SPEAKER_00: There's a particular exhaustion that comes from living for everyone's approval.
SPEAKER_00: Reading the room, managing impressions, replaying conversations to check whether everyone is still happy with you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a weight that never quite settles down.
SPEAKER_00: Paul knew the burden of it and he names it head on.
SPEAKER_00: In Galatians 1:10, he asks this pointed question: Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God?
SPEAKER_00: Or am I trying to please people?
SPEAKER_00: If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Paul lays two audiences side by side, people and God.
SPEAKER_00: And he is direct in saying that you cannot ultimately serve both.
SPEAKER_00: Chase everyone's approval, and sooner or later you'll shift who God made you to be in order to keep it.
SPEAKER_00: But there is freedom hiding in his question.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you belong to God, his approval of you is already settled.
SPEAKER_00: You are not auditioning for it.
SPEAKER_00: You get to live for an audience of one and let the rest of the room go.
SPEAKER_00: Let's begin by thanking God that his approval isn't up for a vote.
SPEAKER_00: Thank him that in Christ, he already accepts you fully today before you've performed for anyone.
SPEAKER_00: And thank him that you don't have to earn from him what he has already freely given.
SPEAKER_00: Name the people whose opinion has had too much power over you.
SPEAKER_00: Tell him where the fear of disappointing someone has pulled you away from who he made you to be.
SPEAKER_00: And ask him to loosen that grip and to turn your eyes back to the only audience that matters.
SPEAKER_00: Picture the crowded room going quiet and just one face left looking at you with approval.
SPEAKER_00: Let this be your prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I live for an audience of one.
SPEAKER_00: Your approval is already mine, so I can let the rest go.
SPEAKER_00: Ask God to remind them again and again whose opinion actually decides their worth.
SPEAKER_00: You are the only audience we need.
SPEAKER_00: In your name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.