Worship in Spirit and Truth
Download MP3Invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. This is actually gonna be my last time preaching for the next, 5 to maybe 6 weeks because of my throat. I haven't spoken a word since last Sunday, and I realized just when I was going through reading this morning that there was no way I could keep doing this. So, I'm taking a 5 to 6 week break.
Joel Brooks:I I would love your prayers during that time just for one that these no. I don't know what they are all over my vocal cords. They would heal, and it's actually gonna be a great time for the church. We we've got some great preachers coming up. Jeff is gonna preach for a couple of weeks.
Joel Brooks:One of our elders, Dave Harvey, who's the executive director for the Sojourn Network, he's going to come and preach. And if history is any indicator, usually when I step down for a couple of weeks or so from preaching, our church grows. And and so I I fully expect that to happen. I also invite you just to pray for our church, over the next few weeks. As many of you know, we have been talking with the owners of this building about possibly, purchasing this place, and, and we are still negotiating with them.
Joel Brooks:And hopefully, we'll come to some kind of agreement within the next few weeks or so. So we would really appreciate your prayers concerning that. So John, chapter 4, I want to begin reading or I want to read the same story we read last week. We'll begin in verse 7. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, he would have asked him and he would have given you living water.
Joel Brooks:The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father, Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever.
Joel Brooks:The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You are right in saying, 'I have no husband, for you have had 5 husbands, and the one that you have now is not your husband.
Joel Brooks:What you have said is true. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father. You worship what you do not know.
Joel Brooks:We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to Him, I know that the Messiah is coming.
Joel Brooks:He was called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. Pray with me. Our father, we do ask that through your spirit, you would speak to us, that we would drink deeply of you, Jesus.
Joel Brooks:We drink deeply of your word. Lord, we believe that you use your word to work a deep change within us. You change our hearts. You change our minds. You change our actions.
Joel Brooks:And so we pray that that would happen in this moment, that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Tonight, we're going to pick up where we left off last week as we began looking at this story.
Joel Brooks:I want to take a look at worship. And I want to begin by asking a question. What do you think God is impressed with in our worship? When we gather together in this place, in order to worship the creator of heaven and earth, what exactly do you think God is impressed with? Is he impressed with our music?
Joel Brooks:We do have fantastic musicians. We we have wonderful music. I'm impressed by our music. Is that what God is impressed by? Do you think God is impressed by our giving?
Joel Brooks:You know, after the service, God, he he he looks at the offering, he counts it up. Is is he impressed by how much we give? What what if we were to give every dime we have? Would God be impressed with us then? Is God impressed with my preaching?
Joel Brooks:Is God up there taking notes? You know, I didn't know that about myself. You know, he's writing these down, he's impressed. Or is he impressed with our facilities? Or if we had really nice facilities, would he be impressed with that?
Joel Brooks:Marble floors, theater seating. Is God impressed with our prayers or with our passion? What exactly is God impressed with by our worship? The answer to that question is, God is only impressed by his son, Jesus. He's not impressed by anything else.
Joel Brooks:He is only impressed with his son, Jesus, and his sinless life, and his atoning death on our behalf. And and God is only glorified when Jesus and Jesus alone is lifted up in our worship. The only way for God to be glorified in our music or glorified in our giving or glorified in my preaching, or in our prayers, or in our passion, is if Jesus Christ is central to it. If these things are fueled by the spirit of Jesus and if they are lifting up high the name of Jesus, that is the only way Jesus or the father will be impressed. In our worship, Jesus must increase and we must decrease.
Joel Brooks:And I wanted to just put this out there before we even begin to dig into this text this morning, because this is our north star. This is our foundation of worship. Right here, it is Jesus Christ and Jesus alone. For from him and through him and to him are all things. Worship comes from him.
Joel Brooks:It comes from his spirit. It is through him. It is through the atoning work of Jesus. He is the way, and it is back to him since he is the object of praise of our worship. From him and through him into him are all things.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is the answer to the question, what is God impressed with? Jesus is also the answer to another question. How can our souls be satisfied? How can we finally quench this thirst? How can I get the most out of my life?
Joel Brooks:Jesus is the answer to those questions. That's what we looked at last week. We looked at how Jesus is the one who gives us living water. He is the one who quenches that deep thirst that we have. He's the one who gives us joy.
Joel Brooks:So the answer to the question, what is God impressed with in our worship? The answer is Jesus. The answer to question, how can I be satisfied in this life, is Jesus? And I want you to see right from the start that God is glorified in our worship through Jesus. We are satisfied in our lives through Jesus.
Joel Brooks:So the glory of God and our joy are not at odds, but they meet together in the person of Jesus Christ. When Jesus increases in our lives, God is more glorified, and we receive more joy. God's glory and our joy are not at odds, but they are wed together in the person of Jesus Christ. And that is what this story has been teaching us. It's what worship is all about.
Joel Brooks:The word worship in this story is mentioned at least 10 times, and so it's pretty easy to figure out that the theme of this text is worship. Jesus tells this woman in verse 23, the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. The father's seeking people to worship him. This is why Jesus is having this really awkward conversation with the Samaritan woman, is because the father is seeking worshipers, seeking her. He's gone out of his way to Samaria in order to find a heretical, adulteress, despised woman, and to make her a worshiper of God for her joy and for God's glory.
Joel Brooks:Now, every person here is a worshiper. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you believe, where you've come from. You are a worshiper. Everybody is a worshiper of something or someone because as human beings, we were created as worshipers.
Joel Brooks:I don't say we were created to worship as if it was an option. You were created worshiping. You can't not worship. You will always worship someone or something. We see this in the very first of the 10 commandments, in which you shall have no other gods before me.
Joel Brooks:The options that God puts before us is you can either worship false gods or you can worship the right god, but we don't have an option of not worshiping any gods. We are worshipers. The question is, who will we worship? And God says, if you want living water, if you want joy, then you come to me and worship. Perhaps this is a good time to define worship.
Joel Brooks:I realize I've gone over a sermon about worship and haven't haven't actually defined it yet. So let me let me talk about exactly what worship is. We typically, we think of worship as singing, and this can be a part of worship, but don't associate worship with just singing. I mean, here in this story that is all about worship, singing isn't even mentioned. But you do have things like adultery mentioned, racial tension, gender tension, sexual tension.
Joel Brooks:Somehow worship is related to all of those things. Worship has to do with sex. It has to do with race relations. It has to do with how we treat people of the opposite sex. Worship is not some interlude from life once a week, one day a week in which we gather together and we sing.
Joel Brooks:That's that's not what worship is. Worship has to do with all of life. It takes place in the middle of our life. Let's actually look at the word worship itself. The the word worship comes from an old English word meaning worth from worth ship or worth shape.
Joel Brooks:Worth shape. And this happens when when our lives are shaped by the worth of something that is worth shaping. Any of y'all ever watch the antique roadshow? My girls and I, we sometimes, we YouTube little snippets of the Antique Roadshow. I love it when, you know, when when they're coming and the, estimator or whoever he is, is about to give what he thinks the appraiser, the value of this object, and we always hit pause.
Joel Brooks:And we try to do the guessing game, you know, how much we think it's worth. And I particularly like when somebody comes in with what they think is a priceless heirloom. You know, they come in. They're like, this was handed down for generations to my family. And they get it there and the person kind of looks at it and they're like, it's costume jewelry.
Joel Brooks:It's worthless. Maybe $5. And I love seeing the devastation. And I don't know if what that says about me, but I I just I just love watching them just know. It's it's also fun watching the opposite.
Joel Brooks:I mean, don't get me wrong. Any of y'all watch the person who brought in the, the Navajo chief blanket? I mean, that was pretty impressive. This this old man, he brought in a blanket. And, they're like, do you know anything about it?
Joel Brooks:And he's like, well, not really. It was I know it's old. It was from my grandmother. Just had it thrown over a chair at her house. And he was just more curious than anything.
Joel Brooks:He didn't think that it actually had any value. But the moment this appraiser saw it, actually he said, my heart stopped. And, and you see he's starting to perspire. His voice is trembling, coming as he's just looking at this and he's just studying it more and he goes, sir, you have a national treasure. This thing belongs in a museum.
Joel Brooks:This this is worth easily $500,000. Later, it actually went to auction for 1,800,000. And you just see this this guy just stunned. The appraiser's life as his voice is trembling and as he's studying it and he's googling things and he's bringing in people to look at it, you can see what's happening with him is he is beginning to be shaped by the worth of what he's studying. The more he looks into it, the more excited he gets.
Joel Brooks:And then you see as he tells this old man that this is worth $500,000 and belongs in a museum, that all of a sudden this man's entire life has now changed. He is going to be shaped by the worth. I mean, when he when he came to this, I'm sure he just probably like threw this blanket in the back of his car and drove here. How do you think he went home with this blanket? Do do you think he just picked it up and, like, just threw it?
Joel Brooks:No. He's just like, everybody be careful. You know, everybody's just gently folding it. He's thinking, I probably need to wrap this thing in plastic. Maybe I should get an armored car taking it home.
Joel Brooks:I thought, you know, what what do I do? And and I'm sure when he got it home, he probably put it in a safe at first until he until he took out insurance on it. After it was insured, he probably wanted to display it, because now it's beautiful. It's worth $500,000 You don't keep it in a corner. He probably takes down, you know, the the painting of his grandmother and he puts up, you know, the quilt or the the blanket there instead.
Joel Brooks:His entire life is now being shaped by the worth of this thing. That's what worship is. He's viewing money differently. I mean, before he would have never thought if somebody came to him and said, do you want to take an insurance policy out on that? Why?
Joel Brooks:It's just a blanket in the corner. Now he's like, I've got whatever it takes. I will spend money on this. Do you want to display this? It's beaut No.
Joel Brooks:I mean, it's just a blanket. It's worth $500,000. It was a Navajo Indian Chiefs. We need to display this thing. It's beautiful.
Joel Brooks:We need to protect it. It became the center of his conversations. He he would tell all of his friends about this. They occupied all of his thoughts, I'm sure, for weeks, if not months. He was shaped by the worth of it.
Joel Brooks:This is worship. Worship happens when you begin to look at God closely, and you begin to be shaped by Him. You know, no one in the Bible ever, when they see God, have to be told to worship Him. When they see Him, they fall on their faces in worship. When they see such beauty, when they see the value.
Joel Brooks:When we realize the extraordinary value of Jesus, our whole lives begin to take shape around him. You begin to spend money on things that you never thought you'd ever spend money on. Giving money to the poor? Sure. Giving money to our missions?
Joel Brooks:Absolutely. And you do it gladly and freely because of the value that you have, the treasure you have. You'll give away your time and your energy. You're gonna tell people about Jesus with this joyful sense of urgency. And with full hearts, you're going to take delight in gathering together with other people and just just talking about this treasured possession.
Joel Brooks:Fill you a great joy to do so. This is worship. Listen, we all are worshiping something. You were created worshiping. So your lives at this very moment in this room, they're currently being shaped by what you value, by what you treasure.
Joel Brooks:So for instance, if your physical body is something that you really, really treasure and you see as supremely valuable, then you're gonna spend all of your time at the gym. When you get home, you're gonna spend your other remaining time just, you know, looking up, scouring the internet for for any kind of health articles, reading whatever fitness magazines out there. You'll be spending your money on the latest nutritional supplements and health food, and if you have any leftover dimes or nickels, you'll you'll spend it on lululemon or or whatever. Bankrupt yourself just just for health. And I'm not please hear me.
Joel Brooks:I'm not saying that your physical bodies at health have have no value. Of course, they it has value, but it is not supremely valuable. Shouldn't shape your life the way it does. If it begins to be this all consuming, shaping thing, that's idolatry, that's worship. If having a spouse or wanting a spouse becomes the one thing that you must have, that you treasure more than anything else, your whole life will either be shaped by trying to find that spouse or by trying to please that spouse.
Joel Brooks:Or if it's having children, that's the one thing you value more than anything else, your whole life will be consumed with either trying to have a child or when you have that child, your lives will revolve around that child. It's worship. For some of you, it might be education becomes the one all consuming thing, and and so you think, well, I can only live in the neighborhoods where there's great education. I have to put all of my money to where there's the best education. All my energy in pursuit has to be for the best education.
Joel Brooks:And it becomes the thing you value more than anything else. If you just take a step back, you're thinking my entire life is being shaped by this. And what Jesus is saying is that's a broken cistern. Yeah, it's good for a sip, but it doesn't hold water. It doesn't quench your thirst.
Joel Brooks:And if you trust in those things, you will become a slave to those things, and you'll be absolutely filled with anxiety. Only the Lord liberates you and gives you peace. You know, I've found a good way to, for me personally, to try to evaluate what I value, what idols I might have in my life. I ask myself a couple questions. One of them is this.
Joel Brooks:Joel, what are you meditating on or what are you daydreaming about? Daydreaming and meditating are the same thing. What are you daydreaming about? Where do my thoughts naturally go? Is it on the beauty of Christ or is it, you know, an extra bedroom and half bath?
Joel Brooks:Is it decorating? Is it, you know, what is it physical appearance? What what am I daydreaming about? Another way to evaluate what you really value is to ask the question, where do I find community? People gather around a common value or a common treasure.
Joel Brooks:So ask yourself, what is, where's my community? What are we all gathering around? Just pick, you know, just in the South, really low hanging fruit here. Football. Alright?
Joel Brooks:I mean, there there's some people here, there is no way you would ever possibly miss the chance to watch a game with your friends. That's community gathered around a central value. And there's nothing wrong with that until it begins defining your life till it becomes the very thing you're thinking of constantly, the very thing you're looking forward to constantly, the thing that you're spending your money towards constantly. Jesus, he would say it this way, and say, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. He'd say, that's the question is, where's your treasure?
Joel Brooks:Where where are you putting your money? I'll show you what you're worshiping. So worship is worth shaping. It's being shaped by the worth of something. Jesus told this woman, if she knew the real value of what he had to offer, said, if you knew the gift I had, if you knew what I had to offer, you would ask me for it.
Joel Brooks:Let's let's see how Jesus helps her to see this value and and brings her to a place of worship. After Jesus calls out her sin, remember she says, I really would like not to have to go to this well each day. And Jesus says, go get your husband. I mean, it's that the awkward conversation there. After that happens, we we read her response in verse 19.
Joel Brooks:The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. This ever happened to you? You're sharing your faith, you've just talked about the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus, and, the person's response is this, Yeah, well, what about the Crusades? And they're like,
Caleb Chancey:what the hell? What do you mean?
Joel Brooks:And you go back to the death, burial, the resurrection of Jesus, and they're like, Yeah, but do you believe in gay marriage? Like, what? Where did where did that come from? So you go back again to the gospel and they're like, you know, a church, it's only filled with hypocrites. Why is that?
Joel Brooks:And what that is is distraction. It's just throwing out some kind of theological rabbit trail for you to go after because you've gotten too close to home, and so they're just throwing out something for you to chase. And this woman is doing the same thing to Jesus. He presses right in. She tells the truth, sort of.
Joel Brooks:I'm not married. You know, we hide our best lies through truths. I'm not really married. Jesus is like, that's right. You've had 5 husbands and the one you're living with is not really your husband.
Joel Brooks:That's right. You told the truth, technically. That's what Jesus is saying. Busted. So what mountain am I supposed to worship on?
Joel Brooks:I mean, she's just throwing out this. You say this. Jews say this. Samaritan say this. But Jesus won't be deterred.
Joel Brooks:He gets right back to the heart of the issue. Look at verse 21. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. Now, what Jesus is saying here is so counter cultural, it would make a modern person cringe, because it goes against every modern moral fiber in our being.
Joel Brooks:Jesus looks at this woman and says, you are wrong. Doesn't say, you're close. I'm just a little He's like, you were wrong. You're dead wrong. You worship what you don't even know.
Joel Brooks:And he would say this to the Samaritan woman because the Samaritans, they had rejected 34 of the 39 books of the Old Testament. They only believed in the Pentateuch. But even though the Pentateuch, the first five books, they only picked and chose what they wanted. And Jesus says, the question is not where, it's who. You're not even worshiping the right person.
Joel Brooks:You're not worshiping the God of the Bible. And so out of a deep love for this woman, Jesus says, you are wrong. I'm not gonna let you get off on some technicality or some distraction, it's the very person that you're worshiping is wrong. You're worshiping the wrong person. Unless you go to the God of the bible.
Joel Brooks:He then tells her what real worship looks like. Verse 23. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. And what does Jesus mean by this?
Joel Brooks:Worship Him in spirit and in truth. We quote it all the time, but what does he mean? It's actually pretty complicated. It's a hard question to answer. I could give you as many answers as I have commentaries on this.
Joel Brooks:Alright? Well, one of the main questions that is raised in every commentary is, what does Jesus mean by worship in spirit? Is he talking about the Holy Spirit here or is he talking about our spirit here? My answer to that question is yes. Yes.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit and Jesus is talking about our spirit. And I say that because just one chapter earlier, when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, he said, that which is of the flesh is flesh, or that which is born of the flesh is flesh, That which is born of the spirit is spirit. That which is born of the spirit is spirit, meaning that when the spirit of god comes upon us, our formerly dead spirit, it becomes alive. We are born again. The only way we have an alive spirit is because of the Holy Spirit.
Joel Brooks:So real worship happens as a result of God's spirit awakening our dead spirits. And I think this is the minimum of what we could say. We could probably say more about what Jesus means here, but at least this is the minimum that we could say about what he says about worshiping God in spirit. True worship doesn't happen in a place, but it happens when God's spirit wakes up our dead spirits. We can worship him in spirit, not in a place, not by making sure our form is just right, making sure, you know, we're doing everything a particular way.
Joel Brooks:That's not how we go about worship. Worship now because God has breathed life into us can flow from our heart and it will encompass all of our life. And we hear these words by Paul kind of shedding light into this. Romans 12, he says, present your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship. Later in 1st Corinthians 12, Paul says, whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Joel Brooks:So eating is an act of worship. It can be an act of worship. Drinking can be a way to glorify God. Everything you do can be done to glorify him. Now if if you're just eating something and that's really what you value is right there, You're worshiping that, but if you're you're eating this and you're like, God, this is a gift from you.
Joel Brooks:This reminds me of your goodness. Let me see this as a symbol, not the end. This is pointing me to something greater. Thank you. Eating becomes an act of worship.
Joel Brooks:Otherwise, eating becomes an end in itself. This is worship in spirit. Jesus then He adds the words and in truth. We must worship Him in spirit and in truth. That truth is standing before this woman at this moment.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus says truth, He's not talking about some abstract truth, some some intellectual truth, but He's talking about truth as a person. Yes, this is biblical truth, but Jesus is the word made flesh, standing before her in this moment. He is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through him. Nobody worships God except through him.
Joel Brooks:He is the truth. So actually what we see here, we don't we don't have time to go deep into this, but you see the whole trinity at work. Jesus says if you wanna worship the father, then you need the spirit of God to awaken your dead spirits, and then you need to believe in me because I provide access to the father. The woman responds to Jesus in verse 25. The woman said to him, I know the Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ.
Joel Brooks:And when he comes, he will tell us all things. This is actually kind of humorous. For my second football reference of of the day, this is this is this woman just punting the ball. That's what she's doing. She's just kicking the ball.
Joel Brooks:And it's it's the, well, I guess we'll never know kick. You know, we'll just have to ask the Messiah when he comes. Let's just just end this conversation because let's just agree to disagree. We can't know. Jesus says, well, the Messiah has come.
Joel Brooks:I am he. This is the first I am statement in the book of John. It says, I am he. Jesus is the one who both makes our worship possible, and Jesus is the one who is the object of our worship. Once again, Jesus has to be central because that's all God's impressed with.
Joel Brooks:You know, last week, I mentioned that as Jesus is interacting with this woman, he, he is painfully removing barrier after barrier after barrier until finally the greatest barrier is left, and that is sin. It's sin. Well, at this point, this barrier of sin still remains. So the question is, how can this woman come to a place of worship, even if she were to see Jesus as yes, okay? I see you, you're living water.
Joel Brooks:Yes, are supremely valuable. I wanna shape my whole life around you. I want to possess you. I wanna take you in as my treasured possession if you will. She can't afford it because her righteousness is as filthy rags.
Joel Brooks:She can't purchase that. If she might worse want to worship, she still feels this huge barrier of our sin. Perhaps some of you in this room are there today. Maybe maybe you've been coming to church and you're thinking, you know what? I I kind of am at this stage in my life where I just need to go to church.
Joel Brooks:I need to turn over a new leaf. I need to become a better person. So I'm going to church. And maybe you've begun getting interested in God, but as you have gotten closer, what you have realized is that there is a great barrier. You're not feeling more intimacy with God, you're actually feeling farther away from him because as you try to pursue him, you're just realizing this enormous barrier of your sin.
Joel Brooks:Even as you're beginning to find him beautiful. What do you do about the sin problem? Jesus tells us here that He is going to deal with this. And He does this by mentioning the hour. 1st 21, Jesus said to her, woman, trust me.
Joel Brooks:The hour is coming. When neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. Verse 23. But the hour is coming. It is now here when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth.
Joel Brooks:Now this hour that is being referred to here is often brought up in John's gospel and it always refers to the death of Jesus. The death, his resurrection, his ascension, this climactic hour or event that is going to happen. This hour is coming and Jesus is saying, it's now even breaking through because I am literally standing before you in this moment. Jesus is saying here that the hour is coming when sin will be dealt with. The greatest barrier in your life will be removed And you can finally worship.
Joel Brooks:There's no longer going to be a need, for any temple. There's no longer gonna be no debate about is it here, is it there, where's there's no longer gonna be need any debate because there's gonna be no temple because I will replace the temple. There's no longer gonna be a need a need a place to make sacrifices because I'm going to be the sacrifice. There's no longer gonna be a need for a high priest because I will rise and I will ascend to be a high priest forever. And I will live to make intercession for you.
Joel Brooks:That this sin barrier is going to be removed forever. And Jesus says, if you believe this, if you believe this, then this living water will come to you and your thirst will be satisfied. Jesus said, the father is seeking worshipers. And I'm sure he looked dead at this woman right in the eyes when he said that. The father is seeking worshipers.
Joel Brooks:Are you listening? Will you come? Will you be one of those worshipers? It's the same question that he brings before us. Will you come and worship Him in spirit and in truth?
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Our father, we thank you so much for the gift of your son. And in this moment with all we have, we cling to Him. We don't cling to any good work, any any prayer, any music, any passion we might have. You were not impressed with any of those things, but you were impressed with your Son.
Joel Brooks:And so we cling wholly to Him. He is the one who enables us to worship and he is the object of our worship. So father, through your spirit, I pray that we would be able to lift up high the name of Jesus in this place for your glory and for our joy. May we drink from the wells of living water. And we pray this in your name, Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
