Aug. 24, 2025

Make God Happy! (24 August 2025)

Introduction - This message is a personal development message, a continuation of some of my messages earlier in the year having to do with Loving God.  It is easy for us to spend our time dealing with our problems here on earth to the point that we lose track of God’s needs.  We were born to fulfill his most urgent of desire: to receive love.  

Proverbs 8:17 “I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me. NASB

God has created many creatures to fill his earth.  We alone have a free will.  It was always God’s hope that men would, using their free wills, turn to Him, depend on Him and above all, show love to Him.  This love is shown by what we  do more than what we say.  This is true in all human relationships like husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees, God and His people, and others.  The church spends lottos time singing and saying that we love the Lord, but even more meaningful is what we do toward the Lord. 

Love is God’s very nature!  It is a figment of our imagination that causes us to see God as harsh and judgmental toward us.  He is anything but that toward His sons and daughters, to whom the blood of Jesus has been applied.  

1 John 4:16 God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. NASB

Ephesians 2:4-7 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. NASB

So, you can be assured that whatever problems you walked into church with today, God is aware of each one and has a plan to take you safely through the problem to the other side.  Now, let’s turn our focus to the idea of showing love to God.  We’ll start by observing the importance of your spiritual age and how it affects the giving of love to God.  

Ever notice that a baby is entirely caught up in its own needs?  There is almost nothing it can do for another person because it is so caught up in its own need to drink milk, sleep, have its diapers changed, or be burped.   It may reflect contentment through a smile or a coo, but it is largely incapable of demonstrating love in any other way.   There is a spiritual stage of the Christian life corresponding to infancy.  It is not bad to be an infant; all of us must pass through it in order to be born again.  Remember that Jesus was an infant for a normal, predictable number of years as He grew through childhood, learning about life in the same way we do.    

Hebrews 5:13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. 14But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.  NASB

Hebrews 6:1-2 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. NASB

As predictable as it is, it is not God’s will for us to remain spiritual infants our whole lives.  Jesus certainly didn’t. You can remain there, but you’ll miss out on a lot of fulfilling life.  You will certainly go to heaven but will not have much reward when you get there.   The author of Hebrews noted that we should gain specific bits of knowledge, including faith toward God.  Faith is experienced when we encounter something which looks impossible, but God instructs us to do it whether we understand it or not.  This is the only way we grow in faith! So if you are ready to move out of the infant stages into adult stages of your Christian life, let me suggest two things which God Himself has said are very important to Him.  Fasten your seatbelt; here’s what he said will make Him happy:  

He wants 1/10 of your income and 1day out of your week!

Before you faint, let me tell you some incredibly merciful news:  there is not one scripture in the New Testament which says you must give 10% of your income to God, nor is there a command anywhere in the New Testament that you must take a day of your week to honor the Lord.  You don’t have to do either of these recommendations.  In this message we’re not looking for what we can get from God which is typical of modern church life, but we want to find out what He wants.  

Concerning the giving of 1/10 of our income, the following Scripture is often used by pastors to teach that Christians must bring tithes to their church.  It should not be applied that way.  This was written 400 years before the first church existed, and it referred only to the Israelites and their agricultural life:

Malachi 3:10-11 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.  NASB

What is recorded in the New Testament is that there was no suggested percentage.  Money was shared freely based on need, with some persons selling lands and houses to help others.  What is significant In the Old Testament is that the tithe is mentioned 18 times in the Law of Moses.  It was the means through which the poor were taken care of, the Levites provided for, and later, the Temple supported.  What if we looked at the giving of 10% of our incomes as God’s idea of a pleasing offering in this age?  It is a way of showing love to a targeted interest of His, rather than just saying how much we love Him.  Better than that, if 10% cuts into your needs, it gives God a perfect chance to miraculously make up the difference.  Remember, you still have 90% left for your interests!  It is an opportunity to start moving toward maturity.  

My wife and I experienced this firsthand early in our young family’s life.  I had decided to separate from the career I had in the Air Force, feeling that the Lord wanted me to separate myself for service in a good church we had started to attend.  I had no job guarantee, so I began laying carpet with a friend and later worked at a bank.  During those first uncertain months, we had so many refunds and appearances of old trust fund notes that we never missed a house payment or a meal. All through this time, we never stopped tithing.   A promise from God was really fulfilled, even though we never shared our needs:

Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

This is a good measure of where your real treasure is.  Are you bound in fear?  This simple challenge can free you from poverty the rest of your life.  

Luke 12:33 “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor does a moth destroy. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Concerning the dedication of 1 day of your week, the Lord put it in the form of a command in the ten Commandments.  This, and the penalty associated with it, was fulfilled by Jesus’ atoning death.  Before that, however, the prophet Isaiah spoke to people who were presently then under the Law of Moses, and God’s desire really comes through:

Isaiah 58:13-14 “If, because of the Sabbath, you restrain your foot From doing as you wish on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a pleasure, and the holy day of the LORD honorable, And honor it, desisting from your own ways, From seeking your own pleasure And speaking your own word, 14 Then you will take delight in the LORD,And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

This means so much to the Lord.  It certainly must be a way of saying “I love you.” To Jesus.  What to do on that day, and how to do it, must remain personal pursuits of every Christian.  It is certainly not a boring, wasteful time if spent seeking after the Lord.  We must be careful to not let it be a dutiful ritual, but a time of refreshing from being with God.  It must not be something concerning which we judge each other: 

Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon, or a Sabbath day— 17things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 

Conclusion:  This was a challenging message to bring to our church and my related friends. My wife and I have always practiced tithing after watching the Lord honor it as I separated from the Air Force.   I am really attempting to grow and mature by honoring the Lord more sincerely on my special day with Him, also.  I commend others who have learned these lessons better than me and urge all of our brothers and sisters to give God what He wants! Make God happy!