What Makes God Smile?

What Makes God Smile?

Have you ever wondered that if something you said

• Or something you did made God smile?

• I know as a parent there are things that my children have done

• that make me smile.

• At the same time there are something’s that my children say

• that would cause just about anyone to smile,

• children can be that way sometimes.

• On the last day of school, children were bringing gifts to their teacher.

• The florist’s son brought the teacher a bouquet.

• The candy storeowner’s son brought the teacher a pretty box of candy.

• Then the liquor storeowner’s son brought in a big, heavy box.

• The teacher lifted it up and noticed that it was leaking a bit.

• She touched a drop of liquid with her finger and tasted it. “Is it wine?’ she guessed.

• “No” said the boy.

• She tasted another drop, “Champagne?”

• “No,” said the little boy. “It’s a puppy!”

Eph 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light Eph 5:9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

Eph 5:10 and find out what pleases the Lord. Eph 5:11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

Today I want to focus on that little command you find in verse 10,

• For us to find out WHAT PLEASES GOD!

• In the NIV Strong’s Concordance the word pleasure is listed 20 or so times

• BUT most of them are talking about what God would NOT see

• as something that would bring Him pleasure.

• However, if we go to the Living Bible we see that there is one man

• that was a pleasure to God, that would be Noah.

• The NIV says: Gen 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

• And the Living Version says: Gen 6:8 But Noah was a pleasure to the Lord.

• It is important to look at the word BUT in both of these versions before we go any further,

• the Word BUT is there because just prior to this verse the Bible tells us

• that God was disgusted with what He had created,

Gen 6:5-7

Ge 6:5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

Ge 6:6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. Ge 6:7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”

• BUT, Noah was a PLEASURE to the Lord!

• Think about this for a moment

• In the midst of the wickedness and the evil,

• God looks down and sees this one man and says,

• “Hey, Noah is alright”

• “Yeah, that Noah has his act together, he makes me smile!”

• Have you ever done that with your children?

• Have you ever looked at other children in the world, and then said to yourself,

• “you know, I am lucky that my child is not like that”?

• I know that I have smiled many times, when comparing my children

• to some I have seen on the world.

• BUT WHY?

What is it that would make us smile and make our heavenly Father smile as well?

• I think we can learn some things from scripture

• by simply looking at the life of the child that brought pleasure to God.

The first thing I see is that God smile when we have a loving and close relationship with Him.

• Nothing makes a mother smile bigger than having her son call her without having to threaten his life.

• I am sure there are mothers that can relate to this as well.

• When your child snuggles up close to you and says, “love you!”

• it puts a smile on our faces.

• Whether our children are young or old, it puts a smile on our face

• when we see them making an effort to do what we have taught them,

• to travel the path we have placed them on

• and to contact us, and tell us that they are happy that we are their parents.

• That last part I don’t personally know of yet, but as our children grow,

• I hope at least one will say something along those lines