Sermon Transcription:
The title on this word is "Free From Shame." What a stronghold, shame. Every person that has ever been alive outside of Christ was born and has experienced in their life that stronghold of shame. Every single person that has ever lived has been stuck under it, bound by it, experiencing the weight of not really being exactly who they'd like to be. A person under the bondage of shame knows exactly who they would like to be and they portray that person to other people wherever they go. But it's not who they truly are. They don't fully like every aspect of themselves. And that shameful drive in their identity causes them to know exactly who they would like to be, what they would like to be like, and they know how to present that to everyone else. Their life doesn't fully look like that. Their walk doesn't fully look like that. But they know what they would like to be because shame is telling them what is wrong.
Every person, believer or unbeliever alike, that has ever been alive has experienced that stronghold. The stronghold is an old-fashioned word for a fortress. It took a long time to build, a lot of work to build, and it's not easily overthrown. It can withstand, if you will, some attack and some enemies. And when a person is under a stronghold of shame, the difficulty for that person is that they do not know that they are under a stronghold of shame. They believe with all of their heart that every person alive experiences this. No one is free from this. This is normal. Every person is like this. And those that claim to be different, they're probably lying. There is no freedom, no true freedom from shame, a stronghold not easily overthrown, not easily conquered, not easily done away with, not easily taken and overcome.
Let me read to you Psalm 25:2 "Oh my God, I trust in you; let me not be ashamed; let not my enemies triumph over me." Now this is Psalm 25, a prophetic Psalm, a Psalm written by David. David the shepherd, the priest, the prophet, the king. A foreshadowing in measure of who Christ would be in your and mine life. But in the life of David, many a times he prophesied. The Lord spoke through him ahead of time to let the generations to come, including his own, know what God would really do, what he really has in store, what he really desires. And right here, this verse, we will read it again. It makes a prophetic statement. "Oh my God, I trust in you; let me not be ashamed; let not my enemies triumph over me." At this point, Jesus himself, he is speaking through David. Very many times, especially when you are reading the Old Testament, you have to always look at the word and ask the Holy Spirit, ask the Lord to help you understand what you are reading and what it means for you today.
There's only one interpretation of every single verse you've ever read in your life. No man can put their interpretation on the word God only intended one thing when he had it written. He only meant one thing. That's why you have to let this word interpret itself and not put your own on it. That's why you need to read it daily so that you don't put your own ideas on it. There's only one interpretation of what it literally actually meant at that moment in that time with the intention of the Lord. But how does that apply to me today? There's many ways that the Lord will make that apply to your personal journey, your personal situation today. And when we see someone that we happen to already know as a prophetic call upon their life like David, we should pay attention all the more as to what God is seeking to make us understand, what he is seeking to explain to us. We need to look for what God means, not what you've heard many times in a church, not what you've heard from me, not what you assume. You need to get alone with the Holy Spirit, get into the word, and ask him, "Lord, only you are the messenger of the covenant. Would you help me understand what so many generations did not understand? Would you help me see what no one could see until the Holy Spirit was poured out? They worshiped you, Father. They trusted you. They praised you. They sought to follow you in great measure. But they could never see, Father. Would you send your Spirit? Would you help me understand what only the Spirit can reveal?"
That Psalm says, "Let me not be ashamed." That could also be translated confounded. And what that word means is confused or perplexed. "Lord, I trust in you; let me not be confused or perplexed. Let not my enemies triumph. Lord, I've trusted you," is what he's saying. "Lord, I've trusted you. If now the enemy would triumph over me, all I'd have left would be confusion, all I'd have, I'd be perplexed. I never thought I would trust you and follow you. I never thought you would overcome me after that. I never thought that confusion and perplexity would settle upon my life after that moment. Lord, let that not happen. Let me not be ashamed. Let me not be confused or perplexed. Let not my enemy triumph over me. I would walk around, Lord, in my confusion. I would walk around in my shame if that would be the story of my life."
The Lord, through David right here, he's speaking of the enemy, what the enemy can do. And he's not speaking of personal sin. Please do not get that confused. You have your personal issues. We all do. We all have our personal challenges. We have our times where we choose, and it wasn't a very good choice. We have our times where we make mistakes. We have our times where we struggle with the weaknesses in our flesh. Not what he's talking about. That's not all the devil. He is speaking about the enemy. He's speaking about the enemy overcoming him with unbelief, the enemy overcoming him with abandoning the dedication to trust and follow his God, the enemy overcoming him to a point of despair where confusion and perplexity on the mind sets in to such extent that trust in God makes no sense anymore and the enemy triumphs over him.
Hebrews 12:2, "Shame and freedom from shame." Let me read it to you: "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Shame. Everything that is confusing to you in your Christian walk, why would I think these kind of thoughts still? Why do I still struggle with these kinds of desires? Why don't I just stop with some of those sins that I hate? It is confusing me. I don't understand why it's shame. Every single thing that perplexes you, amazed at the kinds of sins you were able to commit and just go through it, amazed at what you are willing to hide at this point of you following Jesus and claiming to trust him, perplexed at what could possibly come out of a man or a woman like you, what could possibly hide in the heart? Shame. And I carry it. You carry it when you are under shame. You walk around carrying it with you. You may say, "It's not easy for me to even talk about these things because I'm confused about how it got this far in my life. I'm perplexed that I have done these things, that I have committed these kinds of things."
Now, I'm going to read to you, again in just a minute, that verse, Hebrews 12:2, because the Father gave the answer to that prophetic prayer that Christ stirred up in the heart of David. He was praying it for you who have become a part of the body of Christ. You have been taken out of darkness. You have been paid for by the blood of the Lamb. He has made you a part of his body, and he prayed through David. He showed us a portion of the conversation that took place between the Son and the Father before the foundation of the world. Before the foundation of the world, the Word tells us that Christ was slain, that the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world. Something took place where you were already in the mind of God, and that conversation that took place between the Father and the Son, through the prophetic from time to time in this Word, we are made a part of that conversation. We are explained that conversation. We are told what took place. And as Christ is praying that prayer through David, letting us know what took place in that conversation before the foundation of the world, as he is praying it, he's praying about you who have been brought into his body. Now, a part of Christ, you've been made one with Christ. You are in Christ, and that prayer stands. "Father, I've trusted you; let me not be ashamed; let not my enemies triumph over me." He said to his Father, "Father, I trust you. Don't let shame be a part of me. Don't let any part of my body ever be ashamed. I'm bringing all of them home, Father, but shame is not allowed to come with them. And nothing for the enemy to triumph, no ammunition for the enemy, can stand if I am going to go and take on a human body and dwell among them and take on their sin and die in their place. Then, Father, I cannot have any shame at all upon any of them that believe on me."
And the Father turns to the Son, and the Father says, "If that is what you desire, there is one way. You'll have to take on all of their shame, and I'm going to have to crush you. I'm going to have to break you." Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. All Jesus could see was joy. The Father is answering his prayer in that conversation. The Father is responding to his desire, and Christ takes all of that shame, and he puts it on the cross, and he leaves it there because of the joy set before him, because of the thought, the joy that you would never have shame again upon your life, the thought that you would never be overcome by the enemy, that the Father would answer his desire, that the Father would give him the desire of his heart over your life. The joy caused him to say, "All of the shameful things, thoughts, things you've done that have ever cleaved on to you, I gladly take them on myself and take them to the cross because I can see the Father is answering my heart's desire over your life. The Father is giving me my heart's desire."
Galatians 3:13 and 14: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,' that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Church, at the cross, always, an exchange happens. It is an exchange of grace. It is an exchange of mercy because of all of the shameful stuff you're cursed under the law, separated from the Father. You pray, he doesn't answer you. You open the word, you can't understand it. You go to church, you feel left out from how some people seem to have a relationship with the Lord because of all the shameful stuff. There is a curse that separates us from the Father, guilty, shameful, wrong. Yet at the cross, there is an exchange. It is the point of exchange. It is the cross of shame. Christ took on everything that caused the curse in your life, and an exchange takes place where blessing, promises, and his Spirit are given away in exchange to those that caused the curse, a life full of expectation, full of hope, full of a way forward is given away at the cross. There's no side comments, there's no conditions, there's no qualifications. All you need to bring is sin and shame, and God exchanges at that point, that trading point, on Calvary Hill. He exchanges everything, places it upon his Son, and begins to give away everything you do not deserve, everything that Christ asked for because he desired for you to have these things, and the Father said, "Son, there is one way that is going to be possible," and Jesus gladly despised the shame and took on your cross and my cross. Amen, glory to God.
Church, do you understand? Can you see that Christ prayed that every single thing that you have ever been ashamed of would no longer be a part of your life? It's not knowing that you're forgiven for those things. It's not fixing them and becoming somewhat of a better person and leaving some of those things behind. Christ prayed that nothing to be ashamed of, no shame at all, would be a part of your life whatsoever. Remember, every person ever born outside of Christ, every person ever born was under the bondage, under the stronghold of shame, knowing who they would like to be by virtue of knowing how or who you would like to be. You're already shameful. Jesus tells us that before the foundation of the world, he never wanted that over your life. He never wanted any shame to come into his body. He never wanted any enemy victory on any part of his body. Christ prayed that everything you have ever felt shame of would no longer be a part of you whatsoever. And the Father gave Christ the desire of his heart at the cross. He despised the shame because of the joy. And he could see none of the shame, none of the things that you have done, none of the shame that used to be connected to it. None of it, they're going to have to live with. None of them will be triumphed over by Satan. The joy caused him to gladly take on the shame that you and I used to carry. But if your conscience has not been washed, there is still shame left today. And God wants for you to have freedom from shame, where you no longer have this worldly understanding of how or who you would like to be, but to not just be okay with being yourself, but to live in the approval of the Father, to experience his presence, his approval, his desire for you every single day so that you never feel like you have to change for God or for men ever in your life. If God is going to make a change, I'll give him all the glory, but he loves me somehow miraculously just like this because someone took on all of my shame and took it to the cross and left it there.
Your conscience is what makes you aware of things. Where you're unconscious, you're not aware. The Lord gave you a conscience that makes you aware of things you have been taught. If your parents taught you to not put your feet on the table, and you first move out of the home and first thing you do in your own apartment is put your feet on the table, your conscience is speaking for a moment. It's not sin. It's not the Holy Spirit. It's your conscience. You're aware because you were taught. When you are aware of sins in your past or sins in your present, you're going to struggle with shame. You're going to struggle with that confusion. "How come this is still going on? I'm perplexed that I have done these things, by this time." That is shame still having a power, still having a place. Awareness. And if you're there, it's not going to feel very safe for you to fully walk in the light, have no secrets whatsoever. You tell every single person all your business, every mistake you've ever made, because there is no shame. You're not aware of any shame. All it is is an event that took place yesterday or further down in your past. And because God did a miraculous thing in answering his Son's prayer over your life, you have been set free from shame. You have been set free from guilt. The approval of the Father is upon your life. His covenant has been made known to you by its messenger. You can stand and testify and never, ever experience shame ever again because you're not aware of shame. It's not present in your life anymore.
But if you're not there, you're not going to be attracted to be friends with Spirit-filled and Spirit-led people. That's just not attractive to you. You're going to be attracted to spend time with people that have one foot in the world and one foot in church, not in the Kingdom, maybe, but in church. You're going to be naturally attracted to that. People that are Spirit-filled and walk by the Spirit, that doesn't draw you very much anymore. It also makes a person incredibly skeptical. A person under shame is skeptical. You doubt people's motives, doubt people's sincerity. You believe people say one thing; they really mean another. You believe people feel the same things you feel; they just say they don't because you are still aware. You're still conscious. You're still aware of your own uncleansed conscience. It's still uncleansed. It's still not made clean. It is still the dirt is clinging on.
You know, a person can commit sin 50 years prior and still walk in the same shame today. Nothing makes it go away. Nothing diminishes it. Time doesn't do a thing to shame. Shame cannot be removed unless God does a miraculous, divine thing. Let me read to you Hebrews 9:11-14: "But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
When the blood of Christ has touched your sin and it has touched your shame, you are no longer aware of them. They are memories, 100%. You testify of them, but there's no awareness to the sin and the shame anymore. It's not yours anymore. Only God can do this miracle where literally, He has taken your past. He has taken every sinful thing you ever done, longed for, or thought, and He has literally made it part of His Son as He was nailed on the cross, and you were given everything you never deserved that Christ had asked the Father for. A divine exchange still happening today when people meet their God at the cross of exchange. Shame gets traded in for undeserving gifts, a cleansed conscience.
When your conscience actually has been washed, do you understand that there's no one in the entire universe that ever experiences a cleansed conscience except the born-again believer? No one understands what that means except a born-again believer. No one can discern it and understand the difference except a born-again believer. It is not possible in the universe for your conscience to become any more clean by any event, any counseling, any journey, any confessing. Nothing can make your conscience washed except the blood of Jesus Christ when He takes from you what you were carrying around and He makes you part of His body, and the Father keeps His promise to the Son that no shame would ever be a part of His body and it is to be taken away from you and taken to the cross, removed from you completely. You testify of the memory of all the things you did, yet God kept His word to His Son and performed a miracle in you that you never deserved. Why did He do it? Because Christ was willing to go to the cross. He despised the shame, and because of the joy of seeing you free from shame, free from dominion of Satan, He gladly took it there and kept it there.
The born-again believer is not aware of any shame or guilt or dirtiness of their past life. They have the memories. They can share the stories with joy in their heart because all of the shame, all of the guilt has been taken away by the hand of God, keeping His word to His Son. The Born Again believer has been divinely made aware, made conscious, made aware, that the father has answered the son's prayer and that he took it all upon himself when he went to the Cross. 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those, those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." Don't ever forget this. You'll never have to try to become a better person. You'll never have to learn to behave like a Christian, whatever that means. Whenever you encounter the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, you will be changed. You will become a new creation. Behold, the old has passed away, all things have become new. To us, it is the power of God, cleansed in the conscience. Not aware anymore of any of the shame or the guilt, not aware of any condemnation. I can share whatever, I can talk about whatever. Even when I feel he's there to pick me up, not to put me down. I have no awareness of guilt before the father anymore. The father answered the son's desire, and he does not allow shame to be a part of the body of his son.
The Born Again Believer cannot but testify of everything they brought with them to that cross, and yet there's no more shame, yet there's no more guilt. Nothing is holding them back because they are not aware anymore of the shame. They're fully aware. The father kept his word. The father fulfilled the desire of my Christ. That's what the Lord Jesus wants for you: to be aware of what the father did and no longer be aware of the shame and the guilt. Jesus took that to the Cross. That's what he's asked for from the father: that you would be unaware of shame, that you would be unaware, and that the enemy would have nothing to triumph over you. Becoming a part of the body of Christ, that the enemy would never be able to convince you that God does not love you, that God does not have a plan, that God is not for you, that the enemy would never triumph over you as a broken sinner saved by the blood of Christ because the father kept his promise to his son.
Anything you are ashamed of, I don't care how long ago it is, I don't care if you never told your wife or your husband, anything you are ashamed of can be exchanged today. Every single thing, it doesn't matter how small, it doesn't matter how grand. Every single thing you are ashamed of, Christ desires for you to be free from that shame. It's going to be by a supernatural act of God. It's not theology. It's not doctrine. You can't learn it from a book. The Holy Spirit does it in the hearts and the minds of those that fully trust that God is good, that He has given His Son for you, and that the Son loves you and desires for you to have everything that was once His and that He is willing, full of joy, to take from you everything that nailed Him to the cross supernaturally. It won't be a part of you anymore in any way, shape, or form. If you are full of faith today, if you believe that the Lord loves you, if you believe that the cross has the power to exchange whatever you've been carrying around, allow the Father to fulfill Christ's desire in you today? Christ's desire is that there would not be any shame upon you ever again. Would you allow the Father to fulfill Christ's desire in you today? Amen. Glory to God.
-Pastor Stan Mons