Say Goodbye to Guilt! - Romans 8:1-4 - Part One - Sermon in Outline Format

Say Goodbye to Guilt!

Romans 8:1-4

Salutations

·       Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

·       Welcome again to any Friends and Visitors

·       Read the Passage – Romans 8:1-4

·       Announce the Title – “Say Goodbye to Guilt”

·       Prayer

·       Humbly beseech the gracious bestowal of the anointing of the Holy Spirit who breaks every yokes that binds the people of God

·       With all due humility, I ask that I would decrease so that You may increase within me.

·       Open the eyes and ears of our hearts and reveal unto us Your “good, pleasing and perfect will” for our lives.

·       O most gracious and benevolent Master, give us knowledge of Your will for us and the mental willingness and spiritual power to carry it out.

·       May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and redeemer.  Amen.

Introduction

·       Paint the picture of the sentencing phase in a criminal trial for a capital offense

·       The jury slowly returns to the jury box

·       The bailiff takes the sealed verdict from the foreperson and hands it to the judge

·       The judge asks the defendant and his counsel to rise.

·       The foreperson of the jury rises to read the unanimous verdict aloud to the packed courtroom

·       Cameras are clicking endlessly.

·       The news media is having a feeding frenzy.

·       Reporters develop writer’s cramp as they furiously attempt to capture each rich detail.

·       Then the stunned silence of the room as the words, “We sentence the defendant to a life sentence so that he may daily and repeatedly recollect his guilt.  Should he die and when he dies, he shall know that he is guilty.”

·       That drama or should I say melodrama recycles through our minds and hearts multiple times each day.

·       Because we feel guilty about unresolved issues, we awake each morning and re-sentence ourselves to a lifetime of guilt.

·       Unconfessed sin

·       Refusal to repent

·       Willfulness

·       Self-justification

·       Cringing upon the mention and recollection of a given person or incident

·       Thinking we got away but hoping not to be found out

·       Trying to think of yet another way to elude responsibility for our actions or having to face the consequences of our choices.

·       Hoping the statute of limitations runs out.

·       Hoping to ward off double jeopardy

·       Allude to Al Sharpton and his 68-count indictment

·       Allude to the story of prosecutorial vengeance – 168-count indictment

·       Yet, we play this game with ourselves when we refuse to repent and fully receive the forgiveness of Almighty God

·       As 2003 comes to a close in a few days and 2004 begins, I hope

·       that we will say goodbye to guilt.

I.  Page One – Problems in the Text – Romans 8:1-4

·       The Story behind the Text

·       A thorn in Paul’s side

·       Speculate about the thorn – heavily utilize imagination

·       Physical infirmity

·       Emotional

·       Psychological

·       The desire to preach in Rome

·       The desire to preach in every crevice of the Roman Empire

·       I suspect the memory of persecuting the Church persistently plagues Paul.

·       I imagine that he cringes each and every time that he thinks about it.

·       I posit that the memory of standing over Stephen’s dead body and nodding with approval and having his bosom swell with pride torments Paul.

·       Until the day he dies and transitions to eternal life, I imagine that Paul fights a daily battle to receive genuinely and completely God’s enduring and unquestionable forgiveness.

·       Paul awakes each day to the struggle of forgiving himself for such an egregious error.

·       His battle with this sin remains an open wound.

·       He festers like a thorn trapped in the skin.

·       I suspect that Paul’s unrelenting and tireless efforts to spread the gospel is a personal atonement of sorts.

·       Paul daily negotiates with this emotional pain.

·       Will he ever find relief?

·       Is inner healing and spiritual wholeness possible?

·       Why does God allow Satan to torment Paul in this way?

·       Why does God seemingly ignore Paul’s persistent pleas to remove this thorn?

·       Where is God?

·       Satan uses guilt to manipulate Paul

·       Accuses him each and every day

·       Memory

·       Guilt

• ·         The vivid and indelible images of persecuting the church and gleefully giving his assent to the death of Stephen and countless others.

Say Goodbye to Guilt - Romans 8:1-4 Part One - Sermon in Outline Format

Say Goodbye to Guilt! – Romans 8:1-4 – Part Two

II.  Page Two – Problems in Our Lives and the World

·       Guilt

·       Secrets

·       Memories

·       Unconfessed sin

·       “Down low”

·       Petrified sin

·       Thorn

·       Ghosts – Ebenezer Scrooge

·       Past “rap sheets”

·       Failure to extend and receive forgiveness

·       Trampled upon other people and their feelings

·       Unrequited love

·       The duplicity of love – the number of people who stayed together for the holidays but will break up before Valentine’s Day

·       We are more like Jacob than we care to acknowledge – we have used people

·       Jung’s idea of the shadow

·       “If you can name then you must claim it.”

·       Check our motives – those dangerous ulterior motives which go unfulfilled

·       Secrets – “You are as sick as your secrets.”

·       Unconfessed sin – “Your sin will find you out.”

·       Willfulness

·       Refusal to repent

·       Arrogance of self-reliance

·       Self- justification

·       Rationalization

·       Guilt

·       We hope never to be discovered

·       Don’t want to be found out

·       Our guilt manipulates us

·       Guilt and fear tag team us

·       We are afraid to reach for certain positions

·       Some people forego public life

·       Some people isolate

·       Some people never get close to other people for fear of being found out

III. Page Three – God’s Grace and Redemption in the Text

·       Return to the courtroom scene.

·       The verdict and sentence are announced.

·       Yet, someone walks in and insists that all of the evidence is not in!

·       Allude to the suffering servant passage in Isaiah 53 – quote it

·       We have an advocate and an excellent defense counselor who has never loss a case.

·       Experience the grace of God

·       “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

·       because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death

·       For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature,

·       God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

·       And so he condemned sin in sinful man,

·       In order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us,

·       Who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”

·       “The gospel through grace was able to due what the law could not do.”

·       Christ removes our guilt!

·       Rejoice – we are free in Christ

·       Romans 8:31 – “What, then, shall we say in response to this?  If God is for us, who can be against us?”

·       Romans 8:33 – “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?  It is God who justifies. 

·       1 John 1:9

·       Hebrews 4:12-16

·       1 John 2:1-2 – We have an Advocate in Christ Jesus, our Lord

·       There is no remaining guilt or condemnation for anyone who is on Christ Jesus!

IV.  Page Four – God’s Grace and Redemption in Us

·       Experience the liberty from guilt, shame, humiliation, embarrassment, manipulation, emotional extortionists, and fear that Christ offers.

·       Tell the story of the image of the weight on the shoulders and using it to balance one’s self to reach the other side of a stream with a fierce current

·       Similar to crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land

·       Practical steps

·       Confession

·       Repentance

·       Forgiveness

·       Live into it

·       Daily grace

Conclusion

·       Say goodbye to Guilt!!!