Overcoming the hurdles and obstacles of life. It's what we've been talking about for a few weeks. Victory over rejection tonight. We have thus far, can you help me? We have had victory over what? What was the first message? Get over the hurdle of what? Anxiety. Get over the hurdle of anxiety. Secondly, get over the hurdle of guilt. Guilt. This morning, get over the hurdle of Fear, fear, fear. Now get over the hurdle of rejection. Do you realize that people can live in bondage and never know it? Roman numeral one, people can live in bondage and never know. I want to tell you folks something. This message is close to my heart today. Some prisons don't require physical bars or chains. They're made by the emotional burden of rejection that affects every area of our lives. Rejection. It causes us to believe lies about ourselves and undermines our relationship with the Lord Jesus. Even though God says He is for us, and by the way, He is for us. But He, the devil, causes us to believe lies about ourselves, undermines our relationship with the Lord. God is for us. I need to make that really pronounced. Do we really believe that God is for us? He is. The one who's struggling the most tonight, God, is for us. He is. That's what he says in Romans 8, 31 through 39. Nothing can separate us from him, but I'm telling you the truth. Past experiences we've suffered can oftentimes make us feel differently. If you've experienced rejection, you're not alone. It's almost impossible to go through life without feeling its sting. Often the hurt lies dormant until a word or situation or memory brings it back up, but it'll be brought back up. Painful pain resurfaces to our lives. Rejection penetrates beneath the surface. Rejection goes beneath the surface and shapes what we think about and feel about ourselves. The only way to rid ourselves of its effect is to acknowledge its presence, number one. Number two, discover its source. Number three, ask the Lord to help you with rejection. As you deal with it, Lord, would you please help me? How many of you tonight in this room have ever felt rejection on some level of life? Could I see your hand just hold it up? I felt some rejection preaching my life. Then you know exactly what I'm talking about. And sometimes you put it in the back of your thinking and you won't think about it until a word is said or something is brought up to your attention that brings it back to your mind. Then you think about it all over again. Roman numeral number two, please, if you're taking a note. What is the nature of rejection? Go with me to John, chapter one. I don't know if I had that in the scriptures or not, Tammy. If you could find John, chapter one, verse 11. I'll also use John 3, 16 in just a moment if you have that available. Many people in the Bible, Joseph, Moses, David, Paul, and you're right, even Jesus, suffered rejection. Did not John 111 say, he came unto his own, and his own received him not? Even Jesus, the great Son of God, suffered rejection. So will you. It's a painful emotion created when someone refuses us. It's something we've all had to go through in our lives and it has several negative outcomes. I'm going to give you four of them very quickly. They're not bullets up there so you can write them down as you look at it. You have to just listen to me and write it down if you're going to take a note. What's the nature of rejection? Rejection creates a feeling of being excluded or unwanted. I've watched it as I've coached basketball. Girls who are not just as good as others or boys who don't have the skill as others feel so rejected, made fun of by other students from time to time. I see it in my algebra classes or geometry classes that I teach, even here at the Christian school. Rejection. I can't quite get it. I remember one time a young lady who just couldn't understand what I was saying about algebra. And I'll not mention her name. You would know her. But she sat in class, and as we started the class, she began to listen and began to write. And as she wrote, she didn't know what she was even writing. I could tell it by how she was writing. And I didn't say anything for a while. I just watched her. And I kept teaching about a third of the way through the class. A big old tear dropped from her face out of her eye, off her cheek, onto her paper. And she quietly, quickly wiped the tear away and wiped her eyes. I didn't say anything that day. The next day she came back in, I didn't say a thing. But she felt so rejected. Everybody else in the class was getting it fine. And she just couldn't get it. But she didn't want to raise her hand and say, I can't get it. I don't understand what you're talking about. Can you help me? So finally I said to her, in front of everyone else, how are we doing? Fine. Fine. I said, okie dokie, let's go on. And I went on. And about halfway through that particular class, the tear came again and dropped on the page and she quickly wiped it away. And I said, let's stop the class for just a moment. Sweetheart, are you getting what I'm saying? And then tears out of both eyes fell down on the paper. I don't get it at all, Pastor. But she didn't want to say anything because she felt so rejected, because she felt she was dumb, stupid. Sometimes we feel dumb or stupid because somebody has said to us, you're just dumb. Or you're just stupid. That's the kind of people I really like to help. And so I said, I want you to stay after class. We're going to work on this a little bit. And we did. about six days, seven days, maybe 10 days, I can't remember the timeline. But somewhere along the path of me helping her and her listening in class and trying to do better, suddenly, suddenly, from here, the light came on. All of a sudden, I was teaching and giving how to find X, and she said in front of everybody, ''I got it.'' And I startled, I said, whoa, whoa, where'd that come, I got it, I get it, pastor, I know how you did that. And all of a sudden she felt so much better. But you see, the time I spent with her was very important to reassure her that she didn't need to feel rejected or dumb or stupid, she could get it. Ladies and gentlemen, the nature of rejection that carries with it a feeling of being excluded or unwanted. We feel unworthier or like we don't fit in. She didn't feel like she fit. Secondly, it's a form of control. Those who refuse to accept us can influence what we do and how we think. When you're not accepted by others, they have a certain amount of control over you if you're not careful. Thirdly, it leads to self-rejection. We become critical of ourselves and we lose our own self-respect because we become critical of ourselves. Number four, it can become a syndrome. In other words, if we never deal with our bondage of rejection, we can act in ways that causes others then, honestly, to reject us. It's the nature of rejection. Number three, I'm only going to five. I'm moving pretty quickly, aren't I? I have 16 things to say here, though. And there's no bullets. You have to write what I say when I say it. I'll try to say number one, number two, number three, and number four. Listen, I love this part of Bible teaching and training because so many people are so rejected. They won't tell you they're rejected. They won't tell you they feel this way, but they do. overcoming the hurdles of life, victory over rejection. Roman numeral number one, people can live in bondage and not even know it. Number two, the nature of rejection. Number three, what are the characteristics of a person who suffers from rejection? People who are consciously or unconsciously enslaved by rejection will have a critical spirit towards themselves and others. I have seen it so often. People will have a critical spirit towards themselves and others. People who don't feel good about themselves might try to bring others down with them. Listen, one of the reasons, now listen, as you deal with people, you have to understand something. When people are always criticized or trying to bring somebody else down, it's because they don't feel good about themselves. There's something missing in their own life. And so to make them feel better, They'll have to try to drag somebody else down to be where they are. Listen, you need to understand how to help people. We are here in the business of not just having church and acting like everything is fine. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, people have major difficulties in life. And one of them is rejection. And they feel. critical towards themselves and others. And number two, they experience difficulty in loving others. Do you ever see people who have this problem with rejection? They cannot love others. If people cannot, listen folks, if you don't love yourself, you're not going to be equipped to love other people. If I ask you, how do you feel about yourself? Oh, I hate myself. That tells me something. You have a real hard problem loving people. You will never, never, never, never, never love people, nor love God the way you should if you don't love yourself. Now don't think more highly of yourself than you ought, but you've got to love yourself. Speak to me somebody, say amen or something, oh me or something. You know, about me, I love you, but I really like me. Now don't think more highly than you are about yourself, but I love me. It's fun being around me. I love life. Listen, and the reason I love people so much is because I love myself so much. You watch people who don't love themselves, who are critical about themselves, I'm either too tall, too short, too fat, too skinny, I'm ugly, I've got pimples, whatever, they won't love people either, and they'll always find problems with everybody else. But when you love yourself, you will love people. One of the ways the devil gets you to be such a discordant church member is you don't even like yourself. You'll say about yourself, I don't even like myself. Trying to be humble I think is what you're trying. It's not working. It doesn't work like that. You've got to love yourself. Having feelings next of inferiority. Rejection makes people feel as though they never measure up. being preoccupied with their appearance. Sometimes those suffering because of rejection try to dress in a way that helps them feel like they're accepted. Don't you think it's amazing that church kids could come to church and look so nice, and when you see them elsewhere, they look so bad? They dress terrible. They show everything. Skirts hiked up, tops are way down on the girls. What are they doing? They're trying to fit in with somebody else. They feel rejected. They want to fit in. Listen, you have got to help me train our young people not to think this way. This is not a godly way of thinking, but it's called rejection. I want to fit in with society. You know, one of the things that really amazes me more than anything else is watching Facebook and how some of our own church people talk on Facebook. how some of our kids talk on Facebook. Listen, I don't know about you, mom and dad, but I wouldn't let my little girl or my little boy talk about loving some other little guy or some little girl, and oh, I wanna be with him all the time, and oh, I just love him. Why, they're 14 years old. They're 15 years old. They shouldn't say anything about, they oughta go out and skip rope or something. It should be the ideas and all about love making and kissing and holding hands. I can hardly wait till I get married. I think about them all the time. What in the world is going on? Where's mom and dad? Help me out here, everybody. Come on, amen? But you know what, they feel like that because you have, as a mother and a dad, rejected them, and they go to their little room, and they find themselves clogged in that little room with that little computer, and boy, they're just talking away as if they're an adult. They're 14, they're 15, they're 16, and they're talking like a 27 to 35 year old person, and they're trying to be grown up, and they're trying to act like they are somebody, because everybody, everybody wants to feel they are somebody. Come on, amen? And so we have all these kids talking all this adult talk. My goodness, put on bobby socks and tennis shoes. Wear your dresses right. Quit talking about the opposite sex. Quit talking about the filthy movies you're watching. Quit talking about, man, goodness, take me off your list, please. It disturbs me. It causes me to have stuff to preach about. It's kind of pitiful. We're not married and we're holding hands and sitting in laps and I thought that stuff was wrong. It used to be wrong and now we got them all cuddled up on Facebook and the whole world's seeing it. Duh. Preach it, preacher! Come on, amen? They never measure up. They're preoccupied with their appearance. They're suffering because of rejection. Put a little dress on that girl and say, you look so pretty in a dress. Maybe she won't want to wear a miniskirt where she shows everything. Cover her all the way to the top and say, ooh, don't you look nice. And say, baby, what you want me to buy you? Something that shows all this down here? OK, I'll go to the store and buy it for you. I just want to please my kids. You kidding me? I want to please the Lord. I'm not trying to get on dress standards here. I'm trying to tell you, a lot of folks are having struggles with rejection. And the computer, I'm telling you, is an answer for some of our kids. I'm all by myself in this little room in my little computer. Hi, sweetheart. I love you with all of my heart. How old are you? I'm 14. We're going to have a whirlwind wedding someday. What are you talking about that stuff for? Hello. I can hardly wait till school's out so we can see each other at the park. We'll do some stuff at the park. That's my little grubby woman, her backside. You say, preacher, spanking's against the law. Not in my house it ain't. My little grandsons, they get out of sorts, I still spank them too, Lynette. I don't care if you mind it, okay? She knows that already, so it don't matter. Now my wife acts like the little innocent one who buys them everything, but I've seen her too. Travis, now you quit that. Honey, did that hurt? I didn't mean to. That's grandma. Rejection. There's more rejection going on across this society than we even can imagine. And that's why so many things are being done secretively. We live in a state of floating anger. An attitude of bitterness permeates their lives and leads them to find fault with others. Why do you think when you say, get off of that computer, why do I have to get off the computer for? First of all, your child should never answer you like that. You ever do one of those? You don't talk to me like that. I am your mother. I am your father. Don't you ever raise your voice to me again. Don't slam that door. You slam that door, come right back in here, young lady. Walk through that door one more time and shut it properly. That's good preaching, preacher. Nobody else is going to say it? I might as well. Thank you. That's why these kids are so angry today. And our society is not getting better. It's getting worse. Display an attitude of superiority. Sometimes an arrogant demeanor is usually a cover-up for feelings of inferiority. Sometimes you see them and they have this superiority. It's because they feel inferior. Sometimes they're overly sensitive. Those who struggle with feelings of rejection are so easily hurt and are prone to misunderstanding, innocent comments. Adults, you can be like this. Oh, you should have heard what they said to me. You're so sensitive. to words said maybe in innocent comments, but you take it as being unkind. These people who have this problem of rejection resist being loved. People who don't feel worthy have a difficult time accepting affection. Some of those kind of people will say, well, we're just not that way. No, everybody is affectionate. Can I get an amen here? Come on, look at me, everybody. Everybody is affectionate. Listen, when you grab that little wife of yours and you put a kiss on her lips, that's being affectionate. Is there anybody here who quit kissing? Fellow Runkle, quit kissing. Mrs. Runkle, I feel so sorry for you. Maybe it's the best thing that ever happened to you, though. Glory! People get me. Honestly, people get me. The wolves are so affectionate. They hold hands. I see them in the store. They're holding hands. They're joking about each other. She's tearing him up, and he's just standing there going, mm-hmm. They're wonderful people. But they love each other. You can tell it. He'll grab her and hug her. You need to be affectionate. Come on, everybody. Say amen. But what happens is we resist being loved. They are suspicious. When people doubt their value, they become suspicious of anyone else who tries to befriend them because they think there must be a hidden move going on, a hidden motive, a hidden agenda. Why does he want to be friends with me? Why is he being nice to me? Why is he always trying to say nice things to me? They think there's a hidden agenda. They become also not only suspicious, but they become aloof. To avoid rejection, some people choose to be alone. That's why some of our children, some of our teenagers, they never want to be around anybody except the people they want to be around. I don't want to be around church people. They make me nervous. That's not so. That's not so. They have feelings of rejection. They're trying to be alone. It's not good for young people to be alone. It's not good for mom and dad to be alone. We need to have friends. We fall into depression when people feel unworthy. They become sad and discouraged. They feel like they've been cheated out of life. People who can't overcome the emotional effects of rejection actually miss God's best blessings for their lives. They have a materialistic focus, people who have rejection. To feel valuable, they have to gather possessions. They have to find possessions. So they go to the store all the time, and they're buying stuff all the time. They're really feeling rejected, but they don't know why they're buying so much. But they want to feel better, so it makes them feel better to buy. And yet, they never can be satisfied. They miss God's plan for their lives. Feelings of rejection cheat people out of what the Lord wants to do through them and in them. And then sometimes, and you gotta be careful about this with our young people and with moms and dads ourselves, when we feel rejected, feel rejected from the church, feel rejected from the pastor, feel rejected from school, feel rejected from my job, I feel rejected everywhere I go, what happens is, if we're not very careful, these same people who feel all these rejections will adopt a sinful practice of living. And people can't accept themselves. And they sometimes then will turn to things called drugs, or alcohol, or sex, in search of something that will bring them relief. I've got to have something, they say to themselves, and they go into sin. Number four, only going to five, reasons for feeling rejected. Why do we feel rejected? Why is it we feel rejected? Well, number one, people can live in bondage and not even know what we said. The nature of rejection, we talked about that. What are the characteristics of a person suffering rejection? I gave you 16 of those. Now, what are the reasons for feeling rejected? Underlying cause for this painful emotion is a person's negative opinion about himself, which is brought on by hurtful experiences, such as physical flaws. A person who isn't happy with his looks can feel undesirable and unlovable and feel rejected. And especially when people say to them, your teeth are crooked, do you know that? Kids are the worst in the world. You have buck teeth, did you know that? And all of a sudden they feel rejected. You know your one eye crosses a little bit? You know one finger is so short, you look retarded. People say things like that to each other and it just kills the people. And they feel rejected. And they wonder how many other people notice what that person said about them. They feel so rejected. Physical flaws. A person who isn't happy with his looks can feel undesirable and lovable. Listen, can I tell you something? Everybody in this room, without being haughty and cocky and all that sort of thing, you ought to be very pleased how you look because the Bible says you are fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator. God chose you to look just the way you look. Now, you ought to clean up. and you ought to wash, and you shouldn't stink, and you ought to comb your hair, and you ought to make your vessel look as good as you possibly can, but you are fearfully and wonderfully made. When my wife says to me, hey handsome, what are you doing? I said, baby, I told her this today, you know you have one thing right in life? What's that? You have really good eyesight. I said, you know handsome when you see handsome. You have got to start thinking well about yourself. Not too overly confident or cocky, but God made you like you are. I'm five foot seven on my way to heaven, Sue Miller said. It doesn't matter how tall or short you are. God made you just like you are. You ought to be thrilled how you look. And y'all take care of how you look and fix yourself up. Comb your hair. Take a little toilet paper at the end and make it smooth so your hair is smooth. Oh, I told my kids. You didn't hear that story? I told all these kids. They know it, don't you guys? Sure. So they said, preacher, how do you get your hair looking so neat? It's all toilet paper, I said. He said, what? I said, oh yeah, after I spray it and do it all. He said, you gotta take some toilet paper. I go. And it smooths it right out. Oh, how you ought to be pleased with yourself. If I could ever get you just to be pleased with yourself, love yourself so you could be free to love others and not look at yourself at all, how beat up you are and how terrible you are, how ugly I am, how fat I am, how big I am, how stupid I am. No, God made you wonderfully well. You are somebody. You're saved and born again. God loves you like you are. He made you just like that. And he made you full of purpose. Think about that. Past emotional hurts cause us to feel rejected. When a person is hurt, the damaging effects always linger. Sometimes the death of a loved one causes this. Some people see loss as rejection because they feel alone. In their eyes, God has turned his back on them. You know, when somebody dies, and by the way, everybody, we're gonna face this, everybody's gonna die. Please don't start this in this church. When somebody dies, oh God, turn his back on me. He was only 20. If God wanted him, let God have him. I know we look at age as being, oh, it was horrible. But we have to start looking at it. If that's what God wants, it's fine. My kids were small. My wife and I prayed for our kids all the time and helped them to grow up and be big and strong and live for the Lord Jesus. And I always said to God, but God, if you ever want them. Hardest thing for the Haines I ever said, but God, if you want them, they're yours. If you ever want to take them, it's okay by me. I have grandchildren today that I love. But I said to God time and time again, God, I love you. If you want to take my grandbabies, that's fine. If you want to take me, that's fine. It's okay. We have to be all right with death. Death is not the horrible enemy. Death is our friend to take us to God. Oh, amen. It's the vestibule to go to be where He is. Sometimes I know when we talk about death and a young person dies or a tragedy happens and we all, we just fall apart. We don't need to do that either. But moms and dads with little children or teenage girls and boys, you need to say to God, God, I don't want to lose a single one of them. But if you so happen to take them, it's fine with me. That's pretty tough to say, isn't it? but it's got to be fine because God's in charge. God knows what he's doing. Physical flaws, past emotional hurts, the death of a loved one. I'll tell you another one that's really tough on families is divorce. Reasons for feeling rejected is divorce. It's a very painful experience because both the spouse Both spouses and children are left feeling discarded when divorce comes. Childhood experiences, criticism, rejections, sick of the child's memory and shape his view of himself. He will spend a lifetime trying to validate his worth. Why don't you tell your kids while you have them with you how important they are? Why don't you tell your family, son, I love you so much. Daughter, I love you. You're precious in the sight of God. You're precious in my sight. Why don't you go ahead and express that? I love you. You're important to me. It's important for us to be able to say that one to the other. And number five, How can we overcome rejection? I have these written now for you. There's three of them. This negative feeling of rejection must be dealt with. And if we want to be whole, and I think there are three essential truths we need to understand in order to have the right attitude about ourselves here. Thankfully, the Lord has provided them for us. Ms. Tammy, if you could find Romans chapter five, verse eight. I don't know if I had it on the screen or not back there, but I do want to get that just real quickly. You see, the Lord provided this for us so we can be complete and escape the bondage of rejection through him because we gain so much through him. Look at this verse. I love this verse of Scripture. But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Do you realize that Jesus Christ died so you and I could be saved and one day go to heaven? While we were yet sinners, He died. Through Him, we can gain, number one, a sense of belonging. Listen, you don't have to feel like you don't belong. Nobody in this building, nobody we deal with needs to feel like you don't belong. You belong, you belong. Follow me to Romans chapter eight verse 16. A sense of belonging. Those in the body of Christ are a part of the family of God. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, if you say you're saved, guess what? I say you're saved. Hold it. Quit trying to judge who is and who isn't saved. That's not your business. Come on, amen? That's not your business to find out who is and who isn't. That's his business. If you come to me and you tell me you're saved, I say, oh, he's saved. And if you're saved, you're part of the family of God, and you belong. There's a certain amount of sense of belonging. And do you know what? People are afraid of our church because they're afraid we're too hard. We preach too hard about the scriptures. You gotta line your life up so much because the word of God is preached so hard there. No, it's not. The Word of God is a wonderful book with so many truths in it, and so many churches are missing the value of preaching the book. Oh, we need to love this book and preach it. Preach it, preach it, preach it. A sense of belonging. Romans 8, 16, we're part of the body. Once we fix this truth in our hearts, we'll feel secure. no matter what. Number two, letter B, a feeling of worthiness. Everybody needs to feel worthy. You know, that's why when I'm talking to everybody, I try to find something good to say to everybody, always. I mean, it's a pattern of my life, always has been. Hey, how you doing? Good to see you. God bless you. Hey, brother, you're looking good today. Sister, that's a beautiful dress. Wow, I love your hat. Always got to say something good. They have to feel, everybody has to feel like they belong. And number two, a sense, a feeling of worthiness. Look at John 3.16. You see, this verse we know so well. Jesus considered us so valuable. Do you realize this? I feel like this about God and me. God made me feel like I am somebody. Now I don't know if you get the drift or not, but you are somebody too. Now listen to me. You are somebody. Jesus considered you so valuable. that he was willing to die in your place. That puts a great deal of value on yourself. Vermont, he thinks you're somebody. Because he sent his son to die just for you. But oh, I can get in on it too. He sent his son to die just for me. And he sent his son to die just for you, and just for you, and just for you. That is something, isn't it? He sent His Son to die just for you. Listen, how can you not want to serve Him, young people? How can you not want to love Him? He sent His Son to die just for you. You got to think about it that way. He sent His Son to die just for me. But He also died for the whole world. So I look at this thing called rejection. How can I overcome it? I must have a sense of belonging. And I try, I honestly try, I try to make everybody feel like they belong. I try myself as a pastor to make everybody feel like they're so worthy. I really try. Thirdly, a sense of competence. How can I overcome rejection? I have to have a sense of competence. When we accepted Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit came in to live, did he not? When I accepted Jesus Christ, when you accepted Christ, is this the truth? The Holy Spirit of God came in to live inside of me. Is it right? He lives in me? The power of the Holy Spirit of God lives in me? He does, and one of his tasks is enabling us to accomplish whatever task God has called us to do. Philippians chapter 4 verse 13, I can do all things. Theodosia, is that still your favorite verse? I remember when Theodosia, Theodosia was our very first graduate from the Christian school. And she said that was her favorite scripture, I believe it was, is it still? Is that right? I can do all things through Christ, she said, which strengtheneth me. All through her high school years that she was here, and then finally graduated, I think she even used that in her speech when she graduated. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Listen, if we're gonna get out of this thing of rejection, we must make people feel like they belong. We must make them feel like they are worthy. And there is a sense of competence. And ladies and gentlemen, we have that sense because the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of us. And one of His tasks, one of His jobs is to help us to accomplish, to become all that God wants us to become and to achieve all that God wants us to achieve. We can live for the Lord Jesus. We don't have to feel rejected. If you have felt rejected, the world rejected you, your dad rejected you, your family rejected you, your mother rejected you, God doesn't reject you. And bless your heart, this church is not gonna reject you. We're gonna love you. I promise you. This church is gonna love everybody who comes. We're gonna do our best for everybody. We're gonna try to prove God's love to them. I'm closing with this. Ladies and gentlemen of the musical instruments, there is no need to go through life handicapped by past experiences. A preacher, you don't know my past. There's no sense in going through life handicapped with your past experiences. Give those past experiences to God. We don't know what we face in other churches. It doesn't matter. Those are all past experiences. Forget it. Let's get together in God's kingdom and feel his great love. There's three things I want to give you real quickly as I close this conclusion. The first step to victory over a debilitating sense of rejection comes when you finally choose to believe the Lord Jesus Christ and you find your acceptance in Him. That's the first step. He says to you then, you belong to Him and you are worthy in His eyes. It doesn't matter what anybody else says. You belong to Him and you're worthy in His eyes. Number two, the second thing, ask the Lord's forgiveness for allowing hurtful emotions to hinder your walk with him and to help you sift through those things and sift them out of your life. We've all had hurtful things. We've all, we all can point to hurtful things about rejection. Sift through those things and sift them right out of your life. Get rid of them. Trust the Lord Jesus. He loves you tonight. Hurdle over. the rejection you've experienced. And thirdly, the third thing you need to do is to reach out to those you have harmed and seek their forgiveness because true healing requires us to address both sides of rejection. You know, it boils down to this. It's a simple choice. Are you going to believe what God says about you? Or are you going to believe what other people say about you? It's about time we start believing what God says. We have been accepted. We're part of the kingdom. We're part of the plan of God. He made us just like we are so we could bring glory to Him. We are somebody in His kingdom. He loves us immensely. He wants the best for us. I wonder who in this building needs a hurdle over the hurdle of rejection. You know, I was told some bad stuff as a younger person, or this person did this to me, and I was rejected over here. Why don't we just come and give that to God? Well, preacher, you don't know the people who rejected me in my life. Oh, I've had a lot of rejection myself. They don't count. God counts. God counts. Is there a little bit of hurt there that you just need to get over? God can take you through that tonight.