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.
Another indicator is : MONEY. You may not have a lot of money and just like time, some of your money has to go on stuff that you don’t have any say on – food, clothes, medical expenses. But if you do have a little free cash, what do you want to do with that? Jesus said this about money. Matthew 6:21 “Where your treasure is that’s where your heart is.” Our spending habits show us what we value. It shows us what we honor. Write down what you spend your money on …
The third indicator is your THOUGHTS. This might be the most important test of all. You see, a lot of people can tell you how to spend your time and a lot of people can tell you how to spend your money. But no one can control your thoughts. You’re sitting at work or in school, but your mind wanders - where do your thoughts go? What’s the last thing you’re thinking about before you go to sleep at night? Who’s the first person you think of when you wake up in the morning? Write them down … What you think about often will tell you what you honor or value – what you worship.
So that may give you a quick test of what or who you worship today.
What Worship Is …
Let’s talk about worshipping God a little more. This morning, Pastor Roger spent some time showing us that Worship is Focussing our Attention on God. It is expressing our Affection to God and it is Using my abilities For God. Tonight I want to talk about just two things…
1) Worship is Giving God WORTH. Worship is giving worth to God. It’s saying, “God, You matter to me.” Nothing else is worth your worship. God’s the only one worthy of your worship. You watch people who idolize or chase after other things - just watch where their life goes.
Some people chase after money – they worship it? “I just want to make more and more money.” Last Saturday night, we received a phone call from Darren Coleman who some of you will know, to let us know that his wife and child had been in an accident and rolled the car several times – the car was a write off. It was a nice car – a Mitsubishi Challenger only about 3 years old. They saved up long and hard to buy that car, but do you know what, Darren, wasn’t upset about the car one little bit. In fact he hardly mentioned it. He was counting his blessings that Rachel and Haley were safe apart from some scratches and bruising on Rachel. There was something far more important than money in this equation – something money can never buy – people he cared for. But there is something even more valuable than that.
Chasing after relationships, money, possessions, or other people doesn’t really make sense in the end of the day. Only God is worth our worship. How many of you could name the first of the Ten Commandments? When God was saying, “The very first thing I want you to know…” what did He choose? He said in Ex 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Why would He make that the first commandment? Because only God is worthy of our worship. In 1 Chronicles 16:25 the Bible says, “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.” Nothing else is as worthy of our praise as God. Why? Because only God is worth our worship.
2) Let me tell you something else about worship - it is giving God our FOCUS. Pastor Roger spoke about this in a fair bit of detail this morning, so I won’t go into it too much. How many of you have your driver’s license or learners? Have you ever had someone say to you this, “Watch where you’re going! Keep your eyes on the road.” Deanna says this to me all the time. Have any of you ever seen that show “Keeping up Appearances” with Mrs Bucket. She’d always be saying “Watch that cyclist dear” and poor old Richard would say “Watching the cyclist dear.” How many of you have heard this while you’re in a car? Here’s why. Because we drive where we look. That’s just the truth. You will drive where you look. If you’re looking off to the side or at the kids in the back seat, before long the wheel just goes that way. Wherever you look, that’s where you’ll go.
And that’s true in your life too. You focus on a certain crowd at school or work, you want to be like them. You keep your eyes on them. You see how they act. Soon you start dressing like them, acting like them, telling the same type of jokes because you go where you look. If we give God our attention, if we focus on Him, we start moving towards Him and we start living life like Him.
That is all very nice, but why should we worship God? 2 Reasons
1) To Experience God PERSONALLY. I think the most important reason is that you get to experience God personally. Some of you even have doubts whether or not God exists – okay. Others know about God. But do you know God? Did you know there’s a difference between knowing about someone and knowing someone? How many people know about Guy Sebastian? But how many of you would say that you really know him? That you could rock to his house and he’d let you in? There’s a difference between knowing about someone and really knowing someone. It’s important to get to know God. Because the more you get to know God, the more you will love God and the more you’ll learn that you can trust Him.
Trust is a risky thing isn’t it … It’s like a guy asking a girl to marry him. I remember when I asked Deanna “the question”. I picked her up with obligatory bunch of flowers of course. We then set off – Deanna didn’t have a clue where we were going. We ended up down the Gold Coast at Burleigh Heads for Dinner at a restaurant on the beach. Then we went for a walk on the beach – you know, moon glistening on the water – lights of Surfers Paradise up ahead. Really romantic. I plucked up the courage to ask the question and said. “I’ve got a question for you … Will you marry me.” Deanna looked at me and said … “Are you serious?” Talk about a let down. She actually made me ask it again properly - on my knee this time. It’s always a risk asking these sort of questions because you don’t know what the response is going to be. But let me tell you something about God … You don’t have to be worry about whether God loves you. God has already said “I love you”. He took the risk away by pinning his colours to the mast first. We know he loves us because He showed is when He sent His Son Jesus to die instead of you on a cross. There is nothing that you can do to ever make God love you more than He loves you right now. And there’s nothing you can do that will ever make God love you less. We don’t worship God to get His love, because we already have it. You worship God, because He gave you His love. You worship God to experience His love personally.
2) Second reason we worship God Is to Have Your Heart CHANGED
Whenever you love anybody your heart changes. It grows. And when you love God your heart will change. Here’s how you’ll know. You will move from “I have to do these things for God,” to “I want to do these things for God.” God is not as interested in what you do as He is in why you do it. This is why we are studying worship first. Your attitude is more important than what you do. The Bible says God’s not looking on the outside. God’s looking on the inside. He knows what you’re thinking. He knows what you feel. Nobody can make you worship God. They could hold a gun to your head and say, “You’ve got to sing. You’ve got to pray. You’ve got to read the Bible.” They could force you to do these things, but they can’t force your heart to love God. Here’s what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:2, It lists all sorts of things we can do for God and then says, but “If I have no love, I am nothing.” God wants to know that you love Him and worship is a way that you tell him that.
Practically
Okay, I want to really get practical. You say, “I’d like to worship God. Tell me how. How do I worship God?” There are a lot of methods we talk about: you sing, and you pray, and you do good service to the poor, and you sacrificially give so you help out others, you experience his creative power, you tell Him. But those are all methods. You can do any of these things without really worshipping God. The bottom line is that any method is fine as long as it has 3 things …
1) First – Real worship is Giving God Your LOVE. Let me tell you how to spell “love” – T.I.M.E.. Think about it your parents for a while. What if your parents are never there for you, they never show up, they never support you or show love but yet when they do blow through your life for just a minute and they say, “Oh, yes. I love you,” deep inside you’re going, “Then why don’t you show it? Why don’t you spend some time? Why don’t you let me know I matter to you by giving me some of your life, some of your time?” That’s how you really show somebody you love them, by the attention that you pay to them. It starts with some time.
In this campaign, many of you have made a commitment to give God time – you have started worshipping Him already. You said, I’m going to be at weekend services for the next 5 weeks, I’m going to give God regular time every day reading a chapter of my book, I’m going to join a home group. Love equals time. And if you give God your time then over time your love for Him will grow.
2) Give God Your PRAISE. Praise is a “churchie” word. What does it mean? That means admiration and gratitude. That’s how you praise God. You say, “God, thank You. I admire you more than anybody else because of what You’ve done for my life.” Two quick stories from the Bible. One is about a sinful woman who Jesus forgave her and showed love to. So what does she do, she gate crashes a dinner party that Jesus is attending and falls at Jesus’ feet. She is carrying a bottle of perfume that would have cost the equivalent to a year’s wages. And she takes it and pours it over Jesus’ feet. She washes his dusty feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Washing someone’s feet was one way people showed honour in those days. Why did she do this? Just to say, “I love you.” Just to say, “I want to give some time to you. I admire you, I honour you.
There was another time, when there were 10 guys and they had leprosy. This was an awful flesh eating disease which made you a social outcast because people thought they’d catch it from you. Jesus saw ten guys huddled together and He says, “I’m going to heal you,” and all of a sudden they were healed. Jesus told them to go to the priests to show that they were well so they could resume normal life again. So off they raced, over the moon. But one of those guys returns to Jesus and says, “Before I leave, I’ve just got to say thank you for what you did.” Why would that guy with leprosy and that woman with such a sinful past do what they did? They are wanting to show love and give some time and show praise and admiration and thankfulness to Jesus. And they do it publicly – which is very important.
Why does your faith need to be a public faith? I’m not talking about doing something weird. You don’t have a bumper sticker with “Turn or Burn” on it. You need to just live out your faith authentically, just in the normal course of your life. Maybe you bow your head right before lunch at school and pray. Someone says, “Hey, were you praying?” “Oh, no, way. I had something in my eye. I wasn’t praying.” Somebody says, “What did you do this weekend?” Are you going to say, “I went to a movie. I went on a date. I hung out with friends.” Or are you going to say, “I went to a movie. I went on a date. And I went to church.” Are you publicly proud that you’re a follower of Jesus? Or are you ashamed? When you honour Him you don’t keep your love a secret. You don’t keep your thankfulness a secret from your friends or family.
3) The last way to worship God is to give God Your DEVOTION (that’s loyalty)
What does that mean? You give God loyalty. How many of you have heard of Alexander the Great? At 33 years old, he had already conquered all the known world at that time. Every bit of the known world at that time was under his rule at 33 years old and everybody feared him because he was powerful. He could say, “You live – you die .…” One of the worst things you could do if you were in Alexander the Great’s army, was leave the field of battle – to run away as a coward. If you did that you were arrested and brought before Alexander the Great himself. Then in every case, if you weren’t loyal to the cause, you died - except for one case … There was a teenage boy who had been conscripted into the army. He’d run in the face of battle. He’d been a coward and he knew it and he knew he would die. He’s brought in before Alexander, but something happened. Instead of just saying, “Were you a coward?” (that’s what he’d ask, and if they said yes, they’d die), on this particular case he asked the kid, “What’s your name?” The kid said, “My name is Alexander.” Alexander the Great just erupted. “You carry my name. Change your name or change your conduct.” And he let him live.
If you’re here as a Christian you carry the name of Christ. It’s almost as if you’re standing before Him every time you worship and He says, “Have you been loyal to me? Are you showing people that you love me, that you’re thankful for what I’ve done in your life? And giving me your devotion? And if not, then why are you carrying the name?
How you show God value and honour physically is completely up to you. You may do it best singing or writing poems, or painting, or sailing, or working, or sitting on the beach praying. But when you worship, you need to give God your Love, give him your praise and give Him your Loyalty. Without these three things, you are not worshipping, you are just singing, writing poems, painting, sailing, working or sunbaking on a beach. Worship is the first purpose God created you for. This week as you continue to read 1 chapter a day, we’ll be learning more about this topic, I challenge to consider who or what you worship now and encourage you to begin to find creative ways you can express your love, praise and devotion to God on a daily basis. It won’t necessarily be easy to begin with. No relationship is deep and intimate initially. But with time, the relationship will grow and you will experience God personally and see change in your life.
