Full Transcript

Well good morning! This is the fourth and final message in the series that we’ve called Approval Addict.  How many recovering approval addicts do I have in the room? We have turned harvest bible chapel into the addiction recovery center for people who are hooked on the approval of other people. The biblical term for that that we looked at in the first week is Proverbs 29 and the biblical term is the fear of man. That verse says the fear of man brings a snare. It’s a trap. We get trapped by what other people think of us. But he who trusts in the Lord will be safe.

And so we want to dislodge ourselves from the approval addiction because people pleasing is the number one obstacle to people pleasing God. We want to be god pleasers not people pleasers.

So I’m going to do something in this message that we normally don’t do around here. If you’re new, we typically do around here is we open our bible to kind of one page. We kind of work through a section and we stay on that page. Today is different. We are chasing down the answer to the question, “How do I get God’s stamp of approval?” So we’re going to look at a lot of different passages of Scripture today.

I want you to do two things. I want you to open up your bible. How many bibles are in the house? Raise up those bibles. Where are the bibles? Great, great, great. That’s an ipad. That’s not a bible. Open your Bible or open your Bible app to 1 Thessalonians 5. No, chapter 2. And then I want you to bookmark that or put your husband’s finger there and turn over to 2 Timothy 2. We’re going to look at those two passages here real quick.

And we’re going to try to answer the question: how do we get God’s stamp of approval?

If you’re there, say I’m there. In 1 Thessalonians 2. I want you to look at this verse in verse 4. “We have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel so we speak not to please who? Man but to please who? God who tests our heart.

The reason that I wanted to start in this verse is just to let you know, it is possible to be approved by God. Some people think, “I don’t even know if I could ever be approved by God. You don’t know my past. You don’t know the things I’ve done. God would never approve.” Well this verse says there’s a group of people that have been approved by God. We want to be counted with that number.

But notice what happens when you’re approved by God. When you’re approved by God, and entrusted with God’s message, the gospel, you know what it motivates you to do? It motivates you to speak. It motivates you to get involved in people’s lives so that other people can learn how to get God’s stamp of approval through the message of the gospel. And our desire is to please God no matter who else is displeased we want to be God-pleasers, not people p-leasers.

Now, look over at 2 Timothy 2. And we’re going to start to answer this question, how do I get God’s stamp of approval. Now if you grew up going to Awana, anybody ever grow up going to Awana? You already know, this is the Awana verse, right? We should just have all the Awana people stand right now. If you were ever in Awana, stand up. C’mon. C’mon, all the Awana graduates. The Cubbies, and what else is there? The mama bears and the papa bears. I don’t know what they are. Keep standing. Keep standing.

And all the Awana people are now going to quote this verse. Let’s say it for everybody else, okay? This is the ESV. Read it with me okay? 2 Timothy 2:15. Read it with me. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” Look at all the Awana people. This is awesome. We should have like an Awana reunion one night, okay?  You guys can have a seat. Somebody is like, “What is Awana?” Okay. It’s just an acronym. A workman approved unto God. That’s what it is.

So, we can be approved. But I want you to notice about this verse. There is some work involved. There is some stuff that we got to get right if we’re going to be approved by God. You’ve got to become a worker, and you ‘ve got to do your best. It’s going to require some effort here.

And one of the greatest thing that we have to show effort in is getting our attention off of people and getting them onto God.

Now, if you’ve been coming to harvest for very long you know that I like to make things simple. Right. Clarity, urgency and simplicity. And as I’ve been studying this approval addiction thing through scripture, it reminded me of kid’s story. A children’s storybook that I used to read to my kinds by Max Lucado. And so at the risk, of losing all respect, I’m now going to read a children’s storybook to you.

Some of you like just woke up. You’re like, “Oh I love story time.” You know? “I’ve got my teddy bear and my dad’s going to read.” So, just want you to listen as Uncle Trent reads story time to you. But actually in order to pull this off right, I need some children, so… oh look; we have wonderful little children right here. So you guys come on and hang out with Uncle Trent here for a minute, and we’re going to read a story.

Now the story is called “You are Special.” Now if Pastor Trent was re-naming that, I would just call it “You’re an Ordinary, Dirty-Rotten Sinner.” But this book says you are special. Thank you very much. But the message is right. Okay? So are you guys ready for this? All right? You going to look at the pictures. Okay? And I’ll read the words. How’s it going? You like that microphone. You’re not going to get it. Okay. Here we go.

All right. It’s a story about wooden people. And they were called the Wemmicks. The Wemmicks were small wooden people and all of the wooden people were carved by the same wood carver. His name was Eli. And his workshop sat on a hill that overlooked their village.

Each Wemmick was different. Some had big noses. Others had large eyes. Some were tall and some were short. Some wore hats and some wore coats. But all were made by the same woodcarver and lived in the same village.

And all day, every day, they could be seen up and down the city streets doing the very same thing. Do you know what they did? They gave each other stickers. Do you like stickers? Well, every Wemmick had a box of gold star stickers and every Wemmick had a box of gray dot stickers.

And up and down the streets they would stick stickers all over each other. The pretty ones, the ones with smooth wood and fine paint, they all got gold stars. But if the wood was rough and the paint was chipped, the Wemmicks would give gray dots. The talented ones got stars too. They could lift high above their heads these big sticks and they could jump over boxes and everyo9ne would give them stars.

Some could sing really pretty songs and some of them knew really big words, and everybody would give them stars. But some of the Wemmicks had stars all over them. And every time they got a star it made them feel so good on the inside, you know what they wanted to do? They wanted to go do something else to get another gold star.

Others though, could do very little. Punchinello was one of these. He tried to jump high like the others, but when he did he always fell. And when he fell, the others would gather around him and give him gray dots. Sometimes when he fell, his wood got scratched, and so the people would come up and give him gray dots because his wood was scratched.

Then he would try to explain why he fell, and he would say something silly and the Wemmicks would give him more gray dots. After awhile he had so many gray dots, he didn’t even want to go outside anymore. He was afraid he would do something wrong or step in the water, and people would give him another dot.

In fact, he had so many gray dots, some people would just come up and give him a gray dot because he had a lot of gray dots. And he didn’t want to go outside anymore. He deserves a lot of dots, they would say. He’s not a good wooden person. After awhile, Punchinello began to believe them. “I’m not a good Wemmick he would say.”

A few times that he did go outside, he hung around other Wemmicks who had a lot of gray dots. He felt better around them.

One day, he met a Wemmick who was unlike any he’d ever met before. She had no gray dots and she had no gold stars. Her name was Lucia. It wasn’t that people didn’t try to give her stickers, it’s just that the stickers didn’t stick on Lucia. Some of the Wemmicks admired Lucia for having no dots and so they would try to run up and give her a star. But when they did, it would fall to the ground.

Others would look down on Lucia for having no stars, and so they’d come up and give her a gray dot. But it wouldn’t stick either. That’s the way I want to be though Punchinello. I don’t want anybody’s marks, so he asked the stickerless Wemmick how she did it.

“It’s easy,” Lucia replied. “Every day I go see Eli.” Eli, who’s Eli? Eli is the woodcarver. I sit in the workshop with him. Why do you do that? Well, why don’t you go find out for yourself? Go up the hill. He’s there.”

And with that, the Wemmick with no stickers turned and skipped away. Punchinello walked up the narrow path to the top of the hill and stepped into the woodshop. Then he heard his name.

Punchinello. The voice was deep and strong. Punchinello, how good to see you. Come here, let me have a look at you. Punchinello turned slowly and looked at the large, bearded craftsman.  You know my name? Of course I do. I made you.

Eli stooped down and picked him up and sat him on his workbench. “Hmmm.” The maker spoke thoughtfully as he looked at the gray dots. “Looks like you’ve been given some bad marks.”

I didn’t mean to Eli. I tried really, really hard.

Oh you don’t have to defend yourself to me child. I don’t care what the other Wemmicks think.

You don’t?

No, and you should either. Who are they to give you stars or dots? They are Wemmicks just like you. All that matters is what I think. What they think doesn’t matter, Punchinello. And I think you’re pretty special.

Punchinello laughed. “Me special? Why? I can’t walk fast. I can’t jump. My paint’s peeling off. Why do I ever matter to you?”

Eli looked at Punchinello. He put his hands on those small wooden shoulders and spoke very slowly. “Because you’re mine. That’s why you matter to me.”

Punchinello had never had anybody look at him like this before. And he didn’t know what to say.

Every day I’ve been hoping that you’d come, “Eli explained.

“Well, I came because I met somebody who had no marks.”

“I know. She told me about you.”

“Well, why don’t the stickers stick on her.”?

The maker spoke softly. Because she has decided that what I think is more important than what they think. The stickers only stick if you let them.”

“What?”

“The stickers only stick if they matter to you. The more you trust in my love, the less you care about those stickers.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

Eli smiled. “You will, but it will take some time. You’ve got a lot of marks. For now, just make sure that you come and see me every day. And I’ll remind you how much I love you.”

Eli lifted Punchinello off the bench, set him on the ground and said, “Remember, you are special because I made you. And I don’t make mistakes.”

Punchinello didn’t stop. But in his heart, he thought, “I think he really means it.” And when he did, a dot fell to the ground.

You guys want to give these guys a hand. You guys can go sit down. You guys can go. Thank you so much. See you guys later.

All right. Now how many of you understand that I’m not concerned with those little approval addicts. Who’s that story for? That’s the story for all of you who really are impressed by all of the gold stars that you’ve been given. And you work so hard for those gold stars. I mean, you got the best grades and you got the most money and you got the most applause and you don’t have to use makeup because you’re so beautiful and you never had acne like the rest of us and you had straight teeth and you got all those gold stars.

And if you’re like, “Yeah!” The reason you feel that way about those people is because you got a lot of gray dots. You go the crooked teeth and the bad grades and you got fired and your parents never approved, and yet deep on the inside of us, all of us want the gold stars. And what this message is about is not seeking the gold stars from the wrong source.

So the question is; how do we get God’s stamp of approval. I’m going to give you three things. Here’s the first. And I want you to turn over in your bible to 2 Corinthians 5. Here’s the first of the points:

• We have to learn to replace the fear of man with the fear of the Lord.

Now there’s a very important principle in the Scripture. It’s called the Principle of positive replacement. And it simply is this: in order to be set free from something you’re addicted to, you have to be addicted to something else.

Now let me show you how tricky this is and how hard it is to pull off. I want you for the next thirty seconds, not to think of the number four. Okay? Don’t think about two plus two. Don’t think about what comes after three. Don’t think about the way it’s spelled, F-O-U-R. Don’t think about how many quarters are in a football game. Don’t think about how many quarters it takes to make a dollar. Don’t think about the fact that the number four actually kind of looks like a pretzel. Just don’t think about the number four.

How many of you are really bad at not thinking of the number four? Did you pull that off? Some of you did pull it off. But the only way you did it was every time I said the number four, you replaced the number four with a different number. If I said, “Four,” you thought eight. And that’s the principle of positive replacement.

Krispy Kreme donuts look really good until you’re addicted to Amish Crack. Right? What are those things called? Rise and Roll. Right? How many of you are addicted to Amish Crack? Okay. So you see, it’s positive replacement, all right? It’s not that the Krispy Kreme is bad. It’s just that the Rise and Roll does something that the Krispy Kreme never could, right?

And the same is true with the fear of the Lord. We’re going to fear something. The Bible says two things about fear. Number one it says, “Don’t fear.” And then it says, “Fear God.” And so what is he talking about here? It means that we should constantly be thinking, “What would the Lord approve of in my life? Not what people approve of, but what would the Lord approve of?

Let me show it to you in this Scripture. 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” Pause. Reflect. Get real serious. Fear. Do you fear that day? You should. What will happen on that day when we all appear before the judgment seat of Christ? He tells us. “Each one will receive what is due for what he has done whether good or evil.” God is keeping track. God knows what you do. And one day, you’re going to give an account for all of it.

That should produce a measure of fear, a healthy fear, in my soul. The verse goes on and says this, “Therefore, because we’re going to appear before the3 judgment seat of Christ, therefore knowing the fear of the lord, what do we do? We persuade others, but what we are is known to God and I hope it’s known also to your conscience. So, do you see the combination here? If you know the fear of the Lord, if you’re constantly thinking about the Lord’s approval in your life, it will motivate you to become persuasive of others.

So here’s the two options. Either we will fear man and be persuaded by men, or we will fear God and we will become a persuasive force of men. Are you persuaded or are you persuasive? If you are easily persuaded, it’s because you are trapped in a fear of man. You’re an approval addict.

But if you live with a conscious awareness, that one day I will stand before God in judgment, then that’s going to radically alter the way that I live my life.

How would it alter the words that come out of your mouth if you consciously were aware that God hears those words? What would it do to your Friday and Saturday night in the dark, when nobody is looking, if you were aware that God is looking? What would it do to the way you think about a person who has wronged you, if you were aware that God even knows your thoughts?

Here’s the definition of the fear of the Lord that we’ll use. It is the continually awareness that I am in the presence of God and that I will appear before him in judgment for everything I do, everything I say and everything I think.

How would it alter your behavior if you lived with the conscious awareness that God is watching? That’s the fear of the Lord.

I read an article a few years ago. There was a particular neighborhood in the city of Detroit that was declining. The crime rate was rising in this neighborhood. The citizens didn’t know what to do. The police were unable to help. And so the citizens of that neighborhood got together and they threw in some money and they purchased an obsolete, discontinued police car.

They brought it in, they gave it a fresh coat of paint, they put a net set of lights over the top of it, and they parked it at the entrance of the neighborhood with the parking lots on. In the next two months, the crime rate had dropped 74%. There was no more of a police presence there than there was before, but there was an awareness that what I do in this neighborhood could be caught. It could be seen. And I might have to pay some consequences.

I experienced this just a couple of weeks ago. Andrea and I drove our two oldest children, Brooke and Zac to Cedarville University. Dropped them off as freshmen in college. How many of you…any freshmen college students that had that horrible college experience? Any freshmen here today? Like Notre Dame? Anybody cry puddles this week as you said goodbye to mom and dad. Maybe you weren’t but they were. You know? Something like that?

Well, we had this experience a couple of weeks ago. So Brooke and Zac they took their cars to college with them. So Andrea, we’re kind of a caravan, Andrea and I are driving down the toll road. And Zac is behind me and Brooke is behind Zac. And we get on the toll road headed east and about fifteen minutes into the trip, my cell phone rings. I answer it. It was Zac who was in the car behind me. He said, “Hey dad, you think you could drive a little faster?” I said, “Well, Zac, I’m driving 70 miles an hour. The speed limit is 70 miles an hour.” And he said, “Well, I’ve been on the toll road with you before and this is the first time you’ve ever driven 70 miles an hour. I think we can pick up the pace a little bit.”

“Zac, this is my final opportunity to set a good example for you. I’m showing you how to drive on the toll road. I want us to drive 70 miles an hour.” So what happened? The presence of my son changed my driving habits, changed my behavior. It was a continual awareness that’s he’s watching me. And he’s going to drive a car very much the same way I drive a car.

And so if we lived with the conscious awareness that God is watching and that one day I’m going to stand before him and give an account for the things that I do and the things that I say and the things that I think, do you think that might change your behavior a little bit? Yeah. Now we’re understanding how important it is to live with the awareness of God.

Now, when we talk about the approval addiction, I want you to understand. Your drive for approval is not wrong. As a matter of fact, we have three God-given drives within us that are actually to motivate us to live for the approval of God. Here they are. The first one is: attention.

Don’t you just feel like, “Man, I just want to be noticed. I just want to be recognized. I wish somebody would just generally acknowledge my existence.” If you’re a freshman at Notre Dame, you’re probably like, “Does anybody know I’m even here or care?” so, we all have that. That is not wrong. That is not sinful.

As a matter of fact, I believe it’s God-given. We all want to stand out. We all want to think we’re special. And we ant to kind of stand out form the group. That attention drive is meant to drive you to God because you can have the attention of God if you would just become aware that he is with you.

Jeremiah 1, God is speaking to Jeremiah. Jeremiah is afraid because he’s got all these people that are not on his side and not a big fan of Jeremiah. And God says, “Do not be afraid of them for I am with you.” In order to be released of the fear of man, I must be consciously aware that God is with me.

I remember a few years ago, I went to an amusement park and we’re standing in those cattle stalls you know, to get on the line. So there’s like hundreds of people waiting to get on and you pass the same person for hours. And I noticed that there was one particular guy, a teenager, who had the attention of everybody else in the cattle stall.

The reason he had our attention is because he had pierced every thing in his body that he could possibly pierce without leaking. And through those piercings, he had placed safety pins. I mean they were wrapped around his ear and the eyebrow and on the lip. And he had like two or three in the throat and we’re like, “Ew.” And yet, this guy was so confident in himself.

I mean, he was just having a great time. He was sitting up on the rail. You know? And he’s bantering. Everybody just had his attention. We’re like asking him, “Do you leak?
You know? And he was like fielding questions from the press corps. He just felt really great about himself.

So what motivates somebody to do something to stand out? We all do it. We do it through piercings or tattoos or maybe it’s your Awana Bible verses you like to quote to everybody to stand out from the rest and to show us how spiritual you are. Right? Well, the motive that drives us for attention is meant to drive us to the heart of God. God says, “I’m watching.” The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth looking for someone on whose behalf he can show himself strong. He wants to give you his attention for the right reason. So, it’s a God-given drive.

Here’s another one: the drive for acceptance. The drive for acceptance, I believe, is a God-given drive because designed us to live in community. He wants us to live in relationship. God didn’t design you to live on an island, isolated, independent, autonomous. He wants you to live in community.

So the same guy that wants to stand out, also wants to fit in. because have you noticed that all the safety pin people eventually find each other? Have you noticed? It’s like, now we’re forming a safety pin support group. We feel better because we want to stand out but we also want to fit in. and so there’s this weird balance that goes on. And so, we want acceptance.

But here’s the thing. God meant for your acceptance drive to drive you to him so that we would find our acceptance in the beloved. We want to be loved. We want to be known. We want to be cared for. And so it’s to drive us to him. We want to fit in.

And here’s the third thing: the drive for approval. I want to stand out, I want to fit in, but I also want a thumbs up. I just want somebody to tell me, “Good job. Well done. Good and faithful servant.” That’s what we want to hear when we’re standing at the judgment seat.

Now here’s the thing. You can have God’s attention unconditionally. You don’t have to do anything, you don’t have to be anything. God is watching. You can have God’s acceptance, unconditionally. You’re accepted. Just the way you are. God made you. Now he loves you too much to keep you that way, he wants to change you, but he accepts you the way you are.

But the third one is conditioned on some things. If I want the approval of God, I must have and be some certain things. And mark it down. There will come a time in your life when you cannot have the approval of God and the approval of your friends at the exact same moment. It is in that moment that it will be determined whose approval are you living for. So we’ve got to do our best to presents ourselves as a workman approved unto God.

Now, here’s the second thing:

• We must learn the attitudes that always get God’s stamp of approval.

Now can I just preface this point here? I want you turn over to Matthew 5. Everybody turn your Bibles to Matthew 5. I’ll meet you there in a minute.

But I’m about to risk something. I’m about to risk you completely misunderstanding how to get God’s approval, and yet it’s necessary if we’re really going to understand it. Okay? I’m about to give you a list of eight things that get God’s approval. And you know what we have a tendency to do? We all have a default setting in our hearts to think like this: “well, I want God’s approval. Give me the list. Give me the checkboxes. I will work hard. I will do this. I will do this. I will not do that. I will not do that.”

And if you have a tendency to do that, number one, welcome to the human race. But number two, do you realized that is the very thing that will keep you from getting God’s approval? You see, the gospel gives us, not a list of things to do, the gospel gives us a list of things to be. They are heart attitudes. They are not actions. They’re not academics that we need. They’re attitudes.

So here’s the things about the gospel. The gospel gives us the list of things we have to be. And then it’s the list that convinces us we can never be those things. But if you want the approval of God, shape your attitudes around these eight things. Do you have your Bibles open to Matthew 5?

Now this list that Jesus gives us in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount has been labeled…what’s it called? The Beatitudes. Have you heard of this? So, these are attitudes that ought to be. Do you see that each one of these eight starts with a particular word? Do you see the word? Verse 3? What’s the word? Blessed. There’ s a lot of theologians that have tried to tell us what that means. Blessed. Some people say, “Well, that means happy.” Eh, probably not.

Blessed. What does that mean? I like to look at it this way. These are attitudes that invite the blessing of God. Do you want God to bless your life? You want God’s blessing on your life? Then he says shape your attitudes into these eight formative heart motivations.

And the first of these in verse 3 is this. He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.” Do you see the word “blessed” there? This is the way I want you to think of that word. Approved. God always approves when our attitudes are poor in spirit. So this is the way we’re going to say it.

God always approves of humility.

What does it mean to be poor in spirit? It means to be in a poverty class. It means that we focus not on what we have that we can use to impress people. It focuses on what we need to be approved by God. Have you noticed? Nobody is drawn to the guy who flaunts what he has. I mean, you might be impressed by what a guy has. He is intelligent, he’s athletic, he’s wealthy. And you’re impressed by that. But that really does not draw you to him. It’s like “I really like that guy.” Anybody?

Anybody want to be best friends with Donald Trump? For the right reasons? I mean, nobody is drawn to the guy that flaunts what he has.

Everybody is drawn to the guy that understands and admit what he needs.

So instead of using what you have to impress people and get people’s attention and acceptance and approval, why don’t you humble yourself and admit, “You know what?? I’ve got such a long way to go. I fall so short. There’s so much unfinished business in my life that God needs to do.” And yet an approval addict would never say things like that. Why? He can’t risk losing the attention, the acceptance, and the approval of other people.

But a guy that humbles himself gains the blessing and the approval of God and God gives his attention to this guy because he understands. “Oh you need some stuff? Well, I’ve got a supply. Let me see if I can meet that need in your life. Thank you for admitting it.”

Here’s the second thing. It’s an attitude of repentance. Look at verse 4. Blessed. What’s the word we’re using? Approved. Approved “are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” What does it mean to mourn? Does that mean God just loves depressed people?

This is what is means. These people mourn over their sin. They grieve over how they’ve displeased God. They mourn and even brought to tears, brought to their knees by the stuff in their life that they know God is displeased with. And when God makes them aware of it, their heart attitude is to mourn, to grieve, to confess, to repent. Not excuse, justify, blame. Not to pretend to be perfect. Because nobody expects you to be perfect. But everybody expects an apology.

Don’t you appreciate the guy that comes up and humbles himself? It’s like, “You know what? My sin damaged you. My attitude was not right. That was not my finest moment. God has shown me that. I’ve sought his forgiveness and I’m here to seek your forgiveness. How can I make this relationship right?” That’s a heart attitude of repentance. And when you do that, God always approves.

Here’s the third thing:

It’s a heart attitude of putting others first.

Look at verse 5. “Blessed” or approved “are the meek.” Approved are the meek. “For they shall inherit the earth.” See the word “meek” there? So often we think that that means weak. It’s exactly the opposite. It is a strong, influential, persuasive powerful person who has the ability to use what he has to get the attention, acceptance and approval of other people and yet he chooses not to.

He uses his power his influence and his persuasion to advance other people. He’s meek. He’s powerful and uses all of that to leverage to help others. He puts others first. Because after all,

Nobody wants to be impressed. Everybody wants to be loved.

And when you use your influence and your power and your persuasion and your money and your time to advance others, people feel loved. And when you do it, God always approves.

Here’s the fourth one:

Ad attitude of an appetite for him, an appetite for righteousness.

Look at verse 6. Approved “are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.” How do you develop an appetite for God? You have to starve your appetite for attention, acceptance and approval from other people. And it increases you appetite for God.

It’s an appetite that he labels as right. Or righteous. A hunger for righteousness.

Nobody is satisfied by sin. It might satisfy you for about five minutes, but in the end, you’re going to regret. And you’re going to wish, “if I could go back and do that again, I would do it differently.” Everybody is satisfied when you make right choices. When you live for the approval of God and do what’s right, God always approves.

Here’s the fifth one. Verse 7. It’s forgiveness. Verse 7 says, approved or “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.” Who is it in your life that needs a little mercy? Who is it that has so disappointed you, so failed you, so slandered you, so exhausted you that you have separated yourself from because you don’t want to be hurt anymore?

God says, approved are the merciful. You say, “But they don’t deserve it.” Exactly. You are approved when you show mercy to people who don’t deserve it. Why does God approve of t hat? Because it’s exactly the way that he treats us.  It’s an attitude of forgiveness.

News flash

Nobody is perfect. Everybody is going to need mercy. Everybody wants a second chance. Everybody wants a fresh start. And you go on the initiative to show mercy to people who don’t deserve it. Every time you do that, God approves.

Here’s an attitude of an unpolluted heart. Look at verse 8. “Blessed…” approved “are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Jesus always goes to the heart. He’s not giving us a list of rules and regulations. He’s going after the heart. And what he’s saying here is it doesn’t matter how impressive you are externally. It doesn’t matter you’re external appearance and how many people applaud. It matters what’s in your heart. Because

Nobody appreciates a hypocrite. What they look like on the outside turns out to be something very different than what they are on the inside. Nobody appreciates a hypocrite. But everybody values authenticity.

I just want to know that you’re sincere. And so when we are sincere, when we are authentic, when we deal with heart motivations, God always approves.

Here’s the seventh one. A heart attitude of reconciliation. Look at verse 9. Approved “are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.” If you are going to have enduring relationships, if you’re going to have friends that last for more than a year, if you’re going to have a marriage that last for more than five years, you’re going to have to learn the art of peacemaking.

Nobody cares if you are right. When you are in the argument. You need to care more about making sure this relationship gets to the finish line. And you go the distance with the person that you’re in a relationship with. Whether that’s a marriage or a husband/wife relationship or whether it’s a parent/child relationship or a friendship, everybody cares about enduring relationship. You do not want to get to the end of your life and look back at a string of dead bodies. And dead relationships. It’s going to require peace-making. And when you make peace, God always approves.

Here’s the last one. Uncompromising faith. Look at verse 10. “Blessed” approved “are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  True faith is not revealed until it is persecuted. Until you have to pay a price for what you believe, until you’re willing to lose a friendship, until you’re willing to lose a job, we don’t even know if you’ve got enough faith. But he says, “Blessed are the persecuted” because it’s in that moment that your true faith is revealed.

Nobody respects a coward. But even people who disagree with us, they will respect a person who stands for what he believes to the end. Even if they disagree.

And so, do you have an uncompromising faith? If you’re willing to pay a price for what you believe, if you believe this book is the inerrant, infallible, inspired, authoritative revelation of God’s mind to humanity, if you believe that, you’re going to pay a price for that. Not so much in decades past. Now it’s time for true Christians to be revealed. In the midst of those who are willing to persecute us for our faith.

And so when the persecution beings, we’ll find out who gets God’s approval. Because those who have an uncompromising faith are always approved by God.

Now, real quick, we’re almost done. But again, I am so afraid that you’re going to misinterpret what we just did. I just gave you a list. And we are really good at creating a list of manmade, religious regulations and going out in the day and saying, “I’m taping those on the refrigerator for my kids and I’m going to get a box of gold stars. I’m going to get a box of gray dots and I am going to start sticking people that I think are humble. And I’m going to really try to be humble because I’ve really been good at being humble this week. And have you seen how humble I’ve been? I mean I am so much more humble than that person.” And dude, you just got a gray dot.

So here’s what I want you to understand. Religion motivates you to try to do something to gain God’s approval. We’re here to answer the question; how do I get God’s stamp of approval. It is not by doing something. Hear me. You get God’s stamp of approval by believing something.

Here’s the last thing:

• Exchanging God’s disapproval of you for God’s approval of Christ gets God’s approval transferred to you.

Now don’t miss this. You will not hear this statement in many churches. I’m going to risk making a statement. God does not approve of you. At all. You can’t do anything to get his approval. That’s bad news.

Like, “Man, I came to church to get cheered up. You’re telling me I’m just a loser.” Yeah, it’s bad. It’s really bad. As a matter of fact, God created a place called hell for all the people for whom he disapproves of and everybody in this room, God disapproves of. You are loved. Have a nice day.

“No wait. You’ve got to give me something here.” So if God disapproves of me, and I need his stamp of approval, I don’t want to be addicted to man’s approval, I want God’s approval, I really want God’s approval! How do I get it? You can’t. That’s it. All eight of those attitudes, you haven’t had those. You haven’t. Our hearts are filled with pride. We put ourselves first. We’ve compromised and been cowards in front of people and not stood for Christ. And God disapproves of all of that.

God has only given out one gold star. And you didn’t get it. So, do you remember when Jesus at the beginning of his ministry came to John the Baptist? John was baptizing people. He was baptizing. Jesus came and he wanted to be baptized. And when Jesus was baptized, there was a dove that descended. And it was the mark of the Holy Spirit, descending on Jesus.

And then we’re told that there was a voice from heaven. And do you remember what the voice said? So this is God the Father, speaking of God the Son. And t his is what it said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” God’s stamp of approval was given to Jesus Christ. It was the only gold star God ever gave. Everybody else got gray dots.

At the end of his lifetime, three years later, Jesus crawled up on a cross, and do you know what God the Father in that moment was saying and doing to his Son? He was treating Jesus as if he disapproved of his life. Like, “I don’t get it. At the beginning of his ministry he said he approved, at the end of his ministry, he’s treating him like he disapproved.” Yeah. In the moment when Jesus was hanging on the cross, Jesus was absorbing every gray dot of every person who would ever believe. God was treating Jesus as if he disapproved of his life so that all those who would repent and believe could be treated as if they had gotten the gold star.

The gospel is simply this: you can’t get God’s approval. Jesus got God’s approval. And only those who are willing to exchange their gray dots for Jesus’ gold star are going to be approved by God when they stand before him in judgment. So are you trying to get God’s approval by getting gold stars and doing things and checking boxes and “I went to church” and “I gave money” and “I’m a good person.” Is that what you’re trying to do? Because if that’s you, you’re going to hell.

But if you’re a person who humbly comes and says, “I’ve got all this sin. I’m living my life for the approval of others. I have disobeyed God in so many different ways and yet, I am willing to humble myself and mourn and grieve over my sin. And I want to exchange all of my gray dots for what Jesus did on that cross.” If you will embrace him by faith, then in the end, you will be found in Christ. You will be treated as if you lived the life of Christ. And God will exchange3 your disapproval for Christ’s approval in you.

This is the way that Paul said it in Philippians 3, “Be found in him not having a righteousness” or an approval “of my own that comes from keeping the law” and checking boxes and getting gold stars “but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” You get God’s approval not by what you do, you get God’s approval by what you believe. That what Jesus did on that cross was full payment for everything I’ve ever done in disapproval. And I receive the approval of God because of what Christ has done on my behalf.

Do you believe it? Have you ever changed that default setting in your heart from a rule-keeper, religious person to just simply embracing what Christ did on your behalf. Listen, if you believe it, it will radically alter what you do. If you believe that you have been given God’s approval, you will live for God’s approval. And you will be dislodged from gaining the approval, the attention and the acceptance of other people because you have it in Christ.