Alba 10-22-2023
HOW TO PLEASE GOD
I Thessalonians 2:1-8
Back in 1975 Rick Nelson recorded a song called “Garden Party.” The song tells about the day he learned the truth: "You can’t please everyone."
If you remember the TV show, Ozzie and Harriet, you know that Ricky Nelson was one of their sons. He became a teen heart-throb in the late 1950’s. And in 1975 he was invited to sing in an “oldies” concert in Madison Square Garden.
The problem was, no one recognized him because he changed the way he looked, and instead of singing the familiar oldies exclusively, he also sang some of his new songs … and the crowd booed him right off the stage.
That inspired his song. The words of the chorus are: “Well, it's alright now. I've learned my lesson well. You can't please everyone, so you've gotta please yourself.” http://youtu.be/OvRVeIeGKu0
“You can’t please everyone, so you’ve gotta please yourself.” The first part is true, but the last part is not the “final answer.” Trying to please yourself isn’t really any better than trying to please other people.
We can’t live up to our own expectations any more than we can live up to everyone else’s demands. For a Christian, the goal is not to please self, but to please God.
The apostle Paul knew that to be true. In I Thessalonians 2:4 he writes to the church there saying, “But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.”
Or as our Scripture Verse for Today in the New Living Translation has it, “For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.”
Some people are hard to please. And there are those who think that God is hard to please as well, so they don't try. “After all”, they say, “doesn't the Bible tell us that 'No one is righteous. No not one.' So why should I try?”
Well, they may not know it but the scripture they are quoting is from Romans 3:10. If they would read on just a few more verses they would come to Romans 3:21-22 where it says, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.”
And Romans 5:19 says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” God changes us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself on the cross so that the wrongs we have committed can be taken away.
God is not looking for some sin and waiting for the moment He can see something we have done wrong and use it against us. In His love for us He calls us to repentance, and He will guide us in our walk with Him.
In these first eight verses of I Thessalonians chapter two we see several things that the apostle Paul did while explaining that his purpose in it all was to please God, not people.
He says he was bold to proclaim the gospel in spite of the opposition he received. You don’t have to dig around much in the book of Acts to find out that Paul knew what he was talking about when he mentioned opposition.
In Acts 13 Paul preached at Antioch Pisidia and was persecuted and run out of town. In Acts 14 Luke records how the Jews persuaded the people of Iconium to stone Paul and then drag him out of the city where he was left for dead.When the disciples found him, he got up and went back into the city.
In Acts 15 we find that Paul and Barnabas faced such sharp contention that their mission team split up. In Acts 16 he and Silas were put in the Philippian jail.
Then in chapter 17 he came to Thessalonica and for three weeks proclaimed Christ in the local synagogue. He was opposed and finally run out of town, but only after many had come to Christ especially from among the pagan Greeks and many of the women.
This is the same Paul who now writes that in spite of all the opposition, he preached the gospel boldly. Over and over and over in Paul’s life and ministry, God gets the credit for his enduring all he encountered during his ministry, and because Paul knew the source of his strength and power, he kept on.
All through the Scriptures we read of men and women who endured opposition because of their desire to please God. There will be times when we are going to encounter opposition. The opposition may take many forms and come at the worst of times, but the test of our commitment is whether our our desire is to please God and not ourselves.
It seems now in America that there are many who would like to silence the Christian message. How bold will we be to take our stand for the good news of Jesus Christ if opposition comes directly to us?
If we are ashamed to make our faith known, how do you think that makes the Lord feel? Would that be pleasing to Him? In Matthew 10:32 Jesus said, “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
The boldness of Paul did not come from just a brash, “I don't care” attitude. It was because he did care. He cared about people and their ultimate end. He knew that there is a heaven and a hell. He was bold to proclaim the gospel so he could bring the message of salvation to others.
And verse seven says that he did it gently, like a nursing mother caring for her child. And because “God is not willing that any should perish” (II Peter 3:9), it pleases God when people are given the opportunity to hear the good news so they may come to Him for salvation.
It also pleases God when our words of faith are backed up with actions that match our words. Verse three says the, “exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit.” There is a lot of error, uncleanness and deceit in the world today. Much of it is in politics, but it can happen anywhere. Like this story:
“Armstrong” the boss said, “I happen to know that the reason you didn’t come to work yesterday was that you were playing golf.” “That’s a rotten lie!” Armstrong protested, “And I have the fish to prove it.”
It will not please God if we try to deceive people. Besides, we cannot deceive God. As Paul says in verse five, “neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness—God is witness.”
Traveling philosophers were common in the Roman Empire at that time. They went from place to place, entertaining and seeking a personal following for fame and fortune. Simply put, it was all about them. These people were nothing more than actors putting on a show for the people who would pay to watch.
Paul and his companions had nothing in common with such men! As long as he was doing God’s will, he couldn’t care less what the people thought of him. He himself says “We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.” He just wanted to please God, and he was doing it.
When Paul walked into Thessalonica he physically had nothing to gain and everything to loose. He didn’t try to manipulate people into making some emotional response. He didn’t try to cry them into heaven.
He didn’t try to woo them or convince them of how much better off they would be with a health and wealth gospel of prosperity. He didn’t throw them some lure that once they accepted would have them hooked and wishing they could get off. When Paul came to town he preached Jesus.
He told those people, and all the people to whom he would ever preach, that Jesus Christ died for them, was buried and rose again to pay for their sins. He told them they could have victory because of Christ. He told them they could have eternal life in Christ. That they could have the forgiveness of sins because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And that is the message that is given to you today!
Paul was not afraid of opposition because he says in verse four that it is “God who tests our hearts”.
To test means to prove, to examine or scrutinize. It means to put to the test and to prove something worthy. You might think of what you do when you go to make some major purchase. If you go to the car lot to spend a lot of money on a new car or truck, you test it, prove it, drive it.
You scrutinize all the details, putting it to the test, and you will either find it worthy or you won’t. Well that’s exactly what God did with Paul and Timothy and Silas. And they were willing to be put to the test. Because it was their goal, their aim, to please God.
When the way we live our lives before God is put to the test, how do each one of us fair? That is a better question than wondering about someone else. Looking at others, it is easy for us to feel good by comparison. But the judgments we make about them could be way off the mark.
For example, a six-year-old boy came home with a note from his teacher in which it was suggested that he be taken out of school as he was “too stupid to learn.” That boy was Thomas Alva Edison.
Alfred Tennyson’s grandfather gave him 10 shillings for writing a eulogy for his grandmother. Handing it to the boy, the old man said: “There, that is the first money you ever earned by your poetry. And take my word for it, it will be the last.”
Benjamin Franklin’s mother-in-law hesitated at letting her daughter marry a printer. There were already two printing offices in the United States, and she feared that the country might not be able to support a third.
And judgments about the apostle Paul were off the mark. Because of the opposition that forced Paul and the others to leave Thessalonica, there were people who were tried to take advantage of Paul’s sudden disappearance, by discrediting him, in an effort to undermine his authority and his gospel.
They launched an all out malicious smear campaign. Chapters two and three are Paul’s defense of his ministry. But it is pretty easy to reconstruct the slander of his critics.
“He ran away, he took off,” they sneered. “Why do you think he left so quick? If he really cared about you then he would have stayed, or at least said goodbye instead of sneaking out in the middle of the night. I bet you haven’t even heard from him since he left town.
“I can’t believe you let this smooth talking guy catch you hook line and sinker. We’ve seen his type before, just another phony teacher who rides in one day, throws out a few fancy words that con the naive, and then leaves the next day...”
But you know what? Paul and the others were not concerned about what others thought about them, as long as they were pleasing God. That is where we should be in our walk with God.
But someone can give a discouraging word, and it makes us take a step back instead of a step forward. Wouldn't it be nice to live on the range where seldom is heard a discouraging word? But we don't. So who are we going to try to please?
Ricky Nelson was right in saying that you can't please everyone. But as people under the banner of Jesus Christ, it should always be our goal to please God.
So how do we please God? Of course it begins with faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Pleasing God starts when you place your faith in Jesus and when through obedience to Him you have become part of the family of God. It is then that these verses in I Thessalonians chapter two give us guidance how to be pleasing God in our walk with Him.
Let's take another look at the text. We can be sure that we are pleasing to God when we, in spite of whatever opposition may come, continue to boldly speak of His love and mercy and grace so that others can hear His good news.
We can be sure that we are pleasing to God when our actions match our words in our claim to be Christians. One of the greatest obstacles that keep people away from the salvation that Jesus offers is when His followers look like hypocrites.
We can be sure that we are pleasing God when we are honest in our dealings with others. And when we don't try to get ahead by flattery or let greed be our motive.
We can be sure that we are pleasing God when don't care who gets the glory, except God, for anything we do. All glory is His! The master of the universe deserves praise and glory. We should consider what little we do to be only what should have been done for His glory.
And we can be sure that we are pleasing God when we are gentle with each other, whether it is when giving a word of encouragement or of correction. If we are in line with God's word, and not just our own opinions, we will do a better job of being gentle. Because God's word speaks to us as much as is does to others.
So, do you feel that your Heavenly Father pleased with what you are doing? He is if you are allowing Jesus Christ, by faith, to live out His life through you (Galatians 2:20).
Living according to your own human abilities makes it impossible to please God because it is true, the “those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8).
On the other hand, when you live out your faith in Jesus Christ in this sinful world, it makes it possible for everything you do to be pleasing to God.
CLOSE:
In the early 1990s when the first George Bush was president, he had John Sununu as his White House chief of staff. A reporter asked Sununu if his job was difficult.
He quickly answered, "No." The reporter thought Sununu had misunderstood the question, so he asked again, and got the same reply.
Sununu, a former governor of New Hampshire, then explained why he felt his job was easy: "I have only one constituent."
He knew his job was to please the President. And our job is to be the people who please our Heavenly Father. Let Him be our judge.
