Last week I spoke of pleasing God and indicated that for some the word pleasing is a negative term due to life experiences. As I prepared for this morning, I determined to define the phrase pleasing God before we go further into this series because sometimes the same phrase or word has a different meaning to someone else than it does to ourselves.
This is illustrated in a story that Pastor Steve Malone tells of a rather old-fashioned woman who was quite delicate and elegant with her language and was planning a couple of week’s vacation in Florida. She wrote a letter to a particular campground and asked for reservations. She wanted to make sure the campground was fully equipped but didn’t know quite how to ask about the "toilet" facilities.
She just couldn’t bring herself to write the word "toilet" in her letter. After much deliberation, she finally came up with the old-fashioned term "Bathroom Commode," but when she wrote that down, she still thought she was being too forward. So she started all over again; rewrote the entire letter and referred to the “Bathroom Commode" simply as the "B.C.". “Does the campground have its own "B.C.?" is what she actually wrote.
Well, the campground owner wasn’t old fashioned at all, and when he got the letter, he couldn’t figure out what the lady was talking about. That "B.C." really stumped him. After worrying about it for several days, he showed the letter to other campers, but they couldn’t figure out what the lady meant either. The campground owner finally came to the conclusion that the lady must be asking about the location of the local Baptist Church.
So he sat down and wrote the following reply: "Dear Madam: I regret very much the delay in answering your letter, but I now take pleasure of informing in that the "B.C." is located nine miles north of the camp site and is capable of seating 250 people at one time. I admit it is quite a distance away if you are in the habit of going regularly but no doubt you will be pleased to know that a great number of people take their lunches along, and make a day of it..... They usually arrive early and stay late.
The last time my wife and I went was six years ago, and it was so crowded we had to stand up the whole time we were there. It may interest you to know that right now, there is a supper planned to raise money to buy more seats.....They plan to hold the supper in the middle of the B.C., so everyone can watch and talk about this great event.....I would like to say it pains me very much, not to be able to go more regularly, but it is surely not for lack of desire on my part....As we grow older, it seems to be more and more of an effort, particularly in cold weather.....
If you decide to come down to the campground, perhaps I could go with you the first time you go...sit with you...and introduce you to all the other folks.... This is really a very friendly community. (It gives the term church pew new meaning doesn’t it?)
So, what does it mean to please God? I suggest this working definition “to please God is to follow God and His purposes as stated in the Bible with a motivation of love and obedience.” The important words to think on are “follow,” “God,” “purposes,” “Bible,”, “motivation,” “love,” and “obedience.” This series will incorporate all of these terms in one way or another and I would challenge you to look for them whether or not they are stated implicitly or explicitly.
Our main text for this morning is Ephesians 1 and we will be looking at several different verses from that chapter this morning as it relates to the importance of pleasing God through following God’s plan of salvation. Our first stop is verse 5, “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.”
Last week we learned that we please God by regularly examining our motives and priorities against God’s standards. Those standards are clearly listed in the Bible and tie into the second way that we please God, when we follow God’s plan of salvation.
This first verse, our main verse for this morning, makes clear that God’s plan from the very beginning was to bring us into His family by adopting us through Christ. We are not born into the Christian faith we are born-again into it. Jesus makes that clear in John chapter 3 in His discussion with Nicodemus:
Jesus replied, “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.” “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
Jesus replied, “The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.” Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven.”
In one of my Bible dictionaries, the term “adoption” includes the following definition:
The giving to any one the name and place and privileges of a [child] who is not a [child] by birth.
The entry goes on to describe three types of adoption that appear in scripture:
There is a natural adoption an example of which is Pharaoh’s daughter adopting Moses as we read in Exodus 2:10.
There is a national adoption an example of which is God adopted Israel as we read in Exodus 4:22.
Finally, there is a spiritual adoption which is defined as, “an act of God’s grace by which he brings [people] into the number of his redeemed family, and makes them partakers of all the blessings he has provided for them.”
The adoption that Paul speaks of in this verse is an illustration of this third type of adoption. And it is very important to note that this adoption has been his unchanging plan that has given him great pleasure!
Humankind pleases God and gives Him great pleasure when they accept His plan of adoption through Christ! This is God’s plan of salvation! And when we choose to buy into it, we please God!
Now in verse 9, Paul says this, “God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure.” Then in verse 10 he writes, “And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.”
God’s plan salvation therefore includes not just our adoption into the family of God through the death and resurrection of Christ but also on God’s determination of bringing everything together finally, in heaven and on earth, under the authority of Christ. Rick Warren puts this plan into perspective quite simply with this statement, “It’s not about you.”
In pleasing God, we lay aside our agendas and our plans and take up God’s plans. For it is God who will make all things right according to His purpose and His plans and not our plans. This is a very important thing to remember in pleasing God – it’s all about Him and not about us!
And there are voices in the family of God at-large who challenge our assumptions about whose agenda are we pursuing, God’s or ours?, on various issues from time to time. For example, a couple of recent articles in Christianity Today dealt with the high use of the word “I,” in much of contemporary songs.
One writer, Brian McLaren, wrote “If a Martian visited earth and observed earthlings at public worship in contemporary or nontraditional settings, what would he/she/it report back to the home planet? …My friend John, a music professor rather than an extraterrestrial, noticed something too few earthlings have noticed. Too many of our worship songs are more about us than God. Yes, we say the words "praise/thank/bless God," but mostly, what for?” He goes on to say, “We congratulate God on how well God is meeting our needs. When we say, "You’re such a good God," it sometimes sounds like comforting words spoken to a pet.”
JD Walt, a contemporary songwriter and worship leader wrote in another article about the change someone has made to a wonderful chorus addition to the classic hymn, “When I Survey the Wonderful Cross,” that he and someone else wrote a few years back. Walt and Chris Tomlin wrote, “Oh, the wonderful Cross. Oh, the wonderful cross, bids me come and die and find that I may truly live.”
Someone wrote to Walt and scolded him for including the phrase “bids me come and die that I might truly life” and instead changed it to “You did come and die, Now I (when I sing that part, I kind of stretch the I out), I-I-I can truly live.” Walt reflects on this change and then asks a very good question, “The big question I have for worship is, "Are we stretching the God out?" In other words, who is God and what is God up to in our worship services?”
The point that I am trying to make is not about music, per se (by the way, we will continue to have both the great hymns of the faith and the wonderful and uplifting praise choruses of today in our services). My point is that in all that we do, which includes singing to the Lord in worship, is done to honor God and not ourselves! God is pleased as we follow His plans and purpose and not ours.
What exactly then does God’s plan of salvation include? Paul gives us several elements.
First God’s plan entails spiritual blessings. We read in verse 3 that “God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ.” What are spiritual blessings? They are the benefits from following God’s plans and purpose of our salvation. They are benefits of obedience to God’s plan.
And Paul says that because we belong to Christ there are immense spiritual blessings given to us. What are some of those blessings you say?
A peace and joy that nothing on this earth can match. A freedom from guilt and shame. (By the way, I recently read somewhere there is a place for good guilt in lives. But the blessing we get from God’s plan is that guilt can drive us to God who, as we confess our sins, can take that guilt away.) The ability to experience hope in the midst of hopelessness. A quality of life that makes life better even during dark and difficult days. Those are some of the benefits of following God’s plan.
Second, God’s plan entails making us clean and forgiven. How many of us here like to walk around feeling dirty? How many of us here like to walk around feeling clean?
There is something great about sweating and some hard labor. Yet there is something relaxing about feeling clean, right?
God wants to us to be clean or holy and forgiven. Verse 4 says, “Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” God wants us to make us faultless in His eyes.
Do you have faults? I do. I have many faults. Some of them are apparent to you, some of them are apparent to my family, and some of them are apparent only to God. But God wants to make me faultless! And you too! Can you believe it?
I wonder what God thinks of the new TV show “The Things I Hate About You.” I have not watched it and the commercials are enough to give me a good idea of what the show is about and that I really don’t care to see it.
There are people, belching, passing gas, and doing all sorts of irritating things to their friends and spouses as TV cameras follow them from the bedroom to the bathroom to the kitchen and throughout the day. Why? What is the purpose of this particular “reality TV” show? Is to glorify our faults when we should be working on them? (I am preaching to myself as well on this point.)
Third, God’s plan entails our freedom. In verse 7 we read, ‘He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven.” We are free people! We are free from the bondage of sin and death and hell! God’s kindness made that possible because that was His plan. Do we believe this? Do we live this?
In pleasing God then, we please Him when we make the decision to accept His plan that changes us for the better by accepting His forgiveness, allowing Him to make us holy and blameless, and enjoying the spiritual blessings that come with obeying Him.
The message of this church is then this plan. We preach Christ and His power and salvation not a view or and idea, but a God who is alive and who is powerful and who does liberate human beings and make them better than they were before.
And this church pleases God when it proclaims this plan in worship and its other ministries and when it is demonstrated in the lives of it members. Is this true of us?
I conclude with the challenge of verse 19, “I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him.”
I believe God has more for you than you realize. I believe God has more for us than we realize. Let us then begin to ask God to help us experience this incredibly great power for us as we please Him by living out and proclaiming the Bible way. Amen.
(Illustration from Steve Malone is at www.sermoncentral.com. McLaren’s article, “It’s All About Who?-Jesus” and Walt’s article, “It’s All About Who? – Part Two,” is located on Christianity Today’s website, www.christianitytoday.com. Bible references are from the New Living Translation.)
