Man Pleasing

Easily the biggest sin I deal with, and easily the most destructive, and I would guess you are close to the same. 

Let me ask this one major question before getting into this more. What has man done for you or given you that they are so worthy of your affection? What has man done for you or given you that they are so worthy of your affection? Don't you do this too? Don't you strive to make sure the man around you is happy and yet they have done nothing to earn this have they? What have they given you that they are so worthy of this?

I remember once I was innocently trying to please man. My best friend at the time (and still a great friend!) Adam and I were riding our bikes around. Adam had a sweet BMX bike, lightweight, fast, sexy. Because I was visiting him he gave me this bike that I think he found. It was one of those bikes that you see super hippies riding around on. Heavy, terribly ugly, you know you give it away because it takes up space and cramps your style! 

So we were riding and we found this huge jump. I am going to guess it was about 6 feet off of the ground. Adam rode, on his BMX bike and jumped off, then "encouraged" me to do the same, with the bike from 421 B.C. Now, I am from the inner-city yall, I have never jumped off of anything higher then a curb. Matter of fact most of the bikes I rode I think I stole from neighbor kids, who then would steal someone else's! Jump off of something, please imagine the scene. So yes, in effort to please Adam I jumped off of it. Actually I didn't jump, I rode off of it. It was so heavy I couldn't lift it when I left the ramp, and nose-dived 6 feet to my doom. I thought I punctured a lung when the handle bars slammed into my rib cage; from 6 feet up! 

When we finally made it back to his house about 30 minutes later (one of the more painful experiences walking in my life!) we put my shirt in the freezer. Nothing to do with the story, I just realized that and thought, what the heck were we thinking?!? When we took it out it smelled like we had put it on a bbq grill because it smelt burnt, I think from me sliding on the ground after the jump! We also left the bike there, at the scene of the crime, showing the value of the bike!

All in an effort to please man. Funny story, and probably an innocent story but I have many that aren't; we do this all of the time, because we desire to be liked by men. We start cussing in 1st grade, start smoking, have sex, rebel against authority, get into fights, make-out with someone, break-up with them, lie, cheat, steal, act ghetto or hippie, get abortions, quit jobs, buy useless clothes, and cars, and houses, and boats, and electronics, get drunk, plant churches, go into ministry, disciple men, stress about what you are going to preach on stage and get nervous when you don't have any funny jokes (yes, pathetic, I worry about it), and the list clearly goes on and on, all to get people to like us. What sort of sense does that make?!?

The Bible speaks clearly about this issue. In John 12 Jesus begins to focus on the unbelief of the people around him. They would not open up and begin to follow Jesus because verse 43 says, "they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God." Whoa. You know when I read that I thought, "me too." I would rather have you say well done then Him. I would rather have your applause then the applause of the Father. You know some people let it get so bad that they literally prevent themselves from experiencing eternal life because they care more about what people think. And no, I am not just talking about the unbelief of the people here in this John passage. I am talking about us who are afraid to share the gospel out of pleasing man and trying to keep "good ground" with him, never able to fully know God because we are obeying his most important command (Matt. 28:19-20, Philemon 6). 

John 2:24-25, Jesus clearly didn't have this problem! John 19:8-12, Pilate clearly did, so much so that he allowed it to drive him to hang Jesus up on the cross. Gal. 1:10, Paul seemingly did not have this problem. Gal. 2:11-14, Peter clearly did, so much so that he was preventing the gospel from being fully expressed to the Gentiles because he was trying to please the Jews. Story through story in Scripture we see what and where pleasing man can get you. And my question is still the same, what has man done that he is so worthy of your affection?

This is literally the area I struggle most with. I do and don't do the silliest things just because I want yall to like me. Matter of fact, I want you to press the like button at the bottom of this page so I can feel good about myself, k owing that you like me! But am I writing this for you, or for me? Or am I writing this hoping it encourages one of you to stop trying to please man, and therefore writing it for the Lord? Hopefully more and more the second as He purifies my heart in Him. 

Man is not worthy yall, please stop trying to please him, and please the Christ, the one who actually purchased you from your sorry state in your sin and gave you life abundantly! The one who gave you joy, peace, hope, love, mercy and grace (and on and on), He is the one you should be trying to please, he is the only one who has done something worthy for it! And if you have not began to follow Jesus because you fear what people may think about you, same question, what have they done for you that they are so worthy of your affection? Made you laugh a few times? Jesus can do much more then that! The approval of man is going to kill a lot of us, may it not kill you. 

Sorry if there are grammatical errors, I did not have time to edit it, please still like me:-)