Unashamed
Tell story of woman in car and having 3 men approach - the car-stolen car!
Shame - a feeling of guilt, regret, embarrassment, dishonor, disgrace, or sadness that you have because you know you have done something wrong.
Where do we first read in the Bible about shame?
Genesis 2:25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.
But in Genesis 3 something happened - something changed:
Genesis 3:6 - 10 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. So the LORD God called out to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid."
Before Adam and Eve sinned they were not ashamed of being naked - but afterwards the scripture says their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Then God came on the scene and they were afraid and hid themselves - because the scripture says Adam said I was naked -but they were covered.
The English word shame originally meant - covering up.
Shame - something that makes us feel so vulnerable that we want to cover up and hide from God and other people.
Shame - something that God's grace can give us freedom from its disgrace so we as His followers can come out of hiding and stand unashamed before God and other people.
There is a disease that we read about in the Old and New Testaments - LEPROSY - even though we don't hear about it that much today, many people all over the world still suffer from this terrible disease.
Incurable by man, many believed God inflicted the curse of leprosy upon people for the sins they committed. In fact, those with leprosy were so despised and loathed that they were not allowed to live in any community with their own people. Among the sixty-one defilements of ancient Jewish laws, leprosy was second only to a dead body in seriousness. A leper wasn’t allowed to come within six feet of any other human, including his own family. The disease was considered so revolting that the leper wasn’t permitted to come within 150 feet of anyone when the wind was blowing. Lepers lived in a community with other lepers until they either got better or died. This was the only way the people knew to contain the spread of the contagious forms of leprosy.
In the book of Leviticus we read more on how a leper was to be treated:
Leviticus 13:45 - 46 "The leper is to have his clothes torn and his hair hanging loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!' He will remain unclean as long as he has the infection; he is unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp.
Put yourself in a leper's shoes, you have an infection that starts as bumps on your skin that enlarge and spread over your body, then a loss of sensation with eventual paralysis, wasting of muscle, and production of deformities. To add insult to your disease scripture says you are to tear your clothes and let your hair hang loose, cover your mouth and if you see anyone you are to yell out Unclean, Unclean. Of course these regulations were written down because leprosy was and is so contagious that no one was to come in contact with anyone who had it. How do you think you would feel? How do you think you would look? This is a picture of shame.
In the Bible, the word leprosy is mentioned over 40 times. Leprosy was common in Bible times, and the many references to it were well understood by those who lived in unsanitary conditions. The main reason why leprosy is talked about so much in the Bible is that it is a graphic illustration of sin’s destructive power. In ancient Israel leprosy was a powerful object lesson of the debilitating influence of sin in a person’s life.
In the book of Mark, Jesus has an encounter with a leper:
Mark 1:40 Then a man who was a leper came to Him and, on his knees, begged Him: "If You are willing, You can make me clean."
Shame can make us feel like a leper; we feel we are different from others, if people knew what I am really like, they wouldn't want to have anything to do with me, I am unlovable, I am dirty, I am alone, I am contaminated, I am messed up, I am unclean! Shame makes us want to cover up and hide.
You would think this leper would have approached Jesus and ask Him to heal him, but that is not what he asked. He asked to be made clean. Jesus look at me; this disease has made me dirty, look at me this disease has made me filthy in the eyes of others, look at me this disease has made me alone, look at me this disease has messed me up, Jesus look at me I am ashamed, I want to cover up and hide, Jesus can you make me clean?
Mark 1:41 Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched him. "I am willing," He told him. "Be made clean."
I wonder what that touch felt like? A leper wasn't allowed to touch or be touched by anyone. I wonder how long it had been since he had been touched.
That is what Jesus desires and longs to do to each and every one of us - touch us, make us clean, and take away our shame. Then an amazing thing happened:
Mark 1:42 Immediately the disease left him, and he was healed.
His life changed. No longer bound by the effects of his old disease. He no longer had to live like he had lived. He no longer had to tell others that he was unclean. He no longer had to live in shame - he was healed!
When we accept Christ into our heart we are no longer bound by the effects of sin. We no longer have to live like we use to. We no longer have to live in shame of our past - we are forgiven - we are healed.
If you are living in shame today, that is what Jesus wants to do for you this morning - touch you and remove your shame.
Where does shame come from?
For some shame comes from the things we have done or what others have done to us.
In the book of John, Jesus has a meeting with the woman at the well:
John 4:6 - 7 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, worn out from His journey, sat down at the well. It was about sixth hour (Jewish time - noon). A woman of Samaria came to draw water. "Give Me a drink," Jesus said to her,
This woman came to the well at the time because she knew no one else would be there - this was the hottest time of the day. Because of her lifestyle she was ashamed to come when everyone else was there. But on this day she had an encounter with Jesus: "Give Me a drink," Jesus said to her.
John 4:9 - 10 "How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered, "If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would ask Him, and He would give you living water."
In the Greek, Jesus mainly said "If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would ask Him, and He would give you life."
Jesus knew her lifestyle, He knew she felt she was different, He knew many didn't want to have anything to do with her, He knew she felt dirty, contaminated, messed up, He knew she felt unclean and just wanted to cover up and hide - He knew she was ashamed!
John 4:11 - 15 "Sir," said the woman, "You don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do You get this 'living water'? You aren't greater than our father Jacob, are You? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock." Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again--ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life." "Sir," the woman said to Him, "give me this water so I won't get thirsty and come here to draw water."
Jesus knew her heart - she was searching for something - had been all her life. She believed the lie that a relationship with a man was the answer, as do many today. Many fall for the lie that sexual gratification or drugs or alcohol or status or financial success or perfectionism or popularity are the answer.
Then Jesus confronts her with her shame:
John 4:16 - 18 "Go call your husband," He told her, "and come back here." "I don't have a husband," she answered. "You have correctly said, 'I don't have a husband,'" Jesus said. "For you've had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."
This woman came to the realization in her life to what was causing her to live in shame and confronted the Master.
John 4:28 Then the woman left her water jar
Her life was changed, she came to the well ashamed, she left unashamed and shared with others what Christ had done for her.
How are some of the ways we try to cover up and hide? In the book "The Grace Course" we read this:
-Lying about your accomplishments or things in your past you're ashamed of.
-Pretending that everything is okay and that you are doing great when you know you're not.
-Blame-shifting by making everyone else appear to be the problem rather than you.
-Compromising moral or biblical values to fit in, so as to avoid the shame of rejection.
-Compensating for shameful deficiencies in one area by seeking to excel in others.
-Moralizing by preaching hard against ways you yourself have behaved and are ashamed of.
-Criticizing others harshly in order to make them appear inferior to you.
-Self-medication in order to blunt the sting and numb the pain of your own shame.
-Striving for perfection in your behavior or your looks to compensate for the painful belief that you fall far short of who you believe you should be.
But like Adam and Eve's fig leaves, these defense mechanisms don't work, they may provide temporary relief, even convincing us for a time that we are safe. But in the end, like all strategies of the flesh, they fail. God's way to remove disgrace is grace!
So what is God's remedy for shame?
2Corinthians 5:21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus took upon Himself our sin, He took upon Himself all our shortcomings, He took upon Himself all our failures, He took upon Himself all our dirt, He took upon Himself all our shame, He took upon Himself all our uncleanness, He took upon Himself our old nature, and completely destroyed and removed it.
Ezekiel says it this way:
Ezekiel 11:19 - 20 And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, so they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.
Peter says it this way:
2Peter 1:4 By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.
Look how scripture describes your old self:
Ephesians 2:3 - 5 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.
Romans 6:6 - 7 For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin's dominion over the body may be abolished, (Greek-destroyed, to vanish away) so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin's claims.
Romans 6:11 - 14 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace.
James 4:7 - 8 Therefore, submit to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people!
2Corinthians 4:2 Instead, we have renounced shameful secret things, not walking in deceit or distorting God's message, but commending ourselves to every person's conscience in God's sight by an open display of the truth.
Because of what Christ did for each of us - His Grace - giving us what we don't deserve - we can live unashamed.
Romans 10:11 For the scripture says, Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.
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