We continue in our journey to discover a purpose driven life, guided by Rick Warren’s book of the same title. If you’ve not been able to participate in one of the small groups taking place, I encourage you to be reading the book along with us. There are discussion questions for each section of the book in an appendix for the book. I encourage you to reflect on those questions as we engage in this journey. Last week, the first section of the book regarding a general sense of purpose for our lives. Today, and over the next four weeks, a specific focus of areas of purpose for a life with God at the center. Today, the primary purpose in life of pleasing God. We find purpose for our life when we realize we are created for God’s pleasure.

In my personal study Bible, I have a notation I wrote some time ago—I don’t date those notations…perhaps I should—next to verses 10 through 12 from today’s Scripture reading in Colossians, chapter one. My notation is this—the word "purpose," with a squiggly line running underneath it alongside those three verses, and ending with the word "whew!" At some point in time, I was obviously awestruck by what Paul writes in these three verses from Colossians concerning our purpose in life. The words from that passage are these:

"And we pray this," Paul referencing his prayer for the Colossians to grow in faith, "in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:" (underline mine). How is it that we may please God in every way? Paul tells us, "…bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father…" Doesn’t that make you want to say, "Whew?" How might I live a life pleasing to God, fulfilling my purpose in bringing God pleasure? Bear fruit in every good work. Grow in the knowledge of God. Be strengthened by His might to live with endurance and patience. Joyfully give thanks to the Father. That's what a life fulfilling our purpose of pleasing God looks like. Are you living like that?

Reflecting this week at my notation for that section of Colossians, I eventually wrote something in alongside my squiggly line paralleling verses 10 through 12. I wrote this, "A life of worship." In a nutshell, that’s it. How can we please God? By offering Him our worship. In order to do that, however, we need to re-define and expand our definition of worship.

In Paul’s list of ways we live a life pleasing to God, the most familiar to our understanding of worship is the last reference, "joyfully giving thanks to God." That sounds like worship. But worship envelops all those other ways we can live a life pleasing to God. To bear fruit in every good work is an act of worship. To grow in the knowledge of God is an act of worship. To be strengthened with power by His might, leading to great endurance and patience is, at the very least, something to celebrate and worship, and in doing so is an act of worship. I would even suggest to you that in that more familiar understanding of worship—joyfully giving thanks to God—we need to re-define and expand our definition of worship.

Recently, I heard a pastor refer to worship in this unique way. You’ve seen how athletes point to a teammate as an expression of thanks? According to this pastor, that was begun by John Wooden, the legendary coach of the UCLA basketball team, and I have no reason to doubt that. It sounds like John Wooden. He encouraged his team, and Wooden was all about TEAM, to express thanks to the teammate whose pass led to a score. Gail Goodrich passes in to Kermit Washington, two points and Washington points to Goodrich to say, "Nice pass." Lucius Allen to Lew Alcindor, as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was then known—sky hook for two points, Alcindor points a finger of thanks at Allen. Denver native, Larry Farmer, to Bill Walton—two points, point, "Nice pass, Larry!" You see it all the time now. NOT the taunting finger pointed at an opponent—we see way too much of that(!)—but the pointing at a teammate to say "Thanks!" I believe one of the Indianapolis Colts’ receivers last Sunday—Reggie Wayne—as he crossed the goal line for YET ANOTHER Colts’ touchdown, pointed his finger at teammate Marvin Harrison thanking him for the block Harrison threw. Sorry to bring up a sore point—no pun intended—but this pastor suggested in a unique way that our worship is something like that—pointing a finger at God as an expression of our "joyfully giving thanks."

I like that image, for one thing, because it acknowledges that our worship is directed toward God and not ourselves. It’s about you, God, and not about me. The starting place to expand our understanding about our worship—even in the familiar setting of Sunday morning church worship—is that it’s all about God, and not about us.

We have mentioned before Soren Kierkagaard’s "theater of worship," but it bears repeating. Kierkagaard, a 19^th century Danish theologian, said that most of us have the mistaken notion that the "theater of worship" looks like this: The "actors" in worship are the pastors, choirs, praise team and the like; God is the "prompter" in worship, and the rest of us are the "audience." Wrong, says Kierkagaard! The "actors" in worship are the congregation. The "prompters" are the pastors and choir and praise team and the like. And the "audience" is God! If we make worship about ourselves, it is misdirected worship that is not pleasing to God. Asking the question, "What did I get out of worship today?" is the wrong question. The correct question is, "What did God get out of my worship today?" How did my worship point to God and say, "Thank you!" We need to be clear, first of all, that our worship on Sunday morning is all about God, and not about us.

Then, we need to expand our understanding of worship beyond Sunday morning. Everything we do, when directed toward God, when done as an expression of thanks to God, is an act of worship. As Rick Warren says in this week's section of his book, "Worship is a lifestyle…Every activity can be transformed into an act of worship when you do it for the praise, glory and pleasure of God."

Did you know there’s no Biblical word that literally means "worship?" The derivation of the word, "worship," is from an Old English word, weorthscipe, which developed into "worth-ship," and then, "worship." No Hebrew word that literally means "worship." No literal translation of "worship" in the Greek. Don’t tell that to the uncle in My Big, Fat Greek Wedding! The Biblical phrasing for worship comes from words meaning such things as "sacrifice," or "offering." When you read the English word "worship" in the New Testament, there are several possibilities for the Greek words used in the original text. One is proskyneo, which literally means "to kiss the hand of one." The concept of bowing down, or prostrating one’s self before an important person comes from this word. Such "bowing down" directed toward God becomes an act of worship.

Now, it's a regular occurrence to see someone do this (bending forward with both arms outstretched). I think it started with the movie, Wayne's World, Wayne and his friend bowing down before some attractive woman who crosses their path. These days you often see it done by fans towards athlete, movie stars and the like, usually accompanied by the mantra, "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!" What a huge distortion of worship! The irony is we're seeing more proskyneo directed toward human beings, and less toward God. All of our worship—on Sunday morning and throughout the week—should be directed toward God.

Especially interesting to me, in the New Testament language for worship, is the word latreuo, which originally meant someone hired for menial work. The word evolved into a meaning of service offered for someone, then service offered to God. The word "liturgy," meaning the various elements making up the order of a worship service, comes from this word. The very fact that we speak of a worship "service" reveals the root of this word. And implied in that word, "service," or latreuo, is that our actions each and every day can be acts of service directed toward God. Or, in other words, worship. A form of the word latreuo is the word Paul uses when he writes in Romans, chapter 12, verse 1, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers [and sisters], in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual..." and here comes this word "latreuo," "…your spiritual act of worship." Eugene Peterson’s The Message always brings an interesting, modern language perspective to a Bible verse, and his translation of this passage says this, "So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering."

Everything about our lives offered as an act of worship to God. Everything in our "everyday, ordinary" lives offered as a worship "service" to God. Consciously and intentionally acknowledging God as the ultimate object of what we say and do. Do you want a life of purpose? Then live a life that is pleasing to God, even in everyday, ordinary things. "Bear fruit in every good work." That is to say, do good things as an act of worship to God. Be kind to other people. Graciously respond from your resources to the needs of others. For this is what God would have you do. And whether or not you receive a "thank you" from someone, walk away saying "thank you" to God. "Grow in the knowledge of God." Express the importance of God in your life by studying His word, by reflecting on its meaning for your life, by implementing the principles of God’s word into your life. It is in God's word that we learn how to treat people, how to approach the things that we would say and do in our everyday, ordinary lives. And as you apply God's principles in your life, say "thank you" to God. Ask for the strength that can be yours through God’s power—cultivated by your worshipful life—and when you experience moments of great endurance and patience even in the most difficult of crises, take a moment and say, "thank you" to God. "Joyfully thank the Lord" on Sunday morning…and throughout every day of the week. Make a conscious and intentional effort that everything you do in life is an act of worship directed toward God.

In the final analysis, what is it, really, that we can offer to Almighty God? What can we do to minister to God? Does God need our abilities and talents? Be clear about the word "need" now. Does God desire we use our abilities and talents for the work of His Kingdom? Yes. Does God want us to use our abilities and talents for the work of His Kingdom? Absolutely. Does God need us to do that? No. God could accomplish the work of His Kingdom any way He chooses. God chooses to invite us into that work, but God doesn’t need us for that work to be accomplished. The only thing we can really offer to God is our worship. The only way we minister to God is through our worship. Each one of us is an actor in the theater of worship—the theater of worship that takes place in this sanctuary on Sunday morning, and the theater of worship that is our everyday, ordinary lives. The Bible speaks of us as priests, ministering to God by the actions of worship we offer to God in everything we do. The starting place for finding purpose in life is to bring pleasure to God through the worship we offer Him. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." (Hebrews 13:15, 16)