4 Pleasing God 

 

 

            So far we have as a corrected translation of HEB 11:6* And without doctrine resident in the soul it is impossible to please Him. Pleasing God is accomplished by consistent, persistent, positive volition toward doctrine. This simply means making consistent decisions to take in doctrine, regardless of distractions, mental attitude sins, or of any circumstance in life. If you desire to please God, you must make daily decisions to take in doctrine. 

            As we enter into this principle you should ask yourself some very objective questions. After all, you are your own priest, and therefore you are responsible for your own life before God. The first question you should ask yourself is “who are you trying to please in this life?” If your not honest in answering this question there is no way you are ever going to get straightened out with regard to what is important in life. There are really only three possible answers to this question: Your either trying to please others, trying to please yourself, or your trying to please God. GAL 1:10 “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.”  COL 3:22 Slaves [Labor], in all things obey those who are your masters on earth [obey human management on the basis of all things], not with external service [eye service], as those who merely please men [people-pleasers], but with sincerity of heart [the integrity of the right lobe], fearing [making a role model out of] the Lord. 1TH 2:4 “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.” ROM 15:1 “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.” Bearing the weaknesses of the weak is maximum utilization of impersonal love, and total tolerance in the area of non‑essentials. ROM 15:2 [Let] each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell upon Me.”   This is a warning, because the more we advance in the PPOG, the greater the danger that, particularly in adolescence, there will be the inflexibility that will cause violations of the Royal Family Honor Code. That inflexibility can turn us against friends and loved ones, and can cause us to be insensitive toward others. We become thoughtless, and rather than hypersensitivity, the Royal Family Honor Code demands sensitivity and thoughtfulness of others.

            Inevitably you have to come to the place (often through discipline, tragedies, heartaches, and difficulties) in which God is going to be pleased. You are here as His guest, you are a member of the Royal family. You have a home, not here, but in the Holy of Holies! The Christian way of life isn't complicated; it isn't filled with a lot of gimmicks. Often commands are distorted into gimmick systems, such as the commands to give, witness, or to pray. However, these things are to be motivated by the balance in the soul between the filling of the Spirit and Bible doctrine. These commands are often turned into systems or standards of evaluation whereby you and your peers evaluate other believers regarding how much you think they're doing for God. However, everything that pleases God is related to Bible doctrine. 1TH 4:1 “Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more.” Pleasing God includes positive volition, it also includes facing certain tests and passing them. Pleasing God includes the assembling of yourselves together and recognizing the authority of the pastor-teacher.