Live Free with Josh Howerton - God's Perspective of Guilt | Ep. 106 | Monday July 3, 2023

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Guilt can be a tool that God uses to help us know something is wrong. However, Satan distorts guilt for his own plan. Pastor Mike encourages us in this episode not to let guilt define us. Let it show us where we need more of God's grace and move us closer to the One who gives us our identity. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive podcast. My name is Bro, and we're just taking a few minutes money through Friday this summer, talking about identity theft and not the cyber kind, but the kind that hacks into our being and steals our God-given identity. And my way of thinking is way too many people. I used to be one of them. Just go through life, not knowing who they really are. And that's why I thought we would just spend some extended time talking about this this summer.

And we've been exposing some lies that the original hacker uses to pull us away from the truth about who we are. Lies like, I am what I feel. I am what people say about me. I am how I look. I am what I do and how well I perform. And maybe this is the lie that's been keeping you stuck. I am what I've done. men, there's nothing quite like the past

to hack into your soul and wreak havoc with your identity. I'm talking about things that were done to us, things that were said about us, less than flattering nicknames and labels we heard on the playground, all kinds of bad memories and grudges and bitterness and anger and even hate rolling around on the inside of us, eating us up. Not to mention all the personal regrets over things that we have done. I mean, the past, and the failures that come along with it

can absolutely paralyze you, can it? And I've made a bunch of past mistakes, got a bunch of failures, and I know I'm not alone. And I don't know what it was for you, but perhaps it was a DUI, or maybe it was an affair, or maybe a failed marriage, or maybe a financial collapse, or maybe you cheat it and you got caught, or maybe you flunked out of school, or maybe you got kicked out of the house, or maybe you got fired from your job. I don't know, maybe it's the abortion that still haunts you or all kinds of different sexual experiences, or maybe you were not only the victim of abuse,

but ironically you grew up to be an abuser. Or perhaps your identity for a while was inmate number 37-8-4-2. Or perhaps you've introduced yourself for the past 10 years as hi. My name is so-and-so and I'm an alcoholic. Or maybe it was gambling for you, or maybe it's drugs, or maybe it's pornography. And what you did or what happened back then still defines you today. In fact, if you're honest, at least in your mind,

It's just become who you are. You see, the past can really hack deep into your soul and steal your identity. So I've been praying that you might hear God say to you today. You are not defined by your past. You can and you should move on to a new life and a new day and a new identity. In high school, I had to read a classic by Edgar Allan Poe called The Tale Tell Heart. Anybody else read that book? Yeah, he paints this main character who has committed murder,

and unable to escape the haunting guilt of his dastardly deed, he begins to hear the heartbeat of his victim that he's buried in his cellar, and the cold sweat covers him as he hears this, thump, thump, thump, thump, dump, dump, goes on relentlessly until it drives the guy insane. And ultimately it becomes clear that the pounding that drove the man mad was not in the grave below, but in his own chest.

Thumb-thump, thump, thump, thump. And so it is, with unresolved guilt. Dr. David Belgam in his book, Guilt, where religion and psychology meet estimates that about 75% of the people in hospitals today with physical illnesses have sickness that's rooted in emotional problems. He writes this,

their physical symptoms and breakdowns are for many, their involuntary confessions of guilt. thump thump thump thump thump my friend charlie gerber who is a brilliant counselor showed me one day this little lacrosstic on guilt it's been really helpful to me through the years he says that from god's perspective guilt is actually a good thing

in god's perspective it is god's unique intentional loving treatment that's the acrostic for guilt god's unique intentional loving treatment in his purest form guilt is like that check engine line on the dashboard of your car to let you know that something is not quite right going on under the hood. God put that emotion in us to let us know that we've got something in there that we need to deal with. But as you might imagine, the original identity thief takes what God made for good and distorts it and takes it to the other extreme to hack into our soul. Here's guilt

from Satan's perspective. It stands for grief, united, in lifelong torment. You see how it fits his agenda, the steel, kill, and destroy. You see, he loves to see the past, just dominate and fine us. He loves to see guilt get buried deep, stay unresolved. Dump, thom, thom, dum, dump, dump. And we're going to talk more about this next time. Can I leave you today? With just a few verses of truth about your past. Romans 8.1 says this, so now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Colossians 1, 13, and 14, we saw this a few weeks ago, for he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his dear son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. 2 Corinthians 517, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone and the new is here. And that's just a tiny sampling of what God says about your past.

And we'll hear some more. But I pray that you would know that truth, grasp that truth, live in that truth today, that you are not what you have done. Come back tomorrow and we'll talk more about this. Hope you have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services

on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lake point. compt.com.

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