Revelation
Created for God’s Pleasure
Driven to Love
Revelation
“God created everything, and
it is for God’s pleasure that we exist and were created.”
A week ago we began a journey
for Lent.
We started a Lenten journey
titled “Driven by Grace.”
We noted that the beginning of
Rick Warren’s book is unusual and unexpected.
a
book that has sold more hardback copies than any other book in
he begins his book in a surprising place.
He claims:
“If you want to discover your
purpose for life,
you
have to begin with God.
It is surprising because it
is exactly where Presbyterians begin,
and I
would have expected a Baptist theologian to place more emphasis on the
individual; not so.
It is also surprising because
it is such a counter cultural statement.
“To understand your purpose
you must begin with God.”
He begins his book with a
quote from the Bible that says:
“Self help is no help at all.
If you really want to
understand life, the world,
things
that are happening yesterday, today or tomorrow,
If you want to find real
meaning in life, you need to begin with God.”
It’s a good reminder for us
at the beginning of Lent.
For
we will loose or way on this Lenten Journey
if we forget that everything begins and ends in God.
Everything that we do in the
church
and just
about everything in this sermon series will make absolutely no sense
if we forget that we belong to God!
So, let’s begin.
Today, I would like to begin
this sermon in somewhat of an unorthodox manner.
I would like to begin it with
a poll.
In a moment, I will ask
everyone to close their eyes
(so nobody
feels pressure),
and
then ask you to raise your hand if you understand God’s purpose for your life.
So let’s try it. Everyone close your eyes.
No peeking.
Now, raise your hand if you believe
you understand God’s purpose for YOUR life.
You can lower your hands.
Approximately _______% of
this congregation believes they understand God’s purpose for their life.
Out of the ________% I suspect
that very few people in this congregation stated the same purpose that Rick
Warren identifies as our purpose for life.
Let me say it again.
Did anybody identify worship
as their primary purpose?
You’ve got to be wondering:
“How did this book sell 20 million copies?”
Here is one of the reasons.
Worship is not only what
happens in this sanctuary.
Worship is not just what we
do when we sing and pray and read scriptures together.
Worship is not just something
we do when we begin the day in prayer,
or
when we say our prayers at night.
Worship is giving thanks to
God in every thing we do.
Worship is offering praise with
our life.
“Worship is what we were made
for.”
Remember the verse from
Revelation:
“God created everything, and
it is for God’s pleasure that we exist and were created.”[1]
We were created to make God
smile.
Anything that we do
that
brings pleasure to God
is an act of worship.
The first mistake we make
with worship is to think that it is for our benefit.
Worship is not for our
benefit, it is for God.
Soren Kierkegaard, A Danish
philosopher who lived in the 1800s, knew this.
He said people have it all wrong.
They think the central actor
in a worship service is the preacher or the choir.
He said, once, just once,
worship should unfold like a play,
but
the lighting should be reversed.
The lights should be on the
congregation.
For what is most important
during worship?
What
is happening in the hearts of the people.
Are they giving thanks to
God?
Are they making God smile?
Worship is not for us, it is
for God.
The other mistake that most
of us make is that we believe worship is a part of life.
Worship is not a part of
life, it is life..
Did you hear the scripture
that Walter read:
“Let everything that breathes
praise the Lord.”
Psalm 150 says that all of
life is about worship.
Psalm 150 is not an isolated
verse.
Psalm 105 says: Worship God continually.[2]
Psalm 113 says: Praise God from sunrise to sunset.[3]
First Corinthians says: “Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do,
do
it all for the glory of God.”[4]
Worship is what we were made
to do.
Martin Luther said it simply:
A farmer can milk cows to the
glory of God.
This new way of seeing life
poses a monumental question to all of us.
How is it possible to do everything
for the glory of God?
How is it possible for my
work, my hobbies, my chores, my life,
how
is it possible for me to do all of these things to the glory of God?
In the third chapter of
Colossians, the 23rd verse, it says:
“Whatever you do, work at it
with all your heart,
as serving
the Lord and not others.”
Another translation puts it
this way.
“Take your everyday, ordinary
life,-your sleeping, eating, going to work,
and walking around life-and place it before
God as an offering.”
Our work, can be an act of
worship!
Our chores, an act of
worship!
Our time with family, an
opportunity to give God thanks!
Our exercise, a time of
praise (maybe lamentation, but still worship).
Our time with others, a time
to thank God.
Our time alone, a time for quiet
thanks.
Now I know some of you are thinking.
“This preacher is getting carried
away.
If he saw my work, he’d know,
it is not an act of worship.”
Or some of you may be
thinking:
“There are parts of my life
that I would like to keep separate from God.”
“My Friday night poker game,
my
Saturday morning golf,
my girl’s night out,
I’m sorry, but God is not invited.”
I just have one question:
Do you really think the God cares
whether God is invited or not?
The witness of the Bible is
that God is always showing up where God isn’t invited.
Do you really think Mary
wanted to be pregnant for her wedding?
I don’t’ think so.
So if God is going to be
present, whether invited or not,
how
can we turn our life into worship?
There is a book that a friend
gave me when I was in seminary,
called
Practicing the Presence of God.
It was written by a monk
named Brother Lawrence.
It is not a classic work of
literature,
but
it voices one person desire to notice God’s presence in everything.
And in noticing and
recognizing God’ presence,
there
comes a gracefulness that is extraordinary.
For Brother Lawrence, cleaning
the kitchen is an act of worship.
Preparing a meal an act of
worship.
Working in the garden is just
as much an act of worship as morning prayers.
Brother Lawrence took the
most mundane work and turned it into an act of worship.
If you see life as an act of
worship it will change your life.
Now I have to admit that this
doesn’t always work out the way that you plan.
During seminary,
I
tried to practice the presence of God and see life as worship.
Now, nestled between
There were times when I would
be in the library and I would here it call my name.
“Graham, Graham.”
How could I say no?
Somewhere along the way I
wondered: “Could golf be a form of
worship?”
Perhaps I was inspired by
Brother Lawrence,
perhaps
I realized how desperately my game needed help,
I don’t know.
Whatever the reason, and I
wanted to see if golf could be a form of worship so here’s what I did.
When I addressed the ball,
instead of thinking left arm straight,
Heel down,
Or roll the wrists,
I would say:
“For the Lord.”
It was like an offering.
Some offerings were good.
Some were not.
But that’s OK.
It changed the game.
It connected what I did in
chapel with what I did in life.
Now,
I made the mistake of telling
this to my golfing friends
and
every time I would find myself crawling under some tree looking for my ball
they would say:
“Hey, how’s the Lord doing in
there?”
Great friends.
I have to admit that it is
easier to worship God from the center of a fairway than behind a tree.
But that’s life isn’t it?
Sometimes it is hard to
worship God.
You realize that your health
is as good as it is going to get,
and you
see your limitations.
Your family is struggling to
stay together.
Your work has become tedious
and boring.
Or you have lost someone you love,
and
life isn’t the same.
How do you worship,
when
there it is hard to give thanks?
And that may be the other great
mistake we make when we think of worship.
Worship is not always about giving
thanks.
Sometimes it is just being
honest.
If all of life is worship.
Some worship will be like
singing the blues.
Some worship will be lament.
And some worship may simply
be
silence.
Worship is not always praise.
Being born, growing up,
Leaving home, finding a
career, being praised and being rejected,
walking and resting,
becoming ill, being healed,
living and dying, all of
these are opportunities to worship.
We can worship in different
ways but at their core, all of them are opportunities to answer one question.
One question from God: “Do you love me?”[5]
When we answer:
“Yes.”
We make God smile, and we
worship.
Do you remember the story of
Peter and the passion.
As Jesus brought the
disciples to
and
he even told Peter that Peter would betray him.
As the passion unfolded,
Peter found himself hiding in the shadows.
When confronted, he denied knowing
the one they called Jesus of Nazareth.
And when Jesus came back he
asked Peter just one question:
“Do you love me?”
Peter said: “Yes Lord, you
know that I love you.”
He asked him again, “Simon,
son of John, do you love me?”
Peter said: “Yes Lord you know that I love you.
Jesus said to him a third
time:
Simon son of John do you
love?
Peter responded:
“Lord you know everything and
you know that I love.”
Just like Peter, Christ asks us
the same question, again and again and again,
Do you love me?
And we get to respond with
our lives,
“Yes
Lord, you know I love you.”
We get to respond with
everything we do:
“Yes, Lord, you know I love
you.”
For we were made to make God
smile.
We were made to worship,
and proclaim with our lives,
“Yes Lord, you know I love
you.”
Amen