BCA-Online Homepage | Back to BCA page for AvantGo 

Pastor Rob Carlson: 
"WORSHIP: You were Planned for God's Pleasure" (40 Days of Purpose)
Pastor Rob Carlson • Sunday, October 3, 2004

Revelation 4:11b (NLT)--You (God) created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created.

Matt. 22:37-38 (NIV)--Love the Lord your God... This is the first and greatest commandment.

My 1st Purpose in Life is to worship God

Romans 12:1 (TEV)--Because of God’s great mercy to us... Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him. This is the true worship that you should offer.

1. WORSHIP is my response to God’s love.
2. WORSHIP is giving back to God.

Mark 12: 30 (NCV)--Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.

God wants me to love Him...
Thoughtfully -  “with my mind”
Passionately -  “with my heart and soul”
Practically -  “with my strength”

1. Worship is focusing my attention on God.

Psalm 139:1-3 (CEV)--You have looked deep into my heart, Lord, and you know all about me. You know when I am resting or when I am working...You notice everything I do and everywhere I go.

Romans 8:7 (Msg)--Focusing on yourself is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, and ends up thinking more about self than God.

Romans 12:2a (Msg)--Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God.

Matthew 6:6 (Msg)--Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace.

Psalm 105:4 (TEV)--Worship Him continually.

Isaiah 26:3 (NLT)--You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, whose thoughts are fixed on You!


2. Worship is expressing my affection to God.

1 John 4:19 (KJV)--We love Him, because He first loved us.

Hosea 6:6 (LB)--I don't want your sacrifices -- I want your love! I don't want your offerings --I want you to know Me!

Exodus 34:14b (NLT)--He is a God who is passionate about His relationship with you.

Romans 6:13 (NLT)--Give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life.


3. Worship is using my abilities for God.

Colossians 3:23 (TEV)--Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for people.

Romans 12:1a (Msg)--Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.

2 Corinthians 5:9 (NIV)--So we make it our goal to please Him...

*Scripture is quoted from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
www.bca-online.com