In life, you only have to please one person: your Creator.

That simplifies your ministry enormously!

Jesus said, “I don’t try to please myself, but I try to please the One who sent me” (John 5:30 NCV).

He’s saying, in effect, “I’m living for an audience of One.”

Did you know that people-pleasing is a form of idolatry?

The second commandment says, “You must not make for yourself an idol” (Exodus 20:4 NLT).

Anything that replaces God in your life is an idol.

Success can be an idol.
Money can be an idol.
Sex can be an idol.

Even a relationship can become an idol.

How?

If your relationship with your congregants, your spouse, your children, or your friends is more important than God, it’s an idol.

People pleasers allow other people’s opinions to take first place in their lives.

Those opinions become a god because they matter more than God’s opinion.

Maybe you don’t tell your neighbors you’re a pastor because you’re afraid they won’t want to spend time with you.

Or maybe you avoid certain topics in your preaching and teaching because you don’t want to upset your church.

At that point, you have another god in your life.

You have made an idol of people pleasing.

Paul says in Galatians 1:10, “I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant” (NLT).

Almost everyone wants to be liked.

It’s tempting to want to please other people.

But don’t do it at the expense of pleasing God.

As a servant of Christ, you have an audience of One.

You need to only please God.