What Makes God Smile?
Have you ever wondered that if something you said
• Or something you did made God smile?
• I know as a parent there are things that my children have done
• that make me smile.
• At the same time there are something’s that my children say
• that would cause just about anyone to smile,
• children can be that way sometimes.
• On the last day of school, children were bringing gifts to their teacher.
• The florist’s son brought the teacher a bouquet.
• The candy storeowner’s son brought the teacher a pretty box of candy.
• Then the liquor storeowner’s son brought in a big, heavy box.
• The teacher lifted it up and noticed that it was leaking a bit.
• She touched a drop of liquid with her finger and tasted it. “Is it wine?’ she guessed.
• “No” said the boy.
• She tasted another drop, “Champagne?”
• “No,” said the little boy. “It’s a puppy!”
Eph 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light Eph 5:9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
Eph 5:10 and find out what pleases the Lord. Eph 5:11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
Today I want to focus on that little command you find in verse 10,
• For us to find out WHAT PLEASES GOD!
• In the NIV Strong’s Concordance the word pleasure is listed 20 or so times
• BUT most of them are talking about what God would NOT see
• as something that would bring Him pleasure.
• However, if we go to the Living Bible we see that there is one man
• that was a pleasure to God, that would be Noah.
• The NIV says: Gen 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
• And the Living Version says: Gen 6:8 But Noah was a pleasure to the Lord.
• It is important to look at the word BUT in both of these versions before we go any further,
• the Word BUT is there because just prior to this verse the Bible tells us
• that God was disgusted with what He had created,
Gen 6:5-7
Ge 6:5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
Ge 6:6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. Ge 6:7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”
• BUT, Noah was a PLEASURE to the Lord!
• Think about this for a moment
• In the midst of the wickedness and the evil,
• God looks down and sees this one man and says,
• “Hey, Noah is alright”
• “Yeah, that Noah has his act together, he makes me smile!”
• Have you ever done that with your children?
• Have you ever looked at other children in the world, and then said to yourself,
• “you know, I am lucky that my child is not like that”?
• I know that I have smiled many times, when comparing my children
• to some I have seen on the world.
• BUT WHY?
What is it that would make us smile and make our heavenly Father smile as well?
• I think we can learn some things from scripture
• by simply looking at the life of the child that brought pleasure to God.
The first thing I see is that God smile when we have a loving and close relationship with Him.
• Nothing makes a mother smile bigger than having her son call her without having to threaten his life.
• I am sure there are mothers that can relate to this as well.
• When your child snuggles up close to you and says, “love you!”
• it puts a smile on our faces.
• Whether our children are young or old, it puts a smile on our face
• when we see them making an effort to do what we have taught them,
• to travel the path we have placed them on
• and to contact us, and tell us that they are happy that we are their parents.
• That last part I don’t personally know of yet, but as our children grow,
• I hope at least one will say something along those lines
• The point is, we as parents have dreamed, trained, disciplined our children
• In hope that they would follow the right path and keep a close relationship with us.
God wants and desires the same thing,
• Genesis 6:9 says that Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless man living on earth at the time. He consistently followed God’s will and enjoyed a close relationship with him.
• This is the way that God intended for us to relate with him,
• BUT like most children, we don’t always listen:
Do you ever wonder How It all Happened:
• In the beginning God populated the earth with broccoli & cauliflower & spinach, green & yellow vegetables of all kinds,
• so Man & Woman would live long & healthy lives.
• Then Satan created McDonald’s.
• And McDonald’s brought forth the 99-cent double-cheeseburger.
• Then Satan said to Man, "You want fries with that?"
• And Man said, "Super-size them."
• And Man gained pounds.
• God created healthful yogurt so that woman would keep her figure
• The same figure that man found so fair.
• Then Satan brought forth chocolate.
• And woman gained pounds.
• God said, "Try my crispy fresh salad."
• Then Satan brought forth ice cream.
• And woman gained more pounds.
• God said, "I have sent your heart healthy vegetables & olive oil with which to cook them."
• Then Satan brought forth chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter.
• And Man gained pounds & his bad cholesterol went through the roof.
• So God brought forth running shoes & Man resolved to lose those extra pounds.
• Then Satan brought forth cable TV with remote control
• so Man would not have to work to change the channels.
• And Man gained even more pounds.
• God brought forth the potato, a vegetable naturally low in fat & filled with nutrition.
• Then Satan peeled off the healthful skin & sliced the starchy center into chips
• And then he deep-fat fried them.
• He also created sour cream dip
• So Man sat there in his lazy boy, clutching his remote control
• Eating the potato chips soaked in cholesterol.
• And Satan saw it & said, "It is good."
• And Man went into cardiac arrest.
• God sighed, & created quadruple bypass heart surgery.
• Then Satan created HMO’s.
The truth is that we look for different ways to relate to God,
• just as children look for different ways to relate to their parents.
• Hos 6:6 I want you to be merciful; I don’t want your sacrifices. I want you to know God; that’s more important than burnt offerings.
• God wants us to love Him and He also wants us to TRUST Him.
• I mean with the kind of trust that it would take to build an ark in the middle of land because God told us to.
• I mean the kind of trust that I saw in my children when they didn’t know everything.
• It’s true there actually was a time when my children didn’t know everything
• When they were young, they would do things like run down the kitchen counters and leap into my arms,
• as they got older, they didn’t need to hear any advice on any subject,
• BECAUSE they KNEW IT ALL.
• But the truth is we do the same thing when it comes to God
• we act like we trust Him to guide and direct our every step,
• UNTIL, the day comes when he sends us somewhere we are not comfortable with.
Imagine the conversation between Abraham and God.
• “Abraham, this is God speaking.
• I want you to leave everything and go to the land I will show you.”
• “Where’s that?”
• “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”
• “Try me.”
• “It’s 1500 miles from here in a place called Canaan.”
• “Never heard of it.”
• “I know, and guess what else?”
• “What?”
• “I’m going to make you the father of a great nation.”
• “That’s impossible. I don’t have any children.”
• “Don’t worry.”
• “What do you mean, don’t worry?”
• “Just trust me.”
• So God “Let me see if I’ve got this straight.
• You want me to leave everything,
• travel across the desert to someplace I’ve never heard of,
• and become the father of a great nation.”
• “Right.”
• “Is this some kind of joke?”
• “No.”
• “What am I supposed to tell my wife?”
• “That’s your problem.”
Hebrews 11:8 puts it this way: “
Heb 11:8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.
God wants us to trust Him the same way,
• And when we do it will make Him smile.
• How much do you trust your father in heaven.
Noah showed the same kind of trust and it must have made God smile:
• Heb 11:7 It was by faith that Noah built an ark to save his family from the flood.
• And he did it in the middle of a dessert
• Can you imagine the ribbing he got from his neighbors
• But He obeyed God,
• He listened when God warned him about something that had never happened before.
• And through his faith he condemned the rest of the world and was made right in God’s sight.
He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told.
• And the end result was His family was saved.
• His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world
• and the rightness of the believing world.
• As a result, Noah became intimate with God.
Do You see how trust is connected with having the type of relationship with God that would make him smile.
• The questions for today are, “ Do you make God smile?”
• Are you in the kind of relationship with Him that shows trust
• And do you OBEYS what He has commanded.
God expects us to show our love for Him by obedience to what He tells us to do.
• Let’s face it saving the animal population of the world from a tremendous flood
• would take a lot of work, and a great deal of attention to detail
• At best it was a logistical nightmare.
• In order for this to work EVERYTHING would have to be done
• just the way that God intended for it to be done.
• God had a plan and it would have to be His way
• Or it wouldn’t work.
• How many times have we told our children that they need to do something,
• Then we take the time to lay out exactly what we need done
• And how it needs to be done
• and we might even take the time to explain why it needs to be done a certain way,
• and then our children try to do it a different way,
• a faster way, an easier way,
• And it doesn’t work. At least not the way that we want it done
God told Noah how to do everything and gave him details
• And Noah: did everything just like God told him.
• Maybe it’s a communication problem,
• Maybe children have a problem really hearing what the parent is saying,
• A dad told me once:
• That he used to have problems getting his son to clean his room.
• He would insist that he, “Do it now,”
• and he would always agree to but then he wouldn’t follow through – at least, not right way.
• But a short time after high school, the son joined the Marines,
• And when he came home after Boot Camp, he told his dad,
• “My life makes sense now, Dad.
• Everything you said and did when I was growing up now makes sense.
• I really, really understand.”
• And by the way “I learned what ‘now’ means.”
When we really obey God it makes Him smile.
• Sometimes its all about learning what NOW means.
• If God tells you to build a giant boat in the middle of the dry land,
• don’t you think that you might have a few questions,
• a few objections?
• I know I would! But Noah didn’t!
What I am trying to say is that when God calls you
• don’t say “I’ll pray about it!”
• if you want to make God smile,
• you jump up out of your Lazy-boy and you say,
• Here I am Lord, send me.”
• This WILL MAKE GOD SMILE!!
• Every parent in this room understands that delayed obedience is REALLY DISOBEDIENCE!
• How many of us as parents have told our children to do something
• only to hear the word, WHY?
• When God tells you to do something,
• if you want to make God smile, you do not ask WHY?
• You understand that God doesn’t owe you an explanation - -
• Don’t we usually answer the WHY question with “Because I said so?”
• Understanding God’s motives can wait, obedience to His commands can’t.
• Instant obedience will teach you and I more about God
• than a lifetime of Bible discussions.
• In fact, you will never understand some commands until you obey first.
Obedience unlocks understanding.
• Now, a lot of times children,
• will try to do half or only part of the job that’s assigned,
• and then they act like it’s good enough.
• And when it comes to obeying god We try partial obedience.
• We want to pick and choose the commands we like and obey them.
• We make a mental list of the commands we like
• and then a list of those we think are unreasonable, difficult, expensive or unpopular and we ignore those.
• “I’ll attend church BUT I’m not going to tithe”
• I’ll read my Bible, BUT I’m not forgiving the one that hurt me.
• David understood that the attitude of our heart must be one of total obedience. Ps 119:33-34 Just tell me what to do and I will do it, Lord. As long as I live I’ll wholeheartedly obey. Living Version
• Don’t our actions speak volumes above our words?
• It is easy for a child to say, “OK” when we ask them to get something done,
• it is ONLY after they actually do it that we smile.
• In God’s eyes an act of obedience is an act of worship, because obedience proves we love Him.
God SMILES when we LOVE Him,
• When we TRUST Him and when we OBEY Him
• But I think that He smiles most of all when we acknowledge who He is.
• The scripture tells us to: “Be still and KNOW that He is God”
• Do you acknowledge that He is an ALL-powerful and ALL - knowing God?
We acknowledge God for who is when we praise Him,
• When we thank Him, for the things that He does in our lives.
• It’s easy to claim the results of our lives.
• Now days, psychologists want us to blame everything that is bad in our lives on the way our parents raised us,
• but the truth is that we have to take accountability for our lives at some point.
God has never done anything to harm us,
• He has plans to make our lives full and productive.
• Even though we may not always see that,
• Each of our lives mean something to God and when we praise Him
• and acknowledge that He is ALL knowing and ALL powerful it makes Him smile.
Today as we get ready to close
• I want to wrap all this up by saying
• That God smiles when we love Him and build a relationship with Him.
• God smiles when we trust Him and when we obey Him.
• God smiles when we acknowledge Him and thank Him.
• And finally God smiles when we SERVE Him?
• When we use the gifts He has given us to make others smile.
• We looked at the scripture last week where Jesus tells us that we serve Him in the way we serve others,
• THIS MAKES GOD SMILE!!
• Even though God can do all things
• It is you and I that He used to accomplish the things that need to be done.
• Are you making God smile today?
• Do you have a loving & close relationship with His Son Jesus Christ?
• Do you make God smile by Trust and obedience?
• Trust and Obey, for there is no other way.
• Do you acknowledge God and do you serve Him?
