The Power of Acceptance

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, September 27th.

The Truth Network Podcast is playing now. ...unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Now, rejection is one of the most painful emotional experiences anybody can go through. The feeling of being unwanted, unloved, or unworthy, that is the spirit and the feeling of rejection.

Nobody wants me, I'm unworthy, nobody loves me. They keep wondering why there is no real contentment in their Christian life. They wonder why if having been saved by the grace of God, reading the Bible, praying, going to church, doing all the things they know to do, why isn't it that in spite of everything they do, there's just something out there that's still always missing.

They just can't quite get their relationship to the Lord just right. Well, if you and I understood full of the impact of rejection, we would understand why some people's behavior is so illogical and so bizarre, why they respond in circumstances and situations the way they do, what they are really feeling and what they're expressing is, they're expressing their sense of rejection, I don't feel wanted, I don't feel loved, I don't feel like I'm worth anything. So as a result of that, their reactions and their responses to each other are oftentimes put them in a position where people do reject them. If we traced the difficulties, the heartaches, the burdens, the hardships, the broken marriages, the broken homes, the whole picture, the racial disturbances throughout our nation in many cities, is it not because people feel rejected and unwanted?

Nobody wants to feel like nobody cares. But the problem is that sometimes that is an inner feeling when it's not factual. You say, what in the world has that to do with Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6?

It has everything to do with it. Look down if you will at verse 6. He says, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Now he says in verse 4, according as he hath chosen us, how? In Christ Jesus, in him. He says we are accepted, how?

In Christ Jesus, in him. Now let me show you what he's saying and the first thing I want you to jot down and the four things I want to say about the power of acceptance. And that is our relationship to him and the awareness of our acceptance by him. First of all, the reality of that acceptance. Is our acceptance before God something that we merely feel at times?

It sort of comes and goes according to my performance, my obedience and my lack of it. Or is my acceptance before God a scriptural, basic, divine fact given in the Word of God? Now listen to what he says. He says, now watch this, he says we have been accepted in the beloved. That means because of our relationship to Jesus Christ, God the Father, watch this now, God the Father has looked upon your life and my life and because at some time in our life we said, I do recognize my sinfulness, I do need the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, I do accept his death on the cross as atonement for my sin, I do here and now accept him and receive him as my Savior.

Because we have done that. He says we've been joined to Christ spiritually so that we are now in him. In his life and he says he is in us.

Here's what he says. On the basis of that, God the Father has looked down upon this life and when you came along he says, accept it, accept it. The stamp of approval has been placed upon every single one of God's children. Accept it, he accepted you in the beloved.

Now watch this. The crucial question is, when did he accept you? Before the foundation of the world, before you and I were ever born, ever created, he says that God the Father looked down into endless eternity, into this segment of time called the space of time on earth, into the ultimate eternity and he saw and knew because he's omniscient, everybody who would ever be born. Now the only thing he required of mankind is that men would accept him, that is accept his gift of redemption and salvation from their sin on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ. But he says he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Now here's what that says to us. God did not accept you and you do not have the stamp of God's eternal acceptance in your life today based on your performance. Now listen, the world today accepts us or rejects us on the basis of three things.

One of three things are all three. They accept us on the basis of their performance. You do a good job, great.

You don't do a good job, get out. That's a form of rejection. Secondly, on the basis of our appearance. I like being around you, you're good looking.

I don't want to be around you, you're not dressed right. Thirdly, on the basis of our status. You have a certain position in the society and you don't, so I don't want to associate with you, I want to associate with you. That's the way the world operates. God chose you and me not on the basis of our performance because now watch this. Before the world ever began, he saw every act of sin you'd ever commit and God knowing all the evil, all the wickedness, all the stench, all the vile, all the garbage, all the sin, all the disobedience, all the rebellion, all that stuff, he saw every bit of that and he chose you before the foundation of the world and put the stamp of acceptance upon you, listen, before you could ever do anything to prove yourself before God. And the only thing he says that you and I must do is to accept his acceptance which comes through Jesus Christ.

Now watch this because you see, this is a basic problem in a lot of people's lives. That because of our relationship to Jesus Christ, you have been made accepted. You say, I don't feel accepted, has nothing to do with it.

You say, in fact, I don't even act acceptable, has nothing to do with it. When you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, what happens is the reality of the experience of acceptance becomes yours. You receive acceptance already chosen before the foundation of the world. Now listen, if you disobey God, you're going to be chastised.

But now watch this, very important that you and I remember this for two reasons, for ourselves and for our children. If you and I disobey God, having received him as our Savior, God rejects my disobedient action. God never rejects me.

He will reject your act of disobedience and chastise you for it. But he never rejects you as a person. He said, for example, he said, he that cometh to me in, I will in no wise cast out, which is his way of saying, anyone who comes to me in my son Jesus Christ, he says, I won't reject him. God does not reject us, we reject him.

God has never rejected anybody who's come to him through his son. We reject him by rejecting him his son. He said, he that has seen me has seen the Father. He says, I and the Father are one. He says, if you know me, you know the Father. If you receive me, you receive the Father. To reject me, Jesus said, is to reject the Father. So that God the Father has provided acceptance for all of us in his son.

And the key to that now is it has nothing to do with performance. It has nothing to do with whether I'm going to live up to it. Now, let me ask you a question now. How many of you have set standards for your life that you've tried to live up to at some time? Let's be honest now. You've set some kind of standards in your life that you'd like to live up to. You're not being very honest, come on. You've set them, that's right, you've set them up there and you've not lived up to them. Now, let me ask you a question. How many of you believe that God has standards for your life? How many of you? All right. How many of you feel like you lived up to your own standards?

No takers. Let me ask you a question. If you didn't live up to your own standards, how many of you think you've lived up to God's standards? Here's what I want you to see. That is an absolute impossible task. If we can't live up to our own standards and our standards are not perfect, how could we expect to live up to God's standards and get His approval if we can't live up to our own?

We certainly can't live up to His. He knew before the creation of the world you were going to blow it a thousand times. And you know what? Having foreknown that you were going to blow it, He chose to love you and save you and accept you knowing all the junk that was going to be in your life. Now listen. Our feeling of rejection of not quite feeling that we have God's approval and God's acceptance is one of Satan's choices, tools of cheating us out of the liberty that God has provided for us in Christ Jesus, our Lord. He says before the foundation of the world, He accepted us so that we are accepted on the basis of our relationship to Jesus Christ on the basis of how good or how bad we're going to be because you see, He already knows all that. That doesn't give me license to sin. God hates sin and hates actions of sin, but listen, He never hates the sinner.

Now watch this. God rejects acts of disobedience, but He never rejects the person. He will not and cannot reject us as His children.

Now watch this. Once a person is able to accept his acceptance in God, that God loves me, hallelujah, He will never change his mind about me the same yesterday, today, and forever. God always loved me. I am always accepted by God, makes no difference what I do. If I disobey Him, I'm going to be chasing for it. I'm going to pay the penalty of my disobedience, but it has nothing to do with God's loving acceptance of me.

Now listen. When you and I are able to just rest in and accept the fact, I don't have to live up to anything. Let me ask you a question. What standard do you and I have to live up to, to be made acceptable before God? Is the Ten Commandments.

No. The Bible specifically says the purpose of the Ten Commandments was to make me aware that I was a sinner, that I needed God, and that within myself I am totally inadequate. The Ten Commandments was not given for me to reach up to that level to be accepted before God.

God did not give it for me to be accepted by. He gave the Ten Commandments for me to show me and to show you our inability, our incapacity to live up to God's standard of the Ten Commandments. That thrusts us upon Him totally to trust in Him to do in us and through us through Jesus Christ, but we could never do. Abraham was saved by faith. When the Ten Commandments came along, men were still saved by faith, not matching up to the Ten Commandments. He says in James, every single one of us is guilty of breaking all ten of them. Guilty of one, you've broken the whole law because it isn't ten.

It's one law with ten compartments to it, but it's one law. Now listen, what he's saying here is this. We have been accepted and once I'm able to accept my acceptance, the thing that that does for me and for you is to liberate us.

Here's what happens. Our motive changes. We don't keep the Ten Commandments because if we don't, God's going to wipe us out. We want to obey the law of God and to be obedient to Him.

Why? Because we love Him. Now listen, there is rest.

There is liberty. There's a whole new sense of motivation. There's a new sense of attitude. And you know what else happens? Listen, once we're able to accept the acceptance of God, you know what happens to us? We begin to be able to accept other people regardless of their status, regardless of their appearance, and regardless of their performance. You just accept people for being somebody.

And another thing that happens is this. When you and I realize our acceptance, what do we say? We are realizing how much God loves us. Listen, once you and I are able to accept, listen, accept the unconditional love of God for ourselves, then we are able to do what?

To pull that unconditional love out on somebody else, and they don't have to do anything to deserve it. The last thing I want to share with you here, that's this. And that is the readjustments that you and I may have to make once we begin to be able to accept God's acceptance and His love in our heart. We're going to have to make an adjustment, and here's what the adjustment's going to be.

Now watch this. Feelings and facts are not always the same. Listen, what is the fact, what is the feeling about your relationship to God? You may feel that God hasn't accepted you fully and totally. You may feel like that you don't really quite have God's acceptance, and you don't feel like that you're really worth very much in His eyes.

It's surely not worth nearly as much as most people that you know. Now that's what you feel. But what's the fact? The fact is God has fully accepted you. The fact is that God fully loves you.

The fact is that you're just as worth as much as anybody else on the face of the earth in the eyes of God. You see, our feelings drag us down, and the facts stand us up. God does not want us living by feelings. He wants us to live by fact. Now, how many of you are saved by feeling?

Right, not a one. You are saved by accepting what? The fact, the truth of the Word of God says, the moment you're willing by faith to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, His death, as payment for your sin, you are saved in that moment. You did that, and some of you didn't feel anything.

Somebody said, this is the way it is. You accepted that as a fact, and you said, Lord, on the basis of what you said, I do receive you as my Savior. Now, man, later on, you really felt something, and we've been feeling something ever since. But you weren't saved by your feeling. Now, listen. When you're able to accept your acceptance in the eyes of God because you're a person, not because of how you perform or who you are, how much you give or what you haven't done, when you're able to accept His love and His acceptance, you know what's going to happen at first? You're going to get a little bit uncomfortable. You're going to think, now, wait a minute, man, I'm not trying as hard as I used to try. Hold on here. I must be getting into the backslide right here in front of myself. Because we have been at it for so long, trying to live up to the law, trying to be accepted, checking out, did I have my private devotions this morning? Were they ten minutes or five minutes?

Oh, my goodness, I forgot them. There's going to be a catastrophe before I get to work this morning because I didn't spend 31 minutes before God in prayer. It's funny to us, but I want to tell you something. You'd be surprised how many very, very committed godly people who live under that every day. You know what will happen? You'll have to readjust yourself to begin to get comfortable. You say, now, wait a minute, you mean to get comfortable sinning against God? You know I don't mean that.

Here's what I mean. I mean getting comfortable living and resting and walking free of this awesome load that you've carried all of your life of feeling rejected. Because, you see, once you feel accepted, you know what happens?

It's all gone. You stop having to force yourself to live up to expectations you cannot meet. And, you see, if you've been trying to live up to God's standard and get His approval by keeping the Ten Commandments and looking this way and thinking that way and saying this and not saying that, you already know you can't do that.

So you only have one or two choices. Live the rest of your life knowing that you're going to be living in total disobedience to God and under the great load of guilt of claiming what He's offered and accepting it by faith. You are accepted in whom?

In the beloved. And the guilt rolls off and the burden rolls away and you get freed and liberated to do what? To accept other people you've never been able to accept and to love folks that you never were able to love and to receive love and to receive acceptance and the total of all that says, man, you get liberated to live your life the way Almighty God intended for you to live it. Now, if you've never received Jesus Christ as your Savior, what you've done is you have rejected His acceptance. And the only way for you to receive His acceptance is to receive Christ as your Savior. And the moment you're able to receive Him and willing to receive Him, all the acceptance of God becomes a living part of your life, an experience in your life.

And I want to invite somebody here, if you've never received Jesus Christ, to just take Him as your Savior today. And if you have identified with any one part or a great part of what I've said, you need to go home today or right where you are, you need to tell the Lord, Lord, I want you to let that soak into my mind and heart because I need acceptance and I want acceptance and you've said I have acceptance. Lord, I want you to make your acceptance of me a reality in my life because I want this burden off. I want to be freed. I want to be liberated. I want to rest in what you have provided for me in Christ Jesus. And my friend, if you will allow Him, He will liberate you to become the person.

He intended you to be all the days of your life, not somebody that you'll make yourself, but somebody He will become in your life. Thank you for listening to The Power of Acceptance. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.