Sermon Tone Analysis

The Fear of Rejection

This fear messes up our relationships and it will make you miserable.

The fear of being rejected will cause you to act in ways that allow people to walk all over you.

It affects what you wear, how to speak, dress, etc.

You may be sitting here wondering why you are so weak?

Why you can’t seem to handle someone rejecting you or disapproving of you.

You get into a conversation, but never share your opinions because you are afraid if you do, they will reject you.

People ask you to do things that you really don’t want to do, but you say yes because you are stuck in the people pleaser trap.

Why people pleasing is harmful:

It causes me to miss God’s purpose for me.

--You can’t be worried about what everyone else wants and focus on what God created you to do at the same time.

2. It keeps me from growing in my faith.

when God is big in your life, other people have less power in our lives.

flip that.

When we allow people to be big, God becomes small in your life.

We give people the influence that God should have.

--God and people cannot be the same size in our lives.

Who are we going to give the most influence?

Whose approval are we going to seek more?

3. It will lead me to sin.

—When you try to please everyone, you will end up giving in to peer pressure.

Peter - Peter had lived with Jesus 3 years… seen miracles… the dead raised… walked on water, but when he was forced to either admit he new Jesus and stand against a crowd or deny knowing him, he jumped off the bridge and denied Jesus.

Pilate - When Jesus was brought to Pilate, Pilate saw that Jesus was innocent, but he gave into the crowd.

He knew they were wrong but he went along with them.

Joseph - Jospeh had 11 brothers who were jealous of him.

They all 11 conspired to sell him into slavery.

Not one objected.

One tried… Reuben but he gave in.

Twelve Israelite Spies - 10 said they could not do it… 2 said they could.

The 10 convinced the while nation to side with them.

Is God Big? or Is the opinion of others big?

Saul - When he became King, Samuel told him that God said to eliminate all of the idols from the land so that people would only worship the Lord.

He was talked out of that.

Later he confessed to Samuel that he had sinned… that he cared more about what the people thought than God so he let them tell him what to do.

4. It will cause hypocrisy in our lives

God doesn’t want you or I to spend our energy wearing masks trying to please everyone.

When we wear masks, we pretend to be something that we are not.

We hid our true selves.

FB is all about masks.

--God wants what’s on the outside to reflect what’s on the inside.

NO MASKS!

The fear of disapproval can cause us to compromise things that are important… like the truth.

PC talk

—Integrity is more important than popularity.

If you struggle with that, ask God to help you make integrity more important than popularity.

5.

It will silence my witness

How can we stop doing the wrong things because we are worried about what people think?

The way to change your life is to change the way you think.

6 Truths to transform your life and set you free:

1.

Even God can’t please everyone.

--If God can’t make everyone happy, what makes you think you could.

Jesus even said Woe to you when people think good things about you… Woe means something bad.

Chances are that if everyone likes you, you are standing for anything.

Because the moment you take a stand for something, you someone will push back.

2. I don’t need everyone’s approval to be happy!

--Happiness is a choice.

You don’t need everyone’s approval to be happy.

If I think I can only be happy if everyone likes me, I’ll never be happy.

--You can’t please every body.

You don’t have to and God doesn’t expect you to either.

No matter what you do or say, someone will disagree or disapprove.

--Some of you have spent a life time trying to please an unpleasable person… parent, etc.

You wanted to prove them wrong when they spoke negatively into your life.

All that time, your mind thought that you would earn their approval… and it hasn’t happened.

You got b’s and they expected A’s.

When you have a big God, you don’t need the approval of others as much.

The bigger God is, the smaller other people’s influence is on you.

If God is big, people have no power over you.

When Jesus is #1 in your life, he sets you free from approval addiction because you are focused on him.

Jesus, the truth sets us free.

If you are looking for someone to meet all of your needs, you will be disappointed.

No one can do that!

People will disappoint, but Jesus will never disappoint.

3. What seems so important right now is really only temporary.

--One big reason we become people pleasers is that we get caught up with the here and now rather than eternity.

Short term thinking will cause you to become messed up in people pleasing.

The what seems to be so important to us right now… is only temporary.

The things you think are so important right now, won’t be in a few weeks.

—The things that matter to you now, will most likely not matter to you in 10 years.

The things that we can’t take with us when we die, aren't important.

—Only what you do for Christ will last.

4. I only have to please one person.

--Really, in life, I only have to please one person.

And that is my Creator.

My God.

My Savior.

I only have to please the Lord, the one who made me and has a purpose for my life.

--People pleasing is a form of idolatry.

Anything you put before God becomes a god.

So a boat could be a god.

A career could be a god.

A girlfriend could be a god.

Golf could be a god.

Anything that becomes number one in your life that isn’t God becomes your god

5.

One day I’ll give an account of my life.

--When you take that long look and realize I’m going to give an account today for every word I say, it’s going to change and give you confidence.

It’s going to give you courage.

It’s going to give you the ability to stand up and be a man or be a woman in a situation that is constantly trying to put pressure on you to be politically correct or socially acceptable.

We can’t be embarrassed to speak up for Jesus.

6. God shaped me to be me.