Worthless Guilt
By Joe Mack Cherry
I. Opening
A. So Many Get Trapped in Their Minds
1. Facilities are filled 1,000’s believing there’s no hope for them.
2. In 2020, the CDC recorded almost 47,000 people committed suicide is the US = 1 death/11 minutes
3. In 2021, the CDC recorded 647 more suicides than it did in 2020.
4. With these figures, one easily deduces that anxiety is present in epidemic proportions and hopelessness is an ever-present force in the world.
5. Not all anxiety ends in suicide. Some overcome and some waste years of precious time.
B. Christians Get Anxious and Feel Hopeless at Times
1. Phil. 4:6-7 – “Be anxious in nothing, but let everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
a. The peace of God will guard your mind. Who doesn’t want peace of mind?
b. Jo. 14:27 – Jesus left a peace that was/is unlike anything on earth.
c. We must accept this peace; failure to do so can lead to a lot of unnecessary pain.
2. Sadly, many in the church can’t let go of past sins. They fail to embrace the full forgiveness that Christ’s blood afforded them at repentance.
a. People become trapped in this way of thinking that affects.
• #1 – the way they look at themselves.
• #2 – the way that they perceive how others see them.
• My sins were/are just too bad. How can I ever feel good about myself?
• When others look at me all they see is the sin(s) I’ve committed.
b. They are haunted by what I call Worthless Guilt. We’ll look closer in a minute.
c. Worthless guilt is an albatross around a person’s neck that needs to go!
C. Clarifications
1. The Intent of This Message
a. It is not to invoke further guilt for anyone who struggles with this problem; you/they/I are already carrying enough of this unnecessary burden.
b. It is offered as a message of hope that we, with the help of Christ and quality time in the scripture, can help break the unhealthy habit of rehashing old forgiven sins.
c. It’s a plea to stop beating yourself up and start enjoying the joy of true forgiveness.
d. To live a full happy life, we need to demolish this “tool” Satan uses against us.
2. If this message touches you today, you are not alone, I promise.
a. There are many of us who can sympathize as well as empathize with you.
b. Worthless guilt can be tied to any sin. I think we’ve all experienced it to a degree.
• Sins have different names and subsequent consequences, but they are all relative according to scripture, save Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
• I John 3:4 – All sin is transgression of the law. Man, grades sin, God doesn’t.
II. Body
A. Good Guilt Leads to Repentance and Repentance Leads to Salvation
1. Good guilt is a result of conviction that we are committing sin or have committed sin that requires repentance. This is part of the Holy Spirit’s mission! Jo. 16:8 – “…when He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement…”
a. Luke 13:3&5 – Jesus says unless you repent you will perish.
b. Jonah 3:6-9 – The king of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes and 120,000 were saved.
c. Acts 2:37 – the people were pricked in their hearts and cried out, “What must we do?”
2. Good guilt points us toward the cross and our Savior. I Jo. 2:2 tells us He is the propitiation for not only our sins, but the sins of the whole world.
3. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, not only did He take away our sins; He took away our guilt and shame. Isa 53:5 Amplified Version – “…He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities … by His stripes we were healed and made whole. Case closed in a perfect world, right? We are human and it’s hard to grasp sometimes so we develop …
B. Worthless Guilt
1. Worthless guilt starts the minute a person doesn’t forgive him/herself for what God (and anyone else) has already chosen to forgive.
a. Well, I did this to someone and I just can’t forgive myself.
b. Well, I didn’t do this for someone and I can’t forgive myself.
c. We put this guilt on every morning just like our socks and shoes and we drag it with us through every day! Refer back to the albatross around the neck.
2. Worthless guilt can become deep seated and quickly rule our thinking.
a. It is more psychological than spiritual. Yes, mental perceptions can influence our spiritual lives. Thank the Lord that He is faithful to us when we are weak and can’t help ourselves!
b. It can rule our lives until we become like a “Blood Pharisee” who walked around bumping into stuff because he felt unworthy to look up, ever. Not God’s plan!
3. Sometimes, our mindsets get into a rut like an old horse my cousin Kent and I used to ride.
a. The problem with this nag was that he would only go in a counterclockwise direction. Don’t ask me why! We would try to make him go the other way and he would run a few steps and balk, then back to the starting point he’d go.
b. Our mind is much like that old horse. We get into a routine way of thinking and it becomes automatic. We develop a rut in our mind concerning a situation and before long we think that we can’t think any differently. That’s Satan’s hold on us.
c. Another analogy is a racecar.
• It is set up to automatically pull to the left.
• If you look hard, you can see the driver turning the steering wheel to the right as he goes down the straight away.
• If a vehicle that is not a racecar begins to pull one way or the other, what do we do? We realign it. Why? Tires are too expensive and who wants to fight a vehicle to drive it all the time? Driving it wears you out for no good reason.
C. Starting to Heal
1. As I said earlier, defeating Worthless Guilt is no easy undertaking.
a. It starts by learning how to regain power over our own thoughts.
b. The Bible holds the key to healing. We need to go back and study in depth just how forgiven we are.
c. Isa. 38:17 – Hezekiah says God has put all his sins behind His back and he got another 15 years of life. He had shown all the treasures to some other kings and it angered God.
• Mic. 7:18-19 – He has trampled our sins under His feet and has cast them into the ocean. Some people go to the ocean to heal/relax. On the shore, speaking hyperbolically, written in the blood of Jesus is a giant billboard that reads “No Fishing”! For your sins or mine!
• Here’s what a Christian can visualize to start the healing.
2. We need to accept the love and forgiveness of others as well. If we keep bringing up the past, we may cause them to think their forgiveness is not fully accepted or appreciated. Remember, true forgiveness for the sinner is a gift from God and from others! Treasure it! Those who truly forgive do not want to see us in unnecessary pain.
a. What if someone won’t forgive me?
b. That’s on them if you have tried to seek their forgiveness, you’ve done all you can.
3. There is a certain amount of pain that comes with healing. These three hit me the hardest!
a. Yes, it could have been stopped earlier with some if I had recognized that I did not have to be a victim of my own thoughts. I can thank Satan for that!
b. Yes, even though I didn’t intend to do so, I wasted a lot of precious time.
c. The real shocker came when I realized that my worthless guilty feelings were between me and Satan, not me and God!
• It is one of Satan’s greatest weapons and a subtle method of robbing joy from a Christian. He will not give up easily.
• It hurt me when I realized this was a self-inflicted pain and it wasn’t really scoring me any points with God. Like the people who flog and crucify themselves in the name of conviction in places like the Philippines. Christianity is not about unnecessary mental or physical pain that is self-induced.
• Every minute we spend with the worthless guilt is a minute we could be focusing on Christ and His goodness.
D. New Ways of Looking at Old Things Brings About Transformation
1. We all have relived certain wrongs that we have committed and remembered the feelings of guilt that the old sin brought.
a. We must first address the old sting and realize it is not real; we’ve been forgiven! Focus on the true forgiveness we know have. Remember the vss. we mentioned about God putting our sins behind Him and us accepting others forgiveness.
• We cannot expect these scriptures and good memories to work like a drug.
• We cannot simply read, repeat, and memorize them and expect progress.
• There is some good in repetition but we must carry these truths into the deepest part of our psyche and make them a part of our everyday life.
b. As we conscientiously ponder these truths and continue to thank God for forgiveness, we are forming a new path in our mind that gives less and less credence to worthless guilt that clouds our thinking.
• Subconsciously we are starting to dig new, healthy trenches for our mind.
• Looking back should bring us joy and peace knowing that we have been forgiven. This over time replaces that old sting of guilt.
• We should praise God that we’ve gotten past that point in our life and we have regained the joy of our salvation that David longed to have in Psa. 51:12.
c. Remember the song “Remind Me Dear, Lord”? A line says, “show me where You brought me from and where I could have been.” We can look back with confidence not shame!!!
• March 5th I will not have had any alcohol for 30 years.
• I’m proof that God forgives and He will replace the hurt of past sins with love and purpose. The glory is His, not mine!
d. As you see yourself growing and improving, take faith and grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
2. Rom. 12:2 …but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
a. We do this is through pray, study, and meditation.
b. Research has proven that 15 minutes per day of prayer and meditation for 21 days straight will cause a change in a brain scan. Prayer works!
c. We may digress at times as we strive to go down this new pathway in our mind. Remember this renewing is a daily process not a one-time event.
d. To continue transforming daily we must stay out of the negative ruts that unproductive thoughts form over the years.
• Once we defeat the Worthless Guilt, you can bet Satan’s going to take another angle and come after us again with more of his fiery darts Eph. 6:16 references.
• We must fill our minds with the things of God and form new purposeful trenches for our thoughts. Read Phil. 4:8
• The more we focus on the present good the less time we have to conjure up the past.
III. Closing
1. Carrying around worthless guilt won’t send you to hell but it can make you feel like you’re living there on a daily basis.
2. He promises us the abundant life in Jo. 10:10. It will not be trouble free but it is meant to be lived in joy and peace.
3. As you leave and return to your everyday walks of life, I pray that you will experience the freedom that God intends for us to have in His forgiveness.
4. People don’t have to know the details of your sins for you to tell them how much God has forgiven you in your life. Do not hide the light of forgiveness under the basket of worthless guilt! Share and encourage others with the good news that Jesus forgives, forgets, and saves.
5. Be kind to yourself and totally forgive yourself of what you’ve been forgiven.
