Message of the Week

The Little White Community Church

Scripture: Joel 2: 17-19, 27 August 13, 2023

Message: “No More Shame!”

by Pastor George Gnade

Intro.: 1. Last week we began a new series of messages on the Book of Joel. If you remember, God had sent an army of locusts into the kingdom of Judah eating everything green in sight.

2. Joel told the people the only solution was to cry out to the Lord for help. But he also told them the help they needed was the forgiveness of their sins. He told them to “rend their hearts and not just their garments.” If God, who sees their hearts, knows they are truly repentant, then He will forgive their sins and save their land.

3. Today’s lesson begins with verse 17: “Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep … Let them pray: ‘Spare your people … Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is your God?’”

a. As humans, all we tend to care about is how things affect us personally.

b. God cares about how our sins and iniquity affect Him! When we turn from Him and force His hand – as the judge of all the earth – it makes Him look like the bad guy! “So people from other nations ask: ‘Where is your God?”’

c. Before we blame God for our problems, we ought to begin by taking a good look at ourselves. In Judah’s case, they were the problem. Like Israel in the north, they too had wandered away from the Lord.

A. When they repented and fasted and prayed, consider what God promised to do.

1. In Joel 2: 18-19, it says: “Then the Lord will be jealous for His land and take pity on the people. The Lord will reply to them: ‘I am sending you grain, new wine, and oil, enough to satisfy you fully…’”

a. In the Lord’s prayer, He taught us to humbly pray: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” Then we can also pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

b. When we repent of our sins, we are agreeing to seek the will of the Lord instead. Once we seek His will, then He also rewards us by providing for our daily needs.

2. Please notice what vs. 19 says next: “Never again will I make you an object of scorn before all the nations.”

a. When we deliberately go against the Word of God, our sins bring us shame and scorn.

b. That is why Jesus died on the cross. In doing so, He “endured the shame” of our sins and the scorn we de-served (Heb. 12: 1-2). In Christ, our guilt and our shame are taken from us.

3. Through repentance and faith, we become new creations in Christ. This allows us to feel good about ourselves. And when the world sees our changed lives, we also bring glory and honor to Him.

B. This concept is so important, I felt led to share other passages about shame and how it affects God and us.

1. In Rom. 10: 11, it says: “Everyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.” The world may mock and treat us in shameful ways, just like they did Jesus on the cross, but like Jesus we will rise up and “be more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

a. Don’t let the world determine how you feel about yourself.

b. Find your self-worth in and through Jesus.

2. In I Peter 2:6, God says: “I lay in Zion a chosen and precious cornerstone, and he who trust in Him will never be put to shame.” Jesus is the cornerstone of His church. That makes Him the Rock upon which our lives are built.

Don’t ever forget where your help comes from. Keep your eyes on Him and live His way and your victory is assured.

3. Another wonderful promise is found in Ps. 34: 3-5. “Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.”

a. This shows the role prayer and praise also play in how we feel about ourselves.

b. Every Christian has down days, but praise God how many times He turns our sadness to joy.

c. As it says in Ps. 3:3, “Thou, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glorious one, the lifter of my head.”

4. Another good verse is found in Is. 45: 17. It says: “Israel will be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You will never be put to shame or disgraced to ages everlasting.”

a. It is helpful to combine this verse with what Jesus said in John 10:14-18, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me… I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”

b. Because God’s people in the O.T have been united with God’s people in the N.T., we can claim these same promises given to Israel. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord “shall be saved with an everlasting salvation.” And we “will never be put to shame or disgraced to ages everlasting.”

5. When Jesus faced the cross, the Bible says: “For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now set down at the right hand of His Father in heaven” (Heb. 12:2).

a. That is how we are to overcome also. Keep your eyes on Jesus and the everlasting salvation that awaits you.

b. That is the ultimate joy that is set before us too. That promised joy, claimed in faith, will enable us to endure the scorn, shame and hardships of this world, just as Jesus did.

In Conclusion: 1. Always remember that guilt and shame are the result of sin. Sin, by definition, is being disobedient to God.

2. In Rom. 6:1, we are warned to “not continue in sin that grace may abound.” By the grace of God, we have been forgiven, and by the grace of God, our guilt and shame have been taken away.

3. But if you deliberately continue to do wrong, the Bible says our consciences can be seared. We can develop the attitude that God will forgive me no matter what I do.

a. When that happens, Peter says “you have forgotten that you were cleansed from your old sins.” It will make you “ineffective and unfruitful in your walk with the Lord.”

b. But if we “add to our faith virtue… and godliness…,” then we “will never fall, and you will receive a warm welcome into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

4. We all sin sometimes. And God disciplines us if we fail to listen to Him. In the course of our life time, it is not unusual to get off track many times. But the Holy Spirit in our hearts will bring the true Christian back on track.

5. In II Peter 1:8, it talks about doing things “in increasing measure.” Ask yourself: “Am I encouraging my sinful behavior, or am I encouraging my walk with the Lord?” Which am I doing “in increasing measure?” Jesus died to take away our sin and shame so that we can and will “in increasing measure” become more and more like Him.

Praise God, He can “keep us from falling” (Jude vs. 24).