Recently someone in our congregation shared a photocopy of an article from the May 13, 1955 (that’s right, 1955) issue of Housekeeping Monthly entitled The Good Wife’s Guide that feature tips on how to please their husbands when they come home from work. Here are some excerpts:
• Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs.
• Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.
• Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives.
• Over the cooler months of the year, you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel that he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
• Prepare the children. Take a few moments to wash the children’s hands and face (if they are small), comb their hair, and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.
• Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.
• Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order, and tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.
We laugh, we snicker, and we moan at this list because these suggestions of how to please a husband sounds foreign to our 21st century ears that have listened to a far different view of family life than was suggested over 49 years ago.
How much of our time is spent on pleasing our spouses these days? How much is spent on pleasing our children? How often do we think of pleasing people? Isn’t it safe to say that pleasing others is not the high priority that it once was. Pleasing seems these days to be more self-focused than other focused.
Maybe the word “pleasing” is an emotional term that carries with it a lot of baggage that we would rather leave behind. Perhaps our term for today is serving others. But is serving and pleasing others the same thing?
What about pleasing God? Do we have the same view and hold the same feeling toward pleasing God as we do of pleasing others?
We are going to spend 8 of the next 11 Sundays looking at ways of pleasing God because it is important to please God and pleasing God is a very good and proper thing to do.
This morning we are going to look at one way of pleasing God – by examining our motives and our priorities against God’s standards and expectations for us as His people. And I would have each of us remember that what applies to us individually also applies to us a church as well.
Our text for today is actually a selection of verses from the opening chapters of Revelation, specifically chapters 2 and 3, which contain words of affirmation and words of warning to seven churches. (Really the people who are those seven churches). We will look at only three today.
Our first stop is at Revelation 2:2-5:
“I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen from your first love! Turn back to me again and work as you did at first.”
God is talking to a group of believers who were very conscientious about making sure that the faith was spoken clearly and that those who professed the Christian faith also lived out that profession very clearly and honestly. This was a church that could smell liars and dishonest people a mile away. That pleased God and He let them know that it pleased Him!
One of the ways that we please God is by having a life in which the outside and inside matches up. If we say we are Christians in here then we had better insure that our lives matches that proclamation out there. This church was a high standard, high expectation church that pleased God. But…but…something was bothering God and we read it in verses 4 and 5: “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen from your first love! Turn back to me again and work as you did at first.”
God was pleased with this church’s commitment but their love quotient took a big hit and that concerned God. “You don’t love me or one another like you use to do!” “Why?”
Love is critical and vital to our lives as both human beings and as Christians. Jesus held love up as the greatest sign of commitment to Himself and to one another. It was a main topic of discussion at the Last Supper. Jesus says in John 15:11, “I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you.”
Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:2, “Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.” This may sound contradictory to what is said in our first text of the morning, but it is not contradictory at all. It is the opposite side of the same coin.
God is not upset with the practice of holding people to the Biblical standard, in fact He affirms it! But He is concerned that the lack of love has taken the joy of life right out of the church because it has taken the joy right out of the relationships between the members of the church. We go to places where we are loved and respected much more easily than those places that are not that way.
Have you been in churches where that has not been the case? I have. It is hard to go there, isn’t it? We sense something is missing that needs to be there.
What say you to this area of your life? Are you pleasing God in this area? Are we pleasing God in this area?
A very important way we please God is by loving. Are we loving like we need to be loving? Is the love of God clearly demonstrated in your heart and life? In our church’s heart and life?
But the angel of God goes on to another church with this message, (chapter 3) “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. Now wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is at the point of death. Your deeds are far from right in the sight of God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly and turn to me again. Unless you do, I will come upon you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.”
Wow! What a statement! How would you like to be sitting in a Sunday morning worship service and hear this read for the first time?
God does not seem to affirm a lot in this church. In fact, He seems to complain more than affirm. What’s the issue?
There is an appearance of life in this church but it is really dead from God’s perspective. What makes it that way?
We get a hint in verses 2 and 3: “Your deeds are far from right in the sight of God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly and turn to me again.”
As I read this passage I think about Jesus’ parable of the sower and the explanation He gave the disciples afterwards. (It appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke but I am reading from Luke’s account in chapter 8 and verse 13):
“The rocky soil represents those who hear the message with joy. But like young plants in such soil, their roots don’t go very deep. They believe for a while, but they wilt when the hot winds of testing blow. The thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity.”
The possibility is strong that this is what happened to the members of this church. Life (and the Devil) hit them like the hurricanes that have hit Florida this year and under such impact their faith has taken a hard hit and wilted under the heated demands and cares of life.
God is pleased with their work but He is not pleased with their superficial faith. They need to make some important changes. God’s correction for this church is to start over and believe what they professed at first, then deeply and intentionally embrace that faith, and truly seek God again. (Sounds to me like the formula for a revival!)
What say you to this area of your life? Is our faith, individually and corporately pleasing to God?
Another way that we please God is by a having a growing and maturing faith. We are expected to become more and more like Christ as the years go by. And that faith must be rooted and deepened in God, not in the tasks and actions of ministry that should come out of a deep and intentional faith in God.
Finally we come to a church that I am glad is noted in this segment of scripture because I believe God wants us to hear about a church that is doing well because it is pleasing God. (Revelation 3:8)
“I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can shut. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me…
Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. Look, I am coming quickly. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown. All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write my God’s name on them, and they will be citizens in the city of my God—the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And they will have my new name inscribed upon them.”
WOW! Isn’t that exciting? Here is a church who has pleased God through thick and thin, the good, the bad, and the ugly, the up and down of life.
You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. This congregation did not have much, but it had faith and it had love and it obeyed God and did not deny Him! And… God… was… pleased!
“You obeyed my command to persevere, I will then protect you...Hold on to what you have…all who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God and they…will…never…have…to…leave…it!”
Is’nt that great stuff to hear?! This church pleased the Lord with great faithfulness and as they continue, (very important to remember) as they continue to be faithful to God, He is going to honor them with an important place in His Temple… they will become pillars!
“Pillars of the church” humm, I’ve heard that phrase before. Pillars are important parts of a building’s structural strength and integrity. When pillars start to fall, so does the building.
But these pillars are people… and churches that please God by their faithfulness. This particular church is strong because the people are strong – in faith, in love, in practice.
What say you to this area of your life? Are you pleasing, are we pleasing God with our faithfulness and perseverance?
Pleasing God means staying faithful and obedience no matter what the circumstances are because the strength and power that we possess comes from the Lord. God is pleased with a faithful and enduring church.
I recently received an e-mail that contained a moving poem about the church at it’s best that was written by Sherri Puckett of Mayfield, Kentucky. It is titled, The House Behind the Weeds:
Just two little boys.
walking down a dusty lane.....
They came upon this old white house... with broken window panes.
The paint was faded, the shine was gone....
the grass had grown so high.....
still they made their little feet...
go see what was inside.
They opened up the squeaky door...
and then it came to light....
This must have been an old church house...
once upon a time.
Dirty, dusty wooden pews....
a pulpit that still stood...
A bible laid upon it....
though the pages weren’t too good.
An offering plate and song books too...
were lying on the floor....
They must have left this old church fast...
the day they closed these doors.
And over in the corner...
a piano was still there...
it must have played a pretty tune...
but I guess nobody cared.
So little Bill looked up at Tommy...
and Tommy looked at Bill....
"Why don’t we clean this old church up,
and get these old pews filled?"
They took a rag and wiped the dust...
to try and make things shine....
And then they took the offering plate...
and put in it their last dime.
They took a broom and swept the floor...
and picked up broken glass....
They got it all so nice and neat...
and then they mowed the grass.
They lifted up the old church sign...
and stood it by a tree...
right down by that old dirt road....
where everyone could see.
They ran back home, to find Daddy gone...
but their Momma was inside....
Just to find her hurt again....
where Daddy had made her cry.
"Don’t cry Momma, wipe those tears,"
Little Bill and Tommy smiled....
"Cause we have a big surprise for you....
just down the road a mile."
Hand in hand they tugged at her...
until they made her run....
"What is it Bill, Oh Tommy,
just what have you two kids done?"
And then they came upon the house...
once hidden by the weeds...
and there it stood a country church...
just like it used to be.
"But what is it, Mother? What’s with your tears?
We thought this would bring you joy."
"Yes, but hush kids now and listen close...
my two sweet precious boys."
They both got quiet and stood real still....
for the words they heard so true....
was Daddy praying in the church.
with his head bowed on the pew.
"Forgive me Lord! Forgive me Lord!
Though I’m not worthy of Your love...
but shine down on this sinner man... sweet Salvation from above."
"For I’ve been out in the world, You know....
living my life all wrong.
until I came upon this church;
the place where I belong."
"I never noticed it before...
all those times I passed it up....
I guess I wasn’t looking, Lord....
or maybe I was drunk."
"Bless oh Lord, yes, bless oh Lord...
the one who made me see....
this little church that used to hide...
behind all those tall weeds."
And then he raised his head and stood....
with his hands high in the air....
to find two, dirty, tear-faced boys...
with Momma standing there.
They ran up to him, hugged him tight...
as their tears fell on the floor....
"Don’t worry kids, I’m not the Dad,
the one you’ve known before."
Things are different for us now...
so keep on those pretty smiles...
and let’s go gather people in...
to walk down these church aisles."
Then Bill looked up at Tommy...
and Tommy looked at Bill...
"Come on brother, let’s get to work....
to get these old pews filled."
"For we need no special blessing...
for cleaning up this church....
cause, God gave us back our Daddy...
and that’s more than gold is worth."
Sunday morning, pews all filled....
and smiles on every face...
Especially two little country boys...
the ones who found this place.
Though it was hid back in the weeds....
and so far out of sight...
Nothing’s ever hard to find...
if you’re walking toward God’s light.
These two boys, and their parents, pleased God and the results were truly transformational. That’s what we are about here at Oak and Mitchell streets.
I believe that we have done well in pleasing God. But I also believe that we must continue to please God and one of the ways that we will do so is to following the warnings, advice, and praise that is found in the words of our text for this morning.
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you this morning about these areas of pleasing the Lord? Do you need to make a recommitment in these areas to please God? Do we need as a church to make some recommitments?
I ask you this morning to join me at the altar at the conclusion of our hymn for a concluding prayer asking God to help us as a church to do a better job in pleasing Him in our attitudes and priorities. Amen.
