It Came From Within: Guilt Series

It Came From Within: Guilt

Introduction

We often look for things external to ourselves as the causes of our problems. While sociologists and psychologists are correct to point to the ways in which things like our families, religious experiences, neighborhoods, and the like shape who we are there comes a place in life where we must look within ourselves and take responsibility for ourselves. When we find ourselves stuck in life, in our relationships, in cycles of habits, or addictions, if we are ever going to change and maintain that change there is a question we must ask ourselves, "What role do I play in keeping this thing stuck?"

Sometimes we spin our wheels for years pointing fingers at others when God is inviting us into the Light of His Love for a self-examination.

Self-examination, and submitting to help in examining oneself, is something that has helped increase the physical lives of our present world. Women have caught potentially destructive health crises through regular personal breast exams and mammograms. Men as they age begin to have prostate exams. Then there is the dreaded colonoscopy. Often times in these regular exams nothing is discovered. It is as if the doctor says, "Just checking."

But there are moments when because of self-examination or intentionality that a world of hurt is overcome.

We began talking about heart issues using the physical heart as an illustration of that invisible part of us that the Bible calls the heart, the spirit, or the inner person. We said that this heart is the source from which all of our actions and motives flow. The writer of Proverbs said that it is from this heart that our lives issue and so we should guard it. Jesus said in Mark 7:20-23:

Mark 7:20-23 NIV

20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

In our first lesson, we described four enemies of the heart that cause us to stumble:

Guilt

Anger

Greed

Jealousy

We learned that each of these is related to debt, and can be debilitating to our relationship with God and others. As long as these blockages remain in our hearts they keep us stuck. There are areas of the blessings of God that we never fully realize until these are dealt with.

Guilt says "I owe you."

Anger says "You owe me."

Greed says "I owe me."

Jealousy says "God owes me."

Dealing with guilt comes through confession.

Dealing with anger comes through forgiveness.

Dealing with greed comes through giving.

Dealing with jealousy comes through worship.

This evening we will slow down and talk specifically about guilt. You may want to take some time to do some self-examination to see if somewhere there is some guilt deep in the depths of your heart that is blocking you from the flow of God's blessings in your life. It may be a painful procedure or it may just be routine, but if we want to stay healthy it is necessary. Once we see anything there we want to offer it to God through confession trusting that he will make everything right through the power of his blood.

How often do nouns become verbs? How many times last week have you Googled something? Guilt is a noun that gets turned into a verb often. Have you ever been guilted into doing something? How many times have you guilted someone into doing something else? The reason guilt can go from a noun to a verb in this way is because of the power of debt. We feel that because of some past action we owe someone, and there are some people in our lives that will take maximum advantage of the guilt that we carry deep within our hearts.

Guilt says "I owe you."

Guilt is the result of having done something we perceived as wrong. Every wrong we do can be restated as an act of theft... If I steal from you, I owe you. So the message of the heart laden with guilt is, "I owe you!" (Andy Stanley)

When a spouse runs away with another individual and abandons their children they may not realize it at the moment, but they are actually stealing something from every other family member. Contrary to what we may think our lives are not isolated and we are not so individual that we can make choices that only affect us. Our choices affect everyone we are in a relationship with and it may continue to affect those after us. When Adam and his wife stole the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and bad, they were not only stealing from God, they were stealing from us.