Pleasing God

As many of you know, a little over a year ago, I became a grandfather. What fun is that!? S. and P.: any day now, right? :-) And it is increasingly fun as my grandson F. interacts with others more and more. F. is the boy who hears a crying baby, and goes over to comfort him. I like that. 

Aren’t children wonderful? I also enjoy the fact that all healthy children seem to be love-sponges. They really respond well to interest, and time, and attention, and care, and... they just absorb it all. And as they get older, they instinctively discover that there are things that they can do to make all this loving attention continue. And then it results in a positive feedback loop. The more they get, the more they learn.

Healthy young children learn how to do cute little baby tricks and cute little baby sounds, noticing what our reactions are to all of those things, and learning what we like. It is like they have been wired with a “find-out-what-pleases-your-parents” program at birth.

Because children regularly want to please anyone who loves them, don’t they? Especially parents, but also good teachers, uncles, cousins, aunts, and even grandparents, of course. You don’t have to be a psychologist to know that children need love, and their response to love is to want to please the one who loves them. Of course, this should also be our attitude toward the One who loves us with an everlasting love. And the Bible actually explicitly instructs us (Ephesians 5:10)

(NCV) “Try to learn what pleases the Lord” or (NIV) find out what pleases the Lord.

So let’s come to God as his children this morning. (The Bible does say that “we are indeed his offspring” in Acts 17:28) And let us also try to determine what pleases the Lord. Now I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve done some of the work for you: that is, I’ve combed the Bible for every hint of what might please the Lord, and I’m going to give a partial report on that research this morning.

But before we continue, I’d like to ask you to put on your scientist hat, and do what any self-respecting scientist would do before embarking on a study or line of experimentation: ask yourself what you would anticipate of such a study. That is, what do you predict we will find when we go to scripture looking for what it says about what pleases God? This is a great exercise, by the way. It trains the brain. If you discover what you anticipated, it is good reinforcement; if you discover something other than what you anticipated, well, we know scripture is profitable for correction, isn’t it?

But you know the first thing I discovered? It is a shame that some churches have directed so much attention toward the things that displease God. Because there is just so much in the Bible about what pleases Him. (So fear not: I can’t possibly do justice to everything the Bible says about pleasing God. If you anticipate something I don’t mention, you can search the scripture to find it -- a good exercise in itself) But the primary thing that pleases God is exactly the thing that we should put front and center in our report this morning. In Colossians 1:19,20, we read:

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

What pleases God? Jesus does. But the reason that Jesus pleases God should be interesting: God wanted to make peace with you (being part of “all things” as we are) and to reconcile you to Himself, the source of all goodness, of all joy, of all love, and of all wisdom. And He has really has gone out of His way to make your life better than you ever imagined it could be.

But most people prefer to think that there must have been easier ways to go about doing that (you know, rather than by making peace through Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross), but such thinking simply indicates how little we understand the depth of the problem. When we think that way, we are, of course, being like the disciple Peter. You remember the story: Jesus told his disciples that he would have to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die. And Peter tried to talk Jesus out of it, “no, no, that will never happen.” (Matt 16; Mark 8) You remember how Jesus replied? “Get behind me, Satan!” Harsh words reserved for the severest of mistakes.

But it is easy for us to make the same mistake. We want to pretend that a little education or medication or therapy should do the trick. Sure -- those things can have superficial effect; they can be band-aids (and band-aids have their value). But God knew that nothing less than the sacrifice of His Son could actually address our deepest needs; nothing less than Jesus’ death and resurrection could actually change us. And what’s more, God is totally psyched and passionate about how that’s worked out. What do you think about that?

Now it can be difficult to appreciate why God would be pleased about the brutal torture and execution of an innocent man. Naturally. But to illustrate why it make him pleased, I have three illustrations. Here I have some pictures of people who are pleased. This gentleman is on the basketball team of someone who just scored a winning basket within the final second of the game. This gentleman is also pleased. He is a technophile who has just been given the opportunity to assemble his favorite high-tech toy in the factory in which it is made. And here is someone that folks in the vicinity of my age might recognize. He is pleased, because, “[He] love[s] it when a plan comes together.”

But that’s the kind of pleasure that God is enjoying when he considers Jesus’ role as the Saviour of the world. This was His plan from the moment of creation. And it has come together perfectly. All the parts are fitting together in a brilliant way. And the end result is winning. The good news is being preached to the poor; the blind are receiving their sight; and the captives are being set free. Now if you can’t get quite as excited about it as God does, you’re not alone. The idea that the greatest good can come from Jesus’ suffering is naturally foreign to people. And it can be an idea that people take a while to come around to. But when you finally get it, it can feel like this amazing eureka moment. Alistair McGrath, a formerly-atheist Physics professor at Oxford who now teaches Science and Religion, writes:

One of my objections to Christian belief had been my feeling that God was ...irrelevant. I conceived this ... God as a distant figure, without any involvement in the world. God was in heaven - wherever that was. And I was located in the flow of space and time that we call human history. Since God was absent from the flow of history, God seemed to me to be an irrelevance.
Yet as I began to grasp what Christianity was about, I came to see that the core Christian idea of incarnation addressed this deep ...concern. The incarnation spoke of a God who chose to inhabit history; who chose to come to the place which I inhabited as one of us; who suffered, as I and so many others did, but who also chose to make that same suffering the basis of our salvation. I discovered a God who journeyed to my place of exile in order to bring me home.

Sure: many people today imagine that they can come up with an economic plan, or a political plan, or an educational plan, or a technological plan that will address the world’s problems. But those plans have failed throughout history -- often disastrously (particularly when they are disconnected from reliance on God) -- and they will continue to fail, in spite of folks’ best intentions. If you don’t believe me, pay close attention over the next five or ten, or twenty years and consider: if politicians are any indication, people really aren’t getting any smarter or more capable. To solve the world’s problems, we don’t just need more people in charge who will never have to suffer the consequences of their own policies. We need a radical re-think -- and that’s, of course, what God has already done on our behalf. As Paul writes:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to [those of] us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

And then, just a few verses later (v21),

God was pleased through [what many consider] foolishness ... to save those [of us] who believe.

So what pleases God? Our salvation! And more fundamentally, God is pleased by the brilliant execution of His plan of salvation by His Son, Jesus. We also see this, of course, reflected in God’s own words recorded for us in scripture. These aren’t just the words of men inspired by the Holy Spirit -- these are words directly from God’s intervention into time and space. And we can find them twice in Matthew, twice in Mark, and twice in Luke; for example, here is Matthew 17:5 --

...a voice [was heard from] the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.

What pleases God? Jesus does. Does that make you want to become more familiar with this Jesus? It should: it should drive us to “listen to him” -- to come, sit at his feet, and receive his teaching.   

But I’m afraid that as important as this theme is, we’re going to now consider other things that God considers to be pleasing to Him. And, in particular, we need to consider what we can do to please Him, because the Bible has plenty to say about that, too. But before we go there, I’d like to open a bit of a parenthesis. Because I’ve observed that it is quite common in churches to treat pleasing men to be always and forever at odds with pleasing God. Have you ever heard that? You know, something like “let’s be God-pleasers rather than man-pleasers.” And that’s not wrong ...exactly. After all, we read (in 1Thess 2:4):

 ...we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts.

So sure -- it is a suggestion of scripture that pleasing men can, in fact, be in conflict with pleasing God. But there are other scriptures suggesting that pleasing men is not such a bad thing. For example:

Rom 15:2 - Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.

Or, how about:

1Co 10:33-11:1 - [Paul writes] I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

And then in the very next verse Paul makes it clear that we should be behaving in this manner even as he is (he writes):

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

So which is it? Do we want to please men or not? Well, I’m sure you’ve noticed that the world is full of people with delightfully different personalities. Some people are just naturally people-pleasers. And some are just naturally … well, not. And, of course, there are personalities of every possible type in between. So scripture seems to be warning the natural people-pleasers that people-pleasing can pose a spiritual danger -- it can divert us from the path that is most pleasing to God. But at the same time, scripture is also encouraging those who aren’t naturally able to please people -- that they might want to work on that a bit more. (close parenthesis)

At this stage, we need to consider what we can do to please God, so I’d like to direct your attention to the book of Colossians. I will be reading from the English Standard Version (ESV):

And so... we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him:

• bearing fruit in every good work;
• increasing in the knowledge of God;
• being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;
• giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

Now the ESV agrees with the NIV here. Both those versions have a colon in verse ten -- indicating, in this instance, that what follows is a list of things that Paul wants to tell us are pleasing God. And not only that, but Paul is trying to make this an exhaustive list -- that is, he trying to make sure he hasn’t left anything out. That’s what the phrase “fully pleasing” likely indicates (or, as the NIV has it “please Him in every way”).

So let’s quickly look at these ways in which we can please God. Number one: “bearing fruit in every good work.” Now it should be no surprise that the first thing Paul thinks about that we can do to please God connects us with the primary thing that pleases God. You recall what Jesus said to his disciples:

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I remain in you, you will bear much fruit.

If we remain in Jesus -- looking for our resources in him; getting our direction from him; finding our identity in him -- we will bear the fruit that pleases God. And as the Sunday School can tell you, Paul is likely thinking of “the fruit of the Spirit” when he writes this. “Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-Control.” These are the things that God is looking for when he considers our lives. These are the first way in which we will be able to please God. It has been said before, but let me say it again: the fruit of the Spirit are entirely things that show up in your dealings with other people. Sure -- these days you can also be patient with technology I suppose (am I the only one who needs to learn how to do that?), but when you learn how to be patient with technology, you’re just really in training for being patient with other people.

Number two: “increasing in the knowledge of God.” Now Paul isn’t talking the kind of “knowledge of God” that you might obtain by taking a course in Theology. That would likely be a “knowledge about” -- a head-knowledge. Instead, Paul is talking more about something like “intimate knowledge”. That is, it pleases God for us to get to know Him personally. That means talking to Him. That means sticking with Him even when it isn’t popular or convenient. That means listening to Him. That means walking with Him. Here is Paul’s testimony (Phil 3:8a):

I consider everything [in my past] a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

When I was getting to know E., I showed up at her camp where there were a dozen Perkins family members gathered. I sat down at lunch between E. and her father and across from her brother. Soon enough, K. (E.’s oldest brother) and I were engaged in conversation, and I could start to detect some discomfort on the part of her father. I had no idea why. I was enjoying myself. K. is a brilliant guy. But Mr. P. was very much hoping that I’d have the opportunity to, you know, talk with E.!

Now wouldn’t it have been odd if in my conversation with K. I were to have said, “so… tell me about your baby sister.” I suspect that the entirely family would have immediately thought I was joking, and laughed politely. But if I had persisted, they would have legitimately concluded that I was a bit crazy. Here was the girl that I was wanting to get to know sitting right beside me, and it would have looked like I preferred to be talking about her. In the same way, God is pleased when we actually come to him, because that’s what the work of his Son -- the very first thing that pleases him -- permits us to be able to do.

I wonder, though, how often we prefer to talk about God rather than talking to him. Something to think about the next time we have a prayer meeting?

Number three: “being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might.” That sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Who couldn’t use some extra power in one’s life? But check out the rest of the verse? “...for all endurance and patience with joy.” These likely aren’t the first things that come to mind as expressions of power. These are exactly the least showy and least obvious expressions of power -- but they are exactly the ones that please God.

In the last two years of my father’s life, he struggled with some physical challenges. He used to say to my daughter (F.’s Mom), “G. never become an old man.” And she would laugh. “Growing old isn’t for sissies,” he used to say. And in the last few months, I’ve had the opportunity to talk with a number of people who may be in their last years. Years with great discomfort and weariness. But as God’s children, they receive the ability to be patient and show endurance while still demonstrating great grace to those around them.

Number four: “giving thanks to the Father”, it pleases God that we joyfully give him thanks. Modern psychology has taken two thousand years to catch up to the New Testament. They’ve done the science, and discovered that the thing that correlated the most with human happiness is not wealth, or youth, or beauty, or health. There are plenty of rich, healthy, young, attractive and miserable people. The thing that correlated the most with our happiness is gratitude. We’re just wired to need to say “thank you.” And it pleases God when we know who to say “thank you” to! Just like every parent is pleased to receive thanks from her children, thanksgiving offered with joy is pleasing to God.

Now I’ve given you four things to remember this morning. I don’t know about you, but when I go to the grocery store with three things to get, I can usually pull it off. But if I need to get four things, I’m going to forget one for sure -- unless I make a note for myself. So this morning I’ve given you four things to remember, and I understand that four things can be challenging, so I have a trick to help you remember.

If we want to be “fully pleasing” to God, then we need to [closing the fingers of one hand to count] be:

Bearing [F]ruit, (that’s an “F”)
[I]ncreasing in the [I]ntimate knowledge of God (that’s an “I” -- and I like it that the “I” reminds us that it isn’t just head-knowledge, but relationship-knowledge)
being [S]trengthened with God’s power (that’s an “S”)
joyfully giving [T]hanks to the Father (that’s a “T”)

And if you were paying attention, you’ll have noticed that those four letters were “F-I-S-T” -- spelling FIST. When you count four things off with your fingers, you end up with a fist, don’t you? So every time you make a fist -- when you get excited, when you greet someone with a fist-bump, when you wake up in the morning and stretch, you have the opportunity to remember what pleases God: bearing fruit, increasing in the intimate knowledge of God, being strengthened for endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father.

And as we not only know this, but put it into practice, we will discover the experience of more and more of God’s love.