In Christ’s answer to the Samaritan Woman in John 4, He informs us that we are to worship in Spirit. While we are to worship the right One, the right way, we are also to worship with the right heart. So we must ask the question, what does it mean to worship God in Spirit? There are three vital things to consider when we discuss worshipping God in Spirit. Over the past two weeks, we looked at the first two: Worship in Spirit involves our emotions, and worship in Spirit involves our devotion. Today we conclude our series on worship in the church with the final thing to consider: Worship in Spirit involves obedience.

This final principle arises out of one of the minor prophets. Consider Micah 6:6-8, “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased withthousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Judah was heading towards destruction. As we saw a few weeks ago from Amos 5, this was not because worship failed to occur. Instead, it was because the worship was not how God had prescribed. Micah poses the question to Judah about what exactly pleases God. In truth, we need to ask this same question often. From this interaction, we must draw two important conclusions.

First, we must understand that God is not impressed with empty ritualism. Micah poses to Judah acts of extreme sacrifice. In this, he asks, “Will God be pleased if I simply go through the prescribed rituals?” “What if we offer thousands of rams?” Now he ups the ante. “What if we go beyond God’s requirements and do extreme acts?” “What if we offer 10,000 rivers of oil?” What if we make the most extreme sacrifice to God possible and offer our firstborn?” But Micah notes that God is not interested in empty ritualism. You can go through all the rituals you want. But it does not make your worship authentic. You can stand when you are supposed to and sit when you are supposed to. You can ensure your church uses the right hymnbook, instruments, Bible version, and anything else you think is important. Still, God is not interested in empty rituals.

Instead, we see secondly from Micah that God desires an obedient heart. Micah states that God has already told us what pleases Him. Micah summarizes it in three statements. First, we are to do justice. God desires more that we act righteously and justly than that we make incredible sacrifices. Justice is who God is. It was His very justice that sent Jesus to the cross.

Second, we are to love mercy. While this would seem to negate justice, this is mercy found on the cross of Christ. Rather than show kindness (or compassion or steadfast love), particularly to those less fortunate and less successful, the people of Israel pursued a ruthless policy of exploitation, greed, fraud, and murder. God desired that they would develop the inward character of holiness through mercy. We are not to look down on the less fortunate or the sinful. Instead, we are to act in mercy towards them. This is a reminder that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Proverbs 3:3 informs us that mercy is to be imprinted on us like a jewel around our neck. We are to be known as merciful people.

Finally, Micah states that this means we are to walk humbly. God is honored by a church marked by humility. Too many believe we don’t need to learn at church. We are here to instruct others (as though God has given us the spiritual gift of counsel). But 1 Peter 5:5 informs us that God will go to war against the proud. God is not impressed with your intellect, abilities, finances, personality, or social status. James 1:17 informs us that it all comes from Him anyway. So, we are to be humble people. People marked by mercy and love. Any worship that does not come from this kind of heart fails to approach God rightly.

While not comprehensive, we have looked at some important principles in worship over the last two months. We are to worship in truth. This means we remember God’s glory and worship for Him, not ourselves. We also recognize that God is a God of truth. Everything we do and say should be driven by and come out of the truth of God’s Word. We care more about the questions, “is it true?” and “is it right?” than about the questions, “do people like this?” and “will this get people to come here?” We must worship the right One, the right way. So we sing the Word, pray the Word, read the Word, preach the Word, and picture the Word in the ordinances. Worship in truth also means that we seek one another’s edification in worship. We care more about others’ spiritual growth than about our preferences. We humbly serve one another. And we don’t make this church about us! Finally, we sing together. We all sing to one another. We sing joyfully, boldly, and triumphantly.

But we also worship in Spirit. If we worship in truth but go through the motions, we have fallen into the other ditch. We respond in naturally emotional ways. This means that sometimes we will raise our hands, sometimes we will clap, sometimes we will shout, sometimes we will rejoice, and sometimes we will mourn. But we will not suppress our emotions because others think it is weird. This means that we will worship with devotion. Sunday will lead to worship all week. God will dominate every area of life. We will seek Him with everything that we have. We will love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind.

And finally, we will worship with obedience. When God convicts, we will respond. We will obey the Word. This must entail a humble, teachable spirit. No one is better than anyone else. We cannot look on with disdain or ridicule at others. We cannot throw a fit when we don’t get our way or others do things differently than we wanted. We must love justice, mercy, and humility. Every Sunday should be a picture of the Kingdom of God. We should love gathering with our church body and joyfully participate. We should worship the right One, the right way, with the right heart.