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What Does It Mean to Please God, and Why Is That Important?

Part 4 of the How to Overcome the Adversary Series

What Does It Mean to Please God, and Why Is That Important?

1) Genesis 5:21 - 24 NKJV

21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. 22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

2) Hebrews 11:4 - 6

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. 6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

a. Enoch walked with God and He took him. Does walking with God change a person?

b. Who walked with God before Enoch? What revelation did Enoch have to be able to walk with God, and what he get from God while walking with Him?

c. What did Enoch have that pleased God?

d. Faith in what enabled Enoch to walk with God? What does that mean for us?

e. Is believing that God IS enough to please God? What more must we believe to please God and to receive what He has provided for us?

f. What was Enoch's testimony? Testimony is a legal term. What is the testimony we use to enforce the defeat of the adversary in our lives?

3) Romans 8:1 - 4

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

a. Should we ever experience condemnation and relate this to walking in the Spirit?

b. What has made us free from the law of sin and death?

4) Romans 8:5 - 8

5 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. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

a. What does it mean to be spiritually minded?

b. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Please compare this to "whatever is not of faith does not please God." How does faith free us from the flesh?

5) Romans 8:9 - 11

9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

a. If by faith we are in the Spirit, are we in the flesh? What does that mean?

b. Why is the Spirit life because of righteousness?

c. What can happen if the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us? How does this relate to Enoch walking with God and to us?

6) Romans 8:12 - 17

12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors-not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

a. How do we put the deeds of the body to death?

b. If you have been led to Jesus are you a son or daughter of God?

c. What Spirit supplants the spirit of bondage and fear?

d. How do we know that we are children of God and joint heirs with Christ?

7) Romans 8:31 - 39

31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

"For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

a. What do verses 31 and 32 mean for us?

b. Verses 33 and 34 speak of a court system. Please elaborate!

c. Can anything separate us from the love of God? This makes us more than what?

8) Luke 11:13

13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

a. Do you feel from this statement by Jesus that the Father wants us to have the Holy Spirit? Should that make us thirst after more of the Spirit?

b. Now that all that has separated us legally from God has been settled, can we ask in faith expecting more and more of the Holy Spirit? Will this help us walk with God more like Enoch did?