When Grace Silences Shame
Message Moments & Highlights
God will never expose you to shame or make a public spectacle of your pain. But if healing is going to happen, shame must be confronted. When we stop burying our wounds and allow Jesus to meet us there, true healing begins.
Guilt is about something you've done wrong — shame is the devastating lie that says you are wrong. Shame attacks your identity, but through Christ, you are made whole, loved, and set free. You are not defined by what you've done — you are defined by God's love for you.
Your Creator knows everything about you — and He still chooses to love, forgive, and accept you fully. Shame, pain, and guilt have been canceled by the love of God. You are not rejected; you are embraced by the One who knew you before you even fell.
Shame and the old life no longer have to hold you down. Jesus offers a fresh, miraculous new beginning — a life of freedom, transformation, and purpose. Step into the miracle, walk away from shame, and live Spirit-filled through Christ today.
When Grace Silences Shame
Understanding how Jesus deals with shame can fundamentally transform our self-perception and daily living. He approaches our shame not to expose us publicly, but to bring healing through gentle acknowledgment. While guilt focuses on specific wrong actions, shame runs deeper, making us feel inherently defective and isolated from others. Jesus reveals that we all share these struggles in common.Through His divine authority, Jesus completely cancels our shame, offering permanent freedom that cannot be overruled by others' condemnation. This cancellation comes from our Creator who knows everything about us yet chooses to free us completely. Beyond just canceling shame, Jesus invites us to step into a new way of living - breaking free from sin's control, embracing our true identity, and walking in genuine freedom rather than remaining bound by old patterns of shame.
Related Bible Verses
📖 1. John 8:1–11
🔗 Read on Bible.com (NLT): https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JHN.8.1-11.NLT
Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.
As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.
They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”
Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.
Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
📖 2. Jeremiah 17:13
🔗 Read on Bible.com (NKJV): https://bible.com/bible/114/jer.17.13.NKJV
O Lord, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You shall be ashamed. “Those who depart from Me Shall be written in the earth, Because they have forsaken the Lord, The fountain of living waters.
📖 3. Colossians 2:13–15
🔗 Read on Bible.com (NLT): https://www.bible.com/bible/116/COL.2.13-15.NLT
You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away.
Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.
He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
📖 4. Isaiah 61:7
🔗 Read on Bible.com (NLT): https://www.bible.com/bible/116/ISA.61.7.NLT
Instead of shame and dishonor, you will enjoy a double share of honor.
You will possess a double portion of prosperity in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.
📖 5. Romans 8:1
🔗 Read on Bible.com (NLT): URL: https://www.bible.com/bible/116/ROM.8.1.NLT
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
Key Insights From The Message
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When Grace Silences Shame: Finding Freedom in Christ's Forgiveness
When shame, guilt, and pain weigh heavily on our hearts, Jesus offers a path to freedom through his grace and forgiveness. Understanding how Jesus deals with our shame can transform how we view ourselves and live our lives.
How Does Jesus Confront Our Shame?
The first step in dealing with shame is confronting it. While Jesus won't expose us publicly to shame us, He does need us to acknowledge our shame so He can heal it. Keeping shame buried prevents God from bringing complete healing to our lives.
What's the Difference Between Guilt and Shame?
Guilt focuses on specific wrong actions we've done
Shame makes us feel like we ourselves are wrong or defective
Shame isolates us and makes us feel alone in our struggles
Jesus shows us we all have shame and guilt in common
How Does Jesus Cancel Our Shame?
When Jesus encounters someone in their shame, He does something remarkable - He cancels it completely. As the Son of God, when He declares "Neither do I condemn you," it carries divine authority to truly free us from shame.
This cancellation of shame:
Is permanent and complete
Comes from our Creator who knows everything about us
Cannot be overruled by others' condemnation
Allows us to live free from shame's power
What Happens After Jesus Cancels Our Shame?
Jesus doesn't just cancel our shame - He commissions us to "go and sin no more." This isn't a harsh command but an invitation to:
Change course in our lives
Break free from sin's control
Step into our true identity
Live in freedom rather than bondage
Life Application
This week, consider:
What shame are you still carrying that needs to be brought to Jesus?
Have you fully accepted that Jesus has cancelled your shame?
Are you living in the freedom Christ offers or still bound by old shame?
Challenge yourself to:
Identify one area of shame in your life
Bring it to Jesus in prayer
Accept His forgiveness and cancellation of that shame
Begin living as one who is truly free
Ask yourself: "If Jesus has declared me free from shame, what's stopping me from living in that freedom?"
Remember: When grace silences shame, we are transformed into who God created us to be. Don't let past shame define your future - let Christ's grace define who you are.
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A discussion guide for the sermon can be found here.
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John, chapter eight. John, chapter eight. We're going to read here a story, an encounter Jesus had with a person, a woman in this case. And we don't actually know much about this woman.
This woman, it's the only time we hear about her. We don't even know her name. We don't know what happened to her afterwards. But we do know some things about. In fact, we know the worst thing that she would want anyone to know about her.
And she's confronted with it, and Jesus is confronted with it we're going to read what happens. So here he is in chapter eight, verse one, says, Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives. But early the next morning, he was back again at the temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery.
They put her in front of the crowd. Teacher, they said to Jesus, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say? They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him.
But Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer. So he stood up again and said, all right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone. And then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.
And then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, Lord, she said. And Jesus said, neither do I go and sin no more. It's a powerful encounter, isn't it?
I want you to think today about this woman. I want you to think about what she was faced with and the encounter she had with Jesus and in front of everyone else. And as we're talking through this story, I want you to put yourself in that place. It's interesting to me. John is very clever when he writes his gospel, and he uses these stories, he uses these encounters Jesus had in ways that are supposed to make us think deeper.
And he doesn't give us the details of what happened to this woman afterwards. He doesn't tell us her name. We don't know. One of the things I think he wants us to do is put ourselves into that scenario and say, what if that was me? What if that is me?
And how does Jesus treat me in my life? Because the truth of the matter is this. We all deal with what this woman dealt with, with shame. Having things in our life that we are ashamed of feel like are not things we want publicly known, don't we? We don't want people to know certain things about our life, what's happened to us, either things bad that have happened to us or things that we've done that we're ashamed of.
We all have those things. And some of us, our worst nightmare is having those things exposed in Front of everyone we know, how will they react? How would the people I know, my workplace, my church, my family, how would they react if they knew these things? This is what this woman was faced with. The only thing we know about her is that she was publicly humiliated for something she'd done.
She was something she would have had shame over, that she was being shamed for. It's our worst nightmare. I was thinking about this. I'm gonna be very authentic and vulnerable with you right now.
I don't like using public toilets. I don't like using airplane toilets because they're dirty. And it's. I don't like it, and I don't like to be in public doing this. And it's like.
Think one day I was years ago, I was. I was on a plane, I was on a missions trip, and I was coming back home with another pastor. And I got on the plane and we were in the Singapore airport, and I thought, before we get on the plane, I'm gonna have some dinner. And so I did. I had a fish curry.
It's the one and only time I've done that in my life. I was like, we'll be right. It's gonna be fine. I wasn't fine. I got on that plane and a few hours in, my stomach starts going.
It's like, just pain and this is not good. And something's gone wrong. And I'm like, just hold on, just hold on, hold on. It's gonna be okay. We're not using the toilet.
Hold on. And I did hold, and I was. It was very, like, I was very self controlled. I thought, I'm gonna make it. And then I got to the point where I went, I'm not gonna make it.
I am not gonna make it. Who's been there? Who's been there? I told you, it's vulnerable. I said, I'm not gonna make this.
And I went to the toilet and I. I timed it wrong, though. I timed it wrong because I went to the toilet. But as. And I'm there in the loo as the light comes on, saying, back to your seat.
Seat belts on. We're coming in for landing. And I'm like, something's landing, but it's not. So I was like, I'm not. I can't move off this toilet right now.
And so I'm there and I'm like going, oh, my gosh, I'm in panic mode now because I'm like, the light's on, the pilot's going, can everyone please go back your seats we're going to be landing in a few minutes. I'm like, I'm just going to sit here and pretend like no one's going to know. I'll just be in the toilet. But they did know because the light's on. And so before you know it, the air hostesses are coming knocking on the door, knocking on the door.
Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir. We need to go back to your seat. I'm like, yes, yes, I will. Yes, I will.
And somehow I managed to get myself together and get back to my seat, and I open the toilet door, and I had to make the walk of shame. The walk of shame, which is, yes, something's gone wrong in here. And I have been. The air height have forced me back to my seat, and I had to walk down. And I was like, this is the most.
I love privacy, right? I love hygiene. I love all the. And I go, they know something. I'm in front of all these strangers.
And I had to sit in my seat. And then I had to pray, and I had to ask God, I've prayed really hard. And I said, lord, help me. Help me, until we get to the airport. And he did.
And I got there, and there was another pastor, and thank God the other pastor had gone to another seat, had, like, three seats free. And, you know, to this day, this is like 15 years ago or more than that, to this day, I don't know whether he knows that I had food poisoning and that I was. And I was the guy that was forced back to their seat because he never said a word. We got to the airport, we walked together. I was just, like, smiling, like everything was okay.
And as soon as I saw a toilet, I said, I'm just gonna go to the toilet right now. And we never spoke of it again. He never. I don't know whether he knows. And he just didn't say anything.
I've never said anything. And I go. Because it was a shameful moment. And I go, I don't want to. And now I've told you all, because it's years later.
All right, but these are the moments, aren't they? When we go, I don't want to be exposed. I don't want to be exposed in this embarrassing moment. And that, for me, was like, okay, we'll just get over it and let's forget about it. But you know what?
Some of us, probably all of us have got moments and things that have been in our lives that we are ashamed of that we don't want anyone to know about. That that we go, either we think we did something wrong, someone's done something wrong against us, and it hurts. And we try and say, I don't want anyone to know, I want to cover it up, I'm not going to talk about that, I'm not going to ever deal with that. And this woman, I'm sure, did not want this. She was exposed against her will in the middle of a crowd for the purpose of shaming her.
And they were actually trying to get at Jesus, but they just used her. And I want us to talk today about what does Jesus do with our shame? What does he do when we're exposed? What does he do when we get to the point where the worst thing about us is revealed? The thing we don't want to ever face again, the thing that we feel guilty over, shame filled over, what does Jesus do?
And we're going to go through this because he's a process that Jesus goes through that he wants to do in your life and my life that'll change our lives if we understand it. And so I want to look through that and talk about that today. I've got four things that happen through this story that I think will help you. If you're dealing with shame, if you're dealing with sin and guilt and pain, God wants to heal you. He's got a plan for you.
We know that, don't we, about Jesus Christ. The truth of the matter is we need to understand the process. It doesn't just happen. If you don't understand the process, if you don't understand exactly what Jesus wants to do and how he's gonna do it, then you stay with that guilt and that shame over your whole life. And you can dress nice, you can talk nice, you can get on with life, but it stays with you.
Jesus wants to heal it. He wants to free you of it. He wants to set you free. This is how he does it. The first thing that we learn about shame and how Jesus deals with it is that shame must be confronted.
Shame must be confronted. In this particular case, it's interesting. These religious teachers and Pharisees, they were not doing the right thing. They wanted to use someone and they exposed her. They confronted her shameful life.
Whatever had led to this point, they didn't get the man. They just thought, we use her. They were doing the wrong thing, even in that, and they exposed her. Jesus won't do that to you. Can I say that?
He won't expose you to shame you and make a public disgrace of you. He won't do that. But do you know what he will do and needs to do if he's going to deal with our shame? He needs to confront it. If we keep it buried, then we can never allow God to bring healing.
And so what it's interesting in this case, you know what Jesus didn't do? He didn't grab this woman and go, disciples, quickly get her out the way. Come on, quick. What they're doing is wrong. And let's go.
He stayed in that place. He stayed there with that woman, knowing that she was having her shame, confronted this terrible thing in that society. And actually the penalty was death. And their law, under Jewish law, the penalty for adultery was death. It was actually death for both the people, but they just exposed the woman.
And so this was a serious thing, but Jesus allowed it to be confronted. You know, in your life that there's only one way to deal with shame and guilt. It has to be confronted. It has to be looked at not in a shameful way, not in an exposing way, but in a way that says, I'm going to get real. I'm going to get real with what has actually happened to me and what I've done.
And I will tell you this, there's a difference between guilt and shame. Guilt is a sense of, oh, I've done something wrong, I've done something wrong. It might be a behavior, might be an action, it might be something that you do. I feel guilty about that. And sometimes it's very valid, you know, if you do the wrong thing, you should feel guilty about it, you know, and it's like, oh, I am guilty.
Guilt is about something you've done wrong. Shame is this sense of, I am wrong, I am wrong. Shame is a broad sense. It's a terrible, terrible emotion. It's a terrible place to be where we feel like something is wrong with us.
Not, I've done something wrong. That's guilt. Shame is I am wrong. And people have been abused and gone through that. This is something that they carry.
Something's happened. And then there's this sense that people go through life feeling, there's something wrong with me. Not something wrong happened to me, but there's a sense of something. And that that's a long process to be healed. And I want to tell you this, Jesus Christ wants to bring healing, but he will, in a time in your life, he will confront the shame and the guilt and the pain that we feel, not in a way that hurts you, but in a way that brings healing to your life.
You know what they were this woman Here they were actually. He was in the temp. Jesus was in the temple. And there was a process that they would follow if someone was accused. They would take them to the chamber of human stone, the chamber of hewn stone in the temple area, and they would go before the Sanhedrin.
It was a Jewish religious council that would decide whether someone was guilty or not. And they would have people that would come and testify against someone, and they would be decide whether those people were false witnesses or true witnesses. And then they would make a judgment and they would decide what punishment would be given. And so what's happened here is before they've taken this woman to the chamber of hewn stone, before the Sanhedrin, they've actually bypassed that and gone. We're gonna now use this woman.
Instead of going through the proper channels, we're gonna take her to Jesus and try and find Jesus out. It actually says here they were trying to catch Jesus out. They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him. And so they were doing it. But there was a process.
And so that's why people weren't shocked that this woman was being accused, because she was supposed to go here and have this confronted. I want to tell you the best person to confront your shame and pain and guilt is Jesus Christ. I would rather him open my heart up and know everything about my life than anyone else because he knows how to handle it. Are you going to let Jesus confront your shame? That's the first thing that happens.
And then Jesus does something here that is interesting. They bring this woman forward and it says here, where is it he just. What does he do? Jesus stoops down in verse six and wrote in the dust with his finger. And they kept demanding an answer.
So he stood up again and said, all right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone. And then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. Isn't that interesting? He says, let the one who's never sinned cast the first stone. Do you know what Jesus was showing us there?
Did it brilliantly to these religious figures. Some people think they're higher than thou. They think they're better than others. They think, oh, I'm not a sinner because I didn't commit adultery, and I didn't do this and I didn't do that. You know what Jesus shows in that moment?
We all have shame in common. We've all done wrong. We've all got guilt. And we all carry shame about feeling like we're not good enough. And we don't measure up.
And he confronted them with that and said, okay, you want to judge this woman? You want to put her to death? You want to throw a stone at her? He was without sin. He who has no guilt, who has no shame, you come and cast the first stone.
And this is a beautiful thing that Jesus shows us because he says, shame isolates you. This woman was feeling like she was the only one who'd done something wrong. She'd been caught out, and now she might lose her life over. And she would never recover from the shame and the pain and the guilt of this exposure. And Jesus says, anyone who hasn't sinned, you come.
And they didn't because they all realized we've all done wrong. We're all in the same boat. You know what shame wants to. It wants to isolate you and make you feel like you're the one who's wrong. You're the one who's not good enough.
We're all in it together. This is what I've realized in my life. When I felt low and I felt pained and I felt like, oh, there's something wrong with me, you know, and gone through things kids you go through, parents get divorced. Oh, what's happening? Why is it happening to me?
People go, why me? Why me? Do you know what? There's something wrong. All of us go through things, all of us get hurt.
All of us go through things that are not fair. We're all in the same boat. We all have shame, pain, guilt in common. There's a passage in Jeremiah 17:13 that I want to look at, because why did Jesus write in the sand? Why did he write there?
The truth is, we don't quite know. We're not 100% sure. We don't know. We've got conjecture, we've got ideas, we've got thoughts. And I was reading about this, and someone's put a thought, and I thought, what?
I think it's a valid thought. I think this could have been the thing. But it certainly is in line with what Jesus said. And in Jeremiah 13:17, it says this. O Lord, the hope of Israel.
All who forsake you shall be ashamed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth. And scholars have written that one of the processes that would happen if someone was brought to the place, the chamber of hewn stone, and they were. They were accused, then what would happen is they would write the names of those who were being accused in the ground, in the dust.
And they would write, there wasn't a. It wasn't a long term record. It was a record for the time when the trial was happening before the Sanhedrin. And if you're accused of something, your name would be written down. Go, okay, they've been accused of this, They've been accused of this.
And now we're going to go through a process. And someone, and some scholars have suggested that maybe what Jesus was doing was writing down the names of people who were accused. Maybe he found out the woman's and wrote the name, her name down. Maybe someone else came to get a stone. He said, he who is without sin cast the first stone.
And maybe someone came up thinking, I've got it together. Maybe he wrote their name down in the dust to say, you also are accused of wrongdoing. Jesus knew everything. He knew everyone. He knew what the heart of men and women.
And maybe he was writing names down and reminding them, saying, you know what? Just like you've put this woman on trial. Well, I'm putting you on trial. Judge not, lest you be judged. And maybe Jesus was saying, I don't have to speak words.
I can show you. By our processes, by our systems, he who is without sin cast the first stone. Someone comes forward and they're thinking, does Jesus know what I did? Does Jesus know the thought I had? Does Jesus know that I've stolen from so and so?
Did he know? Maybe the man who'd committed adultery with that woman was right there trying to pretend like he wasn't a part of it. But Jesus knows. Maybe he wrote his name down. I think it's interesting.
Jesus is showing them. Every single one of us has sinned. Every single one of us has had evil done against us. Every single one of us is in the same boat. You want to give shame to someone, you carry it.
And you know what? Sometimes people, to get rid of their own shame, they try and shame others and they try and belittle others. This is human nature. And I want to tell you, if that's happened to you, all right? Jesus will not do that to you.
And what he does is he helps you see, they shame Jesus, didn't they? They shamed Jesus on the cross. He carried our shame. They shamed him. He knew what he was about to go.
He knew that he was going to be the one with his name written down. Innocent, but treated as accused and guilty. Jesus knew the shame and he said, we all have it in common. But I'M going to carry it for you. I want to tell you this.
He understands your shame, and it doesn't stop him from doing what he does next. And so, as Jesus has written maybe people's names in the sand, he certainly told them, if you're without sin, cast the first stone. And everyone from the oldest, because the oldest realized first, they knew that Jesus had them. They knew they had enough wisdom and they walked away. And then eventually the youngest went, oh, you know, sometimes they take a while to get sorry, no offense.
Sometimes when we're young, we can think, I've got it all together. I'm righteous, I'm good. Then you realize over time, actually, I got some issues, too. I got some stuff. And that's what happened here.
The oldest left, and then they followed their lead. And then the youngest left and walked away, saying, you've got us, Jesus. And this is what he says in verse 10. He looks at the woman, imagine if this was you. Imagine if you'd been exposed and treated like this by others around you.
Some of us have been. Some of us have been treated poorly and accused and treated with shame. Then Jesus looks at this woman, says in verse 10, then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, Lord, she said.
And Jesus said, neither do I. I want to tell you this. This is the process. He will confront your shame. He will show you that actually we all have shame in common.
Every human being you've ever met. It's a sickness that is within us. It's something that we can't help. We have all sinned. We all fall short.
We all carry shame within us. And then he says, neither do I. And then what he does is he cancels our shame. He cancels it. Do you realize this?
I love this. Because he says, neither do I. And some of the people there, they didn't realize what was going on. John. John does.
Because it wasn't just a man saying, well, I won't condemn you either. That's a nice thing, all right, to come alongside. So other people have said, well, I won't condemn it because I'm going to walk away because I've got sin, too. All right, we can all do that for one another. Hey, I forgive you.
Hey, I'm not going to judge you. I'll let you go. That's nice. That's a nice thing. This wasn't just a man canceling shame.
This was the Son of God. This was the creator of the universe. This Was. Do you realize the power of that moment? That God himself looks in the eyes of that woman in the middle of her shame and guilt and exposure and says, neither do I.
That God himself cancels your shame and your sin and your pain? And he said, I set you free. When God cancels your shame, there is no one that can shame you again. This is the power of Christianity. Do you realize that?
Do you realize what you hold? That when Jesus Christ has forgiven you, you are forgiven, someone else can accuse you. It holds no weight unless you let it hold weight, unless we haven't had the full revelation that when God forgives me, I am forgiven. When God cancels shame, it's done. Do you realize that?
Your past forgiven when you come to the Lord, she called him Lord. She acknowledged, you're the one. And he said, well, I cancel your shame. You're forgiven. It's gone.
He did the same thing to the man on the cross. He was being killed for a crime he had committed. And he said, lord, remember me. Jesus said, you'll be with me today in paradise. I cancel your shame.
Have you had your shame cancelled? Do you realize? Did you realize, do you realize that Jesus Christ wants to cancel your shame and guilt and pain forever? It's not just a word. It's not just a nice little Christianese saying.
It is the power of the gospel. It is the power to change your life. It is the reason I follow Christ. It is the reason that Christianity has exploded across the globe. Because the power of the name and the word of Jesus Christ changes lives forever.
Yeah. Amen.
Have you had your shame cancelled? Because that verse talks about those who have forsaken me have their names written in the ground. This is the next verse. Jeremiah 17:14. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.
Save me and I shall be saved. For you are my praise. If God says you're forgiven, you're forgiven. If God cancels your shame, it's done. And you know what I'd like to see?
I'd like to see more of us living in that truth. Because some of us have to forgive ourselves. Some of us have to let go of the shame in ourselves. You're not wrong anymore. There's nothing wrong with you because Christ has forgiven you and he's made you a new person.
When you got water baptized, and some of you, many of us have been water baptized. If you haven't, you can do it. And we got it coming up in the next little time. It's a sign of what's happening inside that I'VE died to my old self and the old shame. And I rise up a new creation.
Jesus Christ has made me new. Shame is cancelled. I was thinking about this, and I thought, what's an illustration of this? And I thought of my dog, Ollie.
And when you have a dog, they take over your lives, don't they? In a nice way, most of the time. And I remembered my dog, and I went, my dog, Ollie. Our dog Ollie. Ella's dog Ollie.
Narelle's dog, Ollie. He doesn't do everything right. He barks when he shouldn't. Sometimes he pees on every tree and mound he can find on his walk. Sometimes we have to stop him going to pee on something he shouldn't be.
And, like, he's not always completely well behaved. But you know what he doesn't have? He doesn't have shame about it.
I mean, sometimes I've told him off really badly, and I've told you this before. I've told him off, and he just looks at me and I think it's a smile on his face, and he's wagging his tail going, I know you love me, Adrian. I know you love me. And you know what I realized about dogs? Some of us, we've seen dogs that do carry shame, don't we?
Because dogs can carry shame. Do you know when a dog carries shame? When it's been treated like garbage by its owner? When it's been abused, when it's been hurt, when it's been told it's a good for nothing. When it's been treated with disdain and a dog can hang its head and it doesn't wag its tail and it's scared around others, and it can be aggressive.
And all these things can happen because a dog can carry this knowledge of, I'm not good. I'm not good. Because if its owner treats her badly, and I'd look at a bunch of us, and I know we've got dogs we love. All right, Your dog loves you, don't you? Your dogs are happy dogs.
Do you know why? Because you love them and they know you love them. Man alive, Ollie. He sees us, and it's like he gets 5,000 pats a day. He gets the most affection of anyone in our household, and he wants more.
Whenever we come home, he goes to each member of the household. He goes to Narelle, she gets a patient, and Ella gets a pat. And then he comes to me, gets a pat, and he's all happy. And it's like. Then he gets the ball, and he's all right.
Comes and drops it at your feet. He's like, right, play with me. And we do. And it's like, yes, we'll give you whatever you want. And he realizes, you know what?
He realizes you guys love me. And when he knows he's loved, shame is a non event for his life. He does something wrong, he's like, yeah, I'm loved. I'm loved. I go.
He looks at me. They always choose these King Charles cavaliers, males. They choose, like, one person in the household that they. They come alongside. And.
And I didn't. I didn't want him the most of everyone in the house. And so obviously, he's chosen me. All right? He follows me everywhere.
And you know what? He's won me over, right? I'm like, ollie, you're the best. You're a champion. You're a good boy.
And his tail's wagging and he's smiling and he's like. And I go, he's a shameless dog. He's a shameless dog because he knows he's loved, and he gives love in return. And you know what? Someone can put him down.
He doesn't care if you come to my house and you tell him there's a load of garbage. He'd go, I couldn't care less what you think of me. I don't care what you think. As my owner, he loves me. And I want to tell you this, all right?
You know where I'm going. All right? Our owner, our creator, our God, he loves you, and he has told you, and he has shown that. And he says, I love you. I accept you.
I die for you. If your creator says, I love you, why would you carry shame? Shame is cancelled. Your shame, your pain, your guilt. Do you know what God says?
He says, I love you. You're forgiven. I love you. You're forgiven. Yeah, but you don't know God.
If you only knew. And you know what he says to you? I do know. I already knew. Before you even did the thing, and before the thing even happened to you, I already knew.
And I love you and I accept you. Imagine if you walked around life knowing that your creator loves you with all his heart, and he will never reject you and he will accept you. Someone can say something. I don't care what you say. I mean, it does hurt a bit.
I got someone who loves me more. You don't understand. He's accepted me. He knows more about me than any of you guys. You know what I love about God?
I go, I love. Love is good. You guys are so encouraging, and we are an encouraging church, and that's beautiful. It's nice. But do you know what?
If I rely on your encouragement, one day someone's gonna come and say, and I'm gonna, oh, now I'm gonna. I've got someone greater than all of you guys in my life. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's my heavenly Father, it's the Holy Spirit of God. And I know he loves me.
And he knows more about me than any of us. More than my dad, more than my wife, more than my daughter, more than any of us here. He knows more about me than myself, and he's accepted me. And he said, you, shame is canceled, Adrian, you don't have to live feeling like you're not good enough, feeling like you've done something wrong. I do not condemn you.
Have you accepted that? Have you accepted your creator owner canceling your shame? And therefore, if we were dogs, we'd be walking around, smiles wagging, wagging our tails, going, hey, how you going? And if someone says, I don't want to. I don't want to pat you.
Ollie doesn't care. He's just like, oh, well, go to the next person. I'll go to the next person. Or he'll just come back to me and going, do you love me? I'm like, I love you, mate.
You're a champion. He's like, I knew it. I knew it. That's what God's like. When someone rejects you at work, when you've had an argument with your spouse, go to the Lord.
Do you love me, God? Because I feel like a loser. He's like, you know I love you. You know I accept you. Thank you, God.
I needed that. I needed that. Your shame is cancelled. Someone abused you. Someone's hurt you.
Someone's done deep damage to you. Right? It's not fair. It's not right. I want to tell you God loves you and accepts you.
He loves you and accepts you. And he says, I'm going to cancel that shame. You are not that person. You are not the abuse that happened to you. You are my son.
You are my daughter. You are greater than that. Will you receive it? Will you accept it? Is this verse in Colossians 2, verse 13?
And get the band to come on up. Colossians 2:13. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away, then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He cancelled the record of the charges against us. And Took it away by nailing it to the cross in this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities.
He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. I don't have time to get into it. But you know what? God doesn't just cancel your shame. He shames the very evil that's tried to shame you.
He takes the shame, the people, the evil that's tried to rip you off and destroy your life. He makes a mockery of it and makes you clean and whole. That's the Jesus I serve. Have you had your shame, your guilt, your pain cancelled by the blood and love of Jesus Christ? The last thing that happens, he says to this woman, And Jesus said, neither do I go and sin no more.
I want to tell you this about that. That is not just a command, it's a commissioning. Sometimes we look at that and God says, I forgive you, but you better not do it again or you watch out. That's how we treat God, isn't it? You better watch.
And then we do something and we're going, oh, no, God. Or if it's all God's God, all the shame comes back and all the pain and all the, oh, God rejects me. Something goes wrong in our life and we think God's punishing me because he's rejected me, because I'm bad. Christians do that, don't we? Something goes wrong and you go, it's not just God's disciplining me or he's correcting me, so I come.
It's like God's punishing me because I'm bad. And that is a lie. That is not what he's saying here. Neither do I. Go and see no more.
You know what he's saying? He's saying, I'm freeing you so you can change course. That's what Jesus does. He helps you to change course. He helps you to repent.
Is just a change of direction. It's a change of direction. It's saying, I once was lost, but now I'm found. And he says to this woman, is no one else gonna condemn you? Well, neither does God.
You're free. You're free of sin. You're free. Whatever reason you were committing adultery in that moment, we don't even know. Maybe she was caught up in trafficking and sexual slavery.
We don't know the situation of this woman. Maybe she felt like she had no choice because of the power of this person. We don't know what was going on, why she made that choice. Jesus comes and says, you don't have to make that choice anymore. You're free to sin no more.
Not out of a, oh, I better not. I'm in a straight jacket now. Some people look at sin, don't sin. Oh, I'm in a straight jacket. Nah, nah, he's setting you free from the straight jacket.
Sin is the straight jacket. Sin is the thing that controls you. Sin is the thing we use to try and cover our shame so we don't feel pain, so we can enjoy. Oh, I can enjoy life, you know, go clubbing. I'm going to go do this.
I'm going to go, whatever it is. I'm going to take some drugs. It's all. I'm going to try and enjoy life because without that stuff, it's, I don't know if I can enjoy life and be happy. And Jesus says, can I set you free of that stuff?
That looks enticing, but actually it can wreck your life. It will wreck your life. He says, go and sin no more. You're free. Change course.
Isn't that what Jesus has done to us? He says, hey, go and sin no more. Change course. And so we still struggle. But you come back to the Lord and you say, God, will you help me see with your eyes?
Will you help relieve and cancel my shame so I can be free to be the person I'm called to be so I can love others freely, so I can step into my destiny? Don't you want young people? Don't you want to. Come on. It's not uncool and religious to serve Jesus with all your heart.
It's the best thing you can do with your life. And the devil wants to tie you up with shame and with pain and with sin and make other choices and he wants to hurt you and go, I blame them. I blame them. Jesus wants to set you free. Say you're free to be everything I've called you to be, to be the man or woman of God.
Shame cancelled. This is Christianity. And it doesn't matter how long and how far in life you've gone. This message is for you. Today he helps you to change course.
Now he commissions you live differently.
We don't know what choice this woman made doesn't tell us. I think John left it that way because he wanted us to read it and go, what will you do? Jesus has cancelled your shame. He's cancelled John's shame. What will we do?
Will you go and sin no more? Will you change course? Will you live a life for Christ? I was thinking about this and I thought of a person I've seen grown up grow up in Australia come a mighty woman of God, a woman named Christine Caine. And she tells a story.
She got saved as a young person in a church, but before then she'd been abused, sexually abused by family. External family members carried a lot of shame. She was a strong person. She was like, I'm pushing through and I'm not putting up with rubbish. But some of it was a bravado.
To cover her pain, she came into a church and a youth ministry and she gave a lot to Jesus. She realized Jesus comes and forgives and he heals and he restores. And she went on a journey and she ended up becoming a Youth Alive director and speaking in front of thousands and sharing her testimony and making a big difference and doing all that. But you know what she does now? I thought it's so fitting, it's so powerful.
Her and her husband, they started a organization called A21. It's an organization that has its aim to stop human trafficking across the world. Those who are caught in sexual slavery and all kinds of trafficking and it's sort of modern day slavery now in different parts of the world. And it's horrific, but people are affected by it. And most of the time it's people who've been abused or people that have got shame or enticed and tricked into things.
And she's set as her goal in life to set as many of those people free and tell them you're loved and God loves you and he's got a plan for your life and you don't have to live that way and you can be set free of that. And I went, isn't that amazing that someone that came from a place where they were abused, they were hurt, they were diminished, found the Lord Jesus and now with her life, say, I want to set other people free and say, this is your life, this is is what you can be. And I want to tell you that is true for every single one of us. There are not more worthy Christians and less worthy Christians and less worthy people. All of us need the grace and the love of Jesus Christ.
When Grace forgot to tell you the title, when grace silences shame, Jesus didn't have to say much. Can I tell you that shame is a very loud voice? Shame is a very loud voice. Jesus didn't have to say much to silence it. He said a few words, neither do I go and sin no more.
Do you know what else he did? He let himself be shame for us. He said it with action. Because the grace of God is More powerful than any shame that any human being can ever catch. All the billions of human beings, grace is more powerful.
Grace will silence your shame. The love of Jesus Christ. Have you let the love of the Lord flow through you? This woman stood there and you know what she encountered hatred used by others, judging. And then she met a man who said, I love you.
I love you. Here's another path. Have you let the grace and the love of the Lord flow over your heart and bring healing to your shame? Have you let it humble you and let him confront it and say, I heal you, I forgive you. Because when you do, you will be changed.
And he will use you to change others lives, your family, generations, everywhere you go. Isn't that what we want?
When grace silences shame, that's what Jesus does. He takes our shame and he cancels it forever. And he sets us free to live a different life. Isaiah 60:1, verse 7 says this. Then we're going to pray.
Instead of shame and dishonour, you will enjoy a double share of honour. You will possess a double portion of prosperity in your land and everlasting joy will be yours. That was spoken to the Israel people thousands of years ago. But it is true for us today. Instead of shame and dishonour, I give you a double portion of honour.
I make you worthy through the Lord Jesus Christ. Who's had their shame forgiven, who's had their shame cancelled. Who needs to celebrate that? Some of us in this place. We need to receive the love of God and say, God, I open my heart.
I've been carrying shame, I've been carrying pain. But Lord, I'm gonna allow you to come and bring healing to my heart and life. And if you want to. Now, pastors across our churches, if you want to take over and pray with people before you finish, that's fine, you can do that. You can keep watching if you want.
But if you want to come and minister to people and pray with them right now, then I welcome you to do that. We love you. We're gonna pray here today.
There's people here and I pray and I hope that God has maybe in a gentle, hopefully a gentle way, confronted the deep parts of your heart and said, I love you and I make you worthy and there's a new life for you, that you don't have to be contained by that. Can we bow our heads and close our eyes?
I want you to think about it for a minute. What if that was you? What if that was you in the middle of that crowd?
How would you respond if Jesus Said what he said to you, maybe you'd be like the woman with the jar of perfume that pours it out on his feet. Jesus, I love you. Thank you. I receive it. I receive it.
Maybe you cry. Maybe you'd go, God, I have to think about what this means. God, I'm gonna follow you for the rest of my days. Because, God, you got a deeper work to do in my life.
Holy Spirit, we're going to say a prayer together. And maybe it's time to accept the grace and the love of Jesus in your heart. Maybe you've never done that. Maybe you've been away from God and you've been living in that shame and that pain, maybe that guilt, maybe you just haven't been thinking about it. But you say, jesus, I need you.
I've been confronted and I need you. Jesus, I'm giving my life to you today. Can we say a prayer all together? I want you to say this to the Lord, dear Lord Jesus, I want you to come and heal me today.
I believe in you. You're the son of God. You died on the cross for my sin and you rose again from the dead. Forgive me, Jesus. Cancel my shame.
Be my Lord and my Savior. I will follow you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen.
Thank you, Lord.
I'll tell you this. When you give your life to Christ, it's done. Do you realize that? It's done. And everything else you do from here on in is about knowing him more.
Don't you want to know, can I tell a Christian, new Christian, when Jesus has cancelled your shame, I want to know that person more. I don't want to just say a little prayer and then go live my life. That's silly. All right, that's dumb. All right.
Jesus hasn't come to say a little prayer and then get on with your life the way you were living it. He wants to be intimately involved in your life because you know what he needs to do. The Holy Spirit needs to keep speaking to you and keep telling you, saying, hey, I've saved you. I've changed you. There's more in you.
Come on, change course. I'm going to transform your life. I'm going to love you like no one else has loved you. That's what we're going to do. And at the end of the service, we got near the bookshop, we got some Bibles.
If you said that prayer and you said, I gave my life to Jesus for the first time and to rededicate, I want you to go over there, we got A Bible we want to give you. It's going to help you with your walk with Christ and some of us. I want us to join up for the Alpha course because I want you to develop your relationship with Jesus to say, I'm serious about this. I'm going to follow this man who's changing my life day by day.
The rest of us, this is what we're going to do. We're going to sing and we're going to invite the Lord to say, lord, thank you, that you've cancelled my shame. You've still got some work to do on me. And whatever you need to do, maybe you need to lift out your hands. Maybe you need to surrender again.
Maybe you need to put your trust in him. Maybe you need to ask the Holy Spirit saying, God, I need healing for things that have happened to me. Let him come and minister to you. Come on, why don't we stand right now?
Thank you, Jesus, Lamb of God, anointed one who was and is and is to come seated on the throne above Holy, Holy righteous One who shed his blood to prove to us the Father, Son, Jesus Christ. Be lifted up. Holy, holy Lamb of God, anointed one who was and is and is to come seated on the throne above Holy, holy righteous one who shapes blood to prove to us the Father's love, Jesus Christ, be lifted up. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy?
There is no one holy. You, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one.
Only you, Jesus. Keep your eyes closed for a minute. This is what we're going to do. This is what I feel. The Holy Spirit, the last point I made was that he helps you change course.
And I sense the Holy Spirit speaking to some people, people challenging some people saying, I'm giving you the same invitation. It's time to change course. Shame and old life doesn't need to have its hold on you anymore. You can be set free. You can live a fresh new life in Christ that will revolutionize you and everyone around you.
It is a miracle. You can. It seems too good to be true, Adrian. It is too good in the natural. But Jesus Christ has overcome the natural.
He has done. It's a miracle of God. And if you say God, I received that miracle and I'm going to step into that miracle. I'm going to walk from this place and I'm going to live a different life. I'm going to follow you, God.
I'm going to make a difference in life. I'm not going to be shame filled anymore. I'm going to be spirit filled. And he, here's what I want you. I want you to lift your hand up, maybe both your hands.
You want to lift it to the Lord and say, God, that's me. That's me, Lord God, it's a new life, It's a new change. God, you're stirring me. God, there's fresh faith. Some of us have stepped back, but God's saying, come on, there's more, there's more.
Shame will not be your master. Sin will not be your master. The Lord Jesus Christ is your master. And he's a good one. He's an all loving one one, he's an empowering one.
He is the spirit of the living God, filling your heart with his life. And in him all things are possible. In him I shall overcome. And all over this place, Lord, I'm praying for men and women of God who say it's time to change course and rise up and be the mighty man or woman of God. Forgiven, saved, restored, change, shame canceled.
Spirit filled. Walking in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. In victory and authority. And I take dominion right now over every attack of the enemy, over every person who's been shamed in this life.
And Holy Spirit of God, we declare freedom in the name of Jesus Christ. Freedom in your name, Jesus. Free indeed.
Those whom the Lord has set free, my friends, are free indeed. You can't be any freer when the Lord Jesus Christ has set you free. Free of shame, free of pain, free of attack, free of racism, free of abuse in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm a different person because the Lord's accepted me. And I declare that over your people in the name of Jesus Christ.
Everybody says amen. Come on, let's give the Lord Jesus a thanks, an honor, a praise in the house. Let's sing it.
Lamb of God, God, anointed one seated on the throne above. Holy, holy, righteous one who change his Son, who prove to us the Father's love Jesus Christ be lifted up. Come on, cat. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy?
There is no one. Only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one holy.
You, Jesus.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.
Oh God, bless your people as they go today. Let us be spirit filled, shameless people. God, because we've got the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and his grace flowing through our hearts. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. God bless you. We love you. Have a great week. We'll see you again soon.