Worship Without Walls
Sharon Guptill · Tidal Church Moncton · May 14, 2023
Sharon Guptill looks at Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. True worship is not tied to a place. Because God's Spirit lives in believers, worship goes with us everywhere, changing our lives and inviting us to join what God is doing.
Topics: Holy Spirit, Mission & Outreach, Worship
Transcript
[0:02] Well, thank you so, so much, and I am so delighted to be with you here on this Mother's Day and happy Mother's Day. And, you know, I am surrounded by incredible mothers. I have three daughters-in-law who are wonderful mothers, and my mother is an incredible, she's a hero for me. She is going to be 89 this August, and this morning she is speaking at a church on Mother's Day. Yeah, she's a hero. I have another hero. My mother-in-law is 85, and she also is speaking for Mother's Day at a church. So I'm just so, so, so blessed, and I'm here with you, and I am not near 80.
[0:53] Okay, I just wanna make sure you know that. So you know what, I have a mother, we have five boys, and, you know, you're always a mom. It doesn't matter how old they are, you know, you're always, always a mom. And they're all gone from home. Now, our youngest, Matthew, just turned 25 this month, and he's off now too to, you know, build a life of their own, which is what you do. And, but I remember so clearly, like it was yesterday, when they were all running around the house making noise. And, you know, we lived in Indiana, and when we lived there, the boys were all little. And in Indiana, the one thing about the weather is in the wintertime, it kind of stays around zero, like a little above, a little below, and there's a lot of sickness. And our kids were sick a lot. They had ear infections.
[1:48] And I remember the doctor would say to me, she said, "You know what, Sharon, if we would just get a really good freeze, all these germs would freeze away." So I just wanna encourage you, because in Moncton, when it's 40 below, you can say, "Well, hallelujah. All the germs are freezing." Okay? So anyways, it had been, you know, one of those winters, and our kids were sick, and I was back and forth and back and forth to the doctor. And what they do there is they have you come back for what's called a well baby check to make sure that the antibiotics are working, that your baby's getting better, and you know, all is good. And so I was coming back for a well baby check, and I sat in the office, and I'll never ever forget this as long as I live. I sat there, and the doctor, my pediatrician, came out and she called the name of the child, and I just froze.
[2:37] I said, "Oh my goodness, I just brought the wrong kid." True story, true story. And I remember I went back into the office, and she says, "Sharon, I gotta tell ya, you know, I think this is the first. I don't think anyone has ever brought the wrong child to the doctor." Yeah, they're probably still talking about it. But, you know, being a mom has been one of the most blessed things in my life. And I will tell you, it is one of the, the most difficult things that I've ever done, raising children. You have highs and lows, and life is a journey. It is very much a journey. And this morning I wanna talk to you about what will give you a vision for this journey. If you're a mom, if you're not a mom, this is still a message about a journey for you.
[3:37] Um, What will give you an understanding of God's will as we live one day at a time? That's all we get. We get one day at a time. We live today, and then tomorrow is a new day. And we live that one day at a time. And what will truly make a difference in your life? That's what I wanna talk to you about this morning. We're gonna talk about worship without walls. So today we're all gathered together in this place. It's awesome to be together, and we have had a wonderful time of worship, but we're all going home. And I don't think you're coming back tomorrow morning to have a worship time here at Tidal Wesleyan, but that doesn't mean that we don't worship. So let's turn to John chapter 4, and we're gonna dig into this scripture and we're gonna get a picture of what it looks like to worship.
[4:27] I'm gonna read this story. It's a little longer, but what I want you to do, you can either read along or you can just close your eyes, and I want you to sit by the well with Jesus, and I want you to listen in on the conversation. I want you to sweat 'cause it's hot and you're very, very thirsty. And I want you to listen to the interaction and watch what Jesus does during this time at the well, beginning to read with verse 5. So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon when a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Will you give Me a drink?" His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
[5:20] The Samaritan woman said to Him, "You are a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan woman. How can You ask me for a drink?" For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can You get this living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?" Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.
[6:06] But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water so that I don't have to get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." "Sir," the woman said, "I see that You are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
[6:57] "Woman," Jesus replied, "believe Me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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 Spirit and in truth." The woman said, "I know that Messiah called Christ is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us." Then Jesus declared, "I, the one speaking to you, I am He." To verse 28. Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.
[7:56] Could this be the Messiah?" They came out of the town and made their way toward Him. To verse 39. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them. He stayed two days, and because of His words, many more became believers. What an awesome story. You know, I want us to look at the dialogue between Jesus and this woman. First of all, it's a conversation over water, not coffee. They're just sitting at a well, and there happened to be water 'cause it's a well.
[8:46] So He's having a conversation with her over water, and Jesus talks to her about her life, her personal life. And I want you to notice what she does. She changes the subject and talks about places. Well, we worship on the mountain, and you Jeru-, you Jews say that you worship in Jerusalem. But Jesus is very quick to bring things back around because there's a much more important point that He wants to bring out, that the location is not nearly as important as the attitude of the worshipers. And her eyes are open to who she's talking to.
[9:33] She's talking to the Messiah, and she runs into town and tells everyone about who she has just met. They come out, and Jesus teaches them. And more believers believe that day, more lives are changed, and worship takes place. This is a picture, what we just read this morning. This story is a picture of worship. So I want us to look at verses 23 and 24. And Jesus says to this woman that day, she, He says, "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.
[10:22] God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship in Spirit and in truth." I want you to notice something about what He said. He talks about true worshipers, which would insinuate and mean that there are those who are not true worshipers. And what do true worshipers look like? True worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth, and God is Spirit. So He is not limited to one place and it's not where we worship that counts, but how we worship. Are we genuine and are we true? And He said, this is the kind of worshipers that God is seeking.
[11:08] You know, up to this point, worship is about bringing your sacrifice to the temple where the blood from the lamb is shed for the forgiveness of sins. Once a year, the high priest goes in behind a big curtain that is there. The curtain separates the people from the Holy of Holies where God is. And once a year the high priest is able to go in behind that curtain and take and for the sins of the people. When Jesus died on the cross, everything changed, because when Jesus died on the cross, that curtain was torn from top to bottom and we have access to God ourselves.
[11:59] And then He rose from the dead to give us new life. He is not dead anymore. He rose from the dead to give us new life. And when He was leaving His disciples, He said, go to Jerusalem and wait because the Holy Spirit is coming and He will fill you with power from on high. I just want you to be reminded this morning that when we give our lives to Christ, we have all of God living inside of us. We have all of God living inside of us. What can He do with people who have all of God living inside of us? In a, in a devotional that's called Worship Without Walls, made this statement, he said, God has moved His address from buildings to bodies.
[12:54] Amen. Amen. God has moved His address from buildings to bodies. And as believers in Christ who have accepted salvation, we have all of God living in us. We have the power of God every place we go. That means that when we go to the grocery store, we got our worship center right here in the worship, in the, in the grocery store with us. When we go to our hockey games with our kids, we take the worship center with us. When we go to our dance recitals and when we go to work or wherever we go, we take the wor, our worship center goes with us because it's not in buildings anymore, it's in our lives. Amen. Amen.
[13:41] You know, Paul said, don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and was given to you by God? Our little granddaughter, Madison, is seven years old. And so at Easter time I was talking to her, we were FaceTiming, she has the children's messenger. And so I was talking to her and I said, Madison, I just wanna remind you how much Jesus loves you. He loves you so much that He died for you. She says, well, Nana, I don't believe that. I thought, okay, wow, okay. I said, well, Madison, like what do you believe? He, she says, because He lives in my heart. I was very quick to remind her that Jesus had rose from the dead.
[14:27] He was not dead anymore. And yes, He lives in our lives, He lives within us. So what does it look like? What does it look like to be like Jesus said, a worshiper that God seeks? So first of all, true worship is transformational. It is, it transforms our life. You know, this woman who met Jesus, her life was changed. Did you notice what she said? He told me everything I ever did. Okay? I just want to give us a little context here for this woman because, you know, she came to the well at noon by herself. There were probably reasons for that. The other women came early in the morning before it was hot outside, but she came at noon, probably because she didn't want to listen to all of the things they had to say about her life. She did not.
[15:22] She's not the kind of woman that you want your girls mentored under. Okay? She is a worldly woman who has a worldly life, and she's living it. And what does she do after she meets Jesus? She runs back to town and she says, come and meet the man who told me everything I ever did. It's like she's excited because God went to places in her life to help her and to take the fear away so that she could share and go out and bring people to Him. He was, there's a change happening in her. And transformation is change. It's not a change we make to ourselves. It's a change that God brings to us. You know, in 1971, a guy by Wilbur Rees wrote a book and it was called $3 Worth of God. I just wanna read a little bit. He says, I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I want ecstasy, not transformation.
[16:33] I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of eternal in a paper sack. Please, I would like to buy $3 worth of God. You know, what do we offer our children? What do we offer the people that we work for? Like, is a little bit of God enough, or is it what Paul says in Romans? He says, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.
[17:21] Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you'll learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Transformation. John Piper, a teacher and pastor from Minnesota, writes this, the inner essence of worship is to know God truly and then respond from the heart to that knowledge by valuing God, treasuring God, praising God, enjoying God, being satisfied with God above all things, all earthly things. And then that deep, restful, joyful satisfaction in God overflows in demonstrable acts of praise from the lips and demonstrable acts of love in serving others for the sake of Christ.
[18:23] This is worship when the only thing that really matters is what Jesus thinks, what Jesus sees, what Jesus wants. And that overflows in our lives to the world in which we go to. When God spoke through Isaiah the prophet, He said this, I don't want your sacrifices, I want your love. I don't want your offerings, I want you to know Me. And it really comes down to this question: who's in charge of your life? You know, when the boys were little, I remember they were sitting around the table at this one day, I just happened to be in the kitchen.
[19:09] They were all having this big old conversation about who's boss. So one of them said, well, I think Daddy's boss. Another one said, well, I think maybe Mummy's boss. And then one of the, Ben's the oldest. So somebody said, well, maybe Ben's the boss. So Lucas, he was about four years old and he was just, you know how they are, kind of listening into the conversation, not saying anything. He was just listening. All of a sudden he just speaks up. He goes, whoa, are you the boss of Jesus? Well, no, Lucas, they said, everybody at our house knows you're not the boss of Jesus. He says, well, you're not the boss. Then it was over. The four-year-olds had spoken. Theological discussion has been given the foundation of the truth.
[20:00] You know, who's in charge of our lives? Who gets to call the shots? Because when we're transformed, what we want is for God to be totally in charge of every part of our life. True worship is transformational, and true worship looks for where God is working and joins Him. You know, the woman joined Jesus, she ran to town to tell people to come, and they all came. And Jesus stayed two days and there were more believers. God has always invited us to be a part of what He's doing. You know, this is Mother's Day, and I just want to draw your attention to some mothers who, I don't know what we would do without them, joining God in what He was doing.
[20:52] Sarah was a mother of a chosen nation, and Jochebed was a woman with vision and mission. And even though she had to give her son Moses to somebody else in order to save his life, she taught him about who he truly was and who he belonged to. Ruth is a new believer. She was a first generation believer. She is the great-grandmother of King David. And she left the Moabite gods and the beliefs of the Moabites and came and followed the Israelite God. Hannah, a mother of great faith who prayed and trusted and gave up her son, Samuel. He grew up to be a priest and a prophet and was loved by Israel as he led them. And he anointed two kings.
[21:43] That's just a few. There are lots of other illustrations through God's story of how He used people to do what He wanted to see done in His world. How are we going to take our worship center to where the people are, joining God on mission? I have a friend, her name's Karina. She lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. She became a Christian sitting at Second Cup on Portland Street in Dartmouth. She didn't know that she could. She knew about God, but she didn't know that she could actually have a relationship with Jesus. And so after she gave her life to Christ, she went to Alpha and the people at Alpha helped her learn how to walk with Jesus. After she finished Alpha, she said she wanted to help with Alpha.
[22:32] So she helped with Alpha. And then after that, she began to help lead Alphas. Karina is a first generation Christian and she is a missionary to her home, her husband and her two children, and her mom and the rest of their extended family do not know Jesus. But Karina is a missionary and she is looking for ways to join God in reaching her family. On Easter Sunday, we had in our community a community service and we have a hub, it's a community center, and we decided to do church at the community center. So we invited our friends in the community to come. And so Jay had invited his two friends that he plays volleyball with to come to our service.
[23:20] So the Sunday morning comes and they didn't come. Two weeks ago, we dropped into their home and we were talking with them and Sherry says, I feel really bad. I just want you to know we came to your service. But she said, we sat in the parking lot and we were watching for someone that we would know who was going into the community center, into the hub. And she said, we didn't see anybody. And so finally John said, let's go home. I'll tell you, I felt like God just opened up the curtains of heaven and said, look, y'all, what I'm doing. And I said to her, I said, you know what, Sherry? Don't worry. I said, we're gonna have another community service. And you know what, we'll make sure there's somebody in the parking lot.
[24:09] So when you come into church, you can come in with somebody that you're familiar with. God's working. And He just showed us what He's doing. You know, Nona Jones works Facebook, tells a story of her boss, Cheryl, who was brought to tears when Nona said to her, asked her how she could pray for her when she was going through a difficult situation. You know, God wants to join, He wants us to join Him. He can go places in our families and in our communities and in our work situations, places we cannot go, but we can pray and ask Him to show us how we can be a part of what He's already doing. Paul says, work willingly at whatever you do as though you are working for the Lord rather than for people.
[24:56] What an opportunity we have to work alongside God and what He's already in process doing. We just need to see what it is and God will show us. Our temples should be a place where comforts are not the norm, but reaching out is. True worshipers are transformed. True worshipers will look for where God is working, joining Him. And thirdly, true worshipers anticipate kingdom opportunities. There's an anticipation where you go, I have the opportunity to be a part of what God is doing.
[25:43] The woman who met Jesus at the well could not wait to tell everyone about Jesus. She forgot her water pot that she came to the well with. She left it there and she ran back into town to get all of the people in there to come and meet the man. And they came because she said, come and meet the man who told me everything I ever did. She was so excited. How is her excitement monitor about the fact that we got all of God living inside of us and every time we go anywhere, we take the power of God with us? Wow.
[26:29] You know, a few years ago Jay was on staff here at Moncton Wesleyan and I was working at the academy and I'll tell you, God showed me something, taught me a lesson while I worked at the academy. I had these little kids. We were, I was teaching the music and I had these little kids all sitting around on the floor in front of me and I said, you know what? I am going to need some helpers. Their little hands on. Go, pick me. Pick me, Mrs. Guptill, don't pick me, me, me, me, me. You know how kids are. Pick me, me, me, me, me, me, pick me, pick. I'm thinking they don't even know what I'm gonna ask them to do. It was always stuff they could do, like rub off the board, push in the chairs, take something into the office. But they wanted to. They wanted to do it.
[27:26] And I thought of how God looks down at us, has given us a worship center inside our lives, all of the power of God living inside of us. And He chooses to use us. And He goes, you know what? I'm gonna need your help in Moncton, across Canada, wherever you go. And is there a response? Pick me. I wanna help. I wanna help God. Please pick me. You know what Jesus said? The fields are white unto harvest, but the workers are few. And we have the opportunity every single day when we get outta bed in the morning to say, God, where are You working today? Pick me.
[28:16] Please, God, pick me, because I wanna be a part of whatever You're doing. I wanna be a part of it. What is our response to worship? Do we want transformation? Do we want to join God where He is already, what He's already doing? And we would just love to be a part of what He's doing? Or do we come begrudgingly, fearful, half-hearted? Or do we come anticipating and relying on the power of God that is inside of us, the Holy Spirit who lives in us, and we have a pick me, pick me attitude?
[29:16] You know, this is Mother's Day. And I want you to know, moms, the thing that is going to make the biggest difference in your life and in the life of your family is to have a transformed life. Not a $3, one $3 worth of God. No. A transformed life in a life that says, God, where are You working today? Where are You working in my kids? Where are You working in my family? Because I wanna work with You. God can go places that we cannot get. And then when we get up in the morning, we just have such an anticipation because He's given us His Spirit who lives in us. And we say, God, I am so excited about what You are doing and You wanna use me.
[30:11] I wanna be used. Pick me today to do Your work wherever You're going. True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. That's what Jesus said to this woman. And then Paul reminds us that to be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. We're gonna sing in just a minute, we're gonna sing a song that's called Waymaker. It's an awesome song.
[31:01] That's what God is. He's a waymaker. It doesn't matter what you are facing. God has a way and He wants to use us to worship Him as He works. And you know, maybe you're here this morning and you're like the woman at the well, you didn't know. Or maybe you're like Karina, my friend, you didn't know that Jesus could actually live inside of you, that the worship center could be here. Maybe you didn't know Jesus in a personal way. And maybe today you're saying, I want that. You know, it's a matter of asking Jesus to forgive you, to come into your life and to walk with Him. And there are people at this church that will help you.
[31:48] So today, maybe that's for you, or maybe you're on the journey with Jesus. You've been on the journey for a while, but you're like, am I truly the kind of worshiper that God seeks, that wants transformation, that wants to be a part of what He's doing and looking daily for what He's doing so that I can join Him and I'm anticipating every day the opportunity that He's bringing to me? Like, am I that kind of a worshiper? And maybe I know God's speaking. That's what He does. He speaks, and I know He's been speaking this morning and maybe He's speaking to you and you say, God, You have put Your finger on something in my life that needs transformation and I want that. So I'm gonna pray for us, and then we're gonna sing.
[32:37] Wherever you're at this morning, would you give that to God and allow Him to bring transformation in your life? Let's pray together. Lord, I just thank You so much that You're here and that You live in us when we invite You in, and that Your Holy Spirit is so at work. And we have the power of God living in us, in our lives, and outside of us. I thank You for this story this morning of this woman who came to You and was so real about where she was at and wanted others to know what she had found out. And so, Jesus, I pray for each person as we are together this morning. And we are all on a journey. We all are on our own journey, and we're all at different places in that journey.
[33:24] And I pray for the person this morning who doesn't know You and wants to receive You, that they will just invite You, to ask for forgiveness for sin, to ask You to come into their life so that they can have that worship center living right inside of them. And then, oh God, I pray for the person this morning that said, "Oh God, You have put Your finger on something in my life that needs transformation, and I'm giving it to You, Lord." You are the waymaker. You are a God who can do anything. And oh God, I pray that You would speak to us where we're at, draw us closer to You, into a deeper relationship with You, so that we can become all that You want us to be. So that when we look out and we hear Your voice, we'll say, "Pick me. Pick me.
[34:17] I want to be used of God." Oh God, that we would be true worship. The worship that You're looking for, that You seek. And we thank You so much for who You are and what You've done. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Let's sing.