Intro:Most of us have probably wondered at some point, "Why did God create the world in the first place? What does He get out of it? Doesn't it seem like a lot of trouble to have gone to?" Considering the frustration and disappointment and pain that we have inflicted on Him over the course of years since the creation, it seems a fair question. But it's a question for which we have an answer in the Scriptures.

The fact is that God wants something from you. He wants something from all of us, and He created us (and sent his Son) in order to get it.

1. What does God need?
• God needs nothing. He is omnipotent, and can speak anything into existence, just as he did the worlds in the beginning (Heb. 11:3 - "the worlds were framed by the word of God"
• God does not need to be served by men - Acts 17:25 - "Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things."
• God does not need our praise or our worship for His sake - Rev. 4:8-11 shows us that He is worshipped and praised continually by beings far greater than we.
• God does not need sacrifices - Ps. 50:10-12 - "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof."
2. What does God deserve?
• Praise - Ps. 100:4-5 - "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." In fact, pretty much any page in the book of Psalms expounds on this.
• Respect/Fear - In the Bible, the "fear of the Lord" is merely the respect and awe due him. Psalms 33:8 - "Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him."
• Worship - Psalms 29:2 - "Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness"
3. What does God want?
• People to seek Him
• Acts 17:26-28 - "And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring."
• People to love Him
• Deut. 6:5 - "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
• Joshua 22:5 - "But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."
• Deut. 11:1 - "Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway."
• Jesus called this the greatest commandment in Matt. 22:37-40.
• People to Imitate Him
• "Be ye holy, for I am holy." - Leviticus, many places.
• 1 Pet. 2:21 - "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps".
• Again in Rom. 12:1-2, Paul urges us, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
• 1 Pet. 1: 14-16 - "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy."
• In 2 Pet. 1:3-4, Peter says, "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
• People to be His exclusively, a holy nation
• Ex. 19:6 - "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel."
• Lev. 20:26 - "And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine."
• Isaiah 62:12 - "And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken."
• And finally, 1 Pet. 2:9 ("But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:").

This is why, though God is glorified daily by heavenly hosts, and is in need of nothing, He made us anyway. What does God want that He cannot create or command into existence? The answer is simple - God cannot command people to voluntarily seek him. He cannot create beings with no choice and then have them choose to love him. To have someone to choose to love Him, and to seek Him, and to be like Him, God created man in His own image (Gen. 1:27) and then gave him that choice.

Thus, God wants a relationship with man, a personal, intimate friendship. He wants us, like David, to be "a man after God's own heart" (Acts 13:22 - "And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will."), and like Abraham, "a friend of God" (James 2:23 - "And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.").

Our obedience comes out of that love for Him. This is why Jesus said in John 14:15 - "If ye love me, keep my commandments." John points out in 1 John 4:8, that our knowledge of God must show itself in our becoming like God. "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." That relationship with God defines our actions and our identity. Again in 1 John 3:10, "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.".

This is God's goal, and has always been. In Romans 8:29, Paul says, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." Since before the foundation of the world, God had planned for Jesus to be both our Savior (1 Jn. 4:14 - "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.") and our example (1 Pet. 2:21) so that we could be like him, and thus dwell with Him.

God is seeking to return us to the paradise that was on earth briefly, when God and man walked and talked together, without sin separating them, in the garden of Eden. And it is to restore this state that God has planned and worked since before the foundation of the world, that He might call us back to himself through Christ, to live with Him forever.

1 Pet. 1:19 - 20 - "But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,"

John 4:23-24 - "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 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Conclusion:

This is what God wants from you. God has given us every good thing that we have ever experienced, or hope to experience (James 1:17 - "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."). He has blessed us, protected us, and saved us - are we willing to give Him what He seeks from us in return? If not, what does that say about us? What sort of people are we, to spurn the gifts of someone Who loves us so much and has done so much for us?