Plan To Please Him
Text: I John 3: 22
Intro: At this time every year, we hear a lot about New Year’s resolutions. Generally, the resolutions people make have to do with things about themselves they would like to change. They cover the spectrum of human life, from losing weight to simply being a better person. However, making resolutions for change in one’s life is all too easy. It’s the follow-through that’s tough. The fact is, very few people who make New Year’s resolutions actually fulfill them.
In most cases, our broken resolutions aren’t earth shattering. If the truth were known, most resolutions are just wishful thinking. Most people don’t really take them seriously anyway. However, as Christians, I believe there is one resolution that we would do well to make. But if we choose to make this resolution today, we need to take it very seriously, for its fulfillment will mean daily dependence upon the Lord. This resolution isn’t possible through mere will power. The resolution of which I speak is that of pleasing God. Since this obviously has to do with our relationship with the Lord, I want to offer some biblical suggestions that are sure to help us be pleasing to Christ.
Theme: In order to please the Lord we need to:
I. BE DEDICATED TO HIM
A. Commit Your Way To Him.
Ps.37: 5 “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.”
NOTE: [1] The word “way” refers to one’s “course of life or mode of action” (James Strong, S.T.D., LL.D., The Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible, published by MacDonald Publishing Company, McLean, Virginia; #1870 of the Hebrew And Chaldee Dictionary, pg. 31)
[2] The words “commit thy way unto the Lord” carry the idea of “roll thy way upon the Lord” (Professor F. Davidson, M.A., D.D., editor, The New Bible Commentary, published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan; pg. 438). This basically means that one entrusts their life to the Lord for safekeeping.
[3] By the way, folks, if you don’t commit your whole life to Christ, there will always be room for Satan to produce corruption.
On a recent trip to Haiti, I heard a Haitian pastor illustrate to his congregation the need for total commitment to Christ. His parable: A certain man wanted to sell his house for $2,000. Another man wanted very badly to buy it, but because he was poor, he couldn’t afford the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house for half the original price with just one stipulation: He would retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door.
After several years, the original owner wanted the house back, but the new owner was unwilling to sell. So the first owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog, and hung it from the single nail he still owned. Soon the house became unlivable, and the family was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.
The Haitian pastor’s conclusion: “If we leave the Devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit for Christ’s habitation.”
Dale A. Hays, Leadership, Vol. X, No. 3 (Summer, 1989), p. 35.
B. Surrender Your Will To Him.
Luke 22: 42b “…not my will, but thine, be done.”
Rom.12: 1b “…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
NOTE: Apart from surrendering your will to God’s will, there can be no real dedication to God.
Will is the whole man active. I cannot give up my will; I must exercise it. I must will to obey. When God gives a command or a vision of truth, it is never a question of what He will do, but what we will do. To be successful in God’s work is to fall in line with His will and to do it His way. All that is pleasing to Him is a success.
Henrietta Mears, Dream Big: The Henrietta Mears Story, quoted in Christianity Today, June 21, 1993, Page 41.
II. BE DEPENDENT UPON HIM
A. We Must Never Trust The Arm Of Flesh.
Prov.3: 5 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
II Chron.32: 7 “Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him:
8a With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles…”
NOTE: One of man’s biggest problems is the misconception that we can handle our own lives by ourselves.
Sign seen in a textile mill, “When your thread becomes tangled, call the foreman.” A young woman was new on the job. Her thread became tangled and she thought, “I’ll just straighten this out myself.” She tried, but the situation only worsened. Finally she called the foreman.
“I did the best I could,” she said.
“No you didn’t. To do the best, you should have called me.”
Source Unknown.
B. We Must Always Walk By Faith.
II Cor.5: 7 “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”
Heb.10: 38a “Now the just shall live by faith…”
III. BE DELIGHTED IN HIM
A. The Lord Should Be Our Joy.
Ps.37: 4 “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
NOTE: [1] The word “delight” implies not only that we should take pleasure in the Lord, but also makes reference to a relationship with Him in which one is pliable in His hands. This speaks of a willingness to please.
[2] Trying to find joy in anything other than the Lord Jesus will only result in disappointment.
Men have pursued joy in every avenue imaginable. Some have successfully found it while others have not. Perhaps it would be easier to describe where joy cannot be found:
Not in Unbelief—Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote: “I wish I had never been born.”
Not in Pleasure—Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote: “The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone.”
Not in Money—Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: “I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth.”
Not in Position and Fame—Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: “Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”
Not in Military Glory—Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, before he said, “There are no more worlds to conquer.”
Where then is real joy found? The answer is simple: In Christ alone.
The Bible Friend, Turning Point, May, 1993.
B. Our Joy Attracts Others To Jesus.
Phil.4: 4 “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.”
NOTE: [1] The New Living Translation translates this verse as follows: “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!” (Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois; pg. 1200).
[2] Joy can be a great drawing card for the cause of Christ. The lack of joy can also be a great deterrent.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was a member of the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years. His mind, wit and work earned him the unofficial title of “the greatest justice since John Marshall.”
At one point in his life, Justice Holmes explained his choice of a career by saying: “I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”
Today In The Word, June, 1988, p. 13.
IV. BE DIRECTED BY HIM
Ps.25: 9 “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.”
Prov.3: 6 “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
Jer.10: 23 “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
24 O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.”
NOTE: A retired pastor named Russell E. Spray, has said that:
Being directed by God means He is leading us to the right places, the right people, and accomplishing His purposes in our lives (Russell E. Spray, Simple Outlines On The Christian Faith, published by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan; pg. 18).
V. BE DYNAMIC FOR HIM
A. We Are To Be His Witnesses.
Acts 8: 1 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
Mark 16: 15 “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
NOTE: Howard Hendricks once said, “In the midst of a generation screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering” (Howard Hendricks).
B. We Are To Give Him Worship.
Ps.100: 2 “Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.”
I Chron.16: 29 “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”
Heb.10: 24 “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
C. When We Please Him He Works.
I John 3: 22 “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”
Theme: In order to please the Lord we need to:
I. BE DEDICATED TO HIM
II. BE DEPENDENT UPON HIM
III. BE DELIGHTED IN HIM
IV. BE DIRECTED BY HIM
V. BE DYNAMIC FOR HIM
Another year is dawning,
Dear Father let it be,
In working or in waiting,
Another year for thee.
Another year of progress,
Another year of praise,
Another year of proving
Thy presence all the days.
Another year of mercies,
Of faithfulness and grace,
Another year of gladness,
The glory of thy face.
Another year of leaning
Upon thy loving breast,
Another year of trusting,
Of quiet, happy rest.
Another year of service,
Of witness for thy love,
Another year of training
For holier work above.
Another year is dawning,
Dear Father, let it be,
On earth, or else in heaven,
Another year for thee.
Frances R. Havergal
