Too much of my life was spent trying to please others. Are you a pleaser? Well, are we pleasing God?
That's the question of the day. Welcome to The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author and evangelist, and his message today on how to please God with your life will help you, like it did me, change my perspective on instead of becoming a man pleaser or parent pleaser or a sweetheart pleaser, let's become God-pleasers. As we do this, know that we're available for you. We're praying together already online, keyboard to keyboard, at TheEncouragingWord.org, as well as on this phone number, 866-899-WORD. In this day and age of lots of emails, lots of texts, sometimes it's really a unique blessing to have someone praying with you right now at 866-899-WORD.
It would be our privilege. Now today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. Don't you love being a Christian? How are you doing in that department?
And I'm going to ask you a question today. How can you live a life that is well pleasing to God? At the end of the day, really nothing else really matters.
The day is going to come where all the things that we consider to be so vital and so critical and so important are relative. The bottom line, are you living a life that is pleasing to the Lord? I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel, chapter 12. 1 Samuel, chapter 12. Now I had intended to read this entire passage to you.
For the sake of time, I'm not going to do that. I was going to read to you verse 1 through verse 25. I want you to understand something about Samuel. In this passage, we are given a picture.
We're shown Samuel at the age of 90, the age of 100. This was this man, having lived a full life in the twilight of his life, looking back on his life, in the eyes and through the eyes of a holy and a righteous God. This is God speaking to you and me. And I want you to hear the word of the Lord. 1 Samuel, chapter 12 in verse 1.
1 Samuel said to all of Israel, behold, I have obeyed your voice in all that you have said to me, and I've made a king over you. And now behold, the king walks before you, and I am old and gray. And behold, look at my sons and my daughters. They are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this very day.
So here I am. Bear witness, testify. You tell me if I have been if I have been faithful. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it?
Testify against me and I will restore to you. And they said, no Samuel, all these years you've not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand. And he said to them, the Lord is witness and his anointed is witness this day that you have not found anything in my hand. And they said he is witness. And he goes and begins to share with them how God has moved and acted throughout the ages. He takes them right into the heart of God. He points them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He points them to God our Heavenly Father. And I want you to pick up at verse 16. Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do for you before your eyes.
Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord and he will send thunder and rain and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking for yourselves a king. So Samuel called upon the Lord and the Lord answered his prayer and sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die for we have added to all sin this evil to ask for ourselves a king. And Samuel said to the people, do not be afraid for even though you have done this evil I want you to know said Samuel, do not turn aside from following the Lord but serve the Lord with all of your heart. Do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver because they are empty things. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his name's sake because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. Moreover as for me far be it from me for the Lord will not forsake far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all of your heart for consider what great things he has done for you.
I do thank the Lord for my parents-in-law because throughout their lives they've lived lives that are pleasing to the Lord. I want that for myself. I want that for you our people.
You understand that? I want that for our young people. I want them not to only see that in us but I want they themselves to take hold of those same truths that come from God. I want us to be a people who invest in tomorrow because we believe these things. Congregation, people, we're going to be coming to you.
We're going to ask you to step up to step up for tomorrow. God is asking us. I've never been more convinced that the White House will never do it.
Government will never do it. Holy Spirit filled people who live lives that are pleasing to the Lord are the very instruments in the hands of God. My wife and I when we first married we'd get on my motorbike ride through the African bush down to a little village where my father-in-law pastored a small but wonderful church and even in my ignorance I remember him coming and asking me as a young man who was so full of himself and so full of getting out there in life and so preoccupied with the things that we all are.
There's nothing wrong. To me it was it was about sport and playing athletics and surfing and fishing and riding motorbikes and there's nothing wrong with any of that but my father-in-law anchored me. What was it about Samuel? His life was marked by so many things and I simply place these to you. When I do, yes I am hearing a tremendous tribute to two parents who have meant that much to me.
I'm hearing a tribute to so many of you, to so many 70 and 80 and 90 and 100 year olds into whose faces I look today and I bow my head in gratitude for you and I thank you and I honor you. Samuel's life was marked by many things. Number one, it was marked by listening. It was a spiritual ability to listen. He said it right there in verse one. He said, behold I have listened to your voice. Behold I'm paying attention and in this context we know that what Samuel was saying to them was that not everything that they were saying to him was what God needed for them but that he understood that as a man of God and he took that information and he placed it back in their hearts because he was a spiritual listener.
One just has to turn on a television set today. These infernal discussions that go on on television every time something happens in our nation and the so-called experts gather and they sit around the table and the court of public opinion begins to speak and everybody says and nobody listens but those of us who know Christ because of the spirit of the living God who dwells in us. We have a spiritual filter by the Holy Spirit which enables us to be able to observe and evaluate and listen and do in light of who God is. If you want to be a man or a lady who pleases God, do what Samuel did. Listen spiritually in an attitude of obedience not to man but to God. You want to process?
There's a process. Observe the people that speak to you. Evaluate them in terms of where they stand in the light of who God is.
Listen to what they have to say and then act according to the word of God based upon what you hear. Samuel's life was marked by listening. It was marked by rearing, r-e-a-r-i-n-g. I always remember someone telling me you don't raise children, you raise corn and you rear children. I think there's a little value to that although quite frankly some of our children behave like ears of corn sometime.
His life was marked by a spiritual rearing. It seems to me no accident that if you look at the life of this man through his old years and his graying hair, you cannot but see his children stand before. There they are, behold my sons stand before you. I pay tribute to you Bumper and Nana because the man who stands before you today was the boy you accepted into your home yesterday. Many of you have got boys and girls in your home right now.
How are you rearing them? Here's three things to think about. You want to do this in a manner that's pleasing to God? Invest time in your children. May I say this lovingly? Some of you are moving so quick, some of you are climbing that corporate ladder so fast you don't ever stop to spend a minute with your kids.
The greatest single investment you can give to your children spiritually in a manner that's pleasing to God as a Christian parent is to give them time. Man, what's the matter with you? To give them time means something you're doing has to go.
Invest time with them. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with today's message with Dr. Wilton in just a moment, but as he's talking I'm hearing him say it again and again and again.
How do you spell love? L-O-V-E, oh yes, but also T-I-M-E. May we spend that time not only with our children but with those that matter the most. We would like to spend some time with you as well. We're available for you not just now during the broadcast but 24 hours a day one on one to pray together, to talk together, maybe connect to free resources at the phone number 866-899-WORD.
I suggest you jot it down, store it in your cell 866-899-9673. Justor says T-E-W, the encouraging word. It's our privilege to encourage you on that line or keyboard to keyboard on our website at theencouragingword.org. Even though the world is becoming an increasingly challenging place to live in as a Christian, Jesus's ultimate sacrifice on the cross remains a message of hope for everyone. Discover a deep understanding and appreciation for our Savior's death on the cross in Dr. Wilton's powerful sermon, The Cross, along with the bonus book, The Cross of Jesus by Warren W. Wiersbe, which explores the entire crucifixion in detail. These powerful resources are yours to have with your gift of support to the encouraging word. Thank you for listening today.
Now back to today's message, How to Please God with Your Life with Dr. Don Wilton. Invest conversation with them. Talk with them. Banter, chatter. Conversation is two ways. Let them tell you those stories and discoveries, their dreams and aspirations and fears. The conversation talks back. You're the spiritual person.
You want to be pleased with God. Speak into their conversation. Don't invite them to speak into yours. You speak into their invitation. They want you.
They want you to hold their hand in conversation. Invest your time. Invest your conversation, but invest your actions. Don't do what I say. Just watch what I do. That consistency means you need to be the same whether you're in here or whether you're out there. Do people say to you right now, you're the same person.
You're not a leopard. You don't change your spots. Some of you guys get out on the golf course and something happens to you. You just Mr. Congeniality and Mr.
Wonderful and you get on the golf course and the language starts flowing and your conversation about women is on the edge. But meanwhile, you're this loving husband back home, right? Or you're on the tennis court and you miss a shot and everybody else gets punished because of your foul mouth and your behavior and your temper. And some of you take your sons and daughters out there and they watch you do it. And then you bring them to church on Sunday and say to them, listen, isn't it nice? Let's all live for Jesus. And you and I will look at each other and say, but we messed up. See that's where it comes in.
Be open about that. Don't, man, I may confess to the Lord, confess to my forgiveness. Number three, leading. His life pleasing to the Lord is marked by listening, rearing, leading. Second part there of verse two, he says, I have walked before you from my youth until this day. And incidentally, that little word there, walked, is an interesting one because he's talking about this leadership syndrome. I've been out there. I'm leading you.
Be mindful as a leader of those you lead. It doesn't matter what you think about it. You know, I've told you all, you want to know why I don't drink. I've only got one reason why I don't drink, alcohol, because you're all watching me. You say, well, what are you some kind of big cheese or something? No, no. I've just seen it destroy too many people. I mean, I've seen people, you wouldn't believe the stories I can tell you about people that I've had the privilege of helping that the central issue has been that wine has mocked them. So you're going to say, well, look at Mr.
Perfect sitting over there. That's not the point that I'm trying to make. It's leadership. Why do you talk like that? What is your problem? And you say you have a relationship with the Lord. Why do you get so angry? What do you, what is this losing your temper all the time? The way you conduct yourself, the way you do business, the way you treat your wife in front of your children. I mean, we can, can you feel that?
There's nothing. I mean, it's not, it goes to all, all things are lawful under me, but not everything's expedient. Well, he was mocked. He pleased God. He, by leading spiritually, he knew he had a role that God was using him. And we are all leaders, folks, all of us, every one of us had a, has a leadership role. Some it might be narrower than others. We've all got people following, looking, beginning with our own families. So as a believer, I may be the only Bible someone ever reads.
And I'm telling you, it's challenging. I was driving down the road yesterday and as I drove down the road, I saw very elderly gentlemen just walking down the side of the road. He didn't have a shirt on. I turned in, went off somewhere and I'm telling you, God just, just so bothered me on that. Finally, I'm talking about a mile down the road, I turned my motor car down around. I went all the way back. He had already, on a main road, man, there was traffic going.
I put this gentleman at 80, 85, 90 years of age. I don't know. I went down the road, turned around and came back, stopped him, got out my car. I said, sir, put him into my car, took care of him. You know, I think that Samuel spent his life doing things like that. Standing, number four, Samuel's life was marked by standing. Verse three, he said, here I stand. He stood in front of the people in his old age. He said, here I am, testify against me. Kind of like Martin Luther. Martin Luther was a man under such conviction.
He stood on the steps of the car, said, here I stand. Number 17, believing his life was marked by believing. You know, I read that verse to you just a minute ago. He says, I want you to know that I believe that God calls sin, sin, but I also believe that God forgives sin and this is what he will do for you. I mean, this man was, his believing, this conviction that he had in his heart was so strong.
Had a man come up to me this week and say, thank you for what you said. He said, I've spent my life in such a a zone of defeat because of sin in my life 30 years ago. And he said, you showed me in the word of God that God forgives and he casts our sin as far as the east is from the wind.
And he remembers the number. I believe that because God says it, but I need to pass that on because I am believing. I know this to be true.
I want you to. I want to be well pleasing to the Lord and share this word of hope with you and this conviction as much as I want you to know that God will not deal with nor tolerate nor accept our sin, not in any way because he tells us that. But I also want you to know there is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in union with Christ.
I believe that because God says it. His life was marked by exhorting. That verse, verse 20 is so powerful. He says, do not be afraid. You might, you might be interested to know that the word exhort means literally to emphatically urge. That's what an exhortation is. It comes, it derives its root from the deep and abiding conviction that I have and it rises up through my heart and soul and with permission from God and based upon his word, I therefore am able to exhort you.
That's what Samuel did. That pleases God. And then determining, he determined, look at verse 23.
It's so powerful. Moreover, as for me, far be it that I should sin, Lord, by ceasing to pray for you, watch this, and I will instruct you in the good and right way. That is a spiritual determining.
He was determined. The spiritual determination that pleases God is a willingness to be disciplined by God to the point at which you share who God is in an instructive way, pointing others to the truth of all that God is. That's why today I urge you, I take great pleasure, but I'm deeply humbled to invite you to lay it down before him.
Our time is gone for today, but oh, did you hear that last sentence from Dr. Don? Spiritual determination that pleases God is a willingness to be disciplined by God to the point that we share who God is in instructive ways, pointing others to the truth of all God is. Why are we not laying our lives down to please God?
What is it that's in the way? Is it pride? It has been in my life in the past. Is it a habit or a hang-up, something that has gotten in the way of your relationship with God? You know, the joy of our salvation is something we need to long for and pursue. You can't lose your salvation if you've become a child of God, just like your children could not be unborn to be your child, but you can be out of fellowship. Are you out of fellowship because you're not pleasing God with your life? What do you need to lay down?
Let's talk about it. Let one of our team pray with you about whatever it is. Sometimes it's really good to have another passionate believer, and when you call 866-899-WORD, you will discover a passionate believer ready to pray with you right now. That's 866-899-9673, so that we together can agree with God about what it is we need to lay down so that we can increase our fellowship and be the servants of God.
God calls us to be the women and men of God that you know you can be. 866-899-9673 is the number, or visit us online at TheEncouragingWord.org. We'd also love to connect you with wonderful resources this month for your gift to the ministry of The Encouraging Word. We're sending a very special package of messages from Dr. Nunn and his good friend Dr. Stanley.
Here's Cheryl with all the details. Is there life beyond this world? Have you ever thought about heaven? Have you ever had any doubts about heaven?
The Bible tells us that heaven is as real as death. Heaven is a promise. Heaven is an eternal gift. This month, for your gift of any amount, you will receive Dr. Wilton's assuring message, heaven, our eternal home. Plus, you will receive the gift of heaven. The gift of heaven provides biblical answers to questions such as, how do I know if I'll go to heaven? Who will be in heaven? What is life in heaven like? Both of these ministry resources will help to satisfy the deepest questions of your soul. You don't have to fear the unknown. You can come face to face with the Savior's assurance of eternal life.
Write to us at post office box 2110, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 29304. Or call us toll free at 866-899-WORD or visit online at theencouragingword.org. Your partnership enables us to bring the gift of life into millions of homes around the world. Wow, what a great time together. Thank you for sharing these moments of Bible study and encouragement with Dr. Don Wilton and us today at The Encouraging Word. Tomorrow, his message is on Abraham, so I hope you'll join us this same time tomorrow as we put our heads and hearts together around God's encouraging word. Till then, you can meet us online as well at theencouragingword.org.
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