Sermon Series Wrap-Up: Please God

As Christians, our ultimate goal with everything we do should be to please God. However, we do not always behave in a way that would allow us to accomplish that goal. One thing is clear, if we are sinning, we are not pleasing God because we are behaving in a way that is in direct conflict with God’s Will. Pastor Pope pointed out that Christians shouldn’t sin and, contrary to what many believe, don’t have to sin. He used words from Peter to illustrate the path that Christians should take to move away from sin.

Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. - 1 Peter 4:1:6

Peter is telling us that when we come to Christ we should naturally start to move away from the worldly things that we did before being saved. Jesus sacrificed himself so that we could rise above sin and move past it. That requires a transformation on our parts, and that transformation takes place in our hearts. Pastor Pope identifies four hearts or four stages that our hearts must go through to get to a place where we can beat sin and do what’s necessary to please God.

The first stage is a foolish heart. In that stage, a person does wrong but does not know it is wrong. One might also believe this is an ignorant heart. There is no question that everyone starts with this heart. We are all born in sin. We have to learn what is right. We have to be exposed to truth. Many of us were raised in the church and grew up learning about God and his commandments, so some may not hold this heart long. However, even when we have been exposed to truth, we don’t always understand what is right. Even with knowledge we still often find ourselves in states of foolishness with respect to God. 

Pastor Pope used the book of Jonah to illustrate the four hearts because all four hearts were exhibited in Jonah’s story. In chapter 4 of Jonah, we see Jonah disobey God. God wanted Jonah to preach to a group of Assyrians, but Jonah refused. Jonah believed those people were bad beyond help and did not deserve God’s mercy. Jonah didn’t defy God because he wanted to rebel. He disobeyed because he had convinced himself that the right thing was wrong. He blinded himself to truth, and therefore put himself in a position where he was doing wrong because he couldn’t conceive of what was right. Getting beyond the foolish heart stage once and for all can be difficult because it isn’t just about knowing what’s right. It’s about understanding and accepting what’s right, accepting that God’s Will is supreme. When we accept God’s authority, then we can come to a point where we always know what is right and believe that it is right.

Unfortunately, knowing and believing what is right is not enough to move past sin. In most cases, it just moves us to the next step, which is a rebellious heart. That is when we know what is right, but we still do what’s wrong. None of us instantly move from our sinful ways after first learning about God’s will. We may give up some things, but all of us have had worldly ways to which we committed ourselves strongly. We still do those things even though we know they are not what God wants for or from us. When we behave in such a way, we are rebelling against God. We are living in a state of open defiance. 

We see Jonah in such a state in chapter 1 of the Book of Jonah. God wants Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh. Jonah knows that is what God wants from him, but he instead chooses to defy God. He flees from God’s directive and puts himself in a position where he endangers himself and others. We do the same thing in our lives. God speaks to us and tells us what he wants for us. We know what we should do, but we choose the sinful route. Sin brings destruction into our lives, and sometimes others are caught in its wake. How long a person stays in this stage or how many times a person finds himself back in this stage varies from person to person. We have to learn how to soften our hearts. Sometimes that may be a relatively easy thing to do. Sometimes, as in Jonah’s case, it takes a life threatening encounter. Either way, this is a stage we have to learn to overcome before we can ever have a chance to please God.

When we resolve ourselves to do right, we are choosing to walk the right path but just because we put ourselves on the right path doesn't necessarily mean we’ve put ourselves in a position to get to our destination. Sometimes we make a commitment to doing the right thing, but we find that we still can’t seem to please God. That likely means we find ourselves in the third stage. We have legalistic hearts, which means we know what is right and we do what is right, but we do it for the wrong reasons. Our motives matter. A person in this stage would be considered a good person by worldly standards, but from a Christian standpoint, that person is missing something. We, as believers, shouldn’t do right simply because we believe it is right. That mindset is prideful and that’s why this stage can also be thought of as one where we exhibit a prideful heart.

After Jonah fled God in chapter 2, he found himself in the belly of a fish after being thrown off a boat. Jonah knew he was in a dire situation. He knew God could save him so he called out to God. He was ready to obey God and do what God wanted from him, but he didn’t want to do it for the right reasons. He did it because he knew it was necessary for his salvation. He knew it would keep him from the bad consequences of doing what was wrong. Many people in the world follow the law, not because they want to be on the right side of the law, but because they don’t want to be fined or go to jail or face any of the other negative consequences of being wrong. The same can be said for Christians. Many of us try to live life the right way, but only do so because we don’t want to wind up in Hell. A prideful or legalistic heart can lead to a person living what seems like a righteous life, but it is not free from pitfalls. What happens when we encounter a law or commandment that we, in our pride, do not believe is correct? We often try to interpret that law or commandment in a way that allows us to do what is wrong while seemingly still being in compliance with the law. We fool ourselves, and just as with Jonah, we wind up slipping back to one of the previous stages. To move past the stage of a prideful heart, we have to commit ourselves to doing what’s right for the right reasons.

The fourth and best stage is when we have a heart that leads us to do the right things for the right reason, which is because we love God and want to please him. That is a righteous heart. A person with that heart doesn’t just do the right thing because he or she believes it's right. A person with a righteous heart does right because it is what’s necessary to please God. 

We saw that heart displayed in Jonah’s story, but ironically, Jonah was not the one to display it. Jonah did what God asked and preached to the Ninevites. He obeyed God but only because God forced his hand. When Jonah preached to the Ninevites, they repented. They turned to God and proclaimed their desire to cast aside their wicked ways. They were motivated by their belief that God was supreme, and they wanted to please Him. That is the heart we need to have a shot at moving past sin. We have to believe that God reigns. When we understand his position, then we may find the motivation we need to cast away our sinful ways. At that point, everything we do will be with a heart to please God, and if we are always trying to please God first and foremost, we will no longer have the desire or opportunity to do wrong. We don’t escape sin because we choose to beat it. We escape sin because we choose God and, in doing so, put ourselves in a position where sin is no longer an option.

In truth, we fluctuate throughout these stages over the course of our lives. The righteous heart is our goal, and we may find ourselves displaying it at some point only to slide back to one of the other stages. The problem is that we don’t always know what heart we are displaying, and we don’t always acknowledge God as someone that we should try to know and please. Pastor Pope used the story of Jesus and the sinful woman (Luke 7:36-50) to explain how we handle those problems. In the story, a woman deemed as sinful by those around her anointed Jesus’ feet with oil and honored him greatly. She knew who Jesus was, and that knowledge drove her to humble herself before Him. We are sinners too. Like her, we need to make the effort to acknowledge Jesus and what He did for us. We have to recognize that he sacrificed himself for us and gave us the gifts of forgiveness and salvation. Once we have truly accepted Jesus then we can take an honest assessment of our hearts. Whatever stage we’re in, we can make concerted efforts to move toward the right heart and stay there. Only then can we truly and consistently please God.

Please God!
https://www.facebook.com/222948344433306/videos/988339125014074

Heart Problems
https://www.facebook.com/222948344433306/videos/1087477545003099

Heart Problems 2
https://www.facebook.com/222948344433306/videos/353288242559560

Why Can’t I Please God?
https://www.facebook.com/222948344433306/videos/424508468535782

The Righteous Heart
https://www.facebook.com/222948344433306/videos/275422047213257

Show Me My Heart
https://www.facebook.com/222948344433306/videos/1043685529438616

Chris Lawyer
Sermons by Pastor Everett Pope