May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all hearts
present be productive for Spiritual Growth and acceptable in your sight.
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and From our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Rejection is a terrible thing to waste!
I am going to share with you the bottom line, the direct
point of my focus in this message.
“Rejection is wasted if it does not drive you to deepen your
faith and reliance on Jesus and if it does not drive you to focus more fully on
your God-Given mission!!
How many times have you been or felt rejected in your life?
Some one tells you No when you ask for something
You got fired
A date or a proposal for marriage was refused
You tried to share your faith or bring someone to worship
and they turned you away
Maybe it was a loan application
There are countless ways: some more serious than others.
In Luke Jesus Is particularly concerned with the despised,
rejected and outcast.
Early in Chapter 4, Jesus goes to the people and town were
he grew up. He went to the synagogue
and
Declares Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
Because he has anointed me
Preach good news to the poor
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To release the oppressed
To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Although the people were amazed, and wanted him to do here
in his hometown what they heard he had done in Capernaum. They likely wanted tangible proof of the
stories they were hearing about.
Then he tells about a gentile widow from Sidon who was
helped by Elijah while many Israelite widows received no help. Likewise a Gentile leper was cleaned from
Syria and none from Israel.
His home town people rejected him because he did not do what
they wanted and pointed out miraculous things Elijah did with Gentiles but not
with Israelites. They were so angry they were going to kill him.
What did Jesus do in the face of this rejection?
1) Does the Text say he felt defeated?
2) Does the text say he gave up?
3) Does the text say Jesus felt so crushed, he had to go off
somewhere alone to get his head together?
God’s Word says He focused on the Mission God the father had
given him.
He simply walked away and went to Capernaum----where our
lesson starts today.
He went to the Synagogue and taught with authority
1) He gave freedom and new life to a man possessed by a
demon.
As Americans we are used to the idea of freedom as License
to do whatever we wish……
But Jesus understands freedom differently. Freedom is release from captivity to death,
release from the will of others and our own will. Then we are free to be children of God and
subjects of his will.
2) Jesus goes to the house of Simon and heals a woman with a
fever…
3) then many sick and demon possessed were brought to him.
Demons
Declared “YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD” But Jesus would not let them tell anyone.
The demonic and the sick were thought to be unclean and in
their condition because they were
Sinners.
All these people were outcast and rejected by their culture
and religion and pushed to the fringes of their society.. All of Them were rejected!
Jesus came to them in the time of their rejection and freed
them from the captivity of social rejection!
Jesus did for them what only God could do!
So I declare to you that “REJETION IS WASTED WHEN IT DOES
NOT DRIVE ANYONE WHO KNOWS REJECTION TO RELY MORE DEEPLY AND MORE FULLY ON
CHRIST JESUS AND HIS SPIRIT AND ARE ALSO DRIVEN TO ACCOMPLISH THEIR GOD-GIVEN
MISSION”
Since we, You and I, are set free from sin and death and any
kind of rejection, what is our mission?
It is to give love and acceptance to people in need.
Sometimes it might be to a group of people and sometimes to
an individual. Freedom from Sin, death
and rejection is not an end in itself.
By Jesus example it is to teach about his love and forgiveness and to
help others to know him as a personal Lord and savior.
I would like to close with three stories:
Confection with Conviction
is a business in Kalamazoo that is a growing business that makes and
sells candy. The owner only hires convicts and gives them a 2nd
chance. They do good work and the
business is growing quickly. Isn’t that
a great way to share Christ’s love with those in our society who are rejected,
thought to be of poor moral character and so pushed to the outskirts of
society?
The second is about a woman with two young children and an
functional alcoholic husband. She phoned a friend once or twice a week and
talked for about an hour each time for a couple of years. Topics were
frustrations with her husband spending so much money on beer, difficulty paying
bills, great differences in parenting styles with her husband, issues with her
brother and declining health of her parents.
On the third Christmas, she sent her friend a card of thanksgiving,
telling her friend that she would have committed suicide if he had not been
available to listen and support her.
Sometimes your mission might be to simply listen to a friend who is
struggling.
The third is a true story about a little boy named
Stephen (I learned of this story from
Martin Marty).
Stephen with 8 years old and had a progressive brain disease
that would eventually take his life. He
didn’t fit in….In Sunday School the teacher in his class was trying to teach
the children about the resurrection. So
she assigned the children to get a plastic egg, like a LEGGS EGG, and bring it
to class next Sunday with a symbol of the resurrection inside.
Next Sunday arrived and the teacher avoided calling on
Stephen because she thought he might embarrass himself and maybe the whole
class. Sally opened her egg and it had a little flower in it, the teacher said
it was a great symbol of new life and the resurrection. When Mary open her egg a butterfly flew out
and the whole class erupted in pandemonium trying to catch the butterfly. That is a wonderful sign of the resurrection
said the teacher. Billy opened his egg
and there was a rock in it so the teacher asked him about it. He told her there was moss on one side of it
and that was a sign of new life. After
all the children had opened their eggs, Stephen asked, aren’t you going to ask
me to open my egg? So the teacher said
it was okay, go ahead Stephen and open your egg. There was nothing in his egg. The teacher said, Stephen, did you forget to
put something in your egg that was a sign of the resurrection? Stephen said I
didn’t forget…
THE TOMB WAS EMPTY AND THAT IS NEW LIFE FOR EVERY ONE.
Later that summer, at Stephen’s funeral there was all his
classes eggs on his coffin, open and empty signs of new life for every
one.
Now if Stephen can stay focused on his mission in spite of
his challenges and separation from others, what about you and me? He continues to witness to the power of
Christ to bring light into our world
Will we to waste rejection in all its forms by feeling bad
when it happens to us and others or will we use rejection to drive our hearts
and souls and minds closer to Jesus.
You may find yourself wondering on Thursday this week, Is
the rejection in my world being wasted or does it drive my faith deeper and my
reliance on his healing a grace in more profound ways and propel me into my
personal God-Given Mission?.
REJECTION IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE!