One of the hardest lessons for some of us to learn is that you can’t please everybody. We weren’t made to please everyone, but we were made to please Someone. The Bible indicates that we are “predestined to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ…, according to the good pleasure of His will” (Ephesians 1:5) and that God…works in [us]…for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). So, God created us not only because it was part of His will but also because it brought Him pleasure. That means that every one of us ultimately exists to please God. But how do we live such a life?

Colossians 1:9-14

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Lesson Resources:

Rick Atchley. “Planned for His Pleasure.” Sermon presented at The Hills Church, North Richland Hills, TX, 2003.