Got Freedom? Part 2

Hello, and welcome to Leading the Way with pastor and International Bible teacher and evangelist, Dr. Michael Youssef. I can testify to you that people pleasing is a torturous way to live.

It really is. And the apostle Paul understood this truth. And that is why in Galatians chapter 1 verse 10, he asks an all important rhetorical question. He asked, am I now trying to win the approval of men or God? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be servant of Christ. Have you fallen into that trap of being a people pleaser?

It's easy to do. Adjusting long held social or political leanings, even your faith based convictions, so that you can fit in a little better with family or appease friends. Well, today there's a reminder that you are under the grace of God. So instead of conforming to the world, you can be transformed by God's grace.

Let's join Dr. Michael Youssef now as he continues his series, God Freedom. There's a story that comes from the Mideast about an old man, a boy and a donkey. And they were traveling the countryside from village to village. As they pass through the first village, the man led the donkey and the boy was following behind the donkey. And the people in that first village criticized him so severely. And they said to him, hey, old man, don't you know what donkeys are for?

Donkeys are to be ridden. So to please the people of that village, he got on the donkey and the boy followed. When they reach the second village, the people in that village were irate. They criticized him so severely when they saw the man and the donkey and the boy following.

They jeered him. Old man, why don't you make the boy ride with you? The donkey can take both of you together. So in order to please the people of that village, he put the boy on the donkey with him and they rode through to the third village.

By the time they reached the third village, the villagers began to mock him. Hey, old man, you're crazy. There's not room for both of you.

This is hot sun. How can you do this to the beast, both of you riding on him? So the man got down, picked up the beast, put him on his back and carried him on, went on.

What is the meaning? What's the moral of the story? The moral of the story is this. If you try to please people, you're going to be carrying a donkey on your back. It might not be visible, but you're carrying that donkey. I can testify to you that people pleasing is a torturous way to live.

It really is. And the apostle Paul understood this truth. And that is why in Galatians chapter 1 verse 10, he asks an all important rhetorical question. He asked, am I now trying to win the approval of men or God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be servant of Christ.

Let me tell you at the outset before I get to the text properly and explain it. Every one of us, your pastor included, every one of us fall in one of three categories. Self pleasing, people pleasing, or God pleasing. The self centered self pleasing person asks these questions in every situation, in every circumstance, in every time a decision is being made. They ask these questions. They say, how is that going to affect me?

How can I benefit from this situation? I mean, they cannot speak two or three sentences without I, me, and mine. The whole world revolves around them. The people pleases on the other hand, they are self centered in their own way. But unlike the self pleasing people, they maintain a focus on being accepted, avoiding rejection at any cost. They obsessively worry about other people, what other people think of them. They are constantly seeking the approval and the compliment and the praise of people. The third group of people that God pleases, listen carefully, that God pleases, none of us are born that way.

None of us. We become converted to becoming God pleases later in life. We get to a point of totally exhausted from self pleasing and other pleasing and we cry to God and God begin to do his work in our lives. The primary motive of all God pleases is how to please God. The question they often ask in every circumstance and in every situation and every decision making is what I'm about to do glorifying to God? Is what I am doing now honoring to God? And here is the question that you must ask yourself even as I'm speaking. You must ask yourself right now, which category do I belong to?

Where am I on the list of those three groups of people? Paul, like all God pleasers, was not always a God pleaser. He was not. In fact, he confesses it. In fact, he said most of his life before Christ came into his life, Paul was self pleasing and others pleasing, but all of that changed the moment he will have an encounter with the resurrected Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. And so can everyone else who desire to be changed by the power of God the Holy Spirit today, you can become a God pleaser. Before Christ came into his life, Paul was self centered, egotistical, ambitious Pharisee.

That's what he was. He craved the recognition and the approval of others. He longed for the praise of the leaders of the Pharisaic sect to which he belonged. And that is why Paul understood these troublemakers, the Judaizers, he really knew them far better than anybody else because he was one of them. When these miserable legalistic Judaizers invaded the church of Galatia, their primary motive was to destroy the truth. What is the truth? The truth is this that Paul preached, that salvation is only through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ plus nothing equals salvation.

But the modus operandi was if they're going to discredit the message, you better discredit the messenger first. Satan's pattern never varies, never changes through the centuries, never changes. Satan is not creative.

He's just an imitator. Satan's foot soldiers never come up with a new idea. They never come up with anything new. They use the same old trick century after century after century. But the sad part is that Satan's strategy often worked among the non-discerning believers. It worked in the case of the Galatians. The Judaizers sold them a bill of goods by telling them the very opposite of the truth.

In the vernacular, they lied to them. The Judaizers told them that Paul is a people pleaser. Really? Paul? Imagine that. You say, how come?

This is how they did it. They said, when Paul preached the truth to the Galatians saying Jesus plus nothing equals salvation, the Judaizers come in and said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus is not enough for salvation. Paul is only saying this to you Gentiles to get on your good side. He wanted to become popular among the Gentiles. The Judaizers said that Paul was saying that because he's telling the Gentiles what they want to hear. Paul is leaving out all of the Jewish ceremony and all of the ritual as important part of salvation because he just wants to make the message palatable to them.

It was, of course, a pack of lies, absolute lies. But isn't that what Satan does? In connection with these falsehoods, Paul said, that's exactly what I used to be before I came to Christ. When I was burdened under the heavy weight of rituals and ceremonies that have nothing to do with salvation, could never get you to heaven, it was all a show off. In fact, Paul is saying, I worked so hard to get promoted in the Jewish hierarchy, in the institutional hierarchy. I wanted to climb that success ladder among my peers.

I mean, I wanted it so badly that I did anything. I said anything to please my bosses. I wanted my Jewish bosses to be proud of me and for that reason, I dragged Christians from town to town to town. I put them in prison and I did everything in order to please my Pharisaic bosses. But when I confronted the resurrected Jesus, it cost me dearly. I lost my reputation among the Pharisees. I lost my opportunity for being promoted in the religious hierarchy. I lost my prestige. I lost my possessions and I lost my wealth. I lost my pension. I lost my dignity.

I lost my secure future. I lost everything for the sake of pleasing Christ alone. And yet these miserable Judaizers call me a people pleaser.

How false. Make no mistake about it, the Jews of the day were persecuting Christians. And these Judaizers, who of course accusing Paul of what they're doing, they're going to the Jews and say, don't persecute us. We're keeping all the ceremonies. We're keeping it all. We're one of you.

Don't turn on us. It's only Paul is the one who's preaching grace. We're preaching Judaism with Jesus attached to it. And that is why in verses 11 and 12, Paul offers indisputable evidence that he is no man pleaser. Listen to what he said. I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man or taught it by any man.

Rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ himself. Please hear me right. This is important.

It's very important. All the religions of the world, all of them except Christianity, all of them are manufactured by man. All of them. The Christian message like no other religion in the world. What all of the world's religion have in common except for the Christian faith is that man can save himself by his own efforts.

That they all teach that by keeping certain rules, by keeping certain precepts, by doing certain good works, by chanting the right mantra, by living certain kind of life, they will be accepted by their God. Of all the earth's religions, the Christian faith stands out and says no and a million no. You can never save yourself.

You cannot do anything to save yourself. It is only through the accepting of the gift of the grace of God can you be saved. And the reason people reject the message of the gospel is human pride.

That's why. When they reject it, it's because of their pride. See, human pride is offended by the thought that we can do nothing to be saved.

Human beings, the way they are, we want to find some way of giving ourselves some credit. So they say, well, I really didn't sin all that much. My sins are really not as big as the sins of others. I'm trying to live by the golden rule. I can do some good here in order to atone for the little bit of bad that I'm doing over there and I'll be all right.

And I said, you're living in a fool's paradise. And that is why the gospel comes along and says, you can do nothing to be saved except to humble yourself, repent of your sins and accept the gift of Christ who died on the cross for you. And the reason Paul was really angry at these miserable Judaizers is because when he looked at them, they were like a mirror. They were reflecting his old self. Every time he looks at them, he sees the old Paul before transformed life, before Christ.

And we often react the most when we see in others what we don't like about ourselves. And Paul looks at them and he says, oh, that's the old man. That's how it was. That's me before Christ. That's my old life.

These same miserable people are the ones who dug Jesus everywhere he went. Well, why did you eat on the Sabbath? Why did you heal in the Sabbath?

Why did you do this and why did you do that? I mean, he just followed me everywhere. And Jesus told them they were perverting even their Old Testament. So how does Paul tries to clear the confusion? You find that in verses 13 to 24 by giving his testimony, by reciting his spiritual biography. And here's what he said. He said, I used to try to get some favor with the religious hierarchy by persecuting Christians.

I was trying to get accepted by them. I was a man pleaser seeking the approval of men. But when I came to an encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus, he transformed my life.

Therefore, I can testify and he goes to testify. Listen to me. If you don't grasp the enormity of God's grace in your life, you will not break free from either self pleasing or people pleasing or both. When you comprehend that it is the sovereign grace of God and not your effort that has called you from death to life, from darkness to light, that's called you from a crushing guilt to the marvelous freedom of Christ that called you from the burden of sin to liberty in Christ.

Beloved, only when you really begin to understand this sovereign grace of God in your life will you truly experience freedom from people pleasing or self pleasing. For it is the same sovereign grace of God, not a variety of it, not a different kind of it. It's the same sovereign grace of God that transformed the life of Saul of Tarsus and made him into the great apostle Paul. It is the same sovereign grace of God that transformed Simon who denied Jesus three times to bold preacher in the day of Pentecost and finally he gladly died a martyr's death.

It is that same sovereign amazing grace of God that transformed the hard-hearted slave trader to a loving, grateful heart of a pastor and evangelist and a songwriter by the name of John Newton. It is the same amazing grace of God that says Jesus plus nothing equal my salvation. That same sovereign grace that is converting thousands of people around the world even today as we sit here and yet the moment they accept the grace of God into their life, they're literally signing their death warrant. That grace can transform anyone today from being self pleasing or people pleasing to being God pleasing. Beloved, that grace is uniquely in the Christian faith, is uniquely belongs to the message of Christianity and yet the biggest tragedy from my vantage point that as I see, there are thousands of people who are sitting in church pews who marvel not at the grace of God.

Please understand, I want you to hear this right. The purpose of God's grace is not to excuse sin or not excuse sinners. It is not to rationalize sin but the purpose of God's grace is to justify and transform sinners.

When Christ spoke to that woman in John chapter 8 who was caught in adultery, he did not say to her, okay, you just can't help it. It's okay. It's just the way you are made. It's okay. You are only the product of your environment. It's okay because everybody does it. He did not say that.

No, in a million no. He forgave her. He showed her grace.

He gave her that which is not deserved and then he said to her, go now and leave your life of sin. And that, my beloved friends, is a proper understanding of the grace of God in the New Testament. Grace does not pretend that sin does not matter. Grace does not pretend that sin is not sin. Grace does not merely sprinkle perfume to cover up the stench of sin.

No. If grace does not produce transformation in life, it is not the grace of God. Listen to what Paul said to the Romans in chapter 6.

What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase by no means? We die to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Therefore, do not let sin reigns in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.

For sin shall not be your master because you are not under the law but under grace. A challenge to experience the transformed life. And Dr. Yusuf returns in just a moment to wrap up this episode. First though, I want to remind you to get your free subscription started for My Journal. My Journal is a monthly magazine that I promise you will look forward to receiving in your mail each month. My Journal provides you a deeper look into the ministry of Leading the Way, and each edition offers additional content from Dr. Yusuf about recent teachings, updates about Leading the Way's worldwide impact, as well as encouraging content from team members and trusted partners serving Christ around the world. Start your subscription to My Journal. Give us a call.

866-626-4356. And online, we are at ltw.org. Also this quick reminder that Leading the Way is listener supported. That means that our team relies on your support, both prayer support and financial support, to continue to expand this ministry. So if you'd like to partner in spreading the message of Christ, won't you consider becoming a part of Dr. Yusuf's The Open Door campaign? Give us a call.

866-626-4356 or ltw.org. Now, as promised, here's Dr. Michael Yusuf with a final word for today. The love and humor are in this. The person who does not know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Sin is not a choice for him or her.

It's part of their nature. But for those who have received Jesus Christ into their life as Savior and Lord, for the believers, sin is a choice. We can choose to reject sin or we can choose to permit it into our lives. We can choose to flee from temptation or we can choose to obey its passions.

Why? Because God's grace provides transformation. God's grace provides a transformed lifestyle. And that transformation takes place in our lives moment by moment, day by day, hour by hour, as we totally depend on his strength. John the Baptist said, I must continue to decrease so that he may continue to increase.

And as you put to death self-pleasing, others-pleasing, you put to life God-pleasing. But the process can start somewhere. And please God, it might start today.

It might start today. And when that happens, you're going to experience true joy in serving the Lord. It's not a drudgery. It's not something you have to do.

It's not because out of guilt. But you can't wait to serve the Lord by serving others. The true serenity of not depending on the approval of others will be yours. You'll experience true integrity by not accommodating to the opinions of others. You'll experience true peace that comes from not trying to make a good impression on others.

Above all, true selflessness and self-giving of ourselves and our resources in gratitude to God will be your greatest experience. Passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth. That is what Dr. Michael Youssef does each day on Leading the Way. You can also hear Dr. Youssef's teaching on your favorite podcast platform, such as Spotify, Apple podcasts, iHeart, Google podcasts, and more. Subscribe to Leading the Way today.

Hi, this is Michael Youssef. You know, healthy fear is a gift from God for our preservation. It helps us avoid real dangers. But sin has perverted fear, trapping us in chains of irrational fear. Today, Jesus can give you faith that conquers your irrational fear. Will you come to him? To find out more today, visit ltw.org slash Jesus. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.