HOW TO DEAL WITH REJECTION

Here are a few thoughts I have about Sunday's sermon. This area of rejection is huge in our lives. We have all experienced the pain of being rejected by others who are close to us. Some people reject me and it doesn't effect me at all. But when people who are close to me and for whom I have respect reject me, it really is painful.

Below are a few highlights from my notes and thoughts on "How To Overcome Rejection." You can also go to our media center and listen to the message online.

After you come to Jesus there are 4 practical things you can put into practice to overcome rejection in your life.

1. Let Go -- Release your expectation that others are here to make you happy.
Most rejection takes place because of our expectation that someone else can or should make us fulfilled and happy. The reality is that it will never happen -- not fully anyway. Our identity and security can only truly be found in our life in Christ.
Matthew 16: 24-25 (NKJV): Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."
Coming to Christ means we must give up our rights and expectations that others will make us happy. Rejection is one of the primary lessons of discipleship that must be dealt with if we are going to move on to maturity in Christ. This idea that we have a right to be treated a certain way, or a right to have someone else make us happy, leads to great disappointment and frustration.

2. Outbig 'em – This is a lesson that is one learns over a lifetime of experiencing rejection. My wife and I have a saying we go back to when someone says something stupid or attacks us: “Consider the source.” You don’t get in a verbal war with others or try to make them pay for the rejection or pain they have brought into your life. You do exactly the opposite.
Here are some of the most difficult words of Jesus:
Matthew 5:43-46 (NKJV): You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

3. Accept God’s Purpose -- Victory goes to those who accept God's purpose.
Ephesians 1:3-7 (NLT): How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ.
Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven.

4. Seek to Excel in Love
1 John 3:13-16 (NLT): So don't be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to eternal life. But a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another Christian is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them. We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters.