Scripture Introduction
Imagine I have in my hand an Xbox cartridge. Would that be a good Christmas present for my kids? It is expensive, but it is not valuable. Why not? Because we do not have an Xbox. A great gift is not valued if it cannot be received.
God wants to give us a gift this year—holiness. We can have it if we are his. But if we try to take this present apart from faith in Christ, the attempt will drive us further from God, either because of self-righteousness over some measure of success or by discouragement over failing to measure up. Only in Christ, we can receive the gift and with it the joy of being like Christ.
Read 2Corinthians 5.1-10. Pray.
Introduction
Calvin and Hobbes (the comic strip characters) are playing in the snow in early January when Hobbes asks Calvin, “Did you make any resolutions for the new year?”
“Heck no” replies Calvin. “I’m fine just the way I am! Why should I change? In fact, I think it’s high time the world started changing to suit me! I don’t see why I should do all the changing around here! If the new year requires resolutions, I say it’s up to everyone else, not me! I don’t need to improve. Everyone else does!”
Calvin then turns to Hobbes and asks: “How about you? Did you make any resolutions?”
Hobbes: “Well, I had resolved to be less offended by human nature, but I think I blew it already.”
I would ask that each of us consider a resolution this year: a Biblical commitment to deepening our relationship with God. Maybe in the past we have simply hoped things would work out OK. But year after year, failing to plan for spiritual growth, we often fail to find intimacy and transformation in walking with the God.
Out text is not about New Year’s resolutions, per se. It does define a Biblical goal for living: “pleasing the Lord.” Such a commitment comes only by grace—how does God’s grace enable progress in the Christian life?
1. The Grace of God Produces Good Courage (2Corinthians 5.6a,8a)
2Corinthians 5.6a: “So we are always of good courage….” 2Corinthians 5.8a: “Yes, we are of good courage….”
Paul seems very aware of what we may wish to avoid: life is hard. And when we resolve to “make it our aim to please the Lord,” forces rise to resist us, making it that much harder. As Hobbes pointed out in the cartoon strip, our own sin nature is enough to derail and discourage us. Add to our sinful desires the world and the devil, with their distractions and temptations, and it may seem hopeless to even talk about pleasing God, much less to actually do so.
But those who know Christ are of good courage. We have it in two respects.
First, we are courageous about our lives here. We who are in Christ know that life is not vain, the struggle is not wasted. We have courage to press on, courage to resist the Devil, courage to fight the good fight of faith. We have courage to love the Lord more than we love the things of this world. We even have courage to discipline our bodies to keep them under control. Why? Because we know that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and therefore, our labors in the Lord are not in vain. Couple in Memphis who wanted never to have children because the world was too terrible. They were afraid to live. Christ gives courage to live!
We also, second, have courage about our life hereafter. When this body is destroyed, those who know Christ have another body, a spiritual body, prepared by God himself. The Spirit within testifies to this if we belong to Christ. Christ gives us courage to die!
As God sent Joshua into the promised land he gave him this message three times: “Be strong and courageous.” Why? “Because I am with you.” Is your faith in him as you begin the new year? Is your hope of such quality that it covers both this life and the life to come?
John Piper tells of the plaque which hung in the kitchen of his house for all his growing up years. Now it hangs in his living room. It says,
Only one life
’Twill soon be past
Only what’s done for Christ
Will last.
God’s grace gives good courage for the day of judgment.
2. The Grace of God Produces a Desire to Please God (2Corinthians 5.9)
I think it would be wonderful to be able to write that on next year’s Christmas cards: “During 2007, we made it our aim to please God.” Of course, this does not mean that Paul believed in salvation by works. He did not make it his aim to please God so that God would be pleased with him; he wanted to please God because God was already pleased with Jesus.
The same can be true for you. If you have placed your faith in Christ, then nothing will delight you more than delighting God. The true child loves to please his Father in heaven! When we know the grace of God, walking in holiness is not distasteful, but our great desire and joy.
But how do we do it? How do we please God? Let me answer in two parts: first, how to please God, and second, what to do to please God.
2.1. How to do all things so as to please God
Let me suggest four parts of the “how to.”
First, aiming to please God requires that we “walk by faith and not by sight” (verse 7). Silver Dollar City in Branson, has an exhibit called “Grandfather’s House” in which the walls and ceilings are built at crazy angles to the floor. Walking through invariably leads you to run into a wall because everything is off kilter. It is the same in this world. Everyday of 2007 we will see much which argues against pleasing God. The world disorients! But the Christian woman resolves not to live by sight. She does not look at the world around to see what is valuable; she does not take opinion polls to know what is right; she does not measure faithfulness by other’s opinions. She walks as God says without regard to the crooked world in which she travels.
Second, aiming to please God necessitates that we struggle much with our sinful desires. The Bible is clear, “those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5.24). When we set up a mousetrap and put peanut butter in the center, the mouse’s passions and desires insist that he eat the bait. But the bait is death. Perhaps it seems harsh to say so, but does not your own experience daily prove what the Bible asserts: your natural desires war against God and godliness? Let us study and strive in the coming year to allow God’s grace to overrule our nature so that we do not take the bait which our desires demand.
Third, aiming to please God implies a living and abiding communion and fellowship with God, in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Jesus said: “I the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart form me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is through away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” (John 15.5-6). When you purchase a tree from the nursery, you take it home and quickly transplant it into the yard. Why? Because the tree will not long survive without soil from which the roots draw nutrients and water. Are you planted in the life of Christ? We must be to please God.
Fourth, aiming to please God results in progress in holiness. Verse 7 notes that we walk by faith. “Walking” implies advancement in conformity to Christ and the commandments of God. Many mothers keep a chart of each child’s height and weight. We expect to see growth each year or we schedule a trip to the doctor. Why? Because growth is required for life! If we are not growing, we are dying! Will we plan for change this year? [It is worth noting, here, that the measure of a church’s maturity is not whether they have everything right, but whether we are changing. Change is a necessary part of progress and proves God faithful by our releasing old ways of doing things and taking on new ministries, by our resisting of the evil one, and by our reaching out to new friends with the Gospel. If we are to please God (as a church) during 2007, then we must walk, we must change, we must advance in our application of the faith.
With that “how to” outline in place, let’s consider briefly what to do. Here are seven…
2.2. What practical things to do to please God
First, we must spend significant time reading the Bible. It is, quite simply, impossible to please God without being much in the Word. “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word” (Psalm 119.9). Just as I do not expect my children to grow without excellent nutrition, so you cannot expect to grow as a child of God without the nourishment your Father in Heaven provides from His Word. Will you make a workable plan for daily Bible reading?
Second, we must commit ourselves to fellowship with God by secret prayer. God is a person and we must talk to people in order to know them and understand them and grow close to them. When Rebekah brings Lizzy to dinner, we even talk to her! Friendship necessitates speaking to one another. Thus, the grace of God is always accompanied by the spirit of supplication. George Whitefield: “Prayer brings and keeps God and man together. It raises man up to God, and brings God down to man.” If we would please God then we must be much in private prayer.
Third, we must frequently mediate on the Word in the power of the Holy Spirit. Meditation is to the soul as digestion to the body. It is processing the food of the Word so that its nutrients are absorbed into our lives and cause growth.
Fourth, we must vigilantly listen to the Spirit speaking to our hearts specific applications of the Word. We know the Spirit does not speak contrary to the Word, and we know the Spirit speaks through the Word, but we err if we assume that the Spirit no longer speaks because we have the Word. The Father delights to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. Let us ask the Spirit of God to teach us, to speak to us, to lead and guide us as we read, pray and meditate on His Word.
Fifth, we must value the means of grace which God has provided. David in Psalm 122 sings: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’” Sometimes I give gifts to my kids that they do not immediately recognize as wonderful. Maybe it is a book that I know they will love, but when they open the gift it lacks the pizzazz that a shiny toy has. But we have taught them, and we remind them every time they open one of those gifts: “I love you more than you can imagine; and would only give to you the best of gifts. This is a wonderful gift.” And they learn to trust because every gift we give turns out to be wonderful. Those who would please God must learn the same trust and not turn their noses up at the gifts which God has provided them. The preaching of the word, the fellowship of the saints, the prayers of God’s people, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper—these are not optional opportunities which some Christians like and others do not. These are good gifts, treats for the souls of those who know Jesus.
Sixth, we must keep frequent company with others who also make it their aim to please the Lord. The early church devoted themselves to fellowship, and Paul warned the Corinthians that “Bad company ruins good morals” (1Corinthians 15.33). People who can afford it move to the suburbs to escape “bad” neighbors. We must not be less careful about spiritual neighbors. Are you willing to find a believer who will challenge you in your spiritual walk? Will you commit to speaking words of godliness and spiritual encouragement to one another? Will you seek a mature Christian to sharpen your life, even as iron sharpens iron?
Seventh, we must be taught other wise and godly Christians. Ephesians 4 reminds us that God has gifted pastors and teachers to protect God’s people and prepare them for ministry. I cannot imagine pleasing God without developing a passion for reading godly literature. Maybe we could each have a goal like this: in 2007 I will read one book on prayer, one on theology and one on practical holiness? If we die on December 31 of 2007, are we really prepared to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and say to him, “I did not have enough grace in my life to move me to read three books which challenged my heart, mind, and soul”? I believe such grace is available!
Two products of God’s grace: courage and a desire to please God. Now, third…
3. The Grace of God Motivates Us to Please Him
First, know that pleasing the Lord is an honorable calling. You bear the image of God. You are offered fellowship with the Creator of the universe. Practical holiness and pleasing God is a privilege. As a soldier considers it a great honor to fulfill the command of his officer, so those who please God find doing so a great credit to their name.
Second, know that pleasing the Lord is a pleasurable calling. No, it does not always feel that way, but we walk by faith and not by sight, and we know, by faith, that holiness is happiness. Psalm 40.8: “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
When Matthew Henry was about to die, he said to a friend, “You have heard many men’s dying words, and these are mine: a life spent in communion with God, is the pleasantest life in the world.” Psalm 84.10: “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.” Psalm 19.11: “In keeping [God’s commandments] there is great reward.”
Third, know that pleasing the Lord is an eternal calling. Many people today are so confused about grace as to have no idea whether they are converted. Some imagine that salvation by grace means that God saves everyone who claims to believe in him, so a lack of desire to please God does not matter. Nothing could be further from Biblical “grace.” The grace which saves is the grace which presses us to please God. It is not by pleasing God that we become Christians; nor is it by pleasing God that we grow closer to him as Christians. It is by grace alone, received by trusting Christ alone, that we become Christians and remain Christians. AND that same grace changes our lives.
So know this: if you are unwilling to make it your aim to please the Lord, if you are not taking steps to progress in the faith, if you are not in the Word and growing in obedience, then you can have no assurance of being his child. Those who are His make it their aim to please him.
4. Conclusion
Dwight L. Moody used to say, “The place for the ship is in the sea, but God help the ship if the sea gets into it. But the remedy is not to remove the ship from the sea, but to make it strong and water-tight.”
The thought of protecting our ships from the sea is appealing. Yet such is not God’s answer. He insists we be in the world while not having the world in us. We must set sail, and when we do, we will find some sea in our ships. The answer is to return to the grace of God for bailing and for a more pitch and tar. You think about that as you make it your aim to please God. Amen.
