I don’t know if you stop to think about why you are here, but the Scriptures say we are here to bring pleasure to God.
In Revelation 4:11, we read, “You created everything, and it is for your pleasure they exist and were created.” Psalm 149:4a says, “The LORD takes pleasure in His people.”
The Bible says that God formed or created us in our mother’s womb. I think He smiled when you and I were born. In Isaiah 61:3, we read, “… For God has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for His own glory.”
He didn’t need to create us, but he chose to create you and me for His own enjoyment. Isn’t that amazing?
The Apostle Paul captured this thought in Ephesians 1:5, “God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.”
Think about this — bringing enjoyment to God, living for his pleasure, is the first great purpose for each person’s life. If we really grasp this truth, we will never again feel insignificant. We matter to Him. This concept or truth adds worth to our lives.
Did you know that God enjoys pleasure, and He has given us the same ability? Our God is a God of many different emotions. He grieves, gets jealous and angry, feels compassion, pity, sorrow, and sympathy as well as happiness. Because we have been created in His image, we feel and express those same emotions. The good news is that He understands when we experience or express those same emotions.
In Genesis 6:6, we read, “So the LORD was sorry He had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke His heart.”
In Exodus 20:5, Moses wrote, “You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for other gods …”
Bringing pleasure to our God is called worship. In Psalm 147:11, we read, “No, the LORD delights in those who reverence Him, those who put their hope in His unfailing love.”
In John 4:23, Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “But the time is coming indeed, it’s here now – when the worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him in that way.”
It is interesting how we sometimes divide our services up into a time of worship, then teaching, etc. Worship is far more than music. Everything in a service should be an expression of worship – even the announcements, because they tell of events that we plan for the glory of God. If we don’t have that in mind, then we shouldn’t do them. When we worship, our goal should be to bring pleasure to God – not ourselves. If we bring pleasure to God, we will experience pleasure ourselves.
Think about this – In Isaiah 29:13, we read, “And so the LORD says, ‘These people say they are mine. They honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. And their worship of Me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.” When I read those words from God, it caused me to take a long, hard look at our worship. The Bible says, “Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory (pleasure) of God.”
Lastly, we tend to compartmentalize our lives — with worship being one compartment. If I am consistent with what the Scriptures say about worship, then worship should be more than a part of our lives — worship should be our life.
In Psalm 113:1-4, we read,
“Praise the Lord! Yes, give praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord! 2 Blessed be the name of the Lord now and forever. 3 Everywhere—from east to west—praise the name of the Lord. 4 For the Lord is high above the nations; his glory is higher than the heavens.”
In the Bible, we read of people praising God at work, at home, in battle, in jail, and even in bed. It was the first activity in the morning and the last in the evening.
In Psalm 119:147, we read, “I rise early before the sun is up, I cry out for help and put my hope in your words. (148) I stay awake during the night, thinking about your promise.”
In Psalm 34:1, David wrote, “I will praise the LORD at all times. I will constantly speak His praises.”
How different would our lives be if we viewed them as worship? Martin Luther said, “A dairymaid can milk cows to the glory of God.”
The Apostle Paul, in Colossians 3:23, wrote, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the LORD, rather than people.” In Romans 12:1, he wrote, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind He will find acceptable.”
This is the secret to a lifestyle of worship – doing everything as if you were doing it for Jesus. I close with the question I began with … do you and I live every moment of every day to bring pleasure to God?
Seeking to please Him,
Pastor Leonard
