God-Pleasers
Part Two
Colossians 1:10
Last week we started a mini-series entitled God-Pleasers. I have come to understand that the place of extravagant blessing belongs to God-Pleasers. Victory over sin and defeat of Satan belongs to God-Pleasers. Moving the heavens and the earth and authority in the heavenly realm belongs to God-Pleasers. Enjoying the accolade of heaven and thrilling the heart of Father belongs to God-Pleasers. That is why . . .
Jesus says in John 8:29, “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”
One of the great errors in our society is that most people in the world and even some in the church are not living to please God. Instead, they are living to please others or they are living to please themselves. If you stop and take stock you will realize that we live in an ego-centric society. All around us we see the ‘me’-centered advertising industry feeding a ‘me’-consumer mentality. The entertainment media and leisure-driven market is about ‘me.’ Pop-psychology, self-esteem focused religion, and indeed a thousand other cultural ‘me’-isms are all about ‘me.’
Joyce Meyers said, “I believe that we have an epidemic of insecure people in our society. And it causes people to need approval from wrong sources in order to feel good about themselves.”
Now watch this – God designed you to function optimally when the ambition of your life is to please Him.
When you live to please SELF you cannot please God.
When you live to please OTHERS you cannot please God.
Why? Because you are slave to the one you are trying to please.
So what does it mean to please God? Watch this – it is very, very important. If you do not get this you may get the whole thing in a mess. You are already approved of by God as far as who you are, your eternal security is concerned. You are not out there hoping to manage your behavior well enough so that God will save you. That is already a done deal if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ and surrendered your life to Him as Lord and Savior – that is in the past. Your approval rating shot through the ceiling the moment you got clothed with Christ. Do you understand that? The good news is that your approval is based on the Father’s approval of who Christ is, not on what you do. However, that does not mean that everything you do is approved by God. Let me give you an earthly picture of this. Think of the things you do to please your spouse. You do not, or should, not do them to earn the approval of your spouse – but because you already enjoy the approval of your spouse.
Jesus did not do what He did in order to earn the approval of the Father- but because He already had the approval of the Father. As a matter of fact, before He even started to do what He did He had the approval of the Father. He commenced His public ministry with that approval – “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:7; 17:5.) Jesus lived as a God Pleaser because He was pleasing to God. It is very important that we understand that.
Make pleasing God your chief ambition – not so that you will please God but because you do please God.
Last week we agreed on four things that it described what God-Pleasers did. We said . . .
God-Pleasers Seek Intimacy
God-Pleasers Walk by Faith
God-Pleasers Worship as a Lifestyle
God-Pleasers Study Diligently
Are you ready for the next four profound commitments, life giving standards of God Pleasers?
5 God-Pleasers Commit to Justice, Kindness and Humility
Micah 6:6-8
Serving God is much more than an emotional experience.
Serving God is more than great worship and good music.
Serving God is more than reading our bibles and praying every day.
Serving God is more than keeping ourselves unspotted from the culture around us.
Serving God always is and always has been about others.
Doing JUSTICE is about knowing and pursuing God’s law rightly!
Showing KINDNESS is about knowing and honoring others rightly!
Walking HUMBLY is about knowing and presenting yourself rightly!
ALL THREE are about knowing and pleasing God rightly!
May I ask you this morning – are these that marks of your life? Do you pursue justice so intentionally that you do so to please God? Do you pursue kindness so intentionally that you do so to please God? Do you pursue humility so intentionally that you do so to please God? My friend, if you no longer make it your priority to embrace justice in all, kindness for all, humility to all you are no longer positioning yourself to please God.
Psalm 51:16-17 ‘You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.’
Here is the question? Are you living for the pleasure of God? That is why you were created! That is how you please God!
God-Pleasers Commit to Justice, Kindness and Humility
6. God-Pleasers Faithfully Obey
1 Samuel 15:22 “Samuel said, ‘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, and to heed than the fat of rams.’”
What God is looking for from you and me is simply this – obedience. You can dress it up or down, speak it up or down, pump it up or down but at the end of the day it is simply this - obedience. And herein lies the power of obedience – it is the place God releases His supernatural on those who please Him. If you want to see the supernatural, position yourself in the place of obedience.
Listen to me precious believer – you can sacrifice – and there is nothing wrong with sacrifice – but to obey is better. There are many things you can do as a child of God – but to obey is better.
Sir Leonard Wood once visited the King of France and the King was so pleased with him he was invited for dinner the next day. Sir Leonard went to the palace and the King meeting him in one of the halls, said, “Why, Sir Leonard, I did not expect to see you. How is it that you are here?” “Did not your majesty invite me to dine with you?” said the astonished guest. “Yes,” replied the King, “but you did not answer my invitation.” Then it was that Sir Leonard Wood uttered one of the choicest sentences of his life. He replied, “A king’s invitation is never to be answered, but to be obeyed.”
Let me tell you about obedience!
Obedience is the key that unlocks the door you have been asking God to open.
- it unlocks the door of blessing - Deut 11:26-28
- it unlocks the door of healing - Ex. 15:26 NLT
- it unlocks the door to prosperity - Job 36:11-12
- it unlocks the door to overflow - Luke 5:5
If you don’t have obedience, you don’t have right to claim any of the bleedings promised to those who obey. And that’s a problem. I see people all the time who are seeking the blessing of God but are not pursuing obedience to God. They read ‘my cup runs over’ in Psalm 23 – and they want that – but my friend, you cannot have the ‘my cup runneth over’ of verse 5 until you have the ‘He leads me in paths of righteousness’ of verse 3.
That is like enjoying the benefits of a marriage relationship without committing to the marriage relationship. That’s like trying to take God on a one-night fling without making a commitment to the obligations and privileges of a marriage relationship. Precious believer – you cannot pray your way into what you will not obey your way into!
AW Tozer- “Have you ever noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late - and how little real revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have substituted praying for obeying and it simply won’t work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for your trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.”
Prayer without obedience is presumptuous.
Faith without obedience is pretentious
Positive Confession without obedience is arrogance.
I believe it is time for the church to rise up in the excellence of extravagant obedience. Then we will see the abundance of extravagant blessing. What God is calling for from you and me this morning, what we need in our lives this morning, is extravagant obedience.
Do whatever you do with the excellence of extravagant obedience because you are a God-Pleaser – whatever you do. Are you pursuing excellence?
I love what Martin Luther King, Jr. said on one occasion. “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.”
You see my friend . . .
God-Pleasers Commit to Justice, Kindness and Humility
God-Pleasers Faithfully Obey
7. God-Pleasers Pursue Integrity
1 Chronicles 29:17 “I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent.”
Let me tell you what is going down here – there is something you need to get your mind around. David was a mighty king, he had been blessed with incredible wealth and riches and honor. He made an incredibly sacrificial contribution to the cost of building the temple - and yet he said this: 1 Chronicles 29:16,20 “O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours . . . Then David said to all the assembly, “Now bless the Lord your God.” And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and bowed low and did homage to the Lord and to the king. Watch this folks – David understood The 5 Rules of Stewardship. Do you know them?
The “Golden Rule” - He who owns the gold gets to rule.
The “Praise Rule” - He who owns the gold gets the praise.
The “Attitude Rule” - He who holds the gold is the steward.
The “Harvest Rule” - He who is faithful steward of little gets to be faithful with much.
The “Obedience Rule” - He who obeys most loves most.
Did you hear what David said when he gave that mighty offering? (1 Chronicles 29:17) “I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent.” May I talk with you about your integrity for a moment? Here is what David is saying – If I had to stand here and sing songs of praise and act like a child of God but was not faithful with my stewardship, faithful with my tithe, faithful with what God expects from me – I would have integrity issues. I’d be out here acting like a man of God, expecting God to bless and increase, singing songs of worship as if God was my Lord and my King, meanwhile back at the ranch I was not walking in obedience – I would have integrity issues.
Ever heard the prayer of the believer who looked at the last 6 months of his life – had not lead anyone to Christ, had not been faithful with his time, was not faithful with his tithe, no impact – and looked back over the last six months and prayed this prayer, “Lord than you for providing my every need – please help me to remain faithful.” How can he ask God to help him remain faithful when he has not been faithful in the first place?
Let me ask you this morning – have you been faithful? How is your integrity? [Go over to the offering baskets and pick them up – hold them in the air.] “Listen to me precious believer - regardless of what you tell me this morning – regardless of what you think – this here is really what you feel about God. This here is really what you believe about God. What is in this basket this morning is the measure of your integrity this morning.”
I am not saying it is the measure of whether you are saved or not. You can be thoroughly saved and never give a cent to this or any other church. It is not your salvation that we are talking about – it is your integrity. Until you are prepared to commit yourself to giving God the tithe which is the starting base level of faithfulness, and then are willing to add to that the freewill gifts and the special offerings in accordance with Deuteronomy 12, you have integrity issues – be careful what you sing – you may be in danger of being judged as a liar.
The starting base of obedience, of faithfulness, of integrity is that God expects you to bring a full tithe into the place you consider your spiritual home. Anything less is less than obedience and you may have integrity and rebellion issues.
At one time at the City Temple in London, there was (in the congregation) a restaurant owner named Emil Mettler, who was a close friend of Albert Schweitzer and a kind of agent for Schweitzer in Britain. Mettler would never allow a Christian worker to pay for a meal in his restaurant but once he did happen to open his cash register in the presence of the Secretary of the London Missionary Society. The Secretary was astonished to see among the bills and coins a six-inch nail. He asked what the nail was doing there?
Mettler explained, "I keep this nail with my money to remind me of the price that Christ paid for my salvation and of what I owe Him in return."
Eph 5:8-10 “You are light in the Lord; walk as children of light . . . trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.”
Very simply we have come this morning to decision time – it is time for you to decide what to do with what God has spoken to you.
God-Pleasers Commit to Justice, Kindness and Humility
God-Pleasers Faithfully Obey
God-Pleasers Pursue Integrity
You know what God is speaking to you this morning.
For some of you the issue is Justice, Kindness and Humility. You want to be a God-Pleaser – you know what you need to do – God has already spoken it to you.
For others the issue is Faithful Obedience. To be a God-Pleaser you need a bold commitment to extravagant obedience.
For others this morning the issue is your integrity. It’s time to make a principle decision to start being faithful – a full tithe – every month – and then some.
We have come to decision time – and you need to decide. Will you pray with me please?
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