Worship | In Spirit & In Truth | Ps Jay Jay Meyer

Welcome to the Neuma Church Podcast. Wherever you are in the world, we are so glad you've joined us. Our prayer is that this message will reveal more of who our Heavenly Father is as we all grow deep in intimacy with Jesus. Enjoy this message. Fantastic. But if you have your Bibles this morning, you can get them out and turn to John so long. As I said, we started our series on worship. We have been working through foundational blocks, if I can say last month we taught on Kingdom. Kingdom come. What does that mean? What does that look like? In fact, we have authority and we have the mandate to bring heaven to earth. This month I want us to get a new revelation on what it means to worship Him, worship in spirit and in truth. We think it is just music and we refer to this team as the worship team, but that is a myth because they're not the worship team. We are the worship team. We are the sons and the daughters of the Most High God. We are called to worship. We come and we think that they are meant to lead us and guide us. Yes, they are here, but we are the ones that are called to bring Him worship. Now, the definition of worship that I have is worship is an attitude or a posture in God's presence. That's a good definition. An attitude or a posture in God's presence. That's exactly what we took right then. Even before Belinda got up, we were in a posture of worship. There was such a tangible presence in this room. I don't know if any of you experienced that, but I definitely should be sure that I did. Worship is an integral part and a powerful spiritual exercise in every believer's life. Everyone who is here this morning and calls himself as a believer, you have to know that worship is an integral. All right, at the back there, is an integral part of our lives. It's an integral part of who we are. Now, there are various ways of worship and there's various words used in scripture for worship, but the majority of the points to three things. First of all, when we come, the posture is to bow the head or the upper body often accompanied by the stretching out of the hands with the palms face up. All this is the posture of worship. You'll hear many times when I refer to it, I say, "Let's take a posture of worship." Hands out, palms face up. That could also be a sign of surrender. I'm surrendering to the Lord. I'm receiving. If somebody comes and Belinda has received a couple of gifts, she didn't receive the gifts with her teeth. She received them with her hands. She put her hands out. So when God, when we talk about God, bring in us gifts and wanting to give us gifts, we put out our hands as a posture of receiving. Secondly, to kneel or to bend, to bend the knee. Thirdly, to fall prostrate, face down. Now, I do know it's a little bit awkward here because we haven't got much space down the front, but I want to say this right up front. In the future, you are more than welcome to come down to the front and be part of a worship. You're more than welcome to take a posture on your knees. You're more than welcome to take a posture, face down, prostrate, line on the carpet, or even in your seats where you are. You're more than welcome to take a posture of kneeling. Why? Because we worship the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. These that I've mentioned to you are external postures of worship. But I want us today to realize that there is something referred to as true worship. You see, true worship goes beyond the external. True worship requires an inner attitude of the heart. Say to your neighbor, true worship is the inner attitude of the heart. You've got to remember that it's about the inner attitude of the heart. It's not just external. So, I want us to have a look at what it means to have this inner attitude of the heart, which is the most acceptable to God. They're acceptable form of worship because the scripture says to us, for they are the kind of worshipers, the father seeks. They are the kind of worshipers, the father seeks. So, our scripture today is John, chapter 4, verses 19 to 24. And before we get there, before we read through it, I want to give you a little bit of context leading up to this. The context is about Jesus, the Bible is about Jesus. Jesus leaves Judea on his way to Galilee. But he passes through Samaria. Samaria is a region which is normally avoided by Jews in those days. But Jesus arrives in Samaria and he finds a well and he goes around about noon, so it's in the heat of the day. And he rests at the well waiting for the disciples. In this time, this is a Samaritan woman who comes to the well to collect water. And Jesus ends up speaking to the Samaritan woman, smashing the norm, the cultural norm, just right there. You see, Jews and Samaritans, both typically did not associate with each other. A man also did not publicly speak to women. That was not cultural. And then speaking to a Samaritan woman was just taboo because Samaritans were considered as outsiders. But Jesus uses this opportunity, as he did in many, many cases, to unveil profound theological truths to this woman. Jesus also comes and he reveals knowledge about her personal life. He reads her mail. She's had five husbands and she's currently living with a man, which is not her husband. This freaks her out, as you can imagine. This freaks her out and she recognizes that Jesus is a prophet. But she sort of gets this little bit of a, I read it this way, she gets a little bit gnarly about it and she uses the same opportunity to have a go back at him about the long standing debate that there is between Jews and Samaritans. Sort of like a well, you got me, let me get you now. Let's talk about this issue kind of thing. And we pick up at verse 24 where she says, the Samaritan woman says, "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain." Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Jesus declared, "Believe me woman, a time has come in when you will worship the father." Neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship that what you do not know. We worship that what we do know for salvation is from the Jews. Yet, this is Jesus speaking, "A time has come in and has now come." You got your paper, Bibles? Underline those words. Yet a time has come in and has now come when the true worshipers, underline those words, true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. For they are the kind of the worshipers, the father seeks. What is the father seeking? The father seeking true worshipers who will worship him in spirit and truth. Then it says, "God is spirit and it's worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." Now that word here's a little bit of a deep heavy breakout of the word must in the Greek and its day, D-E-I. And the Greek meaning of that word is must, must, nothing else. His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. So as you can see, this long-standing debate was about the proper place to worship God. The Jews worshiped in Jerusalem. The Samaritans in Samaria worshiped on Mount Gerasim, which was a mountain on which the Samaritans had built a temple as a place of worship. Why? Because they were not welcome in the Jerusalem temple. So Jesus comes and he turns his conversation in an unexpected direction. He shifts the focus from the location of worship to the nature of worship. From the location of worship to the nature of worship, he emphasizes worship transcends all physical place and rituals. That's important for us to hear today. Worship, true worship transcends physical places and rituals. This is not a place of worship. This is a place where we gather to worship the king. This is a school theatre. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's not about the location and it's not about rituals. Jesus reveals that it's about the inner attitude of the heart that makes our worship acceptable to him. The inner attitude being in spirit and in truth. It's the inner attitude of the heart which makes our worship acceptable to him. And this is what I want to unpack because I believe that as Numa East family gets this revelation, there will be a new sound of worship that will rise up within this house. I'm not just talking about the worship team. I'm not just talking about this team that brings music and song. I'm talking about us collectively as the Numa family, the Numa East family. Why do I say this? Well, we received a prophetic word at the revival conference that's just gone by. And the prophetic word, a well-known prophet, they had the Roman prophets walking through, giving prophetic words. And this prophet gave me this word. She says, "You are changing the sound track of this world for the sound track of heaven." There's a sound that comes out of you that is the heart of the Father. Yeah, it's a different sound. It's not like a sound you heard before. This is a fresh sound and it's coming out of, I see, like multiple hearts. This is for us. This includes us. That's all. This is a word I receive, but I receive this word on behalf of us, I believe. It is going to start like with you and it's the sound that is going to come also with the East and the East Campus and the building and whatever is happening. I'm not sure what is happening, she says. But it's like a sound. It's like the Lord is putting down the foundation, but it is a sound going out and the sound starts with the heart of the Father and that's what you carry. Then she said, "So Father right now, I ask for release. Father right now, Holy Spirit come, the release, the sound." The sound has been released. Who knows that when you pray, God listens. Who knows that when you pray, God answers. The sound's been released. When you get a prophetic word like this, you have to steward the prophetic word. This is us, me steward in the prophetic word. This is us, me calling us as a family to steward the prophetic word. Why do I say this? My son, Jay, who's a drummer, last week he did the team devotion at 840, 820 when we have team devotion. And he brought a similar word, he didn't know I had received this prophetic word, he brought a similar word saying that Neuma East is going to have a unique sound that's going to come out of it. On Tuesday, this was Sunday, on Tuesday, I just go and pass the Joe Moore, who's in W.A. at the moment visiting her family. She brought a similar word, those of you that were at pre-powered, nine o'clock would have heard it, a similar word along the lines out of a scripture that God had revealed to her that there is a new sound that is coming out of New East. So we cannot just push this aside, we have to take note of this. And I call us as the family of Neuma East to stand strong and to stand with us word and listen today and allow the truth to be revealed so that from this day forward we will see the new sound coming out of a family. Amen? Amen. So let's start. I want to start today in spirit and in truth. I want to unpack those two and I'm going to start with truth. The truth, the scripture says true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. Twice in two sentences, truth is used. Actually, for your information, the word truth is used 333 times in the old and the New Testament. 25 times is it is used in the gospels of John. He says in John 14 verse 6, I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus said, and this is in John 831 to 32, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. It's okay to speak in church, I promise you. Okay, and the truth will set you free. You see, there's a liberating power of knowing and embracing the truth revealed by Jesus. The truth will set you free. So the word truth, I have a definition as follows. Truth is not merely an utterance, nor is it only a response to a specific command or word, but lies in the response of the will and life to the essential obligation of one's been. The essential obligation is the key word. It is a response of the will and life to the essential obligations of one's been. You see, the word truth in our Bibles comes from two words, one Hebrew word and one Greek word. The Hebrew word is emmeth, means emphasizing reliability, faithfulness, certainty, firmness and stability. The Greek word, alathea, means essence revealed by appearance or emphasizing a life of alignment with the divine truth. Emphasizing a life of alignment with divine truth. Now when we combine the Greek word and we combine the Hebrew word, we get this. Truth is a stable illustration of what's inside as real and genuine. Truth is a stable illustration of what is inside as real and genuine. Now I've got a couple of props here, you're most probably wondering why these things are on the table. If you have this key ring was given to me, it's a cross, which I have on my keys. And as you can see, this cross is gold. Yep. It's gold plated. I wish it was gold. It wouldn't be on my key ring, for sure. But it's gold plated. So this is not a truthful appearance because it's not what's on the inside. You get what I'm saying? All plated vessels, not truthful because it's appearance does not display its interior. Now if you come closely, it's engraved on and in the engrave in the engrave in the silver. So underneath this gold is silver. On the other hand, we have the corkscrew, somebody said to me, I'll be drinking wine today, I said we are doing communion, you never know what's in the communion. But this is a solid iron vessel. It is truthful because its appearance agrees with what's on the interior. What you see on the exterior is exactly if you had to break this on the interior. This is the difference. Scripture primarily defines truth as a firm display of inner essence. Let me say that again. Truth, truth is a firm display of what is on the inside. Worship is then more than just an appearance because true worshipers, the scripture says, shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. So true worship involves our inner essence. True worship involves our inner core, what we are truly made of. Getting this? Following? So this brings me to our second. In spirit and in truth, let's go to spirit. Second point is spirit. The second requirement of the inner attitude of heart for worship is the spirit. So to understand this, we need to look at how the Bible describes man holistically. And this we find that the human makeup consists of three interrelated elements, the spirit, the soul and the body. This is highlighted in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23. Where Paul says, "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and your soul and your body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of allorges Christ." Spirit, soul, body. This is the human makeup. Spirit, soul, body. Now we cannot really understand worship unless we understand the interrelationship of this. And the way to do this is to look at Genesis 2, verse 7. It says, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, body, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, spirit, and man became a living soul." Soul. So there's two distinct sources here that make up man, one from above, which is spirit, one from below, which is clay, and together in union the spirit and the clay produce the living soul humanity. We can only worship through our spirit, not in our body or in our soul, only through our spirit. Now a little bit of a history knowledge, history, recap. Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve sinned, Adam and Eve rebelled against God. This results in their spirit being cut off from fellowship with God. The terminology in the Bible is they are dead in trespasses and sin. Jesus comes along. Jesus is beaten, Jesus is crucified, Jesus dies, Jesus is buried in the tomb, Jesus is raised back to life, Jesus ascends to the Father, Jesus is seated on the right hand side of the Father, interceding for you and myself, and preparing away for us. All of that is part of God's plan to restore relationship and create an open heaven so that man can choose to walk in relationship with God again. It's his heart that we walk in relationship with him. It's his heart and because of that he's sent his one and only but God and son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. There's a little bit of a scripture for you there. So as part of his plan, what needs to happen? Man needs to choose to be in relationship with God. What is the key? What is needed? Repentance. Man is on his journey this way away from God in rebellion. He repents and he turns back to God. This is the repentance is the key to come back into relationship with God. At the time of repentance, at the time of turning back, there's this unfathomable miracle beyond all our comprehension called rebirth. Rebirth takes place. In other words, he is born again. John 3, 3, says Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." This is born again. With repentance comes rebirth. Man's spirit is renewed and made capable of a restored fellowship and relationship with God. But note, I repeat myself, it's the spirit of man, not the soul, not the body that's capable of direct relationship with God. It's not your body, it's not your soul, it's only your spirit. So it's through his reborn spirit that man can relate directly to God again. Now what scripture says this? God is spirit, that worship him must worship him in spirit. It's only through the same way that God himself exists, God is spirit, that you and I can worship him in spirit. It's the same. Inbreathe part of the human personality that comes from God, the spirit, that he breathed into us, that alone can relate to God directly and worship God in spirit. Let me say it another way. It is only the regenerated spirit of man that can relate directly to God, who himself is spirit. But I thought serving his worship and I thought giving was worship. Isn't that what you say, JJ? Yes, it is what I say. You see, to worship God is to serve him. To serve him is to worship him. To worship God is to give to him. To give, when you give to him, you worship him. Serving is a way of worship. Giving is a way of worship. It's a way to express gratitude for what Jesus has done for us. However, God does not look at what you do. God does not look at the fact that you're on the keys and then you're at the back there pressing the words and then you're on the sound and then you're on the welcome team and then you're still serving on kids team. He doesn't look at all of that guy, "Oh, he's a good worshipper." He doesn't look at the amount of money you give. If you give $10 or you get $20 or you get $30, if you get $1 million, he doesn't look at that at all. What does he then look at, JJ? I'm glad you asked. He looks at the inward attitude of your heart. It's the heart that makes the matter to him. It's how we serve with what heart attitude that we serve. It's how we give with what heart attitude that we give that is worship unto him. It's the heart attitude, the inward attitude of your heart. Now, one Corinthians 6 verses 9, 16 to 17 says this, "Do you not know that he who unites himself with the prostitutors, one with her body, for it is said the two will become one flesh, but he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit." The Amplified says, "becomes one spirit with him." This is important to know. This is important to note. This is important to write down. This is important to ponder. But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. That word unite is the Greek word "kaleo." It means to knit or to weld together, to make two into one. This is something that we do not fathom, that we cannot understand. But this is what happens in the supernatural. The two become one. There is a spiritual union that takes place between you and between God in your spirit. Not in your body, not in your soul. In your spirit. The spirit of man is welded together with the spirit of God. Worshiping God with your spirit is worshiping God in spirit. Worshiping in spirit is united with God because he is spirit. Good preaching, JJ. Brilliant preaching. Thank you. I am. Again, man's soul is not capable of that. Man's body is not capable of that. It is only man's spirit that is capable of this unique and most precious of all relationships with God. People hear what I am saying. I said this the other day I said again. The supernatural is more real than the natural. What are you talking about, JJ? Well, God was here before man was here. The supernatural was here before the natural happened. It was him who made man from dust, breathed life into his nostrils and out of that they became a living being. There was a living soul. It's not the other way around. You are more a spiritual being than what you are a physical being. There's power in your spiritual being, more power than what there is in your physical being. As I come we have nanners who can hardly walk, but their spirit is so connected with God that they bring heaven to earth, that they move atmospheres, that they speak to mountains and mountains are shifted. Why? Because they are connected, spirit to spirit with God. Mind blowing. Mind blowing. My prayer is that we get this concept. True worship is not me coming and just dancing around. That also plays a role. There's something that happens but it's about this. It's okay when you're dancing around. It's okay when you're on your knees. It's okay when you prostrate. It's okay when you flag in. It's okay when you bring in song. It's okay when you're giving. It's okay when you serve it. Though all those things are all good, but it has to do with the heart. It has to do with the heart. The inner, the inner most thing that nobody can see, nobody can touch and that's your spirit. Your spirit connecting with his spirit. That there's a unity, that there's a welding that happens. It's time church. And I want to start wrapping up by bringing to our attention verse 23. It's going to be on the screen. But the time is coming, indeed it is here now when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Let me just say off the cuff that this scripture is not for way back then only this scripture is for today as well. This scripture is for you and me. Let me read it again. But the time is coming indeed as now when true worshipers who are sitting in this room will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. What is Jesus indicating? Jesus is indicating to them, to that lady, that the time for a new form of worship has already begun with his arrival. Hello, that has not ceased. It is still continuing. That form of new worship is something that we should be doing today. Worship is not stale. It's not old. It is fresh every single day. Neuma East I call you right now to a place. Every believer listening to my voice. I call you to a place to embrace that the time for a new form of worship has already begun. This new form of worship is characterized by worshiping God now in spirit and in truth. You see it's immediately available and it is still available to this day. This genuine spiritual worship. We don't have to wait. Hello, believers. We don't have to wait. We should not be waiting. We have the privilege. We have the honor of worshiping him right now in spirit and in truth. Not just on Sundays. Hello, listen to everybody. It's not just on Sundays. It's not a 40 minute gig. We should be worshiping God 24/7/365 every second of every day. Every second of every hour. Every hour of every day. Every day of every week. Every week of every month. Every month of every year. For the rest of our lives. We should be worshiping him in spirit and in truth. I'm getting worked up. Are you hearing my heart? You're hearing my heart today. I'm calling us higher when true worshipers, true worshipers are who. Those who worship God in a manner that is authentic, sincere, aligned with God's nature and revelation. Who are true worshipers? Everybody sitting in this room that has given their life to Jesus, that has repented, turned around and has been reborn. That is you. You and I are true worshipers. Stop passing the buck. Stop passing it. That's your call. That's your mandate is to bring true worship. To bring true worship. Key words, be authentic and sincere. You see it's about a deep heart. Heart felt spirit led connection with God. This describes you and me. True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. True worship, the inward attitude of the heart. Who helps us? Who is your helper? Oh, this is spirit. Oh, I can't judge you. I've got so much stress. No, you can. Oh, JJ, you don't understand my circumstances. No, you can. You are more spiritual than what you are natural. You have God himself through a Holy Spirit living within you. No weapon formed against me, shall prosper. Heck yeah, why not? Because you have the power of Holy Spirit with you. We spoke last week about the kingdom come. Kingdom, the mandate, the authority that you have to bring heaven to work. It's not maybe you should do it. You should be doing it. Jesus taught us to pray, our Father in heaven. How do it be your name? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's a mandate. It's something we should be praying each and every single day. Don't come and tell me you don't know my circumstances. You don't know my circumstances, but it's through the worship, but through the time on our knees, it's through the times of connecting with Him that we are empowered by supernaturally and we can press through and we can see the victory. Ahead of us, why? Because we don't fight for victory. We fight from victory. The victory is ours. Where are we seated? We are seated on the right hand side of the Father with Jesus. We're seated in the third heaven. We are not seated here on this end in the first heaven. We are with Him in the third heaven. When we fight, we are fighting from there. The battle is not against flesh and blood, is it? No, power is principal, is the doctor. It's all about this level. It's the second level. But how do we do that? Worship. Worship. I'm on my knees. I'm on my knees. I'm praising Him. I'm praising Him. I'm thanking Him. Worship. I'm thanking Him. How? I'm thanking Him even this morning. Thank Him. I mean, Shola was leading us in thanksgiving during communion. What do we thank? Thank Jesus. Thank Him for what He's done. Church was very quiet. Worship, we're going, thank you Jesus. That you died for us. Thank you Jesus. That your body was busted to smithereens just for me. It's got to blow our minds. It's got to blow our minds. Holy Spirit is a help. Your Spirit and God, listen to this. This is revelation for worship to happen. Your Spirit and God. Worship. It's as simple as that. [Laughter] It's as simple as that. So let's need it. For true worship to happen. Your Spirit and God. God is Spirit, yeah? God is Spirit. So your Spirit and God. And true worship happens. It's not complicated. It's not complicated, Church. It's not complicated at all. True worship can take place without music. True worship can take place without a choir. True worship can take place without a preacher. True worship can be inside a building and outside a building. This is not a church. This is a building. You are the church. You are the church. The church gathers in this building every Sunday, 9 o'clock and 11 o'clock. The church, you and I, we gather here. You see, in essence true worship only requires you and the presence of God. True worship. So I conclude. I was asked this question the other day, "Poster Jaija, what do you think about our worship?" And I was like in, well, that could be a loaded question. That could go anyway. Should I dig the whole burial cell or whatever? So I say, "What do you think?" "Oh, no, I think it's good. It could be, you know, sometimes there's a little experiential." I'm like, "Hick yeah?" It should be experiential. Why? Because we know, worship cannot be kukikata. Worship cannot be kukikata. God is not a kukikata, God. God is not the same yesterday as what he is today. He doesn't move the same. He moves differently. Manna came from heaven every day, fresh manna. That was Old Testament. He wants to pour out his spirit afresh today. This is not kukikata. It's not kukikata. So I said, "Yeah, we are experiential." And yes, we do push the limits. We do push the limits. And I'm okay with pushing the limits. Why am I okay with pushing the limits? Because at the end of the day, his presence is our priority. If I want his presence to come and permeate this room every single time we gather, I've got to go, "God, where are you moving today?" I'm going after healing. Let's go after healing. Why do you want to heal, Lord? Who do you want to heal, Lord? Why do you heal knees? Right. I've got a word from God. Those who have got to hit knee problems stand up. Stand up. Pray. Heal. What else do you want to do, God? Yeah, I want to worship. I want you to bring some more song. Okay, let's sing. Come on, Leah. Sing us a little bit longer here. Let's go Yeshua one more time. We don't go Yeshua one more time. We don't go, show me your face a little one more time. Just keep us busy. Because we're seeking God. Where is God moving in that time? You see, when the hand of God is upon something, we need to stay there. Hello church. Yeah, we're saying. This is not only in this room, this is all seen in your own personal life. When you sense the hand of God is on something, don't dare move. Unless God moves. I move to the left when He moves to the left. That was the right. I move to the left, the other left, the other right. When He moves. I'm confused, He's not. Thank you. Thank the Lord. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, it's going where God wants us to go. Young people, hear me today. You're sitting all over the shop. I love it. I love to see so many young faces, young adults. Hear me today. You too, that are getting married. Don't move without God speaking. Don't make decisions. If you can take something out of our marriage, yeah hold your hand. Like help me Lord Jesus. I want to say to you, you do not move to the left. You do not move to the right. You do not pack up. You do not unpack. And as He says, take that out of our booklet. We learned the hard way. Yes, there were times that we moved and He didn't tell us to move. Was He gracious? He was very gracious. Very, very gracious. Why is He gracious? Because He's a good and He's a loving Father. He's a good God. There's a difference between being in His allowable will and He's perfect will. How do I find this perfect will pass the JJ? Worship. Connect with Him. Spirit, Spirit. Lord, show me your face. Show me your face. If the team can come forward, they'll be great. Are we getting something out of this? You see all that baddest for us. And this is what I would say to the team each and every time is was God present. Three questions, was God present? Well, His words says we're two or three, I gathered in my name. I'm in the midst of them. So He's present. Did we host Him well? It's the second question. The answer to that is yes. The next question is, were lives touched and changed for all eternity? So if we get a yes, He was present. Yes, we hosted Him well. Yes, lives, because if you host Him well, lives will be touched and changed. But if we get a yes, a yes, a yes, nothing else matters. Doesn't matter if the sound doesn't work. Doesn't matter if the sermon's not preached. Doesn't matter if the offering's not taken up. If He is present, which He is, which is your three, I gathered in my name. I'm in the midst of Him. When we host Him well, lives will be touched and changed for all eternity. When you host Him well, lives will be. When you host Him in your workplace, when you host Him in your uni, when you host Him on the tram, when you host Him at Aldi, wherever you are, when you are hosting Him, lives will be touched and changed for all eternity. Why? Because it's in that serving, it's in that giving, it's in that word, where your spirit, his spirit connects, worship happens. I want us to connect. This morning, I want us to, I want us to sing a song. And the team are going to lead us. The same as this morning would be great. But before we do that, I want to challenge us, because that's what I do every week, challenge. Here's your challenge. My question to you is, you may east, everybody sitting here, even our visitors that are sitting here today, can you and I make an agreement today that we will break out of the norm of what old worship style was? Can we from this moment forward, have authentic expression of worship, where your love for God is so evident, where you are empowered by his spirit, where you are so rooted in his truth. So at the end of the day, you have a responsibility as much as what this team has to prepare for worship. It's not their job, to prepare for you for worship. You prepare for yourself. I prepare. How do you prepare? Easy. Repent. Check your heart. Lord, is there anything that stands in the way between you and me this morning? Today, I repent. Secondly, I'm spending time with God. This morning, I had other things to do. This is not a look at me, why was me? This is just how I do my life. I know that I need to spend time with him in this word. I know that I need to spend time this way with him before I can put that on this pulpit. I know that I've got to spend time with him. I know in his word, I know that I've got to spend time with him in conversation, in relation before I walk out of my front door each and every day. This morning, I had to be here to come and unlock these doors, which was pretty early, very cold. Welcome to Melbourne. Guess what? I set my alarm an hour earlier. What? Yeah. Sacrifice. Because I cannot go without worshiping, preparing for what happens here, for what happens in my life. Set your alarm half an hour. Can I challenge us in these next four weeks, three weeks of worship that you come to this place, to this gathering, prepared? Spend 15 minutes to half an hour praying before you walk through these doors. Come prepared. You'll see a difference of the atmosphere. You'll see miracles break out in this place. Why? Because we're all worshiping in spirit and in truth. Thank you for joining us. We hope that you enjoyed today's podcast. And we realise that not everyone has had the opportunity to respond to the good news of the gospel. And for this reason, in all of our services and platforms, we want to extend to you the opportunity to follow Jesus. The Bible teaches us that we have been created for a relationship with God. However, sin, which is essentially disobedience, independence, and disbelief, or are simply missing the mark, entered the world and separated us from God. Romans chapter 6 verse 23 says that the wages of sin is death. And a debt was owed. And the Bible tells us that he, Jesus, demonstrated his love for us, that while we were still sinners, he died for us. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. John 3 16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave us Jesus, that whoever believes in him will be saved. All that is required of anyone is that they believe in Jesus, the Son of God, who came, lived, died, and rose again, so that we could be forgiven, made right, and given the right to become children of God, and to have life forevermore with him." Today you can begin a relationship with Jesus. To believe in him is to simply to respond with faith in our hearts, and confess with our mouths that he is Lord. And we do that through a simple prayer. Follow along with me. Dear Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. I thank you that you love me, and came to forgive me of my sin. I repent from my old way of life, and I turn to follow you. I receive the free gift of eternal life, and I ask that you fill me with the Holy Spirit, so that I can live a life of following after you. I thank you that I am born again as a child of God, and that I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. Amen. If you prayed this prayer for the first time, we would love to connect with you, and connect you to your next step, and the local church in your area. You can contact us on our website at numer.church. Thanks for listening.