1 Thessalonians 1.4-5a

Rejection hurts!

According to an article published by Reuters, the world’s largest international multimedia news provider, that “kicked-in-the-gut” feeling that you get when you’re ignored at a party or not chosen for a team generates physical symptoms. According to the article, “Brain-imaging studies show that a social snub affects the brain precisely the way visceral pain does.”

“When someone hurts your feelings, it really hurts you,” states Matt Lieberman, a social psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who worked on the study.

In the study, 13 “volunteers were given a task they did not know related to an experiment in social snubbing. Writing in the journal Science, Lieberman and Naomi Eisenberger said the brains of the volunteers lit up when they were rejected in virtually the same way as a person experiencing physical pain.

“In the English language we use physical metaphors to describe social pain like ‘broken heart’ and ‘hurt feelings,”‘ said Eisenberger. “Now we see that there is good reason for this.”

None of us lives life free of rejection.

Maybe your prom-posal was met with the response, “I already have a date,” or, “No, thank you.”

Maybe you received a letter from one of your first choice colleges that began with the phrase, “We regret to inform you that we cannot offer you admission at this time.”

Maybe a company called you after an in-person job interview and said, “Thank you for coming to see us.  However, at this time, we have decided to go in a different direction.”

Maybe a group of peers that you desperately wanted friendship from refused your advances because of superficial judgments—you weren’t wealthy enough, 

you weren’t athletic enough, 

you weren’t musically talented enough, 

you didn’t measure up to their  definitions of beauty, 

your skin color didn’t match theirs, or

your worldview clashed with their thoughts, language, and behavior.  

Maybe you have heard the life-altering devastating words, “I don’t love you any more.”

So, I repeat today’s initial truth, rejection hurts.  

Or, in a saltier, but probably realer statement, rejection sucks!

The deepest longing of the human heart has always been to be loved.  

To be loved is to experience euphoric comfort and rest that comes from knowing that you have been chosen by another.  To be chosen means you have both worth and value to another.  

To be loved is to have someone else willingly choose to sacrifice their time, their resources, and even their own wants and desires to focus on you and your well being.  

To be loved is to know that someone has chooses, on a regular and consistent basis, to make sure your needs will be met.

To be loved is know that you have been accepted and welcomed in a very broken world that finds sadomasochistic enjoyments in exclusion and rejection.

Two weeks ago, we began a sermon series through the Bible’s New Testament book of 1 Thessalonians.  As a reminder, this book is actually a letter written by some 1st Century AD Christian leaders to some 1st Century AD Christians in the Greek city of Thessalonica.

In this morning’s Bible verses, still from chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians, we are going to hear about the God who created all that exists, the One and Only that is God the Father in Heaven, making the conscious choice to love us when He has every right to reject us.

Let’s hear from 1 Thessalonians 1.4-5a now.

1 Thessalonians speaks these words of truth and encouragement:

[4] For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, [5] because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…(ESV)

The Bible tells us some real hard truths about the human spiritual condition—that means my spiritual condition and your spiritual condition—that initially leave us in a place unworthy of God’s love.

Romans 3:10–18 says:

[10] as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

[11] no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

[12] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.”

[13] “Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

[14] “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

[15] “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

[16] in their paths are ruin and misery,

[17] and the way of peace they have not known.”

[18] “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (ESV)

And, Romans 3.23 tell us that:

[23] …all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (ESV)

Let’s be honest, on most days, we don’t get out of bed thinking, “How can I serve God and love others today?”

On most days, we get out of bed and start thinking, “What can I do today to make sure I feel happy and good about myself (and have the people around me tell me how good I am!)?”

Because of the original Sin that dwells inside of us actively corrupting our motives for the life we have at every turn, we do not naturally choose God or the things of God.

Let me say that again.

We are not naturally inclined to choose love for God and choose love for others every part of every hour as God desires us to do. 

In fact, the absolute bad news of Sin is that without some sort of help, you remain 100% self-centered, selfish, and claiming a self designated self-righteousness, completely powerless to move toward God.

In the go-to text for helping addicts recover from a hopeless state of self imposed destruction, Alcoholics Anonymous’ “Big Book,” speaks clearly to the human condition when it says:

“Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! 

God makes that possible. 

And there seems no way of getting rid of self without His aid. 

Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore but we could not live up to them, even though we would have liked to. Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. 

We had to have God’s help…

We could wish to be moral, we could wish to be philosophically comforted, in fact we could will these things with all our might, but the needed power wasn’t there. 

Our human resources, as marshaled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly. Lack of power, that was our dilemma.” 

So, because we naturally and zealously break God’s first and second greatest commands which tell us to love God and love others, loving ourselves instead, God has every right to punish us and crush us and He would remain perfectly just in doing so.

However, there is beautiful life-altering and world-changing good news for you in our Biblical text for this morning!

The good news for you is this:

God has chosen you!

Despite your Sin and selfishness, God has chosen you to be one of His children.

The good news for you is this:

God has chosen to forgive you!

Despite your never-ending record of wrongs, God has provided a way for your sins to be wiped away.  God willingly chose to intervene in the human dilemma by coming to you in the person of Jesus Christ to be the perfect substitutionary sacrifice who would freely choose to die on the cross to pay the price for every last unGodly thought, word, and deed that has been and will be part of your earthly life.

The good news for you is this:

God has chosen to love you!

Despite your lack of love for God and His commandments, God has chosen to have compassion on you and care for you and provide for your needs—your ultimate need of being saved from Sin, and your penultimate needs of the worldly goods and services you need to survive day-to-day.

The 18th Century English theologian responsible for the development of the Methodist Church once prayed a prayer that has since been titled, “Give Me a Humble Heart.”  As I was working through this prayer in my own prayer life this week, I was struck by these sentences:

“Let me be always looking to Jesus Christ, who is pleading for me at your right hand.  Give me grace not to do my own will, but yours.  Make me content with everything.  The least of all the good things you give me is far more than I deserve.”

The good news for you is this:

God has chosen to make room for you in His Kingdom of Heaven.

John 14.1-7, a very familiar set of Bible verses to our church say:

[1] “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. [2] In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. [4] And you know the way to where I am going.” [5] Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” [6] Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [7] If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (ESV)

To better contextualize the “bad news” verses we heard from the Biblical book of Romans a few minutes ago and end where God wants you to end up—with the “good news”—let’s look at Romans 3.23 in the full passage which it calls home.

Romans 3:21–26 says this:

[21] But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—[22] the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, [25] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. [26] It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one  who has faith in Jesus. (ESV)

If you have kids, or, if you are a big kid yourself, maybe you are familiar with (or obsessed with) the Japanese media franchise Pokemon. Pokemon is a decades long series that includes video games, animated shows, books, films, and a trading card game.

Pokemon is a shared universe in which humans co-exist with mythical creatures who have special powers.  The humans act as trainers for the pocket monsters who eventually use the trained Pokemon to battle other Pokemon.  When a victory ensues, the winning Pokemon trainer captures and collects the weakened and defeated foe.  The ultimate goal is to “collect them all,” meaning, collect every species of Pokemon the index or “Pokédex” of creatures.

In the debut episode of Pokemon, a 10-year-old trainer, Ash, oversleeps on his first day. Having missed out on the standard, more sought after, starter creatures to train such as Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, Ash is left choosing a stubborn and disobedient Pokemon named Pikachu.  

When Ash looks at the less-than-desirable Pikachu, Ash boldly proclaims, “I choose you!”  After choosing the one that everyone else rejected, their soon-to-be legendary bond begins when Ash risks his life to protect the stubborn and disobedient Pikachu from a flock of violent flying species known as Spearow.

As the good news from this morning’s Biblical text tell you, God chose you! Yes, God chose stubborn and disobedient you to be blessed and exalted in His eternal Kingdom of Heaven.  God chose to give His life over to death to protect you from the condemnation and destruction of Sin.  God’s choice to do this creates a legendary and eternal bond between you and your Creator and Savior.

So, how can you be confident that God chose you and always will?

Look to the cross of Jesus Christ, where He died, choosing you over His own own life.

Jesus tells you this good news in John 10:10–18 when He says to you:

[10] The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. [11] I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. [12] He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. [13] He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. [14] I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15] just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep…[18] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord…(ESV)

In Jesus, God has chosen to accept you and welcome you into His family.

In Jesus, God has willingly chosen to sacrifice His time, His resources, and even His physical life to to focus on you and your well-being.

In Jesus, God chooses to regularly and consistently provide for your needs.

In Jesus, God lets you know that you have value and worthy today and forever.

In Jesus, as God has chosen you, you can know real and lasting comfort and rest.

This morning, look to Jesus Christ on the cross and hear God saying to you, “I choose you!”

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

This is God choosing you and choosing to love you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

May 17, 2026.