January 6, 2002
Emmanuel Church of the Nazarene
Wareham, Massachusetts

                            THREE WAYS TO WORSHIP
                                John 4:4-26

She lived on a dead-end street.  I don't mean a nice cul-de-sac
dead end street where the kids can play in safety.  I mean 
dead-end like the end of the line.  Like no-where.  Like no hope.

She had been married and divorced five times.  She was living
with a man she hadn't bothered to get married to.  Whatever the
reasons, her fault or not, this is the story of a tragic life.

This is a great, great story. A great and wonderful chapter in John's
Gospel. This is the longest conversation ever recorded of Jesus
one-on-one with an individual, and He said some tremendous, deep,
profound, life-changing things.  He said them to ONE person.  That
person was a Samaritan.  Samaritans and Jews did not speak.  She
was a woman.  Jewish men did not speak to women they did not know.

But Jesus spoke to the woman on the dead-end street, and something
like joy was kindled down deep in her heart.  Something like hope
began to bubble up, and faith was born. She had met Messiah and her
life was changed forever. And so was an entire village.

That part of the story - how Jesus changed a dead-end street into
a highway of hope - is wonderful and could be a lifetime study in
and of itself. Wherever we are- wherever YOU are- in our spiritual
journey today, Jesus is not very far away and He has hope for you.

But I want to lift out just a little comment Jesus made to this
lady when she tried to, as it were, throw Him off the line of
questioning He had started.  He had asked her to go call her husband;
she said she didn't have one; Jesus said: "That's the truth- you don't
have ONE- you've had FIVE and the one you have now isn't!'- so our
dead-end lady said, "What is the proper way to worship?

"We Samaritans worship here under these two mountain-peaks.  You
Jews say we need to come to Jerusalem.  Who is right?"

(We think the "worship wars" are something new!)

Jesus surprised her.  He said, "Well, actually there are three ways
to worship.  Three ways sincere people try to meet with Almighty God!"
He said, "You (Samaritans) worship what you do not know.  That's ONE."
"We Jews worship what we do know.  We have Torah.  We have David's
Psalms. We have the prophets.  God has given us Revelation.  Informed
worship. That's TWO."

But then Jesus added, "There is a third and better way for all to
come to God: The time is coming and now IS when true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, They are the kind
of worshipers the Father is looking for!"

Then Jesus said the most profound thing that maybe ever was said,
and He said it to one Samaritan woman: "God is Spirit, and they
that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth!  That's
THREE!"

Three ways to worship!  Look at them again with me.  This lesson isn't
in the Bible just as history.  It tells us exactly how people worship
to this very day!  This is deep– but even I can begin to understand
it!

To this day there is:

UNINFORMED OR IGNORANT WORSHIP

Good, sincere, even sacrificing people who do religious things and
if you asked them why they couldn't give a good reason.  "My mother
did it this way."  "All Nazarene people (read Catholic, Baptist,
Irish, left-handed people) have always done it this way.

To this day there is:

INFORMED, INTELLIGENT, WORSHIP BASED ON TRUE REVELATION

"God said it, I believe it- that settles it!"  Don't you know what
the Good Book says?  Thou shalt! Thou shalt not! Believe me, that
is miles better than no reason at all!  If people only lived by the
Book we could save a lot of money on jails and store security people.

But God is still looking for a higher form of worship; not worship
STYLE... not high class or low class music -- VITAL, SPIRITUAL WORSHIP
BASED ON A LIVING, BREATHING RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD! This is a little
harder to describe, maybe.  But something like: "well, you know one
day God spoke to me!"  (Really?)  "Yes, He told me I was lost but
that He loved me!  He forgave my sins.  He walks with me day by day.
I actually LOVE God!  I actually really believe He loves ME!  Wow!"

How do YOU worship?

Would you believe that in every church there is that all three ways of
worship are represented!!??

Are there IGNORANT WORSHIPERS HERE?
(Remember, "ignorant" doesn't mean stupid)
Not in OUR church! Surely??

How about the children?  They don't yet know the scriptures- but they
can and do worship.  They can and do get introduced to God in Jesus
Christ!

Are there INTELLIGENT WORSHIPERS HERE?  Informed?  By-the-Book
Christians? That is the way I was raised.  It isn't bad- it is
GOOD!  But informed needs to move on into spiritual, or it can
become LEGALISTIC!  Some of the meanest, nastiest people you will
ever meet know the scripture inside and out and can beat you to
death with it if you don't watch out!

Are there SPIRITUAL WORSHIPERS HERE?  I would certainly hope so!
People who have let God into every nook and corner of their lives.
People who actually pray between Sundays!

But how about YOU?

I'm thinking that maybe there can be a little of all three ways
in me at once!

I may do some religious things for no other reason than it has
always been done that way and it certainly feels good and religious
when I do it.  That doesn't mean it is bad.  It just means I do it
because my mother did it, or my beloved pastor did it.  She was
(probably) right.  But don't ask me to back it up with scripture.

I may do other things, spiritual things, for the good reason that
I know what the Bible says, and I know the rules and regulations
of my church and believe they are good and right.  That is a good
reason!

BUT WHERE WE REALLY MEET WITH GOD, AND OUR LIVES ARE CHALLENGED
AND CHANGED IS WHEN THIS THIRD WAY HAPPENS.  We begin to see God
as a living, loving heavenly Father, who loved us enough to send
His Son; we begin to see Jesus as loving us and caring for us- not
just a dim figure in history 2,000 years ago- but NOW "and our spirit
responds to His Spirit and we find we are loved and able to return
that love" and THAT is what Jesus was talking about that day by the
well at Sychar.  To one woman.  Who got so excited she left her
waterpot and trotted off to the village shouting, "Come and see!
Messiah is here!  He talks to Samaritans!  He even talks to women!"

Three ways to worship- and God is always challenging us to do it
on that highest plane- three ways- and the highest way is a LIFESTYLE
- a PRESENCE!

Celebrate the privilege we have of worshiping God in Spirit and
in Truth!