Shame: The Shame Of It All

Last Week, several people asked a question about temptation in last weeks sermon. In our James Scripture we learned that God does not tempt us nor can he himself be tempted. We found the word used in James to mean that God cannot seduce us, draw us into sin, nor can God be drawn into sin. The question was: If God does not tempt us, why do we pray - lead us not into temptation – in the Lord’s Prayer?

Great question.

The word for temptation used in the Lord’s Prayer is different than in James. James: To draw into a sin. Lord’s Prayer: To test, examination, testing. Let us look at the full context from the Lord’s Prayer: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The phrase: Deliver us from evil helps us to interpret, Lead us not into temptation.

Does not mean: do not let our faith be tested. Does not mean: Do to draw us into temptation. It does mean: Grant that we may not fail the test. Another way to put it might be: May our faith stand firm in the time of trial. We are not asking for God to withdraw his hand from us,

but to keep us against temptation by ungodly powers. So when we pray: lead us not into temptation we are in effect asking God to help us during our time of testing.

We are continuing our series on why good people do bad things

What we have seen so far is: We try to build a good world around us….

Listen to Christian Radio, Read the Word, Be with good people...It doesn’t matter what kind of a world we build around us. Scripture teaches: Our corruption still comes from within. We seek to be good people. God is not looking for good people. He is looking for devoted people. We use the path of least resistance. We usually embark on the path of least resistance, in small steps. I did not deliberately try to become involved in deceit, but somehow I got there.

If we want something bad enough – we can pray ourselves into a peace about it “peace” enables us to work outside the Scripture. Sometimes it is more of a Sense Of Inevitability, than a peace.

Today we will continue our series and see how Shame is part of the puzzle of why good people do bad things. We act, we react and we do things, sometimes bad things, because of Shame in our life.

Let’s begin with our Scripture from Genesis, Adam and Eve and the Fall. There is a lot in this passage, many different aspects we could cover. Today we will concentrate on Adam and Eve and Shame. It turns out – shame was not a part of our original make up as humans.

Genesis 2:25

The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Here are Adam and Eve in this paradise, and are without sin, and without shame. Some would say – it’s all about sexuality. But it is not –

that thought shows a modern obsession with sex our culture has. It is about our human nature. About how we view ourselves. About our self-centeredness. It comes down to this: no sin / no shame. Up until this point Adam and Eve were without sin. The indication is: Shame, it never occurred to them.

Think about it being in a relationship where neither party messes up and hanging out with God everyday. They never had to do the laundry either. Hard to imagine…..You know, I think that is a glimpse of what heaven will be like.

Does their sin come from somewhere else? Someone else? No.Their sin comes from within.

Remember: we saw that Jesus himself said it is what comes out of us that is unclean

ark 7:20 He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’

Mark 7:21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

Mark 7:22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.

Mark 7:23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”

Our sin, is from within us. Though Adam and Eve were without sin. The capacity was there.

Let us jump ahead a few verses

Verses 1- 6 The snake convinces them to sin. It is sin because it is disobedience toward God nothing else.

We need to understand; When death is spoken of in this passage: You will surely not die - It is: 1- physical death, which doesn’t occur immediately – but does happen; and it is 2 – separation from God, spiritual death.

Let’s look deeper into death as separation from God. Verse 7.

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.