On May 27, 2009, the world's largest worship venue opened in Arlington, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. With close to 30,000 parking spaces, the ability to hold 110,000 people, a state-of-the-art sound system, and a gigantic center-hung, high-definition television screen that measures 160 x 72 feet, it is the perfect location to gather, sing, shout, cry, clap, and feel the energy that occurs when that many souls come together with the same hope in mind.
What church does this massive edifice belong to? It must be the Baptists or charismatics, right? Who else has that kind of coin? No, the owner of this $1.33 billion monster in Arlington with its retractable roof and almost limitless possibilities for usage is none other than Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. And all year long, whether for a concert, motocross event, tractor pull, or football game, men and women flood into the stadium ready to support their favorite team, band, or player. They've come for one reason and one reason alone. They have come to ... rejoice!
Rejoice is a simple yet serious word, meaning to celebrate, cheer, exult, or delight in. One synonym for rejoice is worship, and we were each created by God to do so, hardwired by our Creator for it. And thus, even those men and women who don't enjoy worshiping their Maker can sometimes be seen with their bodies painted in team colors, becoming emotionally affected for hours, sometimes days, by how the game went on a particular Saturday or Sunday, or Monday night, or Thursday night. They're ready for worship any day of the week — morning, noon, or evening.
But, their hearts are yielded to lesser things. Because we humans are worshipers, we are rejoicers. It's what we do. Every single person, whether religious or irreligious, actively worships. They have identified something bigger than themselves that they believe is worthy of their money, time, and the meditations of their hearts. In many ways, they have offered themselves as sacrifices to that "something," whatever it is. It comes naturally to them. Easily. Enjoyably.
But in our sinfulness, this tendency to worship things other than God is an exercise in disappointment. It offers us nothing but temporary satisfaction while simultaneously bringing down God's judgment upon us (Ecc. 11:9). Since we are worshipers by God's design, the problem is not that we rejoice but rather that we rejoice wrongly. In the Book of Romans, Paul writes:
"For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. ... They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator who is praised forever" (Rom. 1:21-23,25, ESV and HCSB).
Simply put, we prefer creation to the Creator. Let's look at this issue of Jesus-centered worship by taking notes from Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well in John 4, where He begins to reveal the barriers that keep us from genuine, soul-satisfying, awe-inspiring, eternal worship of God. By the Spirit's power, may we learn to avoid the pitfalls of lifeless, manipulative worship, or of leading our people into worship based on anything less than gospel realities.
Barrier 1: Wrong Wells
The Samaritan woman had a question or two for Jesus when He offered her a taste of water more refreshing and long lasting than the water that came from this particular well. "Are You greater than Jacob?" she seemed to say. "Are You too good for this well? Jacob and his sons drank from this well. Aren't You a Jew? The livestock of Your people for generations have drunk from this well. All that Israel was built upon drank from this well. Are You better than that?"
Truth is, Jesus basically said, there were flaws with this well. "It doesn't work long-term. It only helps for a moment, then you have to come back for more. The contrast was simple: her well never quenched her thirst for long; His well, however, would satisfy forever. Then as now, drinking from the wrong well becomes a serious problem of supply and demand.
In our Western culture, we consistently dip our buckets into three wells that promise to leave us feeling satisfied. And even though we know they're lying to us — every time — we keep coming back, hoping against hope they'll finally be telling us the truth.
1. The most predominant is the well of money and comfort. Not just money, because very few people hoard money just for money's sake. It's money and comfort. New stuff is nice. Almost intoxicating, isn't it? We feel an emotive response to trinkets and toys, to new gadgets and gear. But especially in our day and age, when new becomes old very, very quickly, the high of a new purchase barely has time to wear off before we want to feed it something newer. So we go from trinket to toy, to trinket to toy, from new thing to new thing.
2. The second is the well of relationships and sex. These desires, of course, are not intrinsically evilor wrong. Like money and comfort, they are gifts from a good God. But like everything, they can steer us off track when we elevate them beyond what God created them for, when the gifts become gods. That's what we've done with sex and relationships.
We have perverted these blessings from God, the Author and Creator of these gifts, and have elevated them beyond their assigned place, leaving nothing for ourselves but heartache and disappointment. We simply ask too much of our relationships. Women — you'll never find a man who completes you. Regardless of what the TV shows and movies promise you, no one can fix what's broken in your heart.
If you had a man who thought of nothing but you, how to romance you, how to love and encourage you, you would still be empty. If you came home every day to rose petals on the floor, a house your husband had cleaned while you were away, his chiseled physique leaning over the changing table finishing up the care of another dirty diaper, you would eventually think, "Gah, why does he keep doing this with the roses? Does he think I'm an idiot? He doesn't think I can even change a diaper?" You'd begin to wish he would be somebody else, would do things differently. No man is enough. You need a Savior.
And men — if you came home each evening to a woman who was skimpily dressed, presenting you a platter with a freshly grilled steak, having sequestered the kids to their rooms so you could watch football uninterrupted till bedtime, you would still be empty if you thought you could find all your satisfaction in her ... because your heart is broken. And over time, you would begin to fantasize about a salad and some other woman. She can't fix you. No woman can. You need a Savior. None of us can go to this well expecting to find the answers to our deepest thirsts.
3. A third empty well we commonly employ is that of respect and success. We want approval. We want acceptance. We want other people to look at us and be impressed by what they see. We want to be pointed to as the example. We want to be shown respect. We feel like we are entitled to it. We love this well. But that little pat on the back from other people is fleeting. The same guy who pats you on the back today will turn around and stab you in the back tomorrow. The encouragement we received from that girlfriend of ours will quickly turn into gossip about our weaknesses. "is well just doesn't hold up.
When Jesus extended the offer of water that would quench thirst once and for all, He was offering us affirmation, acceptance, and approval that goes far beyond what any human can give. What more affirmation do we need than the cross of Jesus Christ? How insignificant is a "good job, buddy," compared to the fact that God, knowing the absolute truth about you and your motivations, died on the cross for you. Man can approve and accept you without any knowledge of your motives. He may never spot the shady, sinful, selfish motives that lead you to perform your "good deeds." But God knows your wicked heart. And still, He died on the cross for you. That's gospel truth. That's worship material.
Barrier 2: Unconfessed Sin
Not only do we not have the tendency to drink from empty wells, we also have the proclivity to live with unconfessed sin. In the woman at the well, we see our own foolish ability to deny the impact of our sin, hold on to our sin, and try to cover up our sin. "Jesus said to her, 'Go, call your husband, and come here.' The woman answered him, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You are right in saying, "I have no husband"; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.' The woman said to him, 'Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet'" (John 4:16-19, ESV).
With each of our kids, we have played the game "Hide and Seek." We count to a certain number while they run off to "hide" in different places, then at the announced moment, we "seek" to find them. But allof our children have made a similar mistake over the years. "ey have simply plopped down under a blanket on the floor or under a chair that is fully exposed, closed their eyes, and assumed that because they couldn't see us, we couldn't see them. As fathers, of course, we play along and ask, "Where are you? Are you over here? Are you over there?" The truth is, however, they're in plain sight and are hardly hidden at all.
We often make the same mistake with God. Most of us try to avoid the thought that God knows and sees everything about us. But like a reality show star, we don't have any secrets. "ere is no place we can go, not even in our own thoughts, where He is not present. And to the naturalthinking mind, this is a problem. How are we supposed to react to this invasive, 24/7 nature of God's knowledge about us? We don't like it. We feel impinged by it. And therefore, we have this hot-and-cold relationship with God-all because we've lost sight of the gospel and have failed to understand its implications.
Barrier 3: Ignorance
Seeking satisfaction in the wrong wells and harboring unconfessed sin prohibit the worship that honors God and replenishes our souls. So, too, does ignorance. Jesus confronts and corrects this problem in the life of the Samaritan woman:
"'Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.' Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews'" (John 4:20-22, ESV).
Most of us find the God of the Bible to be a bit too edgy for modern sensibilities. So instead of submitting to Him, we're drawn toward creating a "God" we like better, choosing to be ignorant of whom He really is. We pull back on the wrathful, vengeful stuff, for instance — the God who's angry toward sin every day (Ps. 7:11). We feel that Jesus needs better PR — something along the lines of an "extreme makeover."
Make Him friendlier, a bit whiter, give Him a happier disposition. He's not going to flip tables over anymore. He's not coming back with a tattoo on His thigh (Rev. 19:16), wielding a sword and filling the streets with blood. People don't want that kind of stuff — maybe in their movies, but not in their Maker. For many, Jesus is more like a masculine Tinker Bell, sprinkling pixie dust of love on everyone He meets. And who doesn't feel safe with Tinker Bell?
The problem, however, is that if we strip Jesus of His deity, we also strip Him of His authority and power. If we change our perception of who He actually is, we cannot be free to worship Him genuinely. We end up missing out on real depth of relationship with Him. Our churches end up with a God who is safe, but weak; domesticated, but limited.
So why do we do it, then? Why do people choose to be ignorant of the one true God, even at the cost of authentic, grateful worship? The underlying motivation in creating a God other than the One we see in Scripture always boils down to the same, wishful falsehood: "I'm not as bad as the Bible says I am; besides, God would never really judge anyone because that would be wrong." And, sorry, that's just not gospel.
Worship always suffers when man is exalted and God is belittled. If you remove the fact that you're a sinner, if you elevate yourself to a more righteously entitled place, if you exalt yourself and think, "I'm not really all that bad; I'm kind of a good person," then your worship is going to suffer. If your church doesn't understand the nature of their sinful condition, they will be stunted in their adulation of salvation. By stripping away aspects of His power, we worship a God who isn't real. Every time we stray from the revealed Word of God — from the Mississippi River that fuels our spiritual power - we attest that we actually believe some aspects of these foolish statements. Yet here's the paradoxical reality: you are a rebellious, wicked sinner, and God has loved you in Christ. In the gospel, these opposites go together. You retain no secrets from Him, and yet He has still pursued and saved you.
The more we hear and receive the gospel, the more the Spirit sanctifies us from empty wells, unconfessed sin, and deceptive ignorance. The more we become worshipers of the one true living God.
Adapted from Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church (Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Publishing, 2012).
This article appeared in Let's Worship Magazine.