PLAN TO PLEASE HIM

service.”

NOTE: Apart from surrendering your will to God’s will, there can be no real dedication to God.

Will is the whole man active. I cannot give up my will; I must exercise it. I must will to obey. When God gives a command or a vision of truth, it is never a question of what He will do, but what we will do. To be successful in God’s work is to fall in line with His will and to do it His way. All that is pleasing to Him is a success.

Henrietta Mears, Dream Big: The Henrietta Mears Story, quoted in Christianity Today, June 21, 1993, Page 41.


II. BE DEPENDENT UPON HIM

A. We Must Never Trust The Arm Of Flesh.

Prov.3: 5 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

II Chron.32: 7 “Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him:
8a With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles…”

NOTE: One of man’s biggest problems is the misconception that we can handle our own lives by ourselves.

Sign seen in a textile mill, “When your thread becomes tangled, call the foreman.” A young woman was new on the job. Her thread became tangled and she thought, “I’ll just straighten this out myself.” She tried, but the situation only worsened. Finally she called the foreman.
“I did the best I could,” she said.
“No you didn’t. To do the best, you should have called me.”

Source Unknown.

B. We Must Always Walk By Faith.

II Cor.5: 7 “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”

Heb.10: 38a “Now the just shall live by faith…”


III. BE DELIGHTED IN HIM

A. The Lord Should Be Our Joy.

Ps.37: 4 “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”

NOTE: [1] The word “delight” implies not only that we should take pleasure in the Lord, but also makes reference to a relationship with Him in which one is pliable in His hands. This speaks of a willingness to please.
[2] Trying to find joy in anything other than the Lord Jesus will only result in disappointment.

Men have pursued joy in every avenue imaginable. Some have successfully found it while others have not. Perhaps it would be easier to describe where joy cannot be found:

Not in Unbelief—Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote: “I wish I had never been born.”

Not in Pleasure—Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote: “The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone.”

Not in Money—Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: “I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth.”
Not in Position and Fame—Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: “Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”

Not in Military Glory—Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, before he said, “There are no more worlds to conquer.”

Where then is real joy found? The answer is simple: In Christ alone.

The Bible Friend, Turning Point, May, 1993.

B. Our Joy Attracts Others To Jesus.

Phil.4: 4 “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.”

NOTE: [1] The New Living Translation translates this verse as follows: “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—