03.06.2022 SER No Shame here!

📷If you are or have been a dog owner, you can most likely relate to this.

That was a little over a year ago. When it happened, I was the first one home to find the mess all over the floor, left by our four-legged friend. Every time he did that, I confronted him with this.

The pointing finger. All I ever needed to do was to point. Honestly, it never changed anything. Regardless of how much guilt and shame I tried to make him feel, he always seemed to mimic this dog's attitude:

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"I ate this whole loaf of bread. I have NO regrets.

📷If you've ever had the proverbial finger pointed at you, you know the feeling of shame.

The shame comes from failing, failing to live up to someone else's standards, or even your own.

Shame is what you feel when you've made a wrong choice, and then others are happy to remind you.

Shame is what you feel when you bear the burden of sin in your life that has consequences, short or long, that affect you and others.

Why is it that we find it second nature to shame others? Is there somewhere in our sinful minds and hearts that believes that making you feel bad about yourself makes me feel good about me?

Permit to bring to mind three people in the bible, three stories of shame.

📷The first takes place in Sychar, a Samaritan village, at the community well.

John 4:7 (ESV) 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water.

She came at noon to avoid the other women of the town, to avoid the comments, the looks, the finger-pointing. She thought it was safe enough to come at noon. After all, the other women had come earlier to draw the day's water. She was surprised when a man was sitting there all by himself. But she was more surprised by the conversation that Jesus began with her and his request of her!

John 4:7 (ESV) Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

📷There was no greeting that John records. The conversation is inappropriate for many reasons. She is a woman, and men didn't speak to women in public, except their wives. She is a Samaritan and Jesus a Jew. John informs his readers,

John 4:9 (ESV) (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

The conversation turns from the physical to the Spiritual. Jesus talks of living water He has.

Matthew 5:6 (ESV) 6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

John 4:15 (ESV) "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."

What she did not yet realize was that Jesus had already started pouring her a proverbial drink to quench her thirsting soul.

Jesus turns the conversation in a new direction, confronting her with her sin,

John 4:16 (ESV) 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."

The subject she was hoping to avoid, her sinful life!

Story number two: Peter. Peter, one of the 12 disciples, one of the inner three disciples. Peter was often the spokesman for the 12. Bold Peter was the one who got out of the boat and walked on water, momentarily. Peter answered Jesus's question, "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "you are the Christ, the son of the living God. It is Peter, James, and John whom Jesus invites to climb Mt Herman to witness His glory in the transfiguration. Peter is the ONE who pledged, that in the upper room, his willingness to die with and for Jesus. Peter is also the ONE who, later that same night, after Jesus is arrested, follows Jesus to his religious trials. AS he is warming himself by our fire, he is confronted by a young girl,

Matthew 26:69-75 (NIV) "…a servant girl came to him. "You also were with Jesus of Galilee," she said. 70 But he denied it before them all. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said. 71 Then…another girl saw him and said to the people there, "This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth." 72 He denied it again, with an oath: "I don't know the man!" 73 After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, "Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away." 74 Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, "I don't know the man!" Immediately a rooster crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.

We feel ashamed when we deny others the loyalty and love they desire and deserve. We should feel ashamed.

Story number three. Saul, a devout Jew, a Jew of Jews, received his training in the LAW under Gamaliel. Saul persecuted the followers of this Way to their death. That's Paul's story. Saul's dramatic, tragic story of persecuting those who followed Jesus, Christ's church. It is a story of great shame. A shame he confessed before his fellow Jews.

It is a funny thing about guilt and shame. You look back, after the thought, the Words you spoke, that action/deeds that you did that inflicted the suffering, pain, and loss. You look back, wishing you could turn back the clock or erase it all and do it over, doing it right this time, BUT you can't. Stephen's martyrdom under Paul could not be erased, but it was forgiven.

All three of these people have the same thing in common? They all had something in their life that they were ashamed of.

The woman at the well with ashamed of her shameful life, until Jesus came along and announced the good news that the Messiah had come to quench her thirst and forgive her sins, give her another chance.

Peter was ashamed that he had denied his Savior three times publicly that he left Jesus on the most challenging night of his life. He lived with that guilt and shame until that day on the shoreline when Jesus came along and forgave him and called Him to lead the church in Jerusalem and shepherd the flock.

Paul's shame is written in his own words in first Corinthians 15 verse nine

1 Corinthians 15:9 (ESV) 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

What they all have in common is not just shame in their life, but this radical, transforming discovery:

Romans 1:16 (ESV) "…the gospel...is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

THIS ONE THING, the power of the gospel, changed everything first FOR themselves AND THEN, for all the people they took this unbelievably good news to and in the sharing of the good news their shame was replaced by joy.

The woman at the well proclaimed Jesus to entire her town.

John 4:29 (NIV) 29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"

Sharing the joy of her faith in Christ transformed the hearts and lives of the entire town.

John 4:39 (NIV) 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did."

In the early days of the church, Peter and John were in the temple healing the sick and proclaiming the good news of Christ's forgiveness and God's love for the world, and as a result, many of the Jews came to believe because of their testimony.

Do I even need to mention, Paul I'll let him speak on his own:

1 Corinthians 15:10-11 (NIV) 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Each of us have stories of shame. We all have thoughts in our minds, words on our lips, deeds we have done that brought shame to us, pain and suffering, and hurt to others. We all have stories of guilt - thoughts that were unChristian, wordsthat were unbecoming of Christ-followers, deeds that make the devil smile because of the destruction, hurt, pain, suffering we brought to ourselves and others.

But our story, like the women, Peter, and Paul, doesn't end in shame, but only because Christ was not ashamed to bear the cross and die for us,

Hebrews 12:2 (ESV) Jesus,…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame…."

This ONE scorned and despised the shame of the cross. What does that mean? He took your shame, your guilt, and your punishment and carried it all to the cross with JOY because HE saw what His suffering, death, and resurrection would accomplish FOR YOU! Christ was not ashamed to bear the cross and die for us, and we no longer need to be ashamed.

1 Peter 2:6 (ESV) "…whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."

Before Christ found His Way into our hearts, we knew nothing of the mercies of God, but that Christ's mercy, forgiveness, grace, and love have found us, we no longer need to live in shame. We now have a calling to proclaim unashamed, this truth:

Romans 1:16 (ESV) 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The gospel is the power of God to transform our lives, and it can do the same for others. And it is time for us to live out our calling, to live unashamed in the mercy, grace, and love of God, while,

Colossians 1:28 (NIV) 28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.

Let this calling start in our homes, all the places where we meet people, and unashamed, and proclaim with joy the name of Jesus until the whole world hears.