PLANNED FOR GOD’S PLEASURE

The Purpose Driven Life – Part 2

May 9, 2004

 

 

Mike Royco reported this true story in the Chicago Tribune.  A man named Bill Mallory traveled to India to discover the purpose of life.  But he didn’t find the answer there.  So after returning, he noticed a sign at a 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?”  These were the real answers he got.  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.”  However, most people just gave him a blank stare and cleaned his windshield; but he kept asking at all the Chevron stations.  One day Mallory got a phone call from Chevron Customer Relations.  He said, “We understand you’ve been asking our dealer questions and getting unsatisfactory answers.”  The man suggested that he write out his question and send it to Chevron Corporate with a self-addressed stamped envelope.  So Bill Mallory wrote, “What is the purpose of life?” and sent it to Chevron Gas Company.  A couple of weeks later, the envelope was returned.  The only thing in it was an application for a credit card!

Listen, if you want to know the purpose of life, you’re not going to find it in a gas station. You have to either talk to the creator who made you, or look in the owner’s manual.  You were made by God and you were made for God.  And until you understand that, life isn’t going to make sense.

God has five reasons for creating you, and today we’re going to look at the first.  Let’s read Revelation 4:11 from your outline.  “You (God) created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created.”  Circle the phrase “for your pleasure.”  The Bible says you were created for God’s enjoyment.  God made you just to enjoy you. And the only reason that you’re alive is God wanted you alive and He gets enjoyment out of watching you.

How many of you are parents?  How many of you enjoy watching your kids?  And I think the same thing is true with God, most of the time He enjoys watching you be you.  When you were born, when you came out of your mother’s womb, God was there in that room, smiling from ear to ear, because He wanted you made.  

Now, last week we talked about how you were created to be loved by God.  This week we’re looking at the flip side, the first purpose of your life, which is God wants you to love Him back.  He wants you to bring enjoyment back to Him.

One day Jesus was walking down the street and a guy came up and said, “Lord, what’s the most important command in the entire Bible?” Jesus goes, “okay, I’m going to give it to you.  This is the most important thing.  If you don’t get anything else, just get this.”  Let’s read it together there in Matthew 22. 

He said, “Love the Lord your God. This is the first and greatest commandment.” Circle “first” and “greatest.”  God says if you don’t get anything else, here’s what you’re supposed to do in life: you’re supposed to learn to love Me back, because I made you to love you.  And I want you to know and love me back. 

 

Now, there’s a word for this.  It is the word “worship.”  Worship is knowing and loving God back.  Now, the problem is that worship is misunderstood today.  When I say the word “worship,” what do you think of? Well, you may think of prayer.  You may think of singing.  Or this [demonstrate]. You may think of ritual or communion or going to church.  But worship is far, far more than all those things.  You might write this down.  My first purpose in life then is to worship God.  It’s your primary objective. 

 

Probably the best verse that defines worship, your very first purpose, is this-Romans 12, verse 1.  Let’s read it aloud together.  “Because of God’s great mercy to us… 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.”  This is what worship is all about.

Now, I want to point out two things.  Write this down.  First, worship is my response to God’s love.  Worship is just the way I react, I respond, to God when He loves me.  Notice it says “because.” “Because of God’s great mercy.” God gives His love to us, then we worship Him back.  You see, God takes the initiative.  He always makes the first move.  And notice what we do - we “offer.”  That word describes worship. 

 

Second thing is giving back to God.  Worship is giving back to God.  He gives to us, and we give back to Him.  And whenever you give back to God, whenever you offer anything to God, that’s called worship.  And that brings pleasure to God.  When your kids are grateful to you, as a parent, that brings pleasure to you.  When we’re grateful to our Heavenly Father, that brings pleasure to Him. 

But the question is, what am I supposed to offer?  You think finding Christmas gifts is hard for some people?  What do you give a God who’s got everything?  I mean, He made the world.  He made you.  What do you give Him?  I’ll tell you what you give Him…you give Him your love.  You give Him your love.  And He’s very specific about how to give it.  In Mark chapter 12 it says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” 

 

This tells me that God wants me to love Him three ways:  First, God wants me to love Him thoughtfully.  It says, “love Him with your mind.”  In other words, He wants you to think it through, to not just do it without thinking.  He wants you to worship Him thoughtfully, know and love Him thoughtfully.  Second, God wants me to love him passionately.  He says, “with all your heart and all your soul.”  I want you to love Me passionately, because I passionately love you.  And Third, He says, I want you to love me practically.  Practically.  “love Me with all your strength”, with your abilities.     

 

And so, worship is focusing my attention on God.  It is focusing my mind, my thoughts, my attention on God.  It takes getting our mind focused on God.  Not just going through the motions, but really, really thinking about it. Which isn’t always easy to do. Have you ever prayed on autopilot?  You pray before a meal, you pray— blah, blah, -- Amen?  And if somebody asked you what you just prayed, you’d have no idea.  Or do you ever zone out in church, not when I’m speaking, but sometimes, do you ever zone out in church?  That reminds us that it takes energy and attention to focus on God.

 

Look at what the Bible has to say to us in Psalm 139 verses 1 through 3. “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” -- Would you read this last part with me --  “You notice everything I do and everywhere I go.”  God has focused his attention on you.  He never stops thinking about you. 

He is always focused on us, and He wants to teach us to focus our heart and our attention on Him. And that’s difficult sometimes.  We have to decide to focus.  We have to choose to focus on things.

 

The problem is, we live in a self-centered culture. There are a couple verses on your outline about that.  Romans 8:7, and then also Romans 12:2.  Read Romans 12 with me: “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God.”  We must choose --choose to stop thinking about some things and start thinking about God.

 

The Bible in Matthew chapter 6, verse 6, says this, “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.”  Circle the word “place.”  You’ve got to find a place to do this.  You can worship God anywhere.  You just find a place -- your car on the way to work, someplace in your backyard, a corner of your living room where you can focus on God.  Circle the word also in that verse, “simply.”  Just be with God simply.  No ceremony, no fancy words.  You’re just there with Him, talking to Him.  And then circle also the word “honestly.”  Just be yourself.  I want to relieve some of you of some pressure.  Don’t try to be spiritual.  It doesn’t work anyway.  You end up not looking consecrated, but constipated when you try to look spiritual.  Can I say “constipated” in church?  Well, it is how you look.  Because the truth is, you don’t have to try to look spiritual, you just have to try to get to know God better.

 

Psalm 105, verse 4, says “Worship him continually.”  Just think about Him throughout the day.  I know of a guy who sets his watch to go off every 30 minutes so when it beeps, it reminds him to think about God, maybe to pray for the person he’s talking to.  Whatever you do, you develop this constant conversation throughout the day. 

 

And as we do this, focusing on God has incredible benefits in our lives.  Look at the next verse in our outline, the Bible tells us in Isaiah 26, verse 3, “you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on You!”  Because when you focus on yourself, the inevitable results are thoughts of worry, insecurity, anxiety, guilt, fear, discouragement.   

 

Now, not only is worship focusing my attention on God, it’s also expressing my affection to God.  Expressing my affection.  This is loving God with your heart and soul.  And for some of you, this is kind of difficult because you grew up in families that weren’t real affectionate, weren’t real expressive, didn’t say I love you a lot.  Maybe you’re kind of the silent type.  It’s not real easy for you to express affection to God.  You’re going to have to learn how to grow, how to develop, how to say “I love you God”.  God said it first to you.  God said, “I love you.”  God has said it in a thousand ways. He created you.  He’s taken care of you.  Even when you didn’t know it, He was showing love to you.   

 

The Bible says, “We love Him, because He first loved us.”  You know, in many religions, God is this angry tyrant, and you have to appease God and you have to avoid God and have you to kind of run from God, and you have to be afraid of God.  But that’s not the real God.  Notice this next verse.  God is talking here in the Bible, Hosea 6, God says, “I don’t want your sacrifices -- I want your love!  I don’t want your offerings -- I want you to know me!” 

 

That, friends, is the first purpose of your life -- to know and love God.  If you get that done, you have accomplished the most important thing in life.  So if at the end of the day, you know God a little bit better and you love Him a little bit more, that day was a success.  That’s why your heart is still beating.  The purpose of your life is to know and love God, first, before anything else. 

 

Of course, the greatest way to express affection to God is by giving your life to Him, by yielding yourself to Him.  That’s the greatest way to express your love to God. 
Look at this verse, Romans 6.  It says, “Give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life.”  Remember, it’s always a response.  God gave us life, then He gives new life in Jesus—we are “born again”.  He says I want you to give yourself completely back to Me. 

 

What holds us back?  Well, I’ll tell you, it is one word -- f-e-a-r.  You’re scared to death.  You’re chicken.  You’re afraid to give your life to God because “if I do, he is going to turn me into some kind of religious nutcase.” You know, “I’ll become one of those fanatics that I see on some of those TV channels and I’ll walk around having to say things like” -- “Jeeesus.”  Not Jesus, but “Jeeesus.” 

Every time, you know, you stub your toe, you have to go “Praise the Lord!”  I don’t think so!  God doesn’t want to turn you into a goof ball.  He made you to be you.  You know what?  God likes you the way you are, that’s why He made you that way. 

Now, worship is focusing my attention on God.  It is expressing my affection to God, and lastly it is using my abilities for God.  Using my abilities for God.  This is loving God with all your strength. You see, God wants us to serve Him with our strength.

Notice this next verse, Colossians 3:23, read it with me.  “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for people.”  Now, if you get this verse, it will absolutely revolutionize your life.  You’ll never be the same once you understand this verse.  Notice it again.  “Whatever you do” – that means anything –  “work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for people.”  You see, you don’t have to join a monastery to worship more.  You just change who you’re working for.  And when you change who you’re working for, your work becomes worship. 

Now, if you don’t get anything else I’ve said today, I want you to get this one truth.  In life it’s not what you do that matters; it is Who you do it for.  You give it all to God.  And all of your work can be turned to worship.  I don’t care if you’re a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker.  You can do it for God.  It really doesn’t matter what you do.  God says, “Pick whatever career you want, I don’t care.  Whatever you want to do.  I wired you up in a certain way to have certain interests.  Why don’t you do what you’re interested in doing?” 

And so if you’re good at repairing things, you go out and say, “God, I want to repair things this week as if I’m doing it for you.”  And if you’re good at cooking, “God, I’m going to cook this meal, whether it’s for my family or for a restaurant, as if I’m doing it for You.”  And that turns work into worship, and then you’re worshipping God 24 hours a day. Not just in church.  God doesn’t want worship to just be a church thing.  He wants it to be your whole life, your lifestyle.

 Notice this next verse, from Romans 12, “Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, your eating, your going to work, your walking-around life – and place it before God” – as a what? – what? – “Offering.” There’s that word again.  We said “offer” is the essence of worship.  Now, folks, this is where the rubber meets the road.  Real purpose-driven living doesn’t happen in a church.  It doesn’t even happen in a small group.  It doesn’t even happen in your personal time of quiet time with God every day, of prayer and reading the Bible.  It happens in the ordinary, routine, mundane, things of real life where you go, “God, I’m going to take out the garbage for You.”  You can make beds to the glory of God. You can milk a cow to the glory of God.  Everything can be turned into an act of worship, putting your heart and soul in, as though you were working for the Lord. 

Now, the amazing thing is this:  if we focus our attention and we express our affection and we use our abilities for the one who made us, God says, “I’ll take care of everything else.  You don’t have to worry about it.  I will take care of it all.”  The Bible says in Psalm 37, “God pays attention and God delights in every detail of our lives.”  Every detail.
Every one of you who are believers, I’m sure, could share stories of little examples of how God cared about details in your life, in the smallest needs.  That kind of God – He is worthy of our worship.  When you understand how passionate He is about you, how much He loves you, how much He cares about every detail, you can’t help but love God.  

Now, 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?  Because whatever you think about most is what you love the most.  What do you think about when you just let your mind drift?  Whatever that is, is what you worship. 

The Bible says you were planned for God’s pleasure.  You were made to know and love God.  So I challenge you to make as the No 1 goal of your life before everything else, getting to know and love God, because that brings Him pleasure.  You make as your goal what Paul said in the last verse on your outline, he said, “So we make it our goal to please Him.” There’s not a better goal in life to have than that one right there.