Matt Chandler - Sanctification: Examining Fear and Anxiety

If you have your Bibles, why don’t you go ahead and grab them? Genesis chapter 1 is where we’re going to start. Last weekend, we tackled the ideas of guilt and shame—what to do with guilt and shame—and looked at how what God had done for us in Jesus Christ interacts with those feelings. Ultimately, when all is said and done, the Gospel of Jesus Christ drives out both the reality that we have fallen short of God’s right and good decree and our shame.

You have guilt, which is falling short of a standard, namely the law of God, and then you have shame, which can be felt either because of guilt or simply because we don’t measure up to what we think we should. In justification, or in granting us the righteousness of Christ and taking away our sins, God drives away guilt. We looked at the book of Colossians, which says He has cancelled the record of debt. So the good news of the Gospel—what Christ has done for us—is that the record of debt has been canceled. If you are a believer in Christ, all of your sins, past, present, and future, are accounted for on the cross of Jesus Christ, nailed to the cross, so that according to the word of God, you are guiltless.

That happened on the cross, but we still have to deal with shame because guilt and shame are not the same thing. Shame is addressed by the adopting love of our heavenly Father, who calls us to Himself as His children. His delight, with full knowledge of every dark crevice of our hearts, so unnerves and unwinds us that it drives out shame. Even at our youngest, being delighted in is difficult. I used the illustration last weekend, which struck me as poignant while I was studying and preparing for the message. On Thursday, our family night, we rotate through our children. We don’t just pick one child each week and tell them they’re awesome while the others just watch.

It was Norah’s turn, so we stood her up on a chair at the dining room table. Everyone went around the room and said something we really love about her and what she brings to our family. You can only use one; you can’t use all of them and leave nobody else with anything to say. It was Lawrence’s turn, and he’d say this and that, and I’m like, «Baby, there are four of us here; leave something for us!» What I noticed was that when we were trying to bless her—saying she brings joy to our family and an energy that no one else brings—she couldn’t look at us. I mean, she was smiling, so she liked it, but she just couldn’t look at us.

Even at four years old, what do you have to be ashamed of? I don’t know if it’s shame as much as it is just difficult at her level of innocence. I mean innocence—are you tracking with me? Somebody with a child better say «Amen» right now because I’m preaching! So, when all is said and done, her innocence still can’t handle it. I asked her, «Hey, listen, is this a perfect picture of what we’re like? How much more difficult is it for us to believe that God likes us and delights in us? We know who we are; we don’t even delight in ourselves.»

Those of us who do delight in ourselves are just deceived in our self-delight. In fact, it’s been my experience that the more brazen a person is, the more insecure they actually are. Some of you might be thinking, «God has no problem; you can tell me how awesome I am, I’ll stare you right in your face!» But I’ve found that this bravado often reveals insecurities rather than strengths. We marveled at the fact that when our heavenly Father sees us, He has compassion on us. He throws the ring on our finger, puts a robe on us, and prepares a feast. Despite the fact that we were wayward, in the pit with the pigs, squandering His property, He felt compassion and rejoiced when we came home. That drives out shame.

This week, I want to look at what we are to do with fear and anxiety. Before we get going, let’s do this: How many of you would say, «This is a safe place»? It’s church! Trust me, you’ll find out as this sermon progresses that it’s a safe place. How many of you would say fear and anxiety have, at some level, marked my life? Go ahead, don’t be afraid!