Who's Your Audience Series

AND MGCC - this is the kind of freedom that the apostle Paul described in 1 Corinthians 4…

NOW – Paul in this letter is addressing (among many other things) the fact that a bunch of people had come into the church and were saying negative things about Paul, challenging His leadership and authority.

it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. . . .

It is the Lord who judges me. – 1 Corinthians 4:4

I love it… Paul considered it “a very small thing” to be judged by other people… NOW – Paul didn’t say that it meant nothing… LIKE – what other people thought still mattered to Paul — but it didn’t matter too much.

IN OTHER WORDS – negative opinions and criticism could no longer rock his boat. BECAUSE – both his balance and his sense of well-being rested on acceptance from a higher court:

“It is the Lord who judges me.”

“It is the Lord, who is my primary audience.”

MGCC…

• Imagine receiving criticism or judgment as “a very small thing.”

• Imagine being set free from the need to impress anyone.

• Imagine your sense of esteem no longer resting on whether someone notices how smart, or attractive, or successful you are.

• Imagine being able to actually feel love toward someone who expresses disapproval of you.

UNDERSTAND - as approval addicts we are always at the mercy of others’ opinions. Like the old preacher’s story I came across this week, He writes…

“I was leaving my last church, and a woman at the farewell reception was weeping. ‘Don’t be sad,’ I said, ‘I’m sure the next pastor will be better than me.’

‘That’s what they said last time,’ she cried, ‘but they keep getting worse.’”

UNDERSTAND - the primary symptom of ‘Approval Addiction,’ is the tendency to confuse our performance in some aspect of life with our worth as a person.

The result is that we seek a kind of approval from people that can satisfy, only when it comes, from God.

AND LISTEN - Paul speaks to this addiction in a clear and powerful way, when he writes the following to the church at Galatia:

Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. – Galatians 1:10

QUESTION…

• Who’s approval was Paul seeking?

• Who was Paul living to please?

• Who was Paul’s audience?

NOW – unfortunately not everyone lived that same way.

IN FACT – in John 12 we encounter some religious leaders who had a severe case of approval addiction.

Many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human praise more than praise from God. – John 12:42,43

QUESTION…

• Whose praise do you, love more?

• Whose approval do you, seek more?

AGAIN - I know what this drug of approval tastes like, and I know how it feels when it gets withheld.

I MEAN – often when I stand up here (like today, speaking for God, even talking about a topic like this)

I can hear my own voice in my head asking… wondering,