Pleasing to God in All Seasons - Ephesians 5:10

Amen.

Jesus, Lord at Thy birth.

I do want to thank Gunnar, he did have to take on a little bit of extra responsibilities this week in being able to

play for Sunday School and for our service today.

So, Gunnar, you're appreciated.

We're grateful for you, brother.

Thank you.

Now imagine this morning, imagine, just go along with me, let's play a little pretend for just

a moment, but imagine that you received a letter in the mail one day.

It turns out that you have a very wealthy relative in Scotland.

He owns a sizable estate.

He has many very large bank accounts.

And here is the most astounding news of all.

This man is going to give all of this to you.

The gift that he has prepared to give to you is going to set you and your children and your grandchildren up

financially in such a way that they will be very well off.

Working will be optional.

Vacations will be lavish.

Money is never going to be an issue again.

But here's the catch, here's the one condition.

He wants to come over from Scotland and meet you.

His health is failing and he wants to make a visit to your home.

So he's going to come stay with you for a few weeks.

Now, the servants in his household, they decide that they're going to send you a letter, a packet really,

before he arrives.

And in this packet is absolutely everything about this man.

It tells of his daily routines.

It tells of his likes and his dislikes.

It tells you what time he likes to wake up.

It tells you what he likes to watch on TV.

It tells you what he wants to eat for breakfast.

It tells you what he's allergic to.

The hobbies he enjoys.

What time he wants the lights out at night.

The restaurants he likes.

What kind of mattress he prefers to sleep on.

And on and on and on and on.

It's quite extensive.

Now, as this man is on his way to your home, what are you going to do with this packet?

Well, you're going to do everything in your power to please your guest.

It may annoy others.

It may annoy your children.

It may even annoy you.

But you're going to do it.

Perhaps, hopefully, out of Christian hospitality, maybe there's a motivation out of the

desire to win this man's favor and to receive the inheritance.

Perhaps there's a mixture of both.

But the reality is, if this scenario were true, every one of us in here would

scour that packet to make sure that what we did in our home on this man's

visit was pleasing to him.

What we watched, what we ate, what we talked about.

It would be our desire to please our guest.

We would work very hard to make sure our guest's desire were accommodated in every way possible.

Would you turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 5?

Perhaps you've already caught on to where I'm going with this.

Today, we're going to examine Ephesians 5, verse 10, and we'll consider what it means

to live a life pleasing to our King.

The One who has an inheritance for us.

The One who has shed His blood to redeem us from our sins.

Who came to us in the womb of the Virgin.

Who lived for us.

Who was crucified for our sins.

Who rose again and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

We don't desire to please our King in order to receive the inheritance.

Rather, true Christians desire to please the King because we've already been brought into the Kingdom.

And our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, is worthy of our lives.

He's worthy of a life that honors Him in every way.

It is our great desire to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

And our great King hasn't given us a packet, He's given us a book in order to discern what

pleases Him in every aspect of our lives.

As we get started, listen, I need you to ask yourself these questions.

I can't answer them.

Are you pleasing the King?

Do you desire to please the King?

Let's consider Ephesians 5, 10 and the subject of today's sermon, pleasing God in all seasons.

Would you stand with me and let's just read one verse.

Ephesians 5, 10.

We covered the big paragraph last week, but now back to verse 10.

Paul says, "...and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.".

Father, we pray that this is our prayer today.

We want to please You.

Help us to understand what it is to please You.

Help us, Lord, to take assessment of our lives today, even in this service, as the Word is being

preached.

Let us think about the time that we spend on things.

Let us think about our jobs.

Let us think about our money.

Let us think about our hobbies.

Let us think about it all.

What we eat, how we exercise, how we read the Bible.

Let's think about it all today, Father.

And let us seek to align our lives with Your will.

Lord, if there are things that we need to add to our lives, so be it.

If there are things that we need to cut out of our lives, so be it.

So long as we can say that we are living a life that's pleasing our King.

Father, there are some in this room today, there are some whose life is not pleasing to You because they've

rejected Christ.

Lord, would this be the day that they would repent and believe the Gospel?

We pray it would.

We pray that Your grace would work in that way.

For Christians, we pray that we wouldn't settle for the version of Christianity that is practiced in so

many areas today, but instead we would seek to be biblical and please You

according to Your Word.

We pray it all in Christ's name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

We're in this section here where Paul is commanding the church in Ephesus to live,

as we talked about last week, as children of light.

They are light in Christ.

And since, remember, since they are light, they must live as light

in a dark world.

And that's what we talked about last week.

You, if you're a believer, you are light.

This is not what you do, it's who you are first.

And then because of who you are, it's how you live.

You're light.

And this is true today in the church as it was 2 ,000 years ago.

Christians, we walk as children of light.

Christians walk in love.

We've already covered that.

And we walk in light.

Why?

Because it's who we are in Christ.

We have been born again.

We have been made new.

We have been united to Christ.

And we have been adopted.

And now we come to such a pivotal truth of Christianity.

Such a pivotal truth of Christian living.

Perhaps one of the most pivotal truths of Christian living.

Something that perhaps you've never been taught before.

Maybe you've never noticed.

Let's start by rereading verse 10.

Paul says, "...and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.".

Now listen, you need to understand that verse 10 is an imperative.

It is a command.

It is a duty.

And the translation might throw you off a little bit.

Because the idea from the Greek is, it's not a good translation, I don't think, for you to understand this

as merely try.

Right?

As though it's optional.

Like try your best and that's what matters.

No, the command here is to prove, to test, to discern.

The same word for discern and please in our text, also used in Romans 12.

I invite you to turn to Romans 12 for a moment.

Keep your finger, we'll come right back.

Romans chapter 12, verse 2.

In Romans chapter 12, verse 2, the same words in our text are used there.

And here's how it reads in Romans chapter 12, verse 2.

"...Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern

what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.".

Christians want to discern what is acceptable to God.

It is our duty to try what is pleasing to God, to test, to prove, to discern.

So the idea of test in the text, the idea of discern, the idea of test is really

to test everything in our lives, to see whether or not it's pleasing and acceptable to Christ.

So consider again, verse 10.

"...Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.".

The duty here in our text is to test our lives, test our actions, test our motivations, test our

thoughts, test our hopes, test our goals.

We're to consider literally every aspect of our lives and see whether or not they're pleasing to the King.

Now, I said just a second ago, this is one of the most pivotal truths of Christian living.

A truth that maybe you haven't considered and a truth that I haven't shared yet in this sermon yet, but I'm going to do that now.

The duty in verse 10 is not merely a duty.

It's not merely a duty.

It's not merely like, oh, well, I've got this hard master and I've just got to figure it out every day.

You know, you've been around people like that, right?

You've been around people that are very hard to please.

And one day they can say they like oatmeal for breakfast and so you messed up because

you made eggs.

And so the next day you make them oatmeal and then that day they don't like oatmeal, they like eggs.

Right?

You've been around a boss or a friend or maybe a relative very, very hard to please and

it's exhausting to try to please them.

But friends, this is the pivotal truth that I'm saying.

This is not merely a command for the Christian.

It's not merely a duty.

It is a delight.

Christians are commanded by Almighty God through the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul here in verse 10

to discern what is pleasing to Christ.

And simultaneously, because we've been given a new heart, because we are a light in the Lord,

because we have been adopted into God's family, because we are citizens of the kingdom of Christ, it's not

merely a duty, but we desire to please Christ in every way.

We want, we want this.

We want to do this.

We want to honor our King.

It is our duty to please God and it is our delight to please God.

What a glorious truth.

I think that this is what the Apostle John is getting at when he says in 1 John 5, 3,

for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.

It's like John, bro, God's commandments are not burdensome?

Like God's commandments cannot be perfectly kept by any fallen man.

What do you mean they're not burdensome?

Well, I think what John means is that we see God's ways now not as a burden to be kept, but as

a joy to live only by the grace of God and by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Friends, I'm not trying to say today that believers are perfect or close to perfect, but I am trying to

say this.

Listen carefully to this.

By faith in Christ, we actually do desire to follow Christ, to

keep his commandments and this is pleasing to God.

Jesus says in John 14, 15, if you love me, keep my commandments.

In John 15, 14, it's easy to remember because you got 14, 15 and then in 15, 14.

So 14, 15 says, if you love me, keep my commandments.

In 15, 14, he says, you are my friends if you do what I command you.

This is the desire of the Christian.

We want to follow Christ and in our following Christ, we please God.

Why?

Because God is pleased in his son.

In fact, let's do this.

I want you to turn your Bibles to two passages in Matthew.

Start with Matthew three.

I want you to see something.

So everybody, please turn to Matthew.

Matthew chapter three and consider this at the

baptism of Jesus.

Matthew chapter three.

Thank you for letting me hear the beautiful sound of Bible pages turning.

Matthew chapter three, verse 13.

Matthew chapter three, verse 13.

Did Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him?

John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you when do you come to me?

But Jesus answered him, let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

Then he consented.

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened to him and he saw the spirit of

God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.

Now listen to verse 17.

And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom

I am well pleased.

Now go to verse or sorry, chapter 17, Matthew 17.

This is my beloved son, the father says with whom I am well pleased.

Now in Matthew chapter 17, this is at the transfiguration.

Matthew chapter 17, verse one.

And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother and led them up a high

mountain by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them and his face shown like the sun and his clothes became white

as light.

And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him.

And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here.

If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.

He was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said, this is my

beloved son with whom I am well

pleased.

Listen to him.

You can go back to Ephesians five.

We are reminded here of the purpose of Christmas in these texts.

God became man to fulfill all righteousness, all righteousness.

Listen, very, very important for you, all righteousness.

There's not a portion of righteousness that you fulfill.

Jesus did most of it and you fulfill some and some of your little righteousness is pleasing to God.

No, none of your righteousness in and of yourself is pleasing to God.

All of your righteousness, the Bible says, is filthy rags before a holy and righteous God.

But in Christ, God is well pleased.

In us, we have the opposite of righteousness.

We have all manner of unrighteousness apart from Christ.

But the Son of God took on human flesh to be our righteousness, to be our righteous representative

and the Father is well pleased in the Son.

The Father is well pleased in Jesus.

The Father delights in the righteous deeds of the Son, His perfect life and His

impeccable obedience.

The Father delights in the death of the Son.

It was the will of the Lord to crush Him, Isaiah 53 says.

Christ's sacrifice is a pleasing aroma to God.

The Father delights in the resurrection, ascension and reign of King Jesus.

The Father is well pleased in the Son.

Now, what does this have to do with Ephesians 5, 10?

And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

What I'm stressing here is that there is nothing that you can do in and of yourself that

pleases God apart from faith in His Son.

In other words, don't hear the command today like, oh, I want to please God.

I just need to go out and live like Jesus, right?

Like the bracelets that used to be out.

What would Jesus do, right?

So, okay, well, these people are hungry.

I guess I'll turn the bread and the fish into a meal that can feed all these people.

No, you can't do that, right?

You can't be righteous like Jesus in and of yourself.

That's not what you're called to do, to please God.

First and foremost, you must put your faith in Christ.

There's nothing you can do in and of yourself that pleases God apart from faith in

Christ.

Next Saturday, you're in Conway and you're at the Christmas

tree and you're looking at it.

Now the corner of your eye, you notice a young mother and she's got three young children.

She's got her hands full.

One of the children dart out into the street.

You drop everything that you have and you run and you grab this child up and you grab this child up just as a big

truck's coming by, you grab the child up and you get him out of the way and everybody's safe, everybody applauds.

You rescue the child.

Is God pleased with this action?

I'm not asking if this was a good act.

Of course, from a human perspective, this is a good act.

This actually is an expected act for those who are made in the image of God.

Those who are made in the image of God ought to be rescuers of those who are vulnerable and cannot

defend themselves.

But what I'm asking is this, is God pleased with this action?

The answer may surprise you.

The answer is, if you are an unbeliever in one sense, God hates this action.

Why?

Romans 14 .23 says it this way, for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

Well, what I'm saying is, apart from Christ, even this noble deed of rescuing a child from certain

destruction is sin if it does not proceed from faith in Christ.

Your charitable giving, your care for the homeless, your holiday spirit.

So many in our world today, so many in our culture, so many even in Perryville and in Perry County,

they may think to themselves, well, you know, I gave a little bit extra at Christmas, I gave to Mexico missions or I gave to that family

or I bought a present off Angel Tree.

Isn't God happy with that?

Haven't I done enough?

Haven't I done enough in and of myself to please God?

God, come on.

Haven't I done enough for you?

And what I am saying is, if you are doing these deeds apart from Christ, God is not pleased with

them because He's well -pleased in His Son.

These things only increase your condemnation.

In fact, Paul says it this way in Romans 8.

Here's another place, Bible drill today.

Romans 8, turn there, will you?

I want you to see this really with your eyes.

I don't want you to just hear it from me.

In Romans 8, I want you to see what the Word of God says.

Romans 8, Romans 8, verse 7.

Romans 8 and verse 7.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does

not submit to God's law.

Indeed, it cannot.

And then Romans 8, verse 8, here's the kicker.

Those who are in the flesh, it doesn't say do not.

It doesn't say may not.

It says those who are in the flesh, what?

Cannot please God.

What that means is, those who are unregenerate, those who are living apart from Christ, it doesn't

matter the generosity you try to do at Christmas.

It doesn't matter how many times you try to come to church.

It doesn't matter how many times you get baptized.

It doesn't matter how many times you try to repeat a prayer.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Now, I'm going to get into tangible application for the Christian in Ephesians 5 .10 in just a moment, but I need to stress this point here.

If you are not in Christ this morning, if you are not in Christ, your life in no

way is pleasing to God.

You're being at church.

You're giving in the offering, your kindness to others.

None of it is pleasing to God because you continue to live apart from faith in Him.

That is, you continue to live in rebellion.

You're not submitted to Christ.

You're not placing your faith in Christ as your only suitable and all -sufficient Savior.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Day after day after day after day after day, you remain a child of wrath.

You may dabble in good things from a human perspective.

You may entertain philanthropy.

You may participate in some noble cause.

But you cannot please God because you remain unregenerate and outside His Son.

And it is His Son in whom God is well -pleased.

God is sharpening His sword, as it were, for a day of judgment.

If this is you, will you look to the One in whom God is well -pleased?

Will you look to Christ as your perfect representative, as your righteousness?

Will you look upon His mercy?

Will you even now repent of your sins and put your faith in King Jesus?

Don't be so foolish to think that you have something in and of yourself to offer God.

All that is in you apart from Christ demands not grace, but justice.

Lay down your rebellion.

Lay down your vain labors.

Lay down your idol worship.

And even now, come to Christ.

Now this brings us back to Ephesians 5 .10.

And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

This is where it all must begin.

We place our faith in Christ, the One in whom God is well -pleased, and then by grace through faith in

Jesus, we now seek to really live a life well -pleasing to God.

Listen to this reality, Christian.

God is pleased with the Son.

And because of the work of Jesus, God is pleased with those who are in the Son by

virtue of Christ's righteousness and life and atoning death.

God is actually pleased with His people.

Even when we offer imperfect obedience, He's pleased with our desire and

effort to follow Jesus because of Christ's work on our behalf.

Now listen, at one point, I thought I actually had this down.

I was actually gonna call the sermon this.

What to get God for Christmas.

But I decided against it because it's a little cheesy.

But the idea came from a quote I read from Brian Chappell.

So listen to this quote.

He nails it.

He says, when we know that our meager offerings to God, the little thoughts, words, and acts of

righteousness that are all that we have to give.

He's talking about the Christian, right?

Because we've been regenerate and given a new heart and imputed with the righteousness of Christ.

So Chappell's saying, when we do all these things and we realize these meager, inadequate things bring God

pleasure despite their inadequacies and our shame, we want to bring

Him better gifts.

The desire to please one so delightfully pleased with us becomes our passion and our power.

Our highest and strongest motivation.

We want to keep finding out what pleases Him to express light for His sake.

Listen to this church.

Listen to this glorious and beautiful reality.

God accepts our faith -wrought sacrifices because of the ultimate sacrifice of His Son.

Your obedience is never gonna be good enough to merit your way into heaven.

There's always a misplaced motivation.

There's always a bad thought.

There's always more that we could give and there's more that we could do.

But God accepts our faith -wrought sacrifices, giving Him over our lives as a living

sacrifice, not because of us, but because of Christ.

And so now the believer's desire is the same as Paul's desire in 2 Corinthians 5, 9.

There Paul says, so whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to

please Him.

Is this you, believer?

Your aim to please Christ because Christ is our great Savior?

Because we now have a new heart by the Holy Spirit?

Because we are adopted into God's family and citizens of Christ's kingdom?

We make it our aim to please Christ

in everything.

Preacher, you're preaching to me this morning and I'm where I'm supposed to be.

I'm in church, so everything's good.

No, no, no, what I'm saying is in everything.

We test, we try, we prove, we

discern everything.

Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

This is our duty and it is our delight.

You, because you're a human,

you become a creature of habit.

What I mean is you're very good at getting yourself into a routine.

You wake up at this time.

You cook breakfast at this time.

You go to work at this time.

You do these things here and there.

You're like a machine.

You're like in a routine.

And you can do that and you can fail to pause and ask.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second.

I do this every day, but is this pleasing to the Lord?

Is the way that I'm conducting myself in this area, the time that I wake up, the time that I spent

in the Word of God and in prayer, is this pleasing to the Lord?

This is a sermon for you to pause.

Seriously, pause.

Breathe.

Pray.

Are you pleasing the King?

What does the believer get God for Christmas?

The God who has everything and in His need of nothing.

We give Him a life that is pleasing to Him.

We discern what is pleasing to Him and we walk as children of light.

Now what does this look like practically?

We've seen that it begins by faith in Christ.

If it doesn't begin there, then we only fail and increase our condemnation.

So again, don't hear the rest of the sermon if you're not a Christian.

If you're not a Christian, what you need to do is you need to cry out to God and you need to put your faith in Christ.

You need to ask for God's help.

I believe, help my unbelief.

You need to cry out to God and look to Him in repentance and faith.

But if you're a Christian, what do we do?

How do we test and prove and try and judge and discern what is pleasing to God?

Do you know how most people do it?

Most people who profess to be Christians do it this way.

I'll give you a few options.

Popular opinion.

What would most people think about this?

Feeling.

What does this feel like?

Does it feel right?

Tradition.

We've always done it that way.

Those are the ways that many Christians discern their life.

Do you know how a believer is supposed to discern his life?

The book.

Friends, it's the Word of God.

We submit ourselves to what the Word of God says.

We are students of the Word.

As we approach a new year, you need to think about this.

Your habits in the Bible, I'm sure, can improve in the year 2023.

We'll talk about that soon in a couple weeks or maybe next week or something.

But we desire to read the Bible personally.

We desire to read it in our families.

We desire to memorize and meditate on the Bible.

We desire to submit ourselves to the preaching of God's Word, to the study of God's Word.

We want to memorize and meditate on God's Word.

Why?

Because we desire to please God.

We want to please God in every season.

Let me make the obvious connection here.

Our life is not pleasing to God when we go astray from God's Word.

When the Word of God says do this and we decide to do that, we don't bring pleasure to

God.

Calvin notes, believers walk in the light when everything they do is designed to please the Lord.

Is that you?

Everything?

Yes, everything.

When we ignore the Scriptures, when we reject the Scriptures, when we disobey the Scriptures, listen, be careful here, when we

add to the Scriptures and when we take away from the Scriptures,

we're not pleasing God.

We're disobeying.

Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Believers, walk in the light.

We are light to our community when all that we do is designed to please the Lord.

When the thoughts that we have and the motivations that we have and the actions that we do are in line with what

God has revealed to us in His book.

What does this mean practically?

It means some of you, you might need to pray to God right now about your job.

In what I'm doing in my work, is this pleasing to God?

Now I'm not saying that you need to switch jobs, but I am saying this, it could be, right?

Like you need to take everything, you need to take your family, your life, everything that

you're doing and you need to assess it, you need to try it, you need to discern and say, Father, what areas of my life

are pleasing to you and what areas of my life need to change?

I'll give you an illustration.

I hesitate to use people in the church because I don't usually don't ask if I can use them, but

I'm gonna use this one.

It's a family.

I won't tell you who they are, but they're from a magical land of mousse and maple syrup.

And this particular family, don't worry about it if you don't know who they are,

this particular family is somehow found their way to Perryville, Arkansas.

And you know what happened?

Certainly I'm not over exalting men or women, but I want you to think about,

this particular family's moved to Perryville, Arkansas.

Did you know that I saw it on the faces of certain people?

It blew their minds.

Like they didn't even have a category in their mind, maybe some of you, didn't even have a category in their mind.

How could someone move from one country to another country and find themselves in a town with less

than 1500 people just down the road from Toadstuck?

Okay, do you know why?

Because when you begin to think and you begin to prioritize your life, not by money,

not by comfort, when you begin to prioritize your life, like I wanna find a

church first, we're gonna find a church first, and then we're gonna think about the housing, then we're gonna think about these other things.

We wanna find a place where we can be a part of first because we wanna please God first because we wanna have our

priorities in line.

That blows people, people around here, people around here that I've talked to and such that just have to

practice this kind of nominal Christianity and they just think whatever they do is pleasing to God because they're God's favorite person,

that doesn't even register.

You think about your children, how many of you have thought about where your children are gonna go to college and you thought about it based on is there a

healthy church around this college?

These are things that sometimes we don't think about because we're caught up in a routine and traditions and we fail to

hear the command of verse 10, discern, discern,

test and try and prove and think about what is

pleasing to the Lord.

Friends, it's not an option.

But by the way, this takes discernment, doesn't it?

The Bible doesn't schedule your day for you.

Wouldn't that be easy?

I guess, maybe in a way.

What if the Bible said, wake up at this time, this is the time you eat breakfast, this is time you should have prayer and

Bible reading, this is how many cups of coffee that you should have, this is you should do your laundry first

and not the dishes or you should do this task at your job or you should take, no, no, that's not how the Bible works.

It's not how the Bible works and it's not how God has designed for us to live.

Rather, when we hear this, discern what is pleasing, try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

The idea here, as we are students of God's word and as we ingest the word in our lives, as we meditate, as we

pray, as we memorize the scriptures, we train our minds to think biblically and

to apply the Bible to every area of life.

This is wisdom, the Holy Spirit of God helps us to take the truth of God and apply it in real

time to every situation.

God doesn't care about what time I wake up.

Yes, He does.

Yeah, He does.

Why doesn't the Bible tell me what time I should wake up?

Well, the Bible teaches you the principles to apply to your life and the Holy Spirit and wisdom helps us to discern

the best time that we ought to wake up for our particular situation.

You know, last week we saw how Psalm 1 points to Christ, but also if you read Psalm 1, it has real and

practical and tangible application for believers.

We love God's word because we love God.

We meditate on God's word day and night because God's word teaches us what is pleasing to the Lord.

And if you push back a little bit and you say, well, but Quattro, I really don't know if our obedience pleases

God or not.

Aha, I got a verse for you.

Colossians 3 .20 says it this way.

Children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord.

Children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord.

Children, let me ask you for just a second.

Children, listen, are you pleasing Christ?

Are you trusting Christ?

Because as you trust Christ and seek to obey your parents by faith in Jesus, you please God.

This is what it looks like to practice verse 10.

Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

So now how I speak to my wife and kids, how I behave at the ball game,

what I let my children participate in or what I let them do or what I let them watch or where I let them spend a night,

how I think about work, the decisions about what I eat and how much I eat and how I exercise and how much I exercise

and what I do with my money and the time I spend in God's Word and the time I spend in prayer and all of this is geared

toward this one objective, this one supreme goal, this one

lane here, one focus, one prize, and that is Christ.

My aim, my race, my goal, my ambition, my desire.

One word, friends, Christ.

Christ above all.

And by the way, the local churches are wrapped up in this too, aren't they?

Go back to verse eight.

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Did you understand that all of these commands are

plural?

Meaning the nouns, the pronouns are plural.

You, you, you.

It's not just saying, hey, by the way, old Jim Bob, he needs to live a life that's pleasing to the

Lord.

No, when Paul says try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, he's talking to the whole church at Ephesus.

Christ be magnified in your church.

But let me offer two suggestions here, two thoughts here.

First, if you're not committed to the local church, you can't really live out verse 10.

You can't do it.

Why?

Because verse 10 is in the context of the local church at Ephesus.

So you say, I'm just out here, the lone ranger, man.

I'm just out here trying to live for the Lord by myself.

You can't do that.

Why?

If you believe the Bible at all, if the context and the history and all of this, the verbs and the

nouns, all this, if it matters at all, and it does because this is how the Holy Spirit communicates, you cannot live a life

pleasing to God apart from commitment to the local church.

God loves the local church.

God's desire is that the local church together as a family seeks to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever.

The second thought to offer is this.

Just as individual Christians and the local church, the members of the local church together seek to live holy

lives pleasing to Christ, listen, so too does the local church seek to please the Lord in

all its practices.

The local church is not allowed to live in a routine

not checked by Scripture.

One of the worst things that can happen, I'll give you, I didn't come up with

this analogy.

I heard this guy preaching it one time.

He was preaching it and he said, a new pastor comes into a church and he walks by the Sunday school room and

he hears one of the ladies talking about Jesus and he says, he talks to the deacons about it and he says,

that lady's teaching Jehovah's Witness doctrine.

The deacons say, oh no, no, no, now listen, listen, listen, listen, she's been a teacher for a long time, she's a big contributor to the church,

you just gotta be patient, just kinda let that slide.

Same pastor a few weeks later, I'll use one of the poinsettias as a illustration, he says, you know what?

Comes up on the stage and he says, hey, listen now, this poinsettia, we need to move it,

we need to move it right there.

The same deacons come up to him and say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Have you read the bylaws?

You can't just come up here and move a potted plant six inches unless we have a business meeting about it.

And so the idea is we get caught up in a routine, we get caught up in tradition, we get caught up in

just doing things, doing things, doing things, doing things, and churches can drift, drift, drift, drift, drift.

One generation drifts an inch, the next generation drifts six inches, and by the time you get three, four, five generations down,

you're miles away from where the scriptures call the church to be.

And the church must always seek to align its practices and its worship and its ways with the word of God because we

wanna please Christ.

We can amen that, but we better be careful

because there can be churches all over even our area today that are stuck doing things just to

do them.

They're in the tradition machine and things are just like churning out every Sunday.

But they don't think about why they do these things and if they should be doing these things and how they should be doing these things.

The way that we worship, the way that we evangelize, the way that we think about elders and deacons, the way that we think about membership,

everything that we do as a local church must always have this desire and thought at the forefront of our

hearts and minds.

Is this pleasing to Christ?

Try to discern, the text says, what is pleasing to the Lord.

And to reiterate, we don't decide what is pleasing to Christ.

By the way, this can be a danger of congregationalism.

And that is, let's vote tonight what's pleasing to Christ, right?

What do you think's pleasing to Christ?

What do you think's pleasing to Christ?

No, no, no, listen.

We don't vote on what's pleasing to Christ.

We don't vote on if we're gonna do God's will or not, no, friends.

The Bible is our objective standard.

We have an objective, undeniable, sufficient, and authoritative standard for what is pleasing to God in

His book.

And God has shown us in these sacred pages what He loves and what He hates.

And it is the local church's great delight, great honor, great privilege, great joy to

align ourselves totally with this book.

We won't do what the Bible says.

Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

But this means that at the end of the day, it's not our ultimate desire to please tradition,

to please the SBC, to please America, to please our community, to please LifeWay, or to please

anyone or anything else but our triune God.

It is the church's great obligation and privilege and delight to please God in all that we do.

Now let me shift back to the individual for a moment.

Because this goes for you too.

Now listen, quit worrying about what your neighbor might think.

Quit worrying about the politician.

The politician don't care about you.

Quit worrying about the culture.

Quit worrying about society.

Quit worrying about the person in leadership.

Those are not the things that you should think.

Even your pastor, don't think about what, what would Brother Cuatro think about that?

No, no, no, our first priority is what?

What is pleasing to God?

Above all, try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

I just want to tell you, I've lived here.

I'm from the Bible.

I've never lived outside the Bible Belt.

You might count a year that we lived in Kentucky.

They think we live in the Bible Belt.

They think they live in the Bible Belt.

I don't know, maybe.

Only lived there a year.

Every other hour of my life, I've been in the Bible Belt.

And I've been around a lot of people who from our perspective we say, oh, it's a good guy.

If I called that guy, man, he would help me change my tire.

He'd help me mow my lawn.

From our perspective, good God, they profess to be Christians.

But here's how they live their lives.

Ultimately, it's this.

They're just going to do whatever it is they want to do.

I want to miss church for this activity.

I'm not going to pray about it.

I'm just going to do it.

I want to participate in this action.

I'm not going to read the scriptures.

I'm just going to do it.

I want to spend my money on this.

I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do what I want to do.

I'll let my children do whatever.

I'll watch whatever.

Whatever I want, I'm going to do that thing.

And then I'll be so bold at times to just ask God to bless it.

By the way, God, this is what I'm going to do with my family.

This is the job I'm going to take.

This is the area I'm going to move.

This is how I'm going to read my Bible.

Oh yeah, and by the way, would you please bless my life?

And so many are going to do what they want to do.

And at best, they'll try to use the Bible to justify their actions.

You say, no, no, no, I don't think Christians can do that thing.

They'll say, no, no, no, don't you know what the Bible says?

It's for freedom that Christ has set us free.

So I'm free.

I'm free.

I'm free.

I don't have to think about pleasing God.

I'm free to just give into the flesh and live in the carnality and wildliness of

today's culture and society.

Friends, that is not biblical Christianity.

And they will use that to basically remain the God of their own life and to live a life that is

ultimately pleasing to the flesh.

And if you are living a life ultimately pleasing to the flesh, you can't please God.

They're not going to spend any real or meaningful time searching the Scriptures, studying the Scripture with their

wife, to see whether or not their actions or choices are pleasing to God.

Friends, please, is this you?

Saints, this is not the life we're called to.

We're called to order our lives according to God's Word, to please Him in all things.

And listen to this.

Don't miss this aspect.

What joy and fulfillment we find in such a life as that.

In every thought, in every deed, in every sentence, in every activity, in every motivation, in every desire, in every

goal, in all things, try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

The Christian's great priority is pleasing God.

And this shifts all our other priorities.

I thought about this, and this may come across really harsh, but I want you to just hear me.

The sad reality is, this is what I observe, about the sad reality of many professing Christians in

our day, that really for many, it's just the moral constraints of society

that keep them from living more wicked lives.

If they could sin today, if they could commit adultery, if they could rob a bank, if they could steal from a

store, if they could murder someone, if they could bad mouth someone, or cuss someone, or run someone down, if they could do

any of these things and more, and there were no societal consequences, their parents wouldn't get mad, their friends, their

neighbors, their community members wouldn't care, there was no cultural stigma, there was no shame, there was no legal consequences,

then they would do those things.

In other words, listen, they only value the virtues of what is good and right and true, not because their heart

yearns to please Christ, but because there is a vestige of value placed upon these things in

society today, even in our society today.

Let me illustrate it this way, because this is a change.

You understand that people used to go to church every week in the South.

By the way, a committed Christian, say, 50, 60, 70 years ago, a committed Christian in the South was someone who

went to church, Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, that was a committed Christian.

In the year of our Lord, 2022, a committed Christian is someone who drops in the church once a quarter.

Oh yeah, they're an active member.

How many times do you see them?

About four or five, maybe six times a year.

What?

There was a moral expectation from society.

But you know what happened?

This greatly vanished.

And as this expectation in the Bible belt went away, what has happened to the church?

Churches have shrunk.

Churches shrunk?

Yes.

Why?

Because the motivation wasn't about pleasing Christ.

It wasn't about pleasing Christ.

I went to church because I didn't want my grandma to get mad at me.

I went to church because my pastor would call me.

I went to church because everybody expected me to be in church.

I went to church because there was nothing else I could do.

Everything else was closed.

But that went away.

And then people stopped going to church.

In fact, in 2020, COVID hit and there was a shift.

It actually became virtuous not to go to church.

And so we had an acceleration of departure from churches because the motivation in all of this

wasn't the glory of Christ.

We ignored Ephesians 5 .10.

Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Listen, when it comes to Sunday, just a side application.

Will you please self or society or Christ?

And now, of course, we extend this into all of life.

When you come to make a decision, the question is not, is this pleasing to my finances?

Is this pleasing to my comfortability?

Is this pleasing to my relatives?

Is this pleasing to the memory of my grandparents?

Is this pleasing to the members of my community?

Is this pleasing to my children?

No, no, no, no, no.

Above all, above all, far and away above all, our drive, our ambition, our goal, our aim, our desire is this.

Is this pleasing to Christ?

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2 .4, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak

not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.

Sometimes we don't share the gospel, why?

We may offend someone.

Paul says, nah, don't care about that.

I'm not speaking to please man.

I'm speaking to please God.

We speak, we preach, we live, we love, we walk in the light not to please man, but to please God who tests

our hearts.

And listen, this is important.

I'm not just talking about in some grand reformation or revival movement in our nation.

I'm not just talking about in these big movements.

Like certainly we are ripe for revival.

Our country is tottering on the oblivion of complete failure.

Christians must stand in the midst of this moment.

What a moment we are.

What a moment we have to live in.

We need to stand, we need to shine brightly in the moment that God has given us.

We must please Christ in these uncertain days.

We must live and die boldly for our Lord.

Let us please Christ above all governments, above all mandates, above all laws, above all persecution.

Our aim is to please Christ above all of these things.

But listen, we must also please Christ in the

mundane, in the monotony,

in the ordinary, in our waking up every morning.

Tomorrow's Monday.

In our waking up Monday morning, going to the chair that we sit in, grabbing our Bible,

opening it up, and reading it before we head off to work.

In our folding the laundry.

In our changing the diaper.

In our buying the groceries.

In our fixing the kitchen sink.

In our week in and week out gathering with God's people in the local church.

We do these things with contentment and delight in Christ.

The Word of God informs our thinking and our worship and our obedience as the Holy Spirit takes the Word and

applies it in wisdom in every ordinary, monotonous, plain thing that

we do.

In all of these things, our priority is Christ.

Our joy is Christ.

Our desire is Christ.

Our effort and our goal and our motivation is Christ.

Here is Christ.

Christ is all we have.

Hallelujah.

All I have is Christ and I'm happy about it.

I find my contentment and my delight and my fulfillment and my joy there.

Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Let's close this way.

I'm going to go to a passage that I don't think we pray nearly often enough.

Turn in your Bibles.

I need everyone in the room.

Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 139.

Here's how we're going to close and prepare to take the Lord's Supper.

Psalm 139.

I'm going to read Psalm 139.

I'm going to read verse 23 and 24.

And as I'm reading that, I want you to pray this Psalm in your heart even as I read it now.

Psalm 139, verse 23 and 24.

What I'm saying is don't just let me read this.

I want you to pray this as we come to the table.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts.

And see if there be any grievous way in me.

And lead me in the way everlasting.

I love you.

I'm grateful for you.

It is an honor to be your pastor.

And in my love for you, I tell you that we must take this seriously as we come to the table this morning.

Is your life pleasing to Christ?

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

So many people say God knows my heart.

That's the scary thing.

He does know your heart.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

And try me and know my thoughts.

And see if there be any grievous way in me.

And lead me in the way everlasting.

Is your life characterized by discerning what is pleasing to the Lord and then adjusting your choices?

Because this is our great delight.

If you don't have a heart that's born again, this will never be your great delight.

Are you in Christ?

If you're not in Christ, I hold out the mercy of Christ even now.

Will you repent and come follow Jesus?

And if you're a Christian, have you prayed this psalm?

Will you pray it and will you mean it?

And as we come to the table, will you repent and trust again the grace of God in Christ?

When we think about this, there's something in all of our lives that we think, you know what, this is an area that I need to let go.

This is an area I need to repent of.

O God, I see it.

I feel your conviction.

I'm warned.

I hear it.

And now by grace, I repent of it.

I let it go.

I lay it at your feet.

And now let me walk in a more healthy way, a more Christ -honoring way, a more pleasing way in this direction.

Look, sometimes this can be, like, would you do that no matter the cost?

Because this can be really hard sometimes.

We have to break away from faulty traditions.

Our traditions are holding on to us.

Or we have to break away sometimes from the desires of our family and friends.

Mama wants you to do this.

Daddy wants you to do this.

But you have to say, no, I have to please Christ.

We have to be looked upon as different by members of our community.

If I'm going to live this way, people are going to think I'm a weirdo.

We have to admit at times that we've treated biblical Christianity contemptuously.

All this can be difficult.

It can seem like too much.

Satan can be whispering, even now as it were, don't do it.

It's not worth it.

But I'm telling you, Christian, listen, there is joy set before you.

There's joy.

There's delight.

There's joy.

The joy and delight of Christ set before you.

Your flesh may push against it.

The evil one may push against it.

But give your all this morning to Christ.

Seek to please Him in all the things.

And see the glory of Christianity derived from and defined by God's word.

Live for Christ.

Live for Christ.

Live for King Jesus.

It's worth it.

And let's do it together.

And let's see the town turned on its head as the banner of Christ is lifted high for the glory of our

King.

He's worth it.

He's worth it.

He's worth it.

Father, Christ is worthy of our life.

It's been a long morning with both the things we've had going on today.

Sustain us now.

Let us listen to what You have for us in Your Word.

And respond in faith.

It's the only way.

Search us and try us.

Point out even now every grievous way and let us repent and give it over to Christ.

In Jesus' name.