Good morning, church. Today, we are beginning a new series called A Church That Pleases God, and I want you to know that this series comes from a deep place of prayer and a sincere desire to see God move in our midst freshly and powerfully. That is the desire of my heart for us, and I believe it is the desire of your heart as well. We want to be a people who bring joy to the heart of God. We want to be a church that walks in His ways, listens to His word, and reflects His character to a world that desperately needs to see what a Spirit-filled, God-honoring community of faith actually looks like.

And before we open the Word this morning, I want to say something about what we just witnessed here in this service. We had the joy of dedicating two precious children to the Lord, and I want to tell you that what their parents did this morning wasn't just a tradition or a ceremony. It was an act of awe. It marked a moment when two parents were before God and this church and said, "These children do not ultimately belong to us." They belong to You, Lord. We trust You. We honor You. We give them back to You. That is awe. That is what it looks like when a family chooses to put God first, and we celebrate that this morning.

Whether you were in the first service or are joining us now in the second, we are going to open the Word of God together and talk about the very foundation of a church that pleases Him, and then we will come to the Lord's Table together as an act of faith, fellowship, and unity.

The text that anchors this entire series is found in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6.

“Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

This verse gives us the starting point. If we want to please God, we must walk in faith. But here is what I want you to understand this morning: faith does not grow in a vacuum, nor does it appear out of nowhere. Faith grows in the soil of awe. Faith grows when we see God for who He truly is. Faith grows when our hearts are humbled, when our eyes are lifted, and when the Holy Spirit opens our awareness to the greatness and the goodness of the God we serve.

And that brings us to a companion passage in the book of Proverbs.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

The word "fear" does not mean terror or dread. It means awe, reverence, and honor, a deep, settled awareness of the greatness of God that forms the way you think, the way you speak, and the way you live. When you walk in the fear of the Lord, you do not run away from Him. You run toward Him because you have seen both His holiness and His goodness at the same time, and you cannot stay away. A church that pleases God is a church that walks in awe. And that is exactly where our journey begins this morning.

The first thing I want you to see this morning is that awe does not drive us away from God. Awe is what draws us close to Him. There is a difference between the kind of fear that paralyzes and the kind of awe or reverence that transforms, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes that distinction real in our experience.

When the early church was born on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell on one hundred and twenty believers gathered in an upper room, and the entire city of Jerusalem took notice. The book of Acts tells us that three thousand people were saved that day, and then it says something I do not want us to pass over too quickly.

“Everyone was filled with awe” (Acts 2:43).

That amazement was not an accident. It was the direct result of the Holy Spirit moving in power among a people who had made room for Him. And notice what that awe produced. It did not push people apart. It did not create pride, division or competition. It pulled them together. It pulled them into prayer. It pulled them into worship. It pulled them into a radical, generous, Spirit-empowered community that turned the ancient world upside down.

That is what awe does. Awe is the atmosphere where faith grows. Awe is the atmosphere where families flourish, and marriages are strengthened, and children are raised in the ways of God. Awe is the atmosphere where the church becomes strong, where the gifts of the Holy Spirit flow freely, and where the power of God is not just talked about but actually experienced. When we lose awe, we lose our way; when we walk in awe, we walk in the very presence of God, and everything changes.

I want to ask you something very personal this morning. When was the last time the presence of God genuinely stopped you in your tracks? When was the last time you sat in prayer or worship and the reality of who God is became so overwhelming that everything else seemed to disappear? That is awe, and it is available to every single person in this room. It is not reserved for the super-spiritual or the mature believer. It is the birthright of every child of God who is willing to slow down long enough to make room for it.

And here is the good news. Awe is not the finish line. It is the starting line, because when awe takes root in your heart, it produces something powerful. It produces faith.

The second thing I want you to see is that awe is the doorway to faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that faith is required to please God, and that is not a small statement. The writer of Hebrews says that, among all the things God looks for in His people, faith is at the top of the list. Without it, it is impossible to please Him. But then we have to ask the honest question: where does faith come from, and how does it grow?

Faith comes from seeing God rightly. When you see His power, you trust Him. When you see His holiness, you honor Him. When you see His faithfulness across the pages of Scripture and across the story of your own life, you rely on Him. When you see His love demonstrated at the cross of Calvary, you surrender to Him. Awe is the lens that brings all of that into focus. Awe is where trust takes root and grows deep enough to hold you when the storms of life come.

This is one of the reasons the Holy Spirit was given to us. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter ten:

“Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

But it is the Holy Spirit who takes that Word and drives it deep into the soil of your heart so that it actually produces something. He is the one who makes the Scripture come alive off the page. He is the one who takes a sermon or a song or a moment of prayer and uses it to awaken a faith in you that was dormant. He creates in you a holy hunger that will not be satisfied by anything less than God Himself.

When we walk in awe, we stop treating God casually. We stop treating worship casually, as though it is simply a warm-up act for the message. We stop treating His Word casually, as though it is optional reading for serious Christians only. We stop treating prayer casually, as though it is a last resort when everything else has failed. Awe wakes us up, opens our eyes, and strengthens our faith, because a person who genuinely stands in awe of God does not treat the things of God lightly.

And when faith takes hold in a heart that is full of awe, it does not stay hidden. It shows up in the way you live. That is where we are going next, because awe that produces faith will always lead to obedience.

The third thing I want you to see is that awe leads to obedience, and I want to be very clear about what I mean by that, because obedience has gotten a bad rap in some circles. People hear the word 'obedience,' and they think of legalism. They think of rules and restrictions and a God who is just waiting for you to mess up. But that is not what the Bible teaches, nor is it what Jesus modeled. Jesus said:

“If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15).

And so, obedience is not legalism. Obedience is love. Obedience is trust. Obedience is faith with shoes on, moving in the direction God has pointed. And when you walk in awe of God, obedience stops being a burden and becomes a joy, because awe reminds you who God is and why His ways are worth following.

This is where our Christian theology has something absolutely vital to say. We do not live the obedient life in our own strength. The same Holy Spirit who filled the believers on the day of Pentecost empowers us to walk in holiness today. Paul wrote to the Philippians:

“It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13).

God gives you both the desire and the power to live for Him at the same time, and that is precisely what the Holy Spirit does in a surrendered life. He does not simply tell you what to do and then leave you to figure out how. He moves into the house, fills every room you give Him access to, and produces from the inside out the kind of life that pleases God. Paul called it the fruit of the Spirit, and it includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, the very character of Jesus Himself being formed in you by the power of the Spirit.

Awe produces obedience because awe reminds us who God is. Awe reminds us that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Awe reminds us that His commands are not weights but gifts, not walls to keep us in but guardrails to keep us from going over the edge. Awe reminds us that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him, that a life of obedience is not a life of sacrifice but a life of abundance. A church that pleases God is a church that obeys God, not out of fear of punishment, but out of awe for His greatness and gratitude for His grace.

And that obedience, rooted in awe and empowered by the Spirit, brings us naturally and beautifully to the Lord's Table. Because when you understand who He is, when your heart is full of faith, and your life is walking in step with Him, the communion table is not simply a ritual. It becomes one of the most powerful acts of worship you will ever participate in.

In a few moments, we will come to the Lord's Table, and I want to make it clear that communion is itself an act of awe. It is not a ritual to be rushed through at the end of the service. It is a sacred moment of remembrance, reverence, and surrender that has the power to recalibrate everything in us that has drifted out of divine alignment.

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth about the Lord's Supper and gave them a word that we need to hear as well. He said that before we receive the bread and the cup,

“A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28).

That examination is an act of awe. It is an act of reverence. It is humility before a holy God who knows us completely and loves us anyway, who sees every part of our lives and still invites us to His table.

Communion reminds us that Jesus obeyed the Father perfectly when we could not; that He went to the cross willingly; that no one took His life from Him, but that He laid it down for us; and that we are called to walk in His steps, to take up our cross, and to follow Him into a life of surrender, sacrifice, and Spirit-filled obedience.

The bread represents His body, broken so that ours could be made whole. The cup represents His blood, shed so that our sins could be washed away and our relationship with the Father fully restored. And when we receive them together as a church, we are not just remembering an event from two thousand years ago. We are declaring an existing reality, that Christ is alive, that His Spirit is here, and that we are His people.

And so, this is the start of a journey. Over the next few weeks, we will talk about faith, obedience, and identity, and each message will build on what we laid down today. But it all starts here. It begins with awe. It begins with seeing God for who He truly is and responding to what we see with our whole hearts.

I want to invite you this morning, before we come to the table, to make a fresh decision. Not a complicated one. Not a list of resolutions. Just a simple, sincere turning of the heart toward God. Ask the Holy Spirit to restore awe where routine has taken its place. Ask Him to awaken a hunger in you where comfort has lulled you to sleep. Ask Him to fill you again, to empower you again, to draw you so close to the presence of God that the pull of the world loses its grip on you.

David said it best, after all his wealth and power and achievement, after everything the world would call success.

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).

One thing. Above all the rest. The presence of God. That is the heart of a church that walks in awe, and that is the church we want to be.

A church that pleases God is a church that walks in awe.

Graphics, notes, and commentary from LifeChurch, Ministry Pass, PC Study Bible, Preaching Library, and Sermon Central. Scripture from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.