Finding Freedom from Guilt Through Christ's Grace

"Jesus had this to say. He said this, don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? To which we say, yes, we see that. In fact, we literally see that. And now that he has our attention he says this, but, the things that come out of a person's mouth, in those unguarded moments, even sometimes in those guarded moments, the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart. What comes out comes out because it's in there." [00:02:45]

"Solomon says it goes beyond behavior. Jesus says it goes beyond behavior. We have to learn to monitor our hearts because what's in here, what's in here, is eventually gonna be out there. Think about this. What your parents, what your parents carried in their hearts eventually spilled out on each other and ultimately spilled out on you. And as we said last time, what's in your heart, what's in my heart, what's in our hearts will eventually spill out on those who are closest to us." [00:06:55]

"Guilt is the emotion, because it is an emotion. You feel guilt, right, or you should when you're guilty. Guilt is the emotion that's associated with acknowledging, and we're gonna talk about that, when we've done something wrong. It's the emotion associated when we acknowledge, when it comes to our mind, that we've done something wrong. And there's lots of different kinds of guilt. There's false guilt, that is, you feel guilty and you're not guilty, you feel bad about something that you either didn't do or you feel bad about doing something that wasn't even a big deal." [00:08:13]

"Denying it, denying it well or excusing it, denying it or being defined by it always empowers it and guilt throws you and throws me off balance. And when guilt throws us off balance in our relationships, especially the relationships most important to us, guilt becomes the boss of us and here's why. Because guilt creates what I refer to as a debt/debtor relationship, a debt/debtor relationship. Guilt creates a debt/debtor relationship within us, between us and ourselves and between us and other people." [00:10:13]

"We experience guilt as a weight, a weight that throws us off balance. In fact, some of you because of your unresolved guilt that we're gonna talk about in just a minute, you are off balance in your parenting. You over parent or you're a permissive parent as you're responding to something in your past, you are too aggressive in your relationships, you're too timid in your relationships, your ability to forgive, your ability to love, we're off balance because of this debt/debtor relationship and because we experience it as a weight, an unnecessary weight that throws us off balance, specifically in our relationship to ourselves and our relationship to other people." [00:12:15]

"Now, there's a really good reason why we don't wanna face our guilt. There's a really good reason why we suppress it, why we come up with a narrative, why we have a story, why we sand off the rough edges and why we don't just face it and embrace it. Because to face it and to embrace it leaves us with no recourse, it leaves us standing condemned. There's no recourse. There's no way to undo the past. You can't go back and be a freshman again, right. We can't undo, we can't unsay, you can't unleave, you can't be un-unfaithful." [00:14:49]

"You do not have to be defined by your past and neither do you have to spend this season of your life denying your past. There is a third option that Jesus offered and someone who experienced this third option in a way that we can't even begin to imagine is the one that put it into words best. The apostle Paul wrote something I wanna read to you in just a minute, but real quickly, this is so important, when I read what I'm about to read that he wrote, if you grew up in church, I don't want you to hear me reading the Bible." [00:16:35]

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation. Therefore, something new has happened. It's a new day, it's a new era. It's a new Covenant. God has done something new and as a result of what God has done there is therefore now no condemnation. There is a space, there is a place, there is a space, there is a place where the actual past, where your actual past, is neither forgotten nor condemning. It can be faced, even though it can't be erased. It can be embraced and you can live without condemnation." [00:19:35]

"Through Christ Jesus, that is through a relationship with Christ Jesus, through embracing everything God through Christ has done for us, through stepping into this new Covenant relationship with God that has different standards and different rules and a different way of thinking and a different relationship with God. He said, through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life, I'll come back to that, has set you free from this other law, the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death is simply this, that when you sin you're stuck, that when you hurt somebody you're just guilty and you're guilty forever and there's no way to go back and undo it." [00:21:23]

"Your past, this is what's so powerful, and this is where I hope that all of you can get and all of us can get and I know the process I had to go through to get here personally. This is not you, you, you, you, you. This is us, us, us, us, us. You can imagine to stand up here week after week after week and tell everybody how to live their life and tell everybody what God want's 'em to do. Can you imagine that when my past rises up how big and ugly and awful it gets especially in comparison to what I do for a living?" [00:29:06]

"Your past, your guilt, your worst sin, your worst day ever, your worst spring break ever, your worst moment ever, becomes a pivot point for you, not to condemn yourself, but to look up in gratitude for God. One day Jesus was teaching and at the end of a little encounter with a woman who embarrassed his guest, the people who were hosting him, he said, look, the person who is forgiven the most loves the most. The more you've been forgiven, the more you have in your past to be embarrassed of, the more that there is that you hope nobody finds out about, but suddenly you're free to talk about it." [00:29:38]

"Now, you're free to make restitution without expectations and without excuses. Let me tell you what's not Christianity. Christianity is not this. I hurt you. I betrayed you, then I went home and I asked God to forgive me and now things are good. That's not Christianity. That's somethin' else. Christianity is this. I hurt you. I face my guilt. I ask God to forgive me and he gave me what I don't deserve so the least I can do is come back to you and give you what you do deserve, that's Christianity." [00:32:20]