Kerry Shook - Wipe Out Shame
Well, Woodlands Church, I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but the hit reality game show «Wipe Out» is back. Now, it originally aired on television in 2008 and was brought back because it was wildly popular for 7 seasons, and now it’s back. It’s bigger than ever, and I love «Wipe Out». How many of you guys like «Wipe Out»? I mean, what’s not to love about someone who’s not a great athlete trying to make it through an obstacle course and unexpectedly getting sucker punched by a giant boxing glove and falling awkwardly into a muddy pool? I love that.
Now, my wife Chris thinks that it would be a lot funnier if I was a contestant, but that’s not gonna happen. Now, I thought about it though this week. Why do we laugh at slapstick «Wipe Out» kind of humor? I can be flipping through the channels, and I come to «Wipe Out,» and I just watch, you know? And I just start laughing. It’s hilarious. Well, I came across an article this week from a psychologist, says there’s three reasons why we laugh at slapstick humor, «Wipe Out» kind of humor.
The first reason is a loss of dignity. It’s funny to see someone else lose their dignity, if it’s harmless. And they’re participating in it. They know it’s going to happen. It’s just funny. And then it’s unexpected. Even though you know they’re gonna wipe out somewhere along the line, all of a sudden they get punched or something hits them and knocks them off course, or they slip, and they fall awkwardly, and it just hits. It’s unexpected. But the third reason why we love slapstick «Wipe Out» kind of humor, the biggest reason is it’s not us. In real life, it’s not at all funny when the wipeout is happening to you. And in this life, there are times we’ll all faced unexpected wipeouts that blindside us and knock us to our knees.
And maybe it’s an unexpected betrayal that completely wipes out your trust and steals your peace, or maybe it’s pain, physical pain, emotional pain, relational pain that weighs you down every moment, and the constant burden just wipes out all your energy, and it wipes out all your joy. Or maybe it’s a failure, an embarrassing wipeout that has made you feel like you can never get back on course. Or maybe it’s a loss that you never saw coming, a sucker punch of grief that’s knocked the wind out of your future, and it’s wiped out your happiness. Here’s the amazing thing about wipeouts: it’s the painful wipeouts that we experience in life that bring us to the end of ourselves, so that we can fall into God’s amazing grace.
I want you to open your Bibles to Acts chapter 3, verse 19. It’s just one verse, but it’s the key verse for our whole series. And would you stand in honor of God’s Word? And read this one out loud, guys, because it’s a really short verse, so just read this one with me. «Repent then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the LORD». You can be seated. And I want you to notice in that short verse the word «repent».
Now, the word «repent» literally means to change directions. You know, when we think of repent, a lot of times we think of turn or burn, or someone who’s beating you over the head with a Bible, and, you know, wearing a sandwich sign that says, «Turn or burn. The world’s coming to an end». But the word «repent» literally means to change directions. It’s as if you’re trying to go to Dallas from Houston, and you start driving, and then after about an hour, you see a sign that says «Galveston 30 miles,» and you realize you’ve been going the wrong direction. So, what do you do? You repent. You take a U-turn, and you get on 45 going north to Dallas. You change directions completely. That’s what repentance means. It means you change your mind completely. You change directions completely.
He’s saying here, «Stop trusting in yourself and turn to God». Stop looking to yourself for all the answers. Stop trusting in everything else, and change directions, and put your trust in God. And sometimes it takes a wipeout to bring us to the end of ourselves, so that we can turn to God. Now focus on that phrase, «so that your sins may be wiped out». Our big problem is not the unexpected wipeouts that come into our lives. Our biggest problems are the things we haven’t allowed God to wipe out of our lives. God wants to wipe out your worries. God wants to wipe out your fears. God wants to wipe out all your guilt, so that a season of refreshing can come.
God loves wipeouts in our lives to bring us to the end of ourselves, so we place our trust in him, and then he can wipe out all the obstacles in our lives that keep us from living in his refreshing grace, that keep us from breathing in his atmosphere of grace, and this weekend we’re talking about the biggest enemy, really the biggest obstacle that the enemy uses to keep us from living in God’s refreshing grace, and it’s the obstacle of shame. Now, shame isn’t caused by God. You need to know that.
Now, God convicts of sin. The Holy Spirit will convict us of sin, but God doesn’t shame you. God never brings shame into your life. He’ll bring conviction of sin. That’s from God, it’s from the Holy Spirit when I feel guilty because of my sins. That conviction pushes me to God’s forgiveness. I feel bad because of my sins, and that guilt pushes me toward Christ’s forgiveness. I say, «God, I’m so sorry. I agree with you that that’s sin». And God says, «You’re forgiven. You’re cleansed». Shame, on the other hand, is so destructive, because it not only says your sins are bad, but that you’re bad, that you’re worthless, that you have no value, that God doesn’t love you.
So, how can I let God wipe out all my shame? Because shame is unnecessary. If you’re a Christ follower, God doesn’t want you to live in shame. He wants you to live in his grace. Well, I want us to look at a guy in the Old Testament that had a really strange name. His name was Mephibosheth. Try to pronounce that. Mephibosheth. In fact, would you say Mephibosheth three times really fast? Let’s try it. Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth. But be really careful. You’re in church. You don’t want to say something you’ll regret. I mean, it’s hard to do. It’s a crazy name. But the meaning of his name was even stranger. Mephibosheth literally means «from the mouth of the shameful thing».
So, his name literally meant shame. Here’s a guy whose name means shame, and we’re first introduced to Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel chapter 4, when we see that his grandfather, King Saul, and his father, Jonathan, were killed in battle. When his grandfather and father were killed, Mephibosheth was five years old. And when his nanny heard that King Saul, his grandfather, and his father, Jonathan, had been killed in battle, and the enemy of Israel had won the victory, she was afraid for the young boy’s life. So, she hurriedly tried to find a place to hide him, to escape from the enemy. And in her haste to flee, she wipes out. She drops him. He breaks both legs. And because they’re fugitives, they’re on the run, there’s no medical care, and his legs can’t heal properly, and he’s crippled for the rest of his life.
The next time we see Mephibosheth in the Scripture is when King David asks everyone in his court, «Is there anyone left, any relative left from King Saul’s family that I can show kindness to them, especially for what my friend, Jonathan, did for me»? Now, you need to know this was the exact opposite of what kings did in that day. For a normal king, when they would take the throne, the first thing they would do is try to hunt down all the descendants of the last dynasty and kill them off, because there was always a threat that the descendant would one day try to take the throne. And so the first thing a king would do when he came into power is kill all the descendants of the last dynasty. But here David is showing amazing grace, because Mephibosheth’s grandfather, King Saul, was a crazy lunatic king at the end of his life, and he tried to hunt David down and kill him.
And so David is saying, «I want to hunt down any relative that’s left from King Saul’s family, not so I can kill them, but so I can bless them». He was showing amazing grace, and that’s the kind of grace God shows us, because grace is a gift that we could never earn or deserve. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. It’s not getting the punishment you deserve, but grace is receiving a gift that you could never earn or deserve. And so we see that David asked his court, «Is there any of King Saul’s relatives left»? And then someone says, «Well, I think there’s one. I’ve heard about this one relative, a grandson of King Saul, who’s lame in both feet,» and so that’s when Mephibosheth is identified. He’s the guy that can’t walk. He’s the guy that can’t walk very good. He’s lame in both feet.
And I’m sure he’d heard that so many times, that it became his identity. But know this: if you’re a Christ follower, you’re not defined by the pain from your past. The wipeouts in your present, and your failures in your present don’t define you. Your struggles don’t define you. Your sins don’t define you. You’re defined by who you are in Jesus Christ. You’re a child of the living God, the King of kings. That’s your identity. It’s who you are in Christ. And sure you live in your flesh, and your flesh craves doing things that are destructive in sin, but that’s not who you are. Don’t ever let your struggles define you. Don’t let your past pain define you. Don’t let your wipeouts define you. But Mephibosheth, his whole identity was wrapped up in his struggle.
In 2 Samuel 9:6, King David finds him in Lo-debar. He hunts him down, and he brings him back to the palace. And it says, «When Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. And David said, 'Mephibosheth! ' 'At your service, ' he replied. 'Don’t be afraid, ' David said to him. 'For I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan. I’ll restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.'»
So, they find Mephibosheth. They bring him back to the palace, and I’m sure he thought, «Judgment day is here. I’m sure King David’s been searching for me ever since he started to rule, and they found me». He brings him back to the palace, and I’m sure he thought, «I’m gonna be executed now». But what does David say? «Mephibosheth! You’re here finally». This is like they were best friends, you know? It was like he was one of his sons. «And you’re at the palace. This is awesome! Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. I’m gonna show kindness to you». And when we come trembling in our shame before God and reveal our brokenness, our sins and struggles, he doesn’t put shame on us. He brings us into the palace of his grace and into his family. He welcomes us in, and that’s such a beautiful picture of what God does for us.
You see, when we reveal all our ugly mess, and our sins, and our struggles, and our scars, God just says, «I knew about it all along. Don’t be afraid. I’m not gonna judge you. My son was judged in your place. I’m gonna bring you into my family, give you grace and forgiveness, and restore all that was lost». But look at Mephibosheth’s response. He’s still dealing with shame, because the first thing he says when he finds out David’s offering him the palace of grace, he says Mephibosheth bowed down and said, «What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me»?
Now, a dog in that day was the lowest of the low. No one in their right mind in that day had a dog for a pet, because you could barely feed your family. Dogs weren’t held in high honor like they are in our homes today. Dogs were scavengers. They were considered the lowest of the low. And so here Mephibosheth is saying, «I’m lower than a dead dog. I am the lowest of the low. I’m bad. I’m awful. I have no value. Yeah, I’m worse than a dead dog». He was still dealing with his shame; because, you see, shame says not only are your sins bad, but you have no value. You’re worthless. God struggles to love you. And that’s all from Satan. But God says, «I’m not the one who shames you. I don’t condemn you».
I love how David, after Mephibosheth says, «I’m just a dead dog, I’m no good, I’m no value, there’s no value in me, and I’m bad, and I’m shameful,» and all this, David just ignores it. Says, «Oh, yeah, whatever about that stuff. Hey, guess what? I’m gonna restore everything that you lost». In 2 Samuel 9:9, he says, «Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, 'I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family.'» So, David restores everything Mephibosheth lost, and God can restore all that you’ve lost. That’s grace, isn’t it? Mercy is not getting the punishment you deserve, and grace is getting the blessing you can never earn or deserve.
And so God can restore everything you’ve lost. God can restore lost innocence. God can restore lost integrity. God can restore lost love. God can restore lost hope. God can restore lost years, the Bible says. Those wasted years, those selfish years, those sinful years, somehow God can restore it all. And that’s just because of his grace, there’s great hope. So many feel like you’ve blown it. You feel like you wasted your life. You feel like you’ve failed so miserably that you can never get back on track now. God is the God of the second chance, the third chance, the fourth chance, the fifth, God is the God of grace, but he wants you to come to him and receive that grace and live in that grace, because then you can live in victory, when you live in grace.
Look at 2 Samuel 9:11. This is the most important verse in the whole story. It says, «So Mephibosheth ate at King David’s table like one of the king’s sons». So, the king goes to Lo-debar, and he gets this outcast, and he brings him back to the palace, and then he adopts him as his very own son, and that’s exactly what God did for me. He went to Lo-debar, the place where I was hiding in my shame, and he went to that place where I thought was too ugly to reveal. He went to that place, and he took me, and he brought me back to the palace of his grace. This is such a beautiful picture of the King of kings' grace.
Now, four times in this passage it says Mephibosheth ate at the king’s table. Why would it say it four times. Over and over again, it said that, why? Because it was a big deal to eat at the king’s table. When you ate at the king’s table, it meant that you were adopted into the king’s family. You were part of his family if you ate at his table, and you’d be provided for, for the rest of your life, eating at the king’s table. It was a table of grace. Can you just imagine the first night that Mephibosheth came and ate at the king’s banquet table? Can you imagine? I mean, just try to imagine it for a moment.
Here is the king’s palace that was beautiful, stunning, and there in the palace was the great dining room with this huge banquet table. It was so ornate, and there at the head of the table was King David himself sitting at the head of the table, in all his regal wardrobe, the majestic, mighty King David. And there around him were his children. First you’d notice Absalom, because the Bible says that Absalom, he was so handsome, and tall, and strong, and a mighty warrior, and he exuded such confidence. He was like a magnet that just attracted people. When Absalom walked into a room, everyone was just drawn to him. And there’s Absalom.
And then there’s the other sons and daughters of the king all tall, strong, handsome, beautiful, and there they are, the king’s family. And then you notice the mighty men, the 30 mighty men of David that the Bible talks about, and everyone in all Israel would know every one of them by name. All 30 of the mighty men, whose exploits were known all over the known world of that day, and there they are, these great legendary warriors sitting around the king’s table. And then you notice one empty chair, a new chair that’s been pushed up to the table, and then I just imagine Mephibosheth on crutches coming to the king’s table for the first time, that first dinner, and the table is loaded down with the banquet of blessings, the best food, abundant food just everywhere for all that would just boggle the mind.
But Mephibosheth, on his crutches, starts making his way to the banquet table. Takes him a long time. He struggles, and he finally gets to the chair that has his name inscribed upon it, the chair that he would eat at for the rest of his life, and he sits down in the chair and the servants take his crutches, and they push him up to the banquet table, and there the brokenness and the scars, his useless legs disappear when he’s pushed up to the banquet table. And he looks just like one of the king’s sons.
There he is at the banquet table, an adopted son of the king, a child of the king, one of the family who will eat at the king’s table for the rest of his life, and that’s exactly what God does for us. Here we are broken with all of our struggles and ugliness, but yet when we come to the king’s table, and he pushes us up to the table of grace, all of our brokenness disappear, and we’re a child of the Almighty King of kings and the Lord of lords, sitting at the table of grace, a part of God’s family, righteous in Christ, totally loved, totally forgiven without shame. And the amazing thing is Mephibosheth had to choose to go to the table of grace.
Now, it wasn’t a hard choice, I don’t think. He had to choose it. David didn’t force him to come to the table of grace and eat at the table every night and be one of his adopted sons. He had to choose that. And I want to read you this next verse, because it clears up some confusion from a question that I get asked at times. In 1 John 3:1 it says, «See how very much our Father loves us, for He calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we’re God’s children because they don’t know Him».
You say, «Kerry, isn’t everyone a child of God»? No, God loves everyone. God created everyone. God loves everyone just the same. You know, whether they love him back, or whether they deny him, or whether they don’t even believe he exists, he loves everyone just the same, and he wants everyone to come into his family. He wants to adopt everyone into his forever family, but he gives us that choice. He doesn’t force us into the family. He has a chair with your name inscribed on it, but he leaves it to you as to whether or not you will sit down in that chair and be pushed up to the table of grace.
You get to decide that. He doesn’t force anyone into his family. You become a child of God when you say, «Yes, I want to be adopted into God’s forever family through his Son, Jesus Christ, who made a place at the table for me,» and you take your seat in his grace, in his forgiveness, in his family. And so have you ever done that? I want you to know there’s a chair with your name inscribed on it that God wants you to sit at for the rest of your life and through eternity, to be at his banquet table of blessing, that you could never earn or deserve, so you’ve gotta stop trying to earn it, stop trying to save yourself, and let him save you, and let him fill you with his grace that you could never deserve.