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The Shame Game is a game you cannot win.

Shame is something that mankind was not created to feel, yet when Adam & Eve listened to the a serpent they discovered this awful truth.
We are often victims of packaging. It happens when we are enticed by the outer packaging, only to find the product inside does not live up to the picture. Sin is a terrible product with great packaging. You will regret ever opening this package.
Shame was on the inside of the serpents package. Shame caused Adam & Eve to hide themselves. They sewed fig leaves together to hide their shame, but this was a flawed approach. We can never hide our shame from God, or from ourselves.
There is a counter intuitive cure for shame. Rather than hide, the Bible instructs us to confess. If we will confess our sin, God is faithful to forgive us.

Are you ready to put the shame game down forever?

The Lame Games We Play 1: Shame Game – Redemption Church Plano Tx from Redemption Church on Vimeo.

 Lame Games we Play 1 – The Shame Game

Sermon notes by Pastor Chris Fluitt

Redemption Church Plano Tx

Welcome everyone to Redemption Church in Plano Tx. I want to welcome everyone who gathered top worship with us today. I also want to welcome all of our online attendees. Hello Facebook Live Stream. Hello Podcasters, Youtubers, Vimeo people. Wherever you are accessing this message I greet you.
If this message blesses you PLEASE consider sharing it, liking it, and commenting. It helps us reach even more people. And that is a good thing!
My name is Chris Fluitt and I am so blessed to be lead pastor here at Redemption.

Lame Games we Play

Did you enjoy that Intro video? There is still a place in my heart that loves the old video games I used to play. That video was created by Rob Beschizza of Bing Bong videos on Youtube. Did anyone recognize the song?  It was Mad World by Tears for Fears. Haunting tune right?
Are there any video game fans in the room? I grew up on video games. I remember opening up a Nintendo for Christmas in the late 80s. (I know that I am ancient old. Please don’t laugh at me young people.)
I remember playing classic games like Super Mario Bros, Metroid, & Legend of Zelda. I played countless hours until I beat the game. Then I would replay the game to really master the game. (Ask me about the time I made it all the way to Gannon without a sword. #NerdHallOfFame) It seemed like every game I played was just its own version of awesome.
I was not aware that there could be such a thing as a bad game. That all changed one day when I saw this game…

Athena

Athena for the Nintendo Entertainment System. 1987 SNK Electronics Corp. This is what the box looked like. I was 7 years old and saw this box and thought this looks awesome. This is probably the best game ever. It has medusa and some mythological princess with a sword.
But this is what I experienced when I got past the packaging.
Athena Game Play
There is such a thing as a Lame Game.
Lame Games we Play
This game was not worth the money. This game was not worth the time spent playing it.  Even beating the game was an absolute waste.  Completely LAME GAME!
If I could go back in time I would run up to 7 year old me and slap this game out of his hand the moment he picked it up. I would say “follow me if you want to live.” And I would march him over to the Mega Man game.
I was a victim of packaging.

Victim of Packaging

A lot of terrible things have great packaging. You may have bought a few things that looked great in the packaging, but were useless outside of the packaging. Don’t make big important decisions based on the packaging.
Can your pastor preach for a moment?

• Don’t fall for the packaging you see in the late night hours at the club.
• Young ladies don’t you fall for the clever pickup lines. You better find out who they are on the inside!
• You need to lose your virginity as soon as possible. Having multiple sex partners is preferable.
• There are cruel drug addictions once you get past the packaging.
• People have ended up in jail because they were enticed by packaging.
• Put the Credit Card down! Past the packaging there is a credit card debt that could cost you with interest.
• You may be bumping that music but look past the packaging and see the words to the song are offensive and displeasing God.

 
Just like Athena was a terrible product with great packaging…

Sin is a terrible product with great packaging

There are “games” in life that will leave you frustrated and empty. There are “games” in life that will leave you wishing you would have never picked it up in the first place.  I wish I would have never met that person. I wish I would have never said yes. I wish I would have never opened myself up to them. I should have never trusted them.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam & Eve were offered a terrible product with great packaging.
 
Genesis 2:25 (NIV2011) Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. 
Genesis 3:1 (NIV2011) Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 
Genesis 3:4 (NIV2011) “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 
Genesis 3:5 (NIV2011) “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 
God said when you eat it you will die. God said this was a product that you do not want to buy.
The Bible tells us in Romans 6:23…
Romans 6:23 (NIV2011) the wages of sin is death…
Yet the serpent puts some enticing packaging on this terrible product called sin.
Genesis 3:4 (NIV2011) “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 
Genesis 3:5 (NIV2011) “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 
Genesis 3:6 (NIV2011) When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 
She inspected the packaging and thought it was good. Wait isn’t that what God declared on Day 1 after saying “Let there be light.”?  Isn’t that what God declared everyday of his creation? He stepped back and declared it good.

Who gives us the notion that we can declare what is good?

We live in a world that is constantly trying to redefine what is good, when God has already defined it. The serpent redefined what was good in Genesis 3 and Eve ate it and turned around and took it to her husband Adam, and he too ate of the fruit.
The serpent gave us this notion that we could redefine what God defined.
Isaiah 5:20 (NIV2011) Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. 
 
Beware, when the world calls Evil, Good and Good, Evil. Do not be a victim of packaging.
Victim of Packaging
No matter how loudly someone yells  “the Athena video game is good”, we know better. The game is lame. Don’t fall victim to the packaging.
 
Adam & Eve thought they were purchasing something good and pleasant to the eye, and a way to gain wisdom and become like God.  But this is not what was in the package. Shame is what was inside the package.
Shame
Have you ever felt shame?  Be honest. Raise your hand if you have felt shame. I think everyone should probably raise their hand.
Shame did not exist until Adam & Eve listened to the serpent.
Genesis 2:25 (NIV2011) Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. 
Before they followed the serpent they were naked yet felt no shame. But then after they sin..
Genesis 3:7 (NIV2011) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 
Suddenly they REALIZED. They realized they were naked. They realized they were different and the situation had changed.

Shame is a realization of what you have done and what you have become.

No one wants shame. No one signs up for shame. We fall victim to false packaging and then realize the product wasn’t we were told it would be. We were told it would be good, pleasurable, and beneficial, but as soon as we partake of the forbidden fruit we realize the shame of what we have done and what we have become.
Worse than the shame that hits us, is the shame we continual to play with.

Shame Game

What did Adam & Eve do after they realized their shame?
They tried to cover their shame. They took leaves and sewed them together to cover their nakedness.  They reached for anything they could find around them to save them from their shame. They tried to fix it themselves and make their shame manageable. They realized their shame and attempted to hide their shame so that others would not realize.
When you feel shame you will be tempted to play the shame game.
No one had to teach Adam & Eve to hide their shame. They didn’t need the serpent’s advice here. The effort to hide their shame came naturally to them. I think you should agree that it comes naturally to us as well.
The truth is that humans will go to great lengths to hide their shame. We hide it like it never existed. We hide it behind justifiable excuses. But the game is simple. Since Genesis 3 we have tried to hide the shame.
The “shame game” is a game you will regret playing. This game is not fun. You will wish you never even picked up this game. Every moment you play this game is a moment you will not enjoy.
It’s a buggy game. It’s a stupid game. It’s a lame game that we play.
But maybe… If you work hard enough you can beat the game. And there is at least some satisfaction in beating a game.

Beat the game

Can I remind you about my Athena video game.
I played that game for hours, weeks, months, years. I never could beat it. I just wrote it off as unbeatable and since the age of 7 have always wondered what happened if you beat the game. I would think “sure it wasn’t a good game and was a pain to play, but it probably had a cool ending.”
Thanks to the miracle of Youtube I was able to find someone who beat the game. I want you to experience the ending of Athena.
Athena Ending
You beat the final boss and you are rewarded with the same lousy music and the main character standing in the middle of the screen with a lame picture of a castle in the background.  The game doesn’t say, “congrats” or “good job.”  It doesn’t even say “The End.”  The game freezes on this screen with the annoying music playing on loop. It doesn’t even take you back to the start menu so that you can play again. You literally have to turn the game off to get this screen off your tv.
After putting yourself through all the pain of playing the game, this is the ending you get. Athena has one of the worst video game endings ever. Can you think of a worse one?
Newsflash!

The Shame Game doesn’t have a good ending.

You can try to justify your failures and hide your shame.  Even if you are able to fool some people, I have to tell you that the shame game doesn’t have an ending you will enjoy.
It is every bit as lame as Athena. Forever stuck in an annoying situation with no way to continue.

You can’t beat the shame game

Adam & Eve sewed all those leaves together. They hid in the garden. They went through that effort to hide their shame, but in the end it was not enough.
Adam & Eve knew they were naked, and of course God saw right through it. No matter how hard we try, we can’t hide our shame from ourselves, or from God.
You can’t beat the shame game.  Here is what you should do.
 

Put the game down and never pick it back up.

You don’t have to play this game.
When Adam & Eve couldn’t cover themselves, God covered them.
Genesis 3:21 (NIV2011) The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.  
God is the only one who can defeat your shame game. He is the only one that can cover your shame.
Galatians 3:27 (NIV2011) for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 
When you are baptized into Christ, you are clothed in Christ. Christ covers all your shame and nakedness. Just as an animal died to cover Adam & Eve in Genesis 3, Christ died to cover us. Are you covered? Have you been baptized?

Christ bears your shame.

1 Corinthians 13:7 (KJV) Love bears all things…
Because Christ loves you he bears your shame. He bore your shame on the cross.
Isaiah 53:3 (NIV2011) He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces (shame) he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 
Isaiah 53:4 (NIV2011) Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 
Isaiah 53:5 (NIV2011) But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 
Isaiah 53:6 (NIV2011) We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 
Your shame is no longer your shame. Jesus bears your shame.  Will you stop playing the shame game and allow Jesus to bear your shame.
Jesus frees you from shame forever!
Isaiah 54:4 (NIV2011) “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame…
Romans 10:11 (NIV2011) As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” 
Are you ready to stop playing the shame game?
musician

Stop trying to hide your shame – Confess your shame.

Are you willing to confess your shame to God?
1 John 1:9 (NIV2011) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 
1 John 1:10 (NIV2011) If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 
1 John 2:1 (NIV2011) My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 
You can be set free from your shame right now.
 
 
 
 
redemption-Church.com
Redemption Church is a nondenominational Church in Plano Texas. Our mission is to declare the good news and see others become followers of Jesus Christ. Our vision is to be a 1st Century Church connecting to a 21st Century world. To bring the community, the power, passion & dedication of that 1st century church to the fast paced, technologically advanced, and complex world of the 21st century.
We currently meet on Sunday afternoons at 3pm at the Corner of Parker Rd & Alma in Plano Tx. We would love to greet you in person.
Our lead pastor is Chris Fluitt.