Pleasing God

I'm Matt Bennett here with the Bennett Broadcast. Thank you so much for being a part. Really, really appreciate you being a part of these. These are designed to help you grow an understanding for revival and to see our nation changed. So I want to begin with a statement today, something you may have heard, but I think it's so much worth considering. Here's a statement. It says, there is nothing you can do to make God any more pleased with you than he is right now because you are in Christ and God is holy pleased with His Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore, He's holy pleased with you. I want you to reflect on that a moment and consider it. Understanding this makes a big difference in our walks with the Lord. I want to show from the scriptures that this is not true and how important it is to understand why it's not true. And we'll be looking at from the scriptures exactly the passages that explain this. So I want you to get your eyes on it just each verse. So you know that and see that. And then we can see why this is so important. And then also, well, what happens then if you feel uncomfortable in your walk with God? Why? What do I do then? How do I handle my life if I feel unsettled or maybe I feel guilty or something if I'm not pleasing enough? And we'll look at that as well. So all of those are really important. The benefit of understanding the subject is that allows you to be pleasing to God because if you go through life assuming anything, everything you do is pleasing when you're not, then that blocks off God's benefits to your life that prevents the maximum of what he wants to do. The blessings he wants to bring to your family, your community, the nation and this life and the next. And so we don't want to go through life that way. So they're enormous benefits to understanding this doctrine correctly. So we're going to distinguish between God's pleasing us. I mean, us pleasing God. And then on the other hand, how God loves us and looking at those two, we'll look at that more towards the end as we review some passages. So I want to go through and look at what John has to say about it. Paul has to say about in the book of Hebrews has to say about this subject again. It's good to get our eyes on the verses themselves about what it means to be pleasing to God. So first of all, there's John 829. And here we see that Jesus himself made it his aim and his actions to please the Father. It says John 829. And he who sent me is with me. He who has not left me alone. I always do the things that are pleasing to him. Now, notice how remarkable this is that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is always looking to do what's pleasing to his Heavenly Father. And this is recording recorded by the Apostle John. And if you jump to first John 322, also written by the Apostle John, it says here, and whatever we ask to receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. So you see, this is a passage on having good prayers and prayers that are effectual. And you see here how important it is that we do his commandments and that they please him. So pleasing God entails keeping his commandments, among other things. But you can see that if we're walking with God and we're keeping his commands, then that shows that we're pleasing to him, but if we're not, then we're not. And so if we're not keeping all of his commandments, we can know that we're not pleasing to him. And this is written to a Christian audience, keep in mind. And I'm specifically all my passages on pulling up or all from the New Testament. And I do this because sometimes there's a misunderstanding that, well, in the Old Testament, God wasn't pleased with the people, but now that we're in Christ in the New Testament, God is always pleased with us. And that's not true. Both believers in the Old Testament, believers in the New Testament, sometimes God is pleased, sometimes God is not pleased. There are differences between the covenants. We'll look at that a little bit here. But in this way, they're not different. We can be pleasing to God or displeasing to God and as enormous consequences. Now, this can be confusing because after all, God is pleased with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we are in him. But that means that our sins are washed away and that he loves us, not that everything we do is pleasing to him. And we see this in numerous time places in the New Testament. So this is the Apostle John. Now, let's look at a number of passages from the Apostle Paul. He looks at this same subject and specifically uses the word pleasing. So there's first Corinthians 10.5. Now, this is a powerful episode or a passage here because he's talking to the church in Corinth and telling them all these examples from the Old Covenant and how the Israelites were not pleasing. They were also the believers. They were the covenant in the Old Testament. He says that they committed adultery or sexual morality. They practiced idolatry. They rebelled against authority at Korah. They grumbled against God. He has all these examples. Some of them died by plague because of this. This is the punishment of God on them. And so the Apostle Paul is making the point in first Corinthians chapter 10 that, hey, watch out guys, because just as God was not pleased with the Israelites, he sometimes is not pleased with you. And as they had negative consequences, so you'll have negative consequences. So first Corinthians 10.5, nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased that they were overthrown in the wilderness. This is a powerful, powerful point that the Apostle is making in this context. He does not want us to be deceived. And this is a common deception even today because we see the extraordinary love in the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace that's extended to us. And it's talked about so much as it should be that we can get fooled and our sin natures fool us. And we can say, well, really doesn't matter. If I do these things, God is still pleased with me no matter what. Now let's look at this next passage by Paul Ephesians 5, 7 to 10. Therefore, do not become partners with them for at one time you are in darkness, but now you are the light of the world. Walk as children of light for the fruit of the light is found and all that is good and right and true and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. So you see it's an exhortation and it's teaching towards them that as Christians, they need to have this mindset ongoing of discerning, finding out what is pleasing to God. And we have to have that exact same mindset today. And so he gives this example right before he says walk as children of light. You are in darkness do not become partners with those who are walking in such a way. He wants it to be clear to us what is good and holy what is not how we can walk in the light, how we can't and it's our role as believers to discern to find out to do what's pleasing to God. Now here we have first Thessalonians 2, 4. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel so we speak not to please man but to please God who tests our heart. So here you see that God is testing our hearts to see what our motives are and it's imperative that our motives are that we do things to please God. Sometimes you can't see and you can't know immediately just by people's outward actions but God knows of course and our action should be not to please men but to please God. And so there's a possible Paul went out and he ministered and he preached and taught some might could say well you're doing this for nefarious reasons maybe you're doing it to get money maybe you do all sorts of things but he's insisting and he's telling them no we're doing it for real reasons we're doing it to please God not just to please other people because sometimes people are pleased with what we are doing when we're doing the will of God and some might bring an accusation saying well you're just doing that to please other people and that may not be the case God tests our heart but that is to be our motive is to find out and do what pleases God both in the actions but also the attitude behind it. All right continuing on here first Thessalonians 4 1 more by the apostle Paul. Finally then brothers we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that just as you receive from us how you ought to walk into please God just as you are doing that you do so more and more. So here he's giving the Thessalonians the church their commendation he's encouraging them he's saying hey you're doing great you're this is fantastic you're walking in a way that's pleasing God now do it more and more keep going keep doing the things that are pleasing to God Paul and his journeys would start a lot of churches but as you go back around to them or send them letters sometimes they're doing well as we see here with Thessalonians but sometimes they weren't as we just saw at the Corinthians and he intercedes he steps in and he says hey this has got to change let me help change your mindset here so you can do the activities that are pleasing to the Lord this is what a good leader a Christian leader does is in helping and blessing and encouraging people and pointing out hey this is great keep going you're doing wonderful over here this needs to change because it's not pleasing to the Lord he says those words write out straight up okay he continues on with this theme theme and first Timothy says first Timothy 2 1 to 3 first of all then I urge that supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life godly and dignified in every way this is good and is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior so one of the things he puts here right out that is pleasing to God is that we lift up supplications prayers intercessions for all people and here specifically mentions those in governmental authority or those in authority in general and that we might lead quiet and peaceful lives dignified in every way and doing this is pleasing to him and this is our aim this is our goal is Christian this is what we want to do is to please him and this is how we go about it is understanding the scriptures reading them taking them in and applying them to our lives so that we can be pleasing to him this is why it's so important that we have such a good and thorough knowledge of the Bible we want to go through and know it through and through it makes me thank of King Joe's eye remember him King of Judah and he was doing good things as a king he started off well and he continued well but at some point in his leadership there he they discovered the book of the law that is probably the first five books the Old Testament had been in the temple man been doing it they bring it out they read it to him and he's like wow he knew that he'd been doing some good things but a lot of things that he had not been doing is the king and so he was distressed he went and talked to the prophetess holder right as people do that and they said yeah God is angry and he's going to bring these judgments to you so it was so needed that he had to have the scriptures so to understand what's pleasing to God and therefore experience the benefits the blessings that come with walking with the Lord and every way so let's look at another passage in 1 Timothy 5.4 says but if a widow has children or grandchildren let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents for this is pleasing in the sight of God so here again it's put out there very plainly and directly one of the things that is pleasing to God and that is that children or grandchildren take care of their grandmother grandfather when they're older and so we need to care for our families and this is of course it works in other ways too in the family but this is being laid out for us of what is pleasing to God and to not do this is displeasing to God with all the negativity that comes with that worse in this case all the positivity that comes with pleasing God now another passage this is in 2 Timothy 2.4 and here the Apostle Paul is making the point that we need to live very disciplined lives kind of get rid of all distractions so that we can live wholeheartedly for God and he says no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since this aim is to please the one that enlisted him let me read that again no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him so he's making the point and I he also references here in this context a hardworking farmer and the athlete how they're disciplined their focus so one of the ways in which we please God as we don't allow ourselves to get distracted by so many different things in life and it can be easy to get distracted especially in the west where there's a lot of opportunities out of comforts and pleasures to get into nothing wrong with enjoying them in a certain measure but they can be overwhelming and distracting and so same thing with a soldier he stays focused on what his calling is so that he's pleasing the one who enlisted him in this case it's the Lord Jesus Christ who has enlisted us in our heavenly Father and we are to do what's pleasing to them and keep ourselves focused on pleasing them all right so we've looked at some passages by the Apostle John we looked at some passages by the Apostle Paul now we want to look at some passages in the book of Hebrews on this book book also re-emphasizes the need to please God so here we're going to start with a famous couple of verses and Hebrews 11 5 and 6 it says this it says by faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found because God had taken him now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God and without faith it is impossible to please him whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and then rewards those who seek him so you see here in this last part it's impossible please God without faith so the author of the book is wanting us to understand by the Holy Spirit that we are to lift up faith build up faith it's one of the ways that we believe God we believe all of his promises that's what faith is we believe if all of his promises that is so pleasing to God he loves to see that that really stirs him and you see the consequences that come out of it and it says that he rewards those who seek him and it pleases him when we do this and he rewards us as a result in this life in the next now you remember the chapter 11 of Hebrews is filled with all these fantastic saints and they're all living this out they're living by faith they're doing what's pleasing God even though they had horrible situations very difficult times from time to time sometimes they got the answer of the prayers immediately sometimes it came later after they passed and the covenant was fulfilled later on but in all cases they were faithful to the Lord and all of this was pleasing to God they pleased God and they are experiencing the reward some got some of it on earth but everybody gets all of it in heaven which is wonderful and beautiful all right a couple of more passages in the book of Hebrews says do not neglect this is sorry Hebrews 13 16 do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God now this makes sense I think to most people we think of the Christian ethic about doing good to other people sharing what we have with other people this is pleasing to God it's plain so if we're not doing that if we're always being selfish and never share and never do good to other people then of course it's displeasing the God at time so when we do that so we got to remember that and keep pleasing him in our activities Hebrews 13 21 equipped you and with everything good that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in a sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever I met amen so again the Lord is equipping us helping us that we might do God's will when we're doing God's will he is working in us and it's pleasing in his sight and this is the aim for us as Christians to do these things so we see here in the book of Hebrews multiple places the call to do it's pleasing we saw this also in the Apostle Paul's encouragement and teaching we saw it also in the Apostle John's teaching and encouragement we saw the example in Jesus himself that he saw to do what was pleasing to the Father so you see this is all throughout the Bible there are many more examples we could go through and examples where it doesn't necessarily use that word pleasing but it's the same concept so it's all throughout the New Testament it's not just an Old Testament conception and so this is so key to know and understand so that we know that sometimes we're displeasing to God sometimes we're pleasing to God and knowing that that is true then we can work to discern what is pleasing to God as we're commanded to do as it possible Paul said so looking back at this phrase let's consider this there's nothing you can do to make God more pleased with you than he is right now now phrase that's similar to this and perhaps as a different understanding is there's nothing you can do to make God love you more than he does right now now this phrase can be confusing these because we've we've got to step back and look at analogy of perhaps a parent in a child I think it's fair to say that a parent loves your child but sometimes the children do things and the parents get displeased with them I think that's a really helpful analogy to consider and to remember that the love is there when we're brought into the family of God God puts a special love on us he loves us even when we're not Christian but he gives us a special level of love even more when we come into the kingdom of God and that's beautiful and wonderful but that doesn't mean that he's always pleasing to us if a child did something really bad stayed out late or took the car out and crashed it or something like that without permission then the parents are going to be displeased and it doesn't mean that they stop letting them be in their home and doesn't mean they stop providing meals for them or stop providing for their education but there is a tension there there is the relationship isn't what it should be and we want to have a great relationship with our Heavenly Father he's so wonderful and good we want to have a great relationship with them and so we need to work through that and of course the child needs to apologize to the parents and make things right and the parents will help guide them in that process but it's up to the child to choose to do that and the same with us with our Heavenly Father so as we walk with him and we obey him he is pleased with us and he gives us all the blessings that come along with us he still loves us when we're displacing him but it doesn't mean they're not going to be some negative consequences coming into our life in time if we don't turn back to him and seek him with our whole hearts so why is this important I've said this a number of times during these brief remarks but it's worth reiterating because it's so consequential for our lives that pleasing God draws God's grace his blessing his presence the death the relationship and this leads to revival it's when a lot of Christians in a given community or context please God fully not just a little bit or not in what seems comfortable but fully and completely when that is happening that is when God gets very pleased he pours out his spirit on people and they receive all the fullness of what God wants to have for them doesn't mean there are no obstacles or troubles there are but it's amazing and wonderful in terms of everything that happens and there's another Bennett broadcast on what is revival and how that's described which you can look at but this is what we want is Christians we want the fullness of God in our country today in the West it's not as it should be in this way we see some good things happening it's not like God's kicked us out of the family but also there's a lot of displeasure of God towards us because we're not pleasing him as fully as we ought to and what he wants us to and so he holds back and there's a tension there even when we feel sometimes inside oh I feel good with God well maybe we are maybe we aren't and we'll look at that in a second here but we've got to know that it is our role to discern whether we're pleasing to God so displeasing God does draw his anger which results in judgment this is not a subject talked about much today in the West but it's everywhere in the Bible and if you go to christianunion.org slash seven keys you'll see an entire group of videos about the need to seek the Lord and how expand the kingdom of God and how his judgment comes but also his blessing comes based on our activities and something called conditional grace that's more there but it's it's not a popular subject but it's need we need to know and understand that but God's negativity is judgment his punishment whatever word you want to use it comes on individuals comes on families it comes on communities it comes on nations and I believe the United States has been under a level of judgment from the Lord not fully not completely because he loves us and giving us a chance to turn back to him and to repet but we as Christians and that's where it starts is us as Christians need to please him much more fully than we are right now so how do we know how do we know if we are pleasing to him well first of all the first stop is the scriptures as I went through it and read those verses we saw there are a number specific items mentioned that please God for instance taken care of your family or as walking as children of light and doing good deeds these are all mentioned but this is the whole Bible is about this whole Bible is about the activities that we do to please God so the scriptures are the first stop for this they help us so much now secondly there's also the leading of the Holy Spirit because there'll be certain circumstances where the Holy Spirit will prompt us and will feel like he speaks to us to do this or go do that give for instance above and beyond a normal 10% or something like that or give to take time for this particular person time in need he'll speak to us and have us reach out and do things or another such thing so we need to be sensitive and walk with him and listen to his voice if we're not listening to his voice in a regular way or cultivating that it's hard for us to be pleasing to God so I urge you if this is difficult for you and sometimes it can be difficult but it's something to be cultivated it says in John 10 that God sheep hear his voice and we need to be able to learn that now of course another way to know whether we're pleasing is the community of the saints talking to other Christians whether it be peers or Christian leadership in some ways asking them getting their views about it asking them to point to the Bible passages that inform them this way so that you can learn and grow and understand sometimes people come and say to you hey you should change this or you said this over here and sometimes when we're corrected that can sting a little bit it happens to all of us but it is helpful for us and we change and we grow because of it I think every person can say yeah I'm so glad I got corrected on this so that I'm in the past and so that we can be the kind of people that we want to be so we praise the Lord for that so other people are a big big help in this regard okay it also needs to be as we look to wrap up this subject to take into our minds what if we just feel guilty like we're never doing enough and sometimes that can happen in a performance based culture and we have a lot of that in the West so what do we do about that well first of all I want to make a clarification I think making this clarification is part of something that can help but we need to remember that a Christian can never earn or merit anything from God it's only by God's grace Christians we're not to have a performer performance mentality if by the work performance it's meant that God's grace can be earned a merit it God's grace can be gained but it cannot be earned or merit it when we meet God's conditions in this case pleasing God then we can gain his increased favor in our lives his blessings in this life in the next but we never merit or earn anything from God who are we to think that God owes us anything that's not the case so this distinction is very important it can be quite confusing when not looking at closely so my urge you to do everything you can to put your mind around it says the grace of God is promised when certain conditions are met if the grace is in present then Christians should seek the scriptures in God about whether certain conditions have not been met this can be difficult and sometimes agonizing process which should not be neglected so if there's a promise in the Bible that you feel like you're not getting and it might be that the conditions aren't being met or you're not understanding what the promise is or there's other mitigating factors or something but God wants us to wrestle through that not just to pass over it and say well I'm not getting those blessings because God is sovereign and he just does want to give it right now well God is sovereign but he's a God a sovereign God who keeps his promises and men and women of faith believe God's promises and it says something we want to say well what's going on here let's look at this let me understand it or maybe I'm not meeting the conditions when we think about more well-known passages about revival in the Bible like 2 Chronicles 714 says of my people humble themselves pray repent of their sins seek my face then and fast then a God will hear and bless their land so we're not getting the blessings that we think should be in our land and healing in our land then there's a good chance we're not meeting the conditions and in my view we're not meeting the conditions in the West another parts of the world where they're seeing great progress in the gospel they are generally as a group meeting the conditions of 2 Chronicles 714 but what if we continue to feel guilty well first of all the first thing as mentioned we've got to do some real real serious work as to whether we are meeting the conditions of God and something I encourage you to look at is go to Daniels Spirituality.org it lays out a basic structure for I'm seeking God and your devotional life and I believe it's what's pleasing to God look at it and decide for yourself you can go to christian.org slash seven keys to see it all explain why this is a lifestyle that's pleasing to God so make your own choices but I feel like if we're not living at this level in these ways then we're just pleasing to God and we need to get pleasing to God so that we can not feel guilty a guilt a lot of times is something that helps us in our walks correct something that needs to be changed in our lives but in other times it's there when it shouldn't be it's like a false guilt and we want to get rid of that something that's from the enemy and not from the Lord so sometimes if it's a false guilt we can do things like memorize and reflect on Bible truths and verses like Roman Zate that says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus we can memorize verses on the goodness of God and the love of God also first John one nine if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all in righteousness that is a beautiful verse to remember and to quote so that you know that you don't have to feel guilty and this is an attack from the enemy also though what can happen is sometimes there can be a demonic affliction on our life in some way or maybe healing that needs to happen sometimes if people had bad experiences in their past some sort of trauma there can be this sort of self hatred self guilt self condemnation it's not uncommon and what's needed there is the Lord to speak into that past event so that people can get healing and this is called inner healing and also people Christians can be afflicted with evil spirits happens a lot and those need to be off a person and I've seen spirits of condemnation come off people as well as others and other spirits and it causes a great great amazing positive change so this could also be what's happening so all these are to be checked if you go along with a performance mentality or you feel guilty all the time again first of all maybe your life and choices are not pleasing to God that's something and then secondly well maybe I need to reflect and meditate on some of these scriptural passages and then thirdly well maybe it's a demonic affliction or a healing need in some way maybe that's on the issue that needs to be addressed so I want to go back to the slide in the very beginning because as we conclude this subject it's important to remember so again we look at this and says there's nothing you can do to make God more pleased with you than he is right now that is completely false we saw many passages on that but then there's nothing you could do to make God love you more than he does right now well generally I would say that's that is true generally the Lord brings you into his family he still loves you and he he is with you he's for you 100% and he even loves non-Christians we know that John 316 and a lot of other passages in the Bible praise God how wonderful and kind he is as it says in the book of Romans he had loved for us and died for us on the cross even when we are sinners even where we're rebellion against him how much more does he love us now that we're inside the family that's beautiful and wonderful but in that context we can be displeasing to him and it's our role it's our privilege it's our duty as Christians to work through all of that and to make sure that this is resolved and that we're pleasing to him in every way now if you want to help spread this message and to be part of a movement to see America return to God please go to christian union.org slash cornerstone and become a cornerstone partner we are all about seeing the United States radically revived in their love and devotion in Jesus Christ I want to say a prayer for us so Father we love you you are great and good you are blessed you're wonderful you're holy all of your ways how great you are how true you are how awesome you are Lord help us help me to be pleasing to you and my thoughts and my motivations and my words my actions in every way help us in the United States all of us who love Jesus Christ all of us who are born and born again and in the family of God help us to be pleasing to our Heavenly Father in every way so Lord we need you show us give it this clarity from the scriptures so that we can honor you in Jesus name amen well thanks a million for watching the binna broadcast I really really appreciate it it's been fun to do this I think this is episode nine on pleasing God and it's been a thrill for me thank you for being a part of this community the Lord bless you and have a great day