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Today is our second Sunday when we’re into this series called “40 Days of Purpose.” Last week was by way of an introduction, and we discovered that  we were made by God and we were made for God – and we discover our purpose only through looking to God.

Today, we’re going to look at the first of God’s five purposes for your life.  And in order to jump right into this, let’s read Revelation 4:12, which can find at the top of the insert sheet in your Pew Sheet..  Would you read it with me?  “You (God) created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created.”  Note or underline the phrase “for your pleasure.”  The Bible says you and I were created for God’s enjoyment, for God’s pleasure. That’s pretty amazing really , isn’t it. That the Creator of the Universe made you and me just to enjoy us – enjoy our company and our presence.
            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 to enjoy a relationship with you.    One day Jesus was walking down the street and a man came up and said, “Lord, what’s the most important command in the entire Bible?” Jesus goes, “okay,  This is the most important thing. This will summarize the whole Bible.   It’s the most important.”  So - let’s read it together there in Matthew 22.  It’s there in your outline.  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 will bring fulfilment in your life – it’s when you love Me back.

            Now, there’s a word for this “ loving God”.  It’s a word we misunderstand, so a lot of people don’t use it. It is the word “worship.”  You might write this down. My first purpose in life is to worship God.  This is your primary objective; your highest priority; your number one purpose in life, - and if you don’t understand what worship is, and you don’t worship God, you will never fulfil God’s purpose for your life.   So we’re going to talk about what that means today because, unfortunately, worship is often misunderstood.

Now, probably the best verse that defines worship, your very first purpose is this- in 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.”    Now, I want you to circle three words in this verse -- the word “because,” the word “offer,” and the word “offer.”  Because this is what worship is all about.                  I’m not going to go into great detail in this verse, because you’re going to study this verse this week in your small groups in the 40 Days of Purpose groups. But I do want to point out two things.  So fill in the blank:  FIRST, worship is my response to God’s love.  Worship is the way I react, THE WAY I respond, to God when He loves me.  That’s what worship is.  Notice it says “because,”;  “because of God’s great mercy,”- BECAUSE of His love for us,- then we worship Him back.  God always makes the first move.  He creates us.  He saves us.  He forgives us.  He blesses us.  He protects us -- and then because of all these things, we worship.  And notice what we do - we “offer.”  That word describes worship. 

The SECOND thing about Worship is that it is giving back to God. (write that down!)   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.   In one Methodist church I had combined services with in a previous parish, the offertory was always preceded with the words – “Let us Worship God with our tithes and offerings.”!   Our offering of ourselves to God should include everything.. even our money! That’s part of the way in which we worship God.

Now God is very specific about how we worship Him and what we give back to Him.

 In Mark chapter 12, would you read this verse with me?  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”  Now, in this verse – which, by the way, is the memory verse for this week in 40 days - I want to point out 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 through your worship, to not just do it without thinking.  Second, God wants me to love him passionately.  He says, “with all your heart and all your soul.”  And Third, He says, I want you to love me practically.  - “love Me with all your strength”, with your abilities.  You see, even though God created the entire world and the universe and He created you, there are three things God does not have unless you give them to Him.  He doesn’t have your attention unless you give it to Him.-- That’s loving God with your mind!.  He doesn’t have your affection, unless you give it to Him!.-- That’s loving God with your heart and your soul.  And God doesn’t have your ability, unless you give it to Him --  That’s loving God with your strength!  Whenever you take the things God has given to you and you give them back to God, that, friends, is the heart of worship. There was (is)  a song we sang (sing) a few minutes ago entitled “When the Music fades” – and it reminded us that the heart of worship is not about us, its about God and when we worship God with our mind, with our heart, our soul and our strength – then we have got to the heart of worship, we are truly worshipping.

            So what IS at the heart of Worship? :

Well, Number one,(1)  worship is focusing my attention on God.    You know, 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 means focussing our mind on God – and that often takes energy.  Its not just going through the motions like spinning a prayer wheel, or praying on autopilot, but really thinking about what we are doing and why.      We all know that one of the greatest ways we can show our love for others is to give them our undivided attention. And the greatest way we can show our love for God  is to give Him our undivided attention.  It’s easy to loose our focus, even when we come here to worship.  So how, then, do we focus on God ? -

Well, first of all, you can start doing that by just establishing a daily time with God.  Just a few minutes during the day.  I doesn’t matter when it is – just decide you’re going to stop everything else and just be with God.  Talk to Him, read His Word.  The Bible talks about that in Matthew chapter 6, verse 6, when it 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.”  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!   Just be with God simply.  No ceremony, no fancy words.  You’re just there with Him, talking to Him.  And then, just be yourself.    You and God together.. 

There’s a second thing that you can do to focus on God, and that is to develop a constant conversation with God.  Look at the next verse in your outline.  The Bible tells us in Psalm 105, verse 4, “Worship him continually.”  Just think about Him throughout the day.  You have to decide to do that.  I know people do that in a lot of different ways. Somepeople set their 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 you 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!”       All of a sudden, you begin to sense gratitude and hope and confidence and love. 

            Now, not only is worship focusing my attention on God, it’s also (2)   expressing my affection to God.   This is loving God with your heart and soul.  And for some of you, this may be difficult because maybe you’re the silent type.  It’s not real easy for you to express affection to God without feeling awkward about it. There was a time when Anglicanism was very much an expression of English culture – very reserved, polite and proper!  So some people will have to learn how to grow and develop,- how to say “I love you God”.            But the neat thing about God is that  He said it first!  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.  And God has said over and over and over to you, “I love you.” So you don’t have to worry about saying it back to God. He would love to hear you say that.

Notice this verse, 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.  The Bible says God wants to be loved by us!   . 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!” 

Now, I want to you circle the word “love” and the word “know,” because that, friends, is the first purpose of your life -- to know and love God.  If you do that, then you have accomplished the most important thing in life.   You see, the most important thing you can know in life is that God loves you.  And 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.”  And if,  - at the end of your day, you know God a little bit better and you love Him a little bit more, then that day was a success!    But if, on the other hand, you don’t know God a little bit better and you don’t love Him a little bit more, then that day, was wasted.  God wants us to love Him passionately, with feeling ! – not with a cold sense of duty.   We can start doing that by just  looking around at everything and start thanking God.  That’s an expression of our affection for God.

.  Look at Romans 6.  It says, “Give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life.”  Again, remember, it’s always a response.  God gave us life, then He gives new life in Jesus   

So, -  worship is (1)  focusing my attention on God.  It is   (2)  - expressing my affection to God, and (3) --  it is using my abilities for God.    This is loving God with all your strength.  Those of us who have been married for some time know that it takes more than just words and kisses to express affection!    There’s another kind of love that you need, too, to back it up.  That’s practical expressions of love.  Sometimes there are chores to be done.  Sometimes there are things that need to be fixed.  Sometimes there are responsibilities to be shared.  And that’s the practical thing where I use my abilities to show that love and devotion is not just words – its deeds as well.. And that’s part of worship, too!  
            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 change your life.  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.  You see, many of us compartmentalize our lives saying, “Okay, here’s my worship.  I go to church once a week.  Maybe I go to a small group once a week!  -- and then over here, I’ve got my career; - and then over here I’ve got my social life.”   God says I want you to invite me into every area of your life.  I want to be involved in all of it, invite me into the whole thing.   In life it’s not what you do that matters; it is Who you do it for!

If you give it all to God then all of your work – all of your life - becomes worship The key question of life is not  “What should I DO -- but  WHO are you doing it for?     If your life is dedicated to God -- then that turns your  WORK INTO worship!.   He wants your whole life, to be worship!
             Notice this next verse, I love this paraphrase in the Message, it says in 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? ) – an“Offering”. Real Purpose-Driven living happens in the ordinary, routine, things of real life.  You can make beds to the glory of God. You can even vacuum floors and do ironing to the glory of God!  You can serve customers; fix cars; attend to clients; operate computers – and almost anything else -  to the glory of God !  Everything can be turned into an act of worship. Worship is using my abilities for God!
            Now I don’t want to bust any bubbles here today, but I think you can see that HOW we worship here in church really doesn’t matter too much to God!    I don’t thing  He is all that fussed whether we wear robes in our worship services – how many candles we have alight, whether we use an old prayer book, a new prayer book or no prayer book; or whether we use incense or not !  These are more a matter of our own personal preferences! The kind of worship that truly pleases God is the 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.  Real worship is a lifestyle. 
            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!”  And I’m quite sure that if I were to ask you to come and share how God has taken care of your lives – once we got over the initial shyness of it – I’m sure there would be many of you coming forward to share your stories of how God cared about details in your life, even in the smallest needs.  That kind of God is worthy of our worship. 
 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, where he said, “So we make it our goal to please Him.”   There’s no better goal in life than to have that one right there. Our goal is to Please Him.

Let’s bow our heads.
            Father, what we have talked about today is no minor issue.  It is the most important thing in life. Getting to know and love You.  We are all at different stages in our spiritual journey, some here for the very first time.  But help each of us to take the next step that we need to take.  Help us to learn how to focus our attention on You; express my affection for You and use my abilities for You.

 “Jesus, thank You for giving Your life for me.  As much as I know how, I want to give my life back to You.  In Your name I pray, Amen.”                         
*****