Freedom from Rejection

[Music] it's an honor to be with you today our topic is freedom from rejection hey here's the news rejection is an epidemic we've just lived through a pandemic rejection is more widespread than covid and it's not about a single season of your life it will touch every season of your life we need to know how to overcome that how to flourish in spite of it and not forfeit our future with the help of god's word and the presence of his spirit we can be free today enjoy the lesson you know our topic we started a week ago talking about war in heaven and war on earth and that this really is a discussion about spiritual conflict and the consequences of that i think we struggle a great deal to unimagine or understand what spiritual conflict looks like we think of it in terms of something that is dramatic or overt and i i think spiritual conflict is a great deal like physical health but by the time it breaks open it becomes apparent it has progressed to a point that it's significant and we want to become aware enough of what's happening that we engage in the spiritual world around us before it breaks into those desperate places so i want to plant a seed in fact i want to give you an assignment if you'd be willing to accept it i want to ask you to begin to use the freedom and liberty that you have as a platform from which to share your faith it's unfortunate we've been coached that our primary expression of faith is attending a worship service and i believe there's value in that i go to a lot of worship services but i don't imagine that that's the ultimate expression of my faith i think it's my christianity beyond the worship service that is most significant and so is yours whether it's in the context of let's pray and you share prayers with other people in an open and a willing way whether it's you talk about biblical values when you're with friends it starts at the kitchen table you got to be willing to bring your biblical worldview into the discussions with your family sometimes it's awkward sometimes it's uncomfortable sometimes it's challenging but it's necessary you see it's completely illegitimate if we're unwilling to have a conversation around our kitchen table about the values that we hold then to imagine that some leader some pastor some elected person some party some anyone else would lead in the godly way if we lack the courage to bring those biblical values to our kitchen table we have to start there i understand that's one of the most difficult places in the world to be a christian but if you can do it there then when you go to the ball fields the soccer fields or the baseball fields or whatever sport the kids are involved in this week have those conversations with the parents you share some common values and activities your kids are engaged together talk to them about your worldview talk to them about the values that you hold talk to them how you understand marriage or family have the courage to bring your faith forward in your life it's important we've got to overcome the tendency and it's been one widely practiced and often encouraged in the church what if we offend someone looks if you're a ut fan you could care less who you offend in fact you look for opportunities i turned on the radio one day this week and there was some talk show going on and they were talking they've already won the national championship i was like well good it's good to know help with betting i'm kidding but but don't just passively blend in have the courage to become an ambassador for jesus will you at least pray about that there's a reason why i think that's so important if we don't use our liberty and freedom as ambassadors we will lose it there are changes taking place they haven't happened in the last month or the last year or the last two years it's not about a politician or a particular party this is much bigger than that but there is an attitude a spirit of authoritarianism that is stalking our streets it's growing in strength and it will only be turned back by a vibrant vital alive church it's not a political movement that we need we need a spiritual change and the church is the delivery system of that as i have prayed for the last few weeks this has become increasingly intense in my heart and i thought maybe i had misunderstood the definition so i stopped to look it up and i took this definition from wikipedia which is not just exactly the bastion of conservatism it says authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by the rejection of political plurality the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo and reductions in the rule of law the separation of powers and democratic voting [Music] again i would submit to you that authoritarianism is flourishing it's not just in our nation it's flourishing around the world it's a spiritual conflict i could give you some examples from our own culture they're the ones we know the most i saw an interview this week with the head of the cdc the center for disease control that's been at the center of so much in the last two years they're restructuring and reorganizing the the director of that organization i heard them say this week that the cdc's assignment is to make public health suggestions that that's their role that they don't make policy they just make public health suggestions well if that's true somebody needs to explain it beyond there because we've spent the last two years with all sorts of authority figures telling us they were just following cdc guidelines therefore you had to stay home or not fly or not send your child to school or whatever there was a huge discrepancy between what was being stated and what we watched we have to pay attention in some different ways lawlessness is exploding around us intentionally ignoring laws and fomenting violence all across the spectrum there's an un they're unrelenting in policing certain persons or groups propaganda a messaging that is not rooted in truth but it's rooted in objective in outcome it's a message designed to achieve an outcome and when it is a unified message across multiple platforms multiple personalities and it's unrelenting it becomes a tool of manipulation not a new thing but in the way it's being used and growing amongst us it's a new thing censorship it's a part of propaganda you have to you have to refuse free speech in order to allow your message to predominate the marketplace of ideas so the common practices we see if we don't like your speech we'll say it's hate speech it's disrespectful it's inappropriate it's misinformation it's disinformation a whole other set of labels you all understand there are some things you could say in a public place or in the marketplace and the labels would be directed at you almost immediately now the next one seems odd to me but there is increasingly a lack of diversity intolerance now diversity and tolerance are the the ideas that are championed we're told above all else unless you deviate from the messaging of the propaganda and then we're pretty intolerant what we're seeing increasingly is there's one way to think one way to act one way to treat a disease there's one way to respond and it isn't about your opinion or my opinion and a free exchange of ideas or watching them tear down statues rewrite our history so if you have a different opinion of the person that's represented in the statute or the part of history that's being reflected there you need to be silenced so while we're saying we're tolerant and we want to include encourage diversity we're becoming fiercely intolerant we can't be reminded of positive things that someone did we're going to focus on the part we want to focus on and you need to be quiet one of the more intriguing places that's being reflected is in in comedians comedians have made their career most of my lifetime making fun of the status quo that's not okay anymore it's an expression of authoritarianism now it emerges when we make government our source it emerges from idolatry on the part of god's people god is our provider he's our sustainer he's our ultimate authority we need clarity on this we have to change our hearts i would submit to you it's been the weakened condition of the church that's allowed this type of authoritarianism to rise as it is so don't be angry at somebody else don't point an accusing finger don't wait for the next election that won't fix it it will get worse if we don't have a change of heart in the midst of god's people it's very important we put our hopes in the wrong places and we'll wander further into the weeds let's humble ourselves turn back to god in repentance and i believe we can see his deliverance amen now our specific topic in this session has to do with one of the wounds that we garner in the midst of this spiritual conflict we're going to talk about rejection and its impact upon our lives but let's begin with the basis of our freedom understanding why we imagine we can be free why we can have spiritual freedom and from that we could have liberties and freedoms that would inform our lives or our families or our children or our grandchildren is it because of the nation we live in or because of the constitution or the bill of rights is it because we join the right church or believe in the right denomination or we read the translation of the bible those things all have value and i'm grateful for them but they are not the basis of our freedom in hebrews chapter 10 and verse 14. it's a statement made about jesus it says because by one sacrifice he jesus has made perfect forever those who are being made holy we don't do a lot of verb studies around here because they're about as exciting as i don't know what watching paint dry but the verb tenses in that verse make a difference to us just by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever that's the perfect tense it means it's complete it's entire it's accomplished there's nothing to be added to it it's an act that is final and complete and perfect as it stands so through jesus redemptive work that is an accomplished fact there's nothing to be added to it but the outcome of that affects you and me because of what jesus accomplished through his redemptive work on the cross it says we are being made holy that's the continuing present tense that means it's not complete that that's an ongoing thing that we will live in that process so to understand that we've got to rethink a little bit the package in which we've received our faith we've been encouraged to make a profession of faith i believe in that i believe in the new birth conversion salvation but once you've done that once you've followed it with baptism and you've begun to read your bibles we have to continue the process of growing up in our lord and being transformed more completely into the image of jesus and i'm not sure that message has been fully received some of us have been a little frozen in that growth process we've been content satisfied complacent maybe even self-righteous we'll talk about the things we believe and then look across the street at our brothers and sisters walking into another church and be critical of them because we believe a little differently than they read the wrong translation i mean after all we're going to receive communion this morning from a plastic cup that was not distributed from a brushed aluminum tray do you suppose it's legitimate we struggle with things the things that we will fight about amongst ourselves may i make a suggestion if there's a point on which we could disagree and we could both still go to heaven extend the hand of fellowship and stop making a fist okay now there's some things you can't negotiate away you can't you negotiate away the uniqueness of jesus there aren't many paths to god jesus said he is the the way the truth and the life and that no one comes to the father except through him you can't negotiate away the virgin birth you can't negotiate away his crucifixion you can't negotiate away his resurrection if we disagree on those points we won't both make the same outcome so you need to understand the difference in what's primary and what is secondary and we have confused the two the time of day we meet the day of the week in which we meet the clothing we wear to worship those reflect personalities and preferences and they may have some value in the discussion but they're not primary [Music] but because of what jesus accomplished on the cross if you will choose to cooperate you can lead a life of transformation in every season of life at every stage of life because every life stage is going to bring new challenges those families we watch this morning some of you know very well the challenges that come with new babies amen or me but but here's the mistake we often make there's challenges that come with every life stage i haven't found an easy season yet have you takes courage amen is the word you're searching for look at isaiah 53 and verse 6 we all like sheep have gone astray each of us has turned to his own way and the lord is laid on him it's a messianic prophecy talking about messiah the lord is laid on the messiah the iniquity of us all god isaiah prophesied that when messiah comes god would place on him our iniquity it's a biblical word iniquity means basically our sin and all of its consequences that god would place upon messiah our sin and all the consequences attached to them that's why we are being made holy we can be transformed we've been set free from the evil consequences of sin now that's an established fact [Applause] in in heaven for time and eternity that is established there's no plan b god doesn't have another idea [Music] he's not going to circle back around and give you another option in this what's critical for your future and my future is what we choose to believe because your believing it is what gives it authority in your life there's only one way to receive it and that's by choosing to believe it so may i make a suggestion quit trying to convince yourself you can be good enough to please god you can't because if you offend on one rule you're done for the last three or four weeks there has been a disproportionate number of tickets written on highway 99. i am a law abiding driver on highway 99 but imagine if you violated one driving rule anytime one mile an hour over the speed limit you rolled through one stop sign one yellow light imagine if one offense you could never drive how many of you know you'd have to live closer to church you'd have to be within bicycle distance we'd have a bike rack we'd have pins for horses we'd be we'd be running shuttles and buses right because there'd be no drivers in the house because you understand intuitively that you're going to offend at some point some time well the same is true if you're trying to earn your way into the grace of god by merit-based choices understand this it's impossible because if you offend on one point you lose you have to believe that jesus did something for you and then your life is a response to that incredible gift but it's not a response you just make one time our response is a daily action towards the lord god sent his to the son to the cross because he loves us bible offers no explanation for that it never attempts to tell us why god loves us it's just one of the presentations it's a given in the equation of scripture we don't deserve it we certainly didn't earn it there's nothing in us to warrant the incredible sacrifice that was made on our behalf god didn't make a similar sacrifice for the angels that rebelled against him they'll spend eternity facing judgment for that choice it was a sovereign choice of almighty god and we're the beneficiaries amen now here's the other part of the equation it's the less happy part we're still required to be overcomers because the conflict between the kingdom of god and the kingdom of darkness still fills this present world there'll come a time when jesus returns and he will address those who oppose him but in the in the moment we live in the midst of that conflict and when you align yourselves with the purposes of god you inherit an adversary you don't have to do anything people say i don't believe in the devil it's okay he believes in you you know pastor i don't know what i believe about all those unclean spirits you don't have to know what you believe they believed when jesus walked into the synagogue in capernaum mark chapter one he hasn't begun his public ministry nobody knows he's the christ no human being yet has made any proclamations about him other than at his birth when they were in the temple and there's a man there who's demonized an unclean spirit in him says i know who you are that unclean spirit had more spiritual awareness than the rabbi in the synagogue or any of those other good people who were gathered that day to worship so the assignment were given biblically is to be overcomers look at romans 12 21 do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good there's two options there you're either going to be an overcomer or you'll be overcome well i don't like that okay duly noted you still have two options well i wish it weren't so okay i'll join you in that you still have two options well i don't know why god did that neither do i you still have two options well i don't know if i want to think about that okay you still have two options have i mentioned you've got two options you're either going to be an overcomer or you're going to be overcome well life's pretty hard right now it looks like i'm going to have to over uh yeah in fact the last book of the new testament everybody says to me the old testament's so harsh have you read the new testament in revelation chapter 2 it says he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to him who overcomes i will give the right to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of god who gets that right to the one who overcomes that's our choice that that it gives an imagination of perseverance of determination of faithfulness of a reliance upon god of trust in him if we go back to the language we started in hebrews 10 14 of this process of being made holy you think i think we think of holiness as something about weakness and timidity and retreating and in some misty-eyed humming or chanting in the semi-dark space that's not the presentation of holiness in scripture it's about a bold belief in almighty god and the determination is jesus taught us to pray that his kingdom would come and his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven for god's will to be done in the earth we'll take god's people being overcomers so if we back to this spiritual conflict idea ephesians 6 12 i took this from the message it's a more contemporary translation but i like the language on this because it kind of repositions our thoughts a little bit it says this is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours we use a lot of language around sports and competition and even business you know battle language and war language i never served in the military but i have many friends and interact with people who have and i can tell you from just listening and observing that what we do on a soccer field or a basketball court is not the same we can go home and take a hot shower and hydrate and have some ibuprofen and most of our problems will diminish that's not what's being described look at the next sentence this is for keeps a life or death fight to the finish against the devil and all his angels see when we refuse to have the courage to share our faith to tell our story to acknowledge a biblical worldview when we're in a public place understand we have just conceded the arena to darkness our indifference our unwillingness our ambivalence our timidity whatever whatever word you want to plug in there is a concession it's a yielding the encouragement the prompting the assignment of scripture is to recognize there's a struggle now what i want to do in this session is acknowledge some of the wounds that we take we receive as we make our way through time nobody's excluded no one is excluded some people may handle it better than others some may be adept with makeup some may have enough ways to deflect or to redirect nobody makes it through time without struggling with these challenges and i just brought three we looked at a couple in a previous session we talked about guilt and shame and their impact upon us i believe the greatest weapon satan uses against god's people is guilt and i don't have time to recapitulate that message you can listen to it it's somewhere in the cloud or i don't know somebody smarter will help you find it the third one it's the one i want to focus on with our remaining time is rejection rejection it touches all of our lives nobody gets through without this and it doesn't just touch our lives it impacts how we relate with one another and relate to our world and relate to god you need a plan for overcoming the wound ignoring it's not sufficient denying it's not adequate the opposite of rejection would be acceptance so what we would prefer is to be accepted celebrated lauded approved the synonyms for rejection would be things like to be excluded the feeling of being unwanted not really belonging somehow being on the outside rejection feels like everybody else got the manual on how to do this but they didn't give me the copy does life come with instructions then you feel like somehow other people are just better prepared they got an advantage that wasn't given to you it can be because of an accent a hair color the color of your skin where you were educated or where you weren't a whole host of things can feed this but rejection is an epidemic amongst human beings and if you don't understand it and have a plan for addressing it it will shape your response to life and diminish what god will do through you we can be made holy we can be delivered from that rejection because of what our messiah has done for us remember god placed on him our iniquity all the consequences for sin not just my sin the consequences for sin the redemptive work of jesus delivers us from the consequence of sin not just mine it starts really early in our lives parents we'd be far better served helping our children understand their spiritual freedom than trying to protect them from instances of rejection we work really hard so they won't be put into place where they'll suffer that folks it comes with the trip i don't want to diminish your love or your concern or your protection for your children but they'll be better served if you will teach them spiritual principles to stay spiritually strong and spiritually clean and spiritually free it'll be more beneficial if all you do is protect them they'll lack the strength physically emotionally or spiritually to flourish when they find those circumstances from which you can no longer protect them and those circumstances are coming they're inevitable i learned some of these things as a kid we all do i'm not unique i can tell my stories it's safer and i'll tell them from early in my childhood because those are making me less vulnerable i've got two brothers and we were young my dad was our barber he's not trained you know he's a veterinarian so he knows how to shave a dog he knows how to shave a horse he has clippers for that he taught us to do that we can do all of those things too well at some point i suppose it probably began as an economic decision he decided he would be our barber what a blessing i bet he's still available if somebody's interested and you need a little number two blade here we go it didn't bother me when i was a little fella i didn't pay any attention i thought everybody had that same barber and i can't really tell you where it changed but some way along that i know i was in school by then because i got to school and everybody didn't have my barber and some of the people i went to school with didn't appreciate my barber but they didn't know him they couldn't say anything to him so they just talked to me and ask me why i cut my hair like that make fun of me i didn't particularly like that i didn't enjoy it i wasn't quite as emotionally mature as i am today i couldn't explain that my father was a veterinarian and he had a pair of clippers but they only had one size blade on them and this is what worked so i learned a different response i don't care what you think doesn't matter to me worked pretty well because if you push too hard i'd push you back i kept growing challenges keep coming with life i like to play basketball the opportunities were different back in the day so i made the team for a couple of schools and [Music] i was not an overly gifted athlete i was just mean meanness will get you a ways in athletics [Laughter] and a lot of times i was playing against people that were more athletically gifted than i were oftentimes they were older than i was they were bigger than i was like long before i was in college we go to mtsu and getting pickup games because it was good practice to go play with people that were more gifted and i know it's supposed to be a non-contact sport but the way i played not so much because i wasn't good enough just to beat you on sheer athleticism i needed to leave a mark and what that meant was i got my share of knicks teeth knocked out lips split nose broken i cut and i learned a response that didn't hurt that didn't hurt or not they knocked my teeth through my lip i just wiped the blood and looked at it wiped it on my jersey and smiled that didn't hurt can i tell you the truth that hurt what kind of an idiot when you get hit hard enough that you're bleeding or there's a there's a a lump emerging looks at the perpetrator and go that was fun at the best you got watch me get up i'll hit you harder i don't care what you think that didn't hurt i kept growing i got to college i knew what i wanted to do i chose the profession it was going to require graduate school and so the undergraduate portion of that journey was all about attrition we'll make you quit your classes will be early in the morning we'll put all the tests on the same day we will stack it to try to discourage you my friends would come to my dorm room crying and say some dr so-and-so says i'm too stupid to do this i should quit that's what you think my response was i've been learning now since i won't quit you can't make me quit i'd go tell them not always politely if i had to bundle all of those things into a word it's about me bumping into rejection and i was negotiating it apart from a biblical perspective without any help from the spirit of god if it hadn't been for god's supernatural intervention in my life he sent a woman whom i had known since i was a little boy she just happened to want to visit the college campus i was attending and so my parents asked me if i would let her ride with me when i went back after christmas break and we just coincidentally had an ice storm that day so a trip i could normally make in about nine hours to 12 or 14. and she spent that whole time quizzing me and at the end of 12 hours she said i need to talk to you and i'm thinking lady i just spent 12 hours in the car with you anything you had to say is done i checked her into the hotel she said would you be willing to pray with me for a few minutes what's the answer to that no i don't want to pray with you but i knew if i told her that my parents would immediately materialize right there in that room [Applause] so i said i would love to pray with you and she said you're filled with anger and resentment and hatred and i said you're right but i need those things they give me the edge helps me stay up late if i gave those things up i'd feel really vulnerable and she said well you can't hold those things and imagine that you can serve the lord you see we can't remove ourselves from the unfairness and the injustice and the challenges and the hurdles of life you can't do that you can learn responses you can learn to compensate you can learn to cope you can build walls and shells and all sorts of things and god's great mercy and that person's determination she spent a couple hours with me helping me first of all be willing to repent and then to release those things so that i could be free see those people weren't burdened because of my resentment i was if i hadn't had that session if i hadn't had that gift i would have a completely different career today that had nothing to do with god's purpose for my life my anger and resentment would have tied me to that pathway spiritual ones they're real their outcomes are real in fact i want to suggest something here that we have to value what god says about us more than our desired outcomes see so often we know what we want and anyone or anything that opposes what we want we perceive of as the enemy god had a different plan for my life i know that now i didn't know that then and i i had to be willing to in obedience do the things i knew to do forgive repent of my anger and resentment turn loose of those things release those people from the imagination that they owed me something you see you have the imagination that someone in your life some relationship should be some way should behave in some specific way and when they don't you're angry you're resentful you're embittered and you're not turning loose to that until they become what you want them to be i want to suggest a different pathway what if you said to the lord i release them from meeting my expectations i want to please you i want to please you we spend too much energy physically emotionally and otherwise trying to cause other people to become who we want them to be and what we want them to be while we miss what god has for us rejection i made up my mind before i started this we're not going to finish this topic in this session so what i don't do here we'll do next god willing but but let's start with this idea and it's the value that god attaches to you while you're demanding your way well you want a relationship an outcome an objective a life achievement and you see the people between you and that as bullies intimidating withholding the seed of evil your outcome is being threatened i want to ask you if you'll have the courage to believe what god has said about you in romans 15 and verse 7 it says accept one another just as christ accepted you christ accepted you the creator of heaven and earth has accepted you yeah but this person the creator of heaven and earth has accepted you look at the next verse it's ephesians 2. we are god's workmanship created in christ jesus to do good works which god prepared in advance for us to do you're god's workmanship god doesn't make junk but i wanted to have the physical skills of a professional athlete i'm god's workmanship but i wanted i'm god's workmanship you see a part of overcoming in the spiritual conflict is being willing to yield my will my demand my expectation so many of the wounds i accumulate come in that conflict between the demands of my carnal nature and the reality of this broken world in which i live i'm god's workmanship god said you're fearfully and wonderfully made try that one on in front of the mirror while you're analyzing all the things that aren't right what can you have fixed the calendar is attacking your body if that doesn't mean anything to you just wait [Applause] it's coming for you i'm god's workmanship all the way through my journey in time at every season of life created in christ jesus to do good works for him god prepared them in advance before i drew my first breath before my parents assigned a name to me before i went to first grade god had plans for your life stand a little taller look at psalm 68 god sets the lonely in families god sets the lonely in families that's translated a handful of ways hebrews an old language there's some ambiguity in it sometimes when we pull it forward but the essence is god does not leave you alone god does not leave you desperate and alone he'll place you in community and some of you say but look at the family he placed me folks every family tree has a few fruits and nuts god says the lonely in families he leads forth the prisoners with singing but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land don't rebel against god don't rebel against god you have to value what god says about you more than you demand your way you see when you're demanding your way standing in your selfishness you're just adding a multiplier you're adding a momentum to those spiritual attacks against you choose to align yourself by your belief by your yielding to the authority of god with what god has said about you this is not new to us i think it's epidemic proportion in our current culture but i don't think it's a new thing in fact i spent some time in these last few days just reflecting on on my heroes in scripture and what they had to overcome in exodus chapter two this is moses and i'm going to tell you what my objective is in reading this i want to do anything i can to encourage you to overcome the attitude of a victim it's so prevalent i've been mistreated someone has not done right by me folks yes [Music] that's it that's what it means to be alive under the sun now here's the question what are we going to do with that from whom are we demanding recompense where do we imagine the resolutions coming from the government a policy a law a counselor or god that attitude has settled so deeply over us and so deeply within us as if it's never happened before you see that the people that are perpetrating it and understand it is being perpetrated or trying to make you believe you're unique that no one else has ever felt like that that what you're enduring is almost entirely without historical perspective that that somehow you've been singled out for this unfair unfortunate thing when in reality it's the nature of the journey it's like your ears popping when you fly doesn't mean you're going deaf it means you're on a plane changing altitude doesn't mean your ears are wrong you don't need an ent you need to learn how to clear your ears we need to learn how to be clean we need to learn how to cooperate with the holy spirit so that we can be more completely transformed into the image of christ that we can learn how to lead more holy lives not more passive lives not more withdrawn lives we've been holding the wrong people the wrong things accountable look in exodus chapter 2 moses pretty supernatural character moses is a young man one day after moses had grown up he went out to where his own people were moses parents abandoned him in a river you can come with your fancy explanations but that's the short course no they didn't kill him when he was born they just abandoned him in the river and he grows up with his ethnicity being hidden [Music] being treated as if he's a part of pharaoh's household so he's included amongst the household of those who are abusing enslaving his own people and they ask him to hide his ethnicity that could leave you a bit torqued you think he went out to where his own people were and he watched them at their labor their hard labor and he saw an egyptian beating a hebrew one of his own people so he looked around see if anybody was watching and he killed the egyptian he hid the body and the next day he went out to see two hebrews fighting and he asked the one in the wrong why are you hitting your fellow hebrew he has a compassion for his people now watch the answer who made you ruler and judge over us just who do you think you are well now that you ask i'm the one that risked his entire future interceding on your behalf yesterday you in great i put the entire story of my existence at risk standing up for you no thank you no gratitude no appreciation no applause who made you ruler over us does that feel like rejection to you it does me moses has to run for his life not only did his best attempt to do the right thing not get a good outcome it cost him everything he lost his pension he lost his health care he lost his home he lost every relationship he lost everything the only thing he escaped with was his life you think yeah but it worked out okay yeah it did but that experience is repeated over and over i could do we could fill pages with the repetition of that in moses life i brought you one example numbers 12 miriam and aaron they're his family they share dna began to talk against moses now by this point they're way out of egypt red sea's been parted they've had water from the rock they're chewing on man they got manna stuck in their teeth they eat quail because they wanted to chew a little variety in their diet moses is coming up the mountain and come back down with the ten commandments he glows in the dark he spends so much time with the lord god talks to him face to face and miriam and aaron began to talk against moses because they didn't like his wife that's what it says and their question was has the lord spoken only through moses hadn't he spoken through us too does that feel like rejection to you who do you think you are what do you think you're doing it's not unique to moses it went throughout his life some of you prefer samuel we've been reading these chapters in our daily bible reading samuel is the last of the judges he's a prophet but he's the last of the leaders of israel when it's a theocracy when god oversees the nation they had no central government they had no capital city there was no king there was no monarch over them it was a theocracy god watched over his people and as long as they chose to honor the lord he protected them they prospered under his guidance and the leaders the tribal leaders come to samuel he's an old man by this time you'd be a little more vulnerable to this kind of banter in this season of your life all the elders of israel gathered together and they came to samuel and they said to him you're old well geez that feels like ageism to me he probably looked at him and said you're ugly so okay [Music] he said you're old and your sons don't walk in your ways you're not only old you're a bad parent you haven't watched over your household well he spent his life serving these people now appoint a king to lead us we want to be like the other nations he says when they said give us a king to lead us it displeased samuel no kidding the bible has a gift of understatement he wanted to slap them in the next week i mean in a god-honoring kind of a way this displeased samuel so he prayed to the lord and the lord told him listen to all that the people are saying to you it's not you they've rejected they've rejected me you know what disobedience to the lord is fundamentally we reject him we don't want your authority we don't want your intrusion i don't want your opinion i don't care what you think samuel they didn't reject you they rejected me well he has to tell you know why he has to tell samuel that because samuel is certain he's the one that's being rejected he's confident god does the work in samuel's heart he anoints the next kings not just the first one he anoints the one after that i think that might a little bit a little awkward to have to go to anoint saul stand him in front of the people and say this is the man god's chosen to lead you they still need samuel's wisdom his attentiveness to the lord his willingness to follow the spirit of god to secure their future now i want to give you the remedy i got two minutes and then we're going to take communion together look at isaiah 53 jesus has intervened on our behalf we'll pick this up later i promise it says he was despised this is the messiah he was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not remember we read earlier our iniquities were placed on him now isaiah begins to break them out with some specificity the consequences of sin he was rejected he understood sorrow he understood suffering you'll understand those things they will touch your life but they are not wounds that have to flourish and fester and shape your future you can be healed god i forgive i release i set them free does it mean you have to get back in line for further abuse but don't carry that why why is more complex than we have time for in this moment jesus took those consequences acts chapter 2 it's the day of pentecost peter's talking to the crowd in jerusalem men of israel listen to this jesus of nazareth a man accredited by god to you miracles wonders and signs god did among you you know this that he was handed over to you by god's set purpose and foreknowledge god handed him over to you and you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross jesus took our rejection the people that should have accepted him all he did was do miracles and raise the dead and open blind eyes the sinless obedient son of god and we rejected him we wanted nothing to do with him we crucified him he took our rejection that we could be accepted jesus in psalm 22 these these are the words jesus quotes when he's on the cross but it came from the psalms he said my god my god why have you forsaken me he said in aramaic and it's translated into the gospels but why are you so far from saving me so far from the words of my groaning jesus suffered rejection that you and i can be accepted by almighty god by almighty god why do people have to be mean why does life have to be cruel folks we're in a battle that means by definition it's not fair if you're fighting fair the outcome doesn't mean much that's athletics in athletics you have to win or lose if it's a real battle you just need to learn to win hebrews 10 14 is where we started because by one sacrifice he's made perfect forever those who are being made holy i gave you a prayer we might as well pray it together then we'll do communion i really am going to quit you'll want to take this prayer with you one one reading of this will not more than likely land you in the place where you want to stay the holy spirit to help you to see the times and places where you've suffered rejection you'll know some of them and then to begin to identify your responses the resentment or the anger or the desire for someone else to change or the certainty that it's the remedy is beyond you folks don't give that away god i trust you to work your purposes in my life i trust you to work your purposes in my life i want to be obedient to you forgiveness isn't an emotion it's a decision forgiveness does not mean that the other person gets away with it i trust god he is just your willingness to forgive is about you and the outcomes of your life it untethers you from the event or the events sets you free resentment keeps you grounded in that place reliving it over and over and over again bitterness and hatred you just can't afford them let's read this prayer together [Music] god i thank you that you love me that you gave jesus your son to die on my behalf that he bore my sins that he took my rejection that he took my penalty because i come to you through him i am not unwanted i am not excluded i belong to the family of god i belong to the best family in the universe heaven is my home and i thank you today amen now you've got the communion elements i hope with you if you didn't when you came in the ushers will be in the aisles they'll give them with you if you're at home you're watching this you go grab your cup of milk hope you need all the oreos see the basis for that kind of a proclamation or prayer is what jesus did for us through his substitutionary death on the cross he exhausted the curse of sin that we might receive all the blessings do his perfect obedience that's why we take communion together it's not just a ritual or a tradition or something to be to fill time in a worship service [Music] if you need communion you can raise a hand the ushers are in the aisles they'll help you with that jesus himself put this in place it didn't begin with a pastor or denomination you have to peel back that cellophane lid to get to that wafer i used to say that if there was sin in your life you couldn't open it and then one sunday in front of everybody guess what and the cameraman zeroed in on it i still meet people that ask me why i couldn't get the communion open [Music] jesus celebrated the passover with the disciples and at the end of that meal he took bread and he broke it and he said this bread is my body broken for you as often as you eat this do this in remembrance of me let's receive it together [Music] then he took a cup and he said this cup is a new covenant a new contract sealed with my own blood as often as you drink this you do it in remembrance of me let's drink together [Music] you bow with me in prayer [Music] father i thank you for your word and its truth and power and authority in our lives i thank you that in your great love for us you sent your son lord to to walk amongst us to show us a new way [Music] lord jesus i thank you for your great obedience in enduring the cross [Music] we praise you today that you bore the consequences of our iniquity that we might be set free [Music] lord we come by a decision of our will today to forgive to release to cancel all those debts that we've imagined that we were owed different responses different outcomes different words we release them today and lord as we release those i thank you that you have forgiven us that you have accepted us that you love us that you care for us that you have a plan for our good that we are fearfully and wonderfully made that you look at us [Music] and derive great pleasure that you have a plan for our future with you we thank you for it today i thank you for the freedom that has begun this day for the healing that has begun this day for the liberty that has begun this day we receive it in jesus name amen [Music] hey this is pastor allen thank you for watching this video if you enjoyed it like it and most importantly share it with your friends if you want to be notified when there's new content when we post new material if you'll just subscribe to my channel and hit the bell you'll get the notification most of all i pray god blesses you as you continue on your spiritual journey and open your heart to the lord god bless [Music] you

Channel: Allen Jackson Ministries

Views: 10,733

Keywords: Pastor Allen Jackson, allen jackson ministries, world outreach church, alan jackson, sermons, preachers, how to be saved, Finding Jesus, pastor allen jackson sermons, rejection, rejected, accepted, acceptance, Moses, spiritual battle, spiritual warfare, spiritual conflict, wounded, victim, I've been rejected, rejected me, family of God, lawlessness, censorship, authoritiarianism, faith conversations

Id: 7TWvskk3QvI

Length: 56min 35sec (3395 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 27 2022