MY AMBITION IS TO PLEASE GOD WELL 3
We are back, friends, to conclude the message we started last time: My ambition is to Please God Well. And I want to conclude it now.
And we read from three short scriptures: Saint Luke’s Gospel chapter 3, verses 21 and 22. Then the second one, 2 Corinthians 5:7-9, and the third one, Hebrews 11:5-6.
PRAYER:
Father, we thank You for another day; thank You for another opportunity to hear Your Word. I bring to You now my friends in radioland, asking that Your Word would find place in their hearts and in the hearts of all who would hear this message….in the Name of Jesus.
My Ambition is to Please God Well.
We looked at Pleasing God well Positionally, Pleasing God Well Practically and then thirdly Pleasing God Perfectly.
We said that nobody can think of pleasing God who is not positioned in Christ. Pleasing God well starts with being rightly related to God through Jesus Christ.
Pleasing God practically: God said concerning Jesus and His private life – I am well pleased with my SON.
The key to the private life of Jesus: And Jesus increased in wisdom, stature – in favour with God and in favour with man.
In Hebrews 10, from verse 5,
Hebrews 10:5-7
5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come —
To do Your will, O God.'”
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come —
In the volume of the book it is written of Me —
To do Your will, O God.'”
That is the secret of pleasing God –
When Jesus came into the world.
We saw last time, Jesus saw the body that God prepared for Him in the womb of Mary to be an instrument of pleasing God. That’s Hebrews 10:5.
Secondly, Jesus in His humanity, was irrevocably and uncompromisingly committed to His Father and to His will. And we said that, thirdly, Jesus pleased God the Father well by being subject or obedient to what I call his surrogate parents – Joseph and Mary.
Young people, you cannot please God well if you are not obedient to your parents. And adults, you cannot please God well if you are not obedient to authorities.
And fourthly, Jesus Christ, in His humanity, was a well-balanced man. The bible said that He grew in four dimensions: in stature – physically; He also grew intellectually; He also grew socially – He was right with men; and He also grew spiritually – He was right with God.
We cannot please God well if we are not these balanced.
Let me go now to the next point, and I want to conclude it now.
What do we mean by pleasing God perfectly? In 2 Corinthians 5:9,
2 Corinthians 5:9, He says, We make it our Ambition, whether at home or in exile, [that is, the context is, whether we are alive or dead – we make it our ambition to please Him perfectly].
This perfectly is what we have here as ‘well’. We make it our ambition to please Him well; to please Him fully. And to please God means to live in such a way that God rejoices, that God can brag about you – that God is proud of you: just like He was with Job. He could brag about Job before Satan His arch enemy. He said to him, Have you seen my son, my servant Job, that there is no body like him on the face of the earth. Job pleased Him perfectly. Job pleased Him well.
Is it any surprise then that Gypsy Smith, an Irish Evangelist of long ago, made this observation? I think I have shared it with you before. This evangelist that lived long ago said that, there are five gospels: five gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Christian. He said that the Christian is the fifth gospel. And he continued, some will never read the first four. Guess the one they will read. The fifth gospel. And what is the fifth gospel? The Christian. What do people read from our lives as Christians? Public life – because they don’t know much about your private life. What do they read? You are a gospel. But what kind of Gospel are you? Good news or bad news? How well do you please God in your public life?
Some of us are business men and women. And in our businesses, we cut corners – we cheat people in order to maximize our profit. That is not how God will bless you, if you are a Christian. Some of us take things from our offices where we work and use them for our private aims.
Let me conclude by saying that if you think that pleasing God well or pleasing God perfectly is a tall order – if you feel that pleasing God well is a difficult task, try pleasing men. If you think that pleasing God well is a difficult thing to do, try pleasing people. Can I submit to you that it is much easier to please God than to please men. I have tried both, and I take the easier one: pleasing God; for I have one person to please, God; but I have all of you to please. Which one is easier? I take the one…let me concentrate on that person, because I know that if I please Him, if I don’t please you, that’s your business. If you’ll please God, you will please anybody else who pleases God. It’s difficult to please everybody, (hehehe) because everybody is making his or her different demands, with our different idiosyncrasies. You want me to please all of that! No wonder Paul says, if I’m pleasing men, I will no longer be a servant of God – because it is impossible to do both. God – One Person to please.
Secondly, God is the One Person who understands you perfectly well. People do not.
And thirdly, God, because He understands you perfectly well, He is the only One who knows your limitations. God is the One who knows that your bank account is almost zero – it’s only a few thousand naira in that account. But people may think that you have hundreds of thousands of naira in that account. And that is why they may want to pay you a visit at night. But they don’t know that you don’t have it. And so because people do not know your limitations they have all kinds of expectations about you. So that’s the one you want to please? So if there is a problem in the family they call you – but they don’t know that your bank account is almost zero. God will not call you in that case because He knows. And that’s why I like to please Him, and not those who do not know. So people have unrealistic expectations because they don’t know. And you want to please people with unrealistic expectations? You will be frustrated.
And finally – and most importantly: why pleasing God is the best option. He is the only one – He is the only one, I said, who is able and willing to help you to please Him. Other people, men and women, boys and girls who would want me to please him, who would want you to please them: cannot help you to please them; but God will help you to pleases Him – because He has the power to do that. All you need to do is to run to Him and say: God, I want to please You. Help me. And He will. And you cannot go to any human being and say I want to please you; help me. In fact, they will want to draw out the last pint of oxygen inside you; because man is helpless.
This brings me to my last point: Pleasing God is possible only through faith. And that’s the last scripture we read – or the third scripture we read. And that is Hebrews 11:6. It says, without faith, it is impossible to please God: Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So, if pleasing God is riding on faith it then means then that faith will not be difficult; because it is also the same God who generates it. This faith is the power that God injects in the heart of the man or woman or boy or girl who dares to believe Him. When you dare to believe God, He will say: here Am I, I will see you through. When you dare to take God at His Word, He will say: here AM I, I will help you. It is only through this divine energy called faith that anyone can please God well. You know why? It Is because the only thing that pleases God well is that which He does. The only thing that pleases Go well is that which He God does. That why faith comes into it, without which you cannot please Him. Because when God is working out something in you through faith, it’s not you – it’s God who is doing it. All He asks of you and me is “believe me and I will do it.” It’s easy to please God well; and we will.
Shall we pray.
PRAYER
Pleasing God well starts with a relationship. Do you have that relationship with Him through Christ? Have you ever invited Jesus Christ into your life? If you have not forget about pleasing God, not to talk of pleasing Him well. Is there anybody who is saying to me, I want to receive Jesus Christ so that I will be a child of God? Is that your heart’s desire? If you have not received Him…I want Jesus to be my Saviour today, why don’t you start talking to Him. It’s a very simple prayer that you’ll pray; because God has been waiting to hear that simple prayer from you for so many years now. Just simply tell Him, God, I am a sinner; forgive me. Jesus, I want You to come into my life and be my Saviour and my Lord. That simple prayer, if it comes from your heart – God answers immediately.
But for the rest of us, pleasing God well pratically in our private lives, in our public lives…is it your desire to please Him well practically in your private life, in your public life? If that is so, and you are saying, help me, God; if that is your desire: to please Him well practically. If that is not your desire stay where you are. You can please God well – you can. You can. The great God will enable you to please Him well, if only you will throw yourself at His feet in surrender and say, God help me, I want to please You well.
SONG:
You are a great God
You are a great God
You are a great God
It’s all I know.
Father, every noble desire, every honest desire, every desire that will please You, every desire that will bring glory to you you will back up with Your heavenly power. These ones are expressing practically their desire to please You. You’ll see them, O God; You read their hearts. You know that we are weak of ourselves to please You. But we are trusting You today, dear Lord, to help us to please You in our private lives, in our public lives…in the Name of Jesus. The enemy of your souls – Your own arch enemy, would not want us to please You. He would want us to please him through pleasing the flesh and pleasing human beings. But God, we say today today, it will not be so any longer…in the Name of Jesus. You are the one, the only one, we must please. And let it be so now in the Name of Jesus.
There are some obstacles that will come our way, that will prevent us from pleasing You. All those obstacles, all those problems, wherever they will come from, I cancel them now…in the Name of Jesus. And if they do come, O God, You would grant these ones the ability, the wisdom, to overcome…in the Name of Jesus. We want to say thank You Father; we want to thank You.
Lord, finally, as they have desired to please You you have accepted it as done. And therefore, since it is pleasing You that draws down the blessings of heaven, may the blessings of heaven fall on these ones. May the blessings of heaven descend upon them…in the Name of Jesus. May the blessing of the heaven in every dimension come upon you…in the Name of Jesus. Thank You, Father; we bless You, Lord. Be glorified. Be glorified in the heavens! Be glorified on earth! Be glorified in our lives this year…in the Name of Jesus. Amen!