SOUL-SEARCHING QUESTIONS FOR PLEASING GOD WELL

SOUL-SEARCHING QUESTIONS FOR PLEASING GOD WELL

SOUL-SEARCHING QUESTIONS FOR PLEASING GOD WELL

Friends, I want to thank you again, for letting me into your homes. Today, I want us to examine: Soul-Searching Questions for Pleasing God well. Remember that we have the series on, pleasing God well.

 

Soul-Searching Questions for Pleasing God Well

 

There are three questions; but we will be able to answer just one, this time. The first question is in Genesis 3:9.

 

Genesis 3:9

 

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

 

The second one is in Genesis 4:9:

 

Genesis 4:9

 

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”

He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

 

 

The third one is in Exodus 4:2

 

 

Exodus 4:2

 

So the Lord said to him [that is, to Moses], “What is that in your hand?”

He said, “A rod.

 

PRAYER:

Thank You, Father, for this time we have to search Your Word. We commit the time and ourselves into Your hands…in Jesus’ Name. Amen!

 

Soul-Searching Questions for Pleasing God Well

 

To help us in our ambition to please God well, we want to consider some questions that will help us search our souls. These questions God asked different people, at different times – in human history. And I want you to know that when God asks questions, it is not because He is looking for an answer. When we ask questions…it is because we are looking for answers. If you lost your way you ask people questions, how can I get to such and such a place. It is because you are in need of finding your way to the place. But if God would ask a question – it is not because He is in need of anything. In fact, when He asks man a question it is for self-disclosure – where are you, where is your brother, what is that in your hand?

 

Three different questions that will help us search our souls. Let’s take the first one.

 

Genesis 3:9 – the background of this question is familiar. This is the background who what we have come to know as the Fall of Man. God gave the man He made – He put in the garden, one command: one command. He said, of the fruit of the trees in the garden you are free to eat. But, there is one in the middle of the garden; you should not eat it. One commandment – not Ten Commandments – not six hundred and thirteen commandments – as found in the Torah: the Jewish Bible. God gave him one commandment. Did he keep it? No! They rejected the truth, and believed the lie. And what is that lie? The lie from the devil was that experimental knowledge was superior or better than revealed knowledge.

 

The serpent said to them, in other words, this is my paraphrase, “Experiment with eating the fruit, and you will have a better knowledge of your true potential; you will come to discover that you will be like God, knowing everything, like God knows, instead of just the one thing that you know now: which is the good. You will know both good and evil.” They failed to realize that God had already given them something far better. They were already like God, for He made them in His image, according to His likeness – Genesis 2:26.

 

The inferior offer of Satan was going to alter or distort the best that God had already given them. And that was what happened.

 

Friend, whatever Satan offers you, no matter how glamorous, CAN NEVER come close to what God has given or will give you. We read in Genesis 3:7-

 

 

 

 

Genesis 3:7- 9

 

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

 

 

What is the significance of this question? God was not interested in Adam’s geographical location. God was concerned with his spiritual location. This was for Adam’s self-disclosure. He was saying in effect, where are you, Adam, in the relationship between you and Myself? Those who would please God well must grapple with this question. Where am I in my relationship with God? Am I in or am I out? Am I deep or am I shallow? Am I casual or am I intimate? To please God well, you must make sure that, first, you are in Christ. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And the word new here, in that verse, is not in the sense of something recent, but in the sense of something entirely different – in the positive sense! The one who is in Christ, through the experience of the New Birth, has become part of God’s new creation. And it is this new creation that pleases God. You cannot please God, talk of pleasing Him well, if you are not in Christ, if you have not repented from sin, and if you have not invited Jesus into your life.

No wonder the scripture says in Luke 15:7 and 10, that there is great joy in heaven…God is so pleased when one sinner repents.

 

The painful alternative of being in Christ is being in flesh. And Romans 8:8 says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Second, you must go a step further to ensure that apart from being in Christ you have an intimate relationship with God.

 

Intimacy! What does that mean? The dictionary defines it as a close, familiar and unusually affectionate or loving relationship with another person or a group of people. Often, people limit intimacy to physical contact, especially between the opposite sex – a concept that has created problems for many. Intimacy, even on the human level, goes beyond physical expression of affection. It pleases God well when His children have an intimate relationship with Him.

 

The following thoughts will help us evaluate our intimacy with God.

  1. I want you to know, friend, that sin and intimacy with God are mutually exclusive. They cannot mix. Man lost intimacy with God the moment he fell into sin. We just read it in Genesis 3. Instead of intimacy, when sin came into the life of man he experienced, shame, alienation or separation, and fear. That you find in Genesis 3:7-10. This is the lot of all who live in sin. In Psalms 24:3-5, we read:

 

Psalms 24:3-5

 

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

 

And in James 4:8,

 

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you [intimacy]. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

 

Intimacy and sin cannot mix. If you want to be intimate with God, you cannot be living in sin at the same time.

  1. Intimacy with God, secondly, is a process that goes on incrementally, if you will see Him face to face. No wonder after many years of knowing the Lord and experiencing His awesome power, Paul the Apostle still longingly cried, in Philippians 3:10 – that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. Today a number of Christians don’t want us to bring the word sufferings into Christianity.
  2. Intimacy with God is fueled by an insatiable hunger for Him, as we find in the experiences of King David and the Sons of Korah. In Psalms 27:4, David said:

 

 

 

Psalms 27:4

 

One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.

 

And in Psalms 42:1-2, the sons of korah said,

 

1As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

 

Intimacy with God grows when we are on speaking terms with God. By that I mean, it grows as we pray. As our prayer life grows, intimacy with God grows.

 

Let me conclude with the benefits of intimacy.

  1. Those who are intimate with God hear His voice quicker and clearer.
  2. Those who are intimate with God do not fear what others fear.
  • Those who are intimate with God can count on His enabling presence when the going becomes rough
  1. And finally, those who are intimate with God are rapture-ready.

 

We are told that Enoch walked with God. Intimacy! And he was not, for God took him. Where are you, friend, in your relationship with God? Are you in Christ or outside of Christ? Come in to Him today, by receiving Him, as your Savior, and your Lord. And if you have received Him, why don’t you pray:

 

 

PRAYER:

 

God, help me to live close to You, walk closely with You? Help me to be intimate with You, day by day…in Jesus Name. Amen!

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