10-25-23-ENG.

"The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. "

Romans 14:17 
DYING TO PLEASE

Read It: Romans 14:1-8
Let me give you one more thing the Holy Spirit sets us free from: the expectations of others. Paul says that in God's kingdom, freedom comes from what God tells you on the inside, not what people tell you on the outside. We spend so much time worrying about what people want that we never get around to what God wants. With apologies to Barbra Streisand, people who need people in this way are the unluckiest people in the world. Don't get me wrong. God expects us to be people-lovers, but He does not want us to be people-pleasers. Your first responsibility is to please the Lord, not the crowd. But we work so hard to gain acceptance from men that we lose acceptance from God. If that happens, there is no power, because the Spirit of God is only here to glorify Christ. In the early days of my ministry, people-pleasing was a major concern. I could pull it off because there were only about twenty-five people. But as the church grew, people-pleasing became tougher.

There were a lot more people to try and please. I was wearing myself out trying to please everyone when the Lord hit me with this one: "I have already died for them, Evans. You don't need to kill yourself for them too." See, as a servant of Christ, I stand or fall to Him (v. 4). So do you. As I said, this doesn't mean we aren't to love people or that we're free to trample ple on their feelings and sensitivities. On the contrary, we are to accept one another with all of our foibles. But if I'm going to do the job God called me to do, I have to be free from unrealistic human expectations. Paul goes on in Romans 14 to say that each one of us will give an account of himself to God, not to each other (v. 12). When God has spoken, we need to move. This is why we are not to sit in judgment on one another. Listen, if God is in something, He is able to make His people stand whether we think they are able or not. Think About It Psalm 130:3 reminds us that if God kept score on our sins, none of us would be left standing.