Recovering Redemption Series (5 of 5)
The Perfect Storm
Oct. 19, 2014 CFBC Chester, IL Dr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker
Introduction:
A Over the last four weeks we have become reacquainted (or acquainted) with what redemption means.
1 We’ve come to know . . . .
a The original version of God’s Song of Redemption.
aa We can’t make words up, change the lyrics or tempo.
bb Until we know that song we can’t ever be free.
b The Good News of the Gospel is the only thing that can fix us.
aa Four Buckets (Ourselves, Others, World, Religion)
bb Gospel tells us Get over ourselves, worth is not wrapped up in other people’s opinion of us, stuff comes from God and wants to enjoy it, True salvation kills religion)
c Good Grief vs. Bad Grief (2 Cor. 7.10)
2 Corinthians 7:10 (HCSB) 10 For godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation, but worldly grief produces death.
aa We see our sin the way God does; Produces sorrow (prostitute washing His feet)
bb Confesses sin (I’m messed up!); Blush (I’m yours, Lord. Fix this.)
d Justification & Sanctification
aa Justification is one-time for all time thing.
bb Sanctification (vivification & mortification; Miracle Grow & wedding)
2 Today, I want to land the plane we’ve been flying at 30,000 feet in for the last four Sundays. (How does the last four sermons look like when they hit the ground?)
a We’re approaching the landing strip and the weather is a little rough. . . which makes since, life is rough.
b Two years ago, just a few days before Halloween 2012, a category 2 hurricane collided with a ferocious winter storm and a Noreaster coming out of Canada.
aa Meteorologists refered to it as a “Polar Vortex”, “Hybrid Vortex”, “Frankenstorm”
bb More officially, Superstorm Sandy (killed more than 125 people, caused more than $60 billion in damage, power outages, gasoline shortages.
c What happened along the Jersey Shore is what many of us live with on a regular basis.
aa We live in a situation where guilt and shame collide, feed off one another.
bb We know life wasn’t supposed to be like this . . . it won’t always be this way forever . . . but for now how do we stop the perfect storm of guilt & shame?
cc This is the exact place we’re landing the payload of the Gospel/Song of Redemption comes blaring out of the tornado sirens.
B Part of the promise of the gospel is to lessen the storm & rob grief/shame of their power to do any more damage.
1 We’re familiar with these two storm systems because they’ve been around since the Garden of Eden.
a Just because we’re familiar with guilt/shame, there’s a lot we don’t know about them. . . a lot they just don’t come right out and say about themselves.
b We see them as twins (Guilt & Shame), it’s hard to tell the difference between them . . . but they’re different.
aa There is some overlap/interaction between the two, but they’re not really the exact same thing.
bb Why is important to know the differences between the two?
cc The reason you don’t go to a heart specialist if you have cancer; dermatologist for your kidneys.
dd They’re different problems that require different treatment.
2 Guilt is more about what we do; shame is more about who we are.
a Guilt means we’ve failed to meet a clear moral code, a legality.
aa Example, you consider yourself to be a caring, selfless, always willing to help people kinda of person . . . when you pass by a homeless person & don’t help/ministry opportunity is advertised in the bulleting you feel guilt if you don’t do something, as if you’re breaking the law if you don’t do something.
bb Because you see proudly yourself as a caring, selfless, always willing to help people kinda of person, you feel shame for not being the person you claim or want to be.
cc Guilt is more about what we do; shame is more about who we are.
b When we don’t live up to what we want people to think we are, or who we claim/want to be . . . the storm hits so we try do stuff different.
aa Anger, abuse, lust (rip it off the tree), but we haven’t really killed it.
bb Another will start growing where the old one use to be.
cc If we look further down the tree, cut the trunk, those apples aren’t coming back.
c In the roots, we find a hunger for innocence and honor.
aa Guilt robs us of innocence and shame robs us of honor.
bb Guilt & shame are the double helix that creates the DNA of our worst behavior.
I The two forces behind the perfect storm.
A Guilt is often easier to recognize than shame.
1 We usually identify guilt as a feeling, but true guilt is more like a state of being.
a If we do something we shouldn’t be going... we don’t “feel” guilty - we ARE guilty.
b We must be able to recognize if the “standard” is our standard or God’s standard.
aa For example, you feel guilty if you’re not busy, constantly active, never can rest because you’re suppose to be busy... Your standard. God says take a day off - weekly.
bb Husband comes home & tells you how bad of a wife you are because the house is a wreck after you’ve been wrangling kids - he’s the one setting the standard.
2 Guilt can come when we fail to meet a standard... that from that guilt we can easily start going in the direction of...
B Shame (Harder to identify, just as common)
1 People can feel shame because...
a Family they come from, not much money, school they went to, size of their wedding ring, shape of their body.
aa What’s tough is... there’s nothing “shameful” about being big, modest income - illegitimate.
bb Nor do you have anything to be ashamed of shame because someone has taken advantage of your innocence to meet their distorted needs.
cc Shame strikes from a wide variety of places but the outcome is the same - feel worthless, unloved, dirty... even if you didn’t do anything.
b Cope with it by covering & hiding, but why?
2 Our shame is deeply rooted in our identity.
a The “ideal” we create for ourselves may have a lot of ideals that aren’t included in God’s ideal for us.
b We think we should be living the life that our friends are posting on Facebook that they live.
c We try to hide, cover by being angry, abusive, & lust - guilt/shame just keep the storm blowing.
T.S. Surely the gospel has a way to stop the storm.
II Storm chasers
A Jesus & His disciples were out on a lake when the weather started getting rough, water choppy, storm moving in...
Luke 8:22-25 (NASB) 22 Now on one of those days Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side of the lake." So they launched out. 23 But as they were sailing along He fell asleep; and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. 24 They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. 25 And He said to them, "Where is your faith?" They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, "Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?"
a The disciples were amazed when the storm stopped, Jesus brought it into focus, “Where is your faith?”
1 That question helps us sort through/clean up the wreckage of the guilt/shame storm. (It’s time to vivify!)
a Justification (Innocent, pardoned though Jesus)
aa How much “innocent?” A-L-L
Colossians 2:13-14 (NASB) 13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
bb Everything you’ve struggled with, frustrating habits, sin you’ve tried to shake for years... the gospel has an app for that!
cc The gospel says your pardoned, sin is gone. (past, present, future) Believe it has been changed.
dd Yet we continue to sin so there’s also...
b Sanctification (Godly living, vivification/mortification)
aa Putting a fish symbol on your car, business card doesn’t mean you can do anything, but your best... We bring our best to the altar.
bb When we cross a line/boundary that’s been put there by our good/loving heavenly Father, TRUE GUILT.
cc He still loves you, patient, calling us home. (Repentance)
c Adoption
aa Five weeks ago we learned God created this world to be perfect... no guilt, shame, sin. (Before the flood it hadn’t even rained!)
bb Wouldn’t it be awesome to live in that world?
cc 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 (ESV) For this is the will of God, your sanctification: 2 that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body 3 in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
Isaiah 54:4 (NASB) 4 "Fear not, for you will not be put to shame; And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced; But you will forget the shame of your youth, And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
dd God loves us & adopted us just as we are - if He’s not ashamed of us, why should we be?
Hebrews 2:11 (NASB) 11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Hebrews 11:16 (NASB) 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.
Romans 8:15 (NASB) 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"
2 The best way to make sure that shame cannot grow in our hearts. (Anger, abuse, lust) is simply be being transparent. (No secrets)
a (IL) Prodigal son coming home, father throws a party.
aa What do you think the son thought? (I’m not proud of the last 18 months, dad)
bb Father is saying “It happened... I love you!”
b I’m not to say to boast/brag about sin - glorify the love, grace, mercy of the One who saves, receives!
B God is crazy about you, delights in you.
1 That fortress/truth never changes, subsides.
a Anchored, grounded, secure when the storms of guilt/shame come.
b The gospel has it all.
aa Justification for our guilt.
bb Sanctification for deconstructing our false ideals.
cc Adoption for the red face of shame.
2 God’s grace stops the perfect storm that’s knocked us down.
Conclusion
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Respectfully,
Mike Fogerson
