Live to Please God

Live to Please (Honor) God

Psalm 95:6–11 (ESV)

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

DT: When we appropriately honor God, we will please God.

Aim: We will worship God and be faithful to Him

Introduction: Last week we read the first five verses of this Psalm. We were encouraged by the writer to be thankful for the Lord’s blessings. Today the writer instructs us to live a life that prioritizes God.

The challenge is to live a life that pleases God everyday. We live in a society where the first person many desire to please are themselves. I would like to suggest that until we make the pleasure of God our priority we will not find personal fulfilment.

Transition: If pleasing God is to be a priority in the life of the believer then one must be willing to . . .

Give God Glory Daily (vv.6-7)

“6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,”

Plainly the psalmist is reminding the hearer to prioritize the glory of God above their own. In other words, God must be glorified and praised for whom he is.

vv. 6 -7 calls the reader to approach God for ways:

Worshiping (v.6)

Bowing (v.6)

Kneeling (v.6)

Hearing (v.7)

We are also given reasons to worship, bow, kneel and hear God:

He is our maker

He is our God

We are His people- IN HIS PASTURE

We are the sheep- OF HIS HAND

Did you get that? The writer just told us that God is Sovereign and has all authority. God is ruler. All glory goes to God because nobody else has done what he has. Nobody else can do what He does.

We do not get the glory because we did not make Him. God made us. He is our God! We belong to Him (we are his people). He is our provider. Do you see it? “In His pasture”, not only do we belong to him but the pasture is His.

We are subject to him. Look at what it says, “the sheep of His hand” What does a shepherd do? He does not only watch sheep he owns the sheep and guides the sheep to where he wants them.

Transition: God deserves all glory and praise in our life. For too long have we ignored God and taken the credit for what God has done.

Illustration: In 1715, Louis XIV of France died. Louis, who called himself “the Great,” was the monarch who made the infamous statement “I am the State!” His court was the most magnificent in Europe, and his funeral was spectacular. His body lay in a golden coffin. To dramatize the deceased king’s greatness, orders had been given that the cathedral should be very dimly lighted, with only one special candle set above his coffin. Thousands waited in hushed silence. Then Bishop Massilon began to speak. Slowly reaching down, he snuffed out the candle, saying, “Only God is great!”

Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 168.

Transition: Do not get it twisted. The God is great and the glory belongs to Him.

Application: We owe God glory. Think about how good God has been to you. Now think about all that God has protected you from. Think about the blessings you are now enjoying because of the Hand of God.

Is not God worth a thank you? Wait a minute shouldn’t we make every effort possible to worship Him and kneel before Him? My challenge for you today is to evaluate where God is on your to do list daily?

Transition: Here is the final principle from this text, Submit to God’s Will in your Life

Submit to God’s Will in Your Life (v.8-11)

“8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

This part of the paragraph becomes intense instructions on how not to break God’s heart. In fact, the psalmist reminds the people of how their forefathers broke God’s heart in the wilderness.

Exodus 17:7 (ESV)

7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Numbers 20:13 (ESV)

13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.

They had hardened hearts (v.8)

They doubted God (v.9)

They took God for granted (v.9)

The text teaches that God’s heart was broken and because he was hurt he refused to allow them to enter the land promised.

(Rest- resting place the place designated by God for his people.)

See God’s will is more than what He wants for us or a plan for us. God’s will is what He calls us to do. God’s will is what He charges us to do. How he directs us to live. God’s will is not up for deliberation or argument. God’s will is to be obeyed.

Transition: How are you doing with the will of God for your life?

Illustration:

Transition: Seeing what we want and ignoring what God wills can lead to a life of frustration. A life that seeks to please God will always be blessed.

Application: Look if you have not gotten it yet let me say it to you this way. God requires a faithful heart. God requires you to trust Him. God requires you and me to obey Him. When you fail to trust God, when you are unfaithful to him and everything else comes first, when you disobey God and do what you want to do without any regard for him you break God’s heart.

Are you looking for rest? Are you looking for a break? Do you feel like you are going around in circles in this life? Maybe you are and just maybe because you have broken God’s heart.

But all is not lost. You still have a chance! You can start right now. You can tell the Lord right now from this day on I will trust you. From this day on I will obey you! I am going to give you my very best worship and praise! I am going to honor you with my life!

Transition: Do you know what Jesus did to show you the possibilities of pleasing God? In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed and submitted to the will of God!

Conclusion:

Thank you Jesus for pleasing God on the Cross!