“BOUND, pt 3: Bound to Praise” - By Rev. Troy Benton

Sunday,

March 19, 2017

 

Psalm 95 (CEB)

1Come, let’s sing out loud to the Lord! Let’s raise a joyful shout to the rock of our salvation! 2Let’s come before him with thanks! Let’s shout songs of joy to him! 3The Lord is a great God, the great king over all other gods. 4The earth’s depths are in his hands; the mountain heights belong to him; 5the sea, which he made, is his along with the dry ground, which his own hands formed. 6Come, let’s worship and bow down! Let’s kneel before the Lord, our maker! 7He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep in his hands. If only you would listen to his voice right now! 8“Don’t harden your hearts like you did at Meribah, like you did when you were at Massah, in the wilderness, 9when your ancestors tested me and scrutinized me, even though they had already seen my acts. 10For forty years I despised that generation; I said, ‘These people have twisted hearts. They don’t know my ways.’ 11So in anger I swore: ‘They will never enter my place of rest!’”

 

John 4:19-26 (CEB)

19The woman said, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you and your people say that it is necessary to worship in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you and your people will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You and your people worship what you don’t know; we worship what we know because salvation is from the Jews. 23But the time is coming—and is here!—when true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth. The Father looks for those who worship him this way. 24God is spirit, and it is necessary to worship God in spirit and truth.”25The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one who is called the Christ. When he comes, he will teach everything to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I Am—the one who speaks with you.”