Not Ashamed
As followers of Jesus we have a sacred assignment to pass on our faith from one generation to the next.
But for that to happen, we have to talk about one of the biggest problems we face. One of the greatest obstacles we have to overcome if we are ever going to be able to pass on what we believe to future generations. We have to talk about…
SHAME.
What is it about you that, if people knew what you knew about you, you would be afraid that they would reject you? What are you ashamed of?
When I was in high school I was a part of the chorus. I grew up in Montgomery, AL and I went to Alabama Christian Academy. My father was a Bible Teacher and the Chorus Director at the high school.
Every spring, he would line up churches for us to go and sing at, mostly on Sunday nights. This is back in the day when we had Sunday night church. Some of you remember those days.
One Sunday, we were scheduled to sing at the Hunter Station Church of Christ outside of Montgomery for their Homecoming celebration. It was a big day in the life of this church. They had a big Sunday morning planned with a potluck lunch afterward.
Me and all my friends, we loaded up at the potluck. Fried chicken and every casserole you could imagine! We ate like kings.
After lunch everyone gathered back in the Auditorium to hear the chorus sing. One problem, the air conditioning had gone out. It had stopped working.
It’s getting close to summer. It’s about 2pm in the afternoon. The auditorium is packed with people. All of us in the chorus are wearing our black suits and dresses. It’s about 200 degrees in that room as we’re getting ready to sing.
We all take our places on the risers and my dad gives us the first note and we start singing. I’m on the top row. Everyone is sweating. All the church ladies have their fans going. We keep singing. And singing.
I don’t know which song it was, maybe the third or fourth song… when all of a sudden the room starts going dim. I don’t know if someone leaned on the light switch or what is happening. But the room is definitely getting dim. And then I feel like I’m singing but for some reason I can’t keep up. I don’t know if everyone is speeding up or if I’m slowing down. I begin to wonder if I’m dreaming.
And then… the lights go out!
But no one hit the light switch. And I wasn’t dreaming. I was FAINTING!
I had locked my knees and fainted and now I’m falling on my friends in the middle of this performance. They catch me. Lay me on the stage behind the chorus.
Meanwhile, my dad is still directing like nothing has happened. The show must go on! A doctor from the church runs up to check on me and of course, I’m fine.
But… I’m really embarrassed!
Shamed People Shame People
Have you ever been embarrassed like that?
It’s one thing to be embarrassed, to have done something that maybe you didn’t even mean to do and realize… everybody saw that! They saw you trip and fall. They noticed. And you noticed all eyes were on you and that made you a little uncomfortable.
But it’s a little different to feel shame.
Even more so, to be ashamed.
More often than not we feel shame, we feel ashamed, because of something we’ve done, because of some characteristic we do not like, or because of some association we have that we don’t want others to know about.
We all have secrets we don’t want others to know about. We keep those secrets and we work hard to keep those secrets because of the rejection we anticipate should someone find out the truth about us.
Sometimes we feel shame because of what we’ve done.
Sometimes we feel shame because of what has been done to us.
Either way, the reality is the ways in which we so often judge others is rooted in how harshly we judge ourselves.
You may have heard it said that, “Hurt people hurt people.” This is also true, “Shamed people shame people.”
And every time we tell ourselves that we are not enough, that we are not smart enough, tall enough, pretty enough, strong enough, thin enough, funny enough, or whatever it is that we don’t feel we are enough, we have to find a way to cope.
More often that not our way of coping with our own shame is by shaming others. Judging others. Pointing out their not-enoughness so that we don’t have to acknowledge our own shame.
And the worst part… You want to know what the worst part is about the shame we feel? Not only do we cope with our own shame, our own feeling of not-enoughness, by shaming others and pointing out their not-enoughness. We shame God. We blame God. We question God. We point out all the ways in which God is not enough because God hasn’t done what we wanted, hasn’t answered our every wish and desire, hasn’t taken away this or given us that.
Because of that we’ve not only shamed God, if we’re honest, more often than not, we’re ashamed of God. We’re ashamed to talk about God. We’re ashamed to tell others that we’re Christian. Because we don’t have answers to all the hard questions. Because we’re ashamed that Christians have gotten a bad wrap about what we believe.
Good News About Shame
If you’ve ever felt shame, if you’ve ever been ashamed, even if you’ve been ashamed of God, I have some Good News for you today.
God is not ashamed of you. And God doesn’t not want you to feel ashamed. Not only does God wants to take away your shame, He wants you to live unashamed of Him. He wants you to live free, to be bold and courageous, to be brave. He wants you to live into the abundant life that His Son, Jesus Christ, has invited you to live!
And what’s more? He wants this for your children, and your children’s children, and for every generation that comes after us that calls on His name!
Throughout this series we’ve been leaning into the wise words of the elder Apostle Paul as he writes some of his last words to his son in the faith, a young man by the name of Timothy. And I want you to hear what Paul says to young Timothy in these three verses found in 2 Timothy 1.8-10, NLT.
8 So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord.
Paul knows something that all of us who are older also know. That the older we get the quieter some of us tend to get about our Lord!
But we need all of you who are older in the faith to be bold, full of faith, and unafraid. Strong and courageous.
Everyone is a Paul or a Timothy. It may have less to do with your actual age and more to do with your spiritual maturity. But if you’ve been following Jesus for a long time there’s an expectation for you, like Paul, to be at a point in your life where you have the faith to be bold, unafraid, and ready to tell others about our Lord. Not scared, not ashamed, not faithless, worried, anxious, or afraid.
And we need Timothy’s, those who are younger or younger in the faith, ready to receive this message about Jesus and share it, pass it on, and tell others the Good News about the great love of God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Paul tells Timothy….never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord.
And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News.
In other words, never be ashamed to tell others about Jesus, never be ashamed of me, and never be ashamed of your calling.
Ashamed of the Cross
You may wonder why Paul would even say that. But don’t forget, Jesus died a shameful death on the cross.
The cross was designed to shame people, literally. After being beaten to within an inch of his life, Roman soldiers stripped Jesus, hung him naked on a cross, drove nails into his hands and feet, and then lifted him up for everyone to see. It’s wasn’t just embarrassing, it was shame-full.
Paul says, don’t you dare be ashamed of Jesus. Yes, he died a shameful death. What he actually did in that moment was this… he took all of our shame upon himself. But shame didn’t get the last word. Resurrection did.
Not only was the grave defeated that Sunday morning after the darkest Friday the world has ever known, shame was defeated, too!
Ashamed of Paul
And don’t be ashamed of me either.
Why would Timothy be ashamed of Paul?
Because, Paul was sitting in prison! And prison isn’t something to be proud of, at least not for most people. Prison is something many people are ashamed of. But Paul is in prison precisely because he won’t stop telling people about Jesus!
Ashamed of Your Calling
And then Paul says, don’t you dare be ashamed to suffer with me, like me, for Jesus either. Some of you have had to suffer because of your faith because of where you were born, the family you grew up in, the faith or maybe the lack of faith you grew up with.
But many of us haven’t had to suffer because you’ve enjoyed a life of relative comfort. And that’s a blessing.
But don’t miss this, if you haven’t had to suffer you may need to choose to suffer and not be ashamed to choose to suffer.
Why would you do that? Because there’s a real sense in which the way of Jesus is the way of the cross, it is the way of suffering. As followers of Jesus we are called and invited to live a cross shaped life.
Choosing a Cross Shaped Life
How do you do that? How do you choose to suffer for Christ, with Christ?
There are many ways but let me give you a few examples to think about. We do this…
- By Giving sacrificially.
- By Serving sacrificially.
- By Fasting willingly.
- By Loving unfailingly.
- By Forgiving Purposefully.
- By Sharing Everything.
The Why Behind the What
Why would we choose to suffer? Why should we be unashamed to tell others about the great love of God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord? Because…
9 For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.
Don’t miss that…
God’s grace predated our sin.
God’s grace anticipated our need.
God’s grace proves God’s heart.
10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News.
Unashamed
What if you could live your life unashamed?
What if you were able to be bold in your faith and unafraid to TELL others about Jesus?
In 1992, the Summer Olympic Games were held in Barcelona. Many of you may remember this story.
Derek Redmond was a sprinter for Great Britain and he had his eyes on winning a medal that year. And by all accounts, he probably would have.
In the quarterfinals, he had the fastest time and won the heat. Now he’s racing in the semi-finals. As he approached the half way mark, he felt something. He grabbed the back of his right thigh. Then he FELL TO THE GROUND. He had torn his hamstring in the middle of the race. All his training, all his preparation, all his sacrifice to be ready for this moment all gone in an instant because of an injury.
But then, something happened. Derek didn’t come all this way to stop half way, so he GOT UP. And then he began to hobble and limp his way around the track. He wasn’t going to win this race, but he was going to finish it.
The crowd began cheering as Derek was weeping in pain but making his way as best he could around the track. And then, this happened. Someone emerged from the crowd and was running onto the track. Security was trying to keep this man from coming onto the Olympic course but they couldn’t restrain him, they couldn’t keep him away. It was Derek’s dad. And he was determined to help his son finish this race. And together, they did.
Good News about Great Love
I tell you that story today because many of you feel like Derek trying to run this race called life with faith. You have faith, you believe in God. But you’ve been hurt, you’ve been wounded.
Maybe it’s because of a self inflicted injury or maybe it’s because of something that was done to you. Either way, that wound is the source of deep HURT and even deeper SHAME. And you’re limping through this life as best you can.
And I want to applaud you today. I want you to know that I along with a great cloud of witnesses are cheering you on today because we see you. And although you’re wounded, you’re still moving. You’re still making your way as best you can through this life working your way to the finish line.
You’ve been hurt, or you are hurting. You’ve felt shame, or you are ashamed. But you’re still finding strength to move forward.
But here’s what I want you to know. I’ve got Good News for you today. Because among that great cloud of witnesses cheering you on is your Father in Heaven. But He’s not watching from the sidelines. No, He’s made his way onto the track.
He’s put his shoulder up under your arms. He’s right beside you, walking with you, even carrying you when you don’t have the strength to stand. Any hurt you feel, any pain you have, any shame you’re experiencing, He’s taking that upon Himself.
You may feel shame, you may even be ashamed, but your Father in Heaven is NOT ASHAMED of you!
No! In fact, He loves you. He died for you. He lives for you. He’s here for you. He’s with you. He’s beside you. He’s carrying you. He’s walking with you.
So you can walk and not grow weary. You can run and not grow faint. You can rise up on wings like eagles and you can tell everybody about the great love of God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord because we have a Father who runs to the hurting and the broken. Who takes away our shame so we can tell everybody about our great God who knows everything about us and loves us just the same.
You see… Shame is not the headline of your story, the headline of your story is the Savior’s Love.
So never be ashamed to tell someone what the Lord has done for you.
What if we lived unashamed?
We can, and we will, when we understand just how much God our Father loves us.
He loves us so much there’s nothing we could ever do that would make Him love us less. That’s because His love for us is perfect. Unending. Unyielding. Unchanging.
For God so loved the world that He came running, so that everyone who believes in Him could live unafraid, UNASHAMED, with abundant life.
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