Flipping the Shame

The risen Jesus changes what we're ashamed of. So you don't get to choose whether your life is shaped by shame and honor. You only get to choose whose shame and whose honor will define you. You don't get to choose what they say about you. You you you get to choose whose honor will define you. And and can you say with me, I'm not ashamed? Say it. I'm not ashamed. I know the one I've trusted. I know say it out loud. I am not ashamed. I know the one I've trusted and he will guard what I've entrusted to him until that day. Amen. [00:46:17] (38 seconds)  #NotAshamedInChrist

And so the real disgrace isn't, you know, Paul the prisoner. It's being embarrassed by the gospel. That's the disgrace. Being embarrassed by the one who's brought to light immortality, who's brought to light the the life that is truly life right here, right now, and we're ashamed? I'd hate to bring him up. That would that would really ruin a conversation. You know, that's a downer in a cocktail party. Believe me, I know. I do it all the time. [00:19:03] (37 seconds)  #NoShameForTheGospel

If he could just say, Caesar is lord and Jesus is a good idea, well, he wouldn't be in chains now, would he? Caesar is lord and Jesus is your buddy, well, you'll get along just fine. But no, Jesus is lord. Honor him, pray for Caesar, but Jesus is lord, that's a different story. And so he's a preacher, he's an apostle, he's sent, he's on a mission, and he's a teacher. He's able to explain the scripture and how this whole story that Christ must suffer and die and we must suffer and die with him to be raised to new life. This is why he suffers. He's not ashamed. He knows who he's believed. [00:33:41] (40 seconds)  #JesusIsLordAlways

We've got to develop this affection for Jesus that that allows us into this v shaped life where we go down to go up, where we serve the least in order to be elevated to the greatest, where we die to ourselves to be raised with Christ. We identify with Christ because we know him and that means the whole package. We're not just catching Jesus on an upswing going like, hey, take me there. He's like, no. No. We're going down too. Let's go down. Let's kneel. Let's wash feet. And and then we'll then in due time, I'll elevate you. [00:31:03] (41 seconds)  #DownToRise

It's pretty wild that within three hundred years, the cross became a symbol of resurrection and life and hope and beauty and allegiance when it was meant to be a sign that says don't go there or this will happen to you. It's pretty amazing what God did in a turnaround. So here here's what you do. Name your embarrassment point. Just just sit with Jesus. Say, holy spirit, Aaron's talking, but you can shut him up in my mind. I wanna know what is this thing that, where do I feel a twinge of shame? Is it in work? Is it family? Is it online? [00:40:33] (37 seconds)  #NameYourShame

And death is obviously still around. I'm very affected by it yesterday. I was at memorial services in in Lake Stevens and Kent, so I was able to use my gas guzzling rig to anyway, I spent some money yesterday. But, you know, you go around and and actually just sit with the death and sit with the the port the pain. It's there. It's clearly there. But it's stripped of its its status as, like, the weapon. Death has been abolished. So it happens. But that's not the end of the story. So we don't have to go around quaking like we're worried about our death. We should go around shivering because we know our savior, Jesus Christ. Like, alright. He's good. He is good. [00:28:11] (49 seconds)  #DeathDefeated

Let me ask a rhetorical question that doesn't sound like a rhetorical question, but are you called to suffer for the gospel of god? Are you called to suffer for the gospel of god? No. That was for Timothy. Aaron, I'm trying to read this in context. That's that's Paul writing to Timothy, suffer for this. That's a that's a very, very specific thing. That's a cultural context there. And, don't don't you try to widen the scripture on me. Well, I was kept for the church for a reason because this is the pattern to suffer for the gospel of god. [00:21:18] (40 seconds)  #SufferForTheGospel

And we want we just want, you know, like my stock chart. Oh, no. Not like that. We want we wanna go up and to the right with with our life and he's like, well, no, there's valleys and that's where we grow and learn and not a lot of not a lot of crops on the mountaintops. It's in the fertile valleys anyway. And so we walk with Jesus. So imagine that sort of pressure cooker that he's in. I want us to think about this and this will be kind of the main point that I'll be preaching from as we as we look at this, that the risen Jesus changes what we're ashamed of and and who we stand with. [00:09:10] (37 seconds)  #RisenJesusChangesShame