[SERMON] Guilt vs. Shame: Understanding God's Restoration

Drawing from a humorous snorkeling mishap, Pastor Cyle unpacks the crucial difference between guilt and shame. While guilt says "I did a bad thing" and leads to restoration, shame says "I am a bad person" and keeps us trapped in the enemy's lies. Through Romans 3:23 and Romans 8:1, he reminds us that God doesn't label us by our failures—He calls us His children and offers complete restoration through Jesus Christ.

Transcript

 

Introduction & Story Setup

I, uh, wasn't here last week. I was in Florida and uh, I got, was fortunate enough to go spend a week in Florida doing, uh, work. I had meetings for five days and then I got three days to go spend some time with church family, so who live in Florida during the winter months and gotta go visit a couple that I got to do the wedding for a few years back.

Over at Devil's Lakes. Uh, Mike and Jen Cook and so they said if you're ever in our area, which I am never in their area 'cause they're in the keys, so, but uh, come on down and we'll have some fun. So we did. And so, uh, that's where I was last week. And so I'm glad to be back. I did bring two days of warmth and then, you know, we got snow.

So that happens. Welcome to Michigan. But I wanted to ask a question 'cause this, uh, you know, people are like, did you have a good time? Y yeah. And, uh, I'm gonna tell you more about it. So, uh, I had a great time, but I tend to always have a great time for the most part, even on bad days, because we all have bad days.

Anyone? Ha everyone. Ha, ever raise your hand if you've ever had a bad day. Okay? Raise your hand if you've ever had a good day. Okay. Okay. Hopefully see some that didn't raise hands for either. Okay. You are you alive? Alright, sorry. Alright. Do you breathe? Alright, so in, uh, in Florida, so, uh, we had good days.

We had good weather. We had some like 35 mile an hour winds and like 60 degree day, which I found that's chilly. Uh, I wouldn't think that's chilly here, but it was in Florida. Uh, and so we had a good time. But one of the things that we talked about doing when I went to Florida is they're like, if you come down, we'll go 

The Two Mask Mishap

snorkeling.

And so maybe we wear some snorkeling fins and some mask and we go snorkeling with us, or we'll see if we can come up with some, some of our own stuff. And so we made plans. We went down and we went snorkeling and we went, I don't, three or four miles off the shore, uh, in a boat. And we went out to a reef.

And now, if you don't know this, the third largest barrier reef in the world is in The Bahamas in Florida and the Keys. And so we went out to, uh, the Barrier Reef and we went snorkeling. And now I have been snorkeling before. Uh, I took a, a youth group trip to, on a mission trip to The Bahamas. And, I don't know, 15, so years ago, and we spent a week living on a sailboat, a 63 foot sailboat, manning the sailboat and going island to island, doing ministry.

It was great fun, but I did a lot of snorkeling, dozens and dozens of times because you needed to snorkel if you need to shower or if you need to go to the bathroom when you're on a sailboat. That's kind of how it works. Not all bathroom breaks. You can figure out which one you don't go snorkeling for.

Um, so. Let you guys figure that out. Uh, so I've been snoring a lot of times. I know how to snorkel, but I wanna tell you, uh, sometimes in life when you are out doing your thing, uh, life happens. And so we got out on, on the ocean and it wasn't that way. There wasn't a lot of waves. It was, there was some waves, but it was mainly the wake of boats coming to the reef.

There were a lot of boats, a lot of people who wanted to go see this. And so you get, every once in a while you get the wake from boats and you'd have some. Just light waves, but we gotta see barracuda. We gotta see my favorite fish, which is a trigger fish, which is delicious. It's about this big, it's blue and yellow and it tastes delicious.

So, um, I like it 'cause it's blue and yellow. That's one of the reasons why it's, it's pretty, uh. But we, we gotta have a lot of fun. There were a ton of fish and you'd be swimming and you'd turn around, there's just fish everywhere following you. And it was great. We didn't see any sharks. Um, and so we went circling and then we were out there for, I don't know, I got, I got sunburnt, uh, I don't know if you can see my tan, but I don't, I don't tan.

I turn red. It peels and then it, I repeat. Uh, so that's kind of my process. But we went circling. We jumped in. And s circle's fun for me. I, if you notice this, I'm a bigger guy. Um, I like snorkeling 'cause I'm pretty buoyant. So snorkel. I just kind of float on the top, see all the fish. So it works out. Works out pretty well for me.

I enjoy it. Um, so we got our gear. We went in and we, we went circling for, I don't know, 30 minutes. An hour. And we got out and we just kind of took a break and then we got back in. Now I've already snorkeled successfully once on this trip, but I jump in the second time and the second time I get my, I get my, uh, fins on.

I kind of go to the edge of the boat, you know, wall over like a, like a penguin or a duck. And I go to jump in. So dumb old me. There's, when you jump in, anybody know what you do? When you jump in the water with a snorkel mask and a snorkel, you hold the mask. So I didn't, so, uh, I just jumped right in. I was like, oh, let's go.

Um, and I hit the water and I recognized, oh, there goes the mask. So I went to grab it. And as I grabbed it, as I'm floating in the water, uh, I fumbled to grab it. It was fumbling outta my hands and I grabbed a hold of something and I'm like, okay, we're good. Uh, I got it. And when I pulled my hand outta the water, it was just a snorkel.

The snorkel that had been like affixed, well affixed to the mask was in my hand. Somehow it had popped off and all that calamity. And I watched this clear mask float to the bottom of the ocean, and I'm like, uhoh. So, and I'm like, what a dummy. I'm like, I'm a dummy. So, uh, and the problem is you can't see in the ocean without the mass.

'cause it's salt water and it burns your eyes. So you have to have a, a mass to snorkel. So then it's a whole problem. And, uh, I find out that Mike, uh, later he told me he is like, he's never been. He's, he scuba dives like a lot. He snorkels a lot. Never been with anyone who's ever lost a mask. It's never happened.

That happens to me legs of my life. 'cause sometimes in life you have problems. And uh, so we, we ended up, they didn't think they had an extra ma, somehow they found this miraculous mast appeared and so I was able to go snorkel 'cause I still had my snorkel. We ended up finding another set of like goggles.

And so, uh, we ended up continuing on snorkeling and then we decided to have lunch. So we took a break, we snorkeled. It was great. We saw some more fish. It was really cool. And then we took a, took a lunch break, got some sun, and then a, a sea turtle showed up. And so sea turtle showed up and we're like, let's swim with the sea turtle.

We can't touch it, but let's swim with it. And we go to get, like all of our stuff on to get back in. Uh, Patty gets her feds on. Mike and Jen get in the water. They're ahead of us. We're getting our little fins on. So I do my, my duck walk. I put my fins on and I decide I have my mask prepared. I got the anti-fog spray, cleaned it out, put water in it, rinse mine out, had it on ready to go.

So I get patties and I'm like, I'm gonna be a good husband. She's getting her, her flippers on, so I'm gonna help her clean out her mask. I put her anti-fog stuff in. Got it. Ready. And I kinda walled over the side of the boat, and it's about this far down from the, the, the opening. And I'm like, I'll just bend over and I'll just get the water.

And so you've bending really far and uh, all of a sudden this wave comes from the wake of a boat that wasn't supposed to be there, hits the boat, which unsettles me so that I think I'm gonna fall. So I grab the boat, letting go of said mask, and I watch. That's her mask and it sure. Hers was clear with a, with a blue rim around it.

And I watched this blue face mask just float to the bottom of the ocean and it was crystal clear water. I watched it in Slowmo 'cause it's slowly falling and I look over here and Jen's just floating over like, what an idiot. Right. She didn't say that, but I'm sure she thought it right. And she's just laughing.

I'm just like, I don't, can't believe this happens. Not once, but twice. And, uh, so immediately, uh, the first time we lost the mask, Mike is a scuba diver. He's a free diver. So Mike was there pretty quickly, like a minute he went down, could not find the mask. It was gone. And it was only 15, 20 feet deep. He does that regularly.

It was just gone. The current was strong, pulls it away. And so the second time I'm like, Mike, he. It's right there. So I watched it go down. But waves are moving. The boat's moving, right? The current's moving, right? It's, it's all happening. So Mike goes down, no mask, it's gone. So I've literally lost two masks, one snorkel.

'cause I lost her snorkel and her mask. Patty was fine with it 'cause she didn't wanna go anymore. Uh, so she's like, it's really okay. Um. Until, until I started swimming with the turtle and then I feel really bad she didn't get to swim with the turtle. I did. She did get to see a manatee the next day, so that was fine.

I didn't get to see that, but so sometimes in life. We have problems. Sometimes we are the problem, right? We're the problem. And I've been thinking about this just kind of my experience. 'cause like all I could do is just laugh and say I'm a dummy. Uh, sorry about that. And uh, luckily Mike and Jen are just super gracious, wonderful people.

And, uh, you know, on the boat. On the ride back, I'm on Amazon 'cause there's signal out there and I'm like, Amazon two masks, two snorkels sent and I know their address. So I sent to their house. So when I left, I left a little note, Hey, by the way, check your mail Thursday. So, um, and they, they got the mail.

They were very thankful. They said you didn't have to do that. But like I said, well here's the great thing. When they, when they sent me like, thanks for the, the mask and said I only lost two masks and one snorkel. So technically you're up one snorkel and this is a good deal for you. Yeah, it's a good deal for you.

You always gotta be positive, but in life, I just think about it. Sometimes in life we have those moments, right? We have those moments where life happens, problems happens, mistakes happen since happen. And we all go through these moments and it reminds me of this verse, I've been thinking about this verse just kinda my, in my life and scenario of my crazy in Romans 3 23.

Scripture Reading: Romans 3:23 - We All Fall Short

Remember the yellow parts, ears to read out loud for all have sinned and fall short, fall short of the glory of God. I fell a little short with the mask situation, let's be honest. But in life, we fall short. Sometimes it's mistakes, sometimes it's failures, sometimes it's just sin. We fall short and God sets a mark for us in life to hit, and that's where we live for him, and we miss that market sin sometimes in life.

We fall short and we fall short of the glory of God. And that's for all of us. None of us are perfect. I sin you sin, we all sin. And the the thing about church is people often think, well, I gotta be perfect to go to church. You don't have to be perfect like my life. I mean, I just, I just laughed in the boat.

It's like, this is great sermon illustration. This is gonna get a sermon outta this. And uh, so Mike is literally gonna get a message later. Hey, that was a sermon today, so check it out. Um. But like, I just, I try to take those things and find a way to like use 'em for the good of teaching people about life.

And so, but we fall short. Like we all, it all happens in our lives. Sometimes. It's, it's failure, it's work, school, home, play, relationships. We have it happen. And in those moments. We can turn to one or two things to respond to it. We can either be guilty or we can be ashamed, and so we have this understanding of guilt versus shame.

Point 1: Guilt vs. Shame

Guilt really says when I fall short, when I sin that I did a bad thing. We all do bad things. I'll just cover that for you. So when you're talking to your spouse later or your kids, your parent, you all do bad things. All of you, right? We all, we all do. And when we do, we should be guilty. We should feel guilt.

Like if I do something wrong, I, I know what's the difference between right and wrong. And when I do something wrong, I should feel guilty because guilt helps me correct that. Get forgiveness and be restored with God And the Holy Spirit, uh, helps us understand the difference between right and wrong and allows us to feel guilt so we can be restored with God.

But there's a difference between guilt and shame. Guilt says I did a bad thing. Shame says I am a bad person. Those are very different. Some of us, we feel guilty when we do things that are wrong. When we have mistakes, failures, sin, whatever the rest of us experience, shame. That thing I did or that thing that happened, or my failure or my mistake makes me ashamed of who I am.

That is completely different than guilt. Guilt is something that can be removed. Shame is something that you become. You become ashamed of who you are. God does not want us to feel shame. Shame comes from the enemy. God, through guilt is a process that helps us to be restored so that we become a new creation.

When we're forgiven of that thing, shame keeps us stuck. In that shame, that actually becomes a cycle or a spiral, and it keeps us believing about ourselves. That thing that I am, that failure, I am that sin. I am that horrible thing. I am that bad person. The enemy wants us to feel shame. That's why people often tell me, oh, I can't come to your church.

'cause if I walk through the doors, I'll just combust in the flames because I'm such a bad person. What that person is, it says that I'm, I'm ashamed of me. Something about me and my life makes me ashamed. I don't think I can be restored. That's from the enemy, that's not from God, because God says in the Bible, everybody falls short and we all can be restored.

That's the great thing about Jesus. He died at the cross so that we don't have to fe feel ashamed or experience shame, that we can be restored and guilt and become new. And that's why when people tell me, I'm like, everybody's welcome to church. I don't care if you come here drunk. I don't care if you come here.

Hi. I don't care if you come here with problems. I don't care. We will walk through it with you together because we're all broken and we all need to be restored. One of my biggest frustrations in life is when people are like, oh, that person should not come to our church, like stink or whatever. Like, we should never feel that way.

We should always say, Hey, you're broken, you're struggling. Come here and let's restore you to move you from guilt, move you from shame into restoration with Jesus Christ. That's the difference The Bible says in Romans eight, it says there is, there is, therefore, now no condemnation, condemnation for those who are in Christ 

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:1 - No Condemnation

Jesus.

If you're living for the Lord, you do not need to be ashamed. You're not condemned for your failures, for your mistakes, for your sins, when you are forgiven by Jesus Christ. Yeah, we, we should feel guilty if you, if you do something that's bad, you should feel guilty for it and then you should. Be restored.

You should take it to the Lord. You should get forgiveness and you should move forward. You should not become that thing or that sin or that failure, and it should not label you. You see, really the reality is shame. Shame sinks faster than equipment. I watched that equipment. I watched that stuff slowly drift to the bottom of the ocean.

Point 2: Shame Sinks Faster Than Equipment

Some of you, that's your experience in life. Yeah, you are just drifting further and further and further and further away from safety, health, mental health, physical health. You, you're drifting and you've been drifting. And the problem is the current can blow you anywhere in any which direction so fast that you're lost.

Some of you, you've drifted in the current of the world life, it's just blown you off course and you're lost. Nobody can find you 'cause you're stuck in shame. And that's not from Christ. See, one mistake is an event. It really is. It's an event. One sin. It's an event. It's a thing that happens. It's not an identity, right?

Sin is something that we do that can be restored and forgiven by Jesus Christ. It's a thing, it's not an identity. Some of us are living day to day with an identity that's been based on the shame that we've allowed to label us. And so the enemy turns those moments, those failures, those weaknesses, those sins, the enemy turns those into labels to try to pull you away from, from Christ to try to make you feel like you're just not good enough.

That God will never love me. God will never forgive me. God doesn't wanna restore me. But that's not that, none of that's from God. The Bible makes it clear over and over and over again that Jesus wants to restore us and make us whole, make us new in, in, in relationship with Him, through his forgiveness, through his sacrifice on the cross.

Illustration: What the Enemy Labels, God Restores

And so what the enemy labels, God restores. And if you're here today, 'cause you've got a shame label because you're ashamed of your past, of who you are, of what you've done, maybe today, maybe yesterday, maybe a year ago, maybe 10 years ago, whatever it is, just know that's not God wanting to keep you there.

That's the enemy. And you've gotta move out of that because you are not fill in your blank. You're not that thing that you've allowed to label yourself or the others have labeled you. You are not that that label. You are what God says you are. The Bible tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, that God knit us and put us together to be who we are, that God loves us once a relationship for us, wants to forgive us and restore us, and wants to prepare an eternal life that we can all have together if we have a relationship with 

Point 3: You Are a Child of God

them.

The Bible tells us that you're a child of God. You're a son of a king, you're a daughter of a king, and you're special. Amen. That's what the Bible says. The world tells you you are, fill in the blank. You're awful, you're terrible, you're despicable, you're a liar, you're a sinner, you're a drunk, you're a thief.

Whatever label the world wants to give you for, for me, I'm definitely a clutz right now. Um, that one I accept. Um. But the world wants to give you labels and we are really good, especially with like Facebook and stuff, T Twitter, x, Snapchat, you name it. We're really good about telling people their label.

Right? That's the world, that's, that's the enemy. That's the enemy. Often working through us to put labels on people. That's not of God. God doesn't put labels on people. God says, I. Make you my child. That's your, that's your label. Proverbs 24 16 says, for 

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 24:16 - The Righteous Rise Again

the righteous fall seven times and righteousness rises again.

You are gonna fall, you're gonna fail, you're gonna send, you're gonna struggle, you're gonna experience weaknesses, you're gonna drop masks. Maybe not those right? You are going to righteous people who are living for Jesus. Living for God. They just keep getting up. They just keep getting up. You're gonna fall, get back up.

You're gonna fall, get back up. You're gonna fail. Get back up. You're gonna sin. Get back up. That's the way, that's the way we do it. I could just tell you, all of our pastors on staff, they're sinners. I work with 'em. I know it. So, uh, yeah. But you know what we expect when they fall, that they get back up through restoration, through forgiveness, through mercy, through grace, through all the things that the Bible tells us we should give to each other, that God also gives to us.

That's what it's. If you want a relationship with Jesus Christ, you gotta recognize you're gonna fall, you're gonna fail, you're gonna struggle, you're gonna sin. And the people in your circle, they're going to too. Guess what? The people in your life group, your spouse group, this church, they're gonna do things you don't like.

They're gonna sin against you and they're gonna have to get restored to you. And that's how you keep a relationship with people in your life. Other Christians, you get back up. Told the first service this. We'll see how many people in this service, who knows what a, what a weevil is. Weevils, wobble, but they 

Illustration: Weebles Wobble But Don't Fall Down

don't fall down.

Yeah. And everyone over like 40. Um, so there's little things that like you can punch and they just fall over and then they flat back up and they punch it again and then kick it, whatever. Um, we need to be like those things, right? We need to be it like a weeble. It wobbles, but it doesn't fall down. It just snaps right back up.

That is just, you need to have a short term memory with your sin, with your failure. With your struggle and pop back up. Over and over and over again. I don't know what they call weevils now in the modern generations. Uh, I just, I've seen 'em, I just don't know what they have a name for. Anybody know what the name of 'em is now?

Poppy Uppy things We'll call 'em. So, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. What's that? Mighty, mighty beans. Mighty Beans. Oh, that, that, that's one I would not have guessed to, so, right. Okay. Uh, um, but you gotta, we gotta just get back up. You are gonna sin, I promise you that if you attend this church for any kind of time, you're gonna sin.

We're gonna expect that you eventually you're gonna sin and you might need restoration with us or with others in the church. That's just gonna happen. You cannot do life together and be completely sinless. You're gonna have moments, you're gonna have failures, you're gonna have struggles. And when we do, we get back up and we help each other get back up.

We make it safe for people to get back up. So they're not labeled in shame, but they move forward. Jesus, because dropping it twice does not define your life. You may not invite me snorkeling unless I bring my own gear, but I will buy my own gear next time and I'm so thankful. Mike's, Mike's, one thing he said was, man, I'm really glad we didn't rent those.

And I'm really glad too, 'cause that would've been expensive. Way more expensive than Amazon. Um. Dropping it twice does not define your life. There's actually, uh, I didn't tell the last surface this, but Mike said something that Mike said. A lot of mems there. You'll hear some 'cause they're pretty good. I was writing 'em down, but one thing he, one thing he said, and I, I love spending time with Mike.

'cause Mike's a lot like me. He's kinda like Casey Ross. All, it's gonna all work out. He's like, his big phrase is, it's not an internal problem. Like that problem is not an internal problem. Like you can have problems in life. Like my car problems, they're really not internal 

Point 4: Not an Internal Problem

problems. They're just problems.

Right? Dropping two masks, it wasn't an internal problem. It doesn't make me a horrible person, it was just a problem, right? I need to not touch stuff. Right? So, but these, a really good understanding is like we said it a whole bunch during the, during the trip, it's not an internal problem. Like, why am I frustrated about that?

Does I don't need to be frustrated about things that should not be an internal problem. Life happens. The world breaks. Things are crazy, alright? And the world's at war right now. Those are not internal problems. Those are problems, but they're not something that has to destroy you from the inside out. It doesn't have to define you either.

See, God is not shocked by your mistakes. I think we always think God's like, Ooh, I can't believe that Brian did that, or, I can't believe Marty did that, right? Nope. God kind of just expects us to mess up, right? He created us and knows us, so God is not shocked by your mistakes. God knows I'm a sinner who's broken and needs to be constantly forgiven and restored by him.

He's not shocked. And he restores us and he makes us new, and then we blow it again. 'cause we're human and we're broken and we're living in a broken world that's flawed by sin. God's not shocked. He's not shocked so much that he's gonna come back one day and restore the world in creation. 'cause it's so broken.

He knows until that time we're gonna, we're gonna mess up so it doesn't shock him. Psalm 1 0 3, 12 in the Old Testament. It says, as far as the east is from the west, so 

Scripture Reading: Psalm 103:12 - God Removes Our Transgressions

far, does he remove, remove our transgressions from us. So God, God's known for thousands of years that he needs to take the transgressions with sins right from humans and move them when he forgives them far away from them.

Because we, we sin like this isn't a new concept. A god's a goal in 2026. They mess up now. He, he knows that about us. And so you also knows that in those moments, you're gonna have bad moments. You're gonna have bad moments in life where you do bad things, say the wrong thing, sin. But that doesn't mean that you have to have a bad destiny, right?

Point 5: Bad Moments Don't Define Your Destiny

Those don't have to define you. They don't have to label, you don't have to become that kind of person, that thing, that label. You can just say, Hey, I did a bad thing, Lord, I need, I need your forgiveness. I need to be restored. I need to move forward. You couldn't do that with your whole past. Your past doesn't have to define you.

There's not like a certain number of sin threshold, and then you're just too bad. Like there's not a, that's not a thing. So don't build identity from one bad moment, one bad season of life. Don't you are not your worst day. You are not your worst season of life. You're not your worst decade, right? Some of you lived through the seventies.

Some of you're glad that didn't define your life right? I won't ask you for honesty, but like, let's be honest, right? Some of you live through college and that wasn't your most profound time of life, right? Don't let those things define you. And I think growth really, if you want to grow and you wanna be better and you wanna have a relationship with Jesus, it starts with honesty.

You gotta be honest about those things to God. You gotta say, Hey, God, I messed up. I messed up for a long time and I want to, I wanna write my life. I want to be, be ridden myself of those things, and I wanna move forward with you. Amen. You gotta be honest about it and you gotta be honest with other people.

You gotta tell people your struggles. I get, I get fortunate, like I'm bouncing on a boat, look, watching Jen look at me, just like, I can't believe you lost another mask with a smile on her face. Like, what a dummy. And I'm, and I'm just like, it's gonna be a sermon. Like, it's like the first thing I said, well it be a sermon.

I know that's not comforting, but it was to me, right? Wasn't to jet. She's like, oh, there it goes. She watched it also slowmo down to the bottom of the ocean with me as she was in the water.

It all starts with just recognizing who we are. And so what does all this mean for you? 

Application: What Does This Mean for You?

It sometimes it's, it's a two ma kind of day. Sometimes you have 'em, right? Sometimes you have 'em. You just have failures. You have mistakes, you have sins, and it's just, it's not a great day. It's not a great season. Not a great year, not a great week, not a great month, whatever it is.

Not a great decade. Decade, but you gotta own your mistakes in sin. You gotta be honest about it. Like, we're all sinners. Guess what? You tell me you sin. I'm like, okay, how do we move forward? Like I, here's, here's one thing that always bothered me in church when I became pastor. Nobody wants the pastor to know about their sin.

Application: Own Your Mistakes and Sin

People will tell each other. Don't tell pastor, don't tell the pastor. Don't, don't let the pastor, no. I'm like the person who cares the least about your sin. I don't, I really don't care. I don't look at you and like, oh look, terrible. Sinner just came through the door like, wow, Joel walked through that door today.

I don't care about it. Like I really don't. I actually find it's better. I, I feel closer with people when I know their struggles and sin, and then I see how God has restored them and made their life right, and I gotta walk through that process. I'm so much closer to that person than just, just them to act like they're perfect all the time.

Like I'm not perfect. We just gotta own it. Use it to help each other walk through difficult seasons. A lot of times, I, I'll say this, and people don't always find it comforting, but they'll go through a hard season and, and then it'll come outta their side and things will be better. God will, God will heal 'em.

They'll heal a relationship. They'll have restoration. Say, this is gonna be such a great testimony to help other people with, right? I think that's part of the purpose of it. How are you gonna help people recognize it's not an internal problem? Like it's, it's just a problem and you can deal with it. And then once you own your mistakes and own your sin, don't spiral.

Don't spiral outta control people. They just start spiraling and spiraling and spiraling and then they just bring all this other sin and all this other shame on top of it. You don't have to do that in Jesus Christ. You're gonna mess up and he's gonna restore you. So reject shame quickly when it 

Application: Reject Shame Quickly

comes.

Shame is gonna come for all of us at some point. The enemy loves to use shame. That's why we're not supposed to be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're not supposed to live in shame. We're supposed to move forward and be restored and be new creations in him. We gotta reject shame quickly and we gotta help others reject it quickly by loving them and giving grace and mercy to them.

And then once you kind of recognize these things, you gotta repent and go to God quickly. Repentance is the process of forgiveness with restoration, which means I'm going to actually do better the next time. When you repent, you're gonna say, I'm going to stop that sin and I'm gonna work the best I ever can to not do that again.

Application: Repent and Go to God Quickly

I'm not gonna fall back into it. And then if you do end up falling back into you, then you repent again and you try to do even better about not doing that thing. And you go to God quickly and you tell him, Hey God, I messed up. I need you. I need to go through this. And you can do that and go to other people.

We have to help each other because we don't wanna let one moment, one day, one sin, one weakness. Narrate your story. The problem is some of our stories have been narrated by that thing. It is, how are you gonna move forward with your story? Some of you have been living in the past and it's destroying your present, and it's destroying your future, and it's time to let that go.

Let it fall away and move forward. Don't make it an internal problem. So even though. Two masks may sink in your life. You don't have to. I couldn't. I'm buoyant, so

you don't have to sink. Some of you, you've been sinking and you've been sinking for a long time, and you're just slowly sinking more and more week by week, day by day, just sinking into shame, and then the current takes you away and you're lost. You're lost. You gotta end that cycle. You got in that spiral, you gotta get outta shame and you gotta say no more.

And, and some of you're sitting here today like, I'm not ashamed either. I'm good. Great. This sermon's not for you, but it's probably for the person next to you because there's someone in your life that's experienced shame. And the thing about shame is, you know people in your life, maybe you don't know, they're living the shame that maybe you don't know their shame label, but they 

Application: Help Others Escape Shame

got 'em.

And what you do when you are not living in shame, you help others get out of it. You make them feel safe. So they can get out of it. So they can get out, they can get Well, that's what I think my role as a pastor, that's why I don't care about people's sin. I don't, I don't care about people's sin. I don't wanna make 'em feel labeled.

I want 'em know that Jesus Christ can rescue them from that sin and restore them, make them new. And I play a part in that. So if you're sitting here saying, well, I'm good. That's not for me today. Great. You have a job to do. Help other people get outta their shame. Yeah, help 'em embrace their guilt. Help 'em be made new through forgiveness and mercy.

And show them grace. Show them mercy. Give them forgiveness so they know what it looks like so they can get outta that shame cycle. That's the way it works. And so you have a job both sides. Either get outta your own shame spiral or help someone else get outta theirs. 'cause we all have two masks kind of day.

We do, we do. So I just wanna do this as we close. I wanna pray. I pray a church that we pray that we are a church that's safe for people to live life, knowing that we're gonna mess up, we're gonna fail, we're gonna sin, and we need a place where we can come together and we can help people walk through it and get out of it and be restored with Jesus Christ.

That's the purpose. That's the purpose and part of that process is we gotta help each other understand forgiveness, love mercy, grace, and forgiveness. You're gonna have people that make you mad in this church. You're gonna have people that hurt your feelings. You're gonna have people that sin against you in this church.

We have to walk through that, navigate it, and we gotta be restore with people in this congregation, in this community, in this world. That's the only way forward. So we can have that. Removal of shame and restoration with Jesus Christ. So let's pray twofold. One, that people here who, if you're struggling with shame and you've allowed the, the world, your sins, whatever to label you, it's time to move forward.

Closing Prayer & Invitation

And if that's not you and you're here and you say, I'm, I'm good. Great. You need to find someone to help through their process so that they're better off for it. Let's pray Heaven. Father, we just pray that we can be a church that recognizes the importance of understanding. The only label that matters is the label that you give us.

And that we are a son or a daughter of a king. That's it. All those that are labeled, they're from the enemy, Lord. They're to distract us. They're to destroy us. They're to make us ashamed. My pray, if anyone's here who's just struggling and they know right now, Lord, they're just stuck. They're stuck in shame.

Spiral, Lord, it's time to get out of it that they're just honest with you. They give it over to you, and they ask you Lord to forgive them and to help them move out of it and be restored. With you Lord, to be made a new creation with you and to recognize that there's a better way forward with Jesus Christ and the identity that only you give.

Lord, for those of us here who just, we're not a place where we're struggling with this, but we know we have relationships with people, but we pray that we're more loving, that we're more gracious, that we're more merciful, that when we're forgiving with people, that we embrace them in the struggles. We walk through it together.

We build relationships that lead people to you outta shame. And in an understanding of who Jesus is and how Jesus heals, forgives, loves and gives grace. Lord, we just pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.