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John 4 - Devotion · The Five Minute Bible Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to five minute Bible in our journey through the New
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  Testament in each episode, we take just a few minutes to focus
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  on one chapter of the New Testament, exploring the truths.
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  God is. Teaching us through His Word and
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  expanding our view of who He is. Before you listen, make sure
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  you've gone straight to the source, either by reading
• 0:19
  today's chapter of the Bible yourself or listening to today's
• 0:22
  read along episode in this podcast feed.
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  If you haven't done that yet, feel free to pause and do that
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  now. When you're ready, let's dive
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  into God's Word together. In John chapter 4, we see Jesus
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  interacting with a woman of Samaria, a woman who we've come
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  to know as the woman at the well.
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  Jesus tells this woman who's come to get water in the middle
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  of the day of living water. Water that springs up to eternal
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  life, water that satisfies all thirst.
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  Jesus is, of course, Speaking of himself, the Savior who
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  satisfies all of our deepest desires and longings.
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  I want us to zoom in on one particular aspect of Jesus
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  conversation with this Samaritan woman.
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  The woman asked Jesus a question about worship.
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  In particular. She asked where people ought to
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  worship. She says our fathers worshipped
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  in this mountain and you people say that in Jerusalem is where
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  men ought to worship. Jesus responds by turning the
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  question from one of where to a question of how and whom.
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  Listen to his response. Jesus said to her woman, believe
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  me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in
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  Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
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  You worship what you do not know.
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  We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
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  But an hour is coming, and now is when the true worshippers
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  will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
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  For such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers.
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  God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in
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  spirit and truth genuine worship of God.
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  Jesus says. Is done in spirit and truth.
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  In other words, real worship must accurately portray the true
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  and living God. We must know whom it is we
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  worship. We must worship in truth.
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  But real worship must also be genuine, heartfelt, full of real
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  zeal and desire for God. We must worship in spirit,
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  genuine spirit and truth. Worship is worshipping the real
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  God with the real you. And listen, those two, spirit
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  and truth, cannot be separated. It is all too easy to spend so
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  much time and energy trying to know and understand God's
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  character that we neglect genuinely worshipping Him.
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  Likewise, it's extremely common for someone to be passionate
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  about praising God but never take the time to get in God's
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  Word and find out who He really is.
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  And they end up worshipping a God of their own making rather
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  than the real God of the universe.
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  Listen to Christian artist Shai Lynn on how these two, spirit
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  and truth go together. He says theology is the study of
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  God and it's very important. Doxology is an expression of
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  praise to God. So the point here is that all
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  theology should ultimately lead to doxology.
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  If theology doesn't lead to doxology, then we've actually
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  missed the point of theology. So if you have theology without
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  doxology, you just have dead, cold orthodoxy, which is
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  horrible, right? On the other side, we have
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  people who say, forget theology, I just want to praise, right?
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  But if we have doxology without theology, we actually have
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  idolatry because it's just a random expression of praise, but
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  it's not actually informed by the truth of who God is.
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  So God is concerned with both. He's concerned with an accurate
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  understanding of Him and that accurate understanding of Him
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  leading to a response of praise, adoration and worship towards
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  Him. close quote. We cannot neglect either.
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  We must meet God in the pages of Scripture.
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  We must know Him. We must study theology and
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  discover the character of our Creator.
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  And that truth of who God is should lead us not to mere head
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  knowledge, but to genuine, sincere, passionate praise of
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  our Creator and Savior. So look inward.
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  Have you neglected either spirit or truth?
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  Has your worship become cold and robotic?
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  Ask God to revive your heart for Him.
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  Or have you begun to shape God into your own image, relying on
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  your own perception of Him rather than how He describes
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  Himself in the pages of Scripture?
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  And get in God's Word and ask Him to reveal Himself to you
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  truly as He is, and let God grow you into the kind of worshipper
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  He seeks, one who worships Him in spirit and in truth.