Planned for God’s Pleasure
Purpose #1 WORSHIP — 40 Days of Purpose
Mark 12:30
Adapted from Outline by Rick Warren—Saddleback Church
INTRODUCTION:
The Chicago Tribune reported this true story about a man named Bill Mallory who traveled to India to discover the purpose of life. Unfortunately, he didn’t find the answer. After returning home, he noticed a sign at Chevron gas station that simply said, “As you travel, ask us.” So every time he pulled into a Chevron station, he would look to the sign and say, “I’m a traveler. I’d like to ask you a question. What is the purpose life?” He got these real answers from attendants. The first guy said, “Sorry. I’m new here.” The second guy said, “I don’t remember anything in the manual about that.” Another guy said, “I’m not much for church myself, sir.” Most people just gave him a blank stare, cleaned his windshield, but Bill continued asking at all the Chevron stations.
One day he got a phone call from Chevron Customer Relations saying, “We understand you’ve been asking our dealer questions and getting unsatisfactory answers.” The man suggested Bill write out his question and send it to Chevron Corporate with a self-addressed stamped envelope. So Bill Mallory wrote these six words, “What is the purpose of life?” and sent it to Chevron Gas Company. A couple of weeks later, he found his self addressed, stamped envelope in his mailbox. Had someone at Chevron finally answered his question? The only thing in it was an application for a credit card!
If you want to know the purpose of life, you are not going to find it in a gas station. You won’t find it on a talk show, or in a self-help book. If you want to know the purpose of life, you need to look to your Creator. God has spelled out the purpose of life—the purpose of your life and mine in the “owner’s manual for life.” Life will not make sense until we open the Bible and follow God’s instructions.
• Revelation 4:11 (NLT)
You created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created.
The Bible says you were created for God’s enjoyment. God made you just to enjoy you. You may find it hard to believe but the first purpose of your life is based in the reality that God gets enjoyment out of watching you live your life.
Parents enjoy watching their kids! Well, most of the time! God, our heavenly Father, likewise enjoys watching His children—most of the time He enjoys watching you be you. On the day you were born God was right there smiling from ear to ear, because He created you to enjoy you. God made you for His purpose.
Last week we talked about God’s motive in creating you. GOD MADE YOU SIMPLY BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU! You are the focus of God’s love.
This week we’re looking at the flip side; God wants you to love Him back. The first purpose of your life is to bring pleasure to God through loving Him.
You probably know this story. One day Jesus was questioned by a guy who was known as an expert in the Law; he said, “Lord, what’s the most important command in the entire Bible?” If we could sum up the Bible with just one statement—wow wouldn’t that be great?! Get ready because Jesus puts it all together for us. This is God’s #1 rule. If you do this everything else falls right in line.
• Matthew 22:37-38 (NIV)
[37] Love the Lord your God . . . [38] This is the first and greatest commandment.
Circle “first” and “greatest.” Jesus says if you only hear one thing I tell you, here’s what you’re supposed to do in life: LEARN TO LOVE GOD IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.
We have a word for loving God; it’s the word “WORSHIP.” The simplest definition of worship is “love God back.” Our first purpose in life, the greatest and most important thing we can do is WORSHIP GOD.
Here’s the problem—worship is misunderstood today. When I say the word “worship,” what do you think of? What does a person look like when they worship? Have you ever thought about that? Most people have the same mental image of worship; you can find it pictured in magazines or see it on TV. If you were looking around this morning you saw it here. Worship is arms raised, eyes closed and mouth open [demonstrate comically]! Yes, we can worship God by raising, even waving our hands (Susie likes to blow God kisses), and worship can be sung, but worship is far more than [demonstrate again].
This morning we are going to look at what it means to really worship God. This is our #1 priority in life; nothing is more important than learning how to love God, so we ought to learn what it really means if we’re going to do it right.
• STAND WITH ME -- Mark 12:30 (NIV)
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
GOD WANTS ME TO LOVE HIM IN THREE WAYS . . .
1. Love God PASSIONATELY
Jesus said love God “with my heart and with all your soul.” God loves you passionately and He wants you to love Him passionately as well.
2. Love God THOUGHTFULLY
Jesus said love God “with all your my mind.” God doesn’t want you to love Him “blindly” or without thinking. God wants you to know Him and love Him thoughtfully.
3. Love God PRACTICALLY
Jesus said love God “with all your strength.” God wants us to love Him in with our actions. God wants more than lip service love; He wants us to love Him in everything.
Why is it important that we learn to love God in these three ways? Even though God created the universe and everything in it and owns it all, even though God created you God does not have these three things unless you give them to Him.
1. God does not have your affection, unless you give it to Him, that’s loving God passionately.
2. God doesn’t have your attention unless you choose to love God thoughtfully with your mind.
3. And God doesn’t have your actions, unless you love God practically with all your strength.
So again, worship is simply loving God back as we give God our affection, our attention and our actions. Let’s take the next few moments and unpack these a little more so we can worship God as He desires—and deserves.
1. Love God PASSIONATELY—giving God our affection.
Real worship is expressing my affection to God, that’s what it means to love God passionately “with all your heart and with all your soul.”
For some of us expressing affection to anyone—let alone to God is just difficult; it feels funny. Perhaps you grew up in a family that was not affectionate or expressive; you just didn’t hear, “I love you” a lot. Maybe you’re the silent type. You need to grow in your relationship with God and learn to say, “I love you Jesus!”
Why is it important for us to express our love to God?
• Romans 12:1 (NIV)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
What does it mean to be a “living sacrifice?” I like simple answers—a living sacrifice is worship, being a living sacrifice is more than just loving God passionately; it encompasses all three ways we are to love God. The Bible says when you become a living sacrifice this is your spiritual act of worship.
When you worship God there are two important components. In whatever way you express your love to God these things are a part of it.
First worship is OUR RESPONSE to God. Paul says “in view of God’s mercy.” Because of God’s mercy and love for us we should naturally respond with worship to Him. God takes the initiative—God loves us first. God is not waiting for you to make the first move. He has loved us therefore we respond with worship; we live our lives as a living sacrifice because of His great mercy.
• Romans 5:8 (NIV)
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God put His love on the line. Long before we ever thought about loving Him Jesus loved us, and God is still finding ways of giving His love to us long before we think about loving Him in return. “His mercies are new each morning” (see Lamentations 3:23). Worship is always OUR RESPONSE to God.
Second worship is GIVING BACK to God. Remember I said the simple definition of worship is “loving God back.” Notice again what it says in Romans 12:1; in view of God’s mercy we are “to OFFER our bodies as living sacrifices.” Worship is all about what we give to God as an offering.
Giving an offering to God is about more than money. Worship is about Everything we do and say—everything we are and hope to be— and everything we possess. We offer God everything, our lives become a living sacrifice. Worship is GIVING BACK to God.
God has passionately expressed His love to us. We respond—we give back to God our love with passionate affection.
• Exodus 34:14 (NLT)
. . . He is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.
God is passionate about you. He longs to know you. Other versions translate this verse saying God is a jealous. We sometimes think of jealousy in a negative way, but what does it really mean for someone to be jealous? Jealousy simply means you desire something that has not been given to you, or worse you want what has been given to someone else.
God loves you and desires to be loved by you, but you and I must choose to love God back. God doesn’t want us to give our affection to other gods. He loves us passionately, is jealous for our love in return.
o Susie and I have been married a long time. You would think we wouldn’t ever have any reason to be jealous of one anther right? Wrong! Anyone who loves passionately wants to be loved in return. I’m confident that Susie loves me—I don’t doubt her love for me at all, but I’m still jealous for her love. I don’t want to share her with anyone or anything. Let me ask you a question; what would it say about my love for my wife if I wasn’t jealous of her affection? I desire her love because I have given my love to her.
Now Susie can respond to my love in one of three ways. She will either respond with love, with duty or she can pay no attention at all to my love for her. Well I’m glad she doesn’t ignore me, but I’m equally glad she doesn’t just feel obligated to express love to me. Imagine how good I might feel if I came home to find the table set for two, with candlelight and soft music playing. Only then to have Susie say, “I want you to know why I did this: #1 you’re my husband, #2 its our anniversary, #3 it’s what wives are supposed to do for their husbands, and #4 we had to eat anyway.” Someone call Hallmark because that just kind of gets you right here doesn’t it? I don’t think so! I don’t want duty; I want passion!
God doesn’t want to be ignored and He doesn’t just want a response of duty either. God doesn’t want – “Oh, okay. I better worship now—I love you God” [said in a monotone voice]. God doesn’t want ritual and religion—duty doesn’t satisfy Him. God wants passionate worship; He wants a relationship.
• 1 John 4:19 (NIV)
We love because he first loved us.
In many religions, God is this angry tyrant you have to appease; you have to be afraid of God because you never know when he might throw a lightning bolt at you. But that’s not the real God. The Bible says God loves you—He loves you passionately! And God wants to be loved passionately by you as well. Have you ever said, “I love you” to God? God wants to hear that from you.
• Hosea 6:6 (The Living Bible)
I don’t want your sacrifices – I want your love! I don’t want your offerings – I want you to know me!”
God wants you to love Him. God wants you to know Him. Your first and greatest purpose of life is to know and love God—to love God passionately, to give Him your affection. Nothing is more important!
The most important thing you can do in life is to love Him back. So when you get up every morning before you get out of bed, sit on the edge of your bed and say something like this, a little prayer. “God, if I don’t get anything else done today, at the end of this day I want to know You a little bit better and I want to love You a little bit more.” You see if at the end of the day you have loved God and grown to know Him more, then no matter how bad the day was—no matter how many things were left undone or how badly things may have fallen apart that day was a success. The purpose of your life is to know and love God above anything else.
On the other hand, I don’t care what you get done in a day, and if you knock 24 things off your to-do list and you accomplish amazing goals in your life; if at the end of the day you don’t know God a little bit better and you don’t love Him a little bit more, that day was wasted. It’s a failure because you weren’t put here on earth to check things off your to-do list. The first reason God put you on earth is to get to know Him and to love Him back.
So how can I express my affection to God? Well, if you have never done it before, let me tell you how to get started. Start by just saying “thank you.” “God, thank you for a beautiful sky.” “God, thank you for my family.” “Thank you Lord for a new day when I’m still breathing.” “Thank you that I live in America and I have freedom.” You could go on and on. Everything you look at is a gift from God. So you just start by being thankful. That’s a good way to start expressing your love to God.
Secondly, if you are going to express your love to God you need to get to know Him. You see the reason you struggle to worship God isn’t that you don’t love God enough; it’s that you don’t know Him enough! You need to learn to know who God is and how much He loves you. Again God isn’t interested in religion; He wants a relationship. When you are in a relationship with someone you discover more and more about who they are as a person as you interact with them. Take time to get to know God and you will love Him more and worship will be easier.
Worship begins as we learn to love God passionately giving Him our affection.
2. Love God THOUGHTFULLY—giving God our attention.
In a lot of religions, the idea of worship is to put your mind into neutral, sort of lose your mind to the universe. But the truth is, God wants us to worship Him thoughtfully. It takes energy. It takes getting our mind focused on God.
Have you ever prayed on autopilot? You know what I mean? You pray before a meal, you pray— blah, blah, blah -- Amen? Sometimes Mikey has started praying for dinner and suddenly realized he was saying his bedtime prayer. We can do the same thing. We kind of zone out and just go through the motions. It takes effort to focus on God and think about Him.
Do you know why God wants your attention? God wants you to focus on Him because He is focused on you.
• Psalm 139:1-3 (CEV)
You have looked deep into my heart, Lord, and You know all about me. You know when I am resting or when I am working. You notice everything I do and everywhere I go.
You are the focus of God’s love and He can’t take His eyes off of you. God knows all about you and He never stops thinking about you.
o Men will sometimes say, “My wife and kids say I don’t love them. But I do all kinds of things for them: I work every day for them, why don’t they feel loved by me?” They want his attention. Attention is an incredible expression of love.
None of us are like one of those auto-focus cameras that you might have, you point it at something and it focuses. If only we could focus our attention on something at the push of a button! We have to decide to focus. We have to choose what we will give our attention to, which means we have to decide what we will “tune out” or “turn off.”
Now, how do you do that? First we need to understand how easily distracted we can be. Our minds work so quickly; in a split second we can switch from paying attention to one thing and move on to another, and then another. It takes effort to focus our attention on anything.
Not only are we easily distracted, but we’re also self-centered by nature. It’s much easier to think about ourselves, to dream about what we want from life, to focus on how we were hurt or taken advantage of. It’s easy for us to focus on ourselves.
• Romans 8:7 (The Message)
Focusing on yourself is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, and ends up thinking more about self than God.
No one can think about two things at the same time. Don’t try it you’re liable to hurt yourself! We can only give our attention to one thing at a time.
Are you guilty of ignoring God, or just giving Him lip service? God wants us to love Him thoughtfully giving our full attention to Him.
Now, how do you do that? Well, first of all, you can start doing that by just establishing a daily time with God. We all need to schedule an appointment with God—it doesn’t matter when, beginning, middle, or end of the day. We need to stop everything else and just be with God—to talk with Him and read His Word.
• Matthew 6: 6 (The Message)
Find a quiet secluded place, so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace.
We need a time and place set aside just to be with God. Now, in the Old Testament, there was only one place where you could worship God. It was called the Temple. You had to make a journey there to worship God and focus on God. That is not true anymore. You can worship God anywhere. God will meet with you anywhere.
When we worship God we also need to come “simply and honestly.” Just be yourself. No ceremony, no fancy words. You’re just there with God, talking to Him. Don’t try to be spiritual. It doesn’t work anyway.
The second thing we need to learn to do if we are going to give our attention to God is to develop a constant conversation with God. God is always with us and it’s wrong for us to just ignore Him.
• Psalm 105:4 (TEV)
Worship him continually.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (MsgB)
Pray all the time.
Just think about Him throughout the day. Take time to talk with God throughout the day. You have to decide to do that. Perhaps you need to give yourself some reminders to talk with God or to think about Him through the day. What are some things you do routinely that you can decide to remember God as you do them?
It may not be easy at first to give God your attention—to love Him thoughtfully, but we will discover an incredible blessing from God when we do. Focusing of God will give us peace.
• Isaiah 26:3 (NLT)
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you!
When you focus on yourself, the inevitable result are thoughts of worry, insecurity, anxiety, guilt, fear, discouragement. But when that focus shifts from me to God, when we give our attention to God, all of a sudden, we begin to sense gratitude, hope, confidence and love. His peace guards our hearts and minds. Regardless of our circumstances, God gives us peace because our minds are focused on Him.
We worship God as we love God passionately—giving Him our affection. And we worship God as we love God thoughtfully—giving Him our attention.
3. Love God PRACTICALLY—giving God our actions.
Worshiping God passionately and thoughtfully is good, but it’s not enough. We need to also give back to God with some practical expressions of love; we need to love God with our actions.
o Susie likes it when I tell her I love her. She even enjoys a kiss every now and then (just not in front of the kids)! She even appreciates it when I just sit and listen to her process her thoughts from the day. These are some of the ways I can express my love to Susie passionately and thoughtfully. How many of you guys know our wives need us to express our love in other ways too; they want us to back up our affection and attention with action. If I love Susie I had better take out the garbage, help with the dishes, put away the laundry, and 101 other things. We have chores to be done and responsibilities to share. These are practical expressions of love—love in action is how we prove our love.
That’s part of worship too. Yes, we can love God passionately; we can love God thoughtfully. But we also need to show God in practical ways that we love Him too.
Someone said, “Actions speak louder than words.” The things we do can be done for ourselves, or we can do them for God.
• Colossians 3:23 (NLT)
Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.
Now, if you get this verse, it will absolutely revolutionize your life. You will never be the same. It says, “Whatever you do”– that means anything and everything you do– “work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for people.”
Too often we compartmentalize our lives. Many of you may be thinking, “Okay, worship is my number 1 priority in life, so if I’m going to fulfill my God given purpose then I need to pray and read my Bible more.” If that is all you get out of this today, then you haven’t been listening. Yes, prayer and Bible study is important, but worship is more—MUCH MORE than that!
You don’t have to join a monastery or be in church 7 days a week to worship God. Some of you just need to change who you are working for. Who is your boss going to be? The guy who signs your paycheck or the God who created you? You see it’s not what you do that’s important—IT’S WHO YOU DO IT FOR! In other words, you can do all the right things, for the wrong reasons.
When God is your boss, your work becomes worship! It doesn’t matter what your job may be—you can have a blue collar, white collar or no collar job. You may be the butcher, the baker, or the candlestick maker. You can do it for God. You could be an attorney, a doctor or a nurse; you might be a stay at home mother raising children, you may be an executive or a manager or sales person, or a truck driver. It really doesn’t matter what you do. It’s Who you do it for.
• Romans 12:1 (MsgB)
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.
What does it say there at the end? What are we to do with our lives? We are to give it to God as what? An OFFERING! Again if we are going to make our lives a “living sacrifice”—if we are going to make our lives an act of worship to God, then we must respond to God’s mercy by giving back to God all that we are. What you do Monday through Saturday—the ordinary experiences of life are to be offered to God as worship.
Living a purpose driven life can’t just happen at church—it is more than attending a small group. Living a purpose driven life is even more than just taking time for prayer and Bible study at the beginning of the day. A purpose driven life is where the rubber hits the road—it’s worshiping God in the mundane, day in and day out activity of life. You take the garbage out, FOR GOD; you make your bed FOR GOD; you do your job FOR GOD. “What ever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord.”
I don’t want to bust any bubbles here today, but God really isn’t into incense and candles and ritual. He’s into this kind of worship that says “God, whatever I’m doing, I’m going to do it for You.” And when you do that, then your life becomes an act of worship. You see, real worship is a lifestyle.
The Bible says we are made for God’s pleasure. If we want to please God, then He must be first in our lives. Our number 1 goal—our highest priority is to worship God, to love Him back.
• 2 Corinthians 5:9 (NIV)
So we make it our goal to please him.
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to miss your primary purpose. So let me ask you a question, what do you think about most? You see the truth is that whatever you think about most is what you love the most. What do you think about when you just let your mind drift? What do you daydream about; what does your mind naturally gravitate toward? Whatever you spend your time thinking about the most is what you worship.
Did you know that your checkbook and your calendar are theological documents? Without even knowing you, if you were to show me your checkbook stubs and you were to show me your schedule, I could tell you what you love, because the way you spend your time and the way you spend your money shows what you love the most. Does God have a place in your calendar and your checkbook, or is He just an afterthought?
Our #1 priority in life is worship. Will it be your goal to please God with how you live your life? Will you love God passionately, thoughtfully and practically? Will you choose to give God your affection, your attention and your actions? Make the choice to worship God—that’s your highest purpose in life.
