How to Overcome Guilt and Shame (What the Bible Says)

In this message from 1 Timothy 1:12–16, Pastor Zach Ginn looks at the Apostle Paul’s testimony and the overflowing grace of Jesus Christ. Paul had a painful past as a blasphemer, persecutor, and enemy of the church, yet Jesus showed him mercy and appointed him to ministry.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

If you have a Bible with you, we're gonna be in 1 Timothy chapter 1. We'll start in verse 12. Young John Newton was blessed with a Christian household. His mom was a believer. She read him the scriptures from a young age. She prayed for him. But tragedy struck his life in their home when he was seven years old. His mom died of tuberculosis. And instead of this increasing his faith in the God of his mom, it caused him to be bitter. He was angry toward God. So he decided to make money for his family. He was going to become a sailor. Now, sailors, as some of you may know, are not known for their upstanding character, except for you know those who belong to the Navy at River Oak. I hope that you have good character. They're not known for their upstanding character, and John Newton was especially bad. In fact, he earned the nickname the Great Blasphemer because he hated God so much. Now, God had a plan to rescue John, an unexpected plan. I don't know if God has ever sent a storm into your life, but John sent, uh God sent a literal storm into John's life, March 1748. At this time, he was a slave trader. And on this slave boat, they experienced a dramatic storm, unlike anything they've they'd ever experienced before. The sails were tattered, the boat was literally falling apart. John himself was tied to the mast, trying to keep the boat afloat, trying to keep everything together, and in his desperation, he cried out to the God of his mom. And he made a deal. If you make a deal with God, you're gonna lose. He made a deal. If you rescue me, I'll live for you. And God did a whole lot more than just a physical rescue. He saved John's soul. John encountered the mercy of God, he believed in the grace of God, and he went on to become a minister, a minister who worked to abolish slavery. That's how much God transformed John's heart. And as a minister, one day before getting up to be with his people, he was writing a hymn and he penned these words Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I wonder what insecurities John had to overcome to be a minister. Like I wonder if he ever thought to himself, who am I? Who am I to minister to people made in the image of God when I used to enslave people? But God's grace helped him move forward. And today, through the example of Paul, who also had a terrible past, God's grace, our prayer, River Oak, will help each one of us move forward from our past regrets. Look with me at verse 12. I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry. This passage was handwritten by the Apostle Paul, who likely wrote over 13 of the New Testament letters. The Apostle Paul was used by God to start churches in countries that had no gospel presence. His ministry resume was elite. And yet, even though Jesus himself was the one who appointed Paul, Paul had a past. He had regrets that he had to overcome. And he mentions a few of them in verse 13. Look with me. Even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. Before ministry, Paul hated Jesus. He hated Jesus. As a religious elite, he thought that Jesus was an imposter Messiah. So when rumors of the resurrection began to spread around, he did everything he could to try to stop the movement that Jesus started. He talks about it in Galatians chapter 1. I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. He tried to destroy the early church. And we are evidence that he failed, thank God. One scene of this violence and this destruction is depicted in the book of Acts. There was a faithful deacon named Stephen, just a normal church member, but a faithful one. He gave testimony to Christ, the religious leaders gathered around him, picked up stones, and they began to stone Stephen to death. And if you remember, as Stephen was dying, he saw a vision of Christ standing to receive him in heaven because of his faithfulness. But you might forget that there was another standing nearby, not to commend Stephen or to encourage Stephen or to help Stephen, but to approve of his murder. Acts 7 tells us the witnesses of this stoning laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. Saul, who is named, also named Paul, was the final approval of Stephen's murder. Paul would enter into churches and drag off people that were believers, followers of Christ, and put them into prison. Like, think about all of the past, all of the regrets that Paul had that he had to move on from. I can't imagine how difficult that must have been. And for some of you, though you look so nice and smiley this morning, some of you have past regrets that haunt you. And I don't even need to tell you what those are. You know, like maybe late at night, those are the thoughts that are coming up in your head. And man, talking about ministry, you're just trying to believe the grace of God just to cleanse you, just to forgive you. So how was the apostle Paul able to move on past his regrets? He tells us in Philippians 3. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on. And River Oak, that's the pastor's prayers for you this week. That you would be able to let go of what's behind you and press on. He said, But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance. Unbelief is ignorance. Unbelief is ignorance. Now, culturally, it doesn't seem that way. Cool YouTube guys will make it seem like it's really crafty and smart and youthful to deconstruct your faith. But the Apostle Paul would say that he acted ignorantly. Now, if you grew up in church, you know Paul's resume. He was not an unintelligent man. As a Pharisee, he likely memorized the first five books of the Old Testament before the age of 13. Books. Paul was personally mentored by one of the most famous rabbis in his time. Paul was essentially the modern-day equivalent of a PhD in theology, and yet he says of himself, I was ignorant. We need to ask. Ignorant? Ignorant of what? Listen to his own description of his conversion moment in the book of Acts. As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He was ignorant of the heart of Christ. He was ignorant of the fact that as he was persecuting Christians, he was persecuting Jesus' heartbeat, his bride. Paul knew about Jesus. He was trying to stop it. He knew about Jesus, but he did not know the heart of Jesus. And it is so possible, and might I say likely, that you can live in Southeast America and Chesapeake, Virginia, and know a lot about Jesus and not know the heart of Jesus. And if that is true of you, I want to I want you to hear the words of Christ from the cross toward the ignorant. Do you remember this? As he's dying, he he prays, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Forgive them, for they know not what they do. Did those Roman soldiers know what they were doing? I mean, in many ways, yes. They were experts at crucifixion. They were not gonna fail at killing Jesus. But as they were throwing dice, gambling on the uh on the clothes of Christ, he looks down at them and says, They don't get it. And I don't say this in pride, but spiritually, there may be some in this room. You know a lot about Jesus, but you don't get it. You don't get it. And ignorance, ignorance is not an excuse. God is merciful, but ignorance doesn't save you. Jesus did not pray. Father, they're forgiven because they don't know what they're doing. At some point, you need to repent and believe the good news. Some may be ignorant of who Christ truly is. You might think, maybe he's just a myth, a legend, maybe he's just a good moral teacher, maybe he's just a good example for me to follow and obey my parents. But he's so much more than that. He's the king of kings, he is immortal, he's invisible, he's always existed. And though he dwelt in perfect light, he was praised by angels, he dwelt in all of the honor that he deserved. Jesus, out of love in himself, left heaven, lived a perfect life, died in our place, and rose from the dead. And you are called to not only understand that, but to receive it by faith. And when you do, you can echo verse 14. Look with me. And the grace of our Lord overflowed, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Did you catch that? Where is the faith and love? Where is the overflowing grace? In Christ Jesus, not in Paul. The only thing in Paul was hatred, arrogance, blind unbelief, ignorance. Jesus was not motivated to forgive Paul because of something in Paul. Jesus was motivated to forgive Paul because of something in himself. He did not need a pros and cons list of what it would be like to save Paul. Nothing would stop his overflowing grace. And I want to ask you, do you believe that that's how Jesus feels, even toward you? That he's overflowing with grace, that he can't hold it in. The Greek word for overflowed, the beginning of that is similar to our English word hyper. Hyper. So for all the ADD, ADHC people, let's play with this a little bit. What energizes Jesus? What wakes him up in the morning, so to speak? Saving the undeserving. Saving people like you and me. His grace overflows. He can't hold it in. It's who he is, it's his heart for the world. In 2016, I was living in Louisiana, and this event occurred called the Great Flood of 2016, where 90% of my hometown flooded. I want you to imagine 90% of Great Bridge water. And my home was included in that. And I'll never forget the day when the water rose. Like you hear people say, if the creek don't rise, well, the creek rose. And it was terrifying. The water was rising, street level, rising in our yard, approaching our house. Only my mom and me were in the house. And mercy to my mom. My mom will listen to this, she'll pray for me. Mercy to my mom. When you're in those situations, you're not thinking straight. She told me in a panic, Zach, go grab some towels. And our windows at the time went down to floor level. So I am grabbing towels and throwing them at the floor level, and I cannot forget how helpless it felt to watch the water just overflow. You ain't stopping it. Overflow. And in the end, four feet of water in my living room. I could do a little breaststroke in my living room. Any similar way. Your regrets of the past. It's like throwing down towels in front of the overflowing grace of God. You're not stopping it. You're not stopping it. But God, I didn't grow up in a religious home. I didn't grow up in Chesapeake. I didn't grow up going to River Oak and learning about the Bible. My grace is sufficient for you. But God, even though I wasn't ignorant, I I knew about who you were, and I did grow up in a Christian home. And I still rebelled against you. God's word says, even when we are faithless, he remains faithful. He is faithful. Faith and love are found in his heart, not ours, initially. Not ours. I've heard it said before. A Christian worried that they're going to run out of grace. It's like a fish in the ocean worried that it's going to run out of water. And if you're not convinced, look at verse 15. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. In the early church, they didn't have just hundreds of Bibles printed out like we do. They had to rely on word of mouth to remind people of the written word. And in the New Testament, excuse me, in the New Testament, there are only five times that begin with this intro. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. It's almost as if the authors of the New Testament were like writing this in bold. It's like you may not get everything, but one thing that you must get, you have to get this. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Amen. As I was thinking about this this past week, I was reminded, grace doesn't have a type. You can enter into this room and honestly be deceived in your own heart. Because you might think to yourself, Jesus Christ came to save the well-dressed. Jesus Christ came to save those who live in Southeast America. Jesus Christ came to save those with a pre-bent religious personality. But God's word gives us the best rebuke. Jesus Christ came for sinners. He didn't come for you when you cleaned yourself up, when you got yourself right, when by your own strength you got past all of your bad habits and addictions. He didn't come for you when you were impressive. At your worst, at your lowest moment, Jesus looked at you with eyes of love. Put yourself in the moments of deepest regret. Moments, if we were to throw those moments up onto the screen, you would be mortified for people to see or know about. I want you to know this is just biblical truth. Jesus, the immortal, invisible, ever-present God, he saw it happen. He was there. And he wasn't looking at you with arms crossed, a frowning face. Maybe you had family members that treated you like that. He looked at you, and do you know what he felt? I'm gonna tell you what scripture says. Faith, love, overflowing grace. So much so that the apostle Paul will say, and I am the worst of them. He didn't say, I was the worst of them. Maybe he was. He says, I am the worst of them. Okay, modern therapy. Does the apostle Paul just have a low self-esteem problem? Like, are we just thinking, what's wrong with Paul? There's pretty bad sinners out there, and this guy, the author of the New Testament, thinks he's the worst of them. No, he doesn't have low self-esteem. He has a high view of God. He understands who God is. And he understands his heart because the mirror of the word of God is exposing sin. He's been before the law of God. There's a pastor from Scotland, Robert McShane. I believe he passed away at the age of 29. But he was incredibly spiritually wise. He once wrote, The seed of every sin known to man lives in my heart. The seed. So you might be in this room thinking, I'm not the worst sinner I know. My crazy uncle is the worst sinner I know. I'm not the worst sinner I know. I haven't committed adultery, I haven't stolen a car, I haven't murdered someone, and I sure hope you haven't. I hope you haven't. But do the seeds of all those sins live in your heart? The seeds. Okay, so adultery. Jesus once taught, if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you committed adultery in your heart. If I let the seed of lust fully grow, it would lead to adultery. You've never murdered someone. You've never murdered someone. If you had anger in your heart toward your brother, the seed of anger, fully grown, is murder. And the same is true for every sin, every transgression found in the Ten Commandments. But I want to encourage you today. Even though you're the only one that knows your thoughts, I don't know your thoughts. I know my thoughts. I can say honestly of myself, I'm the worst sinner that I know. I know, I know my temptations, I know my thoughts, and even though all that's true, instead of that being a deterrent from me coming to Christ, it reminds me, Jesus came for me. He came for sinners just like me. It's the whole purpose for which he came. I want you to think with me about all the darts that Satan had against Paul. You weren't bold like Peter, you didn't love like John, you weren't faithful like Stephen. In fact, you you helped murder Satan. And yet, even though all of those things were true, Paul was able to move on. So next time that your conscience says, Who are you? Who are you to share the gospel with your neighbors? If they knew what you did, you wouldn't try to represent Jesus at all. Who are you to try to be an example in your local high school? Who are you to try to be the spiritual? Leader of your home. You're a failure. You have terrible habits. You can say to your conscience and say to Satan, the father of lies, you are right. You're right, I am a sinner. In fact, I'm a worse sinner than you claim I am. And Jesus Christ came to justify the ungodly. He came for sinners like me. There may be some in this room. The father of lies has had you in a chokehold, and it is preventing you from fulfilling your purpose of ministry. And that needs to stop today. Some in the room might have dreams of mentoring young moms in the faith. Might have an interest in leading a group as a Bible study leader. Might have an interest in just being a better dad. And your conscience and Satan are holding you conscient, uh, captive. On the authority of God's word, we need to let that go today. If you're in this room, if you're in this room and insecurity about your past has been holding you back from saying yes to a ministry purpose that God has for you, today's the day, by the grace of God, we move on. We move on and we say yes. We say yes. If verse 15 is true, verse 16 can be anyone's story. Look with me. But I receive mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life. I want to really settle into Jesus' patience in this passage. It's incredible. His patience towards you and me. It's incredible. None of us would have the patience towards others that he has for us. Like, think about Paul's story. As he was blaspheming God the Father, something in Jesus still thought, I want Paul. As he was persecuting Jesus' bride, the early church, something in Jesus still thought, I want Paul. And amazingly, no matter what your past is, no matter what your regrets are, there is something in Jesus, it's called faith, love, and overflowing grace, that still wants you. He still wants you. And when we receive the mercy of Jesus, we become displays of his perfect patience. We glorify God when we receive his mercy while we are yet sinners. In the 15th century, there was a Japanese leader who was gifted a very valuable, rare Chinese bowl. And accidentally, like many of us do, he dropped the bowl and it broke. So he sent it back to China for them to repair it. When they received this particular bowl, they thought to themselves, this is so rare, it's so one of a kind, there is no replacement. So instead of replacing it, they stapled it together and sent it back to Japan. It was the only one. There's no other. There's no other. There's no other route. There's no other option. As the Japanese craftsmen received this bowl, they were inspired. And as ceramics would naturally break in their arts room, they began to use liquid gold to seal the broken cracks. And it's a process called kinsugi, which literally means golden repair. And I thought it was fascinating that some of the artists were actually so motivated by this to uh, I guess, make money, that they would intentionally break bowls that they created because they knew that the end result would be more valuable, more beautiful, and more full of gold than the original. In a similar way, no matter how tattered your past is, no matter how broken you are, when you receive the mercy of Jesus Christ, when you receive his overflowing grace for you and let it wash over you today, you are more valuable, more beautiful, more full of gold, so to speak, than you were before. So standing on the truth of God's word and the authority of God, let go of your past. Not by acting as if it didn't happen, because it did, but by remembering Jesus watched it all happened and offered you mercy instead of judgment. The book of James tells us mercy triumphs over judgment. Amazing grace. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Like you. I once was lost, were you? But now I'm found. I hope that you're found by the gospel. Was blind, but now I see. Do you see? Do you see? There was a really famous evangelist in Great Britain, 1800s. His name was Barnlow North. Barnlow. My neighbor told me yesterday that they're expecting a boy. I'm going to recommend the name Barnlow. Barnlow had a bad past, bad reputation. And it was hard for him to overcome that because he felt called to ministry after he got saved. And his first attempt at a church, he was denied because someone in the search process brought up his past, so he withdrew his own name in shame. But out of mercy and kindness, a church gave him a second opportunity just to preach, just to preach. So he entered in through the wooden doors of his town, walks to the front, sits down in the front pew, and someone comes up and passes him a letter from the crowd. It was anonymous. And in this letter, it listed all of his regrets in detail, all of his sins, everything that he would be ashamed of, and it warned if you stand up with the audacity to preach, I'm gonna stand up in the crowd and expose everything you've ever done. So if you're Barnlow, what are you doing? I would be trembling. If y'all could see everything I've done in my past, I would be trembling. I would be trembling. I'd probably walk out of the door in shame. But instead, Barnlow stood up, went to the front, and read the letter. Every line, every detail. And he concluded saying, I am the man. And I want you to hear his own words. It is a correct picture of the degraded sinner I once was. And oh, how wonderful must the grace be that could raise me up from such a death and make me what I appear before you tonight, one who knows that all his past sins have been cleansed away through the atoning blood of the Lamb of God. One of my favorite hymns is before the throne of God above. Hear these lyrics. When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within. Upward I look. That's what we need to do today. Upward I look, consider him. Forget about yourself. That same Scottish pastor, Robert McShane, also dropped this wisdom. For every one look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. And then don't stop looking. That last part was me. Don't stop looking. When Satan tempts you to despair and tells me you have the guilt within, upward I look and see him there, who made an end to all of my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. How? For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me. Would you pray with me? Lord, if you could count iniquity, who could stand? All of us have stains in our past, and we've tried to remove those stains in a lot of different ways. We've tried religion, we've tried being a good person, we've tried hiding. None of it works. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. And amazingly, while we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died for us to justify the ungodly. We all say yes and amen to the truth that you are overflowing with grace. So I pray that people would walk out of this room, skipping in their heart, believing, receiving the mercy that Jesus alone can offer as our great high priest. And Father, I also want to commission those who, standing on your promise, are ready to say yes to a particular ministry calling that they've been putting off because of their past regrets. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Good morning, everyone. We are glad you were able to join us, and we pray that it was encouraging for you this morning. We ask you to subscribe. That way you can see all of the sermons. But we hope to see you in person next week. God bless.