Series: Faithful families in an unfaithful world.

transcript

Series:

Faithful families in an unfaithful world

Message:

Practicing love and acceptance rather

than guilt and shame

Romans 5: 1-2, 10-11; Romans 8:1 & 37

Practicing love and acceptance rather than guilt and shame

Introduction:

We are able to practice forgiveness ONLY because we have

received forgiveness from God through our trust in Jesus Christ.

By faith we obey God’s call to forgive and then God provides His supernatural power which

flows through us enabling us to forgive ourselves and others.

Today we consider together the truth that faithful families need

to practice the Biblical core value

of love & acceptance.

The opposite of this love & acceptance

is guilt & shame.

We are able to practice love & acceptance to ourselves

and to others ONLY because we have received this

love & acceptance from God in Christ.

In Romans 5:10-11 God reveals to us the Biblical core value of

reconciliation.

Romans 5:10-11

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the

death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by

His life.

11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus

Christ, through whom we have now received

the reconciliation.

In Romans 8:1 & 37

God reveals to us the results of this gift of reconciliation.

Romans 8:1 & 37

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer

through Him who loved us.

Because we have been reconciled to God in Christ,

we can live in the confidence that God will never condemn us.

We also stand in the confidence that nothing can ever separate

us from the love of God

in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our confidence in God’s eternal and unconditional love &

acceptance creates in us a desire to know God more intimately and to surrender our lives to

Just like the experience of forgiveness we can experience

the supernatural flow of God’s love & acceptance as we

by faith seek to obey His call to love others as He loved us.

We must believe and apply fully the truth that God has

indeed forgiven us to be able to obey Him

in forgiving others.

Likewise, we must believe & fully apply

the truth of God’s love & acceptance to be able to extend

His love to others through us.

Reconciliation means to bring close one who was previously

in a position of separation from us and/or our enemy.

God’s choice, to reconcile us to Himself, means God is bringing

us as close to Himself as possible.

Through reconciliation our life is eternally joined to God’s life

by our trusting in Jesus. We are now a member of

God’s family.

In forgiveness we are freed from sin’s penalty, power, and one day it’s presence.

We are declared righteous by Jesus.

This is the meaning of Justification. Justification means

to be declared righteous,

just as if we never sinned.

Reconciliation means that once we are justified / forgiven we

then experience God’s placing us into His eternal family.

These are not two steps. Both are happening to us at the same time when we trust Jesus.

We are examining them separating to gain a greater

understanding.

Illustration:

The Judge’s choice.

Satan and his demonic forces do not want you to live in the full experience of this love from God.

The forces of darkness lie to us with great deception

seeking to lead us away from God’s love & acceptance.

These forces seek to lead us into the experiences of guilt and

shame.

The goal of Satan’s forces for every person is to steal, kill, and destroy. If possible, these forces of darkness will steal from us

the wonderful blessings that come as a result

of God’s love & acceptance.

If allowed they will seek to kill any and all of the joyful

experiences God intended for us.

Finally, they will seek to destroy any influence God may be giving

you to demonstrate His love & acceptance to others.

God created each of us with a need, a desperate yearning

to be loved, accepted, and to know that our life has

meaning or purpose.

ONLY God can bring a fulfillment of these 3 vital needs.

The need of love, acceptance, and purpose are experienced every moment of every day. We can call these 3 needs

our value or our worth.

Satan and his forces are also aware of our need of value.

The lies they speak to us attack us in this vital area.

He attacks through urging us to

accept substitutes for God.

This leads us to attempt to meet this need of worth through

things, relationships, accomplishment, etc. Nothing

the world offers can fully satisfy this God created need.

These forces of Satan speak lies to us using first person language. This is an attempt to deceive us into believing that these ideas

have come from within us.

Here are a few examples of the lies.

- My value depends upon my performance – produces a fear of failure

- My value depends upon the approval

of others – fear of rejection

Examples continued

- Those who fail are unworthy of loveand deserve to be punished-blamed

- My failures make it okay for others, or even myself, to condemn me

- I believe God loves me but God could never accept me

Believing the truth of God’s Word sets us free

from the deceptive power of these lies.

God’s love & acceptance is NOT given to us

based upon our behavior either before

we are born again or afterwards.

The value God gives us is COMPLETELY based upon

the work of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the

Our lives are eternally joined to the life of Jesus.

Because God eternally loves and accepts Jesus,

God eternally loves & accepts us.

How do we live in the freedom of God’s love and acceptance?

1. Trust in the death & resurrection of Jesus

as your ONLY means of receiving love & acceptance from God.

2. Trust that your relationship with God you now enjoy

because of Jesus is eternal.

3. Trust that your relationship with God is where all of your need for love, acceptance, and purpose

can be fully experienced. God alone can give you 100%

of this need.

4. Trust fully the truth that God will never condemn you.

Do not accept condemnation from others.

Do not respond to the manipulation of guilt and shame.

5. When guilt and shame are used to persuade, you can be confident it is not coming from

God. Do not treat others with condemnation.

6. Respond to God’s conviction with thanksgiving, confession, repentance, and a willingness

to be transformed.

7. Do not permit the forces of darkness to twist God’s loving discipline into false guilt and

paralyzing shame. God’s love & acceptance

does NOT mean God accepts all behavior.

8. God separates who a person is from what a person does.

We are to love and accept every person.

We are to also speak the truth of God’s Word in love in faith that if God can transform us

He can transform anyone else.

9. Study God’s Word concerning His love &

acceptance.

10.Here are a few Scriptures to get you started- in bulletin

outline

Romans 8:1, 37Galatians 5:1, 13-14, 16, 18, 22-25Ephesians 1: 3-2:10Hebrews 6:17-20Hebrews 7:251 John 1:9

11.Choose to live in a manner worthy of this calling.

Ask God to work through you to treat all others as people

God values. Ask God to help you

introduce them to God’s love & acceptance

Meditate of this statement of truth concerning you.

God’s Word teaches that as God’s child

I am completely forgiven and accepted. My sin cannot and does not bring condemnation or God would be

a liar and that is impossible!

When I do choose to sin my fellowship with God is temporarily hindered.

The Holy Spirit convicts me in love seeking my repentance.

When I confess my sin God is faithful and just to forgive

me and restore our fellowship and God is able to cleanse me

of the root of mistrust which helped to produce the sin.

I choose to live in these truths and by God’s Grace I reject any thoughts or words that would

come against me attacking these truths.

I will no longer live as a slave to guilt and condemnation.

I am free in Christ! I am free to live for Him!

Closing Thoughts

1. Have you received from God this wonderful gift of eternal life

through Jesus Christ? (Romans 6:23)

Closing Thoughts

2. Romans 12: 1-2 speaks of a transformation

which occurs through a renewing of our minds

Closing Thoughts

3. It will take time to break all the chains that false guilt can have on our minds and hearts yet now is the time to take the

truth and begin to allow God

to set us free!

Series:

Faithful families in an unfaithful world

Message:

Practicing love and acceptance rather

than guilt and shame

Romans 5: 1-2, 10-11; Romans 8:1 & 37

Series: Faithful families in an unfaithful world.

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