From His Heart

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Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, learn why we should go to the cross.

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All of us deal with the giant of guilt and shame over things that we have done in the past and that we've confessed to God. We bring that up to the Lord over and over and over. Why? Because the devil plants that in our heads, that's why. And we feel that the giant of guilt and shame come over us.

Here's how you break and defeat the giant of guilt and shame. When the thought comes of this is what I have done in the past, you take that thought of that sin and you go to the cross.

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He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real from his heart.

Speaker 1

If unchecked, guilt and shame will work together to try and destroy your life. Well, how are you handling this double-headed giant that keeps us from really soaring in the Christian life?

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, and today he continues the message on the giant of guilt and shame. It's from his seven-message series, "Land of the How to Deal with Your Biggest Problems." It's a lesson that'll help all of us overcome the chains that guilt and shame can have on our lives, keeping us from fully and comfortably resting in the arms of Jesus and finding real hope and healing for the future.

Now, if you missed part one from last time, please go to fromhishheart.org to listen or to download a free MP3 of any broadcast. But now, open your Bible to Luke, chapter seven, as Pastor Jeff explains how we can step by step defeat the giant of guilt and shame.

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Hey, how are we to handle the giant of guilt and shame, that Siamese twin giant that tends to wreck and ruin and steal and kill and destroy? How are we to handle the giant of guilt and shame? Well, I want you to notice three insights about this giant and about this situation.

First insight, many people handle guilt and shame the wrong way because everyone has to deal with it. Everyone in this world has to deal with it. We're fallen people living in a fallen world, and so we have to deal with guilt and shame. So how are you going to deal with it? How do you deal with the heavy coat? Well, lots of people deal with it the wrong way. What do you say is the wrong way? Well, they try and explain it away. You know, there's a problem when you try and explain away. Here's the problem. Every single person has a conscience. And when you violate certain things that God has set up as terms of right and wrong, that alarm will go off. And your conscience will bug you to death.

Then we try to hide it away. These are both the wrong ways to do it. It's wrong to try and explain it away. Move the boundary markers. It's wrong to try and hide it away. And we do that often. We just try and put that in a closet, put a sheet over that, bury that. God sees and God knows. And we try and hide our sin. It doesn't work. You try and explain it away, your conscience will call you out. You try and hide your sin. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, God will convict you and call you out. Conscience won't let you explain it away. Conviction won't let you, as a believer, hide it away.

Second insight, God wants you to handle guilt and shame the right way. God doesn't want you to have on this heavy coat. He doesn't. And so he says, this is what you do if you're wearing this heavy coat. The woman in Luke chapter seven was wearing a heavy coat. She came to Jesus during the dinner party. She wasn't invited. And all of a sudden this woman comes. What's she doing here? She is the woman of the night. Everyone knew who she was. And it says in verse 37, behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. And when she learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume. An alabaster vial of perfume would have been very expensive. It would have kind of fit in with her trade for sure.

Verse 38. And standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of her head and kissing his feet and anointing them with the perfume. She never said one word that's recorded here. But she gives us the picture of how do you get right with God? How do you deal with guilt and shame? First of all, the Lord wants us to experience godly sorrow, not worldly regret over what we've done. Godly sorrow, not worldly regret. So many people regret things that they've done. Godly sorrow is way different from regret.

Second Corinthians 7:10 says this, for the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation. But the sorrow of the world produces death. You might want to jot down two names to know the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. The sorrow of the world that produces death and the sorrow that is according to the will of God that produces repentance and life. Two words, two names. Judas and Peter. Both of those guys denied the Lord. Judas was the betrayer. Peter was the denier. Both of them committed terrible, horrible sins. Judas sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, the going price of a slave. He sold him out for that. And when he realized that they were condemning Jesus, he felt regret. He felt remorse.

And what did he do? He brought the money back and he threw it at them. And he said, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us? See to that yourself. And what did he do? He went out and he hanged himself. As Adrian Rogers used to say, Judas, while trying to escape the hell within him, went and hanged himself and stepped into the hell before him. You know, that's what guilt and shame feels like. It feels like hell inside. Peter, or Judas, he was one who had worldly regret over things that he had done. Peter had godly sorrow. Peter, who denied three times, cursed and swore and said, I don't even know the man. Peter experienced conviction from the Lord. He went out and wept bitterly, and there was godly sorrow. And the godly sorrow produced a repentance without regret.

You know the difference between people who have worldly sorrow, worldly regret, and godly sorrow? The difference is like this. When I have worldly regret, I hate myself and I still love my sin. But when I have godly sorrow, I love myself and I hate my sin. Do you see the difference? So many of us, we hate ourselves. The poem I learned so many years ago says this. I have to live with myself. And so I want to be fit for myself to know. I want to be able, as the days go by, to look myself straight in the eye. I don't want to stand with the setting sun and hate myself for the things that I've done.

Listen, if God says he loves you and God loved this woman and God loved Peter and God loved Judas, then it's okay for us. Even in the midst of our terrible, horrible sin, it's okay for us to love ourselves, but we hate our sin. This woman had godly sorrow. And the Lord wants that. You know, you can't manufacture godly sorrow; that comes from God. You can't manufacture it. And so here's what happens when you know, if you continue in a sin, your heart gets calloused to the sin. And then it doesn't bother you like it used to. You know, the things we watch on television, on Netflix or whatever, in our age of all kinds of media, just at our fingertips, we get callous to things and things that used to shock us, now they don't bother us at all.

And so we get further and further away from the Lord, and we don't hear that still small voice. And our hearts aren't sensitive to him. How do you get that back? You seek him. You say, God, break my heart with the things that break your heart. Lord, take away the callousness. As the song says, bring back the new again. I want to see you again. Bring back the way it was when we first began. Make my heart soft and tender. And Lord, if I've sinned against you, and this is a problem and I'm not dealing with it, God, break my heart over the things that break your heart. Bring godly sorrow into my life. The Lord wants to do that. He wants us to experience that, and he wants us to come to him in honesty and repentance.

How did this woman come? She came in honesty and in repentance. Her tears were a sign of her repentance. And she broke every social custom to come to Jesus. She had to break through all those stairs and all that feeling of animosity and shame that the people were heaping upon her just with their demeanor. She had to break through all that to come to him. She was honest about her sin. She didn't try and whitewash her sin. She didn't try and put lipstick on a pig. This is what I did, Lord, and it is horrible, but this is it. And God, I'm asking you to forgive me. Please, God, forgive me for my sin. She had an honest heart. She had a repentant heart. The Lord responds to that.

So God wants us to handle guilt and shame the right way. And third, the third observation here, the third insight, God wants you to know about his response to humility and repentance. Verse 39. Now, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, oh, we have a prophet on our midst. No way. If this man were a prophet, he would know who this woman is. I mean, we all know that. Now listen, prophets are supposed to tell us things we don't know. This man doesn't even know the things that we all know, that this woman is a sinner. Why is he allowing her to touch him?

Verse 40. And Jesus answered and said to him, Simon didn't ask a question. He's thinking this in his head. Jesus answered, if this man were a prophet, let me tell you what kind of prophet Jesus is. He reads your thoughts. That's what kind of prophet Jesus is. And Jesus answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he replied, say it, teacher. He said, a certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which of them, therefore, will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And Jesus said to him, you have judged correctly.

And turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I mean, of course he did. Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. That was the custom of the day. When you were going to have somebody come over, you would give water for their feet. You'd wash their feet because they wore sandals and they walked the dusty roads in Israel. You gave me no water for my feet. But she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss. Custom of the day, you'd kiss your guest, your honored guest, both sides of the face. You gave me no kiss. But she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, another custom of the day. But she anointed my feet with perfume.

For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, shocking statement, your sins have been forgiven. And those who were reclining at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this man who even forgives sins? Only God can forgive sins. Jesus forgave sins because Jesus is God. And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. He forgives the worst of sins. By his grace, he saves the worst of sinners.

That's very interesting when you think about forgiving sin, saving sinners. Jesus tells that parable is very easy to understand about two debtors. A certain money lender had two debtors. We'll put it in the vernacular of today. One owed him $5,000 and the other owed him $50,000. When neither one could repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which one do you think is going to love him more? Which one do you think is going to be more appreciative of his forgiveness? And Simon was thinking, this could be a trick question. I don't want to look stupid. So he says, well, I suppose it's the one whom he forgave more. Yeah, you're right. You're right. It's the one whom he forgave more.

Remember this about forgiveness. God just can't willy-nilly forgive people. It costs to forgive. If I'm the money lender and you borrow $5,000 from me and you don't pay it back and I say, I forgive you debt, I'm out $5,000; it cost me $5,000. If it's $50,000, it cost me $50,000 that I don't have. It's a lot, right? It's a cost. Forgiveness costs God. God can't just forgive people without paying a price. And that's why Jesus had to leave heaven and die on the cross for your sins and mine. He had to pay the price. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And it's his grace that he forgives the worst of sins. And it's his grace that he gives, forgives and saves the worst of sinners.

And now we read this story and we think, well, Simon the Pharisee, he's the 50 denarii guy. And she, this prostitute, is the 500 denarii person. Simon the Pharisee is the one that just owed a little bit. And this woman is the one that owed a lot. I think Simon the Pharisee is the one who owed a lot. You know, we kind of label sins and we say, well, if you're a prostitute, man, you're really given over. That's why we go with their terminology. That's a sinner. And we don't call ourselves, we don't think of ourselves as that's a bad person. We don't think of ourselves as bad people. We're good people who sometimes do bad things. But this is a bad person. And that's the way they looked at her. She's a bad person.

But the greatest sinner was Simon. Simon who didn't believe that Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God. Simon, who was filled with pride. Simon, who was filled with self-righteousness. God is opposed to the proud. He gives grace to the humble. This woman who's caught up in all this sin, she comes to Jesus and she is humble. And she's broken over her sin and she's forgiven. Her sins are many, yes, and they were outward sins. But his sins were many too. He who's forgiven much, loves much. He who's forgiven little, loves little.

Let me ask you a question. If you have trouble in your love for God. If you just say, well, you know, I just don't love God like I want to. I just don't love God like I need to. I see other people and they seem to be so in love with God, and I'm just not that in love with God. What is my problem? Let me tell you what your problem is. You think you've been forgiven little. And when you see that you've been forgiven much, you love much. You know who loved much? The Apostle Paul. Why? Because he saw himself as the chief of sinners. And he said, if God can save me, if he can forgive me, he can forgive anyone because I am chief of sinners. And God used him to the greatest extent. Why? Because he saw he had been forgiven much and he loved much.

Hey. By his grace, he forgives the worst of sins. By his grace, he saves the worst of sinners. And now watch this. By faith, we receive his grace and go in peace. Jesus said to this woman, your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. It's by grace that he forgives. It's by grace that he saves. But as we know in Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Someone has defined grace and faith this way. Grace is God's acceptance of you. And faith is your acceptance of God's acceptance of you.

Listen to that again. Grace is God's acceptance of you. And faith is your acceptance of God's acceptance of you. You accept what God says about you. This woman had a choice. As she wept at Jesus' feet, she could take what he said and she could receive it by faith, or she could say, oh, no, no, that can never happen to me, Lord. You don't. You don't. I guess you don't realize I got this heavy coat, Lord, because of all these things that I did. And I've been in this prostitution thing for my whole life. And there's absolutely no way I can't be forgiven. And I can't be saved. And there's no way I can go in peace. She didn't do that. She accepted by faith. She accepted God's grace.

Have you done that? Have you done that? You know, some people, you hear them say this often, well, Jeff, I just can't forgive myself. Bull. Bull. That's not your problem that you can't forgive yourself. Your problem is you don't believe that the Lord has said to you, your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. That's your problem. You have a faith problem and you don't believe and receive and accept God's acceptance of you. And so you're all the time saying, well, I just can't forgive myself.

Listen, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords says to anyone who comes to him in repentance and faith, I forgive you. Stop elevating your sin above God's son and accept the fact that the moment you come to him, he takes your sin and he takes it all away. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. All of us deal with the giant of guilt and shame over things that we have done in the past and that we've confessed to God. And we can easily fall into the trap that every day we're just confessing the same sin. Same sin, same sin.

Lord, you know that abortion I had 10 years ago? Oh, God, I'm so sorry about that. Lord, you know that adultery I had 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago. I'm so sorry about that. We bring that up to the Lord over and over and over. Why? Because the devil plants that in our heads, that's why. And we feel that the giant of guilt and shame come over us. Here's how you break and defeat the giant of guilt and shame. When the thought comes of this is what I have done in the past, you take that thought of that sin and you go. And then you go up to God and say, Christ's death became payment for my sin.

And then from God you go back and say, I have asked God to cleanse me through the blood of Christ and now I belong to God and my life is committed to Jesus Christ and His will for me. And so every time the devil reminds me of something I did in the past, I go to the cross. I see that God accepted what Jesus did for me. And Jesus' blood washes me white as snow. And now I belong to Jesus and Jesus belongs to me. Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. And I thank him for forgiving me and setting me free. And that's the way you beat the giant of guilt and shame.

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Do you right now know the forgiveness and cleared conscience that the Savior Jesus offers? If not, the Bible tells us that when we surrender access of our hearts to him completely and abandon our own efforts to achieve salvation any other way, we become a child of God with our sins washed away by what he did, not by what we did. We are eternally secure.

To learn more about who Jesus is, why he is the only way, the only truth, and the only life, we invite you to go to fromisheart.org and click the "Why Jesus" link. There you'll find some free resources to help you in your journey of faith.

Before we go today, we want to thank you for supporting From His Heart with your prayers and finances. We depend on that support that allows us to be here and across the nation each and every day. This month we have a special need as we embark on a brand new initiative to translate our daily radio and weekly TV programs into the Spanish and Portuguese languages. This gives this ministry a path to reach countless millions, and we're asking for your help this month as we launch this project.

With your gift today, we'll say thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's seven-message series, "Land of the Giants: How to Deal with Your Biggest Problems," and his booklet, "When You Don't Like Yourself," both for your gift of any amount. To get these resources and join us in impacting more of this world with the good news, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromisheart.org. Thank you for your help.

Call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromisheart.org, and when you make that gift today, we'll send you the "Land of the Giants" series and the "When You Don't Like Yourself" booklet.

Well, that's all the time we have for today, but we trust you'll be here again next time as we tackle the next giant that we all face, and it's called the Giant of Insecurity. That's next time when Pastor Jeff will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.

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There is truth There is hope that you always dream Love he can heal every scars of Real truth, Real love, Real hope From his heart.

Speaker 1

From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more at fromhisheart.org.