Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon

Thesis: How you respond to rejection may make the difference between a soul lost or won.

For Kids:

Me

Years when Valentine's Day was a day of rejection

Broken-hearted

Breaking hearts

Love is possible and it is real

And that creates a lot of opportunities for real as well when love is rejected

We

While romance is not the primary kind of love we deal with as church family, we still face rejection of the holy love we seek to share with everyone.

How do we face rejection as disciples of Jesus?

God

Scripture

Jesus predicted we would all face rejection

18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.

As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

That is why the world hates you.

20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’

If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.

If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.

22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.

24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.

As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.

25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

The world hated Jesus first

The world hated Jesus first

We servants are not greater than our master

They don't know God

Even though many have been blessed by Him

Ultimately they hate without reason

It does not help to try to find a reason

Paul explains that rejection is not the problem

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”  made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

Imago Dei

Veiled

Covered up

Blinded

Color blind

They see but don't understand what they are seeing

How do you make someone hungry for something they've never had before?

Not a question of reason, but of desire

Christ

Lord

We serve Him not use Him

Light

His light shines out of us

Out from behind the veil

Then at last the questions begin

You

How will you face rejection?

Will you allow the light of Christ shine through you in the way you handle rejection?

Will you look toward the long term relationship instead of the short term act of love?

We

There's no trick to love

Got gave the ultimate expression of love and people reject him every day.

We have been guilty of rejecting him ourselves.

Sometimes people take a long time before they are ready to receive that love.

However, there are many times as well when the person who sees Christ in us is not the one we are aiming our love at

Your witness of rejection may shine the light of Christ into the life of an outside onlooker, maybe someone you're not even aware.

Those mysterious ways in which God works often come down to the fact that He simply see so much more than us and that we fail to see anything we're not looking at.

God is good all the time

All the time God is good

And we are called to reflect His image

We were created in his image

And that image is love

Patient, kind, forgiving, persevering, selfless, perfect love