John 15:11 “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
Our lives are filled with favorite things.
We all have things in our lives that make us happy; things that please us. We surround ourselves with those things because they make us happy.
We have a favorite color, we have favorite foods, we have favorite music, favorite smells and sometimes even favorite people.
These are all things that please us. God gave us these things in our lives to make us happy.
My favorite color is blue. I like blue things. I decorate my areas of my home with things that are blue. I like to look at blue things.
That’s my favorite color and it pleases me.
I like other colors as well, but if someone gives me a choice between blue and any other color, I’m more likely to choose the color blue.
Who else has a favorite color?
I have a favorite food. It’s spaghetti.
I would eat spaghetti every night of the week if I could get away with it. Meatballs, sausage, cream cheese, green peppers, onions. Spaghetti is my favorite food and it pleases me.
Who else has a favorite food?
I have a favorite music. I like to listen to classical music when I’m studying or reading my Bible. I listen to christian music as well such as quartets and others that have visited our church, but when I study, classical music for me is the best choice because there are no words. I’m not distracted by the lyrics.
If I play music with lyrics, I tend to sing along in my head and that means I can’t concentrate on what I’m studying. Classical music is soothing. It doesn’t get in the way of my study.
I listen to classical when I’m driving as well. Rachmaninov, Vivaldi, Strauss, Bach.
This music keeps me focused while I’m praying. I can stay focused on God and not on lyrics to a song.
I listen to classical music a lot. It’s my favorite and it pleases me.
Who else has a favorite music?
I have a favorite hobby. I collect diecast cars.
Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Majorette, Greenlight.
I like collecting them because I had them as a child and it’s just fun for me. At last count I think I have just over a thousand of them. Some are just worth what I paid for them but others are worth a lot more.
I have fun shopping for them when I’m in a store, trying to figure out which ones I already have. Sometimes I buy several of the same car because I forget what I already have. I find them at yard sales and online. For me it’s fun and it pleases me.
I give quite a few of them away when I do inspections and there are kids there. I have boxes and boxes of them, some still in their packaging. Collecting these cars is my favorite hobby and it pleases me.
Who else has a favorite hobby?
I have a favorite pastime. Writing these sermons and recording them for my podcast. I have a chair at home with a build in desk, my notebook, a Bible and a fountain pen. God gives me an idea, and I do my best to put it down on paper. I use many different commentaries from the many different study Bibles I have to see what some other preachers have to say on the subject I’m writing about, I use my computer to search the Bible for certain words or phrases.
I get caught up in writing and sometimes I find myself sitting in my chair for hours with classical music playing and writing until my hand goes numb. I take a break, and before you know it I’m back in my chair writing again. Every sermon I write starts out with pen and paper. I write it all longhand, even the full scripture reference. I then type them into my computer to be printed out. I have several notebooks with hand-written sermons in them. After I preach them, I go back and edit them so that I can record them for my podcast. Writing sermons and studying the Bible brings me closer to God and it pleases me. It’s my favorite pastime.
Who else has a favorite pastime?
I have a favorite person. I love my church family and all of you but my wife Becky is my favorite person of all.
I like spending time with her. We share a lot of the same interests, we like a lot of the same foods, we listen to the same types of music, we laugh at the same jokes and silly things we see on Facebook.
We are different in a lot of ways, but I’m convinced that God made us for each other. God gave me Becky to be my help on this earth. I love a lot of people, but Becky is my favorite.
Who else has a favorite person?
I have a favorite smell. It’s incense. I like to burn incense when I can because I enjoy the smells. I have a variety of different smells but they all pretty much amount to the same things and it pleases me. I particularly like balsam fir. Now, Becky doesn’t like incense so I can’t burn it when she’s around but I will whenever I can. Incense is my favorite smell and it pleases me.
Who else has a favorite smell?
So here’s the lesson:
We tend to spend a lot of time, money and effort on things that please us. We will buy our favorite food, even if it might be more expensive. (I will only buy Kraft American cheese. I don’t like the other brands. I only like Skippy peanut butter for obvious reason. I use real butter, not margarine. I use real cream in my coffee. I prefer raw sugar over regular sugar. )
We might wait to buy something if it’s the “wrong” color until we find it in our favorite color.
If I’m looking on Facebook and someone is selling a collection of hot wheels, I might just buy them instead of something else I had planned on using the money for.
We spend time, money and effort on things that please us. And when I say please us, I mean it pleases our flesh.
Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with having favorite things, but, do we end up putting those things ahead of God?
Do we spend time pleasing God as much as the things he’s given us to please our flesh?
God deserves our worship, he deserves our devotion, he deserves our time and he deserves our efforts. Do we spend as much time pleasing God as we do pleasing ourselves?
John 8:29 Jesus said “And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.”
Romans 8:8 “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
It’s not wrong to please ourselves. God wants us to be happy. But, we should also strive to please God before ourselves.
So, we know what we like and what pleases us. What pleases God? What are some of God’s favorite things?
One of God’s favorite things are Upright and Righteous People.
1 Chronicles 29:17 “I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness…..”
God’s favorite people are upright and righteous.
1 Thessalonians 4:1 “ Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.”
Job was an upright man.
Job 1:1 “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”
Upright means honest, just, not deviating from correct moral principles. Perfect means finished, complete, not defective.
Did you know that God wants all of us to be perfect?
In Matthew 5:48 Jesus says “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Jesus tells us that we are to be perfect, just as God is perfect.
Finished, complete, not defective. Our souls become perfect at salvation. We are perfect when we accept Jesus’ gift of redemption.
2 Timothy 3:17 “That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
Righteous and upright people please God.
Faith pleases God.
Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
This says that if you don’t have faith, there’s no way you can please God. We please him with our faith. We believe this Bible without reservation. We not only believe, but it says here that he rewards those that seek him.
Not only do we have faith in this book, but we go looking for his truth, we don’t just wait for it to come to us.
Faith is what leads us to salvation. Faith pleases God and without faith he’s not happy with us at all.
Deuteronomy 32:20 says “And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.”
All through the gospels, Jesus calls out those that lack faith.
Matthew 6:30 “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”
Matthew 8:26 “And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.”
Matthew 14:31 “And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”
Faith pleases God and a lack of faith displeases him.
Hebrews 11 talks all about Faith. Faith is one of God’s favorite things.
God has a favorite smell.
Genesis 8:20-21 “And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.”
Numbers 28:2 “Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season.”
2 Corinthians 2:15 “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:”
In the Old Testament, animal sacrifices were made and burned on an altar to sacrifice to God. God’s favorite smell, his sweet savour, is the sacrifice of the people.
When Jesus became that sacrifice for us and we accept his redemption, we are now a sweet savour in Christ. In other words, Jesus’ sacrifice becomes a sweet savour when we are washed in his blood.
God has done so much for us so that we can have pleasure in this life on earth and he’s made a way for us to have an eternity with none of the things here that cause us grief. When this life is over, if you are a blood-bought child of God, there will be no more sickness, no arthritis, no hearing issues, no blindness, no aching, no mental issues, no injuries.
We will be complete.
Our souls are already complete in Christ, but our bodies will be made perfect in heaven. All the things that we think are our favorite things here on earth won’t matter at all in heaven. We’ll have new favorite things up there!
Because God has given us all this, we should want to give back to him by giving him his favorite things and pleasing him with our lives. We have no reason to be selfish and think that we deserve anything from God because all we deserve is an eternity in hell. We did nothing to gain our salvation but repent of our sins and acknowledge his sacrifice. We somehow lose sight that we should want to please God because of what he’s done for us instead of looking for other ways he can make us happy.
Pleasing God is the duty of every christian who owes so much to the Saviour for what he’s done for us.
Let’s strive this week to do things that please God.