But Peter and John answered and said to them, \u201cWhether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.\u00a0For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.\u201d\u00a0 Acts 4:19-20<\/p>\n
Peter and John made an unshakable declaration that they would listen to God and speak His truth.\u00a0 It was an act of commitment to obey God rather than man.\u00a0 In a world of people pleasers, they stood out as having a higher objective.\u00a0 Later on (Acts 5), Peter and other apostles were cast into prison for preaching the Gospel.\u00a0 An angel set them free in the night, and they went right back to preaching.\u00a0 When they were arrested again and set before the council, the High Priest asked, \u201cDid we not strictly command you not to teach in this name?\u201d\u00a0 Peter and the other apostles responded, \u201cWe ought to obey God rather than men.\u201d<\/p>\n
The way of those who are in the world system is to curry the favor of people.\u00a0 They are so addicted to attention and fame that they will do almost anything to get it.\u00a0 It is part of our human nature to want to impress people.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to go into detail to explain how much trouble that creates.\u00a0 The opposite extreme is not the answer to people-pleasing syndrome.\u00a0 I refer to people who are so fearful of being rejected that they mutilate their images and go to the extreme in a vain effort to eliminate fear of rejection.\u00a0 It is a farce because they attract more attention as freaks and crave acceptance in their particular cliques.\u00a0 In attempting to run from the problem they have landed in a cultural prison and have no place to go if they fail to fit in.<\/p>\n
Every true Christian ought to know that when we commit our lives to God through Christ Jesus, the desire to please people must be resisted.\u00a0 In fact, we have to submit it to the work of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 However, it can be difficult for leaders in the Body of Christ, especially if they are not really called to be leaders. \u00a0The church has evolved into a people-pleasing system that pressures pastors, evangelists, and other leaders into performance based relationships.\u00a0 A fiery young preacher will eventually realize that if he does not tone it down.\u00a0 If he does not refrain from themes that produce conviction, he may be ostracized from the church society.\u00a0 Conversely, the ones who shamelessly preach to excite emotions and cause people to feel good about their spiritual condition move to top positions.\u00a0 They are rewarded greatly for their religious obeisance for favor.<\/p>\n
The face of one particular television preacher comes to mind. He wears a perpetual, static smile throughout the sermon.\u00a0 He speaks as if his mouth is filled with pudding, always disarming and charming.\u00a0 How can one talk about the need for salvation to a lost world as if he is hosting Mr. Roger\u2019s Neighborhood?<\/p>\n
When we warn people about the danger of entering eternity without Christ, it is the most serious warning they will receive in their lives.\u00a0 We are inviting them to submit to a baptism of death so that they might be raised in newness of life.\u00a0 However, that is not the goal of the church game.\u00a0 The church game is to compete with other players (churches) for numbers.\u00a0 They build the \u201csanctuaries\u201d, establish the programs, hire the most articulate and presentable preacher, assemble a worship band and singers, and let the fun begin.\u00a0 There is an unwritten (and sometimes written) rule that the preacher\/pastor does not say anything to bring discomfort to the congregation.\u00a0 This means that conviction was banned long ago along with any references to the great deception and encroaching apostasy.\u00a0 Heretics and heresies are not named and the result is that there is no opposition to the aggressively wafting fumes of destructive doctrines and practices that have stricken Christianity with what many believe is an irreversible plague of diabolical delusion.<\/p>\n
We are now witnessing entire denominations succumbing to apostasy with little or no resistance.\u00a0 Let me be perfectly clear about what is and is not resistance.\u00a0 It is not resistance to complain no matter how loud or many the complaints.\u00a0 Complaints always wane and the offender survives to commit more atrocities.\u00a0 When leaders sin, action must be taken.\u00a0 When a denominational leader commits an act of apostasy or that will lead to apostasy, he must not simply be asked to resign. There ought to be charges filed against him for specific crimes against the believers.\u00a0 Horrendous acts of apostasy have been committed by leaders of at least two large denominations and the reaction is simply complaining.\u00a0 Neither of those leaders has altered their behavior and their denominations are rapidly apostatizing.<\/p>\n
Many ordained preachers refuse to stand up in opposition to the apostate leaders because they have the people-pleasing syndrome.\u00a0 They have lost their spiritual backbone.\u00a0 It does not take them long to count the cost of doing what Peter and the other apostles did, and they are unwilling to pay it.\u00a0 It does not matter how loud and forcefully they declare that they live and preach for God alone, their actions or lack thereof prove that they preach for accolades, position, and remuneration.\u00a0 Peter preached for the reward of prisons and beatings.\u00a0 Paul preached for the reward of dungeons and stones.\u00a0 They both preached for the reward of execution, but ultimately they preached for Christ and counted their suffering all joy.<\/p>\n
There is a fallacy of logic that more favor with people means more power to get things accomplished.\u00a0 I would say that Christ and every New Testament Christian has shot that all to pieces.\u00a0 Favor with God is the most powerful force in this temporal realm.\u00a0 No one\u2019s faith is complete and supplied with power that has not broken the people-pleasing syndrome and fully submitted to the precept of obeying God rather than man.<\/p>\n
Edmond Burke said, \u201cAll that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that\u00a0good men do nothing<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 I respectfully disagree.\u00a0 I have never known a situation when evil triumphed while good men stood by inactive.\u00a0 Good men do not watch the innocent die without making an effort to save them.\u00a0 Good men would never allow evil to destroy innumerable souls because they feared rejection or some other repercussion.\u00a0 Good men jump into action when evil encroaches. Evil triumphs because there are no good men or enough good men to defeat it.\u00a0 The Men who would be good were\/are too busy seeking the favor of people rather than God.\u00a0 In doing so, they are neither helpful to those that they please nor a profit to God.<\/p>\n Oratory skills, fine offices, expensive automobiles, innumerable admirers, high positions, praise from all quarters, and the esteem of their peers, are all qualities that individuals can gain with the proper attention to religious decorum.\u00a0 However, the one most desirable reward is based solely on obedience to God.\u00a0 I want it.\u00a0 I would die for it.\u00a0 I hope that I live deserving of it.\u00a0 \u201cWell\u00a0done,<\/em>\u00a0good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" But Peter and John answered and said to them, \u201cWhether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.\u00a0For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.\u201d\u00a0 Acts 4:19-20 Peter and John made an unshakable declaration that they would listen to God […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-9T","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613\/revisions\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}