Sunday Sermons
Pleasing God
“Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him” (2 Corinthians 5:9). “Therefore”:“That is, because of his desire to be with the Lord--it is only natural that Paul should also wish to live in such a way as to please Him” (Hughes p. 178). “Our ambition”: “Our one ambition is” (TCNT). “To act from love of honor, to be ambitious in the good sense” (Robertson p. 229). “We love it as a point of honor ever to be well-pleasing to the Lord, not only to do what He says, but to have Him take pleasure in us and in all that we do” (Lenski p. 1013). ”'In arresting contrast to the ambition of this world, it is centered, not on self, but on the Savior; its goal is to please Him (Colossians 3:17,23 “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men”)” (Hughes p. 178). The true lover of God is anxious to please Him. Obedience to God's commands is not ridiculed here, or moved into a "second rate" type of spirituality. Is this our consuming ambition? “I just want to please God”. “I want God to look with favor on my life” “I do not want to cause God any pain.” “I want to help God.” “I want to be the type of child in which the Father takes great pride”. The above passage is very convicting, for it makes one think, on a daily and weekly basis, how often do I think about making God happy versus thinking about what would make me happy? We live in a culture that is permeated with thoughts of self-fulfillment and are we far more concerned about our own personal feelings of happiness than what would please God? How much effort do we actually put into “trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:10)?
God’s Shining Face
“Make Your face shine upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes” (Psalm 119:135); “The Lord bless you, and keep you; and the Lord make His face shine on you” (Numbers 6:25). The shining of the face is the opposite of hiding one’s face (Isaiah 57:17), and showing one’s back (Jeremiah 18:17), which means to be hostile. It indicates pleasure, that God is pleased with one’s life and is showing His favor, rather than being angry over one’s rebellion. How often do we really think about what God would want, or what would make God smile with pleasure? The Bible reveals that God does derive pleasure and satisfaction from the lives of the faithful (Job 1:8 “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God, and turning away from evil”; Matthew 15:28 “O woman, your faith is great”; Luke 7:9 “He marveled at him and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, ‘I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith’”; Mark 10:21 “Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him”). Are we the type of person that God could say, “This guy brings me pleasure”. “He makes Me smile”. “I love that guy”. Does such a thought even cross our minds? At times I feel that the goal of some Christians is to just squeak into heaven, and they have completely lost sight of why they even want to go there. If we are not that concerned with pleasing God in this life, then why would we want to spend eternity with a God who is a stranger to us?
Are we Good Friends?
Abraham was called “the friend of God” (James 2:23); and Jesus desires a friendship with the faithful (John 15:13-15 “You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves…but I have called you friends”). Often the expression“But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24), is applied to the type of friend we have in Jesus. While we want God to stick really close to us, and be with us in all circumstances, how much of a friend are we in return? Do we stick closer than a brother when it comes to our friendship to God, or are we a fair weather friend? Are we willing to listen to God’s truth when it comes in the form of a rebuke? “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6). People often talk about wanting to have a relationship with God, being close to God or intimate with God, but are we willing to uphold what would be considered a true friendship? Are we completely honest with God? How often do we communicate with God? In contrast to the admonition, “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), do we pray infrequently? How often do we really listen to what He is saying in His revelation? (2 Timothy 2:15). One will never develop a close relationship with God if one continues to keep God, His word, and His people at arm’s length. Warren reminds us that “the word for friend in John 15:13-15 does not mean a casual acquaintance but a close, trusted relationship. The same word is used to refer to the best man at a wedding and a kings inner circle of intimate, trusted friends” (p. 86). The following verses illustrate individuals who truly wanted to be a friend of God: “I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12). “O how I love Your law! It is my mediation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). “I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds” (Psalm 77:12). A true friend ponders God, dwells upon His message, and converses with Him on a daily basis.
Added to this, James rebukes a group of Christians who are opting for a friendship with the world instead of a friendship with God (James 4:4). The world is antagonistic to God and His values, and the world often mocks God and ridicules His truth. True friendship includes standing up for God when sinners are mocking Him. How would you feel if someone claimed to be your friend, but did not come to your defense when you were being attacked? Or how would you feel if a friend remained silent when you were being ridiculed? Paul noted that he was appointed for the defense of gospel (Philippians 1:16). “They recognized that God had sent him to Rome for this very purpose…his impending opportunity to defend the gospel before Caesar's tribunal. If Paul, despite his restrictions, was promoting the interests of the gospel, those people of goodwill could do no less” (Bruce p. 44). In like manner, every Christian needs to be prepared to defend the gospel when called upon (1 Peter 3:15).
True Worship
God does have His preferences for worship. Recently I heard an argument that stated, “If God intentionally made us all different, why should everyone be expected to love God in the same way?” Yet we are not that different, rather we are all created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). Loving God is not about us, rather loving God is all about what God desires and He has already made His desires known, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22). God does not call Saul’s actions an alternate religious understanding, a different way of loving Him, an expression of theological pluralism, or a quest for finding one’s identity. “It is rebellion. It is arrogance. It is idolatry” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 17). And it is not that God has hidden His desires deep within the pages of Scripture, rather God has expressed this desire for man’s obedience frequently and in many places:
· “To this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2).
· “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).
· “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
· “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24); “For such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers” (4:23).
Notice that the Father seeks His own worshipers, not just worshipers of anything or anyone, rather He has a definite preference. Barclay notes: “A false worship selects what it wishes to know and understand about God and omits what it does not wish. It is very easy for a man to accept and hold such parts of God’s truth as suit him and to disregard the rest. A false worship is an ignorant worship. In the last analysis religion is never safe until a man can tell, not only what he believes, but also why he believes it. Religion is hope, but it is hope with reason behind it. A false worship is a superstitious worship. It is a worship given, not out of a sense of need nor out of any real desire, but basically because a man feels that it might be dangerous not to give it” (pp. 152-153).
“The combination ‘spirit and truth’ points to the need for complete sincerity and complete reality in our approach to God” (Morris p. 271). Worshiping God in truth means that we offer to God the worship that He desires, that He commands, and that we do not pick and choose which command we want to keep or the type of worship that might make us feel better at the moment(Matthew 7:21). Worshiping God in spirit means that our worship must be genuinely from the heart. It is not just a matter of saying the right words or doing the right thing, we must actually mean what we do and say. “Since worship involves delighting in God, it engages your emotions. God gave you emotions so you could worship Him with deep feeling, but those emotions must be genuine, not faked. God hates hypocrisy. He does not want showmanship or pretense or phoniness in worship. He wants your honest, real love” (Warren p. 101). Some have argued that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to worship, yet Jesus is telling us that “spirit” and “truth” compose true worship, and this is a one-size-fits-all situation.
Practical Help
A person might ask, “How can I develop the attitude that desires to please God in all things?” “How do I break from my own self interest?”
· You were created for God’s pleasure and in serving God you will find a happiness and cannot be found in simply seeking to please yourself (Matthew 16:25).
· Do not rewrite the past, but honestly look back upon your life, even the time when you were a sinner. Look how God took care of you even then. Has God been kind and gracious to you even when you were in rebellion? (Luke 6:35; Acts 14:17). Does not such a God deserve our loyalty? Remember, He was loyal to us, even when we were sinners (Romans 5:6-8).
· Look at what God delights in, are not such things wonderful! (Jeremiah 9:24).
· We should live for God, because God has lived for us, “For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me” (Romans 15:3). God developed a plan to save us, and even sent His own Son to die for our sins, and all of this was motivated by “the kind intention of His will” (Ephesians 1:5,9).
“Such being His gracious will and pleasure” (Wey). “Because it pleased Him and was His kind intent” (Amp). '”Because it pleased Him” (Vincent p. 365). And what motivated God to desire to bring sinners back into His fellowship? The "delight" to see people rescued from physical and spiritual ruin (1 Timothy 2:4.) God never has regretted anything that He has done for man's salvation. Even though most have rejected His gracious offer, God still has no regrets about sending Jesus to die for our sins. “God is not merely willing to save us--He delighted to do so!” (Boles p. 205). We see this same truth in Isaiah 53:10 “But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief”. God delighted in sending Jesus to die for us, that is how much He loves us. God delights in man’s salvation, the prospect of people ending up saved and sharing eternity with Him. If God so delights in us, how can we stop from delighting in Him? I know that other religions consider the death of Jesus to be some strange thing. As one feminist theologian said, “Who is this funny God who would sacrifice a lamb?” The answer is, this is the God who loves us! (John 3:16; 1 John 3:2).
