Fueling or Draining?

We exist to worship God. That’s the purpose of every human. That’s why God made us. Each of us might have particular callings, with our own unique stories, skills, and interests, but ultimately our purpose is the same — we exist to glorify God by enjoying him forever. 

But in our sin, we have betrayed God and abandoned our purpose, and we’ve tried to worship other things. We have tried to find our purpose in lesser things, in what the Bible calls idols — we’ve tried to be our own gods — and that might work for a little while, but it leads to emptiness and destruction … and left to ourselves, that’s where we’d all be. 

But being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, God sent Jesus to save us. Jesus died for our sins on the cross, to bring us back to God. To bring us back to our purpose. We are saved, then, not just “to be saved.” But we are saved to worship! We are saved to worship God the Father through Jesus Christ by his Spirit — and we are saved to worship Jesus, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. 

Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature. To behold Jesus and know Jesus and love Jesus is to behold, know, and love God. That’s what it means to be a Christian. Christians are “Jesus worshipers.” 

That’s why we’re here! Isn’t it good to know we exist?!

Okay — now a lot of us believe what I’ve just said here, at least we believe it on paper. Because it’s Bible truth. But now I want us to experience the role of a good question:

We are most fundamentally Jesus worshipers. That’s why we exist. So let me ask you: What is currently fueling or draining your ability to worship Jesus?

We’re not talking about Sunday morning corporate worship, but in all of life, what helps you to worship Jesus? What helps you to see and savor him, to glorify and enjoy him? What fuels your ability to worship Jesus? 

And what drains it? What distracts you from Jesus? What crowds out or clouds over your ability to know and love him?

My exhortation to you this morning is to know these things. Know what it is in your life that fuels and drains the purpose for which God made you. 

This reminds of our need to confess our sins.

Father in heaven, by your Holy Spirit, I ask that you would reawaken us to why you made us. Renew our hearts to love Jesus more, and show us the things that would lead us to love him less, or to love other things more than him. By your Spirit, search our hearts and lead us now as we confess our sins to you in silence…

…Father, you are rich in mercy and great in love. We were dead in our sins, but in Christ you made us alive. We were far from you, but in Christ you brought us near. We were your enemies, but in Christ you have made us your children. And so with everything that we are, we praise you, in Christ’s name, amen.