What is the one all embracing purpose of our lives?
Often we are asked this very question. What kind of question is this? What is our purpose?
The answer is in Nehemiah .9 :
WORSHIP GOD!!!
1st we must Confess
2nd we repent
Repentance means we take a 180 degree turn.
We have to change!
Once we do this we are able to truly live in worship.
"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him."
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
John 4:23-24
In our limited idea of what Worship is it is so much larger than we could ever understand.
The activity of Worship:
- is to LOVE
- is to DO
- it is a NOUN
- it is in EVERYTHING WE DO
Everything we do can be worship and become worship:
- Being a Mom
- coming to Church
- Folding Laundry
- Driving the kids to Games
- Serving your family
- ETC......it can be in all we do
It is our OBEDIENCE to HIM !
"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."
John 17:17
Worship in truth.
The Scriptures are our guide.
Worship begins in the Word.
What Makes our lives Worship?
"For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
1Corinthians 2:2
If you go through the day and never once think about God then check yourself because you are off base.
Worship does not require:
a great Job
money
a fancy education
the perfect home
the right car
and so on.........
Nehemiah wanted this for the Israelites.
When we do finally recognize and embrace God's truth. When we have confessed and repented. We move into worship.
So why did the Israelites continually sin and go back and then sin again?
Why did God continually forgive?
HE had made a covenant with them.
Our earthly example of this is the biblical definition of a Husband and Wife, this is our example we live out when we are married.
A christian Marriage is different because of the covenant with God.
There is not only one way to worship.
When we finally see clearly what God has done for us, when we see our Sin and repent that is when we can WORSHIP!
He is our Rescuer!
We are so small yet he knows every part of me and hears and cares for every tear and prayer.
The Children of ISRAEL finally GOT IT!!!
"And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the Lordyour God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.”
“Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 6You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you."
Nehemiah 9:5-6
The key to worship is THANKFULNESS!!!!!
Once we start looking at the things to be thankful for worship starts to come easily and they continue to flow.
The Israelites began to see:
"You are the LordGod, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. ""You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous." vs 7-8
“You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea.You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. "You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take." vs 9-12
He is the DELIVERER!!!
Recall what GOD has done!
This is WORSHIP
Make it your habit to remember!
And when we forget , when we take our eyes off what he has done. When we focus on the mundane. We get restless, we whine.
Take time to REMEMBER WHAT HE HAS DONE!
Have a grateful heart.
Start now List 5 things for which you are Grateful.
4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
EPH 2:4-6
OUR PURPOSE IS TO WORSHIP!
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