Whose Approval? Series

"Whose Approval Are You Living For?"

CCCAG 4-23-24

Scripture: Galatians 1:10-23

Introduction:

Nursing school we spent the first year taking a lot of prerequisite classes so that we had a foundation for all the rest of the nursing classes. In several of those classes we talked about psychology and human development through the lifespan.

One of the theories that I found particularly fascinating was from a man named Eric Erickson who had a theory about the stages of psychosocial development. These stages go from birth all the way to death. I'm not going to bore you with all of them but the last one deals with people that are fully mature and can look back on their lives with a great deal of insight.

Erickson called this stage “integrity versus despair”, and essentially what it means is toward the end of your life you start to gain more and more insight into how you have lived your life. You either look back with fondness or satisfaction of how you've lived your life- that's the integrity or you look back and see nothing but ruin and that's where the despair comes in.

As I look back on how my life has unfolded, I see the hand of God moving me over obstacles, making course corrections when I get off of his plan, and even using my failures, even huge failures, to further mature me in the faith. According to Erickson, if you are able to do this that gives you wisdom and a sense of peace as you approach your later years.

Why does that matter for us this morning?

One of the keys to striving to live a life that pleases God is to recognize that He will use good times and bad times, successes and failures, and good and evil people to accomplish His will in your life.

Yes, even the bad times. In fact, I’d say especially the hard times.

I know most of us want the prayer of Jabez kind of life. The prayer of Jabez was a Christian fad back in the early 2000’s that was a based from a single bible verse from 1 Chron 4 that essentially said Lord keep me from evil and make me rich.

The problem with that in our spiritual life is this-

Just like physical muscles don't grow without resistance neither do spiritual muscles.

And we need spiritual muscles to survive and thrive today and for what is coming

As we think about our lives today, perhaps instead of always trying to get out of a bad situation, ask God what he's trying to teach you in this situation. It’s like trying to learn advanced math- it takes a few times to work the problem before you get proficient in finding the correct answer. When you are in total brain lock and frustrated, a good teacher will encourage you to try, and try again until you get it right.

AND, they won’t let you advance until you get what you need to learn right.

And God is a great teacher and won’t let you give up when the going gets tough. He wants to deliver you from all evil, but there may be a purpose for this evil in your life that HE is going to use to elevate you somehow. God will use good and bad to root out those things in our lives that are like anchors holding us in place when he has a much better future or destiny for you.

As we continue in our study of the book of Galatians today, we are going to see this exact principle work its way out in the apostle Paul's life, and by studying it in his life I invite you to use insight and look back into your own life and see how God has used the good, and the bad to bring you to where you are right now.

Scripture

Gal 1:10-23 For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. (11) For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. (12) For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ.

(13) For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it. (14) I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. (15) But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased (16) to reveal his Son in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone. (17) I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus. (18) Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days. (19) But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. (20) I declare in the sight of God: I am not lying in what I write to you. (21) Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. (22) I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches that are in Christ. (23) They simply kept hearing, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.”