Connected Worship

During the singing in worship, a young boy tugged at his grandma’s sleeve and whispered, "She can't sing very well, can she?" talking about the woman behind them that was singing loudly. Knowing the woman had a deep love for the Lord, the grandma said, "son, she sings from her heart. That's what makes it good." He nodded thoughtfully. Several days later as he and grandma were singing along with the car radio, the boy stopped and said, "Grandma, you sing from your heart, don't you?" Why do we worship? In John 4 Jesus met the woman at the well, she like many Samaritans were confused about the value of worship. She thought it was more about where you worship rather than why you worship. In John 4 Jesus made the woman painfully aware that the emptiness in her life was not because she hadn’t found the right man (she had been married 5 times, and the man she was with now was not her husband); the emptiness in her life was due to a lack of connection with God. Jesus said to the woman at the well…

“22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:22-24 NIV

In verse 23 Jesus is saying that meaningful worship is done in spirit and in truth. Spirit in this verse does not so much refer to the Holy Spirit but more to the spirit that is within us, the part of us that can connect with God because we are made in His image. Meaningful worship connects us to God so much so that our emptiness is replaced by a deep love relationship with God. The purpose of worship is not to punch our clock on Sunday; it meant to connect us to God so that we will no longer be empty.