Derek Prince - Overcomming Guilt, Shame & Rejection

my theme to nine is overcoming guilt shame and rejection and I would suppose that there are maybe at least 25% of the people here this evening have one or other of those three problems guilt shame or rejection and there is a place where they can be healed tonight I'm going to speak about that the place is the cross and in Hebrews 10:14 we have this statement for by one sacrifice he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified that one sacrifice is the death of Jesus on the cross and notice that the language that's used he has perfected forever it's perfect and it goes on forever it never loses its validity and it never is incomplete by one sacrifice Jesus has made total provision for every need of humanity many people do not realize that the death of Jesus on the cross was a sacrifice in Hebrews 9 13 it says he Jesus offered himself through the Eternal Spirit to God Jesus was the priest he was the sacrifice he offered himself and he did it through the Eternal Spirit I remember the second time I went to a revival service I had no idea what it was it was in the Assemblies of God I've never heard of I didn't know anything about all this but I had been to one previous service when the Holy Spirit had put my hand up at the appeal I didn't put it up he put it up which is a frightening experience believe me so now I I had that enough knowledge to know they were going to do that kind of thing which was totally foreign to me so sure enough they got at the end of the message and everybody wants this put your hand up so I thought that somebody else did it for me last time I couldn't expect that to happen twice so I put my hand up and I did that's all they were waiting for then they carried on with the service later the pastor came to me and talked to me and I think he realized he had a problem on his hands and he said do you believe that Jesus Christ died for you I thought it over my whole background was in philosophy and definitions and I said to tell you the truth I can't see what the death of Jesus Christ 19 centuries ago could have to do with the sins I've committed in my lifetime and he didn't argue with me which was to his credit but they prayed for me and about two nights later in an army barrack room in the middle of the night Claire Doan me and my underwear I had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ which radically and permanently changed my whole life and that was 41 that was 50 58 years ago so this was no temporary flash of emotion but later when I was reading the New Testament and I was reading it in the original Greek I read that scripture Jesus through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to go on and I knew the meaning of the word eternal it means something that's out of time that's not subject to the limitations of time and then I saw the answer to my own question on the cross Jesus comprehended took upon himself the sins of all humanity from Adam to the last one that ever should ever is to be born it was not in within the limits of time it was an eternal sacrifice out of time and that completely solved my philosophical problems so I want to talk tonight about how I entered into this when I was when I met the Lord I was a soldier in the army and you know salvation brings promotion I was a medical orderly because I had been a conscientious objector so I was not eligible for a promotion but the armies of it mix up and it they sent me on a junior NCOs course in Leeds on this vast parade ground which stretches much further than this building here and being from a totally military background all my male relatives had been officers in the British Army I passed the test so then they had to promote me and I didn't know what was going on so I came back and a commanding officer who was a doctor sent for me and said we've made you a corporal I said yes sir he said then how's the cooking going well you know you learn in the army to be pretty discreet so I thought to myself it's about as bad as usual but I don't want to tell in that so I said seems about the same as usual sir he said didn't you know you with the Corporal cook of this unit I said no sir nobody told me when it you said we had to promote you and the only vacancy was for a coke so from now on you're the corporal cook and by title I continued that way for several years but I never did any cooking which was a real blessing for my cellar soldiers I can tell you that so that's how I became and I mean let me tell you I was a local acting unpaid Lance Corporal when I went on that course and I came back a corporal so you see promotion follows salvation I want to tell you how I got into this then the army sent me sent my unit which was number one light field ambulance to the Middle East and I spent the next three years in the deserts of North Africa Egypt what's the next country no the one West Libya that's right I have a little problem at night and then finally the Sudan well I was in the Battle of Alamein at a safe distance in the rear and then I followed the advancing forces up in my number one light field ambience but I developed an a skin infection on my right toe and they did everything they could because they really wanted to keep me in the unit but they they couldn't so I was admitted to hospital and I spent the next year in military hospitals in the Middle East and that is not an experience I would choose for anybody well I had sunk to the what john bunyan calls the slough of despond the pit of despair and I was sitting there in the bed thinking there's nothing left and then I opened my Bible and I was saying to myself I know if I have if I had faith God would heal me then the next thing I would say once I don't have faith and then I was back in the slob de-spawn but I opened my Bible by chance at Romans 10:17 and I read these words so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God so I said to myself if I don't have faith I can get it it comes and I want to tell every one of you then you don't need to be without faith it comes if you do the right thing the right thing is hearing the Word of God so I said I'm going to do this systematically myself with three colored pencils one blue one yellow and one red and the blue pencil was for every passage in the Bible that had anything to do with healing and I read the whole Bible through because I had plenty of time and you know what I ended up with a blue Bible so I really was convinced healing is in the Bible see being a philosopher I made everything as difficult as possible so I said sure God heals but he's not interested in the body he only heals the soul so then I was reading proverbs chapter 4 verses 23 22 and it said my son attend to my words incline thine ear unto my sayings let them not depart from thine eyes keep them in the midst of thine heart for their life to those who find them in health and the modern said medicine to all their flesh and when I read flesh I said not even a philosopher can make flesh mean soul so I saw that God had provided medicine for all my flesh my whole body well then I was in the Dena's gone for a long while and I was transferred to another hospital I narrowly avoided being translated transferred to a psychiatric hospital because I was telling the doctors by that time I believe God would heal me and something descended on me you know what it was was a Salvation Army Brigadier a female in brigadiere because in the Salvation Army if your husband dies you take his rank so husband and I'm and she was a militant salvation is but just as militant about speaking in tongues as others are about salvation and bless God she's with the Lord now but I always honor her memory she got hold of an of a New Zealand soldier and her her American lady coworker and she herself was Australian they got in this little four seater car and they drove 50 miles to Alabama on the Suez Canal where I was a patient and as she was fully attached he had a bonnet her ribbons everything she marched into the ward and over all the sister the nurse and said can I take this young man out and pray with him in my car sister said yes and she did they never asked me when I wanted to pray so I found myself sitting in the backseat of this little four seater car with the Australian Brigadier and the New Zealand driver and the in the front seat and the American lady cowork and a young woman from Oklahoma on the back seat beside me and we all started to pray and then this young woman beside me he began to vibrate and speak in tongues and then I began to vibrate and I wasn't choosing to do it and then everybody in the car again divided and then the whole car began to bite and we went stationary the engine was not running and the Thomas but I knew somehow that God was doing this for my benefit and that he wanted to convince me and so then this young lady got a message in tongues an utterance in tongues and the interpretation I don't remember the whole interpretation that I had never forgotten one particular part it said this and she was from Oklahoma and if you know America people in Oklahoma don't talk like graduates from Cambridge that is an understatement and but when she gave the interpretation it was in perfect Shakespearean English and I thought this has to be gone and now I'm coming to the point of what I'm going to say the interpretation was longer than this but this is the part I remember consider the work of Calvary a perfect work perfect in every respect and perfect in every aspect and I knew that the Lord was talking to me about the death of Jesus on the cross and that he was telling me it was perfect it was complete was nothing oh maybe it covered every knee but when I got out of the car I was just as sick as when I got in but I knew what I had to do consider the work of Calvary so putting that together with my experience with the scripture from Proverbs chapter four I went to the doctor and I said I want to be discharged at my own responsibility now he was a Nicodemus he was very interested so he didn't discharge me immediately he used to send me at night and ask me questions about the gospel and I decided I know what to do I've got to consider the work of Calgary I've got to take the Bible as my medicine and then I said being a medical orderly how do people take their medicine the answer is three times daily after meals so I said from now on I'm going to take the Bible as my medicine three times daily after meals well when I was sent out from Egypt in a few days I was sent to the Sudan which is a much worse climate than Egypt but I said I'm going to take my medicine three times daily after meals so after every main meal I got away by myself open my Bible started to read it said no you said this is my medicine when I can't tell you of all that transpired but the answer is the medicine worked in one of the worst climates in the world in a very unsuitable condition I was completely and permanently yield the medicine works now I've got here a little book that's based booklet that's based on this called God's medicine bottle and you can have it for whatever the price is let me tell you one more thing about this little book about a year ago I was in Jerusalem and a young woman came up to me from the Philippines and she said brother Prince I want to tell you something and she told me in the following story her mother had been diagnosed with cancer in one of the best hospitals in Manila they said you've got three months to live she was flown to the United States went to a hospital in New York they told her exactly the same you've got three months to live well somebody gave the daughter this little book and so the daughter looked at the title handed it to her mother and said mother why don't you try this you've got nothing to lose and the mother must have been a woman of tremendous character she said I'll do it and for nine months she took God's word as a medicine three times daily after meals when she went back to the doctors they could not find any trace of cancer anywhere in her body I want to tell you that medicine work I want to say however that you need to bear in mind that God has got more than one way to heal you if his way is the medicine it'll work if he has another way then you have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and find out what the other way is but after all you got not much to lose it's quite a cheap book and if you don't get healed by and somebody else might like that like the woman whose mother was healed completely of cancer so that's brings me back to Hebrews 10:14 by one sacrifice he Jesus has perfected forever those us who are being sent evil it covers every need of every human being from Adam to the last one to be born spiritual physical mental emotional every knee is covered by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross consider the work of Calvary a perfect work perfect in every respect perfect in every aspect every need of all humanity has been provided for but the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross now I want to talk to you about provision for 3 what we could call emotional needs guilt shame and rejection now God through the sacrifice of Jesus has provided for complete deliverance from each of those things guilt shame and rejection but my experience is that many many Christians born-again Christian are not fully free from guilt or shame or rejection so I want to talk to you tonight about deliverance from each of those three things and I would estimate at least 25 percent of the people here this evening needs some kind of deliverance from one or other of those three things now let's start with guilt being guilty and you know what the Bible said want the Bible but people say conscience makes cowards of us all if you have a sense of guilt you can never be a fully liberated victorious effective Christian and God doesn't want you to have any lingering sense of guilt whatever Isaiah 53 verse 6 which is the prophetic description given 700 years before the event through the prophet Isaiah of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and it says all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way you see that's the problem of all humanity we have not all necessarily committed some specific sins such as murder or adultery but we've all done one thing we've turned to our own way and our own way was not God's Way and God calls us calls that iniquity or rebellion and it goes on to say the Lord has laid on him Jesus the iniquity of us all all our rebellion was visited upon Jesus on the cross that we might be free in John 1 verse 29 John the Baptist introduces Jesus and he says behold the lamb of God who carries away the sin of the world Jesus was the Lamb upon whom God laid every sin of every human being of every time and every place and he carried it away that it might never again trouble us or cause us to feel guilty and how do we avail ourselves of that I'm speaking very simply tonight nothing complicated you know my conclude conclusion this is only for myself but it's concerns me as if I can't explain something simple simply it is because I hadn't understood it clearly and I work at it until I can I think of my precious first wife who used to sit in the front row and pray for me and I mean she prayed earnestly but when she bowed ahead and clasped her hands I thought it my son now what have I done but God answered her prayers see she was much older than I was an experienced missionary she could have lorded it over me she could have dominated me and she didn't she backed off took the position of a wife and that maybe the head of the family and in the long run and it was a long run it paid off I could have easily been submerged beneath my much more experienced and gifted one and some of you wives maybe I'm making that mistake you're much sharper you're much quicker you're much cleverer than your husband but don't take his place because the result is confusion now how do you avail yourself this provision it's all very simple problems 28 and verse 30 he who covers his sins will not prosper but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy so what do you have to do you have to confess your sins in first John chapter 1 verse 9 it says if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so if we confess our sins God will forgive us but if we refuse to confess God will not forgive God has committed himself to forgive every sin concerning which we repent and capacitating but if we refuse to confess we receive no forgiveness and you see there's a tremendous tension and tendency not to bring sin out into the open when Lydia and I were first married she had a dream one night and through that dream God spoke to and he said this time does not cover sin and I've carried that with me ever since time does not cover sin you may have sinned 50 years ago but if you've not repented and confessed and forsaken you're still accountable for that sin I think one of the things that God is doing in my life is from time to time reminding me of sins I have not confessed now I don't believe in making a search for sin I don't think that way but from time to time God shows me a sin that I committed and never confess and never repented and it all I have to do say God I'm sorry I repent I acknowledge and it's gone but I'm till I confess it hasn't gone you see we feel bad about bringing our sins out into the light of God's countenance but that's the only place where they are forgiving if you withhold confession you will not receive forgiveness now when you let me read that again proverbs 28:13 he who covers his sins will not prosper but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy it's not enough to confess you have to forsake let's repent you have to turn away from when you confess and forsake you are guaranteed God's mercy and now when God saves you it's a perfect work as I was told in that little car when it was vibrating with the power of God and I want to get confront you with just one beautiful and glorious and holy and wonderful effect of confessing our sins it's in Isaiah chapter 61 and verse 10 isaiah 61:10 i will greatly rejoice in the lord my soul shall be joyful in my god that's pretty exciting and it that's not just religion that's salvation you know as a boy growing up in the Anglican Church I listened to all those beautiful prayers and things and I loved them they're so beautiful and all the confessions that people say but I said to myself afterwards if they've really confessed all those things why do they walk out looking just the same as they walked in doesn't seem to have changed them at all so I concluded it didn't work I was wrong later and I discovered it does work but anyhow I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my god listen what's the reason for his clothed me with the garments of salvation he has covered me with the robe of righteousness now there's two things there the garments of salvation the robe of righteousness many many Christians and some of you here tonight have received the garment of salvation but you don't realize you've been covered with the robe of righteousness not your righteousness but Christ's righteousness a righteousness which has never known sin which has no guilty past which has known nothing to be ashamed and bless gone God didn't just drape it on you he covered you with it there's no area of your personality that is any longer exposed to the accusations of Satan because he's covered you with a robe of his righteousness and when you realize that you've confessed Forsaken and received salvation all you need to do is let go on put on you the robe of righteousness and when you're wearing that robe of righteousness there's no room for a guilty conscience there's no room for remorse there's no room for doubting and questioning it's all taken care of at the cross so that's God's remedy for guilt but if they had very simply it's the garment of salvation and then the robe of righteousness now many people have received the garment of salvation but they've never understood that there's also goes with it a robe of righteousness not your righteousness God's righteousness imputed to you through Jesus front and when you put that on it covers you the devil can look at you for any angle but he's got nothing of which he can accuse you because you're covered with the robe of the righteousness of Jesus Christ that's God's remedy forgive there are many of you here tonight that have never fully availed yourself of that remedy before this message closes I'll give you an opportunity to do it but I want to go on now with shame shame is such a cruel and ugly thing very often it's a result of sexual abuse all being made fun of at school I read the story and recently about one boy out of a class and the headmaster of the school said stand up whatever your name is then he said I want to tell you all all of you have passed your exams except and he named the boys standing up well how could he feel anything but shame many of the things that happened in our childhood can be causes of shame you see the things that happened longest ago are sometimes the hardest to get out last first in is often last on and there are some of you here tonight who are not free from shame perhaps the commonest single source of shame tonight in this country and in our Western civilization to our eternal shame be it said is sexual abuse and I'm dealt with I can't count how many people I think of that one woman I knew when she was a little girl of about nine her father who was a professing Christian sexually abused and she was left with his awful question is there something bad in me that made him do it and only when she came to the cross when she set free from that shame I want to tell you that Jesus has borne all our shame let me give you just a few scriptures Isaiah 50 and verse 6 this is a prophetic utterance which describes what Jesus did for us and it says verse 5 the Lord has opened my ear and I was not rebellious nor did I turn away turn away that's Jesus then it says I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked off plucked out the beard I did not hide my face from shame and speedy you notice Jesus says I gave my back he could have saved himself he could have called for twelve legions of angels but he didn't he gave his back and let me tell you the pretty little pictures we see of the scourging of Jesus have very little to do with reality it was a horrible scene because he was scourge with a scourge that had little pieces of metal or bone in the thongs and when they fell on the man's flesh they tore it away and exposed the flesh that was under the skin and that's what Jesus endured he did it for our sake but he says I did not hide my face from shame and spitting so on the cross Jesus bore your shame and my shame let me just read their brief account of what happened after the arrest of Jesus Matthew chapter 27 verses 27 to 31 Pilate had handed Jesus over to the soldiers to take him out to execution and it says verse 27 the following then the soldiers of the guns of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium gathered the whole garrison around him and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on they stripped him naked and then they mocked him when they had twisted the crown of thorns they put it on his head and the reed in his right hand and they bowed the knees before him and mocked him saying hail King of the Jews then they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head and remember he was wearing a crown of thorns and every blow that Reed pressed the thorns into his skull but he did not hide his face from shame and spitting then it says then when when they had mocked him they took the robe off him put his own clothes on him and led him away to be crucified so actually he was exposed naked twice in that scene and then we read further on in Matthew 27 verse 35 then they crucified him and divided his garments casting Lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet they divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast long sitting down they watched him there naked on the cross for three hours you see you'll never see an accurate picture of Jesus on the cross because then always put a little loin cloth on him but there was no loin cloth he was exposed naked his shame was exposed to everybody who passed by and mocked him and then we could turn for a moment to the Epistle to Hebrews just to emphasize this truth Hebrews chapter 12 it says in verse 2 Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame you see he borne our shame but he despised it because it was not and then what is the opposite of shame how many of you can tell me I think the best opposite is glory and in Hebrews chapter 2 in verse 10 it says speaking of Jesus for it was fitting fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings notice he was bringing many sons to what Loney what's the opposite of shame he bought our shame that we might share his glory so those of you and there are many here tonight who for some reason or other have the background in your life of which you're ashamed something you've never fully got away from something that haunts you and follows you up disturbs you and threatens your moments when you're wanting to worship and praise God remember Jesus bore our shame completely naked for three hours on the cross that we might share his glory isn't that wonderful thank you now I was teaching this in Holland a few years ago and I received a testimony from a Dutch woman in writing I haven't got the written testimony here but I want to sum up what she's saying as a young girl she had been sexually abused she had been gang-raped by a group of young boys and suffered further sexual molestation then she married but her marriage was not happy because she had a deep bitterness in her heart against all men including her husband she also could never escape the shame of what she'd enjoyed through sexual molestation and then the Lord did something so wonderful but I believed it because I know that the Dutch minister that sent this testimony to me and he sent it to me because it said it establishes exactly what you've been preaching sitting in a bedroom alone she had a vision of Jesus on the cross and he was absolutely naked and then she realized two things first of all he had borne her shame she didn't need to have shame any longer Jesus had morning the second thing she realized was Jesus was a man she was so bitter against men she realized it was a man who paid the penalty see wasn't that beautiful so there you are if you are wrestling with shame just bear in mind hot naked on the cross Jesus bore your shame he's exposed to the jeers and the taunts of passers-by the primary object of crucifixion was to make shame to impose shame on people Jesus endured it all but he despised the shame it didn't get him down because he knew why he was bearing your shame my shame that we might share what is glory amen now we come to the last of these three problems I've dealt with guilt I've dealt with shame I deal with rejection now I consider rejection to be the deepest wound of the human spirit and I was reading recently something and written about Mother Teresa after she had died and she made this simple statement not being loved is the worst sickness and I have to say on the basis of my dealings with people over many years I totally agree the worst sickness is not being loved and there are some of you here tonight sick of that sickening you may be Christian you may be saying that you've never realized what it means that you've that you've been loved you've never absorbed it you've never taken it in now there are various possible causes let me say in the United States where I spend some of my time I would guess that this is the lowest s in a twenty five percent of the population have a wound of rejection I think that's an underestimate I think it's an epidemic and I think it's not fun probably very much different here in RIT it is the number one sickness in our culture today - mainly to the breakdown of the family now I'm going to give you just some simple examples I by no means all-inclusive there are others I could give but one of the commonest causes of the Rwanda rejection is a baby that's rejected in the womb people don't realize that there's in that room in that embryo there's a sensitive little person who wants to be loved now it's a certain point when I was conducting regular deliverance services in the United States I saw that there was a certain age group that so commonly had the problem of rejection so I worked it out when were they born the answer was about 1930 and if you are an American the date 1929 is indelibly printed on your mind it's the year of the Great Depression when everything fell apart financially most people were out of work few people had enough to eat and you can imagine a woman finding herself pregnant in that situation she's got six little kids to feed already and there's a seventh coming and she doesn't have to take any violent action she just resents that little baby and that baby is born with a spirit of rejection now I believe my wife Ruth would permit me to say this she was born in 1930 in a large rather poor family and she had that problem she had a spirit of rejection she was wonderfully delivered but she told me she said that's something I always have to guard against his rejection it often tries to come back then every baby as I understand it it's born into the world craving one thing more than anything else which is love that's right and if parents don't love their baby or may-maybe love it but don't know how to express their love to manifest the love you see in unexpressed love does a baby no good it's not a psychotic psychologist it can't work out well behind there all that external there's real love it has a feel no it has to have love Express and a baby that doesn't feel love and I would say particularly the love of her father if you forgive me ladies for saying that I mean the love of a mother is wonderful but the love of a father is particular let me say this and I'm speaking from my first wife Lydia was one of the strongest characters I've ever met and she did a work in Palestine amongst Muslims and airings that few people would have had the courage to do she was often without so agent money she often had even the missionaries criticizing her but she stuck through it and you know I thinking it over later I realized one factor in high character words she was the youngest of four sisters and she was her father's favorite and he always affirmed her and you know that makes all the difference in a Chancellor if the father affirms the charm and an honor firm child it may be provided for I was provided for I mean I had every need met but I never knew in my family what it wants to be long I mean I was loved but nobody showed it we were you know what they say this stiff upper lip never show your emotion never tell people you love them just keep it cool keep it cold I want to say this it's personal I find it hard to say it but I'm saying it not for my benefit but it of yours when the Lord took Ruth it's the hardest thing that's ever happened in my life and I may let my mind I'm not going to be a slave but the stiff above it if I want to cry I'm going to cry people don't like it that's their problem but I'm not going to suppress god-given emotions because my culture doesn't agree with it and you know what I think you know what I've observed and my family was a good family they really were good people but that stiff-upper-lip produces stunted deformed personalities they never really learn to express himself and something that's not expressed is something that's separates so I've made up my mind let people enjoy it or dislike it but if I wanted weep I'm going to week I don't want a week but if I feel like weeping are we and if I think I feel like dancing I'll dance the problem with me with dancing is I used to be a great dancer believe me I've led lots of congregations in dancing but now this agent my feet just don't obey me so I stand there and tap my feet but I can't really let myself go anyhow then another very common place where rejection stars is at school I was sent off to a boarding school in Westgate on C in Kent at the age of nine my family has a photograph of me ready to go to school I was just tired in a three-piece suit and I had a bowler hat on that was my culture and when I got there there were several other little boys of the same and I remember one boy he was uninhibited he just started to cry said I want my mummy I want my mummy I want my money he didn't get his mummy it was a hard life British life has often been hard you know that I don't have to tell some of you that we've we've imprisoned ourselves in our own culture I mean you can understand every male relative I've ever known in my life as an officer in the British Army I was educated at Eton and went on to Cambridge if anybody was inculcated with the stiff upper lip it was me but I rebelled I decided I'm not going to be enslaved if I want to dance I'll dance and if I feel like crying I'll cry you know I've got a very good example you know who he is Jesus have you ever read this the account of the the death of Lazarus Jesus arrived four days late and when he went to the room to him it says the shortest verse in the whole Bible two words jesus wept he wasn't weeping for Lazarus because he knew he was going to raise him up he was sharing the grief of Mary and Martha and you know one thing about grief it helps a heavy chain oh I've been so blessed since God took Ruth's home I can't count the number of people that have shared their love with him my family has been wonderful absolutely wonderful three of my daughter's came one after another to Jerusalem to look after me first my African daughter Jessica how many of you met Jessica few then my Arab daughter who's here tonight Kerstin and finally my Jewish one of my seven Jewish goats Anna who's here tonight took me into her home and she and her husband David gave me half the upper floor of their house to live in I tell you I'm proud of my family and when I think how that family began my first wife Lydia in 1928 took in one little dying Jewish baby girl and everybody on the mission is criticized what's the good of that why is he preaching the gospel well there's different ways to preaching the gospel you can do it in Word and you can do it in deed but if you don't do it in deed it's not much good doing it it was it and out of that one little deathly sick Jewish baby whom God raised up there has grown up a family of more than 150 persons tonight I'm not if I'm boasting I'm not boasting about myself and bursting about going see so many people want a big impressive ministry but I think most big things start small I'm so glad I was ignorant I mean I just been saved I didn't know that the gospel was to the Jew first but my first congregation was Jewish it wasn't large and it wasn't no but it was Jewish and then the Bible says pure and undefiled religion before God is this what is it how many of you can tell me to care for the orphans and widows and to keep himself unspotted from the world so I can I started by caring for the orphans a widow and I wasn't spiritual God just thrust me into it it's the last thing I would ever have planned but I'm also glad I did it another common reason for rejection all too common today is the breakup of a marriage a woman has given herself unreservedly to a man and like brother Edco was telling a pastor turns up one day unannounced with divorce papers what is such a person to experience you've given yourself without reservation you've done everything you can you've loved you served and suddenly you're no longer wanted anybody that doesn't feel rejection in that situation as has got to have a very close walk with the Lord and then one kind of the more kind of rejection will come to the end of this little list is self rejection and again that's a terrible problem you'd be amazed or maybe you wouldn't be how many people reject themselves I think especially women or girls they're just not the right length too long too short too thin too fair car eyes the wrong color hair's up straight or it's kinky whatever it is you've made it a reason to reject Jason and you look at other people and wish you were like them you know your problem self rejection now I want to tell you the remedy it's found at the cross in Luke 23 this is 13 to 24 we have the scene when Jesus is before Pilate and Pilate is trying to get him laid off and the more pilot trials the more Jesus own people shout let him be crucified that's really quickly then Pilate when he had gathered all together the chief priests the rulers and the people said to them you have brought this man to me as one who miss mr. misleads the people and indeed having examined him in your presence I have found no fault in him in this man concerning those things that which you accuse him no neither did Herod for I sent you back to him and indeed nothing worthy of death has been done by him I will therefore chastise him and release him for it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast and they all now this is all the Jewish leaders they all cried out saying away with this man and release for us Barabbas who had been thrown into prison for a certain insurrection made in the city and for murder Pilate therefore wishing to release Jesus again called out to them but they shouted saying crucify him crucified and he said to them the third time Why What evil has he done I found no reason for death in him I will therefore chastise him and let him go but they were insistent demanding with loud voices that he be crucified and the voices of those men and the chief priests prevailed how do you think Jesus sent his own people they broom had come turned him down rejected him in favour a robber and a murderess don't you think that you are an AI in that situation would have felt totally I mean he did but that wasn't the end going to Matthew 27 this is 45 following now Jesus is now on the cross now from the sixth hour unto the 19 the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land and about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying a VLE Lamar said after that is my God my God why have you forsaken me some of those who stood there when they heard that said this man is calling for Elijah immediately one of them ran and took a sponge filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink the rest said let him alone let us see if he Lanza will come to save me Jesus when he'd cried out again with a loud voice yielded up his spirit he didn't die of the wounds of crucifixion people crucified could live sometimes 12 or more hours what killed him tell me in one word rejection that's right and it was bad enough to be rejected by his people but now he was rejected by his father and out to his agonized cries they came no answer because Jesus was identified with our sin God had to deal with him as he would deal with sin he closed his ears and averted his eyes and Jesus died of a broken heart not of the wounds of crucifixion what killed him one word rejection that's right that is the most terrible wound the human heart can ever experience but the next verse tells us why it happened and behold the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth quaked and the rocks were split that's the thick curtain that separated the holy place from the holy of holies and the only one man could go through that the high priest only once every year but when Jesus died on the cross that thick curtain was split in two from the top to the bottom in other words it was God's doing what did that indicate that by the death of Jesus on our behalf the way was open for us into the presence of a holy God Jesus endured how dejection now in Ephesians 1 in the King James Version we have a wonderful beautiful account of them just a brief summary Ephesians 1 this is three through six well I'll take verse fun this for just as he chose us in him Jesus before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestined us to set to adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of His grace by which he has made us accepted in the beloved so Jesus endured our rejection that we might hand his acceptance can you see all the evil came upon Jesus that all the good had be offered to you and me and it was all resolved by one sacrifice on the cross by one sacrifice he has perfected forever us who are being sent to her he never needs to do another thing it's all done all we have to do is appropriate what he has done so now I want to give you an opportunity to receive what God has provided through the death of Jesus on the cross I want those of you who still have a problem with guilt to receive total forgiveness to receive the verdict of the court of heaven which pronounces you not guilty those of you who have a battle with shame and I know there are many here tonight I want you to receive your healing bearing in mind that on the cross totally naked Jesus bore your shame that in place you might share his glory and for those of you who struggle with rejection I want you to receive your healing tonight bearing in mind that on the cross Jesus was rejected by his father the ultimate and cruelest of all rejection died of a broken heart because he bore our rejection that we might have his what acceptance that's right you see as a child of God you're not just tolerated you're welcomed you don't have to apologize you don't have to make an appointment you can come anytime and the father were always welcome you because you come through Jesus now I wanted to help you if I can and it's not all that easy but I'll try my best if you have any of these three problems or all of them guilt shame or rejection and you want tonight to claim the healing which has been provided for you through the cross I want to lead you in a prayer bring you to the cross and then let the cross do its work in you so if you want me to lead you in prayer for the guilt shame or rejection and you're ready to do it now I just want you to stand to your feet wherever you are dawn would you come up and stand with me isn't that aside well you receive it by faith you don't have to struggle you don't have to improve yourself you don't have to make yourself good enough you just have to believe what I've been preaching that on the cross Jesus bore your shame your guilt and your dejection and begin to thank you no longer need to be ashamed you no longer need to feel guilty you no longer need to struggle with rejection Jesus is none at all and you can walk out of this place tonight feeling that alone has been lifted from your shoulders you can be free free so I want you very simply to say this prayer after me I can't have it rehearse our pray as I feel when you say these words Lord God I thank you that you know my problem here - no you know what I'm struggling with whether it's guilt or shame or rejection I thank you God that your word clearly reveals that on the cross Jesus endured all three he endured guilt he endured shape and finally he endured rejection that I might be delivered that I might be free from guilt that I might be free from shame that I might be free from rejection then instead of feeling rejected I can know I'm accepted by God my father I belong to God I belong to the best family in the universe I have nothing to apologize for I don't need to be ashamed I don't need to be second-class God has no second-class children and I'm one of them thank you Father thank you Father thank you now as you stand there after that prayer I'm going to pray for the Holy Spirit to minister to you all that you pray for Heavenly Father we thank you tonight for your love and your mercy and your faithfulness that on the cross you committed Jesus to endure those Agony's of guilt shame and rejection that we might be delivered that we might be set free that we might know we're no longer guilty we no longer have any need to be ashamed we are no longer dejected we're children of God we belong to the best family in the universe father let this truth now into the hearts and the minds of those who are standing before you in Jesus name receive your release and thank God for it now begin to thank you that's the purest expression of faith it's just thinking you can't do any more you can't own it you can't deserve it but you can thank employment just take plenty of time to thank him here - no thank you

Channel: Salt Light

Views: 324,790

Keywords: Sermon

Id: I8eliOZ3kEU

Length: 64min 37sec (3877 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 15 2013