This session you can call the in crowd.
I think the vast majority of more evangelical
churches today will find Christian caliphates that you
could call the in crowd.
I think in some of the more online
denominational churches you find a lot of religion
of fear.
And some of the more fundamental churches that
do not stress the preaching of a holy
life you'll find a lot who call themselves
carnal.
But in the more sophisticated evangelical churches I
think you'll find the in crowd.
And that's the last kind of counterfeit the
Bible talks about, but counterfeit nevertheless.
Turn in your Bibles to the book of
John.
John, chapter 12, verse 37.
But though he had done so many miracles
before them yet they believed not on him.
Here are some men that saw Jesus do
some miracles and they didn't believe in him.
Let me tell you something briefly about this.
God is very wise and God is also
very good.
And he has set up a very cunning
thing to deal with people who will not
surrender to what they know to be right.
And what he does is he robs people
of what they already know if they will
not obey him.
Now the Christian life is like riding a
bicycle.
You get on and you ride it forwards.
If you stop, you fall off.
It's as simple as that.
Once you're on, you've got to keep moving.
Jesus said, no man having put his hand
to the plow and looking back is fit
for the kingdom of God.
So when you give your life to Jesus,
you're in for life.
And it's the life work.
You've got to keep on riding on that
bicycle and there's no stopping, there's no looking
behind or you'll get into crashes.
Now, can you imagine what God must be
thinking if he gives people some true facts
and they refuse to obey them and yet
they want to learn more things about God.
Yet they won't do what they already learned.
Have you ever heard the story of the
preacher who came into a church and he
preached on every person in this church ought
to invite one of his unsaved friends to
come to church on Sunday.
He preached this really heavy message and people
were falling out of their chairs with conviction.
Oh, pastor, this is a tremendous thing and
weeping all over altars and things.
And he preached that Sunday morning.
It's a brand new pastor.
He was trying out in the church.
And they said, wow, that was a fantastic
sermon.
I've never heard a sermon like that.
And he said, fine, come tonight.
So they all came tonight, that night.
He got up, he looked at the crowd
and he preached the same sermon he preached
in the morning.
Every Christian ought to bring an unsaved man
in.
Man, the anointing was powerful and more people
were falling out of their chairs that hadn't
heard it in the morning.
The others were doubly convicted and they came
out and they said, wow, that was really
heavy.
We're so glad you preached that again because
a lot of us missed it this morning.
He said, well, make sure you're at the
prayer meeting on Thursday.
Prayer and chair meeting on Thursday evening.
He arrived on Thursday and guess what he
preached on.
Preached the same sermon.
Afterwards the deacons got together and they said,
we should really talk to this pastor.
I mean, he's a really good preacher.
We really appreciate that.
But when has he said any other sermon?
Sunday night, Sunday morning, got up, preached the
same sermon.
And then they came to him in a
big old body.
They said, ah, listen, I'll tell you what,
pastor, we really like that sermon.
That's a good sermon.
We've got it on tape.
We're going to make copies of it and
send it to our friends.
I said, boy, that's a heavy tape.
That's what it is.
That's a tremendous sermon.
But what we really wanted to know is,
do you have any other sermons?
The young pastor looked at me and said,
yes.
And when you do what I told you
the first time, I'll preach the second one.
Now see, God is like that.
He gives you something simple to do and
He wants you to do it.
And when you do that, then He'll give
you something else.
If I was a person who had invented
some brand new fantastic knowledge, like a laser
beam that could cut the top of this
thing and look like a pencil, the other
end was an anti-gravity beam that could
levitate the whole top of this roof off.
If I had one of those things and
you're from the mafia and you come up
and you say, I'll give you two million
bucks for that knowledge.
And I extend your knowledge and you're a
selfish man, then there's something wrong with me.
Can you imagine a 6,000 year old
Hitler?
With all the technologies of today available to
him.
And what do you think God is going
to do if a man refuses to obey
Him and refuses to love Him and refuses
to serve Him?
He is not going to let that man
learn anything more.
He is actually going to rob that man's
mind of the knowledge he has.
And God must do that because that is
wise of God.
That's why you read in the Bible, Satan
is called wise until he falls and then
he's called subtle and cunning, but never wise.
God begins to rob knowledge from men.
You know what the Bible says?
To him that has, that has not, from
him shall be taken even that which he
has.
Him that has, to him shall more be
given.
When you take a little bit of what
God has given, you say, alright, I'll take
that, I accept that, I'll change.
Take that one little bit and God gives
you something else.
You say, oh wow, something else, and then
you change again and He gives you something
else.
And that's where you go.
The man that says, no, I'm not interested
in that, I want to learn all these
things.
Oh, that's very interesting, yes.
Praise the Lord, we really want to know
more about that and not do it.
God starts robbing him.
And he has to.
That's what it tells us here.
He has blinded their mind, blinded their ears.
Now, the verse I want you to really
read comes immediately after this.
Nevertheless, among the chief rulers, also many believed
on him.
But because the Pharisees, of the Pharisees, they
did not confess him, lest they should be
put out of the synagogue.
For they loved the praise of men more
than the praise of God.
Now, here's another group of people that believed
in Jesus.
But of course, these men were never saved.
Because they refused to do what Jesus said
is absolutely essential.
He said, if you want to be saved,
and remember Romans, in Romans 10, 13, whosoever
shall confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus.
Do you remember what Jesus said?
Whosoever shall confess me before men, him also
will I confess before my Father which is
in heaven.
Whosoever shall deny me before men, him also
will I deny before my Father in heaven.
There must be a public declaration.
I'll tell you why that must be so.
Let's imagine that you've been convicted of a
terrible crime.
A great, you know, you robbed the country
of three billion dollars.
And now you're up on trial, and you
ask the judge for it.
You say, listen, I'm really guilty, I know
that.
But I really wish you'd pardon me, because
I never robbed the country of three billion
dollars before.
So I, I, you know.
Do you think it's fine in your heart
to just give me another chance?
And the judge says, well, we'll think about
it.
And then you say to the judge, of
course, these are my conditions.
I don't want you to tell anybody that
I really stole that stuff.
I mean, I did, but I don't want
people to think that I was a robber
or something.
See?
I really want you to pardon, but don't
tell anybody I did anything wrong.
Do you think I did pardon?
Well, you remember a little, you remember a
little kid and he stole some cookies, and
your mother said, don't you touch these cookies
or don't you eat that cake?
And you went and you did that.
And you had your hands full of sticky
cookies, and she came in, what are you
doing?
Um, nothing.
Uh, did you take any of these cookies?
And you got them in your hands trying
to crumble them to nothingness.
Cookies, my cookies, you say.
Now listen, friends.
Every time you deny what you're actually doing,
you simply harden the heart of the person
who's in the position of punishment against mercy.
Now if you break down, and you say,
yeah, I took the cookies, because I'm not
going to eat them.
Mother probably says, oh, I'll let you off,
you know, all right.
You stand there with cookies all over your
hands and say, who me?
I don't know, cookies, I don't even know
what a cookie is.
Cookie, who?
You're in trouble, baby, you really are.
And here's a group of men who wanted
to serve and believe Jesus, but they loved
the praise of men more than the praise
of God.
They refused to confess unless they'd be put
out of the synagogue.
They wanted to serve Jesus, only they wanted
to do it popularly, and I want you
to know this.
No man who ever lives for God in
the selfish world will be popular.
Knock it down.
Well, his Christian friends will love him, but
that's about all.
When you serve Jesus, you must know where
he's going.
There were three men who came up to
Jesus, and the first man ran up to
Jesus and he said, Lord, I'll follow you
whosoever thou goest, and he didn't even know
where he was going.
Jesus was going to a cross to die.
Wicked men were going to crucify him, nail
him up there in blood and agony, and
he was going to a cross.
Listen.
If you follow Jesus Christ, you too have
better be ready to be crucified.
Either you will love God and follow him,
and Jesus said, if they have done it
to me, they'll do it to you.
If they have hated me, they will hate
you.
And it is impossible to serve Jesus and
still be popular with people who hate him.
Did you ever hear about the man who
went into the army?
He went into the army and he was
supposed to be a young Christian and came
out two years later and they said, how
did you get on in the army?
Did they give you a hard time?
He said, no, I didn't get a hard
time at all.
He said, you didn't?
They didn't laugh at you?
He said, no, I never had any problem.
They said, didn't they put you down or
did they say anything?
He said, no, they never found out I
was a Christian.
I kept it secret as I could.
There is a class of people in the
Bible who believe in Jesus, but Jesus doesn't
believe in them.
It's all the people pleases.
They love the praise of men more than
the praise of God.
And I'll show you how to recognize this
last phony class of counterfeit conversions.
Bible of course, very clear.
We must confess Jesus openly.
We must first of all admit we really
are what he said we are.
We are last men and women who have
been selfish not part of the time but
all of the time.
And you can tell the signs of the
people pleases.
And these are the first.
I'm going to start and run out of
chalk here eventually.
First of all, in 2 Corinthians chapter 10
and verse 12 you'll find that the people
pleases does what Paul says he will do.
They measure themselves among themselves.
And they never find truth because they keep
on comparing themselves with other people instead of
comparing themselves with the Bible and comparing themselves
with Jesus.
And a vast number of people in the
world instead of making Jesus their rule and
Jesus their pattern and the Bible their guidelines
simply look at others and they say, what
does a Christian look like in the world
around me and I'll be as much as
I can like them.
Now in the scriptures the Christian is a
man who serves and loves God if the
rest of the world backslides and goes to
hell.
He stands alone for Jesus.
He loves God.
And the Christian does that which is right
not just that which is respectable.
And sometimes it is easier to be respectable
than to be right.
The Christian doesn't deliberately go out to make
himself a nuisance or to be a pest.
The Christian and I know a lot of
kids at school today that the teacher says
some dumb thing that he shouldn't have said
and the Christian in this case says, ah
ha, I got him now I'm going to
go and really put him down.
So they wait in the class ah you're
on there teacher this is a well you
know just kind of and the kids say
yeah, yeah because kids are always against teachers.
But see the Christian doesn't deliberately go out
to make himself a nuisance but he does
stick up for truth.
And that will always bother people I'll tell
you why.
Say you're in this room that was very
dark pitch black and all of us were
doing some very nasty things and somebody comes
in here with a flashlight and he starts
shining it pew pew pew pew starts shining
around everybody's going ah yeah turn that light
off you know stuff like this see.
Now what do you do if a guy
comes in with a flashlight?
Well you can do three things you can
say you got me tell alright alright I've
done it see you can admit it what
God wants you to do be honest admit
come out with the light or you can
run away to another corner of the room
where the light isn't or thirdly you can
try and shoot the guy through the flashlight
and you'll understand young people when you go
out you'll meet some people who say you
got me tell you'll meet some who say
well I'm sorry I haven't got very much
time and keep running into the darkness and
you'll find some people who try to shoot
the light out they might try to do
it with words they might try to do
it with actions mark it down if you're
going to be a Christian then you're going
to be unpopular so I'm not going to
tell you how to be a cool popular
Christian I'm going to tell you how to
be an unpopular Christian because that's the Jesus
kind two the people pleaser never bothers to
raise the standards of rights now something burns
in my heart for the Lord Jesus' church
I don't believe Jesus is coming back to
a filthy prostitute but to a spotless bride
that's what the Bible says and if there
is a crowd of people pleasers in the
church they could care less what Jesus says
about his church he loves her and he
died for her and he shed his blood
to make her spotless and present her perfectly
for the they don't care about that if
a church is in a rut of parties
and socializing and messing around they don't care
that's fine whatever is happening that's fine we're
sinning something burns in my heart for Christ
we're going to do a little thing called
the party it's based on we got the
idea from a Charlie Churchman film you ever
seen Charlie Churchman the guy with the moustache
runs around he's an idiot but he's a
beautiful person Charlie so if you've got an
idiot you can be Charlie Churchman and Church
Week this particular film if you haven't seen
it I suggest you do and prepare yourself
for an awful cutting experience it opens up
with him being run over by cars all
those old cars you know this weird kind
of fast no soundtrack except music cars running
over and washing windscreens and falling off ladders
and all that kind of weird stuff and
you're laughing you sucker you laugh ha ha
and then you're getting ready to be pretty
sucked see because what happens is it's a
typical church week opens up I don't know
different things happen during the church week first
they have the Christian bowling the bowling game
and the passers are wearing scarves and praying
and then he they're all getting ready to
bowl and then they bowl you know got
to make it Christian put the prayer and
then and then then they have a missionary
council all the ladies come in it's going
to be a missionary outreach and all the
ladies come in and all you see is
a whole bunch of ladies bringing pies sleeves
of pies clonk clonk clonk there's a whole
table full of pies all smiling another one
another one huge thing of pies and then
comes a missionary sermon what happens is the
ladies dress up one is you know like
this and then runs away and another one
comes like this with the hula dance and
then runs away that's the missionary sermon and
then they start eating the pie see and
then right in the corner of the film
just quite suddenly you see a thing that
looks like a speedometer and instead of going
forward it's going backwards it's counting down it's
going 20 19 just drops down and goes
back on see and then you see a
church collapse there's a whole huge building falling
down bulldozer pushing it over and then you
see this huge plot of land being cleared
and the pastor comes up takes a takes
a spade smiles throws the and then they
unlace this big long huge poster it's a
huge monstrous thing and it goes $100,000
at a new church parking lot or something
like that they all jump up and down
you know it goes 18 and then they
have the outreach they've got to win the
sinners so again you see them bringing food,
chicken all kinds of things and they're having
a party see a Wednesday night potluck fellowship
and they put a big sign right over
the door here it says sinners welcome and
they put it inside the church where you
have to come in and see it first
see and then they all lay out all
the plates and all the food and they're
sitting down they're smiling and they wait for
the sinners to come look and nobody comes
nobody can see that sign so finally they
go and then they start eating this this
this guy is chomping into this chicken he's
going right into the chicken and then it's
all color suddenly the music stops the color
stops you see a black and white slide
of a kid dead of hunger on the
streets of India and it goes right back
clunk clunk clunk clunk clunk clunk and then
it snaps back and you see seventeen and
then the church week wears on and when
it gets right near the end they're having
a satellite planning session and for goodness sake
seven thirty they all meet there and the
guy's got a blackboard just like this and
they've got a hundred thousand dollars they've got
to add some new things for the church
so the guy's looking at the chair it's
plastic see it's a sort of metal chair
but it doesn't look very pretty so he's
throwing those out and he's going to get
some nice plastic and chrome chairs you know
to put in the thing and he's covering
the board with all the things it says
balloons for the kiddies for the adults balloons
for the adults all kinds of things covering
a whole board and every time you look
back you see the clock is going click
click click and that little deal is going
click five click and finally you look back
and they're all nearly asleep it's about twelve
thirty in the morning Sunday morning and there's
cobwebs all over them right through the whole
room and he's still writing tons of writing
on the board cobwebs all over and then
Sunday morning the pastor goes with his perennial
smile like this and they have to bring
all the people on stretchers put them out
because they're so dead running around doing all
the programs they're just about finished see they're
falling all over there's some asleep some are
wheeled in in wheelchairs some are brought in
on stretchers and tipped into the pew the
pastor's still with his perennial smile running around
all over the pulpit and everybody's asleep and
you see Charlie and his head sort of
drops and the screen splits and one side
you see him asleep and then you see
the whole event of the week and every
time fleck fleck fleck fleck and it comes
back to this little speedometer coming down and
then you see the last thing five four
three two one and the screen goes black
and you see a shot of the earth
from space you know the moon shot of
the earth of the green blue planet and
right in the center you see a little
dot like this and it goes so it's
a whole screen it's an H-bomb just
goes and then the screen goes black and
that's the end of the film you know
what they were doing in Russia just before
the Bolshevik revolution they were trying to decide
on whether they should use tablecloths on the
communion that were plain or fancy and they
spoke for three or four days on it
arguing up and down I think it should
be plain I really don't think so I
think it's and outside there were young people
planning to blow up the world while the
revolution was on outside the church was arguing
about communion tablecloths inside sometimes I wonder when
I walk into a church and I see
kids in a rut of parties and games
selfish as the day is long and I
something burns in my heart and I say
where where are the Christians a kid comes
in listen a young Marxist came and sat
down I want you to imagine it's in
your church youth group and one young Marxist
said I'm going to destroy this system a
brilliant trained young man he said I'm going
to tear this system down the ears of
every Christian in this country but he said
I'm going to give it one more chance
I'm going to go to a church I'm
going to find some kids my age and
I'm going to see if anybody really does
know God and if I can find one
group of kids who really love God then
I'll give up my revolution and he comes
into your church youth group just when you're
having the time you enjoy most and he
sits down and he watches and let me
ask you a question and he walks out
of that room will he go back to
his destruction or will he give his life
to God and I walk into a room
see I was going to be a Marxist
and I see kids in a rut of
parties in a rut I see a group
of people pleasers going around trying to impress
each other with just how selfish they can
be and still call themselves Christians something in
my heart cries out for God how much
has God been hurt by the selfishness of
people who are phony people pleasers I went
into a church some time back guy says
did you have any additions to the church
I said no I had some blessings some
tractions got rid of some kids that should
have been got rid of a lot earlier
you know what they did in the Bible
they preached they lay out the message of
salvation and people sat and listened they waited
for them to change if they didn't they
went to see him personally they said listen
this is what's happening and this is what
ought to be done will you change the
guy says no I have no intention of
changing and there's the door could you please
close it as you leave they went back
and they got somebody else who was concerned
and they came together in love and they
said will you change and the guy said
no I'm not and the door was in
the same place they went out and they
waited until church when everybody was sitting here
and then they nailed them they said this
isn't it time you gave up your selfishness
and gave your life to God right there
in the church not preaching to somebody in
particular you know just I wonder if there's
anybody here that is really a good God
of course none of you none of you
just somebody maybe outside the walls maybe somebody
you know but not you man I'd be
so thrilled if some preacher had come right
to me and said listen man you are
phony as the day is long right but
I wish somebody had told me that earlier
for six years I wasted my life the
time I was 12 the time I was
18 in phony Christianity and there's nothing more
miserable in a person who tries to live
both worlds to please the crowd and to
please God God says I'd rather you call
yourself a good honest atheist at least you
know I admire the man that says I
don't have anything to do with God I
don't worship him I don't follow him I
would rather admire that man than the man
that says oh yes I love Jesus I
really am a Christian it's really cool and
then it's exactly like the atheist let me
tell you my definition of an atheist an
atheist is somebody who practically lives as if
God does not exist and about 80%
of most of the youth groups that I
work in are atheists under that definition David
Wilkerson goes into a church he preaches as
if every kid in the place is unsaved
including the pastor I think it's high time
we stopped taking things for granted and started
seeing what the Bible says about dinner and
Christianity you watch Jesus deal with the people
pleasers in his day you want to read
some of the stories in Matthew chapter 5
verse 20 he took some of the church
leaders of his day who had made a
nice little cool thing about what a Christian
was and he burned them so badly they
said he is a devil he took these
men and sometimes I think I find that
attitude buried in some people that ought to
know better people who are church leaders and
every effort to open their eyes to show
them that the church is in such a
worldly place that if a New Testament Christian
from 2000 years ago walked into the church
and he wanted to have a fellowship but
he had to backslide you show them that
and they get really uptight listen don't rock
the boat baby this is cool we've got
it all it's all set don't touch it
Jesus with a heart breaking said how can
you escape the damnation of hell my heart
is broken because I felt God's heart break
over his will I know what he feels
like a little tiny weeny bit because he
showed me a little bit of what I've
done to hurt him and I think it's
time Christians took revenge on sin sin has
hurt God it's hurt me it's hurt others
and I'm going to get revenge on it
the last thing I do for Christ I'll
get revenge on sin I'll go back and
clean up where I've wrecked I'll put back
where I have stolen I will forgive where
I've hated that is Christianity and then the
third sign is that they oppose measures and
men before the Lord are trying to bring
them into a real New Testament experience I
can always tell the people pleaser because he
never usually comes out very strong to begin
with you can preach you can lay out
the conditions of the gospel and the people
pleaser will sit back there saying I'm not
going to do this man I've made my
mind up and this so what they usually
do is start a whispering campaign go up
and I say hey listen do you really
believe that what he's been saying I don't
believe that man I really don't and they
won't commit themselves to this publicly and of
course if the person isn't very popular that
comes in then they'll say oh well I
don't really like this guy and then of
course if a great revival breaks out and
he does become popular I say oh yes
I was his friend all along you know
I prayed for him you know they change
just like remember the chameleon that funny little
creature you put him on a blue thing
he turns blue you put him on a
red thing he turns red you put him
on a yellow thing he turns yellow and
you put him on a Scotch tartan plate
and he blows his mind and dies there
are a lot of people are like that
no oh one way right on if the
preacher is popular and then if he gets
unpopular oh well I really thought there was
a lot of things wrong with him anyway
I remember how sometimes hard to Charles Vinnie
calls it this way forming a public sentiment
in favor of godliness and then we came
back from a conference meeting one night Joy
Dawson the woman of god who will be
with you later on during the week was
at that same meeting one of the finest
deepest spiritual conventions that our little country New
Zealand has ever had and I came back
with my heart full of God and we
were driving early in the morning I saw
a hamburger stand and there was a guy
standing there cooking hamburgers and we were really
hungry we hadn't eaten anything so we all
got out full of praise to God and
we went over to this hamburger stand and
this college kid was cooking hamburgers and every
now and then oh!
it was like he stabbed me right in
the heart and he took the lollipop out
of my mouth and I said oh!
I can't tell you how much that hurt
and I said to God he said one
more time I'm going to get him Lord
straight away and again so I looked at
him and I said do you know him?
He said who?
I said Jesus Christ I just heard you
use his name well sometimes I think about
him sometimes I don't I said I happen
to know him a lot and love him
and you just heard him hamburger stand closed
down half an hour later and we moved
into an evangelist meeting and all the people
came and were buying their hamburgers and the
guy came out of his hamburger stand they
shut the thing down and we went on
preaching we had a number of kids give
their life to Christ that night but it's
not easy to stand up for God it's
not easy to do that but you have
to ask yourself this question am I going
to suffer reproach for Jesus am I going
to slap this guy in the back so
I can slap Christ in the face I
understand I'm going to have to say alright
it might be hard but I'm going to
stick up for Jesus because he's number one
you girls would understand that if a guy
really loved you and somebody came and was
putting you down and calling you names if
he really loved you he would stick up
for you he would say don't you say
that about him that's not true at all
that is unless he loved his own reputation
more than he loved himself if he really
loved you in which case he would say
well if you want to say that that's
fine then go ahead what kind of love
is that man you girls will get on
this case soon enough you say you love
Jesus stick up for him Bible says this
here's in living letters when you love somebody
this is 1 Corinthians 13 right at the
end in living letters when you love somebody
you will be loyal to them no matter
what the cost you will always believe the
best of them always expect the best of
them and always stand your ground in defending
them when you love somebody you will be
loyal to them no matter what the cost
and then number 4 a people pleaser makes
the split between the things that people say
you ought to do and the things that
people know you ought to do but don't
do in other words if the pastor of
a church preaches long and strongly I'm not
eating chocolate ants on Sunday I'm not eating
chocolate ants on Sunday then the person who
is a people pleaser will not eat chocolate
ants on Sunday while the world stands but
if there are other things in the Bible
equally clear or more so clear than not
eating chocolate ants on Sunday but they're not
very popular because that doesn't fit in with
the kind of structure of the thing that's
set up the people pleaser will ignore those
things he won't care about them in other
words he will choose for himself which of
God's commands he will obey and which he
will disobey you can soon see where his
heart is his heart is not fixed on
serving and loving Jesus his heart is fixed
on serving himself and you ought to know
this about the people pleaser and the in
crowd the reason why he is serving God
is not simply because it is popular to
be a Christian it's a double motive when
it is not too unpopular to be a
Christian he serves God in order that he
can take care of heaven and everything else
behind that and so he has a double
motive I have sometimes got on planes and
I've seen soldiers young guys who have just
been drafted heading out they're going to go
to Vietnam or some training camp or something
and I'm sitting down the wait you know
the airline waitress always comes around she says
could I get you a drink you know
before you leave and she brings Bloody Mary's
and all kinds of other weird things around
and I say yes you can bring me
a large orange juice please you bet yay
hi see and I'm sitting down here's this
guy he gets on sits down you know
trying on his army uniform and that you
can tell he's a fresh out of the
induction centre whatever it is and he's sitting
down the waitress comes around she says yes
you're welcome to get so would you like
a Bloody Mary oh yes I'll have a
Bloody Mary please give me three or four
you know so he's sitting there trying this
stuff out and then I start witnessing to
him and I say I'm a Christian and
he says oh you are you're a Christian
puts his bottle underneath I'm a Christian too
he says I don't really tell you how
you can tell a people pleaser he separates
the things God requires from the and that
people know about from the things that God
requires but not too many people know about
and you can always tell him because he
changes his colours when the crowd changes now
I have learned to recognize people pleaser because
I lived like that for six years and
it's easy to spot something you've been in
and come out of I tell you what
I did when I was with the church
crowd I was that churchiest kid you ever
saw man I went five times a day
and I doubt very much whether even in
the world you have five services a day
you probably have one today five but I
had five church services a day and I
sung there and some of those services sing
everybody in you know did some solos sung
just as close to walk with me and
walked as close to hell as I possibly
could go Saturday our church is 15 miles
away from my home town all my friends
came up and we put our rock band
together did I sing church songs well if
we are doing a church thing I always
put a church song in you know I
was giving a plug for God he should
consider himself very lucky that I put a
plug in for him at the end of
that thing and then what did I do
on Monday well I wasn't with anybody so
I broke into houses for entertainment and I
lived like that for five years house breaking
on Monday band on Saturday and church on
Sunday God bless you pastor what a wonderful
sermon I really appreciate that sermon pastor fantastic
sermon pastor that was very cool pastor see
my halo is out polished with Brasso and
everything then come Monday night I put my
halo back up on the shelf and next
Saturday my horns started growing again cut my
tail and my horns on Saturday night and
we were back in church Sunday morning smiling
God bless you pastor oh good heavens I'll
tell you how you can tell a person's
heart very simply you can test them with
obedience and little things and that's precisely what
Jesus does he says he that is faithful
in a few things will I make rules
of the I'll give you an example of
what I mean so I have here in
front of me two piles of money this
pile is a gigantic pile of money it's
a thousand dollars which is taken up by
the early morning collection of YWAM ha ha
thousand dollars of counted bills and over here
is a small pile of uncounted change nickel
pennies dimes and this whole place clears out
and you come back in here and you
see there's two piles of cash and this
is counted we got the serial numbers we
know what it is and know how much
it is this one isn't you know that
you come into this room and you see
that and you see this and you snitch
one dime off that pile you prove you'd
snitch that whole thousand dollars if you had
the chance because you see your heart is
not being regulated by what is right in
obedience to God you did not steal that
because you love God the reason why you
didn't steal that is you could think that
somebody could find it who stole a thousand
dollars search that kid's case there is a
thousand bucks in his case send him off
to jail why didn't you steal a thousand
dollars because your reputation was at stake people
pleasing what about this one the man comes
in he sees that money he says oh
that's not right I can't take that that
doesn't belong to me he refuses the dime
God knows where his heart is at and
God will test you give you a little
thing see what you do with that obey
it and you prove to him you really
mean business and it is sometimes easy to
do the big things because there are other
motives besides serving Jesus in them how many
of you want to be a world famous
evangelist oh me me me everybody wants to
be a world famous evangelist how many of
you want to serve God by going and
apologizing to your mother for saying rotten things
to her I want to tell you something
a people pleaser breaks God's law whenever it
suits him Joseph Fletcher is a man I
put into this category a man who put
together situation ethics Fletcher does a really sneaky
thing here Fletcher says well story is this
friends what if somebody comes breaking you got
to break God's law sometime after all nobody's
perfect quote unquote he says what if somebody
comes busting into your house and here they
are he's an insane ah he says there's
a Christian just come running into your house
and he's hiding in the closet he says
oh there's an idiot outside where the gun
is going to drill me the Zodiac killer
he says you're hiding in the cupboard there
the door closed and this other Christian comes
to the door and he says yes sir
what can I do he's got this gun
he's going
to
break God's law and lie or you tell
the truth and kill the guy and he
says you got to break one of them
so which one do you do you do
the one that you think is the most
loving you don't want him to die so
you tell a lie you say no he's
not here I don't know what you're talking
about that's one situation immorality
of not of not going back to a
husband and the people in need of him
you know but you would say well it's
obvious you simply do the loving thing you
offer yourself to the God and then go
and join the rest of your family how
cool he tells you some things about God's
law number one situation one you do not
need to lie and no Christian has a
right to lie to save his life or
anybody else's but neither do you have to
say anything it just happens to be an
amendment I do believe in your constitution that
says you can plead that and not say
anything man comes rushing over and says is
there a Christian in here I have to
say I am George Washington yes he is
I can say no I am Winky Pratt
get lost out of my house do
you remember Joseph up came Potiphar the wife
she was a really swinging hooker in those
days and she said to Joseph hey you
are kind of a cool guy I really
like to know more about you and he
recognized that man she grabs hold of his
clothes he takes off there and he has
to leave half his clothes behind the man
who was better to run than surrender the
people pleaser does not give in to God
he gives in to sin he does it
all the time and you can recognize your
own heart like that and then the people
pleaser indulges in secret sin here is a
way you can check your own life if
you allow yourself any deliberate secret sin you
hold on to it time and time again
you know how to get out of it
you know what is wrong you know how
to get cleaned up out of it you
know what God expects and you hold on
to it then mark your name down friend
people pleaser your worship is outward your worship
is external you do not love God you
love the praise of men the reason why
you keep your front up is because the
only people you are interested in impressing is
Christians not God if you really hated sin
if you really loved God you would not
surrender in to secret sin I used to
boy when I was a people pleaser I
hated preachers who preached about the bible
and how
many of you always they picked on me
I hated that man I just hated it
so I went I go out and I
just read the bible right through just so
I can say yes I hate it people
pleasers dread the thought of being called fanatics
now understand I am not talking about being
a Jesus freak I am not a Jesus
freak I may freak some people out but
I am not a Jesus freak Jesus is
not a freak either he comes up and
he says hey I am a Jesus freak
too I said I am not I am
a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ the
most high God he has made me his
child he has put me in his royal
family I am not some weird freak and
I tell you this if you serve Jesus
you are going to go right against the
opinions of the world they will hate you
for it and the people pleaser never wants
to do anything that will mark him as
being a little bit more spiritual he aims
at a nice comfortable temperature where he can
serve God and serve himself at the same
time and you already know that is not
possible and the man who comes in and
says well this is the kind of thing
the people pleaser will say well it's alright
to be a Christian but you don't have
to take that too far you don't have
to do all kinds of things it really
gets a little bit fanatical when you're talking
about Christ when you're just going out to
eat or going out to play or something
for goodness sake you know a good thing
is a good thing but there's limits to
it they hate being called fanatical Jesus was
called mad because he wouldn't eat sometimes and
he wouldn't sleep sometimes he was so concerned
about people and the disciples said you better
eat something his heart was so set on
seeing men change they said to Paul Paul
you've gone nuts much learning has made you
mad he said I'm not mad I am
not mad I wish you were like me
except for these chains do you remember the
man whom Jesus delivered who was a gadarian
maniac he came running down this dude he
would take chains and chain them up clunk
clunk with these big old manacles he'd go
ahhhh and he'd smash them off he lived
up there in the graveyards in the tombs
ahhhh and he'd cut himself with stones in
the early hours of the morning scared everybody
to death man you didn't even go around
that area you came past your boat on
the sand he came running ahhhh cutting himself
boy and he was a strong guy so
where did Jesus head off to he headed
off there man all the disciples pulled him
out of the boat Jesus got out of
the boat and here comes the maniac running
down the hills and all the disciples got
back in the boat Jesus stopped him with
a word and this guy came up and
said you come to torment us before our
time we know who you are and
we and and
know who