People-pleasing

Randy and I watched a sermon about a month ago by Francis Chan (Crazy Love, Forgotten God, etc) and I can't remember the title but one picture he painted has stuck with me and I've shared it with others since.

It's about who you're living to please.

And maybe not even to please but to... impress? convince you're a Christian? be accepted by?

Chan basically put it this way: To spend your energies "checking off" the Christian-y things to do (attend church, refrain from drugs/etc, "serve faithfully" in children's ministry, greeting at the door, leading a Bible study, playing/singing with the worship team, going on short-term mission trips, looking nice for church on Sunday, tithing 10%, saying the right things to people, sounding like you know your verses well enough to advise others...) will get you... nothing. Worse than nothing, if you really examine your heart and find that what you do and say around other people is different than what you do and [think] by yourself (umm, with GOD), maybe you don't actually love Him or want to please Him at all!
So you're doin' all this stuff... and then you end up in Hell because Jesus says, "depart from me, worker of lawlessness, I never knew you..." and you've got a few hundred people convinced you're in Heaven.

Sounds great.

That extreme scenario has come to mind a number of times and it pushes me further away from pleasing people for my own sake. You should try it. It's really quite liberating.

(This doesn't mean I'm not aiming to be loving or kind or hospitable, but I think you know the difference. If you don't, we should talk.)

And now, a really cute video.

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