Discovering Your "why" For Life Series

This morning, I want to talk to you about Discovering Your Why for Life. One day a man walks up to Jesus and says, “Lord, what’s the most important thing in the Bible?” Jesus replied this way: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment” (Matthew 27:37b-38). Jesus said worship is your why to life.

Passion drives us and it makes us get up in the morning. Some people have a passion for literature, while others have a passion for travel. I wonder how many of us have a real deep, burning passion for God Himself? People have so many passions, from golf to hunting to gardening and fishing. Today, I want to reignite your passion for God.

Find the book of Malachi with me if you will (page 953 in your Black pew Bibles in front of you).

We are majoring in the minor Prophets this summer. These are the books tucked away at the end of the Old Testament that are little in comparison to the major prophets. Now, here is a major league message from a minor prophet. Malachi wants to help you worship.

Today’s Scripture

“And now, O priests, this command is for you. 2 If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. 3 Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. 4 So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. 5 My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8 But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, 9 and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction” (Malachi 2:1-9).

As you can see from the passage, reigniting your worship for God is not automatic. It takes serious thought and discipline. Your worship of God has so many competing distractions.

It’s been about a month now, but we have a great celebration at our house for my son, Matthew. He had graduated from high school and we had family in town. Traci had purchased helium balloons for the celebration. And a few of the balloons had slipped up to the second floor, some twenty feet up in the air. We began to wonder how we would ever get these balloons down. But we realized they would come down in a few days. As they lose their helium inside them, the balloons naturally fall back to the ground. The truth is that many of us lose our passion for God. We come back down from our spiritual high fairly quickly like those balloons in our house. Some of you have really been enthusiastic about Jesus in your life, but you have lost your zeal for God.

1. My Life’s Purpose is to Worship the Lord

“If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it

to heart” (Malachi 2:2).

The Bible calls upon us to honor the Lord, to worship the Lord. My Life’s Purpose is Worship. Would you say that with me, “My Life’s Purpose is Worship.”

1.1 Your Life’s Purpose

My life’s purpose is to worship God. Worship comes from a heart. Worship is where God is treasured above all human property and praise. Worship is when you direct your praise to God. Worship is giving thanks to the Lord. The psalmist says, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker” (Psalm 95:6)! You owe worship directly to God and no one else. This is why God is upset with the people of God back in Malachi’s name – they are failing to worship. God commands us to honor the name of the Lord in verses 1 and 2. The name of God is serious – really serious business. He commands this because He knows what is best for us.