Pleasing People or Pleasing God?

One of the best lines in the movie "Speed" comes from Dennis Hopper who plays the antagonist of the film. He is an expert with explosives and creates bombs throughout the city. He gives Keanu Reeves, the protagonist, the hero, hypothetical's about how he would respond to different situations of how to handle a bomb situation...he essentially challenges Keanu and says:

"What do you do?"

What do you do?

Allow me to give you some hypothetical's:

1. You are in a circle of friends or colleagues and they are gossiping about someone across the room. You can laugh along with them and degrade the person, or you can call them out and make them aware of what they are doing, or you could also simply leave the room and choose not to be a part of that trash....What do you do?

2. You are at a crossroads of a BIG decision and you know the right thing to do, but you are tempted not to offend anyone. You know what to do and what will please God, but you are tempted to please people instead of pleasing God...What do you do?

3. You have been offered a joint at an office party, everybody else is getting high. What do you do?

Pre-Choices
I will tell you one way to give you a head start on situations like the aforementioned. It's called a "Pre-Choice." You must make the decision ahead of time that you will please God instead of pleasing people. You must choose ahead of time whom you serve: God or people...

"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15 (NIV)

No Limits
I want you to meditate on the following excerpt from "Pre-Choices," part 3 of the series, "Choices," by Mark Batterson of National Community Church.

But Daniel makes a choice. He would rather offend the king than offend God. I’m not sure what situations and scenarios you’ll find yourself in, but here is what I do know: God rarely uses a person whose main concern is what other people think. But there is no limit to the way God can use someone who refuses to offend God even if it offends others.

Bottom Line: You are going to serve someone or something. You are going to please someone or something. God or people....What do you do?