During a Sunday morning service in St. Joseph,
Missouri, a few years back, I asked the congregation
how many of them really want to please God more than
anything else. Every hand went up. Then I asked them,
“How many of you think God is really pleased with you?”
Out of at least 400 people, one 11-year-old boy and one
10-year-old girl raised their hands. That was all.
Very few believers actually believe that they are pleasing
to God. Most feel some degree of forgiveness and
maybe acceptance, but to think that the Lord is actually
pleased with us is another matter. A person can choose
to love you because of his or her own goodness, but to
be pleased with you, they actually have to like your
performance. Right?
With God, no one could ever be pleasing to Him based
on performance. His standard is perfection, and no
goodness on our part can ever compensate for our
sins. We may please man with our actions, but “all have
sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom.
3:23). It takes the precious blood of Jesus to do that.
The way we receive the forgiveness that’s available
through Jesus’ blood is by faith (Rom. 10:9-17). When
we put our faith in Jesus as our Savior, we are pleasing
God. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is
impossible to please him.”
Faith comes from the heart (Rom. 10:10), and God
looks on the heart — not the actions (1 Sam. 16:7). Of
course, God sees our actions and will deal with us
about them, but only because they are inseparably
linked to our hearts (Prov. 23:7). It’s our hearts that
really concern God, and faith in Him (trust, reliance) is
what He is searching the heart for.
A person whose actions are not right but who trusts the
Lord is more pleasing to God than an individual who is
doing the right things but has no faith in God. It’s not a
case of those who act the best will get accepted, and
those who act the worst get rejected. That would put
some of the followers of other religions ahead of many
Christians, but that is not what the Bible teaches.
This is exactly the point Paul is making in Romans 11:6:
“And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it
no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” That’s
old English for saying, “It’s one way or the other but not
a combination of the two.” We’re either saved by God’s
grace through what Jesus did for us, or we’re saved by
what we do without Jesus, but not a combination of the
two. The choice should be the obvious.
Elijah is an example of a great man who lived a holy life
and didn’t earn God’s pleasure with his actions. He
made some serious mistakes. He ran in the face of
persecution and became so depressed over it that he
asked the Lord to kill him (1 Kin. 19). The Lord gave
him three direct commands in an audible voice (1 Kin.
19:15-16), and Elijah never did two of them (refer to
my teaching entitled “Elijah’s Downfall?”).
Most people
would think God couldn’t have been pleased with Elijah,
yet Elijah was translated.
Even though our heart conditions influence our actions,
we all fail in our performance to some degree. Elijah
did. If God used performance as the basis of whether or
not He was pleased with us, no one would ever pass the
test. “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord,
who shall stand?” (Ps. 130:3).
Satan used to accuse me and say, “What makes you
think God will use you?” The truth is that none of us are
perfect, we don’t deserve the blessings of God. Now I
put my faith in Jesus. It’s hard for some people to
accept this. It has been ingrained in us that if we aren’t
holy, God won’t bless us. When God looks at you, He
doesn’t see your goodness — He sees Jesus.
If you’re walking in faith, you use faith as the rate of
exchange between you and God. God is pleased with
you even though your actions don’t measure up. Your
life may be a wreck, but God is still pleased with you.
Our religion says that is hypocrisy. On the contrary, the
worst sin is self-righteousness — the attitude that God
owes it to you because you’ve been good.
The difficult thing is that there are no role models for
grace. Your employer hires you based on performance.
The parent-child relationship is based on performance,
even though it shouldn’t be. When it comes to God, your
performance can’t earn you anything. If you sin, you
need a savior. It is your faith in Jesus that will grant you
access to God.
Most people accept this level of grace when it pertains
to salvation. However, some of you may think that after
you’re born again, God expects you to pray and study;
and if you don’t do these things, God won’t bless you.
After you are born again, it doesn’t change! Colossians
2:6 says, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in him.” When we are born again,
we come to Jesus just as we are. In fact, if a person
has a lot of sin, it’s even more reason to come to
Jesus. When it comes to being healed, it’s a different
story with most Christians. They think if you haven’t
read your Bible today or you had a fight on the way to
church, it will keep you from being healed.
That’s a
double standard. That’s saying that the way you
approach God after you’re born again is different. Your
actions may not please God today, but you can be
healed or delivered in spite of it.
Some of you may think I’m advocating sin. I’m not —
your actions are important to you. Your holiness is
important because it changes your heart toward God
and not God’s heart toward you.
Unholiness will hurt
you. Even though God will love you just as much, you
won’t love God as much. It will harden your heart
toward God. It’s like eating. You must eat to stay alive,
but eating is not life. If you miss one meal, will you die?
If you constantly live in sin and never feed yourself
spiritually, it will kill you. I am not saying you should
ignore your actions. You will never do everything
perfectly, but don’t let it keep you from receiving the
blessings of God.
Luke 22 shows us an example of someone who had
faith and pleased God. In verses 31 and 32 Jesus is
talking to Peter before the crucifixion.
“And the Lord
said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have
you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed
for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Peter did blow it
tremendously. He denied the Lord three times. He
cursed and blasphemed God, and yet Jesus prayed that
his faith wouldn’t fail. Jesus’ prayers were always
answered. Peter’s actions failed, but not his faith . If
Peter hadn’t repented it would have killed him. He was
restored to God and went on to become a pillar of the
church.
Some of you may be thinking, This is great — I can live
like the devil and still get what I want from God.” If you
think that, I’d say you aren’t born again, because a
Christian wants to please God. This word is for
Christians who have a desire to serve God but who still
sin. When that happens, you go on and catch up and
stand there with confidence in your Savior. Your faith in
Jesus pleases God. None of us get saved and head
straight on the path to God. We bounce around, but
we’re still heading in the general direction.
“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath
made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6). You do
please God through your faith in Jesus as your Savior,
and you must perceive that you please Him.
