Guilt, shame, fear, regret…let’s talk about it.

Gil, chain, fear, regret, let's talk about it on key life.

Key life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus in the Bible is the radical

grace of God, to sinners and sufferers.

Because life's hard for everyone, race is for all of us.

Our host is seminary professor and author Steve Brown.

Thank you Matthew.

We're going to be doing something different for the next few weeks and I'll explain that

to you as we go along during this broadcast.

By the way, I hope you had a great weekend and I hope that your pastor sermon was as good

as my pastor sermon.

What we're going to do on this broadcast and for the next few weeks is we're going to

look at themes that are not very positive but are dealt with with grace and with truth.

We're going to talk about guilt and shame and regret and fear and I'm going to fix it.

If you believe that, you believe anything.

Let's pray and then we'll get down.

Father, we come into your presence.

So aware that this is a safe place, a place where we're loved if nobody else does, a place

where we're always forgiven if nobody else does, a place where you take care of the regrets

even if nobody else does.

Father, we praise you and we worship you not for just what you've done but for who you

are.

You are sovereign.

You're omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, good and kind and wise and patient and faithful.

Help us to remember that and to run to you always.

Father, we pray for the one who teaches on this broadcast or give him his sins because

there are many we would see Jesus and Him only and we pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

Okay, let me tell you what the plan is.

After the next few weeks, we're going to be dealing with a book that I wrote and one

with which I am almost finished and during these weeks, I'm going to solicit your comments.

As you listen to this, if it's helpful, let me know if it's not, generally I do my books

after they're published and then spend some time on the broadcast and it's too late.

But this time, I'm going to share with you what I'm working on and what I'm putting together

and if you have comments, I will appreciate those comments.

You say, well, what is the book about?

Well, the title is not settled yet.

One of the titles is the liberating power of truth, exposing lies, breaking change and

moving mountains.

And that didn't work, so we tried, grace still works.

Good news for your fear, guilt, shame and regret.

And then we've talked about other possible titles, the liberating power of grace and truth,

letting the lies of fear, guilt, shame and regret.

The liberating power of grace and truth, good news about your fear, guilt, shame and regret.

Moving mountains of fear, guilt, shame and regret, that'll let you know where we've been

going with this.

Now there are a number of chapters and let me kind of give you an overview and then tomorrow

we'll get down.

In the first chapter, we're going to talk about lies in general and why we believe them

and what they're about.

And then we're going to talk about lies that enchant us, lies that cheat us, lies that

define us, lies that confuse us, lies that defraud us, lies that exalt us.

The lies that test us, the lies that discourage us, the lies that manipulate us, God told me to

tell you, the lies that neutralize us, the lies that disempower us, the lies that testify,

that terrify us, the lies that separate us and then the big lie.

And you go, whoa, I know.

But I've been thinking about this a long time and so that's the direction we're going

to go in.

You know, some things are universal, like human sin, failure, stupidity and because they

are guilt and shame and regret and fear are also universal.

And then the book I'm working on about those destructive mountains and prison chains,

guilt shame, regret and fear, they can't be fixed absolutely until we get home.

The truth is that guilt shame, fear and regret really can't be fixed.

The Bible's doctrine of the false says that two people who we never met messed it up for

the rest of us.

Now that, I don't know about you, but that never seemed fair to me, but nobody ever

asked me or gave me a vote.

It is what it is, however, the same Bible that speaks to the fall also speaks of the

amazing ways God ameliorates the problem.

It promises that there will be no guilt and shame and fear and regret someday, until

then there's a lot of good news about the false narratives that we have accepted and

sometimes believed.

The good news is always the truth.

The problem is when those lying dragons or slain, their tails still swish.

It's important and appropriate that someone who writes books about any painful issue first

confesses their own struggle.

If an author hasn't been there and done that, at least to one degree or another, that

author shouldn't write about it and if they do, you shouldn't read it.

I'll be as honest as I can be as we go through this series as honest as I can be without

losing my job.

I still struggle with the lies and the destructive narratives.

Frankly, I thought I would be a lot better by now or at least more than I have.

It just didn't happen.

The truth is that I'm a pastor and my sins aren't popcorn sins.

I've been shamed and have shamed others a lot.

I have a string of regrets you wouldn't believe, and I'm often scared spittless.

But listen up.

With all that being said, I'm still here.

Not only am I still here.

I'll be it bloodied and wounded, but I'm an old survivor who survived with a fair amount

of joy and freedom and success.

And I want to share with you not how to sink whom by y'all while walking off in the

sun set together.

But how I and so many others have survived learning to rejoice in that survival.

That is in case you're wondering called sanctification.

Sanctification biblically is a very slow process.

Being so slow that it doesn't even feel like sanctification at all, nevertheless.

That process has been happening in my life and the lives of many others for a very long

time.

It has happened in ways that have surprised me and might surprise you.

And I want to tell you about it.

Now it happened, why it happened, and why it is so very important.

Now if you are listening to this broadcast and like everyone else struggle with guilt,

shame, fear and regret, it's my prayer that you'll find what I'm going to teach helpful.

So it will be helpful because it deals mostly with the sources of those problems.

The false narratives that we have come to believe.

The lies that somebody told us and we decided were true.

The nonsense that we have bought into and called it the Christian faith.

The silly things that aren't true that somebody told us was true.

So that's the direction we're going to go in and it's going to be a fun journey.

And it is my hope that we will enjoy this journey together.

You think about that, amen.

Thank you, Steve.

And as you just heard, we are now into a brand new series based on Steve's brand new book.

How new?

So new, it's not even finished yet.

So do join us on this journey and let us know what you think.

As Steve said, your feedback can have a real impact on the final product.

Well you know about the Trinity, but did you know the enemy has one too?

No, the devil's Trinity isn't drinking, smoking, cussing, it's shame, fear and guilt.

Steve says these still sometimes get him.

But in a message that he gave at the Billy Graham Training Center, Steve explains that

there's an answer to these persistent challenges.

We put that entire talk on a CD that we would love to send to you for free.

Listen, if you ever struggle with shame, fear or guilt, this one is for you.

So call us right now at 1-800-Keylife.

That's 1-800-539-543-3.

You can also email Steve at keylife.org to order that CD.

Or to mail your request, go to keylife.org slash contact to find our mailing addresses

for the US and Canada.

Again, just ask for the CD called the devil's Trinity.

Finally, would you join in the work of key life by giving?

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If you think about it, please do pray for us, would you?

Always needed, always appreciated.

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