This sermon addresses the deep struggle with guilt and shame, particularly focusing on the aftermath of abortion and the burden it brings. The speaker shares personal experiences of regret and the need for confession, repentance, and surrender to God's forgiveness and grace. The message emphasizes the importance of removing guilt and shame by turning to God, bringing every thought captive to Christ, and seeking obedience to overcome strongholds in the mind.

My name is Daniel Phillips. My name is John Blanford. My name is Shane Eidelman. I'm a believer in the Lord Jesus. I've been following Christ since 2001. I'm the lead pastor of Westside Christian Fellowship. I lead a home group. Disciple a couple of guys. I write weekly for the Christian Post. And I had an abortion. I've had two abortions. I had an abortion. So I was 28, and I didn't know God. I called myself a Christian, though, at the time. I would go to church a couple of times a month. And I just started dating this gal, and she got pregnant. We had a passive-aggressive stance. I was neither here nor there, so I never even fought for the opportunity to save the child. I conceded to an abortion. And even as a pastor, that decision still haunts me today. What would they look like? Would it be a boy? Would it be a girl? Their first step, saying daddy, watching them grow. But those are just dreams, dreams that often leave me heartbroken. I should have manned up, and I should have fought for you. And I am so grateful that you are in heaven with Jesus, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and you got to see Him before I did. And I know you're going to extend me grace, but I just, it would have been so cool to hang out with you here on earth. The pain of regret is one of the hardest pains to deal with because the constant reminder that we let down God, we let down others, and we let down our child. And I know I'm not alone because it's been estimated that about one in three in the church have participated in an abortion. If you've had an abortion, I am so sorry. I'm so sorry. I am so sorry. I'm sorry for the burdens and the weight that you've had to carry. I'm so sorry that women were subjected to such a terrible thing, and no one tried to rescue you. I'm sorry for men not taking a greater stand in this area. I'm sorry that the church has not been there for you. I'm sorry that you've tried to hide this from everyone. I'm sorry that, I'm sorry that this is available. I am hopeful, so hopeful. I'm hopeful that this younger generation, you guys, just keep contending for life. As someone who's been on both sides, I'm telling you, keep contending for life. That is my hope, and my hope is to see a generation rise up and say, you know what, no more. Somebody should have been there to rescue you, but you do have a rescuer. We find hope, we find peace in Christ. You don't have to live in shame and darkness. You can run to God's light of forgiveness and grace and mercy. And even those who maybe know this, but they really haven't lived in that, they know that God's mercy and grace is real, but they haven't felt it. I would just encourage you to turn to Him and allow that forgiveness to take place. Open up your heart. Begin this confession again, repentance if warranted, and turn to Him and say, Lord, I need you today to bring this cleansing and this forgiving aspect to my life. I want to feel that. And God will do that. And Jesus will honor that prayer. The reason we're airing it today is that Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is tomorrow. And it commemorates 42 years since the 1973 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in our country. Since then, millions of abortions have taken place in the United States. And, you know, the sad fact is many churches don't want to talk about this, just to shoot you straight. They don't want to lose some of the audience. They don't want to dig up old wounds. But I think this is an important topic. You know, we need to address what goes on in the church, and ultimately so that repentance can take place and cleansing. And what I want to do tonight is really the message isn't on abortion per se. The message is on removing guilt and shame. The title is, Lord, Remove My Guilt and Shame. And the Lord is the only one that can take this away from you. I know that there's people here tonight, if you can relate to my story, not just abortion but in other areas, that you can relate to the guilt and the shame. You feel it on a daily basis. You're just caught in this paradigm of feeling guilty and shameful. And I think that's one of the biggest areas that the enemy loves to work. Because if he can keep you down, keep you unproductive, it's this endless spiral of depression and just anxiety and then guilt and shame. And then we feed it again. It's just we can never get out of this. And I think that this message tonight has a purpose to a large audience because a lot of people are carrying that. So let's begin where the battle begins, shall we? The battle, on another night, I told the first service, but the video actually is being played in about 1,000 churches tomorrow and Focus on the Family picked it up. It's on their Facebook page and Lila Rose, Life News, a lot of different organizations. But the hardest one for me was a secular organization. I think it's called Jezebel, something on the Facebook. It had about 50,000 viewers. And I've never been called the F-word more in my life in one day than these people just, I mean, they make comments like, after you murdered your baby, and then they just, unbelievable. I mean, I only read a few. I'm not reading these anymore. I don't know why people send me, hey, look, did you see this? And no, I don't want to see that. But filling that guilt and shame all over again, that roller coaster ride of just feeling like being beat up. And if you've been there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't, thank God, because either you're too young or God has protected you in that area. But there's tremendous guilt and shame in life. And I want to start where the battle begins, and it's in the mind. 2 Corinthians 10.3, it's a scripture that's not unfamiliar to us. Paul's writing to the church in Corinth. He says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. And what he's saying there is your battle is not going to be overcome with your 9mm or your samurai sword or taking karate classes or piling up on ammunition because of the government. The battle's a spiritual battle. Although we walk in the flesh, we do not war in the flesh. So in other words, when I'm feeling an attack in my life, I go to the prayer closet. I'll go on a fast and put on worship music because that's where you're doing battle. You're doing battle in the spiritual realm. You're not doing battle in the physical realm. You're not going to do something and get the devil upset. You're not going to hit him and hit him and hit him. You're going to have to hit him with the word of God. You're going to hit him with prayer. It's a spiritual battle. So Paul's saying, listen, you walk in the flesh, but you're not going to war according to the flesh for the weapons. And it's interesting as I'm reading this thinking, this stuff's serious. What will be to the Christian that just thinks you can pattycake with the devil? And just, yeah, it's no big deal. The enemy is sent to kill, to steal, and to destroy. Remember that. Your adversary goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Not entertain. Seeking whom he may devour. Not play games with. His ultimate goal is to devour you. And so he says the weapons, the weapons, we have weapons of our warfare. They are not carnal, meaning they're not physical. They're not carnal. But they're mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments, every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. And it's interesting there. If you had time, you could look in the Greek language. The stronghold, there is a fortress. And the battlefield is in the mind. And what happens a lot of times, I'm actually going to springboard off of something Tony Evans said. I don't know if you followed him much. If you get time, you can write it down. He's got a powerful sermon on YouTube. It's called Reversing the Curse of Addiction. And Tony Evans, he talks about this whole verse for about a half hour. But he made some great points that are biblical, is that the fortresses we build, the strongholds are in our mind. Before an addict takes that first hit, before the addict takes that first snort, before the addict takes the first shot, whatever it is, the battle is being waged here. The fortress is here. And Christians compartmentalize. I forgot that word, right? I knew I was going to have a challenge with it. Compartmentalize, putting compartments. This side, which is, okay, I go to church on Saturday or Sunday. And, yeah, I'll read the Bible now and then. We live in this world, but then we also live in this world, the carnal side, which he referred to here as the two kingdoms, light and darkness. And we live in these two realms, and there's a partition wall there. And what the Bible says, what we need to do is allow the word of God to penetrate all areas of our thoughts, all areas of our mind, to bring down strongholds, to bring down the fortresses, to destroy them. But you can't if you just live in this side. You compartmentalize and you hold it here, and you allow it to build and build and build. So that's the imagery there. He said, the enemy works by putting up a partition in our mind and dividing the two kingdoms of light and darkness. Many live in two worlds, my church world and my secular world. And what the devil does, he plants thoughts in our minds contrary to the truth, but he makes it appear innocent. So the enemy will plant thoughts in our minds, that doesn't sound too bad. And he'll just, I mean, I could see how that could work. And he starts to plant thoughts in our minds, and that fortress is there. There's a fortress there, what they call a stronghold. The enemy has a stronghold. It's like you put your foot in front of the door, and you're not closing this door now. He's got a stronghold there. He's got a fortress there. And we all know what those fortresses are. For some it's this, and for some it's that. And you've got anger issues, or you've got lust issues, or you've got, you know, addictions. There's strongholds built up that you can't seem to remove. And thank God Christ said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. But it's interesting, just knowing the truth actually doesn't set you free. And you go, oh Shane, you're stepping on Jesus' toes here. He just said it. Well, look up the context, look up the word. This is knowing, but also doing. Actually, the truth, you shall do the truth, and the truth shall set you free. It's one thing to know this verse, and it's another thing to apply this verse to your life. Many people know this verse, but they continue in addiction. Many people know this verse, but they continue in bad habits. We know, we know, we know, but Jesus said, you shall apply the truth to your life, and the truth shall set you free. Paul tells me either the word of God is true or it's not. He says, you take every thought captive by the power of God. You take your thoughts captive. Don't let them take you captive. But then we allow them to build fortresses and things in our mind, and we get back caught into slavery. Because that's what a fortress is, right? A fortress is, it's something that's imprisoning me. And we live in two worlds, and I've played this game before. I go to church, but God, the devil's coming after me. The devil made me do it. And we allow, we entertain Satan. We entertain these thoughts that keep pulling us back. So Jesus is saying, allow the whole counsel of God's word, the truth of God's word to permeate your entire mind. Apply the truth to your life. And we can take our thoughts captive. We can say no. We can say, you devil, you're not going there. I don't care what you're throwing at, I'm not going to click that. I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to let this anger rise up in me and do something I never, I'm not, that's not right. I'm applying the truth to my life. And many times we think of applying the truth to our lives by just doing something. But it's not just doing something. A lot of times it's thinking something. Because when that sin comes to fruition, is it the feet that get us in trouble? Or is it the mind? For as a man thinketh, so is he. And here's, if you can understand, here's the battleground. And you don't, as a child of God, you don't have to keep succumbing to that. This is actually at the end of my sermon, but I thought it's a good fit here. I've been visiting, I've visited Celebrate Recovery and different things and reading online and working. I want to work on a book for addiction and things like that. And Tony Evans said something in the sermon, and I've thought for a few years now, and I want to share it with you. And some people might not agree with it, but just hear the heart behind it. A lot of times when you go to these recovery groups, you say, hi, my name is, I am an alcoholic. I am a sex addict. I am a heroin addict. I am, but the Bible actually says we're not that. We're children of God. We're saints. We're redeemed. You struggle with that, but that's not your identity. That's not who you are. You're not that. That's what the enemy has, a stronghold. He has a foothold in your mind. So that's what you're being led astray by, but you're not that. See yourself as God's child, as a king's kid, and that's who we are. That's our identity in Christ. Either it is or it isn't. The Bible doesn't say you are corrupt still. You are an addict. It says you're God's child, but we suffer with it. You could say, hey, I'm a child of God. I'm a Christian, but I struggle with this. The enemy, that's where he's got my hook. He's ruling me in, and I need help in this area, but we don't identify ourselves with these things, but I know the reason they do. It's a good reason. So you admit. Hi, I'm, and I am a, fill in the blank. You're admitting I have a problem. It's a very healthy, very good step, but I just, and Tony Evans said, ah, good. I'm not the one who thinks that. I just, every time people say I am this, well, that's who their identity is, and a lot of times they fall back into that. Well, that's who I am. That's who I'll always be. No. You can take thoughts captive. You can make changes in your life that will bring these strongholds down, and Tony Evans went on to say that fortresses in our mind must be destroyed. They cannot be remodeled, because we like to, you got that fortress. You like to remodel it. I'll take out the windows. I'll put a bathroom in there. I'll take, I'll make the garage into a living quarter. I don't want to get rid of all this, but they have to be destroyed. They have to be dismantled. You can't play with a lion who is sent to kill still to destroy. Remember last week I said we use a baby gate to guard the lion. You know what a baby gate is? It works really good for my two-year-old not letting her go into the other hallway by herself. I can't get through this little gate, and she doesn't know how. She can't climb quite up it, but we use that to guard a lion. That's for a baby. This is serious stuff. Paul says the weapons of our warfare, we're engaged in battle. Life is a battleground, not a playground. I think the devil wants to just get us so caught up in guilt and shame and beat up that we just never look up, because I don't know about you, but I talk to a lot of people who are just going through tremendous guilt and shame. Shane, this is who I am. I've been doing this for 10 years or 20 years. I can't get back on track. I just keep falling. The devil makes me do it. Well, the devil doesn't make you do it. He just presents a bait. According to Paul, that's what I love about the Bible. Either it's right or it's not. You can bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, or you can choose not to. That's what he meant by remodeling the stronghold, because you see it in dating relationships that are very bad. People say, well, maybe they've changed. I don't know. Maybe I should give them a second chance. The enemy comes in. Yeah, remember how it was so nice on those certain days? He doesn't show you the hell. He just shows you the heaven, the perceived heaven. He reminds you, oh, that's right. Maybe I can handle just one this time. Maybe I can get that medication from the doctor and just get my back pain gone for a week, and then I'll get back on track. And then we get hooked back into these things. How did I get here? It's because these strongholds have to be, I'm convinced of this, they have to be eradicated. They can't be remodeled. You can't play with the devil, because he'll come in with a different little trick. And we love to make excuses to coddle our sin. Fortresses in our mind must be destroyed, not remodeled. The reason a fortress remains is because we're doing some of what God says. Partial obedience. He went on to say that you cannot do two thirds of what God says. And man, that was convicting to me. I said, well, Lord, I did this. I know you want me to do this, but come on. Partial obedience is not obedience. And this is a tough topic, because on one hand, I realize that nobody can obey God perfectly. I've been trying for a long time. But on the other hand, on the other hand, to totally discount obedience is to discount many scriptures. Because Paul will even say in other letters to the church, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Do not be conformed to this world, he told the church in Rome. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Flee sexual immorality. Don't do this. Don't succumb to this. Don't do all these. Those are obedience words. Those are don't do this, do this. Don't do this, do this. So realizing that I cannot obey God 100% perfectly, but my heart is in that direction. The problem is we sometimes say, well, I know I can't, so I'll just blow it here, I'll blow it there, I'll blow it here, I'll blow it there. And we live that life, and eventually guilt and shame comes in stronger and stronger. And you realize, right, the more guilt you feel, the more shame you feel. The more shame you feel, the more guilt you feel. And then the more guilt you feel, the more shame you feel. And it's an endless cycle. He just keeps you in this endless cycle, always beat up. The devil hates a productive Christian. But he doesn't mind you if you're not doing anything. You're not doing anything for God's kingdom, he'll say, well, you're going to heaven, oh, I kid you, but you're not taking anybody with you. And I've noticed he goes to the head of the house. The male role in that house is to lead your family. We're called to lead our family in the fear and adamant share of the Lord. Why do you think so many men don't want to? And why women have to pick up the lead? Because he's going after that. I mean, as a man, if you start, we just did it. Wow. All hell breaks loose. We're going to do daily devotionals before dinner. We're going to pray with our family. It's like you thought you just set off a nuke bomb. I mean, he just starts, uh-uh, that's not going to happen. You want you praying with your kids every night, asking for God's will? No. And he starts disturbing that spiritual battle. My weapons are not carnal. I'm not going to throw a hissy fit and the devil go run and hide. So we think we can yell real loud at home and the devil will run. He doesn't care. It's a spiritual battle. Take it to the cross. Take it to prayer and to worship. So three biblical ways to remove the fortress of shame and guilt and then we'll be done because we need to spend a little bit of time in worship. We have some baptisms and a quick testimony. But number one is don't keep revisiting the past. Don't keep revisiting the past. Paul said, one thing I do. Now, let's put this in context. He persecuted Christians. The Apostle Paul, before he met the Lord on the road to Damascus, persecuted Christians. It's not a far stretch to say he participated in killing Christians. He held the coats of the men who stoned Stephen, we know, it's recorded, and he went to different villages, different towns, searching for Christians. So this is Paul. If anybody's going to carry some shame and guilt, I don't know if anybody in here has ever killed a Christian or worked for ISIS, but there's a lot of shame and guilt. But one thing I do, he said, forgetting what is behind me and straining towards, there's an effort there, straining toward what is ahead. I press on towards the mark of God, which is in Christ Jesus. So Paul said, I'm forgetting about what's behind. And the enemy's going to come and remember. You get up depressed. You go home depressed. Thoughts come, and you're always remembering. You're looking back. And Paul knew if you're going to go forward with Christ, you can't be looking back. And that's a good message for young adults in here, too. You feel a lot of shame and guilt, but God says, listen, yes, you're going to learn from that. Yes, there are consequences, but don't look back. Now you need to learn from that, but don't look back at that. Press forward. But there's another reason, I believe. By looking back, we also tend to revisit the sin we just came out of. And we look back. We look back to that lifestyle. We look back to this area, and we just keep, okay, I'm going good now, but remember last week? Or last month? Remember when we were, yeah, I know, yeah, but, and we start to look back, and the enemy draws us back into that stronghold. Because you realize by the power of God in your life, you can be free of that stronghold. You can. But we believe the lie saying, no, I'm stuck. There's no way out. The devil made me do it. I'm not getting out of this. I keep falling, and keep falling. Many times the reason we keep falling is because we look at our own strength, willpower. I'm just gonna get through day one, day two, day three, day four, and we just, willpower and strength instead of relying on the power of God and relying on Him to remove that stronghold. And really, it's a spiritual battle. So you gotta do battle in the spiritual realm. People might say, all right, Shane, that sounds funny, weird. I'm just telling you the truth. You don't see God, do you? Where's He at? His invisible attributes are clearly seen. There's a whole realm. The enemy's planting thoughts. You know there's evil. Where's it at? We don't see it. We see the manifestation of it. So the battle's spiritual. So if you're gonna fight the enemy, you've gotta go at him hard. I mean, you bring the Word of God in there, you bring worship, you bring the promises of God, there's nothing He can do. You begin to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. That means my thoughts run through the filter of Christ. Okay, I'm about to think that, run it through the filter of Christ. Not good. Not good. Just take inventory of your life one day and realize how many of our thoughts would Christ be pleased with. You won't get through an hour. And we're called to... Some of you might, right? Oh, I can get through the whole day. Really? I think there's a little pride in there. Humble yourself. Don't keep revisiting the past. My little children, I'm writing these things to you, 1 John 2.1, so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin... See, this is interesting. People say, see, we can live perfect lives. He's not gonna say, go ahead and sin. He's gonna say, I'm writing to you so that you don't sin. But if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And this is interesting because we have an advocate. They go to court. You know what an advocate is? They go to court for you or they'll represent you. They speak on your behalf. So he's saying, we have an advocate, Jesus Christ. He's paid the price. And I thought about this actually earlier today. If it's been forgiven because of the cross, we can, most of us in this room can agree to that. The price has been paid. In other words, the wages of sin is death. It's been paid. Christ paid it. If then our sins are as far as the East is from the West, if like Hebrew says, that God will remember their sins no more. And then if we believe Isaiah, where he said, I will blot out their transgressions. Why in the world do we go on worrying about them? If they're truly, if these scriptures say what they mean, you know how far the East is from the West? Well, try walking and finding, see if they ever meet. They don't. He's blotted out. He's removed it. And, but we still, oh, we just dwell in it, dwell on it, dwell on it, dwell on it. So, but again, you have to bring every thought captive because the enemy is going to bring in the thought. You say, no, it's been paid. It's as far as the East is from the West. The sins have been blotted out. Hebrews says that God will remember our sins. No more. And it might take some time. You might have to say that. And the Bible says that resist the devil and he will flee. Isn't it interesting? He doesn't say ignore the devil. Cause I can ignore him pretty easy, but resisting is hard. That tells me there's a battle there. The battlefield is a mine. You get, if you, once you keep resisting, that's what I love about God. He, he doesn't let us go on forever. There's a point where the devil has to flee. You know, that's not going to work. That's not going to work. That's not going to work. I'm gone. And then he waits for an opportune time. He comes back again. No, there's a resisting there. It's like a, it's a wrestling. It's a struggling match. So why do we keep telling Christians that the Christian walk is easy and carefree? Lord's going to take away all your problems. You don't have to do anything. Resist the devil and he will flee. The other words here that, there's a, I'm sorry, coughing. There's a straining towards what is ahead, forgetting what's behind, but I have to strain towards, I have to, there's an effort there that's involved. So never forget that. Don't keep revisiting the past. And then this is very, very important. Do not hold on to it. The power of confession, the power of confession. 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And this is where faith comes in, in many times, because once I confess it, many times you don't feel it, right? Well, it doesn't matter if you feel it, that doesn't change the truth. I don't feel gravity right now. Is it true? Let's find out real quick. Wake some of you up, right? No, I'm not going to do it. But the feeling doesn't matter. It's what the Bible says. If we confess our sins, Romans 8, 28, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. And this is an amazing promise. I don't even understand it. I'm saying, Lord, how can you use my past for good? Are you kidding me? And the mysteries of God, so wonderful things of God that he takes. you know, sometimes we think, you know, everything good will come from it. But what he's saying here is that, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for his glory. All things will be set right in the end. He will take what was evil and he will make something good. Come from it. For those who love God and called according to his purpose. So just be encouraged here. I don't know what your past is. You came in with a lot of shame and regret and guilt. God can remove that or at least help to, to, to, to get rid of that. It doesn't happen overnight. The walls we build to protect end up imprisoning us because we say, I'm just going to deal with this my way and in my own time. But the Bible says, confess it, bring it to the light. And here's why, when we admit guilt, then we can receive his pardon. A lot of times we look at God's laws, like our judicial system. Yummy convicts say, I'm not guilty. I didn't do it. It was the other guy. They got the wrong guy. And sadly, that's the case sometimes, right? But we look at God that way. Sometimes I'm not guilty. I didn't do it, but we forget he's got all knowledge and all power. And all truth. He knows. So what he says, he wants us to agree with him. He says, let me know that you were wrong. Repent of your sin. I mean, that's how somebody saved. It's that easy. If you confess with your mouth that Christ is Lord and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead. You will be saved. Well, all you're doing is you're acknowledging that sacrificial substitutionary death of Christ. You're acknowledging God. You set a sacrifice for me. I acknowledge that. And I admit that I need that. That's what you have to bring things to the light because sin will grow in darkness. Strongholds stay built in darkness, but when you expose it and you bring it to light, not only does the enemy lose its power, you go to God and you say, Lord, I confess this. I was wrong. I was wrong. I need you. And he says, I will hear that prayer and I will pardon that person. So there's power in confession. Many times. I mean, we see this a lot in marriage counseling. You know, one person will say, I've joked about this before, but serious. They'll say, you know, yeah, I did that, but this person, and then you get a long paragraph with the other person did. And then this person says, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'm guilty of this. But then this person and they give you another long paragraph and then it's, it's, it's, we're going back and forth for weeks, months, years. What about if you both just said, I was wrong here. I'm sorry. Would you help me? Would you forgive me? And then shut your mouth, but no, but you know why we want to say, but, so we say face. I don't want the pastor to think I'm that bad of a person. So I've got to build myself back up. Yeah, I did that. I threw things and was hooked to porn for a year, kicked the cat, killed the dog, but here's why. And they may, they want to, you won't want to say faith. God says, don't say face there. Don't worry about actually there's power in full confession. There's power in admitting I was wrong in these areas. Learn that. If anything today, say even young adults, the parents are parents. It's okay for parents to even tell their kids I was wrong. Will you forgive me? I need to work on that area instead of saying, but you know, you make me do that. You push my buttons. You throw gasoline on the fire. You keep bickering, complaining. That's why I do it. You think that's a heartfelt, you know, repentance there. So bring it to the light. It took me 20 years to reach out to the, to the woman who had the abortion. It's in your articles. A few years ago, I mentioned to Morgan. I finally reached out to this woman. It's been 20 years. And the reason was shame and guilt and embarrassment. You know, I'm not going to, I'm not going to do that. I don't have to do that. But it was kind of eating in my heart from it for a few years. And once I did that, and she was receptive, said, thank you. I feel bad too. It was my responsibility. Just, there was this tremendous, you know, release. It took place finally. Cause I tried to hide it for 20 years. Yeah. I never talked about it here. You sure wouldn't hear about in the articles. You would never hear about in my books. You never hear about in the sermons ever. Until about two years ago in 2012, Pulpit Freedom Sundays, October, I was preaching on it. And just, it was difficult. And bringing that though, brought a lot of healing. And the, I mean, we get emails from Australia and New Zealand, Canada, and people just being helped by me opening up. And then you, and then I remember Romans 8, 28, for God works all things for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. He worked that for good in other people's lives. And that's what God does. He takes the ugly, and does something with it. He takes our mistakes, and if we give them to him, he can rebuild and readjust our life. But the fortresses of guilt and shame, here's what guilt is. Makes someone feel guilty, especially in order to induce them to do something. So the devil make you feel guilty. See, you blew it again. See, you're an addict. See, you're stuck. See, you're just, you're nothing. You're nothing. And they just keep in that cycle, and then shame comes. What shame? It's a painful feeling of humiliation, caused by the consciousness of, a consciousness of us knowing that we did something wrong. So I feel the shame because I did something wrong, and the guilt caused me to do it again. And that's why you got to break out of that. And that's why I mentioned earlier about saying, I'm not this, I'm not this. You're a child of God. If you're a believer, you're a child of God. The Bible calls us saints. Even though we struggle in certain areas, you have the power, you have the authority, because greater is he that's in you, than he that's in the world. You have greater authority to overcome the power of darkness than he does over you. He'll come bringing in thoughts, right? I mean, there's terrible thoughts. Parents who have lost children, or children who have done things to their parents as they got older, they live with this tremendous guilt. As the enemy brings in the guilt and the shame, you can say, Christ has forgiven me. I'm not going back there, Lord, would you answer the door? And you take these thoughts captive. You don't allow him to keep bringing those in there. As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. We are saints and children of God, but the devil wants us to feel dirty and condemned. So we return to the filth and return to the vomit. He wants us to feel a certain way, because out of our feelings, right, we usually act. I mean, if you're feeling better now after the sermon, you're feeling better, you're feeling more in charge, the guilt and shame, he doesn't have as good of a foothold in your life, because you leave here high and lifted up, worship, praying, and then he'll start to work tomorrow, or Monday, or Tuesday. He waits for an opportune time. Okay, you just get calm down, get the church out of you for a few days. Then I'll come back in. When you got American Horse Story on, and MTV, and all these, and 50 Cent, I love saying that one. And all this, you know, just all this world just brings it back into the world, and just draws us out. What happens? See, we walk away from God. God doesn't drift. That's why he says, bring every thought captive. Just look at your media choices this week, and you say, are these choices strengthening my relationship with God, or are they drawing me away from him? So when you get drawn back into that stronghold, back into that addiction, back into that thing, you realize that you could have prevented that, because God has given us the ability, he's given us the ability to grab onto him, someone who's stronger than the devil to overcome him. But the mind must be renewed. How are you going to renew truth, the truth of God in your mind, if you're always feeding it with garbage? That was the whole point I just made. I wanted to share a few things on this point. It's from a book called Choosing God's Best. If you're single, it's actually a really good book. He wrote it for singles. But he talks about hearing God's voice and hearing the voice of the enemy. And think about this before you make a decision, or if you're going through something tonight. God's voice will still you. You know, still, small voice, stills you. But the enemy rushes. You ever feel rushed, you got to do something? And then what happens? God's voice leads you, the enemy pushes. God's voice reassures you, the enemy frightens. God's voice enlightens you, the enemy confuses. God's voice encourages you, the enemy discourages you. God's voice will comfort you, the enemy's voice will worry you. God's voice will calm you, the enemy's voice will obsess you. Obsession, obsess. God's voice convicts you, the enemy condemns you. And that's how you see the different voices. What is it doing to you? Is there anxiety? Do you ever feel pushed into something? I got, I'm feeling pushed, I'm feeling anxious, I'm feeling, this is not the right leading. What's going on here? Wrong voice. Wrong voice. Now people sometimes feel that way on the brink of sin. Anxious, they're being pushed that way. Because the conviction, the Holy Spirit's saying, nope, nope. You're saying, yep, yep. The Holy Spirit says, nope. So always remember that if you're feeling confused or discouraged or worrying or frightening, it's not the correct voice that's leading you. Now on this whole issue of guilt, there is good guilt, you realize that. The guilt that makes us feel convicted so we turn to God. You never want to remove conviction totally because it's a wonderful gift from God. Once we feel convicted, if you want to use the word guilty, I'd rather use the word convicted. Because conviction means that God says, okay, turn this area over to me tonight. I mean, how many are feeling that tonight? I hear a lot of people, uh-huh, uh-huh. Well, that's a good feeling. Because God says, turn it to me. Give it to me. Bring your thoughts captive. Allow me to take that away. And then this one, I mean, I don't even need to say it, but I will because it's important. But we all know this. Once we do these things, don't continue in it. Whatever's bringing you down, don't continue in it. Paul said, and be ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. See, there's a portion when we work with God and God does his part, we do ours. There's obedience there. He calls us to obedience, but we like two-thirds obedience or one-half obedience. I know you want me to give up that, but how about if I just back our way? Or how about if I just downsize it? Or how about if I, and we keep this thing going on. But God says, I don't want partial obedience. If there's areas in your life that you know God is wanting you to get rid of or to make changes in, then he requires obedience. Full obedience. Get rid of this. Get rid of this. We are very good at confession, but we are poor at discontinuing our sin. It's very easy to say, yep, I'm confessing, that's me. But then we walk through those doors, that's where the rubber meets the road. But that's where the real change is gonna take place, is when we finally make those decisions. Let me say this in closing. Do you ever wonder why some believers experience tremendous peace and joy? Think about that. Do you want peace and joy? Tremendous peace and joy. The Bible talks about it. I often wonder how many people read the Bible and go, I've never experienced that. It's because the burden has been lifted. We weren't designed to carry the burden of sin, guilt, and shame. So I don't know what your situation is. In the 530 service, if there's people here who have never, if you're not designed to carry that guilt and shame and burden of your sin, if you've never repented, and you've never said, Lord, you take this, you take this guilt, you take this shame, that's where peace comes from, the peace that surpasses all understanding, because you're giving it to the person who was meant to carry that load for you. Or if you're like many Christians, I've been through valleys and mountaintops, so I know if you're caught in that, there's no peace, there's no joy. I'm caught in the shame and this guilt. All of that can end tonight. You really believe that? Yes, I do. When the heart gets in right relationship with God, peace and joy follow. It's a byproduct. You can't hold it back. When the heart is in right relationship with God, we're excited. Have you ever overcame something through God's help, and you're full of the Spirit of God, and you're so excited, and you want to witness to everybody? You actually want to read the Bible for more than you watch TV? You actually look forward to coming to church? Where does that all come from? Peace and joy. That's why most people drag in, don't we have somewhere else to go tonight? Not looking forward to this. And we find every single reason why we can't go. Is that a little cough I heard? I think our child has a cough, we can't go to church. I gotta get up early tomorrow. I gotta get up by eight. And we just don't want it. The joy of the Lord has left. But the Bible says the joy of the Lord will be your strength. So when you're in right relationship with God, if you say, Lord, I'm convicted in these areas, I'm repenting, I'm turning back to you, I'm getting back on track, I'm gonna let the Word of God come alive in my heart again, I'm gonna let worship come alive in my heart again, that joy returns. It's a byproduct. So if it's not there, we have to look. Is there something in our hearts that's prohibiting this from experiencing the joy of the Lord? So I would just encourage you during our prayer time and worship to do that, to experience the peace and the joy of God again by giving Him these burdens that we carry, giving Him that shame and guilt we carry.