The Hunger For Approval Series

Living the Good Life

Jesus came for one purpose

John 10:10b

“…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Learning about Living the Good Life

Finding the Source of Significance – John 1:1-13

Satisfying the Hunger for Approval – John 1:14-34

Discovering Your Purpose for Being – John 1:35-50

Understanding the Root of Happiness – John 2:1-11

Focusing on the Valuable – John 2:12-25

The Hunger for Approval

We all hunger for approval

We want to be noticed, appreciated, respected, and loved. We want it from our peers and our parents. We especially want this approval from our father.

When it is withheld it creates a huge vacuum in our center – the place inside us that aches for a kind word, a gentle smile, or a pleased look.

When this is absent it creates in us a drive for a substitute. In young girls the absence of this approval from a loving father can result in a search for love from others – sometimes in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways. In boys this absence of approval can lead to anger. It often helps to create a person who is driven to succeed no matter the cost.

When we get older and our parents are gone we find ourselves still hungry, seeking approval, wanting affirmation, loving the applause, thirsty for acceptance.

All of this, and more, because we hunger for the approval of a loving parent.

Approval is not a bad thing to hunger for

Imperfect people

Unfortunately, We live in imperfect world with imperfect people. There are lots of abnormal people out there and many of them are parents.

The problem for many is that we are seeking approval from people who are incapable of giving it.

They aren’t normal. They are irregular people who have been damaged by life. They are like cells in a body that have had a neutron radiated through it destroying chromosomes, breaking down DNA, and mutilating genes. The result is an emotional Quasimodo.

The truth is they aren’t normal and neither are you. There are no normal people. We have all been damaged by life. Of course there are some who are more not normal than others

Our Informed Youth

SAN JOSE -- With his mother holding his hand, a 20-year-old Marine reservist declared himself a conscientious objector, saying he didn’t realize the implications of signing up and accepting pay as a reserve serviceman. "They don’t really advertise that they kill people," he said.

Management Strategy

FREMONT, Calif. -- Two men who met at an anger-management class got into a brawl that killed a chicken and trashed a van while working on a home-improvement project together.

Bling Bling

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- A Brazilian woman with the most body piercings in the world -- said to number 1,903 -- says she still hopes to achieve 2,000 piercings even though she now dangles so much jewelry she fears being mugged for it. "I love pain," she said.

Unkind Cut

ELMIRA, N.Y. -- A man shot a next-door neighbor for mowing his lawn too often.

No one is really normal

So… How can we ever get the approval we seek? Yes, but you have to go to the one who can give it.

God Satisfies the Hunger for Approval

This is where Jesus got the approval that gave him the stability and strength to do what His father sent him here to do – die for our sins.

This is where we receive our approval and this is what brings the peace into our centers and allows us to rest in God’s approval.

So how do we satisfy the hunger for approval? Simple…

Let’s begin by reading from John 1:14

John 1:14-17 (NIV)

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,d who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” 16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 1:32-34 (NIV)

32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”