He Favors Those Who Please Him

(John 8:29)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
This morning,
Jesus said the Father sent Him,
To preach/to bring Gospel;
To show His love, mercy and grace to sinners.
That was a rather large task
Especially in such a hostile world,
Even for Jesus.
Yes, He is God in our nature,
But its His person that is divine
His body and soul is man.

But He wasnt left to do this on His own.

The Father said He would be with Him
To bless and to strengthen.
This was His assurance
That He would complete the work
He sent Him to do.

But why was the Father with Him?

Because He is His Son.

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Because this is what He sent Him to do.
But also because of the way He did it
The way He lived,
How He devoted Himself to the Father.
Jesus said, I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.
Remember at His baptism,
The Father said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased (Matt.
3:17).

Tonight, lets consider

That the Lord will also be with us
To bless and strengthen us
To do what Hes made and called us to do,
If we will devote ourselves to Him,
As our Lord Jesus did,
Because this is the kind of person He delights to bless.

B. Preview.
The Lord wants to bless us,
But there are certain things
We can do that get in the way.
One of them is when we dont believe Him.
James writes, But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all
generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in
faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea,
driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will

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receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his
ways (1:5-8).

Another thing that can get in the way

Of His the blessing is the way we live
When we allow ourselves to do things
He doesnt want us to do,
Or when we cant bring ourselves to do
The things He commands.

Does obedience really matter?

Wont He bless us simply because weve trusted His Son?
Yes and no.
He will give us salvation, if we trust Jesus.
But the degree to which we are blessed here,
And in heaven,
Will depend on how we live here.

There are numerous examples in Scripture

Of the Lord singling out specific individuals
As being particularly important to Him.
Consider what the Lord says in Ezekiel 14:13-21,
Son of man, if a country sins against Me by committing unfaithfulness, and I
stretch out My hand against it, destroy its supply of bread, send famine against it
and cut off from it both man and beast, even though these three men, Noah,
Daniel and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only
deliver themselves, declares the Lord GOD. If I were to cause wild beasts to
pass through the land and they depopulated it, and it became desolate so that no

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one would pass through it because of the beasts, though these three men were in
its midst, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they could not deliver either their
sons or their daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the country would
be desolate. Or if I should bring a sword on that country and say, Let the sword
pass through the country and cut off man and beast from it, even though these
three men were in its midst, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they could not
deliver either their sons or their daughters, but they alone would be delivered.
Or if I should send a plague against that country and pour out My wrath in blood
on it to cut off man and beast from it, even though Noah, Daniel and Job were in
its midst, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they could not deliver either their
son or their daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their
righteousness. For thus says the Lord GOD, How much more when I send My
four severe judgments against Jerusalem: sword, famine, wild beasts and plague
to cut off man and beast from it!
Here were three men
That were particularly precious to God.
But what was it that set them apart?
Just read about them in Scripture.
Each set their heart to love and follow the Lord
No matter what the cost
They all lived lives
That were first and foremost pleasing to God.

In our passage,
Jesus said the reason the Father was with Him,
Was because He always did the things
That were pleasing to Him.

This evening,
Lets consider that thats what we must do
If we are to experience His blessing.

Well look at three things:

1. What it means to please Him.
2. How often we should try to please Him.
3. What the incentive is that God offers for pleasing Him.

II. Sermon.
A. First, what does it mean to please the Lord?
It simply means that when you make choices,
You choose to do what God wants you to do,
Rather than what you want.
You make choices that you know please Him,
Rather than choices that please yourself.
Jesus says, And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I
always do the things that are pleasing to Him (v. 29).

Of course, whenever we make a choice,

We always choose what we want
What pleases us.
Ideally, that should be what God wants.
It will be,
If our hearts are filled with His Spirit.
But it likely wont,
If they arent.

Sometimes, we tend to forget

That pleasing God is what were supposed to be doing;

That were not here to please ourselves, but Him.
When that happens,
Were basically living like the rest of the world
As if God doesnt exist,
As though were not under the obligation to serve Him.
In other words,
Were living like atheists
Not theoretical atheists,
But practical atheists,
And I dont think any of us here
Want to live at all like atheists.
We need to make choices remembering
That what we choose is either pleasing
Or displeasing to God.

How can we know the difference?

Hes given us a book
A manual on how to serve Him
Called the Bible.
In it, He tells us everything we need to know.
Paul writes to Timothy, All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the
man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

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But of course,
If its to do us any good
We need to read and study it.

God has given us teachers

To explain what it means,
To help us understand it.
But they wont do us any good
Unless we listen to them.

But even these things wont help us,

Unless we actually apply
What the Bible says to our lives;
Unless we let it direct us
In the actual choices we make.

Its been said that we all know a lot more than we do.
We need to work on balancing our practice
With our knowledge
We need to do
What we know He wants us to do.

B. How often should you try to please the Lord?

How often did Jesus?
He says in our passage, And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me
alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him (v. 29).

He did it all the time.

We read in our meditation, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to
accomplish His work (John 4:34).
He would rather please His Father than eat.
Is that what you do?
Paul writes, Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory
of God (1 Cor. 10:31).
Do you seek to glorify Him in everything?

One problem we often face

Is how to integrate Christianity fully into our lives.
Most professing Christians today
Are only Christians part-time
Only on Sundays and Wednesday evenings,
Or only on Sunday,
Or only during the worship service.
What about the rest of the time?
They live like everyone else in the world
They make the same choices,
Do the same things
As those who doesnt know Christ.

Usually, theyre not quite as bad.

Every generation of professing Christians
Tends to live about 20 years behind

How the people around them are living.

Theyre behind the world
By about one generation.
But Gods ethics never change
They are timeless.
He calls each of us to live
According to His standard.

Every choice we make,

Needs to be pleasing to Him,
All the time,
In every area:

In what we choose to think

And yes, what we think is a choice

What we choose to want

What we want is a choice as well,
Even our sinful wants;
We may be more predisposed
To want one thing more than another;
We all have besetting sins;
But we have a choice as to whether
Well allow those desires to stay uncontested in our hearts,

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Or whether well fight against them:
We need to fight against them
If what we want is not what God wants us to have

We need to please Him

In what we choose to say,
And in what we choose to do.

We need to let Gods Word shape all our choices,

So that all of them are pleasing to Him
All the time.

This what Stuart Olyott meant

When he said we should yield to the Spirit.

As we read and study the Bible

And again, lets not forget,
That all the commentaries,
Theologies,
And sermons we read,
Are only meant to be tools
To help us understand the Bible
As we study it,
As we set our hearts to please God,
The Spirit will bring that passage to our minds

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That applies to each situation we face,
And will give us the desire to do what God says.
We need to yield to Him,
And not to what our flesh wants us to do.

C. Finally, what incentive does the Lord offer

To encourage you to make choices that will please Him?
God says if you will choose what is pleasing to Him,
He will be with you.
Jesus says in our text, And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone,
for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him (v. 29).

Do you want God to be with you?

To strengthen and bless you
In the things you do for Him?

Sometimes we think we dont want Him around

Because we know were doing
Things He doesnt approve of.
We all do.
All of us do things every day
Throughout the day
That we know dont please God,
And would rather that He didnt see.
No one of us is perfect

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Not even for a moment.

Thankfully, He forgives us
If were willing to confess our sins
And turn from them to Him.
He is continually cleansing you
From all your sins
Because of what His Son did for you on the cross.

What were talking about here

Is the presence of His Spirit.
He is the One
Who will be with you to help you
If you are intent on pleasing God.
You cant please God without Him.
You need His ministry.
The more you have of it,
The more you will please Him,
And the less you have, the less you will.

How can you have more?

You can by making choices that please Him.
Every time you do
His ministry in your soul grows stronger.
But every time you dont,

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It grows weaker.

When we make sinful choices,

We offend the Spirit
And He withdraws from us.
When David committed adultery and murder,
He sensed the loss of something precious
The loss of Gods Spirit.
He says in Psalm 51,
Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from
me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing
spirit (vv. 11-12).

When He withdraws,
He takes away our joy in the Lord,
And our willingness to serve Him.
We only have these things
Because of His presence,
The loss of it,
Brings the loss of all thats precious to us.

Do you want joy?

Do you want to be the kind of person
That is set on serving God?
Then choose the things He loves,

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And dont choose the things He hates.
The more you try to please Him,
The more He will be with you.
The more He is with you,
The more power you will have to serve Him,
The more power you will have in prayer,
The more you will sense His protection,
And the stronger will be your assurance.

At the same time, stop excusing yourself

For failing to make the right choices.
There is no excuse for sin.
Purpose to put it all off.
Spurgeon writes, Is there any lust in me? Do I indulge the flesh? Am I fond of
carnal indulgences by which my soul suffers? If so, God will not walk with me;
for chambering, wantonness, gluttony, and drunkenness separate between a
believer and His God: these things are not convenient to a Christian. Before the
great feast of unleavened bread, a Jewish parent would sweep out every piece of
leaven from his house. So anxious would he be, and so anxious is the Jew at the
present day, that he takes a candle and sweeps out every cupboard; no matter
though there may have been no food put in there at any time, he is afraid lest by
accident a crumb may be somewhere concealed in the house. So, from the
garret to the cellar, he clears the whole house through to purge out the old
leaven. Let us do so!

Everything you want to be and do as a Christian

Is wrapped up in Gods presence with you.
And so try to please Him in everything
In all you think, desire, say and do,

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And at all times
And He will be with you. Amen.

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