, a new
28:55 image comes out, a new paradigm comes out, a new experience comes out. Why? Because Jesus focuses you directly like
29:03 a laser beam into the person in the heart of our God. You cannot understand
29:10 our God. You cannot seek our God. He is inscrutable. But through the telescope of Jesus Christ, it shows the magnitude
29:17 of God. And so therefore, when we worship, when we want to worship the universe, we look through Edwin Hubble's
29:23 telescope. When you want to worship God, you tr look at the lens of Jesus Christ.
29:28 So when we come to worship session here today, um I reckon it's like a fire. Worship is
29:35 like a fire. We put under the logs. The logs are basically Jesus Christ, God's
29:40 word. We take these words, we meditate on them, we dwell on them, and Holy
29:45 Spirit will then ignite them. And we have tears, we have confession,
29:50 we have joy, we have prayer. And that is our response. That is the truth. That is
29:58 the response. This is actually worship. So basically when you come on a Sunday, we start off as idol worshippers. You
30:05 walk through the door, you're thinking about your job. You're thinking about the next golf tournament.
30:12 I hope I'm wrong. Uh and and what we do from the worship session is that the worship leaders Canson starts moving you
30:19 from this to this, getting you to grasp the truth both in
30:25 mind and heart. That's exactly what happens in worship. Um, this is a
30:31 painting. How much would you pay for this painting? And
30:37 nothing. Okay. Pastor Rama, how much would you paint for this? Pay for this painting.
30:44 Huh? A million. Whoa. I didn't know we were paying him
30:50 so much. Time for a review of our pay, right? He
30:55 was going to pay a million. But Pastor Rama is very smart because this painting
31:01 uh actually was uh in a garage sale in San Bernardino in California. And they
31:07 were going to sell it for a gigantic price of $8 US. And this truck driver
31:12 called Terry Horton came in and bargain it down to $5.
31:18 And she's going to give it to a friend to hang on the trailer wall to use as a dot board,
31:24 right? and she tried very hard to put it through the trailer door, couldn't go in, so they left it and she sold it
31:30 again. Maybe she gets another make some profit, right? And when she was going to sell it again, a art dealer came by and
31:36 say, "This is the original Jackson Pollock, which is a very famous artist in America." The last offer she got was
31:43 what? 9 million US. A bit more than you. So you have to bid a bit higher. 9 million US. And how do you think Terry
31:50 Horton looked after the painting? You think you use that B? No. She'll
31:56 treasure it. She'll guard it. She'll to basically worship it. You know what?
32:01 That's what worship is. Worshiing is understanding
32:06 and having to feel what the what the value of God is. And most of us are like
32:11 children. I remember my uh son when he was young. Oh, I promise not to say about my son. They always complain and
32:18 within minutes whatever testimony I give in Melbourne they they actually you know write back and say par's been using us
32:24 as examples again. So, let me say somebody else. Remember when you were young
32:32 and and uh your favorite toy, a bunny, and and for some kids, it's the pillow.
32:38 And no matter how smelly and horrible and tattered the pillow is, and you ask the child, look, would you give it up
32:44 for a Mercedes-Benz or one of secondhand Ferrari from
32:52 whatever you offer the child, he will never give it up because to him, the smelly pillow or the towel is more
32:58 important. And I guess in worship, that's what we're like, isn't it? the smelly towel, however ugly and horrible
33:05 and tattered it is to us is more precious. And so for genuine worship is a understanding is is a maturation
33:12 process. It's a teaching process. It's a knowledge process so that we actually not only know but we feel that this is
33:19 actually worth my whole life. That's what worship is because it's
33:24 discovering the truth and having the truth move our hearts and minds and emotions. Look at this picture here. One
33:32 on the left and one on the right. Which one is is is a rock concert. Which one
33:37 is a worship meeting? Say the one on the left. Is this a All
33:42 put your hands up. You say this is a worship meeting. Put your hands up. Okay. Good. Why? Put hand up. Yes. Put
33:49 hands right up. Okay. Okay. How many of you think this one is a worship meeting?
33:55 Only two. The rest all brain dead.
34:02 You can't tell. The point is you can't tell. You know why? The emotions are similar. Everybody
34:10 raise hands. You know the bright lights nowadays, isn't it? You look at that. It's it's bright lights. It's we become
34:17 like the world as it were. I I don't have a problem. It's emotions. The emotions are church worship is somewhat
34:24 like the concert. All right. But there's a difference. Um, you can't worship without emotions. Jesus said, "You
34:31 hypocrites. Where well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, "This people honor me with their lips, but
34:37 their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."
34:43 So worship must involve emotions, okay? But not necessarily in the right
34:50 way. Thomas Kmer uh English reformer wrote, "What the heart loves, the will chooses and the mind justifies."
34:58 Emotions that come in a worship session must be predicated by the truth.
35:05 I mean, you could have emotions, right? I remember a friend of mine in in medical school, we're in the same
35:11 college, same uh uh flat, right? And uh he used to make a lot of girls happy. He
35:18 was a bit of a playboy, you know, a medical student, you know. He dates all these girls and they're very happy with
35:23 him. They're on cloud nine. Then he gives them a little uh token of his love, which is a a chicken. It's a
35:30 little toy chicken about this size, you know, and all the girls are like, you know, on cloud nine and until they meet
35:36 another girl with the same chicken. No, but the emotions are real, aren't
35:42 they? They're real because it's his love. But it's a fake love. It's fake.
35:48 All right. So emotions can be deceptive. Our mind will justify them. The problem is that when we come to worship, the
35:54 emotions must arise from the truth. So therefore, when we come to worship, it's
35:60 an interaction between our minds, our will and our emotion. All these three are interacting with the truth. So the
36:06 worship leaders moving you toward the truth that is in Christ Jesus. And
36:12 basically, you're involved with your mind and your heart and your will. If it's just your mind, oh, I know Jesus is
36:19 good. It's wonderful, but I'm still going to come late for worship because uh yeah, so what? Jesus will always be
36:26 there, isn't it? This is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, right? So, he's always there. I'm not not
36:32 bothered. Chuch Jang will always be there, too. So, I'll come late. See, if that's the case, you you the
36:38 worship has remained in the mind. It's never moved. What is in the mind must
36:43 move and change the heart. You see, that's what worship is. And and
36:49 then the emotions must relate to the truth. For example, nostalgia. I don't like to worship here because I
36:56 don't like this sort of music. And some people tell me I must have pews at the back. And we had this problem, right? I
37:03 can't worship unless I'm sitting on a pew, right? This kind of chair cannot. So you
37:09 got to make pews at the back. You can see that the pews at the back. Not that the people sitting there are guilty of
37:14 this. But this is called nostalgia. It's an emotion based on a cultural aesthetic
37:22 issue. It's not emotion based on worship. So if you're sitting in a pew or or you're not sitting in your favorite place, I mean I cannot worship.
37:29 That's not the proper emotion. Or the other emotion is a conscience clearing. I come to church, I feel very guilty. I
37:36 give God his two cents. Oh, I feel so good. That's not worship. All right. Or
37:41 I the plate comes around and I take my spare change and I throw it inside. Oh, I feel so good. I feel I'm great. God's
37:49 blessed me. Uh that's not worship either. That's not the, you know, so or for example, you've got Chuch Chang or
37:56 Chansen and his group have led such a wonderful worship. the the sound, the melody, the it was all technically
38:03 perfect and I'm like transported to the fifth heaven and I'm in tears.
38:08 Is that worship? That may not necessarily be worship because it could
38:13 be the aesthetic experience, isn't it? All right. Aesthetics help you, but when
38:19 they become the focus, they are not really the emotion. The emotions of worship is driven by the truth. When
38:26 when when the words which the worship leader sings out tells us of our sinful self, how undeserving we are, how
38:32 totally helpless and it focuses on God. It puts us in the right perspective how who God is. And the knowledge about God,
38:39 the truth about God actually heals our hearts. It tells us what he we have done. Look at Psalm 142. As a deer pants
38:47 for the stream, so my so pants my soul for you, oh God, my soul thirsts for
38:52 God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before him? This is
38:58 emotion based on a desire for God. Let me see how worship changes your emotion.
39:03 This is when Peter and his group were actually in imprisoned when they first
39:09 preached the gospel. The people were terrified. They were frightened. It's like us when
39:14 we feel when Pastor Cole was taken. Something happened in this country. A change. It's become darker. So what they
39:22 did was, you know what they did? They worshiped. Here's what they did. When they heard it, they lifted their voices
39:28 to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who has made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in it, who through the
39:35 mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage?" This is from Psalm 2,
39:41 okay? "And the people's plot in vain, the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together
39:47 against the Lord and against his anointed." All right? So if you remember
39:53 Psalm two, you will find that that psalm talks about the Messiah and he will
39:58 crush them with his rod of iron. He will break them like many pottery pieces. So
40:04 what they do is that when they were troubled, they went back to the truth about God, how he created all things and
40:10 how he's going to rule through his Messiah. And then truly in this city they were gathered against together
40:16 against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the people
40:21 of Israel to do whatever your hand and plan had predestined to take place. So whatever happened to Jesus was
40:27 predestined. God hadn't lost control over sleeping at the wheel.
40:33 And Lord now Lord look upon their threats and grant to your servant to continue to speak your words with all
40:39 boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal. Then signs and wonders are performed to the name of your holy
40:44 servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they gathered together were shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continue
40:50 to speak the word of God with can you see the boldness? Can you see the they
40:55 come terrified and after the worship they come bold.
41:01 So when you come to worship you need to have emotions. emotions is not like oh
41:06 after that you know Arnold didn't cause you to come up and you're in tears in front here like jelly some of you never
41:12 come up some of you like me have difficulty with emotions like you know I
41:18 I maybe when I grew up it's a John Wayne kind of ethos got to be like John Wayne
41:24 right very stoic if I cry I'm not a man some people are more on the other side
41:31 but it really doesn't matter emotions aren't you crying crying and being like jello- in front. Okay. Uh emotions is
41:39 what happens that moves you towards the truth. You make decisions. You may not cry but you at the back of the pews you
41:48 may make a decision to change your lives. Emotions what makes you change your life. It moves you. Just
41:55 presentation of truth alone doesn't move you. It's the emotions that help move you toward that. So basically uh
42:02 emotions are important. What if you feel no emotion? I come to worship God and you talk Jesus Peter's talking about
42:09 this getting excited about God and all that and I don't feel it. That's a very interesting question. I was reading uh
42:15 uh some some an essay by John Piper and John Piper a very famous uh pastor from
42:21 Bethlehem Baptist Church and uh who's retired and he says when you come to worship there are three kinds of
42:28 emotions that you have which are also worship on one hand you've got the you see God clearly your emotions correspond
42:36 to the truth yes they're right you talk about the grace of God you get excited about the joy of God you feel the joy
42:42 you talk about the majesty of God. You you feel fearful and and and contrite.
42:47 You've got all that you is corresponding and there's a longing. Yeah, that's the ideal. But there are a whole bunch of
42:54 people who come to church and they don't see God very clearly. They seek him very
42:59 weakly. Maybe you've got a problem that that that that's in your mind. Maybe a a
43:05 personal struggling or emotional issue and you don't see God very clearly. You
43:10 see him very weakly. There's no corresponding emotion. When they talk about the joy of God, you don't feel it, but there's an ache or longing for them.
43:16 And you see other people jumping and having this joy, and you say, "I wish I was like them.
43:22 I want to love God. I want to feel the joy, but I'm not quite there yet." You
43:28 know what? That is worship, too, because you're longing for the truth. There's a
43:35 longing. Another uh level is you see God weekly. no corresponding emotions but
43:41 there's regret remorse or sorrow you know you feel sad that I don't feel like
43:46 that to God you you feel regret and and and John Piper says that too is an
43:53 emotion that comes outrightly because you see the truth in Jesus the beauty in Jesus and you regret that you don't feel
43:59 like what other people feel and there will come a time you will and if you look at Psalm 40 sorry
44:06 Psalm 40 is like that Jesus The psalm of worship by David and Jesus said, "I waited patiently for the Lord. He
44:14 inclined to me and heard me cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction out of
44:19 the mighty Brogue and set my feet on rock making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise
44:26 to God our God. Many will see in fear and put their trust in God." So, there's a time in David's life where he was in
44:32 the pit. You're not having a good time in the pit, right? You feel like God is not there. God has abandoned you and you
44:40 want to the feelings of ecstasy. I remember there's times in my life when I really had a great
44:47 worship time with God for hours. I'll be lifting up my hands and he would just thrill my heart. And for long stretches
44:53 of years, I would not feel God like that again. And you're longing for that time.
44:59 And that time is what David describes. I'm in a miry bog. It's black. It's
45:04 dark. That longing is still worship. The fourth type emotion is not worship. It's
45:12 when you're sleeping or you're playing with your handphone or
45:17 your mind is thinking of something else. And I'm guilty of that too because I have a very short attention span. That's
45:22 why I'm like this. I hyperactive and and and if you don't preach well, I'm my mind's gone to my handphone. And that's
45:28 not worship. Okay? And we all are guilty of that. and and Chuch Chang and gang to
45:35 what extent is the worship here successful? The worship here is successful not based on how well you
45:41 played. You know what the success should be measured on? On what is the percentage of people who are worshiing,
45:48 who have the three kinds of emotions? The ones who are jumping for joy, the ones who wishing they could jump with
45:54 joy or ones who regret that they couldn't jump with joy but they're feeling something. But if you look
46:00 around, everyone I'm doing handphone, then you know something's gone wrong. That's why when I walk around, when I'm
46:06 preaching, I'm looking at who's on their handphone because I know I'm disconnecting.
46:11 All right. So, uh that's that's important. Now, aesthetics.
46:17 We used to be like this. Now, we're moving towards that. Does it matter
46:22 when you worship and in truth? Basically, when you come here and you worship in spirit and truth, we're
46:27 moving you from here to there. And aesthetics are a way of moving you from
46:33 here to here, isn't it? We use it. Um, this is Tim Keller. His group has
46:39 planted about 100 churches, okay? And he writes, uh, to me, aesthetics are
46:45 important as an effective means for people to grasp the truth about God so that they can give him what he's worth
46:50 to worship. Good aesthetics remove the obstacle of distraction that bad art
46:55 places on the path of wouldbe worshiper. Imagine you have a worship leader here and he's basically Cantonese.
47:03 So every time he sings like out of tune, you know, or you irritating person in front is always out of tune and it's dis
47:10 and and the sound I know you make you you have this uh psalm the verse that
47:15 says make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Those who make noise stay down there and those who can sing. Aesthetics are
47:22 important because they reflect the degree in which the musicians value God. So when they present it, they present
47:29 perfectly. But it doesn't really matter to God in the end, but it does matter to people.
47:36 You think a young fellow coming up and singing here, making a noise, joyful noise, playing his trumpet, not half as
47:42 good as Ken, compared to this crowd here, even however good they are, they're never going to be up to God's
47:50 standard because it's the highest standard. But God's going to look at their hearts and your heart and the
47:57 effectiveness of their worship is the aesthetics that we actually have actually help you move you towards the
48:04 truth. Cana describes two kinds of churches which is what we should understand. Churches are restaurant. You
48:12 can have a small church and a big church. The way some restaurants you go
48:17 in cities very nice food. Nobody knows where it is. Johnny soon tells me there's one in Bakut in clang. You go
48:25 opposite school. It's called Leang Bakut. Three generations of guy doing pakut. Right. They have a small
48:30 clientele. every day they go there and they don't want anybody else body else to come. All right, so that's the small
48:38 church. The big church is different. They're like McDonald's, you know, they've got all the lights and flashes
48:43 and all that, but it really doesn't matter. Okay, but if you actually want to grow a large church because you're
48:49 bringing non-Christians as well. Non-Christians don't like to come to a church where it's like leang bakut, you
48:55 know, very very uh small. They both worship but aesthetics help people move
49:02 to the truth. And so therefore some churches like us we employed. All right. Next thing is that worship
49:09 aesthetics aren't everything. Look at Paul and Silas. This is very bad aesthetics.
49:15 They're in a cold damp prison. All they have around them are not guitar. They got chains.
49:22 Okay. Uh aesthetics play a role but they're not very important. It's it's
49:27 the word of God and it's joy. Let me end because now wow very late. So the woman
49:34 left her water jar and went away in town and said to the people come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can
49:42 this be the Christ? So they went out of town and were coming to him. Uh meanwhile the disciples were urging him
49:47 rabbi eat. And he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples said to another, "Has anyone brought him something else to
49:53 eat?" So basically what happened to this woman after she discovered Jesus Christ
49:59 all day she's come to have one jar of water. What happened to the jar of water? Dapa already left it behind.
50:07 And all she did was without the water ran into town and tell everybody
50:12 who Jesus is, how beautiful Jesus is, how Jesus loved her, how Jesus transformed her life. You see, you can't
50:20 be a true worshipper of Jesus Christ if you're keeping quiet in your seat every single day.
50:27 If you discovered gold, you won't you tell people, "Oh, you probably won't tell anybody."
50:32 You keep it to yourself, right? Yeah. But this is so much joy that that if
50:40 really Jesus Christ has transformed our life, we would be compelled to missions. Ambitions is a direct result of worship.
50:49 If you knew how beautiful he is, you would be like this woman. The job wouldn't matter very much. The water
50:56 would Hey, water is important. You know, you all had water cut a few weeks ago, right?
51:01 She leaves the water jar behind and she goes and the first thing in her
51:07 mind is to tell people about Jesus Christ. And she doesn't matter who she is. I mean you look at her, it has
51:14 changed truth, emotion, and the will. The three come together. And you have
51:21 this woman, the gospel is the truth about her sin. Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. And can
51:28 this be the Christ? That's what the gospel is in a nutshell.
51:34 All right, let's have a word of prayer. Father Lord, we just thank you that John chapter 4 tells us
51:41 so clearly what worship is. I'm going to pray, oh Lord, that this is First
51:47 Baptist Church. We are your people. We want you in our singing, in our
51:55 giving, in our preaching, in every aspect of church life to for you to move
52:01 us towards the beautiful truth about Jesus Christ that we could see Jesus more clearly, to love him more dearly,
52:08 to give our lives to him more wholly and that
52:14 is our acceptable worship when we worship you in spirit and in truth. We
52:19 ask for Jesus sake. Amen. [Music]
