{"id":69670,"date":"2025-11-11T13:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T18:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=69670"},"modified":"2025-11-11T13:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T18:20:15","slug":"robby-gallaty-seek-the-approval-of-god-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/robby-gallaty-seek-the-approval-of-god-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Robby Gallaty: Seek the approval of God alone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Gallaty called ministers, leaders and their spouses to lay down their pursuit of human applause and return to seeking the approval of God alone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ORLANDO\u2014 Robby Gallaty, pastor of Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee, delivered a sobering message at the 2025 Florida Baptist State Convention annual meeting in Orlando titled Audience of One. Gallaty called ministers, leaders and their spouses to lay down their pursuit of human applause and return to seeking the approval of God alone.<\/p>\n

He began with a piercing question: \u201cAs a pastor, minister. or minister\u2019s wife, are you seeking the approval of God or the applause of man?\u201d Using the story of a young pianist who refused to take a bow until his teacher stood in approval, Gallaty illustrated that ministry must be lived for an audience of one.<\/p>\n

Reading from Hebrews 11:5\u20136, he noted that Enoch \u201cwas approved as one who pleased God,\u201d not his congregation, colleagues or community. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t say he pleased his spouse, his boss, or his deacons,\u201d Gallaty said. \u201cHe pleased God.\u201d<\/p>\n

From that foundation, Gallaty outlined three major truths about living to please God.<\/p>\n

First, he said \u201cYou can\u2019t please God and fear man at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drawing from Proverbs 29:25, Gallaty warned that the fear of man is a trap that silences pastors and tempts them to compromise. \u201cMany of us know the voice of Instagram, Facebook, CNN, and NBC, but we don\u2019t know the voice of God,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Recounting the story of evangelist Manley Beasley, Gallaty reminded pastors of the importance of getting alone with God. \u201cHe would take his Bible and a jug of water and say, \u2018I\u2019m going to the woods until I get a word from God,\u2019\u201d Gallaty shared. \u201cPastor, when was the last time you got a word from God?\u201d<\/p>\n

Next, Gallaty told Florida Baptists, \u201cYou can\u2019t please God and promote self at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quoting Matthew 6:1, Gallaty warned against self-promotion in ministry. \u201cI\u2019m a recovering self-promoter,\u201d he admitted. \u201cThere\u2019s a fine line between glorifying God and glorifying self.\u201d He reflected on his own climb up the denominational ladder and how God humbled him before pride took root. \u201cThe higher you climb that ladder, there\u2019s no graceful way down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gallaty cautioned against allowing charisma to outshine character and giftedness to outpace godliness. \u201cDon\u2019t let fanfare overshadow faithfulness,\u201d he said, lamenting, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of boasting of self online today and little brokenness over sin.\u201d He challenged pastors to stop doing ministry for Jesus and start doing ministry with Jesus, warning, \u201cThe Bible has become a tool to use, not a treasure to behold.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his third and last point, Gallaty said, \u201cYou please God by faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using Exodus 17:10\u201313, Gallaty explained that the Hebrew word emunah<\/em> for faith also means perseverance or steadiness. \u201cDon\u2019t think of faith as something we do one time. We are continually putting faith in Jesus\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Closing his message, Gallaty shared how God used a season of silence and solitude to awaken him personally and spark revival at Long Hollow. \u201cAs I sat in silence before God, I asked Him to fix my church, my staff, my deacons, but God showed me the problem was me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In just 15 weeks, more than 1,000 people were baptized in a move of God\u2019s Spirit that began with repentance and stillness. \u201cEvery great movement of God begins by not moving,\u201d Gallaty said.<\/p>\n

He ended with an altar call of humility: \u201cCome forward and repent \u2026 for seeking the approval of men, for speaking critically of others, for living for applause. Let\u2019s return to living for an audience of one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO\u2014 Robby Gallaty, pastor of Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee, delivered a sobering message at the 2025 Florida Baptist State Convention annual meeting in Orlando titled Audience of One. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":69673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2894,38,2617,19,45,25],"tags":[1058,2972,1588],"class_list":["post-69670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-annual-meeting","category-annual-meeting","category-featured","category-news","category-statewide","category-stories","tag-fbsc25","tag-long-hollow-church-in-hendersonville","tag-robby-gallaty"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69674,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69670\/revisions\/69674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}