As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Praises of Whom?
In life there are two options we have to choose between each day: To be a servant of God, or to be a servant of man. I’m not talking about loving your neighbor as yourself, caring for the sick, poor, and hopeless around us, or sharing the love of Christ with others, no, that is actually serving God by walking as He did. No, I’m talking about seeking the praises of men, becoming a slave to ‘fitting in’, and a slave to what others think of you. A slave to being ‘the man’ everyone looks up to but don’t know why. Instead of hiking the path God has prepared for you through the jungle of life, you walk on the path most traveled, the path of least resistance, the path that might bring you the empty praises of man but keeps you from being a servant of God.
You see, because when we go out each day and try to get the praises of men instead of the greatest praise, praise that’s actually worth something, that is the praise that comes from God, we’re only serving ourselves, not God. We’re serving in the World of Man, his system, his way of operating, and not in the Kingdom of God. Here’s what Jesus said:
“I do not accept praise from men, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?” John 5:41-44
Jesus was a man of His Word, so to speak. He didn’t accept praises from men, but that isn’t to say He doesn’t accept our praise in the sense of worship, it’s just that in His mission on Earth He was not seeking just to fit in and be along for the ride. He had a mission from God and nothing would stop Him. Is that how we live our daily lives? As if God gave us a mission to live out, but instead we get distracted by the lure of our pride and sensibility? But God did give us a mission, to preach the Gospel of Grace to all creatures, and to make disciples of all nations. However, all too often you might find yourself in a situation doing something you normally would never do, saying things you normally would never say, acting like a complete fool, and why? To save face with those around you, or worse, with yourself, because ‘bad company corrupts good character’, because you’d rather have the praises of men than God, you’d rather be a slave to opinion than a slave to Christ; THE Person who counts most.
Don’t Get Me Wrong Here…
This isn’t to say that relating to someone, being there for someone in a way that means something to them. It’s not to say that having your words be poignant and relevant to someone is a bad thing, no; in fact this should be encouraged. It’s not to say you should be aloof from the community/workspace/whatever-space around you, all self-righteous. Yeah yeah you’re shining your light from a hilltop, but you’re not letting anyone on the hill with you, O ye great Ozymandias of the Hill. That is not what any of this is saying. What I’m saying is this: if you’re more concerned with fitting in than doing what is right, then you might only be serving your ego, your own desires, and not what God desires for you.
So let’s look at how Man does things, i.e. ‘the world’, and how God and His friends do things, i.e. ‘the Kingdom of God’. In this way we can see what it means to serve ourselves and what the world demands of us, and what it means to serve God and People and what He desires for us. The question is: who are you trying to please? Who will you serve? Look these verses up, please:
The World
1 John 2:15-17, Matthew 20:25-28
The Kingdom
John 13:34-35, Matthew 22:36-40
Do you see the difference, friends? What nut would want to seek the praises of man over the praises of God?
Apparently I would. And I hope that’s very clear, because it needs to be, for everyone.
Grace and Peace,
Joe
PS: Shout-out to Joe M for telling me to switch to Firefox (*shameful plug* lame I know, whuteva), it helped a lot with my posting issues. 
25 Comments(+Add)
If we are not constantly questioning our motives, reassessing our perspectives, taking inventory of our own humility, and continuing to walk in God’s grace, we are building our own kingdom. And on where is this more important than when we confront what we see as error.
There is a subtle and not so subtle assumption that when we confront error that we are in possession of the entire truth. Even truth must be offerred with discernable grace and never wrapped in the self serving notion that we are such great and strong warriors for that truth.
We are prone and wired to project ourselves into God’s glory, and without a painful circumspection we will always desire men’s praises, especially our own. And if we are not careful, we will hear the praises of men as if they come from God.
We (I) so many times use our talents to bring attention to ourselves, hoping someone will notice and praise us, saying: “What a beautiful song you wrote”; “That sermon was just for me”; “I could feel the presence of God so strongly during the praise & worship”, instead of directing attention to God. I believe we(I) do this because of our own brokenness and damaged self image. Once we let God heal our inner man and realise that we are already worthy in His eyes, we can let go of that inclination of attracting attention to ourselves.
Great post Joe C. Now if we can only get the right people to read it…
Really great post – thanks for this.
It brings me in remembrance of what I would consider one of the saddest mentions in scripture –
Imagine what they missed out on.
Also, it highlights the vanity of the praise of men.
Consider the book of Esther. Who even cares and knows the name of the king during her time though he ruled over 120 provinces from India to Ethiopia. He’s a passing footnote in the annals of history, just a named mentioned in the story of Esther, whose name is preserved forever.
The same could be said of almost any person in scripture. Truly, God’s praise is better than any.
Rick
That’s a really good point, I appreciate you bringing it to my attention. A lot of the time we get through a hard part in our walk with God and then we say “whew, I’ll never do THAT again” and we think we’ve learned our lesson and are done. I agree that this is the wrong way to approach it. Even on the things that I feel most comfortable about in my walk with God (and it’s not much) there is still a lot to be wrong about, and a lot to correct.
Gene,
I know how you feel with taking pride in things and seeking praises of men. That’s why I wrote this, because I knew I had problems with it and I needed to remind myself how sick a person I really am. You know, even in posting this Bible study, I remember thinking to myself “Oh I hope people like it and compliment me”. That’s not the right attitude to have, instead I think the correct attitude is this:
I want to post my Bible studies to help people out, get some conversation going, and get corrections/advice that I can learn and pass on. But deep down, and you guys and gals know what I’m talking about, we desire to hear ‘wow that was a great post!!’. I’m sure some affirmation is not bad, but too much and it puffs up, and if we’re seeking that over serving God, it’s wrong.
Thanks for the comments guys!
Joe
Boy does this hit home, thanks.
As a worship leader I recieved so many times “praises” from man that I would feel so very uncomfortable after awhile. I was told one day that this is a type of “religious spirit” (I don’t know about that) when people praise you rather than the focus on God. I just kow that when that would happen many times (like at a retreat) I would begin to get puffed up and then I would have to repent.
I would so much rather not be told how great that was or (I was part of a pentecostal church until recently) sometimes people would come and give these “visions” of seeing “angels” around the team. O brother! Thank God I am out of that.
Anyway here you go Joe – Hee -great post!
This is the very problem of the seeker sensitive church.
They seek to please men- that is to craft their services so that people will enjoy them and gain benefit from them, even to the point where some water down the Gospel-
The two most important command is to love God first and foremost. The church worship service is for the purpose of magnifying and glorifying God. The church service is not to make man feel comfortable, the church service is not for the people to be blessed. That can be a side product, but it is not the prime product. The question should not be, did I like the service, it should be did God like it, was He pleased with it?
This is a good message, but I ask again is this not what we are doing in the seeker sensitive and to some extent the emergent church movement, trying to please the sensitivities and proclivities of sinful man?
We might be trying to appeal to man; some might be trying to reach out to man in a way that is relevant to them, but this is not wrong at all. After, when talking to slaves of all people, who were considered less than human back then, Paul commanded them to “…be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.” Why all the commands to live our lives in such a way as to make God appealing, and His Message appealing to every man, if it didn’t actually matter? Just wondering…
Anyways I don’t see how that has to do with what I was talking about in my OP John?
I’m talking about seeking the praises of man over the praises of God. I think saying this is the problem with seeker churches or emergents (kind of a blanket statement a little? :shrug:) is a stretch at best. How can we say this is all of their motivations? Seems impossible to me.
Are we trying to please the sensitivities and proclivities of man at our churches? I’m not sure I can just go off and say that about a certain style of worship. Besides, it’s not what I’m trying to address anyways.
I don’t think we should be pandering, but I also don’t think we should be self-righteous and aloof. That’s my point. Because once you start down that path, it’s all about getting the praises of man and not God.
Respect,
Joe
Pastorboy, I am serving in a seeker sensitive church and one reason is that I came from a tradition where the worship service was structured according to the likes of the saved people. This was the way saved people thought God should be worshiped and this included a lot of words and traditions that are foreign to an unbeliever. To me that seemed self serving, ignoring the unbeliever who came to church seeking a relationship with God but finding traditions made by men/women and holding them up as the way to having a relationship with God. I am not saying that the seeker sensitive way of having church is without its flaws, believe me I know the many flaws, but this is where I feel called to serve and stated above is one of my personal reasons.
As Joe said the OP has nothing to do with style of church so can we continue this discussion on your or my blog John?
When I make comments I mostly hope people would respond saying what wonderful insight I have and great points I make. Ai ya yai, I love the praises of man!
Eugene, I agree with you… and everything you stated… you are really a great guy and God is surely using you in a mighty way.
PB,
When will you see that God can use any method or style of churches… I have issues with seeker/pdl churches, but really, this post is not about them…
I have been in many of mainline churches that would have nothing to do with seeker/pdl and they seem very man based… Usually the model is based on the Pastor doing all the work and being a one-man show… and when he leaves… the church splits, closes, or gets another preacher than the people decide they like. Now I think that is all just as seeking the praises of man as any seeker driven church.
So the issue is deeper and broader than “seeker” churches…
Also, acknowledging the workers and people in a church does not equate with giving men praises…
I wonder… is a fine suit and a “preferred” denominational bible all man based and thus focused on the praises of man also?
I wonder and the myopic vision of some. They can only see the issues in “others” and other churches… when they should be dealing with their own.
iggy
Should be:
or gets another preacher that the people decide they like.
Every church should be filled with seekers. Seekers of Christ and those believers seeking souls. Many seeker type churches go too far, and many churches that castigate seeker churches are self righteous about their structure and stagnant about their evangelism.
Oh, I love these praises. keep them coming.
Thanks Iggy.
We just finished watching a DVD in our team training time in which HB London, John Ortberg and Dr Richard Blackmon talked about the emotional health of a pastor. John Ortberg made this statement that really hit home for me: Feedback from people are good to use for course adjustment but when we start using it as fuel to keep our emotional tanks full and motivated for the ministry we soon get in trouble. When we depend on the feedback of people to be motivated we end up on an emotional roller coaster and the expectations of people will drive us off course and we may end up in depression and in the extreme cases out of ministry, failed marriage or worse.
It so vitally important that our motivation for ministry comes from our love for God and His kingdom. Only He can fulfil our deep need for acceptance. When we try filling this need by the praises of humans we are truly on shaky ground.
P.S: The emotionally healthy pastor session is on the Grow Ministry Library 1st Quarter 2008 of Walk Thru The Bible.
I certainly do not think that seeker/emergent churches are the only churches/pastors that are man pleasers, but they are a relevant example.
Any church/Christian/pastor/elder board that is motivated by growth, popularity etc. with man is seeking man’s approval. Iggy, you know as well as I do the PDC book is full of man pleasing concoctions/ideas! It does not speak about pleasing God, it speaks about building a church where man will be pleased and stay around long enough to move from the crowd tot he core!
I do have the problem personally on the golf course. I have been rebuffed privately and publicly enough times that I am now a little more afraid to witness on the golf course than I once was.
Eugene is a great man
PB,
Generally, I would agree with you, though I would disagree with that having a motivation dealing with “growth” is necessarily seeking man’s approval. If we’re passionate about the Great Commission, we should be passionate about growth – not growth for growth’s sake or for the purpose of selling books, or for the purpose of human adulation – growth that expands the Kingdom to impact the world in which we live.
As I read PDC years ago, I did not see many of the ideas as “man pleasing”, but rather as ways to break down artificial, traditional, abiblical barriers created by the church over time – barriers that created comfort for the saved and discomfort for the lost – barriers we created that have impeded the mission we have been given.
huh…
I’d still like to learn PB’s trick of knowing the motivations and heart of all the seeker/emerging types…
I was a church planter in the late 90’s and that church would have been characterized as “emerging”…
Pleasing humans didn’t even register for us…
huh, who knew that it would take people completely uninvolved in our lives to know our deepest hearts and truest motivations?
Seriously.
Who knew?
So, PB, please show me where in Scripture we are told exactly how a church service should look in as far as sermon content, what type and how many songs should be sung, when the offering is taken up, etc., etc…
I mean, I will admit, that to me a lot that goes on in different services is annoying (see, ahem, the controversy regarding Julie’s post). But I don’t have the chutzpah to suggest that if I’m displeased, God is automatically displeased.
Personally, my thoughts are the God doesn’t really care too much about the Sunday service, or at least not as much as we believe He does. I think He’s much more concerned with what goes on with the lights and sound systems are turned off.
phil, I agree
If that is not clear, than I am sorry. Jesus is a lot more concerned with what happens outside the church. Worship is placing God high and lifted up above all things in all aspects of life.
What I am saying is that the worship service in many churches has become a bunch of self-help pablum that is aimed at man and I would dare say not glorifying to God, because it is meant to elevate man’s needs and sensitivities.
And of course, the ONLY acceptable music is organ and piano based hymns..:)
RE: What I am saying is that the worship service in many churches has become a bunch of self-help pablum that is aimed at man and I would dare say not glorifying to God, because it is meant to elevate man’s needs and sensitivities.
PB,
I’d agree…you should’ve seen the consciously “NON-PD” and “NON-Emerging” congregation I last served in…The senior pastor’s teaching still had all the problems you cite.
PB,
Whatever…
Whatever PB… whatever… and I can still name a lot of curches you would support as man based and man pleasing… so?
Like John Macarthur’s church… hmmm don’t believe like John and talk like John and where a suit like John…
Yep man pleasing…
Like many of hte article from your friends… man pleasing as they are based not on the biblical teachings but preferences..
And J.I Packer to you is an apostate… as he endorses The Message.. you know that man pleasing bible.
Yep I could go into very specific examples of churches I know and have been part of… way back before emerging was the new whipping boy… all man pleasing to me.
Shoot Spurgeon is man pleasing if you read him as you read PDL… and well as Calvin… if he was not pleased you might be dead!
and that is why I left them and became emerging as emerging has a high view of Christ… and from Him all things flow…
You are such a broken record that even when the topic is not about RW you find a way to weasel in your divisiveness.
There is a difference between people friendly… and people pleasing.
iggy
Pastorboy said:
Is this a quote from PDL or PDC? I remember reading something similar in either of these books where Rick Warren states that worship is not about us but all about God. He said something to the affect that if the time of worship was enjoyable to the congregation it does not mean it was successful in being true worship to God. In worship God must be pleased not man.
I don’t have copies of PDL or PDC with me so I cannot quote it exact. Sorry. Perhaps someone else can help out.
Thanx Pastorboy. I am quite fueled up by all the great feedback now.
PB,
God is only pleased in what Jesus has done and does through us… God is not interesting in OUR church services… if God is in it… it is already blessed..
iggy