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Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! [2 Cor 9:15]
Internal voices that are self-critical.
You are always messing up!
You could be doing so much better if you got your act together!
If people could see what you are really like, you would have no friends!
For some of us, these voices are stronger:
You are not enough.
You are deeply flawed.
You are a loser
You will make a mess of your life and die a failure
Or even stronger:
You are bad!
Deep inside you is some very nasty stuff
You would be covered in shame if people knew the truth
You are disgusting
You need to be punished.
Where do they come from?
The Voice of God through the conscience
A Voice that originates from the “Accuser”, which we have internalized.
Rev 12:10 “for the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. “
Goal
To learn to distinguish between God’s voice and the voice of the accuser,
and experience the peace, joy and victory God wants for us.
Victory over Condemnation
The Passage – Romans 8:31–39
Three accusations and three answers
How the Accuser is Defeated
Romans 8:31–39
Victory over Condemnation
The Passage – Romans 8:31–39
Three accusations and three answers
How the Accuser is Defeated
Feelings of Guilt and Shame
Guilt
Shame
internal
seen by others
True & False Guilt
Guilt
Shame
true
I know it was wrong
seen by others (corrective)
false
I am a failure
people won’t want to be around me (abandoned, isolated)
Our feelings as broken people
Guilt
Shame
true
I am guilty & scared of being punished.
People won’t want to be around me I will be abandoned and isolated I am destined to be lonely and rejected because nobody wants to be near such a stinking mess
false
I am a failure and my life will fail and I will have nothing. I am just a mess, a worthless waste I am hopeless
Avoiding the pain
Blame - “the woman you gave me made me do it”
Rationalize - “The reason was because I was tricked by the serpent”
Suicide - Judas: “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood!” …Then he went out and hanged himself.
Romans 8:31–32
Our feelings as broken people
Guilt
Shame
true
I am guilty & scared of being punished.
People won’t want to be around me I will be abandoned and isolated I am destined to be lonely and rejected because nobody wants to be near such a stinking mess
false
I am a failure and my life will fail and I will have nothing. I am just a mess, a worthless waste I am hopeless
Romans 8:33–34
Our feelings as broken people
Guilt
Shame
true
I am guilty & scared of being punished.
People won’t want to be around me I will be abandoned and isolated I am destined to be lonely and rejected because nobody wants to be near such a stinking mess
false
I am a failure and my life will fail and I will have nothing. I am just a mess, a worthless waste I am hopeless
Romans 8:35–39
Victory over Condemnation
The Passage – Romans 8:31–39
Three accusations and three answers
How the Accuser is Defeated
Colossians 2
And you, being dead in your trespasses…
he made alive ,
forgiving us all trespasses,
wiping out the record of debt against us with its decrees,
that which was hostile to us, even this he has removed out of the way,
nailing it to the cross.
Having stripped rulers and authorities,
he made a public display of them, triumphing over them in it.
Colossians 2
Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink,
or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths,
which are a shadow of things to come, but the reality is of Christ.
Let no one disqualify you [from the prize],
insisting on self-abasement…
How do people cope
numb out/distract
self punishment / self-harming
exacting legalism
armor of narcissism (over-reaction & angry attack to cover it)