From His Heart

Guest (Male): Rejection is that feeling that we experience when we've been turned down, when we've been refused, when we've been excluded, when we've been dismissed.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: When you get rejected, it's a punch in the gut. Well, we're in a series on the prophet Samuel. And Samuel led the people so well as prophet and priest and judge. And yet, when he got old, they rejected him. He experienced rejection.

Guest (Male): Hey, what are we to do when we experience the heartache and the heartbreak of rejection?

Larry Nobles: Have you ever been rejected? Well, of course you have. So it's likely you know that when rejection strikes, it cuts deep. You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, who today will offer encouragement from your rejection as he looks at Israel's rejection of God's leadership and reveals the tender heart of the Lord toward those who are wounded and cast aside.

You'll discover how the Lord can heal your heart and use your pain to draw you closer to him. This lesson is from Pastor Jeff's new series, Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel. This new eight-lesson series is our gift of thanks to you for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount. You can get your copy when you go online to fromhisheart.org.

Now, though, if you can, open your Bible to the book of 1 Samuel. Turn to chapter eight. Here's Pastor Jeff to begin the lesson called The Heartache of Rejection.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: G. Campbell Morgan was born in 1863. Very well known in Christian circles. He was one of the greatest preachers of his day. When he was 25, he applied to Wesleyan Methodist ministry. And the requirements were pretty strict and they had scores and scores and scores of young men who were applying.

And so he had to take a doctrinal test, but then came the preaching test. And after he was finished, they said, "This person is extremely unpromising." And they gave him a thumbs down. He was shattered. He sent a telegraph to his father. It was one word. It said, "Rejected." Ever been rejected?

Rejection is that feeling that we experience when we've been turned down, when we've been refused, when we've been excluded, when we've been dismissed. People go through rejection in lots of different areas of life. We can go through rejection scholastically; we're trying to get into a particular school and they don't accept us.

We can experience that professionally; we're going for a job, we're interviewing for a job and we really want this job, and we get rejected. We can experience that socially; we take a stand for something and people unfriend us or they say, "I don't want to be associated with you anymore." You get ostracized at school or in the community.

We can experience that romantically as we're dating different ones and we think, "This is the one," and then she breaks up or he breaks up and you feel rejection. And the worst rejection of all is when you're married and your spouse says, "I don't love you anymore. I don't want to be married to you anymore," and they divorce you.

Listen, it's easier to experience the death of your spouse than to have your spouse reject you. Death doesn't involve rejection. It involves heartache and pain for sure, but it doesn't involve rejection. Well, when you get rejected, it's a punch in the gut. It's a severe blow to you emotionally. Just as it was to G. Campbell Morgan. He had weeks of questioning. Has God even called me into the ministry?

Well, we're in a series on the prophet Samuel. He's prophet, he's priest, he's judge. The last judge of Israel. We're calling this series Leaving a Legacy because Samuel is one of the greatest men in Scripture. One of the definitely one of the greatest in the Old Testament. And Samuel led the people so well as prophet and priest and judge. And yet when he got old, they rejected him. He experienced the heartache of rejection.

1 Samuel chapter seven, we'll begin reading in verse 13 and go into chapter eight. It says, "So the Philistines were subdued. We talked last week about Samuel led a great revival, the people got their hearts right with the Lord and Samuel prayed when the Philistines came upon Israel, and the Lord brought about He thundered, the lion roared, and brought about a great deliverance for his people."

It says, "So the Philistines were subdued and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites."

Now Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. He used to go annually on circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all these places. Then his return was to Ramah, for his house was there, and there he judged Israel and he built there an altar to the Lord.

And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second Abijah. They were judging in Beersheba. His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice.

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. And they said to him, "Behold, you have grown old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations." But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the Lord.

The Lord said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them." Hey, what are we to do when we experience the heartache and the heartbreak of rejection? I want to share with you three encouragements from 1 Samuel chapter eight.

1 Samuel chapter eight tells us, number one: What are we to do? We are to share our hurts with the Lord. When you are hurt, when you feel the intense sting of rejection, you share that with the Lord. Now when we think about Samuel's situation, he had rejection hit him on a few different levels.

He is leading Israel as the judge, as the man of God. He's known as the man of God throughout all the territories of Israel. They know who Samuel is. And Samuel has been faithful. He was dedicated to the Lord before he was born. And his mother, Hannah, brought him to Eli the priest when he was just a little guy, four or five years old, and turned him over to Eli to raise him up in the things of the Lord.

He was dedicated to God. He was serving the Lord. He was serving the people for his whole life. And he did it well. And the Lord blessed under the judgeship of Samuel. But the people told him very plainly, "Behold, look, see, hey Samuel, you are old." You ever had anybody tell you that? "You're old."

I have somebody in my family whom I'm very close to, my little granddaughter, Linden. Linden is a spark plug. She's a precocious little girl, ten years old. She'll say things. She doesn't have a filter. And she'll say things to me, like sometimes I'll race her. We have a get-together at my house and I'll race I used to race Emmy, but she's too good.

And so I'll race Linden. And when Linden was a little younger, she'd really beat me. But I would say, "Linden, how did you beat me?" "Because you're old, Gigi." It's like, "Really?" I said, "Well, is Poppy old?" That's what she calls Debbie. They got them reversed, so I'm Gigi, Debbie's Poppy. I say, "Is Poppy old?" "No, Poppy's not old, but you're old."

That's the way they were talking to Samuel. "You're old, Samuel. You're like expired milk in the fridge. You're getting too close to the expiration date. We're going to have to throw you out." Nobody likes to be told they're old. Number two: "Your sons don't walk in your ways." Now, this was true because the scripture said that his sons didn't walk in his ways.

Verse three: "His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice." They were covetous men. They were greedy for gain. Samuel wasn't like that. And although we would say that Samuel, based on his relationship with the Lord, was a good dad, you can do everything right as a parent and that doesn't mean your kids are going to follow in your footsteps.

I remember James Dobson said when he had children, he was praying for them and he said, "When I read 1 Samuel eight, I realized there are no guarantees with kids. If Samuel didn't have kids that turned out well, what's the guarantee that my kids are going to turn out well?" So he said, "Mom, Dad, you need to pray and pray and pray and live a godly life before your kids and trust the Lord to work in their hearts."

But they said, "Your kids don't walk in your ways, so they can't be our judges." And it was true, but it hurt. And then they said, "Give us a king so we would be like all the other nations. We would be just like the nations that surround us." Now Samuel has been teaching the people from his adulthood onward, teaching them to follow the Lord, teaching them to trust the Lord, teaching them that they were a theocracy, that God was their king.

Samuel wasn't a king. Samuel was a judge. And they had judges. We have a whole book called the Book of Judges. They didn't have a king because the Lord was their king. But now they're saying, "We want a king." And so Samuel is reeling with rejection.

Larry Nobles: You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, and we're in part one of the lesson called The Heartache of Rejection. It's from Pastor Jeff's new eight-lesson series, Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel. And as we've mentioned earlier, if you've ever been rejected, you know that it hurts.

It hurts bad and sometimes the hurt never goes away. In this encouraging message, Pastor Jeff looks at Israel's rejection of God's leadership and reveals the tender heart of the Lord toward those who are wounded and cast aside. It's a dynamic message and one of eight that'll help you learn to diminish and eventually dismiss the hurt, but learn from it.

Today we heard part one of the lesson called The Heartache of Rejection and it's one of eight messages in the series, Leaving a Legacy. Your obedience and love for him establishes a remarkable legacy for you to leave. This series is our gift of thanks to you for your support this month and you could get a copy of the series, Leaving a Legacy, when you call 866-40-BIBLE or go online to fromhisheart.org.

And know that your gifts will allow us to sustain these broadcasts around the world and engrain God's truth into hearts and homes. Just call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org. Now, let's conclude part one of the lesson, The Heartache of Rejection.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: So what do we do when we are rejected? Well, first thing that can easily happen: we can easily project our pain and anger inward. We can take all the hurt of the rejection, all the sting of the rejection, and focus it inward. "Well, I must not be any good. Maybe I'm doing a bad job as the prophet and priest and judge, and that's why they don't want me anymore."

There's guilt, there's shame, there's self-condemnation that comes in when you focus inward. What did G. Campbell Morgan say? "Well, maybe I missed it. Maybe I'm not called into the ministry. Maybe God doesn't have this for me because I got three thumbs down on my sermon before those men." We can project our pain and anger inward.

Or, we can easily project our pain and anger outward. We can start blaming other people. Anytime you get hurt, when a pain comes in, when someone hurts you, when someone does something to you, when you feel that rejection, it hurts. But after you sit on that hurt for a while, it will turn to anger.

For every "ow" that comes our way, there's a "pow" that wants to be let out because the flip side of the coin of hurt is anger. And we can project outward if we're not careful. Now the poster child for this is Cain in Genesis chapter four. Cain, who brought his offering to the Lord, the fruit of his labor, the fruit of his hands.

He's a farmer and he brought his basket of vegetables before the Lord as a sacrifice, and the Lord had no regard for Cain and his sacrifice. But Abel on his part, his younger brother, he brought a blood sacrifice, which is the way that you come before God. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

And God had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain became very angry. And the Lord said to Cain, "Cain, why are you so angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? But if you do not do well, behold, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, yet you must master it."

And Cain, angry Cain, angry at God Cain, never spoke to the Lord. What did he do? He nursed that hurt and rehearsed that hurt and cursed that hurt and then let that hurt out on his brother Abel and he killed him. He's the first murderer in the Bible, Cain, killing his brother Abel. All that came out.

His that sting of rejection where he could have gotten right with God and come God's way, but he said, "No, I'm going to come my own way, and God, you want a blood sacrifice? I'm going to give you a blood sacrifice. It's the blood of Abel." Well, that's dangerous. To project inward is bad. To project outward is bad.

And projecting inward, I remember a conversation I had with a young, beautiful girl in our church who had gone through a terrible breakup and was just so sad about it. It wasn't her choice at all. And I remember seeing her and I came up to her and I just said to her very softly, just kind of whispered to her, I said, "Listen, you need to know that you're beautiful and you are worth it and you're nobody's consolation prize."

And the tears just welled up in her eyes because she felt the hurt and the sting of rejection and it was going inward. So don't take it inward, don't take it outward, take it upward. And that's what we need to do. We can rightly bring our pain and anger upward. And that's what Samuel did. Samuel prayed to the Lord.

He shared what was going on with the Lord. He did what the scripture says in Psalm 62:8: "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us." And no doubt he learned about prayer from his mother, who prayed for him before he was ever born. She poured out her heart to the Lord.

And Samuel learned how to do that and he shared with God what was going on. The scripture says in 1 Peter 5: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your care, all your anxiety, all your hurts upon him because he cares for you." Samuel did that.

So what do we do when we feel that tremendous heartache of rejection? We bring that to the Lord. Second encouragement: We are to see our situation from the Lord's perspective. Wisdom has been defined this way: it's seeing life from God's perspective. And the Bible says, "If any of you lacks wisdom," James 1:5, "let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."

So we can ask the Lord in the worst of situations, "God, give me wisdom. Help me to see this from your perspective." And the Lord helps Samuel see things from his perspective. Verse seven: "The Lord said to Samuel, 'Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.'"

"Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me and served other gods, so they are doing to you also." Now, when we share our hurts with God, when we share our rejection with the Lord, remember this: God is very familiar with the pain of rejection. He knows exactly how you feel.

As I said in my prayer before we opened the message, Hebrews 4:15, "We don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." The Lord knows what it's like to be rejected. He knows how that feels to get the stiff arm.

He said, "Hey, Samuel, it's not about you, it's about me. They're rejecting me. They don't want me. I've been their king. You haven't been their king. You've been my representative here on this earth, but I'm their king and they've rejected me and they've been doing it ever since I brought them out of Egypt."

It didn't take them long from the experience they had with Moses and the Lord on Mount Sinai, and they saw all that God had done in their midst, all the plagues on Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, one of the greatest Old Testament miracles, and then they had that encounter as the people of God on Mount Sinai with the Lord.

How long did it take them before they had a golden calf that they worshipped? Just a few weeks. Isn't that amazing? And they're worshipping a golden calf. "Behold, your God, O Israel, who delivered you from Egypt." How disgusting. And the Lord says, "Hey, they've been doing this to me since I brought them out of Egypt, and it hurts."

I think about the situation with Peter denying the Lord. And the Lord telling Peter at the Last Supper, when Peter said, Jesus said, "All of you are going to flee. You're going to leave me." And Peter said, "Oh no, that'll never happen. Those other guys might do that, but I'm never going to leave you. With you, I'm ready to go to prison and to death."

And he said, "Well, Peter, let me tell you something. Before a cock crows twice, you're going to deny me three times." "Oh, that'll never happen. No way." And a few short hours later, Peter is denying the Lord. And the last time he cursed and swore and said, "I don't know the man," Bible says the cock crowed.

And Peter remembered what the Lord had told him. And in Luke's account, it says the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. I remember asking my father-in-law, Gerald Cannon, who pastored for over 50 years. I said, "Gerald, what was that look about? Was that a look of anger? Was that a look of surprise?"

He said, "No, it was a look of wounded love." The Lord knew he was going to do it, told him he was going to do it, but that doesn't take the sting out. That doesn't take the pain out. Just because the Lord knew I'm going to be rejected doesn't mean when it happens that it doesn't hurt. It did hurt. God is very familiar with the pain of rejection.

Larry Nobles: Well, what a sobering insight today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. It's part one of the lesson called The Heartache of Rejection. Listen, if this message hit close to your heart and home or perhaps would be important for your hurting loved one to hear, well we hope you'll visit us online at fromhisheart.org and click the listen link.

There you can listen to it again, you can download an MP3 of this broadcast, or you can forward the link to a friend. Just send the link from our website and begin the healing. Well, that's it for today. I'm Larry Nobles. Thank you for being with us and we trust that you'll be here next time for part two of the lesson, The Heartache of Rejection. Join us on Monday when Pastor Jeff Schreve will open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His Heart.