Derek Prince - His Rejection for Our Acceptance
Now just one more and we’re going to close. That’s not the end of the list but it’s the end for tonight. The final exchange is between rejection and acceptance. And here again in ministering to people I have come to the conclusion that rejection is the deepest wound that the human heart can bear. A mark of rejection is that such a person always feels on the outside looking in. Others can get in, I can’t. Another mark of rejection is the inability to express love. John says we love God because He first loved us. I believe we can’t express love if love has never been expressed to us. It takes the expression of love to release the expression of love. And the commonest single reason why so many in our contemporary civilization carry the wound of rejection is the attitude and conduct of parents.
First of all, if a woman is pregnant and resents the little new life that she’s carrying in her womb and says things like, I wish I wasn’t going to have another baby. That little life feels that rejection in the womb. And the baby is frequently born with a spirit of rejection. I’ve dealt with this in many cases. Then again, when a baby is born the first longing of every child planted in it by God is for warm expressed outgoing love from parents. And primarily from fathers. I have come to the conclusion: it’s a father’s love, warm and expressed, that gives a child security. Oh, the strength of being held in daddy’s arms and clasped against his chest! But you see, in our contemporary culture, I think in the United States 50% of children today never receive that. And they go through life with this inner wound of rejection. Oh, how I thank God that there’s a solution.
Let me relate this little story, I won’t make it long. I was in a camp meeting in the United States. And I was due to preach and I was walking across the campground. I was in danger of being late for my assignment, so I was walking very quickly. There was a lady walking just as quickly in the opposite direction and we ran into one another. So after we’d kind of pulled ourselves together she said: Mister Prince, I was praying that if God wanted me to speak to you, we'd meet. Well, I said: We have met. But I can only give you two minutes, because I have to be in the auditorium to preach. So tell me what your problem is. And she spoke for about one minute and she would have gone on for twenty. I said: Listen, I have no more time. I think I understand your problem, I want you to say this prayer after me. And I didn’t have in mind exactly what I was going to pray.
I didn’t tell her what I was going to pray but I prayed something like this: God, I thank you that you are my Father, that I am your child. You really love me. I’m not rejected, I’m not unwanted. I’m a member of the family of God, the best family in the universe. Thank you, God, you are my Father, I am your child. You love me and I love you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, God. And I said: There you are, good bye. A month later I got a letter from that lady. She described the situation how we’d met so she’d be sure that I knew who she was. She said: I just want to tell you, praying that simple prayer after you, has completely changed my life. What happened to her? She passed from rejection to acceptance. She realized what it was to be a child of God. If your parents failed you, there’s a lot of things we can’t change in the past. But your relationship to God we can guarantee. Look at this picture of Jesus, and this is the last one we’ll look at.
Matthew 27:45-51. Now from the sixth hour, which was 12 noon, until the ninth hour, that’s 3 p.m. there was darkness over all the land. Matthew 27:46: And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani? That is, My God, My God why have you forsaken me? Some of those who stood there when they heard that said: This man is calling for Elijah. Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to Him to drink. The rest said: Let Him alone, let us see if Elijah will come to save Him. Jesus, when He’d cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. You see, Jesus did not die of the physical effects of crucifixion. When Pilate heard He was already dead he was surprised. Because normally He would have lived maybe two hours longer. What did He die of? He died of a broken heart. What broke His heart? Rejection. By whom? By the Father.
For the first time in the history of the universe the Son of God cried out to the Father. And the Father did not answer. Stopped His ears, averted His eyes. Why? Because Jesus had been made sin with our sinfulness. And God cannot look upon sin with favor. Jesus endured our rejection. And immediately after that He gave up His spirit. And the first thing that happened was the temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom. It was extremely thick. Human beings couldn’t have torn it in two even from the bottom. But it was from top to bottom because it was the affirmation that God had done it. That was the veil that separated unholy men from a holy God. And when Jesus endured our rejection, God gave us His acceptance as His children.
Let’s look to Ephesians 1 for a moment. Ephesians 1. We'll read verses 3-6. Ephesians 1:3-6: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the beloved. What’s the exchange? See if you can say it without my coaching. Jesus endured our rejection, that we might have His acceptance. Wonderful, we’ll do it again. Jesus endured our rejection, that we might have His acceptance.