Planned for God’s Joy

Week 2: The Purpose-Driven Life

Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson

A true story from the Chicago Tribune: A man named Bill travels to India looking for the purpose of life. He didn’t find it there but after returning, he noticed a sign at the 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 and I’d like to ask you a question. What is the purpose of life?” These were the real answers he got. The first man said, “Sorry, I’m new here.” The second guy said, “I don’t remember anything in the manual about that.” Another man said, “I’m not much for church myself, sir.” One man gave him a leering look and a wink, whatever that meant. However, most people just gave him a blank stare. But he kept asking. One day he got a phone call from Chevron customer relations. This person said, “We understand you’ve been asking our dealers questions and getting unsatisfactory answers.” The man suggested that he write out his question and send it to Chevron corporate headquarters along with a self-addressed stamped envelope. So Bill wrote, “What is the purpose of life?” and sent it to the Chevron gas company. A couple of weeks later the envelope was returned; the only thing in it was an application for a credit card.

If you want to know the purpose of life, we’re not going to find it at a gas station or watching Oprah or listening to music or even reading philosophy, although that might bring us closer to some degree. We’re only going to find it if we consult the Maker. We’ve all heard the stories of a man who wants to put together a bicycle for his son or daughter on Christmas Eve. As he’s putting it together, he gets all the parts mixed up and everything all messed up. But then he decides, when all else fails, to read the directions. At the bottom the directions said, “Best results if you follow the directions of the maker.” That’s true about life.

Bottom line…we are made people. We are created. We’ve been made by God; best results when following the instructions and the purpose of the Maker. And we do have a purpose. As a matter of fact, we have several purposes and we are going to talk about five over the next few weeks. We are following the 40 Days of Purpose, A Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren and I’ve said several times, Rick Warren has not really come up with anything new. His five purposes are not rocket science; what brilliant people often do is identify things that we already do know in ways we understand them. I think that’s what he’s done. He’s taken five purposes and the first is Worship. We were created to worship. It is part of your DNA to worship. If you go anywhere in the world, you will find objects of worship, people worshipping something. It’s part of how we are. We’re made to worship something; we’re really made to worship God. We’re created to do that. We were created for God’s pleasure. I want to be careful with that word. It might connotate being made as an object or play thing but that’s not what we are saying. Perhaps a better way to say it is to say that you and I were made to bring God joy. Last week we talked a lot about, and we’ll continue to do so, how much God loves us, how much God loves you. But today we’re going to talk about the flip-side…how much God wants you to love Him.

So let’s begin by looking at a Scripture this morning. I’d like you to read it with me because I want you to hear this.

You (God) created everything and it is for Your pleasure that they exist and were created.

And a second verse… We often don’t think of God this way. We often think of God as being out there somewhere, as being so incomprehensible that we can’t really understand Him, that we can’t know Him or know anything about Him. That’s part of the confusion of the modern world; everyone has their conception of what God is, so who are we to say who’s right and who is wrong? I’m not really here to get into that. But part of the confusion is that we actually can say some things that are definitive about God. Yes God is incomprehensible. We talked a little bit about that just a minute ago in Sunday School; how God is so big that He is everywhere all over the whole universe, so much so that He is on the other side of the universe as much as He is here. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time getting around that one. At the same time, we can say things about God that are true that God has revealed about Himself. And God has revealed that He is loving and that He loves; He is a person who not only loves but wants to be loved. I offer you proof from the Scriptures. Jesus is walking down the road and someone asks Him, “What is the greatest commandment in the Bible?” And this is it. He doesn’t say go out and burn 10 rams up. He doesn’t say go out and sacrifice 20 birds. He doesn’t even say go out and cross the desert or anything else. It’s about LOVE.

Love the Lord your God. This is the first and the greatest commandment.

God wants you to love Him and the way we do that is to worship God. There are some other things too, but we begin here. We begin with worship. There’s a problem with worship. The problem is that we don’t really understand what it is. Some of us think that worship is singing; it is certainly part of it. In the contemporary scene today, worship has become all about singing. I’m not complaining; I love to sing. But it isn’t only about that. Some of us think it’s only about prayer or communion or showing up at church. Some of us don’t know one thing about worship at all because when you hear the word “worship” you automatically think “boring”. I read a story about a man who said that any thought about Heaven bothered him because the image it conjured up was perpetual, eternal worship. He said it kept him an atheist for 20 years. Sometimes we just don’t want to think about it. But our first purpose is to worship God. It’s our first purpose. We are made to do this. This is what we are here for. This is the true worship that you should offer.

Romans 12:1

Because of God’s great mercy to us, offer yourselves as a living sacrifice, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him.
 

What is worship? It begins with a response. There is a theological thing you should know. God’s always before us, not only in greatness, but He’s always ahead of us. I’ve shared with you before that when I go visit someone or go somewhere on the Lord’s behalf, if I go to a hospital to visit someone, I pray something like this: “Lord, show me what You are already doing.” I know that God is already there, doing something. He’s ahead of the game. God is always there first. God is also the one who acts first toward us. God has created us, forgiven us, given us Jesus. He gives us our lives and all that we have. We respond to that. Worship is a response. If we think about how much God loves us, then we think about our response in love. Worship is also giving back to God. It doesn’t mean that God really needs anything; God is God. But in one of the mysteries of the universe, God decided He wanted a family. God wanted creatures to love and from whom to have love…not that He needed that, but He wants that from you and from me. So worship is a response, it’s giving back to God. Again, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your mind.” Do you hear the passion there? Love the Lord your God with all your being. This is the first and the greatest commandment. We need to rearrange our thinking about who we think God is. He’s not just out there – yes, He is bigger than we can imagine – but He can be known because He is a person. This person wants to be loved. I have found that every creature wants some kind of loving. Over the years, we have had animals like a dog or a cat. I remember going to an animal shelter and we were going to pick out a cat. We were trying to figure out which cat to choose. There was one little cat, a little bitty thing, on the wire, all fours, meowing. It seemed to be saying, “Love me.” Another cat we had, we put in the bathroom and it was meowing. So I had to get her out and she slept on my head all night. Every creature needs love, every creature wants love.

“Love the Lord your God.” In that verse, we find how God wants us to love Him…thoughtfully, passionately, and practically. First thoughtfully…we’re going to talk a little about what that means. But I’ve said many times, as Christians, when we walk into church we should not check our brain at the door. We are to be thoughtful but we’re not talking about simply intellect, we’re talking about learning about who God is, wrestling with who God is, thinking about who God is, understanding about who God is, being thoughtful about it, asking questions. It’s okay to ask questions. And also we are to love Him passionately. Here’s where I think Presbyterians have trouble. I pick on Presbyterians but I am one so I can do that. At one of my churches, we got together to put together a mission statement. As we were thinking about who we were, I asked them to insert “passionate worship” in the mission statement. Not just one, but a couple of people asked if we could put “passion” in it. They wondered whether it was okay to be passionate. We have trouble with passion because it leads to all kinds of emotionalism, but we’re talking about it differently. God does not want us to be stoic; He wants us to live our lives passionately. Yes that may mean you might get hurt, but God wants that passion. That’s why He made us. It’s okay to demonstrate passion toward God.

What does this all mean? Well, worship is focusing our attention on God. We are so distracted in life; we keep our radios or TVs on. All kinds of things are going on and we’re so busy. We’re distracted in life. It’s hard to focus on God. We’re so busy making a living we get wrapped up in ourselves. Do you know how to really put someone down? We’re too nice to cuss at them or tell them how bad they are, but often the way we put people down is to ignore them. We do that with God as well. We live our lives only and only focus on God when we need Him. I want to ask you a question: Suppose your child came to you only when they wanted something. I know that happens. My dad used to tell me a little poem about a son who wrote from college, “No mon, no fun, your son.” And the father wrote back, “Too bad, so sad, your dad.” My father said, “Let that be a lesson to you.” But suppose our children only wanted to have anything to do with us when they needed something. Or they only wanted to have something to do with us if we entertain them? Or they only wanted to have something to do with us if we schedule one hour a week and then they might or might not show up? You know where I’m going with this; we live our lives with so many other things that are first priority and we don’t focus our attention on God. We need love the Lord with all our thoughts and part of that is attention. Listen to a paraphrase by Eugene Peterson of Romans 8:7 – “Focusing on yourself is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone who completely is absorbed in self ignores God and ends up thinking more about self than God.” C.S. Lewis says, “Pride is the opposite of God.” We may not think we are prideful, but if we are ignoring Him in our lives and not focusing on Him, guess what? We are focusing on something else…usually ourselves.

How do we do this? Certainly, I would say come to worship on Sundays. I do believe that this hour on Sunday is important. It’s important to come and readjust oneself. We go through life during the week and have so many things on our hearts and minds. It’s good to come and re-set everything. That’s what Sunday is for. I’m humbled by the fact that most people come to church not because of the preacher, but because of friends or family. That’s great, eighty percent of you do that. It’s not really about that, it’s not about the sermon or the other things, but it’s about being together and being with God. It’s also focusing on our time during the week. So Jesus says to us, “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. The focus will shift from you to God and you will begin to sense His grace. We need to worship God when we are traveling in the car, commuting, when we are listening to music. We need to make time for God, if only five to ten minutes a day. Worship Him continually. You might ask how that is possible. But just make God a part of our everyday lives.
 

Worship is also expressing our affection for God. I mentioned passion. Do you remember how hard it was for the first time to say to someone out loud, “I love you?” Maybe you haven’t done that, I don’t know. It’s hard isn’t it? One of the movies I’ve watched several times is Ghost. In that movie the character played by Patrick Swayze can never say “I love you” to his girlfriend. Every time she says, “I love you,” he also responds with “Ditto.” He can’t say “I love you.” I wonder if that isn’t how we are as Presbyterians. It’s hard for us to express our love for God, to express our affection. I find myself that, even though I like to raise my hands to God, I don’t do it all the time because I’m afraid of what people might think. That’s the bottom line. We’re so afraid of being embarrassed that we have a hard time expressing love. God wants a hug. God wants us to say, “I love you God!” God wants us to express our love, however we can do that. Again we respond to God’s love because He loved us. Listen again to the passion: “I don’t want your sacrifices, I want your love. I don’t want your offerings, I want you to know me.” Or again, in Exodus…we usually think of the Old Testament of being kind of hard or cruel, but listen to this. This is a God who is passionate about His relationship with you. “Give yourselves completely to God because you have been given a new life.”

Last but not least worship is, in fact, using your abilities for God. It is being who you are. There’s a wonderful devotional, famous devotional, book out there called “Practicing the Presence of God” by a monk and we only know him as Brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence had a huge job in the monastery; he was the dishwasher. Yet, this practical book talks about how he developed an incredible relationship with God, washing dishes. What he would do is simply give what he did to God and that’s what I am encouraging you to do. Whatever you do in life, from a gas station attendant to a truck driver to a pilot to whatever, give it to God. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as though you were working for the Lord and not people. Back in the days when you could still smoke on an airplane, there was a man who had a big old cigar and he was smoking it but he happened to be in the non-smoking section. He lit up anyway and was puffing smoke. The stewardess came up and told him that he couldn’t do that; he just blew smoke in her face. This went on for quite a while and she finally got him to stop. She was very nice during the whole process and a person who was watching asked her how she could treat the man so nicely even though he was terrible to her. She just looked at him and said, “I don’t work for American Airlines. I work for Jesus Christ.” She was placing her work on the altar of the Lord. I just love this verse: “Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life – and place it before God as an offering.” I think you will be surprised. I would like to ask you to do that today as we pray together. As we pray, let’s pray that we would know God with our hearts and our minds, that we would know Him passionately, and that we could know God in what we do. Let’s pray that we can worship Him through all these things.

I would like to challenge and encourage you to do this; if you do, you will find God showing up more and more in your life. You will be able to see Him (He’s already there). I read a story about a man who was going to take a trip back before the Iron Curtain fell to one of the Eastern countries. He was going to visit some missionaries in that area and there was a family who was living a very hard life in this place. He was thinking about his trip and he decided he was going to take some things with him and was hoping that he could choose things that wouldn’t get confiscated. He went to the store and got all kinds of things, including Reese’s peanut butter cups, a can of citrus fruit, and some tapioca pudding. He went over and visited a missionary family and they really had nothing. It was October but he decided he would play Santa Claus. He prayed that the Lord would bless him and that things would turn out all right. He asked the kids what in the world they wanted most from the United States and they all said candy. And the mother said particularly Reese’s peanut butter cups. So he gave them to the children. He asked the mother and she said that she missed oranges. So he gave her the can of oranges. He felt the Lord say, “Go for it.” He asked the man what he wanted most. He said, “I know it sounds weird, but I want tapioca pudding.” And there it was. I don’t know that we could promise things like that, but I really believe that as we worship God more and make it a lifestyle we will begin to see God working in our lives more and more. This feeling of falling away from God goes away and God is right there with us through the good times and, particularly, the bad. Won’t you make that commitment as we pray?