Episode 53 || The First Lie About You

- What's up, Pando family? We are excited to be back with you for another week of our Pando exclusive podcast brought to you by Southeast Christian Church here in Louisville, Kentucky. My name's Derek, this is Brandon. We're on our online team that's a part of our church and so grateful to have the opportunity to talk about our brand new sermon series, brand new, I guess maybe not a brand new text. We talked about through Genesis earlier this year, maybe not a brand new text, but for maybe some of you as we lean into Genesis chapter three today, maybe a new passage of text you've never read before. Maybe you have, maybe you've heard this story before, but regardless, we're glad that you're here. So Brandon, we are officially in November. - That's right. - In November. So I gotta ask as we start the month. So November for me, I automatically think of Thanksgiving, get the football, but Thanksgiving in particular. So what is like one Thanksgiving side that you can not live without? - Oh man, oh that's tough. - Like if you didn't have it at Thanksgiving, it would be a miss. - Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean, there's just so many. There's so many. I would say, I'm just gonna go with the classic. I'll go with stuffing or dressing or whatever you wanna call it

'cause I feel like, I mean, I feel like mashed potatoes are a little higher on the list, but I also feel like stuffing is only something you have. - Yeah, it's probably the one time you're having a year. - We could have mashed potatoes on like a Tuesday. It's fine, but stuffing is like, okay, it's Thanksgiving. Yes, and then, yeah, but I like all of it obviously. That's kind of my problem. That's really my problem here, but. - No shame here. - Yeah, no shame here. - That's right, there you go. - How about you, what do you got? - Oh man, I like stuffing, I do, I like that too. I love all things like sweet potato and brown sugar. - Oh, okay. - At Thanksgiving, like any type of sweet potato, brown sugar, people make it any type of way, whether it's like a casserole, or, you know, just sweet potato. - Okay, I'll admit like sweet potatoes are not, they're not my thing. - Oh, really? - Yeah, I'm not a big fan, especially, like the most disappointing to me is when you go to a restaurant and you're like, I'll take fries. Like you want sweet potato fries. - You don't even do sweet potato fries. - No. - Oh, okay, I didn't know this. - Yeah, I don't care for sweet potatoes at all, but I mean, it always looks nice though,

like the casserole with the marshmallows and all that, like that looks really nice, but it's just. - It tastes very nice. - It's just never been my jam, so maybe. - Okay. - I'll try it in your honor. - Oh, well, there you go. Yeah, I don't know, for y'all, what are some things that, you know, as you were growing up, or even now, what Thanksgiving may look like for you, whether it's a side dish or a memory that you have, but I also know on a more serious note, and a more somber note, I know for so many of you in a season of being an incarcerated, that, you know, holidays look different, you know, and they may have for quite a while. And we definitely want to be sensitive to that, and empathetic of knowing that for a lot of you, you're hurting in the midst of this season, wishing that you could be somewhere with people around that you care about. And so let us know, like as you write us, and if you've never written us before, you can always find the address to our church in the description of these videos. Write us, let us know how we can be praying for you over the course of the holidays. We'd love to be doing that. We have a team of people that read those and respond to them, and every time you send a letter,

you can trust in knowing that someone will at least be praying, at the very least be praying for you specifically, no matter where you're at. But prayer is important, random prayers are important, and we know that, but it's especially important, whenever we consider a message like we heard on Sunday. - Oh yeah. - Right, because I would imagine there's a lot of people in prayer wrestling with the Lord about what Kyle had talked to us about. Because this idea, it's not an idea, this truth that shame can be such almost like a silent killer in our lives, shame can be really difficult to navigate. - Yeah, well you know, I think Kyle opened up with just that question, what would your life look like if you lived a whole month without shame? If you had 30 days without shame, how different would your life be? And I think, I was talking about this in my small group last night. I think that's a hard question for us to think about, simply because I'm not sure we're always aware of all the ways that shame is impacting our lives. - Agree. - That we are sometimes blind to, oh I make decisions this way, or I worry about these things. back to shame that we're not always aware of, you know, that somebody said this to me when I was younger, or somebody treated me this way because of this, and we just internalized

those things to the point where we're blind to it, in a sense. And I think, you know, if we were to truly be able to shave away all the shame from our lives for a month, I think we'd be different in ways we can't even calculate. Because of just the different ways that shame reaches into almost every area of our lives. It does. You know, I think that's a fair point that you just made, that we probably don't realize how many times shame is kind of, shame kind of has the controls inside of us on how we respond, what we decide to do, what we believe about ourselves. Yeah. And so it's fascinating. I think it's going to be a great series looking forward to it this month. So we'll have this, it's a four-week series. So not only this past week, but three more weeks as we kind of head towards Thanksgiving. But a sermon series is called No Shame November, right? So no, it's not No Shave November. I wish that I could participate in things like, you know, No Shave November, but for the follically challenged people, I guess I'm representing that. Sorry, I'll talk. Yeah, I got a head start on it. So you're fine. You're fine. Look at you start growing a beard, like seventh grade. I mean, I wish. When did I grow my, I think, oh wait, it's almost 20 years I've had my beard. So yeah, and then I had to, I got it back in like 2021. So I lost it for a little bit, but yeah, so my, my kids were joking with me yesterday after the sermon. In fact, they were like, well, you know, do you, do you ever shave? I was like, well, I do have to clean, I have to clean it up like I don't want to go like grizzly Adams or whatever, but, but yeah, so it's, it's been a minute and I, but I only

really have it because my wife likes it and I don't know. There's no bad reason. Yeah. That's true. That's true. There's no better reason. Um, but Brandon, the, the text that, that Kyle has for this week, for the series is back in Genesis. So we're talking about where this started, right? Right. Because this idea, this truth, this concept of shame, right, was, it feels like it was introduced at a very specific moment. Yes. Oh, so walk us through those early parts of Genesis and then we'll, we'll jump into the sermon here. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So it's interesting. And this will be my, I'll do a little commercial before we get started in what we're going to talk about. It's interesting that Kyle was in Genesis three because Genesis three has been on my mind a lot recently because of our Bible study that we're going through chasing the vapor through Ecclesiastes. Like I think Ecclesiastes is a book that it's all about the way sin has warped the world. And how the world frustrates us and no matter what we're chasing, whether it's pleasure or career or relationships that you know, everything in this world is going to frustrate us because it's not the way it's meant to be. And, and I was thinking about this as Kyle started talking through Genesis three because because I think Ecclesiastes is this is life in a Genesis three world.

And what's interesting, how that ties in, you should check out the Bible study by the way. It's on. It's on the good plug. Yeah. Good plug there. So one of the things that I was thinking about is, you know, Ecclesiastes is about how Genesis three frustrates the way we see the world. And what this sermon series is about is how Genesis three frustrates the way we see ourselves is that our view of everything, whether it's ourselves or the world around us is so messed up because of what sin has done. So all that is to say, check out, check chasing the vapor on, on panda. But so Genesis one and two, we start with God creating the earth and everything is perfect and everything is beautiful. We're told, you know, in Genesis one, every day of creation, God looks out at it and he says, oh, it is good. It is good. It is good. Everything is humming along the way that it's supposed to. He places Adam and Eve in the garden in Genesis one and two and says, Hey, you can, you can eat of any tree in the garden, but do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They have free reign over creation with one, with one rule. And I mean, you know, we're terrible with we're just not good at it. So it takes us a whopping three chapters to break that rule. We get to Genesis chapter three and Adam and Eve sin against God. They break the one rule that they have. In fact, I'll go ahead and read that passage. Just as three, one through, I think it'll be about one through 10 maybe. So we're, we're introduced to the serpent.

It says, the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? So he's warping what God has commanded, right? The woman replied, "It's only the fruit from the tree "in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. "God said you must not eat of it or even touch it. "If you do, you will die." You won't die, the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God knowing both good and evil. The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it too. At that moment, their eyes were open, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" Adam replied, "I heard you walking in the garden, "so I hid, I was afraid because I was naked." And then you get the question from God in verse 11. Who told you that you were naked the Lord God asked,

"Have you eaten from the tree? "Whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?" So we see like immediately upon breaking God's commands, upon breaking God's one rule that sin has entered into the relationship. And not just sin, not just disobedience against God, but the shame that comes with that is we, we see Adam and Eve up until this point, the end of Genesis chapter two tells us they were naked and felt no shame. And immediately they begin to feel that shame. They become acutely aware of things are not the way they're supposed to be, we're not the way we're supposed to be. And so they cover themselves, they hide from God and this cycle of shame that we find ourselves caught up in. It really starts there in Genesis three. - Well, it's fascinating because just like Kyle said, oftentimes this begins with believing a lie. - Yes. - And so Eve write them in there and Genesis three believed this lie that God was trying to keep them from experiencing something, right? Experiencing something good, something that would fulfill them. And not, again, it wasn't just that like, oh, okay, well, I guess we can actually eat that. It was, no, like it was leading towards disobedience and introduced shame and sin into the world and death. And therefore we have the world that the way it is, right?

Each and every one of us are dealing with these lies that we tend to believe. And God asked that like, well, who told you that? Like who told you that, right? Like I didn't tell you that. And we see that starting here in Genesis three. But one of the ways that Kyle was setting up this message, the sermon series on Sunday, was that he's calling it the anatomy, looking at the anatomy of shame, right? Because oftentimes we have to dig a little bit deeper under the surface to figure out what's going on. Much like the human body, right? Oftentimes, you know, maybe in the old days when doctors and people were trying to figure out how the human body worked, what would they talk about bloodletting? - Yeah, bloodletting. - Yeah, like, yeah, right? - Yeah, it's kind of an odd thing to think about, you know, in 2026, you know? But from their perspective, that made sense. They didn't know anything different. They didn't know anything different. I think for often, you know, for a lot of time in my life, probably for the first, probably 25 years of my life, that's probably at the level of which I thought about shame, right? - Yeah, well, and I think shame is like, it's very much, as we said,

it's underneath the thing, right? And like, oh, I feel this way, or I feel anxious about this, or I feel things are out of control here, or I feel apprehensive here. Like, shame is what is hiding underneath of that. And it's really kind of, sometimes we gotta dig down deep to figure out, like, what is that that is really causing that or driving that? But I do think, you know, coming out of Genesis chapter three, I think there's a lot of, I mean, there's so much in this message that I feel like we could talk about. So we may end up in like 50 different directions by the time we're done. So I do think, the thing that we remember about shame is that shame begins from an actually true impulse, right? It begins with the true impulse of like, we have disobeyed God. We have done something wrong. We have sinned against Him. We have willfully gone against the way God has created us to work or created what He's created for us to do. And it grows out of a reality, but it's a lie about that reality, right? It's not just I have done things that are bad. I am bad. It's not just that, you know,

the world around me is broken. It's that I'm broken. And, you know, what shame does is it takes that truth, like, hey, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And it twisted into making us feel like, you know, that we can't trust other people with that. It makes us feel like there is something wrong with us that just cannot be repaired. And I think it's interesting to think about that in terms of Genesis 3. And I thought Kyle did such a great job of setting that up. It's like there's the difference between guilt and shame. It's like we all carry that guilt. We all carry that idea of like, hey, we have sinned and that's part of our reality. But shame is the twisting of that into realizing like, it's not just I've done something bad. I am bad and this is how I am. - No doubt. And I think that's being guilty or being found with guilt is a major part of the gospel. It's a major part of our faith. Like we can't, I think sometimes the temptation in our world is to go to the two extremes. It's like, okay, well, actually I'm not gonna feel bad about anything that I've ever done because I don't wanna deal with any of that because I'm, you know, it's fine. It's whatever it is, like I can do whatever I want.

I'm not gonna feel bad about it. And then there's the other side of the coin on the complete opposite side where it's like, oh man, like I am worthless, unlovable, no one wants me, right? And neither one of those extremes are a healthy reality to be in, right? Like to even put ourselves in the position to accept the free gift of salvation that Jesus offers. We have to be able to admit that we have fallen short of the glory of God, right? But, right, that being able to admit our guilt should lead us towards God's kindness and mercy, right? And not either of the other two extremes. - Right, absolutely. And I think when we think about am I wrestling with guilt or am I wrestling with shame? - I think that is really the key distinction that we can make or that we can ask ourselves is like guilt is convicting, right? Guilt makes me realize, man, I have done something wrong and I need forgiveness, I need to turn away from that, I need to get away from that. Guilt is convicting, but shame is crippling. Shame will just let you sit there in it. And I think that's really the key dynamic we need to keep in mind when we're wrestling through these things, even our own life, is this feeling that I'm feeling, is this motivating? Is it pushing me towards shame, or is it pushing me towards just apathy, really? I think like, oh, well, this is just who I am

and this is just the way it is. If that's where you're at, then that is a play, that's shame, that's shame talking and saying, no, you're never gonna be any better than this. Whereas I think that actual guilt, the actual conviction of the Holy Spirit is, no, this is what you've done. You need to move out of this because Jesus has something better for you. - No doubt and I'm glad you brought up the Holy Spirit because I don't wanna miss that in the midst of this, is that what scripture teaches us is that if we have placed our faith in Christ, never pendant of our sin, right? God will give us his spirit, right? The new testament tells us is that the Holy Spirit is a seal of our salvation upon our soul. And he has many different ways that he works in our life. But one of them is to convict of sin, right? It's to convict of sin. And I think there are times where, well, there are times, every time I don't enjoy that, every time I don't enjoy that, but it's necessary, right? Because it's like the guard rails that help us stay on track, right? And oftentimes, like you said, like when we are found guilty, well, where that should point us is back to our Father in heaven. Right, right.

It should point us towards seeking forgiveness. It should point us towards humbling ourselves, right? To where shame, like you're saying, man, it can become, again, it's the, let me make sure I don't mess this up. Guilt tells us we did something bad. Shame tells us we are something bad, right? And I'm aware that for so many of you watching this right now, you know, you probably fall more, maybe I'm wrong, but I'd say probably a lot of you, probably, yeah, I'll say it, probably part of you and maybe all of you figure that I am something bad. Like the world has shared with me that I'm worthless, that I'm unlovable, that because I'm in prison, because I can't be around my family, because I've had to go live in isolation or whatever it is that, man, I just, I'm not worth anything. And what I would tell you is that I really believe with all my heart, that is not what God believes about you. I do not believe that because, yeah. Jesus came to die for us while we were still enemies, right? While we were far off from him, he came to die for us. But Brandon, it's a hard thing. It's a hard tension to manage between this idea of not of like knowing that we have made some poor choice. I'm just speaking for myself. Yeah. Like, hey, like knowing that I've made poor choices, knowing that man, like even if there's a consistent pattern of falling in a certain area of my life, it can be so easy to just think, man, this is just, this is all I'm ever going to be. Yeah. All right. This is all I'm ever going to be. And a couple of the things that shame makes us do, and this is completely relates to me is that shame makes me cover up, right? Shame makes me hide and shame makes me afraid. Yeah. How does that relate to what we just read in Genesis 3?

Oh, man. Well, you know, I mean, we see all of those things there in Genesis chapter 3, because you get the initial work of them trying to cover themselves up of making fig leaves or whatever to cover up their nakedness. So there's that element of, you know, we've been sewing together fig leaves since Genesis 3, and trying to piece together some semblance of a good appearance. Like, you know, I will show myself to other people, but only the parts of me that make me look good. And I'm going to make sure that people always get the polished veneered sort of version. And I think, as Kyle said, we see this so much today in our day of social media, right? Like it's so easy to throw a filter on a filter like, oh, here's a picture of the meal I made tonight. Meanwhile, like, I was pulling my hair out while I was making it and the pots and pans are up in the sink and all that, you know, but we curate that to make ourselves look good. And but we do that, whether it's social media or even just interactions with people, we want people to think this is who I am. There's the hiding element where it's well, I'm not even going to put that out. Like, I'm not even going to put that veneer out there. I am going to just completely hide and distance myself from other people. And you know, Kyle had a great illustration of that with the the feelings with wheel and say, you know, we did well, I'm fine. I'm fine. Rather than actually being open and honest about, you know, where we're at with things. And then, you know, Shane makes us afraid. I love that line you were talking about this earlier today, where Kyle said, you know, Shane says, if if I admit that I'm a failed, then I'm a failure. It's not just, hey, I messed up. It's like, I am, I am a mess up. Yes. And, and I think it makes us afraid to try things. You know, it makes us afraid to step out and take chances. Because we think, I mean, we think about the times we did fail. We think about the times we were exposed for our inadequacies and think, man, I don't want to, I don't want to go out there and have that happen to me again. You know, and Shane keeps us living in fear and keeps us from stepping out into what God has for us. And you think about that, like it even in Genesis three, fear makes us afraid of God. There's that element in which, you know, God is coming to them to like he surely knows what has happened. You know, he's coming to them to to talk to them and offer out to hold out hope to them. And they're hiding like, oh, he's coming to punish us. And there's that element in the minute we feel shame, the minute we start to think, well, like, I can't go to church or I can't be included there because you're like, I mean, you've heard people say, like, if I go to church, the roof's going to cave in or whatever. Oh, yeah. There's that level of shame where it's

where it's like, God is not, God is not coming after me because he loves me. He's coming after me because he wants to punish me. And, you know, I think that's probably one of the most damning effects of Genesis chapter three is, you know, God would walk in the cool of the garden with Adam and Eve as their friend. And they see him suddenly as an enemy. We have to hide from him. We can't let him see us because if he sees what we've done, if he sees what we are now, he's not going to want anything to do with us. Yeah, because we definitely, as people, have this capacity, this tendency to equate our actions, we are good or bad to our identity, right, of like, well, I'm either a success or a failure, you know, I'm either, I'm either rich or I'm poor or whatever the example, you know, is in a person's life. And, you know, what, what scripture teaches us is that we are, we are so much more than those things. Because, yeah, like number one, like, we are all We are all sinners, we are all sinners, needing saved. and X, Y, and Z. And yet, God still loves us in the midst of that. And not only that, but through Christ, He makes us a new creation. He makes us a new creation that all of what Jesus is doing, even His death on the cross, His resurrection, His kingdom coming is pushing the world, is pushing reality back to a place to where we're in this garden like atmosphere with Him again, right, the way that it should be. But it's just so fascinating to me and here in Genesis three where like, no one told them they were naked, right? No one told them, but they start putting together fig leaves, trying to cover themselves up because all of a sudden, like they know that they're exposed, right? They know that they're exposed and they start running for God,

they hide from them, right? And which is so funny to me to think that even I, there's times where I'm like, ah, I'm just gonna hide this from God as if I could ever do that, right? As if I could ever do that. Or as if Adam or Eve could ever hide from him in the garden. But I think there's also a lesson to be learned here. Like to do the opposite of what Adam and Eve did is that we've talked about this before months ago, I think on the podcast of like the posture of the Lord when it comes to receiving us. Even as sinners, right? He's not standing on this front porch with his arms crossed, just waiting for you to come back so he can punish us. - Yeah. - Like that's not what he's doing. Like he is a father who is well, he's wanting to welcome you home, not to completely excuse the things that we've done. - Right. - Like it's not even that. It's that, well, he's paid the penalty for what we've already done. And that just, I don't think we even have a worldly context for a king like that, other than seeing what we see in scripture through Jesus. - No, no, well, and I think, again, it takes me back to that difference

between godly conviction and the condemnation that sin has, is that when God is convicting us of something, he's pointing it out so we can learn from it, so that we can know he has something better for us. It's like, hey, you thought this was great? I know. You're settling for something less than what I have for you. Whereas there's, just shame would make us sit in that and think, and well, this is all I deserve, right? This is all I deserve because this is what I am. I'm broken and I'm messed up and I can't do anything right. And I think, I think, we, there's an element where we don't, we need to not be ashamed to let the Holy Spirit do that in us and say, and to point out those areas where, hey, you need to repent of this. You need to turn away from this. You need to turn towards what God has for you in this area. As opposed to, we sometimes even just run from that godly conviction and we need to be able to see those, the difference between those two for what they are and see that, hey, God is calling me into correction, not into conflict. He wants me, he wants me to be changed and transformed. He doesn't want me to sit in this anymore. He wants me to walk forward out of it. - Yeah, and I think that what can be hard about this is that not everyone has experienced, what's the best way to say this? Not everyone has experienced like healthy correction in their life, whether it's from an authority figure

or a parent or coach or a teacher. Like I can think of several examples where people have abused that situation. I would imagine for several of you watching right now, that's probably a reality in your life or it's like you had an authority figure of some sort in your life that did abuse you or abuse their authority in how they decided to correct you. And that can really mess with our ability to understand and comprehend like what God wants to do through the Holy Spirit in these moments in our life because we can embody and become our failures rather than just letting them be our actions and take accountability for those actions but not let them be the, like that's not who we are, right? That's not who we are. But at the end of the day, we have to take account for the things that we've done to be accountable for those things, to admit those things, to seek reconciliation the best that we can. But when it comes to shame, Kyle encouraged us with three things. He said, number one, he wants us to recognize the shame, right? So seeing shame for what it is, shame loses its power over us when we bring it out into the light, right? Rather than just hiding it and tucking it deep down inside of us, we need to bring it out. He said, "Maybe you've been treating someone else's opinion, like it's God's verdict." Ask yourself, Panda family, who was it that said that to you? Right?

If it wasn't the Lord, if it wasn't something that we see in Scripture, especially if it was something that an abusive parent, coach, someone like that said to you, when you were younger that you still remember, I think we need to ask ourselves, like, "Okay, we're okay. How much longer are we going to let that lie dictate our life and what we do and how we feel about ourselves?" Number three is incredibly important, and it's received God's grace. God told them they were going to die if they ate this. God told them, "I'm going to eat if they would die if they ate from this tree," and they did it anyway. He came looking for them, but he wasn't hiding from them. He made them new clothes. As you wrote on some of our notes, "For God to make new clothes for them, an animal in the garden had to die." It was a picture of what was coming that Jesus would die for us to cover our sin. Again, if our actions, if our failures didn't have an impact, then Jesus wouldn't have to die. But our actions, our heart, the way that we disobey the Lord, it created a massive chasm between us and the Lord, but he paid for it, but he paid for it. Among those three, what would one of those be that you're like, "Man, if I were to encourage somebody watching this on an app right now, this is the one where I'm like, "Man, they're all super important." That's not what I'm not saying, but what would be the one that you're like, "Man, that's one that I would encourage you." Oh, that's tough. I think rejecting the lie, that second point that Kyle gave us to walk with, I think that's so important because God asked him that question, "Who told you you were naked?" I think Kyle encouraged us to go back and think about that in our life, "Who said that thing about you? Who put that shame in your heart?"

I think that's something, I mean, that sometimes you really have to strip things back and think about like, "Okay, where did I get that message? Where did I get that idea in my head that this is who I am or this is what I deserve?" And I would just encourage you guys to, as you think about the shame that you struggle with, as you think about some of the labels you carry in your own heart, well, who gave me that? Who spoke that over me and what right did they have to do that? And instead, allow God to speak into your identity, allow him to talk about who you are. I don't think it was in the morning services, but maybe Thursday night Kyle had said, had encouraged people to finish the sentence that the lie I'm believing about myself is... And I would just say, man, that can be some of the most restorative work you can do for yourself in that, is what lie is it that I'm holding on to? What lie is it that I'm thinking, "Hey, this is who I am. This is what I've done. This is what defines me rather than letting him define us." And I think if we can peel that away and instead sit in who he says we are, then that's going to help a lot of the shame we wrestle with. So a line you just said, "I'd love to dive a little bit more until you said let him define us." So what do you mean by that? Yeah. Yeah. I think when we read throughout the New Testament, the New Testament is full of just passages that speak to who we are because of what Jesus has done for us, that when we accept Christ, when we're baptized in His name, we are clothed with Christ. Kyle quoted that in Galatians 3.27, I believe, is that those who have been baptized into Christ are clothed with Christ, that we have been given a new identity. We have been clothed with a new righteousness. And I think rather than sitting in and thinking about the labels that other people have put in on us are the labels that even sometimes we put on ourselves, we need to sit and think,

"Well, what label has God given me? Who is Jesus said I am?" And you can do that through any number of passages in Scripture, one that always sticks out to me, and I think we've talked about this in the podcast before, is if you just sit in like Ephesians chapter 1 for a minute, and Paul just talks about all the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ, like you get to sit in that for a minute and think about, "This is who He says I am, and it's way better than what other people have said about me. It's way better than what I've even said about myself, and I need to sit in that part of my identity and let Him say, "This is who you are, not because of what you've done, but because of what Jesus has done." Well, I think it's fascinating and worth bringing up before we had to close this you know, the one that's, you know, relaying that message for us in Scripture is that of all people, you know, who, like, I just think like, what if, what if Paul wouldn't have been able to get past the wrong things that he had done in his life, like, what if Paul was not able to get past the shame, what if he was not able to get past the mistakes he had made, I mean, persecutor of the church, killing Christians, just terrorizing the church in so many ways and is literally on the road to Damascus, right, a place called Damascus to go, persecute the church. And yet Jesus took him, transformed his heart, transformed his life. And I think about, like, man, like, what if Paul wouldn't have been able to get past all that stuff? Yeah. And would have just stayed in, stayed in the shame, stayed in the darkness of that, never dealt with those things. Well, man, we would have missed out on so much good things, good kingdom related gospel-centered things that God did through him over the course of his life. Well, you made me think as you were talking, and I turned the real quick, you know, it's interesting that when you think about Paul and the shame he could have set in, he didn't sit there and he didn't deny the things he had done.

Sure. He knew exactly like, "Hey, this is what I've done," but he did not let that define his story. In fact, 1 Timothy 1 is where he talks about this, beginning in verse 15, 1 Timothy 1, 15. He says, "This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners, then others will realize that they too can believe in him and receive eternal life." Like you think about just how powerful that is, that Paul looks at, yeah, man, like I did some stuff. I really did some stuff, and I persecuted the church. I was there when Stephen was martyred, but I'm the chief of sinners, but Jesus saved me, and he made me right, and he did that so that my story could point others to the grace that he has. And I think, man, there's such a chasm there between how shame wants us to feel about ourselves and how his salvation wants us to feel about himself, that instead of thinking like, "Man, I am just the worst sinner. There's no way I'm ever going to get out of this." And instead, I am the worst sinner and praise be to God that he sent Jesus to show his grace through me so that other people could know, "Hey, this grace is available to them too." Amen. And I think that's such an encouraging, that should be such an encouraging passage of Scripture for us. Was that in 1 Timothy? Yeah, 1 Timothy, chapter 1. That should be such an encouraging reminder to us in Scripture. And again, if you're looking for where that passage was, it's in the New Testament, it's in 1 Timothy, and we would encourage you to read it because I would imagine for so many

of you, you're like, "Man, will I feel like the worst sinner in the world?" I would imagine there's some of you right now that are watching this or listening to this, and you're like, "Well, that's what I feel like." And what I would say is that you know what me too, and I think Brandon would say the same thing because again, what the Spirit of God does is that he convicts us, he helps us understand like this word called depravity, right? Like who we are before Christ, like we don't measure up, like we just don't, but it can lead us two directions, right? Like when we admit that we are guilty, it can lead us two directions. It can either lead us to run from our Father or run to Him, run away from Him or run to Him. And so our encouragement would be our actions matter, our actions matter, things we do, things we have done, they matter because they have an impact on people. They have an impact on our life and other people's lives, and we have to be accountable for that. But what we also know is that through Christ, right, we are not, what I would say is that you're not your conviction, right? You're not your sentencing. You're not the thing that you did. No matter how bad it was, right, you've got to own it, right? Christ wants us to own it, but He doesn't want that to be the thing that your life is defined by. All right, Paul didn't let the things that he had done define his life, right? He acknowledged that he was the greatest of all sinners. But what that should also show is that Jesus is the greatest of all saviors, right? Because He doesn't differentiate between what you've done, what I've done, right? He loves us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. brand and it's going to be I think it's going to be a great will hit all of us. Probably in some of those sensitive spots in our life

that we don't necessarily engage with. - Yeah. - Oh goodness, all right. Well, y'all, that is all that we have for today. We're grateful for you. I'm more grateful that you watch. I think our prayer for you this week would be that God would help you identify what those lies are that you're believing in your life. And if you have paper, if you have a notebook, maybe write some of those down. Put them down on paper and take a look at them and pray through them and see like, man, like where did this life start? Where did this life start? And if it's not something that God specifically told you or that you see in scripture, then I would challenge. I would challenge you to really wrestle with how you can step out of believing that and into believing the truth, the scripture that the God of the universe, your father in heaven believes about you. Y'all, we love you. We're grateful for you and we'll see you next time. [BLANK_AUDIO]