KMB How To Please God

I hope all are well as we dive into our lesson for today. We are going to be in the book of Ezekiel. As it were I just so happen to be teaching this book in my Monday evening OABS class and we looked at Ezekiel 1:1-3:21 and the call of Ezekiel. Now there are some really interesting visions in Ezekiel one pointing to God bring the Babylonians to Jerusalem to destroy it but after that vision God tells Ezekiel in Ezekiel 2:1-2…

Ezekiel 2:1–2 NKJV

1 And He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.” 2 Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me.

God needed Ezekiel to be his preacher for his rebellious, impudent , and stubborn children the Israel i.e., the Southern Kingdom of Judah. They were so bad that Jeremiah was already preaching to them and five years after Ezekiel is in captivity God makes him one of his prophets to them as well. But the text I want us to focus on today is found in Ezekiel 3:10. Here God has asked Ezekiel to be his prophet, God has shown him such an amazing vision that Ezekiel needed seven days to recover, and in the midst of all this God tells him in Ezekiel 3:10…

Ezekiel 3:10 NKJV

10 Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears.

There are three requirements for us, God’s creation, to please God.

The first step is the hardest for most people because we must actually “hear what God is saying in his word.” By that I mean we cannot today just read over the scriptures and not actually pay attention to what they are saying. Most people who call themselves “students of the bible” simply do not listen to God when he says “baptism does now save” (1 Peter 3:21) or one is “not saved by faith alone” (James 2:24), or that there are people that have “fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4) and that when one is saved they must still “workout their own salvation” (Philippians 2:12). So the first thing we must do to please God is actually hear what God is saying and not change what he is saying to fit our feelings.

The second thing we must to is “receive God’s word into our hearts.” By this God means we must not only hear and understand what God wants but we must “want to do his will.” This is the second hardest step because many people simply do not like what God says. Sure they don’t deny it but instead of not forsaking the assembling of the saints (Hebrews 10:25-26) they make up excuses to forsake it. Instead of studying God’s word every day (2 Timothy 2:15) they make up excuses for why they don’t need to.

Lastly, if one hears God’s word and receives it into their hearts they then “almost always” will obey it. The first two are the hardest but once it enters our heart and we “want to live for God” things get much easier. That doesn’t mean we won’t have sin in our lives even David, the man after God’s own heart, sinned and needed discipline from God, but David repented because, as he wrote in Psalm 119:97…

Psalm 119:97 NKJV

97 Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.

So, to before we ever get to the point of truly pleasing God we must hear God’s word for what is actually says and receive it into our hearts. Then we will see clearly to obey it’s precious soul saving message.