Preached in Luther House Chapel on 3rd August 2008. Worship Month.

Text: Psalm 121:1-8; John 4:19-24; Matthew 22:37-38

Worshipping God in "Spirit and Truth"

Spirit - knowing, cognitive comprehension and self-willed to worship.

Thus worship is a CHOICE that stems from knowing - it’s a conscious decision as
a decision to love.

Love is first a choice, an act of will

- in the past, spouse decide to love the person whom they married
- Their choice started them on their journey to know whom they have
chosen to love
- The same choice made by parents who choose to love their adopted
son

Hindrances in loving one's chosen, prejudices of:

• 'son of MY blood'
• 'wife of MY choice whom I 'fell' in love with
• We fall in love with the image of our own self-centered love, and when that
image turn out to be a reality that does not tally with our definition and
expectation of love, we reject it - thus falling out of love. In other words, the
subject concern does not measure up to my standard.

OT Samaritan hindrances:

• God is limited by space - Mt Gerizim

• God is limited by symbols - the temple
• God is bias in his love, he love the Jews more
• God is bias because they are mixed blood - unworthy because of a
background of their birth in which they have no control over. Thus, God
seems to be unfair but one has to live with it.

Knowing of the TRUTH - Truth concerning God, is LOVE and HOLY

Worship overcomes these prejudices when one comes to the knowing of the
Truth concerning God:

• God is perfect and He is perfect Love therefore He cannot fall beneath our
expectations, in fact He will be above and beyond our expectations.
• God is not bias over imperfections, accident of blood, race, tongue, background
baggage we carry, he love us in spite of them all
• God is not limited by space or symbols - He is within us therefore we can worship
him wherever we are and within the context of our preconceived symbols (i.e. as
long as our expression of worship is authentic, whether we raise our hands, or
bow our heads, or claps our hands, close our eyes, stand at attention, raise our
voice, pray in tongues, dance and jump on the spot - it matters not with God as
long as it is authentic. He does not judge us by our contextual or adopted
symbols, neither should we over each other on one condition – we do so in
love for the neighbor since worship is not just a private affair but a
corporate celebration of faith.
• Worship of God is first a CHOICE, then it continues as a journey as we begin the
first step in knowing the TRUTH of who He is.