Guilt can Lead to Healthy Repentence

ME

How many of you have ever made a goal that you were so excited about doing but after a while you kind of just gave up on it?

So one thing I enjoyed doing before fatherhood was going to the gym. I liked the morning routine so I would get up early to workout, which triggered my desire to eat healthily.

But ever since my daughter came, that routine has changed. By change, I mean totally disappear. Usually, when I say this it makes me sound like having the baby ruined everything, but I don’t think that, My daughter brightens up my life.

She’s not to blame for my sucky health habits. So now it's been months since I’ve done any kind of working out and stepping on a scale is not something I enjoy doing because it makes me feel guilty!

If I can be honest with you all, I’ve never weighed this much in my life! And I notice when I don’t go to the gym, then I don’t eat healthily! So I’ll slam a couple of chicken sandwiches at Wendy’s and call that a snack.

So now I feel this guilt because I’ve let myself go.

The thing I have to wrestle with is what I am going to do about this guilt that I feel about my health?

Transition point:

How will I let my guilt affect the change in my life?

WE

When it comes to guilt, sometimes it might just stop at a feeling. We might feel guilty about something we’ve done to ourselves, or someone else. There actually might be some of us who have hurt others and have not felt guilty about it at all.

Guilt works very oddly. Guilt can be a feeling or it can be an adjective. The truth of the matter is that the word guilty is an adjective that describes every single person on earth, but it’s not something that every single person feels. Although you might not feel guilty, it does not mean that you are not guilty.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Therefore, we are all guilty when it comes to sin against God.

What about our shortcomings with others? How do we take responsibility for our negative actions, words, or attitudes when it comes to our friends, our neighbors, our spouses, or our kids?

I want us to be challenged today by not thinking about guilt in a negative way, but considering it to be a gift from God to help us understand where we might need a change in our lives because

Our guilt can lead us to healthy repentance.

GOD

In the book of Genesis, we read about a man by the name of Judah. Judah was the great-grandson of Abraham whom God made a promise to be a blessing to all the nations. Judah was also a part of that promise, but he made a lot of mistakes. Judah had a brother named Joseph who was a bit spoiled by his father Jacob reason being that Joseph was the son of Rachel, his beloved wife, while Judah was the son of Leah, the not-so-favored one.

Joseph was given a sweet multi-color coat to put a stamp on his favoritism. Imagine seeing one of your siblings get the newest Jordans from footlocker while your parents hand you a Walmart bag with the latest Shaquille o’ Neils.

Judah and his other brothers were so envious of the favor Joseph got from his father that they came up with a plan to kill him. But instead of killing him, they threw him into a pit and sold him to be a slave in Egypt. In order to hide what they truly did to their brother Joseph, they took his robe, rubbed blood on it, and presented it to Jacob.

Judah looked at his father Jacob, a man that wrestled with God, absolutely devastated over the loss of his son Joseph.

Whether or not Judah felt guilty, the truth of the matter is, he was guilty.

The question becomes, how did his guilt cause him to change?

Continuing on with the story,

Many years later, a famine broke out into the land which was odd because it seemed like there were just 7 years of a plentiful harvest. Judah and his entire family needed to eat or they were all going to die of starvation so Jacob told them to go to Egypt since they found a way to store food and they could purchase some.

The only brother that was told to stay was the youngest named Benjamin. He was also favored by Jacob like Joseph was since he was also the son of Rachel.

When they got there, the governor of Egypt accused them all of being spies! So they had to tell the governor the reason they came and that they have another brother at home. So the governor made a deal, he would keep their brother Simeon as a prisoner until Benjamin came with them.

They talked amongst each other on their way home and realized that they were being shown their guilt for what they’d done to Joseph. They now had to convince Jacob to let them bring Benjamin, so Judah made a deal that he would bind his life to Benjamin as a pledge. This means that if anything would happen to Benjamin he would have to pay for it with his life.

So Jacob agreed and they brought Benjamin with them and when they got their food and were ready to leave, they were stopped and accused that one of them stole from the Governor of Egypt. One by one, the powerful Egyptian cut open the sacks of food of each individual until CLINK. The one who had the governor’s cup was Benjamin.

All of the brothers were devastated, and Benjamin was going to be taken by the Egyptians to be a slave just like Joseph. It was made really easy for Judah to do to Benjamin just as he did to Joseph. But instead, Judah ran up to the Governor of Egypt risking his life and begged that he take Benjamin’s place. Judah would be Benjamin’s substitute as a slave.

Judah says this:

Genesis 44:30–34 (ESV)

“Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

All of the years of guilt of what he had done to Joseph affected him to this point, where he would beg for the life of his brother instead of selling it again.

His guilt led him to repent in such a way that he would take his brother’s place.

YOU

Guilt is effective, but how does it affect you?

I think there are some principles in this story where we can look at and figure out how we can deal with our guilt and let it do what God had intended it to do which is to lead us to healthy repentance. I would like to look at 3 principles.

Transition to the first point:

First is to recognize that you are guilty

1. Recognize that you are guilty

Genesis 42:21–22 (ESV) This was after their first encounter with the Governor of Egypt after he took Simeon as a prisoner and they were all accused of being spies going back to their home.

Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.”

Judah and his brothers recognized that what they did to Joseph was sinful and as a response, there was a punishment to come. They thought that the Governor of Egypt was going to be their judge and implement justice for what they’ve done according to the will of God.

In the same way, we need to recognize that we all fall short in many ways. We have troubles in our relationships, we say things we don’t mean to our friends or family members. Maybe there was a time where you were impatient or rude to someone because something you wanted didn’t come out exactly the way you wanted. It can be easy to try and forget those things, but rather than just pretend like you didn’t, you need to realize you did, otherwise there will be no change.

Transition to point 2:

Recognize that you are guilty, then admit your guilt.

2. Admit your Guilt

In Genesis 44, The governor of Egypt was just about to take Benjamin to be his slave but Judah went up to the Governor of Egypt and begged for him to hear him out. Judah risked his own life just to admit his guilt to the second most powerful man in all of Egypt.

When it comes to admitting our guilt to someone we’ve offended, I think having an attitude like Judah would be beneficial. He was willing to be thrown into prison, he was willing to risk his own life just for admitting that he was guilty.

Maybe the reason you haven’t admitted your guilt is that there is a consequence that comes along with it. Maybe you’ve been hiding something for so long that you just think that it’s better to sweep it under the rug and hope that no one remembers it.

But the problem is, you are still guilty. Recognizing that is just that first step, you have to admit it. Who are the people in your life that you need to ask to forgive you?

Have you said anything recently to hurt your spouse?

Have you done anything to a friend years ago that you can’t just stop thinking about?

Are you bound by the guilt of what you’ve done to someone? Set yourself free by admitting it and asking for forgiveness from those who’ve you hurt. Just as Joseph was imprisoned by his brothers, so was Judah imprisoned by his guilt.

So we also without recognizing and admitting our guilt, are imprisoned by it.

transition:

After we’ve done steps 1 and 2, we can then live a changed life.

3. Live Like You Were Never Guilty

Judah’s change was made known by his admission to what he has done and his willingness to be a slave in Benjamin’s place. The change was revealed before the Governor could respond to them. We also must let our change be known in our words, our actions, and our attitudes.

Even if we are not forgiven by those we have hurt, we can still live like we have been forgiven. If you’ve done your part of recognizing and admitting your wrong, then you can go on living like you are forgiven.

This is what it means to repent. It is a turn from one way of living that is sinful, into a way of living that is worship to God.

Transition: We are not meant to live with guilt, but instead, after we have recognized it, and have admitted it, we can live like we were never guilty because God takes care of it.

WE(2)

My wife loves to pop my pimples. I don’t know why, I don’t know what it is in her that causes her to have this weird desire to pop pimples, but she does. It’s annoying too but she has a good reason for doing it.

Whenever I want to reject her popping my zits, she asks me, “Do you really want to go walking around like that?” I have to stop and think about it until finally I just give in and let her get it over with.

I think this is how our guilt is taken care of. The Holy Spirit brings up our guilt, our shame, and reminds us of our wrongdoings and Jesus Christ is the one who removes it from us. (Jesus the sin popper?)

Sometimes we just stop at the guilt and shame being brought up and my question for us is, “Do you really want to go walking around like that?”

Do we want to hold onto our guilt?

Transition to the conclusion:

Because there is a way we can deal with it and we can have hope that our God is ready to deal with it just as He did with Judah.

Judah, after he released his guilt and offered himself as a slave in Benjamin’s place, saw the face of the governor change. Tears filled his face, He removed his head covering, and revealed himself to be Joseph, whom they sold into slavery.

Joseph had every right to exercise justice and execution, thinking about all that they had done to him, but instead, he offers them and the household of Israel to live with him in Egypt. He gives them mercy and grace.

Could you imagine what Judah and his brothers felt at that moment? Knowing very well what they were deserving of and how it even affected their father? The guilt was their prison and it was Joseph’s mercy that set them free.

This is what Christ does for us. Guilt helps us realize our sin and it imprisons us, but it is the mercy and grace of God through Jesus Christ that sets us free so that we can honor Him with our lives.

I hope that we wouldn’t consider our guilt something to be ignored, but that we allow the Holy Spirit to show us our wrongdoings so that we can be forgiven and led towards healthy repentance.

PRAY