Pleasing Our Heavenly Father (Fathers Day)

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Pleasing Our Heavenly Father (Fathers Day). He will be reading out of John 8:28-30.

And if you feel like your life has been going the wrong direction, I want you to know that there is a merciful God. There is loving Savior who is inviting you back into a strong relationship and a strong fellowship with Him that will empower you to be all that God wants you to be.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from The Open Door Church and we want to welcome you to Hope Worth Having Radio program. We want to give a big shout out to all the dads and say happy Father’s Day.

Now today we’re going to be in the Gospel of John chapter 8 and I want to talk to you in verse 28 through 30 about pleasing our Heavenly Father. Let’s get into the Word of God this morning and learn what God has to say.

Well if you have your Bible this morning I wants you to join me in The Gospel Of John Chapter 8 verse 28 through 30. Today, fathers are going to get cards that say happy Father’s Day, but for some of us, it may not be a happy day.

Some people have a great relationship with their father. Others do not have great relationships with their Father. Our circumstances, when we think of Father day, can be varied in an auditorium like this, and I think that our relationship with our Father impacts our relationship with God.

And so what I want to talk to you today is not so much about your relationship with your dad as much as I wanna talk about your relation with the heavenly Father. I wan’t you to come to John chapter 8 and verse 28 and note what the Bible says.

Jesus said unto them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father taught me, I speak these things, and He who sent me is with me.

The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.” Jesus always pleased the Father. This was the desire of His heart. The life of Christ is not only essential that Christ lived a sinless life, that He might be qualified to die on the cross for our sins, and that he might fulfill all that was required in the Old Testament, in which you and I could not fulfill in living that perfect righteous life.

Jesus also lived a sinless life to set a model for each and every one of us so that we could look to Christ as an example of how we should live our lives. So many times in our relationship with our fathers we may struggle in the emotions that have or the memories that we have but I want to encourage you to take all those negative motions you might have about your dad and bring it to the cross and give it to Jesus Christ and focus your attention, not on the past, but focus it upon pleasing your heavenly Father.

Jesus is an example for us in how to do that. The Bible tells us, in 2 Corinthians 5, 9, that whether Whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. The Apostle Paul’s top ambition was always to Please the Lord.

This should be our focus as well as we not only see the example of Christ being a great model for us and pleasing the Father, it should our goal every day and our ambition to please God. When the Apostle Paul was praying for the Ephesian believers in chapter 5 of the book of Epheas, the Bible teaches us that he said that they would discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

God is wanting us to have that wisdom to know how we might please him. Again Paul teaching the Thessalonians said we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.

God wants us to look within our hearts and make sure that we’re not trying to please others or please people or pleased individuals. If you spend your life trying to make everybody happy, what you’ll find is that you’re the most miserable person in this world.

But if you spent your live pleasing the Father, if he spent your with the ambition and the goal that I want to But please God in my life, that’s when you’ll find most meaning and most significance in your life as you are pleasing the Father.

The Bible teaches us that God has saved us, for by grace you’re saved through faith, that of naught of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It’s through this salvation that is transforming each of our lives, and he is shaping our lives that we might reflect the God -given image that was given to us at creation but it is marred by sin.

And as we are restoring that image in our lives it, is as, we please the Father that this image is restored and we become more Christ -like in, our, lives. So I want to share with you this morning five specific ways that you can please God.

Five ways that the Bible teaches us that we can live our lives where we honor Him and that We are pleasing the Heavenly Father. The first thing I want you to see is our spiritual focus. You’ll note in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and verse 4 that the bible says that no man whoreth and tangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.

We understand that anyone who is engaged in battle, they can’t get sidetracked. They cannot get involved in the things that are going on in their world. They have to stay focused. It’s so important for you and I as the devil is dangling different things out there that try to draw our attention to what is most important in our life and what has to be the focus of our life.

That we don’t get caught up in these things, entangled in the affairs of this life, but rather that we have a spiritual focus in our life you want to please God this morning you say I want to walk out of here and live my life to Please God.

You need a spiritual focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. God doesn’t want you to get distracted. He doesn’ t want your attention to focus on the world. I know what happens is that so many times we read things on the internet or we see things in television or hear things through our podcast and we get frustrated and then all of a sudden we let those emotions drive our thoughts and that we make bad decisions and it reflects our attitude and all of the sudden our life is a mess because we are entangled in the affairs of this world.

I know we live in a confused world, a troubled world a world that is really aimless and can’t really find its way out. The only answer for this world is for people to give their lives fully and freely to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Would you agree with that? And so my friends you and I have to remember we’re in spiritual war, we are in an spiritual battle. We wrestle not with flesh and blood and you might get angry at that politician and You might get angry at that person, and you may get anger at the things that are going on in this world, but you’re not wrestling with the things of this word, the flesh of the world.

You must understand the spiritual battle is a battle that is spiritual hierarchy. And that there are things that are goin’ on that the devil is trying to destroy this world and to destroy families and to destroy children and to destroy the values that we hold so dearly in our life and if we use the weapons of this warfare of the world, if we try to overcome the devil and sin and the flesh and the whirl through fleshly means, we are gonna miserably fail.

Now we’re a generation that has the ability to look back. We have the ability see how our forefathers handled things. We can see that the only way that you can win the battle is through the weapons and the warfare of God.

By using his instruments like prayer and scripture reading, by using the spiritual focus of our life, that is how you are going to overcome. You say, how are we gonna change America? How are we going change the world?

We’re gonna do it one person at a time as we are living our lives with a spiritual focus and we are committed to the cause and the purpose of Christ. And as we do that, we can influence others. We can influence other generations and can make sure that we are making impact for the Cause of Jesus Christ.” The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12 that were to fight the good fight of faith.

You’ll notice he didn’t say fight -the -good -fight of politics, but fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life to which you were called and have confessed the Good Confession in the presence of many witnesses.” So let me give you some keys on staying spiritually focused, how to stay spiritually focus in my life.

Number one, I have to be willing to give up my rights. What do you mean, pastor? Give up your rights? I’m out here fighting for my rights. Listen to me, I want you to understand something. I am talking about being a spiritual soldier for God.

Iam talking being about a being spiritual soldier of God, you have been chosen to be a soldier. Remember what II Timothy 2 for said? That we are chosen, who has chosen him to be soldier, You have chosen by God to be a soldier when a soldier joins the army.

They give up some of their rights for a greater cause for a greater purpose. There is a commitment in their heart, there is a committment in there mind, and they are willing to give up some things for the greater good.

And you have to, I have, to be careful that we don’t get so wrapped up in the things of this world that, we forget that God wants us to be single -minded. He wants to us be a single focus upon the spiritual things in this World.

So we give our rights. We give up our rights so we can be that soldier for God, so that we can’t be on the front lines for Christ. We’re willing to sacrifice in whatever means, in what ever way, so, that, we, can, move the cause of Christ forward.

We are willing, to sacrifice time, energy. We, are, willing to, sacrifice, even the means of resources that we have, for the purposes of the glory of God. this is essential. How else can we have a spiritual focus?

We must be willing to be different from the majority. You ever see these soldiers? They do look a little different, don’t they? They dress differently. They have the mindset that is different. And they’re always alert to everything that’s around them.

A little bit different than the average citizen. They’re fully equipped, they’re always ready. They are different. What I’m saying to you as a believer, we can’t just go the way of the crowd. We can go to the Way of The World.

We just can jump on and say, hey, we want to go The Broad Way. Jesus said that The Way Of The world is The broad way. But The way Of Christ is a narrow way, it is way a sacrifice and discipline. It is the a way where we are fully devoted followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If I want to have a spiritual focus in my life, I’m gonna have to be willing to be different in this world. There’s nothing wrong with being different. I know you don’t wanna be different, you wanna to like the world, you want it kinda fit in.

There is that natural human desire to fit in, we wanna like, we want people to like us and I am not telling you to go out there and make everybody dislike you but I am encouraging you to believe like Jesus is Christ.

If you’re gonna please the Father, you got to be this spiritually focused soldier that is willing to be distinct and different in the world, that your life is going to stand out, the way that you conduct yourself is gonna stand out.

People are gonna know there’s something unique and different about you, and it’s not a bad thing. They may inquire, what is it that’s so different about you and you can do as Peter taught us in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15 that we can give the hope that lies within our hearts.

You and I are called to be people who are hopeful and we are to focused on the things that are praiseworthy. We’re not to a people that are depressed and discouraged and defeated and ready to give up.

We are not a person who is always thinking the sky is going to fall tomorrow, But rather we are a people who are filled with the hope of Christ because we know in the end that God wins amen I mean if you don’t know that god wins you might want to open your Bible and read the last chapter in the Bible Everybody’s worried about reading the first chapter But also don’ forget to read The last Chapter and remember that you’re a winner that You are winner in The Lord Jesus Christ that You’re on the winning side You’re on the winning team in faith.

When you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are on the wining team. And I wanna be on the waiting team, amen? And being on the wedding team means that I’m willing to be distinct. I am willing to different.

I willing to stand out for God so that I can be an example in this crazy world that we live in. If I gonna have a spiritual focus, I must have a strong devotion life with Christ. I’m gonna be spiritually focused.

You see, when you get up in the morning, what is the one thing that is setting the tone for your day? What is that one that’s setting the direction of your days? You know, you might get and you jump into activities, you may jump in to this, or you wanna get on to Fox News or CNN, and might wanna learn this and learn that, but let me tell you something.

To stay spiritually focus, is you get into the word of God, and you have a time with the Lord Jesus Christ, and get your marching orders from the Bible. You don’t get you marching order from world, and don get it from a political figure, or a famous person.

You get marching ordered from our almighty commander, the lord, Jesus, Christ. You need to have time and prayer everyday with God. You go up and say, well pastor, I’m barely making it to work on time, then get out of bed early, all right?

and you say, it’s too hard for me, then go to bed early. Okay, I mean, these are simple solutions. You know me? People tell me they want to change the world. And I say you start changing the word by fixing your bed every morning, amen?

If you can’t fix your bad, what makes you think you could fix people? I’m mean if you cant have the discipline to read your Bible and to have a time with the Lord every mornin, what make you you that God could use you to make a difference?

You gotta win the private battles before you win can win public battles. You’ve gotta have single focus in your morning and you gotta say I gotta get up and I got to spend some time with the Lord Jesus Christ, and I’ve gotta hear what God has to say to me, because that is gonna be the focus of my life.

And how I’m gonna interpret everything that happens this day through the marching orders of my Lord and Savior Jesus Chri. We’re talking about how to please the Heavenly Father. It’s not only number one that I have a spiritual focus, but number two, I live in obedience to God.

In our text today in John chapter 8 verse 29, Jesus always did the things that pleased the Father. That’s a remarkable statement, not just every once in a while, but not 90% of the time, but Jesus did what pleased the father.

Jesus would say in the Gospel of John 4 in verse 34, my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. My food is to do the will. You know what fed Christ? You what nurtured his soul?

You don’t what gave him energy and excitement? It was to the do will of the Father. It to obey God. It’s to what God says and what his word says. And I know that when we look at the Bible, we see the commands of scriptures that they’re so often that we want to try to dilute the bible.

We want to change the Bible. We want find a way to get around those commands, but I promise you that if your heart was committed to doing the will of the Father and to obey God that you would find it energizing in your spiritual life.

Doing the things that please the Father means that we are obedient to whatever He tells us to do. We don’t look at His commands as options. We do not look at His commands as, we’ll see if it works out, but we see them as God giving us not only His orders but His guidance for our life so that our life will be fully blessed and that we can find the most fulfillment and the most significance as we are living in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want you to notice in John chapter 5 verse 30 Jesus that I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me.” Think about that. So many times we make our decisions based on our emotions.

How do we feel at the moment? I don’t feel like this pastor. If I hear that one more time, I think my head’s gonna explode. And here’s the sad thing, church, is that I expect to hear it from in the world, but what breaks my heart is that I hear it from Christians, that they’re making life choices based upon emotions rather than obedience to the will of God.

What is the Will of god? What does God command me to do? I don’t always feel, man there’s times, man I’m not feeling well, and man, I’d like to sleep in on a Sunday. But you know what? I’m commanded to forsake not the assembling of ourselves together.

And so you know what? I make it happen. I made it happened. You see friends, you have to push through your emotions. You have teach your children to push though their feelings and do the right thing.

God will honor that. Our life is to be about pleasing the Father and so we should strive to please Him. Jesus lived a life of total obedience to the will of the father and it was pleasing to the Father.

What Jesus did is an example for us. It is a goal in our lives. We should always strive to please the father. I love what the Bible says in 1 John 3, 22, whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

You might wonder why is my prayer life so powerless? Why is it ineffective. It may be rooted in your lack of obedience to God. For John teaches us that when we walk and keep his commandments and we are pleasing the Father and doing his will that it gives us power in our prayer life that we are asking whatsoever we ask and We are receiving them obviously in the context of his Will, in The context of what his Word teaches us, but we see God manifesting these things in our life because we strive to obey God.

We strive, to please the Father. Our one consuming desire should be to do the father’s will. Now let’s talk about what else pleases the father. The third thing I want you to see is holiness, is living our lives as God’s holy people.

Unfortunately, this word is quite infrequent in our vocabularies, but yet it is high on God’s agenda. The Scriptures teach us in 1 Peter 1 .15 that he who has called you is holy, as he has call you, is Holy.

You also be holy in all your conduct. The way that I live my life is a reflection of the very nature of God. And so if I lived my life in an unholy way, what image am I projecting and reflecting to my children and to family and to friends and coworkers and every person that I come into contact with?

Am I saying through my own life that God is an unholy God? Peter makes the case to us that because God’s holy we should be holy. In essence what he is saying is that our lifestyle reflects the nature of God.

It is a reflection of who God is. And we wanna make sure that we never mess that up because holiness is the idea of being blameless or without sin and we know that our God is holy God and he is sinless God.

But it also has the meaning of set apart for a calling, for purpose, for service. We have been set -apart. Set- apart from the world. set apart from the things of this world and we are called to live a life that is dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Holiness is about how we live our lives. It’s about what is really on the inside of our heart. You can’t live a holy life if you don’t know the lord Jesus christ. You could try to be holy but you’ll always fail and you always stumble and you’re always struggle but when we have the LORD Jesus CHRIST when and we come to that point that we admit that we’re sinners and that admit we are in need of a Savior and ask God to forgive us of our sins.

The Bible tells us that the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit lives within us, He dwells within us and as He lives in us He shapes our life that We might live a holy life unto God. There may be some things in your life that the spirit of god is saying you need to give that up.

It’s not that maybe they’re necessarily evil or even wrong, but they are not the best in your life. They do not reflect the holiness of God in you life, there may be words that you speak that do no reflect that holeness of god.

They reflect a flesh, they reflect the worldliness of this life but don’t reflect holness of the god, god is always calling us to a higher standard. I can’t achieve this holines in my own flesh or in my own strength but through the power of Christ and the power the Spirit as I walk in the spirit as, I live in the, spirit, as i am saturated with the spirit and his word I am able to live a holy life.

Now let’s just be honest none of us are going to be perfect and we’re all going find moments and times where we fail God and I don’t want you to be discouraged in your walk with God as you’re striving to Be holy that as soon as you fail god that somehow he is done with you, no.

Whenever we get off track or where we find ourselves going the wrong direction. God is wooing us. He is calling us back to that life of holiness. And if you feel like your life has been going wrong the direction, I want you to know that there is a merciful God, there’s a loving savior who is inviting you back into a strong relationship and a strong fellowship with him that’ll empower you to be all that God wants you be.

The Bible says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness. And so when I fail God in my attitude, or my motives, or by actions, or even the things that he called me to do but I refuse to, that I can always bring those to God.

And I could say, Lord, I lay them at the altar at The Cross, and I give them to you, and ask that you would restore me, and that You would continue to encourage me and empower me to live a holy life unto you.

The Bible teaches us that the Apostle Paul was encouraging the Thessalonians to walk in such a way that pleased God and he said in 1 Thesalonian 4, verse 1, finally then brothers and sisters, we request and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you received instruction from us as to how you ought to work or live and please God, just as as you actually do walk, that you excel even more.

Now here’s the key to your holiness, is that God is not so much interested in your perfection as he is in you’re direction. And sometimes we feel like we’re failing God and we let that beat us down and we just give up and quit and say I’m not even gonna try.

But here is what I want you to understand, is we are out there playing that football game. We’re trying to get to that touchdown. And the goal sometimes, you know what, is just let’s just get a first down.

Let’s get some positive yardage. Let just a win under our belt. And that’s the way I look at the spiritual journey of our lives. Is that let just take a positive step in the right direction towards God’s holiness.

And then you what? Each day we’re striving to be more like him. And as we are living in holeness, as he said in this passage of scripture I read to you, that we striving excel even more. or we’re striving to do better.

We may not be a perfect people, but praise the Lord, we are an improving people. We’re improving in our faith. We are improving and our walk with God. We improving our effort to reflect the holiness of God each day in life.

And whatever we find that the spirit of god is bringing to our attention that we need to change, then we willing and submissive to confess that to God, We are holy when we do what God would have us do and we are unholy when we disregard what god commands us to do in his scripture.

So again we were admonished by the Apostle Paul when he says so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Now, the fourth way that we please God, we talked a little bit about this last week, and that is faith. That is, faith, the author of Hebrews teaches us that one of the ways we pleased God without faith it’s impossible to what, church?

It’s possible to please god without faith if you’re living your life without faith you are not pleasing God faith pleases the father you say how can and I please the Father, by stepping out and living your life in faith, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh, you’re not always gonna see it, but you believe that God is at work. You believe, that even in the midst of the chaos, even the in midst the confusion, even if in a midst of a deterioration of this country and all that we’re experiencing and the values that are under attack, that, we see a mighty God who is that work and we see this as an opportunity for the light of Jesus Christ to shine greater than it ever has in the darkness of this world.

That’s living by faith. Faith pleases the father. He loves for his children to trust him. he loves us to show that our confidence is in him.” Don’t forget to check out our YouTube channel. Just type out on the search button.

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This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.