On Sunday, June 4, 2017, Eastside Presbyterian Church Lead Pastor Mark Auffarth preached a convicting sermon about seeking the approval of men and women, rather than accepting the unconditional approval of God in his message, “Approval Addiction.” If you would like to read my summary of Pastor Auffarth’s message, please read on. . . .
“Approval Addiction”
From the “Who Is This Jesus?” Sermon Series
By Mark Auffarth, Lead Pastor
Eastside Presbyterian Church
Greenville, South Carolina
Sunday, June 4, 2017
Text: John 5:41-44
Jesus said, “I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (English Standard Version)
Quote of the Week:
“Remember, the only real leader you have is Jesus Christ. Unless you are daily taught of Him you will not be able to make the right decisions. To get to Him you need to pray, but it needs to be prayer of a unique quality. You can pray all night and all day and still not be in touch with His will. Prayer is not full and effective unless it adds up to our learning to wait upon the Lord for Him to make known His will. He needs to break down our tendency to cry out in prayer ‘Your will be done,’ and then to get up and still try to impose our will on circumstances.” (C. John Miller, The Heart of a Servant Leader)
Prayer of the Week:
“O God of grace, you have placed my sin on Jesus, my substitute, and you have given me His righteousness. You have clothed me with a bridegroom’s robe and decked me with jewels of holiness. But in my Christian walk I am still in rags. My best prayers are stained with sin; my penitential tears are so much impurity; my confessions of wrong are so weak; my receiving the Spirit is filled with selfishness. I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe to bring to cover my sins; no loom to weave my own righteousness. I am always standing clothed in filthy garments and by grace am always receive change of raiment, for you always justify the ungodly. I am always going into the far country and always returning him as a prodigal; always saying, ‘Father, forgive me,’ and you are always bringing forth the best robe. Every morning, let me wear it, every evening return in it, go out to the day’s work in it; be married in it, be wound in death in it, stand before the great white throne in it, enter heaven in it shining as the sun. Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, the exceeding wonder of grace. Amen.” (Matthew Henry)
Summary of and Editorializing by Bob Stouffer
I ran across an article in People magazine. I was looking for something on the Internet, and I found, in this edition of People magazine, a part-serious and part-tongue-in-cheek survey of a “Sindex.” This was an index of sin! Each sin was accompanied by a coefficient from worst (murder) to lesser sin (cohabitation). Overall, readers admitted to 4.6 sins a month! Is that how you would categorize yourself?!
It dawned on me that we Christians are all about fighting sin. Is this the way to go about it? Do we make a list of our sins, figure how serious they are, and then live in accordance with this “sindex”?
The people confronting Jesus in today’s passage of Scripture were concerned about how Jesus was addressing sin. They didn’t understand their own sin. You’re probably thinking this is a “sin sermon,” and you’re concerned that I will heap guilt on you. We know how effective guilt is in motivating us. I’m not going to do that.
There may have been different sins in Jesus’ time, but we still have the exact-same view of sin today. Sin is not about higher or lower on the “sindex.” Sin is not about external wrong-doing as much as it’s about the predisposition of your heart. Sin or righteousness is about the condition of our hearts.
Sin is who we are. Our hearts are already inclined to sin. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time were “good, religious” people. He went right for the jugular in verse 42 of this passage. They did not have the love of God in their hearts! BOOM! It’s all about what you love.
So what is Jesus trying to say here. Everything you are and do is “surface.” We obsess over the external. We add to the law. Our entire focus is on ourselves. We don’t love God, and we don’t love people. Sin is a condition of the heart — about what you love. These religious leaders are more committed to things other than God.
Let’s look at two themes from this passage today:
HERO WORSHIP and
PLAYING TO THE CROWD
HERO WORSHIP
Jesus was referring to the people who were trying to liberate Israel from the Romans. These efforts came to nothing. People were killed and scattered as a result of these attempts. The Pharisees were a different political party than the zealots. The common sentiment was the desire to throw off the Romans and their oppression. But many of those people came “in their own name.” The people were pining for a Messiah, the hero who would free them, so the people had rallied to pseudo-messiahs.
Waiting on the Messiah is found all the way back in Genesis. But the men of Jesus’ time were interested in self-centered pursuit, to be freed from their bondage, and that’s why they missed Jesus completely. That’s the essence of the sin, isn’t it? They were committed to their own lives and what they wanted to be free from.
Has anything changed in the world? Who is your hero? Who or what do you hope will save you from your circumstances?
Our country is committed to politicians saving us, and we are angry when those people do not represent our interests. We have violence between those who are for and against our President, especially on college campuses. People are forming sides and angry with each other. There are few voices of reason. Most of what passes as news is partisan. The pundits indicate their candidates can do no wrong. Even in the evangelical church, pastors prophesied that Donald Trump was “anointed.”
What we’re really looking for is someone who will preserve our comfortable life. We’re looking for legislation that will bring us comfort, never a discouraging word, where the skies are not cloudy all days! Is this about going back to yesteryear for you? Let’s not be fooled that God is a Republican or Democrat. Yes, we should be involved in politics and have respect for our institutions and fight for the lives of the unborn, but we should also understand the many other social issues to which we turn a blind eye — racism, poor environmental stewardship, mistreatment of aliens, prejudice about refugees, etc. God’s not on either team!
Some years back, I preached from the book of Joshua at a point when he was ready to enter Jericho. A man with a sword confronted Joshua. Joshua asked, are you on our side or their side? “Neither,” the man [who was representing God] said. It’s not whether He was on Joshua’s team; it was about Joshua being on “His team.” And let the chips fall where they may.
Can we love people well, even those we hate? It’s not about us! It’s not about invoking God to OUR viewpoint, invoking God to do what WE think He should do. It’s about our being on His team and doing what HE wants. He has brought us to this time, because He wants to see what we are going to do as the body of Christ. He is saying that He is the only thing worth committing to.
PLAYING TO THE CROWD
Dan Lewis said in a blog entry that Rick Barry had hit almost 90% of his free throw shots in his NBA career with a weird underhand “granny” style. From a physics standpoint, Barry felt the style worked better. Scientists agreed. The great Wilt Chamberlin made 54% of his free through over the course of his career. On the day he scored 100 points, the NBA record, he tried the granny style and hit 28 of 32 of his free throws. Why did Chamberlin give that unorthodox style up? It looked silly, and he was too proud.
Do we play to the praise of the crowd? Who doesn’t do that? Aren’t we obsessed with playing to the praise of the crowd because we have to project a certain image? The religious leaders of Jesus’ time were like this. Jesus pointed out they did not love God, but they did accept praise from men. The religious leaders must have assumed that Jesus was in it for the praise.
Jesus pointed out that hypocrites fasted to get attention. Jesus told the Pharisees that He did not accept praise from men. The Pharisees were playing to the crowd.
It seems like we are always playing to the crowd. Who are you playing to?
“Peculiar People” is a performance group that does a great skit, yelling at each other in the car, arriving at church, and changing their behavior on a dime, acting all righteous, because you can’t be that way at church!
To whom are you playing? Your boss? You don’t show failure in any way, or you might not move ahead. As a student, you may want to impress the group you want to be a part of. Maybe it’s your father. Maybe you have a huge father wound, and you’re attempting to impress him during your entire life, even when he has been dead for a long time. You might even say, after his death, “Dad, you would have loved this.” Such was the experience of Elton John, who attempted to earn his father’s favor, even after his father’s death.
Maybe we do things to impress others through the cars we drive or the homes in which we live. Some of us have to have perfect, spotless homes in which to entertain friends — to show this is the way we always live.
Maybe it’s the way we talk, hiding cracks in our lives, soothing over the rough spots, never admitting weakness or failure. My person favorite is making people laugh, so I know that they like me. That’s why I’m always cracking jokes. See. I struggle this way, too. We have a terrible drive for approval. We pursue approval, but approval doesn’t do it for us. It’s a dogged pursuit to fill our souls.
A U2 song talks about climbing walls and mountains but still not finding what they are looking for. Have you found what you are looking for?
Jesus is the one who broke into your darkness. He is the hero of your story. You don’t have to work to impress Him, because He already loves you. Christianity turns “obey-to-be-accepted” upside-down as “you-are-accepted-because-I-love-you-and-died-for you.”
Sin puts us on an endless path of trying to impress others over loving Jesus, yet there is no guarantee that these people will actually love you! Jesus knows the depths of your soul and the motives of your heart! “I know! I know! And I love you,” Jesus says to you.
We must come to Jesus with a clean heart and receive His love and redemption.
That’s the Gospel.
And it changes everything.
drbobinc 