00:00Hello everyone, my name is William Chambers. It is good to be here with you guys today.
00:04It's good to look into the Word of God with people that want to look into the Word of God
00:08and with people that might not so much want to look into the Word of God. Let us go ahead
00:13and
00:13dive in. Today, if I had a title for today's message, I would call it Stop Building Your
00:20Identity on Human Approval. Many people spend their whole lives controlled by the opinions of others.
00:32Compliments lift many people real high, but criticism crushes them very low, and rejection
00:40shakes their whole entire identity, and this is not how God wants us to live. Jesus shows us another
00:48way, a life rooted so deeply in God that human instability no longer controls our inner peace.
00:57God is saying, I want your emotional dependency to be upon me and not others. Now, when he was in
01:05Jerusalem at the Passover and the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles
01:10which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men, and he needed not
01:17that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Jesus loved people without losing himself
01:26in people. What am I saying? Jesus, the Bible says Jesus did not commit himself unto them. This was a
01:33Passover day, and people seen his miracles. Many people had believed in Jesus, but they had believed in
01:39Jesus because of the miracles. That's why Jesus did not commit himself unto them. There's a difference
01:45between being impressed with Jesus and truly trusting him. And Jesus would have reserved himself. He said,
01:52this is not true. Trust in me. You're just impressed with the miracles. This is why Jesus withdrew himself.
01:58He said that this is not genuine trust. Jesus was able to stay focused on his mission because he was
02:06anchored in something deeper than public opinion. He was anchored in God. So if they're rejecting me,
02:14I can still do what God say. If they're praising me, I can still do what God say because none
02:20of that
02:20deeply moves me because they don't give me my identity. I don't get my identity from that.
02:27The Bible said he needed not that any man should testify of him. Jesus did not need human validation.
02:36It's good to have human validation, but it's another thing to need it and to depend on it.
02:41Spiritually grounded people are encouraged. We like encouragement. We like support. We are
02:48encouraged by love and support, but we are not emotionally dependent on constant affirmation
02:55to function. We should be playing our drums for the audience of one. I'm seeking God's approval.
03:02I hope that he likes my drum playing. I'm not necessarily doing this for you, but if you're benefiting
03:08from this, that's great, but I am doing this because I want to please God. Help us, oh God,
03:14to seek approval from you. Now, what I want to say is relationships are valuable. They are valuable,
03:20but they are never designed to replace God as the center of our stability. No matter how great the
03:27relationship, God should always be the center of your stability. God, so if God tells you to do
03:34something, no matter what they say, you're still going to do it. No matter what they don't say,
03:38you're still going to do it. God should be the center of our stability. What are we talking about?
03:44We're talking about stop building your identity on human approval. Build your identity upon God.
03:52Lord, help us to do this. In Jesus' name we pray and say amen.
04:05Lord, help us to disagree with you.
04:06Lord, help us to do this. In Jesus' name we pray and say amen.
04:31Amen.
04:31You
