SPEAKER_01: In our Advent Sermon series, we are in the book of Genesis, chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: This is week three of our Advent series.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be reading from Genesis 3, verses 8 through 24.
SPEAKER_01: This is the reading of God's holy, perfect word.
SPEAKER_01: And 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.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Who told you that you were naked?
SPEAKER_01: Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
SPEAKER_01: The man said, The woman you gave me gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done?
SPEAKER_01: The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock, and above all beasts of the field.
SPEAKER_01: On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
SPEAKER_01: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.
SPEAKER_01: He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
SPEAKER_01: To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing.
SPEAKER_01: In pain you will shall you shall bring forth children.
SPEAKER_01: Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.
SPEAKER_01: And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.
SPEAKER_01: Cursed is the ground because of you.
SPEAKER_01: In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
SPEAKER_01: The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living, and the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.
SPEAKER_01: Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
SPEAKER_01: He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim in a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's holy, infallible, and errant word.
SPEAKER_01: We pray for the Spirit's leading, enlightening.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, you are the one who inspired these words.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, you are the one.
SPEAKER_01: Our mind so that we can understand what you want us to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Our hearts to receive what you want to give us.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, grant what you have in mind for each of us.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_01: This Advent Sermon series, this morning, as last week, we're posing the question that God posed to Adam, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: Adam and Eve, we saw last week had succumbed to temptation.
SPEAKER_01: They challenge God's word, they challenge God's authority.
SPEAKER_01: It was Satan's word versus God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Satan comes to Eve and says, Has God really said?
SPEAKER_01: Are you sure you heard that correctly?
SPEAKER_01: And we know what that's like.
SPEAKER_01: You read the Bible and you try to understand what the Bible says, and then you wonder, am I going to submit myself to the authority of God?
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes we don't.
SPEAKER_01: We either do it intellectually and say, oh, I agree with you, God, but that doesn't mean that you obey God.
SPEAKER_01: You can understand, we can we can understand, we can agree, but then turn it right around and disobey them.
SPEAKER_01: Has God actually said?
SPEAKER_01: Are you sure you heard them, heard him right?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, how often we creatures take the word and the authority of a creature over the word and the authority of the Creator.
SPEAKER_01: Consequently, Adam and Eve lost their peace, as we saw last week.
SPEAKER_01: And we've been struggling, looking for peace ever since, haven't we?
SPEAKER_01: Dealing with fear.
SPEAKER_01: As we saw last week, it comes out of verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Adam said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we looked at last week.
SPEAKER_01: Today we're going to look at next, because I was naked.
SPEAKER_01: Next week we're going to look at, so I hid.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we struggle with fear, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: Fear and peace do not coexist.
SPEAKER_01: What we fear, we often try to control.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that true?
SPEAKER_01: In many different ways, we try to control the things around us.
SPEAKER_01: Again, as last week we saw, one way is by blame shifting.
SPEAKER_01: It's like pass the buck down the line.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta blame somebody.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna actually see that shame is behind that, oftentimes.
SPEAKER_01: What we can't accept about ourselves, we often put on other people.
SPEAKER_01: Adam blamed Eve.
SPEAKER_01: He also believed God, blamed God.
SPEAKER_01: God, you gave me the woman.
SPEAKER_01: It's like he's saying, Why didn't you give me the right wife?
SPEAKER_01: You guys ever wonder that?
SPEAKER_01: You wives ever wonder, why didn't he give me the right husband?
SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe he did.
SPEAKER_01: Probably did.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a lot of growth required.
SPEAKER_01: There's a got a lot of learning to take place.
SPEAKER_01: Fear is the dominant emotion.
SPEAKER_01: I was afraid because I was naked.
SPEAKER_01: So we fear exposure.
SPEAKER_01: God asked Adam, who told you you were naked?
SPEAKER_01: He just knew.
SPEAKER_01: As soon as he disobeyed, he knew.
SPEAKER_01: He knew that he was not right inside.
SPEAKER_01: He knew that he needed to, he needed cover.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: He didn't need cover five minutes before.
SPEAKER_01: He was okay with his nakedness.
SPEAKER_01: He was okay with his, he had peace, shalom.
SPEAKER_01: But all of a sudden he disobeyed God, and he knew that all was not right within.
SPEAKER_01: Ever since mankind has had to live with guilt, real guilt for real sin, shame, real shame, and misery.
SPEAKER_01: This morning we're going to look at the curse, the cure, and the consummation.
SPEAKER_01: The curse.
SPEAKER_01: We see Satan is cursed in verse 14 of the text that we read.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when God spoke to Satan?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Because you have done this, Satan, because you have messed with my kids.
SPEAKER_01: Because you have messed with my kids, cursed are you above all livestock.
SPEAKER_01: I find as a pastor that oftentimes, well not oftentimes, but sometimes I meet people who think that they're cursed.
SPEAKER_01: The curse is not given to the man or the woman.
SPEAKER_01: The curse is given to the tempter, the Satan.
SPEAKER_01: We live with the consequences of the curse, but Christian, you're not cursed.
SPEAKER_01: I find sometimes people don't understand that.
SPEAKER_01: I've met people who believe that they are cursed, and so they believe and convince themselves that they are forever trapped in their life, destined to live out their curse.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what the Word of God says.
SPEAKER_01: One of the worst consequences of the fall is shame.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're looking at now.
SPEAKER_01: It's been said that shame is the silent killer, like high blood pressure.
SPEAKER_01: You don't necessarily know.
SPEAKER_01: You don't feel the symptoms, but something deadly is going on inside the body.
SPEAKER_01: Something deadly is going on inside the soul.
SPEAKER_01: This is shame.
SPEAKER_01: The difference between shame and guilt, guilt, we disobey or we do something that we know is wrong and we feel appropriately guilty.
SPEAKER_01: It's what we did.
SPEAKER_01: Shame is different.
SPEAKER_01: Shame is not focused so much on what I did, but who I think I am.
SPEAKER_01: Shame is much more personal.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it's so much more deadly in some ways.
SPEAKER_01: Shame says, this is who you are.
SPEAKER_01: This is your identity.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just what you did, it's who you actually are.
SPEAKER_01: And some of us know how devastating that can be.
SPEAKER_01: We've lived with it for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: Novels have been written about shame.
SPEAKER_01: Art has been created depicting shame.
SPEAKER_01: Masaccio, the Italian artist, captivated poignantly in a fresco on the wall of Branacci Chapel, Church of the Carmine in Florence, Italy.
SPEAKER_01: The work is called Expulsion from Paradise.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you remember that.
SPEAKER_01: If not, maybe look it up later.
SPEAKER_01: Expulsion from Paradise.
SPEAKER_01: What he captured in this stunning piece of art is Adam and Eve being banished from the garden.
SPEAKER_01: And Adam is covering his face.
SPEAKER_01: He can't bear.
SPEAKER_01: He can't bear to look at anybody.
SPEAKER_01: Certainly not God.
SPEAKER_01: His head is down.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to look at God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm ashamed.
SPEAKER_01: He depicts Eve, not looking down but looking up.
SPEAKER_01: But her hand is just like, oh, the agony.
SPEAKER_01: They both have their hands strategically placed.
SPEAKER_01: That's shame.
SPEAKER_01: Shame cries out.
SPEAKER_01: You don't understand what I'm dealing with.
SPEAKER_01: It feels unbearable.
SPEAKER_01: And to cope, we have to look for fig leaves.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that the fig leaves were the largest leaves in the Garden of Eden, as far as we can tell?
SPEAKER_01: Maximum coverage.
SPEAKER_01: And we still do that today.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: Isolation.
SPEAKER_01: Isolation is a favorite tool, resource for shame.
SPEAKER_01: There are people who don't come to church because they just can't deal with that.
SPEAKER_01: They can't deal with what they're fighting within, so they just don't go near, darken the door of a church.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's isolation, sometimes it's manipulation, trying to control the circumstances around us.
SPEAKER_01: How do we do that?
SPEAKER_01: We drink too much so that we don't have to feel the shame.
SPEAKER_01: That's why a lot of people drink.
SPEAKER_01: They just don't want to feel.
SPEAKER_01: They don't want to feel what's hard.
SPEAKER_01: We can drink too much.
SPEAKER_01: We can eat too much.
SPEAKER_01: That has something to do with shame sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to feel it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be in touch with what's hard.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ignore.
SPEAKER_01: We can spend too much.
SPEAKER_01: We can cover up, focusing on the outside.
SPEAKER_01: Spend, just spend.
SPEAKER_01: Cover up.
SPEAKER_01: Spending can become fake leaves.
SPEAKER_01: I want to feel better about myself.
SPEAKER_01: So we can buy cars that we probably can't afford and houses and clothes and all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to feel better about who I think I am.
SPEAKER_01: And we can work too much.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us know that.
SPEAKER_01: We can work too much.
SPEAKER_01: Shame can sometimes drive us to have to excel.
SPEAKER_01: Shame can drive us.
SPEAKER_01: We have to finish atop the class.
SPEAKER_01: We have to keep climbing the career ladder.
SPEAKER_01: Shame can be a beast, pushing us to do things that aren't necessarily our gifts and using it for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Shame is a beast.
SPEAKER_01: Like our first parents in the garden, we too have been banished from the garden because of his sin, our sin, looking to cover what we can't bear to live with.
SPEAKER_01: And we wonder why we can't get close to other people.
SPEAKER_01: And we wonder why other people can't get close to us.
SPEAKER_01: That's what shame does.
SPEAKER_01: Shame puts up walls.
SPEAKER_01: Shame puts up barriers.
SPEAKER_01: I don't really know who I am.
SPEAKER_01: It's really hard for me to accept who I think I am.
SPEAKER_01: I certainly don't want you to get too close.
SPEAKER_01: And so we put up walls and barriers.
SPEAKER_01: Do you struggle with that?
SPEAKER_01: Do you struggle with getting close to people?
SPEAKER_01: Do other people struggle really getting to know your heart because you just wall off your heart.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we can do with shame.
SPEAKER_01: God has something better.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about that.
SPEAKER_01: God has a better answer.
SPEAKER_01: Because the people who love you really do want in.
SPEAKER_01: Trust me.
SPEAKER_01: The people who love you want more access to your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know how to give that to them?
SPEAKER_01: Shame may well have something to do with this.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I didn't think I didn't say this in the first service, I wasn't thinking about it.
SPEAKER_01: But this is not about personality, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let's just take that off the table right now.
SPEAKER_01: This has nothing to do with personality.
SPEAKER_01: I've met many strong introverts who are very good at letting people in.
SPEAKER_01: It's not your personality.
SPEAKER_01: It's something deeper in the heart.
SPEAKER_01: The angel came to Mary Magdalene in the tomb.
SPEAKER_01: You remember Mary Magdalene?
SPEAKER_01: One of Jesus' biggest supporters?
SPEAKER_01: The gospels tell us that she had seven demons.
SPEAKER_01: You think she knew something about shame?
SPEAKER_01: Seven demons she was tormented by until Jesus liberated her and cast out those demons.
SPEAKER_01: And what did she want to do?
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to follow you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And she was until his death.
SPEAKER_01: But you remember she was crushed by his death.
SPEAKER_01: She was one of the last to leave the cross, we understand from the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: She was the first one to arrive at the tomb, resurrection, Easter morning.
SPEAKER_01: She needed her Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when she met Jesus and she didn't realize it was Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: She thought he was the gardener, Easter morning.
SPEAKER_01: And what does Jesus say to her?
SPEAKER_01: He calls her woman initially.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Woman, why are you weeping?
SPEAKER_01: She says, They've taken my Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's still a good question.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you weeping?
SPEAKER_01: As we've said in this worship service from the very beginning until now, weeping is welcomed by Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_01: Can you weep?
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people can't.
SPEAKER_01: Can you weep over the things that are hard about your life?
SPEAKER_01: The pain of others.
SPEAKER_01: Our brother Didier just came back from Rwanda, crushed with weight over the violence that's in the eastern part of the Congo.
SPEAKER_01: He went there to do some things to help relieve so that the orphans could eat, and displaced other people could eat.
SPEAKER_01: Lamenting took him to Rwanda.
SPEAKER_01: Pain, weeping took him to Rwanda.
SPEAKER_01: Can you weep?
SPEAKER_01: Can you weep over your own sins?
SPEAKER_01: Can you weep over the work of Jesus in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Tears of joy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to say this.
SPEAKER_01: If you can't, Jesus has more work he wants to do in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: I just want you to know that.
SPEAKER_01: The temptation is to wall this stuff off.
SPEAKER_01: The temptation is to just kind of stay so busy or so focused on the comfort you have, the comfort that you can create somehow in Washington, D.C., it's not hard to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I've got something better for you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to wall off your heart toward me or the people you love.
SPEAKER_01: So where do we turn?
SPEAKER_01: We turn where Mary turned.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus saw right through her, yet he did not reject her.
SPEAKER_01: No, he liberated her.
SPEAKER_01: He forgave her and he said, Mary, I want you.
SPEAKER_01: Those are powerful words.
SPEAKER_01: When the person that you love says, I want you.
SPEAKER_01: Mary knew that.
SPEAKER_01: When he addressed her again, he didn't say woman, he said Mary.
SPEAKER_01: He called her by name.
SPEAKER_01: That's a beautiful thing when somebody you love calls you by name.
SPEAKER_01: That's a good place to turn for us.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder if the weeping in Advent matches our rejoicing in Advent.
SPEAKER_01: Is there room in your life for both?
SPEAKER_01: Is there room in your life for rejoicing because Jesus came?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He's forgiven you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you.
SPEAKER_01: Is there room in your life, your heart, for tears of joy?
SPEAKER_01: Is there room in your heart for weeping out of sorrow?
SPEAKER_01: Because we're not home yet.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be home one day.
SPEAKER_01: But not yet.
SPEAKER_01: And there are things that we ought to be grieving over because of the consequences of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Like Mary, bring your wounded parts to Jesus this advent.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knows what to do with you.
SPEAKER_01: He knows what to do with me.
SPEAKER_01: Corey Tenboom from the Netherlands.
SPEAKER_01: She and her sister were thrown into German Nazi concentration camp during World War II.
SPEAKER_01: And they both had to deal with some really, really hard things.
SPEAKER_01: Corey's sister was treated horribly.
SPEAKER_01: They all were.
SPEAKER_01: She was stripped.
SPEAKER_01: She was humiliated.
SPEAKER_01: She was abused.
SPEAKER_01: She went through all kinds of things that are just unimaginable.
SPEAKER_01: And she couldn't get over it.
SPEAKER_01: She wanted to know, God, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: I've served you all my life.
SPEAKER_01: Where are you?
SPEAKER_01: And her sister Corey, seeing her in her intense pain, went up to her one day and said, Sister, you know he was stripped.
SPEAKER_01: And that changed everything.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he was stripped.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about this, unlock this a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01: The antidote to shame is not encouragement, the antidote to shame for shame is empathy.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just, you know, when we come alongside of people that are hurting and we care, and we say, I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01: And that's appropriate.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01: And we want to understand, and we want to feel their pain, and we want to share their pain as much as we can.
SPEAKER_01: But we can never know it fully, can we?
SPEAKER_01: But there's one who does.
SPEAKER_01: And this leads to the second point, the cure.
SPEAKER_01: The cure is found in one person, in one person only, and his name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ, who left the perfect garden above, never spoiled, and he came to this earth filled with the consequences of our rebellion, our sin.
SPEAKER_01: He came here knowing what was in front of him, what he faced.
SPEAKER_01: If you compare Genesis 3 and you compare Calvary, let's go to the mountain of Calvary, Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified.
SPEAKER_01: In the Garden of Eden, there was the curse.
SPEAKER_01: What do we find happened because Jesus went to the cross for us?
SPEAKER_01: Galatians chapter 3, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: By becoming a curse for us.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he was stripped naked.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't turn his back on us because he's already turned his back on his own son, Jesus, on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_01: He's not going to curse you, Christian, because he already cursed his own son on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: He became a curse for us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knows our shame intimately because he bore our shame.
SPEAKER_01: He knows every area of darkness in our story.
SPEAKER_01: He knows the things that dog us.
SPEAKER_01: He knows the things that haunt us.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what he says?
SPEAKER_01: I know everything about your story.
SPEAKER_01: And I still love you.
SPEAKER_01: And I still want you.
SPEAKER_01: This is the power of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: He sees through you like nobody else sees through you.
SPEAKER_01: He sees stuff that you don't see.
SPEAKER_01: He knows stuff that you don't know about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: About me.
SPEAKER_01: He sees how we run, try to run from our story.
SPEAKER_01: He sees how we try to wall people off, wall him off.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that.
SPEAKER_01: He still says, I want you.
SPEAKER_01: I love you.
SPEAKER_01: This is why I went to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: I went to the cross to be stripped.
SPEAKER_01: I went to the cross to be crucified.
SPEAKER_01: I went to the cross to take your curse.
SPEAKER_01: This is the cure.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand this in this Advent season?
SPEAKER_01: This is the cure.
SPEAKER_01: Thank God there's hope for you.
SPEAKER_01: Come out of hiding.
SPEAKER_01: Come out of hiding into his arms.
SPEAKER_01: And let him hold you.
SPEAKER_01: And let him speak shalom to you.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how to do that.
SPEAKER_01: As the scripture reading was read earlier from Zephaniah.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord your God is in your midst.
SPEAKER_01: He's the mighty one who will save.
SPEAKER_01: He will rejoice over you with gladness.
SPEAKER_01: He will quiet you by his love.
SPEAKER_01: He will exalt over you with loud singing.
SPEAKER_01: So you understand, right?
SPEAKER_01: Every Sunday you come into the sanctuary to worship and to sing.
SPEAKER_01: You're not the only one singing.
SPEAKER_01: He sings too.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews tells us that he's the choir master, he's the choir director of all the choirs on earth.
SPEAKER_01: He sings over you with joy.
SPEAKER_01: Can you take that in?
SPEAKER_01: It's only by the work of the Holy Spirit that you can.
SPEAKER_01: You never reason yourself into that.
SPEAKER_01: We can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: But we can open up our hearts and we can open up our minds to believe that what the Word of God says is true.
SPEAKER_01: And we can accept and believe.
SPEAKER_01: And today might be the first time you do.
SPEAKER_01: That would be a good day for you.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you came to know this years ago, but you still find that you're still walking away, covering up.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you just aren't convinced that you're going to really ever open up to anybody.
SPEAKER_01: And she has a horrible, dark story.
SPEAKER_01: She has been hurt and harmed in many ways.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: She came to Jesus just a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: And she sat in my office with tears coming down her face.
SPEAKER_01: Tears coming down her face, the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Once you get Jesus, you get the joy.
SPEAKER_01: If we lose the joy, maybe in some way we've lost Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He hasn't run away from us.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes we can walk away from him.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what she said?
SPEAKER_01: This woman said to me.
SPEAKER_01: After she, for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, tears just coming down her face.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor, I believe this.
SPEAKER_01: And the joy of the Lord was hers.
SPEAKER_01: The last thing she said to me, she said, Pastor, I'm not ready yet.
SPEAKER_01: But there's more I want to tell you about my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I looked at her and I said, When you're ready, I would love and be honored to hear your story.
SPEAKER_01: This is shame.
SPEAKER_01: I learned a long time ago that only the power of Jesus can overcome shame.
SPEAKER_01: Encouragement is not enough.
SPEAKER_01: I have the gift of encouragement, at least that's what all the spiritual gift surveys tell me.
SPEAKER_01: I know in my own life, as I look back, that there were times that I was depending more on my gift than pointing people to Jesus more directly.
SPEAKER_01: You can't encourage anyone out of shame.
SPEAKER_01: But you can point them to the one who can.
SPEAKER_01: This may be helpful for some of you.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, if you're a little bit like me, I spent years trying to do that.
SPEAKER_01: People I love.
SPEAKER_01: Just encourage them.
SPEAKER_01: Put your hand on their back and just pray for them and say, I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, we should do those things, but those things aren't enough.
SPEAKER_01: The only antidote to shame is empathy, not sympathy.
SPEAKER_01: Extend sympathy all the ways that you can.
SPEAKER_01: But what is empathy?
SPEAKER_01: Empathy is when someone says, looks you in the eye and says, no, I know.
SPEAKER_01: If you're an alcoholic and you go to AA meetings, one of the reasons why it can be quite helpful is you're sitting with a group of people that know.
SPEAKER_01: They know what it's like to blow up your life.
SPEAKER_01: They know what it's like to lose your and lose a job.
SPEAKER_01: They know these things.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of the powerful dynamics of AA and other organizations.
SPEAKER_01: When it comes to shame, only Jesus can look you in the eye, whatever your story is, and say, I know.
SPEAKER_01: He's done that for me.
SPEAKER_01: Has he done that for you?
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy, did you hear that?
SPEAKER_01: For the joy of you, the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame.
SPEAKER_01: He scorned shame.
SPEAKER_01: He looked shame in the eye.
SPEAKER_01: He spit in the face of shame.
SPEAKER_01: And said, I will release you.
SPEAKER_01: The shame will not define you.
SPEAKER_01: I have the right to tell you who you are.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard that saying?
SPEAKER_01: Satan knows your name, but he calls you by your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knows your sin, but he calls you by your name.
SPEAKER_01: It's all the difference in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't treat you like an object.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not trying to pulverize you and punish you.
SPEAKER_01: Satan is.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I came to free you.
SPEAKER_01: This is one of the most remarkable verses in the Bible, as far as I could tell.
SPEAKER_01: Who, for the joy that was set before him, the Father and the Son have this eternal plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Son, you know I'm sending you on a mission.
SPEAKER_01: And that mission means going to a cross.
SPEAKER_01: And I am going to hang you on the cross with the help of sinful men.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 2 tells us it was the foreknowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: It was the purpose and the plan of God to do this.
SPEAKER_01: This didn't happen by accident.
SPEAKER_01: This didn't happen just because there were more powerful rabbis.
SPEAKER_01: This was God's plan.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Son, I'm going to send you to earth.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to send you to that earth that deals with all kinds of harmful, hateful things.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to put you in their place.
SPEAKER_01: And they're going to string you up on a cross.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to nail you to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to pierce you with the spear.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, for the joy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody weeping now?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Might be appropriate.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, for the joy to get you, for the joy that was set before him.
SPEAKER_01: Put me on that cross.
SPEAKER_01: I will despise shame.
SPEAKER_01: I will scorn the shame.
SPEAKER_01: I will take their shame.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus died to take your shame.
SPEAKER_01: My shame.
SPEAKER_01: So that we can open up.
SPEAKER_01: We can find real life.
SPEAKER_01: Eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual life.
SPEAKER_01: Why not today for you if you haven't before?
SPEAKER_01: Why not?
SPEAKER_01: What are you waiting for?
SPEAKER_01: You think something better is going to come along?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01: And for those of you that have already come to Christ, come out of hiding.
SPEAKER_01: Put the walls down.
SPEAKER_01: The people who love you want to get close to you.
SPEAKER_01: Because they really love you.
SPEAKER_01: But they don't know how to get close to you.
SPEAKER_01: Because you got walls up.
SPEAKER_01: Ask the Holy Spirit to take down the walls that shut you off, to open you up.
SPEAKER_01: He's done it countless times.
SPEAKER_01: He can do it for you.
SPEAKER_01: But you got to come.
SPEAKER_01: And you gotta cry out and ask him to take away your sin, your guilt, your shame.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Revelation at the end, chapter 22, tells us that in the end, we're gonna see the apostle John says, in the end, we're gonna be back in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be back in paradise.
SPEAKER_01: And this brings us to the third point, consummation.
SPEAKER_01: It's all gonna be right.
SPEAKER_01: And I know right now it's not alright.
SPEAKER_01: I think I had 12 counseling appointments this week.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's not alright.
SPEAKER_01: I know in my own life it's not alright.
SPEAKER_01: I know in your lives it's not alright.
SPEAKER_01: Let's come out of hiding.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has given us every reason to come out of hiding, to open up, to receive his grace, to thank him for his sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: Embrace him by faith.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_01: Don't work too hard at faith, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You ever had a preacher say that to you?
SPEAKER_01: Don't work too hard at faith.
SPEAKER_01: Don't put your faith in your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Put your faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, I can't figure it all out.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to figure it all out.
SPEAKER_01: You have to understand and believe.
SPEAKER_01: Do I believe the word of God?
SPEAKER_01: Do I take God at His Word?
SPEAKER_01: That's what you have to, that's the question.
SPEAKER_01: Will you take God at His Word?
SPEAKER_01: And you say, I don't have the faith, pray for the faith.
SPEAKER_01: Don't pray that you'll figure it all out.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for the faith.
SPEAKER_01: God, give me faith to believe this story, to believe this message, and to turn to Jesus as my Savior, my Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Consummation, it's all gonna end well.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I just think about the evangelism class we went through recently, and we were listening into a woman's testimony, weren't we, Ben?
SPEAKER_01: And that woman, she wasn't a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: She wasn't a Christian, and she said, No, I'm not a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I'm considering being a Christian, but I'm not a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And so they were with some other Christians.
SPEAKER_01: She and three other unbelievers were together.
SPEAKER_01: They were they there's a culture of trust.
SPEAKER_01: They trusted the people that were interviewing them.
SPEAKER_01: They got to know each other.
SPEAKER_01: And they asked them all kinds of questions.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, we'd just love to hear what you think about Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: And at the end of the conference, at the end of the conversation, the Christian asked each of these people, if there's one question that you could ask God, if there's one question that you could ask God, what would it be?
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember what she said?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Is it gonna all be okay in the end?
SPEAKER_01: Well, she wasn't a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if she ever became a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not a Christian, the answer is no.
SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna be okay in the end.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be horrible in the end.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna stand before God on your own without Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And you are gonna be punished.
SPEAKER_01: That's just what the Bible tells us.
SPEAKER_01: No, not you.
SPEAKER_01: You put your faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You accept the fact that he became a curse for you.
SPEAKER_01: You accept the fact that he died in your place on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: You ask him to give you faith to just believe and to trust him.
SPEAKER_01: And he will give you his life.
SPEAKER_01: And he will forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: And you can start coming out of hiding.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: The answer then is yes, it is going to be okay at the end.
SPEAKER_01: In the end, it's going to be more than okay when we meet Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: 1 John 3, verse 2 says, Beloved, we are God's children now.
SPEAKER_01: And what we will be has not yet appeared.
SPEAKER_01: But we know that when he appears, he's coming back.
SPEAKER_01: We're living between the two advents.
SPEAKER_01: When he comes back, we shall be like him.
SPEAKER_01: Because we shall see him as he is.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to look into the face of your lover one day.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, lover of your soul.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to look in his face, and you're going to know that you're loved, and you're going to know that you're forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: And you're going to know shalom.
SPEAKER_01: But now is the time.
SPEAKER_01: Today's the day for salvation.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Act.
SPEAKER_01: Don't just sit back and keep thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking and never doing anything.
SPEAKER_01: Wait for it.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming back.
SPEAKER_01: And it's going to be great.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to end well for all of us who are trusting in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: May the God of hope give you all joy and peace as you trust in Him.
SPEAKER_01: Death came in a garden.
SPEAKER_01: It's fitting that life comes from a garden.
SPEAKER_01: That's where Jesus was found, resurrected.
SPEAKER_01: Life was lost in paradise, but Jesus is going to open up paradise for us.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I wonder, am I going to remember?
SPEAKER_01: Am I going to remember the sermon I preached?
SPEAKER_01: I think that happens.
SPEAKER_01: I think when we're in heaven, we're going to have flashbacks.
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I believed.
SPEAKER_00: That's where I was.
SPEAKER_00: That's where I got saved.
SPEAKER_01: All of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Consummation.
SPEAKER_01: It's coming.
SPEAKER_01: And because it's coming, and because this is true, we can come to Jesus today.
SPEAKER_01: Are you weary, heavy laden?
SPEAKER_01: Come and lay your burdens down.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus calls you.
SPEAKER_01: Tom doesn't call you.
SPEAKER_01: Tom can't call you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus calls you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus draws you.
SPEAKER_01: Rest in him.
SPEAKER_01: He is gentle.
SPEAKER_01: He is lowly.
SPEAKER_01: He delights to bring us peace.
SPEAKER_01: How sure his compassion for us.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, how deep is his love.
SPEAKER_01: So come.
SPEAKER_01: Come to Jesus and rest in him.
SPEAKER_01: Are you hopeless?
SPEAKER_01: Are you guilty?
SPEAKER_01: Caught in shame for all your sin?
SPEAKER_01: He pursues you to forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: Rest in him.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord God.
SPEAKER_01: Speak to our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Just speak to our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: For the unforgiven.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that they would come for forgiveness this day, this moment.
SPEAKER_01: For those who have lost hope.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that they will come to you, Jesus, for hope.
SPEAKER_01: Shalom, peace.
SPEAKER_01: For those who need someone to rescue them from their shame.
SPEAKER_01: We're coming to you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Where else would we go?
SPEAKER_01: So we come to you now.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.