Faith, Rejection, and God's Redemptive Journey
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
"Hi, Glenn Orbert. Nurse. No, that's great. I've had the privilege over the last couple weeks here. And finally, this last week, actually getting to sit down over a coffee to get to know Bear a little bit better and to hear a little bit of his story. And today, what we're really here to do is to celebrate his story of faith and his declaration of faith today. And so, Bear, can you tell us, first of all, when is it? When is it that you gave your life to Jesus? When" [00:34:12] (35 seconds)
"And I think that's something important for all of us. I know sometimes we can go. We can go a long time without deciding to get baptized when we give our lives to Jesus. But I want everyone here to know that if you're a follower of Jesus, if you've made that commitment, you don't need to wait. In fact, we've got extra baptism shirts. And so, if you're somebody that's just like, I can't wait anymore. I need to get up here right now. Just go and whisper to Pastor Embry at the back there that you want to get baptized. And, I mean, I'll pop back out of the baptism tank. We can do this whole thing again today. That's fine with me. Right? But in any case, we've got a video that we're going to run telling you a little bit more about what baptism is while we get ready to baptize. Bear." [00:35:36] (46 seconds)
"Despite your company's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet with my needs at this time. Therefore, I will initiate employment with your firm immediately following graduation. I look forward to seeing you then. Best of luck in rejecting future candidates. Sincerely, Mark Taylor. If only we could respond this way to rejection, right? Right? But I think every one of us, I mean, if you've been in this world long enough, you've experienced rejection." [00:52:00] (39 seconds)
"At Christmas season, at the Christmas season, I believe that Mary and Joseph would have really liked to rejection, some rejections, you know? I bet they would have. I mean, last week we talked about the fact that, you know, with Mary and Joseph, Mary, she accepts the Lord's favor, right? He says, hey, favored one, I'm going to bless you with a child who's going to, you know, save the world. And she's like, right on. I don't know how it's going to work, but let's, let's, sure. Sounds good." [00:53:11] (37 seconds)
"And the idea here is that they're showing up to the family residence and they're told there's no room in the guest room. Now, sure, let's give the family the benefit of the doubt. There's a lot of people coming home. Maybe grandma and grandpa showed up. But am I the only one that feels like if you've got a lady who just walked 28 miles and she's in her final like week of pregnancy? That maybe for one night you say you can have the bed, right? But no, no, rejected, rejected. You know what though? There is some room in the barn." [01:00:39] (45 seconds)
"You can sleep with the animals. Isn't that just what you always wanted? You're pregnant. They won't give you the guest room. They reject you from your own extended family. And then they say, but at least you can go into the barn. Where all those smells are. Anybody been to a farm recently? You know? The sounds. Animals aren't quiet. The discomfort. Ow, this straw. It's poking me and it's wet. Wait, wet? What? And labor starts. No midwife. No doctor. No anesthesia. No sterile hospital. No hospital room." [01:01:24] (46 seconds)
"Here's the amazing thing about the Christmas story. See, the Christmas story, it points forward to the Easter story, right? To Good Friday, to Easter, to what Jesus did on the cross. But the fact is, is that Jesus's story of sacrificial love started before his birth or before his death, even before his birth. God cared enough to allow his heart to be broken. And as we read the story of the Old Testament, that first part of the scriptures, what we see is that God selects a people, Israel, through whom he's going to play out all of this redemptive story." [01:03:16] (45 seconds)
"And he says, I selected you as my people. Here are my requirements. And he relates them to being in the kingdom of God. How much sacrificial love does God experience towards his people, Israel? Well, they keep rejecting him and he keeps running after them and they reject him again. In fact, it gets so bad that he decides that he needs to hire a prophet. And by hire, I mean, basically tell the prophet that he's going to be a prophet and he doesn't make money. But he essentially hires a prophet and he's like, listen, I need to get my point across. I want you to marry that prostitute." [01:04:54] (40 seconds)
"But God can use even the worst rejection. He can use even the worst circumstances you could go through. He can take your traumas, those really bad ones that you don't like to talk about or really do like to talk about, either one, and he can use them for good things. Let me show you right on the heels of this. What do we see? That night, there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them, don't be afraid, he said. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord, has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David. And you will recognize him by this sign. You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth lying in a manger. Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others. The armies of heaven were gathered, and the angels were gathered. The angels were in heaven, praising God and saying, glory to God in highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased. And when the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, let's go to Bethlehem. Let's see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. And so they hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby lying in the manger." [01:06:00] (89 seconds)
"After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what had happened. And the angel had said to them about this child, all who heard the shepherd's story were astonished. But Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them. Here's what I see. God often uses your trauma to bring others in. He does. There's the shepherds. Now, despite the fact that King David had been a shepherd in general, in society, in Jesus's day, they were poor. They were uneducated. They were looked down upon by others. They smelled like animals." [01:07:28] (51 seconds)
"And man, isn't this the story of the early Christians? Who were Jesus' followers? His closest disciples. Well, let's see here. We have fishermen who were so bad at fishing that they kept on coming home with absolutely nothing in their nets. There's like two stories, separate stories in scripture telling us that they couldn't catch anything with nets. So not very good fishermen. And he's like, well, come follow me, right? What else do we have? We have a lot of people who are not good at fishing. We have a tax collector. So the guy's loaded, but everyone hates him. So he calls him like, that's a guy that you really want on your side. You know what I mean? Huge following of women. Again, outcasts of society, uneducated in that day and age. Yep. Okay. That's great. Like, it's just a, it's a ragtag crew. Someone should make a movie about it, you know? And there they go. They changed the world with this, with this ragtag crew who watches Jesus' teachings, the miracles he does, his trauma on the cross, his death, and then his resurrection as he overcomes death itself." [01:11:30] (65 seconds)
"That no matter what is going on in life, we can lean on the Prince of Peace, the Lord of Lords, that despite the turmoil around us, as we lean on him, as we say, yes, Lord Jesus, I need you. Bear the burden with me. Give me wisdom. Lord, I'm so broken and torn up inside, and he says, let me hold you. Let me hold you in my arms as we walk together. That you're never alone. That in your brokenness, Jesus, through his sacrifice and his resurrection, became the doorway from death into eternal life, from brokenness into wholeness as we walk this life and share the message to others until one day when Jesus returns again, or we end up in heaven. Whichever one comes first, praise the Lord, we find ourselves, no longer broken, no longer experiencing pain, but in perfect and complete wholeness" [01:14:39] (61 seconds)
Ask a question about this sermon
"And I think that's something important for all of us. I know sometimes we can go. We can go a long time without deciding to get baptized when we give our lives to Jesus. But I want everyone here to know that if you're a follower of Jesus, if you've made that commitment, you don't need to wait. In fact, we've got extra baptism shirts. And so, if you're somebody that's just like, I can't wait anymore. I need to get up here right now. Just go and whisper to Pastor Embry at the back there that you want to get baptized. And, I mean, I'll pop back out of the baptism tank. We can do this whole thing again today. That's fine with me. Right? But in any case, we've got a video that we're going to run telling you a little bit more about what baptism is while we get ready to baptize. Bear." [00:35:36] (46 seconds)
"Despite your company's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet with my needs at this time. Therefore, I will initiate employment with your firm immediately following graduation. I look forward to seeing you then. Best of luck in rejecting future candidates. Sincerely, Mark Taylor. If only we could respond this way to rejection, right? Right? But I think every one of us, I mean, if you've been in this world long enough, you've experienced rejection." [00:52:00] (39 seconds)
"At Christmas season, at the Christmas season, I believe that Mary and Joseph would have really liked to rejection, some rejections, you know? I bet they would have. I mean, last week we talked about the fact that, you know, with Mary and Joseph, Mary, she accepts the Lord's favor, right? He says, hey, favored one, I'm going to bless you with a child who's going to, you know, save the world. And she's like, right on. I don't know how it's going to work, but let's, let's, sure. Sounds good." [00:53:11] (37 seconds)
"And the idea here is that they're showing up to the family residence and they're told there's no room in the guest room. Now, sure, let's give the family the benefit of the doubt. There's a lot of people coming home. Maybe grandma and grandpa showed up. But am I the only one that feels like if you've got a lady who just walked 28 miles and she's in her final like week of pregnancy? That maybe for one night you say you can have the bed, right? But no, no, rejected, rejected. You know what though? There is some room in the barn." [01:00:39] (45 seconds)
"You can sleep with the animals. Isn't that just what you always wanted? You're pregnant. They won't give you the guest room. They reject you from your own extended family. And then they say, but at least you can go into the barn. Where all those smells are. Anybody been to a farm recently? You know? The sounds. Animals aren't quiet. The discomfort. Ow, this straw. It's poking me and it's wet. Wait, wet? What? And labor starts. No midwife. No doctor. No anesthesia. No sterile hospital. No hospital room." [01:01:24] (46 seconds)
"Here's the amazing thing about the Christmas story. See, the Christmas story, it points forward to the Easter story, right? To Good Friday, to Easter, to what Jesus did on the cross. But the fact is, is that Jesus's story of sacrificial love started before his birth or before his death, even before his birth. God cared enough to allow his heart to be broken. And as we read the story of the Old Testament, that first part of the scriptures, what we see is that God selects a people, Israel, through whom he's going to play out all of this redemptive story." [01:03:16] (45 seconds)
"And he says, I selected you as my people. Here are my requirements. And he relates them to being in the kingdom of God. How much sacrificial love does God experience towards his people, Israel? Well, they keep rejecting him and he keeps running after them and they reject him again. In fact, it gets so bad that he decides that he needs to hire a prophet. And by hire, I mean, basically tell the prophet that he's going to be a prophet and he doesn't make money. But he essentially hires a prophet and he's like, listen, I need to get my point across. I want you to marry that prostitute." [01:04:54] (40 seconds)
"But God can use even the worst rejection. He can use even the worst circumstances you could go through. He can take your traumas, those really bad ones that you don't like to talk about or really do like to talk about, either one, and he can use them for good things. Let me show you right on the heels of this. What do we see? That night, there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them, don't be afraid, he said. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord, has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David. And you will recognize him by this sign. You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth lying in a manger. Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others. The armies of heaven were gathered, and the angels were gathered. The angels were in heaven, praising God and saying, glory to God in highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased. And when the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, let's go to Bethlehem. Let's see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. And so they hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby lying in the manger." [01:06:00] (89 seconds)
"After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what had happened. And the angel had said to them about this child, all who heard the shepherd's story were astonished. But Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them. Here's what I see. God often uses your trauma to bring others in. He does. There's the shepherds. Now, despite the fact that King David had been a shepherd in general, in society, in Jesus's day, they were poor. They were uneducated. They were looked down upon by others. They smelled like animals." [01:07:28] (51 seconds)
"And man, isn't this the story of the early Christians? Who were Jesus' followers? His closest disciples. Well, let's see here. We have fishermen who were so bad at fishing that they kept on coming home with absolutely nothing in their nets. There's like two stories, separate stories in scripture telling us that they couldn't catch anything with nets. So not very good fishermen. And he's like, well, come follow me, right? What else do we have? We have a lot of people who are not good at fishing. We have a tax collector. So the guy's loaded, but everyone hates him. So he calls him like, that's a guy that you really want on your side. You know what I mean? Huge following of women. Again, outcasts of society, uneducated in that day and age. Yep. Okay. That's great. Like, it's just a, it's a ragtag crew. Someone should make a movie about it, you know? And there they go. They changed the world with this, with this ragtag crew who watches Jesus' teachings, the miracles he does, his trauma on the cross, his death, and then his resurrection as he overcomes death itself." [01:11:30] (65 seconds)
"That no matter what is going on in life, we can lean on the Prince of Peace, the Lord of Lords, that despite the turmoil around us, as we lean on him, as we say, yes, Lord Jesus, I need you. Bear the burden with me. Give me wisdom. Lord, I'm so broken and torn up inside, and he says, let me hold you. Let me hold you in my arms as we walk together. That you're never alone. That in your brokenness, Jesus, through his sacrifice and his resurrection, became the doorway from death into eternal life, from brokenness into wholeness as we walk this life and share the message to others until one day when Jesus returns again, or we end up in heaven. Whichever one comes first, praise the Lord, we find ourselves, no longer broken, no longer experiencing pain, but in perfect and complete wholeness" [01:14:39] (61 seconds)
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from Dec 09, 2024. Do you have any questions about it?