Freedom from Shame and Guilt

Relax. Enjoy yourselves. All right. Today we're going to talk about um bringing sin into the light.

Okay. And an Amazing Grace. All right. I I love that song.

I love the original and I love Chris Tolman's Virgin. They're they're both they're both awesome. Okay. We're going to start in John 3:18 um 18- 21.

And I'm going to read. He who believes in him is not condemned. But he who does not believe in him is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. So the first thing, the first step is asking Jesus into your heart, right? Hopefully everyone here has done that.

If you haven't, we're going to we're going to give an invitation to do that later. Okay? But once you you uh ask him into your heart, the Holy Spirit comes in and it begins to convict you. It's not guilt, okay?

There's no shame. There's no guilt. It's not guilt. It's it's conviction.

Okay? Um and and we're to bring that sin into the light because in the darkness, that's where the demons are. Even Ephesians 6:12 says, "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age." You see Jesus in Matthew 28 clearly stated that all power in heaven and on earth has been given to him.

Okay. Um so if all power has been given to him then what power does the devil have? None. Right?

He's got no authority here. However, if you stay in the dark, okay, that's where the demons are. Okay? That's where he has some ability to mess with you as a Christian.

Okay? So, it's very important we bring things into the light. Okay? Our secret sins, the things we don't think of, allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us will begin to clean us up.

It's a process and it's a beautiful process, you know. It's it's that it's that conviction. Um Josh, who's right here in the front row, my boy, he uh he was at my house. He's watching Friends on TV, if you know the the show Friends.

And I come walking in, he pauses it, and I'm like, "Why are you pausing it?" you know, and he goes, "I just feel weird watching it with you." Right? So, if if there's something that you're you can't do around your mom or dad, you probably shouldn't be looking at it, right?

You probably shouldn't be doing it. And and so, leave them alone. Leave them alone. So, there's a lot of secret sins, right?

Um porn, there's things we hide from people like abusing the spouse, whether it's mentally or physically. Okay? cheating on financially, robbing God with their tithes. You know, we must bring all of these things into the light, okay?

Porn, etc. It's it's our job to allow the conviction of the Holy Spirit and then to bring it into the light. It's God's job to clean it up. All right?

He's not going to do our job. He did not run after the prodigal son. Okay? He stayed there.

The prodigal son went into the pig pen. God didn't join him in the pig pen. Okay? He's not going to join us in the pig pen.

All right? But when we're ready to come back, you know, he's there and he's just and righteous to forgive us. Okay? And he will forgive us.

But the standard is no sin. It's still the standard is still no sin. Check out these verses from from uh Exodus. Exodus 21.

But if any harm follows, this is where an eye for and a tooth for tooth came from. Okay. Um, you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. Okay.

And, uh, Exodus 21:17's even crazier. And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. My kids are here. I'm looking over at them.

Now, when I was 17, okay, I was a jerk to my mom. All right? I really was. I was I was uh I was making good money.

I was too big for her to spank. I really I didn't know God yet. And I was just uh I was just mean to her. Okay.

And I didn't die. I'm still here. Okay. David murdered Uriah, okay, to cover up Basheba.

And God didn't kill him. So even though the the sin standard was there, God had grace. Even in the Old Testament, we think of grace as a a New Testament thing, but he actually had grace in the Old Testament. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Okay? He didn't change. All right? But the standard stays the same.

Romans 6:23, that's the New Testament now. Okay? It says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life." And in John 8, um there's this story of the adulteress that the uh the Pharisees basically brought to Jesus and they said, "This woman's been caught in adultery.

The law of Moses says we have to stone her." Okay? And then Jesus famously says, "Let who is without sin cast the first stone, right?" And he bends down and he writes in the thing and one by one they all leave until there's just him and the adulteress there.

And he goes, "Is there anyone here to condemn you?" And she says, "No, Lord." And he says, "Neither do I condemn you, which is grace." But then he says, "Go and sin no more."

The standard stays that way. We're not supposed to sin. Okay? Now, Jesus lip brings it up even a notch in Matthew 5:48.

He says, "Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect." Any perfect people here? None of us. Not me either.

Okay. But that's the standard. That's what God wants to bring us to. That's what that's where God's taking us slowly and surely if we'll open up and bring things into the light.

Okay. The reason God's so serious about sin is that it separates you from him. Okay? He can't join me in the pig pen.

He can't be where the sin is. Okay? And that separates you. So even if you you think you're doing something when no one's watching, you're hurting yourself because you're separating yourself from God.

Okay? Um, it's serious business, but we have grace. And that song, Amazing Grace, is so awesome. And grace is the power over sin.

Okay? But here's how it's the power of the son sin. It allows us to live in the light with no shame and guilt. Most people can understand grace on one level, but then they stay guilty and they feel guilt.

You know, I've heard mom guilt. Uh, right. Um, that's not a thing. All right?

Even even if everyone says, "Mom, guilt's there." Okay? Guilt is from the devil always. Okay?

So, if you're clinging to things with guilt, okay, that's a sin. That's wrong. But you're not accepting God's grace. Romans 8:1 says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

No means no. That means the thing that God forgave you of, you're forgiven. You don't have to carry it with you. It's gone.

Okay? You don't have to carry that sin with you. You're free. My chains are gone.

I've been set free. But we have to walk in that freedom. Okay? And the litmus test is this.

Whether you're accepting grace or not, can you share it? Can you bring it into life? Can you share it? If there's something that you're embarrassed of from your past and you're and you don't want to talk about, hey, we don't talk about that here or we we we shy away from that.

Okay, then then the devil still has the ability to mess with you because you're keeping it in the dark. Okay? You don't want to keep your sins in the dark. You want to bring them out into the light.

Okay? Because then you can be free. All right? Guilt is from the devil.

And so even if everyone says mom guilt, all right, if everyone's doing it, it doesn't make it right. Right? If everyone sleeps with everyone on the first date, that doesn't make it right. All right?

It's it's it's you know who doesn't have mom guilt? The Proverbs 31 woman. All right? Her husband rises and calls her blessed.

And it comes down to identity. And so this is where God got all over me this week was if God says there's no condemnation, why do we still carry it? And it's because we have an identity problem. Somewhere deep down inside, intellectually we know we're saved.

But somewhere deep down here, we're still think we're that old person. Okay? We're still bringing that old person into the present. Jordan Peterson, who is a uh uh intellectual, we'll say, um tells a great story of a scorpion and a frog.

All right? So, the scorpion goes to the frog, "Hey, give me a ride across this pond." And the and the frog says, "Um, no, if I do that, you're going to bite me and I'll die." And he goes, "I would never do that.

If if I bite you, then then we both are going to drown." And the frog goes, "Oh, yeah. I guess that's right." So, the scorpion hops on and the frog starts going across the lake or the pond.

About halfway through, the frog feels a sting. The scorpion bit him. The frog's like, "What are you doing? Now we're both going to die."

He goes, "It's just my nature. It's just his nature." Okay. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says this.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Okay?

We have to embrace who Christ says we are. We have to embrace it. All right. God says in Psalm 139:14 that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Okay. You're you're a beautiful child of God. All right. In Romans 8, you got on the screen.

This is such a good verse, man. Romans 8. Romans 8 is called the great eight. It's it's an amazing chapter.

Okay. But Romans 8:14-17 says this, "For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out," Aba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, joint hes with Christ. If indeed we suffer with them, then we may be also glorified together. You're a prince. You're a princess.

Okay. You're a prince. You're a prince. She's a princess.

All right. We're heirs of Christ. It says we're co-airs. We're sons and we're daughters.

Okay. And and we're to live as we're be called. A child of God, okay? doesn't dabble in porn, doesn't abuse his uh spouse.

Okay? He doesn't live in the shadows hiding sin and shame and guilt. Okay? If you're still hiding, then there's still remnants of that identity.

Okay? You're still not embracing who you are in Christ. All right? And how do we change?

You spend time in the word. You spend time around other believers. You you allow the Holy Spirit to convict you. Okay?

And then you bring it into the light. Okay? You repent. You have to repent and ask Jesus to forgive you.

All right? And he will forgive you. All right? He's just to forgive.

But then you have to accept his grace. All right? You have to believe that what he did on that cross got it done. Okay?

You got to believe that that got it done. All right? And then that frees you up. Once you accept it, then you're freed up, man.

Then you can spend more time with Jesus. Okay? And the more time you spend with Jesus, the more you're going to begin to look like him. All right?

There's uh my son, my other son, picked on him, Zach. All right. When a kid is 9 to 11, a boy, he wants to just hang out with his dad. Okay.

So, back then, he was like my little buddy, man. Everywhere I went, he wanted to go. Hey, I'm going to Home Depot. Can I come, Dad?

You know, and there's pictures where we're standing next to each other. He's got his hands in his pocket the same way I have my hands in my pocket. He's looking the same way. I mean, he's he's just a little spitting image of me, right?

Except with blonde hair and blue eyes. Um, but uh anyway, um the more we spend time with Jesus, okay, the more we become like him. All right? And and and listen, I'm not up here with judgment.

I'm not up here with condemnation because I'm I'm just as bad as as as anyone else. Okay? God is cleaning me up just as he's cleaning up um hopefully everyone here. All right.

Um I got uh I was married to someone that I was crazy about and then and it ended up not working out. And it was a couple years after the fact that God got all over me about something. You see, I had I was so happy in that relationship at the beginning. And and when you're really happy, okay, you you can tend to make that person really important, okay?

And and to where their happiness is is more important. You can make them an idol, okay? and and God got all over me that I had made that person an idol. All right?

The divorce was over. All right? So, it's in the past, but uh he convicted me on something. So, I got down on my knees and I prayed for forgiveness and I and I because it's against him that I s sinned, right?

When we sin, we sin against God more than we do even against the other person. Okay? And then I went to her and I apologized to her for making her an idol because no one's supposed to make an idol. And before you judge too much, there are people that make you can make anything an idol.

We're about to come up on hunting season, okay? There's going to be a group of people that you ain't going to see them near a church for the next four months because they're going to be in the woods up in a tree. All right? And there's nothing wrong with doing that once in a while, but if you you miss an entire five months of spending time with God because you're then that might be an idol.

you know, college football, you know, um can be an idol here in the South. So, I apologized to her and then I wrote a letter of apology to all of my kids and handed each one of them a letter of apology. Okay? Because because I affected them as well.

All right? So, we we come in so it's brought into the light. All right? Whether they forgive me or not doesn't really matter.

All right? My job is to repent. All right? ask forgiveness and then accept that grace.

I'm free. I can talk about it. I can talk about that marriage. I can talk about the end of that marriage.

I can talk about my own failures within that marriage because I've come clean. I'm free. God, there's no condemnation for me anymore. Okay?

There's no condemnation. All you got to do is come to him. All right? You're free.

If you can't talk about something because it it it's whatever, then then it's it's in the dark still and you've got to bring it into the light. Okay? And this can be a heavy thing, but but it's holding you back. Okay?

God has a plan for your life, a plan that's bigger and better than you can imagine, but sin stops us from that. Okay? And and so by repenting of that sin and turning from that sin and then going to the people that were affected and asking them to to forgive you, whether they do or not doesn't matter. Okay?

What matters is that you did it, that you brought it into the light. Okay? Now, if it's something against someone that you you can go against uh that you can go up to and you can you can ask forgiveness, that's great. If it's a secret sin, okay, maybe it's porn, maybe it's something that you do when no one else sees, you've got to find an accountability partner then, okay?

You still got to bring it into the light. All right? Glenn knows this from from what what he does here. You've got to you've got to bring this stuff into the light.

Okay? Um and if you do, okay, those secrets are no longer there. All right? Um, what sins are you hiding in the closet?

Gabriel, come on up. What sins are you hiding in the closet? What things are there that you're still holding on to shame and guilt? All right.

Is it Is it uh is it something from your childhood? Is it divorce? Is it something that you did to one of your kids? something you did to your parents.

You know, got a lot of youth here. All right. Don't give the devil space, man. Don't give the devil any space.

Okay? Take away don't cling to guilt and shame. All right? I pray that you you if if there's something you're convicted on, you come and lay it down.

You know, come on up here and lay it down. All right? Don't let sin stay in your life. Open up to it, man.

Open up. Ask the Lord of the universe to forgive you. Okay? And he is just and he will forgive you.

Okay? And then if you wrong someone, go and tell them and apologize to them. Okay? It's critical because that cleans you up.

And maybe some of have never embraced it. Maybe you never asked Jesus into your heart. Maybe you you you're not saved. I don't know.

I I I beg that today be the day, okay? That you throw it out there and that you come back to Jesus. All right? Because there is no better place.

You're a new creation, okay? You can become a new creation if you haven't asked Jesus into your heart. You can come up here right now and become a new creation in him. All right?

And for those that are, man, you've got to start living out how you've been called, okay? Just because everyone else is doing it, you young guys, just because cool kids are doing it or whatever else, man, just you got to live differently, okay? Because you've been called to something bigger and better. All right?

and I just pray. I just ask God to please move in in your lives and and move in this way. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and pray us out.

All right. And um and then I'm going to introduce you to someone cool um in just a minute. So bow your heads with me. Heavenly Father, I know that in that there is no one perfect in this room.

So, I know that there is some sin in everybody's life in this room, including mine, Lord. And Lord, this week as I was preparing this message, you kept hitting me with the things that that I hadn't even thought of that I needed to repent of. And and and and I've been doing that this week, Lord. And I just thank you that you have grace and that you will forgive me and that you keep forgiving me and that you keep um growing me and moving me on.

I'm a different man now than I was 20 years ago, 10 years ago, one year ago. And that's because of you, Jesus. And I pray, Lord, that you will move in everybody's life in this room. Lord, I pray that they will leave here changed.

That they will leave here fired up for you. that they will leave here and allow your convicting Holy Spirit to come in and just release these things that are holding them back so that they can be everything you want them to be. Lord, I just pray that now in Jesus name and I lift you up in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Um Lord, come on up here. All right, we're going to have to get closer somehow because we're too far away to do what we're going to do at the end.

Okay. Um so you guys come kind of scooch in if you can. All right. Um, guys, last week Lordis, um, I had asked you guys to fill in a card like this.

She had filled in a card like that saying, "Hey, um, I want to join I want to join this church." So So technically, not counting me and Gabriel and Glenn. Okay. She's our first member.

Okay. >> Yeah. All right. Now, I happen to know Lordis, me and her started a prayer min.

We started a uh orphanage in Haiti. All right. We built an orphanage in Haiti together, me and her. Okay.

So, um and we're still funding it every every month with food. So, she's a precious precious person. She because I know her to be a prayer warrior, she's going to be leading our prayer team here, okay? Which is cool, right?

And um and that's what I want to encourage you if you join. I'm I'm gonna plug in. I'm gonna put you somewhere. You know, I'm putting my kids here and there, but eventually, you know, school and stuff.

I'm gonna have to find some recruits to to take that place. Okay? So, so I I I beg you to do that. Um we we have offerings at the end of each aisle.

We have offering little um envelopes here. Okay? It's the same as the invitation. You can fill in your name, etc.

Um there's a QR code where you can go to um our website, okay, and um give on there. If you're going to put in cash, write your name down so I can give you credit for it so you can get uh you know, credit for it. If it's a if it's uh a check, make it out to biblical principles because that's the 501c3. But I'm going to have Lordis pray over the offering and then we're going to close with a song here.

So see if we can get Lord. Go ahead. >> Yeah. Okay.

Thank you. Uh thank you everyone. Thank you Pastor Brian. We thank God for everything that he is doing right now in our life.

We just thank God for everybody that uh that is giving right now. And then the Lord can continue and multiply and keep you and bless you in Jesus name. >> Amen. Amen.

Thank you sweetheart. >> She's so cute. Want to hit it? >> Okay.

>> All right. It's the last week.