Jimmy Evans – Overcoming Rejection – The Overcoming Life

it is wonderful to be here I want to give you an update about pastor Robert now pastor Robert is watching right now would you let him know how much you love him and this amen amen amen thank you very much I talked to pastor Robert this afternoon and he said I want you first of all to tell everybody how much I love him and how much I appreciate their prayers he and Debbie both you know it was just a really close call there was just so much that happened during that period of time literally prayer got our pastor through that so thank you so much giving her a hand there give the Lord a hand on that so pastor Robert I talked to him today he's feeling better his voice sounded just a whole lot better and he is just making very incremental steps of getting well they took 17 more staples out of him I think it was on Friday so he's he's just getting there a step at a time literally but he walked today I think some of you probably saw the Instagram picture of him walking today so everything's good he's on the mend he'll be he's at home resting right now he's out of the hospital he's home but he said he said you tell everyone how much I love them and how much we appreciate them praying for us and we know that God did the miracle that he did because of their prayers and so it's just a wonderful blessing so thank you I'll be with you now I'm gonna be doing a four-week series I'll be here for two weeks Greg Laurie will be here in three weeks our dear friend Greg Laurie phenomenal man of God and preacher and evangelist and then I'll be here for two more weeks after that preaching a message or a series called the overcoming life we're going to talk about some issues some things that we all deal with in our lives and we need to overcome now victory is our birthright aren't you glad that Jesus gave us the victory and that means we can overcome anything Philippians 4:13 says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me so what an important scripture for us to remember first John 5 for whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith and so pastor Robert preached his Easter message on Dominion brilliant message telling us that Jesus died and rose again so that we could have dominion in every area of life revelation 12:11 they overcame him talking about Satan and us we overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb by the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives to death so Jesus has empowered us to overcome and he has made awesome promises in the word to those who overcome an example in Jesus letter to the seven churches at the end of every letter he makes these promises to people overcome let me just read you a few of these Ephesus revelation 2:7 he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches to him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God Pergamus revelation 2:17 who has an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches to him overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat and I will give him a white stone on the stone a new name which no no one knows except him who receives it part of the blessing of heaven is you finally get to know your real name your name right now is not your real name it's your human name but when you get to heaven you get your real name part of the curse of Hell is you never know your name you never knew who you were by I wrote revelation to he who overcomes and keeps my works unto the end to him I will give power over the nation's he shall rule them with a rod of iron they shall be dashed to pieces like The Potter's vessel as I've also received from my father and I will give him the morning star into Laodicea in Revelation 3 to him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I overcame and sat down with my father on his throne and here's the truth we're either overcomers or were overcoming there only two possibilities and Jesus did not die on the cross to give us the ability to cope he died on the cross to give us the ability to conquer and so we need to be overcomers in life but let's make it very specific we're going to talk about four issues right now I want to talk about the issue of rejection overcoming rejection all of us experience it and all of us will experience it there's no doubt about that but for some people it can be devastating and it can literally stop God's destiny in your life from being accomplished Isaiah 53 talks about Jesus this is a messianic prophecy in the Old Testament what it means is it's a prophecy in the Old Testament talking about Jesus and what he was going to do Isaiah 53 he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground he has no form or comeliness and when we see him there's no beauty that we should desire him he is despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we did not esteem him surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement for our peace was upon him and by His stripes we were healed all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all Jesus was the most rejected man in the history of the world from birth to death Jesus was rejected first of all his supposed father was Joseph we know that Joseph was not his father but that was his supposed father to the world he didn't want Jesus it took an angelic visitation for him to accept Jesus Herod the king of that area during Jesus time tried to kill him in Matthew 2 and Mary and Joseph had to flee to Egypt Nazareth is where Jesus grew up and in Luke 4 they tried to kill him when he began his ministry they took him to the brow of the hill of the city and tried to kill him his family in mark chapter 3 when he went into the ministry that he thought he was crazy and they came to take him home the Jews killed Jesus Romans 5 says and they were not alone in that but the his own people turned him over to be killed and ultimately on the cross God the Father completely rejected Jesus Jesus got what we deserved so we could get what we don't deserve Jesus took sickness and pain and sorrow but he also suffered rejection God when Jesus said my God my God why have there all forsaken me that was the only time I didn't call him father because God had turned his back on Jesus completely rejected him and so from birth to death Jesus was rejected but it never affected his decision-making it never affected his attitude or the way he treated people and it did not keep him from accomplishing God's purpose for his life and he's our example all of us are gonna be rejected every single one of us have been rejected and we're gonna be rejected because love is our greatest need as human beings we were created by God God is love we were created by love to love that is the common denominator of men women young and old all over the earth our greatest need is love and because our greatest need is love rejection is our greatest fear our greatest fear most people fear public speaking more than death what I'm doing right now most people fear public speaking and the reason is rejection it's one thing to get rejected by one or two people it's another thing to get rejected by hundreds or thousands I don't y'all do that while I'm up here boy yeah you know it's mass rejection rejection is our greatest scar in counseling over the years when you're talking about a person who has freedom issues you know just damaged whatever it might be rejection is the greatest scar that we have in our lives and it's our greatest control point many people are controlled their entire lives by the fear of rejection and the corresponding need for love and approval and because of this it changes how we live and make our decisions it didn't change Jesus but many times it changes us it changes how we treat people and it keeps us from accomplishing God's will for our lives so this this is a big issue this is a big control point with the devil and how he wants to change our lives and keep us from God's will so I mean let me talk for just a minute about forms of rejection because rejection comes in many forms the first is being unwanted as a child I was unwanted as a child I have two older brothers Damien and Lucifer and you've never heard that one before had my Christy always laughs at that's what I tell so I have two older brothers and my mother is a very girly woman and she was a model when I was growing up and she wanted a girl she didn't want a boy well back then you didn't know you just didn't know so but my mother my name she had picked out my name my name was Debbie Dale Evans for all you Debbie's out there I feel kindred this with you and now Dale Evans was the country-western star cut dad would be like Carrie Underwood that would be like Dolly Parton okay so when I was born my parents didn't name me and my mother was so disappointed she didn't name me and so I went my parents went home with me and several weeks after I was born the hospital called my parents and said if you don't name this child today his name is officially baby boy Evans so you could be called me BB pastor BB right now so under duress they named me Jimmy Dale Evans my name is Jimmy Dale Evans I didn't mean much today when I was growing up that would be like Jimmy Carrie Underwood and God has mercy made me a large child so being unwanted and that's the silly story that I just told that some of you have a lot more pain in that than I do not being accepted or loved just just being excluded lack of attention lack of affection being excluded relationships activities sports whatever it might be being laughed at or being made fun of can hurt very badly being gossiped or lied about being compared in an unfavorable way divorce is a huge huge huge car of rejection adultery abandonment emotional physical abuse verbal physical sexual abuse is a huge scar of rejection neglect not being chosen or favored or accepted for who I am which includes racism sexism discrimination for whatever reason it might be having to attain physical financial social or spiritual standards to be accepted that are out of my reach just I can't get there I'm not tall enough pretty enough enough rich enough I just can't get there so I'm excluded rejected chronic lack of employment can cause a deep rejection in a person's life being rejected by a friend boyfriend girlfriend or someone you desire to have a relationship with or have had a relationship with obviously very deep rejection premature death is as odd as that sound sometimes when a person dies we can feel rejected especially if they commit suicide if you have a loved one who committed suicide is deep rejection most of us have experienced rejection on many levels but unfortunately some of us have a spirit of rejection and that means weeks we expect that we live it it defines who we are is that we were rejected and are rejected and will be rejected it changes the way we think it changes our attitudes in the way that we you know deal with people and it is keeping us from doing everything God would want to do with our lives one example of this is the United States of America we have a mass spirit of rejection regarding marriage in 1930 83% of adult Americans were married today 49% of adult Americans marry and the reason that is because a spirit of rejection a fear of being rejected and so as a society were you know we're avoiding marriage and I want to talk about some common when we get rejected or because of rejection here are some unhealthy ways we react to it and one is we avoid the risk of rejection not trying in relationships in which I think our endeavors that I think I might risk rejection preemptively rejecting others before they reject me if you have a spirit of rejection you'll reject other people if you think they're about to reject you lack of commitment if I don't if I'm not committed I won't going to get my heart broken conforming to the environment rather than being myself and expressing my opinions in other words laying low and we shouldn't be unwise but all all relationships and endeavors are risk anything that you do by faith is a risk and if you live risk free life you live a meaningless life Jesus knew everything he was doing was gonna get him killed and he knew the man at his campfire every night that he shared bread with was going to turn him in and reject him and get him crucified but he loved him they called him friend one time I was going through a tough season and I was praying one morning and someone had done something to me to hurt hurt me a lot and I told the Lord I said I'm I'm never doing that again and no one's ever gonna hurt me like that again and the Lord said that I can't use you and you know when the Lord says something it just kind of unpacks and the Lord said Jimmy don't be unwise but you're gonna get hurt for my sake you can't love without getting hurt you can't open your heart to people without any chance whatsoever be wise minimize the risk but we do it for him did you know that we do it for him we love for he did it for us we do it for him another way that people respond to rejection is anger and aggression rejected people are the most angry group of people on earth research there was some research done by Leary Kowalski Smith and Phillips in 2003 talking about school shootings 13 out of 15 school shooters felt chronic rejection by society in their peers rejected people are a lot of many times angry people young people who demonstrate aggressive and anti-social behavior many times feel rejected and alienated pink hair Mohawks tattoos body piercings any social kind of behavior and they're just basically they're saying I don't care if you like me or not just go ahead and reject me I'm used to it most violent crimes are committed by men who are single recently divorced or have recently lost a close relationship with a woman and they're angry rejects you wounds us and it creates bitterness and aggression if we don't deal with it properly remember Jesus hung on the cross and looked at the people who put him there and he forgave them another way that we respond to to rejection is hopelessness and despair we feel isolated lonely rejected and people who feel that people who are hopeless and live in despair have a much higher death rate they die sooner they have a much higher rate of mental and emotional problems in much higher suicide rates and we have to remember that the devil is the hurt was for every single time were hurting the devil wants to speak into our pain the problem with pain is not the pain the problem with pain is the message that's in the pain and when you have been rejected the devil and what makes the devil so dangerous is his stealth he doesn't present himself it would be so easy to deal with him if he would just present himself because we know that we have authority over him but when you're dealing with the devil many times you're dealing with the subliminal thought and he put it there and you didn't know it you think you think it's your thought he slithered in in a hard time he slithered in in a time that you were hurting and being rejected and he spoke something to you and it's in there and it's you don't know it but here are the lies that he speaks you aren't worth anything reason people reject is because you're not worth anything no one will ever love you why do you even trying you're defective you'll never have anyone you'll always be rejected something is wrong with you something's wrong with you people don't love you because God doesn't love you that's the way he feels you're unlovable and you're undesirable you're a loser you're always gonna be disappointed don't let people inside because they're always gonna hurt you people don't care about you they just want to use you and get what they want I'm living for myself and I'm not gonna let other people hurt me these are these are the little things that are in there and they program us it's a spirit of rejection they program us and because love is our greatest need rejection is our greatest control point and when these thoughts have been Pro he's that he's the hurt whisperer and we go through life being rejected and he speaks these lies into our spirit one after the other and then we're programmed whether we realize that or not and we go through life with these programs in our software that are running us and we don't know it another way that we react to rejection is being overly sensitive to rejection and overly dependent upon the approval of other people early in our marriage Karen Karen had a lot of rejection in her past and she had very low self-esteem and so early early in our marriage turn and I were both rejected Karen and I both had a lot of rejection or passed but Karen Karen dealt with it with low self-esteem she hated herself every almost every message I just read was in Karen and I've also had a fear of rejection but I dealt with it by being macho and acting very macho but I remember I would feel rejected by a look Karen would give me I was so sensitive to the issue of rejection that any time that she would just do any little thing it would hurt me and then I would respond to her out of that rejection and we literally did a dance kind of a fear dance and a rejection dance for the first few years of our marriage but what happens when you have your overly sensitive and you live this way is your very self-centered and self-absorbed the fear of rejection just causes the world to come in on you you're very offended and very reactive in the way that you live your life you also become overly dependent on the approval and acceptance of others you become a people pleaser in a wrong way you perform for the approval of others to an unhealthy degree and Compu compromised your moral standards to be accepted or not to be rejected so it just changes us now part of the beauty of getting older is you just don't care as much all the old people are saying like that no you're young you walk into a room you kind of hold your stomach in these kind of pose and you get old you walk in rubbing your stomach and by the way I do have washboard abs I just have a load of towels in right now when I buy shoes when I was younger I bought those little Italian shoes Laree low-cut she's now I just walk in and say I want the thickest soles you've got I don't care huggly they are I just want a comfortable shoe see it's really kind of get set free as you get older but avoidance and risk anger and aggression hopelessness and despair and being overly sensitive and dependent upon the approval and acceptance of others let me talk about how to overcome rejection because we've talked about what it is and how to fix this let's talk about how to overcome it base your life number one base your life on God's perfect love and what his word has to say about you I mean I don't know who hates you but I'll tell you there's one person who loves you and that's God and you have to the only thing that got Jesus through was God's love regardless of who rejected him he knew God the Father loved him and that's what he focused on Hebrews 13 let your conduct be without covetousness be content with such things as you have for he himself has said I will never leave you nor forsake you so we may boldly say the Lord is my helper I will not fear what can man do to me Gus says I will never leave you nor forsake you this not only means he won't physically reject you he'll never turn his heart away forsake means turn his heart away God has promised all of us there will never be a moment in all of eternity when he turns his heart away and rejects us and we can we can bet on that Ephesians 1 our provisions one having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to his good pleasure to the praise of the glory of His grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved did you know we're a part of God's family and did you know this the most secure family on the it's not a family of rejection it's a family of acceptance and we have full right we're adopted we have full ride as a family member before God we don't have to fear being rejected jesus said in john 6 all the father gives me will come to me all the father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out or reject his promise is that psalm 107:20 says he sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions when Karen and I got married Karen turned to God you see people that come out of a family and one turns to alcohol one turns to drugs one turns to rebellion and one turns to God and it makes a radical difference where you turn care and turn to God and I've never known a day Karen I will be married 45 years on May the 11th that's bigger thank you see right down here and but Karen I've never known a day in our marriage in 45 years where Karen did not wake up and read the Word of God she wakes up at 4 or 4:30 every morning and she reads the Word of God for an hour to praise and I watched God transformed my wife from beaten down rejected person into a lioness of God his love has the power to heal us I'll say this if you've been rejected if you're suffering from rejection the number one thing is the love of God and I'm telling you he adores you he adores you if you have ever heard a voice say God doesn't love you that's the devil and you have to bind it and cast it out and believe in God's love number two pursue relationships with fellow believers who are pursuing God in healthy relationships if you choose the wrong friends are going to break your heart proverbs 17:17 says a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity you know there are groups of people I really do feel sorry for man you know we had a group of people in our neighborhood that we're all real pretty and they kind of ran around together and you had to be pretty to be in the group they never called me one time I mean real real pretty they were very very pretty people too pretty and and they just dressed to the hilt and just everything was just obsessive you know about them and the problem is you know first of all gravity's gonna suck you in the grave and kill you one day forever that's the first problem you know you've gravity you got a big enemy there so but they're all real pretty and I feel sorry for him cuz I just thought you can't stay there and we watched one marriage implode after the other marriage after the other marriage after the other marriage you know I want to I want to be my best but but the truth is I just not gonna pedal harder if I have to to get you to like me it's okay for me if you're not like don't like me Christian people are the most wonderful people on earth and I had worldly friends the day I got saved the first thing the Lord ever said to me is never see your friends again and I became a Christian I lost all my friends I had Karen and Jesus as my friends and I began to have friends Pastor Tom Lane and I have been best friends for 30 almost 40 years and he loved he loves me at all times I have friends and I know that they don't love me for my looks they don't love me for my position they don't love me for what I do for them they just love me because that's the way Jesus is let me say this to you be careful the friends that you choose you want friends that love God you want friends that have the same values as you have and you want friends who accept you for who you are I'm not saying that they don't encourage you to be a better person I'm not saying they accept sin and encourage you to destroy yourself I'm saying on your worst day they're standing there with you and if you don't look so good if you're going through a bad time bad day bad week bad decade they're there friend lettuce at all times number three expect rejection don't take it so personally it's gonna happen Jesus said in Luke 6:26 what a woe to you when all men speak well of you for so did their fathers to the false prophets if everybody's talking good about you there's something wrong Luke 6 blessed are you when men hate you when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil for the sake of the son of man say rejoice in that day and leap for joy for indeed your reward in is great in heaven for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets rejoice when men hate you let me say this about pastor Robert the this series that he was preaching when he got sick more than words our pastor got up in this pulpit and he stood for the Word of God and our society has rejected the Word of God wholesale and you can walk into many places and our culture today and say you're a Christian you're in danger there's a hatred for the Word of God and many pastors than many churches are caving in and becoming PC so everybody will like them jesus said you'd be where I'm proud of our pastor for preaching the truth you're gonna be rejection if you're Christian just gonna get rejected you don't want to make it happen but you're gonna be rejected Jesus said it Jesus said you'd be if everybody speaks well of you be careful that's what the end of the false prophets we're gonna be rejected hear hear part of the way that we get hurt is just by toxic thoughts we we get our unrealistic expectations set us up for rejection hurt unrealistic expectations like this everyone will like me are you kidding me they will not I don't I don't care how good your cologne or deodorant is they're not gonna like you not go your teeth up no you're gonna have white teeth but they're not wide enough for some people life will be easy no it won't what Jesus said in this world you have tribulation be of good cheer I have overcome the world we've got the same problems as the world we just have a better solution another toxic thought is everyone will treat me well no they won't I'm gonna get rejected I don't want to make it happen but here's another one and is the last one about how to deal with rejection forgive those who reject you and give them God's love and acceptance in return Luke 6 I say to you this is Jesus I say to you love your enemies do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you pray for those who spitefully use you to him who strikes you on the one cheek offer the other also and from him who takes away your cloak do not withhold your Tenakee either let me to say this part of what I'm saying is get off the defense and get on the offense and when we've been rejected and we've been run out and people have heard us we we live like this and we want everybody to like this and we we minimize the risk and we kind of get behind our walls and we live like this not not doing what God called us to do but when you understand rejection and when you deal with it properly what it means is I'm not gonna be unwise I'm not gonna set myself up just foolishly but I'm gonna get hurt it's okay God loves me but I'm not gonna live my life so you won't reject me I'm gonna live my life so you will know the love of God and if you're my enemy you know what I'm gonna do I'm gonna love you you don't understand look you're pretty you don't understand what you think that love is all about the way you look so one day when gravity takes over I'm gonna come in I'm gonna love you when nobody else will because I want you to understand it's not about your looks it's not about your money it's not about your social status it's not about your intelligence or your academic level it is about the fact that you were created by Almighty God and you're lovable you're special you're valuable you're unique there's something of God in you and you deserve to be loved and I'm not gonna live my life over here hiding in fearing and doing everything I can do to be accepted by people with even sometimes with the wrong standards I'm gonna live my life to let the world know about the love of Jesus Christ because there's no love like the love of Jesus and it's the only answer for a spirit of rejection once you bow your heads with me if you would what we bring our our scars to you and we just admit Lord that we are we have been hurt by people we have been wounded by words we have been wounded by actions we have been wounded by aggression by exclusion by rejection by betrayal and it hurts it hurts a lot because we want to be loved and lord I pray for healing for the wounds of rejection I prayed that your love would be the sad that we close the wounds of our heart right now i bind every lie of Satan I bind every demon of hell that has spoken a lie into our spirits that we're unlovable that you don't love us that we should close our hearts and not try I bind every demonic spirit who has come to steal kill and destroy and to keep us from our promised land in the name of Jesus and we say right now Lord we're not gonna live our lives on the defense on our heels with the enemy breathing down our throat we're gonna live our lives to show your love to other people we're gonna live our lives to glorify you and we're gonna take a few hits in the process there be gonna be some people who don't like us there gonna be some people who talk bad about us that's okay they did it to you but we do it for your glory supernaturally supernaturally heal our hearts encourage those who are discouraged right now touch those who are hurting right now and Lord more than anything else we thank you for your love and I'm asking you to express your love in a special way to all of us right now you show us in a personal way that you're there and that you will never leave us or forsake us but I pray your blessing over these precious people every service every campus I pray your blessing of love and acceptance of favour of prosperity of healing of fertility of increase of rest and peace I pray your blessing over them in Jesus name Amen

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Length: 34min 12sec (2052 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 23 2018