REJECTION is Not Your Identity | Katie Hauck

♪ You'll do it perfectly ♪ Good afternoon, Revolution Church. Who's ready to give God glory in this house tonight? Come on. Come on, let's give Him some praise right now. Give Him some praise. Come on, let's put our hands together like this, come on. ♪ I saw Satan fall like lightning ♪ ♪ I saw darkness run for cover ♪ ♪ But the miracle did, I just can't get over ♪ ♪ My name is registered in heaven ♪ ♪ I believe in signs and wonders ♪ ♪ I have resurrection power, yes I do ♪ ♪ Still the miracle did, I just can't get over ♪ ♪ My name is registered in heaven ♪ ♪ Oh, my praise belongs to you forever ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, don't dare to lie ♪ ♪ Cause grace rewrote my story, I'll testify ♪ ♪ By Jesus Christ the righteous, I'm justified ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, this is my testimony, hey ♪ ♪ Come together, sons and daughters ♪ ♪ Bought with blood and washed in water ♪ ♪ Sing the praises of the Spirit, Son and Father ♪ ♪ Our God will finish what he started ♪ ♪ Oh, our God will finish what he started ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, don't dare to lie ♪ ♪ Cause grace rewrote my story, I'll testify ♪ ♪ By Jesus Christ the righteous, I'm justified ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, this is my testimony, hey ♪ So I just want you guys to remember,

these altars are meant to be empty, but you can praise whatever you want. I want you to sing it out. ♪ If I'm not dead, you're not dying ♪ ♪ Greater things are still to come, oh I believe ♪ ♪ If I'm not dead, you're not dying ♪ ♪ Greater things are still to come, oh I believe ♪ ♪ If I'm not dead, you're not dying, you're not dying ♪ ♪ Greater things are still to come, oh I believe ♪ ♪ If I'm not dead, you're not dying ♪ ♪ Greater things are still to come, oh I believe ♪ ♪ The first days are up ahead of me ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, from death to life ♪ ♪ Cause grace rewrote my story, I'm justified ♪ ♪ By Jesus Christ the righteous, I'm justified ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, oh I'm alive ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, from death to life ♪ ♪ Cause grace rewrote my story, I'm justified ♪ ♪ By Jesus Christ the righteous, I'm justified ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, oh I'm alive ♪ Thank you. Give him a shout of praise, give him a shout of praise. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe, we live for you, we live for you. Jesus, the name above every other name. Jesus, the only one you could ever save. Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe, we live for you, we live for you. Holy, there is no one like you, there is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those around me.

Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe, we live for you, we live for you. We live for you. Jesus, the name above every other name. Jesus, the only one you could ever save. Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe, we live for you, we live for you. Holy, there is no one like you, there is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those around me. Holy, there is no one like you, there is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those around me. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those around me. I will build my life upon your love, it is a firm foundation. I will put my trust in you alone and I will not be shaken. I will build my life upon your love, it is a firm foundation. I will put my trust in you alone and I will not be shaken. Holy, there is no one like you, there is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those around me. Holy, there is no one like you, there is none beside you. There is no one like you, there is none besides you Open up my eyes in wonder Show me who you are and fill me with your heart And lead me in a road to close around I will build my life upon your love It is a firm foundation I will put my trust in you alone And I will not be shaken Maybe we made this complicated More than it was ever meant to be Hasn't it always been about the same thing? Lord, bring us back to simple things You be the center of it all

My heart belongs to you, my savior all in all You're the one I hold on to, for the beauty of your name My soul will live to say, Jesus I love you Teach us to discern the moment When to serve and when to sit here at your feet Keep us awake to what's important Just like Mary chose the better things You be the center of it all My heart belongs to you, my savior all in all You're the one I hold on to, for the beauty of your name My soul will live to say, Jesus I love you You are the center of it all My heart belongs to you, my savior all in all You're the one I hold on to, for the beauty of your name My soul will live to say, Jesus I love you Oh how I love you Oh how I love you, Jesus I love you Oh how I love you Oh how I love you, Jesus I love you And my whole life for your glory My whole world for you only Everything for the honor of your name And if my days tell a story Let it be of you only Everything for the honor of your name In my whole life, for your glory, my whole world, for you only, everything, for the honor of your name. And in my days, tell the story that is me, of you only, everything, for the honor of your name. In my whole life, for your glory, my whole world, for you only, everything, for the honor of your name. And in my days, tell the story that is me, of you only, everything, for the honor of your name. Jesus, I love you.

Oh, how I love you. Jesus, I love you. Oh, how I love you. In the name of Jesus. Oh, how I love you. In my whole life, my whole life, for your glory, my whole world, for you only, everything, for the honor of your name. In my days, tell the story that is me, of you only, everything, for the honor of your name. In my whole life, for your glory, my whole world, for you only, everything, for the honor of your name. And in my days, tell the story that is me, of you only, everything, for the honor of your name. Oh, how I love you. Sing it out, tell him you love him. Oh, how I love you. Jesus, we love you. Oh, how I love you. We love you, Jesus. Oh, how I love you. You are the center of it all. My heart belongs to you, my Savior, all in all. You're the one I hold on to for the beauty of your name. My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you. My soul will choose to say, Jesus, I love you. My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you. Oh, I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus, more than anything in this world, more than anything. Thank you, Lord, for being so faithful. Thank you for being so good. No matter how much we fail, Jesus, you never fail. And God, you always give us new mercies every single morning. And we praise you for that, Jesus. We thank you for that, Jesus.

There is nothing that can separate us from your love. There is nothing that can take us away from you, Jesus. Help us to surrender it all. Because, Lord, when we aren't surrendered to you, we can't hear your voice. So, God, I pray that tonight we can lay it all at your feet and make you the center of our life again. God, make you the center of everything. There is no job that is greater than you. There is no relationship that is greater than you. There is no person that is greater than you. There is no item that is greater than you. No house that is greater than you. Nothing that we could be searching for in this world will ever be greater than you, Jesus. So, I pray tonight, God, that we would come before you. and make you the center of our life. God, that we would surrender to you, to your will. And we're gonna sing that chorus again. And I pray over every single heart that's here tonight that it would be a prayer from the bottom of their core. God, that it would come from every part of their soul. Every word that they sing, God, comes from their heart and they mean it. They're not just singing it because it's what's on a screen. They're not just singing it because it's what's being put before them, Lord, but that they make it their prayer to you, Jesus. We're gonna sing that again. Make him the center of your world tonight. Make him the center of your life and surrender whatever it is

that you're making an idol above him. Lay it at his feet. Sing that chorus with me. ♪ Hope for you are the center of it all ♪ Sing it out. ♪ My heart belongs to you, my savior all in all ♪ ♪ You're the one I hold on to for the beauty of your name ♪ ♪ My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you more than anything ♪ ♪ Oh, I love you, Jesus, my soul will choose to say ♪ ♪ My soul will choose to say, Jesus, I love you ♪ ♪ My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you ♪ ♪ My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you ♪ ♪ You are the center of it all ♪ ♪ You are the center of it all, my heart's yours, Jesus ♪ ♪ I surrender it all to you, Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, you are the center of it all ♪ ♪ I surrender it all to you, Jesus ♪ ♪ Nothing can separate us from you, Jesus ♪ ♪ You are the center of it all, we love you, Jesus ♪ Thank you, Jesus, we worship you. May we continue to worship you through the word that we're given tonight. Lord, may we receive it. May you make us leave this place changed, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Maybe some of you are feeling tonight okay. Some of you were rejected before you were even born. Some of you grew up with a father who walked away. Some of you had a mother who couldn't love you the way that she should because of her own brokenness.

Some of you were abused by the very people that should have protected you. Some of you were bullied, left out, betrayed by a spouse, cheated on. Some of you were rejected. because of your addiction. Some of you were rejected by a church, some rejected by friends, and some of you are rejecting yourselves right now as you sit in this room. So let me ask you, what did that rejection teach you about yourself? Because rejection doesn't just hurt. It whispers lies into our ears, right? We find ourselves thinking, I'm unwanted. I'm not enough. I'll never belong. I'll have to earn love if I want it. If people really knew me, they'd leave too. I'll reject them before they reject me, or I'll just numb the pain, right? But the problem is those lies become beliefs, and those beliefs become decisions, and those decisions become habits, and those habits become addictions, and those addictions become prisons. And that's why this verse that I'm gonna share with you is so important tonight. Before we read this passage though, can I just give you a little bit of Bible history? I love to just teach a little bit, because I feel like once you understand what's happening

leading up to this passage, it's gonna make the promises in it so much more beautiful. Okay, 700 years about before Jesus was born, Israel, who were God's chosen people, they had wandered far from God, even though they had seen who he was and what he could do, they had wandered away from him. And they dealt with idolatry and rebellion, and they ignored warning after warning, and finally judgment came on them. Families were separated. Jerusalem, their capital, fell. Their temple was destroyed, and many of them were dragged off to a foreign country. Everything in their lives felt hopeless. But despite their sin, God never stopped pursuing his people. He raised up a prophet named Isaiah, and Isaiah answered his call. You may know the verse when Isaiah said, here I am, send me, right, such a beautiful verse, but God told him something shocking after he said that. He said, go and preach, but most people aren't going to listen to you. Isaiah spent his whole life faithfully proclaiming God's word, but Jewish tradition tells us that people got so tired of hearing him talk about it that they sought him and have to shut him up. Right, so faithfulness doesn't always lead to acceptance. Sometimes it leads to rejection,

but God never told Isaiah to be successful. He told him to be faithful. Okay, so I wanna read something that he wrote, and I want you to remember that he wrote this to a broken, desperate, sinful nation. Okay, we're in Isaiah chapter 61. The whole chapter's beautiful. I'm just gonna read the first three verses tonight. This is Isaiah speaking as what the Lord told him to say. He said, the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim freedom for the captives and to release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and to provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. Isaiah first spoke those words to a nation that was carrying shame and loss, and they were in captivity, and they desperately needed help. He's talking about the Messiah who's coming for them, but do you know that the Messiah

didn't just come for Israel? The Messiah came for every brokenheart in this room tonight, including yours. So I'm gonna go back through those verses together and just break them down a little bit, okay? It says the Messiah is going to bring good news to the poor. Now, this doesn't just mean poor financially, okay? These are those people who are poor in hope, poor in joy, poor in peace, poor in confidence. Some of you have been emotionally bankrupt for years, but he is going to bring you good news, okay? It says he's going to bind up the brokenhearted. Lots of things break a heart. I'm sure lots of us in here have reasons that our heart is broken tonight. A dad leaving, a mom rejecting you, abuse, divorce, betrayal, death, church, her addiction, words that were spoken over you that could never be taken back. He's going to bind up that brokenheart. It says he's going to bring liberty to the captives, but maybe you don't even know your. Captive, right? You can be captive to people-pleasing, fear, approval, control, bitterness, addiction, anger, performance, shame. He's going to set you free. It says he's going to open prison doors. Now I know we have some people in here tonight who are in actual prison, right?

But some of you tonight are in a prison without bars, right? Some of you are sitting in a cell made of memories, made of labels, made of lies that someone told you when you were seven years old that you still believe. He is going to walk you right out of that cell. It says he's going to comfort those who mourn. Maybe you're mourning the childhood that you lost, the marriage you wanted, the years that addiction stole from you, the relationships that never healed, the dreams that died, right? He's going to comfort you in every one of those losses. It says he's going to give beauty for ashes. Ashes are what's left when everything's been burned down, not just damaged or singed, gone. Ashes are what's left that you're holding when there's nothing left to save. And God says he's going to take those and make something beautiful from them. And he's going to give a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Rejection almost always leaves behind that kind of despair, and underneath despair is usually shame. And you don't say I did something bad, but you start to believe I am bad. But Jesus came to replace that shame with honor. So the brokenhearted, captive, prisoners, mourning, ashes, shame, does that sound like anyone's life before Jesus?

Now imagine hearing those promises in Isaiah 61. Imagine that those promises are being passed down from generation to generation. Parents telling their children one day God is going to send a Messiah, and the brokenhearts are waiting, and the prisoners are waiting, and everyone's waiting, wondering when. When is it going to happen? And nearly 700 years pass, and then one Sabbath morning, Jesus walks into a synagogue in his hometown. I want you to picture the scene for a minute. It's Sabbath, so the whole town has gathered at the synagogue, the way they did every week. It was normal for a visiting rabbi or a teacher to be invited to stand and read from the scriptures. So when Jesus stood up, nobody thought anything special was about to happen. This is Nazareth. It's Jesus' hometown. Every person in that room watched him grow up. To them, he wasn't a prophet. He wasn't a miracle worker. He was just Joseph's boy, the carpenter's son, someone they'd known their entire life. No one in that room expected the Messiah to walk in. So the attendant hands him the scroll the same way they'd hand it to anybody

who's about to be invited to read, and Jesus intentionally opens up to Isaiah, what we today call Isaiah 61. Not Genesis, not Psalms. He could've opened to anything. He opened to Isaiah, and he read that chapter that we just read. He read the promises that we just talked about, the good news to the poor, and the freedom for the captives, and the release for prisoners, and the beauty for ashes. The same words to the same people who had been waiting 700 years to see them fulfilled. And then he rolls up the scroll, and he sits back down. Luke tells us, because this is in the gospel of Luke chapter four, he tells us every eye was on his room. They're wondering, what is he going to say? It's silent. And then in one sentence, Jesus said, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And I don't think we can understand the magnitude of exactly how shocking that was. Jesus is saying, I'm the one. Guys, I'm the one who heals broken hearts. I'm the one who frees captives. I'm the one who opens prison doors. I'm the one who gives beauty for ashes. I'm the one who removes shame.

It's me, I'm here, I'm him. I would think there would be celebrating, and there would be joy, but do you know what happened? If you keep reading that chapter, it says they rejected him so much, they dragged him out of town, and tried to throw him off a cliff. It's crazy. And do you know how Jesus responds? This is incredible. Do you know how he responds? He doesn't argue. He doesn't beg. He doesn't change. face their approval, he doesn't compromise, he doesn't quit. Luke simply says, he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. He went on his way. I don't believe Luke left that detail out by accident. He's showing us what real freedom looks like. He went on his way. Guys, Jesus didn't let rejection redirect his identity or his mission. He didn't start to question who he was. He didn't think, gosh, maybe I'm not really called to do what my father said. He didn't think, man, they're rejecting me. Maybe I'm not the Messiah after all. Maybe this isn't for me. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing.

Maybe I'm wrong about my path in life. No, he didn't think any of that. The rejection of Nazareth did not change his path. At his baptism, before he ever preached a sermon, before he ever healed a single person, before he ever performed a miracle, the Father said, you are my beloved son, and Nazareth could not undo what heaven had already declared. And neither can the people who rejected you. Have you ever been to a circus fun house? Okay, and they have that room with all the weird mirrors, right? None of the mirrors actually show you the truth. That's what this is supposed to represent tonight, right? You stand in front of the mirror, and maybe you're like really tall, or maybe you're like this short, or you have no legs, or you're super skinny, or you're super fat, I hate that one. Or it twists up your face so that you look all weird. You guys have all seen those mirrors, right? We can think about those mirrors, and we can recognize that it's a circus mirror, right? But I want to be clear, it's not showing you a slightly different version of you, it's showing you a completely made up different version of you, right? Because you don't really look like that, right? And we can laugh, but I think if you stood

in front of that mirror long enough, you might start to believe that's what you actually look like. And that's what rejection does. Rejection puts you in front of a circus mirror and says, here, look at you. You look ridiculous. Look how ugly you are. You're so weird. But guys, none of it is true. But if it's the only mirror you look in, you're gonna start making decisions based on a reflection that was never accurate in the first place. You'll pick your relationships based on it, you'll punish yourself based on it, you'll believe you didn't deserve better based on that. But guys, there's a real mirror. Think about the mirror you looked at this morning in your home when you were getting ready, right? It didn't stretch you, it didn't shrink you, it didn't twist your face into something you didn't recognize. It just showed you exactly what was there. That's what an accurate mirror does. But do you know there's an even better mirror than your bathroom wall? One that shows you a more accurate picture than any other mirror could. James 1, 23 and 25 says the word of God is like a mirror that we can look into.

It is the only thing that gives you an accurate reflection of who you really are. It's the only one worth trusting when you make decisions. So tonight I want you to step away from the circus mirror. Rejection has had you standing in front of it long enough. And I want you to pick up the real mirror. Okay, because if you are a child of God tonight, if you are in Christ, if you have accepted him, let me tell you what this mirror says about you, okay? You wanna know what the real reflection says? It says you are chosen. It says you are adopted. It says you are forgiven. It says you are redeemed. It says you are a new creation. You are God's workmanship. You are an heir of Christ. You are more than a conqueror. You are a son. You are a daughter. You are a child of the most high God. So I wanna ask you whose voice has more authority? Okay, the one who created you or the person who rejected you? I want you to say with me, guys, say this with me. Rejection is an event. It is not my identity. I need you to understand that. Being rejected, that is an event. That is not who you are.

This book tells you who you are. Now, if you keep reading Luke 4, okay? That where we just were where Jesus tells him he's the Messiah and they try to throw him off a cliff and he goes on his way. Do you know he leaves Nazareth? He went on his way. And he teaches and he casts out demons and he heals and he does miracles and crowds are amazed and lives are changed. Now, imagine if Jesus had stayed in Nazareth. trying to convince people who had already rejected him of who he was. The rest of Luke 4 would have never happened. Sometimes we spend years trying to convince the people who already rejected us, right, to see who we are and to see our worth when God is calling us to take the next step into our purpose. So sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is exactly what Jesus did, go on our way. Okay, and I want you to notice something else. Jesus didn't lose anything that day, Nazareth did. They missed the Messiah, they missed the miracles, they missed the teachings, they missed the healings, they missed the freedom. Rejection didn't rob Jesus of his purpose, it robbed Nazareth of his presence. So we have this backwards, guys, almost every time it happens when someone rejects us,

we think something must be wrong with us. We think we must be less than, not enough, unworthy of those people, we are losing out. But if you look at what happened in Nazareth, nobody there walked away better. They walked away emptier. They kept their pride and lost their Messiah. So rejection is rarely as much about you as it feels like in the moment. Most of the time, it's about them. It's about their fear and their pride and their blindness and their own brokenness that they haven't dealt with. So when someone rejects you, they are the ones who miss out on who you are. It is not the other way around. Guys, rejection is not a verdict of your worth, it is a picture of their brokenness. When you stop looking in the circus mirror, through a lens of rejection, when you start looking in God's mirror and you begin to see yourself the way that he sees you and all those things he says about you, you begin to believe them, your vision gets clear. But I have to tell you, it's not just clear about who you are, it also clears up who they are. And what if we could get to a place where we stop crying because of someone and start crying for that person? Right, because crying because of someone

is what rejection produces. Naturally, it's that hurt, that offense, that sting of being treated badly, but getting to a place where you can cry for them, that is beautiful. It happens when you finally see what's driving their behavior, their own hurts, their own brokenness, their own wounds, their own rejections that they've never dealt with. If we knew the story behind the people who treated us so poorly, we'd stop feeling hurt and we'd start feeling something a lot closer to grief. I'm not saying it erases what they did, I'm not saying it makes it okay, but if you can move your heart from a place that only holds hurt to a place that also holds mercy, that would be incredible. Remember what I told you earlier about Isaiah, how the very people that he tried to reach and save and warn, they eventually got so tired of him they sawed him in half to shut him up, imagine that. The man who wrote the words we read together at the beginning, the same words Jesus stood up in that synagogue and said and claimed as his mission, he was so rejected that people killed him for saying it. His own people missed out on him the same way Nazareth missed out on Jesus. But here's what history remembers, we don't call Isaiah the man nobody wanted to listen to.

We call Isaiah the greatest prophet who ever existed. Right, and Jesus, they wouldn't listen to him, they rejected him, they tried to kill him, they nailed him to cross, we don't call him the rejected rabbi from a small town no one's ever heard of, no, we call him savior, we call him king of kings, we call him the name above every name. Rejection did not get the final say over Isaiah's life, it did not get the final say over Jesus' life, and it doesn't get the final say over your life either. How amazing is that? Can we give God praise for that tonight? Thank you. You know how every week we end with the serenity prayer, right, in a few minutes Stephen's gonna come up here and he's gonna lead us through it and we stand up and we repeat it every night, how many times do you think you've said it? By now do you think yeah a lot? That's right. Anyone haven't memorized you can say it. Yeah. Yeah Jesus once told the religious leaders of his day That by your tradition you nullify the word and we do that when we repeat something over and over and over Without thinking about what it means. It just becomes words leaving our mouth while our minds are often entirely somewhere else, right? So how many of you have actually ever sat down and studied that prayer and really thought deeply about what it meant? Amen. Amen. It took me a long time to do that. I'll be honest. I repeated it every week. I have it memorized Until one day I was like, what does this even mean? And I sat down I want to explain to you how it how it relates to a message on rejection tonight Okay, it relates to a lot of things but I just want to show you how it relates to this. Okay, it starts with God Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change Guys, we can't change our pasts, right?

We can't change who left who abused us who rejected us who said what we can't change what happened So we have to accept it and acceptance is not saying it's okay acceptance is saying it happened it hurt But it will not define me The next line is the courage to change the things I can We can change the lies we believe we can change the bitterness we carry We can change whether we forgive whether we trust God whether we keep walking. That's exactly what Jesus did He kept walking and it took real courage every single step and you can keep walking, too It says the next line and the wisdom to know the difference Guys sometimes Rejection is correction and we have to check something in our hearts. Sometimes it's consequences. Sometimes it's persecution Sometimes like Isaiah it's obedience We need to ask the Lord to help us know which one we're facing Because we have spent far too long trying to change what we need to accept and trying to accept what we actually need to change The next line is living one day at a time Because we don't have to heal from every rejection we've ever experienced tonight Healing takes place one day at a time one moment at a time. Not all at once. We just have to take today The next line says enjoying one moment at a time Rejection is trying to steal the present by chaining you to the past We cannot enjoy this moment if we're still standing in a moment from ten years ago. Let it go Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace as Jesus didn't avoid hardship. He walked straight through it Nazareth was hardship. The cross was hardship, but peace came out of the other side for both and it will for you, too Taking as Jesus did this sinful world as it is As people are going to disappoint you people are going to reject you Jesus never promised Otherwise, he didn't ask you to pretend the world was safe. He said trust me in a world that isn't The next line says trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will Nazareth rejected Jesus and he was hung on a cross. But what happened next? He was raised from the dead He saved all of humanity guys. God always Always gets the final word even when it doesn't feel like it in the moment and The last line so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next

reasonably happy here supremely happy forever Rejection doesn't get to touch that second part. No matter how hard it hits in the first keep your eyes focused on eternity So tonight when we pray this prayer to close our meeting I don't want it to just be words leaving your mouth. I want you to think about it I want you to meditate on it and I want you to mean the things that you're saying Isaiah promised a Messiah who would heal broken hearts who would free captives who would open prison doors who would replace Ashes for beauty and who would replace shame with honor and the greatest demonstration of that Was Jesus and when the people rejected him he went on his way This week. I hope that you do the same thing. Keep loving keep serving keep forgiving Keep obeying keep becoming who God created you to be because someone else's rejection Never has the authority to rewrite what God has already spoken over your life Remember rejection is an event. It is not your for identity. Lord, thank you so much for every person in this room. Lord God, thank you for their hearts. Lord, thank you, Lord, for who you are. Thank you for sending Isaiah with those beautiful promises, but thank you even more for sending Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the one who heals, saves, delivers. Lord God, we are so grateful. Lord, even when we were those people in Nazareth who rejected him, Lord, he still died for us. He still saved us. Every person in this room, Lord, thank you for that. Lord, I pray that every person in this room, when they look in the mirror in the bathroom, Lord, that they see themselves the way that the mirror of your word says that they are.

Lord, I pray that they see themselves as beautiful and holy and righteous and just special. Lord, I pray that they know that you have a plan for them and nothing anyone has ever said or done can interfere with the plan that you have for them. Lord, let them take the next step. Let them walk on their way. Let them be bold. Lord, give them peace. Give them courage. Give them strength. Give them wisdom. Give them everything they need to just walk through the crowd and go on their way. God, we just love you and we thank you and we praise you and we give you all the glory and all the honor. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Be up here and talk about rejection. But we want to thank our online community. Oh, first of all, I guess we all need to stand. And we're going to say this prayer that she just so beautifully broke down for us. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God.

God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. God. Give God the glory. Give the glory. We want to welcome you to come to church on 411 campus, which is out there heading towards Madisonville, and here at the main campus on Sundays.

I'm sorry. Woo, come on somebody. I guess y'all meet Miss Tanya there. All right. Anyway, we want to thank y'all for coming tonight. We're getting ready to do the chips, and we want to thank all you guys out there that are in the prisons. You are not rejected, and we love you. Woo, come on somebody.