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How many of us have ever heard
or even said something like this?
"You know, I just didn't get anything out of worship today?"
It's a pretty arrogant statement, isn't it?
As if our worship to God needs to be pleasing to me.
Hi, and welcome to The Final Word.
We have been studying for a long time now on the Holy Spirit,
and today as we come to the final couple
of lessons concerning the Holy Spirit,
we want to ask these questions.
What is Worship?
Does it matter how I worship?
Is it more important to "feel" worship,
or to be correct in how I worship?
Well, we're glad that you are here today, and we're glad
that Charles Leonard has agreed to speak to us
on our final subject in our series on the Holy Spirit,
on "The Holy Spirit and Worship."
Or maybe you have thought before, "Hey, what about going
to the church of my choice?"
Maybe I like the Baptist church better,
or maybe the Methodist church,
or maybe I like the Catholic church, or maybe,
I don't think I need to go to worship God at all.
Does it matter?
You know, I once visited a Pentecostal church,
and as I sat there and listened as they worshipped,
I noticed lots of differences in the way they were "worshipping"
and the way I had always worshipped.
They raised their hands, and they swayed back and forth.
They played instruments of music while they were singing.
At one point, they had a "faith healing" session,
so that people could come and be "healed" by the preacher.
They would literally dance up
and down the aisles, and jump up and down.
A few fell down and even went into some sort of convulsions.
And all - according to them, all in the name of Jesus.
Now folks, we have some serious questions to ask today.
I mean, does God really care how I worship?
Is it a big deal?
Can I do all of those things and be pleasing to God?
Has God given me anything that I need to do
in order to worship him?
I once talked to a man who told me, "You know, I can worship God
as good sitting on a lake fishing, as you can sitting
in your church house singing."
Well, what do you think about that?
Can he? Has God given us any instructions regarding
our worship?
Let us listen in now, as Brother Charles Leonard answers those
questions for us, as he speaks for us today
on "The Holy Spirit and Worship."
If you have your bibles handy, turn with me, if you will,
to the fourth chapter of the gospel of John.
Now to give you a little bit of background on this,
the Lord is at this well in Samaria.
This woman comes to draw water.
Conversation took place between the Lord and this woman.
And so, during the course of the conversation,
the Lord had indicated that the husband she then had was not
a husband.
As a result of the conversation, that also brought in some
of the things we want to deal with today.
We're going to read together from John 4:20-24.
We begin with Jesus speaking, or rather the woman speaking.
And she says, "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain,
and you say that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship."
Jesus saith unto her, "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh
when ye shall neither worship in this mountain,
nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Ye worship ye know not what.
We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh and now is
when true worshippers shall worship the Father
in spirit and in truth.
For the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth."
Now when we talk about the Holy Spirit and worship,
we're going to connect those together this morning,
hopefully to give each one
of us some help concerning both of those.
When you turn to the very beginning of the Bible,
in Genesis 1:1, we find that in the very beginning of the Bible
that you have all three personalities
of the Godhead present.
In Genesis 1:1, it says, "In the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form and void,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
Now notice you have mention here in verse 1, God.
In verse 2, the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Then when you drop down in that chapter to verse 26, it says,
"And God said, Let us" -now notice that pronoun us-
"Let us make man in our image, and our likeness,
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle
and over all the earth and over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth."
In Genesis 1:1, there, with God, the word used there is
in the plural, which would include the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And then in that same passage there, in Genesis 1:1, 2,
you have mention God and then "the Spirit moved
on the face of the waters."
And what I want to show you is that there's a number
of passages where that all three members
of the Godhead are included.
Now moving from the Old Testament- well, before we move
from the Old Testament, let's notice another passage
from Genesis chapter 3.
In Genesis chapter 3, let us look at verse 22.
It says in verse 22, "And the Lord God said, Behold,
the man is become as one of us" -now notice again,
us- "to know good and evil, and now lest he put forth his hand
and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever."
So the pronouns that were used there is in the plural,
and when it uses Us and Ours, it's referring to the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Now moving to the New Testament to Matthew 28.
In Matthew 28, when the Lord gave that great commission,
He says, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost."
All three personalities
of the Godhead are mentioned there in Matthew 28:19.
Moving over now to the book of Romans, and there's a passage
that I want us to look at near the close of the book of Romans.
In Romans 15:30, in verse 30 of Romans 15, it says,
"Now I beseech ye brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake,
and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me
in your prayers to God for me."
Again, all three personalities are mentioned
in that particular verse.
In the book of II Corinthians, let's go to chapter 13 -
we're near the very close of the book here.
In chapter 13 and verse 14, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God, and the communion
of the Holy Ghost be with you all.
Amen." Now what I'm trying to get across to you
in reading these passages here by way of introduction,
is to show you that all three members
of the Godhead are often mentioned together - the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
But now what we're talking about in our study this morning-
we're talking about the Holy Spirit and worship.
And so we're going to deal with both of those showing how
that the Holy Spirit also helps us
from the standpoint of worship.
Turn back to the gospel of John 14.
And I want us to notice a passage there in John 14
that tells something that the Holy Spirit was
to do for the apostles.
In John 14:26, it says, "But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
He shall teach you all things" - now notice this-
"He shall teach you all things and bring all things
to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you."
So the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, was to guide
and teach these apostles.
In the sixteenth chapter of the gospel of John, and in verse 13,
it says, "Howbeit, when He the Spirit of truth is come,
He will guide you into all truth.
For He shall not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak
and He will show you things to come."
Now from theses passages, it shows that the Holy Spirit was
to guide the apostles; that He was to teach the apostles,
He was to guide them into all truth, and so therefore,
what we have that guides us in our worship,
all of it has been given by the Holy Spirit.
And incidentally, the Godhead has given unto us all things
that we need.
In the book of II Peter 1:3 says,
"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness."
God has revealed to us through the Holy Spirit all things
that pertain unto life and godliness.
Now God has not revealed all things to us,
but He's revealed unto us all things that pertain
to life and godliness.
Anything that we need to know that pertains to life,
dealing with our relationship
to one another, God's revealed to us.
Anything that we need to know concerning spiritual matters,
He has revealed that to us.
So, we can depend upon the word of God that's revealed
by the Holy Spirit, that He has given unto us all things
that we need to know that pertains to life and godliness.
If we have a question of some nature, we can turn to the word
of God, and if it's a question that has to do
with spiritual things or our relationship to one another,
then we can find the answer to that revealed
to us in the word of God.
In fact, how did we come up with the idea of worshiping
in the way we're worshiping this morning?
We weren't born into this world with that knowledge,
but we had to learn something.
And so what I'm stating now at this time is that all
that we know about worship is revealed
to us by the Holy Spirit.
That's how we have come to worship the way that we have.
Because of what's revealed to us in the word
of God by the Holy Spirit.
Now only children of God can worship God properly.
Unless one is a child of God, he's not going to be able
to worship God properly.
But I want to begin in our study showing first
of all a definition of worship.
Now there's been a lot of definitions given,
but I've got a summary definition that I'm going
to read to you that I believe describes what takes place here
in worship.
Worship is showing respect, reverence, submissiveness,
homage, or paying of divine honors to God.
Now to give you an illustration of what I'm talking about,
turn to the 95th Psalm.
If you want to know how that they express themselves
in worship, you can turn to the Psalms and get some good ideas
of what they did and how they expressed themselves.
In the 95th Psalm, we're going to read together verses 1-6.
Beginning in verse 1, it says, "Oh come,
let us sing unto the Lord.
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence" -
isn't that what we've done this morning?
Come before His presence?- "Let us come before His presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him
with songs.
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
In His hand are the deep places of the Earth; the strength
of the hills is His also.
The sea is His, and He made it,
and His hands formed the dry land.
Oh come let us worship" - now notice- "Oh come let us worship,
bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker."
Now I think you can get some ideas of a definition of worship
by just simply reading those six verses.
We bow down.
We kneel down.
We bow over to God.
We have to be submissive to God.
And so worship is man's response to God's revelation of Himself.
It is the outgoing of man's spirit
to God to commune with Him.
Through worship, we are describing worth to God.
In other words, in worship, we're saying that God is worthy
of worship, because of who He is, and because of who we are.
God is the creator of all things.
We're part of God's creation.
All of that being so, then it means we then ought
to be willing to bow, to kneel, to submit, in worship to God.
There's a couple other passages in the book Psalms I'd
like for you to look at.
First of all, from Psalm 103.
Psalm 103:1 says, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul,
and all that is within me, bless His Holy name."
Now there's an expression
in that verse I want you to look at.
"All that is within me" - that means that we're to worship God
with all that is within us.
Now the other one I wanted you to look at is found
in the 111th Psalm,
and it expresses the same kind of feeling here.
Psalm 111:1: "Praise ye the Lord!
I praise the Lord with my whole heart."
Now notice that.
"I praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly
of the upright and in the congregation."
Now, I want to stop right here long enough
to raise a question for all of us.
Have we been praising God with all of our being?
Our whole heart?
When we worship God, is our whole heart in it?
For example, as we were led in songs,
what were we thinking about?
Were we thinking about what we were singing,
or thinking about something back home?
When we were led in prayer, was that our prayer?
Were we praying that prayer, or was our mind somewhere else?
You know, I observe in worship, and have observed
across the years, for example, I may be looking
over the audience, as we're singing,
and I see some folks back there
that are not even opening their mouths.
But they're praising God with all
of their being, with all their heart.
Now that's not possible, is it?
Where I preached a number of years ago- and incidentally,
this was over in Tennessee- there was an elder of the church
that sat up near the front.
And while we were singing, he had that songbook in his hand,
like that, but he never opened his mouth.
Now here he was, an elder of the Lord's church,
but he never did participate in the singing.
Someone finally asked him, "Now why is it
that you never sing in service?"
Well, years ago, somebody told him
that he didn't have the best voice for singing.
And so from that time on, he had sat in the assembly
of the church, when we were worshiping God,
looking at the songbook,
but never once began to sing the song.
Now what I'm trying to get us to do is
to do a little thinking here.
When we participate in the different acts of worship,
are we really in it with our whole heart?
Is it with all of our being?
Or is it simply a matter of sort-of going through a form?
You know, we do this every first day of the week.
Has it become habitual to us, to where that we simply go
through it, and for example,
when we observed the Lord's supper a while ago,
where was our mind?
Where should it have been?
Were we thinking about the body of Christ on the cross?
Were we thinking about the blood that was shed
for the remission of our sins?
You know, there's a vast difference
between coming together and coming together to worship!
It's possible for one that's a Christian to sit in an assembly
and never worship God at all.
You know sometimes when people are in worship,
they have their minds somewhere else.
I went home with a family years ago, after worship,
and the lady said, "We were going to have roast beef,"
but says, "It's burned.
It'll have to be toasted beef now."
You see, she'd left something in the oven.
And as we were in service, where do you suppose her mind was?
"If that preacher would only quit preaching,
my roast is about to burn in the oven!"
She evidently didn't have an automatic,
so she just left it set.
Now you ladies are blessed today because you can set it
for a certain time and it turn off,
but she couldn't do that back then.
Now, what I'm trying to get us to think about is, when we come
to worship, where is our mind?
What are we thinking about?
Is our heart really in it?
Are we worshiping God with all of our being?
Well, let's notice some things that the Bible teaches
in connection with the Holy Spirit and also
in connection with our worship.
First of all, there's two kinds of worship.
In Mark 7:7, Jesus said, "In vain they do worship Me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
The word in vain means empty, void,
useless, worthless, no good.
And He said, here they are, worshiping Me
after the doctrines and commandments of men.
And He said that worship is altogether vain.
Now on the other hand, worship can be ignorant worship.
Now we're talking about two kinds
of worship that's not right.
In John 4:22 that we read from a few moments ago,
remember Jesus told this woman, "Ye know not what ye worship.
We know what we worship," John 4:22.
All right, if she knew not what she worshiped,
it was not true worship; it was ignorant worship.
And so therefore there is such a thing as worship that is in vain
after the doctrines and commandments of men.
There is worship that is in ignorance.
When Paul was at Mars Hill,
they were worshiping idols on every hand.
And they were afraid that they had overlooked out a god,
so they had erected an altar to the unknown God.
And Paul said in Acts 17:23, "Him I declare unto you."
Were they worshiping?
Yes, but they were worshiping in ignorance.
They had an altar there to the unknown God.
And so, what we're showing here is that there is such a thing
as false worship, and the Holy Spirit reveals
that that's false.
Now the Holy Spirit also reveals there is true worship.
John 4:24, "God is a Spirit,
and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth."
We want to thank Brother Leonard
for his encouraging lesson on worship.
As you can tell from his lesson, worship has indeed been shown
by God to us, as far as what he expects of us
in our worship of him.
Yes, the woman at the well wanted to know
where was the correct place to worship, but he said,
"You have missed the whole point, I am looking for people
who really truly love me enough to do what I say.
To worship me, both in spirit and in truth."
We also learned that, all
of the Godhead is worthy of our worship.
God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all deserve our heartfelt
and obedient worship.
Friends, the Holy Spirit has written his words for us,
that we may know how to obey and in obeying him in worship,
we can please him when we come together.
Thank you for joining us today, and we invite you back next time
as we consider more about the Holy Spirit and worship.
You might be watching this show for the first time
and you might be asking what should a person do to be saved?
Well, I'm glad to share the Lord's invitation
with you right now.
First, believe that Jesus is the son of God.
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Repent of your sins.
Acts 2:38, "Peter said unto them, Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
And then, confess that Jesus is both Lord and Christ.
Romans 10:9 says, "That if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
And then, folks, you must be baptized in order to, that is,
so that your sins can be forgiven.
Mark 16:16, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;
but he that believeth not shall be damned."
I Peter 3:21 says, "The
like figure whereunto [even] baptism doth also now save us
(not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God)
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: And then, folks,
we must remain faithful, as it says in Revelation 14:13,
"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write,
Blessed [are] the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth:
Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours;
and their works do follow them."
Folks, these are the very steps that will make sure
that you make it to heaven.
We're glad that you joined us.
We ask that you come back next time and join us
as we study more about the Holy Spirit.