“Worship the Lord in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24b)

And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

• You shall have no other gods before me.
• You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your god, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
• You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
• Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
• Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
• You shall not murder.
• You shall not commit adultery.
• You shall not steal.
• You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
• You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
  (Exodus 20:1-17)

“To love God, to love people, that's the center of the mark” plays in the background.

The first four commandments have to do with our relationship to God. The last six commandments have to do with how we love our neighbor. When Jesus was asked which is the greatest commandment, “Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40).

The commandments were given so that the people may know how to go about worshiping God. Moses had demanded from Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me” (Exodus 8:20).

Worship Involves Loving God and Loving Others

Worshiping God involves both our direct relationship with God as well as how we treat our neighbor. We cannot ignore one or the other. Jesus says in Matthew 5:23, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to that person; then come and offer your gift.”

One article notes, “True worship is God-centered worship. People tend to get caught up in where they should worship, what music they should sing in worship, and how the worship looks to other people. Focusing on these things completely misses the point. Jesus tells us that true worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). This means we worship from the heart and the way God has designed. Worship can include praying, reading God's Word with an open heart, singing, participating in communion, and serving others. It is not limited to one act, but is done properly when the heart and attitude of the person are in the right place.” 1

“Open up the gates of love
Turn the tide and stop the flood
You've got my heart now, got my soul.
Who is my neighbor, where is the love?
That speaks for those our world has lost
It's every heart now, it's every soul” sings in the background.

When the law came, it brought with it conviction of sin. It opened our eyes and our hearts to the knowledge of the commandments of God to love Him and to love our neighbor but we had no power within ourselves to fulfill the law. The law, written on stone tablets, drives us to our knees in brokenness.

True Worship Comes From The Heart

Paul asks in Galatians 3:19, “What, then, was the purpose of the law?” and he answers, “It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.... Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.”

Jeremiah prophesies in Jeremiah 31:31-34, “Thus God proclaimed: 'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,' says the Lord. 'But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,' says the Lord. 'For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more"'

An article goes on to write about this verse, “This prophesy was fulfilled by Jesus Christ who came to bring the New Covenant and to be the true sacrifice for the sins of the world: "For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,' then He adds, 'Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.' Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful' (Hebrews 10:14-23). See also Hebrews 8:10-12.”2

“And Love, Love will find a way to break through” sings.

As another article notes, “The law is written in our hearts through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Peter, in Acts 2:38, told the people to 'repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Yahshua the Messiah for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'... His Spirit dwelling in our hearts and minds is one of the great mysteries the New Testament speaks of, and is our only hope of eternal life. Colossians 1:26-27, '...the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints to whom Yah would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Messiah in you, the hope of glory.'”3

“Here I am humbled by the love that you give, forgiven so that I can forgive” sings.

“Now I've found the greatest love of all is mine, Since you laid down your life, The greatest sacrifice!”

“Majesty, Majesty
Your grace has found me just as I am
Empty handed, but alive in your hands
Majesty, Majesty
Forever I am changed by your love
In the presence of your Majesty”

The incredible news is that, through the death of Jesus and the New Covenant, by the power of the Holy Spirit which resides in us, we have the ability to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We have the ability to truly worship God.

It is the Holy Spirit inside of us which gives us the ability to walk out God's commands. As John writes in 1 John 4:19-21, “We love because he first loved us. If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For if we do not love a fellow believer, whom we have seen, we cannot love God, whom we have not seen. And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another.”

True Worship Involves Obedience

And as one article notes, “The highest form of praise and worship is obedience to Him and His Word.”4 John goes on to say in 1 John 5:2-4, “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.”

Jesus tells a Samaritan in John 4:23-24, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

Spirit is Strongs# 4151, the Greek word pneuma. According to the Enhanced Strong's Lexicon, the word translates to both the Holy Spirit and the human spirit. And in John 17:17, Jesus prays to the Father, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”

In other words, Jesus was saying that there was a time coming, that was now here, that people would receive the Spirit of God which would enable them to obey the commandments of God from their hearts (spirit), and in such, genuinely giving our Father the true worship He desires.

True Worship is Based on God’s Provision Not Our Own Provision

Genesis 22:9-14, “When they reached the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided."

However, having the Spirit of God within, does not guarantee that we will walk according to the Spirit, obeying the commandments of God from the heart. Too often we still try to obey God from our own self-effort. Paul confronts the Galatians for this in Galatians 3:1-3,

“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?”

Larry Crabb talks about the heart difference between genuine obedience and works of the flesh in how we relate to others in his book “Becoming a True Spiritual Community.” He notes that we choose between dwelling in an upper and a lower room, as he would call it. 5

The Lower room, as he notes is “an effort to manage life without God” where it is “a priority determination to preserve and enhance our selves.” He describes the furnishings of the lower room as follows 6:

1. Self-Centered Focus. We turn everything to how it relates to us personally. Our capacity for relationship turns into demand for having our needs met and we desire, above all, that others relate well to us.


2. Use Resources for Control. He notes that we depend on our resources “to make life turn out the way we want it to.” We use our money, for example to make us feel important.


3. Seek Pleasure and Avoid Pain. We look at life and interpret experiences by how they make us feel. Do they bring us pleasure or pain? And we make choices accordingly on what is good and bad.


4. Performance Orientation. We see the high standards of God's law as pressure to perform. Rather than having gratitude for grace and receiving God's love for our failures, we work hard to get it right.

Relating to others out of the lower room is not edifying or encouraging to others. It does not demonstrate God's love. It is self centered and demanding. Larry Crabb writes that in a spiritual community people “share without manipulation, they listen without prejudice, they decide without self-interest.” In a spiritual community we treat each other with great care and value. He notes that “Only in Christianity is there a clear basis for regarding each other as having profound worth.” 7

As Larry Crabb goes on to say, the main focus of spiritual conversation is not sin, but a focus on the Spirit's movement. “What evidence can we find of the Spirit's creative involvement in each other's life? That's the focus of spiritual community.” 8

When we have courage to speak from the lower room, it is fleshly courage, or self-assertion, “freedom to speak my mind and not care what you think.” As he notes this is very different from spiritual courage which he references Henry Nouwen's definition, “To have courage is to listen to our heart, to speak from our heart, and to give from our heart.” 9

Larry Crabb writes that the New Covenant makes possible a “new way to relate. Now, when we think someone is wrong about something, we can approach that person with an attitude entirely different from what we could muster under the old arrangement.” He calls this new way, “The Upper Room” God furnishes with new inclinations. Larry Crabb notes that it is furnished based on four provisions of the New Covenant 10:

1. “A New Purity.” This room is furnished with a “passion to worship” out of gratitude for what He has done for us that we could never do for ourselves. In this place, we celebrate each other rather than judge.


2. “A New Identity.” We are given a “passion to trust” that comes from knowing we are a beloved child of God. He writes about people who know they are loved by God, “because something deep is settled within them, they are safe to be with. They require no one to make them solid, to fill them up, and they always have something to give.”


3. “A New Inclination.” The Upper Room is furnished with a “passion to grow.” We now want to do good. Everything that comes our way is an opportunity to enjoy God and become more like His Son. He writes, “Upper Room saints want to grow into Christlikeness more than they want personal peace and affluence.”


4. "A New Power. This new power provides us with a “passion to obey.” He notes that it is the power that raised Jesus from the dead who resides in us and gives us the power to be patient. We not only want to obey, but we can.

Larry Crabb gives a vision of what he feels spiritual community should look like when we are dwelling in the Upper Room. He describes it as a safe place, where both the ugly and beautiful can be faced. A place where we can envision what the Spirit can do as we wait for Christ to be formed in each other. Wisdom to discern the Spirit and flesh dynamics and power to touch each other with the risen Christ that dwells within us.11

I come back to what Dallas Willard wrote that I included in my previous post:

In his writing, Dallas Willard paints a picture of a meeting that discussion is governed by “self-giving, self-perpetuating love.” He says, “You and I would love each other With Christlike love, and together we would love the third person with us.” He adds about people encountering such an experience, 'Wouldn't everyone want to be a Christian? Wouldn't wounded people flock to our church?”

He notes, “Such love, however, involves an openhanded death: 'This is how we know what live is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers' (1 John 3:16, NIV, emphasis added). We will have to die to Ourselves -to the desire to be first, to control, to be admired, to be sought after. For “we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be revealed, then we will be revealed with him, glorious” (Colossians 3:3-4, PAR). But what could be better than being 'hid with Christ in God?' That's exactly where a person in union with God would want to be. As we die to ourselves, we come to participate in a resurrected sort of life (see Philippians 3:11). With such a Jesus-based way of life, we become one who nourishes and cherishes the person next to us.” 12

“We've got to give it away, And there's a price to pay, When we give it away” sing in the background.

True Worship Involves Faith

So how do we live out of the Upper Room? The difference between walking according to the Spirit, obeying the commandments of God from the heart and walking in our own self-effort is faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul says in Galatians 3:24-27, “So the law was put in charge of us until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

Obedience to God is through faith in Jesus Christ. The true worship that God desires comes through faith in Christ. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). And Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” (Hebrews 10:38)

True Worship Costs us Something

One article notes, “The English word worship comes from the Old English “worthscipe”, meaning to at tribute worthiness and devotion, OR pay homage to. To worship is to recognise and express how worthy God is.”13

In order for something to be a sacrificial offering of worship, it must involve a cost to us. In 2 Samuel 24:18-25, Gad told David to build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David requested to purchase it from Araunah so that he could build an altar “that the plague on the people may be stopped.” Araunah immediately offered to give him it along with the oxen and anything else he needed. However, David told him, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

Jesus taught His disciples about sacrifice in Mark 12:38-44. He watched and noted that a poor widow who came and put two small copper coins gave more than all the rich people who put in large sums. He said, "for they all put in out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on."

It is so easy to pray the words and tell God that I would like to worship Him with the way I live my life. The words so easily spill out of my mouth. However, worshiping Him is more than just words or warm fuzzy feelings about God. It is genuinely loving God with the way I live my life, the way I treat others, and the way I use my resources.

“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die” sings in the background.

Too often, like the people who were freed out of Egypt, it is easy for me to complain. However, this is living out of my “Lower Room.” Complaining is a self-centered focus that looks at situations in how it relates to me (how others treat me, what I want, need, or desire from them). Too often, I try to love people out of my own self-effort, I try really hard, then I end up feeling defeated, exhausted, and hurt by others for the way I feel they treat me. I think to myself, if only they would treat me better I could really live the gospel by loving them better.

However, living the gospel and worshiping God in the way I live my life never is tied to how others treat me. As I live out of the Upper Room, by faith in Christ, rather than by self-effort, I am free to give to others without constraint. I love others well, not because I try really hard to get it right, but out of the overflow of God's love for me.

“You are Holy, Holy, Holy! I want to be holy like You are” sings in the background.

Lovelessness towards others comes in two forms according to Dallas Willard. It is assault (attack) and withdrawal (distancing). “We assault others when we act against what is good for them, even with their consent” Dallas writes. Withdrawing from others is when we “are indifferent to their well-being or perhaps even despise them. We 'don't care.'”14

Whenever I am being “a critic” of others in my thoughts, actions, or words, I am acting in lovelessness. I am living out of my Lower Room and failing to worship God with the way I live my life. Dallas Willard writes that “Every contact with another human being should be one of goodwill and respect, with a readiness to make way for the other in suitable ways.” 15

Rather than complain or criticize others, Dallas suggests that we replace critical thoughts and/or actions with prayer for that person. In this way, we are using our energy and actions for their welfare rather than harm. He noted that in doing so himself, he experienced repentance and saw that perhaps his criticism was inaccurate. 16

He writes that we can break away from our tendencies toward lovelessness (attack or withdrawal) by noncooperation, “making initiatives of goodwill and blessing in the midst of such attacks.” 17

Lord, You are worthy of all glory, honor and power!! Forgive me for complaining. I am reminded of the words I sang in church this last weekend: "And I know my God made a way for me." Just as you set Your people free out of Egypt to come worship, please make the way for me to worship you by loving others rather than complaining in my heart about them. Thank you that You never leave me or forsake me. I love You and desire to look more like You. Forgive me for where I fail to love my neighbor and demonstrate Your love to others. You have been so generous with the way You have loved me. Help me to truly worship You by how I live my life. I also long to step out greater in faith and obedience as I feel you have spoken to me. I have no fear or concern about it anymore, only a great deal of joy about it. Would you make the way for me to worship You?


1 GotQuestions?org What is True Worship? Available at: http://www.gotquestions.org/true-worship.html Last Accessed 4/5/10

2. Davison, Roy. Is The Word of God Written on Your Heart? Available at: http://www.oldpaths.com/Archive/Davison/Roy/Allen/1940/written.html Last Accessed 4/5/10.

3. Brown, Frank. Has the Law Been Written on Your Heart. Available At: http://www.search-the-scriptures.org/b-law.html Last Accessed: 4/5/10.

4. GotQuestions?org What is True Worship? Available at: http://www.gotquestions.org/true-worship.html Last Accessed 4/5/10

5-11. Crabb, Larry. Becoming a True Spiritual Community: A Profound Vision of What the Church Can Be. Tomas Nelson, Inc. Nashville, TN. 1999.

12. Willard, Dallas and Johnson, Jan. Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice. NavPress. Colorado Springs, CO. 2006.

13. McGregor, Clay. The Bible Study on Worship. Soul Purpose. Available at: http://www.soulpurpose.co.nz/faith/study/bible-study-on-worship/ Last Accessed 4/6/10

14-17. Willard, Dallas and Johnson, Jan. Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice. NavPress. Colorado Springs, CO. 2006.