Latest / Bible Chat Devotional / May 22 - The Approval That Matters

Transcript

May 22 - The Approval That Matters · Bible Chat Devotional

• 0:02
  Welcome to Bible Chat, where we have devotional conversations
• 0:06
  rooted in scripture and relevant for.
• 0:07
  Today, May 22nd, Leading with integrity.
• 0:13
  Think about the last time you made a choice because of what
• 0:16
  other people would think. Maybe you went along with
• 0:19
  something you weren't comfortable with.
• 0:21
  Maybe you stayed quiet when you should have spoken up.
• 0:24
  Maybe you said something just because it was the popular
• 0:26
  opinion, not because you actually believed it.
• 0:30
  We all do it. The pull toward fitting in and
• 0:33
  earning approval is one of the most consistent pressures in
• 0:36
  life, and it doesn't go away with age.
• 0:40
  Proverbs chapter 16, verses 10 to 13 paint a picture of a
• 0:44
  leader whose words and decisions are guided by God.
• 0:49
  The wise king doesn't speak carelessly or pursue what's
• 0:51
  popular. His mouth reflects something
• 0:53
  higher. His lips are gracious.
• 0:56
  His judgement is sound, and the underlying reason is that his
• 1:00
  heart is in God's hands, turned wherever God wills.
• 1:04
  That's a remarkable image. Not a leader driven by ego or
• 1:08
  the crowd, but one who is genuinely responsive to God's
• 1:12
  guidance. And the principle isn't just for
• 1:14
  kings. It's for anyone whose decisions
• 1:17
  are noticed by others. Which, honestly, is all of us.
• 1:21
  Galatians. Chapter one, verse 10 makes the
• 1:23
  tension absolutely clear. For am I now seeking the
• 1:27
  approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man?
• 1:31
  If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of
• 1:34
  Christ. Paul doesn't soften it.
• 1:38
  He draws a straight line. You can chase human approval or
• 1:41
  you can serve Christ. But you cannot fully do both.
• 1:45
  Because the moment pleasing people becomes your primary
• 1:48
  goal, it will eventually cost you your integrity.
• 1:51
  You'll say what you don't believe.
• 1:53
  You'll do what you know isn't right, and slowly, quietly,
• 1:57
  you'll drift from who God made you to be.
• 1:59
  And then Galatians chapter 2, verse 20 gives us the foundation
• 2:03
  that makes any of this possible. I have been crucified with
• 2:07
  Christ. It is no longer I who live, but
• 2:10
  Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh.
• 2:13
  I live by faith in the Son of God.
• 2:16
  That verse is one of the most transformative statements in
• 2:19
  Scripture. It reframes your entire
• 2:22
  identity. You are not just trying harder
• 2:25
  to be a better person. You are living a new life.
• 2:28
  One where the old need for constant approval and self
• 2:31
  protection has been put to death and something new and freer has
• 2:35
  taken its place. When Christ lives in you, you
• 2:39
  don't need the crowds validation to feel secure.
• 2:42
  You don't need to perform for an audience.
• 2:44
  You can speak truth even when it's uncomfortable.
• 2:47
  You can make the right call even when it costs you socially.
• 2:51
  Not because you're fearless or perfect, but because your
• 2:54
  identity isn't built on what others think of you.
• 2:57
  It's built on who God says you are.
• 3:00
  This is one of the most countercultural things about
• 3:03
  following Jesus. In a world that is constantly
• 3:07
  telling you to manage your image and win people over, God is
• 3:10
  calling you to something deeper, to let Him shape your heart,
• 3:13
  your words, and your choices from the inside out, regardless
• 3:18
  of who's watching or what they'll think.
• 3:21
  That kind of integrity builds something that popularity never
• 3:24
  can. It builds trust.
• 3:26
  It builds character. It builds a life that actually
• 3:29
  means something, not just to you, but to the people around
• 3:33
  you who are watching, even if they never say so.
• 3:36
  Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for
• 3:39
  reminding me that I don't need to perform for anyone's
• 3:42
  approval. Help me to seek Your opinion
• 3:44
  above all else and to let that guide my words and my choices.
• 3:49
  Where I've been chasing the crowd instead of following you,
• 3:52
  bring me back. I want to live with genuine
• 3:54
  integrity, not because people are watching, but because Christ
• 3:58
  lives in me. Make my life a reflection of
• 4:01
  your character in every conversation, every decision,
• 4:04
  every ordinary moment. In Jesus name, Amen.
• 4:09
  What if the battles hitting your family are not random and your
• 4:12
  home can become a place where darkness loses every right to
• 4:15
  stay? The Secured Home is a powerful
• 4:18
  six book prayer series for believers who want to guard
• 4:20
  their households with biblical authority, peace, and confidence
• 4:24
  in Jesus Christ. Book 1.
• 4:26
  Guarded Thresholds fortifies every doorway, room, and entry
• 4:31
  point with prayerful protection. Book 2.
• 4:34
  Cleansed Rooms helps reclaim spaces marked by fear, unrest,
• 4:38
  and spiritual defilement. Book 3, Closed Breaches, exposes
• 4:43
  hidden access points and severs every agreement with darkness.
• 4:47
  Book 4, Broken Assignments, confronts oppression, torment,
• 4:52
  and attacks against your family. Book 5, Consecrated Walls,
• 4:57
  dedicates every space and rhythm of the home to God.
• 5:00
  Book 6, Abiding Peace, shows how to maintain spiritual order,
• 5:05
  rest, and holy presence every day.
• 5:07
  Order now on Amazon or visit prayerscripts.org.
• 5:12
  Now I invite you to spend time with God in today's three-year
• 5:15
  Bible reading plan. Proverbs chapter 16, verses 10
• 5:20
  to 15. World English Bible inspired
• 5:24
  judgments are on the lips of the king.
• 5:26
  He shall not betray his mouth. Honest balances and scales are
• 5:30
  Yahweh's. All the weights in the bag are
• 5:33
  His work. It is an abomination for kings
• 5:35
  to do wrong, for the throne is established by righteousness.
• 5:40
  Righteous lips are the delight of kings.
• 5:42
  They value one who speaks the truth.
• 5:44
  The King's wrath is a messenger of death, but a wise man will
• 5:48
  pacify it in the light of the King's face is life.
• 5:52
  His favor is like a cloud of the spring rain.
• 5:55
  Galatians chapters one to two world English Bible.
• 5:59
  Paul, an apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through
• 6:03
  Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead,
• 6:07
  and all the brothers who are with me to the assemblies of
• 6:09
  Galatia. Grace to you and peace from God
• 6:13
  the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our
• 6:16
  sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age
• 6:21
  according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory
• 6:25
  forever and ever. Amen.
• 6:28
  I marvel that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in
• 6:31
  the grace of Christ to a different good news.
• 6:35
  But there isn't another good news.
• 6:37
  Only there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the good
• 6:40
  news of Christ. But even though we or an Angel
• 6:44
  from heaven should preach to you any good news other than that
• 6:48
  which we preach to you, let him be cursed, as we have said
• 6:51
  before. So I now say again, If any man
• 6:54
  preaches to you any good news other than that which you
• 6:57
  received, let him be cursed. For am I now seeking the favor
• 7:01
  of men or of God, or am I striving to please men?
• 7:06
  For if I were still pleasing men, I wouldn't be a servant of
• 7:08
  Christ. But I make known to you,
• 7:11
  brothers, concerning the good news which was preached by me,
• 7:15
  that it is not according to man, for I didn't receive it from
• 7:19
  man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of
• 7:23
  Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my way of
• 7:26
  living in time past in the Jews religion, how that beyond
• 7:30
  measure I persecuted the Assembly of God and ravaged it.
• 7:35
  I advanced in the Jews religion beyond many of my own age, among
• 7:39
  my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the
• 7:42
  traditions of my Father's. But when it was the good
• 7:45
  pleasure of God who separated me from my mother's womb and called
• 7:49
  me through His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might
• 7:52
  preach him among the Gentiles, I didn't immediately confer with
• 7:57
  flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were
• 8:00
  apostles before me. But I went away into Arabia.
• 8:05
  Then I returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went
• 8:08
  up to Jerusalem to visit Peter and stayed with him 15 days.
• 8:13
  But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord's
• 8:16
  brother. Now about the things which I
• 8:19
  write to you, behold, before God I'm not lying.
• 8:23
  Then I came to the regions of Syria and Silesia.
• 8:27
  I was still unknown by face to the assemblies of Judea which
• 8:30
  were in Christ. But they only heard He who once
• 8:34
  persecuted us now preaches the faith that he once tried to
• 8:36
  destroy. So they glorified God in me.
• 8:40
  Then after a period of 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem
• 8:44
  with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me.
• 8:48
  I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the good news
• 8:52
  which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately, before
• 8:55
  those who were respected, for fear that I might be running or
• 8:58
  had run in vain. But not even Titus, who was with
• 9:03
  me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.
• 9:07
  This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in,
• 9:10
  who stolen to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ
• 9:13
  Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage, to whom we gave no
• 9:18
  place in the way of subjection. Not for an hour that the truth
• 9:22
  of the good news might continue with you, but from those who
• 9:25
  were reputed to be important. Whatever they were, it makes no
• 9:29
  difference to me. God doesn't show partiality to
• 9:32
  man. They, I say, who were respected,
• 9:35
  imparted nothing to me but to the contrary, when they saw that
• 9:39
  I had been entrusted with the good news for the uncircumcised,
• 9:43
  even as Peter with the good news for the circumcised.
• 9:47
  For he who worked through Peter in the apostleship with the
• 9:49
  circumcised also worked through me with the Gentiles.
• 9:53
  And when they perceived they grace that was given to me,
• 9:58
  James and Cephas and John, those who were reputed to be pillars,
• 10:02
  gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that
• 10:05
  we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision.
• 10:09
  They only asked us to remember the poor, which very thing I was
• 10:13
  also zealous to do. But when Peter came to Antioch,
• 10:16
  I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned.
• 10:21
  For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles,
• 10:25
  but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing
• 10:28
  those who were of the circumcision, and the rest of
• 10:32
  the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas
• 10:36
  was carried away with their hypocrisy.
• 10:39
  But when I saw that they didn't walk uprightly according to the
• 10:41
  truth of the good news, I said to Peter before them all, If
• 10:45
  you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews
• 10:49
  do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do,
• 10:55
  we being Jews by nature, and not Gentile sinners, yet knowing
• 10:59
  that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but
• 11:02
  through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ
• 11:06
  Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and
• 11:10
  not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be
• 11:13
  justified by the works of the Law.
• 11:16
  But if while we sought to be justified in Christ, we
• 11:19
  ourselves also were found sinners.
• 11:21
  Is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not, for if I build up
• 11:25
  again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law
• 11:29
  breaker. For I, through the law, died to
• 11:31
  the law, that I might live to God.
• 11:34
  I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I
• 11:37
  who live, but Christ lives in me that life which I now live in
• 11:42
  the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of
• 11:44
  God who loved me and gave himself up for me.
• 11:48
  I don't reject the grace of God, for if righteousness is through
• 11:52
  the law, then Christ died for nothing.
• 11:56
  Thanks for joining us on Bible Chat, where Scripture meets
• 11:59
  everyday life. If today's devotional encouraged
• 12:02
  you, share it with a friend and be sure to follow the podcast so
• 12:06
  you won't miss the next conversation.
• 12:08
  Until next time, stay rooted in truth, anchored in hope and
• 12:12
  walking. Daily with Jesus.