Rejection & Acceptance
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good morning welcome if you're new here Among Us my name is Jean I serve here at C3 Church as your pastor today we're going to talk about rejection and acceptance and it made me think of a story about a guy named Bob worked at a kind of big company and his job was to do the financial reports so he'd get all these things you know the p l how are we doing and he'd report to his boss who wasn't the top guy Mr Smith well Mr Smith would report to Mr umberman he was the top guy he was the CEO if you will so here's the thing Bob wanted to climb the corporate ladder he wanted to be successful so approval meant a lot to him but his boss seemed to always be rejecting him so every month happened to someone every month Bob would hand in the report and Mr Smith would be somewhat dismissive of it and throw it kind of in the bin and then say something bad about last month's report like but vague though like it wasn't well written what does that mean I don't know but every month you try to make it perfect but the same result not well written okay somebody's got to get that so he decides coffee I'm gonna find out what kind of coffee likes how he likes it ask his secretary I'm gonna bring him a coffee sweeten the pot so he does same thing she takes a sip of the coffee throws a report to the side not well written okay Donuts if I put something in his mouth he can't say anything right so good strategy finds out from his secretary what's his favorite kind of Donut Boston cream mine too so that's why it's in there anyway so he brings the donuts and everything all right same thing with the report but look Mr Smith I have donuts for you look inside the box right oh my favorite Boston cream and so he's eating the donut it gives the secretary from upstairs time to come down and get the report but here's the thing Mr Smith didn't even look at it so she just takes the report and brings it up to Mr umberman all right that's weird next month let me let me try this again remove the donuts and just see what happens so brings it down gives them the report dismisses the report puts it in the tray and Bob just kind of stares at him for a little while let's see what happens sure enough secretary comes down picks up the report wait a minute Bob leaves and he starts whining himself up hold on he's not even reading these reports that's why it's so vague every month and then he keeps like winding himself up he's in his own head now he's getting mad he's boiling over and he's thinking wait a minute wait a minute I'm doing this guy's job he doesn't do anything at all he's mad so now he wants to get revenge I'm going to spit in his coffee nice guy right so he's like no no I'm going to get him fired here's what I'm going to do I'm going to botch the report next month not only that I'm going to write it in his name and I'm going to say things in there that'll get him ombreman Mr umberman Mr dumberman you know so I think minister dumberman is a dummy dumber and just on and on and on about this CEO is a name sign up for him whatever I got him the day finally comes he goes into Smith's office he's not there but in comes the secretary again ah Bob just the person I want to see I'll take that report now he's like so they have that kind of comical thing just give it to me I'm going to take it to Mr umberman and by the way he wants to see you okay so he goes up to the office he's in the waiting room that's the longest five minutes of his life she has brought the report in already so he is sweating okay he'll see you now he goes in the office and the CEO is doing what a good CEO or pastor does sometimes please don't say anything you know wait see what he says so Bob's real uncomfortable he's sweating he I know Mr Smith wasn't there and now I'm he comes right I know he's not there I fired him great This Guy's in a firing mood now all right well why'd you fire him he can't help himself he's got to know he's just talking to Phil spaces why'd you fire him he's like well you see on the back of this report here there's a place where Smith should have been stamping it and signing it so I know he didn't write any of these reports no Bob's like oh I'm dead right so there's no chances him he's fired no no no no no no no no no no yup he hasn't written any of them and in fact I know you have been writing the reports now Sweat Just sweat so don't stress out it's okay it's just a story so sweat he's just sweating oh no here it comes he's in a fiery mood I'm gonna get canned so you know what Bob we want to give you his job that's good so moment of happiness and excitement but soon dwindles why still got the report there he's got to do something about it think think think think oh wait wait wait wait sir I I want to sign the report though I'm going to reread it and sign it because I wouldn't want to get fired for the same thing the other guy did hmm okay thank you thank you I'm going to sign this so he thinks got away with it he's on his way out the door oh wait Bob Mr umberman says my name begins with a you not a d today we will be talking about rejection and acceptance and maybe sometimes getting off the hook a little bit or not last week we talked about humility we saw that John the Baptist was very humble Jesus indeed was humble today we're going to hop right in you know if you've been here for a while the Bible is not in chronological order last week it ran straight through that was pretty nice this week we're going to hop around again so you kind of got I don't like to use the term but it's the way we think now I copy and paste if you will so let's put the chart up and this is what we're going to be looking at today John 4 starting in that chapter Jesus and the Samaritan woman now the woman at the well if you will a lot of you know that I'm going to give you a little bit of background on that so maybe it'll be helpful in understanding what's at play here and in our theme today of acceptance and rejection as a result many Samaritans believe we hop over to Luke we said John John the Baptist is imprisoned we'll get back to him later then Jesus's Ministry actually begins we saw you kind of initiated it with that fasting but now it begins then Jesus heals the official son and then he's rejected at Nazareth so we see an end cap here of acceptance and rejection let's hop right in John 4 1. Jesus literally the Lord knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John though Jesus himself didn't baptize them his disciples did so he left Judea and returned to Galilee he had to go through Samaria on the way eventually he came to the Samaritan Village of saikar near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph Jacob's Well was there and Jesus tired from The Long Walk sat weirdly beside the well around noon time soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her please give me a drink he was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food the woman was surprised for Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans she said to Jesus you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman why are you asking me for a drink good time to pause so let's look at the background there if you remember way back in the rest of the story you had the split Israel and Judah you might know about King David or if you never read the Bible David Goliath Solomon you might know about him too really wise guy but he broke every rule set forth Deuteronomy 17 for a king all right so he's really bad God wanted to destroy him in the Kingdom but for your father's sake he said I won't but I'm going to do it to your son and successive Generations rehoboam comes along makes some bad decisions the kingdom split so you have Jude in the South where Jerusalem is and that's where all the legit worship is going on so that tribe there there's 12 tribes of Israel the Levites will come there too so sometimes it'll just say ten and two but Benjamin's there too so anyway the rest of the tribes are on the North jeroboam is ruling them he does the whole thing with the calf Idols not good in Bethel and Dan doubling down on the sin of Aaron but about six Kings later amri it buys Samaria he sets up the capital in the North Jerusalem South Capital in the north is Samaria he is Wicked ahab's dad it'll refer Jesus Will reference him later it's kind of neat so around the time of Elijah and Elisha the prophets Wicked Ahab so Omri sets up the capital city Samaria hence Samaritans Israel in the north falls first they're more wicked they worship other gods more often again the calf Idols they're not doing the legit Worship in Jerusalem and so they're known to think Judah Jewish people to the Jewish people as being like kind of half breeds too because they're mixing in with other cultures they're kind of not supposed to do that either so that's the thing the Samaritans are known as these half-breed to the Jews half-breed people they don't really do the right worship either they couldn't right they don't have Jerusalem so the worship is in Mount garizam instead of on this mountain we're going to see that in a second that's the background and this is why the parable the Good Samaritan right this is why Jesus is always using Samaritans as an example to knock the Jewish people who think they're all that in a bag of chips right so that's exactly what he said so anyway that's why he's doing that right so he's like even the Samaritans better than you so that's what's going on here this is the picture he's asking a Samaritan woman to give him a drink of water okay so it's already unusual so she says you know what you know we don't have anything to do with one another Jesus if you only knew the gift God had for you you you and who you're speaking to you asked me for water and I'd give you the water that leads to eternal life now she doesn't get it so she's like wait a minute you're better than Jacob like Jacob he and his ancestors and even his animals drank from this well how are you better plus you don't even have a bucket so she's thinking very practically here Jesus says look anyone who drinks of that water you're gonna get thirsty again but you drink the water I have you'll never be thirsty again again eternal life here so the woman gets excited please sir give me some of that water then I won't have to keep coming to the well and getting it she doesn't get it right Jesus knows this so it's kind of like a Nathaniel moment from last week he's going to blow her mind go get your husband I don't have a husband I know you've answered correctly for you've had five husbands and the one you're living with now is not your husband interesting in Greek here and Greek the word for husband or man is exactly the same and so you have to decide how you're going to change that some denominations get some interesting theology that way but anyway so it could change but it's easy to understand if you think of him saying yeah you've had five men and the man you're living with now is not your husband it makes it easy to understand that's the criticism so she realizes wow you must be a prophet and Jesus is patient for a sec right you must be a prophet so tell me why and she goes into this thing you Jews worship in Jerusalem we worship on Mount garizam ah so he goes into famous teaching believe me time is here even right so it will come when true worshipers it won't matter it doesn't matter this mountain that mountain we're going to worship in spirit in truth those who worship the father will worship in spirit and in truth well she says I know the Messiah is coming he'll explain all this to us I am the Messiah Jesus says now just then two things happen the disciples come back and they're like this is weird why is he talking to a woman by himself culturally that would have been a bad thing especially a man of Jesus stature a rabbi is what they're calling him but they don't say anything to Jesus so like this is kind of awkward and weird the woman now goes back and she's like I think I found the Messiah he knew everything about me so these two things are happening simultaneously then we get into a lesson about spiritual food it was spiritual drink before now it is spiritual food like Jesus eat something you must be hungry and then he goes on to the spiritual food teaching so we have those things at play here my nourishment comes from doing the will of God he says so think about the retort that he gave to Satan when he was tempted man does not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God you see that theme in here as a result you know this whole thing again the woman's like come see the man that told me everything I knew about myself he's the Messiah and so he stays with them for two days and many Samaritans who are and this is the real gravity of this teaching who have been rejected by the Jewish people are now accepted by Jesus so you see this happening right there that's the beautiful picture of what's going on if you know your Old Testament there's some value there so now I'm going to kind of go over a couple of the other sections and we'll get to Jesus being rejected stay in our theme but here's the chronology John is imprisoned he is kind of publicly criticizing Herod Antipas saying you can't have your brother's wife herodias and that's going to get him in some trouble we'll see that later but it just mentions he's thrown in prison Mark Matthew and Luke Jesus's Ministry begins this is a really cool place where you can see the good reasoning behind having three gospel accounts essentially three accounts of the same thing gives us kind of different information here Luke lets us know he's around 30 years old when he begins his ministry you get a quote from Isaiah 9 the Greek version in Matthew and then Mark will say just about the same thing what Jesus is doing is saying what John was saying was repent of your sins right repent of your sins obey God believe in God the kingdom is here in John 4 this is an interesting one because people confuse it it's really easy to confuse Jesus heals an official son Herod we're just talking about him in the chronology he probably works based on the Greek word he probably works for Herod so he is probably not a gentile and it's his son that he wants healed also he has a personal interaction with him he's face to face with Jesus and Jesus basically rebuked him well you asked him you gotta heal my son he's going to die but he says will you not believe like unless I do all these miracles the one people confuse it with is the Centurion and the Gent but he's a gentile it's different he sends people to Jesus and then Jesus applauds his faith I haven't even seen Faith like this in all of Israel so he uses a gentile people and we'll see a person to to kind of critique the Jews essentially so this is this account essentially Lord Heal My little boy you know he's healed go home Messengers come out tell the guy before he gets there on the way your son's healed when did this happen yesterday around one o'clock he knows that Jesus did it without even being there so many come to believe as a result now if we continue Jesus is rejected Nazareth Luke 4 16. when Jesus came to the Village of Nazareth his boyhood home he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the scriptures The Scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him he enrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written the spirit of the Lord is upon me for his anointed me to bring the good news to the poor good news to the poor he has sent me to Proclaim that captives will be released but the blind will see that the oppressed will be set free and that the time of the Lord's favor has come he's quoting Isaiah 61 Greek version he rolled up the scroll handed it back to the attendant and sat down all eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently he began to speak to them then they began he began to speak to them the scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips but how can this be they asked isn't this Joseph's son then he said you will undoubtedly quote me this proverb position heal yourself meaning do Miracles here in your own Hometown like those you didn't Capone but I tell you the truth no Prophet is accepted in his own Hometown certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah's time when the heavens were closed for three and a half years and a Severe famine devastated the land yet Elijah was not sent to any of them he was sent instead to a foreigner a widow of Zarephath in the land of sidon and May in Israel had leprosy at the time of the Prophet Elisha after Elijah but the only one healed was Naaman a Syrian when they heard this the people in the synagogue were Furious jumping up they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of a hill on which the town was built they intended to push him over the cliff but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way so very interesting here using these foreigners to criticize the Jewish people right your own people so you see this contract trust here being accepted right by people that are not people was rejected by your own people all in that thing right there and you can see during the time of Ahab again kind of interesting to know the Old Testament a little so we see this theme in this section from the Samaritans being accepted to Jesus being rejected accepted by a people that are not your people or that don't like you and rejected by your own people is the theme so what I want to talk about are both sides of that both sides of that situation what a lot of people struggle with and so I want to start with the rejection because a lot of people and if we're being honest probably from my desk what I see as a pastor everybody has a fear of rejection it's a little bit in there somewhere somewhere in there is a fear of rejection and this could be in a lot of things we work through this in a lot of stuff it could be something simple like you know uh applying for a job which is not simple I shouldn't have said that but applying for a job right you're afraid of rejection some people won't even apply for certain jobs because they're just I'm not going to get that job right they're afraid of being rejected they won't try out for a team right they might not make it so there's a lot of different things that happen in our everyday lives decisions we make that are like this we have a fear of rejection and you take it all the way up to like you know dating right or relations I don't want to ask her out she's really pretty you know right so that kind of thing I don't want to get rejected and so we have a fear of that and again if we're not trying to be emotional tough guys I would say pretty much everybody everybody I see has a fear of rejection so we talked about anger last week and this is an important thing to understand we talked about anger right so the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God right don't sin don't be angry don't sin don't leave the door open or don't give a place literally for the devil anger is not a good thing not good at all but fear of rejection is one of those root causes that's what's under there right the fear of rejection it leads to all these bad symptoms like the anxiety the anger all these different things but there's something under it anger is just a symptom like the anxiety is just a symptom of something deeper underneath there so we have to learn how to kind of deal with that so I'm going to do a teaching that if you've been here for a while you've heard before but if you haven't it's important to hear because it leads down a path that's really really important talking a lot lately with close friends even my wife about thinking about the Bible rightly thinking about how we really honor and care about God's word right so this is kind of the culture we're doing if you look at the Four Points on the wall outside those are the four things that the early church valued greatly they were devoted to those four things and the very first one is the apostles teaching the word what do you think they're teaching right so not like today right they're not teaching like you know 50 minutes about their dog and you're feeling good right so it's it's about the word they're preaching the word to everyone they're literally completely devoted to the work and then the teachings they're they're into the word they want to hear about the word of God because that's important if you're trying to build a bible-believing church well you know your culture should be built around the word of God that's very very important thinking about it right so this teaching we have a lot of teachings in our society and our culture about the Bible that are um not just wrong but absolutely ridiculous like if you know the word of God it's so far off it's not even funny so maybe you've heard this one I'll rip the Band-Aid off the Bible says fear not 365 times now everyone who's been here for a while like oh no here it goes it's going to be a while guys go get me another coffee right I'm going to try to keep this rant short so the Bible says fear not 365 times I've seen it and here's the thing if you don't read the Bible that sounds great that sounds great if you're not 365 times okay here's the thing I started reading the Bible and like after a couple passes through in a short period of time I was like that does not sound right doesn't sound anything like the Bible now sure you can find your you know fear not verses because you know the Bible Apple spoon feed it to you and make sure it doesn't give you any of the ones about fear that you should fear because they want you to come back yeah that's why so they're they're just going to spoon feed you parts that sound good but you have no context at all we talked about reading would you read a book like that one sentence at a time randomly over a period of oh like five years or never like you never actually finished the Bible because it's just the spoon fed verses right and so it began to sound really wrong to me so here's what I did I got something called a concordance and it's a really big book with a lot of really small letters because it's all the words in the Bible it tells you where they are it gives you like the Hebrew and the Greek and everything and so you can literally count and it's like a crazy person I did I got out like a little slide and you're laughing because I asked you for the ruler and so I was sitting there in my office with the ruler like you're trying to tally trying to tally trying to tell you all the times it says fear and so I had to do it several times yes I'm that nuts several times to kind of get the average right because you're going to be off plus or minus a couple here or there and so when I hit a number twice that's probably it 533 533 times the Bible says fear New and Old Testament all right if you're not it was really convenient strongest concordance they gave me fear not I was like oh it's so easy because I don't have to find not put it together that would have taken a long time but they put it together and so tally tally Tally tally Tally fear not 84 times that is not even close to 365. think about the math this way let's say I was off by 16. we're going to bump it up to fear not 100 times it's not even a third it's not even a third then let's bump the other number down 500 fear so then like let's say it's around 100 times I think I'm not great at math but I think that's only 20 of the time it's saying fear not when it talks about fear think about that when the Bible talks about fear it is only telling you not to fear 20 of the time it talks about fear how wrong is that teaching very eighty percent of the time you should be afraid or somebody's afraid not saying fear not and that's the truth but it's so popular right here's what it leads to and this is Pastor Lee White's a big person so what's the big deal well here's one of them here's another teaching I've heard fear is a sin I I just Google it I'm like I don't know because I heard that a lot in church but I Google it it's like all over the trumpet yeah fear's a sin and all the teachings on it are ridiculous it doesn't make sense when you look at the whole Bible or if you want to even understand the Gospels what was Jesus worried about in the agony in the garden he was horrified and distressed good translational say what does this horrified mean you're afraid yes yes it does and Dr Luke says he sweat blood that's an actual medical condition I have never been that nervous but when you get it's from hyper anxiety you can sweat blood Jesus did it so our Lord sinned no but it vividly describes him being anxious that's interesting but so how's fear of sin I don't get it it doesn't make sense and when you read the Bible a lot it doesn't make any sense it's not really what it says when you look at the full context aside from pulling one verse out that you happen to like so it's what we do with the fear that's kind of want to talk to you guys about you're going to have it it's just inside of us it's what we do and so what's wrong with these teachings it builds a culture of fake faith because you're all afraid of something every single one of you give me enough time in my office we'll get to it tissues are right there I know tissues are right there right but we'll get to it you're afraid of something you're afraid of something and we'll get to it but if fear is a sin was half Church going to do or more I'm not afraid well now you're a liar yeah you're a liar which one's better because you are you're afraid you have fear or something so you develop this culture of fake faith that's what happens fake Faith culture a bunch of liars that's not good we want to be honest with one another about what we're going through that's how we get under it and from my position this is the kind of thing that I see that woman comes in and this literally happened it's not funny it's just how crazy things get she comes in stage four cancer stage four cancer uh oh scared of course so she sits down but here's the thing crying I know Pastor I'm not I'm sinning because I'm not supposed to be afraid so there's already the dying this is bad and on top of that she is processing in this horrible spin cycle of guilt anxiety you know just thinking she's sinning maybe she's not saved what because of that that's what it does to people it's wrong and so the first thing now my job harder you know okay wait back up a couple steps you are not sinning and I got to go through this lesson okay but it's so ingrained it's such a strong infection next time you meet with her she goes through the same thing didn't I explain to you no because you know the internet told me that it's a sin great so it's not the fear it's what we do with it right the sin again is just a symptom it's what we're doing with the fears it's stopping you right so the fear did not stop our Lord from going to the Cross that's the key as long as it's not stopping us it's just something we naturally have it's how we overcome it we're going to talk about that in one way so here's the thing though what should we fear I'm just going to give you a couple of examples just in case you don't believe me and don't read your Bible don't believe me but everybody in here reads the Bible a lot they stay because they go wow that was actually remarkably true all I'm doing here is I'm teaching scriptures that's it very little opinion here so we're going to do three we could have done like 400 right no we're not I'm not going to do that to you we'd be here way too long I think even for my taste I want to show you a couple things this is an NLT I use a New Living Translation and a lot of people are surprised they're like Pastor you read Greek why would you do that well because right some people you know get to a level and they think and they're not really teaching anybody anything no one understands what they're saying or no I want you to learn right so I could have someone like a third grader in here I don't know supposed to be in the kids area but anyway so right so I could have a young person in here and I want everybody to know it but if you know me when it kind of goes this way a little too far I'll bring it back and this is what I've done three scriptures for you that's really all you need Proverbs 1 7. fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge but fools despise wisdom and discipline what is the foundation of knowledge fear fear Proverbs 14 16 the wise if it says are cautious cross it out if you're reading a good NLT there'll be a little asterisk there go to the bottom of the page when you see those asterisks or those little letters because it'll say fear do you see how this is permeated even our Bible think about it for a second if I'm translating this Greek Old Testament or the Hebrew and I go okay the wise fear that's what it says I'm doing the translation but then they go oh that's going to really step on some toast let's put our cautious instead it's exactly what they did why do you want to learn Greek that's why and avoid danger fools plunge ahead with Reckless confidence the wise fear what a lot of things it's wise to fear that's what it says now I'm gonna because here's we get the reverence thing if you ever heard that no it really just means reverence ain't wrong they're different words for that it does not even imply reverence at all that's another false teaching it's not true different words for that Philippians 2 12 Paul writing dear friends you always followed my instructions when I was with you and now that I'm away it's even more important work hard to show the results of your salvation obeying god with cross that out it does not say reverence the Greek word for just like that too it'll make that noise if you press your pen on the page too hard and get angry don't do it so deep reverence reverence is not there in the Greek different word for that fear and Terror is what it says and if you're a Greek speaking person I was at least one watching I put it in there for you I hope I typed it right but anyway with fear and terror is what that says there's a Greek person here you can do this yes that's what it says in the Greek if you're in Terror now the closest we get in the best translations is fear and trembling be careful with that word Terror why because it's Terror that connotates trembling makes you shake it's that bad fear and uh I'm so afraid that I'm shaking like a leaf Paul is telling them work out your salvation with that kind of fear that's not reverence my friends you're not shaken because you're reverent and it's not the Greek word so we have two sides of this fear right there is fear that compels us to something good fear of the Lord working out our Salvation let's get honest with ourselves about this thing right I'd rather work it out here like before I'm before the judge let's work it out here fear of the Lord I'll tell you this when you really have it it leads to a lot less sin right so you take that fear of the Lord away or take fear away well not afraid to sin ah tricky tricky so that's what it does so Jesus in one teaching it's great and that's because Jesus is great gives us both sides of this in one teaching Luke 12 14. dear friends don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body they cannot do any more to you after that but I'll tell you whom to fear fear God who has the power to kill you and throw you into hell yes he's the one to fear what's the price of five sparrows two copper coins yeah God does not forget a single one of them and the Very hairs on your head are all numbered although they're lessening yeah for me right now I had to break it up because it's a real hard teaching so don't be afraid you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows I tell you the truth everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on Earth the son of man will also acknowledge in the presence of God's angels but anyone who denies me here on Earth will be denied before God's angels so you see that fear there I don't tell your whom to fear fear God Jesus is not a liar so here's that thing work comes together work out your salvation with fear and Terror why fear God yo he's what matters but don't fear people they can just kill you and you see the gravity there you're worried about death forget about that don't worry about that don't worry that's all they can do they have nothing to do with your Eternal salvation God does so worry about that but fear be afraid of God does not say Jesus is not saying reverence and when you look at the context there's no way he's talking about that that's scary who can throw you have reverence to God who can throw you in hell no fear fear that that's scary don't fear people or their rejection of you and what's the final Point Jesus makes don't deny me don't fear those people so much that you don't talk about Jesus because if you don't talk about me I won't talk about you either that's what he's saying don't deny me If you deny me you're too afraid to talk about me in front of people and what what's going on here pick up your cross and follow me why would he say those kinds of things you might get killed for this you know the face of that don't fear that don't deny me we may be rejected especially when we choose to follow this path we might be rejected by our own this is something I know about so I can speak into it major life changes you get rejected by a lot of people talked about it last week just to make some jokes right when I came from the martial arts MMA industry right Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is my specialty they invented the UFC so anyway lots of crazy stuff happens in that industry you ever hear of the phrase locker room talk yeah it's a crazy industry it's a testosterone driven engine I mean think about crazy you have to be to get into that I just want to beat people up I mean not you know I can I get that part of it but you get beat up a lot in the process of learning and that's what I was talking about humility you get tapped out in an awful lot working your way up the ranks you're crazy I was a crazy person I was very angry I was very angry right my dad it was a bad relationship right it's like you'll never call me skinny again right that's what every one of my opponents right daddy issues mad and anger but when I Found Jesus I didn't have that anymore anger can be a good motivator for that but it's not in life I don't have it anymore it's not there I don't have the drive I used to have I'm not interested now also I don't want to party with you guys anymore and dude you can't keep bringing it over a different girl to my house every weekend who's not your wife I don't want to drink with you anymore I don't want to do that anymore right I'll have a couple beers but then that's it I don't want to get drunk I don't want to fight with you guys anymore and do all kinds of crazy things and you know what I'm tired of being hungover I'm kind of done with that I'm in a relationship with Jesus now which means I can't be in a relationship with all these other things they're mutually exclusive they have nothing to do with one another I'm done with the guilt the shame the regret I'm I'm done and then if this is the way you make your money and all these other people are relying on you making their money from that oh you get rejected a lot that's really bad hey guys I just kind of want to be a pastor now what that's not you man that's not who you are come on come party with us like the rabbit from last week right can't be with me like come on let's go that's not cool let's go party let's beat some people up let's do what we do I don't want to do that anymore church on Sunday what no man come check off the Box on Saturday night with me and then we'll go party right after church that's not the way it works I can't do this anymore but here's the thing the Bible tells us to expect that the Bible tells us to expect that first Peter 4 4. of course your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do so they slander you but remember that they will have to face God who stands ready to judge everyone both the living and the dead there it is again look at that don't fear these people that slander you don't worry about what they think worry about what God thinks fear God that's it you just their haters are going to hate you just keep doing your thing don't worry about what they say and here's just one little side note an encouragement I want to give you to me in Ministry it's kind of like my job or responsibility but to you you're a Christian there's plenty of places also where it says we're supposed to be examples for people it's all over the place Philippians first Peter we're supposed to be examples for people and it even says like in a marriage when one person doesn't believe you can actually you know save your spouse right you're not saving anyone but the point is right they might see what your example your behavior and change they might become a Christian so our job through our example is to try to win people to Jesus because here's the other side of it it's happened a few times for me we're like their lives become so unmanageable such a mess that they look at you and they go hold on a second you know I'm angry all the time why are you not angry why do you have joy you know why why do you have peace how come you love everybody or I tried to right so why do you what do you what are you kind for the fruit of the spirit right peace a lot of joy peace how come you're so patient and then they'll start realizing if they're kind of smart that you're patient with them I'm supposed to be beating them over the head or rebuking them no no attraction not promotion just you you do you you just do your thing with Jesus the relationship people will notice it you don't have to say anything talk about humility right words yeah say it with your actions and they have they've come around they'll notice you're making wise decisions your life isn't such a mess till notice you're not hungover and then you do that thing like me a text at seven in the morning and they go stop right remember from last week that's a thing I get plenty I'm like oh he's still drinking all right they don't like that seven in the morning text like stop drinking so you know but I don't do that right so I'm like really nice we know it's unspoken right so stop I'm like gosh okay you know patient kind not the 10 page text you're a fool you're still drinking that doesn't win over anybody did that in the beginning that's foolish okay I love you or you say like in all capital letters like it's too early for that but I've had people come around I've had people end of life decisions I had a friend long time friend come back knew I was a pastor came back around I got to talk him through those final well months weeks and then hours of his life I like to believe that he came to Christ he knew where to go but again you'll definitely have your haters and we shouldn't be worried about receiving praise from especially those people it's kind of funny like we know they're a mess but we worry about like receiving praise from them who cares what they think and this is addressed if we hop ahead John 12 42 many people did believe in Jesus however including some of the Jewish leaders but they wouldn't admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue for they loved human praise more than the praise of God they feared people more than God we should not be seeking the praise of people especially these types of people instead of God we have to adopt Jesus attitude remember Philippians 2 right before that fear and trembling thing we learned a lot about Jesus being humble obedient to the point of death even to death on a cross the ultimate example for us we also see it in Paul's attitude and so this is kind of one of the ideas I'm going to close with and give you a couple other points and we'll eat together Galatians if you can read Greek and every friend I have that reads this in Greek they'll just laugh because it's actually like worse than the American Insurance he is going crazy on this church he calls them fools he says you try to follow Allah you're cursed these people who are forcing into circumcision essentially I hope the knife slips think about that that's what he's implying there so we can read in the Greek it's very interesting so it's almost comical why because the first heresy of the church first series Israel Jesus fulfilled the law that's what he says in The Sermon on the Mount people just like stop reading like no he fulfills the law all is accomplished it's done but then what the Jewish Pharisees become Christians maybe come in and say you got to follow the law of Moses and they put all them under all these restrictions acts 15 they have the council no you don't but anyway people still come in oh they're righteousness trying to do the law so Paul tees off on them it's crazy it's crazy I'm trying to get there in my preaching it'd be awesome if I could like do that and actually keep people in the church but anyway this is what Paul says so he kind of end caps it first six chapters first chapter sixth chapter look at the idea here he's clearly knowing that that he's really gonna take a lot of people off here he knows this right so obviously I'm not trying to win the approval of people but God if pleasing people were my goal I would not be Christ's servant amen ending it Galatians 6 14. as for me may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because of that cross my interest in this world has been crucified in the world's interest in me has also died that's Paul's attitude that's where we need to get according to the people who think like the world we go into this knowing we're going to be rejected by it last week we talked about business right being a good employee these different things right so there's your business and on your business there's another phrase that can be applied here what other people think about you is none of your business what other people think about you is none of your business we can have peace with this why many will reject us for this message but we can have peace well here's the other thing the acceptance like the Samaritan woman we see that beautiful story here this is one of the big like hows how do we overcome the rejection well it's not narcissism it's knowledge of this you see we realize that we are brought into the ultimate acceptance we're accepted into the family of Jesus he's the king I serve got a better one than that what an honor this perfect love that we've brought into cast out that fear that's what it does keep the knowledge of that in your mind and your heart at all times as cliche as it sounds yes you are a child of God you're a servant of the most high King the Lord of lords King of Kings the author of life itself when you have that perspective in place properly I don't you become like Paul I really just don't care what you say all right just an ambassador for Christ that's the message so we may lose our friends and even family and we'll look at something interesting if we jump ahead and Mark we're going to look at Mark and we're going to see the urgency next week of following Jesus immediately immediately he does some healings on the Sabbath immediately immediately immediately and then The Sermon on the Mount will get inserted in there but if you continue in Mark three something interesting happens what happens is his family's there they're saying he's out of his mind let's take him away they're calling him crazy so here's what happened Mark 3 31 then Jesus mother and brothers came to see him they stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them there was a crowd sitting around Jesus and someone said your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you Jesus replied how is my mother who are my brothers then he looked around those around him and said look these are my mother and brothers anyone who does God's will is my brother and sister and mother we may be rejected by people who don't believe we may be rejected by our friends we may be rejected by our family but we're accepted into the family of faith that's the point people will call us crazy as they did Jesus it doesn't make sense to the world read Romans 12. none of that makes sense and be a Living Sacrifice even to my enemies huh I'm gonna love my enemies that's right don't take revenge the Lord's going to give you the justice the opposite right we're supposed to be army of One talking about that last week we get we do it we're the savior no we're not God is but that should be such a relief really yes just rely on the Lord he's got it we take solace right we're humble don't exalt ourselves knowing that they'll be humbled and we'll be exalted so here's the point no matter where you've come from as it pertains to the church this morning you are welcome here you are part of the family of Faith you are accepted here it doesn't matter what you've done it doesn't matter where you've come from it doesn't matter what you did or what you might do it does I don't want you to do anything wrong but it's okay come back because your family your family you're a part of the family of faith you're loved here we're not bonded by human flesh and blood we're bonded by the blood of Christ amen so let me pray from the scriptures and keep this in mind this will be our closing thought better God's word than mine Colossians 3 1 since you have been raised to New Life with Christ Jesus set your sights on the realities of heaven where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand think about the things of Heaven not the things of Earth for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God and when Christ who is your life is revealed to the whole world you will share in all his glory amen