40 Days 2 - Planned For God's Pleasure - Worship Series

WELCOME TO THE PLANET: WHAT ON EARTH AM I HERE FOR?

Part 2: We were planned for God’s Pleasure – Worship

Based on Series by Doug Fields

Last week we introduced our series. We began to talk about What on Earth are we Here for. We found out that we can either believe that there is no God in which case there is no purpose for anything and life is meaningless. Or we can be believe that there is a God who created the world and everything in it FOR A PURPOSE. You were created for a purpose and so was I. That’s nice, but now we have a choice we can either find out what that purpose is and pursue it or we can Ignore it completely. The choice is yours, but I encourage you to Seize the Day to live life extraordinarily and live a purpose driven life which has meaning and value.

Tonight, I want to talk about our first purpose in life – it is Worship. I want to tell you that you were planned for God’s pleasure. Now, I know you are thinking at about this time, that you could not possibly be less interested in any topic than that of worship. Worship is boring. It’s only for squares of fanatics. But let me tell you, that BORING WORSHIP is an oxymoron. Do you know what that is – it is a term that contradicts itself and make no sense what so ever. Here are some other of my favorite oxymorons …

Government Organization

Alone Together

Personal Computer

Plastic Glasses

Peace Force

Pretty Ugly

Head Butt

Tax Return

Airline Food

White Chocolate

Microsoft Works

These phrases make no sense what so ever and neither does BORING WORSHIP. Some of your images about what worship is, may be boring to you – like singing. Some people hate singing – any singing – even in the shower. To them, “singing” is like pulling teeth without the happy gas. But that is because they mistakenly have confused the term worship with the term singing. They have made them equal when they are not equal. Yes, singing is a form of worship. But Worship is not singing.

Understanding the Meaning …

Okay, so lets try to figure out what this term worship is all about. After all, it is not a term we commonly use today (except for in church) …. Some other terms we do use though are these …

1) VALUE We often ask what is that worth to me? It may be financial value, or it may be sentimental value. To Worship something is to assign value to it. To attribute worth to something – this is actually where the term Worship comes from – “Worth - Ship”.

2) There’s another word that we use. It’s the word “IDOLIZE.” How many of you watched any of Australian Idol this summer? How many of you believe Shannon should have won or how about Cosima – if she’d stuck it out? How many of you think Guy won, just because of his hair? I think the producers of this show picked a great name, because over night, tens of thousands began to idolise these young people. Do you idolize anybody? Often we idolize celebrities or sports heroes – if you don’t believe me, wait till the Olympic games later this year. You might make an idol out of a boyfriend or a girlfriend, or a spouse because you idolize that person. If you do idolize someone or something, you are in effect worshipping them. When you idolize someone, you aren’t bored with them are you …. Are you beginning to understand that Worship can not be Boring.

3) Here’s a third word that we use often use which might help us ... It’s the word “HONOR.” Showing honor, giving honor to someone. When we honor God, we worship God.

So worship is to value, idolize or honour something or someone. But here’s the question I want to ask you. How do you know if you’re worshipping God or you’re worshipping someone else? Or you’re worshipping something else? How do you know? Let’s do a little test. There are 3 indications which help you to know who or what you worship.

The Worship Test …

First one is TIME. How much time do you spend on stuff? Now there are some parts of your day that you don’t have any choice about. You’ve got to go to school or work for a certain number of hours. You’ve got to do chores around the house, sleep and eat. But where do you spend your time when you get to choose? We usually want to spend time in those areas that we value, or with those people we idolise or honor. If you like, jot down on your paper some things that you spend your free time doing.