Keion Henderson - The Revelation of Rejection

A wonderful job today from my music ministry! Excellent job, great job. I’m about to do something I’ve never done in nine years: I’m preparing to preach the same text I preached last week, but it won’t be the same sermon. I made this decision yesterday. I was telling our staff that God’s Word is so alive that, if we really approach it right, we can return the next day and see something entirely different. The reason we sometimes can’t see the Word of God differently is that we often approach it from our opinions, so it will say the same thing because we think the same thing. One of the arts of preaching is that whenever you go to the text, you have to come empty and let it speak. If you go in thinking you already know what the Hebrew boys did, you 'll say what you said last time. But God is like a river of water, which means that every time you dip, you’ll get a new cup because, even though He doesn’t change, His Word is an ever-evolving word. It is a living Word; that’s why we go to a church that is an organism, not an organization. It lives, it lives, and it is in Him that we all thrive. Well, Genesis chapter 4, verse 1, and today I want to talk about the revelation of rejection. I’ll discuss the revelation of rejection because some of you have been rejected; you haven’t found out why, and you’re walking around still defining yourself based on when they were through with you. Not knowing that rejection is actually a doorkeeper. Rejection is a doorkeeper that shows you who qualifies for your future. Anyone who rejects you disqualifies themselves from your future, and you should thank them because had they not rejected you, you would have kept them, and you wouldn’t have discovered until you started the journey with them that they didn’t intend to finish it with you.
Genesis chapter 4, verse 1: we know what it says: «And Adam knew Eve, and she conceived and bore a son.» In verse 2, it says, «And she again gave birth to his brother Abel, and Abel was a tiller of the ground.» Verse 3: «And in the process of time, Cain brought fruit of the ground as an offering to the Lord. Abel, he also brought the firstling of his flock.» They both brought an offering, but it was different: one brought fruit, the other brought the first. Are you with me so far?

But in verse 5: «But unto Cain and to his offering, God had no respect.» And Cain was very wroth; that means he was upset, he was angry, and he felt rejected. And his countenance fell; where "countenance» means he literally held his head down-his face went down. He held his head down; he was upset. And the Lord said unto Cain, «Why are you mad, and why is your face falling? If you had done well, you would have been accepted.» God help me in this place! And what He basically says is that if you’ll do well, I’ll give you an opportunity to come back and resubmit the offering so that you can get the same thing your brother got. But because his head was down, his ears were not open. Your life will always go in the direction of whatever you keep your head down toward; whatever direction your head is in, whatever direction your thinking is in, that’s the direction your life is going. And what happened? He couldn’t get his head up, so he killed his brother.

I want to talk about the revelation of rejection. If you’ve been rejected by anybody or anything in this house, I have come to set you free. Turn to your neighbor and say, «This is my season of freedom.» You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.

I was looking up the word "revelation» in the scripture and I saw something I had never seen before. We all know that revelation is when God shows us something that has previously been concealed. There is something called etymology-don’t ever forget that word. Most people know the definition, but they don’t know the etymology. The definition is subject to interpretation; you may define love differently than I do. I may define love through acts of service; you may define it through words of affirmation. It’s the same word, but it doesn’t have the same definition.

Are you following me? Sometimes, in order to find out what a word means, you don’t look up the definition; you look up the etymology. The etymology is the gravitas, the status, the beginning, the foundation, the origin. You go back and find out what they meant when the word was first spoken, whether in 1710 or perhaps 1430 or whatever. This word "Revelation» has gained ground over the last hundred years; it has changed and morphed into something.

To us, it means something that has not been previously seen is now revealed. But the etymology actually means «re-veiled.» Watch this: it’s revealed. What He 's saying is that when God reveals something, He removes the veil. Don 't miss this! Because this microphone is still a microphone even though it is on the other side of the veil, and I don’t get to change what it is because I can’t see it. Most people think that when God reveals something, then it becomes what they saw. No, it already was what it was, but you did not have the ability to see it, and that’s why some people won't realize who you are.