When The Religious Reject You - Tim Timberlake

Hey, I'm Tim Timmerlake, and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Celebration Church podcast.

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I believe if there is an atmosphere of expectation, anything can happen.

Miracles, signs, wonders, supernatural things that you never thought were possible to happen in your life can in fact happen.

If you meet the Holy Spirit with expectation and anticipation.

Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

I'm going to be reading from the ESV translation, beginning with verse 29.

The scripture says, and he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.

When the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.

And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

I want to utilize these three verses for our subject matter today, entitled When the Religious Reject You.

When the Religious Reject You.

Let's pray.

Let's believe.

Let's hope.

Let's anticipate.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.

We ask that you would speak to us.

We want to hear from you, God.

We want to experience all that you have for us.

We don't want to leave the same way that we came.

We want to leave transformed, having our minds renewed by the word of God, understanding that with man some things are possible, but with you, all things are possible to those that believe.

And so today we came believing that you were able to do anything anywhere for anyone.

We don't take it for granted that we're able to call you Lord, Master, and Savior.

So we thank you in advance.

In the mighty and the matchless name of Jesus the Christ, our King, and all that are glad he's still alive and well.

Can you shout Amen real loud?

Amen.

Take your seats.

In Jesus' name.

They can question your motives without knowing your heart.

They would try to rewrite your story without even talking to the author.

We live in a day and age where everyone feels entitled to having an opinion about people they never had a conversation with.

In this social media era, we have what I call digital boldness.

Bold behind a screen, but too timid to have a conversation in person.

These people, they say that they know Jesus, they say that they follow Jesus, but they hold their preference and their perspective over a kingdom purpose and priority that God has called all of us to steward.

This is what separates us from the world.

What separates us from the world is that we don't bicker amongst each other like the world does.

And if there is no difference between how we handle our differences, then do we really believe Jesus the way we say that we do?

Do we really believe that he is the Redeemer and the Savior?

And I'm not saying we all have to agree.

We won't always agree on things, but we can all agree that Jesus Christ is Lord, and if he is Lord, then our conversations should model his lordship in our lives.

The difference between us and the world is that we can have differences and still respect each other.

Scripture teaches us that Saul is having conversation and he's having disputes with the Hellenistic Jews.

This word dispute in the Greek means he's debating them.

He understands that what they believe in their perspective is different than what he believes in his perspective, so he's willing to have conversation with them.

Notice what he did not do.

He did not talk about them, he talked to them.

Y'all not listening to me.

He did not post about them, he sought them out to have conversations with them in person.

If you're not willing to send a text, if you're not willing to call, if you're not willing to have a conversation with the person that you're disagreeing with, then don't post about them.

There's a difference between disagreeing with someone and assaulting someone's character.

One of the things that I'm noticing is that when people call out a problem, the people that have a problem with what the person is called out attack the person.

And how do you know when you're being led by the enemy?

When you attack a person when someone deals with the problem.

How do you know that you're struggling with that sin when you want to make it personal when it's spiritual?

Be very careful and cautious attacking a person when the person is dealing with a problem that you may or may not be dealing with yourself.

It says that as he was having conversation and debating with them, they wanted to kill him.

Have you ever noticed that when someone does not have the tools to properly debate with you, the first thing they do is try to assassinate your character.

They make up narratives and lies and storylines that have nothing to do with the truth of who you are because they cannot debate the truth, they try to attack and assassinate your character.

When they stoop to that level, you don't go to the level that they have stooped to.

You continue to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Acts chapter 9, we see Saul has encountered Jesus, surrendered his life to Jesus, and began proclaiming the very gospel he once persecuted, yet instead of being celebrated, he's threatened.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

His obedience has changed his life, but it hasn't changed everybody's opinion about him.

And here's what we have to understand about this passage.

Just because Jesus has changed your life doesn't mean everybody will change their mind about you.

You can be completely surrendered to God and still be completely misunderstood by people.

So if people have made up in their mind to misunderstand you, why spend time trying to track down the narrative they created about you?

Some of you have been crying about people talking about you and slandering you and accusing you when in fact you should be thanking God that He has exposed the people that are really for you and the people that are not.

Don't you dare give people that never will like you a tear or a moment of your time when they've made up in their mind to accuse, to allege, to assassinate.

Don't you dare give them an ounce of energy because you understand that their assignment is to attack yours.

Saul never goes back and forth with the Hellenistic Jews because they're trying to kill him.

What he continues to do is operate in the assignment that the Holy Spirit has carved out for him and move forward preaching and teaching the word of God.

What I've come to learn about this life, especially in leadership, is one of the most painful parts of following Jesus is discovering that being right with God does not mean everybody will be right with you.

And when everybody has made up in their mind, regardless of what you say, and regardless of who you say you believe in, if there's no fruit that follows through patience with people that are still being perfected in Christ Jesus, then we can you really say that you are following Jesus Christ?

The body of Christ is attacking each other.

And so when I say the religious, I'm not just talking about those that are right and in right standing with Jesus.

I'm talking about those who have a perspective with Jesus that supersedes who Jesus actually is.

If I was to define the religious according to this text, this is how I would define it.

The religious are people who become so committed to protecting their understanding of God that they resist what God is actually doing.

The religious are people who have become so committed to protecting their understanding of God that they resist what God is actually doing.

I would say it's equivalent to seeing a house on fire, and there are people in this burning house, and you judge how the firemen and women run into the house trying to save people.

How dare we judge someone standing in good standing with Christ because they're trying to do everything they can to save people out of a burning hell and ridicule and persecute and assassinate their character because we don't agree with the style or the form in which they are doing it.

I'm not talking about people who are not coming in the name of Jesus.

I'm not talking about people who stand on platforms and consume glory for themselves.

I'm talking about people that are in right standing with Jesus Christ, that the body of Christ continues to attack because they disagree with their delivery.

The religious are people who become so committed to protecting their understanding of God that they resist what God is actually doing.

Saul does not get sidetracked and distracted by rejection.

Saul continued to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I want you to write this down.

Point number one.

Lean into this.

This is important.

You cannot measure the will of God by the willingness of people to agree with it.

Everybody's not going to agree with the assignment, with the mandate, with the gift, with the anointing that God has given you.

But just because they don't agree with it does not mean that God did not speak it to you.

Don't let rejection and resistance convince you that you misheard God.

Did you hear what I said?

You are going to encounter some closed doors in your life.

You're going to encounter some no's.

You're going to encounter some assassinations of your character in this life.

Those things should not determine if you obey the assignment that God has called you to carry out in this life.

The word of God says He has set you apart, He has called you a peculiar person, which means you are different than everyone else.

Your fingerprint is different, your assignment is different, your anointing is different.

And so everyone will not like what God has equipped for you to steward in this season, and that is all right.

Don't you dare get frustrated over the people that don't see the gift of God in you.

Rejection is redirection.

Are you listening to me?

Whenever I am rejected in a place or in a season, it redirects me to the people God has called me to so that I can carry out the assignment that God has called for me to carry out.

I'm not spending my time spinning my wills over this person that rejected me.

Rejection and resistance is a sign that the season I'm in is no longer the season God desires for me to dwell in.

He's pulling me up higher.

But in order for God to elevate you, he has to eliminate some people out of your life.

And so God will allow you to go through rejection so that you will not get comfortable in a place with a group of people that God knows don't like you in the first place.

And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.

Before his conversion, Saul persecuted Christians.

After his conversion, he became the persecutor.

What does that teach us?

Opposition doesn't automatically mean you're outside of God's will.

So if opposition does not automatically mean I'm outside of God's will, I have to stop allowing people who oppose my obedience to become interpreters of my assignment.

And oftentimes, these are the people that think they know you best.

You show up at the family cookout and you start hearing whispers.

Oh, oh, she thinks she's better than us now.

He thinks he's better than us now.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Listen to me.

I'm not better than you.

I'm just trying to be better than me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm not the same person I used to be.

I don't I don't deal with the same things I used to deal with.

I don't have the same conversations that I used to have.

I don't have the same mentality, the same perspective, the same mindset that I used to have.

And I'm not better than you.

I'm just trying to be better than I was yesterday.

And if I can be better than I was yesterday, then God is allowing me to see progress, not perfection.

Every single day He says I have new mercies, and I need every ounce of the new mercies that God delegates towards me.

I need the grace that he gives me.

I need the love and the mercy and the kindness he gives me.

I'm not trying to be better than you.

I'm just trying to be better than me.

She's trying to be better than me.

And the reality is people won't understand that.

Let them talk.

Uh-oh, uh-oh.

She just thinks she's all that.

No, I don't think I'm all that.

No, no, no, I'm not all that.

But I am better than I was.

I am better than I was.

Uh he thinks he all that.

Who he think he is.

I tell you who I think that I am.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I am the son of God.

I'm telling you who I think I am.

I am the lemon.

I'm telling you who I think I am.

I'm the head of the number.

I'm a telling you.

I'm not putting it on the telly.

I'm a little bit moving, breathing testimony.

I am cold to him.

I'm as long as you remember that.

Every day will be all right.

Y'all sit down.

We're just talking, we're just talking.

Y'all sit down.

Y'all sit down.

Sit down with y'all lacking crazy.

We got yes.

Sit down.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter the perspective of you.

You have to be obedient to the assignment that God has called for you to walk out in this life.

And just because obedience made your life harder does not mean disobedience would have made your life better.

Obedience will make your life hard, it will make your life difficult.

And it will remove people from your life that you thought would be with you for the rest of your life.

And it is okay when people leave.

You should lift your hands and say, God, thank you for removing them out of my life.

They were holding me back from becoming who you designed for me to become.

What I've learned in my own life is some people don't hate who I've become.

They hate the fact that they cannot not control me anymore.

They can't dictate and determine how I feel and when I feel the way I feel and where I go or where I go.

Some people don't hate who you become.

They hate the fact that you're no longer who they can manipulate.

And you'll find out very quickly who's really for you when they no longer can control what you do and how you do it.

It says they tried to kill Saul.

They tried to kill.

When you stand in the authority that Jesus Christ has given you, people will try to assassinate your character.

Just make up all types of lies about you.

What we have to understand, and oftentimes the clearest evidence that Jesus has changed you, is that you no longer have a desire to defend your name more than his.

So when it works for them, they work it.

When it doesn't work for them, it must not be God.

Be careful of these people.

Guard your heart from these people.

Keep your mind covered from these people.

Because some of the deepest wounds you will ever encounter in this life don't come from people that reject God.

They come from people who claim to represent Him.

Hellenistic Jews, they thought that they were representing God by persecuting Saul.

They came in the name of God, but Saul was coming in the name of Jesus.

He understood their language.

He understood their context.

He understood their background.

He grew up around the Hellenistic Jews, so he understood how to speak to them, and they spoke the same language.

But one of the things that I have to imagine he felt was strange and trying to wrap his mind around.

It's one thing for a person to understand your language, but refuse to understand your heart.

And we can speak the same language, but if you refuse to learn my heart, then you will never understand why I'm And the hardest rejection, according to this passage, isn't always being pushed away by strangers.

Sometimes it's being misrepresented by people who call you brother.

So who are these people?

Who are the religious that I speak of?

These are the people who prefer public accusations over private conversations.

They'll write a ten-paragraph thread about someone they've never sent the ten-word text to.

And some people would rather have an audience for their accusation than a conversation that could correct their assumptions about the person that they got wrong in the first place.

Who are these people?

These people confuse familiarity with relationship.

Watching someone's sermon or listening to someone's podcast does not mean that you know that person.

Following a person on social media does not mean you know that person.

Knowing what someone says publicly is not the same as knowing who they are personally.

We live in a day and age where we think we know someone because we watch them.

You don't know them because you watch them.

The only way you can know someone is if you have a relationship with them.

So look at me for a second.

If you belong to this house, if you belong to this church, don't post about nobody.

Hold on before you clap, before you clap, because I want to make sure you hear me.

Let me pastor you in this moment.

Don't post about nobody before you have a personal conversation with them.

This is what separates us from the world.

The Bible says if you have art with your brother or your sister, go to that person.

Well, Pastor, I don't know them personally, then keep your mouth shut.

But people don't do that.

You know what I've learned?

Because they're jealous at the way God is using the person that they are posting about.

And because God is using them, I have to use their name to get popularity.

Because if I talk about them, then I'll be seen in conversation with them, and then people will follow what I have to say because of my perspective of someone I don't even know.

That goes beyond disagreement.

That falls into character assassination.

That falls into gossip, which is witchcraft.

Why is it witchcraft?

Because gossip changes the perspective and a mind of someone else that doesn't know the person that you're talking about.

You don't say, you don't have to say abracadabra to do witchcraft.

All you gotta do is do this right here.

Can you believe such and such did that?

They are a heretic.

Post.

What if they're actually a son and a daughter of the Most High God and they're doing the thing that God has called them to do, and they're standing on the very anointing and the grace and the gifting that God has called them to stand in, and it makes your sin uncomfortable.

And so instead of changing what it is that you have been battling and dealing with, surely you can't be wrong.

So you got to tear down the person that calls out the sin that you've been struggling with.

It's a very dangerous place to post before you pray.

It's a very dangerous place to allege before you have all your ducks in a row.

What the Hellenistic Jews are doing to Saul, they are accusing him of not being delivered and changed because they have not seen it.

And so they have a desire to kill him because now he's coming in the name of Jesus Christ.

What are these people I speak of?

They're more committed to their conclusions than the truth.

Once a person has decided who you are, every action becomes evident, supporting their version of who they've invented in their mind.

You cannot explain yourself to someone who needs you to be guilty for their narrative to survive.

In the minds of some people you're already guilty.

They will never like you, so stop living your life trying to be liked by someone who is determined to live their life not liking you.

Don't waste your time.

It ain't gonna happen.

They leave, celebrate.

One of the greatest days of your life.

Trust me.

Trust me.

Trust me.

Trust me.

No matter who they are.

Your boyfriend, your girlfriend, they leave, celebrate.

One of the greatest days of your life.

Okay?

Rejection is proof that the season you were in was too small to hold you.

Does it feel painful in the moment?

Yes.

But when you think about what it was costing you to stay, it would cost you more to stay than it would for them to leave.

Are you listening to them?

I'm not belittling or negating the pain of rejection.

What I am telling you is that Jesus is bigger than the person that rejected you.

And not only does he receive you, he calls you by name, and he allows you to see who you are when you see yourself found in him.

Who are these people?

These people disguise personal offense as moral conviction.

Their criticism is rooted in illegitimate concern.

And they try to rally people around a narrative they've created in their mind, not even having the truth or the facts about who it is they're talking about.

Who are these people?

This is a big one.

They demand accountability without practicing integrity themselves.

Isn't it crazy how people demand accountability online when they're not planted in a local church themselves?

Isn't it crazy how people demand accountability and they don't contribute to a local church?

They don't tithe, they don't give, they're not spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, but they demand accountability.

They demand that you be accountable and they don't know you.

Isn't it crazy?

That's the day and age we live in.

Well, we can demand accountability without living in integrity ourselves.

Posting from someone else's bed.

About a man or a woman of God that we don't even know.

Posting from someone else's house that is not our spouse.

But we demand accountability and live with no integrity.

There's a particular kind of arrogance that is spreading in 2026.

And this arrogance is in believing you can accurately judge the character of someone you've never cared enough to have a conversation with.

Be very careful and cautious with who you slander that you don't know.

Because as you are assuming they are far and distant from God, God could be drawing them closer to his heart than you are.

So stay off your high horse.

Jesus didn't ride a high horse.

He rode in the town on a humble little donkey.

Just on the back of it, just chilling.

Could have rode in a coat.

On a stallion, on a Clydesdale.

But he came in humble, understanding.

The way to be elevated.

To being promoted.

Point number two is this.

Sometimes God protects your future by disappointing your plans for the present.

I'm sure Saul was disappointed that the people did not receive him, that they rejected him.

But sometimes God protects your future by disappointing your plans for the present.

Don't sacrifice your future trying to prove you belong in your present.

No, no, let God do that for you.

Verse 30 says, and when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

So look at this.

The same Christian Saul once persecuted are now persecuting him.

Saul is willing to preach boldly, but he's also willing to leave because he understood that he is an instrument, not the source.

Look at me for a second.

Are you willing to be obedient to the assignment without outstanding your welcome to see the outcome?

Are you willing to be obedient without seeing the harvest?

Are you willing to be faithful in sowing the seeds of consistency, obedience, diligence, loyalty to Jesus Christ without having the ability to stay long enough to see the fruit of the seeds that you have sown?

We don't like to hear that though, because we believe if we sow the seed, then we are entitled to see the harvest.

There are some harvests you will never see, and God still calls you to be obedient to sow the seed for.

Some of you think you got courage when in fact you're operating in recklessness.

You're out staying the grace that God has called for you to stay in.

And he's saying, Listen, that grace is lifted.

Now you're operating under a new grace.

But God, I like the old grace.

The old grace felt good.

I was just getting comfortable to that grace.

And he's saying, No, that grace is lifted.

I'm now anointed you with a new grace.

You're now set into this season for such a time as this.

You're not doing the same thing that you were doing before.

I've called you into a new assignment, so don't get married to the method, be married to my mind.

And if you are married to the method, when the method changes, you'll get frustrated with Christ because you think that his mind has changed.

When in fact his mind has not changed, but his method has.

Reckless.

But he had courage.

And sometimes you have to have the courage enough to leave in a place that you would have been comfortable in staying.

Some of us are calling it loyalty when in fact it's really an inability to accept our assignment has changed.

It's okay that your assignment has changed.

What is not okay is you being disobedient to the new assignment that Christ has given you.

You can't spend the rest of your life trying to earn acceptance from a place God has already given you permission to leave.

There's a difference between courage and recklessness.

The word of God teaches us that some will sow, others will water.

But in the end, God, he gets the glory.

Some of us want to micromanage the seed time and harvest process.

We want to sow the seed, we want to water, we want to look at the dirt and say, yep, I did that.

I made that happen.

That's my seed right there.

Look at how it's flourishing.

No, no, Saul was wise enough to know the seeds that I have sown will reproduce after its own kind.

It is now time for me to move on to my next assignment.

You don't have to prove your transformation to everybody who remembers your transgressions.

There are some people who have dedicated their lives to remembering who you used to be and will never move beyond that because they're so insecure in their own life that they have to continue to diminish yours.

Spend your time fighting for the assignment that Christ has placed in your hands to steward and be so hyper-aware and focused on that that every other voice loses its power in your life because the voice of God has all power and authority over your life.

Can I get a good amen on that?

Point number three is this.

Don't have to win the argument about your character.

When your life is committed to becoming more like Christ.

Did you hear what I said?

You don't have to win the argument about your character when your life is committed to becoming more like Christ.

God is more interested in building something in you than making something big around you.

But you have to keep your focus on him and not them.

If Saul would have lost his focus, then he would have started to try to prove that he is actually changed and transformed.

But instead of trying to prove the transformation of what the Holy Spirit has done on the inside of him, he does not pay them any mind when they try to kill him.

He goes to his next assignment.

And here's my question for you right now.

Look at me.

Are you willing to move forward with the assignment God has placed on you when it seems like the people God called you to are talking about you?

It's easy to say yes now until people start talking about you.

It doesn't feel good.

But I tell you what does feel good.

Being completely yielded and obedient to Jesus Christ above what anyone else has to think or say or the narrative they created about you.

You have to understand that the religious will reject you.

They will reject you.

Make no mistake about it.

They will talk about you because their perspective of God is limited to their perspective.

But when you apply the word of God to your life the way He desires for you to apply it, they can't counsel what God has already called.

They cannot strip away what God has already graced you with.

They can never remove the anointing that He's placed on your life.

So let them talk.

What they are doing is talking themselves into stepping outside of the will of God and pushing you further into the will of God.

So don't get distracted by what they say.

Remember who called you in the first place.

You were called by God, not by men and women.

You were anointed by God, not by men and women.

You were assigned by God, not by men and women.

And I wonder, is there anybody listening to me that can keep at the forefront of your mind the assignment, the gift, the grace, the anointing that God has placed on you, and let every other voice fall to the wayside because they don't have a heaven or in hell the position you in.

So the church throughout all Judea, according to verse 31, in Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.

And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Look at this.

Saul was not physically there, but his seeds begin to multiply.

Which teaches us a valuable lesson.

If your leadership always depends on you having to be in the room, what God has entrusted you with will never multiply.

What is the mark of a good leader?

The mark of a good leader is that they raise up other leaders to steward the call of God in their lives the way God has equipped and assigned for them to steward.

If you got to be micromanaged, and if you're always micromanaging, you will never see the gifts of God multiplied in your leadership.

Saul was courageous and confident enough to understand I don't have to be here in order for my obedience to still speak on my behalf.

I don't have to be present for my seed to still bear fruit from my obedience.

I don't have to micromanage, I don't have to have a heavy hand, I don't have to dictate and determine.

All I have to do is continue to move forward in the assignment that God has called enough for me to move forward, and He will handle the rest.

But where we fail short is when we always have to manipulate, micromanage, we have to, we have to make things happen, we have to mold things, we we we have to form things, we have to fold things because we are not confident enough in Christ's ability to lead through us, so we have to make it happen.

Where in scripture does it say, manage my people?

It says, lead my people, shepherd my people, steward the flock well.

He asked Peter, Do you love me?

Peter said, Yes, Lord, I love you, or steward the people well.

Do you love me?

Yes, Lord, I love you, or shepherd the people.

Do you love me?

Yes, Lord, I love you.

Feed my sheep.

This word being built up.

This is the Greek word okedomio, which is spiritual strength and development.

So in this passage, he says they walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

That word fear is a Greek word phobos, which is reverence, awe, and submission to God.

That word comfort is pericleses, which is encouragement, consolation, and strengthening.

And so God isn't just telling us in the text that when you leave, you have to manage and you have to worry and you have to stress about what He's called you away from for your new assignment.

He's allowing us to know that once we trust Him with it, He multiplies what it is that we have sown seeds for.

So it says they operated in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, reverence and reassurance, holiness and receiving help, conviction and consolation.

Here's the revelation of Acts chapter 9, verses 29 through 31.

Acts 9:29–31

But the majority of Acts chapter 9, it highlights Saul's life, it highlights his conversion, it highlights the things that he did prior to his encounter with Jesus Christ.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

But Luke, he changed.

Changes the narrative and he shifts our perspective.

And he teaches us that Saul he leaves the scene, but the church continues to multiply.

Why would Luke highlight this and emphasize this?

Because he wants us to know that Saul was just an instrument, not the source.

The church did not stop growing when Saul stopped being visible.

Because the church was never dependent on Saul as indispensable.

Let me remind you of what the word of God says.

The word of God says, it is he who raises up one and sits down another.

Which means the kingdom of God does not advance off of the back of one person.

The kingdom of God does not excel off of the personality of one person.

The kingdom of God is not pushed and elevated off of the gifts, the anointings, the talents of one person, which means for us, God will in fact do what God wants to do with or without you.

Never think to yourself, God can't do it without me.

Oh, yes, he can.

He did it for a long time without you, and he'll do it a long time after you're gone.

So, Saul, he has no problem going to his next assignment because he understands that God is going to continue to grow what he has started.

This teaches us you don't have to be present in every chapter to be faithful to the author of the story.

God's kingdom is bigger than any individual contribution.

And when you remember who sent you, it does not matter where he's sending you.

You just have joy operating in the assignment that he's sending you to.

Let me repeat that.

Receive this.

Never become so desperate to be understood by people that you abandon the peace of being known by God.

God knows you.

God knows you.

People may think they know you, but God actually knows you.

Aren't you glad God knows you?

God knows me.

And there are days that I have to wake up and look in the mirror and remind myself, God knows me.

And if God knows me, it does not matter what they say about me.

God knows you.

God knows you.

They may misunderstand you, but God knows you.

They may misinterpret you, but God knows you.

They may slander and accuse and allege, but God knows you.

Just as God knew Saul, God knows you.

And he's not looking at you based upon your past.

He's looking at you based upon the decision to follow him in your present and in your tomorrow.

God knows you, and he'll take your past, and he'll make it work for the good of those that love him because God knows you.

He's the only one that can take the ugly and the mess and the tragedy and the pain and the triumphs and all those things that you've been through and put them together to work for him and the story he's written for your life.

God knows you.

He said, For I know the plans I have for you, saith the Lord.

Those plans are good and not evil, and I will see it through until the very end.

God knows you.

So let people talk about you.

God knows you, let people slander you, God knows you, let people assume the worst about you, God knows you, and as long as God knows you, he says, I'll work everything out on my behalf for your life.

If I be for you, who or what can stand?

God knows you.

Knows your tomorrow better than you know your today.

God knows you.

He sees the healing you're walking into while you're still stewarding pain right now.

God knows you.

He sees you trying to hold the broken pieces together, and he's already meeting you ahead of your life falling apart because God knows you.

His word says, His grace is sufficient.

God will send grace ahead at a juncture you have not even arrived at.

Because God knows you.

Because God knows you, he knows what direction you're headed in, and he'll cut you off and say, No, no, go this way.

I'm I'm this way.

And when you follow me, he said, I'll lead you into all perfect truth.

Why?

Because God knows you.

One of the most incredible things about this passage.

They tried to kill him, they persecuted him, they assassinated his name and character.

He stayed faithful to the assignment that God called him to carry out, and God still multiplied it.

So what the enemy tried to sift, God multiplied.

What the enemy tried to steal, God multiplied.

What the enemy tried to thwart and deter other people from following, God multiplied.

How did he multiply it?

He multiplied it by his spirit.

Look at the two things it said they operated in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

There was a reverence to the presence of God.

There was a reverence to the holiness of God, there was a reverence to the assignment of God.

There was a reverence to being obedient to God.

There was a reverence, and because there was a reverence, there was a comfort.

A comfort in knowing that regardless of what people try to do or say, everything is going to work out all right because of who I am representing and who I am on assignment for.

I am an ambassador of the kingdom of God.

And the reason God chose me is because God knows me.

Somebody needs to have that settled in your spirit.

The reason God chose you is because God knows you.

The reason he has equipped you, because God anointed you.

The reason he has made you is because he has a plan and a purpose for your life that supersedes what you currently see and what you currently hear.

It goes well beyond your feelings, it goes well beyond your mindset and your mentality.

God knows the plans and the purpose he has for you.

He knows you and he still called you.

Is there anybody glad that any when you were knee-deep in sin, he saw fit to pull you out of the sin and place you on the path of righteousness because God knows you.

So when they reject you, remember God knows you.

When they turn their back on you, remember God will never turn his back on you.

When they stop answering your calls, remember God will never stop responding.

God knows you.

Clay left alone gets dry and begins to crack.

But staying put in his hands, he begins to make and mold and manipulate and turn and make sure every crack, every hole, every nook, every cranny is covered with his hand.

And when he finishes molding you, then he puts you on display.

You know what our problem is?

We don't stay in his hand long enough, and our life begins to crack and fall apart, and then we begin to blame him for it when in fact we should be blaming our own impatience because we did not stay put in the assignment that he called for us to operate in.

But when we stay in the potter's hand, he makes us and molds us into everything he desires for us to be because he knows you.

God knows you, and he knows your heart.

And I've lived long enough to understand that I don't need everybody to understand me when I'm fully known by God.

He knows me.

He knows the tears you've never cried in public, but cried in private.

He knows you.

He knows the prayers you never prayed on the platform, but you prayed in your prayer closet.

He knows you.

He knows the battles you fought that nobody ever saw.

God knows you, and not only does God know you, but he says, I am with you.

Think about this for a moment.

The creator of all things, the ruler and the reigner of all creation, says, I am willing to step out of eternity and into time to be with you.

Think about that for a moment.

When you don't want to spend time with you, he wants to spend time with you.

When you are sick of you, he says, No, no, I love you because I know you.

When you can't stand you, he says, Come unto me, all of you that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

What kind of God do we serve that has all power and authority over all things, but yet still is so mindful of me, even when I am not mindful of him?

And we fear and have a reverence of God, a reverence for his presence, a reverence for his power.

Isn't it crazy?

I was talking to a friend of mine two nights ago.

I said, Isn't it crazy how people could think in their minds that they will spend eternity with Jesus in heaven?

They want to spend eternity with Jesus in heaven, eternity with them in heaven, but don't want to spend five minutes a day in prayer with them on earth.

And you you want to spend eternity with them there, but you don't want to spend time with them in his word here.

Make it make sense to me.

So when the text is talking about fear, it's talking about reverence, understanding that where we're headed, we can experience a glimpse of that here.

If we spend time with them here, we won't understand everything here, but we have a better understanding of who he is because we have a desire to spend time with them and become like him and know him intimately and not just about him.

And we we have no problem talking about Jesus, but have a huge problem listening to him.

We spend so much of our time wanting to be loved by those who have made up in their minds to reject us, that we don't receive the grace and the mercy and the love in the way Jesus desires for us to, because we're looking to the left and to the right instead of looking to the hills from which cometh our help, remembering that our help does not come from them, our help comes from the Lord.

I don't have to spend my life begging to be known by people who have already made up their minds about me.

I will spend the rest of my life being loved, embraced, and committed to the one who refuses to stop loving me.

Think about this for a moment, family.

He will never love you any less or any more than he already does.

Scripture teaches us that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.

What that love of God does is it separates you from everyone else that is not pursuing him at the same rate that you are.

So if they leave, let them leave.

If they talk about you, let them talk about you.

It is the Lord that fights your battles.

I said, it is the Lord that fights your battles.

It is the Lord that fights your battles.

It is the Lord that fights your battles.

And if you hear me say nothing else today, I need you to hear me tell you this.

He knows you and he loves you.

I said, He knows you and he loves you.

What is greater than being accepted by everyone is being fully known and still fully loved by Jesus.

Think about that.

He fully knows you and he still fully loves you.

He fully knows you, so he knows everything about you.

Every hiccup, every hang up, every addiction, every habit, every sin, and he still fully loves you.

What manner of man is this that would lay down his life fully knowing my sin and yet fully loving me?

Only Jesus.

Only Jesus.

What can wash away my sins?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh precious is that flow that makes me as white as snow.

No other fount I know.

Nothing, there's nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.

Aren't you glad for the blood of Jesus?

I said, aren't you glad for the blood of Jesus?

Precious blood covered you, kept you, covered your ears when people tried to slander you, covered your heart when people tried to stab you in the back, covered your mind, kept it in perfect peace.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

He's a good God, isn't he?

I said he's a good God, isn't he?

I want you to bow your heads, close your eyes for a moment.

If you need to know him as Lord, if you want him to wash you white as snow with his blood, you want him to redeem your life and make something good of it.

If you need to know him as your Lord and your master, I want you to lift both hands right now.

Lift them.

I see those hands.

I see those hands.

I want everybody to repeat this prayer after me.

Lord Jesus, come into my heart.

Forgive me from my sins.

Wash me white as snow.

I ask you to forgive me.

Cleanse me from my unrighteousness.

I repent from my wrongdoing.

The things that I have done knowingly, and the things that I have done unknowingly.

Today I believe so I confess that you and you alone are my Lord.

I believe and I confess that you and you alone are my master.

I believe and I confess that you and you alone are the only one mighty to save.

So I turn to you and I thank you for forgiving me from my sin.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

There's no one moving right now except those that have been asked to.

I want you to bow your heads, close your eyes.

If you are dealing with rejection right now, that rejection has wounded you.

It has hurt you.

The desire for Jesus to heal you from that wound, I want you to stand to your feet right now.

Stand to your feet.

As you stand, just take your hands and place them over your heart.

Heavenly Father, I pray for my brothers and my sisters that are standing either in this room or God leaning in, be a celebration everywhere, that are dealing with rejection.

I ask right now in the name of Jesus that you would heal every wound.

Remind them that they are called by you.

And if they are called by you, there's nothing no one else can do to cancel that call.

I ask right now in the name of Jesus that you would do for them what you have done for me so many times.

And that is take your hands, wrap it around their heart.

Allow them to know, God, that you are with them and you are for them.

And if you are for them, there's nothing anyone can do that can stand against them.

And so right now, God, I pray for my brother and my sister that has been disappointed by other people.

I pray for my brother and my sister that has been hurt by people in church.

I pray for my brother and my sister that has been rejected by those that say that they come in your name.

I pray for my brother and my sister, God, that has been deeply wounded by the hands of someone else.

And I ask, God, that you would take that rejection and utilize it as redirection for your glory and for your grace.

Remove the taste of rejection out of their mouth.

And replace it, God, with peace that surpasses all of their natural understanding.

I thank you, God, that they will no longer just respond like you, but God, they will also react like you.

May they forgive those that have wounded them, cut them, stabbed them in the back.

May they carry on into the assignment that you've called them to carry out in this season.

Full of faith, full of courage, full of boldness.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.