Who do you please?    Many times in our lives we set out to please someone.  Some people are a mental,  or physical wreck because they try so hard to please some one.    I want to look at this thought from the text,  and learn we can:

1. You Can Seek To . . Please Man.

2. You Can Seek To . . Please God.

3. You Can Seek To . . Let God Please You.
 
 
 

A.    Paul Sought to Please God By being a . . Bond-Servant. v 10
10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. 

The word translated please.
700 aresko (ar-es'-ko); probably from 142 (through the idea of exciting emotion); to be agreeable (or by implication, to seek to be so):

142 airo (ah'-ee-ro); a primary root; to lift up; by implication, to take up or away; figuratively, to raise (the voice), keep in suspense (the mind), specially, to sail away (i.e. weigh anchor); by Hebraism [compare 5375] to expiate sin: KJV-- away with, bear (up), carry, lift up, loose, make to doubt, put away, remove, take (away, up).
 

B.  Paul Sought to Please God By being a . . Biblical Servant. v 11-12
11 For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.    12  For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 
 
ILLUSTRATION
The author Oscar Wilde was one who paid scant attention to his spiritual life. William Barclay quotes Wilde's confession:

The gods have given me almost everything. But I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease.... Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search for new sensation. What the paradox was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became to me in the sphere of passion. I grew careless of the lives of others.

I took pleasure where it pleased me, and passed on. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber, one has some day to cry aloud from the house- top. I ceased to be lord over myself. I was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace.
 
APPLICATION

That story relates to many people because they did not set out to please God with their life.

WHO DO YOU PLEASE

1. You Can Seek To . . Please God.
 
 

A.    Paul Sought to Please Man By . . Persecuting the Church. v 13
13 For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it;
 

B.    Paul Sought to Please Man By . . Practicing the Traditions of Men. v 14
14 and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. 

 
ILLUSTRATION
There is no slave like the man free to do as he pleases because what he pleases is self-destructive. A California psychiatrist recently complained that four out of every ten teenagers and young adults who visited his medical center have a psychological sickness he can do nothing about.

According to the Los Angeles Times it is simply this: "Each of them demands that his world conform to his uncontrolled desires. Society has provided him with so many escape routes that he never has to stand his ground against disappointment, postponement of pleasure and the weight of responsibility -- all forces which shape character." The psychiatrist adds, "If the personality disorder persists far into adulthood there will be a society of pleasure-driven people hopelessly insecure and dependent."
 
APPLICATION

The story certainly illustrates a sad picture of those who seek to please them self.

WHO DO YOU PLEASE

2. You Can Seek To . . Please Man.
 
 

A.    Paul Received the Pleasing of God In . . Revelation. v 15 - 16 a
15 But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb, and called me through His grace, was pleased    16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, . . . "
 

This word translated "pleased"

2106 eudokeo (yoo-dok-eh'-o); from 2095 and 1380; to think well of, i.e. approve (an act); specially, to approbate (a person or thing): KJV-- think good, (be well) please (-d), be the good (have, take) pleasure, be willing.

2095 eu (yoo); neuter of a primary eus (good); (adverbially) well: KJV-- good, well

1380 dokeo (dok-eh'-o);
a prolonged form of a primary verb, doko (dok'-o) (used only in an alternate in certain tenses; compare the base of 1166) of the same meaning; to think; by implication, to seem (truthfully or uncertainly): KJV-- be accounted, (of own) please (-ure), be of reputation, seem (good), suppose, think, trow.

1166 deiknuo (dike-noo'-o); a prolonged form of an obsolete primary of the same meaning; to show KJV-- shew.

        1.    God Please Paul Revealing His Son and Granting . . Salvation

        2.    God Please Paul Revealing His Son and Granting . . Service.
 

B.     Paul Received the Pleasing of God In . . Retreats. v 16 b - 17 a
". . . I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood,    17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.

        1.    Some can not find agreement in this statement and the account in Acts.
                a.    It is compatible and several conservative scholars have written on it.

 
C.      Paul Received the Pleasing of God In . . Returning. v 17 b
        ". . . and returned once more to Damascus.

 
ILLUSTRATION
A father and Mother wanted to buy their son a brand new Mustang Convertible. Dad and Mom wanted to give this gift to their son as a graduation present and to have a car to take to college.

They also wanted him to read a book about Christian values so they placed a check for the car in the book and told their Son when you read this book you will be greatly surprised with the contents. Ever so often they asked have you read the book. They only got a grunt. They parents were eager to give to this young man but they also wanted to educate him. They had some requirements for the blessings.

The young man finally trudged through the book a few weeks before time to leave for college. One night his parents heard him scream and come running down the stairs. He found the check. Dad, Mom, and son were all very happy. Dad said son this could have been a reality in your life several weeks ago, We wanted you to have the pleasure if this car but we also wanted to share some Biblical truth with you.
 

WHO DO YOU PLEASE

1. You Can Seek To . . Please Man.

2. You Can Seek To . . Please God.

3.  You Can Received the . .  Pleasing of God.