Christine Caine - Shame Off You - Part 2
You can have a personality and be a Christian! You can have, we ought to be the most awesome people in the world, there ought to be something naughty about us. Not illegal, not immoral, not heretical, not unethical, just naughty. We ought to be the ones that go, you know what, we've got a glint in our eye, a spring in our step, there's something about us that people say, "What are you on? I want some of what you've got, I want some of what you got". Shame is an overwhelming feeling that causes you to want to run and hide from your relationships, yourself, and even your destiny. But you were not made to be ashamed. You were never created to even experience the sharp pains of shame. And today, God wants to reveal the lies of shame, and to take it off you. Are you ready to get free? I'm Christine Caine, and I have a personal mission to equip and empower people just like you, to connect with your God-given purpose and potential. I am so glad that you're joining us today. Let's dive straight in to the message together.
Hey, everyone. I am so excited that you've come back this week, and I am so glad that you've tuned in today. You have tuned in on a great, great day where I know that God has got a word for you, and you are going to find freedom and hope today. You know, I'm talking about a subject that is very to me because it's the number one thing that I've had to fight more than any other thing in my whole life, and it's this whole issue of shame. I never knew a time in my life where I didn't know shame.
You know, I was abandoned at birth, and I was adopted and didn't find out 'til I was 33, I had a big spirit of rejection in my life, and I had been victimized as a child for many, many years, and so with abuse, comes a lot of shame, and a lot of hiding, and I never seemed to be enough for anyone, or I was too much for other people, and I wasn't Greek enough for the Greeks, and I wasn't Australian enough for the Australians, and I wasn't girly enough for the girls, and it was just like I just didn't ever seem to be enough, not realizing that I was created in the image of God just right for what God wanted me to do, and God had equipped me for the purpose that he had assigned for me. And often, when other people do not understand your assignment, they do not understand your gifting, and what they will try to do is quench your gifting because they don't know what is ahead for you. It is not your job to be like everybody else, it's your job to be the you that God has cerated you to be so that you can do the thing that God has called you to do.
And then we saw in Genesis chapter two verse 25 that the very last thing that God told us before the fall was that we were created to know no shame, that Adam and Eve were naked, and they were unashamed. Now it is so interesting that the devil would pick the one thing that God had created us not to know to be the very thing that most of us would struggle with all of our life, and that just makes sense, because we weren't created to know shame because what shame does is it shrinks you, it doesn't activate you, and so the devil wants us to go back in a little hole, don't say anything, don't be anything, just be a nerdy little Christian, and just go hide, and it's just us four, and no more, hurry up, Jesus, I need the rapture, and we just like need to hurry up, and get out, and God says, hang on a minute, I've got an assignment for you. You are salt and light on the earth, I've got something for you to do.
And so then we get to Genesis chapter three, and I want to read this again because it's such a powerful passage of scripture. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'you shall not eat of any tree in the garden'"? Did God actually say? And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die'". But the serpent said to the woman, "You will surely not die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil".
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you"? And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself". He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat"? The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate". Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you've done"? The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate".
Everyone blames everyone, you know, the man blamed the woman, the woman blamed the serpent, no one wants to take responsibility in our world. Right there, it's in the garden, that's where it started. But I want to start with one question, because the whole issue of where shame lies comes in three questions in this portion of scripture that I just read to you. And the first one is when the enemy, the serpent came in to the garden, and he was crafty, and the reason he was crafty was because what he wanted to do was undermine the Word of God. He still does this today. He comes in to eve, and he says, "Did God really say"? This is the first time we hear the enemy speaking in scripture. There has been all of Genesis chapter one, all of Genesis chapter two, and here we go, first words of the devil, "Did God really say"? Hasn't changed! Hasn't changed in the 21st century. He will always come whispering, you believe you got a word from God, you believe that the Lord has spoken to you, you have read something in the word, and I promise you, within 24 hours, you'll get a whisper, did God really say?
Maybe that was just bad pizza, maybe you just made that up, maybe they're just, did God, and especially if the word from God came from your wife, you will question, did God really say? Most of us spend more time scrolling through what someone we don't even know says than what God says. We spend more time looking at what is the latest thing on Pinterest, rather than what God has said. What's my friend saying on Instagram, what's trending on Twitter, what is happening on Facebook, and God's like, why don't you just get your face off Facebook, and your face in the book? Why don't you just get your face in the book? And that's the problem with a lot of us, when the enemy subtly comes, 'cause he always comes when you're off guard, you don't know what God has said. Oh, you can quote what your latest famous artist has said, you can quote what the latest song has said, or what the latest news out of Hollywood is, but when can you rebuke the enemy with the Word of God?
If you don't know what God has said, then you'll believe the enemy every single time. If you don't know that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, and you don't really know it, then when the enemy comes, and you're walking, you're having a particularly bad day, and you're walking past a magazine, and it just reinforces, man, I feel fat, I feel ugly, I am never going to amount to anything, no, you know what, and the enemy's just going to go to town. He's just going to go, and we let him go to town, because we have not taken those thoughts, brought them captive to the knowledge of God, and replaced those thoughts with God's thoughts. So this is not an option. I want to remind you today, and I want to remind you on the other side of the screen, this is not just a normal book. This is not some dead blank black and white ink on paper.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16, all scripture. That means from the first word of Genesis to the last word of revelation. All scripture is breathed out by God, God's holy breath is in this book and it's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. I promise you this is more valuable to you than people magazine, it really is. Although based on what some people read, you wouldn't think so. I'm like, would you give this at least as much time as you give to your Facebook account? It would change everything. Would you give this as much time as you give to your Twitter account or your Instagram account, and you would begin to see your life transform.
Hebrews chapter 4:12. It says, for the Word of God is living and active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and the discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. This thing's alive! Did I freak you out? I hope so! It's alive, it's alive! The Word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's changed my life. Let me say, Jesus saved my soul, this word transformed my mind. I'm standing here today, a kid that was abused for 12 years, a kid that was rejected in a hospital, a kid that was abandoned. Let me tell you why I'm standing here. Jesus Christ saved my soul, and this word has renewed my mind. A21 exists because this word has renewed my mind. Propel exists because this word has renewed my mind. You're watching me on this TV program today because this word has renewed my mind.
Matthew 24 verse 35, it says heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away. Isaiah 40:8, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our Lord will stand forever! This is eternal. You know, most newspapers, by the end of the day, they're being used to wrap, where I'm from, fish and chips. All that news we line up to get, and I know we don't really, we read everything digitally now, but just you know, it's obsolete by the end of the day, however it'll be, it'll go in to the electronic trash can. But the truth is, those words die. Most stuff that we post out there, by the time it's posted it's already obsolete. They say the average lifespan of a Twitter thing is maybe 30 minutes, at most, and then it becomes ineffective. This is eternal, this is eternal.
Proverbs 4:20, "My son, be attentive to my words, and incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight, keep them within your heart", I love this, "for they are life to those who find them, and healing to their flesh." The word of brings healing, the Word of God brings life. John 1:1, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God." So well if only Jesus in the flesh walked amongst us today. If only there was God incarnated. I'm like, honey. And you know what, you've got it here, I've got it on eight versions here. I mean, you can have it, you can have it on your iPhone, you can have it on your iPad, you can have it on all matter of i-ness, wherever it is, whatever it is that you use.
But legalism will twist these words, and that's what the pharisees and the Sadducees tried to do all the time to Jesus. And religious tradition, it makes up stuff God never said. It's going to put bondages on you that God never said. There is stuff that you do, and stuff that you think, and you just think, you know, well God said this, and it's like, where? And you wouldn't even know because you so if you read the Bible, you would know what things are not true. You would know what religious tradition, and what religious culture, tries to heap on you, and so what we need to do is get in to the truth of the word because there are so many lies so many of us believe about God about the character of God, and about how to live a Christian life, because we don't read the Bible.
And so we just think, well this is what my tradition has said, this is what my culture says, and you go, wow, wow, it is so far removed, it just heaps bondage, and it heaps shame on top of all of us. The interesting thing is culture presumes. It is amazing to me how many of my non-Christian friends want to tell me what God thinks about things. And I'm like, do you read the Bible? Where did you get that from? Oh yeah, Christine, but this is what God, and I'm like wow, I didn't know that you knew what God said. Oh, you didn't tell me you've read the Bible. It is amazing. And then it's like, no I don't, but I just think. And I go, wow, so now you are equating your level of thought with God's revelation and his word. Whoa. It is amazing to me the stuff that people make up that is in here, and the sad thing is half the Christians wouldn't even know because they don't read it.
So imagine if we read it and we knew, then sometimes, when the enemy comes with a thought that can rob us of six months of our life, because it's a lie, do you realize in two seconds, that whole thing could be dealt with, and we could free up our brains, and free up all of that emotional energy to get about the father's business instead of worrying about a lie that is not even true. I love this, 'cause out of this scripture, we see in the next few verses, the downward spiral begins. So he says, "Did God actually say"? And then in Genesis 3:3, here's what eve says. "But God did say". Now here is the scary thing. She knew what God said! You can know what God said, but not believe what God said, and not do what God said, and end up in a downward spiral of destruction.
There are so many believers that go to church, there are so many believers that have done 25 Bible studies, there are so many believers that would never miss a quiet time, and yet they don't know what to do with what God said. And so what happened here is eve said, "But God did say". And the fact is that if you do not believe that God is good, that God does good, and what God says to you is for your good, and for his glory, then when the enemy comes, you can know what God said, and then you're going to twist it and think, but God's not really good, he must want me to miss out from something. He must want me to miss out. Because she said, "But God did say not to eat of that tree". She knew what God, how often do you know what God has said? You're going to go out that night, and you know exactly what God has said. You're going to enter in to that conversation, and you know what God has said.
You're hanging out with your friends, and you know what God has said, but at the end of the day, you don't really believe it. But God said we would die, and then what does the enemy say? You're not going to die. Genesis 3:4, "You will most certainly not die". Oh he does that all the time. You're not going to die if you sleep with that person, God just doesn't want you to have fun. You're not going to die if you cheat on that tax return, God just doesn't want, he wants you to miss out on financial prosperity. You're not going to die if you tell that little lie, it's not really a big deal that you are going to undermine trust in relationship. You're not going to die if you watch that pornography. It really doesn't matter, the fact that they're human beings created in the image of God, but you can just objectify them as sex objects, you're not going to die.
We can say, I know what God said, but we really don't believe that it's good, because we don't do what God said. We listen to the enemy that puts that thought in our head, God just wants you to miss out, God just doesn't want you to have fun, God doesn't want you to pop those pills, 'cause you're going to miss out on that high, God doesn't want you to have that extra drink, because you know what, he doesn't want you to have fun at the party. That's the lie of the enemy, always. He makes us think that we're missing out. He goes on and he says, God doesn't want you to be like him. I'm sitting there going, how dumb can you be and still breath oxygen? Because we had just read in Genesis chapter one, God created Adam and Eve in his image, in his own image. So the devil is saying God doesn't want you to be like him, he's the problem, he tried to make her sin so she could become what she already was.
So many times, you're going to try to do the very thing that the enemy tells you to do because you haven't realized you already are a child of God, you already are created in the image of God. The thing that you're looking for in that relationship, the thing that you're looking for in that drug, you've already got in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Love is yours, joy is yours, peace is yours, kindness is yours, goodness is yours, longsuffering is yours, patience is yours, you've already got it, you are worthy in Christ, you are valuable in Christ, you've already got, you're not going to get it from that job promotion, you're not going to get it from that pay rise, you're not going to get it from that guy or that girl loving you, you are not going to get it from that next sexual encounter, you are not going to get it from being accepted in that next party, you've already got it in Christ, you are a child of the living God, you've already got it in Christ. That's the lie of the enemy! He's going to try to tell you, do this so you can become that, and God's like, you're already that. And all this is going to do is destroy you.
God's not trying to rip you off, God is not a cosmic killjoy. It is one of the biggest lies of the enemy to make you think that Christians are nerds. I'm sorry if you know one that is, I'm really sorry. But the fact is, God didn't say become a Christian and have a personality bypass become a Christian and don't have any fun, become a Christian and be a socially dysfunctional moron with a lobotomy, that is not what he called us to do. You can have a personality and be a Christian! We ought to be the most awesome people in the world. There ought to be something naughty about us, not illegal, not immoral, not heretical, not unethical, just naughty. We ought to be the ones that go, you know what, we got a glint in our eye, a spring in our step, there's something about us that people say, "What are you on? I want some of what you've got. I want some of what you got". There ought to be something about it.
The Bible says in Psalm 84:11, for the Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord bestows favor and honor, I want you to hear this, this is what you've tuned in for today, no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. God is not going to rip you off, he is not some cosmic killjoy. There is not one good thing that God withholds from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 119:68, says you are good, and you do goo. Teach me your statutes. So I want you to understand that God is good, and God does good. I don't know if you've grown up in a religious tradition that tries to tell you that God is some big, mean guy in the sky with a big stick waiting for you not to have any fun and to hit you when you do. I don't know what image of God you've got, but that's not the God of the Bible.
God is good, God does good, and our God works all things together for your good, and for his glory, God is a good God, and he withholds nothing from you. You know, the interesting thing is that we then try to cover ourselves, what happens is they ate of the tree. That's what happened after the enemy lied, and the Bible says right there in verse seven, the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked, and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. I mean, how pathetic? That's what we do isn't it? As soon as we've blown it, we try to hide, we cover it up, we do whatever we can.
You know, the moment we mess up, how many of us, let's see, I remember telling my kids they weren't allowed to have ice cream, and so my little Sophia goes in to the refrigerator, and I come down the stairs, I'm going, "Sophia, what are you doing"? "Nothing, mom". She puts it all in the ice cream, and her whole mouth and face is like covered with chocolate, 'cause that's what we all try to do. Like, no, no, I didn't do it! And it's like, whoa you got chocolate all over your face, sweetheart. We're just trying to cover. I didn't do it. 'cause we don't know what to do, and we end up running from the very God that we should be running to, because we try to make coverings for ourselves, but our coverings can never, ever cover us. What shame does, because that's what happened in that moment, as soon as their eyes were opened, whoa, shame came. Remember that thing that just a few verses up, they never knew.
Now shame came, and they tried to cover themselves, and that's where you might be right now, where something has happened, you've done something, you've said something, you've been somewhere, and you are just covered in shame, and you're trying to cover yourself, and you're pulling back, and you're hiding from God. I want to encourage you, don't hide from him but run to him, because God covers our shame. On the cross, Jesus Christ died to cleanse us from all of our sin, and all of our shame. It is not too late, you have not gone too far, you have not done the one unforgivable thing. Today, right where you are, don't run from him, run to him, receive forgiveness from him, and stand up and walk in to your God-given destiny, and your God-given potential in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, let me pray for you.
So Father, I thank you that you're a God of love and you're a God of grace, and that you created us to know no shame. So Father, I pray that even now, in the name of Jesus Christ, Father, for anybody that is just cowering under the burden of shame, believing the lie of the enemy that it's too late, that they're not worthy, Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that right now, in this moment, they would know the love, and the grace, and the mercy, and the forgiveness of God, and shame would lift off them in Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen, amen. Awesome.