The Power that Breaks Fear and Shame

Bernard Tararo shares a powerful message on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the freedom that is found through His death and resurrection. Bernard shares his own testimony about how Jesus broke the power of fear, shame, sin, and addiction, and brought lasting transformation and new life. This message boldly declares the finished work of the cross, the power of Christ's blood, and the hope available to everyone who puts their faith in Him.

Our heart at Celebration Church Rarotonga is that this message will greatly bless your walk with Jesus and help bring you closer to Him. We pray that you would be stirred to live a life that is passionate about loving Jesus!

We would love to hear from you! Connect with us through the links below:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/celebrationraro
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/celebrationchurch_rarotonga/
Website: https://www.celebrationrarotonga.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to this week's podcast by Celebration Church Latatoma. We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Let us pray. Father, we just thank you for this time. We thank you, Jesus, that you are lifted up, that you are exalted. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And we exalt you this morning, Lord. We just thank you for your word this morning. Lord, I thank you for the precious blood of Jesus Christ that is available for us this morning. Lord, we just tune our hearts and our minds to receive all that you have for us this morning, Lord. We just thank you, Lord God, that you are on the move. Lord, we open up our hearts to receive you this morning. We pray that you'd anoint the word, you'd anoint the uh the words that come out of my mouth. Let it be your words, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Awesome. All right, so I'm going to talk about God's supernatural power to break fear and shame. And the first scripture I have for us this morning is found in the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter 1, verses 9. And this is what it reads. It says, Have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Isn't that amazing? You know, we are commanded to be strong and of good courage. We are commanded to not be afraid. And we are surrounded with the world that feeds us with fear. Fear coming through social media, fear in the news, fear and um, you know, the things that we hear. But I tell you, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is good news. This is good news that Jesus came to set us free. He came to give us eternal life, and we're not to live in fear and shame. And what fear and shame does is that robs us from an intimate relationship with God. It actually stops us from getting closer to God. And God wants us to come to him boldly. You know, the Bible says we enter boldly through the blood of Jesus Christ. We come in through him. And so um fear and shame, and we've all experienced fear and shame at some point in our lives. Yeah, lift up your hands if you've had many regrets and shame. Yeah, man, I've done many, many, many shameful things in my life that I totally regret. And this is my testimony. I grew up in the church, I had a knowledge of God, I knew about God, I knew that God um loved me or, you know, was real. I knew the stories, but I didn't have a relationship with God. I knew that God, um, you know, through the preaching of the word, the Bible stories, but my heart was far from God. And so I grew up in the church, I had the knowledge of God, but I didn't uh serve God with my heart. You know, outwardly I'll be attending church, but inwardly my heart was evil, was dirty, it was unclean. And basically, um, yeah, I've done many shameful things. I was a thief before Christ. I used to steal, I was actually sharing uh my testimony to the youth. There was a shop back in New Zealand, and I used to go there every day after school and rob from that shop. I would steal, I would steal food and basically just, you know, and and you know, um enjoy it because you know I I didn't have uh I was ashamed of it, but I was like stealing. I was I was a thief, I was a compulsive liar, told a lot of lies. I was bound in sexual morality, you know, bound in sexual sin, and that brought a lot of shame, a lot of regret, and um I had suicidal thoughts, you know, wanted to take my own life. Let me tell you this the answer to mental illness is Jesus Christ. Christ can set you free. There's a story in the Bible actually of a man uh you know who was tormented by um by evil spirits, a legion of spirits, and you know, he was cutting himself, he was breaking chains, and nobody could tame him. You know, if he was alive today, we would think this guy has a mental illness. You know, they nothing would help him, but Jesus came and he set him free. And the Bible says that he was clothed and in his right mind. Yeah, he was in his right mind, and that's the answer to mental illness, guys. Jesus Christ. And so, yeah, I was tormented by suicidal thoughts. I wanted to take my own life, I hated life. I thought, man, what is the meaning of life? I just, you know, I was just bound in sin, bound in addiction, and um yeah, and it wasn't until when I was 12 years old on the island of Manhicke I I heard the gospel and I God was tugging on my heart, and I felt this drawing to give my life to Jesus. I realized, man, I am a sinner, I've done so many bad things, and I need my sins to be washed and clean. And so I was presented with the opportunity, and on the 1st of March 2009, I said yes to Jesus. I gave my life to Jesus Christ. I asked him to come into my life and clean me up. And on the same day I got baptized, and without a doubt, when I went under the water, came up, I felt brand new. I felt like a new person. I felt like my sins were washed, I felt like I was clean. I felt like um, I felt like this desire to do what was right for the first time in my life. I wanted to do what was right before the eyes of the Lord, and I had a love for God, I had a love for his word, had a love for people. Um and yeah, God, through that time, from the age of 12 to now, God has been setting me free. And it's been a process. It wasn't instant, but it was been a process. And I tell you what, God has delivered me from the spirit of death. I no longer struggle with suicidal thoughts. God has delivered me from rejection. God has broken the chains off my life. He set me free from sexual bondage. You know, I had a bondage to pornography for 12 years, and God set me free by his power. And I've been walking for nine years, set free, no longer struggling sexual sin, no longer struggling sexual morality. And whom the Son sets free is free indeed. I tell you, I have tasted and seen that God is good, He is good, and He loves every single one of us, and God has a plan for us, and the enemy wants to wants to bring shame and regret. Like, oh, you you know, God does not love you, He does not want to set you free, but that's an absolute lie from the pit of hell. You know, Jesus Christ came and He He gave His life so that we could be free, amen. And yeah, man, I tell you, all glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, all glory to him. I am nothing but a sinner. He is all glory, He is all righteous, He is all holy, all glory to His name, amen. And the amazing thing is like it's been this process, but it's like we we try to deal with the branches, you know, the the alcohol, the drugs, the um the addictions, the the sexual lust, it's all branches, but God wants to deal with the roots that are connected to the branches. You know, you think about a tree, a tree, we only see the fruit, but within the tree, there's the roots, there's the roots of rejection, it's the roots of hurt, there's the roots of an unforgiveness and abandonment. And I tell you, when I allowed myself to be vulnerable before God, and I allowed myself to be open and allow God to go into the depth of my heart, into the roots, God began to set me free from rejection, from fear, from unforgiveness. He began to deliver my soul from these uh these spirits, and I I tell you what, He He healed my heart from that. He healed my heart from unforgiveness where where I used to be bitter and angry, now I can love people, love those that have hurt me. Yeah, and I and when God healed my heart, man, I just wanted to do what is right. I actually, a few years back, I went back to that same shop and I said, Look, as embarrassing as it was, I walked in and I had a whole bunch of money. I said, Look, many years ago I used to steal from the shop, but today I and I've become a Christian and uh God has convicted me about it. I want to give this to pay back for what I stole. Yeah, I want to give back. And the lady on the couch is like, What? Like, what the heck? She was just blowing away. And you know, I was like, take the money and let me go. And I tell you what, I've I walked out that door, I walked out that shop feeling free, man. I was like, Man, it feels good to put things right. It feels good to put things right. I went and saw people that I've uh that I've hurt, and I said, Man, will you forgive me? You know, I've hurt you, I've I've really I've done wrong to you, called them up, and they'd be like, Man, yeah, of course, you know. You know, I say, No, will you forgive me? He's like, Yeah, I'll forgive you. And I felt good, man. You know, God just began to heal me, God began to set me free. And like, if you've done wrong, I encourage you, let's go put it right. And Zach put an awesome word on on Wednesday about restitution and repentance. And part of repentance is restitution is going to put things right, and that's what I began to do. And as I did that, honestly, the shame, the fear, the you know, those um, the regrets of like, man, what like if I see them in public, what do they think about me? Just gone, you know, healing, love, and yeah, it's also made. We need this guys, we need to go and um put things right before the Lord, and so yeah, and like we were not created for sinful living, we were not created to uh live in sin, and fear and shame is actually a product of sin. You know, when we look in the Bible, when Adam and Eve, God created Adam and Eve, they formed them out of the dust, he breathed his life into them, they became a living being. And Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. What that means, they were created in the likeness of God, they were like God, but and God gave them dominion over all creation, the fishes and the animals and everything. And Adam was given the responsibility to name every single animal, and so they were walking in relationship with God, but then they were tempted by the devil. The devil came and lied to them, and and God commanded them don't eat of the knowledge of the fruit, of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. And then so they were tempted, and then they gave into the temptation and they took of the fruit and they disobeyed God. And for the very first time, shame and fear and sin entered into the heart of man. And you look at their what they the first thing they did was they sowed fig leaves, they hid from God, they they they um you know they were afraid of God, and God, you know, came and said, Adam, where are you? And you know, Adam said, I was afraid of you. And so we were not created to be in fear. And sin, what it does is it separate us, it separates us from God. You know, we were not created to live in sin. And so what God did, because God is holy, he's just he's righteous, he had to remove Adam from his presence. And so Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden because of their sin. And so from the time of Adam going through um, you know, down into the genealogies, every single person is has been born into sin. We've all sinned, we've all fallen of the glory of God, and you know, we've all done mistakes, we've all done regrets, we've all um disobeyed the the commandments of God. But there is only one person that's never sinned. Every single person in history has has committed sin but one, and that his name is Jesus Christ. His name is Jesus Christ. At the appointed time, God sent his word. Christ is the word of God. The Bible says in John 1 that the word became flesh. Jesus Christ became the uh like us, but he was fully God, fully man, born of the Virgin Mary. And you know, from the line of David, his mother was Mary, but his father was God. Yeah? His father was God, he was not uh he he was fully God but fully man. He experienced everything that we experience, but he never sinned once. Never sinned in thought, he never sinned in deed. He walked a perfect life, he lived a perfect life. He God, God himself came in into the form of Christ. He he was born as a baby, he lived as a man, but he never sinned once. And he walked this earth perfectly. And at the age of 30, he began his ministry and he began, God uh uh you know appointed him that he baptized him on the Holy Spirit and power. He began to go around and began to do miracles. Christ began to open the eyes of the blind, he began to open the ears of the deaf, he began to raise the dead, he began to perform miracles, he began to show the world I am the Christ, I am the Messiah, I am here, I'm here, I am here, I'm here to save you. God did not send his sons into the world to condemn us, but to save us from our sins, amen. To save us from our sins, and God is doing miracles today, guys. The Bible says that Jesus is the same today, yesterday, and forevermore. Forevermore. If Jesus healed yesterday, he heals today. Jesus heals yesterday, uh, saves yesterday, he saves today. He delivers yesterday, he delivers today. He's the same God, he does the same work today, amen. Actually, it was just yesterday I went and get my got my haircut, just a quick testimony. And I was sharing my testimony to the the barber, and I was just telling him about my testimony, my upbringing, and what God did for me. And then um he he had an injury with his shoulder, he injured it at uh at the gym. I said, Oh, can I pray for you? And he said, Yeah, sure. So I said, I'll pray for you after you finish my haircut, and so he uh finished my haircut and he goes, Oh yeah, can you pray for me? And I said, Yeah, sure. So I'll pray for you. And he said, Can you pray for everything? Like, not just the shoulder, but my soul, my spirit. I was like, Yeah, man, of course. And so I prayed for the brother, prayed for his shoulder, and afterwards I said, Hey, check, check your shoulder, man. And he said, he lifted it up, he began to waver like this, and I was like, What's what's happening? And he was in complete shock. And I said, Don't lie to me, bro. Come on, come on, bro, don't lie to me. He said, No, there's no lie. I could not do this before. I said, Praise Jesus, praise God, you know. That's Jesus, that's the that's the Jesus that we serve, that's the God that we serve. And I said, Come on, bro, you know, that's the Lord, you know, the Lord loves you. And he was so encouraged by that. He said, Now I can cut with my left hand. I was like, Yeah, bro, go for it. And so, yeah, he was so encouraged, but I tell you, God is on the move. God is real, Jesus is real, he wants to live inside of us, you know, he wants to bring righteousness into our lives. You know, we need God, we need him. I need him more than anything in this world. I need Jesus. I would be lost without Jesus Christ. You know, I would be bound in my addictions, lost, tormented in my mind. But he saved me, he healed me, he gave me life and life more abundantly. Amen. All glory to Jesus. All glory to him. Amen. And so Jesus Christ wants to encounter us, church. He wants us to um lay our fears before him, lay our shame before him, bring our sins before him. The Bible says that Jesus became sin so that we could become righteous before God. There's a scripture that I love, um, one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible. It's in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 21. It says, For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Isn't that amazing? That Jesus came and lived a perfect life, performed miracles, and he's you know, God did not want to spend eternity without us. And so what he did was he sent his only begotten son, and Jesus said, You know what, I'm gonna take the place of the world. I'm gonna take their sin, I'm gonna receive their punishment, their condemnation. Jesus went to the cross, he willingly gave his life for us, he laid his life down for us, he he um he took the cup and he was uh he was bruised, he was whipped, he was mocked, he was spat upon, he was beaten. The Bible says that his face was unrecognizable. I don't know if you've seen a boxing match, you know, people that come out, oh the boxing match, you you're bruised and stuff, but you can still recognize their face. Yeah, but Jesus' face was unrecognizable, a punishment that was beyond this world. He suffered, the the you know, the Lamb of God, He was the Lamb of God who suffered for us. He bear our iniquities, he bear our shame, he bear our sickness, he received 49 stripes on his back so that we could receive healing. It's by his stripes we are healed. No one can heal anyone, only Christ heals. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ brings healing. Yeah, faith in the Lord, and he received the stripes on his back, he he received the mocking, he took the crown of thorns on his head so that we could receive healing in our minds, mental illness, his blood, his blood was shed down. We talked, we we sang about the blood. You know, the blood of Jesus had to be shed so that we could receive life, we could be saved. It's the blood of Jesus Christ that removes our sins, he cleanses our hearts, he makes us white as white as snow, the Bible says. When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are coming to him and he begins to clean us up, man. He begins to remove the uncleanness from our hearts, remove the judgments from our hearts, the anger, the unforgiveness, the bitterness. He begins to clean it out through his blood, and by his spirit, he begins to set us free. And so Jesus, he walked, he took the cross, he went to Golgotha, and they nailed his hands, they nailed his feet, he stood in the between earth and heaven, he stood in our place, he was the mediator, you know. Christ, the Messiah, he's he for the first time, Christ was separated from God because he received the world's sin, the sin of the world. All of your sin, all of my sin was upon the body of Jesus Christ. Upon his body, he received our punishment, our condemnation, our curse. You know, the curses that have passed from our family line. Maybe it's curses of alcoholism, maybe it's curses of suicide, maybe it's curse of sexual morality. You know, we see it like a pattern that comes down through the family line. You know, all my my uncles and all that, they drink or whatever, they smoke, whatever. All of the curse, Christ became that on the cross because the Bible says, cursed is the man who hangs on a tree. Yeah? So Jesus had to die on a cross on the tree, so that the curse can be broken once and for all. He broke the curse of mankind, he broke the curse of sin, he broke the curse of sickness, he broke it, he broke the spirit of death. He became his his his death on the cross was our life. Amen. And so Christ died, and on the third day, God raised him from the dead. Praise God, hallelujah! God raised him from the dead. Jesus Christ is alive, he's not dead, he is living, he's alive today, he's on the move, he's seated in the heavenly places, and so he ascended into the heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father, and then anyone, anyone who believes, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Amen. It's not through our works. There's a scripture in the Bible, it says in Isaiah 64, verses 6 it says, We are infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves will wither and fall, and all our sins sweep us away like the wind. That's what that's talking about. Is like all of our good works, all of the things that we try to do, that's you know, to trying to get to heaven, they're like filthy rags. You know, they they are meaningless before the Lord. We need the blood of Jesus Christ to set us free, to cleanse us. We need to put faith in Jesus. Only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can save you, church. Only Jesus Christ can save us. Jesus said this: I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. He is the only way, he is the only truth, and he is the only life. Only faith in Jesus Christ can save us, only faith in Jesus Christ can bring us to the Father. Only faith in Jesus Christ can deliver us from our sins. Only faith in Jesus Christ can heal our bodies, only faith in Jesus Christ can restore our minds, only faith in Jesus Christ can bring us peace, can bring us joy, can bring us gladness, can bring us life, can bring us uh a fulfillment in the that the world cannot fulfill us. Only faith in Jesus Christ can bring total freedom, total freedom, total peace, total um uh joy and and love and just everything, guys. Everything that God has for us is in Jesus Christ. He is amazing, he is amazing, he's amazing. Amen. Praise to God, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. You know, God wants Jesus wants to break fear and shame. You know, fear and shame, it's it's a robber, it robs us from an intimate relationship with God, and you know, um maybe if the musicians will come, thank you. Amen. And so, like I was saying, like you know, we can try everything, we can try there's a void in our hearts that can only be filled with Christ. There is this desire of love, there is this this desire of acceptance, there is this desire to want to be um uh whole there's this desire of wholeness within every single one of our hearts that can only be filled with Jesus Christ. Yeah, it can only be filled with Jesus Christ. And um the first thing that we we must do is we uh the Bible says is that we must be born again. We must be born again. What does that mean? Jesus said that you must be born again, not of flesh, but of the spirit of God. And how do we become born again? Is firstly we have to have faith that Jesus Christ came, that he was a real person, he was fully God, fully man, that he lived a perfect and sinless life. We must believe that he went to the cross, he took your shame, he took your sin, he took your curse, your condemnation, he took upon yourself our death in place of us, he died for you. We must believe that we must believe that he rose from the dead, we must believe that he is the Son of God. Amen. When we do that, the Bible says in Romans 10 9, if we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. Amen. And so that's the first step is we must be born again. And how do we do that? Is we say we must come to the Lord humbly, we must humble ourselves before him and say, God, I am a sinner. I I've fallen short of your glory. I ask you would forgive me. I ask you to come into my heart and save me, save me, Lord, save me from my sins, save me from hell. There is an eternity when we die, there is a heaven and there is a how. And Christ came so that we would not go to hell. Yeah. We put our faith in Jesus, he brings us into his family, into his kingdom, and he gives us a joy, a love that is inexpressible that the world cannot give us.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

If you enjoyed this message, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. We'd also love to hear from you. You can connect with us on Instagram or Facebook at Celebration Rara or visit our website celebrationdalatonga.com. Until next time.