New Day of Hope Podcast
New Day of Hope Podcast
The Five Conditions of a Life Pleasing to God: A Spiritual Blueprint
What does it truly mean to live a life that pleases God? In a world where most people are fixated on pleasing themselves, this timely episode explores the profound difference between self-satisfaction and divine approval.
Helena and Glynis Langley guide listeners through a compelling biblical study on making God's pleasure our highest ambition. Drawing from 2 Corinthians 5:9 and the powerful example of Jesus who declared, "I always do those things that please Him," they unveil five essential conditions for a life that honors God.
The journey begins with spiritual rebirth, as Romans 8:8 plainly states that "those who are in the flesh cannot please God." This foundation leads naturally to the second condition – separation from sinful influences that entangle believers in their spiritual warfare. The hosts then explore the transformative power of complete dedication, referencing Romans 12:1's call to present our bodies as living sacrifices.
Particularly moving is their examination of Enoch, who "walked with God" and "had this testimony, that he pleased God" so completely that he never experienced death. This ancient example provides a powerful template for modern believers seeking similar divine approval.
The final sections on witnessing and obedience drive home the practical implications of prioritizing God's pleasure. As 1 Samuel 15:22 declares, "to obey is better than sacrifice" – a truth that challenges every listener to examine their own spiritual priorities.
Whether you're struggling with worldly entanglements or seeking to deepen your walk with God, this episode offers clear biblical guidance on trading self-satisfaction for the deeper fulfillment of pleasing your Creator. Connect with us at NewDayofHopeAtlanta@gmail.com to share how this message has impacted your spiritual journey.
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You are listening to the New Day of Hope Broadcast with Helena and Glynis Langley. Enjoy. Welcome back to the New Day of Hope broadcast. It's always a joy coming to you week after week to share with you the word of the Lord, and we have a great study in store for you today, and we know that your heart will be blessed.
Speaker 3:Well, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, we are excited to be with you one more time. I tell you, man, the days are rolling by in the brand new year and we trust that the Spirit of God has been with you and that you are abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. So right now, my friends, we would love for you to take a little time and call a neighbor, or call a friend and ask them to join us on the New Day of Hope broadcast.
Speaker 2:Before we begin our study, I'd like for you to listen to this song by William McDowell, my Desire, and it ties in with what we're about to share with you today.
Speaker 1:Lord, we've come with our hearts wide open. Lord, we know you have made us one. Lord, we are waiting, anticipating, anticipating. We are creating a place for you. You have made us one. We are waiting, anticipating, we're creating, we are creating A place for you. My desire is to see A move above. Oh yeah, move in me. My desire is to do all the things you're showing me. So let us create. We create a place, lord, for you to move. We release our faith for God to move. We will see the power of God and we will know that he is God.
Speaker 2:Our scripture today is coming from 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 9. And it says Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to Him. And our study today is making it our desire to please him. And that's our study, making it our desire to please him. And the him we're talking about is Jesus. The constant aim of everyone who really knows the Lord should be to be well pleasing to him. Look at John 8, 29. It says and he who sent me is with me. The father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him. So Jesus is saying that he always pleases his father, and that tells me that we ought to please the Lord also. John 13, 16 also says Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. Could anyone anyway have a greater ambition than this? Is it your ambition to please him? For here, surely, is a secret of successful living. There is nothing greater than living, day by day, a life which is well pleasing to the Lord. That should be our aim and our desire to live a life pleasing unto the Lord.
Speaker 2:So let's see what the Holy Spirit has recorded about Enoch. In Genesis 5, verse 22 to 24, it says and he begot Methuselah to 24, it says and he begot Methuselah. Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him and you see, in Hebrews 11, 5, by faith, enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God. So that's a very good thing for all of us to incorporate. It said that Enoch walked with God and Enoch pleased God and he did not die because they looked for him but they could not find him because God had taken him. So we see that all down the ages there had been men and women whose supreme ambition it has been to please.
Speaker 3:God, amen, that is so true. So my wife just said that, uh, down the ages, men and women, uh, who, with their supreme desire and ambition, has been to please God. Now you know what, my friends, most people today are bent upon pleasing themselves. They are bent upon pleasing themselves. Let me read to you George's chapter 17 and verse 6. You know, I trust you have a Bible with you and you are following along with us, so we are going slow. So if you are writing the scriptures, you can do that. George's 17 and verse 6.
Speaker 3:It says in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And although it says in those days, but in the day that we live, even today, it seems to me that's the trend of time People are doing what is right, what they think is right in their own eyes, whether it's right or whether it is wrong. In 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 5, the scripture says but with most of them. The scripture says but with most of them, god was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. And I wonder if that's what God is saying about you today, that he's not well pleased with you. But I trust that you will be able to say by the end of this lesson that God, indeed, is well pleased with me, indeed is well pleased with me.
Speaker 3:In 2nd Timothy, chapter 3 and verse 4, paul was talking about the things that will happen in the last days, and he says that men will be traitors. They will be headstrong, haughty lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. That's what is happening today. Men are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. You would invite them to go to church with you and they will find a million excuses why they cannot go to church with you. But tell them let's go to a game, or let's go fishing or something of that sort, let's go to the club. And immediately they are ready and willing to go.
Speaker 3:But there are those who are seeking to fulfill God's condition of a life that is well pleasing to him. I said that there are those who are seeking to fulfill God's conditions of a life that is well pleasing unto the Lord, because you know, my friends, that's the best life. It's a life that is well lived, because a life that is well lived is a life that is pleasing unto our God. So that brings me to the question what are the conditions for pleasing God. What are the conditions for pleasing God? And if I were to give you some time, you probably would come up with a million conditions for pleasing God. Today we will talk just about a few of them and we trust that it will be a blessing to you. So number one, first condition, is we must be born again. We must be born again and, my friends, because if you are not born again, you are not a child of God, and we will prove that to you in this lesson today. In Romans, chapter 8 and verse 8, the scripture says so then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. That's why you have to be born again, because those who are in the flesh, the Bible says that they cannot please God.
Speaker 3:Let's look at John, chapter 3 and verse 5. But from verse 1, it talks about a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, and Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews. And how Nicodemus came to Jesus. And he came in the night. And you remember, in a previous lesson I told you it doesn't matter whether Nicodemus came by night, by day, by noon, what difference does it make? The truth remains that the man came to Jesus because he wanted to know the way of salvation and, like Nicodemus, wanted to know the way of of of Christ. He wanted to know the way to have spiritual life.
Speaker 3:And watch what the scripture says in verse 5. Jesus answered most assuredly I say unto you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Except one is born of water and of the spirit, this man he cannot be, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Every man and every woman is controlled by the sinful nature. And while we are living according to the sinful nature, we really cannot please God. So said Romans 8 and verse 5.
Speaker 3:Watch what it says. For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. And that's a powerful verse of scripture. We can never please God outside of the power of the Holy Ghost. The first need, therefore, is to be born again. And how do you do that?
Speaker 3:But to be born again is to acknowledge the fact that you are a sinner, acknowledge the fact that you are lost and you are going to a Christless eternity, and then you would call on Jesus to come into your heart, because the Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, they will be saved.
Speaker 3:So you call on Jesus, you ask him to come into your heart, come into your life and save you. And the Bible says that he will do that, so that we are controlled not by the sinful nature, then, but by the spirit of the almighty God. Look at what Romans 8 and verse 9 says. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. That's after you come to Christ, that's after you ask him to come into your heart and into your life and save you. He says but you are not in the flesh then, but you are in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you now. If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, the Bible says he is not his. If you do not have the spirit of Christ, you are not his child. Praise the Lord, praise ye the Lord.
Speaker 2:Amen. So in order to please the Lord, we must separate ourselves from all sinful and doubtful things. When we are born again, we become children of God. Look at what 1 John 3, 1 says Behold what manner of love the Father had bestowed on us, us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. So you are now a child of God once you accept him as your Lord and Savior.
Speaker 2:But the Christian life is a warfare and we are soldiers. You know, people always say it's not a bed of roses, because once you become a Christian, the devil is after you, because he knows what the future holds and he does not want you to be part of what God has in store for you. So look at what 2 Timothy 2, verse 3 to 4 says. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare, entangled himself with the affairs of this life that he may place him. Who enlisted him as a soldier? So, like I said, it's a warfare, the the constant battle. We know that in this life you and I will have persecution, we will be persecuted, but Jesus said be of good cheer, he has overcome the world, and so we know, once we are in him, he will give us the victory.
Speaker 2:The lives of worldly Christians are full of sinful and hindering things, but those who wish to please him must disentangle themselves from the things which hindered them in their Christian life. So if you have been born again, there's no way you should go back and do those things that are sinful and doubtful, even though we still have that sinful nature. We are now in Christ and he gave us the power where we can do all things through him, who loves us. So if you think that you're about to fall into sin or go back and do the wrong thing, you can just call on him. Also, you can surround yourself with other Christians who are stronger in the faith than you are and continue to read the word, and then you'll be able to be stronger in the faith.
Speaker 3:Amen and amen. So talk about. The conditions are um of pleasing god, and we, we began by letting you know that the first step is to be born again, and my wife just gave. The second step is that you must separate. We must separate ourselves from all sinful and doubtful things. My friends and she emphasized it very well that the things that will hinder you from serving a true and the living God, the things that will hinder you from living a true Christian life. Then, number three, watch this we must dedicate, dedicate our lives to him. We must dedicate our lives to him.
Speaker 3:There's a song that I love. It says my life, my love, I give to thee, thou lamb of God, who died for me. Oh, may I ever faithful be, my savior and my God. I'll live for him who died for me. How happy then my life shall be.
Speaker 3:So in Romans 12 and verse 1, and I love that verse and I think most of you do too Paul says I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. That is a call for true dedication to present your bodies a living sacrifice unto the Lord. Now I want you to notice the words holy and pleasing to God. Separation from sinful and doubtful things is negative, but the dedication of ourselves to the Lord is positive. Have you ever presented your body to the Lord? That's a question that only you can answer. Have you handed over to him the parts of your bodies?
Speaker 3:And like Romans 6, 13 says and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to the Lord. Every part of you must be presented as instruments of righteousness to the Lord. I'm talking about your hands, your feet, your eyes, your lips, every part of you, your eyes, your lips, every part of you, because the songwriter says take my life and let it be consecrated lord to you. In other words, every part of us, every single part of us, should be presented to the lord. Let god take it over, take your feet and let him lead you in the way that you ought to go. Your lips, that you can speak the words of the Lord to someone who is hurting along the way, that you can share the word of truth with them today. My friends, Amen.
Speaker 2:And also we must be good witnesses. God has put us in trust with the gospel, and what a sacred trust it is. The gospel is for everybody, and our whole business is to make it known, because we all know the scriptures so well. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever that word, whosoever believeth in him, shall not perish but have everlasting life. The gospel is for whosoever, and so it's our business to make it known to others. 1 Thessalonians, 2, verse 4 says but as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. And this is indeed a great verse. Because we have been approved by God, he has entrusted us with the gospel. Think about it you and I have been entrusted with the gospel. The gospel means good news.
Speaker 2:So we've been given that commission to go out and tell others about the good news of Jesus, tell them what God has done for you. You know, if there's a good sale going on at Macy's or at Jesse Penny's, we tell our friends girl, there's a sale going on. And so the same thing we can also do. We can tell others about him. We can witness, because we know for a fact that what he says, that's what he will do. So notice what Paul says. He said we speak. Do we speak? Perhaps we need to pray the prayer of the psalmist in order to please him? Psalm 51, verse 15, says O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise. Believers who witness the Lord's grace and power by lives which are consistent and by lips which are ready to speak for him are well pleasing to the Lord. So that should be our desire, lord, open my mouth, open my lips, so I can share about you, I can tell others about the good news of salvation.
Speaker 3:Amen and amen. So in talking about the conditions of pleasing God, we began by telling you about obedience, that we must separate ourselves from all sinful and doubtful things. We must dedicate our lives to him. My wife just talked about we must be good witnesses. We must be good witnesses because we are witnesses everywhere we go as believers. So we have to be not just a witness but we must be good witnesses because we know whom we are representing. Then we see that we must be obedient. We must be obedient.
Speaker 3:Let me read to you Colossians 3.20. Colossians 3.20 says Children obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. I don't know, man, but in our day and time that seems to be a rare commodity. Children are not obedient like they used to be. I remember growing up as a little boy, as a grown man in fact, and your parents tell you to move this cup. But you had better move the cup. Today you tell a two-year-old child to do this and they'll bluntly tell you no, and that is it. So if it is well pleasing to our earthly parents when their children obey them, how much more must it please the Lord when his children obey him? Glory to his name. If it is well pleasing to my father, my earthly mother, when I am obedient to them, then I know how much more it is well pleasing unto my creator, my God, my friend, my master, my helper, my everything. I know how much it is well pleasing unto him.
Speaker 3:Obedience is very important. Obedience, I say my friends, is very important, whether you realize it or not. Yes, it is. And I want to read you a scripture about that and you will understand. First, samuel, chapter 15 and verse 22. He says so. Samuel said has the lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. To obey is better than sacrifice. That's what the scripture is saying.
Speaker 3:Look at John, chapter 2 and verse 5. His mother said to the servants Whatever he says to you, do it. Whatever Jesus said to you, you must do it. And another scripture that, if you have time, you can read is from the book of Acts, chapter 9 and verse 6. So he, trembling and astonished, said Lord, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? So, my friends, in the conditions that we need to please God. I came to tell you that obedience is very important. We've got to learn to be obedient to the call of God on our lives. You know, god is calling a lot of people to ministry to do things for him, and yet we find excuses, we find reasons why we cannot do it, why we shouldn't do it. All we have to. The only reason that we need to find is that we must be obedient to the will of God. We must be obedient to the call of God on our lives and do what the masters say we ought to do. Glory to his name.
Speaker 2:And when you are obedient, then we know that you will be happy, because you'll be like Jonah. Jonah was disobedient. He ran away from God. He did not want to go to Nineveh and warn the people, and when he strayed away he kept having problem after problem. The same thing with us. We must learn to be obedient to whatever God is calling us to do. Do not try to be like someone else. You must stay in your lane and do what God will have you to do.
Speaker 3:Amen, did not? Jesus said to Peter Peter, if you love me, keep my commandments, be obedient to me, because if you say you love me, then your job is to keep my commandments. And that's what God is saying to all of us. Well, my friends, you know, I know we wouldn't finish this lesson today, but you got to tune in next week as we continue this great word, and I know your heart will be blessed. Amen, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. You know, my friends, we never bring our broadcast to a close without giving you an opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of your life. In that case, today you can make it your choice to please him for the rest of your life, and that will be a blessing to you also. Let us pray, father. We thank you for your words today. We ask that you use your words to your honor and to your glory. We pray in Jesus name. Amen and amen.
Speaker 2:My friends, if you are blessed by today's word, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out to us at New Day of Hope, atlanta at gmailcom. Once again, that's New Day of Hope Atlanta at gmailcom. So until then, let your heart go on singing Until then With joy.
Speaker 3:My friends, carry on Bye now. God bless you and God keep you is our prayer.