Worshiping in Spirit and in Truth

Dannah Gresh: A lot of us do this activity we call “worship” at least once a week. But Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth reminds us that worship is more than just standing and singing in church.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: How many times do you and I sit in church or sit in our own quiet time at home reading the Bible, saying the words, praying the prayers, singing the songs, but our hearts are so far away?

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free, for May 24, 2023. I’m Dannah Gresh.

All this week, Nancy’s in a series called “Satisfying Our Thirst.” If you missed any of the episodes so far, you can catch them all on the Revive Our Hearts app, or at ReviveOurHearts.com. Here’s Nancy.

Nancy: We're looking this week at the woman at the well in John chapter 4. You know, as I read about this woman, I've really grown to love her and her story. In so many ways her story, the details of her life, differ from my own.

My background is really very different than this woman's. But the more I study this passage and get to know this woman, the more I realize that I am so like her in so many ways. There are those inner thirsts that she had that I also have. And as she often sought to fulfill her inner thirsts in ways that did not satisfy, so I often find myself trying to get those thirsts of my heart satisfied in ways that do not really last. We'll talk more about that over the next several days.

But let's jump back into the passage, John chapter 4. Jesus has said to this woman, "before I can give you this living water," he'd been offering her this living water and she said, "I want it." But Jesus said, "first we've got to talk about the truth. Let's talk about your marriage. Let's talk about your husband." The woman said to him, "I don't have a husband." And Jesus said, "You're right. You've had five husbands. And the man you're now living with is not your husband."

So in an incredible moment, Jesus shows this woman that He knows all the truth about her. He's saying to her, "If you're going to have this gift of God, if you're going to have this living water within you that springs up—that's a well of water within you—if you're going to have release, not just temporary relief that you get from this water at this well, but if you're going to have permanent release from within, you're going to have to be honest with Me about your life."

Well, Jesus exposes this moment of revelation. He shows this woman that He knows all about her. As I read this passage, I think this woman is really terrified. The clue to me is that in the very next verse, verse 19, she totally changes the subject. Jesus has said to her, "You've had five husbands, the man you're now living with is not your husband. What you've just said is quite true that you don't have a husband." And the woman says, verse 19, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet."

Now, let's talk about something safe. I just think she is, she's scared to death. What else does this man know? I mean, He's told me these hidden shameful things of my past; He obviously knows too much to be comfortable. So let's talk about something safe like religion. Verse 20,

Our fathers [the Samaritans] worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.

Now at the moment, I think she's just bringing up this conversation as a diversion. It's a smokescreen. But Jesus doesn't take it that way. He says, "You want to talk about worship? Let's talk about worship. Because that's what this is really all about. It's about who you worship. Do you worship yourself and your own needs, or do you worship the true and living God?"

So Jesus says in verse 21,

Believe me, woman, 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 Jews worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come [it has now come because Jesus has come] when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and [what's that word?] truth. [Jesus has said to her, "You've got to speak the truth about your innermost person.] For those are the kinds of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshippers must worship in Spirit and in truth.

You can't worship until you get truthful.

 

How many times do you and I sit in church or sit in our own quiet time at home reading the Bible, saying the words, praying the prayers, singing the songs; but our hearts are so far away? We are worshiping, but we're not really worshiping. We are not worshiping in spirit and in truth. Or our minds are engaged, but there's a hidden part of us that's unconfessed sin, broken relationships that we've not dealt with, something on our conscience that we've not cleared. We're hiding the truth and God says, "If you want to be my worshiper, when you come to worship, you must worship with all your heart. You must worship with a pure heart, with a true heart, with an open heart before Me."

Well, the woman says in verse 25, "I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming." Both the Jews and the Samaritans believed in the coming of Messiah. "When he comes, he will explain everything to us." I think she's saying, "This is getting too deep for me. This is too theologically complicated so, when the Messiah comes, He'll explain all this stuff."

Then Jesus declared, verse 26, and again try and put yourself in this woman's shoes. Imagine, there's already been this most bizarre conversation, something she never imagined when she went to that well; and then she brings up the matter of the Messiah and Jesus says, "I who speak to you am he." Not only had Jesus just revealed her to herself, but now Jesus was revealing Himself to her. Aren't you glad Jesus doesn't leave us just seeing our neediness and our sinfulness and our failure? That's a starting place, but then He points us to Himself.

He is God's provision for our need. And Jesus says to you "but the one you've been waiting for, the one you've been hoping for, the one you've been believing in, the one that you believe will explain everything to you, you're talking to Him."

Now, most of our translations read it just as I just read it, "I who speak to you am he." But in the original text, the word He is not there. You know what it really reads? "I who speak to you I AM" Have you heard that name before? Who is I AM? God is I AM, Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament. The same God who is now standing before this woman and He says to her, "I am God. And I've come to earth. I've come to Samaria. I've come to this well to meet you. I've come here to bring you the gift of God. I am that gift. I who speak to you, I am He."

Well, just at that moment, verse 27 tells us His disciples returned. And they were surprised to find Him talking with a woman, this kind of interrupts the flow of the conversation, but Jesus was going to turn that to good as well. It says,

"But no one asked, 'What do you want' or 'Why are you talking with her.'" Then verse 28, and I love this phrase, it says, "leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town." It's like she forgot the whole reason she came to the well in the first place. And I think that's because she's now realizing that what Jesus has to offer her, what they've been talking about in terms of living water, is far more important than that physical water from the well. You see, all her priorities have been readjusted, rearranged. Now the things that mattered so much a few moments ago don't matter at all.

So she goes back to the town and she says to the people, verse 29, John chapter 4, "Come see a man." Now if I can say this without being irreverent, let me say that the people in that town had heard this woman say those words before. Five times to be exact. Six times. "Come see a man." They may have been thinking, Well, what's new? She's got one more man. Make it number seven. But this woman says, "This time, this man is different. Come see a man who told me everything I ever did."

Now, can you imagine if there were a man who could know everything you'd ever done, that you'd really be drawn to that person? That you'd want to see him; you'd want to know him. And even more than that, that you'd want to bring others to know him? He might tell them everything about you. I think that kind of man would utterly terrify us if that man weren't Jesus, if we didn't know that the man who knows everything about us, who exposes us, before whose sight we stand just naked and open and exposed, if we didn't know that that is also a man of grace. That He's a man who says, "In spite of what I know about you, I receive you. If you will come to Me as the truth, if you will come to Me just as you are with your needs, with your failure, with your past, with your present, I will give you living water."

The woman is saying, "I'm drawn to that kind of man." Ladies, that's one of the reasons I love Jesus. That's one of the reasons I'm so drawn to Him, because He knows everything about me, and He still loves me. He still has grace to cover all my sin. See, you don't know about all my sin. You don't know much about my sin. But He knows it all. He knows things I can't see about my own life. He knows the innermost parts of my heart where I've even deceived myself, and so I say to you, "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did, but He's safe, because He's a man of grace that is greater than all my sin." She says, "Could this be the Christ?"

Scripture says, verse 30, "they came out of the town and made their way toward him" and then skipping down 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 and he stayed two days. And because of his words, many more became believers. They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

Once He's become your Savior, there is someone else that needs to know about Him. As you tell your story about what He has done for you, watch and see how God draws others who want to see and know Jesus. First, because of what you've said. Then the see Him and hear Him for themselves, and they say, "We want to know Him as well because now we know this man really is the Savior of the world.

Dannah: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been helping follow one woman’s journey. When this woman met Jesus, she tried to hide her real need. But deep down, she was thirsty and looking for satisfaction in things that didn’t satisfy.

But this woman became a true worshiper of Jesus when He offered her living water. She became satisfied in Him.

Aren’t we all like this woman, looking to all kinds of things for satisfaction? Nancy is about to dig into a question: where are you looking to meet your thirst?

Before we get to that, we want to take a moment and remind you that Revive Our Hearts cannot do what we do without the support of friends like you. You might’ve heard why this month is especially important to us right now.

Nancy: That’s right, Dannah, the month of May marks the end of our fiscal year. And as we prepare to enter a new ministry year, the message of Revive Our Hearts stays the same: we exist to help women experience freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ. And looking ahead to the next season, the opportunities to expand our reach are greater than ever before.

In order for us to pursue these opportunities, we need your help to finish the year strong. Our goal is an ambitious one. I'm so thankful for all those who have already given to help this important need. Thank you so much! If you have yet to do so or the Lord puts it on your heart to give again, you still have a week left to help us reach this goal. I want to invite you to consider making a donation today.

If you'd like to get some up-to-date information about our progress toward that goal, you can go to ReviveOurHearts.com and you can find that information there. Thanks so much for your prayers and your encouragement and for your financial support at this time as the Lord prompts your heart. We are so grateful!

Dannah: To show our appreciation for your gift of any amount, we want to send you a copy of (Un)remarkable: Ten Women Who Impacted Their World for Christ, plus a way to download a digital copy of volume 2, which isn’t even out in print yet. Your gift means so much, especially at this time, and we hope these resources are an encouragement to you. Request them today with your gift when you call 1-800-569-5959, or head to ReviveOurHearts.com.

Okay, practically, how do you stop looking for satisfaction in things that don’t satisfy? How do you look to Jesus to be your satisfaction day by day? Nancy’s going to show us what that looks like. 

Nancy: So, how do we get our thirsts satisfied? 

The first step, for many of us perhaps the hardest step, is to come to the place where we admit that we are thirsty—that we have longings that no one and nothing else can fill. That's why I love that promise in Isaiah, chapter 44, because God says, "I will pour water on" what kind of person? On the thirsty person! I will "pour floods upon the dry ground."

We had quite a rain last week, and I was told that we needed that rain really badly. Things were really dry, and people were so delighted to see the rain pouring down. We have to come to the place in our own lives where we get desperate for Christ—where we realize that we are dry, that the ground of our lives is parched, it's thirsty, it's needy, that we desperately need Him to come and fill us up.

Now, that's not an easy thing for some of us to admit, especially those of us who struggle with pride, because we have an image to maintain. Some of us have been teaching the Word of God to others and have been involved in various kinds of ministry and spiritual leadership, and we go to Bible studies and may even teach Bible studies. And it may be hard for us to admit that we're really needy people.

Because other people look up to us, we have a reputation to maintain. And we think, I can't afford to let anybody know that I'm just a desperately needy person. We feel that we have to perform, that we have to look put together.

This is one of the struggles I face as a woman with a public ministry. People think you have it all together. In fact, I got an email last week from one of my praying friends, who said she had been listening to Revive Our Hearts on the radio. She said that one particular day she turned it off in the middle, she fell on floor of her house weeping and saying, "I'll never be like Nancy. She doesn't have any struggles." As I read this, I had to laugh to myself because I thought, If only she knew.

But the tendency is to want to maintain that reputation for others to think, as we do tend to think about each other, nobody knows my struggles. Nobody else has struggles like mine. If we could only just get honest enough with each other and with the Lord to say, "I am needy. I am thirsty."

As I've been preparing for this week's recordings for Revive Our Hearts, one of the biggest battles I have faced is feeling that my own heart has been so dry and needy. I'm thinking to myself, How can I offer anything to anyone else that will satisfy them when I'm so needy, I'm so thirsty.

That's why as I prepare these sessions, the first thing I try to do is let God fill my cup. Say, Lord, I need this. This isn't for all those people who'll be listening on the radio. This isn't for all those ladies who'll be coming to attend those sessions. First, I need You to fill my cup. I have to get honest; admit that I don't have it all together, that I am a needy person.

You know, some women tend to think—I've heard this said—that if we really got honest about who we are and how desperately needy we are, that God would never accept us, that He wouldn't give us what He has to offer if He knew how bad off we are. Well, of course God does know.

But you know, in God's economy, it's our very need that makes us candidates for His grace. The needier we are, the more qualified we are to receive what God has to give us. So why do we go around with our good Christian masks on pretending like we've got it all together; we have no need, we're all put together? We're too scared for anyone else to see how very needy we are. It's our need that makes us a candidate for His provision.

 

So, first we have to come to the place where we admit that we're thirsty. Then we have to come to the place were we identify the wells that we've been turning to in an effort to get our needs met, identify the wells to which we've been looking to quench our thirst.

What are the substitutes for God in our lives? What are the things, the people that we tend to turn to when we're thirsty? We all have those wells. And I would challenge you when we're done here today to go home and make a list of some of the wells that you have found yourself turning to at times of thirst.

But let's do a little exercise here just so we can see that we all have those wells. I want to ask you just off the top of your head, "What are some of the wells that you sometimes have found yourself turning to in an effort to get your needs met?" Let's just take a moment, and we're going to pass around the mic here. What are some of the substitutes that you sometimes look to in your life to fill your thirst and your hunger for God?

Women: I find myself a lot of times turning to the approval of others and just wanting those words of approval and affirmation.

Nancy: Anybody here relate to that one?

Women: I have a husband who is in full-time ministry and is a very godly man. I think that I have looked to him to fill the void in my life spiritually, thinking that he will have all of the answers instead of the Lord. I still don't think I am at the bottom of that, even in my own heart.

Women: When I have done something I thought was good and will please my husband, I have waited for a response like, "Honey, you did such a good job; I'm so proud of you. When I didn't get that, I'd suggest, "What do you think?" I was expecting the words of affirmation from him. When he didn't say that, I tried it twice, I said, "I expected you to praise me or whatever."

He said, "I appreciate what you did, but I don't like for you to tell me." It kind of hurt my feelings that he didn't want me to tell him that I deserved praise.

But that was a real eye opener because what I was doing should have been for the Lord. It's the Lord I want to say, "You've done well my faithful servant" instead of my husband. It's only the Lord that empowers me to do what I do anyway. It's His approval I want.

Women: Just as a married woman without children, I think the well that I find myself is pouring myself into my work and not being fulfilled by Christ.

Women: Frequently with dealing with my son on drugs, rather than falling on my knees, I'll call a friend. It's been real convicting to me today that I need to fall on my knees first.

Nancy: Now, is there anything wrong with calling a friend when you have a need? What becomes wrong is when that person becomes a substitute for God in my life. When I'm looking to that person, that friend, that experience, to meet a need that is so deep that only God really can meet it. When I'm turning to that person instead of to the Lord, then it becomes an idol in my life.

Woman: I think activities in general. I've been in leadership of several things. Those can be very fulfilling and satisfying, but they can distract me from my relationship with the Lord and keep me from really being with Him. I'm looking to that to fulfill time and needs.

Nancy: I think that is a very common one for us as women. It's not that we always feel that we are doing the things God has given us to do or called us to do as it is trying to fill the empty places of our hearts. So many of us are afraid to be alone, to be quiet, to be still, because then we are alone with God. We're exposed, and we have to deal with the real heart issues. But that's exactly what we need.

When we try to fill those empty places with activity, business, things, people, always on the go, we are going to be robbed of getting to know God the way He wants to be known by us.

Women: God showed me that I had taken the blessing of children—I have six children—and I was using that as a substitute for Him. Every time my baby got big enough to talk back or say "no" or didn't seem like they needed me anymore, then I would want another one.

Because infants need you completely, and I didn't feel like anyone else did, so I would just want another baby every time one got old enough to walk away from me. So, that was real hard to realize; but now that Jesus is what satisfies my heart, I can enjoy the blessing of my children.

Nancy: I think you hit on something really important there. That is, when we yield up the idols of our hearts, we acknowledge them to be what they are as idols, things we've looked to as substitutes for God in our lives; then God can allow us to truly enjoy His gifts and His blessings, not because we're demanding them but because we're receiving them as a gift from God that we hold loosely. It's not taking God's place in my life but is something that I can enjoy as a gift from God.

God said my people have committed two great evils, two things they need to repent of. I wonder if we need to repent of these two great evils in our own hearts? I find that these are evils that I need to repent of, not just once, but on a continuing basis. We need to be a repenter, repenting first of the times that we have forsaken Him, the Fountain of Living Waters and we said, "God, You're not enough. I need You plus something else, I need You plus someone else. That's a great evil that needs to be repented of.

Then secondly, when we have made for ourselves substitutes, we've tried to build our own cisterns, our own pots to hold water, to fill our needs, to satisfy our thirsts, we've settled for substitutes for God in our lives. God says that is also a great evil.

If we want to ever get our thirsts satisfied, first we've got to admit that we are thirsty, and we have to come to the place where we identify the wells that we've been going to in an attempt to get our needs met. Identify them as the idols they are. Repent of those idols. 

As we pray right now, would you just identify in your heart to the Lord one or more of the wells that He's brought to your mind as we've been talking about these idols. Where is it that you've turned to in an intent to get your thirst met? Would you agree with God about those idold? Name them. Say, "This is where I run to get my thirsts satisfied." Then ask God to give you a repenter's heart so that you may turn away from idols and turn to Him, the Fountain of Living Waters.

Thank you, Father, that You're a God that says over and over and over again, "Return to Me." Thank You again for that promise of Jesus who said, "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 a fountain of living waters." Thank You for Jesus who is that Fountain, who does deeply and lastingly and eternally quench the deepest thirsts of our hearts. We pray with thanksgiving in Jesus' name, amen.

Dannah: Amen. We need that constant reminder that only Jesus Christ can satisfy. Tomorrow we’ll look more at John chapter 4 and explore the different levels of thirst we face in our lives. Nancy will be continuing in the series “Satisfying Our Thirst.” I hope you’ll be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is encouraging you to find freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.  

All Scripture is taken from the NIV84.

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