We need to live our lives so that they please God… not living lives that simply please the people around us or our leaders, or our pastors. Our focus must be on God, not on man.
People, leaders, pastors… we all have funny ideas on what kind of lives that people should be leading. But the reality is, that we should aim to please God first. And this isn’t something to be taken lightly… Philippians 2:12 says that we should be working our our own salvation with fear and trembling!
So how do we please God?
Isaiah 64:6 says something very appropriate to this.
All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
Nothing we can do as people can please God except the things we do THROUGH CHRIST.
It’s one of the paradox’s of Christianity. Only when we learn that we can’t please God in our own strength can we then start to please God. Interesting eh?
So how do we live to please God? Is it possible???
Yes… Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God… so with faith and in faith we can certainly please Him.
Isn’t that awesome… that we can please God… we can actually please the Creator. What an awesome truth.
But if our righteous acts are as filthy rags to God, then how do we please Him?
God accepts things that we do that are done in these 3 ways:
I. Good works done in faith
II. Good works done from a principle of love
III. Good works done to glorify the Father
These are the attitudes behind our actions that will please God. When we are acting in faith… God is pleased… when we do things from a heart and a principle and an attitude of love… God is pleased… and when we do things that bring glory and honour to God, He is pleased…
How awesome.
So if these are the attitudes that God wants behind our good works, behind our attempts to please Him… then how exactly does God want us to please Him?
READ Colossians 1:9-14
This passage reveals 4 ways that we can please God…
1. In Bearing Fruit
We are often referred to in the Bible as being trees of righteousness. We are planted in the House of the Lord, we grow up into well nurtured plants, we are described as being pine trees, myrtle, olive trees…
Trees that need to bear fruit. One of the most beautiful things about these kind of trees is that they don’t only bear one kind of fruit. Through God’s grace, we get to bear all kinds of fruit for God.
READ Romans 11:17
If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches.
We have been grafted in, like a wild olive shoot gets grafted into an olive root - Israelites & Gentiles
So we get to benefit from this nourishing sap which is the power of God. And through this nourishment we receive the righteousness of God and bear fruit through it!
And we can please God through bearing fruit, which He has given us the power, the nourishment and the opportunity to do it!
The word that is used here in the Greek for ‘bear fruit’ can also mean to be fertile. What does a fruitless person look like? They look stale, they’re crusty in their faith, they’re stuck in a rut. Maybe they’re living to only please themselves or the people around them. God wants people who are fertile, who are ready to be used, who are able to be used.
Some of these crusty Christians are ready to be used, but they’re not ABLE to be used… their trees are withering! They are not strong trees that are planted firmly, that don’t have their roots deep in God and they don’t bear fruit.
We must be ready and also able to be used by God to bear fruit in every good work.
2. Growing in the Knowledge of God
Ok, these verses from Colossians tell us that (in verse 10) we can please God by growing in our knowledge of Him! How incredible!
God loves, He delights in those people that seek to know and understand Him better. God loves it when people endeavour to grow in their knowledge of Him, He loves it when people seek Him in order to understand His ways and understand His purposes to new levels. God delights in those people that search Him in order to know who He is, what He does, why He does things, what He commands us to do.
All these things please God. When we make the time, in our busy, frantic, hectic, Western lifestyle to take time out, to remove ourselves from the general pace of life and seek God, He is indeed pleased with us.
What’s another way that we can grow in our knowledge of God? By reading His Word.
What do you learn from God when I read this passage?
Psalm 18:1-3
I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies.
We learn that God is strong, that He can deliver us from evil, from our enemies, from the things that attack us. We learn that God is powerful, that He has authority, that He is mighty to save, that He gives us strength, that He’s worthy of praise.
Don’t neglect the Bible as one of your chief methods of growing in your knowledge of God.
Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Reading the Word helps us to understand God’s commands for us and God’s attitude towards sin.
Psalm 119:169 says, “May my cry come before you, O LORD; give me understanding according to your word.” The Word of God helps us to understand God.
Think about your relationships for a minute… don’t you love it when someone really inquires into who you are, what you like and dislike? Don’t you love it when someone really wants to know you and find out what makes you tick?
God is the same. He delights in those that inquire into His nature, His purpose, especially His will and those that ask for His counsel and advice. He loves it when we grow in knowledge of Him
3. Being Strengthened by His Power
Colossians 1:11 continues in this line of thinking on how we can please God. Paul goes on to say, “being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience”.
God is pleased with us when we look to Him for strength. Paul specifically adds “according to HIS glorious might”. Paul isn’t talking about transcendental meditation… he’s not talking about locking yourself in a room and conjuring up your own inner strength and power. That’s mysticism, that’s new age, that’s not faith and it doesn’t rely on God for His unlimited power.
Paul is referring here to dunamis power. Explosive, dynamite action power. We will be strengthened with God’s power, we will be enabled with His power… and God loves to give it to us.
Dunamis power is power given for several reasons. When the Colossians first read this they read of a power that God wants to give them so they could:
I. Perform Miracles for Him
II. Stand Morally Pure
III. Evangelise Boldly
- Dunamis power is power given for miracles. It is power poured out from God so that His divine power and love can be shown in a tangible, physical sense. God wants miracles and healings to happen, but they can only happen when we come to God asking for His power.
Romans 8:11 says
And… the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,
The incredible power that God displayed when He raised Jesus from the dead is the same power from the same Spirit that lives in YOU!
- Dunamis power is power given so that we can fight temptation and win!
- Dunamis power is also given so that we can tell people about Jesus boldly and with great courage.
Acts 1:8 says
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Dunamis power is power for mission as well.
And this is the power that Paul says God will be pleased with us if we receive it from Him! Praise God… what an awesome blessing this is. We don’t have to conjure some sort of personal inner power… we can go straight to the source, we can plug in to a God who yearns to give His power to people for these reasons.
And Paul is specifically referring to this power in giving us greater endurance and giving us greater patience. So that despite trials, temptations, despite hard times, despite times of weariness and times where we feel like we’re in a desert, God’s power, His might, His strength (which that word for might can also mean) comes and He imparts to us greater endurance and greater patience.
4. Giving Thanks to God
God simply loves it when we give thanks to Him. When we recognise Him as being the Giver of all blessing… He truly loves it.
It says here that we should ‘joyfully give thanks’!
Paul gives us hints too, to thank God in this passage.
a. Partake of the Inheritance
We should thank God because He has allowed us to share in the inheritance of heaven for all eternity. Because of Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection we have qualified to share in this inheritance… How GOOD is God?!
b. Rescued us from Darkness
We must thank God because He has snatched us from the fire, we have been taken from darkness, we’ve been removed from the reign and the rule of darkness in our lives.
c. Brought us into the Kingdom of Jesus
We have been transferred, we have been taken from one place of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light. We have been placed under the reign and the rule of Jesus Christ, under His authority, His purpose and His plan. Where else would you want to be than in God’s perfect will for your life?
d. Given us Forgiveness
Because of Jesus, we have total forgiveness of sins, we can experience total removal of guilt and we can live in freedom from sin because we are not bound by sin anymore.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
There are so many things we can thank God for… blessings, family, friends, work, our country, freedom, life, and these great examples of things relating to our salvation that we have as well.
And God is pleased with us when we thank Him. Isn’t that great!?
God is pleased with us when we operate in faith, love and a desire to give glory to Him.
God is pleased with us when we bear fruit through the good things that we do.
God is pleased with us when grow in our knowledge and our acknowledgement of Him.
God is pleased with us when we rely on His strength and power instead of our own.
God is pleased with us when we give Him thanks for the things He has done.
