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HEBREWS 11:5, 6

"PLEASING GOD"

I. ENOCH'S TESTIMONY, THAT HE PLEASED GOD.
        A. The elders in heaven declare this to be the purpose for all creation.
           (Rev. 4:11..
                1. You may resent this.
                        a. You may not think this is fair.
                2. You may fight this.
                        a. You may live your life to please yourself.
                        b. You may not care what God thinks.
                3. You'll never find satisfaction or fulfillment until your life is
                   pleasing God.
                        a. Only then are you answering the basic purpose of your being.
                4. The basic purpose of a refrigerator is to keep food cold.
                        a. Let us pretend a refrigerator has a free will.
                                1. It didn't like being cold all the time.
                                2. It aIways wanted to be an oven.
                                3. Let's say that you went to great expense to repair it.
                                4. Still it refused to keep your food cold.
                                5. That refrigerator is headed for the county dump.
                5. Here is man created in the image of God that he might please God.
                        a. I always wanted to be an animal.
                                1. I want to live for my appetite.
                        b. God went to great expense to repair you.
                                1. Still you refuse to obey Him.
                        c. Is it any wonder your destiny is the dump?
        B. There is another whose testimony was that He pleased God.
                1. God said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
                2. How did He please God?
                        a. "I came not to do My will, but the..."
                        b. "I do always those things that please..."

II. HOW CAN A MAN PLEASE GOD?
        A. "Without faith it is impossible..."
                1. You must trust Him.
                2. You must believe in Him.
                        a. This is sometimes very difficult.
                                1. I want to cry out against my circumstances.
                                2. I feel God has deserted me.
                                3. Surely He must be angry.
                        b. With Jacob I cry, "AII things are against me."
        B. I must believe that God is.
                1. That isn't hard because I'm no fool.
                2. It's easier to believe that He is than He isn't.
                3. Believe that He is what?
                        a. All that He says He is gracious, kind, loving, concerned.
        C. That He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
                1. Some seek God on a try-out basis.
                        a. Have you tried God?
                2. God said to Jeremiah, "In the day that you seek Me with your
                   whole heart, I will be found of you."
                3. That God is a rewarder.
                        a. God loves you.
                        b. God is preparing you for His kingdom.
                        c. God will bless you and reward you.