Find Out What Pleases the Lord ~ Part 4

Find Out What Pleases the Lord ~ Part 4
Keep Your Head in the Game

By Pastor Gary Wayne

We have been emphasizing the month of September as transition month where we re-focus on the priorities of our relationship with God
Spiritual Emphasis Month. And even though this is the first of October, I want to take one more crack at emphasizing the need to have our focus on the Heart of the Father.

Eph.5:8c,10 “…Live as children of light and - find out what pleases the Lord.” NIV

Text: Galatians 5:1,7

Yesterday, I was one of the speakers to talk about Norm & Rose Baier.
I talked about a recent experience I had while working at the cemetery.
Recently I needed to write down the information of the Headstones to compare with the records we have. As I spent that time reading names and dates, what impacted me was how much of the importance of those lives were represented by the dash between the date of birth, and the date of death.

So much of what that person had accomplished could not be recorded.

The date we are born and the date we die are in the hands of God, but what we do in between – the dash between the dates – are for us to fill in.
And if we lose sight of why we live our life, we get distracted and live for ourselves.

Christianity is not actually a religion – it has been classified as that, but it is a relationship, not religious activity.
Although it can become mere religious activity instead of a relationship.

Gal.5:1,7 They had started out in their Christian walk in a relationship with Jesus, but as time went by, life at church began to be about church religious traditions and not about relationship.

Ro 13:11 “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”

Is this speaking about Christians being asleep or people who don’t know God?
So it is possible to be a follower of Jesus, yet asleep.

1Th 5:1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you,
2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
3 While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.
5 You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.
6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, [What others? Is this speaking about Christians being asleep or people who don’t know God?]
but let us be alert and self-controlled.
7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.
8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

1Co 6:19-20 “… do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.”

In a message I preached a back in June I asked: In any sport, how critical is the 4th quarter?

What happens when players get distracted in a game?
How does the enemy want to distract us from emphasizing the spiritual?

If he can distract me for why and how I live, he may not cause me to go to hell, but what about people around me I might influence as I live my life focused on what pleases the Lord?

Eph.5:8c,10 “…Live as children of light and - find out what pleases the Lord.” NIV