5 Ways We Can Please God

We are now about four weeks from the spring Holy Days this year, and I believe that we understand that we appreciate the fact that the Holy Days are all about Jesus Christ. They're more than just history, which is interesting and fascinating. They are actually all about Jesus Christ. They are all about what He has done, about what He is doing today, and what He will do in the future for all mankind, for all humankind.

So, as disciples, as the children of God, I have a question I would like to ask today as we begin to think about the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. And the question ties in so very well with our sermon. Actually, the question is, how can we as individuals please our Father and please His Son Jesus Christ?

Because when we accepted the discipleship of Jesus Christ, we understood that part of the deal was that we no longer live just for ourselves, that we live for God.

That is, pleasing God is the most important thing in life, not just pleasing ourselves. Now, the world, it just strives to please itself.

And we heard in the fine sermon today about the problems with materialism, the problems with always seeking to achieve and just do physical things because it's empty. It's void. There may be some worldly glamour or fame that comes with doing certain things, but it passes. Even the Great Pyramids are slowly but surely eroding away and turning into dust.

And indeed, that was an excellent point. So, how can we as individuals please our Father and please His Son Jesus Christ? Because that's what we should be thinking of as we prepare for the Holy Days this year. Our role in life as a Christian is to please our God. What do the Scriptures tell us about pleasing God? Let's begin by going to 2 Corinthians 5, beginning in verse 5.

Now, this is an interesting Scripture for a number of reasons. I'm going to tie it in with what I heard today at a Mass. What I heard today at a Mass, I've heard this before, but it always amuses me. In the same sentence, the prayer is, please have this individual go to heaven. And then at the end of the sentence, to be resurrected on the last day at the return of Jesus Christ. And to me, that is just always kind of like so schizophrenic. Why in the world would you go to heaven and you're doing your thing there, and then suddenly at some religious event you were pulled out of heaven, you're thrown back into a corpse under the ground, and you come up resurrected, just who I assume, be sent back to heaven again.

It just doesn't seem to make very much sense theologically, and you're trying to marry two concepts. And one concept was that the soul was immortal and that you immediately went to heaven, and you tried to merge that with the Hebrew understanding of the resurrection. Those are the kind of doctrines that you come up with. You come up with an untrue hybrid teaching that confuses people. But in all honesty, the scripture we're going to read here in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 5, is one that many people point to as proof that Paul believed he was going to go to heaven.

Now, people don't deny the fact that Paul talked so often about the resurrection and so often about the last great day, but they say, look at this scripture here. This scripture tells us that Paul was longing to go to heaven. Of course, the problem is the phrase, go to heaven, isn't in here anywhere.

But let's read the scripture because I think it's important theology, and then I want to focus on what Paul said in verse 9. He's been talking about how our physical lives are a tent up to this point, and how we can look forward to eternal life. We're going to pick it up here in verse 5. He says, now he who has prepared us for this very thing, that is eternal life, living with God forever is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

So when we receive the Holy Spirit, that is God's guarantee that we will have eternal life. That's pretty powerful. God doesn't renege on his guarantees. It's better than a 100% money-back guarantee when God guarantees something. Paul says, that's why we've been given his Spirit as a guarantee of his promises. Verse 6, so we were always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him. So, it's very common that many people will look at these verses and say, see, Paul is looking forward to going to heaven. He's looking forward to being absent from the body and being home with the Lord. But like any scripture, see, you have to understand and appreciate the context. And anything that's written, that's why context was so important. This is the book of Corinthians. This was written about 55 A.D. The church genuinely expected Jesus Christ to return any day, any minute now. Paul had just written five years earlier to the Thessalonians.

He said in chapter 4, Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, who meet the Lord in the air, and then we shall always be with the Lord. So, Paul's not claiming he's going to go to heaven here upon death. He's contrasting living a physical life on earth with being a spirit being with Christ at his soon expected return, which they believed was going to be any day now. So, Paul was saying, you know, I would rather be a spirit being.

I'd rather be in the kingdom now than being in this tent, this physical flesh that I have. But here's what I want to focus on more than the theology in verse 9. Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, one way or another, either in the physical or in the spiritual, in the kingdom of God, to be well pleasing to him. The translation, God's Word for today, says whether we live in the body or move out of it, our goal is to be pleasing to him. So it should be very important to us to ask ourselves, am I pleasing God?

As we think about the spring holy days, what are the things that the Scriptures tell us? Please our God. Because those are the kind of things that I should be doing. That's the way that I should be living.

So as we prepare for the holy days, it's sure to look at five ways that the Scriptures tell us that we can please God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Five ways! And that's what we're going to cover in the sermon today. Here's number one. We please God when we use our God-given talents and abilities. Let's go to Psalm 37 and verse 23. Psalm 37 and verse 23.

It says here in the New King James Version that most of us have, And again, I'm going to read this from a different translation in the New Century Version because I love the way that it's translated. It says, The point is that God is interested in every aspect of our lives, not just the spiritual things that we do. Everything about us is of interest to God. As it says here, He delights, that is, God delights in our way of life. And that means that when we have accepted Christ in our life, God is interested in every aspect of our life. And He is pleased when we do things that are human that we were designed to do as we walk with Christ. That means God is pleased when we make babies. God is pleased when we plant that garden in the yard. God is pleased when we renovate that bedroom and we put a fresh coat of paint on it. Because these are the things that we were designed to do. These are the steps of a good man, a man who has Jesus Christ in his or her life, a person who has Christ in their life. And it says God delights in the way of that person. I can tell you that as a grandfather, I delight in the little things that my grandchildren do. From their earliest age, I can see they have distinct personalities and talents. They're all different. And it just tickles me to observe the little things that they do that makes them unique, that makes them who they are. And I can assure you that God is pleased with our uniqueness. He gave us different talents and different abilities to reflect His glory. And He is pleased when He sees us develop those abilities and talents and to begin to share them with other people. Because that's what we were designed to do. That's the way that we can fulfill our purpose.

1 Timothy 6, verse 17. If you'll turn there with me. 1 Timothy 6, verse 17.

One of the abilities and talents that some people are given, one of many, is to create wealth. To become wealthy. Or the word that we use here is rich. But we need to understand that this can apply to all the different gifts we have. Some of us have been blessed with musical skills. Some of us with mechanical skills. Some of us with analytical skills. Some of us with communication skills. We're all different. And God gave us all various talents. So the point that's brought out here about having the ability or the talent of creating wealth is true with any talent. 1 Timothy 6, verse 17. Paul wrote, Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Do you have a spouse? God gave you that spouse richly to enjoy. That's part of all things. It says God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Do you have clothes in your clothes closet? God gave you that richly as something that you should enjoy. Do you have a home to live in? Do you have a car that runs? Even if it putters once in a while? And even, yes, it runs Mr. Thomas, but the problem is it never stops. Whatever the issue may be, it's more important that we count our blessings and that we look at what we have been given and how we've been blessed rather than look at it selfishly at the things that we've been denied. So again, it says, who gives us richly all things to enjoy, let them do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share.

And no matter what your talent is, no matter what your abilities are, we need to be, we need to use that talent, that skill and ability, and to be rich in good works with it.

Ready to give, willing to share. That's right out of the Scripture. Verse 19, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life.

And of course we know that being rich towards God is far better than being rich in this world. Wealth is a gift. It's a tool that if we have that ability or we have that talent, it's a tool that can be shared so that we become a blessing to others. But as I said, there are other gifts, mechanical gifts, musical gifts, analytical, communication, the ability to cook, the ability to plant, that there are many different skills and abilities that we have depending on our personality. And all of these, whatever they are that you have, were given to us so that we can give God glory. And you know what happens when we give God glory? He smiles. He is pleased. When we do something that gives Him glory. Our blessings and our gifts and our talents are among those things that please God when we enjoy them and when we share them with others. You know what it's like giving someone else a gift? Half the fun of giving someone else a gift is watching them, watching their reaction as they open that gift. Isn't that half the enjoyment of it when you give someone a gift? It's watching the excitement when they open that gift and when they receive it willingly and in an excited way. And God has given us gifts. And He gives great pleasure when He sees us open those abilities, open those gifts that He's given us, and to begin to receive those and use them to benefit other people to be a blessing to other people. Let's go now to 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 1. We're still on point number 1 here. We please God when we use our God-given talents and abilities. 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 1.

1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 1. Paul wrote to the congregation. 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 1. Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you have received from us how you ought to walk and please God. Paul's saying this is no time to put your life in neutral. This is no time to just start the engine and keep the engine running and not move the vehicle anywhere. Keep abounding. Keep growing. Keep stretching your boundaries. Keep using those abilities and those talents that you have, because it pleases God when He sees us do those things because they give Him glory. I'd like to read verse 1 from the translation, God's Word, for today. I just love the way they translate this. Verse 1. Now then, brothers and sisters, because of the Lord Jesus, we ask and encourage you to excel in living a God-pleasing life, even more than you already do. Do this in the way that we taught you. Pretty powerful. That's one way that we please God. We are all reminded, of course, of the parable of the talents, Matthew, chapter 25. We've covered that many times. We're certainly not going to go there today, because we understand that God desires that we use the gifts and develop the talents and abilities that you and I have been given in our lives. It pleases God to see us abounding and growing and pushing the envelope in our lives to become a greater blessing to other people. That is one powerful thing that pleases God that we should think about as we prepare for the spring holy days. Here's number two. Number two, we please God when we wholeheartedly love Him. We please God when we wholeheartedly, not half-heartedly, not sometimes when it's convenient, but when we wholeheartedly love Him. Let's go to Genesis 6, verse 9. If you have a little ribbon, you may want to put it in your Bible, because for the rest of these points, I will usually go back and point out something about Noah's life, because he is a remarkable example in a man who pleased God. Genesis 6, verse 9. The Scriptures record this is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. Now, the phrase perfect in his generations, of course, is talking about the fact that he lived to be 950 years old. And generations came, and generations went, and they could all say one thing about Noah. He was a just man. He was a man who followed God. That's what it means when it says perfect in his generations. It is in no way talking about some DNA that he had. Now, verse 9, I'm going to read this from the New International Version. This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.

There's a lot here with this term walked. He had a personal relationship with God. When you walk with someone side by side, what do you do? You're taking a journey, and you're walking with whether it's your spouse or a close friend. What are you doing? You're building a relationship.

The Hebrew word halakh means to travel and be conversant. So he talked with God. He developed a relationship with God. Noah grew to the point where God was his confidant. God was his friend, so much so that God could even share with him what he was going to do in his next stage by destroying almost all of life on the earth.

He had such a relationship with Noah that he could even share that with him. Noah loved God, and that's why he is called righteous and blameless.

Again, this is why God asked Noah to perform a special task to save a remnant of the human race.

Here's an example of someone who wholeheartedly loved God, so much so that the Scriptures can say about him, He walked with God. He was a just man. It says He was a righteous man. He was blameless. Some translations say He was perfect.

Wow! What a fine individual who obviously had a close relationship with his God. Let's take a look at another example here, something Jesus said in Matthew 22, verse 34. It has been said once that mankind has created 10,000 laws to enforce the Ten Commandments, because that's what we do as human beings. We are really good at creating laws and regulations, and more laws and regulations to explain the original laws and regulations. But Jesus had a way, instead of doing this with the law, Jesus had a way of boiling it down to something simple to understand. It says, when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they should have known better than the tangle with Jesus Christ, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him. Maybe we'll catch Him saying something wrong here. We can criticize Him. It's saying, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to Him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. I don't know about you, but that's my definition of wholehearted. Doing something wholeheartedly. Verse 38, this is the first and great commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So we see, we again, we please God when we wholeheartedly love Him back. And that's the point.

God is pleased because He loved us first. He loved us while we were still sinners. He loved us so much that He sent His Son into the world to die a torturous death so that that barrier of sin could be removed. And we could be loved by Him and love Him back. So that we, like Noah, could walk with God and have a meaningful, genuine relationship with our Creator. God is delighted when we love Him back in return because He has always loved us. When two individuals, it doesn't matter whether it's husband and wife or two people, close friends who have shared a close friendship. When true individuals love one another, a special bond occurs. We call that friendship. But what happens if only one of the two has that love disregarded or that love wanes from only one of the two? Well, that's when problems begin. It's just not the same.

So it is love that is the glue of our relationship with God. It literally is the glue that holds our relationship together. He loved us first, and He wants us to wholeheartedly love Him back. Let's go to Hosea 6 and verse 6.

This is what's important to God. I know that many people become obsessive-compulsive about doing physical things because they think that doing something makes them righteous or makes them close to God. Here's God's attitude on that issue. For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Again, I'm going to read this to you from another translation because the New King James Version does not do it justice. Here's the New Century Version. It says, To know me more than I want burnt offerings. So we please God when we wholeheartedly love Him. And again, as I mentioned, God loves us so much that He sent His only beloved Son into this world to die a horrible death so that our sins could be forgiven. And the shed blood of that Lamb Jesus Christ removed that barrier that our sin had created that separated us from God. And it now allows us to have an intimate one-on-one relationship with Him, to walk with Him like Noah did. And of course, daily prayer and Bible study helps us, first, to develop that kind of a relationship and then to maintain it. We have to have an investment to have that relationship with God. That investment that we make in our part is what we call prayer and Bible study daily. And certainly, occasionally, meditation and fasting and what other important biblical tools serve us well in growing that relationship with God. So again, point number two was we please God when we wholeheartedly love Him. Here's number three. We please God when we obey Him enthusiastically. We please God when we obey Him enthusiastically. Let's again go back to Genesis 6. I mentioned that we would earlier. And take a look at the example of Noah. Genesis 6. And we will pick it up in verse 14. I think we're very familiar with the story of Noah. God had destroyed it. He was going to destroy virtually all life on earth. And he was going to spare Noah and his family and certain number of animals, certain number of kinds, two or a pair of unclean animals, up to seven of clean animals. And they were going to take them on the ark. And God was going to start all over again. But I want you to notice the instructions that he gives Noah here. Beginning in verse 14, make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark. And cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it. The length of the ark shall be 300 cubics, the width 50 cubics, the height 30 cubits. You shall make a window for the ark. And you shall finish it to a cubit from above and set the door of the ark on its side. You shall make it with lowers, second and third decks. And behold, I myself am bringing flood waters on the earth to destroy from under heaven all flesh, which has the breath of light everything that is on the earth shall die.

But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall go into the ark. You, your sons, your wives, and your sons' wives with you. And every living thing of all flesh you shall bring to of every kind of animals after their kind and after the creeping thing of the earth after its kind. Two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. And you shall take for yourself of all the food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself.

So you even have to plan some food to eat in advance. And it shall be for food for you and for them, thus Noah did, according to all that God commanded him. So Noah, or God gave Noah detailed plans for the ark. He gave him instructions on how the ark was to be designed. Instructions on which family members to take. Instructions on how many animals.

Instructions on taking enough food in advance. You know, Noah didn't argue. Noah didn't question. He obeyed enthusiastically every detail. He obeyed what God asked him to do. What if Noah had demonstrated partial obedience? What if he decided he was going to cut corners, for example, and he didn't cover it with pitch, asphalt, to seal it and make it watertight? Well, that might have seemed kind of a nice thing. It's not going to be that bad, is it? No, not until the flood waters come and your boat leaks like a sieve, and instead of floating every piece of life in that ark drowns, but you see, he didn't obey partially.

He obeyed every detail that God asked him to do. What if he had made it half the size that God instructed? Well, there would have certainly been overcrowding. There would have been a lack of room for all the animals of the earth, and some might not have been able to get on the ark. And that's why you never see a unicorn to this very day. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that. But if he had made the ark only half the size that God had instructed, there would not have been room to save all of the animals that God had instructed.

I think it's an important point, because if we really want to believe in God, and we really want to please him, brethren, we have to be willing to obey him enthusiastically. In the 21st century, we live with too many buffet Christians. A buffet Christian walks through the line of doctrines, and they pick and choose the ones that they want to believe in, just like someone at the buffet line at a restaurant. And, oh, I'm sorry, this requires my time.

No, thank you. Oh, I'm sorry, this might require me a little bit of money. Just leave that one on the table. Oh, I'm sorry, this one's inconvenient. It really doesn't fit into my lifestyle. So I'll just walk right by that. But you see, brethren, we can't please God if we're buffet Christians. We have to obey Him enthusiastically. And I might also add, on the other hand, God is certainly pleased when we obey Him so enthusiastically that we reject the doctrines of men and we don't allow other people to manipulate us to put burdens on us that God never intended or that God does not require.

Let's take a look at another scripture, Psalm 119 and verse 32. Psalm 119 and verse 32. David wrote, I will run the course of your commandments. That's the Hebrew phraseology, meaning I will eagerly pursue your commandments. For you shall enlarge my heart. Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. He doesn't say, just put it on the buffet carousel.

And if it fits with what I want to do, if it fits with what's convenient, then I will obey that. But otherwise, I'll just let it rotate on the buffet carousel. No, He says, and I will keep it to the end. Teach me, Lord, no matter what it is, no matter what I need to learn, no matter what about myself I need to grow up in, priced and changed and mature.

Teach me, and I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law indeed. I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the paths of your commandments, for I delight in it. We know that one of the beautiful qualities of King David was that he was a very emotional and passionate man.

And it certainly comes through in this psalm. And one of the reasons that God loved him so much is because everything that David did, he did with enthusiasm and commitment and passion. But again, I want to point out that he says here that I will observe it with my whole heart. In other words, we please God when we obey him enthusiastically.

One other scripture for this point, point number three, John chapter 14 and verse 14. John chapter 14 and verse 14. John chapter 14 verse 14, we will be reading this as we get closer to the Passover evening. It's one of the scriptures that are usually read after the service. John chapter 14 verse 14, Jesus told his disciples, If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

If you love me, keep my commandments. Notice he doesn't say, if it's convenient, if it doesn't infringe on your personal life, keep my commandments. No, he says, if you love me, keep my commandments. Verse 16, I will pray to the Father and he will give you another helper. So he says, you don't have to do it alone. I know they're hard. I know it's difficult to keep these things that I've taught, but you don't have to do it alone. I will pray to the Father and he'll give you another helper. He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him.

For he dwells with you and will be in you. He was saying to the disciples, who did not yet have the Holy Spirit, they wouldn't receive it until Pentecost, he said, that Spirit is with you right now, but soon it's literally going to be inside of you. He says, I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. So, go ahead, in recapping this point, we please God when we obey Him, because we show Him our love back in return.

The good news is that we have a helper in our desire to obey Him. That is the Spirit of God that dwells in us. And don't ever forget, I know there are voices out there saying that, you know, the law is bad and obedience isn't required, and it's all about the grace of Jesus and the liberty that we have in Christ.

Don't forget that an act of obedience is an act of worship. It's just that simple. An act of obedience is an act of worship. Here's point number four. Point number four. We please God when we trust Him completely. And I know that can be very difficult. We please God when we trust Him completely. If you'll turn with me to Hebrews 11, what is commonly known as the faith chapter, we will take a look at some examples of incredible faith. People who trusted God completely.

Even though their common sense, even though their humanness, even though their human nature was telling them, this doesn't add up. My five senses can't detect that any of this is going to happen in spite of that. They trusted God and they did what they did in what we call faith. Verse one, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. As I've emphasized in the past, faith is hope and there is no evidence.

If one of your five senses can detect it, then you don't need faith any longer. You now have proof that that's happening or going to soon occur. So faith is hope and there's no evidence. You just have to trust. Verse two, for by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were made of things, were not made of things that are visible.

We believe by faith that God said it, spoke it, and the world existed. It's just that simple. Verse four, by faith Abel offered up a more excellent sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts as through it he is being, through it, he being dead still speaks. In other words, his sacrifice still speaks to us today. He gave a sacrifice that meant something to him. He gave a sacrifice that personally cost him something.

That was an excellent sacrifice in contrast to his brother who basically mowed the lawn and gave God a bushel of grass. Right? And he said because of his faith, even though he's dead, his act still speaks to us today. The fact that he gave a more excellent sacrifice. Verse five, by faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him.

For before he was taken, he had this testimony. Here's his testimony before he's taken. It's the theme of what we've been talking about today. That he pleased God. That was his testimony. Is that our testimony? It should be. It can be. And if it isn't now, we can begin to take the right steps before this year's Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread to make sure that our testimony is this, that we please God. Verse six, but without faith, it is impossible to please him.

For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Verse seven, by faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Something else that would also be said later about Abraham. Verse eight, by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.

I'm always comforted by that verse because Abraham and I have a lot in common in that way, and that is we are clueless. We have no idea where we are and we don't know where we're going. So we share something there. But why did he do it? He did it because of his faith in God. God said it? That's all he needed to know. God said it? Abraham responded. Verse nine, by faith he dwelled in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, for he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God.

And you know what? He died and he still wasn't in that promised land. He's still waiting, but God's promises are sure. We can certainly understand that. All of the people listed in the faith chapter trusted God. They all had one thing in common. God promised it. They said it's sure. If God says it, it's a done deal. It's sure. It's true. And I'm going to do it. That's what they all had in common. Think about the ways, humanly speaking, the ways that could have caused Noah to doubt God. We've looked at a few scriptures regarding Noah today. He had some legitimate reasons.

He had some logical, clear reasons why he could have doubted what God told him to do. First of all, he had never built a massive ark before. If God just basically throws a pound of blueprints on your desk and says, Go out there and do that, and you've never done anything like that before, that's kind of an overwhelming task. It's very easy to say to yourself, I can't even hit a nail on the head with a hammer. How in the world am I going to build this ark?

He was asked to build an ark hundreds of miles from water. Now, what sense does that make? Why would you build a boat hundreds of miles from water? How, in your own human mind, are you going to get that boat to water? Well, of course, the answer is through a great flood, God is going to bring water to the boat. Did you ever contemplate the fact that he had never seen rain? When God says, I'm going to rain upon the earth for 40 years, Lord, what's rain?

You see, until the flood, the earth was watered from the ground up. So he had never seen rain before. How could all the animals be rounded up and accounted for? Two? Well, what happens if I get three? What happens if I can't find the unicorns that day? What happens if these animals don't want to come to the ark?

And so for 120 years, he worked on building an ark amidst ridicule and his neighbors walking around. I'm sure, you know, they probably made a tourist trap about him. And they were probably charging admission. Come see the bozo building an ark for the last 110 years in the middle of nowhere.

Come one, come all! And people obviously were questioning his sanity for doing this. Yet in spite of these logical reasons to doubt, the human reasons he could have doubt, Noah pleased God because he trusted him completely in spite of what his five senses told him was going on in life. And that's what hope and faith and trust is. Let's take a look at one more scripture to cement this point in Psalm 147 and verse 7.

Psalm 147 verse 7, again, we're still in point number 4. We please God when we trust him completely. Psalm 147 verse 7. We could call this a song of praise. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving.

Sing praises on the harp to our God who covers the heavens with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass that grow on the mountains he gives to the beast its food and to the young ravens that cry. Then it says something about what God does not delight in, in contrast to what he does delight in.

Verse 10, he does not delight in the strength of the horse. Wow! Of course, he created the horse, but horses are pretty powerful. If you've ever seen the muscles on the leg of a racehorse, or even know that in our own culture, we normally rate the things that cars do by horse power. A horse is a very impressive animal. Yet it says, he, that is God, does not delight in the strength of the horse.

He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. If you've ever seen a long-distance runner, and you've seen those well-developed massive calves of a male or a female who have just developed legs that they can run like an antelope, they're just incredibly fast muscles, so well-defined and developed. Yet it says, he takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. Verse 11, for the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy.

I'm going to read this again from the New Century version. It says, verse 11, the Lord is pleased with those who respect Him, with those who trust His love. Do we trust God? Do we trust Him completely? If God tells us to do something, do we say, God said it? I'm going to do it. I'm going to be obedient. I'm going to have faith. I'm going to believe in God's promises about my life and the future that God has planned for me, in spite of what I see going around me, on around me in the world.

Today, I am going to trust in the living God.

Here is the fifth point we would like to cover today. The fifth way and final way we will discuss today that we can please God. Number five, we please God when we thank Him and give Him praise. We please God when we thank Him and give Him praise. Now, that sounds like a simple thing to do. Thank you, God. I sing a song or a psalm, but it's something that we don't do enough. It's something that we should be doing every day. We should be thanking God in our prayers. We should be thanking God by our conduct. We should be thanking God by our attitudes. We should be praising God by having a song in our hearts that worships God as the great Creator, as our Father, as our sustainer.

Let's take a look now if you will turn with me to Genesis 8, verse 15. We're going to go back to the story of Noah and see that Noah knew that praising God and thanking Him was so important that he did something as soon as he got off the Ark.

Again, Genesis 8, verse 15. Genesis 8, verse 15. It says, This is when God spoke to Noah, saying, Go out of the Ark, so the Ark is landed. You and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you, bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you birds and cattle and creeping thing that creeps on the earth so that they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. Verse 18. So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him, every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth according to their families went out of the Ark. I want to focus on verse 20. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. I want you to notice the example again of Noah. What's the first thing he does when he leaves the Ark? He offers a sacrifice to God in thanksgiving and prays. Thank you, God, for sparing my family. Thank you for protecting us all of these days as that Ark bobbled in these rough seas. Thank you for restoring vegetation back on the earth again. Thank you for sparing all of these animals who just came out of the Ark and will be fruitful and multiply and do what they're supposed to do. Thank you, God, for all of these wonderful blessings that you have given my family and I and mankind by allowing it to continue through my family. This offering was pleasing to God. It says that he smelled a pleasing aroma. Every time you and I take the time to sing and praise to God in a prayer before a prayer or during the day, every time we thank him in a prayer, say, thank you, Father, for all that you've done in my life. Every time we do that, it's a sweet aroma going up to God. He is pleased with that because that's very important to him. It shows appreciation for all that we've been given. It shows that we are thankful that we're beginning to get it and understand this incredible calling that he has given us, the incredible opportunity to be part of his family for all eternity. Let's go to Psalm 69 and verse 30.

It says, I will let him know how thankful I am for everything that he gives me.

So what pleases God more than dragging your animal to the altar and slitting its throat and hanging it upside down, the priest taking a chunk of the meat, and maybe you in a fellowship offering also getting a piece of the meat, and all of that gore that occurred for many, many years in the Old Covenant. What is more pleasing to God than that? Praising God with a psalm and magnifying his name with thanksgiving.

This shall also please the Lord better than an ox or bull which has horns and hooves. The humble shall see this and be glad, and you who seek God, your hearts shall live. Verse 33, For the Lord hears the poor and does not despise his prisoners, let heaven and earth praise him. Are we praising him? I know that some of us, like myself, came from families that were not emotional, came from families in which particularly the males did not say to each other often, if ever, I love you. And because some of us come from those kinds of families, we may struggle with praising God. We may struggle telling God that we love him, because that's not the kind of culture that we grew up in our own households. We need to overcome that. We need to step beyond that, if that is the case. And we need to make it a habit, to make it part of our lifestyle, to make it who we are, to thank God every day, and not just for the meal we're about to eat, but for the hundreds of blessings and good gifts that he showers upon our lives, and also to praise his name with psalms and with hymns. We have a hymnbook. We have lots of great hymns that have been written and created over many years. And no matter whether we can carry a tune or not, we can certainly sing a song in our heart. And we can certainly praise God and show him that we love him and give him thanks by singing hymns and psalms in our heart, as David did by his example here. So again, the psalmist reminds us that praise and thanksgiving pleases God more than animal sacrifices. And of course, through obedience and faith, we can choose to be living sacrifices, as Paul talked about in Romans 12 and verse 1, and it also pleases God. Far more than an animal sacrifice is to be a living sacrifice and say, Lord, I'm willing to do whatever you want me to do. I am here as your child, as your son or daughter, and I'm here to be molded and conformed into your values and your way of life. Our final scripture for today, Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3. I know that for many, lurking in the back of our minds, might be the thought that I really don't know if God loves me. I'm not perfect since the last Passover. I've said some things, done some things, maybe thought a lot of things that I shouldn't have said, done, or thought, and maybe I'm ashamed of myself. Maybe I haven't lived up to the calling that I agreed to with my original baptism. Maybe I haven't lived to those standards that I should be living by. If you're thinking that in your mind, as you're preparing for the Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread this year, I want to close this sermon with this scripture because I think it would answer any doubts or any negativity that may be in your heart. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3. Paul writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us and Him before the foundation of the world. So you were chosen by God a long time ago. You are not an accident.

Your calling was not just some random accident.

We are here for a reason. We are here for a purpose. Albert Einstein once said, God does not play dice.

And your calling is not an accident. It's not by random chance. It is by something that God ordained before the foundation of the world, continuing, and that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. So it's God who said, I'm going to adopt you into my family. You know, I can understand and relate to this a little bit because I have a stepfather. So I can understand what God is doing here. I had a man who married my mother, and though I never took on his name, he basically brought me into his household, and he cared for me, and he raised me, and he took care of all my needs and expenses. And what Paul is saying here is that we are adopted sons of God the Father. Though we are physical, though we are human, God has decided to adopt us and allow us eventually to become spirit and become a literal part of the God family itself.

And why does God do that? Let's continue.

He's predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. So why did God decide to do that? Because He wants to! Because it brings Him pleasure. He wants to see His family grow and expand. Just like I become excited every time an additional grandchild is added to my family. I love to see my family grow and expand. It's exciting. It's fulfilling. And God wants to expand and grow His family, and He's willing to adopt us as sons through Jesus Christ.

Continuing verse 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He has made us accepted in the beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence. So if you don't think you've been living up to that standard, if you've made some pretty bad mistakes since the last Passover, and you're down on yourself, you need to realize that through repentance we are accepted in the beloved. His grace He made to abound towards us. Not just a little bit, but abound in a great way. And we need to accept that grace, and we need to wipe the slate clean. We need to repent of our sins, and we need to come before the throne of God and ask Him to continue to love us and to teach us how to love Him back. And in that way we can prepare ourselves to have the most meaningful Passover and the days of unleavened bread ever. Let's pick up now and finish in this verse. Verse 8.

So here Paul reminds the church that we should indeed praise the Father for the many spiritual blessings that He gives us. And these include a lot of things that we have reason to praise God for the fact that we were called now in this lifetime. The fact that we were chosen even before the foundation of the earth was laid. The fact that He has adopted us into His very family, and He's given us a guarantee. And what is that guarantee again? It's His Holy Spirit that He has given to us to live within us. So He has given us privileges and blessings and benefits that we should all be very thankful for. And why does God do these things? Why did He call you? Why does He work with us? Why does His abundant grace forgive us of our sins and transgressions? Because it gives Him good pleasure to do all of these things. So this year as we prepare for the spring holy days and the Passover, I know it's a time in which we examine ourselves. And by nature, we are thinking a lot about ourselves. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but let's make sure that we take the time that we look at our lives and ask the question, Am I pleasing the Father? And is my life, am I pleasing Jesus Christ His Son?