Becoming Worshipers, Part 1: From Praise to True Worship

Becoming worshipers means moving beyond praising God for what He does into worshiping Him for who He is. In this first message of a new series, the pastor explains that praise recognizes God’s works and prepares our hearts, while true worship honors His person, whether or not He does what we want, when we want it. He shows the difference through Israel’s memorials, Gideon’s three hundred, and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.

Below you will find the full video, a summary of each point, the Scripture behind it (NKJV on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical steps for growing as a worshiper this week. The series continues in Becoming Worshipers, Part 2: Emmanuel, the Woman at the Well and the End of Fear.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was preached at NTC Ministries during the Christmas season and posted on December 20, 2022. It runs about 57 minutes and closes with a prayer of worship and a reading of Galatians 4:1–7. The pastor opens the series by saying many people have a distant relationship with God, and all of us need to learn to come closer into His presence and discover who He is.

Preached at Christmas, it weaves in the birth of Jesus, the shepherds and Hanukkah, which began that day. The thread is simple: God wants worshipers, not just people who praise Him when things go their way.

Praise Recognizes What God Has Done

What the church calls praise and worship, the pastor says, is really two things. Praise tills up the fallow ground, the hard ground that cannot yet receive seed. It softens our hearts so we can receive the Word of God.

He defines praise as recognizing what God has done and can do, then expressing gratitude with heart and voice, even with tambourines, banners and dancing. He quotes Psalm 52:9, “I will praise You forever, because You have done it,” and says he loves that line: because You have done it. We enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4).

The problem comes when praise is all we know. Many people care only about what God can do, not who He is. When the room grows quiet so His presence can reveal Himself, they get jittery; they want things their senses can relate to.

The pastor calls this living by the senses. Before Adam sinned, he never had to ask God for anything. God had already planted the garden and given man dominion over the works of His hands (Psalm 8:6). Adam simply walked with God in His presence. Once Adam fell, he was held captive by his five physical senses and driven by his need for God to do things for him. Praise, in that sense, is about what God does for us.

Why Becoming Worshipers Matters

To show what goes wrong when people relate to God only through performance, the pastor shares an extreme example he almost did not tell. A seriously ill woman was put out of her home by her husband because she could no longer meet his expectations, and two weeks later she died.

Many people treat God the same way, he says. They give their lives to Him, but as soon as He does not perform the way they feel He should, in their timing, they walk away. In effect they say, He does not do what I need, so He is not who I want Him to be. That is why becoming worshipers is so important.

He gives a second example. A man who stopped attending church needed a hundred dollars by Friday. When the pastor offered to pray, the man said that if God did not supply it, He was not God. To him, God was conjured up by his own senses.

Jesus told His disciples to take the lowest seat at a banquet so the host might invite them higher (Luke 14:8–10); the King James Version says they would then have worship, or honor, before others. The world runs on performance, the pastor says, which is why some wealthy people think they have no need of God.

Worship, he explains, goes beyond all of God’s great blessings to recognize who He truly is. It is expressing admiration for God Himself, commending His person, character, attributes and perfection. God says He is holy, and it will take eternity for Him to reveal Himself to us. Psalm 95:6 says, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” He made us, so we worship Him as our Maker. Psalm 45:11 says simply, because He is your Lord, worship Him.

Remembering God’s Works: Memorials and Lights

The pastor acknowledges that Israel was good at praise. After the Red Sea crossing, Miriam took a tambourine, the people danced, and they sang that the Lord had triumphed gloriously and thrown the horse and its rider into the sea (Exodus 15:1–2; Exodus 15:20–21). The Lord had become their strength and song.

When Joshua led Israel across the Jordan, God told them to take twelve stones from the riverbed, one for each tribe, and set them up as a memorial (Joshua 4:1–9). The pastor says Israel would return to such places after a battle to praise the Lord for what He had done. Praise of God’s works was a continual part of their life.

He also explains Hanukkah, which began that day. Antiochus IV of Syria conquered Jerusalem and desecrated the altar by sacrificing pigs on it. Judah Maccabee led a revolt and took the temple back, and though there was pure oil for only one day, the Lord made the lamp burn for eight. Jewish families still celebrate it as the festival of lights.

The pastor points out the tallest candle in the center of the Hanukkah menorah, the shamash, which he explains means the attendant. It lights all the others. That, he says, is a picture of Jesus Christ, the true Light who gives light to every man coming into the world (John 1:9).

Israel still praises God, over two thousand years later, for those eight days. Learning to praise matters, the pastor says, but we have to go beyond it. The table summarizes the difference as he teaches it.

From Bondage to Sonship

Our senses get in the way of true worship, the pastor says, unless we go beyond the veil into the holy of holies. That is something we have to work on, allowing God to bring us into the place where it is just you and Him. He turns to Galatians 4:1–5. An heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is master of all; he is under guardians until the time the father appointed.

Even so, Paul writes, when we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world. The pastor explains these as the most basic things of this world, the bondage of being dictated to by our senses. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

The pastor stresses that the fullness of time was God’s appointed time, not ours. And it came at the worst period in Jewish history: four hundred years without a word from God, under great oppression. He notes the irony of the leaders telling Jesus they had never been in bondage to anyone (John 8:33). They had forgotten Egypt. They were good praisers, he says, but they lacked worship, and he warns that a great falling away will come in the end times (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

The holidays can be wonderful for those who know the Lord and heavy for those who do not, and he admits he went through such a season himself. We can worry, or we can worship. Worship brings a security, joy and confidence that does not need God to do anything more, because we know He has already done it all.

Worship Is Not Bound by Timing

The pastor sets the scene of the first Christmas. Rome’s census forced Joseph to take Mary eighty miles to Bethlehem, a little town with no room for them (Luke 2:1–7), in a country dominated by Rome. Then shepherds Mary had never invited arrived, because angels had announced the birth of a Savior (Luke 2:8–16).

He adds a lighthearted story about the birth of his first child, when high school students on a career tour were allowed to watch the delivery but he, as the husband, was not. Mary, he says, was a real person who went through real labor, and the baby Jesus really cried.

Israel wanted a Messiah who would break Rome’s power, as the Maccabees had broken Syria’s. The pastor suggests that is why Judas tried to force Jesus’ hand. But Jesus did not come as a judge or lawgiver. He came to restore our lives and to bring back the intimacy Adam had with God in the garden. As a newborn, He could do nothing for anyone, yet He was worthy of worship.

That is the point. For worshipers, timing has no bearing on what we know of God; without worship, timing dominates our lives. So the church’s prayer should be, Lord, do whatever You want, however You want. Worship also shapes how we face hard places: the environment, the pastor says, does not decide the outcome of a life; the heart does.

A worshiping heart sees clearly, he says, and cannot be duped. By God we can run against a troop and leap over a wall (Psalm 18:29). Gideon shows that God’s way rarely matches ours. In Judges 6:11–12, Gideon was hiding while threshing wheat when the Lord called him a mighty man of valor. He tore down the altars of Baal, then gathered an army of about forty thousand by the pastor’s count.

God said there were too many. Those who wanted to go home were sent home, then those who drank with their faces in the water, until only three hundred remained (Judges 7:2–7). With horns and torches inside clay pitchers, they surrounded the camp, broke the pitchers and blew the horns, and the enemy turned on one another (Judges 7:16–22). Gideon had never seen God do anything, the pastor says, so he had to worship who God is rather than what he had seen Him do.

True Worship at Jacob’s Well

The heart of the message is the woman of Samaria in John 4:7–26. She came alone to Jacob’s well in the heat of the day, when the other women came in the cool of the morning to draw water and talk. Jesus knew she was there, went to her, and in one conversation changed her world. He did nothing for her; He simply talked with her.

He asked her for a drink, and she was surprised a Jew would speak to a Samaritan; she carried, the pastor says, a broken and wounded life. Jesus offered her living water so she would never thirst again. When He told her to call her husband, she said she had none, and He told her she had had five husbands.

In John 4:19–24, she says that her fathers worshiped on this mountain while the Jews say Jerusalem is the place. Jesus answers that the hour is coming when people will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. The pastor explains that it is not about standing in the right place, performing a duty or following the senses.

Then Jesus says, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The pastor explains that God is not a spirit but is Spirit, so to fellowship with who He is, we bow before Him because He is holy and righteous.

Jesus did not come to condemn this woman, the pastor says, but to open her eyes to worship God. His main purpose in any relationship with us is not that we recognize what He does, though that matters, but that we get to know who He is. Too often people leave when healing, a job or a marriage does not go their way.

In John 4:25–26, the woman says she knows the Messiah is coming. Jesus answers, “I who speak to you am He.” The pastor notes that this was the first time Jesus openly revealed He was the Christ, and He did it to a woman in distress. She ran to town saying come and see, and many believed, first because of her word and then because they heard Him themselves (John 4:39–42). She went from a crushed life to an evangelist who knew who He is.

Jesus experienced everything we experience so He could be a faithful High Priest (Hebrews 4:15). Peter denied Him three times (Luke 22:54–62), His hometown tried to throw Him over a cliff (Luke 4:28–30), and Judas betrayed Him because Jesus would not act when and how Judas wanted. Yet Jesus bore our griefs and carried our sorrows (Isaiah 53:4–5).

He closes by reading Galatians 4:1–7 again with two more verses: because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. You are no longer a slave but a son, and an heir of God through Christ. It does not matter what He does, the pastor says; He is your Father, and we honor Him and bow to Him.

Growing as a Worshiper This Week

The pastor leads the church in a prayer asking God to help them know Him as He truly is and worship Him in spirit and truth. Here are practical steps drawn from the message:

• Praise first, then linger. Use praise to soften your heart, then stay quiet in His presence instead of moving on.
• Worship Him for who He is. Spend time telling God He is holy, righteous and your Maker, without asking for anything.
• Release the timetable. Pray, Lord, do whatever You want, however You want, especially about the prayer that feels overdue.
• Bring your pain to Him. If this season feels heavy, give Him your sorrow and ask Him to fill you with peace and joy.
• Build a memorial. Write down one thing God has done and thank Him for it, as Israel did with the twelve stones.
• Tell someone who He is. Like the woman at the well, invite someone to come and see Jesus.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 A new series on becoming worshipers
• 1:16 Praise tills up the fallow ground
• 2:26 What praise means: Psalm 52:9 and Psalm 100:4
• 4:19 Living by the senses since Adam
• 6:30 A sobering example of performance-based love
• 8:55 The lowest seat and the worship of men
• 9:57 Israel’s praise at the Red Sea
• 11:20 Twelve stones from the Jordan
• 12:36 Hanukkah and the Maccabees
• 15:11 The shamash and the Light of the world
• 16:11 Going beyond praise to worship
• 19:05 Psalm 45:11 and the holy of holies
• 20:23 Galatians 4:1–5: from bondage to sonship
• 22:48 If He doesn’t, He isn’t God
• 25:36 Worry or worship in a hard season
• 26:59 Bethlehem, the census and the shepherds
• 31:49 Jesus came to restore our lives
• 34:31 Without worship, timing dominates
• 37:05 Gideon and the three hundred
• 40:15 The woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well
• 43:44 John 4:19–24: in spirit and truth
• 48:13 I who speak to you am He
• 50:50 Jesus knows rejection
• 53:53 Prayer and Galatians 4:1–7

Becoming Worshipers Series

This is the first message in a six-part series at NTC Ministries. Continue with the next message:

• You are here: Becoming Worshipers, Part 1: From Praise to True Worship
• Next: Becoming Worshipers, Part 2: Emmanuel, the Woman at the Well and the End of Fear

Frequently Asked Questions

Is praise wrong if it focuses on what God has done?

No. The pastor teaches that praise is good and necessary. It recognizes God’s works and expresses gratitude, and it tills the hard ground of our hearts so we can receive His Word. Israel praised God at the Red Sea and built memorials of His works. The problem is stopping there. If our relationship rests only on what He does, it can collapse when He does not act on our timetable.

What does it mean to worship in spirit and truth?

From John 4, the pastor explains that worship is not tied to a place, a duty or the senses. God is Spirit, so we relate to Him spirit to Spirit, honoring Him simply because He is holy, righteous and our Maker. It means bowing before Him for who He is, even when nothing in our circumstances has changed yet, as the Samaritan woman did when she met the Messiah.

How can worship help during a difficult holiday season?

The pastor admits he has gone through a heavy season himself. He says we can either worry or worship. Worship brings security, joy and confidence, because it rests on who God is rather than on what we still need Him to do. His closing prayer asks the Lord to take our pain and sorrow, fill us with peace and joy, and help us enjoy the abundant life Jesus came to give.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• John 4:19–24 — worship in spirit and truth
• Galatians 4:1–7 — from slaves to sons
• Psalm 52:9 — because You have done it
• Psalm 100:4 — enter His gates with thanksgiving
• Psalm 95:6 — let us worship and bow down
• Joshua 4:1–9 — twelve memorial stones
• Judges 7:16–22 — Gideon’s torches and pitchers
• John 4:25–26 — I who speak to you am He
• Luke 2:8–16 — the shepherds and the angels

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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