 what does it take to please God? What is God looking for from us? Now as born-again believers, we all desire to please the Lord, and I want you to think about this. Ephesians 4.30 makes it clear that disobedience can grieve the Holy Spirit. So if the Holy Spirit loves me enough to be grieved by my disobedience, then that means that the Holy Spirit loves me enough to be pleased when I obey. Here's what Genesis chapter 4 verses 2 and onward say. Later, she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel. When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd while Cain cultivated the ground. When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift, the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected. Why are you so angry, the Lord asked Cain? Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right, but if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out. Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master. Now, here we see that the Lord accepted the offering of Abel, yet rejected the offering of Cain. Now, why was this? There are a few theories. One thought is that Abel offered blood, Cain offered from the ground, and so maybe this was a prophetic parallel pointing to the sacrifice of Christ in that God would accept what came from that which was given of blood. Another thing we see in the scripture here is that Abel offered the best portions of the firstborn lambs. In other words, he gave the best of the best. Well, the scripture also by contrast tells us that Cain just kind of gave some of his crops, some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. So the Bible doesn't indicate specifically that these were the exact reasons as to why the Lord accepted one offering but rejected the other, but at least we are given some clues there that maybe we can glean from. What is known, or I should say what is safe to assume is that Cain and Abel knew what was acceptable and what wasn't. I mean, even if we just look at verse number seven here, you will be accepted if you do what is right. The way this is phrased here, it's almost giving the implication that the Lord is saying, look, you already know what to do. You know why your offering was rejected. So even though the scripture doesn't say explicitly that Cain and Abel were given instructions, we can at least infer from some of the language here that they were given instruction. They did understand what was and was not acceptable, but ultimately it comes down to obedience. For whatever reason, God rejected Cain's and accepted Abel's offering. Ultimately, we can conclude safely that it comes down to obedience. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Sometimes we present things to the Lord and say, Lord, here's what I gave up for you. Here's what I did for you. And out of this sense of entitlement, we think that God should just respond in the way that we desire every single time. God is not a vending machine. You can't just put in one thing and expect a very specific result from Him. Yes, we can ask for things in faith. For example, you can believe for healing. You can believe for a specific miracle. You can believe for a specific kind of breakthrough. All of that's fine, Matthew seven, seven, ask, seek, not, keep asking persistently and in faith. But ultimately God decides what He does and when He does it. And so this idea that He must respond to us as we desire, it's just a sense of entitlement that would cause us to think that some have even left the faith because they felt let down or disillusioned because God didn't respond in the exact way that they thought He should or when they thought He should respond. And so that again is coming from this place of entitlement, this place of ego, where we place these boundaries on God as if He has to fit in our neat ideas and as if He has to function between the lines of our expectations. This is just not godly. That is carnal, that is ego, that is selfish, and that is pride to act as if we are the Lord and He is the servant. That's not how this works. So yes, there is something that God requires of us. He has very specific requirements. He asks things of us. There are two extremes here I want to cover. When you give what God does not require, it's legalism. Let me say that again. When you give what God does not require, that's legalism. When you don't give what God does require, that's disobedience. Now, this is important that we understand this because I think between these two extremes, many believers often get caught. When you give what God does not require, that's legalism. For example, I was sitting with the young man who was being discipled and wanted some advice. He was talking to me about this wonderful relationship that he was in with this young Christian girl. They were keeping things pure. They were praying. They were connecting in a godly way. We were celebrating that fact, but he couldn't get this thought out of his mind that he had to give that relationship up. I sat with him and I said, okay, you need to make sure this is the Lord because I want to understand why you think you need to give this up. Is it pulling you away from the Lord? He said no. I said, is there any sin involved in this? He said, no. I said, okay. Did God speak to you specifically? He said, I don't think so. I said, so what is it that makes you think you have to give this godly, fruitful, beautiful relationship up? He says to me, well, I feel like I have to give it up because it would be hard for me to give it up. I thought that's an interesting way of looking at that. He didn't believe that God wanted him to experience something good. He was of the belief that because it was something that brought him joy, that it would have been difficult to give up, that he had to give it up just because of that. I think that's sometimes what we do to ourselves, especially people who are bound by guilt. They're bound by legalism. They're bound by religious ideology. Look, we acknowledge sometimes you do have to give up blessings when God instructs you. But some of us think that inflicting unnecessary emotional pain on ourselves is in and of itself pleasing to God. So sometimes we, as Christians, we think that because something gives us joy, we automatically have to give it up. We think that because something maybe takes some of our time, we automatically have to give that up. That's not always the case. And it would be legalism to say, because this brings me joy, I have to give it up. That's one extreme. The other extreme is when we don't give up what God does require. And this right here is something we need to be careful of, especially because this is where you now get into sin. This is blatant disobedience. So we're talking about what pleases God. Well, it's simple obedience. It's not always going to come down to a formula. It's not always going to come down to an exact list of things that maybe God asked someone over there to give something up and maybe not specifically you. Now in that note, I want to make sure you understand I'm not talking about sin. Sin needs to go all the time. If we're talking about blatant sin, of course you have to repent of that. You have to get that out of your life. There's no excuse for that. That's something you have to get right with God. I'm talking about just sacrifices in general. I'm talking about giving things up that the Lord tells you to give up that maybe aren't necessarily sinful, but you're hanging on to them. Now, do balance this because, again, there are some Christians who will say, well, because I enjoy this, because this brings me joy, because it's something I consider blessing, I have to give it up because God will find that pleasing, well, not necessarily. And that again would be to fall into the category of legalism. Still, I will not give to the Lord that which cost me nothing. Now your salvation is free. Christ paid for that. You have faith in him. Your salvation is free. But as you begin to become a disciple of Jesus, you will find that at times there are things that Christ asks of you that contradict your plans. There are things that the Lord asks of you that go against what you desire. And this is where you find that tension now between your will and God's will. It's Jesus in the garden. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And we find ourselves in that garden, don't we? Asking God, if there's any other way, please, let me go that route. And sometimes we try to bargain with him, debate with him. Maybe we try to get him to change his mind. The Lord won't do it. And this is where we have to yield. Listen to me. This is where we have to yield. I know that sometimes it's going to cost you. I know that it's not always easy. I know that people may misjudge you. People may mock you because of how you follow Jesus. But you have to give it up if the Lord requires it of you. And this is where sacrifice comes in. What pleases God? Obedience. What pleases God? Trust. Trust and obey. We complicate this. We complicate this. It's as simple as trust and obey. Write that in the comment section. Trust and obey. Whether you're watching live or replay. Type those words out. Trust and obey. Get that in your spirit. Repeat that. You know that when you trust and obey, it simplifies things greatly. Because sometimes we obey, but we don't trust. And we're filled with fear and doubt about having obeyed God. And this is where we need both. Lord, I trust you. Lord, I'm going to obey you. And I know that what pleases you is when I follow your word. I know that what pleases you is when I do what you ask. Mark 12, verses 30 and 31. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these. So all of the law and the prophets, everything that God requires of us can be summarized here in these powerful words. In other words, love God with everything that you are. Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. Everything that you have, everything that you are, everything that you do, let it be about Jesus. And you know what Jesus said, if you love me, you'll obey my commands. Trust and obey. This is the simplicity of the Christian life. To do it any other way is to complicate it. To do it any other way is to bring tension and fear and anxiety and doubt and confusion and religion and superstition. Any other way you'll get tangled up in your own emotions. Any other way you'll get tangled up in your own thought patterns. Trust and obey. That's how you do this. And you obey because you love him. You obey because he's the Lord. You obey because he's the savior of your soul. So I want to give my all to Jesus. And that's all he requires of you. Trust and obey. And you leave the rest to him. You trust and obey. People will mock you. People will misunderstand you. You'll have to give some things up sometimes that you don't want to give up. You may find yourself in places that you don't want to be. You may find yourself in situations that make you scratch your head and say, God, what are you doing? I don't quite understand this. But you trust and obey. And it is in that childlike faith, not child, not being childish, being childlike, to where you place your faith totally in him and you let him take you by the hand and guide you day to day in this walk that you have with him. And you say, Jesus, I want nothing else but you. I trust and obey. And that's how you please him. That's what it takes. It's a father in the name of Jesus. I pray for your people now. And I ask you to touch their lives in a fresh way. Give them the grace and the strength to please you through obedience and trust. We give you the honor and the praise, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. And I want you to type it in the comment section if you believe it, type Amen. If you enjoyed this message, be sure to leave a like and let's you and I stay connected. I want to do more of these with you. So make sure you're subscribed to my channel so you can get the alerts and click that notification bell when you subscribe so that you can get the alerts of when I go live. I'd love to spend more time with you and the word and prayer and so forth. It'll be a great time together. And now I want to challenge you. If you've been watching these messages or you've been blessed by the ministry, maybe you stumbled upon this content two or three months ago, four or five months ago. And you've been watching for a while. You've been enjoying the content. You like what you see. I want to challenge you now to get involved with what we are doing as a ministry. Listen, your giving is not tied to your healing. Your giving is not tied to your deliverance. Jesus will heal you whether you give or not. Jesus will deliver you whether you give or not. I believe that that was already purchased on Christ's cross. And that we freely give. But there's also this responsibility that we have as believers to support the gospel. And the Bible is 100% clear that as we sow, we reap. Now generosity is one aspect of stewardship. It's not the whole picture. So, you know, just because you give doesn't mean you're magically going to come out of all your financial trouble. But it is one of the tenets of stewardship that ultimately amounts to increase. And so I want to challenge you to sow. I want to challenge you to give into this work and help what we're doing. We don't give to get. We give so that the gospel can go forward. So if you've been blessed by this ministry and you want to see others blessed by this ministry, then will you right now go to David Hernandez ministries.com slash partner and sign up to become a monthly ministry supporter so that we can continue to do what we do as a ministry. You can also give a single gift by going to David Hernandez ministries.com slash donate. I appreciate your support. I love you. And I pray for you. And until next time, remember nothing is impossible with God.