Psalm 28:7 King James Version (KJV) “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”

Kirk Franklin – Smile Music Video
featuring Steve Harvey

God smiles when we obey him wholeheartedly

“Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” (Genesis 6:22).

Undertaking the work of the World Wild Life Fund single-handedly required considerable skills in animal husbandry as well as logistics and attention to detail. “Notice that Noah obeyed completely.” The New Living Translation says “Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.”

“Noah obeyed God wholeheartedly… without reservation or hesitation.” No wonder God smiled on Noah.

“God doesn’t owe you an explanation or reason for everything he asks you to do. Understanding can wait but obedience can’t. Instant obedience will teach you more about God than a lifetime of Bible discussions. In fact, you will never understand some commands until you obey them first. Obedience unlocks understanding.” Often we try and palm God off with partial obedience. We want to pick and choose which commands we obey. We make a mental list of the commands we like and of those we think were written for other people. Then we ignore “the ones we think are unreasonable, difficult, expensive, or unpopular. I’ll attend church but I won’t tithe. I’ll read my Bible but won’t forgive the person who hurt me.” Partial obedience is actually disobedience.

On the other hand, “an act of obedience is also an act of worship. Why is obedience so pleasing to God?” For the same reason it is pleasing to you when your child obeys joyfully and willingly. It proves they trust you. It shows they love you. It demonstrates they respect you. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15). God smiles when we love him supremely, when we trust him completely, when we obey him wholeheartedly.

God smiles when we praise and thank him continually

“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.” (Genesis 8:20)

“Noah’s first act after surviving the Flood was to express his thanks to God by offering a sacrifice… Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we don’t offer animal sacrifices as Noah did.” Instead we are told“in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)
Joanna is a great cook. When we have guests, one of the things I love to do, is thank her for her lovely cooking, before they do. Why? “Few things feel better than receiving heartfelt praise and appreciation from someone else.” God has put that feeling in our hearts because it reflects his character too. Like Noah, “we praise God for who he is and we thank God for what he has done.” “An amazing thing happens when we offer praise and thanksgiving to God. When we give God enjoyment, our own hearts are filled with joy.” Learning to praise and thank God continually makes God smile, and our we are warmed by the radiance of his glory. God smiles when we love him supremely, when we trust him completely, when we obey him wholeheartedly, when we thank him continually.

God smiles when we receive his gifts joyfully

“Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth… Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.” (Genesis 9:1,3)

Its easy to think God is only pleased “when you’re doing spiritual activities – like reading the Bible, attending church, praying, or sharing your faith… Actually, God enjoys watching every detail of your life, whether you are working, playing, resting or eating. He doesn’t miss a single move.” After the flood, God gave Noah and his family the same command he gave Adam and Eve. “Make love, have babies, enjoy one another.” We dress it up with expressions like “Be fruitful” but the bible shows, God delights and blesses us when we receive his gifts, including his physical gifts of our bodies, joyfully and reverently. The Bible says, “The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives.” (Psalm 37:23)

This means everything we do can be done for God’s pleasure if we do it with an attitude of praise. This includes washing the dishes, fixing the car, weeding the garden, raising a family. “Like a proud parent, God especially enjoys watching you use the talents and abilities he has given you.” Even the little things can bring a smile to God’s face.

“In the film Chariots of Fire, Olympic runner Eric Liddell says “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel God’s pleasure.” On another occasion he said, “To give up running would be to hold him in contempt.” As Rick Warren says, “There are no unspiritual abilities; just misused ones… use yours for God’s pleasure … God also gains pleasure in watching you enjoy his creation. He gave you eyes to enjoy beauty, ears to enjoy sounds, your nose and taste buds to enjoy smells and tastes, and the nerves under your skin to enjoy touch. Every act of enjoyment becomes an act of worship when you thank God for it.” Paul writes to Timothy “God… generously gives us everything for our enjoyment.” (1 Timothy 6:17 TEV). “God even enjoys watching you sleep.”

When our children were smaller, before going to bed myself, I would check on them. Sometimes I would just sit and watch them breathing, fast asleep. Its instinctive to feel protective if you are a parent but its also very satisfying. No matter what the day had been like, no matter what they had got up to, no matter what may have been said, or more usually, broken, I’d smile and thank God for them. “When you are sleeping, God gazes at you with love, because you were his idea. He loves you as if you were the only person on earth.” Parents do not expect their children to be perfect, or even mature to enjoy them. Parents derive enjoyment at every stage of a child’s development. “In the same way God doesn’t wait for you to reach maturity before he starts liking you. He loves and enjoys you at every stage of your spiritual development.”

As you were growing up, you may have had parents or teachers who were impossible to please. You may still do. “Please don’t assume God feels that way about you. He knows you are incapable of being perfect or sinless.” Noah certainly wasn’t. Psalm 103 reminds us, “for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:14).

What God is looking for in you and I is an attitude. The attitude of your heart. Your motivation. So let me ask you this morning – “Is pleasing him your deepest desire?” – I mean your deepest desire? Paul put it this way in his second letter to the Corinthians, “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.” (2 Corinthians 5:9) Could you say that? “My goal is to please him.”
“When you live in light of eternity, your focus changes from “How much pleasure am I getting out of life?” to “How much pleasure is God getting out of my life? God is looking for people like Noah [today] people willing to live for the pleasure of God.” Willing to live to make God smile. Psalm 14 says, “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who are wise, who want to please him.” (Psalm 14:2).

God smiles when we love him supremely.

God smiles when we trust him completely.

God smiles when we obey him wholeheartedly.

God smiles when we thank him continually.

God smiles when we receive his gifts joyfully.

“Will you make pleasing God the goal of [the rest] of your life? There is nothing [absolutely nothing] that God won’t do for the person totally absorbed” with the desire to make God smile. Lets pray.

All quotations, apart from biblical references, are taken, with grateful thanks, from Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life” (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2002) pp. 69-76.