The Shame Game

Shame is a story you tell yourself about yourself. Like a news ticker that
runs in the background of our minds, we have shame scripts that say: “I am unworthy, I am
unlovable, I am not enough, I am a mistake.” God says you are His workmanship, fearfully and
wonderfully made, the apple of His eye, more than a conqueror. If you want to change your life,
you have to change your story! You are who God says you are. To believe anything else is false
humility.

UNASHAMED: The Shame Game

August 13, 2022

UNASHAMED: The Shame Game Dr. Mark Batterson, 8/14/22

The Looking Glass Self: I am not who I think I am. I am not who YOU think I am. I am who I think YOU think I am.

If you want to change your life, you have to change your story! Shame is a story you tell yourself about yourself.

“Adam and Eve were both naked, and they felt NO SHAME.”

—Genesis 2:25

The Hebrew word translated unashamed is bosh. It means no shame, no anxiety.

The opposite of SHAME is vulnerability.
Shame lives in the shadows. It’s our deep dark secrets.

Vulnerability is the COURAGE to CONFESS.

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

—Genesis 1:26-27

Theology of Dignity – everyone is INVALUABLE and IRREPLACEABLE because everyone is made in the Imago Dei (image of God).

“God BLESSED them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

—Genesis 1:28

Before there was ORIGINAL SIN there was ORIGINAL blessing.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

—Genesis 3:1-5

“Every Christian I met CANNOT QUITE BELIEVE that they are LOVED BY GOD.”

—Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

—Genesis 3:6-7

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

—Genesis 3:8-10

The etymological root of shame means to COVER.

Take your own notes here:

“And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me —she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”

—Genesis 3:11-13, 21

“Therefore, there is now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ.”

—Romans 8:1

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