The Bryce Crawford Podcast - Shame vs. Conviction (EP 27)

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

In this episode, Bryce talks about the difference between shame and conviction.

What's going on, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I'm Bryce, guys. It's been a while. It's been a while. And it is just a lot of craziness has been going on, house moving stuff, traveling stuff. But we're getting back on a schedule because you guys have been missing the podcast. We've been missing recording the podcast. So it's time to get back on. And I figured, what better way to come back into the podcast than talk about the difference between shame and conviction? Because I feel like in my own personal walk with Jesus. There were times where I thought I was feeling conviction, but I was actually feeling a lot of shame. And shame is not from God. And I think what we have to identify the difference between the two, what's a healthy view of conviction, what do we do with conviction versus what we do with shame. And we're going to go into it. It's going to be super cool. Don't know how long this podcast episode is. You guys are probably also wondering, Bryce, you don't have the merch on. I woke up a little comfy this morning. Want to wear a little vintage Looney T-Tunes

T-shirt here. But we got the shirts coming back on the website pretty soon. I messed up stuff on the website. Everyone got their orders, but I messed up stuff on the website. And so yeah, I just am fixing the website. So it should be up in the next week or two, and it's going to be awesome.

So it'll be back up. If you guys want to support, we're doing and support our ministry. Keep us mobilized the ways to sow into our ministry one time or monthly tax deductible or in the description of this YouTube video. And if you're listening to the this audio on Spotify or Apple, go to the YouTube account or go to the Instagram account, Bryce Crawford podcast and click the link in the bio or in the description of a YouTube video

and you can find ways to give. But let's talk about shame and conviction. I got my phone out because I want to read the dictionary definition of shame because I think it's very important to identify the definitions of these two things because that's one reason why people get confused is because they don't have definitions or they don't define things. So people get things mixed up. Shame is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. Now, I think it's interesting because shame is a consequence of sin and it's something that we feel sometimes, but it's from the devil. But shame is directly connected to an attack on your identity. So if you were,

were to sin and shame is what you feel because of your sin, then that is a direct attack on your identity because when you feel shame, you are self-condemming yourself. You are condemning yourself and beating yourself up more than you should. Now later on, we're going to go into this thing that this false gospel people preach called hyper grace, which is essentially when, like hyper grace is when people say, oh, God's going to forgive you so you can go sin as many times as you want because you're going to get forgiven. So it's like hyper grace. That's not the Bible at all. God is calling us out of our sin while forgiving us of our sin.

So he washes away our sin while we seek after it leaving our sin in the past, rather than saying, oh, I can sin willingly because he will forgive me. No, that's not the gospel. But shame is directly attached to a self-identity crisis. And you know when I found myself feeling the most shame is if I've sin and I'm more focused on myself than I am on the cross. that's because you feel shame. It's directly attacked to an identity attack. It's self.

It's coming against yourself. But the reason that we come against our self and feel shame is because if we've sinned, we are more looking at ourself than we are looking at Jesus. And that's why I want to go to this passage in 2 Corinthians 7, because Paul briefly drops a bar here in 2 Corinthians 710, where he talks about the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow, which we're going to connect that to shame and conviction. He says, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret,

whereas worldly grief produces death. So in other words, shame produces death, but conviction produces repentance and salvation. What does that look like? Godly conviction looks like, oh, no, I've sinned. God is coming. I'm going to run to him. Godly shame. Sorry, there's no, there's no godly shame. Godly conviction says, God is coming because I've sinned. I need to run to him. Worldly shame looks like God is coming. I've sinned. I need to run away from him. Right. If you look in the garden in Genesis 3, what happens when Adam and you've sinned? They run away and hide. Why? Because of shame. They were more focused on themselves than they were with Jesus. The whole time, they were in relationship with God looking at him.

but the one time they disobey, their eyes leave him and they look at themselves. And not only where shame comes in, but the same way of looking at ourself is pride. Pride was the whole reason the downfall in the garden happened, and pride is the whole reason that we sin against God mainly. But isn't it crazy how looking at ourselves produces both the number one sin struggle in the world and the number one worst feeling in the world is shame? Like no one can say shame is a good feeling. but that only comes if we look at ourselves.

And so me in my own life, I've found myself beating myself up the most when I'm more concerned about myself, how people view me, than actually looking to Jesus. Because the crazy thing about the forgiveness of Jesus is that you actually have to accept it for yourself. The forgiveness of Jesus is on the table.

Like the option for Jesus to wipe your slate clean is on the table, but you have to accept it. And by receiving Jesus's forgiveness for sin, you're actually saying, Jesus, I thank you for the cross. I thank you for the blood that it's washed me clean. But now because of your blood, I'm not going to linger here. I'm going to leave it in the past and I'm going to chase you. You may feel shame because you think that you've asked God for forgiveness for a certain sin, but you keep willingly sinning. And that's what we would call habitual sin, a habit of sin that you. you keep doing that you just can't shake yourself free from. Well, that's the answer to it right there.

You can't shake yourself free. You have to go to someone who can set you free, which is Jesus. But if you're someone that continues to sin willingly, then I have to ask you to reflect on your heart, pray the prayer that David does in Psalm 139 and says, search me, oh God, know my heart, but say, man, where's my priority? Do I actually enjoy what I'm doing? Because if you enjoy your sin, you need to ask God to give you a distaste of your sin so that you can truly repent from it. Because that godly sorrow says, oh, no, I've sinned. God is coming. I need to run to him because he is the only one and the only thing that can set me free and save me

from this guilt and shame that could possibly creep up on me from the devil. Because the Bible says Satan is like a roaring lion. So if you sin, Satan's going to come in your ear. He always does that here's the apple. You should send one more time. You should send one more time. Then you bite the apple and Satan goes, why'd you bite the apple? It's like he tells you to bite it.

And then he goes, why'd you bite it after you bite it? And that's the crazy thing. The Bible says Satan is like a roaring lion. It doesn't say he is a roaring lion. It says he's like a roaring lion. So in reality, Satan is just a kitty cat in the corner of your bedroom with a megaphone trying to amplify your problems, amplify your shame, get you to self-condem yourself. But we know condemnation is from the devil.

Now we know Jesus will return and justly condemn those who did not choose him and who did not repent. But we're talking about condemnation of yourself. Because there's a lot of you listening or watching this that have just been beating yourself up a lot lately. And a lot of you guys are super hard on yourself. And I know me personally, I'm extremely hard on myself. And I beat myself up. And I even struggle to accept the forgiveness that God asks for me. but there's a scripture that really comforted me

and it is in 1 John 1 John 1 9 says if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so that's a cool thing about conviction is there's hope and conviction shame has no hope conviction conviction has hope conviction comes from the Holy Spirit, right? Because conviction says, oh, no, I've sinned, but you realize you've sinned because you're aware of the Holy Spirit and who God is through His Word. And so because of conviction, you can say,

oh, no, that thing I just did isn't right. I need to stop doing that. I need to ask for repentance. Turn from that. Repentance is a two-step process. Repentance is a confession saying, God, I've done wrong. I need you to forgive me.

But then it's an expression. and walk it out saying, I'm leaving in the past. I'm turning my back to it and I'm walking towards you, Jesus. I'm seeking him. Because this isn't about trying your best to stop doing whatever you're doing. This is about allowing yourself to love Jesus and receive us forgiveness and allow God to just cleanse you from the inside out. Because if you allow Jesus to cleanse you and you just love him, you're naturally going to flow with righteousness. So there's hope and conviction.

It's coming from the Holy Spirit. And so if you're someone that says, man, I just don't know if I feel conviction, well, where do you get conviction from the Holy Spirit, but through what, the Word of God? If we don't know what the Word of God says, then how can we be convicted about moral sin and struggles? We can't, because we don't know what's right and wrong in God's eyes if we don't know his word and we don't know who he is.

And so if you're someone that's out there saying, man, I know I'm doing stuff wrong, I don't know what it is, sometimes I feel shame for this, or sometimes I feel bad about certain stuff, but I don't know what to feel bad for and what, not to. I would say the first thing is, is what does your time look like with Jesus? Do you know him? Are you in your word? Because if we don't know him, then how do we know what to be convicted about? And so when we partner with the Holy Spirit in our lives, if we sin, we have the Holy Spirit that says, ooh, that wasn't right. Don't do that next time. You know, that little, it's not like the angel and devil on your shoulder, you know, where it's like, you don't need to do this and you do need to do this.

It's no, it's, hey friend, that thing you just did. It's not. It's not. not okay but it's okay look i forgive you if you come to me if you come to me i forgive you we can cleanse it it's as if it never happened and you just keep seeking me all right buddy that's what repentance and conviction looks like the fruit of conviction is repentance and like the last podcast episode we see in luke three john the baptist challenges the religious leaders and says show me the fruit of your repentance the fruit of your repentance is show me that you're living out what you say you're sorry for So guys, like, this whole podcast episode is just, there's freedom in Jesus, you know? There's this relief of like, man, I don't have to feel shame anymore because shame's from the devil.

That's what entered into the world through disobedience. But conviction is such a beautiful thing. Because at the end of the day, the goal of being a Christian is knowing Jesus and becoming more like him. And in order for me as a Christian to become more like Jesus, I have to be convicted. and because of conviction, I become more holy. Because of conviction, I look more like him. Because of conviction, my life can be a testament to who Jesus is and what he's done for me. And because of his testimony in my life, it will bring others to know him.

So I want you guys to feel a freedom and release to say, man, shame is not from the devil. And so I'm going to pray for us. And we're actually going to repent for any shame that we've felt. We're going to say, God, I thank you. you that you've saved me. I thank you that you've cleansed me. God, I just want to repent for any shame, the lie of shame that I've believed. We're going to repent for that, and we're just going to receive God's forgiveness for us today. If you guys know stuff in your life that you've been struggling with or sin that you've just been willingly partaking in, or maybe sin that just snuck up on you

and crept up on you. And you need to repent. There's going to be a time for repentance for you in your bedroom and your car. Or maybe you're with a few friends or with your family watching this. And maybe there's a cool reconciliation moment that you guys get to have because it's like, oh, man, we don't have to carry shame about this anymore. Because the reality of shame, too, is shame creeps in when there's no communication between people, right? Like if a brother has sinned against you or you've sinned against someone and there's no communication between each other, then shame can really creep in. And so this might be a chance to communicate your hurt and communicate your pain and your pain. your struggles and just say, man, God, I'm ready for a clean slate. So we're going to pray right now.

Jesus, I thank you for my friends watching and listening to this. God, I just pray right now for all of us watching and listening. We just repent for any time in our life that we've believed the lie of shame, that we've believed in self-condemnation. God, we just repent if we've ever believed in that lie at any point in our life. God, we thank you for your blood. We thank you for the cross. We thank you for your saving grace, God.

We thank you that your grace is given to us freely. God, we just thank you that from this moment on, anything that we've struggled with, your conviction and Holy Spirit will allow us to walk out in new identity and in a fresh way, God. God, I thank you that your Holy Spirit will walk with us side by side and that through life we will continue to look more like you, be more like you, sound more like you. God, I thank you for everyone watching and listening this. I pray that you will give them a fresh fire for your word, fresh fire for prayer, God, that you love them and that you see them and that you will remind them of who they are. God, I just pray that if condemnation and shame ever creeps up on my friends watching and listen to this, that you will just whisper softly and gently in there, that they are a son or a daughter, and that you've made them free and clean through your blood, Jesus.

It's in your name we pray. Amen. Guys, I love you so much. Thank you for watching and listen to this. If you love our podcast, subscribe to the Bryce Crawford podcast. Follow us on Instagram, Bryce Crawford podcast, and we'll see you guys in the next episode.