August 5, 2001

John 4:23-24

Lord, How Can I Worship You when I Don’t Even Like Me?!

  1. Introduction
    1. Illustration – Ken Langley writes, After worrying for half an hour that we wouldn’t get on an overbooked flight, my wife and I were summoned to the check-in desk. A smiling agent whispered that this was our lucky day. To get us on the plane he was bumping us up to first class. This was the first and only time we’ve been so pampered on an airplane – good food, hot coffee, plenty of elbow room. We played a little game, trying to guess who else didn’t belong in first class. One man stuck out. He padded around the cabin in his socks, restlessly sampling magazines, playing with but never actually using the in-flight phones. Twice he sneezed so loudly we thought the oxygen masks would drop down. And when the attendant brought linen tablecloths for our breakfast trays, he tucked his into his collar as a bib. We see misfits at church, too – people who don’t seem to belong, who embarrass us and cause us to feel superior. Truth is, we don’t belong here any more than they do.
    2. Context – Notice the focus of this story. It’s on us. It’s on our standards. It’s on the way we think things ought to be. We have a habit of carrying that attitude over into our worship. Worship should be the way we think it ought to be. It should be focused on us. The problem is that the Bible has a different perspective. Let’s take a look at John 4:23-24 to find that perspective.
  1. Scripture Passage
    1. John 4:23-24 – Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.
    2. What does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth? This morning we can hopefully figure a little bit of that one out.
  1. Worship Focus
    1. Did you read the title of today’s message in the bulletin? "Lord, how can I worship You when I don’t even like ME?!" How many of us have ever felt that way at one time or another? I know I have. I’d venture to guess that just about everybody in this room has felt that way at one time or another. There is another question that is implied in this: "Lord, how can you like me? I don’t even like myself." We tend to go into a worship service with a couple of assumptions. First, that our ability to worship depends on how we feel about ourselves. And second, that our ability to worship depends on the music and message fitting our particular style. I’ll give you an example. At Summer Conference week before last, I had a hard time at some of the chapel services. The song leader was into repeating the choruses of songs and hymns over and over again, which tends to drive me nuts. And the speaker. He said some awesome stuff, but I didn’t connect with it because I thought his style was a little bit too intellectual so I critiqued and paraphrased instead of listening to what the Spirit was trying to say to me. As much as I like a variety of different worship experiences, I found myself operating under those two assumptions. I was tired, so I didn’t like myself too much, so I couldn’t enter into worship because it didn’t meet my emotional needs. I couldn’t enter into worship because I didn’t like what the song leader, a man I respect very much, was doing and I didn’t like how the speaker was presenting the message. Did you notice how many times I used the word "I" in relating this to you?
    2. What made my attitude sin was the focus of it. The focus was on me. The two assumptions were all about me. It really frosts me that I did that because I often have a bad attitude about people who do the same thing. I became what I loathe, and all because my focus was dead wrong. My focus was on ME! And when I tell God I can’t worship because I don’t like me so He couldn’t possibly like me, I am calling Him a liar. That’s the brutal, honest truth. I am calling God a liar because His word, His revelation of Himself to us, tells me that He loves me and nothing can change that. And when I tell Him that the music and speaker aren’t to my liking, I’m telling Him that He gave faulty directions to His chosen musicians and to His chosen mouthpiece. Do I need to measure what they are doing against the standard of God’s word? You bet. But when I criticize their style of doing it, I am criticizing God Himself for leading them in that direction. And that is sin. May God forgive us for the countless times we criticize Him and His chosen instruments!
    3. So I guess at this point we’d better figure out what worship truly is. John Breitmeier of South Albany Community Church, during one of the morning chapels at Summer Conference, gave one of the best definitions of worship I’ve ever heard. John said that worship is the "habitual acknowledgement of God’s worth." "The habitual acknowledge of God’s worth." I don’t see the words "me" or "I" in that definition at all. So maybe we need to take a little time this morning to flesh out what this understanding of worship does to our practice of worship.
  1. The Practice of Worship
    1. If worship is the habitual acknowledgement of God’s worth, then there are certain things that must be true about worship. Because worship is not about me, then:
    1. What did Jesus say to the Samaritan woman? He said that those who genuinely worship, the ones whom the Father seeks, worship Him in spirit and in truth. More than that, in the Greek Jesus is saying that IT IS NECESSARY for the ones who genuinely worship God to worship Him in spirit and truth. But what does this mean?
    2. Verse twenty-four says, "God is spirit." So those who worship genuinely must worship focused on God in order to be worshiping in spirit. Our spirits, our hearts, must be focused on God. But why the truth connection? A couple of reasons. We must worship according to the truth of God’s written word. In our worship, we must do or say nothing that contradicts the Bible. But there is a deeper meaning. In John 14:6, Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Worship God in truth means worshiping Him through Jesus Christ. Focusing on Who He is and what He is worth and not on me.
    3. Illustration – Richard Tatum writes, My wife and I recently went on vacation, and as is our habit we brought along a camera and several rolls of film. Upon our return my wife began proudly showing off our latest set of vacation photos, and then each day she’d relate her coworkers’ reactions to me. After a few days of this I noticed a recurring theme in her friends’ reactions. Invariably, people would say, "Wow, your husband must have a really nice camera!" Even though people liked my photos, I was disappointed. I wanted them to acknowledge what a good photographer I am, not what a good camera I have. After a week of this I ranted to my wife: "Why do people do this? Nobody looks at a painting and says, ‘Nice brushes!’ Nobody looks at a skyscraper and says, ‘Nice drafting table!’ Nobody looks at a sculpture and says, ‘Nice chisel!’ What’s wrong with these people?" It felt good to get that off my chest. Until my wife reminded me, "So, how often do you look at creation and say, ‘Nice work, God’?" Who we choose to focus on will determine our attitude about worship.

V. Emotional Baggage

A. But what do we do about the emotional baggage we bring in? The problem is that very often it isn’t as easy as we’d like it to be. Remember that chorus: "So forget about yourself, and concentrate on Him, and worship Him"? It ain’t always that easy. It ain’t always easy to get my self out of the way so I can worship. So what do I do about it?

B. What was that definition of worship? "The habitual acknowledgement of God’s worth." It means I can’t wait until I get to church before I begin to worship. It means that I have to regularly each day take time to acknowledge God’s worth, His value, Who He is and what He means to me. The process of doing that each day helps me to focus when I get to church on continuing to worship Him while I’m here. So how does worship begin? Worship begins by choosing to express to God His worth even when we don’t feel like we’re worth anything. As we spend some time expressing through word or song God’s worth to Him and think about what we’re saying, a funny thing begins to happen. We begin to focus on Who He is. We begin to believe, even if for only a moment, that He is able to meet all of our needs, that He is able to help us deal with our emotional baggage. What starts out as hard work becomes an exercise in joy and celebration. Granted, that sense may only last for a few moments, but it is worship nonetheless. We just have to remember that worship does not depend on style preferences or our self-esteem or even our circumstances. Worship depends only on our admitting to ourselves and to God His infinite worth. Worship depends on focusing on Him. That’s why true worship is a lifestyle. It’s a lifestyle of choosing to focus on God’s worth because He is the source of our own.

C. Illustration – Frank Peretti, in his book The Wounded Spirit, describes growing up with lots of medical problems. He was born with a growth on his neck. The growth, which was caused by deformed lymph glands, was removed when he was two months old. But it also caused tongue to swell when the fluids normally travelling through the lymphatic system drained out his tongue. Many surgeries followed, but he was still the boy with the huge tongue hanging out of his mouth draining brown liquid. Eventually the condition was cleared up, but it left him scarred and much smaller than average. A perfect target for abuse. Peretti writes, At the time of this writing, I’m close to fifty years of age, but I still remember the names and can see the faces of those individuals who made my life a living hell, day after day after day, during my childhood. I remember their words, their taunts, their blows, their spittle, and their humiliations. As I review my life, I think of all the decisions I shied from, all the risks I dared not take, all the questions I never asked, all the relationships I didn’t pursue, simply because I didn’t want to be hurt again. But Peretti later writes, God has created us in His image and put each of us here on earth for specific purposes. That means every human being has intrinsic value, preciousness, meaning, and dignity. Why? Because we matter to Almighty God! …People come in all sizes and shapes, with all kinds of different abilities and disabilities – some are slim, some are fat; others are handsome, ugly, inferior, strong, weak, dorky, or nerdy – but God made us all, so that makes every one of us special, despite our shortcomings. …Regardless of your failures, foibles, or defeats, your just as human (and just as precious) as anybody else. In God’s eyes, our worth is not an issue. Let me say that again – in God’s eyes, our worth is not an issue. We are incredibly precious in His sight. Let’s choose to let that truth sink it. Let’s choose to allow that truth to free us from our own wallow of self-pity. Let’s choose to allow that truth to free us to gladly focus on God and acknowledge His worth as our Creator and Lord. We don’t have to focus on ourselves and our flaws. We can focus on Him, and worship Him.

VI. Conclusion

A. Worshiping God in spirit and in truth is a choice. What will we choose today? What will you choose today? Will you choose to listen to the father of lies telling you that you are too worthless for God to accept your worship? Or will you choose today to believe the truth that you have infinite value in God’s sight and to begin to habitually acknowledge His worth? Will you say to yourself with meaning, "I can worship God even if I don’t like me"? With every head bowed and every eye closed, let’s take a few minutes of quiet and listen to what God is saying to our hearts.

B. Let’s stand and pray together.

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