Out of Shame

Out of Shame

Genesis 3:7-21 (cf: 2:25)

Her life was a wreck. After five failed marriages she gave up on trying to fit into society.  She came to the well in the heat of the day so she could draw water alone and hide from the comments, the whispers, and the condemning looks (John 4).

He was a powerful man who abused his power to sleep with another man’s wife. But he got her pregnant. And out of fear of exposing his wickedness he tried to hide behind a cover-up that turned murderous (2 Samuel 11).

She had suffered from internal bleeding for twelve years. All that time: unclean, uncomfortable, and uncomforted. She had seen Jesus heal others and longed to receive his touch. But how could she ask him in front of that crowd? So she hid in the chaos of that mob where she might anonymously reach out to touch the fringe of his robe (Luke 8:43–48).

These are three biblical portraits of people who tried to hide their shame in the wrong places. But the wonderful thing is that all three experienced God’s power to break shame’s hold over them and set them free. And this wonderful experience can also be ours.

We are in the second of four sermons on the things that can lead to suicide.  Last week we talked about anxiety.  We discovered that the heart of anxiety lies in our focus.  We choose whether to focus on an uncertain future with outcomes that may or might not happen, or to focus on a sure Savior who bids us to cast all of our cares upon Him.  In the weeks to come we’ll discuss depression and fear.  Understand that anxiety, shame, depression and fear are not all of the factors that can lead to suicide.  You can make your own list and include more or perhaps less than these as contributing factors.  For this series we will focus on these four.

Today we’re going to go all the way back to the beginning to examine shame’s origins.  In Genesis 3 we’ll find that shame and sin are closely related.  We’ll be reminded that, through Jesus Christ, God breaks the power of both sin and shame.

1. Body
   
1. Shame causes us to hide — it’s literally the old “duck and cover”
1. There was a time before shame (2:25)
2. Sin opened our eyes to shame. (3:7a)
3. Early on they established the pattern of responding to shame. (3:7b-8)
4. Like that first couple, and all sinners after them; the woman at the well, King David, and the hemorrhaging woman, our shame frequently encourages us to hide in the wrong places.
5. We hide in our homes or away on our vacations. We hide in our rooms and in our workplaces. We hide in housework, yard work, and puttering around the garage. We hide behind computers and phones and books and magazines. We hide behind earphones and Netflix and ESPN. We hide in busyness and procrastination. We hide in outright lies or diversionary conversation. We hide behind sullenness and humor. We hide behind bravado and timidity. We hide in extroversion and introversion.  Sin moves us to utilize whatever we can to hide our shame.

1. Shame causes us to lie
1. The first lie is denial 
1. “I’m not here.”
1. “I’m hiding.”
2. “Maybe God won’t notice.”
3. Psalm 139:7 - “Where Can I go from Your Spirit?”
4. Heb. 4:13 — No one can hide from God.
2. “This isn’t happening to me.”
1. “Wait!  Who’s voice is that calling out?”
2. “What does He want with me now?”
3. “It’s not my fault.”
2. The next lie involves accusation 
1. “It’s their fault.”
2. “It’s God’s fault.”

1. As we read on, we discover how God breaks the power of shame
1. God speaks truth to our sin 
1. Poor Adam and Eve.  The more they speak, the more dishonestly they try to cover their sin.  So next it’s time for God to speak into the situation.
2. And God knows the truth of what’s happened, and he stops their chaotic spiral of shaming. He finds Adam and Eve and brings them out of hiding. He addresses the serpent, Eve, and Adam individually, identifying the consequences for each on the basis of their sin.
3. God’s truth is good news for us, even though it means consequences for our sin. God doesn’t ignore sin, pretending it’s not there or not that bad. He tells us what our sin leads to, facing it honestly. Shame leads us to hide from the truth, but we can bring our confession of sin to God, knowing that he has seen us and knows exactly what happened. He will not draw us into fear or chaos as he deals with us, but will lead us to truth and honesty, freedom from hiding and shame. 
4. God also doesn’t gives us over to shame’s lie that says our sin is hopeless and all-encompassing, with no solution. Even while he punishes in the garden, he points to the solution.
5. As God curses the serpent, he promises a day when evil will be destroyed: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (3:15). This is the first prophecy of Jesus’ defeat over sin and Satan: “He [Jesus] shall bruise your head.” Before he has finished punishing sin, God is already speaking forth his plan for restoration, actively working to glorify his name as one who will redeem.
2. God covers them  
1. God has a better covering for both of them. He doesn’t rip away their fig leaves to expose them; he doesn’t mock the coverings they have attempted. God covers them with garments of skin. These coverings were thick and warm and protective. They covered their nakedness and protected their physically vulnerable bodies.
2. This theme of God covering his people runs throughout Scripture:
1. In the Psalms, those who seek him are covered under his wings and hidden in the secret place of his tent (Psalm 91:1-4; 27:5).
2. In Jeremiah, God hides the prophet from those who sought his life (Jeremiah 36:26).
3. In Zechariah, he clothes the high priest in clean robes, even as Satan accuses him before God’s throne (Zechariah 3).

1. God provides the best hiding place in Jesus
1. When it comes down to it, there is only one place to hide that offers the protection we seek, where all our shame is covered and we no longer need to fear: the refuge of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 6:18–20). 
2. Jesus’s death and resurrection is the only remedy for the shame we feel over our grievous sin-failures (Hebrews 9:26). 
1. There is nowhere else to go with our sin; there is no other atonement (Acts 4:12). 
2. But if we hide in Jesus, he provides us a complete cleansing (1 John 1:9). 
3. And when that happens, all God’s promises, which find their yes in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20), become ours if we believe and receive them. And the grace that flows from these promises to us through faith are all-sufficient and abounding and provide for all our other shameful weaknesses and failures (2 Corinthians 9:8).

1. Conclusion 

1. The key to breaking the power of shame is found in the superior power of faith in the work of Christ and the promises of Christ. 
1. Shame pronounces us guilty and deficient. 
2. Jesus pronounces us guiltless and promises that his grace will be sufficient for us in all our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9–10). 
3. Christ is all (Colossians 3:11). 
4. As we trust Jesus as our righteousness (Philippians 3:9) and our provider of everything we need (Philippians 4:19), shame will lose its power over us.
2. That’s what happened to the woman at the well. She listened to Jesus and believed in him, and her sin-wrecked life was redeemed and her shame destroyed. 
3. That’s what happened to King David. He confessed his sin and repented (2 Samuel 12:13) and trusted the pre-incarnate Christ, and his guilt and shame, which was great, was imputed to Christ and paid for in full.
4. And that’s what happened to the hemorrhaging woman. Jesus did make her tell the crowd about her shame, and in doing so she received the healing and cleansing she needed. Jesus made her shame a showcase of his grace.
5. And this wonderful experience can also be ours. All it requires is child-like, wholehearted belief in Jesus (John 14:1).