Embracing Freedom: Jesus Overcomes Shame and Fear

1) "But see, it's sin. It's sin that actually produces shame. Sin doesn't come by itself. Sin produces shame. The Scripture says that the enemy of God came as a serpent, tempted Eve to disobey God, eat from the one tree that God had instructed them not to. Adam and Eve rebel against the instruction of God, and watch what happens immediately when sin comes into their life. At that moment, not later, not a day later, not a few hours later, not next month. At the very moment, sin came into their life." [18:16] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "Their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness, so they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the first cover-up in all of human history, the first masquerade in all of human history. Now they felt like they could not be honest before God. Now they felt like they could not be themselves. It's the first attempt to man, to paint a picture he wanted others to see instead of what really was. All at once, he could not just be how God had made him to be. He felt the need to hide. He felt the need to present himself in a different light. He felt the need to shroud the truth about himself." [18:56] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "And the enemy convinces us that if people knew the real us, they wouldn't love us. That if they really knew what we've done, if they really knew what we said, if they really knew just how sinful we really were, they would think, they would think less of us. And so the only way to be safe, the only way to be accepted, the only way to be loved is to hide. And he's been playing us since the beginning of time. He sucks us into the shame game, and too often he wins." [19:36] (21 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "But here's how it graduates. It doesn't just bring shame into our lives. If it goes unrepented, if we don't transform it and get honest before God, it turns into something and graduates into something bigger. See, that shame becomes our identity. It becomes the very thing we live out of. The most damaging, indestructive part of this is when we start connecting what happened with actually who we are. The enemy begins to tell us that what happened in the past is a sure sign of what we are, and because it's truly what we are, we'll never be able to experience anything different in the future." [21:05] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "God loves us way too much to allow us to hide forever. He won't let you run into the corner and stay away from him forever. His spirit will seek you out. David wrote about it, that the spirit of God searches for us and seeks for us and longs for us and convicts us. And draws us back to his heart. I'm thankful for that, that God won't let us run and hide forever." [23:27] (23 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "Despite our best efforts, it's impossible to actually hide from God. Again, tragically hilarious. He's the creator of the universe. He is sovereign in all of his glory. He is omniscient and omnipotent. There is, there is nothing that he cannot do or doesn't know. And here's man behind a tree like God can't see. What are you doing? He created the atoms. He created the molecule. He created everything that makes that tree what it is. Bro, you think you're hiding from God? He saw everything. God saw everything and he still came anyway." [25:02] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "God has a plan for your life. God has a purpose for our life. God has something bigger and more beautiful than we could ever possibly imagine, but we can never get to where God really wants us to be until we get honest about where we are and who we are. I want you to, I want you to do something with me this morning. I prayed all week about this. I really have. I prayed, oh God, would you do something in me? Would you do something in me today and something in all of us that would come to worship at Canvas today?" [29:06] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "Here's the third thing. God has already provided and is just waiting for us to come home and be healed. He already provided. See, you don't have to do anything. Here's my point. You don't have, because here's how we think. We think, yeah man, there's a lot of work I gotta do in my own life. And if I can get this cleaned up and I can get this straightened out and I can rectify this and I can make this better, then I'm ready to come home and God will accept me. And that is not the question. That is the gospel." [32:27] (26 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "There is no message in the world like the gospel message. There is no other news that you will ever hear in your life as good, as the good news. Because that's the truth. You get to come. And when you come to Christ, you remember all that shame we talked about? All that guilt you talked about? All that stuff that the enemy speaks to us and tries to make us feel like we're not good enough and we'll never be good enough and we're nothing but big failures?" [35:13] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10) "The language of the Spirit is liberty and freedom. The language of the Spirit is consecration to God. And when you are in Christ, again, he doesn't see you as you are, he sees you as Jesus is. There is now for no condemnation those that are in Christ. You can put the mask down. You can put the fig leaves down. And you can just say, God in you, I am free. And I receive the word and the report of the Lord in my life today." [37:21] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)