Jump Start # 1752

1 Thessalonians 4:1 “Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.”

Christmas is over. I hope you enjoyed your time with family. We were blessed to watch little ones open their presents. The excitement on their faces is so precious. Buying gifts for little ones is pretty easy. The selection is enormous. Walking down the toy section of major stores can be very expensive for grandparents. They want to get this and then that and of course, they have to have this one over there. Buying gifts for adults is a lot harder. It takes more effort, thought and planning. I don’t know if women feel this way, but guys feel a lot of pressure in buying the right gift for their wife. Something too practical or something totally impractical and the gift becomes a bomb. She smiles, but she didn’t like it. For the man, he feels like he fails if he doesn’t deliver just the right gift. Then there is the commercial on the radio subjectively telling you that she really wants diamonds. Don’t make the mistake and get her a sweeper or a gym membership, she wants diamonds. So, the man walks into the jewelry store, clueless to what he is doing. He sees all the sparkling diamonds and the enormous price tags and running through his mind, “You better come through this year.” The joy of giving gifts can be stressful, especially at the key moment when the gift is opened. “Do you like it?” is actually interpreted as, “Did I come through and give you what you wanted?” “Did I please you?”

Our verse today is about pleasing God. The Thessalonians were taught how to walk and how to please God. This is something that a person needs to learn. New Christians need to know this. This thought is often not taught, but assumed. What God likes, may not be what I would have chosen. Just as a husband must think what his wife would like, he buys a gift that pleases her. Her happiness makes him happy. He doesn’t buy his wife a new putter, if she doesn’t golf. If he did that, she might use that putter on his head.

How to please another, that’s the thought in buying gifts. How to please God? That’s the thought behind our actions, attitudes and worship. We do what God likes. We do what God wants. We please the Lord.

The modern church has moved on from this thought. It is driven by the sensations of what do we like. We don’t like sermons, so we toss them out. Has any thought been given about God? The Lord actually likes preaching. It was His idea, not ours. From the early days, all through the Bible, God has had prophets, priests, apostles and preachers that taught the word of God. We may have grown weary of preaching, but God hasn’t.

The modern church has shifted from internal heart felt expressions of love to God, to the external, carnal, festival atmosphere of light shows, fog machines, theatre drama, and comedy routines that makes us feel good. The moderns laugh. They cry. They have a good time. They are promised that next week will be even greater. More lights. More smoke. More laughter. So, they return. Fun, fun, fun. It’s a great time that the modern church is having. But is any of this pleasing the Lord? Is this what God wants? Have we given a putter to someone who doesn’t golf? Have we thought about just what does God want? How do you please the Lord?

The Thessalonians knew. They had been instructed in what pleases God. What the Lord wanted, couldn’t be purchased in a store. It wasn’t smoke, screaming music, or dramatic presentations which an audience watches and applauds those on the stage. The Lord wants the audience engaged. The Lord wants us not to watch but to be part of worship, living and walking with Him. He wants our hearts. He wants our loyalty. He wants our obedience. He wants to be the king of our lives. What pleases the Lord is when His will becomes our will. When we want what He wants. When we like what He likes. When we oppose what He opposes. Stop changing the message to please the people. Please the Lord. Stop trying to be cool and different and simply please the Lord.

Please God by being dependent upon Him. You need Him. Show that. Show that by praying to Him all the time. Show that by following His word. Show that by including Him in your heart and in your choices.

Please God by being spiritual. Think beyond what your eyes can see. Think beyond today. Grow. Become. Use. The Thessalonians, in our passage were told to “excel still more.” More pleasing of God. More worship. More walking with the Lord. More praying. More. More. More. We sing, “More, more about Jesus…” That’s what the Thessalonians were to excel in.

Please God by being His hands and feet today. Show the world Jesus. Let your light shine. Be the example, even around family. Defend God. Introduce God. Be kind, when others are not. Be forgiving, when others won’t. Be helpful, when others turn their back. Be like Jesus. Be holy, in an impure world. Be thoughtful in a thoughtless world. Be hopeful, in a pessimistic world. Be spiritual in a materialistic world. Be godly in a worldly world.

Please God by knowing His word. Know what God has said. Know what God has promised. Know what is still to happen. Know what happens at death. Know what lies beyond the grave. Know the Lord.

Buying gifts can be stressful. The goal is to please the person you are giving the gift to. We want to make them happy. It is that thought that we ought to have towards the Lord. We want to make the Lord happy. Our goal is to please Him.

When that is our focus and target, then we will be set on the right course in life. Keep your eyes on the Lord. Do what He wants. A person can’t do wrong when that is where his compass points to.

Roger