Made to Worship

More than 360 years ago the Westminster Shorter Catechism was completed (in 1647) by the Westminster Assembly. It continues to serve as part of the doctrinal standards of many Presbyterian churches. It begins with a simple question:

What is the chief end of man?

The answer: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

The catechism offers several Bible verses to prove the point:

• Psalms 86:9 (NIV)
• Isaiah 60:21b (NIV)
• Romans 11:36 (NIV)
• 1 Cor 6:19-20 (NIV)
• 1 Cor 10:31 (NIV)
• Rev 4:11 (NIV)

It stands to reason that since God made us, we should bring glory to him!

But human beings are not the only ones whose purpose is to glorify God. In fact, everything God has made should honor God and bring glory to him. The Bible tells us...

Rom 1:19-20 (NIV)

Ps 19:1-4 (NIV)

Ps 97:6 (NIV)

Ps 89:5 (NIV)

Ps 145:10 (NIV)

The old hymn says it well-

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed...

When thru the woods and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze...

Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.

When we see and hear and feel creation, we should be drawn to the Creator!

Have you ever considered how majestic mountains are monuments to the glory of God? Jesus said if we don't praise him, at least the stones will! (Luke 19:40 - NIV). Everyday God's creation bears witness to a Creator!

A week ago I was taking a study leave—getting away from all the business and administration and counseling that pastors get involved in—staying out at a cabin in the woods to read and write without distractions. I took a break and took my book outside to sit and read in the sunshine. At that moment, it was perfectly still—not a whisper of a breeze. But way up in the tree tops, I could hear the wind moving through the leaves. And as I listened, I noticed that it sounded exactly like a great crowd of people giving applause.

The Bible says, "all the trees of the field will clap their hands." (Isaiah 55:12 - NIV). All of creation—mountains, oceans, trees, sunsets, sunrises, the sun and moon, the night sky sprinkled with sparkling stars—all of creation, everything God has made, brings glory to him.

And yet we human beings—the crowning achievement of God's creation—so often dishonor and disrespect our Maker. We forget about his goodness. We neglect and ignore him in our everyday routine. We get busy with our own affairs and push him to the edges of our lives.

Of all of creation, with all the gifts and abilities and talents God has given us, we humans should be the ones who praise him best and most! We were made to praise him! The chief end of man is to glorify God.

Isaiah 43:21 (NCV)

We should glorify God in what we say (what we say to him and what we say about him), in what we do with our hands, in how we live, and in how we treat others—people who are created in his image.

Do people feel blessed after they talk to you? When you walk away, do you leave people smiling? Do they feel lifted in their spirits? Do you make them wonder why you're in such a good mood?

Problems at the prescription counter this week. My health savings account card wouldn't work—wanted a PIN which I never use. Exasperated I lifted my hands up and said, "Well! Isn't that just great!" And the guy behind the counter looked like he wanted to duck—maybe he thought I was going to grab him or something. Immediately, I felt convicted. But I have to confess, I was less worried about what he might think than that there might be someone from church standing behind me in line. I looked around to make sure that ____ wasn't standing there, wondering what was wrong with the pastor.

At that moment I was not glorifying God. I was not treating that guy behind the counter the way I should have. He was only trying to serve me, and I was getting really irritated and treating him badly. So, let me ask you again, do people feel blessed when they talk to you? Does that question bring conviction to you?

We were made to worship God! Some might ask, "Why? Why does God need us to worship him?"

The answer is, he doesn't! God doesn't need us to tell him how great he is. He isn't some kind of narcissistic deity who needs people to pay attention to him to satisfy his enormous, God-sized ego.

God deserves our honor, but he doesn't need our worship.

It is a good thing to praise God—that's what the Bible says (Ps 92:1 - NIV). But there's also something in it for us when we learn to worship God. He made us in such a way that we receive personal benefits when we worship our Creator.

God commands us to worship him—and we know his commands are good. His commands were not given to make us miserable. They were not give to ruin our fun. They were not given to tie us down. In fact, his commands set us free to live as he intended. He didn't want us ruining our lives by doing all kinds of stupid things.

If people lived according to God's rules, there would be no STDs. The AIDS epidemic would have never happened. If we all lived up to God's standards, families would hold together. The pain and suffering of divorce would not exist. Angry men wouldn't beat their women. Children would not be abused. If we chose to follow God's ways, alcohol would not destroy lives and rob people of their dignity. Casinos wouldn't drain people's bank accounts.

None of this would happen IF the world lived according to God's instructions. His commandments protect us; they keep us safe; they provide for our well-being; they help us succeed.

We can see this easily in other areas of life. Traffic laws, for instance, are there for a good reason. Those red lights weren't put there to irritate you or to make you late for that meeting. Those road signs weren't put there to hold you back and keep you from achieving your full potential. We know you could drive 120 mph if only there weren't a speed limit! But the sign is there for your own good—not to mention the safety of others. My daughter is out there on the roads too.

"Rules were made to be broken," some people say. But when you take away the rules, there will always be consequences.

And when we ignore spiritual rules, then we should expect spiritual consequences. Our souls are injured when we ignore God's ways. We will go through spiritual pain and trouble when we remove God's traffic signs.

So one of his signs—one of his commands—is: "Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs" (Ps 100:2 - NIV). Why? Why did God give this commandment? Well, there are several ways we benefit when we worship God:

1. Worshiping God connects us to God. It improves our relationship with him and draws us closer to him.

God desires a relationship with us. He loves us and wants us to enjoy his love and reflect his love back to him. "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19 - NIV). Without his love coming first to us, we would have no love to reflect back to him—or to give to one another.

As part of this relationship of love, God wants us to experience the blessings of worshiping him. We are enriched spiritually when we connect with our Maker!

If you want a closer, deeper relationship with your wife, then you need to get your eyes off yourself and pay more attention to her. You don't come storming through the door saying, "What's for dinner?" You come in and say, "Wow! You look fantastic! You are a sight for sore eyes. How do you do it? You work all day and you run all those errands and you manage all those kids, and you still look great!" Try it. It's one way to develop a closer, deeper relationship with your wife.

Do you want a closer, deeper relationship with God? Then praise him more. Get your eyes off of yourself and others and focus more on him. Don't just storm through the door asking him to take care of your needs. Honor him and praise him, and you will get to know him better.

God commands us to worship him because it is good for us to have a relationship with him. It is good for us to draw close to him, to know him better, to see him "high and lifted up," to dedicate ourselves to his glory.

2. Worshiping God improves our vision. It helps us see God better. It reminds us of who he is and what he can do!

Psalms 34:3 (NASB)

When we "exalt" the Lord, we are "lifting him up"—it's like putting him up on the stage where we can all see him better. When we "magnify" the Lord, we are "making him larger." Imagine a telescope or a pair of binoculars. Look through the binoculars and you can bring the object closer. You enlarge the object so you can see it more clearly.

When we see God better—when we see him bigger and stronger—then we gain more confidence in him. The bigger we see God, the easier it is to trust him.

We should be like boys bragging on their fathers. My Dad is stronger than your Dad! My Dad's smarter than your Dad. My Dad has a better car than your Dad. They are magnifying and exalting their fathers. And that's a good thing—because their fathers should be the ones they go to when they need help.

Several boys, bragging about their fathers: "My Dad is so smart that he writes something on a piece of paper, calls it a poem, and he gets $100 for it." Another boy: "Oh yeah? Well my Dad is so smart he writes something on a piece of paper, calls it a prescription, and he gets $200." Another boy: "That's nothing! My Dad is so smart he writes something on a piece of paper, calls it a sermon, and it takes six strong men to collect all the money."

A Dad doesn't need his boy bragging on him. But when his son brags on him, it reinforces in the boy's mind who he needs to go to for help when he's in trouble. Worshiping God should improve our vision of who God is and what he can do in our lives.

3. Worshiping God transforms us. As we see God better and more clearly, we are changed!

• Worshipers of God are different from those who do not worship him. Praise > complaining.
• Those who bow the knee before God are different from those who do not bow. Humility > pride.
• Those who submit to God's will are different from those who insist on their own way. Obedience > rebellion.
• Those who honor the Lord with their lives are different from those who expend their energies to worship movie or entertainment or even political stars. Rearranged priorities.
• Those who live to please God are different from those who live to please themselves. Rearranged priorities.

Norman Vincent Peale told about running into a man on the street who had just come out of a tattoo shop, wearing a new tattoo that said, "Born to lose." As he turned and went on down the street, the tattoo artist stepped out of the door of his shop. Peale asked him, "Why would someone want to tattoo ‘Born to lose' on himself?" The tattoo artist said, "I asked him if he was sure about that, and he said he was." "But why?" Peale asked again. "Isn't that strange?" "Not really," said the tattoo artist. "See, before he had it tattooed on his arm, he had it tattooed on his brain."

That man will live up to what he believes about himself. All of us do! And that's why it's so important that we learn to praise and worship God. So we can be changed. So we can understand that we were not born to lose; we were made to honor God!

If we believe that our chief end, our primary purpose is to bring glory to God, then we have something worth living up for.

4. Worshiping God helps us know his will and purpose. Life begins to make more sense when we understand it within the context of a holy God and his eternal plan.

Rom 12:1-2 (NIV)

This past week I went to visit my brother (who has completed his chemo and who left Thursday to teach at the university in Erbil, Iraq). But because this is Minnesota and because it's the season of road construction, I encountered a couple of detours on the way—detours that seemed to be taking me in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. But when I looked at the map and submitted to what it said, I could see where I wanted to go and how to get there.

Worshiping God—submitting to him and serving him—helps us understand our final destination. Life make more sense when we see it as God sees it.