“Pleasing God—Is It Possible?”  Mother’s Day 5/13/07 Pr 6:20-24; Ps 27:10-14; Heb 11:4-6  5-13-07

            U.S. News and World Report had an interesting Mother’s Day article a few years back.  It said, The seven most stress-inducing words in the English language may be "I don't want anything for Mother's Day." Is this maternal haiku code for "What I'd really like is to spend time with you"? Or motherspeak for "If you really loved me, you wouldn't need to ask what I want"?
            Pleasing our mothers (or fathers) is something we all want to do, and often times we fail.  I have heard a number of people say, “My mother is impossible to please!”  Many adults talk about how guilty they feel when they are with their mother and how guilty they feel when they are not with their mother.  There is something unhealthy there.  I have heard men say, “I can’t visit my mother enough.  If I come once a month- she wants me to come once a week.  If I come once a week, she wants me to come once a day.  If I come once a day, she says she never sees me.”  If you are a mother, being able to really appreciate what you are given from your children is very important in life.  If you are a child, being able to give to your mother whether she appreciates it or not, is also very important.  Maybe the saddest thing is when someone believes they can never make their mother happy, and so they quit going to see her altogether.  Mother’s Day is a hard day for such people.  There have actually been times when with a broken heart I have counseled people not to go back to visit their mothers for awhile because of how their mothers hurt their children or their relationship with their spouse. 
            Many people transfer to God their feelings about their mother or their father.  In fact, it is natural to do so.  We usually transfer our feelings of our parents onto our teachers or our boss, whether they deserve it or not.  In the Old Testament it says, “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.”  Jesus said to talk to God as “Father.”  Freud noted the transference was so strong that he said we just make God up in the image of our parents.  Freud had terrible parents and I believe that is one reason he was an agnostic.  Christians say that we do not make God up, but He reveals Himself to us- through parents, through teachers, through others.   In contrast to some parents, God is full of grace, and is not impossible to please. 
            Many people I know believe that Christianity is all about rules.  It’s about obeying the ten commandments or loving neighbor, or being nice.   Or some say the Christian faith is about taking care of the downtrodden or the environment or the poor.  But it is far more, and it is far less.  I have known too many people who have given up on God because they think He is impossible to please- worse than their own parents.  But they miss the grace of God, and also the blessing from following in God’s way. 
            In our passage in Hebrews the writer talks about several examples of pleasing God and gives one sentence about how it is impossible to please God.  First let me say it is possible to please God.  It is possible to make God happy.  Hebrews 11 is full of characters who pleased God.  But specifically Enoch was one who pleased God, and he was commended for that (11:5).  It is said of Enoch that “He walked with God.”  It is said that Enoch was taken from this life because of his faith.  In other words, he entered heaven because of his faith.  He showed that faith in his walk with God.  Enoch believed in God and communed with God- that is he had fellowship with God by talking to God in prayer and listening for God’s voice.  One of the questions behind the question, “Can you please God?” is “Are you walking with God?” 

            The scriptures go on to define the kind of faith Enoch had, and the kind we are to have.  It says, “without faith it is impossible to please God- and then it details this faith: “anyone who comes to him must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek him.”  Faith means believing that God exists.  Until the last hundred years or so there was no such thing as an atheist.  We should learn a lesson that the social systems founded on atheistic communism are failures.  USSR collapsed, while North Korea is literally starving to death while the military is thriving.  So believing that He is, is important.  Many different religions share that.  But then it says something else, “He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”  This implies two things: 1) That if we seek Him we will find Him, and 2) God rewards or blesses.  That is what a good parent does as well.  A good parent is always ready to welcome the prodigal child back into the home when they have truly come back.  When you seek a good parent, they will be found.  If you need a listening ear, they are there.  If you need a helping hand, they are there.  A good parent looks for ways to bless or reward their child.  Such things are innate, unlearned, but a universal experience in every culture and language group.  I would say that such things are innate because they have been placed their by God.  We do not have to think too hard to see that it is the selfish mother or evil mother who neglects or abuses their child, or teaches her child evil.  Last week in Tampa Bay a Mom was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor when she incited her daughter to beat up a girl on a school bus.  The mother had a long criminal record including drug use and attempted murder. 

            It is impossible to please God if we have no faith.  Make no mistake, doubting God or doubting his ability get in the way of pleasing Him.  Doubt is a block to the pleasure of God.  This makes sense.  Lack of trust and doubt destroy relationships instead of building them up.  If I know I can count on my mother, and my mother knows I am counting on her, then there is a bond there.  But if I doubt my mother, though my mother has proved her trustworthiness and love time and again, then there is a barrier.  I have a little dog that I mentioned before.  Obviously that dog had a bad experience with men, because it used to run away from me and from John.  That lack of trust was a barrier between that dog and me.  Finally it is beginning to warm up to us.  But every now and then it shrinks back with fear if I move even half-sudden.  The most godly Christians I know are not necessarily the best scholars, or the best preachers, or the best writers, but they are the ones who obviously know God and trust God in life.  I know I ought to trust God and that helps.  But when I do trust Him, and find him trustworthy, then that builds my faith. 

            The scriptures play an important role in pleasing God, because they reveal how to please God.  The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What do the scriptures principally teach: The scriptures principally teach what we are to believe concerning God and what duty we are required to do for man.”  In other words the scriptures teach us about our faith and how to live out that faith.  You can’t do everything right.  If you feel that you are lost because you can’t make God completely happy, then think again   

             A teacher asked a boy this question: "Suppose your mother baked a pie and there were seven of you--your parents and five children. What part of the pie would you get?" "A sixth," replied the boy. "I'm afraid you don't know your fractions," said the teacher. "Remember, there are seven of you." "Yes, teacher," said the boy, "but you don't know my mother. Mother would say she didn't want any pie." Jesus came to earth not to demand, but to sacrifice.   The best mothers who hope their children do their best, also are the mothers who sacrifice to make sure their children are best.  God who has set forth the best rules for our welfare, also sacrifices for us.

God reveals He is not impossible to please.  He reveals He is pleased when we put our faith, our trust in Him.