{"id":37607,"date":"2021-03-05T12:23:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T12:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/rich-and-famous-are-searching-for-acceptance\/"},"modified":"2021-03-05T12:23:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T12:23:00","slug":"rich-and-famous-are-searching-for-acceptance","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/rich-and-famous-are-searching-for-acceptance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rich and Famous Are Searching for Acceptance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some of the most insightful secular writers of our time have pointed out that a lot of our drive in life, and a lot of our angst and dysfunction, goes back to a fear that we are not accepted.<\/p>\n\n<p>The famous playwright Arthur Miller (who wrote <em>Death of a Salesman<\/em>) stopped believing in God as a teenager. But, decades later, he said this:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I feel like I&#39;ve carried around this sense of judgment. I could not escape it. I still felt like I needed to prove myself to others: to have somebody tell me that I was okay, that I was acceptable, that I was approved of.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>He had replaced the God of Christmas with the &quot;god&quot; of audience approval. He was still looking for someone to tell him that he was accepted, and not under judgment. He never quite found it.<\/p>\n\n<p>Madonna said this in <em>Vanity Fair<\/em> magazine:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>All of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy. I&#39;m always struggling with that fear &#8230; My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that&#39;s always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I&#39;ve become somebody, I still have to prove that I&#39;m Somebody. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3368,3374,3433,3447,3552,3717,3827,3861,3931,3959,4180,4203,4204,4254,4313,4790,4910,4917,4923,4972],"tax_ctp_topics":[384,396],"class_list":["post-37607","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-acceptance","tax_ctp_tags-achievement","tax_ctp_tags-approval","tax_ctp_tags-assurance","tax_ctp_tags-celebrities","tax_ctp_tags-criticism","tax_ctp_tags-doubt","tax_ctp_tags-emptiness","tax_ctp_tags-failure","tax_ctp_tags-fame","tax_ctp_tags-human-limitations","tax_ctp_tags-identity","tax_ctp_tags-identity-in-christ","tax_ctp_tags-insecurity","tax_ctp_tags-judgment","tax_ctp_tags-rejection","tax_ctp_tags-self-condemnation","tax_ctp_tags-self-esteem","tax_ctp_tags-self-image","tax_ctp_tags-significance"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Rich and Famous Are Searching for Acceptance - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/rich-and-famous-are-searching-for-acceptance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Rich and Famous Are Searching for Acceptance - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some of the most insightful secular writers of our time have pointed out that a lot of our drive in life, and a lot of our angst and dysfunction, goes back to a fear that we are not accepted. 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