FREED | Rejection

All right, friends, if you would remain standing for the reading of God's Word, we're gonna be reading from Romans 8, Romans 8, verse 15 through 39. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, who is it to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, he was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter. No, in all things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels,

nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus, our Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. If you guys can grab a seat. If I've not met you before, my name is Sam, one of the pastors here on staff. I'm excited to be continuing on in our series tonight. Before we dive in, just a couple things I wanna make sure you're aware of. I know summertime is here in New York, and New York's like a college town for young professionals. The people just kinda disappear. But I do wanna just encourage you and hope you have great summer plans and you've got some rest time away or whatever that looks like for you, but just not miss the season of what God is actually up to in our midst. We've been talking about this for months that we are seeing such an increase of what God is doing here in our city. The fame and deeds of God are being renewed and made known in our time. This is actually happening. And just wanna share a brief story with you to kinda highlight that.

One of the things that we help facilitate with PrayNYC here at the church is we host monthly pastor prayer meetings in each borough. And so this past week, we had a prayer gathering for Manhattan pastors. And a friend of mine who pastors in the city came for the second time. And during this prayer meeting, we were praying and he just started asking. He's like, Lord, I'll just pray again for you to save people in the city. And I'm reminded that the last time I was here, I asked you to do this. And our church saw the first salvation we'd had in years. Anyway, it was a really significant moment in the prayer meeting. And so I stopped him afterwards and just said, hey man, this often we ask God for stuff and we don't even recognize when he does it. And so the fact that you recognize that, return to God to give thanks and ask him to do more. And he's like, man, I just had to celebrate. Because full Canada, his church is not like this young vibrant church plant. They've got an old church building in the Midtown area and realistically they're struggling how to get people into the doors of their church. He said, we had the prayer meeting last month on Wednesday and just to get bodies in our building, we do something called cafe hours,

just because we're just trying to get like humans in the church. And the next day at cafe hours, this young professional comes in and she sits there for about an hour. At the end of the hour, she comes up to me and says, hey, do you mind if I ask you a question? He says, yes, sure. He didn't know who she was. So well, last night I had a dream. And in this dream, I was holding a newborn baby. But the strange thing about the dream is the newborn baby was me. And I was me holding newborn me in the dream. And all day long, I've been wrestling with this idea of something about I need to be reborn. Is that a thing? Well, he says, what's your faith background? She's like, I have none at all. He says, well, I'm gonna open the Bible and I'm gonna read you a story out of John chapter three, where Jesus tells Nicodemus, you must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. She begins to start, she starts crying. He says, that's what I need. He leads her to Christ on the spot. So I just beg and implore you to not let your season dictate God's season. And hope you get rest, but encourage you to keep leaning in, pressing in.

God is up to something in our midst. I believe we are at the early stages of the. a great awakening happening in the Western world. So, so grateful for that. The second thing you need to know is, out of the book of Jeremiah, God instructs the people of Israel, they're getting ready to be sent into a foreign land, and he tells them how he wants them to operate in that place. He tells them that while you're in Babylon, I want you to seek the prosperity and the blessing of the city. And I know a lot of people, I don't know what your journey is that got you to New York. You know, often most people aren't actually from here. If you meet someone that was born and raised in New York, it's like, oh, wow, you know, it's unique. But I don't know where you come from, but I do want to encourage you that we have a wonderful opportunity to seek the blessing and the prosperity of the city this week by pulling for the New York Knicks. Amen? So, you think I'm joking, I'm not. I'm praying, I'm fasting for this, I'm glad the prayer room's open. We need a win, folks, we need something. In 2023, I remember I was prayer walking the city one day, and I was like, man, the air just feels good. Like something's happening in the city,

I think God's breaking in, his spirit's getting poured out. And then I walked by the Madison Square Garden area and just realized that the Knicks were in the playoffs. And I was like, oh, might be one of the same, who knows? So, I know Pastor John's on sabbatical, so this is the summer we care about sports now. But let's lean in. If you're from San Antonio or the Texas area and you pull for the Spurs, you can renounce that during lingering. Or you can remain silent. We're seeking the prosperity of our city. All right, folks, let's get into it. So, continuing on, we're in a series right now on freedom. For freedom, Christ has set you free. You are set free for freedom. Freedom is your inheritance in Christ Jesus. It goes on to talk about, therefore, do not submit yourselves again to a yoke of slavery. So, so far in this series, we've talked about freedom from your past, freedom from sin, freedom from lies, freedom from idolatry, freedom from anxiety, freedom from shame. Tonight, my assignment is to preach and teach us about how do you walk in freedom from rejection. So, before we do that, let's go to Lord in prayer. Father, we just thank you for the access we've been given to you through Christ Jesus.

Jesus, we thank you for your broken body and your shed blood that gives us a sense of boldness and approach tonight at the throne of grace. Lord, we thank you that we were not left as orphans, but we were given the gift of the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit, we invite you right now to bear down upon the room. Spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of the son, would you come fill this place tonight? Would you bring light to the eyes of hearts? Lord, we ask that your voice with thunder in the room, your voice that sounds like the sound of many rushing waters, just fill this place. And Lord, even tonight, just do not wanna come before you with eloquent words and speech denying the cross of his power. Lord, I'd rather sound like a fool and you be present than me to sound good and you not be here. And so Lord, we just invite you to fill this place. We need you in this place. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So wrestling through this topic this week and wrestling through the word and praying through this, it's honestly been one of the harder sermon preps I've ever done for a few reasons, and I'll kind of unpack that throughout the night. But the reality is this, is we've been preaching on freedom from all these things, and I just can't promise you freedom from rejection.

You're not gonna have it. That's not possible. I'll explain why in just a moment, but the question is, rejection's coming. Will you be deformed by it or transformed by it? One of God's favorite tools in his tool belt to form you into the image of his son is rejection. He doesn't cause it, but he often uses it. And so rather than talking to you about freedom from rejection, tonight really my goal is to kind of talk to you about how do you get formed into the image of Jesus through rejection. So just a few reasons why rejection's inevitable. It's going to happen. You cannot live a life apart from this. Now, so often we think about rejection as like, you know, I ask somebody out, they told me no, I was rejected. But often it's in way more subtle forms than that. It's being overlooked, unseen, unrecognized. Someone at work is getting celebrated, and the whole time while they're being celebrated, you feel like you're being overlooked. We live in a world where intentionally or unintentionally, it just happens. It will happen inside the church. There's not a space in this world that you are not safe from it. But the good news is, Jesus was rejected.

You're in pretty good company. Isaiah 53, three says, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows. and acquainted with grief as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. So when you feel rejected, overlooked, you're in good company. Jesus was. In John 1.11, it says he came into his own and his own people did not receive him. The people he came to reach rejected him. So not only was Jesus rejected, but he also promises his followers that we're gonna be rejected. John 15.18-20 says, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Another passage where he addresses this in Luke 6, not only is he warning about rejection, but he's actually inviting them to rejoice at it. Blessed are you when people hate you.

Haters gonna hate. And when they exclude you and revile you, spurn your name is evil on account of the son of man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven. Even the New Testament writers continue this theme all throughout the New Testament. You see it 2 Timothy 3.12. Apostle Paul tells his spiritual son, Timothy, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Basically, I just wanna warn you and inform you that rejection is coming for you. It's gonna happen. And often we think, well, if I could improve my social status, my social skills, it wouldn't happen. Jesus lived the perfect life and yet he was rejected. I'm pretty sure Jesus' social skills were pretty good. Like, it's just inevitable. What happens with it really matters. Now, I wanna, there's a lot to be said here. You know, we could get into nuance and we could spend an entire series talking about this, but like, you should be rejected for being Christ-like, not for being a jerk. You know, like, we get that. You know, if you're creepy, stop being creepy. That's, you're not being rejected, you're just being creepy. You know, read some books, I don't know. But mainly just talking about this idea,

if you're following Jesus, you're gonna be misunderstood by your friends. You're gonna be misunderstood by your family. Like, you're gonna be misunderstood at work of why do you operate differently? You should be. And I wanna say this, it is painful. But it doesn't have to permeate into start shaping your identity because that's the challenge is you can't ignore the pain. What I'm not recommending is spiritual bypassing here. Jesus was rejected, I'm rejected, it's fine, it doesn't hurt. It's like, no, it actually hurts. That Isaiah 53 passage, Jesus was a man acquainted with grief. He knew the pain of being rejected. He didn't bypass. He didn't just move on to the next thing. He actually felt it. The thing is when rejection begins to start shaping your identity, when we get into a lot of trouble. Now, I'll recommend a book to you. It's by a guy named Bob Sorge called Overcoming the Praise and Rejection of Men. Because in this, there's dealing with rejection is one thing but there's actually something that might be a bit more subtle and a bit more dangerous. It's the shadow side of this.

It's called the snare of recognition. Rejection is painful. Recognition is poison to your soul. It's nice to have, but when you need it, it's deadly. See here's, rejection wounds us, recognition enslaves us. We need that next hit of encouragement. Rejection hurts us but recognition controls us. We begin to get controlled by the voice of affirmation that's allowed us in our life. Rejection leaves scars but then recognition will begin to build chains. So often, dealing with our rejection wounds, we're actually beginning to look for a recognition, a voice of affirmation and we just begin to get molded and shaped to whatever voices we think gets affirmation in our lives. Billy Graham in a sermon about the temptations of Jesus says this line and I've sat under so much conviction with this all week. You are never more like Satan than when you seek credit for something you've done. It's not a bad thing to be recognized, it's a bad thing when you need to be recognized. We should build one another up in the body, like you should not go around. Wondering aimlessly, but at the same time, when you need that, you're looking for it all the time, it's so, so deadly. John 5, 44, Jesus speaking to him, he says, how can you believe when you receive glory from one another

and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? He's out there saying, listen, you guys are just looking to get pats on the back from each other and you're actually missing that the heavenly father wants to give you affirmation. It's one or the other, you don't get really both end often. Galatians 1, 10, for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or if I'm trying to please man, if I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. I hate to tell you this, you're not gonna be able to have two masters. You're not gonna be able to please your heavenly father and walk around trying to people please all over the place. Now, when you're pleasing your heavenly father, my part of that is usually people might be pleased by that, but it's what's driving you, it's that primary voice. Just a few signs of slavery to recognition, people pleasing, performance, comparison, image management, perfectionism, social media validation, achievement addiction. The longer I've been pastoring here in New York City, I would say recognition is one of the primary things I see enslaving New Yorkers. There might be like a deep wound of rejection, but we're trying to medicate it with recognition of people who are a level of success that will make that rejection worth it. And I just wanna tell you that's not how it's gonna work.

I'm gonna tell you a funny story about rejection in my life. It's not that funny, it's actually pretty sad, but it's gonna be funny to you guys. So permission to laugh. I don't know if you know this, I'm pretty tall, six foot seven I'm the shortest guy in my family. So my dad is six eight, my brother is six nine. And so growing up, I kind of played two sports. I played golf and basketball as a kid, it was kind of like what we did, but my growth spurt didn't come until I was in high school. So I was like tall, but I wasn't super tall. My ninth grade year, I got super tall. And my brother, on the other hand, six years older than me, and my brother was like a freak athlete. He was six years older than me. He set like state records, took his team to the state championship in basketball. And so I was already playing golf, and then I had the opportunity to try out for the JV basketball team in middle school, sixth grade, the big leagues, getting out of that wreck ball, playing JV. And now I have to shop at places like Destination XL, big and tall. But before I got tall, I was actually building out girth. And so my actual, I shopped in the kids section called Huskies, if you know what I'm saying. I was wide, not yet tall. And I don't know if you know this, one of the things they make you do

in basketball tryouts is run. And when you're wearing Husky pants and running, it just doesn't go well, you know? But I like had this thing in me, it's like my brother's a star player. I actually, we had two nights of tryouts, and my brother would come pick it up just so the coach would know like, hey, he's a basketball legacy in the city. I'm like Bronny James playing with his dad, you know? Like, you gotta get me on the team. You know who my daddy is? I'll never forget two days of tryouts, me huffing and puffing, wearing my Huskies. We go to the locker room the next day, and they start listing out the names that made the team. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, cut line. Whose name's under the cut line? Mine is. And I remember in that moment, consciously thinking, I'll never do that again. I'm gonna get so good at golf, they'll never ask me to play basketball. I became a pretty accomplished junior golfer, won the first five, our high school golf team won four state championships in golf, had an opportunity to play in college. And what no one else would know, as I got celebrated for being a good golfer, but a huge driver was I was trying to avoid

the pain of rejection of getting kicked out of the basketball team. Folks, that's funny when you're in sixth grade, but it's really bad when you're an adult and you're doing the same thing in your career. When you're spending the entirety of your career trying to prove someone wrong. You spend the entirety of your time not trying something again because you were rejected one time. At the end of the day, it was that wound of rejection in that one place that had me pursuing recognition in another place. It's actually later on, the further I got into it, I just didn't enjoy the game of golf anymore. And I thought it was because it was so competitive, it was like work for me. But the reason I didn't enjoy the game of golf anymore is because how I did on the golf course determined my identity. It was forming who I was. And so if I wasn't good out there, I wasn't good at all. This is the snare. This is the snare of recognition. Tim Keller says, the approval of man is a dangerous drug. It promises belonging and delivers bondage. When it comes to this idea of being formed by rejection, even not being ensnared by recognition, it's just important to know spiritual formation

typically involves two things. One, an outside force, and two, an internal response. I often think about this as basically the force and the furnace. It's often the external thing that we get frustrated by, but it's really the internal response that helps shape and mold you more than anything else. That's why in Proverbs 27, it says, the crucible is for silver, the furnace is for gold. A man is tested by his praise. What's that interior reality happening on the inside of you when you're either getting rejected or when you're getting recognition? What you do in that in-between space is everything. And I just wanna tell you this, it's gonna happen in the church too. Like so often, we come into the church expecting to find total belonging and all that, and we wish that was true, but just, I hate to tell you that at the end of the day, you're gonna feel rejected here, you're gonna feel overseen, overlooked. It just is a byproduct of humanity. People cannot sustain the weight of your worship in their life. So at the end of the day, if you try to solve your rejection wound by looking for recognition, that's gonna enslave you. So what is the actual solution? Well, I got good news for you.

Adoption is the solution. The spirit of adoption. Romans 8, 15, you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now, we often interpret scripture with our own modern understanding, and often adoption in our modern term is beautiful. It's amazing. I love stories of adoption. I have many friends who were adopted, but actually in the Greco-Roman world, adoption meant a lot more. So let's just unpack this briefly, because this is really important to understand when you're reading this text. In modern adoption, it's primarily about caring for a child. It's focused on the child's needs, usually involves a minor. It's about adding a child to a family. Their original birth identity really remains important. It's motivated by compassion, and the child receives a home. In the Greco-Roman understanding of adoption, what they would have read this, the book is called Romans. He's writing to the church in Rome.

This is primarily about establishing an heir, not caring for a child. This is focused on the adopted person's new status. It often primarily involved adults. It transfers a person from one family to another. The old family identity is legally replaced. This is motivated by inheritance, legacy, and family continuity. The adopted son receives name, status, rights, and inheritance. So again, just to lift this up, because I think often we hear like spirit of adoption, like I was unwanted, unseen, and so God had to, and he just came and got me out of the orphanage. That's not what this is about at all. If you study history, some of you guys will know this, but the five good emperors of Rome were adopted heirs. What it meant, so Julius Caesar adopts Octavian because Caesar did not have a rightful heir. He sees Octavian. He says, this guy is worthy to bury my name. This guy, I want my name on him. I'm gonna give him an inheritance, and I'm gonna let him establish my family line through him. The five good emperors of Rome were all adopted heirs, which meant in their personal family lines, these rulers did not have a rightful heir or someone they thought was worthy of the throne, and so they would actually pick someone

and say, no, this one is. So when you hear about we've received a spirit of adoption, it's not I was left behind, unwanted, unneeded. It was God in heaven saying, hey, I've got an image bearer down there, and I'm gonna put my name on him. I'm gonna give him an inheritance. I'm gonna put my legacy in their family line, and I'm gonna put it in and through you. This is not a leftover thing. This is a, oh, I want my name on you. This is so significant for you to understand. This is so, they're reading of this to think, God will adopt us? Oh, he would choose us? Even in the legal system, you could actually, in the Roman world, you could renounce your children. Like if they disappointed you, you could be like, no, he's not mine. But once you adopted somebody, legally, you could never let him go. You're binding forever. A rightful son could be left behind. A legally adopted one, never. You see this in Jesus' life. Jesus manifests the spirit of adoption. You pray, in John 17, Jesus talks about, Father, I manifested your name to them. A few areas you see this. Number one, in Jesus' identity.

Matthew 3, 17, before Jesus does any public works, public messages, he goes and gets baptized and says, and behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. The father's voice of affirmation for who he was before he ever actually did anything. But so often we think about the spirit of adoption when it comes to our identity, but I promise you it means more than that. Jesus actually found his purpose in his father's business. John 5, 19, truly, truly I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing. Whatever the father does, the son does likewise. So often we think it's like, oh yeah, I'm a child of God and I'm just going to do my own thing. No, children of God are about what God's actually about on the earth. Jesus was not a free agent on the earth doing what he wanted to do, he was doing only, he was constrained to the father's will. His invitation was to do what only he saw the father doing. So his identity is based in that place, his purpose is based in that place. We also see that his whole life is sourced from this place. Mark 1, 35, and rising very early in the morning, Jesus like 6 a.m. prayer sets. While it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed. Luke 5, 16, but he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

Luke 6, 12, in these days he went out to the mountain to pray. And all night he continued to God in prayer. Folks, I want to tell you, Jesus was not like, all right, let me go pray because we're going to tell them to pray one day and so they're going to need to see me doing it. I think Jesus was very aware that there are times that he's getting affirmation, there's times that he's getting accusation. But no matter what was happening, Jesus was going to stay in the place of the father's affirmation in his life. The bigger decision he had, the longer he would pray. And I believe it's because he knew he's got a father who sees what's done in secret. But beyond that, not just his identity, not just his purpose, not just his source, but also we see how Jesus responds to rejection. And John 10, 39 through 42, says again, they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. He went away across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. Many came to him and they said, John did no sign, but everything John said about this man was true. And many believed in him there. What's so beautiful about this, you've got to know the context of this, Jesus is being rejected by the crowds, they're looking to arrest him. And it says, he went to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained.

When rejected, Jesus returned to the place of father's affirmation over his life. Where John was baptizing at first is where we heard the Mark 3, this is my beloved son, and I'm well pleased. When the crowds are accusing him, he just goes back to that place of affirmation. What I want to invite you to as a life, Brendan Manning says this, if you haven't read anything about Brendan Manning, you should, Abba's Child, Ragamuffin Gospel, so rich. He says this, define yourself radically as one beloved by God, this is the true self, every other identity is an illusion. When you can get to the place which is yours in Christ Jesus where the truest and realest thing about you is I'm known by God, seen by God, and loved by God, it sets you free in an unreal way to operate here on this earth. We are a city full of people looking for success, validation, affirmation in all the wrong places. One of the things I love about praying on the prayer room on 57 th Street, as you guys know this, 57th Street is Billionaire's Row. It is where more billionaires per capita have an apartment than anywhere else in the world. And just often one of the things that I'm aware of is some people are so poor, all they have is money. You know, the longer you've been in New York, the more you realize typically the more successful someone is, the more empty they actually are. I don't think that has to be the case, but it often is the case. And recently a friend of mine that I've come to know was

telling me this story that he is a guy from Tennessee, his name is Steve, and he had been put over a very successful company, they were actually under the Berkshire Hathaway arm. And basically he was the CEO of that company for 12 years, helped take it public, was basically in all the right terms was killing it. One day they were having a dinner in New York City for his honor, and he's a country bumpkin like me, and he's actually in a penthouse overlooking Central Park, getting ready to have a dinner in his honor because of how great of a year they had. And he kind of whispers to himself, overlooking Central Park in this penthouse, he says, not bad from a good old boy from to see, but he hears the Holy Spirit say, oh yeah, why are you so empty though? And then he hears the Holy Spirit say, I miss you. He said, immediately tears just begin to flow because I knew it was true. I was so successful yet I was so empty. Had to wear sunglasses the entire day because I couldn't stop crying. A dinner of being recognized and yet I'm miserable. I just want to promise you whatever you think it is that you need to get validation and affirmation in the city, I promise you it's going to come up empty. The deceitfulness of wealth and the cares of this world. Brennan Manning goes on to talk about the difference between the imposter self and the beloved self. You can even refer to this as the orphan spirit versus the spirit of adoption.

The imposter self is defined by what I do. The imposter self performs in order to be loved. The imposter self is terrified of failure and exposure. The imposter self needs the next validation to feel okay. Last week's validation will not carry you through to today. The imposter self wears masks to manage how other people see them. The imposter self loves conditionally, so expects conditional love from God. And I think this is the most important one. The imposter self, God feels like a judge watching for failures. Now counter that with the beloved self, defined by whose I am. The beloved self is loved, therefore free to act. The beloved self can fail without unraveling. The beloved self is already fully seen and accepted. The beloved self lives in the freedom of being fully known. The beloved self receives unconditional love and gives it away freely. And again, I will probably say this is the most important one. The beloved self, God feels like a father running toward me. Here's a good litmus test. When you fail, do you run to God or do you hide from God? Do you run to him with your failure or do you try to do project cover-up? So often I find people enslaved inside the church trying to out-serve, out-give, out-publicly show they're actually private failures they have. Rejection is inevitable.

Orphanhood is optional. I promise you the spirit of adoption is yours in Christ Jesus. You can operate with confidence, clarity, affirmation, knowing who you are, knowing who he is. And so it leads me to this question, how convinced are you of the Father's love for you? How convinced of you? I'm not saying do you know this in your head. I'm not asking if you know this, you know Bible verses. I'm talking about in the depths of your being, do you know that you're known by him? Do you know that you're loved by him? So often we have all the right plastic phrases that we actually, we say it with our lips but yet our hearts are far from it. I'm asking, is this in the depths of who you are? Romans 8, for I am sure. One translation says, I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Do you believe that? Do you know that? Do you have the spirit of adoption that's bearing witness to the truth of that? Because folks, I was a pastor for years of my life

and I would say it, I could quote it, I could pray it, but the reality is I did not live it. And I wanna promise you, you can actually live in this place and operate from this place. Tim Keller quote says, religion operates on the principle, I obey, therefore I'm accepted by God. But the operating principle of the gospel is this, I'm accepted by God through what Christ has done, therefore I obey. Religion says the verdict comes after the performance, the gospel says the verdict comes before the performance. Do you know how free it is? You're not here trying to like, pass your performance evaluation with God the Father. You've actually already passed it, so you're just free to operate. You've been set free from the law of sin and death. Tim Keller goes on, he says, the gospel is this, we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dare believe. Yet at the same time, we are more loved and accepted in Christ Jesus than we ever dared hoped. See, the danger with recognition, the little subtle snare of recognition that begins to happen is you actually start. believing you're better than you actually are. You start believing your own press, your own reputation. Rejection and recognition will make you do these four things. There's probably a lot more than this, but this is just a list I got,

praying for you guys and praying for this time. The first thing is it makes you perform. You hustle, trying to prove you're worth keeping. Next, you please. You lose your voice, trying to keep everyone happy. Then you pretend. You become whoever the room needs you to be. And then last, but certainly not least, is you begin to perish. Slowly, quietly, you lose yourself entirely because you're just living for that voice of recognition coming from man, not from the Father's voice. This is an ongoing wrestle in your life. I remember my journey with this. Many years ago, I remember going to my counselor's office and just like, listen here. I don't need a book. I don't need a Bible verse. I got it. I know all the right words. I know all the right stuff, but for whatever reason, it's going from here to here is just not happening. I need this fixed. And I really did have a season in my life where I just really, through this process, really did develop the spirit of adoption, just kind of resting so confident in God, who the Lord was. And moving to New York was kind of part of this journey for my wife and I. We were not looking to move here.

I've been pastoring a congregation for like 12 years in South Carolina. Loved it, enjoyed it. And this kind of came out of nowhere and felt very clear the Lord was asking us to do this, be a part of it. But in all honesty, I was really wrestling through. It was basically helping with Pray NYC, which is like a citywide prayer movement. And I'm just very aware that I don't sound like I'm from here. Like, I've got this awareness of like, I feel like my biggest hindrance is I sound like a hillbilly. You know, the moment I started talking, you think this guy has a gun, he probably votes Republican. I'll just say, I would like start with saying, I'm not a Republican or Democrat. I'm a Royalist. I got a king, you know. I literally like, I remember John was asking me, he's like, so what do you think your challenges are gonna be in this role? I was like, hey y'all, y'all wanna go pray? You know, I was just very aware. I felt like it was like gonna be quite a hurdle. And so I came to New York. It's like, God, you're sending us here, so you better show up.

Like, I really need help. I'm not gonna be able to hang out with pastors in Brooklyn and the Bronx. I'm gonna be like, y'all, let's go seek him. And if you hear a lot of people, you know, the city can be a hard place to break into. There's lots of dividing walls. And it's kind of true in every industry. And a lot of pastors who come here, like John will tell you his story coming initially was like being super rejected. Just like hard to break into the old guard. They don't really receive you. And in all honesty, that wasn't my story. I was insanely received everywhere I went. Like it made no sense. It was like, oh, clearly this is God. God has to be opening these doors. I mean, I have this story. One time I was at a prayer meeting in the Lower East Side. It was a citywide prayer meeting. I was leading a small part of it. And there's a pretty legendary pastor who planted a church down there in the 70s. He got really well known due to his, he's one of the first people on the scene in 9-11. He didn't know me, but I knew who he was. So I led this small part of a prayer meeting. And then he comes up to me afterwards. And he says, young man, I don't know who you are,

but I just want you to know, I recognize that God sent you to the city. You're a voice for this hour. We need you here. And I'm just telling you, as someone who's been here since the 70s, who planted a church here, we want you in the city. So whatever I can do for you, any doors I can open, like whatever you need to stay here, I'm your God. I'm like, well, thank you, sir. I mean, it was so evident like, oh, God is choosing the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. But can I be just brutally honest with you guys? What I had to wrestle through so much in teaching this week is what I began to realize is this recognition and validation that came because God was affirming the move of my life. All of a sudden these doors that became to get open became prison doors of things. I felt the pressure that I had to perform now. When I was showing up, had no hope, it's like, Lord, you better do it. And he starts doing it. And all of a sudden that recognition, these doors that became open became, oh, I've got to perform now to make this happen. I want to tell you, this is that subtle snare. It was not even an intentional thing. It wasn't like I'm walking around like, oh, I'm awesome.

I just felt the pressure of like, oh man, I thought I was gonna be rejected. Now I've been received. I better hold my place in this space. When in reality, that's just, that's that spirit of slavery drawing me back into fear. Because the doors he opened, he can actually sustain for you as well. And so this week, before I could even shift in that, I was like, man, Lord, just take me back to that place where I was showing up with nothing to give, just some bum redneck going like, Lord, you better show up because I don't have much. You can get delivered from a life of performance, pleasing, pretending, and slowly perishing in your soul. Because you get an invitation for the spirit of adoption to do these things, rest. You stop striving for what's already yours. You can receive, you can accept love, you can accept correction and blessing without suspicion. You can risk, you can fail without it defining you. Most big entrepreneurs I meet in the city, they're taking big risks, but it's not because they're free, it's because they're trying to prove somebody else is wrong. But when you're walking around with the spirit of adoption resting on you, knowing who you are, who you belong to, who's got your back, I'll never forget a defining moment of my life. As there was a city, one of my spiritual dads,

he looked at me one day, he says, hey Sam, I just want you to know, I believe in you, I think God's gonna do great things in your life, and you just need to go out there and give it a try. And if you need a fallback plan, I'm your plan B. Whatever happens, he's like, you go for God with whatever he's asked you to do, if you need a plan B, I'm it. Don't know what that looks like, but just know, you can call me anytime, if you need to sleep on my couch, I'll make it happen. What that did for me, feeling permission to risk with my life. And then you can reflect, you start looking like the father that you belong to. Folks, New York City, Romans 8, should really spend more time in this passage. New York City is groaning, longing for a manifestation of what, the children of God. What they don't need is someone else here with a chip on their shoulder trying to prove someone wrong. What they don't need is another slave to recognition in their office. What they're looking for is someone who's been set free from the tyranny of this world. Someone who's set free to shape the technology industry, because they're not looking to prove something, they already are something. They're not showing up on Broadway trying to make a name

for themselves, they're just trying to make his name great. I assure you, what's offered to you in Christ Jesus, and what you actually carry in him, is what New York City is longing for. It's what they're hoping for, it's what we all wish was actually happening. But the challenge is, this is the spirit of adoption, the thing I kind of want to lead us into tonight is this reality. This is something to be experienced more than just intellectually understood. This is not just something to tickle your brain, this is something for your spirit to know. So often, let me just set you free, you cannot read your content out of orphanhood. You cannot listen to podcasts and get delivered from orphanhood. Spiritual formation doesn't go from the brain to the spirit, it comes from the spirit to the mind. You've got to feel this thing bearing witness in here, it's not just do you know the words and the phrases out of your mouth, but does your spirit bear witness to it? This is something that you need to encounter and experience, and then when you do it, you're gonna have to go back to it all the time. When recognition starts pulling you away, you just go back to the Father's voice of affirmation, your spirit bearing witness. If I can invite you this summer,

maybe just to be bold enough and willing to pray one of my favorite prayers in all the Bible. It's Ephesians 3, 14 through 19. The Apostle Paul says, for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit and your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Very simply, this prayer is insane. If you think about it, it's like, what are you praying for? Let me tell you what I'm praying for. I'm praying to the Father, that according to his glorious riches, he would strengthen my inner being. Why? So I can know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Folks, I wanna tell you, there's a deeper knowing than what you think you know. There's a deeper knowing than just words on a page. There's an inner knowing. There's an inner reality that you can walk in with God,

just knowing, hey, it doesn't matter what they say. It doesn't matter how good I did this past week or how bad I'm gonna do this next week. I know who I belong to. I've got the spirit crying out, Abba, Father. I've got the spirit that's bearing witness that I am a son. I know it. It's you cannot take it from me. And that place, that place is where you operate in freedom from rejection. You operate in freedom from being ensnared in recognition, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. If I can invite you to stand. If you'd be just willing to just set your heart before the Lord. Closing your eyes, just so you can kind of have a moment just to ask the Holy Spirit. Let's take a deep breath in, deep breath out. Say, come Holy Spirit. All over the room, just invite the Holy Spirit. Say, come Holy Spirit. Lord, we've heard your word. But Lord, right now, more than hearing, we need an encounter. Holy Spirit, one of the primary roles in Romans 5.5 is to shed the Father's love abroad in hearts. So I just very lovingly want to put a demand on your word and your spirit right now to do that. Maybe if you're willing, if you'd be willing to open your

hands. Lord, we thank you for the spirit of adoption that cries out, Abba Father, that bears witness. So we just invite you now, Holy Spirit, to minister to your people. To minister to the word. Again, it's going to take about 15, 20 seconds here to wait on the Lord for just a second. Just right where you are with your head bowed and your eyes closed, just going to give three simple invitations, I feel, over the room tonight. The first one is this. Tonight's the night you get reborn. You stop trying to earn your way into God's presence. You actually believe the beauty of the gospel. That the verdict's already in front of you. That you're going to be saved. That you're going to be saved. That you're going to be saved. That you're going to be saved. That you're going to be saved. That you're going to be saved. That you're going to be saved. That you're going to be saved. That the verdict's already in. The performance is over. Jesus, finish the work. It's not about you striving for the Father's affirmation, but it's actually just surrendering to the finished work of the cross.

At first, if it's not, you need to surrender your life to Jesus in just a few moments. We'll give you a space to do that. The next invitation, just where you are, I just feel like the Holy Spirit really wants to meet you at the root of some rejection issues in your life. As I was just praying just a second ago, I could actually just see fire coming and burning up old roots. If you would just be so willing to actually go to that place of pain in your spirit right now. There's some of you that there's a deep, deep wound of rejection. I feel it coming from your family. I mean, it's a deep feeling of being overlooked, unseen. It's so painful you often avoid it, but I just want to say by the way, the Holy Spirit wants to meet you there tonight. And then tonight, he wants to uproot that root. You've been dealing with the symptoms of it, but tonight he wants to actually burn that thing off. Just since there's some roots of rejection, the Holy Spirit wants to touch and heal tonight. And then the third, I just as we were just praying there, I just could see water washing over people. I could just see water washing over. I could just feel a cleansing coming over you. There's like, I don't know if you can see this, but there's water coming over you. I could just see water washing over. I could just feel a cleansing coming over you. There's like, you've been looking for recognition, and it's

kind of ensnared you, and it's actually just the Father's voice of affirmation that's going to free you tonight. There's words of critique and criticism and feeling like you're failing. I just feel that gentle washing of the word coming over you, a cleansing. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to invite our prayer counselors forward, and we're going to move into a time of response. There's a couple of things we're going to do. I'm going to invite our prayer counselors forward, and we're going to move into a time of response. If there's anything that we can respond and pray with you for, but really primarily want to lift up, if you need to surrender your life to Jesus tonight, then you just put your hope and trust in the gospel. If there's a root of rejection that you just want to invite the Holy Spirit and have someone that will help you, maybe even grieve that. Jesus was acquainted with grief. Actually feel the pain of that once again, and just believe that God can heal that place. And then there's just words that are just being spoken over you that tonight he's going to speak over you. So our prayer counselors are moving forward. Our band is up here. I'm going to lead us in a time of worship. I just want to invite you to respond however you feel like the Holy Spirit is prompting you to respond. So I'm going to pray for us, and we'll lean into a time of

response. So Father, we just thank you that you're good. Lord, I just thank you you're better than we think you are. Oh, the Lord, the Lord, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abound in love. Oh, the Lord, the Lord, gracious and compassionate, slow to in steadfast love. anger and abound in love. Oh, we thank you for your gentle voice, God. Oh, the Lord, the Lord, gracious and compassionate, slow to We ask that tonight in this room, in this place, your voice would reign supreme. Lord, we ask that your voice that sounds like the sound of many rushing waters would just come into the room and begin to wash sons and daughters in the room. Lord, I just pray for those that feel the invitation to surrender their lives to you, to be filled with the boldness to actually do it. But Lord, we also thank you that your voice is like fire, breaking up the hard rock. And so Lord, we just invite tonight your voice to come and burn up wounds of rejection, not to ignore, but actually touch it and heal it. Lord, I just thank you that we can trust you more than we think you are. You're better than we think you are. And so Lord, we're leaning into your goodness. Lord, I pray you would fill this room full of your presence tonight. Lord, I just pray in the next window of time,

you would silence every voice in the room, but your voice. Lord, we just welcome your voice. We welcome your Holy Spirit to come and bear down upon us as we lean into the space. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.