Pleasing God

[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 29th of January, 2017.  Look for the video on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Two weeks ago we concluded that if we remember the great sacrifice Jesus made for us, we would obey His commands.  Last week we said that at least part of that obedience includes being willing to go where God sends us and do what He would have us do.  And we saw where God will reward us for obeying Him and doing His will in and through our lives.  Well, Family, we can take great reward and humbling satisfaction in knowing that our obedience and our good deeds please our heavenly Father.

Pleasing God really is easy, and it all begins with faith.  Listen and follow along as I read from the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 11, verses 1 through 16, reading from the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible.  I know this is a little long, but please bear with me…

1 Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see. 2 It was their faith that made our ancestors pleasing to God.

3 Because of our faith, we know that the world was made at God’s command. We also know that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen.

4 Because Abel had faith, he offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. God was pleased with him and his gift, and even though Abel is now dead, his faith still speaks for him.

5 Enoch had faith and did not die. He pleased God, and God took him up to heaven. That’s why his body was never found. 6 But without faith no one can please God. We must believe that God is real and that He rewards everyone who searches for Him.

7 Because Noah had faith, he was warned about something that had not yet happened. He obeyed and built a boat that saved him and his family. In this way the people of the world were judged, and Noah was given the blessings that come to everyone who pleases God.

8 Abraham had faith and obeyed God. He was told to go to the land that God had said would be his, and he left for a country he had never seen. 9 Because Abraham had faith, he lived as a stranger in the promised land. He lived there in a tent, and so did Isaac and Jacob, who were later given the same promise. 10 Abraham did this, because he was waiting for the eternal city that God had planned and built.

11 Even when Sarah was too old to have children, she had faith that God would do what He had promised, and she had a son. 12 Her husband Abraham was almost dead, but he became the ancestor of many people. In fact, there are as many of them as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand along the beach.

13 Every one of those people died. But they still had faith, even though they had not received what they had been promised. They were glad just to see these things from far away, and they agreed that they were only strangers and foreigners on this earth. 14 When people talk this way, it is clear that they are looking for a place to call their own. 15 If they had been talking about the land where they had once lived, they could have gone back at any time. 16 But they were looking forward to a better home in heaven. That’s why God wasn’t ashamed for them to call Him their God. He even built a city for them.

--Hebrews 11:1-16 (CEV)

Let us pray…  Father God, we have come to worship You and to listen to what You would tell us.  Speak to us in Your quiet way that we might hear Your message.  May our worship and attention to Your voice please You.  In the beautiful name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.


Christian author Kent Crockett once wrote:

“We have let the world define greatness for us. Our society has built itself on the philosophy of the devil instead of on the wisdom of God. As long as we believe Satan’s big lie that our lives are insignificant unless we are on top, we will live in constant state of dejection, worthlessness, and strife.

“To overcome this incorrect way of thinking, we must change audiences. Which audience are we trying to please: people in this world, or God in heaven?”


Almost from the very beginning of the Christian church, the world has crept in and tried to corrupt it.  Even the Apostle Paul tried to address the issue of which audience are we playing to, such as in his first letter to the church in Corinth.  We try to block out the world during this sweet hour of worship, but we tend to bring the world in with us.  Our true and sincere worship pleases our Lord, but I don’t think He likes it so much when we worry more about pleasing each other than about pleasing Him.  Paul often addressed how the world can damage our relationship with God, but I think the following, from chapter 8 of his letter to the church in Rome, verses 5 through 9, gives us a clearer understanding of how a sinful nature impacts our pleasing God… or not pleasing Him, as the case may be…

5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.

--Romans 8:5-9 (NLT)

If we want to please God, we must let His Holy Spirit control our minds, our thoughts, our deeds, and not give in to the sinful nature of this world.


The author of the Book of Hebrews defines faith and emphasizes the role it plays in pleasing God.  He even says in verse 6 of our reading that without faith, we cannot please God!  Let me repeat that:

Without faith we cannot please God!

Martin Luther's “light bulb moment” came while studying the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans, verses 16 and 17 of chapter 1, which ends by saying that "The just shall live by faith."  Luther explained it this way: "God our Father has made all things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever does not have faith will have nothing." [Emphasis mine.]

We spoke last week of having faith and trusting in the Lord, but faith is not something we can go out and buy a great supply of when we start getting low.  Faith is a gift from God, freely given, but it is up to us to maintain that faith.  We can exercise it and help it grow, by attending worship and studying God’s word in our Bibles and trusting that He will make all things come out for our good because we love Him and He loves us.  With our faith firmly established and growing stronger each day, we can really set our minds to pleasing God.

So what are some of the ways we can please God?  What are some of the things we can do that will make God happy with us?  Our Bible gives some very good examples.  From our reading of Hebrews 11:6 we’ve already seen we must first believe in God and in His promises.  In Matthew 3:17 and Colossians 1:15-19, we read that we can please God by exalting His Son Jesus Christ.  1st Corinthians 1:18-2:5 tells us to proclaim the message of the cross.  Our Old Testament, in 1st Kings 3:10, even provides help by instructing us to ask God for wisdom, a plea echoed in Colossians 1:9-14 and James 1:5-8.  Paul repeatedly tells us to stay away from sexual sin in order to please God, such as in Ephesians 5:3, 4 & 10 and 1st Thessalonians 4:1-8.

Sharing the gospel with unbelievers pleases God according to 1st Corinthians 9:14-27 and 10:31-33.  So does giving to others in their time of need, as noted in Philippians 4:10-20 and Hebrews 13:16.  It pleases God when we submit to those in authority over us, as per Romans 8:7-8, Colossians 3:20, and 1st John 3:22.  And we can see in Psalm 69:30 & 31 and Hebrews 13:15 & 16 praising God for all things is pleasing in His sight.


Like I said, it really is easy to please God, and it all begins with faith – that wonderful gift from God.  Think about this…  doesn’t it make you happy when you give someone a gift and they really appreciate and use it?  It’s the same with God, our Father.  He gives us this gift of faith and it makes Him really happy when we show our appreciation by putting the gift to good use and making it grow.

I mentioned the 13th chapter of the letter to the Hebrews a couple of time a few minutes ago, so I think I’ll let its author have the last word on pleasing God.  In chapter 13 verses 10 through 16, he writes…

10 We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. 12 So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make His people holy by means of His own blood. 13 So let us go out to Him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace He bore. 14 For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.

15 Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to His name. 16 And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God.

--Hebrews 13:10-16 (NLT)

The “altar” he speaks of there is the cross, and all it represents to the believer.  People brought animals to the priests to be sacrificed in atonement of their sins, and then the carcasses were burned outside the camp or city walls.  Just as Jesus was sacrificed for the atonement of our sins, taken outside the city and hung on that cruel altar, the cross.  So our author says that we, Christ’s followers and believers, should go outside our camp to Him, if necessary bearing in His name the same disgrace and ridicule and persecution as He bore.  For we are merely pilgrims; this world is not our permanent home, our eternal home awaits us.

So let us offer a continual living sacrifice of ourselves, our time, our resources, proclaiming our steadfast allegiance to Jesus and His holy name, doing good and sharing with those in need.  And in this we will be pleasing God.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, we understand that we cannot even begin to please You if we don’t have faith in You.  Faith is a gift You give us, but we know it is up to us to maintain our faith and exercise it so that it will grow and stay strong.  Help us, please Father, to keep our faith in You strong no matter what happens.  May our every thought and action and word be pleasing to You.

Hear us now, Father, as we pause and quietly speak our personal prayers to You from our hearts, repenting and seeking forgiveness of our sins, asking for Your help in our daily walk…

Lord Jesus, Your servants – the Apostle Paul and the author of the Book of Hebrews – both provide us with a clear explanation of what we can do to please our Father God, and also of what displeases Him.  We know, Lord, that sometimes we are more worried about what our friends and relatives and ever perfect strangers think of us than we are about the impression we make on You and our heavenly Father.  Forgive us, Lord, when we put more emphasis on the things of this world than on the things of heaven.  Help us to be more faithful to You and more pleasing to God in everything we do.

This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith.  Amen.