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P.O. Box 25759 1411 Rim Road Fayetteville, North Carolina 28314 Office Phone: 910-868-5686 |
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Introduction:
When I was in middle school and Sr. High School, my father coughed at front of the door of my room. Then he opened door. When he saw me studying, his face had a dazzling smile and he said, “Good!” then he closed the door and later my mother brought refreshments. There were some nights that I did not sleep at all and studied all night long because I knew that my father was very pleased with my study. When I brought a good report card, my father gave me extra money and I received extra gifts from my parents.
o Esther 2:9, “The girl pleased him and won his favor.”
My father had 4 sons and 2 daughters. I am the youngest child of my family. I saw all things that my brothers and sisters did as I was growing. I, the youngest child, tried to please other family members with all the things that I could.
o Mark 6: 22, “When his daughter Heroidans came in and dances, she pleased, Herod and his guests.”
We are living in a society where we emphasize what is pleasing to us. "If it feels good, do it, no matter how much it costs, what it costs,! Who cares about others as long as I get what I want that’s fine.”
Where are our efforts to please our parents, siblings, and ourselves? My father has been deceased for 20 some years. I cannot please him any longer. The youngest child is not young any longer and has his/her own way of life. In our society if you please yourself beyond ethical and moral boundary, behind the scene people call you a selfish person and move away from you.
We are pleasing to God. . People tried
many different things in order to please God such as animal sacrifices,
self-inflicted suffering, fasting, long prayers, sacrificial giving, good works
such as feeding the poor, helping the elderly, or saving the rain forests, and
so on, and others have sought God’s approval by keeping the Law such as
Pharisees, many Jews, and legalist. For example, Paul thought he pleased God by
persecuting Christians. Before his conversion, the Apostle Paul killed
Christians because he thought it would make God happy. To a lesser extreme, some
people wear their hair a certain way, or dress a certain way, or follow certain
dietary customs to make God happy.
In the 16th century, a monk named Martin Luther did everything he could think of
to make God happy: he spent hours in the confessional, he beat himself with a
whip, he wore shirts made out of human hair-all in an effort to make God happy.
All these human efforts were in vain like “waterless clouds carried along by the winds and autumn trees without fruit.” (Jude 1: 12)
Today’s scripture lesson tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” With faith we please God.
Everyone has faith. Someone says, “Faith is the heart of life. You go to a doctor whose name you can’t pronounce. He gives you a prescription you cannot read. You take it to a pharmacist you have never seen. He gives you medication you do not understand --- and yet, you take it.” Now, that is living by Faith! The fact we can’t get through a single day without living by Faith. When you flip a light switch you put faith in the electrical wiring. When you turn the ignition switch in your car, you trust the motor. When you mail a letter you have faith in the US Mail Service. Sometimes --- of course ---- your faith might be misplaced.
The same is true with Spiritual Faith. Buddhists have faith in Buddha. Muslims trust in Allah. Hindus believe in various Gods (thousands actually.) Most religious people put faith in their ability to keep the rules … to be “good enough” to satisfy their god --- or reach their Nirvana.
The Bible says in Heb 1:1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” A.W. Tozer said, “Faith is seeing the invisible, but not the nonexistent.” Faith means that we keep our eyes on God who controls circumstances, not on the circumstances themselves. So the opposite of faith is not un-belief, but it is sight. II Corinthians 5:7 says, “We live by faith, not by sight.”
II. What faith is not
1. Faith is NOT a blind leap in the dark.
Some people think you have to ignore
logic and reason in order to believe in God. The fact is, believing there is NO
God requires an unreasonable kind of faith.
Listen to what D.L Moody said about faith: “I prayed for faith and thought that
some day it would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith didn’t seem
to come. One day I read in Romans that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by
the word of God.” I had, up to this time, closed my Bible and prayed for faith.
Now I opened my Bible and began to study ---and faith has been growing ever
since.”
2. Faith is not something that we can use to make God do whatever we want.
But Biblical faith is NOT the ability to
manipulate God. Some Christians think Faith is a kind of magic medicine. You can
name it and claim it … blab it and grab it …
That kind of faith won’t outlast the first major disappointment. When a loved
one is not healed or a promotion doesn’t come through or unforeseen tragedy
strikes, false faith will crumble. Biblical faith does not believe that God will
do what WE say. Biblical Faith knows that God will do what HE says. By faith, we
rest on the promises of God --- no matter what happens.
3. Faith does not mean knowing all the right facts and learning all the right rules.
Faith is NOT adherence to a list of doctrines. Biblical Faith is a relationship
with a personal God. In the Old Testament, God is often referred to as the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
If you think about it, this makes sense. Suppose you wanted to tell someone who
Kong Namkung is. Well, you could give my SS # or my bank acct. number. You could
tell someone my address, age, height & weight and other information about me.
But if you really want someone to know WHO I am, you could say, “He’s the father
of John, Hannah, and Joel, or the husband of Kum or the Minister of Cornerstone
UMC.”
If you want to know what someone is like, look at the people they spend time with and care about. And look at the people who care about them. If you want to know who God is, look at the people He cares for, and the people who care about Him.
That’s why Hebrews 11 gives a whole list of people who put their trust in God. These Bible Heroes show us WHAT real FAITH DOES. For one thing, Faith will always result in heart-felt WORSHIP.
III. What Biblical Faith Does:
1. WORSHIP: Abel Genesis 4:1- 8
The first Biblical example of a Worshipper is Abel --- the younger
brother of Cain, who was the first man born to the first parents. The text
reminds us that: 4By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By
faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings.
Hebrews 11:4
Able worshipped in obedience and with a sincere heart. His faith pleased God.
Unfortunately Cain’s offering was not pleasing to God. And out of envy, Cain
killed his brother. But Abel’s honest worship stands as a testimony. Faith that
pleases God will always lead to WORSHIP.
Are you drawn to WORSHIP God with all your heart, mind, and soul? When we come
together, we worship in songs and scripture reading and sermons. But the part of
our worship that follows the example of Able is our time of OFFERING. Do you
give your tithes and offerings as an act of Worship? Do you give with a sincere
heart of gratitude? Is your offering a sacrifice of praise and obedience? If so,
your faith pleases God.
The next example in our list of Faith Heroes is a rather obscure character named
Enoch. We don’t know much about him, but what we know is impressive.
2. WALK: Enoch Genesis 5:24
Hebrews 11:5 elaborates: 5By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he
did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away.
Before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
Evidently Enoch walked so closely with God that God took him home without Enoch
having to experience physical death. From Enoch we learn that to walk with God
is to please God.
Does your faith cause you to Walk with God? Cornerstone has Jericho Walk. Some
of us come to church early in the morning before we go to work and walk around
the church 7 times. While we are walking, we lift up our prayers requests and
all of you in our prayers.
Do you walk with God each day? Do you
communicate with Him while you are doing your chores … while you are mowing the
yard … while you are brushing your teeth … while you are driving your car? This
is the kind of faith that pleases God.
The next Bible Hero --- Noah --- is much better known than Enoch. Noah is a man
whose faith led to some long hard work!
Maybe you never thought about it, but
building an Ark is no small task. It took Noah and his 3 boys over 100 years!
Now that’s a project! 7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in
holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world
and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Hebrews 11:7
When I served another church, I heard a prayer from a little child, who
evidently learned the story of Noah at church, saying, “And Lord, if you need
someone to build an Ark … I’ll do it!”
Most of us won’t be asked to build an Ark, but God has given every one of us
work assignments. Do you have the kind of faith that leads you to work hard for
the Kingdom of God? That is a faith that pleases God.
I like what Warren Wiersbe said in one of his commentaries: "Faith enables us to
understand what God does. Faith enables us to see what others cannot see. As a
result, faith enables us to do what others cannot do."
IV. Rewards of faith –
Do you remember I received refreshments from my mother, extra money from my father by pleasing to them? Herodias’ daughter got what she wanted, the head of John the Baptist, by pleasing to God. Esther became queen of Persian Empire by pleasing to the King. Then what kind of rewards are we going to receive by pleasing to God?
1. We are pleasing to God
2. You are accepted and approved by God.
John MacArthur “In God’s eyes, there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who do not belong to Him and those who do. Put another way, there are only those who are according to the flesh and those who are according to the Spirit.”
3. We are in a healthy relationship with Him.
4.
Like Able, Enoch, and
Noah, we continue to WORSHIP, and to WALK with God, and to WORK for His Kingdom.
By worshipping God, walking with God, and working for God, we will have life
abundantly and receive the crown of life not here, but in heaven
CONCLUSION:
I have one goal that I want to like
Jesus. The scripture says, “We who are strong ought to put up with the failing
of the weak, and not to please ourselves … for Christ did not please himself.”
(Romans 15:1- 3) I do not want to please me in whatever I do . Jesus prayed,
“Remover this cup from me, Father, not what I want, but what you want.” Even at
the point of death, Jesus wanted to please His Father. I want to be like Jesus,
it is my prayer for you and me, “Father, do all things, not what I want, but
what you want.” I want to please my Father. I want to. The Bible verse Heb
11:6 has been inscribed in my heart and let us repeat it together. “Without
faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” I’m
not going to tell you that being a Christian is a magical miracle cure for what
ails you. You won’t become a millionaire, and I doubt God will make your breasts
bigger. If you had watched the movie Bruce Almighty with us a years ago you know
what I am talking about. But, in all seriousness, I can tell you this. God not
only rewards those who please him, he rewards all who will come to him.
Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen
1 Samuel 12:19-25
19 The people all said to Samuel, "Pray to the LORD your God for your servants
so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of
asking for a king."
20 "Do not be afraid," Samuel replied. "You have done all this evil; yet do not
turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. 21 Do not turn
away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you,
because they are useless. 22 For the sake of his great name the LORD will not
reject his people, because the LORD was pleased to make you his own. 23 As for
me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for
you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. 24 But be sure to fear
the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great
things he has done for you. 25 Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and
your king will be swept away." NIV
Hebrews 11:4-6
4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was
commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith
he still speaks, even though he is dead.
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death;
he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken,
he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to
please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that
he rewards those who earnestly seek him. NIV
John 8:28-30
28 So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know
that I am [the one I claim to be] and that I do nothing on my own but speak just
what the Father has taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not
left me alone, for I always do what pleases him." 30 Even as he spoke, many put
their faith in him. NIV
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