Download Planned for God`s purpose 12 CG corr

LESSON 12
PLANNED FOR GOD’S PLEASURE
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1. GOAL
We will learn that we were created and planned for God’s pleasure.
2. INTRODUCTION
Revelation 4:11 "You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and
power. For you created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and
were created."(New Living Translation)
Psalm 149:4 For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble
with salvation.
You were planned for God’s pleasure.
The moment you were born into the world, God was there as an unseen
witness, smiling at your birth. He wanted you alive, and your arrival gave Him
great pleasure. God did not need to create you, but He chose to create you for
His own enjoyment. You exist for His benefit, His glory, His purpose, and His
delight.
Bringing enjoyment to God, living for His pleasure, is the fist purpose of
your life. When you fully understand this truth, you will never again have a
problem with feeling insignificant. It proves your worth. If you are that
important to God, and He considers you valuable enough to keep with Him for
eternity, what greater significance could you have? You are a child of God, and
you bring pleasure to God like nothing else He has ever created.
The Bible says, “Because of His love God had already decided that through Jesus
Christ He would make us His children, this was His pleasure and purpose.” (Ephesians
1:5 Today’s English Version).
One of the greatest gifts God has given you is the ability to enjoy pleasure.
He wired you with five senses and emotions so you can experience it. He wants
you to enjoy life, not just endure it. The reason you are able to enjoy pleasure is
that God made you in His image.
We often forget that God has emotions, too. He feels things very deeply. The
Bible tells us that God grieves, gets jealous and angry, and feels compassion,
Planned for God’s pleasure 12 CG
A Life of God’s purpose
pity, sorrow, and sympathy as well as happiness, gladness, and satisfaction. God
loves, delights, gets pleasure, rejoices, enjoys, and even laugh! (Genesis 6:6;
Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 32:36; Judges 2:19; 1 Kings 10:9; 1 Chronicles 16:27;
Psalm 2:4; 5:5; 18:19; 35:27; 37:23; 103:13; 104:31; Nehemiah 8:10; Ezekiel 5:13; 1
John 4:16).
3. QUESTION
What attitude and lifestyle should we have in order to bring pleasure to
God’s heart?
4. CONTENT
Bringing pleasure to God is called “Worship”.
The Bible says, “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope
in His mercy.” (Psalm 147:11)
Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship. Like a
diamond, worship is multi-faceted. It would take volumes to cover all there is to
understand about worship, but we will look at the primary aspects of worship in
this section.
Anthropologists have noted that worship is an universal urge, hard-wired by
God into the very fiber of our being – an inbuilt need to connect with God.
Worship is as natural as eating or breathing. If we fail to worship God, we
always find a substitute, even if it ends up being ourselves. The reason God
made us with this desire is that He desires worshipers! Jesus said, “The Father
seeks worshipers.” (John 4:23)
Depending on your religious background, you may need to expand your
understanding of “worship.” You may think of church services with singing,
praying, and listening to a sermon. Or you may think of ceremonies, candles,
and communion. Or you may think of healing, miracles, and ecstatic experiences.
Worship can include these elements, but worship is far more than these
expressions. Worship is a lifestyle.
Worship is far more than music.
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For many people, worship is just a synonym for music. They say, “At our
church we have the worship first, and then the teaching.” This is a big
misunderstanding. Every part of a church service is an act of worship: praying,
Scripture reading, signing, confession, silence, being still, listening to a sermon,
taking notes, giving an offering, baptism, communion, signing a commitment
card, laying on of hands, preaching, and even greeting other worshipers.
Actually, worship predates music. Adam worshiped in the Garden of Eden,
but music isn’t mentioned until Genesis 4:21 with the birth of Jubal. If worship
were just music, then all who are nonmusical could never worship. Worship is
far more than music.
Even worse, “worship” is often misused to refer to a particular style of
music; “First we sang a hymn, then a praise and worship song.” Or, “I like the
fast praise songs but enjoy the slow worship songs the most.” In this usage, if a
song is fast or loud or uses brass instruments, it’s considered “praise.” But if it is
slow and quiet and intimate, maybe accompanied by guitar, that’s worship. This
is a common misuse of the term “worship.”
Worship has nothing to do with the style or volume or speed of a song. God
loves all kinds of music because He invented it all, fast and slow, loud and soft,
old and new. You probably don’t like it all, but God does! If it is offered to God
in spirit and truth, it is an act of worship.
Christians often disagree over the style of music used in worship,
passionately defending their preferred style as the most biblical or God-honored.
But there is no biblical style! There are no musical notes in the Bible; we don’t
even have the instruments they used in Bible times.
Frankly, the music style you like best says more about you, your background
and personality than it does about God. One ethnic group’s music can sound like
noise to another. But God likes variety and enjoys it all.
There is no such thing as “Christian” music; there are only Christian lyrics. It
is the words that make a song sacred, not the tune. There are no spiritual tunes. If
I played a song for you without the words, you’d have no way of knowing if it
were a “Christian” song.
Worship is not for your benefit.
Some Christians say, “I loved the worship today. I got a lot out of it.” This is
another misconception about worship. It isn’t for our benefit! We worship for
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God’s benefit. When we worship, our goal is to bring pleasure to God, not
ourselves.
If you have ever said, “I didn’t get anything out of worship today,” you
worshiped for the wrong reason. Worship isn’t for you. It’s for God. Of course,
most “worship” services also include elements of fellowship, edification, and
evangelism, and there are benefits to worship, but we don’t worship to please
ourselves. Our motive is to bring glory and pleasure to our Creator.
In Isaiah 29 God expresses about worship that is half-hearted and
hypocritical. The people were offering God stale prayers, insincere praise, empty
words, and man-made rituals without even thinking about the meaning. God’s
heart is not touched by tradition in worship, but by passion and commitment.
The Bible says, “Therefore the Lord said: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with
their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me,
And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men.” (Isaiah 29:13)
Worship is not a part of your life; it is your life.
Psalm 105:4 Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.
Psalms 113:3 From the rising of the sun to its going down The LORD's name is to
be praised.
Psalm 34:1 A psalm of David, regarding the time he pretended to be insane in front
of Abimelech, who sent him away. I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly
speak his praises. (NLT)
Worship is not just for church services. We are told to “worship Him
continually” (Psalm 105:4) and to “praise Him from sunrise to sunset” (Psalm
113:3). In the Bible people praised God at work, at home, in battle, in jail, and
even in bed! Praise should be the first activity when you open your eyes in the
morning and the last activity when you close them at night. David said, “I will
thank the Lord at all times. My mouth will always praise Him.” (Psalm 34:1)
Every activity can be transformed into an act of worship when you do it for
the praise, glory, and pleasure of God. The Bible says, “Therefore, whether you eat
or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) Martin
Luther said, “A dairy maid can milk cows to the glory of God.”
How is it possible to do everything to the glory of God?
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By doing everything as if you were doing it for Jesus and by carrying on a
continual conversation with Him while you do it. The Bible says, “And whatever
you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.” (Colossians 3:23)
This is the secret to a lifestyle of worship, doing everything as if you were
doing it for Jesus. The Message paraphrase says, “Take your everyday, ordinary life
– your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God
as an offering.” (Romans 12:1) Work becomes worship when you dedicate it to
God and perform it with an awareness of His presence.
When a man first fell in love with his wife, he thought of her constantly;
while eating, breakfast, driving to school, attending class, waiting in line at the
market, pumping gas, he could not stop thinking about this woman! He often
talked to himself about her and thought about all the things he loved about her.
This helped him feel close to her even though they lived many miles apart and
attended different colleges. By constantly thinking of her, he was abiding in her
love. This is what real worship is all about, falling in love with Jesus.
5. DISCUSSION QUESTION
What common task could I start doing as if I were doing it directly for Jesus?
6. MEMORIZED SCRIPTURE
Psalm 149:4 “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble
with salvation.”
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