Pleasing God!
Notes
Transcript
Read Gal 1:1-17
We live in an age in which everyone wants to be cool, popular, well accepted. People is willing to do anything in order to achieve it…
Have you seen some of the stupid challenges people take to look good among their friends? Examples: eating detergent pods, taking an ice bath, “la chona”
The Judaizers, with the purpose of pleasing the Jews, had mix works and faith, the Law with the Gospel. They expected Paul to do the same, but Paul was not seeking to please men. He wouldn’t compromise doctrine nor preaching to gain their favor or to avoid their resentment.
In 2 Cor 5:9 tells that “our ambition” in life should “be pleasing to Him”.
Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
Our calling is the reason to please Him.
Our calling is the reason to please Him.
1
He paid the ransom for us.
He paid the ransom for us.
As we mentioned last week, Christ paid the ransom to liberate us from the devil, He paid the redemption to make us His property, His slaves.
Every slave must please His master in whatever the master ask from him.
Our master himself equips us to do His will. That was the writer’s desire expressed in his letter to the Hebrews:
“Now the God of peace...
equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
He gave us a divine calling.
He gave us a divine calling.
A couple of years ago, I had a meeting wit a man who carries the title of “apostle”. I asked him how he became an apostle, his answer was “Pastor So and So named me an apostle”.
What a contradiction of Paul’s declaration: “an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father).” 1:1
His calling was from God!
Although we are not apostles in the sense Paul and the twelve were, we have received a calling from God. Some as teachers, other as evangelists, some as pastors, but all as his messengers or ambassadors.
Ambassadors must please the king or president who sent them.
Our service must please God, not man.
Our service must please God, not man.
For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.
We can serve only one master.
We can serve only one master.
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
The loyalty of a slave cannot be divided.
We must serve the one who bought us: Jesus Christ!
A slave is not supposed to serve another slave.
A slave is not supposed to serve another slave.
“If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ” 1:10
At church we are all slaves under one master: Jesus.
It is important to understand that you are not here to serve the pastor nor the pastor is here to serve you. If we do it, we will be both disappointed because I will not thank you as you expect neither you will thank me as I expect.
When you are clear that you are serving God not men, nothing will stop you from serving.
Our preaching should please God.
Our preaching should please God.
In many churches of our day, sermons are tailored to please the audience. Preachers are afraid of preaching about sin, repentance, Hell, and money. Why? They do want to make the listener uncomfortable. They do not want to lose them!
Our preaching should please God, not man, because it is not our message but His.
It is His message not ours.
It is His message not ours.
For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
When the believer is in sin, biblical sermons are annoying. It pierces the heart!
But when the believer is living in obedience, listening to biblical messages is a pleasure. It encourages the heart and strengthen the soul!
I am not here to please you with my preaching, I am here to preach what the Bible says.
He is the one who approves our preaching.
He is the one who approves our preaching.
but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness— nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority.
It will allow us to be bold.
It will allow us to be bold.
Paul’s words were bold and piercing. Why? He was not trying to tickle their ears, not trying to impress, not trying to gain their favors, not trying to make friends to the cost of displeasing God.
The prophets were bold and direct because they were preaching God’s Word. Have you notice that most of their sermons started with “Thus says the Lord...”?
We are seeking His favor not man’s.
We are seeking His favor not man’s.
When we are not trying to please man it is easy to confront those who are not walking according to God’s will. Paul did not have any problem confronting Peter:
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?
ILUST. HINDU LAW (EOI 1740)
According to Hindu law, lying is justified in only two cases: in saving a person’s life and in paying a compliment to a lady.
That is pleasing man, not God!
“The same man cannot be both friend and a flatterer” (Benjamin Franklin)
Our decisions must be made to please Him.
Our decisions must be made to please Him.
But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.
God never changes.
God never changes.
Man is fallible and inconstant, therefore their expectations of us will change. We cannot please them all the time. Sooner or later they will expect something else from us.
But God is immutable, He never changes. His expectations are always the same…..
God will judge us anyway.
God will judge us anyway.
Judgment of people is not really what matters…
We do not have to ask for opinions to obey God.
We do not have to ask for opinions to obey God.
“ I did not consult with flesh and blood”
It is not your grandma’s opinion what matter nor your parents’ opinion.
I have seen people praying to receive God with excitement, but falling back when their parents told them, “We are a catholic family!”.
Paul had been a zealous and strict Jew (13), but when he met Jesus, he didn’t ask for his parents’ opinion not the apostles’ opinion. He decided to please God!
Our work should focus on pleasing Him.
Our work should focus on pleasing Him.
Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.