Our Aim to Please Him, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In 2 Corinthians 5-9, Paul says that we make it our aim to please God, for we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. So how do we aim to please God when only Christ's blood can satisfy Him? If the Gospel teaches that Jesus did the work on our behalf, what is our role in pleasing God? Today, Pastor Rich answers these questions, explaining our call to please God within the context of the grace of the Gospel. You're listening to the second part of a message titled, Our Aim to Please Him.

It was first preached on April 6, 2014 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. It is not at all surprising that meaninglessness and hopelessness have become the hallmark of the millennial generation that has been indoctrinated into absolutizing relativism as a valueless belief system. We are called, as Christians, we are called to do life to the glory of God. In that way, we are well pleasing to Him.

We manage the stuff of life in a manner that is in line with His character and His purpose. It is not a call to private closet faith. It is indeed a public faith.

It is a personal faith, yes, but it is a public faith because we live life to the glory of God. Take some biblical examples. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, remember them, is way back in the 6th century B.C. and they were exiles in Babylon and they were servants of God and King Nebuchadnezzar, with just a little bit of hubris, made this huge statue of himself. And he said, everybody needs to bow down to it if you are a loyal subject of this kingdom. And he called all the leaders of the kingdom together and he says, when you hear the music, you bow down. The music played, everybody bowed down, right?

There were three that did not. And they were called to pay a price because their faith was public. Nebuchadnezzar said, you will bow down or you will burn and they said, very respectfully, we understand that you want to burn us because we don't bow down. Our God is able to deliver us, but if He doesn't, you need to understand this, we will not bow down. That's public faith.

That is earnestly aspiring to be well pleasing to your creator redeemer. In the early chapters of Acts, the apostles, Peter and John, were in public and they healed and they were teaching in public in the name of Jesus. And the spiritual religious leaders of the day took them and arrested them and beat them and said, do not teach again in the name of Jesus. And Peter and John then said, well, OK, if it's a legal thing now, if it's illegal to teach in the name of Jesus, then we just won't teach in the name of Jesus because it's illegal.

Is that what they said? They said, respectfully, they said, you be the judge, do we obey God or do we obey man? You know, the nuance in which they said that was kind of like this, and this is the Rich Powell translation, it really is a no brainer. In view of eternity and the things that really matter, obey God, obey man, that's a no brainer.

Now, they didn't say it that way. They were respectful. But it's public faith, it's public faith. We earnestly aspire to be well pleasing to him. The splendor of a human heart that trusts and is loved unconditionally gives God more pleasure than the Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Van Gogh's sunflowers, the sight of 10,000 butterflies in flight or the scent of a million orchids in bloom. Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for the love of it.

Brennan Manning, trust, be well pleasing to him. You see, the more we trust God, the better stewards we become of his gifts. Let me say that again, the more we trust God, the better stewards we become of his gifts, and the more he is delighted, the more pleasure we bring him. Psalm 37, 23, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and watch this, he delights in his way.

That's the nature of those pronouns right there. God delights in the steps of a man whose steps are ordered by the Lord, one who is well pleasing to him, one who does life with the ambition to be pleasing to him. You see, that is our stewardship. Because we are Christian, we have the name of Christ. He has redeemed us and we are his. That is our stewardship.

But secondly, if we look at verse 10, here's the second point. There is accountability. There is accountability. That word scopale, looking through the scope, and you're focused on the objective.

That objective has a name, and his name is Jesus Christ. And as you look through the scope of faith, you see your objective, your creator, redeemer standing ready to welcome you. And when he welcomes you, there's a big celebration. There is coming that day, and we are headed towards a massive celebration where the bridegroom welcomes his bride.

And then you know what happens? Verse 10, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The word judgment seat is the word bimah, which means it's raised. It's on a raised platform signifying authority and final word. And we will stand. So after the celebration, we get up from the banquet table and the Lord Jesus comes to me and he puts his arms around my shoulder. He says, Rich, come over here. Now let's take a look at your life in all the ways that you were able to glorify our father through the gifts that he entrusted to you.

So wait a minute, you're going to look at my life? The word appear, it says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. It means to be fully known in detail where all pretense is blown away. Does this prospect bring you delight or dread? It's a challenging question because he says the purpose of the bimah seat, he says in verse 10, that each one may receive the things done in the body, that each one may receive the things done in the body. Again, who is standing before the bimah seat of Christ? It is those of us who are in Christ. Our justification has been taken care of. We are already accepted before God.

That's not the issue here. The issue here is your stewardship of the things that God has entrusted to you. The receive the things done in the body, what is that?

That's stewardship. Life, if you are a Christian, life is a stewardship and your physical being is entrusted to you for God's pleasure. All the stuff of life is entrusted to you for God's pleasure as an instrument in the Redeemer's hands. Paul says in First Corinthians four seven, what do you have that you did not receive? You see, it's not yours.

It's not about you. It's entrusted to you to bring glory to the one who is the point of life. So picture yourself standing there with Jesus in full review of your redeemed life, in full review of your stewardship of the things that he entrusted to you. Consider First John two twenty eight. Here's what the apostle says. And now little children, Christians, OK, and now little children abide in him. That is the imperative of this verse. OK, abide in him. Why? That when he appears.

A definite thing. When he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. So how do I take care of that? I abide in him. I make him the point of my life, private and public. So here I am standing, the celebration has just begun because the celebration will continue through all eternity. But the Lord takes me aside and we're standing there at his beam seat and he says, Rich, let's look at the review of your life. I was a little bit artistic liberty here, but hopefully this emphasizes the point.

The life, my life is going to be reviewed. You say, Rich, how was the stewardship of your time? How did you use the time I entrusted to you to please the father? Say, Gary, how did you use your relationships to please the father? Ken, how did you use your intellect to please the father? Bob, how did you use your industry to please the father?

I was just saying, he's going to pick on me next. Rich, how did you use your wealth to please the father? You see, because it wasn't yours, it was entrusted to you. And as we're looking at that, when we review our life, because, you know, the time is coming, your life is going to be reviewed. As a Christian, as you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, your life is going to be reviewed. And as you go through that review, are you going to get the sense that you lived to serve your own gratification?

Or are you going to get the sense that you invested it for his pleasure? We make it our aim to be well pleasing to him, knowing, first of all, that we are stewards. Secondly, there is accountability. There is accountability, and he is the point. In early 1990s, when George Bush, George Bush number 41, for that matter, John Sununu was his White House chief of staff. And a reporter asked Sununu if his job was difficult. And all of us would assume, yeah, it's an extremely difficult job to be the chief of staff for the president of the United States. And that was the reporter's assumption.

He quickly answered, no, it's not difficult. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on Weekdays at 10 a.m.