Covered In The Gospel

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org Today, we're on our last on shame. And yes, there is such a thing. People have asked me, well, isn't shame a good thing? Yes, we want some. Because shame gives us the proper boundaries in life at times of when to say what to say and how to say it rather than just being shameless. We've got a lot of shamelessness going on, and it's not a good thing. But most of the time that you experience shame, and I do these days, it's chronic. And it's kind of destructive in our lives. And that's what we're looking at today. Why are we talking about shame? Because of how destructive it can be, but also because the Bible actually talks about it a lot. We started in Genesis 3 with the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden and how they were ashamed at their nakedness then. And we can see it, and you can run all the way through Revelation with this theme and see how it all ties in on how God will cover us, not just take away our shame, but covers us with his honor, with his glory, and his goodness, and his delight. That's what we're after today. And we will see all sorts of words in the Bible for shame, and honor, and glory, such as lament, or courage, or boldness, or fear. And they're all different ways that shame is experienced or things that correlate with shame. So that's why we're talking about it. And Brene Brown, who is a researcher on shame, says why we also need to talk about it. She writes, shame is that gremlin who says, never good enough. Have you ever had that feeling like, I'm never good enough? Yeah. And if, she says, if you can talk out shame out of that one, it says to you, who do you think you are? Yeah. Shame, she said, is highly, highly correlated with addiction, depression, violence, aggression, bullying, suicide, and eating disorders. And here's what you need to know even more. Guilt is inversely correlated with those things. So shame is really what's behind much of our cultural issues these days. And it does beg the question, how do we overcome it? Where do we take shame? How do we handle it? And I'll tell you, our tribalism of people identifying with one group or another against the others is just another, another symptom of how shame and shaming others is endemic in our society. Our authoritarianism, the fact that we want someone to lead us who's strong and able to push people around, just shows how we're dealing with our insecurities and vulnerabilities. And sadly, much religion these days is really just like the fig leaf in Genesis 3, that tries to cover shame, but it's never enough. It's never ending. And you just have to keep doing it, doing it, doing it, never to really solve the problem of shame. Today, though, we're going to look at how Paul says what really resolves shame. And he writes this in Romans chapter 1. For I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. So what's ironic about this is the gospel is the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection, which is the most shameful form of death one could ever experience, crucifixion. And yet that becomes good news. And today we're going to be discussing from this text three points. We're back to three again. Yes. What is the gospel? So you understand what we're talking about. Why is it good news for the shame? And how does one access the power of the gospel that he talks about here? So what's the gospel? All the way through the first part of this book of Romans, the letter to the Romans, Paul uses the term gospel again and again and again. And it is the Greek word. Yes. Greek again here. You on Galileo on you or Epsilon Epsilon. That beginning means good. And on Galilee on. Can you hear Angel is in that word or messenger or proclaimer? It's the good news. And Paul is saying the good news comes to you in the way that it did that day and age. You know, today we've got a lot of different types of media ways to proclaim information or news. And that day there was really only one. They didn't have telegraphs, telephones. They didn't even have that much writing because writing they couldn't mass produce writings. And even when a letter was written, it was sent with someone to read it because 90 percent of the people were illiterate. So the news came always with by a person who proclaimed the news. And in fact, for example, the battle at Marathon. Have you ever heard of a marathon before? It was proclaimed the victory that the Athenians got over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. Was proclaimed by a runner who ran 26 and a quarter miles point to 26.2 kilometers, 26.2 miles. I don't remember too far. I'm not running it. OK, ever. But he ran all the way back to Athens to proclaim the victory, the good news...