Living To Please God

INTRO.- ILL.- The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

The American then asked, "Why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family’s needs."

The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your

time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you will run your ever-expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "15 to 20 years." "But what then?" asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said that’s the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions?...Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Brothers and sisters, what are we living for? To make money? Retirement? To take it easy and do as little as possible? All of us have certain goals in life whether it’s retirement, success, etc.

No matter what our goal is in life we have another goal and that is to please God. No matter what we do in life, no matter what we do to make a living, etc. Or whether we retire or not, WE MUST MAKE IT OUR GOAL IN LIFE TO PLEASE GOD!

1Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living.

II Cor. 5:9 "So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it."

Yes, our major goal, whether we live or die, should be to please the Lord!

PROP.- The Bible is full of admonition on how to please God in life. We have three different admonitions in this text.

1- Avoid sexual lust

2- Adopt brotherly love

3- Ambitiously work hard

I. AVOID SEXUAL LUST

3It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. 7For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

Sexual immorality and sexual lust are everywhere in our society: TV, the movies, the internet, billboards, magazine advertisements, etc. HOW CAN WE AVOID THIS STUFF?

Obviously, it’s easier for some people to avoid this junk than others. Young people have a strong temptation toward this stuff. But it’s not just young people.

ILL.- 54 year old former model, Christie Brinkley, divorced her 4th husband this last summer. Here’s the story. Brinkley married her fourth husband, Peter Cook (48), an architect, in 1996, and filed for divorce in September 2006. The public divorce proceedings, held in summer 2008, were regular tabloid fodder, in part due to Cook’s admission that he had committed adultery with eighteen-year-old Diana Bianchi.

Press and public interest increased with Cook’s revelations that he had paid $300,000 to Bianchi in the hopes of forestalling a lawsuit and had spent thousands of dollars each month on internet pornography.