The Gospel for People Pleasers

Well, if you have your Bible with you, would you please open it up to John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

We're continuing on in the story of Jesus as told by the Apostle John.

And here in John chapter 7, Jesus is in Jerusalem.

John 7 · chapter mention

And at this moment, there's a big festival going on there, the festival of tabernacles

or booths.

Thousands have gathered from all over the nation.

And Jesus kind of snuck into the city halfway through the festival.

And we saw a couple weeks back when we were looking at this, how he went into the temple

courts and began to teach the people.

And initially, the response seemed pretty good.

They were amazed.

Where did he get this teaching from?

He knew his stuff.

How is it that he could know all this?

Without having been educated.

Well, it wasn't from YouTube and it wasn't from Skillshare.

It wasn't from a mentoring relationship with some unknown rabbi.

Jesus essentially said, you're right.

My teaching is not my own.

It comes from the one who sent me.

It comes from God.

And if you will humble your hearts and seek to do what God wants you to do, you will know

the truth about where my teaching comes from.

Let's pick up the conversation in verse 18.

There we read what Jesus says next.

Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory.

But he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth.

There is nothing false about him.

And again, let's have a little more word-for-word translation here.

I think that will help us.

We'll go with the New American Standard.

He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory.

But he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, he is true.

And there is no unrighteousness in him.

What is Jesus saying here?

And why is he saying this to the crowd?

Well, let's remember just what the people in the crowd are thinking as Jesus speaks.

We read a little bit earlier in verse 12 that there's been widespread whispering about Jesus

among the crowds.

Some of them are saying, he's a good man.

Others are saying, no, he deceives the people.

Some are more open to Jesus, while others seem to have already made up their minds that

he's a fraud.

He's a con artist.

He's a deceiver.

And as with other times, Jesus, again, seems to know what's going on in their minds and

in their thoughts.

He knows that even as he speaks to them, there are some in the crowd who are saying, yeah,

right.

Your teaching comes from God?

I don't believe this.

And so Jesus seems to say these words in verse 18 in his own defense.

It's as though he's saying, listen, guys, in all the teaching that I've been doing here,

have I been doing and saying things to get glory from you for myself?

No.

Has the main tone, the main message that I've been bringing in my teaching been, everybody

look at me.

Look how awesome I am.

Bow down before me.

Give me glory.

Give me praise.

No.

No.

Everything I've been saying has been for the glory of the one who sent me.

So that you might turn your hearts to him and worship him and praise him and obey him and

do his will.

You can just imagine what kinds of things Jesus has been teaching them so far by thinking

back over the many things that Jesus taught all the time.

Think back to the Sermon on the Mount and the kinds of things that he said there.

Think back to the many parables.

All of these things had this overall intention of turning people's hearts back to the Lord.

He taught people to turn from their sins, to stop doing what is evil and instead to do

what is right and what is good from the heart.

He taught people to pray to God, to ask God for things, to seek things from him, to seek

his kingdom.

If you look through the Gospels, it's an interesting thing to notice.

You'll find that Jesus never once tells people to bow down in front of him and worship him

or to give him glory like that.

Why is that?

The Muslims and the Jehovah's Witnesses are quick to jump on this.

They're quick to say, look, Jesus always told people to worship God.

Why?

They would say because he was not God.

Well, they are right about one thing and that's that Jesus did not command or tell people to

worship himself.

In fact, I would go even further than that and say that he did not speak or act at all

for the purpose of gaining glory or winning praise for himself.

But it's not because he wasn't God.

We've already seen countless statements in the Gospel of John that amount to Jesus saying,

I am the divine Son of God.

But as a man, he lives as a man should.

And so he calls people to worship God, his Father.

Why is that?

In some mysterious way, this is how the relationship between Jesus, the Son, the God-man, and his

Father, God, works.

Let's look at a few other passages to see this.

And all of these are from John's Gospel as well.

One of them we've already seen.

John 5, verse 41.

John 5:41

Jesus said to the religious leaders, I do not accept glory from human beings.

Hmm.

Why is that?

Again, in John 8, verse 50, we haven't got there yet, but Jesus says, I am not seeking

John 8:50

glory for myself.

Why not?

A few verses later, in John 8, verse 54, Jesus says this.

John 8:54

He says, if I glorify myself, my glory means nothing.

My Father, whom you claim is your God, He is the one who glorifies me.

There it is.

God the Father is the one who glorifies his Son.

So Jesus is the divine Son, as we've seen all over the place in John's Gospel.

Yet He has not been calling people to bow down and worship Him.

Instead, He's been telling people to glorify and worship His Father, the one who sent Him.

The only glory that Jesus seeks for Himself is the glory that comes from the Father.

In fact, we'll get to it eventually, but in His prayer in John chapter 17, Jesus actually

John 17 · chapter mention

prays and asks God to give Him glory.

He says this in John 17, 5.

And now, Father, glorify me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world

began.

This is a difficult relationship to understand.

I find it difficult.

Even though Jesus is God, living among us in human flesh, He does not have the mindset

that we would expect Him to have.

Paul describes it for us in his letter to the Philippians, a passage that many of you

are familiar with.

His mindset was not to cling to what was rightfully His, glory, the worship, the praise of all people.

No, His mindset is to humble Himself, to get down to our level, to become a man, one of us.

And Paul tells us it's even more than that, to go even further down than that, to become a servant.

Jesus is on a rescue mission that requires Him to lay aside, to give up, to veil, to cover up and conceal

some of His glory.

And to live for a time in a humbled and lowly state.

And for a time to endure humiliating and even shameful treatment.

And it's not until after this rescue mission is complete that Jesus will begin to receive

the glory that He is due.

Paul goes on in Philippians 2.

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, because He did that, God, the Father, exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him

the name that is above every name.

That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.

So it's God, the Father, who exalts His Son.

It's God, the Father, who glorifies His Son, who lifts Him up to that place where all will

bow down and worship Him.

So yes, we are to worship Jesus.

Even though Jesus does not seek glory for Himself from us,

as He walks the earth, He is still glorious.

He is still worthy of worship.

And God, the Father, wants us to worship His Son.

That's the trajectory of this whole story.

And we've seen this already, too, in what Jesus said

the last time He met with the religious leaders in Jerusalem.

John chapter 5, verse 22.

John 5:22

Jesus said there,

The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.

Why?

Why has He given it to the Son to do all judgment?

So that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.

The Father wants us to worship His Son.

And that's why He's given it to Him to do all of the judgment at the last day.

Back to John chapter 7, verse 18.

John 7:18

He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory.

But he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him, he is true.

And there is no unrighteousness in him.

Jesus is saying here,

One of the evidences that I speak from God,

and that I speak the truth,

is that I'm doing and saying nothing for personal benefit here.

All the things that I've been doing,

all the things that I've been teaching,

have not been to get glory for myself.

In everything I've been doing and saying,

I am seeking for you to glorify Him who sent me,

the Father.

And that's how you can know that I am no deceiver.

Now I had planned to go on another few verses here.

And the conversation is about to heat up.

Jesus is about to publicly declare that the leaders are trying to kill Him.

And some in the crowd are about to yell back that Jesus is demon-possessed.

But we'll save that for next week,

because there's a lot, even in this one verse,

that can apply to our lives today.

And we want to take time to think about that.

So what do we take from Jesus' comments

about not seeking glory for Himself?

What can we take from this for our own daily lives?

I think the important thing at the start here

is just to acknowledge that this is the story of Jesus.

It's not mainly about us.

This is the good news of Jesus,

the way that it unfolded in real time in history,

generations ago.

But there is still something here that relates to us,

if we're looking and listening closely.

Let's think again about that mindset that Jesus had.

That mindset not to seek glory or praise or honor from other people,

and instead to humble Himself,

and to obey God as every man should,

and seek for His Father, God,

to be glorified as every man should.

Paul tells us back in Philippians 2, verse 5.

Philippians 2:5

He says,

Have this mind in you,

which was also in Christ Jesus.

Or as some translations say,

Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,

who humbled Himself.

In other words,

we should have the same attitude

about getting glory for ourselves

from other people

as Jesus did.

This is one of those things that we do that isn't good.

In fact, it's ugly.

It's evil.

It's twisted.

We do or say things in order to get glory for ourselves,

to get the praise of other people,

to get their applause,

their approval,

their attention.

We do or say things to get them to like us,

to think of us highly.

Sometimes we might call this people-pleasing.

An example of people-pleasing,

you know, you're over-committed in your life,

you have lots of responsibilities,

and then someone comes along and says,

Hey, I really need you to do this for me.

Please, can you help me out with this?

And because you don't want them to think any less of you,

you want them to be happy with you,

even though you shouldn't say yes,

you say yes anyway.

You don't want them to be offended.

Other times we could call this the fear of man.

Those moments or those situations

where the right thing to do is to step up,

to take responsibility,

to speak up for what's right,

for what's true.

And instead, in that moment,

we're looking around the room

and we're more worried about what other people think,

and so we don't say anything.

Or we don't do what we know we should do.

The fear of man.

What are some other ways that we do this?

Perhaps it's with social media accounts.

Online, we're all too aware

that maybe hundreds of people

see everything that we post

or see every like that we do

on someone else's post.

What can I post on my social media

that can get me some likes

or some good comments?

We could put this into the sports realm.

There we might call it showboating

or showing off.

Leaving the team behind

and going for it all by yourself

with all your best moves

to get the goal.

Because we know that the one who gets the goal

gets most of the glory, right?

And all too often,

the players that worked hard

to set that person up

get overlooked.

Sometimes it's with our words

in conversation.

Jokes.

This is so common

in our world today.

I hear about this in the school

all the time.

People throwing other people

under the bus,

making jokes about them,

saying hurtful things

towards them

or about them

to make them look bad

just to get the laughter

and attention

of some of their other friends.

We may even

do this ourselves

a little bit.

Where we

talk about our,

the way we talk about ourselves,

we maybe

put ourselves down

when we talk to other people

and secretly

we're fishing

for some compliment,

for some affirmation,

for some praise.

Hey honey,

guess what?

While you were out,

I did the dishes.

Ain't I great?

Whatever you call it,

however it comes out,

it all stems back to pride,

to this desire

to be exalted

or loved

or thought highly of

in the eyes of others.

And so we say

or do

or we don't say

or we don't do

whatever will put us

in that place

in people's thoughts

that we want to be.

but Jesus

shows us

a completely

different way,

a completely

different mindset.

He shows us

how a real

righteous man

should live

and think.

We are not

to seek

our own glory

from others.

So how do we do this?

How do we stop

ourselves

from being

people pleasers?

from seeking

glory and praise

from others?

What's the solution here?

Inevitably,

whenever this whole

discussion of

people pleasing

comes up,

there's often

one person

who is almost

ready to just

stick up their hand

and say,

I'm not a people pleaser.

I don't care

what anybody thinks

about what I say

or do

and I'm not afraid

to let you know it.

Is that the solution?

Instead of

seeking glory

and praise

from others

to just have

a mindset,

well,

who cares

what everyone

else thinks?

I don't think

that's the right

attitude either.

A lot of times

people with this

attitude

can be rude

or obnoxious.

They can be

insensitive,

needlessly

offending people

with their words

and their actions.

it's almost

like a pride

in the opposite

direction.

Almost like

you're setting

yourself up

on a pedestal

above others.

I don't care

what you guys

think about me.

What you think

isn't important.

Looking down

on them,

that's not right

either.

And I don't

think it's,

the way to do

this is to

analyze every

one of our

thoughts,

every one of

our behaviors

and check

before we do

it or say

it,

am I doing

this for me?

Am I doing

this for God?

I think

instead,

we need to

follow the

example of

Christ

and we need

to focus

not on

ourselves

but on

the one

that we

want to

see

praised

and glorified.

How does

Jesus do

it?

Let's see

two ways

that Jesus

shows us

that we

should not

seek our

own glory

glory,

but instead

seek the

glory of

God.

The first,

he tells us

that we

should seek

glory from

God.

And the

second,

that we

should seek

glory for

God.

Two different

ways.

We're going to

look at both

of them.

We'll start

with the

first one.

What does

it mean for

us to seek

glory from

God?

That's the

mindset Jesus

had.

He's not

looking for

glory for

himself.

Instead,

he is

looking for

the glory

that comes

from God,

for God

to glorify

him.

What does

that mean?

What does

that look

like?

John

John 5:44

chapter 5,

verse 44.

This was

last time

with the

Pharisees.

Do you

remember what

Jesus said

to them?

He said,

how can

you believe

when you

receive glory

from one

another,

and you

do not

seek the

glory that

is from

the one

and only

God?

One of

the problems

with the

religious leaders

is that they

are living

for the

praise and

honor and

glory of

one another.

And you

probably know

those passages

where Jesus

calls them out

on that in

some very

specific ways.

The way

that you

pray,

the way

that you

fast,

the way

that you

give of

your money,

your offerings,

all of

that you

do in

public to

get the

attention of

other people,

to win

praise,

to win

glory for

yourself.

And it's

wrong.

Jesus says

that instead

they should

be seeking

the glory

that comes

from God.

I don't

think Jesus

is talking

about seeking

glory from

God in

some kind

of twisted

way,

as in

looking for

God to

worship.

us.

No.

I think

Jesus means

that we

are to

humble

ourselves

before

God,

to serve

him,

to obey

him,

and to

seek the

reward and

blessing that

he has

promised for

doing so.

To seek

his approval,

his

affirmation,

his

commendation.

You probably

all know the

parable of the

talents,

where the

servants were

each entrusted

with a

sum of

money.

What do

those faithful

servants hear

from their

master when

the master

returns?

Well done,

good and

faithful servant.

He commends

them.

He praises

them.

He honors

them.

He lifts

them up in the

sight of others

to new heights

of responsibility.

humility.

I think that's

a picture of

what Jesus is

talking about

here.

What it means

to seek the

glory that is

from God.

Are you

living for

the well done

of other

people?

Or are you

living for the

well done of

God?

One of the

things that we

hear time and

time again

throughout the

scriptures is

that God is a

God who

humbles the

proud and

exalts the

humble.

He's a God

who turns the

spotlight off of

the proud and

takes the ground

out from under

them, the thing

that they're

standing on and

boasting in,

and instead turns

the spotlight onto

the humble and

highlights them for

others to see.

The apostle Peter

picks up on this

in his letter.

He says,

all of you,

clothe yourselves

with humility

toward one

another because

God opposes the

proud but gives

favor or grace

to the humble.

Humble yourselves,

says Peter.

Humble yourselves,

therefore, under

God's mighty

hand that he

may lift you up

in due time.

This is what it

means to seek

glory from God

and not from

other people.

It means to

humble yourself

before God,

to bow the

knee to him,

to submit to

him, to obey

him, to consider

yourself as you

should before him

and allow God at

the appropriate

time to lift you

up and honor you

and give you the

reward that you

are due.

This was Jesus'

mindset.

He didn't seek

glory for himself

from people.

He sought his

glory from God.

God.

And this should be

our mindset as

well.

The second way

that Jesus teaches

us to seek the

glory of God is a

little different.

He teaches us not

to seek glory or

praise for ourselves

but instead to seek

glory or praise for

God.

And if we look back

to all that Jesus

taught, we can see

how he did this for

his disciples as

well.

We'll just give

one example.

In the prayer that

Jesus taught his

disciples to pray, he

taught them to seek

the glory of the

Father.

He said, this then is

how you should pray.

Pray like this.

Our Father in

heaven, hallowed be

your name.

Not hallowed and

respected and

revered and honored

be my name.

No.

Pray, hallowed be

your name, God.

May you be glorified.

That's the heart that

he taught his

disciples to have.

What we do and

say should be to

make much of God

and not much of

ourselves.

God.

I encourage you to

think of this past

week.

Have you been living

to make much of

God?

Or have you been

living to make much

of yourself?

In your

conversations with

other people, were

you speaking to make

much of God?

Or were you

speaking to make

much of yourself?

Maybe even in a

false humility

kind of way.

How can we live

to make much of

God if we are too

busy living to

make much of

ourselves?

They're at odds

with each other.

So Jesus gives us

this example of how

we should live.

We should not

seek glory or

praise or honor

from other people.

instead, we

should do as

Jesus did and

seek glory and

praise for God.

And any glory or

praise that we do

seek for ourselves

should be the

glory that comes

from God, that

well done, good

and faithful

servant.

Finally, I want

to come back to

what I said

earlier about this

story not mainly

being about us.

I hope that we

can take a lesson

here from Jesus

about how we

should live, what

our mindset should

be.

I hope that all

of us will go

into this week and

take some time to

pray and ask the

Lord, what kind

of habits or

things am I doing

or saying to get

glory from other

people?

The truth is we

all do this in

many ways, whether

we realize it or

not.

It's just part of

the subtle and

pervasive taint of

sin that is in

all of us.

But this is the

gospel.

This is the good

news of Jesus.

And the good

news for people

pleasers like you

and me is that

there is one who

did not live to

please himself.

the good news for

self-centered glory

seekers like you

and me is that

there is one who

did not live to

seek his own

glory but in

every way humbled

himself and

sought the glory of

God and God

alone.

And because he

did, he was able

to make atonement

for our sins.

He was able to

secure forgiveness

for us, for all

of our proud and

self-centered glory

seeking, all of our

people pleasing.

He was able to

bear the punishment

we deserve for all

of it and wipe the

slate clean.

Not only that, but

he was able to

transfer the reward

and the blessing

that only comes to

those who live

righteously and

humbly.

He was able to

transfer that reward

to us who believe.

And he did this.

He accomplished

this by taking

upon himself the

humiliation and

shame that is

really ours.

For all of the

proud and self-centered

glory seeking that

we have done at

the cross.

grace.

Isn't that amazing?

Isn't that

gracious?

So seek the

glory for God.

Seek the glory that

comes from God.

But rest and

rejoice in the

wonderful news that

for all of our

times that we've

failed to do those

two things.

Jesus has done

what was needed

to turn the

punishment that we

deserve away from

us and to secure

the blessing and

the reward that we

did not deserve for

us.

Praise be to God.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus we are

not worthy to

stand in your

presence.

Thank you that you

have loved us with

such an amazing

love that you

humbled yourself

as you did.

You are worthy of

all the glory all

the praise and we

choose not to wait

until the end to

bow before you

but we bow before

you now and we

worship you.

We pray and ask

that you would

cleanse our hearts

of all sin,

all pride,

all arrogance,

all self-righteousness

and that you would

teach us to walk

humbly with you

day after day.

We ask this in your

name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

compensated by

the

name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.