The Church of Eleven22 - Comparison Kills: Be Free - Wk 3

Episode Date: April 21, 2024

If you could see you the way God sees you, you would stop playing the comparison game the world is playing. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen and amen. How are we doing, church? Good. You look great. If you got your Bibles, hope you do, Galatians chapter 1. We are going to study one verse for our time together today. Just one verse. You need your Bibles.

You need to look at this. It's Galatians 1.10. I want to read it. Tell you something about it. It says this, For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man,

I would not be a servant of Christ. I want to tell you about the goodness of God and His sovereignty in my life just this past week. You see, this message is only for people who care too much about what other people think about them. Anybody do that? Anybody care too much, okay? So it's those of us with our hands up

and then the liar sitting next to us, all right? So I told you last week that this past week, I had the opportunity to speak at an Act 29 conference. That's the network of churches that we belong to and have belonged to for a long time. and I get invited to speak at all the things because of you, because of you. When you have a big church, they invite you to speak all the things. And I'm going to be honest.

It's fine. My favorite place to preach is here with you. I don't love to preach the pastors because you show up like eager and leaning in. Pastors come up full of ego, insecurity, and every time I start to talk, they're like, I could do this way better. Why does he get to be the speaker? You know what I mean? So it's fine.

But the reason that I was a little bit kind of torn up about this one this week, there were some ballers there, no doubt. like Brian Larritz was there, Matt Chandler is there, but that's fine. They're my buddy, so I don't care what they think. But, well, I mean, sort of, but I got the opportunity to share a stage with, eat dinner with, and meet Dr. John Piper. Mm-hmm, yeah. The front-road people know who I'm talking about. For those of you that don't know Dr. John Piper, you should get into it, all right? He probably preached the most influential sermon in, for today's church in like 1999-2000.

It's the one where he wrote a book on it called Don't Waste Your Life. There's a bunch of us that heard that sermon, and it changed how we do everything. And I mean, when I began to think, oh, my gosh, what is Dr. Piper going to think about me? He has entire books of the Bible memorized when he quotes people. You know, he quotes like Spurgeon and those kind of guys. And I get it. I sound like Larry the Cable guy that got baptized. I said, I get it, okay?

Which works good in Jacksonville, but a preacher's conference will see. And I got to meet him for dinner, and I shook his hand, and I held on way too long. I was hoping it would just get some on me, like when Elijah passes the anointing to Elijah. So we'll see. All right. And in the goodness and sovereignty of our good, good heavenly father, the verse that I'm marinating in all week long, listen, I plan out the sermons a year in advance.

So this time last year, I'm thinking, this is going to be the year of eternal life. So we're going to study Galatians because Galatians is like many Romans. Galatians is all about. all about the gospel. It's what the gospel is, it's what the gospel isn't, and it's about the freedom that we get from the gospel. It's what the whole book is. And in God's goodness, while I'm worried about what this 78-year-old pastor thinks about my sermon, what's the verse that I get to just sit in all week long? For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Ain't he good? Come on, ain't he good? Like, what is wrong with us?

that we are such people pleasers? What is wrong with us that we are constantly trying to seek the approval of man? Do you know what? The whole point of Galatians is that the result of the gospel in the Christian's life is freedom. That we're supposed to be the freest people on the planet. You think if you were asked your average man on the street, what's a word that comes to mind when I say Christian? You think that we go, freedom?

No, they might say, front. or frustrated or many F words they would use to describe us. But freedom, and it is for freedom, is that Christ has set us free. For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God, or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. I keep one verse on my desk. Back when we were a service at Beach Church, we went through the book of Galatians, and we printed out these cards to memorize verses.

And back then I used to preach out of the NIV. 84. It's what I remember as most of the Bible verses I know in that one. And it says it this way in the NIV. It says, am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. I keep this right next to my computer. So when the haters send me emails, and I want to fight back so bad. I'm a fighter by nature. I like it. I like it. Sometimes when I would fight back in the day, I'd take a couple just to get the blood flowing good. You know what I mean? and I want to come back with so much, and then I have to look at this and think,

why does this email bother me? Why? Am I now trying to win the approval of man or of God? So think about it in your life, at work. Are you trying to win the approval of man or God? At home with your family, online? Because here's the reality, man. One of the lessons I learned from COVID, the list is long.

but one of the lessons that I learned from COVID is, especially if you lead a thing, no matter what you do, no matter what you decide, no matter what you say, it's all going to be three little bears. For some people, they're going to go, that's too much. And for some people, go, that's not enough. And then there's going to be a bunch of people to go, now that's about right. You should probably forget about the not enough and the too much people and just ride or die with the people that say, that's about right, and just be obedient to what God calls you

to do and live in that kind of freedom. So when I get an email about all the things I should do better, which, let's be honest, The list is very long. You have plenty of material to work on if you're looking for those things, where I fall short. Then I have to ask myself this question, am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? In the ESD, it starts this way, for, this is what he says, for am I now seeking the approval of man. You've got to pay attention to conjunctions in the Bible.

This is not just an arbitrary statement about popularity. He's connecting it to the ideas that came before this. And if you'll remember last week, which I know you took many notes and you'll be like, oh, we could give you the whole sermon back. I know you can. But just in case you missed it, remember, he says some pretty strong language. Remember, he preached the gospel. The salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

And if you try to add anything to this because a group of people from Jerusalem called the Judaizers were coming in and saying faith in Jesus is enough, it's faith in Jesus plus religious activity equals salvation and he says you're distorting the gospel and anyone who distorts the gospel may they be a cursed anathema damned to hell now here's and if you brought your kids just explain it later okay so and here's the thing these things were read in church and you show up and they're hey we got a letter from paul well how he how's he doing Not good. He says that if you distort the gospel, may you be damned to hell. And they're like, you hurt my feelings.

And Paul's like, yeah, I probably did. I probably did. But my language may be offensive because I love you so much is what he's saying. I love you enough to hurt you. Like anybody that's parented a kid and only told them yes. Have you met those kids? They're not awesome. they grow up into even worse adults,

that parents that just pacify their children instead of parent their children, it ain't good. And so Paul is like, listen, it's worth offending you if it saves you. So I'm not going to say the easy thing.

I'm going to say the true thing. And if you truly love some people, sometimes you've got to say the hard thing. And listen, man, we live in a culture today right now where everybody's just walking around waiting to be offended any moment. I mean, it's just a culture of victimhood and offense. And here's the problem when everybody claims to be a victim.

The problem is, is there actually people that are being victimized and their voice is muted. If everybody's a victim, nobody's a victim. And we are creating these little pockets in our culture called colleges and universities where the goal is a safe space, so you never have to bump up against anything that you disagree with because you're offended and you're hurt or you're triggered. And so we know that these people are utterly ill-prepared to actually live life in a place where you're going to bump up against people

that don't think like you think. It's dangerous, man. And it's very dangerous. And sometimes, oftentimes, the most loving thing you could do is say very hard things to people. And that's why he's doing it. And I need you to know this.

know I can be a little aggressive at times, okay? Imagine living with me. Okay, so, but I do this for you, man. I'm not saying I do it perfectly whatsoever, but it would freak you out the amount of time I spend in prayer and Bible study to try to deliver you God's word. I pray this every tomorrow morning. It's turkey season right now, so I won't be in a stand, I'll be on the ground trying to get a turkey to go to heaven. And so, and I pray this every time. God, they're your sheep. they're not my sheep. You are the chief shepherd senior pastor of the church of 1122. I'm an under shepherd. I work for you. What do you want to say to your people? That's what I do. And I pray and pray and pray to try to deliver the right message from the scriptures because you do not exist

for my ministry. I exist to serve you in this ministry. It's fundamentally different. The sheep don't exist for the shepherd. The shepherd exists to serve the sheep. That's how this thing goes. And do I care what you think? I wish I could say not at all, but I do. And I need to say this. You're the most encouraging group of people in the history of people. You are. You were so encouraging. And I need it. And I appreciate it. And the reason that I stand in the lobby and pray with people and talk to people or do whatever, whatever you want to do, the reason I do that is because God called me to be a shepherd, not a celebrity that just stands on stage and hides in a green room. That's not how it works. It's because, like, we're in this thing together. And I appreciate

encouragement. And here's the thing. If you ever feel like God is calling you to encourage somebody, just do it. You don't have to excuse it first. Sometimes people are like, well, I don't want to give you a big head, but I'm like, what? Did you know what the Bible never tells us that we're supposed to keep each other humble? You're supposed to humble yourself before the Lord? But it does tell us we're supposed to encourage one another as long as it's called today. And if you, if somebody encourages you, let me just tell you, just receive it. You don't have to Jesus, Duke everybody. Like, hey, you know, if you could find one of our

singers, and be like, wow, you really sounded great today. And they're like, well, it was for the Holy Spirit. Okay, well, he sounded better than Tammy last week. I was just trying to tell you good job. Like, just receive it, man. You can just say thank you. Just thank you for saying that. You don't even have to agree with them. But just receive it. But my job is to serve you. So one of the things that's happening in our world today is people are coming after preachers, and other Christians are,

especially. So not only do I study the word, I try to hear from the voice of God, I also study what a lot of other preachers have said about this text. And so if you ever hear a sermon and you're like, huh, that sounds like another sermon I've heard. Yeah, you probably have. Because my goal is not to be original, my goal is to be effective. That's it, because my job, I'm not trying to build a platform for me. I'm trying to serve you. So if you've heard a sermon that sounds like Matt Chandler or John Piper or Josh Howard and J.D. Greer or Matt Carter or Tim Keller or Ryan Kwan. It's because

I read it from them. And y'all don't know this, but a bunch of us, we just send our sermons to each other. In fact, I'm going to talk about the impact of social media. You know how much I know about social media? I got logged out of Twitter like three years ago and still can't get back in, okay? So, it's like a team of people that do that for me. It's great. Now, here's the thing. So I text my friend, Ben Stewart.

I'm like, dude, you're an expert at this. Can you send me some stuff? Here's why. is again, my goal is not to be original. My goal is to serve you. That's why I do what I do. And so Paul says, actually, H.B. Charles, last time he was here, you don't talk about a rock star preacher. Holy moly, he's so good.

And he said, most of the preachers I know are not drunk on compliments. They're starving for encouragement. So thank you. Thank you for the encouragement to me. Paul is saying, if I were seeking your approval, then I wouldn't say the hard stuff. I would say exactly what you want to hear. But I need you to know this.

I have pre-decided that when I stand before the Lord, you realize every single one of us will give an account one day. And we're not talking about salvation. Like if you put your faith in Jesus, then His righteousness is imputed to you and you get into heaven. But the Bible in the book of Revelation talks about multiple judgments, and every single one of us will give an account for what we say and do. That means I will give an account to the Lord.

Lord on every sermon that I've ever preached here. And here's a conversation I just refuse to have. I don't want God to look at me and be like, why'd you leave this part out? And me go, our culture didn't really want to hear that. I'm just going to do my best to do what he has told me to do. And you will give an account too. And let me tell you, that's probably not the time to try to blame somebody else for your own behavior. Belling, what's not my fault? I wasn't breastfed. I had to go to public school. I'd keep that to yourself. Okay? You and I, and I hope we're in line together. I hope we're close because I'm going to be like, I told you we're going to be here. You ain't got but one answer. The man on the middle cross said

I could come. That's your answer. Jesus is the reason I get to say in here. So listen, if you're going to be a believer, the Bible gives some serious warning. Jesus is like, all right, you want to follow in my footsteps? They hated me. They're going to hate you. So if you want everybody to like you, please don't be a Christian. Definitely don't be a preacher. Sell ice cream or something. But sometimes when you're faithfully following the word of God, you're going to have to say some things that people don't want to hear. Now listen, this is obviously, this isn't just like a preacher thing. This is a people thing. People thing. The point of the book of Galatians is because of the gospel, you and I are called to be free. And listen to this.

The fear of man's opinion is the enemy of walking in freedom. You will never be able to walk in freedom if you're consistently trying to win the approval of man. Do what other people think about you doesn't matter too much. You see, because what every single one of us do, every single day is instead of us just believing we are who God says we are, we look to our left and we look to our right

and we begin to compare ourselves to everybody around us. And I'm just telling you, comparison kills freedom. Comparison strangles contentment. It's bad, man. A part of the reason that comparison kills, the reason comparison is a trap is it's always a lose-lose proposition. When you compare yourself to anybody else, you can never win.

Because either you're beaten down with condemnation because you don't feel like you're living up to what everybody else has, or you're filled up with pride because you think you're better than somebody else. And both of those is a losing way to do life. We find ourselves envying upward and despising downward. and I'm telling you, and these things are killing us. They are, man. I mean, if the first thing you do in the morning is wake up and look at social media

instead of the scriptures, you're doing it wrong. If you're more concerned about posts and prayers, you're toast. You're absolutely toast. And so I've told you before, I encourage you to take your phone into your bedroom when you go to bed and throw it under your bed so that when you wake up in the morning, you've got to get down on your knees to go find it. And while you're there, I go, dear God, I need your head. Because the problem with comparison is we compare what we know about ourselves or what we don't know about people.

We compare our unfiltered life to everybody else's filtered life. You realize nobody could live up to their Instagram. Don't you realize this? I mean, listen, y'all, we live at the beach. You ever scroll through Instagram and see all those happy families on the beach? Have you ever seen a happy family at the beach ever one time ever? Now, when your kids finally get old enough and you don't have to mess with them, it's fine,

and if you're single, it's fine. But when you've got little kids at the beach, ain't nobody happy. It's the most miserable experience you've ever had in your life. It's just true, right? And we get all your Christmas cards with your khakis and your white shirt

and everybody's just like smiling. Ain't no smiling before that picture. You go rolling out on the beach, Timmy's all dressed up in his stuff, and he's like doing swan doves in the mud, and you're like, come here. Looks like he peed his pants. You're going to ruin everything.

Mom's just screaming. I ain't never seen a happy mom. at the beach, not one time ever. Part of the reason is because dad don't do nothing. He's sitting over there in his chair, listen to his podcast, drinking a beer. There you all quiet now and I'm busy over here. It's just terrible. And then what do you do? Right at the end, you know? And then our friends from Ohio are feeding the seagulls like a bunch of idiots. They're like, look at the end. You get everybody together and you rub the sandcrusted tears out of your son's eyes. Shut up. And everybody, smile. Three, two, one. Blessed life at the Jack's

beach. You liar. You're a liar is what you are. Then you look at it and you're like, why does everybody else have such a good time at the beach? They're not, man. And listen, I'm like the last of the feral kids, you know. I was born in the 70s, grew up in the 80s, rocked out in the 90s. We're the last feral children. Like we played outside. It's unbelievable. There's a whole outside out there. I don't know if you know this. We'd ride our bags. Ain't nobody had a helmet on on your bicycle? If they did, they were like in a BMX competition or they just wore it their whole life.

Well, all right, Timmy has a helmet. No problem. That's our guy. We love Timmy, but he just needs a helmet. No problem. Right? We drank out of the hose. Somebody asked me, why didn't you drink out of the faucet?

We weren't allowed inside, Cupcake. What are you talking about? No GPS trackers. And here's the thing. Even if you compared yourself, we just compared ourselves to the idiots and Dylan. Pretty small little pond, right? Now, because of things like Instagram,

people are comparing themselves to every other person in the world at all times. Like, you know what Bieber had for breakfast? This is ridiculous, man. And of course you're going to lose. You're going to lose. Because it's a lose-lose-lose proposition. And I'm telling you, these things are killing us.

And I mean this literally. I used to just kind of mean it metaphorically. Between 2006 and 2006. the suicide rate for those between ages 10 and 17 rose by 70%. This is pre-COVID, man. In that same time, the number of high school students who admitted having suicidal thoughts rose by 25% and the number of teens diagnosed with clinical depression

rose by 40%. And you say, well, what happened between 2006 and 2016? 2007, the iPhone came out. Social media was available before. it just wasn't in your pocket screaming for attention. And it's a snake. Every time you look on it, it's lying to you. And it's actually telling the same lie that the enemy

showed up with Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. Did God really say, like, did God really say that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, that your works are wonderful, and you know that full well? well then why don't you compare yourself to that person you're not all that do you see what a lie it is i mean this is real man those who spend more than two hours a day on social media are twice as likely to experience perceived social isolation it attacks us from both sides it robs us of solitude and fellowship because when you're alone with god you actually can't be alone because

the whole world has access to you and when you're with people you can't actually be with people because you won't stop looking at the screen. I'm telling you, if me and you were talking and you look at the screen, I just walk away. And if you got it on your watch, you better put it in your shoe when you hang out with me. I'm just telling you, man. If you spend more than 30 minutes a day on social media,

it significantly increases levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. The average American checks their smartphone almost 82,000 times a year. It's about every four minutes of our waking lives. And this is a social experiment, and the enemy is winning. The reality is we live in the most medicated, most therapeutic generation. So you would think that would equal the healthiest mental health ever. The opposite is true.

We have the most anxious, most depressed, most medicated generation ever. Why? Well, one of the reasons is because comparison kills. Comparison will rob you of freedom and strangle contentment. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus tells this parable. It's called the parable of the talents. The point of the parable is don't waste your life. That's a John Piper quote.

That's it. As you are preparing for the return of Christ, take whatever he has given you, and leverage it all for the kingdom of God. That's the point of the parable. But in the parable, Jesus says, it's like waiting on the return of Christ. It's like a master who's going on a long journey,

and he lines up three of his servants. And one guy, he gives five talents, one, two talents, one, one talent. Talent was a measure of money. today's dollar to be about like $5 million, $2 million and $1 million. The $1 million out of fear goes and hides it, and he has stern things to say about it. But the five-talent guy and the two-talent guy

just do with what they have exactly what they think will please the master. So the five-talent guy goes out, invested immediately, doubles his money, and when the master returns, two-talent guy does the same thing. When the master returns, the Bible says the five-talent guy is in his office to give an account. Why? Because he just doubled his master's money.

If you've ever been there, like your boss is on a trip and then you close the biggest deal in your company's history, guess who's in your boss's office when he gets back? You are. You've got like best boss ever mug and a paper, and you're like, hey, how was your vacay? Ask me about my week. Because you want to give an account.

And here's what the master does. He says, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master. Now here's who I think the hero is of the story. It's the two-talent guy. Because you know what the two-talent guy does? The two-talent guy spends zero time comparing himself to what the others had.

He didn't look down at the one-tallant guy, and he's like, well, I'm better than you. And he didn't look at the five-talent guy and go, that's not fair. That's not what he did. He just did with what the master had given him what he thought would bring the most glory to the master. And you know what the master does?

The master never compares him to anybody else. He only holds him accountable to himself. And so he gets the same reward as the five-talent guy. He says, and faithful servant, not fruitful. The fruitfulness is not your responsibility. That's up to God. Faithfulness is your responsibility.

And so he says, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a little, I will give you more, and he gives him the same reward. Now enter into the joy of your master. Do not spend your life trying to win the approval of man. Trying to compare yourself to what everybody else is doing. because Paul says, if I were still trying to win the approval of man, I couldn't be a servant of Christ, which means there was the time in his life when he was trying to win the approval of man. That was when he was a Pharisee.

He gives his resume in Philippians chapter 3. He was like, I was circumcised on the right day. I'm from the right tribe. I'm a Pharisee of Pharisees. He says in chapter one of Galatians that he was climbing the corporate ladder and everything he was doing was to impress everybody else. but then he got a new master. He got a new master. And because he got a new master,

now he does not have to try to win the approval of man. So he asked this question, am I still trying to win the approval of man or of God? Here's the key to understanding this. This hit me like a ton of bricks this week. Ask yourself the question,

am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Here's what hit me. You can't win either. You can't win the approval of God. It's the whole point of the book of Galatians. It's not like your right activity wins your right standing before God. That's what the Judaizers were teaching. It's the exact opposite.

The approval of God has been won for you at the cross, and therefore your salvation is received. It cannot be achieved. So the question is, if you have put your faith in Jesus, then you have the approval of God, why aren't you living like it? Because the Bible says this is love. Not that we love God or go first, but God loved us and sent his son

as the propitiation for our sin. And propitiation means a payment that satisfies. Front rows all. You get here earlier, you'll know more, okay? That Jesus on the cross is the payment that satisfies. He satisfies the law of God, satisfies the justice of God. And so if you are in Christ and you are given his righteousness,

you are imputed with his righteousness, not imparted, that means if you do your part, he'll do his part. But if you believe, you receive the right to be called a child of God. So when God looks at you, he sees the perfection of his son. So if Jesus is the payment that satisfies, listen, church, he cannot be dissatisfied in you. You have already received the applause of heaven. And he calls a son. Remember Jesus at his baptism?

We talked about it last week. He goes into the water, John the baptizer, dunks him, comes out of the water, the heaven's open up and what does God say? God the Father says, behold my son and whom I am well pleased. How much ministry has he done yet? None. No sermons, no miracles, didn't get crucified and resurrected yet. Before he does anything, God identifies him and says, that's my boy. Behold my son in whom I am well pleased. John will say it this way in 1 John chapter 4. He says this. The title he gives believers is this, beloved. Beloved. Beloved, let us love one another for love us of God.

And whoever loves God knows God, whoever does not know God, does not know God because God is love. So how are we going to love one another? Here's how, first, you've got to receive the love of God and know who you are. If you know who you are, then you can act that way. It's a command. Hey, church, would you just be loved by God? You can't earn it. You can only receive it.

The great I am that I am has placed his love on you. when you know who you are, then you can act that way. And yet, even knowing that, even knowing that, I believe this with everything I'm made of. And yet the opinion of man begins to sneak in there for all of us, doesn't it? What is wrong with us? Because it's a real feeling, isn't it? If I know this, here's what happened every single time. The more you think about what people think about you, the less you think about what God thinks about you. That's what's wrong with us. And we had these feelings. Feelings make a terrible God.

Feelings are a great tool to navigate life. They make a terrible God. God has already established how he feels about you. Romans 5-8, but God demonstrates his love for us and this that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. If you've been around here for a while, you've heard this illustration, but every single time I think about God's approval of me,

my mind goes back when we were teaching, I was coaching little league baseball. So we're out there on the field, me and Sean Maxwell, our C-O, we were coaches together. We had a good team. We won it every year, all right? And that's what we were trying to do. And the kids would come up and be like,

my dad said it's not how you play, but it's about fun. I'd be like, your dad's a loser, okay? We're going to have to rethink the draft next year. We don't have losers on it. You know what's fun? Winning, that's what's fun. We don't do participation trophies. We're going to melt them all down and give one champion trophy.

That's what we're doing, all right? And so we did good. We would win. And at this point, the coaches would stand out on the field, you know, to make sure everything was going okay. And our team's all lined up, things are going good. And if you've been around, you know this. And I look over in our third baseman, who was a relatively athletic kid, is standing there.

Well, he wasn't standing there. He was laying on his face with his hands beside him in the dirt of the infield. And he was using the brim of his hat to scoop up a little pile of sand in the infield while the game is going on. And I'm like, what? What? You know? What do you do? And I thought about making him stand up, but I thought, actually the safest position for him may be like hunker down. He was standing up. Take one right in a face, you know what I mean? And then after the game, I met his mom. And I thought, oh, this makes a lot of sense. This is. But here's the thing, man, she didn't care. She didn't care. She didn't care. She would

take pictures of him while he was down there to scooping with his hat. Quite honestly, he probably had more fun than any other kid in the history of Little League Base. baseball because all the rest of us are like trying to live vicariously through our seven years old and goes, what is wrong with you? You know what I mean? Just ruining their lives. And as I think about that kid, I wish I knew who he was. He's a legend in my mind, all right? And as I think about him, here's the thing, when I work so hard for the approval of God to try to impress God and I think I'm doing something to make myself worthy in the sight of God, I think the angels in heaven look at me right now while I'm preaching at this service, and this looks like, I look like a little kid, just like,

right. And the angel are like, what is he even doing? He's not that good. Why do so many people listen? And God the Father's like, shut your mouth. Behold my son in whom I am well pleased. I like a hearing and preach, man. He feels that way about you.

It's just true. So the approval of God cannot be one, only received because of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. He has purchased for you the approval. of God. So are you living like it? The other's true too, the approval of man cannot be won or earned. At best, it can be temporarily enjoyed until they change their mind again. Don't you know this to be true? Man, it's like cotton candy. It is sweet for a minute, but it won't sustain you. And you'll never please man. It's constantly changing. Do you not watch it? I mean, look

look at who's popular one minute online, and then they're the villain the next week. You go from hero to zero in a second, that we live in a culture that applaud you all the way down the road and then last that you for getting to the end of it. If the applause of man was actually sustaining, then wouldn't Hollywood be the epicenter of contentment and joyfulness in our world? And it's an absolute dumpster fire, is it not? It is. You see, if you think others will fulfill you.

you, you're going to be forever disappointed. You want a really good example of this? I'm old. I'm 50. Go to your high school reunion and deal with the reality that what these people thought about you 25 years ago was the most important thing in your world. Have you been to a high school reunion? Oh my gosh. Seriously, so if you're in high school, pay attention to this, okay? JP's senior prom was last night and everybody's all dressed up, everybody looks good. I'm I thought, this is the best y'all ever going to look in your whole life. You ain't never going to look better, and y'all look right now. You know how I know?

20-year reunion. If you go to your reunion, all right, they give you a name badge, and they have to put your picture from high school on it. You know why? Because the people that you love the most in your whole life, you could not pick them out of a lineup if your life depended on it. And the first thing happens, you walk in and you be like, dang, these people are old. I'm at the wrong one.

I'm supposed to be at the 20, not the 30. You know? But it's true of me. I mean, I had a sweet mullet back in the day, and now I look like I'm a Civil War general, so who could identify me? I'm telling you, and you look, and you're like, I can't believe I cared at all about what these people thought. I mean, there'll be some girl, and you thought she was to jam.

Now she's jammed herself in some little dress that don't fit. It looks like a can of biscuits busted open, and you're like, you think I'm kidding. Hey, if you're in high school, listen, be nice to the nerds. You're all going to work for them, all right? Cool football player, nerd, be real sweet to them. And so if, and you think, why did I, why did I carry it all with these losers to all? Why? And that's only 25 years.

500 years from now. What's the applause of man going to do for you? There's only one opinion that matters, and we're going to be around his throne, singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We're going to be laying down our treasures. And what's crazy is he approves. approves of you by his blood if you will just receive it. The Apostle Paul, who also wrote Galatians,

as this very famous verse in Philippians chapter four, from prison, he says a version of this. He says, for I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Isn't that freedom? He says, you've got to learn it. Nobody's born with it. Nobody's born in it.

It's a thing to be learned, and it's a secret. And you know what the secret is? He knows whose he is. So the opinion of man just doesn't matter. He goes on to say this very famous verse, Paul's the most free gods ever lived. In Philippine chapter one, he says this, to live is Christ and to die his gain. Can you imagine being that free? The brother's in prison and the guards are like, we're going to kill you.

Sweet, going home. There's mind. We're going to leave you around. Okay. I'm about to do Bible study with the jail. and lead them to Christ. Let's go. What do you do with this guy? You see, because he is not worried about what everybody else thinks. Paul's freedom from people pleasing is found in his status as a servant, a bond servant to Christ. He knows who he is because he knows who God is and what Christ

has done for him on the cross, and that frees him up to do whatever the good shepherd has told him to do. Because here's what people pleasing will do. Some of you have gone places you know you shouldn't go because of what other people think. And look, I'm not just talking to anything. And look, I'm not just talking to eighth graders, you hear me? Some of you live in a house you can't afford because you're trying to keep up with the Joneses. I've told you, the Joneses are going to hell. Don't want to keep up with them. And if you're a Jones, surrender to Jesus, you'll go to heaven. Some of you are in careers for the applause of your dad instead of what your Heavenly Father has called you to do. Some of you don't lift your hands in worship because you're afraid of what the people around

you will think. You're living in bondage. You're living in total and complete bondage. You know who I don't compare myself to? I've never compared myself to. Bowlers. Any bowlers here? Okay?

I don't know how the parking lots are full. I've never met a bowler. I've never compared myself to a bowler. I don't. In fact, if we do go bowling, we will probably go bowling once a year. If you're a little bit too good, I think it's kind of embarrassing.

I think it's weird. You just got to get in there and do it with us. If you get up there in all like, I'm like, what, that heck? You're like, no, I got my own shoes. I'm like, psycho. Like, that's not. Really?

So if I were to meet you in the lobby and you were like, celebrate with me, I just had a perfect game. Sweet, I can celebrate with you. Because I don't care. I mean, I'm not a bowler. I don't compare myself to bowlers because I'm not a bowler.

And I don't have to compare myself to you because I'm not you. And you're not me. The Bible says that we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfector of our faith and run the race that he has marked out for us. That means your race ain't my race. Am I race in your race?

And I just get to be obedient to what he has told us to do. You see, I know who I am because I know him. And so Paul says, if I were still trying to please men, I would not be assertive of Christ. Implicitly, I would be mastered by what other people thought about me. You see, when you care way too much about what people think, it's because you don't really know and believe what God thinks about you.

Jesus says no one can serve two masters. In that context, he's primarily talking about money. So maybe money's your master, maybe yourself, your own appetites and desires are your master, but for a lot of people, the approval of your wife, the approval of your boss, the approval of your adult kids, keep you from doing what the good shepherd has told you to do,

and there's no freedom there. You see, what so many people do is they take the keys of their own contentment. Paul said, I've learned the secret of being content no matter what. But what a lot of us do is we take the keys to our contentment and we hand them out to people. Here you go, nine-year-old son. Here you go spouse that I'm going to treat like my functional savior, that you're going to fully and finally satisfy me. Here you go boss. Here's the crazy one.

Here you go government. And when all of you act perfectly, then I'll be fully and finally satisfy. It sounds crazy to hear it out loud, doesn't it? Yeah, because it is crazy. And the reason that they will let you down is because all of them are wretched, crooked, black-hearted sinners just like me and you. And whenever you idolize somebody,

when they let you down, you will demonize them. So if I haven't let you down, give me just enough time. I will thoroughly disappoint you. But do not hand me the keys to contentment in your life. You've got to snatch them all back and give them to the only one that can give you what you're looking for,

which is that shalom, that peace that only comes with him. So, ask yourself the question, am I trying to win the approval of men or at God, like at home and at work on social media? So if you are a believer, if you're a believer, and you know that you have been imputed with the righteousness of Christ, he already approves of you,

then why aren't you living that way? You see, this is like in Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son, even if you're new to Bible study, you've heard about this one, and the boy who had squandered everything he had in wild living, the Bible says he comes to his senses, but when he comes home, he's practicing, he's like rehearsing his apology,

but his father sees him from a long ways off and runs to him and wraps his arms around him and covers his faces and kisses, and then he grabs his robe, his righteous, perfect robe, and he wraps the boy in his own robe so that when people see him, they don't see the filth from the pigsty, they see the righteousness of the father. That's how God sees you. So imagine what it would be like.

to live in freedom from the approval of God instead of trying to win the approval of man. Listen, I get it, man. I get it. Sometimes what people think about me matters too much. And I know it firsthand. When I was 19 years old, I was in college. It was coming up on my senior year. And I just got accepted to the medical college of Virginia because I was going to be a doctor. Not because I cared about helping people. I wanted to be rich and respected. You know what I mean? I wanted to have a Porsche. I went into youth ministry.

I'm at this event where I volunteered at my church, and I was a small group leader for high school guys. And it was a Baptist church, a Southern Baptist church. And so at the end of almost every Southern Baptist message I ever heard was you could ask Jesus in your heart, you could rededicate your life to Christ, or you could surrender to full-time vocational ministry. And I'm sitting in the back, and when that guy says some of you in here need to walk away from what you were going to, to do and you, God's calling you into full-time ministry. And I remember thinking, oh, no, that's me.

And so in a Baptist church, the Spirit can't do anything in the back. It has, you got to get the approval of the senior pastor and it works up here. So they don't have a center aisle, make you walk down where everybody can look at you. And so I walked down there and I told my senior pastor, I think God's calling me in the ministry. And he was like, cool, God always confirms what he calls. Why don't you be an intern? And so I started teaching the Bible there. But, then, you know what, I had to tell my dad. My dad was so pumped that I was going to be a doctor. I mean, who wouldn't be?

Who wouldn't be proud? You know what I mean? And again, it's not like we grew up in church. And I remember thinking, oh, I just don't want to disappoint my dad. You see, here's the crazy thing. Am I now trying to win the approval of God or a man? If you live for the approval of God, you'll get all of that and you'll get some of the approval of man because we were wired for relationships and God will surround you with the right

people. If you live for the approval of man, you will guarantee yourself to not have either. And I had to tell my dad, I'm not going to do what you want me to do. I'm going to do what my father in heaven tells me. And so I was a baller. I called him, said, I need to take you to lunch, so I took him to Subway. It's all I could afford. We went on like two for Tuesday so I could get it. And I sat down with him and I was like, well, Daddy, I'm not going to go to med school. I'm going to go to seminary. And he said, what's seminary? And I said, it's like preacher school. And he's like, what? They only work half a day a week and study one book. Why, I need a whole school for that? I'm like, you're probably right. In fact, he told me, when I was growing up, if you couldn't do

nothing else, you could be a preacher or a cop. I'm a preacher. My brother's a cop. Isn't that embarrassing? Now, here's the thing, man. He's for me. He loves me. I told him I was going to go to youth ministry, so I'm not going to be a doctor, and I'm going to take kids to camp, and he's just like, he's trying to make sure I'm not running from hard work and just doing fun. And he says, boy, you don't get him, go to fun, you get him go to work, right? But he's supportive and all the things. Last week in between the services, he's in town. And so between 9-11-22, I'm sitting back here in my office, and I hear a knock on my door, open the door, and there's my dad. I said, Daddy, what are you doing? He goes, I'm here to see my boy preach. You see, you're faithful to God.

you could trust them with everything else. That's just it. And he's sitting right over here. And the impact that you have made on me, all of this is a result of you helping me do hard things and follow God. Amen. Thank you.

Thank you. Amen. Amen. All right. Here's what the Bible says. Proverbs 2925. The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

You know what a snare is? A snare is a trap. We got a bunch of coyotes at the retreat center, and we snare them to kill them and send them to hell with the devil that they were created from. A snare is a tree. Palaca people, tell the Pont of Egypt of people what a snare is, okay? So what we do is we got these old things,

and we put marshmallows in it. And the raccoons go to get them too. They're also from the devil. And they're like, ooh, a marshmallow tree has dropped a marshmallow. And then they reach their hand in thinking it's going to go slow, sweet. And what they try to grab onto, grabs onto them. This is what the approval of man is. It's a trick.

You think it's going to be sweet, but it gets you. 2. Timothy 1.7, for God gave us not a spirit of fear. When you fear the applause of man, it's a spirit, but it's not from God. It's a trick from the enemy. Because what the spirit of God gives us is power and of love and of self-control. I love this one, man. Psalm 1186, The Lord is on my side.

I will not fear. What can man do to me? Where I'm from, where we're from, if you say, what are you going to do to me? That's fight, like you're about to fight. This is warfare. Maybe you ought to memorize this one. Next time you begin to have this tendency

to care too much of what everybody thinks about you, you say, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? because here's what I'm going to tell you, man. Living a life, seeking the approval of man, if your identity is wrapped up in what people think about you or how many likes you have or how many followers

or any of that stuff, what your boss thinks, if that's what you're living for, the pursuit of the applause of man is exhausting. It's exhausting. You'll never be able to keep up. I mean, think about this. You ever think about this. this, God can't even please everybody. That's a weird thing to say, but at the Georgia, Florida game,

everybody does not leave pleased and everybody's praying, right? So how in the world do you think you're going to please everybody? It's exhausting. It's a terrible way to live. You will lack freedom in every area and you will be mastered by what other people think. Insecurity and ego will be in a constant battle in your soul and it will eat you up. Yeah, man, trying to win the approval of church people and work people and family people, it's exhausting. And to the exhausted, here's what Jesus says in Matthew 11. He said, hey, anybody here tired, anybody here worn out? Anybody trying to just live up to everybody else's standard, whether that's a religious

standard or a social media standard or whatever the standard that everybody else is setting for you? And to that, he says, well, here's what I want you to do. Jesus says, come to me all who labor and are heavy labor. like if you're exhausted in the pursuit of the applause of man Jesus says come here come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn for me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find look at this phrase rest for your soul that sounds like freedom to me man let me just imagine it for a second can you imagine if you

could live every day of your life because you had learned the secret of being content in every situation? Can you imagine if all the things that weigh you down and just wear you out, particularly the opinions of everybody else, that you could bring that to Jesus? And then he would give you rest for your soul. I love the mystery involved in that phrase. I mean, do this with me. Breathe in. Breathe out. And know that you have the approval of God through the blood of Christ on the cross. That's rest for your soul. That's freedom. And we want that for you. He wants that for you. You see, the gospel is not achieved. It's received. And the Bible says, for whoever believes receives the right to be called a child of God.

That's just who you are. Social media. or this society doesn't get to tell you who you are. But the one who bought you, purchased you, rescued you, rescued you, only he gets to tell you who you are. And he says, behold, that's my son, that's my daughter. And he's really well pleased in you if you are in Christ. Would you bow your heads? Let me pray for us.

Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, I thank you that you are a good, good father. God, you did not give us a set of rules that we have to live up, to in order to earn your applause, but we have won your approval because Christ won over the grave and over sin in our life. Lord, I pray that you would overwhelm us with that. God, I pray that this week, as the whispers of the enemy and the opinion of this world gets louder and louder and louder, we would fix our eyes on you, the beginner, the author, and the perfector, the finisher of our faith. And that, God, we would just run the race that you have marked out for us. us. The God, we can rejoice with those on our right and left. We can have the courage to say hard,

true things to people because we love them, but we don't have to compare because we are the only one that you have made. And you have called us just to be free in you. So God, I pray that the shackles of approval would fall away and that we could walk in freedom. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. please stand as we respond, the gospel demands a response. This matters, man. This part might matter more than anything else. Because right now you believe it so much, don't you? You believe it so much. That's because I've been yelling at you for an hour. And before you get out of the parking lot, the enemy is going to be like, that don't count for you. And so we're going to sing, Christ is enough. Better sing it like you believe it. We're going to bring our tides and offerings because that stuff

doesn't control us. It's an act of worship to bring our first and best to him. And we're going to pray. and some of you know that you need to come down here listen when you made a sacrifice in the old testament the sacrifice died you left a bloody mess on the altar for those of you that have any kind of struggles but particularly of what everybody else thinks why don't you bring it down here and shed its blood on the altar and leave it here dead and walk out in freedom and especially there's some of you and the thing that is going to keep you from coming down here and kneeling before god your father in praying is what the person next to you thinks about it please be free Please be free. So we're going to respond. We're going to sing, we're going to bring, we're going to pray. Let's go.