Overcoming Rejection

Key Texts: 1 John 5:1-5; Isaiah 53:3

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 1 John 5:1-5

Rejection: the act of renouncing; dismissing, nonacceptance, turndown; the act of refusing.

Rejection is real, but so is Jesus.

You are not what others did to you, you are who God calls you to be.

He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Isaiah 53:3

He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. Isaiah 53:3

Jesus understands your rejection.

Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that Jesus is our High Priest who “is able to empathize with our weaknesses.”

The healing begins not when we pretend it didn’t hurt, but when we invite Jesus into the place that did.

Know Who has your back.

Psalm 27:10 – Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.

It’s not about who leaves you. It’s about Who stays with you.

God’s acceptance is greater than man’s rejection.

Claim Who You Are:

John 1:11–12 “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him… he gave the right to become children of God.”

Your identity is not determined by who rejected you, it’s defined by Who received you.

Live as a child of God, not a victim of rejection.

When you know who you are, you can walk differently.

“I am a child of God.” (John 1:12)

“I am loved with an everlasting love.” (Jer. 31:3)

“I am accepted in Christ.” (Rom. 15:7)

Will rejection define you, or refine you?