Introduction:

• How do we live in order to please God?
• What are certain things that the Lord called and instructed us to do that will please Him?
• Are we striving to please God or still living to please our self and man?

We take it lightly especially when we are not inside the church or visible in the eyes of our brethren.

We take no consideration of pleasing God because we are still pleasing ourselves with our sinful nature.

In everything we are called to please God.

•  We always seek to please God. John 5:30 - “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”
   
• We always do what pleases the Lord. John 8:29 - “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him."
   
• We are to please Him in every way. Colossians 1:10 – “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.”
   
•  Our goal is to please Him. 2 Corinthians 5:9 – “So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.”
   
• We live in order to please Him. 1 Thessalonians 4:1 – “Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living.”
   

What do we mean by “to please”?

The English word “please” in its original Greek word “areshko” (ar-es’-ko) meaning to:

• To strive
• To accommodate one’s self to the opinions, desires, and interest of others

From this meaning, we can say that to please God is to strive to accommodate or to have room for our self to God’s opinion, desires, and interest.

What Pleases God?

• Our offerings of worship by praising His name and glorifying Him with thanksgiving will please the Lord more than any other sacrifices. Psalm 69:30&31 – I will praise God’s name in song and glorify Him in thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs.”
  
  
• The prayer of upright pleases Him. Psalm 15:8&9 – The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases Him. The Lord detests the way of the wicked but he loves those who pursue righteousness.”
   
• Everything that God does please Him. Psalm 115:3 – “Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him.” Psalm 135:6 – “The Lord does whatever pleases Him, in the heavens and on earth, in the seas and all their depths.”
   
• Just as the Lord is pleased to bless us so it will please Him to punish us if we rebel against Him. Deuteronomy 28:62&63 – “You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God. Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.”
   
• God is please when we obey our parents. Colossians 3:20 – “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”
   
• God is please when we do things by faith. Hebrews 11:6 – “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.”
   

The Blessings of God

• God will do things according to what we ask and His promise. Exodus 33:17 – And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” Numbers 14:8 – If the Lord is pleased with us, He will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.”
   
• God will give wisdom, knowledge and happiness. Ecclesiastes 2:26 – “To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God.
   
• God will give eternal life. Galatians 6:8 – “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

The instruction to live in order to please God (v.1&2)

“Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.”

• Instruction for believers who have not yet live fully to please God.
• Instruction for believers who are already living to please God to do this more and more.
• This instruction was given to us by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
   

How do we please God in our Christian life?

I. Live by Having a Sanctified Life (v.3-8).

“It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.”

Sanctify – Greek word “qadash” {kaw-dash'}

• Be consecrate, to be set apart
• To be hallowed
• To be holy and pure

1 Corinthians 6:11 – “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23 & 24 – “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”

How to live a sanctified life?

• Avoid sexual immorality.
  Ephesians 5:3 – “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.”
   
• Learn to control our body in a holy and honorable way.
  1 Corinthians 18-20 – “All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
   
• Not to wrong a brother and take advantage of him.
  1 Thessalonians 5:14 & 15 – “And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.”
  
  Verse 6b & 7 -”The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.”

II. Live by Loving Each Other (v.9-10).

“Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.”

Why love each other?

• A Commandment to obey.
  John 15:12 &13 – “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends”.
   
• It is our mark and identity.
  John 13:35 – “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
   
• We were urged to love more and more.
  1 Thessalonians 3:12 – “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.”

III. Live by Leading a Life of Example (v.11-12).

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

In John 13:15, Jesus said “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” 1 Peter 2:12

In what areas do we need to live as an example?

• Lead a quiet life.
• Minding our own business.
• Work with our hands and not to be dependent on anybody.

IV. Live with encouragement by having hope in the Second Coming of Christ (v.13-18).

“Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

Conclusion:

2 Corinthians 5:6-10

“Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”