1. Review:
1. Week One:
i. We cannot understand or attain our purpose in life apart from God.
ii. We learned that having a purpose gives meaning to our lives.
iii. Having and pursuing your purpose prepares you for eternity.
2. Week Two:
i. This life is preparation for the next life.
ii. Your PERSPECTIVE determines your purpose – therefore we need an eternal perspective, which looks beyond the here and now.
2. Purpose #1: We were created, planned to bring pleasure to God.
1. This is what answers the burning question in each of us…why do I exist?
i. Why did God make me?
ii. If we understand this principle, we will see that the first purpose of our lives is to bring enjoyment to God, to live for His pleasure.
2. God made you and I because He desired to have us be a part of His creation
i. This principle proves your worth.
1. If you are that important to God, and He considers you valuable enough to keep Him with Him for eternity, what greater value can you have.
2. The maker of Heaven and earth, saw you as so valuable that He designed you to be His friend and companion for eternity.
3. And when you rejected Him, He didn’t just destroy you. No, He sent His Son to die the death that rejecting God deserved. He gave up the closest, most valuable thing to Himself to win you back.
4. That is value!
3. Ephesians 1:5 - “Because of His love, God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children, this was His pleasure and purpose.”
3. How do we bring pleasure to God?
1. The bible says that “God seeks worshipers” (Jn 4:23)
i. We bring pleasure to God by worshipping Him.
1. Whenever we fulfill His purposes for our lives, we bring pleasure to God.
a. He is pleased..
b. He wants us to find our fulfillment in Him, to enjoy Him.
c. It was for this reason that He made us.
ii. Therefore, worship is our first responsibility to God.
iii. We worship God by “enjoying” Him.
iv. CS Lewis, “In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”
2. God wants our worship to be motivated by love, thanksgiving and delight, not duty.
i. God is passionately in love with you. He passionately longs to have a relationship with you.
ii. My 19th anniversary is coming up this week. What if I brought home a gift to my wife and said, "Honey, I’ve brought you this for three reasons. First, I am your husband. Second, it is our anniversary. Third, husbands are supposed to give their wives something on their anniversary. So here." Wouldn’t she be thrilled? I don’t think so. Why? She wants me to love her passionately. She doesn’t want duty. She wants desire.
iii. God doesn’t want your duty. "Well, I guess we better get ready and go to church. It’s Sunday, you know."
1. That’s not what God wants.
2. He doesn’t want rituals and religion and rules. He wants a relationship. He says, "I want you to love me as much as I love you." That’s what worship is—expressing my affection to God.
3. Hosea 6:6 (LB) “I don’t want your sacrifices – I want your love! I don’t want your offerings, I want you to know me!”
4. Worship (Look at our need to worship)
1. Anthropologists have observed that worship is a universal urge of people in all areas of earth.
i. Explorers have found isolated cultures that never had any contact with the outside world. Yet, each of these tribes or people had some form of worshiping a god or a host of gods or goddesses.
ii. Despite the differences in nationalities, ethnicities, cultures, or forms of worship, one thing is common among us all - we have an innate desire to a god. Why is this so? The Bible tells us that God "has put eternity into man’s mind" (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
2. Our need to worship something is hard-wired into our being.
3. If we don’t worship God, we will worship something or someone else.
4. We will have a god of our own making. Because we have a need to worship.
5. For modern man, that god of his own making is himself. Many people live as if they are god.
i. Many of those who do not believe in God would suddenly call upon the name of God when a great disaster strikes them. It is at that moment that an individual comes to the realization that his powers are finite. He naturally cries for the help of the Controller of all things
5. What worship is and isn’t:
1. It is more than praising and singing and praying to God on Sunday morning at church.
i. Most of us probably need to expand our understanding of worship.
ii. Some folks think worship is 5 hymns, a prayer and a sermon.
iii. Others think it is a ritual that is performed by a special person, wearing special clothing.
iv. Others still think it is healings, miracles and ecstatic experiences.
v. But worship, while it may contain these elements, is MORE than that.
2. Worship is more than music.
i. Think about how we communicate what goes on in our services…we say, “We have worship first, and that is followed by a sermon.”
ii. Every part of the service is an act of worship.
iii. Worship occurred before music ever existed.
iv. Adam “worshiped God” in the garden of Eden. That was far before music ever was invented.
3. Worship is more than a particular type or style of music as well.
i. We have spoken about this before. Sometimes we say things like, “Our service generally has a couple of hymns then a few praise and worship songs….”
1. No! All of it is praise and worship if it is done to bring pleasure ot God.
4. Worship is not about us. It isn’t for OUR benefit.
i. Have you ever said, “I didn’t get anything out of worship today”?
1. Maybe it was because you went with the wrong approach to worship.
2. You went to try to get something from it.
ii. Worship is not about what we get out of it.
iii. Worship is about what we GIVE to God.
iv. We don’t worship when we are trying to get.
v. We worship when our heart is inclined to giving ourselves to God.
1. This submission involves the inner man — his mind to reason, his heart to feel, and his spirit to will.
2. If you do not understand the words of worship, if what you say and do in worship is not from your heart, and if your will is only passively involved, then worship cannot take place.
3. The Bible teaches that worship must be "with the spirit" and "with the mind" (1 Cor. 14:15). Worship must be more than watching a performance.
5. Worship has to do with the attitude of our hearts.
i. It is a lifestyle of enjoying God, loving Him and giving ourselves to be used for His purposes.
ii.
6. Worship is defined as bringing pleasure to God.
i. “The Lord is pleased only with those who worship him and trust his love.” (Ps 147:11)
ii. ANYTHING you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship.
iii. Isaiah 29 tells us that God complains about people who worship half-heartedly.
1. The people were offering God stale prayers, insincere praise, empty words, and man-made rituals without ever thinking about the meaning.
2. They were going through the motions.
3. “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” (Is 29:13)
iv. Worship at its very core is “touching the heart of God.”
1. And God is not touched by tradition and rote words but by passion and commitment.
7. Worship is not a PART of your life, it IS your life.
i. Worship is not just for church services.
ii. “Worship Him continually” (Ps 105:4)
iii. “Praise Him from sunrise to sunset.” (Ps 113:3)
iv. A person who worships praises God at work, at home, in all they do and say, wherever they go and whatever they do.
v. Your action of working at your job can and should be an act of worship to God.
1. It is in this change of perspective that you will be changed as well.
2. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10:31).
3. The Message renders Romans 12:1 like this: “Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going to work and walking around life – and place it before God as an offering.”
a. We talked about this recently on Sunday evening in our small group time here at church.
b. Changing the “dull” compartments of our life into an exciting encounter with God.
vi. Imagine…what would happen if you saw your job, yes, that job you don’t like sometimes, that you struggle to get out of bed to go to…as an act of worship to God?
1. . The Bible says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for the people" (Colossians 3:23, TEV).
2. "God, I’m taking out the garbage for you."
3. You can coach a ball team to the glory of God.
4. You can clean your garage for the glory of God.
5. Everything can be turned into an act of worship
vii. TRANSITION POINT NEEDED HERE.
6. At the heart of worship is the act of surrender.
1. Surrender – what is this word?
i. It implies losing, giving up, admitting defeat, or yielding to a stronger opponent. The word always comes in a negative context, ie. A criminal surrendered to authorities.
ii. Our society teaches us never to give up, to win, to overcome and to conquer.
iii. So we recoil at the very idea of surrender.
iv. Yet it is the surrender of the will that makes worship possible.
2. Surrender doesn’t mean retirement, resignation, fatalism or lazyness. It is not a passive word.
i. Surrender is not for cowards or doormats.
1. It is such an active act that it requires great courage to do it.
2. One of the signs of surrender to God is “trust.” You trust what God says and you do it, despite not understanding the “how” or the “why.” You let go and let God work.
3.
i. Romans 12:1 “offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.”
1. Last week we grappled with the core issue of why most people don’t come to Christ. They may give excuses like, “I’m not ready now” or “I can believe everything in the bible,” or “The church is filled with hypocrites.”
a. But the real reason people don’t come to Christ is that they have to surrender.
b. They have to admit that they are not God.
c. They have to let go of trying to live life on their terms.
d. In essence, they have to stop worshiping at an another altar…the altar of a self-ruled, self-run life.
e. People don’t want to do that.
f. That is, unless they have a direct encounter with God.
2. The bible is filled with stories of these encounters. Where unbelievers encountered God and realized that they were worshipping a false god.
3. These pews are filled with people who once worshipped self or materialism, or success…and these same people encountered God and realized the futility of leading a life like that.
4. Last week, we had a couple encounter God and surrender their lives to Him. They found God. The focus of their life changed. The focus of their worship changed. Jesus Christ became their focus. They have begun to worship Him. He has set them free.
5. He can set you free too. But the cost is surrender. You cannot hold out. If you do, you will get exactly what you want. You will get an eternity with the object you worship.
6. If you don’t want Jesus, He will say, that’s fine. Worship yourself for the rest of eternity…away from God. Alone. In misery. Forever. It is your choice. No one is going to make you worship God.
ii. “He who tries to save his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it.”
iii. “Unless you take up your cross DAILY you cannot be my disciple”
4. Worship is a voluntary act of the will. It cannot be coerced.
i. Here is the paradox.
1. Victory comes from Surrender. (Surrender doesn’t weaken you, it strengthens you.) Surrendered people are the people God uses. Nothing is more powerful than a surrendered life in the hands of God.
2. Stanley Jones said, “If you don’t surrender to Christ you surrender to chaos.”
3. Surrender is not the best way to live. It is the only way to live. Nothing else works. All other approaches to life will end in disappointment and self-destruction.
4. The greatest hinderance to God’s blessing in your life is not others, it is you.
a. Your self will, ambition, pride, personal agenda…it is these things that interfere with God’s purposes in your life.
ii. You cannot fulfill God’s purposes in your life while focusing upon your own plans.
7. What will you do? Will you choose to discover the first of God’s purposes for your life by entering into worship of Him? You do this through surrender. Stop running. Stop trying to be in control. Get off of autopilot. Let Jesus in!
1. You might have never surrendered to God…you can today. This can be the first step in your journey. It can be the biggest step in coming to grips with God’s purpose for your life.
2. Most of the Christians in this room, who have started that journey are here today because they know that fulfillment in life comes from Jesus. Many of us here in this room have already embarked on that journey.
i. But it has gotten routine for some of us.
ii. You come to church and go through the motions.
iii. You have lost your passion for God and for an encounter with Him.
iv. You have forgotten your first love.
v. You feel dry. You know you have taken back control of your life.
vi. You know that you have been coming to church to “get” instead of to give…and as a result the worship feels dry.
vii. It isn’t supposed to be that way.
3. In a moment, I will be down front to pray with anyone who wants me to pray with them. It is a ministry time. It is your time to let God make a change in your life. Don’t think for a minute that you can go it alone. You need Jesus. And You need someone to pray with you. Secret decisions rarely go beyond the mode of “good intentions.” But when you ask someone to pray with you…the bible says, “that where any two of you agree on something, it will be done for you.” Won’t you come forward and let God touch your life today?
7. Let’s pray.
