Killing Our Addiction to Human Praise
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.000 | Every one of us is born with an addiction for human praise.
00:00:08.000 | We want people to like us, but we also want people to praise us.
00:00:11.000 | And if we're not careful, we can feed on human praise.
00:00:15.000 | We get addicted to likes on Facebook and Instagram and retweets,
00:00:18.000 | and our day is only going well if people favorite us or heart us or share us.
00:00:23.000 | We want personal praise gone viral.
00:00:26.000 | So what does our addiction to human praise do to us,
00:00:28.000 | and how can we sever the source of this addiction?
00:00:31.000 | To help, here's a clip from John Piper's sermon,
00:00:33.000 | "The Love of Human Praise as the Root of Unbelief."
00:00:36.000 | Here's what he said.
00:00:38.000 | Faith is drinking living water for the satisfaction of our souls.
00:00:44.000 | This is John 4. This is John 6.35.
00:00:48.000 | "Come to me. I'm water. I'm living water. You drink from me."
00:00:53.000 | That's what faith is.
00:00:54.000 | Faith is a coming to Jesus to drink living water into our desperately thirsty souls
00:01:00.000 | so that our souls are rested, satisfied, comforted, deeply happy
00:01:08.000 | in all that God is for us in Jesus.
00:01:11.000 | Now when that happens, it drives out the enslaving craving for the praise of man.
00:01:19.000 | You don't need it!
00:01:21.000 | Once you have tasted this water, the well of Jesus,
00:01:27.000 | the well of all that God is in His approval in Christ,
00:01:33.000 | who needs the approval of man anymore?
00:01:37.000 | This is a barometer of your faith.
00:01:40.000 | How desperately do you crave people liking you?
00:01:45.000 | It's okay to want to be liked.
00:01:47.000 | I mean, nobody likes to be disliked.
00:01:49.000 | We're talking about a craving, a needing, a control on your life.
00:01:54.000 | I've got to be liked. I've got to be approved. I've got to be praised.
00:01:56.000 | I need, I need, I need.
00:01:58.000 | And it's an addiction.
00:02:00.000 | It's a controlling bondage on our lives to need more praise,
00:02:06.000 | more statistics in our favor, more kind words, less criticism,
00:02:11.000 | more, more, more, more.
00:02:13.000 | And it never satisfies.
00:02:15.000 | It's got a buzz to it like drugs.
00:02:17.000 | It's got a buzz to it.
00:02:19.000 | And then it's got a hangover to it.
00:02:21.000 | It's the way it works.
00:02:23.000 | When you have tasted the beauty of God and the approval of God in Christ,
00:02:28.000 | the addiction of human approval is broken and you are free.
00:02:33.000 | So, God, come and grant right now
00:02:41.000 | that our eyes would be opened to see your glory
00:02:47.000 | and that taste buds on the tongue of our soul would be awakened
00:02:54.000 | so that we can taste how sweet the living water is,
00:02:59.000 | sweeter than honey, sweeter than human praise,
00:03:03.000 | and grant us, therefore, faith and set us free.
00:03:11.000 | May God do that for you.
00:03:13.000 | Father, we're all in this together.
00:03:15.000 | There's no finger pointing here.
00:03:17.000 | Thank you, Jesus.
00:03:19.000 | Thank you for putting up this Word in front of us,
00:03:22.000 | for showing us some of the reasons why we have a hard time believing you,
00:03:26.000 | trusting you, resting in you.
00:03:28.000 | We invite you collectively.
00:03:30.000 | I do. I don't know if I can speak for everybody,
00:03:33.000 | but all of us who are thus minded,
00:03:37.000 | we invite you, do a crucifying work afresh in our lives.
00:03:43.000 | Take the axe of grace and the Spirit
00:03:47.000 | and sever the root of our love affair
00:03:51.000 | with the praise of man,
00:03:53.000 | that we may believe and glorify you.
00:03:57.000 | I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
00:04:00.000 | Amen.
00:04:01.000 | That clip was taken from John Piper's sermon,
00:04:03.000 | "The Love of Human Praise as the Root of Unbelief,"
00:04:05.000 | which he preached on September 20, 2009.
00:04:08.000 | You can find that entire sermon at DesiringGod.org.
00:04:11.000 | For more on how this love of praise manifests itself online,
00:04:15.000 | see an old episode we recorded, episode number 61,
00:04:18.000 | which is titled "Twitter Goals and Humble Brags,"
00:04:22.000 | "Twitter Goals and Humble Brags," episode number 61.
00:04:25.000 | And we have received a lot of questions
00:04:28.000 | over the past few months on the abuse of pastoral authority.
00:04:33.000 | How do I know if my pastor is a spiritual bully?
00:04:36.000 | That's the topic on the table tomorrow.
00:04:38.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:04:39.000 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
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