Sermon Tone Analysis

BREAKING THE CHAINS OF SHAME

Gen 2:22-25

22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Gen 3:1-10

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.

And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, "You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'"

4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!

5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"

10 He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."

NASU

 

 

Webster’s dictionary defines the term “SHAME” as a /“…feeling of disgrace or guilt…a feeling of inferiority or unworthiness.”/

Shame is that negative feeling or emotion we get on the inside of ourselves when we know we’re not acting the way we’re supposed to act…when we know we’ve done something we had no business doing.

In the Bible, shame is described as that awareness in the innermost part of our being that let’s us know that we’ve transgressed against God’s law or we’ve violated one of God’s commands.

Shame is that guilty feeling we get on the inside when we know we’ve offended the very presence of God in our hearts.

Shame can come upon us in one of two ways: we can experience shame the moment we do something wrong or we can experience shame the moment we fail to do something right.

The Bible has much to say about shame.

When Joseph was engaged to Mary but found out she was pregnant and that he wasn’t the BABY DADDY, the Bible says he decided to divorce her quietly, because he didn’t want to put her to shame.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1 that God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise.

And the Bible declares that Jesus suffered the shame of dying publicly on the cross that you and I might be able to have a relationship with God.

Where does shame come from?

Well, for the Christian believer, shame comes when we choose to sin against God.

Shame comes when we decide to do things our way instead of doing things God’s way.

Shame comes to the Christian believer when we choose to reject God’s truth and decide to embrace the lies of the enemy.

And one of the problems we’re facing in our contemporary society is that there seems to be very little in our world today that causes us to be ashamed.

We’re living in a world in which there seems to be no more shame at all…THINGS THAT USE TO MAKE US BLUSH, NOW DON’T EVEN MAKE US BLINK.

It use to be that if you were out at the mall and you saw some brother with his pants down around his behind, you would think that brother had serious problems, but now its cool to show your droughs in public because things that use to make us blush, now don’t even make us blink.

When I grew up watching I LOVE LUCY, whenever they showed a bedroom scene, they would always show Lucy in one bed and Ricky Ricardo in another bed, but now, not only is everybody in the same bed, but now the camera takes you all up under the sheets and shows you everything that’s going on because things that use to make us blush, now don’t even make us blink!

When a so-called artist can get federal funds to take a picture of Jesus on the cross and put it in a glass of urine and call it art, WE HAVE NO MORE SHAME!

When one of the most popular shows on television for young people is a show that actively promotes gay and lesbian lifestyles, WE HAVE NO MORE SHAME.

And that might be somebody in this place today who is dealing with some shame issues in your life today.

You did something a long time ago, but your still dealing with the shame.

You made a mistake a long time ago, but you’re still dealing with the shame.

You dropped the ball some time ago, but you’re still emabarrased about it and you’re still dealing with the shame.

Well, I’ve got good news for you today!

Because in this text Adam and Eve teach us some key, Biblical principles on how we can break the chains of guilt and shame from our lives…      

 

THESIS STATEMENT –Learning to reject feelings of shame and embracing the Grace and mercy of God is essential to living in freedom and victory.

Only by understanding how shame affects us and how we can apply the Biblical principles necessary to break the power of shame in our lives will we be able to live the victorious Christian life.

HOW DOES SHAME AFFECT US?

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                               

*1) SHAME CAUSES US TO COVER-UP OUR MESS WITH INADEQUATE MEANS* - Gen 3:7 /Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

/NASU

 

I hate to admit it but, when I was a little boy, I was kind of lazy and I hated doing household chores.

Being the only boy in a house full of women, I figured with three other women in the house, my momma and two younger sisters, they should be the ones to clean the house.

I mean, I’m a man and any strong, respectable man wouldn’t be caught dead washin’ no dishes and cleanin’ no toilets…house cleaning was for the women to do.

And so I decided to leave the household chores for the womenfolk to do.

But how many of you know my mamma quickly beat…I mean persuasively persuaded me that I, too had to share in the household duties.

Out of all the chores I had to do, I used to hate when my mamma made me sweep.

We couldn’t afford a vacuum cleaner so…guess what, I WAS THE VACCUM CLEANER!

I WAS THE DUST DEVIL IN OUR HOUSE, CAN I GET A WITNESS?

I used to hate sweeping up the house.

Sweeping takes a lot of effort.

Sweeping takes a lot of work.

First, you got to sweep all the dirt into a neat little pile, and then you gotta get the dust pan and bend down and sweep up the dirt into the dust pan and then walk the dust pan over to the trash can and dump the dirt.

Don’t let there be a big pile of dirt…you might have to make to two or three trips back and forth to the trash can before your work was done.

But, being the brilliant young boy that I was, I came up with a solution.

I came up with a brilliant idea that would save me time and energy in sweeping up the whole house and walking back and forth to the trash can with the dust pan full of dirt.

I discovered that if I just swept the dirt under the rug, then the floor would still look clean and I could save myself the time and energy of bending down and walking the dust pan back and forth to the trash can.

My plan seemed reasonable, and it made a lot of sense to me.

At first my brilliant scheme worked.

I would sweep the dirt under the rug and mamma didn’t know the difference.

But something strange happened over time.

You see I discovered that the problem with sweeping stuff under the rug is that if you keep sweeping stuff under the rug, sooner or later it makes your carpet lumpy.

And what you thought you were hiding eventually gets found out anyway because you can only sweep so much dirt under a rug.

You can’t keep hiding dirt.

You can’t keep covering up dirt.

The only thing to do with dirt is to get rid of it.

Get it out of your house!

I discovered that you can’t keep sweeping stuff under the rug without it eventually getting found out.

When mamma saw how lumpy her carpet was getting and she looked underneath that rug and saw all that dirt I had swept under the rug…how many of you know she beat…I mean persuasively persuaded me to clean out all of that hidden dirt and deal with it the right way.

I TOLD YA’LL I WAS A BRILLIANT CHILD!

And somebody looking at me right now, you’re dealing with your problems and the shame in your life the same way I kept dealing with the dirt in my house…you keep sweeping it under the rug.

You keep covering it up and covering it up.

And when you and I sin against God and that sin causes shame in our lives, we tend to try to sweep that dirt under the rug…in other words, the SHAME IN OUR LIVES CAUSES US TO TRY TO COVER OUR MESS WITH INADEQUATE MEANS and that’s exactly what we see Adam & Eve doing in this text.

Is your Bible open?

LOOK AT THE TEXT!

In verses 1 through 6 we see Adam and Eve sinning against God by eating the fruit God told them specifically not to eat.

In verse 7, the text says that after they disobeyed God and ate the fruit anyway that their eyes were opened and the knew that they were naked – they became self-conscious of their own weakness, their own vulnerability.

Their became aware that they were absolutely exposed.

And the next thing we see them doing is critical.

Look at Adam and Eve as they try to COVER THEIR MESS WITH INADEQUATE MEANS…the Bible says, in an effort to try to cover their nakedness, that they took some leaves off the tree and made themselves loin coverings.

TOUCH SOMEBODY AND TELL’M THEY MADE SOME FIG LEAF DROUGHS!

Tell somebody, THAT’S WERE FRIUT OF THE LOOMS REALLY COMES FROM!

 

Look at Adam and Eve, sitting there, ashamed, alone, separated from God, aware of their own weakness and sinfulness, trying to cover their mess with inadequate means.

God created them to rule and to reign on their earth, but here they are, siting there with fig leaf droughs on trying to hide from God. DO YOU SEE WHAT SIN AND SHAME WILL DO TO YOU? Shame will cause you to try to cover your mess with fig leafs…sin will cause you to try to cover your mess with inadequate means…

 

* YOU IN THE HOUSE SMOKIN’ A JOINT AND WHEN YOUR COMPANY COMES OVER YOU SPRAY SOME LYSOL AND POP A FEW ALTOIDS IN YOUR MOUTH, tell somebody…THAT AIN’T NOTHING BUT A FIG LEAF!

* You don’t love yourself, but you try to cover up your own self-hatred by abusing and misusing other folks, tell somebody, THAT AIN’T NOTHING BUT A FIG LEAF!

* You go around talkin’ bout other folks when the truth is you’re jealous of the VERY folks you’re talkin’ about…tell somebody, THAT AIN’T NOTHING BUT A FIG LEAF!

* You go around demanding perfection from everybody else when the truth is you haven’t really dealt with the imperfections in your own life…tell somebody…THAT AIN’T NOTHING BUT A FIG LEAF!

* You work and work and work and work and then work some more when the truth you stay at work because you don’t won’t to deal with what’s facing you at home…tell somebody…THAT AIN’T NOTHIN BUT A FIG LEAF

 

And the problem with fig leaves is…THEY ALWAYS END UP FALLING APART!

Sooner or later, the very thing we’re using to cover up our mess will be the very thing that will end up revealing our mess!

Fig leaves were never designed to cover our nakedness.

The Bible says in Titus 3:5-6, /“…not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior…”/ It’s not by works of righteousness that we are saved, in other words, there’s nothing we can do in and of ourselves to cover up our own mess.

That’s what Paul was talking about over there in Ephesians 2:8-9 where he says FOR BY GRACE YOU’VE BEEN SAVED THROUGH FAITH…AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD, NOT OF WORKS, LEST ANY MAN SHOULD BOAST.

Apart from the grace and mercy of God on our lives, everything else we try to do to cover up our own mess amounts to nothing but mere fig leaves.