No Shame - Kenya 2020
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Anchor Scriptures: This was a personal letter from Paul to his spiritual son Timothy. Paul knew he was going to die soon for his faith, and he wants to impart truth to Timothy.
Part 1: God appoints, God gifts, and God empowers His children. 2 Tim 1:1-7
Part 2: No shame for the Gospel, Hardship, or Other Believers. 1 Tim 1:8-16
Theme: Shame
Aim: We do not need to be ashamed of the gospel, ourselves, or others. We are set free from the prison of shame.
Introduction: (What is now vs. what could be)
I want to continue teaching from 2 Timothy today. We are going to talk about shame and being ashamed.
Physically, we know that we are in a building, but spiritually and emotionally you might be in a place called shame.
Shame can be a prison.
Shame can come from something you’ve done or something done to you.
Things you’ve said or things that have been said to you.
Something that occurred last week or something that occurred decades ago.
Shame is a feeling that causes you to believe you are broken or bad and therefore not worthy of belonging.
Shame has one simple goal: to get you to believe you are unworthy. Unworthy of love, affection, service, or anything else good that could happen to you.
Shame is committed to keeping us in the past, so we can’t experience present healing.
Shame will stop us in our tracks. It will put shackles on our hands, feet, and it will close up our mouths!
Let me tell you something true and accurate: You do not need to be ashamed.
If you’ve called on the name of Jesus as your Lord and Savior then shame has NO place in your life. You’ve been set free from shame that wants you to believe that you are unworthy. Christ has made you worthy!
2 Timothy 1:8–16 (NKJV)
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain;
This is a powerful scripture that helps us to manage feeling shame. It’s a scripture that deals with being ashamed of the Gospel and being ashamed when we are persecuted.
Paul in his letter to his spiritual son wanted him to know that there is no shame in the Gospel, in Hardship, or in other Believers. As we study this scripture I want you to think of where you are today. Are you living in a prison of Shame? Do you believe that you, the gospel, or others are somehow unworthy?
You might have a quick reaction to say no, but what do the actions of your life show? This scripture is a reminder to live free from shame. It’s a scripture that encourages us to boldly proclaim the truth no matter the cost and to value fellow believers who have been saved by the same grace that saved us!
Here’s the first point:
We should have...
Point One:
No Shame in the Gospel
No Shame in the Gospel
2 Timothy 1:8 (NKJV)
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord...
Paul tells Timothy not to be ashamed of the Gospel.
Are we ashamed of the Gospel? Does it embarrass us to share the Gospel?
Maybe we feel to ashamed of our past to share the Gospel. Some of us might feel like we are unworthy to share the Gospel. I’ve known people who feel as though God would never use them to preach the truth of His great love, grace, and mercy.
First, I need to address your personal shame. Paul in a few words reminded us that we have been set free from our shame. We are worthy because Christ has made us worthy. You are made co-laborers in the mission of sharing the good news of Christ no matter your past. You’ve been released from the prison of shame.
The thing that’s so difficult is to KNOW that you’ve been set free and to KNOW that you can walk in that freedom.
There’s a stray cat that walks behind our house. He’s beat up, his ear is chewed up, he’s missing a tail, his hair is greasy. What he doesn’t know is that he’s been walking past a house with three little girls and me who wants to bless him.
When I see him walking by I call for him… “Here kitty kitty”. It took him a long time, but finally he came up to me. He was afraid, he didn’t trust me. I told one of my girls to grab a can of sardines.
When I opened the can, the cat ran away. The noise scared him off. I had the best thing ever for this little ugly cat, but he was too afraid to enjoy it. Well, I left the fish on the porch and went inside.
The cat came back and I watched him eat the fish. Over time he has learned to trust me.
Now, he knows that when he comes to our house, that we are going to pet him like he’s the most beautiful cat in the world, and he knows we are going to feed him too. Now, he comes running. He feels comfortable. He forgets that he was just a plain old alley cat who was afraid when he first met me.
You and I are like this alley cat. We are beat up, our ears are chewed up with bad words spoken over us, we are weak from past battles. One day, we are walking through life just trying to survive, and we hear a voice calling.
God calls to us and tells us that He loves us. He wants to feed us with the bread of life. Clothe us with robes of righteousness. He wants to give us a position of honor. He wants us to join His family.
The problem is that all we’ve ever known is a cruel evil world that is constantly trying to push us down.
Let me tell you the truth. Its in our scripture:
2 Timothy 1:9–10 (CEV)
God saved us and chose us to be his holy people. We did nothing to deserve this, but God planned it because he is so kind.
Even before time began God planned for Christ Jesus to show kindness to us. Now Christ Jesus has come to show us the kindness of God.
Christ our Savior defeated death and brought us the good news.
It shines like a light and offers life that never ends.
We might have been lost in our sin, but God chose us to be his holy people!
We don’t have to be ashamed of our past. We don’t have to be ashamed of our status. We have been given a new life in Christ!
Verse 10 says that Christ has defeated death and brought us the good news.
This good news should shine like a light from our lives! We are the product of this good news.
The world should see what Christ has done in us, and we are to boldly stand in the confidence of Christ to proclaim truth.
How could we not?
Paul was telling Timothy to remember the salvation he recieved and to not be ashamed to share the truth of salvation.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Remember, God who saved you is ready and willing to save others. If we are ashamed to preach of what Christ did for us then we don’t trust in God. He is the one who cuts to the heart of a person. Our words don’t have to be perfect. We just must have a perfected heart to bring the truth to a lost people.
Remember what happened when Peter preached that very first sermon:
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
God spoke to their hearts. Peter wasn’t educated on how to be the best preacher. He just boldly proclaimed the truth, God spoke to hearts, and people repented, were baptised, and filled with the Holy spirit.
Don’t be ashamed of your past. Don’t let that hold you back.
Don’t be ashamed of the Gospel. Boldly proclaim the truth!
We should have No Shame in the Gospel, and we should have...
Point Two:
No Shame in Suffering
No Shame in Suffering
My work is to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher. That’s why I am suffering now. But I am not ashamed! I know the one I have faith in, and I am sure that he can guard until the last day what he has trusted me with.
The people at Ephesus knew that Timothy was Paul’s friend and co-laborer, but Paul was now a Roman prisoner!
Paul says to Timothy, “Don’t be ashamed of me or of the Gospel!” He says “Our suffering is all a part of our heavenly calling as ministers.”
This is a very important point for me to share with you. We have been set free from the shame of our past. We don’t have to allow feeling of being unworthy to invade our hearts and minds. We can should proclaim the gospel.
But we must know, in our boldness, we may not be accepted by this lost and fallen world. We my suffer for the sake of the Gospel.
What would have happened if Paul stopped preaching, teaching, and encouraging just because he was ashamed that he was in prison?
What would people think if we lost our rights and privileges because we refused to stop telling of the Good news of Christ? Would it bring shame to our family?
But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to him. I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ. All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did,
When Christians suffer, they suffer with Christ. The same power that saves us also strengthens us for the battle.
Paul emphasized that our calling is by grace; we do not deserve to be saved.
If God permits us to suffer, after giving us such a wonderful salvation, what right have we to complain or quit! “God has a purpose in mind,” Paul says. “Let Him work out that purpose.”
We have been given an incredible gift. This gift is greater than anything we could ever obtain in this life. It’s worthy of our lives. We should not be ashamed of this great gift.
Our lives should be poured out as a living sacrifice to share this gift to others no matter the personal cost.
The personal cost of sharing the gospel is nothing in comparison to what we gain in our relationship with Christ. We have been given the honor of standing boldly before the throne of God as sons and daughters. What does it matter if the world tries to take our lives?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Victory even through suffering!
James reminds us to count it as joy:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
Why should we not be ashamed in our suffering? Why does Paul tell Timothy that he should not be ashamed of him even though he was in prison?
For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
We are not ashamed to suffer because we KNOW that Christ is the Messiah. He is the Lord of all creation. He is our Saviour.
The world might try to shame us, and make us feel insignificant, but we know that the Great I am is with us! He is on our side.
We know this scripture and hold it as truth in our suffering:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
God is who holds our soul. We can have no shame in our suffering!
Paul tells Timothy to not be ashamed of the Gospel, to have no shame in suffering, but he also says that there is...
Point Three:
No Shame in the Family
No Shame in the Family
2 Timothy 1:16 (NKJV)
The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain;
We are in this thing together. The church should really be working to lift each other up in faith. Divisions, fractions, and disagreements are how the enemy works to divide believers. If you can get people divided then you know nothing is going to get accomplished.
There are churches in the world that are too busy arguing about the color of carpet in a building instead of working together to meet the needs of their community.
Paul was locked up in prison because he was unashamed of the Gospel. There were some people in the church who turned against him in his hours of suffering.
He specifically thanked the house of Onesiphorus because they did not reject him. They weren’t ashamed of him just because he was locked up like a common criminal.
We must follow this example in the church. When a brother or sister in Christ is suffering we must pray for them. We must encourage them.
To me, the worst thing that can happen in a church is that we reject people in their hour of need. Do we forget that we have all been saved by the same grace of God?
We would be very wise to remember the words of our Lord:
By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
We should be the first to love, forgive, and extend grace to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Paul was innocent and believers abandoned him. Imagine if he would have been guilty. They would have stoned him!
Our goal in the family of God is to be ambassadors of reconciliation.
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,* so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
We must be a united family! Let’s set differences aside and focus on what matters the most! - Everyone can be made right with God through Christ!
This is the good news we carry.
Instead of shame for a believer who has lost their way or has been wrongfully accused we should feel compassion and a desire to encourage them in the Lord.
Look what Paul said about Onesiphorus:
Then after he arrived in Rome, he searched everywhere until he found me.
He was actively looking for his brother in Christ. He may or may not have known the details of Pauls arrest, but he knew that as a brother he had a responsibility to encourage him in the faith.
There are people in your life right now that need an encouraging word from you. They may not be living the way you think they should, but remember, you don’t know the whole story. They could be in a prison of shame and need to know that they are set free!
Our story is their story…we were lost but by the grace of God we have been found!
I thank God for people who have encouraged me in times when they could have just as easily pushed me down.
We are all part of a family. We are God’s chosen people to work in His kingdom. Look around, this are the people you’re going to know for eternity. We should get in the practice of loving them right now.
Conclusion: (Recap of the “what is” and application of how to receive the “what could be” in life)
This letter from Paul is encouraging to me, and I hope it’s encouraging to you.
Shame is a tool of the enemy to keep you in a prison of immobility. He wants you to be trapped in a confined place of feeling inadequate.
You can be set free from your shame if you believe two little words I’m going to say to you: YOU’RE FORGIVEN
Remember that when God set you free that He doesn’t remember your sin anymore.
“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake;
And I will not remember your sins.
Or
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Or
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God is faithful. We must believe that we are forgiven.
It’s the only way we can follow the teaching of the Apostle.
If we don’t want to be ashamed of the Gospel, ashamed in suffering, or ashamed of the family of God then we must deal with our personal shame first.
Call to Action: (Repentance, Prayer, Worship, Giving, Service) Look up our responsibility as followers.
Today I want to give you an opportunity to receive that sweet forgiveness from the Lord. To let go of past shame.
I also want to give you an opportunity to re-commit yourself to proclaiming the gospel. To be willing to pay the cost even if it means suffering. And to ask the Lord who needs your forgiveness.
