Carol was a people-pleaser? She lived to make other people happy. Her whole life was dominated with questions like: “How can I make my boss happy?” or “How can I make my parents happy?” or “How can I make my husband happy?” or “How can I make my kids happy?” Does that sound familiar to you? It’s a hamster wheel, isn’t it? And you can’t get off it.

Whether Carol ever succeeded in making everyone or anyone else happy, she was certainly not happy herself. Why was that? Carol’s people-pleasing:

  • Produced sin by making her say/do wrong things, and not say/do right things.
  • Required mind-reading as she tried to guess what might make others happy.
  • Was draining because she exhausted herself trying to please everyone.
  • Made her angry at her inevitable failures.

People-pleasing is miserable and impossible. Some of you know this but, like Carol, you don’t know how to change. With God’s help, though, you can change to become a happy God-pleaser. We can discover what a God-pleaser is in Colossians 1:9-14.

For more, see my sermon notes from my second sermon in the Colossians series entitled Complete in Christ (download pdf here).  Scroll down a bit further and you’ll find a one-page sermon summary infographic.  Index to other Colossians sermons here.

Sermon Notes

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Sermon Infographic

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Complete in Christ Series

Worldly Pessimism or Heavenly Hope
From People Pleasing to God-Pleasing

Wisdom University Series

Too Much Information
Peers v Parents