Find and do what is acceptable to the Lord

Ephesians 5:8–11 (NKJV)

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),

10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

We were once darkness when we were unsaved and unredeemed by Christ.

The things that we did were the unfruitful works of darkness because we were in darkness.

we are now “light in the Lord” who has redeemed us and brough us from the kingdom of darkness into his marveloous light.

We ar not the Children of darkness but the children of light

We ought to walk (live) as children of Light but how?

By finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

By finding out what is right in the sight of the Lord.

We walk as children of light by finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

One of these two statement was wirtten to summerise the lifes of each king in The book of Kings and Chronicles.

He did what was right in the sight of the Lord or

He did what was evil / what was not right in the sight of The lord.

Whether what the did was right in their own eyes or in the eyes of the people was not what mattered.

The King was judged upon what he did was right in the sight of God.

If our lives is to be summerised it should by the this statement that he/she did what was right in the sight of the Lord

As we navigate our life through the many turns of this world, our steps should be directed by the guding principles of this question, is this right in the sight of the lord.Is it acceptable in the sight of the Lord.

Before every uttered word, before every action, before every deed, we must seek and find what is acceptable in the sight of the Lord.

This can be tricky in the world that we live in today.

There is so many things that one can do,

There is an immense amount of freedom for one to express himself.

the natural world, and the artificial world that we live in, we must understand that what we do in both this worlds we will be accountable to God.

Colossians 1:8–10 (NKJV)

8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

We need spiritual knowledge and spiritual wisdom and understanding to find what is fully pleasing to the Lord, what is fully acceptable to the Lord.

May God give his people knoweldge, wisdom and understanding to know to find and know what is acceptable to him.

David’s Prayer

Psalm 19:14 (NKJV)

14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Psalm 141:3 (NKJV)

3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.

David understood the Lord is listening to every word uttered from his lips, he knows thate every word is being written in his books.

We must not neglect our lips, must consider and understand how God is attentive to the words of his people. How God is privy to their conversation.

Malachi 3:16 (NKJV)

16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, And the Lord listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the Lord And who meditate on His name.

The Lord is listening to the words of our lips and it is being written in God’s book.

Let what is being written be the words of purity, the words of faith, the words that do not undermine God’s power but speak of his power.

There will come a time where God will remeber if what we have spoken is right in his sight and repay us accordingly.

The people of Israel mummured against God in their tent, they said that they would die in the wilderness.

Little did they know that God was listening to their conversation

Numbers 14:28 “28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:”

To the israelites they died in the wilderness as they have spoken,

To Joshua and Caleb they lived to see the promise land and ate of its fruits.

God one day will remember what you have spoken of him, and will come to do accordingly.

1 Peter 3:10 NKJV

10 For “He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit.

The prayers of those who find and dod what is acceptable to the Lord will find great favor in his sight.

1 John 3:22 (NKJV)

22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

Example King Hezekiah.

2 Kings 20:1–11 (NKJV)

1 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’ ”

2 Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying,

3 “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

5 “Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.

6 And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.” ’ ”

7 Then Isaiah said, “Take a lump of figs.” So they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?”

9 Then Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?”

10 And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.”

11 So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

Hezekiah was a man who sought out what acceptable in the sight of the Lord and did it

As such, the Lord was with him and he was an enemy to his enemies.

It was apointed to Hezekiah to die, nonetheless Hezekiah was not ready and cried to God and reminded God that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord.

So God immediately heard his prayer and accpted his request and gave him 15 years.

If you do what is good in the sight of the Lord with a loyal heart. God will hear you prayer, and will see your tears and will respond to your need and desire

God even made time go back for him just to prove that he will do this thing for him.

Summery

Find and od what is acceptable in the sight of The lord.

Let your speach, your action be accepatble in the sight of the Lord.

If you do it, God will be with you and will honour you. He will hear your prayer and see your tears and will reward you. He will be an enemy to your enemies.