If I pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ – Paul, Galatians 1.10
You cannot please both God and man. It’s not possible. You either concentrate on the people and fail to please God, or you please God and upset someone. Yes – you will definitely upset someone!
I have been planting churches in the United Kingdom since 1998, and every time I plant a new church I upset someone! Every time someone gets healed or saved in Tree of Life, someone gets upset. I have had to make a number of decisions in my life that made some people unhappy. I simply cannot do what God has called me to do, and care about pleasing man.
In fact when I started to respond to the call of God on my life, I upset family and friends! I upset pastors and elders. I have upset major ministries, I have upset little ministries, I have upset dying people, I have upset the rich and the poor.
I got into medical school – in fact, I got into 5 medical schools, I had my choice of medical schools, I could have been a great doctor. But I chose to go to Bible College instead, and that didn’t please my family too well at the time.
If you want to please people, you cannot be a servant of Christ. Many people live a dual life and are trying to do both, so I need to say it very starkly and clearly to everyone – you cannot do both, so make a choice.
I’ve seen people marry an unbeliever just to make their parents happy. I’ve seen people not go to church as not to upset a family member who doesn’t want them to go. I’ve seen people compromise and live the double minded life over and over because they want to please everyone.
You will never mature as a Christian until you have settled this in your heart forever – I will serve Christ, and I am not a man-pleaser. People won’t quite know what to do with you or how to treat you, but Christ will – He will be pleased and He will open up doors for you that you could never dream about.
Your other option is to stay with a split personality, and try and please everyone. That way lies madness. Don’t go that way!
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