(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, well we're here in Hebrews chapter 11, and this is a very famous chapter. It's known as the Hall of Faith. And we had our verse of the week there, Hebrews 11 verse 6, where it says, Without faith it is impossible to please Him. And often times when you quote Hebrews 11 verse 6, you usually just quote that first part. We've heard that a million times, without faith it is impossible to please God, it's impossible to please Him. And that is definitely true, and the point of this sermon is to find out, are you pleasing God? We saw the picture we had on our bulletin, is God pleased with you? And that is a question we should all stop and ask ourselves, and we should double check ourselves with the Bible, especially when you hear a whole sermon on it, is God pleased with how I'm living my life? Wouldn't it be disappointing if you think God is pleased with you, but He's actually upset with you? He's not happy with how you're living your life. Well, here we're going to hear in this sermon how you can actually please Him. And the first thing I want you to see here is in Hebrews 11 verse 6. Before you can get started, because the question comes up, let's say somebody was unsaved. They did not believe on Jesus Christ, they had some other religion. Is it possible for an unsaved person to please God? Now, everything we believe, we prove with the Word of God. Even if we think we know the answer, we double check ourselves. Well, in Hebrews 11 verse 6 it gives us the answer to that. Without faith it is impossible to please Him, it has a colon, and it clarifies that. Then it says, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is. See, in order to please Him, you have to have faith, and it starts with putting your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You must believe that He is. You must understand who God is. You must understand Jesus was God in the flesh, He's the way to heaven, He's the Son of God, He's the one of God who paid for your sins, He rose again. You must believe that He is. You cannot please God if you're not saved. Let me give you a real application. Cornelius in the Bible, before he was saved, he feared God, he did not please God. Everything we believe, we double check ourselves. Because I remember thinking about this myself, did Cornelius please God? Because we know he feared God. But not according to Hebrews 11 verse 6. He feared God, he didn't please God, but because he feared God, God made it a point to get in the Gospel. If somebody truly fears God, which it is very possible for an unsaved person, which I think many of us in this room, before we were saved, we actually had a fear of God, we wanted to serve God, we just didn't know what was right, and I believe God made it a point to get us the Gospel. I believe before I was saved, I had a fear of God, and I wanted to try to serve God and know what was right, I just didn't know. But I did not please God being an unsaved person. No unsaved person pleases God in the Bible itself. Now if they fear God, God is going to make it a point to get him the Gospel, but if you're going to please God, you must believe that he is. And if you do not believe that he is, and you don't know the way to get to heaven, look, God is not going to be pleased with that person. I don't care how religious some Hindu or Muslim is, how nice they seem to be, how much they give to charity, if they do not believe that he is, then God is not pleased with them. No unsaved person pleases God. But, just because you are saved, that doesn't mean you please God either. See, the first step is you must believe that he is, and that's when you believe on Jesus Christ. You understand who he is, but it says, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So the Bible says if you're going to please God, you must diligently seek him. You're understanding he's a rewarder, so you understand that by living a God-fearing life, and obeying his rules, you'll get rewarded for what you do that's right. You must actually diligently seek him. Now look back at verse number 5. Hebrews 11, verse 5. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found. Enoch in the Old Testament is basically a symbol of the rapture, because Enoch never dies. He was translating he did not see death, and all of a sudden he was up in heaven. It speaks in Jude 1 about him prophesying about the second coming of the Lord before he came to person. So he's a picture of the rapture, and was not found because God had translated him. Before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. So people in the Old Testament, they believed in the same God that people believe in today. Now more information is revealed, but it's clear that Enoch, before Jesus died on the cross, he did please God, so he understood who God is. That is why it doesn't specifically say Jesus in verse 6, because throughout all time, you either believe in the true God, or you don't believe in the true God. And Enoch believed in the living and true God, even though he came before Jesus Christ. He was in the book of Genesis. And so he pleased God. But how is it that we please God in our lives? We're going to look at four specific points. And obviously a generic answer would be, hey, just serve and be your fullest. And we're going to actually look up that word in the Bible every time it appears, and we're going to see the categories of what you need to do in order for God to be happy with you, to be pleased with you. Now look down at verse number 32. Now it's true that in order to please God, you must be saved. That's what it says in Hebrews 11, verse 6. But quite honestly, that's not what Hebrews 11 is about. Hebrews 11 is not about people that are saved. Now everybody in Hebrews 11 is saved, but the point is in Hebrews 11, these are people that please God. And being saved alone does not mean that you please God. So that's the basic thing. Yes, you believe that he is, but now you have to actually do things in order to please God. And the people mentioned in Hebrews 11, they weren't perfect. Many of them committed some pretty bad sins, but those are people that please God. You say, why? Now the word faith in Hebrews 11 appears 27 times. There's a reason why it's known as the chapter on faith or the hall of faith, but this is not a chapter about putting your salvation in the Lord's hand, believing on Jesus Christ. This is a chapter about after you are saved, serving God to your fullest. It says in Hebrews, and you're looking down at verse 32, but verse 4 says, By faith Einam, verse 7. By faith Noah, verse 8. By faith Abraham, verse 11. Through faith also Sarah, verse 13. These all died in faith. See, if you want to please God, it's not just about putting your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but about having a strong faith in your life. See, sometimes when you talk to people about the Gospel, and you tell them it's by faith alone, what they mean by faith alone is they think, well, you know, you've got to just basically live your life with faith every single day. Now for salvation, you just must believe that He is. It's just a matter of believing, okay? But yes, the word faith can be more than just putting your faith or your trust in Jesus Christ, and yes, if you want to please God, you need to do more than just get saved. You must live your entire life just devoted to Him. That's not salvation. Salvation is you believe that He is. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Whosoever believeth in Him. Not repentance of sins, not giving your life to God, not going to church, not getting baptized, but if you want to please God, you must believe that He is, and you must do the steps in order to please Him. These false prophets try to mix these two together. I would love to be able to get more people to come to church out soberly, and we could trick them into coming. We could say, hey, you know what, you've got to put your faith in Jesus, but the only proof of faith if you're really saved is if you actually come to church, goodbye. And you're going to get baptized. Boy, we get a lot of people baptized. We get a lot of people to come to church, but we'd be lying to them. And so salvation is by believing alone, but if you want to please God, which I hope we all do, you're going to have to do more than that, and it comes with having strong faith. That's what all these people mentioned in Hebrews 11. That's what they did. Hebrews 11, verse 32. Now turn to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepted and delivered, so they might obtain a better resurrection. You see here in verse 35, people were getting tortured for the things they believed. Now, yes, the Catholic church slaughtered countless millions of people, but you know what, it's always been this way that false religion hates true religion. The persecution has come in all ages, all generations, all false religions. Salvation hate the true religion. You can look at any religion that takes power in a country that's a false religion and they murder believers. You can go to India and the Hindus murder believers. You can go to Buddhist countries and they murder believers. You can look at when the Calvinists took control of parts of Europe and Switzerland, they murdered people that believed in Jesus Christ. Why? Because every false religion will persecute the true religion. That's what takes place. They're being tortured, this is before the Catholic church started, but it's the same false religion that's out there. The worst versus fake, and the worst proud, they hate our guts. They hate what we stand for, they hate what we teach. Verse number 36, and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourges, gave more over bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wondered about sheep stems and goat stems being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. See, you need to realize that every single thing you do in your life, if you're going to accomplish something for God, you do it like faith. Right. That's the truth. For many of you, leaving your old churches and coming here was a step of faith in your life. Yeah. Because you're forsaking friends, you're forsaking family, you don't know the potential repercussions, but you had a strong faith that you're going to serve God. Starting this church, look, it takes a leap of faith to move to another country. Right. You've got someone who's going to be moving to our church from Europe next week. It's like, that takes a leap of faith. Right. And I believe God's going to reward that person who takes that leap of faith, but our lives are based on showing our faith. Every time we go sowing, imagine the first time you went sowing. Weren't you scared? Right. I was scared. I was scared the first time I went sowing. I'm like, man, I don't know what to say. I mean, I can try to repeat what I've heard in videos and what to do, but I was just like, oh, man, this is tough. And you're really scared to say, hey, my name's Matt. I just wanted to give you an invitation to church. You're really scared to do that the first time. Right. And the reason why you do it is because you're showing strong faith. You know what you need to do, and you're exhibiting faith. Look, it's not easy, but how we do everything in life is going to be a step of faith. Right. Okay? We cannot wait until it's just really easy. We have to actually put our foot out there and kind of step out of faith. Right. Now, obviously, I'm not saying being a fool. Okay? I'm not saying that you just do something crazy in your life. The Bible speaks about being smart and things such as that. But at the same time, God wants you to use your head a little bit, but He also wants you to kind of put that foot out there where it's like, oh, man, this is kind of scary. That is the way it works in the Christian life. And this whole chapter, all these people that accomplish things, it's not just because they're saved, because look at all the savings without accomplishing nothing. It's because they actually step out of faith. You think of the people that I mentioned here. Abraham going to another country, that is a step of faith. Yeah. It's not easy to do. Anybody who starts a church one day, you're going to be taking a step of faith, especially if you go to a new area, because you have no idea, are there going to be members there? I mean, are we going to sit around? Are we going to have the finances? There's a lot of things to consider, and there's a huge step of faith being taken. A church is going to take steps of faith by trying to accomplish things, and they have to kind of put their foot out there on a little bit of shaky ground and have faith in God that is going to come through. And so, yes, we use our heads a little bit, but at the same time, we also need to step out of faith. And you look at people that never step out of faith in their lives, they accomplish nothing. Now, they never fail at anything, and they never accomplish anything. Look, I can promise you that Michael Jordan has missed more free throw shots than me. You know why? Because he's attempted a lot more than me. Yeah. He's also made a lot more than me. But if you make a point, say, oh, you made a church go, well, look, at least we're trying something. Look, I mean, if you shoot a million free throw shots, sometimes they're going to miss. Look, he's also missed more slam dumps than me. I haven't made a single slam dump, but, you know, he's missed more than me. Look, if you're going to try something a lot, you're going to fail sometimes. And that's why we're saying, taking a leap of faith, it's not something that you know 100% for sure. It's not something that you have the proof it's going to work out. No, you're actually taking a little bit of a leap of faith. Now, I'm not standing here today like Ken Acosta would tell you, hey, just by faith, just buy this phone, even though you don't have the money to pay for it. No, that's called being foolish. Right. Just by faith, no, I mean, you have to actually use your head. Right. I'm not saying to be foolish, but if you're going to accomplish something for God in your life, you're going to have to accomplish it by faith. Look, when you spank your children and raise them the way the Bible says, you are taking it by faith that those kids will turn out right. Right. Right. Say why? Because you will not know until 15 years from now. Yep. Right. But you're just trusting in the Bible, training the child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, you will not depart from it. You're taking a leap of faith that the world is wrong when they tell you not to spank your kid. Right. Yeah. And that God is right when he says to spank your child. Right. You are taking a leap of faith to trust what the Bible says. Yeah. Because the Bible says that if you spare the rod, you hate your child. Right. When we spank our son, I am taking it by faith that God is right and the world is wrong. Yeah. And quite honestly, often the world is wrong about stuff. Right. Oftentimes, the world promotes something and it's a lie. It's not true, and you have to have faith to do what's right. Amen. Because the world is trying to lie to you, they're trying to deceive you, and if you have trust in the word of God, you're every single day living your life by faith. Yeah. Because the world rejects what we say. Now, obviously, we know that salvation is by grace your faith alone, but that's something you take by faith because the world will say, well, there can't just be one way to heaven. Isn't that what Oprah Winfrey said? There can't just be one way to heaven. I mean, what about all the people in the Muslim countries? What about all the people in the Hindu countries? Well, Jesus said, I am the way, I am done. He does not say he's not done. He does not say he's not done. He does not say he's not done. He says, he is spiritual life, eternal life. And so we take it by faith what the Bible says. Now turn to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. And so if you want to please God, yes, you've got to be saved, which I presume everybody in this room is, but you also have to live your life by faith. And you must ask yourself this question, in your life, what areas have you really been living your life by faith? What areas have you actually stepped out and done something that required you not to just know the end result for sure, but you're just doing it by faith? And if you cannot think of areas in your life where you're kind of going a little bit on the shaky ground, honestly, you're not living your life by faith. I'm not telling you to be a fool in this room. I'm not saying. When you preach a sermon, especially when you're new at it, you're taking it by faith, aren't you? Because every single person, when they preach their first sermon, is like, oh, just turn to Nehemiah chapter 4. I mean, everybody's scared, aren't they? You're taking it by faith, okay? And that's good. And those men in our room that preach sermons, and I'm not saying everybody has to preach. Look, ladies, if you've been touched by this message, I'm sorry, but you have to be preaching behind this pulpit. But I'm not saying everybody needs to preach sermons. I'm not saying everybody needs to be a pastor. But what I am saying is this, that the minute in our church that we preached sermons before, when you started to do it, it made you nervous. But now you're glad you did, stepping out in faith. And quite honestly, our whole lives, God does not want us to be on a really comfortable ground. He actually wants us to always be stepping out a little bit more and more. And all of us in our lives, we must live our lives where we have to step out a little bit in order to live for God. We have to live our lives by faith. And if your whole life is just built on security and no faith whatsoever, there's a problem there. God does not intend us to have our lives that secure and that safe where you're never taking any chances. Now, in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, we get to our second point, and the second point in order to please God is not to live a worldly life. Now, all of the points that I'm going to have in this sermon, I'm going to show you Bible verses that support this. Now, we went to Hebrews 12, because it's right after Hebrews 11, and I will show you a verse here in a minute that uses the word please to prove to you that living a worldly life does not please God. And we're already here in Hebrew, so I wanted to go here to Hebrews 12, verse 1 first, but I will prove it to you here in a second and use that direct word. But it says in Hebrews 12, verse 1, Wherefore, saying, we also are compassed of idols, so great of hot witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin was stopped so easily he set us, and let us run with patience the grace that is set before us. Now, in Hebrews 12, verse 1, I want you to notice where it says, let us lay aside every weight. Then notice, and the sin. These are not the same thing. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin. Now, we know what a sin is, that is when you transgress God's law. Sin is a transgression of the law, the Bible says. But a weight is different than a sin. These things are not the same things. There are many things in our lives that are not sins, but they are weights. They are a distraction from you living for God. It is not a sin for me to work out, but if I spend hours of every day working out, it is going to prevent me from running my race to the fullest. Now, I am going to give you an example to help you understand exactly what I am saying. Let us say brother Erwin and I are running a race, because that is what we are talking about here in Hebrews 12. So we are beside each other, we are getting started, a hundred meter race. Let us say that we are, I know this is not a hundred meters. I am trying to trick him into running into the wall. But let us say for example we are the exact same speed. It is a 50-50 race. I know I am much, much faster than him, but let us say it is about a 50-50 race. 50-50 chance I am going to win, 50-50 chance he is going to win. But now, let us say I have added some weight. Let us say for example I put on this book bag, and inside of here are weights that are 20 pounds each, 20 pound doubles. Now, who are you going to bet I am going to win this race? Erwin. Why? I have got more weight. See, we were the same earlier, but now that I am adding extra weight, it will slow me down from running the race, right? And so, here is the thing about this. If you are going to run a race, you are a fool to add extra weight to yourself. Right. It will slow you down. And when it says running the race with patience, you have to understand there are many things in our lives that are not sinned. I am not saying committing adultery. I am not saying getting drunk. I am just saying when we waste a lot of time on things that do not matter, you are adding weights to yourself. And this person beside me is going to run the race a lot faster than me because he has got a lot of less weight on him. But do you ever see marathon runners, long distance runners that are really heavy? No. Say why? They have too much weight to run a long distance race. Look, I used to do a lot of running. I used to play soccer and I used to run 50 miles a week. And guess what? I weight less than I do now. Say why? Because running 50 miles is pretty difficult. And I am not about to go for a 10 mile run. That was me in the past. I used to find that fun. If I went back and the long distance running, I would start to lose a lot of weight. Why? Because it is hard to run races when you have got extra weight. It is not going to be easy. And so when it comes to a sin, we are not talking about a sin. We are talking about weights or things that do not matter in our lives. Now I do not think it is bad to have hobbies from time to time. Working out is a hobby that I have. But you know, for our whole lives, we just have all these weights and these distractions that prevent us from reading the Bible. They prevent us from going to church. They prevent us from going soloing. Then look, other people are going to run that Christian race a lot faster. Even if what you are doing is not a sin. I do not think it is a sin to watch a soccer game, the game itself. And I understand commercials can be bad and have warliness. But just sitting down and watching a soccer game and people playing soccer, there is nothing inherently sinful about watching a soccer game. But it is a weight. If I spend my whole time just watching soccer games, then yeah, it is going to be a big distraction. I do not think there is anything inherently sinful about playing a game of chess or something such as that. But if your whole life is just doing that, you are adding all these weights to yourself. And look, other people are going to run that race a lot faster. Man, how do you have so much time to read 20 chapters of the Bible a day? I mean, man, I am so busy with my work. I come home, I am so busy. Then I play chess for a couple of hours. Then I play cards. Then I am on Facebook for two hours. I do not understand why I do not have time to read the Bible. You have a lot of weights in your life. I do not think it is a sin to get on Facebook. But if you are spending so much time on it, then man, you are adding a lot of weights to your life. And it does get to a point where you are just wasting all of your time. And so once you understand, I am not talking about obviously doing drugs, getting drunk. Those are just sins that will of course destroy your Christian race. But just adding things in your life that just do not have any need or value, those will also destroy your Christian race. Because other people are going to run a lot faster than you are. Now turn to 2 Timothy 2. And so I think that is one of the problems we have in today's world. Because honestly we live lives today where we have a lot of free time. And I understand we all feel like our lives are busy, but we did not really live in old fashioned times. Where quite honestly, hey you know what, doing the laundry was something that took a lot of time and a lot of effort. Where cooking a meal took a lot of time, took a lot of effort. Jobs required you to work more than 40 hours a week, more than 50 hours a week, often more than 60 hours a week, that was just part of your job. We live lives now where we have a lot of free time. It used to be you work by the sweat of your brow, as the Bible says, and it was a very difficult, hard life. But quite honestly it was not bad for people because too much free time we end up just wasting it on pointless things. It used to be people could not have weights in their lives. They would starve to death if they had weights in their lives. In today's world we have lots of free time, but most people fill it with weights and things that just don't matter. In 2 Timothy 2 verse 3 the Bible reads, Now therefore and for hardness is a good soldier of Christ. No man of worth entangle himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And see in verse 4 we're not talking about sins. When it says entangle yourself with the affairs or the things of this life, we're talking about weights. We're talking about things that don't matter. Look, I don't spend hours reading the news and finding out what's happening, what the government's doing. Now we hear about things from time to time, but it's like if I want to entangle myself with politics, how am I going to run the Christian race? There's people that know everything about politics. Men in America, they watch Fox News for like 4 hours a day, and then they walk away. It's funny because people that are conservatives, they don't watch the sinful TV blah blah blah or whatever. They just watch Fox News for 4 hours a day. The result is they love Israel, and God bless America. We can bomb whatever country we want with no big deal because we're America. That's the attitude they have. They just spend all their time watching Fox News. It's just like they get brainwashed on what reality is. Recently somebody asked me about the... Look, I'm just going to tell you my opinion because I'm the one preaching up here. That's just the way it is. When somebody recently asked me about the dang virus, they're like real concerned about me living in the Philippines. It's like this is not a virus that just happened yesterday. What you really should do instead of watching Fox News is you should pay attention to less than 2 years ago when everybody was dying from the vaccination used. That was November 2017. It wasn't that long ago. It's just like what the media wants to do is change your perspective because they want to scare you into adopting this new vaccination. You say, I don't agree with you. That's fine. You're welcome to have your opinion. Obviously you can do whatever you want with your kids. I'm just stating to you the fact that this is what the government always does in-country. In-country. You know how the U.S. goes to war with you? They scare you into thinking that everyone's going to have their head chopped off by a Muslim tomorrow if they want to just bomb every Muslim country. That's what they do. The media. And it's in every country. The government does the same thing here. They scare you into doing what they want you to do. It's been less than 2 years and you can already see how people are going to adopt this vaccination that used to kill everyone. They're scaring you into it. What I want you to understand, I know I hit some sort of rabbit trail, but when it says here in verse number 4, you're not supposed to entangle yourself with the affairs of this life. Honestly, this is just a ploy by the devil who is the god of this world. The god of this life where he wants you to waste your time on things that don't matter. He wants to get you entangled with the things of this life and forget about what the truth is. Forget about what the Bible says and not serve God. There are many things out there that are not sinful, but they will waste your time. I'm not telling you to quit your job and just live by faith. The Bible talks about working hard. I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is that if you spend all of your time on things that don't matter, you're wasting your life and you're not pleasing God. You say, why? Because God is the one who called you to be a soldier. You say, brother, stop. I don't want to be a soldier. It's too bad because when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are enlisted in God's army. If you don't realize you're in a fight, then I guess you're AWOL as they say. You're basically just leading the army. Look, we're in a fight if you don't realize that. This fight is going to always exist. It always has existed because the god of this world has always been the devil. God allows the devil to have some sort of reign here. Look, he's going to fight against what the truth is. It has always existed. It's always been like that. And if you entangle yourself with the affairs of this life, you are not pleasing him who hath chosen you to be a soldier. That's the reality. Now, obviously some things are just inherently sinful and you're obviously not going to please God. We'll talk about that in a second. But if you entangle yourself with the affairs of this life, even if they are not sinful, you are not pleasing God. That's what the Bible teaches you. Verse number five. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. Now, when the Bible speaks about striving for masteries, I don't have time to cross reference this, but if you go to the book of Corinthians, it's basically talking about someone winning a race, striving to get the mastery or to be the best at something. You think of the Olympics, okay, and think back to a race. And if I'm racing to win this gold medal, here's the thing. If I don't live my life just devoted to winning this gold medal, I'm not going to win. If after I work out I don't want to get a burger cake, well, I'm not going to win the gold medal. If I spend my life just not devoted to this, you're not going to win. It's the same thing with Christian life. I mean, if you live your lives just not devoted to God, you're not going to win that gold medal and you're not going to please God. If you want to live your life to the fullest as a Christian, you have to go all out to serve God. And quite honestly, very few people are actually even making some sort of effort. All of us could improve, but at the same time, a lot of people, they don't even try to live their life. I mean, they might know what's right, but they don't even have the time to do it. I mean, reading the Bible every day, it's like, oh, that's too much time. I'm not going to read my Bible every day. Well, I mean, you're not even kind of close to trying. Turn to Romans chapter 8, Romans 8. And you say, why is it that people don't try to please God? Because the truth is that if you don't please God in your life, I mean, the devil has a lot of pleasures that he will offer you. And some of those things are just sinful, obviously. But there's other things that are not sinful, but it's just something that's kind of pleasurable, something you enjoy, something that your flesh enjoys, not your spirit. And you can spend your life devoted to that one thing, and quite honestly, when you're not pleasing God, you're pleasing the devil, though. I mean, the devil would love it if, I mean, honestly, I don't even think the devil really cares too much what people do on Sunday. If they're getting drunk or whatever, as long as you're not in church, I think that's the key. So I want you to understand that when you're not living your life serving God and not pleasing him, then you're going to please the devil. You're going to please one or the other. You either please God or you please the devil. Romans 8, starting in verse number 5, we're about reason. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Now, when a person believes on Jesus and gets saved, you have to understand that their flesh and their spirit, these things are separate. Your flesh does not change at all when you get saved, not one bit. A person who's a drug dealer, the moment they get saved, they are still a drug dealer. A person who's a drug, the moment they get saved, they are still a drunk, and they still have a desire to drink. That does not change. But there's a difference between the flesh and the spirit. And see, what the Bible speaks about here is those that are after the spirit, they mind the things of the spirit. Carnally minded is with your flesh, spiritually minded is life and peace. Now, you don't have to live in the spirit to go to heaven. You put your faith on Jesus Christ and you have eternal life. But if you want to please God, you need to live in the spirit. Verse 7, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, and neither indeed can be. And so the carnal mind, someone who is living in the flesh and fulfilling the desires of the flesh, whether it is to drink, to listen to rock music, or whatever it is, they are an enmity against God. Basically, they are the enemy of God, is what that said. Do you want to make God your enemy? Because the way you make God your enemy is every time you do something that tells you no one, you're making God your enemy. You live a fleshly and worldly life, you are an enmity with God. God is not happy with that. That's what the Bible is teaching here. Verse 9, or verse 8, so that they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Now, we understand that part of this is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have the spiritual side. But when you're walking in the flesh daily, you're not pleasing God. Yes, you believe on Jesus Christ, but if you're living in the flesh every day, and just doing what your flesh wants to do, you're not pleasing God. You're choosing not to read the Bible for whatever reason, you're not pleasing God. You're choosing not to serve God, not go soul winning, not pray, you're not pleasing God. You choose to live a sinful life, you are not pleasing God because you are walking in the flesh. And you're living the carnal life, even though you do have Jesus Christ, and you are saved. Just because you're saved does not mean that you please God. Verse 9, but he are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of you. So if you don't have the spirit of Christ, it's impossible to please God. I turned to 1 Chronicles 29. 1 Chronicles 29. But just simply having the spirit of God is not meant to please God. You have to actually walk and live according to him. This is where false prophets try to mix these things together. Where basically you must please God and go to heaven. No, you don't have to please God and go to heaven. You just have to believe on Jesus Christ. What's funny is, every false prophet that says you got to please God and live a good life and go to heaven, they don't live a very godly life. I mean, it boggles your mind because at our church, as much as anybody, we preach salvation is free. And as much as anybody, we preach hard against sin. In this sermon we're doing both. All you have to do is believe that he is. That's pretty simple. But if you're going to please God, you've got to actually obey what he says and live your life by faith. But the people that say you've got to work your way to heaven, they don't live godly lives at all. I mean, honestly, if you ask them the question, have you ever read the Bible cover to cover? I'm talking about pastors. The pastors of these churches out here. Well, don't say whatever. Because usually the answer is no. They've never even read the Bible cover to cover. And it's like, why would I get advice from you if you've never even read the Bible? That's true. I mean, it boggles your mind that you don't even know anything about the Bible. I remember when I first got saved and I talked to my United Methodist minister, because I didn't know he was saved and I was curious and I was trying to give him the gospel and he wasn't. And I was just amazed at how we literally knew about the Bible. I've been saved for a few months and you could tell he didn't even know the passages I was talking about. And I was just like, you've been a minister for 30 years. I've been saved for a couple of months and I hadn't read the Bible cover. I had barely read anything. And I'm not talking about unique passages. I'm talking about Acts 16. I'm talking about Titus 3.5, common salvation verses, Romans 6.23. It's like, he didn't even know what I was talking about. Much less did he have in the beginning. He didn't even know what I was talking about. And I was just like, what in the world? I mean, you would think that he would have come across that, but you know, honestly, most people that are most prophets, they don't even know what the Bible says about this stuff. 1 Chronicles 29, verse 17. And the third point we have, so one is that you need to live a life by faith. Two, you need to not live a worldly life. Three, you need to live a holy life. And so this really is referring to not committing sins. So 1 Chronicles 29, verse 17, he reads, I know also my God, that thou tryest the heart, and hast pledged, hast... I know also my God, that thou tryest the heart, and hast... Let me read this. I think I have his quotation here. One second. Let me go here. 1 Chronicles 29, verse 17. And hast pledged an uprightness. Hast for me in the uprightness my heart. I have willingly authored all these things, and now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willfully mine to thee. Now turn to Psalms 5. And so what it said in verse 17 is he has pleasure in uprightness. And so what the Bible's teaching here is God wants you to live an upright life. Basically live a godly life. Basically obey his rules. He has pleasure in uprightness. He wants you to do exactly what he says. Obey his commands. Psalms 5, in the very middle of your Bible, it says in Psalms 5, verse 4, For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee. And so God is not a God that has pleasure in wickedness. He has pleasure in uprightness. It's pleasing to him when you live an upright and holy life. And he does not have pleasure in wickedness. He expects us to obey his rules. Now turn to Hebrews 1. And honestly, this should make sense, I mean, if you're a parent, because when you get saved, what you do is you receive eternal life, everlasting life, that's spiritual life. When you receive spiritual life, that is basically your spiritual birthday. Every one of us has one physical birthday, and if you want to go to heaven, you need to be spiritually born into God's family. When you're born into God's family, it is a father-son or father-daughter relationship. Look, how is my son going to please me? What does he need to do? He needs to obey my rules. If he does not obey my rules, obviously I'm not going to be very pleased with him. Hebrews 1 verse 9, And see, the Bible says about God, he loves righteousness and he hates iniquity. Say, how does God feel about the LGBT? He hates iniquity. Amen! How does he feel about people getting drunk? He hates iniquity. He hates these things. He says no, and when people do it, he hates it. See, I don't know. I think we should be more loving. Well, the Bible says he hates iniquity. God hates iniquity. He loves righteousness. He wants us to obey his rules and do what he says. God hates iniquity. That's what the Bible says. But with my son, if I tell my son to do something and he disobeys, I'm angry with him. And he gets a punishment. He gets a spanking when he disobeys. Now, it doesn't really matter what I tell him if he disobeys, I'm going to be angry with him. Now, sometimes kids do things where they're potentially trying to cause problems or whatever, but sometimes they're just curious. For example, my son loves electricity. I love to use this example. And every parent, you're going to find this out about your child, they love electricity and they're curious. So they'll take a pen or some sort of object, they'll see a couple of holes here, and they'll just try to jam it in. Because they're curious, what's going to happen when I put a key there where there's a hole? Now, as a parent, I know what could happen. It's very deli-coddled. It's very dangerous, right? So obviously I tell my son no, and sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn't listen. Now, when he chooses to play with that, he's not trying to intentionally cause problems, he's just curious. But at the same time, if I tell him no and he doesn't listen, I'm going to be angry. Why? Because I told him no and he didn't obey. Look, it's the same way with God. When God tells you you know about something and you choose to disobey it, he's going to be mad at you. Why? Because it's a father-child relationship. Look, we do not condone sin around here. People accuse us of, well, you're just giving people a license to sin. They just go out and do drugs, you get drunk and forticate and you don't care. It's like, hey, good night, show me a church around this area that preaches harder against them. I'm sorry, but I just don't think it really exists. He preaches pretty hard against sin. Salvation is still by believing in Jesus Christ, but when you can say you have a father-child relationship, and parents expect their kids to obey him. And look, when your child acts out, it's your job to spank that child, discipline that child, or otherwise that child is going to be a real problem in your lives. Because if you don't teach him to have to respect authority now, he won't respect authority when he's 18 years old, and he'll end up in jail. That's what happens. Now turn to Malachi 1. So obviously the biggest way that you expect, you know, your children are going to believe is when they just obey what you say. You ask them to do something, and the Bible says God does not have pleasure in wickedness, he has pleasure in uprightness. So basically just your God keeps mix. Just do what the Bible says. Yes, that means going to church every week. Yes, that means reading the Bible. Yes, that means praying. Yes, that means not committing sins. It's all of those things. Now yeah, all of those things you need to do to please God, because those are all things to supply. Right. There's, I mean honestly, this sermon could be like a 50-part series. How to please God. It's like there's a thousand things you need to do to please God. It's like just do what he says. That's the answer. Just do what he says. Now I want you to live your, like with my son, the number one thing I want him to do is just obey what I say. But at the same time, if my son goes above and beyond to please me, for example, I don't tell my son to clean his room, I don't tell him to do the dishes, but he does it anyway to try to make us happy. You're going to keep it more pleased, wouldn't you? Right. It works the same way with God. And the last point we have is simply giving God your best. That's what the Bible teaches here. Malachi 1 verse 8, And if Yah for the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if Yah for the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy young man. Will he be pleased with thee? Or accept thy person to say the Lord of hosts? And so what the Bible says here in Malachi 1 is when someone would offer an animal, and they basically say, well, let me find my animal that's blind. Let me find my animal with a broken leg. Let me find my animal that is really, really messed up, that I have to take to the vets every week, you know, spend all my money. I'm going to offer it back to God. And people are intentionally giving their worst to God. Why? Because it doesn't hurt them financially. So you're intentionally giving their worst to God. Now, is the governor going to be pleased with it? The rhetorical answer to this question is no, he won't be pleased. Right. When you're intentionally offering your worst to God, okay? Verse number 9, and now I pray you, beseech God that you will be gracious unto us. This hath been by your means. Will he regard your person, sayeth the Lord of hosts? Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught? Neither do you who came to fire on my altar for naught. I have no pleasure in you, sayeth the Lord of hosts. Neither will I accept an offering at your hand. So in verse 10, it says that God has no pleasure in him. And the reason why is because they're offering their worst to God. And it said in verse 10, who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught? Say, what is that talking about? It's basically talking about, think of a church. Think of, if nobody at church was willing to even open the doors in the morning, or close them. Just every single time is their blessing, the pastor's telling them. And it's like, man, you're not even willing to show five minutes early to open the doors. Not even, no, I don't want to take the offering plate, I just want to sit here on my chair. It's like, make somebody else do it. And it's like, you're not willing to do anything. And that's what God was stating to me. Basically, nobody's willing to do something for naught. Basically, well, yeah, if you pay the money, I'll do it. I mean, if you reward me, if you miss me from the pulpit, then I'm the greatest person since sliced bread, I'll do it. But not for naught. I'm not going to do it unless I get something out of it. What is the benefit for me? That is the generation we live in today where everybody does things for themselves. Quite honestly, when it comes to being part of a church, you really should ask, what can I do to help out that church? Now, oftentimes, people come to a church merely to find out, well, what can the church do for me? Now, look, this church is your offering. It can help you change your life, but quite honestly, your reason for coming to church should not be about, well, what can this church do for me? You should ask yourself, what can I do for this church? If you consider it your church. If you say, I'm a member and I love Verity, God is vanilla, and I want to see this church grow and thrive and become a better church, the question ought to be in your mind, what can I do for the church for naught? For no reason, but just because I want to help the church and because I love God. That's what people should ask. That's not what people usually ask. And now, if I won, there's people that won't even open the doors for naught. It's like, for example, if I have to leave early or something, like, for example, when I went down with my mom at a breach, I was going around to everybody and saying, hey, can you shut the doors? No, I'm not going to lock the doors for you. You can't count on me. And everyone's like, no, I'm not going to be the one to lock the doors. And it's like, well, great, I guess I'm not going to. I'll get a breach because nobody's willing to even shut the doors for naught. Okay, I'll pay you 100 paces. Okay, I'll do it. That's what's taking place here now. Everyone's like, no, unless I get some sort of benefit. You're going to the United States, Brother Stuck, you're going to have to give me this much money, then I'll help you out. That's obviously the wrong attitude to have. Right. Now, this is an extreme example, but the truth is the more people volunteer to help at church, the more the church people do. That's the way it works. And so God says, you know what, I'm not going to accept an offering at your hand because nobody's even willing to kindle fire on my own for naught. For example, you know, when they used to sacrifice animals, hey, could somebody get the fire started because I'm really busy doing the mill? You got to get to it. It's like, you know, that's ridiculous. People should be willing to help. They say, Brother Stucky, that's easy for you to say because you're the one preaching the sermons asking for help. Well, it is easy for me to say, but at the same time, when I got saved at the age of 18 and started to go to church at 19, every church I've been at, I just volunteered to do whatever the pastor of church needed help with. That's what I've always done. Look, I went to a church in West Virginia where I drove almost two hours every Sunday to go to church. And I showed up on Sundays before 7 a.m. to help out on the bus lines. Now, was that easy for me to believe at, like, five in the morning? No, it wasn't. But I asked the pastor, how can I help? And he's like, well, get here early and help out on the bus route. You know, it was a picked up kiss. I don't even believe in a bus route. I don't even believe in that. But at the same time, I said, how can I help this church out? And that is how I can help the church out. And so quite obviously, you know, it's just a matter of helping out when you can. And if you want to please God, basically God's saying, I want you to give your best. Right. And that's true in your individual life and also in the church that you basically give God your best. And that's how God's going to be pleased with you. Now, obviously, the biggest thing for my son to please me is that he just obeys me. But if he really wants me to be pleased, it's when he's a good son and does stuff. I don't even ask him to come. And he's just trying to help out. It works the same way at church when people do things and I don't even ask them for it. It makes me very happy because there's lots of stuff I'd love to do, but it's just a matter of, you know, life is busy. Now turn to Micah six, Micah chapter six. And so in Micah chapter six, verse number eight, God says, verse seven, Micah chapter six, verse seven. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams within thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression and through to my body for the sin of my soul? And so God's asking the question, is he going to be pleased with thousands of rams, thousands of rivers of oil? Now, I do believe the Bible teaches, I didn't give him your 10%, but a lot of people have this attitude that I can just live my life however I want and just give extra money in the offering to make up for the fact that I committed adultery in my life or make up for the fact I don't read the Bible, let me just give 11% should it be okay? I don't pray either, so let's make that 12%. You know, I don't even come to church, so I'll just come once a month to get my offering. God's going to be pleased. No, he's not going to be pleased with me. It doesn't matter how much money you put in, he cares more about just what label he says to do. Somebody asks to do is simply to give 10%. That's a whole other sermon and I don't preach on the money much, but look, most churches ask for a lot more than 10%. So it's like me, I'm preaching against giving money, but I say, hey, you should give 10%. Like in the Philippines, it's like, hey, I thought I had to give my first month's salary and 10%. It's like, you know in the Bible that you're misunderstanding the word first words. A church is asking for way too much money and not doing what the Bible says. Look, God just wants you to obey and if he says 10%, he means 10%. He doesn't mean 15. You say, well, I don't give 15% and just not doing what the Bible says. No, just obey what it says. And just the 10%, that's fine, that's what the Bible says. But here's the thing about this, just simply giving money, that's not going to make him happy. Verse 8, he has shown the old man what is good and what does the Lord require of thee. Require for what? Not require to be saved, but require for him to be pleased with you in the context, but to do justly in the love of mercy, to walk humbly with thy God. Basically, just serve God. Just do what he says. I mean, honestly, you can boil down this sermon to just whatever the Bible says, just do it. Right? Start reading your Bible every day because God tells you to do it and just do whatever he says. You hear something new in a sermon, just do what he says. Just do what God says and he's going to be happy with you. And look, honestly, if you're filled with the Spirit and trying to live for the Lord, just volunteering and helping out and going above and beyond, that's just what you're going to actually do because of the fact that you love God. Not because you're trying to get some sort of reward, but just because you love God. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 4. And so look, you know, the truth is this, that God will be more happy with you if you give 10% and read your Bible every day than if you give 95% of your money and don't do that. Right. He'll be more pleased with you if you just do what he says. He tells you to read there in all the days of thy life. He'll be more pleased with you if you just come to church every week than if you give, like, 30% of your money. You say, why? Because there's something he requires and he just wants you to obey that. Right. And you know what? Honestly, he just wants you to do what he says to do. Now, if you're able to give more or if you have a generous heart or whatever, yeah, that's fine. That's great. But look, all he's required is 10%, but he requires everything that he tells you to do, though. He tells you to pray without ceasing. He expects you to be praying all the time. He expects you to read the Bible every day and come to church. Those are the basics of what he expects you to do. He tells you not to live a worldly life. So, yeah, he expects you not to listen to the devil's music. Yep. And so he just expects you to do what he says to do. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 1. Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as he had received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so he would have bound war and war, for you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. So how are you going to please God according to 1 Thessalonians 4? Well, I mean, you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. At a church like this, I can honestly and sincerely say you know what the commandments are. Right. You know, because I preach the sermons. Right. I don't hide anything or hold it back. You know what you need to do. It's a question of are you doing it? Yeah. Nobody can walk out of here and say, I had no idea I was supposed to go solo here, because I preach other times. Nobody can walk out of here and say, man, I had no idea it was wrong to, you know, listen to rock music. No, I've preached that many times. Nobody can walk out of here and say, I didn't know what I was supposed to do. But the question is, are you doing what you're supposed to do? Now, I don't claim to be perfect because I sin every single day. And when it comes to these commandments, obviously I struggle from time to time as well. I'm not saying that I'm above this is something that I need to apply as well. And it really comes down to are you just doing what God says. I read things sometimes and I'm like, hey, I haven't really been doing that much in my life recently. And so, look, I'm not saying I'm perfect at this. This sermon applies to me as well. And a sermon like this, you have to ask yourself, is God pleased with you? Now, turn in your Bible and say, let's end with Revelation 4, Revelation 4. So basically, the bare minimum to pleasing God is just, first off, getting saved. You must believe that He is. And then just obeying what He says. Basically, don't live a worldly life. Don't live a sinful life. And then, as we saw in our first point, basically, to just give God your best and live the life with strong faith. And so, if you want God to be really pleasing, if you only want Him to be a tad bit pleased with you, then basically get saved and do the bare minimum. And it'll be a little bit pleasing. Obviously, the more you do, the more He's going to be pleasing. Now, you must do something, though, to be safe and pleased with you. You must try to be obeying His rules. Now, we're not perfect, and so when you sin, you get down on your knees and ask God for forgiveness. Obviously, you're still saved and on your way to heaven. But God expects you to have that daily cleansing with Him when you mess up. Just like with my son, as my son grows up, he is going to be my son no matter what he does. No matter what. If my son murdered someone one day, he's still my son. When David murdered Uriah, he was still the son of God. You say, wait a minute, you've been, I mean, murdered? Of course you lose your salvation. Well, the Hanukkah, the God whom I know will not come down. I mean, what part of that do you not understand? It's like, it's funny because when I preach the gospel, I ask that question like 20 times. And it's like they still don't seem to get it. And then I go back and they're like, why are you asking such an easy question? They're like, well, I'm God. And then all of a sudden they keep, I give examples and say, well, you lose your salvation. And then I'll say, nah, I don't come to God. I just keep asking the question. Because it's until you understand what it means, I mean, I know that you know what it means, but it's like until you understand, okay, when you get this, it's going to last forever. So you need to put aside your false religions. And so if my son will be my son no matter what, but if he's been a murderer, I obviously would not be pleased with him. If he doesn't obey me, I will not be pleased with him. If you want to please God, you have to obey his rules and then try to live your life serving him. And so you have to understand, when you first get saved, that does not mean you automatically please God. You say, brother, I've made a lot of changes in my life. I've come to this church. I've made a great sacrifice. And that is great that you made a sacrifice to come here, and I know that's true for many people in this room. But he still wants you to kind of put your foot out there from time to time and step out of faith. He still wants you to throw aside more weights in your life. You start running that Christian race with 50 pounds on your back. What do you do? You take five more pounds out of that book bag when you hear the sermons, and then you're going to run it a little bit faster. You take five more pounds, and you're going to run it a little bit faster. Our whole lives we're moving more and more ways. Hopefully, the sins you just get out of your life. And every time you commit a sin, you go, man, I'm sorry, God, forgive me, give me a new start. And his mercies are in the air. Amen. But at the same time, your whole life, you're going to have weights that you need to set aside. Now, the way the Christian race runs, though, is this. You're basically running a Christian race, and you got your book bag. And unknowingly, as you're getting rid of weights, some weights end up flying into your book bag that you didn't even know about. That's what takes place. You're raising kids, and amazingly, more weights are coming in. It's like, man, I have something else I need to get rid of that I didn't have just this month ago. Why? Because as you're running the Christian race, the influences of the world keep hitting you. And from time to time, some of those things stick on to you. And you got to keep always removing the worldliness and the weights from your life if you want to really please God and serve him to your goals. Now, if you're happy with just basically going like this in your race, you know, you're serving God. I won so many once this year. I moved up a little bit. I won so many twice this next year. But if you really want to just serve your fullest, you'll get rid of as many of those weights as you can, and that way you're going to run the race a lot quicker. Revelation 4 verse 11, Bob reads, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. Thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are in work created. God has created this for his pleasure. Amen. And so God expects you to be a peculiar people, as the Bible says. And when it says peculiar people, it does not mean to be strange on purpose, but what it means is basically being different than what the world would be. Right. And so the things that we do as Christians, they ought to be a little bit different than the world. The world does not understand, you know, why we don't watch some of the movies that they do. And that ought to be the way it is that we're a little bit different than the world. Right. Because obviously if you're serving God, if you're in the flesh, you know, the same person living in the flesh, you're going to do the wrong things. But honestly when you start living Godly, your friends and family ought to look at you a little bit differently. What happened to this person? He used to find that I looked so funny. Now he finds him as a disgusting, miserable person. Amen. Like children. You say, man, I can't believe you say that. I can't believe you wouldn't say that. I mean, just look out on the world that we live in. That's reality. And it's like, no, I don't find him funny. I don't. Maybe it's just different living in the U.S. I would have never found him funny. But apparently people do find him funny. Well, look, when you get saved, though, God doesn't expect you to find the same things funny. The same jokes that are perverted that you used to laugh at, look, they shouldn't be funny to you when you're serving God. They're not appropriate. And look, a lot of the jokes and things people say, look, they're not appropriate. And the world finds them funny, but you're not the world. And if one of them is God, you're going to have to obey him and try to go above and beyond. Because for his pleasure, you were and are. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing me here today. And I just try to apply this to serve your lives, including myself, God. Whether or not you're actually pleased with us, how do we please God? And quite honestly, even though we as Christians that believe in the truth and are soul owners in serving God, even at a church where we're so much different than the world already God, at the same time, he wants us to live our entire lives just serving God.