Sermon by Pastor James Kimathi
30th March, 2025
Shame seeks to strip us of our confidence, ultimately hindering us from receiving our God-given inheritance. When shame takes root, it disinherits us as it makes us doubt our position in Christ, preventing us from walking in His promises. As 2nd Corinthians 5:2-5 elucidates, although we long for the heavenly dwelling God has prepared, shame aims to make us feel unworthy of it.
1st John 5:15 portrays that our confidence in God positively correlates to our prayers being answered. As such, a lack of confidence causes us to lose access to the inheritance God has destined for us. Psalm 2:8-9 states, “Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Thus, having this inheritance requires us to ask for it by believing God’s word. We partake in inheriting and becoming co-heirs with Jesus Christ. In conjunction with James 4:1, if we fail to ask for the inheritance, we will not receive it. Notably, asking amiss and failing to ask are all because of the economy of shame, fear, & disbelief.
Drawing from David, David was exposed; he was innocent, not ashamed before King Saul and Goliath, and had faith in God, and with this, he was able to fight Goliath, who had troubled the Israelites for 40 days. Sometimes, our innocence has been taken away, and as a result, we have become shameful. We also aspire to attain more knowledge on various issues. It is paramount to note that unnecessary knowledge will destroy our confidence and trust in God. In this case, asking the Lord to guard our hearts and minds is essential.
Our consciousness must be with God, not with men and what men can do. We have our inheritance with the Lord, which is to be fruitful. We have the potential to be fruitful by being innocent, as too much information has messed up people because they could not step into something which they could have stepped in innocently. In this case, may God always enable us to be partakers of information that we require to step in innocently so that we do not lose our inheritance.
HOW SHAME COMES
- It comes through what happened and what was done for us.
- It also comes through what we did to ourselves, regrets.’
- It comes through what we have done to others, remorse.’
The factors above cause us to carry shame. According to Joshua 5:2, the Jordan waters have been dried for us. Indicating that Jesus has begun a way into our promises and inheritance. We cannot enter our inheritance until the reproach and shame are rolled away, which is through circumcision of the heart and being clothed with Christ.
Moreover, although the Israelites were oppressed in Egypt, the reproach of Egypt was not through the slavery they had in Egypt, as they were oppressed both outwardly and inwardly. For instance, they could tell Moses that it would have been better if they had died in Egypt rather than in the desert. Similarly, even after God has delivered us, some people want to return to Egypt, “their old self.”
Inheritance answers to our covenant or agreement with God; God entered a covenant with Abraham because all members of his household would be circumcised. Romans 2:29 states, “But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and [true] circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by [the fulfillment of] the letter [of the Law]. His praise is not from men but from God.” Thus, when we become subdued by the Spirit of God, we submit fully to the Spirit of God. We ought to come to a place where, in the Spirit, we have allowed ourselves to be subdued.
Furthermore, inheritance answers to the confidence that we have as sons. The circumcision of the heart is a way of attaining this confidence in the Lord. As one cannot be circumcised without exposing their nakedness, it is until we have surrendered all to the Lord, trusted Him, and depended on Him entirely that we can attain this confidence. Furthermore, it is impossible to forget the one who carried out the circumcision exercise. That said, if the Spirit of God lays away our shame, we become impended to God’s consciousness. We become sensitive, conscious, and one with God. We receive circumcision of the Spirit by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
SOLUTIONS: HOW SHAME IS ELIMINATED
- Through what Jesus did for us: As Isiah 53:3 posits, men despised and rejected Christ. He offered himself through an eternal spirit because if his sacrifice was eternal, then what he did was eternal. For instance, if we say Jesus died for us, it is an infinite reality. The same is also claimable by the generations that come after us. Moreover, Isaiah 53:5 shows that Christ took the punishment for our sins and made us whole. Thus, whatever has been wrong for years, we should not carry it along. Our transactions are to impute the righteousness of Christ upon our lives.
- Through what we must do for ourselves: We must receive what Jesus did for us. In this case, we should not beat ourselves with regrets because God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Therefore, although there are bad things we have done for ourselves, now, we must believe that we are forgiven and that our shame has been taken away.
- Through What we do for others: Lastly, we ought to serve and love God while also serving and loving others. To break the shame we might be carrying, we need to begin serving, leaving our cisterns, and advocating for Jesus, just like the Samaritan woman at the well. Also, praising God no matter how our past has been because He has removed our shame. As Isaih 54:4, Isaiah 61:7 & Luke 4:24 explain, although we might have limited ourselves because of our shame, Jesus has been preparing a meal and a covering for us. Importantly, we have an assignment to witness God in our generation, to preach God at our place of work, and to be his witnesses.
