Good Morning Everyone!
As most of you are aware, we have been talking about the new series
A Path To Freedom
And what an overwhelming response ..
God is good always! All ways God is good!
Amen
Dear Heavenly Father,
We thank you for Your Word. We thank You for the great measure of Your love and for the redemptive power of Your grace.
We praise You Lord, for those who are coming to know Christ, through this series, for those who are growing deeper in their faith, and for those are for the first time, experiencing Your peace!
As we worship today O Lord, open our hearts, quench our thirsts, feed our hunger for You. Fill the dark, lonely and void places in our lives with Your Holy Spirit. Reach down and touch the heart of every person under the sound of my voice today Lord..
In the name of Jesus
Amen
Today's message is called A Path To Freedom: Coming Clean
I'm sure most of you have heard of Barbara Streisand….
She is a well known
singer, most every knows that.
She is also an esteemed actress, probably less are aware of that..
But most of you probably do not know that she struggles with severe stage
fright….
You would never know it, but she is afraid that she won’t sing
well and that when she goes out on stage that she won’t do as well as
people say and that everybody will find out….
This stems from an internal
fear and an insecurity….. which stems off from an internal guilt… always
worried, what if somebody finds out… they may reject me…. this hurts
confidence… so let's deal with the critical reason for this step of
coming clean….. guilt!
Guilt is the reason we must come clean when necessary!
Sir
Author Conandole wrote the Sherlock Holmes books…
He was somewhat of a
prankster and he wrote a letter to play a trick on some friends one
day…. he took 5 of the most prominent men in his city of London and wrote
this letter that he did not sign… it simply said, ‘all is found out,
flee at once.”
Within 24 hours all 5 of them had left the
country!….
This by the way, is a true story.
It's sort of like being high on
dope and being near a cop and you know that he knows that you are
high…. or at least you think he knows, but guilt is such a loud emotion….
You think
he must know. He has to know!
Emotions are so powerful!
Say that with me,
Emotions are so powerful!
We tend to think that
either everybody is feeling what we are feeling… Or no one feels like we feel.
Either way, it's just not true!
But bad emotions
can make us so miserable that we need to deal with them in our own
lives.
So guilt is a powerful emotion…..and we are talking about the path to freedom.
The English definition of guilt is remorseful awareness of having done something wrong.
Guilt causes us to hide from God, like Adam and Eve.
Guilt causes us to flee and run.
"Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
Genesis 3:7-10
Guilt destroys confidence.
Guilt damages our relationships.
Sometimes when parents feel guilty for neglecting time
spent with their kids they will try and make up for it by buying the
kids an excessive amount of material things that will never be able to
make up for the neglect… but guilt is a powerful emotion and it causes
people to behave in peculiar ways.
When people have sex
before marriage they carry the guilt of that into the marriage and it
has a negative effect upon the relationship.
Guilt keeps us stuck in the past.
Guilt is like trying to drive your car while looking in the rear view
mirror…. it is necessary to glance at it on occasion, but if you try to keep your
eyes only on that rear view mirror, you will surely crash!
Now, that is what happens
when we try to live our lives always looking in the past mirror of
guilt…. that is why we are doing this lesson, so that we can all know why
it is so important to come clean with God and how to accomplish that
goal of coming clean with God.
Guilt is so powerful that it can actually make a person physically sick.
How many of you already know that reality?
Let's look at the Word of God.
"He who covers his sins will not prosper,
But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy."
Proverbs 28:13
Pastor Brian's amplified version:
If we try to cover our mistakes, they'll be back to bite us!
But if we'll just be honest about them, confess them, we will be shown mercy.
So, how do you do this?
You have to begin with taking a personal moral inventory!
And I will tell you from my own experience, it takes great courage to go through this step….
Church, many people don’t have courage
because they don’t have any fear…
Everybody fights fear, but courage and
bravery is acting and doing the right thing in spite of their fear and
anxiety.
First this means to get alone with God, take a pencil
and a notepad and ask God, search me and tell me what I need to fix in
my life….
Its just you and God, but if you really do this…
It will make a
difference.
Write down things such as: what am I feeling guilty
about… ask God to bring some things to your mind… what are some things I
feel unconsciously guilty about…
things I am not even aware of….
We don’t
realize that much guilt comes from stuff that happened a long time ago. Things we thought we had long put behind us, we pushed it down, deep inside, but never really dealt with.
But I can assure you, it will rare its ugly head when you least expect it..
"Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the Lord;
Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.
We have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned."
Lamentations 3:40-42
"You are my portion, O Lord;
I have said that I would keep Your words.
I entreated Your favor with my whole heart;
Be merciful to me according to Your word.
I thought about my ways,
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.
I made haste, and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.
The cords of the wicked have bound me,
But I have not forgotten Your law."
Psalm 119:57-61
"Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting."
Psalm 139:23-24
In closing....
Do you and I have the courage to say to quote that verse to God, or
to say something similar to it to Him?
Can we be open and honest enough with
Him to allow His love to really have a no holds barred view of the
internal condition of our soul? We all claim to want that kind of relationship, here's your chance!
But can we be that honest with someone else?
Ourselves?
It takes some sincerity, but I promise
if you will do this that you will come back more free than
you are right now….
I have put this into practice in my own life and I can honestly say that it has delivered my own soul out of many snares.
But I will tell you, it takes real courage...
Because most of do not really want to know the things we need to "fix" within us, but man, we sure are quick to point out what every one else needs to "fix" about themselves!
Isn't that true...
Well, in order to be restored, we must first be broken down..
You know, like when you restore an older home or kitchen to make it more beautiful. You have got to gut it out to the bare studs and start from scratch...
If you'll take the time and energy to do that, isn't your peace of mind worth more than a kitchen?
Now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord life up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries