What's Next?

Whether you heard the message from Sunday or are part of one of our “What’s Next” groups at Venture, here’s a way for you to go deeper.

this week's next steps

Memorize 1 John 1:9

I will look into Venture's Celebrate Recovery to help overcome strongholds in my life

I will read and reflect daily on John 8 and Luke 7

Say yes to Jesus - click here

This week's Bible reading plan

This week's fill-in notes

This week's prayer & fasting focus

WEEK 3: BREAK FREE OF SHAME

After last week’s message on hidden sin, there is a chance that it may have brought a sense of shame to the surface. It is expected human behavior actually! When we make a wrong choice or a terrible decision, we can tend to live in that sense of shame. We beat ourselves up and feel as though we have disappointed God and others. But that is not God’s design! Shame is bound together with a sense of sin and guilt, but God is right there offering us restoration and forgiveness from our sin. He wants to take away shame! God wants us to come to Him, take accountability of wrong doings, and live in the freedom He so graciously offer us.
We see this displayed for us in John 8. A woman was caught in adultery and was then brought before Jesus by religious leaders. Their intention was to shame her. They thought maybe she should be stoned for her actions. Jesus invited any of them who is without sin to be the first to throw a stone. But no one was able. None of them were without sin! And that is what Jesus wanted them to see – that all of them had sinned! None of them were better than her. Jesus went on to absolve the woman of her sin. In verse 11 He said, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Where man may make us feel shame, God wants us to instead feel remorse, repent to Him, and turn away from the sin.

What shame does:

It is like a wild beast and a garment that covers us (Jeremiah 3:24-25).
It is lifelong torment or blight against us, leads to destruction, and is a constant threat (Jeremiah 20:18, Isaiah 6:7, Isaiah 47:3).
It is a sin against our soul and is connected to defeat (Hebrews 2:10, Isaiah 30:3).
It is overwhelming disapproval and is full of everlasting contempt (Isaiah 54:4, Daniel 12:2).
It leads to poverty, folly, and nothingness (Proverbs 13:18, 18:13, 9:7).

Guilt is a healthy, God-given awareness of sin (“I did something bad”), where shame is destructive and identity-based (“I am bad”).

The antidote to shame is knowing your identity in Christ - YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD and YOU ARE FORGIVEN! YOU ARE JUSTIFIED - ABSOLVED AND ACQUITTED!

PRAYER
This week, our prayers are focused on breaking free from shame and fear by practicing what Jesus outlines as living a “well built” life in Luke 6:46-49 - building on the rock.

WELL BUILT ON THE ROCK (Luke 6:46-49)

COME to Him.
LISTEN to His words.
ACT on them.

Luke 6:46-49 (AMPC)
46 Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not [practice] what I tell you?
47 For everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words [in order to heed their teaching] and does them, I will show you what he is like:
48 He is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood arose, the torrent broke against that house and could not shake or move it, because it had been securely built or founded on a rock.
49 But he who merely hears and does not practice doing My words is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it collapsed and fell, and the breaking and ruin of that house was great.

DAY 1 TRUTH: Identity in Christ
You are a child of God!

1 John 3:1a (CSB)

See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are!

Galatians 4:4-7 (CSB)

4 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

WELL BUILT ON THE ROCK (Luke 6:46-49)

COME to Him - Pray in the Secret Place, connecting with God.
LISTEN to His words - Read and meditate on these verses or others God brings to mind and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you about them.
ACT on them - What are you going to do about what God is saying to you?

DAY 2 TRUTH: Confession and forgiveness
As a follower of Christ, when you confess your sins, God forgives you.

Psalm 103:12 (CSB)

As far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed

our transgressions from us.

1 John 1:9 (ESV)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

WELL BUILT ON THE ROCK (Luke 6:46-49)

COME to Him - Pray in the Secret Place, connecting with God.
LISTEN to His words - Read and meditate on these verses or others God brings to mind and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you about them.
ACT on them - What are you going to do about what God is saying to you?

DAY 3 TRUTH: Washed clean
You are purified by a complete atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin.

1 Corinthians 6:11 - Part 1 (AMPC)

And such some of you were [once]. But you were washed clean (purified by a complete atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin), and you were consecrated (set apart, hallowed), and you were justified [pronounced righteous, by trusting] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God.

WELL BUILT ON THE ROCK (Luke 6:46-49)

COME to Him - Pray in the Secret Place, connecting with God.
LISTEN to His words - Read and meditate on these verses or others God brings to mind and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you about them.
ACT on them - What are you going to do about what God is saying to you?

DAY 4 TRUTH: Sanctified
You are consecrated, set apart, and hallowed.

1 Corinthians 6:11 - Part 2 (ESV)

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:11 - Part 2 (AMPC)

WELL BUILT ON THE ROCK (Luke 6:46-49)

COME to Him - Pray in the Secret Place, connecting with God.
LISTEN to His words - Read and meditate on these verses or others God brings to mind and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you about them.
ACT on them - What are you going to do about what God is saying to you?

DAY 5 TRUTH: Justified
You are pronounced righteous by trusting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:11 - Part 3 (AMPC)

WELL BUILT ON THE ROCK (Luke 6:46-49)

COME to Him - Pray in the Secret Place, connecting with God.
LISTEN to His words - Read and meditate on these verses or others God brings to mind and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you about them.
ACT on them - What are you going to do about what God is saying to you?

DAY 6 TRUTH: Adopted
You are adopted into the family of God and our His child.

Romans 8:15-16 (ESV)

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God

Ephesians 5:1 (CSB)

Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children

WELL BUILT ON THE ROCK (Luke 6:46-49)

COME to Him - Pray in the Secret Place, connecting with God.
LISTEN to His words - Read and meditate on these verses or others God brings to mind and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you about them.
ACT on them - What are you going to do about what God is saying to you?

DAY 7 TRUTH: Light in the World
Let your light shine as a child of God.

Philippians 2:12-16 (ESV)

Lights in the World

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

WELL BUILT ON THE ROCK (Luke 6:46-49)

COME to Him - Pray in the Secret Place, connecting with God.
LISTEN to His words - Read and meditate on these verses or others God brings to mind and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you about them.
ACT on them - What are you going to do about what God is saying to you?

Questions to Consider:

Read (and memorize!) 1 John 1:9. Do you truly believe that God will forgive your sins? Why or why not?
In what way(s) can you overcome the stronghold of shame in your life? What tools or boundaries can you put in place?
After hearing last week’s message on hidden sin and this week’s message on breaking free from shame, is there a sin you need to confess? Knowing there is freedom from both sin and shame?
How can you “leave your life of sin?”