Luke chapter 1 if you would please today is Mother's Day and I do appreciate the opportunity to speak and I enjoy doing so and But I have been warned by my daughter-in-law Not to preach a message that will make her be guilty as a mother. Okay, and So I don't want to sleep out in that new chicken coop with those chickens So I'm abbreviating some things But no we've already emphasized the importance of mother the things that have been done the songs that we have sung but I want to draw our attention to one lady in scripture who was a mother and Just to briefly identify some things here and just something to meditate on kind of to take home with you I'd like to entitle the message today pleasing God and What does it take for us as Christians to please God? Before we begin, let's have a word of prayer. Father again, thank you for the privilege and opportunity it is ours to gather in your house today. Thank you for the songs that we have sung, the fellowship we've had, the enjoyment, the fun as well. I pray now that you'd help us to concentrate upon your word. We know the seriousness of preaching and teaching the word and learning. And I pray, Lord, you'd give me the right words to say, open my mouth in a way that would encourage and strengthen these folks here. And Lord, may your spirit work in our hearts to, if need be, challenge and change us that we might better be more like Jesus Christ. So guide us, we pray. May you be honored through this time together we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Here in Luke chapter 1, beginning down here, starting at some of these different verses here, verse 26, we see the account of a lady by the name of Mary. When we say the word Mary and relate it to scripture, your thoughts pretty much turn to one Mary in particular, the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are several Mary's listed in scripture. There's several different Angles of Mary and different words that refer to that as well But here we say Lord writes in in Matt Luke chapter 1 verse 26 and in the sixth month The angel of Gabriel was sent from God into the city of Galilee the name Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the Virgin's name was Mary and And the angel came unto her and said, And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation or greeting this should be. And the angel said unto her, for thou hast found favor with God and behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus he shall be great he shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom shall there be no end this of course is identifying to Mary the angel Gabriel came and said you have been chosen by God We have to remember that Jesus was not her only son, by the way. She had, I believe, it was four other sons as well as a couple of unidentified daughters. Now what I mean by that, they were not given specific names in scripture. But I want to just kind of briefly skim through here and look at and just kind of identify some of the characteristics of her life. And in that aspect, we'll see that here is an individual that was chosen by God to be a mother in a very particular way here. But if we would take time, and I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail, but in verse 47, I believe we find that she was a believer. We use the term in the New Testament church as a Christian, because she says there that she rejoiced in God, my Savior. We look at verse 46 and we see that she magnified God, which means to highly esteem or to glorify God. If we take time to look and describe verse 38, we find that she had a servant's heart. It says she was a handmaid of the Lord. She surrendered herself or submitted herself to God. In verse 28, we see that she was aware of and demonstrated the presence of the Lord. The Lord is with thee, the angel told her. We find the concept of obedience there as well in verse 38 verses 45 to 55 will not take time to read through those But we see that her mind was saturated with the promises and the prophecies of the coming Messiah see Mary trusted in what was going to happen the coming Messiah and we as we trust in what has transpired and The Old Testament saints were saved by the same way that we're saved today by faith in Christ Looking forward to the cross of Christ And so Mary was a Christian as we would term her today and had the characters and attributes that glorified God Therefore made her I believe a good mother as she honored the Lord But I want to draw your attention to one specific trade here. And this is excuse me back at verse 28 It says an angel came unto her and said hail thou thou art highly favored now you look down at verse 30 which he says the same thing and the angel said in there fear not Mary for thou has found favor with God now when we talk about the word favor the characteristic that comes out in Mary's life that made her In the aspects of God is one who was Accepted by God her lifestyle her actions her conduct was that which was acceptable in God God was well pleased With what she did that's the definition of favor. It means to be well pleasing to be a delight And so Mary was the delight to God an actual definition from one of the commentators It says that which affords joy Pleasure delight or and the state of being approved in other words when Mary when the angels said to Mary you are favored by God He says you are a delight to God God is pleased with your life that which you do is acceptable unto God and I want to make this statement this morning that I believe it is true every Christian Every Christian ought to please God. Would you say true or false to that statement? Would you say yes or no? Every Christian ought to please God. I say that because of what we find in Colossians chapter 1 verse 10, if you'd like to turn there. Colossians chapter 1, and I want us to be thinking this morning in retrospect to the fact of what the Holy Spirit or the angel told to Mary that you are favored with God. Could it be that God, looking at our lives, and by the way, the Bible says the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. He knows what we do. He knows what we think. He knows where we go. He knows what we look at. All of those aspects God knows about in our lives. Can it be that God would say you are favored by God? You are a delight your conduct your language your action where you go What you do how you respond to problems and difficulties and how you even respond to other people Is it a delight does it bring pleasure? Does it bring joy to god colossus chapter 1 verse 10? The bible says that ye may walk worthy Of the lord that means acceptable that you may walk worthy of the lord unto all what? God says that our actions, our conduct, our work, our want, ought to be in such a way that we please God. Timothy wrote these words in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 4. He says that we should strive, we should not be connected with the things of the world, we should not adopt the world's philosophy and the world's practices, that we may please Him who has chosen us to be a good soldier. That means that we ought to strive to please God look with me at Hebrews chapter 11 if you would please Hebrews chapter 11 I want to use this verse actually as a springboard into the message this morning Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 5 and I find this verse very challenging as well as very comforting in this verse Hebrews chapter 11 verse 5 this the the Chapter in Ephesians or excuse me Hebrews chapter 11 is commonly known as the faith chapter By faith Abraham did this by faith Moses did this by faith all those things, but I want to draw our attention to verse 5 It says by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. In other words. God just took him physically to heaven He did not physically die I mean all that he did and everything when God was what was ready for Enoch. He just translated in him to heaven and I mean that in itself is a miracle but look what it said he did not see death and was not found because God had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God that what he did was acceptable in God's sight what he did was pleasant to God it brought joy to the heart of God Think with me for a moment. You don't have to answer out loud. But in this concept, in this question, can our lives be lived in such a way that God is pleased, that we bring joy to the Savior, that we bring joy to God? It ought to be. And every Christian ought to live in such a way that we please God. The word please simply means to gratify entirely. The idea of to bring joy to be pleasant what I like to do is just give you something to take home and meditate on God's Word tells us that we ought to meditate upon the Word of God Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 this book of the law the Word of God shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate Anybody know what it means to meditate? It means to think about I've shared this before with some folks, but when we were pastoring, I was pastoring in Napa, Indiana. We had a couple that visited us at the church and started coming, and she was from down south. Excuse me, Mrs. Arlene, wherever you are, okay? She was from down south. They talked a little weird. No offense, okay? All right, but sometimes us people up north. We just don't understand what they say down there Okay, and so I have to ask miss Arlene a couple of different times what she says, okay And so then she was from down south and I was teaching a lesson and I was talking about meditating and I says does anybody here know What it means to meditate and grace was her name. Oh, she was sitting in front with you Oh pastor pastor. I know I know what it means. I says, okay grace. What does it mean to meditate? She said to ponder ponder I said what kind of word is that you know it simply means to think about so I want to give you something very quick I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail of these things I want to share with you but what I have found in scripture and this list is not conclusive in itself by the way but some things I have found in scripture that would help us to As we put them into practice, practicing the principles of the word of God, as we talked about last week, read it, heat it, live it and give it just for those of you who forgot. OK, in that aspect, we want to see what God's word says about how or how we should act and what we can do to please God to bring joy to God. We're here in Hebrews chapter 11. Look at verse six. It says, But without faith, it is impossible to do what? To please God. If we are going to strive to please God, we must be a people, a church that walks by faith. We must be a people and a church that walks by faith. Now, some have given the question and argued and debated back and forth, what is the definition of faith? They say, OK, go to Hebrews chapter 11, verse one. It tells us what faith is. Now, faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Oh, that's good. what does that mean right basically as I understand the word faith now this is coming from my own understanding of the word faith it deals with convinced our conviction or being convinced of the truth of something or anything being convinced of the truth of something it entire or entails in that the concept of belief it also entails a concept of assurance Trust confidence whether you know it or not each of you here this morning is Expressing or demonstrating faith By sitting in that chair You are trusting that chair. You have confidence that if you sit down on that chair, it's gonna hold you up. I And I know what some of you are thinking. Did he come in here and loosen some of these screws just to make a point here? No, I didn't, okay? You have the confidence, maybe next week, no. We have the confidence that this is gonna hold us up. We have the assurance that we bought good chairs, or I say we, excuse me, I'm not looking for a job, okay, just so you know. All right, you have purchased good, sturdy chairs to use here in church. The same concept and the assurance of this book. We walk by trusting this book. We walk with the confidence that what God says is true. We walk with the assurance that if we put our faith and trust in Christ as what it says in the Word of God, if thou shalt call upon the name of the Lord, thou shalt be saved. That's faith of believing in God. and accepting Him. The Bible is full of different scriptures that deal with the concept of faith. Mark 11, 22 says, have faith in God. Luke 17, 5, the apostles asked Jesus, they said, increase our faith. Romans 1 17 the just shall live by faith or confidence in the Word of God Romans 5 1 we are justified by faith Romans 10 17 faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7 walk by faith walk by the confidence the assurance the belief that this book is true therefore as a Christian to glorify God I need to put it into practice within my life I need to meditate upon it God said without faith is impossible to please God how's your faith Do we need to, like the apostles, Lord, increase our trust? Increase our confidence in you? Every Christian ought to please God. And God says, by the author of Hebrews, motivated by the Spirit of God, he says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. Look with me, if you would, please, back to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 referencing again Mary's characteristic we mentioned the aspect of her that she was favored by God her life was such lived in such a way that she pleased God and she was chosen to be the mother of the Messiah demonstrating quite a good list of characteristics no doubt but we look here look at verse Excuse me in verse 46 it says and Mary said my soul doth Magnify the Lord with that in mind turn to Psalm 69 Because not only to please God we ought to walk by faith, but I believe we ought to magnify the Lord Psalm 69 back in the Old Testament Right in the middle of your Bible Psalm 69 notice with me verses 30 through 32 Psalm 69 verse 30 the psalmist writes Psalm 69 verse 30. I will praise the name of God with the song and will magnify him with Thanksgiving this also shall what please the Lord Word magnify we look it up it deals with the concept of to declare great to glorify to praise to be proud of I Don't know about you But I'm proud in the right sense that I'm a Christian Because I know based on the truth of God's Word when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. He said okay You're on your way to heaven He said, no, I'm not going to make you perfect. Well, you're going to go through some trials or some difficulty. Now, you didn't tell me this out loud. I mean, God didn't speak to me in audible voice, but through experience, I know based on the truth of God's word, no matter what transpires in my life or in the life of my family, I'm on my way to heaven based on God's word. And that is the concept of boasting in the Lord what he has done for us. Yesterday, I had the privilege of watching a superb T-ball game. I mean it was fantastic and there was one little guy got up to bat and grandpa was so proud I want to say hey look who's batting I was boasting a little bit in the right way and I videoed it by the way in case anybody wants to see it okay yeah the idea is do we get that excited about what God has done for us We are to magnify, we are to exalt, we are to boast about God. Now in the right sense. Don't go around like, look at me, look who I am, you know? This sort of aspect. But Psalm 69 says here that boasting or magnifying, exalting or praising God with thanksgiving, this shall please the Lord. Psalm 107, verse 2 says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. You're hearing Psalms. Look with me at Psalm 95. Psalm 95, this psalmist here writes on the same thought pattern. Psalm 95 beginning at verse 1. He says oh come let us sing unto the Lord Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with psalm for the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods Look over if you would a little further psalm 100 just across the page or the next page It says make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye land serve the Lord with gladness Come before his presence was singing know ye that the Lord he is God it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves we are his people and the sheep of his pastor and Into into enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful to him and bless his Name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and his truth in Dora to all generations We ought to magnify we ought to exalt we ought to pray we ought to give thanks unto God Stop and think with me for just a moment What has God done in your life? What has God done in your life? Magnify the Lord. Psalm 147, verse 1, it says this, Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God, for it is pleasant and praise is comely, comforting, acceptable, right. Psalm 150 verse 6 the psalmist writes He says let everything that hath breath praise the Lord and the Lord is capitalized which means Jehovah God Almighty God think with me for just a moment When we talk about Jehovah God, we're talking about the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-sufficient God. Almighty God. That saved me. That leads me along as I'm obedient to him to blessings and guidance and direction. He cares for me He says Almighty God loves you so much that he invites us to cast all our care upon him for he cares for us We are to magnify the Lord because it is pleasing In God's sight you're in Psalms turn over next book to Proverbs chapter 15 Every Christian ought to please the Lord I believe Mary as the mother of our Savior and as a mother of other children has God allowed She was a lady who was found favored with God. She pleased God Her life demonstrated that that was acceptable in the sight of God. So God tells us that every Christian ought to please God by walking by faith. It's impossible to please him without it. And he says that we ought to magnify the Lord because it pleases him. But in Proverbs 15, eight, he says this. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. But the prayer of the upright is what? his delight not only are we pleased God by walking by faith by trust and assurance in his word and what he said and what he asked us to do not only is it that we ought to be glorifying God and exalting God and boasting about what God has done in law in the right way that we might please him but he says the prayer of the righteous His delight and I'm not gonna go into a whole lot of detail on this one Because I remember just recently listened to a sermon from some guy up in a place called Craig, Alaska The priest on these same verses Right. I check him out to make sure he's staying true. Just Fred. Okay. All right because the aspect is that God wants us to pray with a heart that is right with him and We find all kinds of scripture that deals with prayer Hebrews 4 16 Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help In time of need anybody here ever need any help with anything You ever get kind of stumped on what you ought to do how you ought to approach that neighbor or that friend or whatever and you know Should I do this? What in the world should we do as a public committee? I let him that lack wisdom let him ask of God he says come before my throne boldly unashamedly that you may obtain help in time of need James 1 or 1st Thessalonians 5 17 says pray when you want to No, it says pray without ceasing. To be constantly in an attitude of prayer. Why? Because we are seeking the wisdom and guidance and direction from God. And it says He'd give us liberally. That doesn't mean we're going to have all of our answers to all of our questions and all of these different things just like that. Because I believe God answers prayer. But I believe God answers prayer sometimes right away. Sometimes it takes a long time, it seems in our thinking, for God to answer that prayer. Sometimes God answers yes. Sometimes God answers no. But he says if you want wisdom, if you're seeking it, he says seek God. In fact, Timothy writes and says that first of all, prayer, supplications, intercessing, and giving of thanks be made for all men. all things. Let me ask this question. How's your prayer life? Are you seeking to pray with a heart that's right with God? Psalm 66 verse 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, if I harbor sin, if I allow sin in my heart and life, the Lord will not hear me. The Lord will not give attention to my prayer. Why? Because sin separates us from God. He is not only almighty God, but he is the holy, righteous God. In fact, it says that when some people looked at the face of God, it was like a blinding light that they couldn't see God. Can you imagine the purity of such a blinding light on the throne of God? We live in a darkened world, folks. But yet we have at our access the throne room of God to a pure, holy, almighty God. as long as we keep our lives and our hearts right with God. You say, well, is that why I don't see answers to my prayer? It could be. Or maybe it's like God saying to Paul, he said, Lord, I've asked you three times to remove this conflict, this affliction that I have. And God says, my grace is sufficient for thee. Sometimes God allows us to go through those things to give us guidance and direction. In fact, Peter talks about the trials that come. How can we please God? Walk by faith. How can we please God? Magnify the Lord. How can we please God? Pray properly. Then one last one, very quickly, 1 Samuel, chapter 15. 1 Samuel, chapter 15. In 1 Samuel, chapter 15, We see this story here in regards to the concept of sacrifices, and it was a process in the Old Testament to draw people to God. Fred mentioned this morning that the prophecies, all the prophecies of the Old Testament are to direct us to the Savior, to direct people to the Savior. Then he asked me a question as he ended, do you agree with all that we've done? When you said that, I started scratching my brain. And then as I think about it, the prophecy does direct us. One of the aspects of the Old Testament and all the rituals that they did and all the sacrifices was to direct people's mind and heart to God. Because often they forsake God. And there was a reminder of that but in 1st Samuel chapter 15 and verse 22 1st Samuel chapter 15 22 we read these words and Samuel said half the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as an obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better than sacrifice. Does God have greater delight in rituals the sacrifice of the Old Testament or simply in obeying God? Let me answer that question. In obeying God. Obeying God, obeying the voice of God brings delight to the Savior. We find that in Proverbs 11 20. We find that in Proverbs 16 7. Look with me in the Old Testament. Let me read this to you. Deuteronomy chapter 11. Deuteronomy chapter 11 and as you're turning there or as you listen God says in Romans chapter 17 or in chapter 5 verse 14 I believe is that the Old Testament was written for our knowledge for us to learn from and he says this entire Excuse me, Deuteronomy chapter 11 verses 26 and following. He says behold I set before you this day a blessing and a curse and He says, a blessing if you will what? Obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and a curse. That word curse means failure, destruction, dissatisfaction, problems, if you obey not the voice or the commandments of the Lord your God. God says, I'm gonna give you a choice. I have given you my word, written by the Holy Spirit of God himself and the influence of the men of God, that I have ordained to print and to write the Word of God, and I've given it to you to know what I want you to do, to draw you to the Savior. Colossians chapter 3 verse 24 to help us to grow Psalm 119 105 111 all of those verses there that we would take heed to the Word of God that we would know what it said We would know that it talks about the truth of God's Word and we have put it into practice God says with that he is well, please he says here's your choice take my word and obey it and I will bless you ignore my words Watch out. You say, well, wait, God is a just God. Yes, he is. Folks, my challenge today and for something to just kind of meditate on this. When you leave here today. Can you honestly say before God? God, thank you. That you have directed me in such a way that my life pleases you. can it be the testimony for us that Enoch had that God translated before his translation he had this testimony he pleased God he was favored by God God says in his word I believe that every Christian ought to please God in fact in Ecclesiastes chapter twelve verse thirteen he says fear God show respect and reverence to an almighty God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty responsibility of man every Christian ought to please God Mary as a mother of our Savior had that quality is it demonstrated in our lives we can I believe if we walk by faith if we magnify the Lord if we're praying with a heart that's right with God and if we fear God and keep his commandments again this book of the law shall not depart out of them out but thou shalt meditate think about ponder meditate there in day night that thou may observe to the according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then Thou shalt have good success. May I challenge you to strive to live in such a way that God is well pleased with your life. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for who you are and for your goodness and for your love. We thank you for this special day to honor our mothers and we do so. Lord, in my heart and I see the example of Mary and the type of mother that she was and the qualities and characteristics, and one in particular that stuck in my mind as I shared this morning, that she was honored by God. And I pray, Father, that as we look at the lives of those through scriptures that you blessed, they lived a life that pleased God. Oh, there was difficulties. Sometimes they stumbled and fell. Lord, much like us today, We are thankful that you're a God of forgiving, that's just, demonstrating mercy and grace, and I ask you would help us to strive to live for you in such a way that you are pleased with all we say and do. With heads bowed and eyes closed, just before I conclude and pray, let me ask this. Are you saved today? One of the qualities of Mary's life that demonstrated, I believe, the type of person that she was, that she rejoiced and magnified in God her Savior. Are you saved today? I am assuming that you all are. If not, I'd be happy to show you from God's Word what it says how to do so. And if you are, let me ask this question once again. Are you living in such a way that your life pleases God? Or are there some areas that maybe there need to be some changes made? You gotta help us to have the courage and the stamina to do so, that we may walk in such a way as Enoch that we please God. Father, thank you for these folks. Thank you for this church. I ask you to continue blessing. Give the pulpit committee wisdom. Give these folks guidance and direction in their selection and search for a pastor to lead. Lord, I have sense from looking in from the outside of people with a heart that desires to serve God and that love you. Bring the right man to lead this church. Guide them in their selection. And as we do, Lord, help us to live in such a way that our life demonstrates that we are favored by God. We are pleased, or you are pleased, with our life. So, God, as we ask, may you be honored through all that's said and done. Now, Lord, in just a few moments, as we rearrange here, we're going to set up and have a meal and have time of fellowship. We appreciate the opportunity to do that, and I ask you, bless the food in our bodies and strengthen us with it. But get that ahead of time, Lord, because we want to honor and magnify you. May you be honored and glorified. Take these words, challenge our hearts and help us, Lord, to live in such a way that we might please you or give you the praise for all in Jesus name.