Lesson Three: TO BE PLEASING TO GOD
Introduction: This week, we are looking at how we can be pleasing to God. Our loving God rejoices and is pleased to have a loving relationship with His creatures. God’s pleasure with His creatures shows how valued we are in His eyes. God’s pleasure is the reason for human joy and praise. We need Jesus Christ to please God.
Memory Text: Zephaniah 3:17
“The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
SABBATH: We are called to consider a scenario where a young son brings a gift to his father, and this father disregards his son’s gift because he could get a better gift for himself and the fact that this gift comes from the resources that this father provides to his son. However, God is not like this father. He created us and has provided us with everything that we have. Sinful in nature as we are, we can be pleasing to God, but only through Jesus Christ.
SUNDAY: God values people more than we could imagine. He is displeased by sin because He loves us and knows how destroying sin is and what it does to us as well. Looking at the parable of the prodigal son, upon the son’s return back home, thinking about how undeserving of forgiveness he is, his father is so compassionate about him that he recognises his son from afar off and runs to welcome him back and restores him too. In the same way, God is so compassionate towards each wayward person and he delights in every single person returning home to Him.
(READ Luke 15:11-32)
MONDAY: God considers each person of incalculable value, and that is why He rejoices over the salvation of even one soul. God delights over His redeemed people. God, amidst His people, shows His immediate presence, and this, coupled with love, leads to reconciliation. Just as the father rejoiced over his prodigal son, in the same way, God’s joy is reserved for the day of restoration when He will receive His people and rejoice over us. (READ Zephaniah 3:17; Ephesians 5:25-28)
TUESDAY: God can be pleased by humans because God loves people in a way that takes account of their best interests, as would anyone who loved and cared for others. Likewise, God is displeased by His people when they do evil. The Lord’s delight in the prayer of the righteous and the love He has for one who follows righteousness shows how connected love and delight of the Lord are, throughout Scripture. God does not love only the righteous or the cheerful giver, for He loves everyone. Yet He loves these and others in that He is pleased with them. (READ Isaiah 43:4; Psalms 149:4; Proverbs 15:8,9)
WEDNESDAY: As fallen people, we can bring nothing pleasing to God in and of ourselves. It is only by faith, through the work of our Redeemer Jesus Christ in the grace and mercy of God, that fallen beings can be pleasing to a holy God and be reconciled to Him. Through Jesus Christ, God will make believers complete in every good work to do His will, working in you and me, that which is well pleasing in His sight. Furthermore, those who respond to God’s loving overtures are accounted worthy through Christ’s mediation, and He transforms them into His likeness, in that His work is in us and for us, too.
(READ Romans 8:1; Romans 5:8; 1Peter 2:4-6; Hebrews 11:6)
THURSDAY: The great hope of redemption, which involves Christ’s work for us in heaven, entails that each of us can be counted righteous and counted among God’s beloved who will live with Him in perfect love for eternity, only through Jesus Christ, who is the Only One worthy of love and is perfectly righteous. It is only through faith and Christ’s work on our behalf that we can respond in ways that please God. It should be our desire to be well pleasing to God. We should ask God to transform our interests to include the best interests of those whom we love and to expand our love so that it reaches out to others.
(Mark 9:17-29; Romans 12:10-13)
FRIDAY: The Lord is disappointed when His people place a low estimate upon themselves. He desires His chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has placed upon them. They may expect large things if they have faith in His promises. God saves men, not in sin, but from sin, and those who love Him will show their love through obedience, for all obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. If we allow, Jesus Christ will enable us to have our hearts and minds conform to His will and by appreciating His character and having communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.
(READ “Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled” pp 662-680 in The Desire of Ages by Ellen G White)
CAPTIONS:
SUNDAY; More valuable than you can imagine
MONDAY; Rejoicing with gladness
TUESDAY; Pleasing God?
WEDNESDAY; Living stones
THURSDAY; A worthy goal
FRIDAY; Further thought
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS;
- God’s pleasure with His creatures shows how valued we are in His eyes and how much He treasures His creation. How may we value the worth of each person?
- How do the examples of the heroes of faith discussed in Hebrews 11 relate to the content of this week’s lesson? Specifically, what do such examples reveal about how one can be “pleasing to God” by faith? What can you learn and apply to your day-to-day life from such examples of faith and faithfulness?
