Grace Anatomy – Shameless

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

So for those of you who were with us last week, I got really excited revisiting some subjects that I actually taught on only a few months ago, and I hope you guys don't mind that I'm revisiting these subjects in a little bit different light. Last week we spoke about community and collectivistic societies and cultures versus individualistic societies and cultures—the difference between the social atmosphere 2,000 years ago at the time of Yeshua versus what it is today. Today we always think of salvation as an individualistic issue, which it is, but we really only isolate it to me, my, and I, right? We don't really think about the kingdom of God and the restoration of the kingdom being saved. It's mostly focused on us: I get to go to heaven when I die, I get to meet Jesus, I am forgiven, I am saved.

And 2,000 years ago, it was, of course, an individualistic choice to make that covenant and walk in that path. But the focus was on us— we, as the family of God, we as the children of God, are going to be saved and restored in the relationship with our Father together as one kingdom. And so we went through a couple of places in Scripture that really spoke, and it's amazing because if you understand the historical context in which Scripture was written, a lot of Scriptures that you were taught meant one thing no longer mean that thing anymore. They mean something different, and we're gonna take a look at those today.

Honor and Shame, Not Just One Teaching

Right after we spoke about collectivistic and individualistic cultures, I wanted to go ahead and revisit the subject of honor and shame. Now, I know a lot of you guys who've been watching, who are with the WISMN tour and watching the broadcast—we hammer honor and shame a lot. But it's not just one subject like one teaching. Honor and shame—understanding the cultural significance of honor and shame—needs to be a tool you reference every time you open up the Scriptures. Because honor and shame was the cultural environment in which Scripture was written, and we'll revisit that here in just a moment. So in the U.S., a sign of maturity for our children is when they recognize what is right and what is wrong.

Anyone disagree with that? Possibly everyone's silent. Okay, good crowd. These terms are expected to be defined internally. So when our children come to an age where they can internally decipher what is morally and ethically right in our culture, and what is wrong, that's a pillar. It's a rite of passage in growing up and becoming a good citizen of the United States. We have laws, precepts, rules. We have, of course, the law codes and the state and federal laws to guide us, but ultimately, as an individualistic nation, internally—that's where our conscience is, and that's where we distinguish between right and wrong.

You guys get me? You understand?

Individual Conscience vs. Collective Shame

In the West, our moral decisions are made independently, excluded from the will of others. We have that thing that we tell our children a lot: "Hey, if all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?" Right? And of course, what's our response? "No." And we want to teach them, "No, you do not follow the crowd. You don't do that." And we spoke last week about how it's completely opposite in a collectivistic culture because, yeah, if everyone's jumping off the bridge, it probably means that's the right decision and you want to join them in that. Totally different mindset, right? In a collectivistic honor-shame culture, society as a whole defines morality and ethics.

And I'm trying to choose my words very carefully when I'm going over this subject because in English, we don't have a lot of terms that really distinguish the mindset of the ancient world. So I hope you guys just bear with me for a minute as we get into this. What if I told you that this conscience, this internal voice that distinguishes morality within you was not always the way that people distinguish between right and wrong? Can you imagine? In the ancient world, honor-shame culture dictated society. There really was no inner choice, no inner conscience. There was none of this introspective morality fighting—you know, the angel on one shoulder, the devil on the other.

No one had that two to three thousand years ago. Everything was based on honor and shame. And our society now is based on something called a guilt culture, as defined by modern anthropologists. Pretty much, if you do something in our culture, you're expected to have a guilty conscience, right? You internally convict yourself. Whereas an honor-shame culture, which is still practiced in non-Western societies, it's defined by the group. If you bring shame upon yourself or your household, it's a shameful thing. Guilt has nothing to do with it. If you represent your nation and society according to the standards they expect, then you are honored.

You bring honor to them, you bring honor to yourself, you bring honor to everyone else. Has anyone ever seen that movie "Mulan," that Disney movie? Yeah, a bunch of people. There's a scene in there, and I thought about putting it in here, but I had a bunch of other clips I didn't want to. There's a scene in there that really defines honor-shame culture, and I love it because if you slap someone—we were reading about this, I think in the Mishnah—it illustrates different fines for physical assault. So if you punch someone, you might be fined a few shekels, but if you backhand or slap someone, hundreds of shekels.

Now, a punch does more physical damage than a slap, but a slap is shameful. It's dishonoring to someone, right? It brings shame upon them. And so it's interesting because in the movie, Mulan is talking with this little dragon—not a lizard—and he does something that she perceives as inappropriate, okay? Now, if a woman thinks you are being inappropriate in Western culture, what might she do if you push her hard enough? She may slap you. So Mulan slapped this dragon in the movie. The dragon freaks out, right? You see it in the movie. He freaks out. What's he do? "Dishonor. Dishonor on you. Dishonor on your house.

Dishonor on your family. Dishonor on your cow. Dishonor on everything." Because she slapped him. It had nothing to do with morality or conscience—she slapped him, which was shameful. It had nothing to do with what he said to her. She acted in a shameful manner, and therefore she was shamed for it. The concept is completely foreign to us in the U.S. Absolutely foreign to us. But I hope with a few examples we can begin to comprehend this different mindset—the way the narrators of Scripture thought when they wrote these things.

The Honor Game in First Century Life

It's amazing because in the first century, there was something called the honor game, as anthropologists refer to it. And as soon as you walk outside, your honor is on the table, okay? It's a limited resource—it can be taken away or you could gain it back. And your job out in the public eye is to protect all your chips on the table, all of your honor. And so every place you walk, if someone challenges you about a decision you've made—or let's say you've decided to follow this weird rabbi in Jerusalem, right? He's come to Jerusalem, and his name's Yeshua, and you started following him. If someone challenges you in the street, it's a public confrontation—an honor game.

Someone has challenged your honor. And so typically they would challenge you with a hard question or some type of scenario, and your response in the public eye would determine whether or not you'd be honorable or shamed in that situation. And of course Yeshua tells His disciples, "Don't even play that game. Just don't even worry about it." Which is a revolutionary statement. But later on we're going to speak about what Yeshua does. And so I wonder what this looks like when we apply it to Scripture. If you acted independently and against the grain in an honor-shame culture, okay, society would look down on you and shame you. If you acted in accordance with the social expectations and harmony of your society, you increased your honor or at least maintained it.

Flowing with Harmony or Going Against the Grain

In other words, in Eastern countries today, they don't teach their children to be independent or to go against the grain. You need to flow in harmony, okay? That's what the whole yin and yang thing is all about. Harmony. Perfect balance with society. You don't want to disrupt everything. You want to flow along with everyone else. Because if you go against the grain, it's shameful. You're disrupting the integrity of your kingdom when you do that. Totally opposite of what we're taught in the United States. Revolution! That's what we're about. I have a quote here from Paul Heibert. He states that, "Shame is a reaction to other people's criticism, an acute personal chagrin of our failure to live up to our obligations and the expectations others have for us.

In true shame-oriented cultures, every person has a place and a duty in society. One maintains self-respect not by choosing what is good rather than what is evil, but by choosing what is expected of you." Paul refers to us as living stones that build up a habitation for the Spirit. I love that because when we work together, we come together as a body, right? And every piece of the body has an expectation. A finger does what a finger does, lips do what lips do, feet do what feet do. Every one of you is part of the body, and every one of you has a place in the community of God, in the body of God. If the finger one day says, "No, I want to be a toe or I want to be an ear," it disrupts everything.

A Rogue Through the Body

It's a rogue. It sets off a chain reaction through the entire body. Now imagine that example on the grand scale of the United States or all of Western culture: China, Japan, Iran, ancient Israel.

You would always be yearning to protect the honor that you had and never allowing shame to come upon you, your people, or your family. Everyone with me so far? Okay. I have a perfect example. I found some footage from the intellectuals, the philosophical teachers of honor and shame here in America, actually. You guys may be familiar with them. We're gonna read the Psalms first.

Psalms 44: Shame Upon Us

Psalms 44 states, "You made us." "You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations. The people shake their heads at us. I live in disgrace all day long, and my face is covered with shame." This is King David writing, and he's speaking of us as in Israel, and he's speaking about what God has done because of their disobedience, because of them turning their backs on God. God has made them a disgrace, a byword amongst all people. Their face is covered with shame.

Saving Face

You guys ever heard the phrase "saving face"? We did a series a couple months back about saving face where we attacked a totally different aspect, but it was about honor and shame. You can check it on YouTube. That whole thing about saving face—your face is what people see in the community. Your face represents how much honor and shame you have in the community, and every time you do something shameful, you lose face. Can you imagine living in high school for the rest of your life? Remember the popularity contests? That's an honor-shame society. You gotta be cool, you gotta be honorable, but if someone picks on you in front of everyone else, then you've brought shame to yourself, and now your character has diminished amongst the community, amongst all of your peers. Perfect example of an honor-shame community. Imagine that as a national standard of how you act.

Scripture and Honor-Shame Culture

"Okay, Matt, you're hammering this really hard. I'm not really getting the connection." The connection is, now imagine that's who the Bible was written to. Now imagine everything in Scripture was oriented with honor-shame culture. Now imagine trying to decipher some of the hard things in Scripture based on that.

So these are my intellectual scholars of honor and shame here in the United States. Maybe you've seen them on TV or heard them speak at churches. You know who these guys are? Duck Dynasty?

The Honor Game in Action

I have a clip about a minute long. I know some of us don't watch TV on Shabbat, I'm sorry. I want you to pay very close attention to the phrases that are used, okay? This episode was known as the "Grass and the Furious." I think some guy comes up to some of the Duck Dynasty guys, and he challenges them to a lawnmower race. But I want you to see their response. You guys ready?

The Pharisees and Jesus

Oh, number seven shouldn't be muted. Notice when Yeshua wanted to make a point, He was out with His disciples and the Pharisees—did the Pharisees ever discreetly come to him? "Hey, Yeshua, come here, come here, come here. Why do you do this on the Sabbath?" Why do you do that on the Sabbath? Do they ever do that discreetly, like in someone's house or behind closed doors? No, it was public. And they came to him in the middle of the temple. Why do you do this? What do you say about this, teacher? Look at this woman. She's committed adultery. Everybody's watching. If Yeshua says the wrong thing, then he will bring shame upon his disciples, himself, and the God he says sent him.

Good thing he didn't do that. You ever notice how the disciples, whenever they asked him questions, always waited till they were alone because they weren't going to play the honor game with him? "Master!" It's a very outstanding thing. You never question kings and royalty and your leaders in the Near East and honor-shame cultures. It's disrespectful. So what would you do? Let's say you're driving with the king. You're driving around, and the king says, "Make the next right. That's the way to the palace." And you know that's not the way to the palace, but in honor-shame cultures, it brings shame upon him if you tell him, "King, that's not the right way.

You can't do that." What do you do? "Oh, my lord, I thought turning left took us to the palace, so taking us right to the palace, is this the correct way? Am I going the right way?" You would always phrase it in a question where you are asking him, and then he would kind of focus and say, "Ah, you are correct. You can go." It still is honor with him. You ever tried that in work environments? I actually noticed this recently. I don't like to approach people in conflict. Some people like conflict. Some people, if their employee is doing something wrong or off base or outside of the workflow, they'll just go to them and say, hey, you're doing this wrong.

You need to make it right. Now, what if someone did that to you? You think you're doing it right, but your supervisor comes up to you—you're wrong. Do it this way. Kind of stings, right? And so something I realized that I do with people is I come up to them and say, hey, do you know a better way to do this? Completely different workflow. Here's how you do your job. Oh, that makes sense. It doesn't bring shame to them because you're not calling them out. You're saying, hey, I think I know a better way to do this. We actually play the honor-shame game here in the U.S. within our culture. So you guys ready?

We're going to try this out. All the volume should be set up. How's the duck business going? It's going great. How's the... Whatever you do. This is what you're into now? Riding lawnmowers in town? This is just my ride-around mower. My racing rig is what I'm really proud of. Huh? I hate lawnmowers. Let's get rid of them all. The world would be a better place. If you combine the time you waste cutting grass with the time you waste shaving your face, we'd be going to Venus, you know, and... We could be doing whatever. You ever won any of these races? Yeah, I win them all. If you boys are interested, y'all might want to meet me up there for a little race on Saturday night.

Are you challenging me? If y'all could put something together. You can talk any redneck into a challenge. I'll beat the crap out of you in the lawnmower. That's why so many rednecks die in such strange ways. Because he would rather be dead than disrespected.

Honor Over Everything

Did you guys catch that? What just took place was something known as the honor game. Yeshua played it with the Pharisees, right? We sometimes play it in our culture. A challenge was made and he could have backed down. He could have said, "No, I don't like lawnmowers. I do not like lawnmowers. I have no interest in lawnmowers. I don't want to race lawnmowers." But his honor was challenged. So what's he do? I'm gonna die before I let my honor be taken from me. We're gonna hook a jet pack up to this lawnmower and we're gonna win this race because my honor is important. I love that. It's a perfect illustration. Did everybody get that? Did you see that? Challenge accepted. I don't know. I didn't watch the whole episode. I'm not a huge fan. I don't have time. I just saw that clip and I was like, oh, that's great. I was gonna quote a Greek philosopher named Plato. Plato. Somehow this slide got in here. That wasn't the correct Plato I was talking about. There he is. That's the correct Plato I was talking about.

Plato and the Ring of Gyges

So a Greek philosopher named Plato lived around 400, 420 BCE. He spoke about something. Now he was kind of a revolutionary in honor-shame culture, and he hinted at the idea of an introspective conscious being within every individual and not relatable to the culture around us. But in the Republic, he spoke about the ring of "jaijus"? "Jaijis." The ring of—anyone ever heard of the ring of "jaijis"? Oh, great. So he spoke about this ring, and this may sound familiar to you from other sources, but when you put this ring on your finger, you become invisible. And he made the remark: "What would happen if you had this ring? Would you be a righteous individual? Would you be just? Would you just live your life doing good works for others? Or would you be really bad?" That movie, The Invisible Man, was based on this concept. If you were invisible, what would you do? Rob banks? Hurt folk? Steal stuff? Break into people's homes? Do whatever you wanted and society would never know.

Guilt-Conscious Versus Honor-Shame

That's the difference between an honor-shame system and a guilt-conscious system. See, in a guilt-conscious system, we're like, "Well, no, I would never do that if I was invisible. No, I'd never even use the ring because my conscience would be affected," right? If you're actually a good moral person. But in honor-shame society, good and bad are not defined on what you think they are. They're defined on the society. So if the society around you never knows what you do, then your honor is never affected, and you never feel shame. You're never convicted. No one ever tells you you're wrong. So therefore, you could wear this ring and do whatever you wanted and always maintain your honor in society. No one would ever know of the shameful things that you did, and therefore, you would not be shameful. You see that? Crazy. A ring that makes you invisible. That's what the impact was. That's why it was such a big deal to him. Because the culture around you would never know.

Plato's Ring of Gyges

We have some quotes here. "Suppose now there were two such magic rings." What Plato is saying is there ain't nobody who wouldn't do something a little bad if they knew that no one would ever know about it. Is he true? Is that true? Is that right? I know a lot of us are like, "Yeah, he's right. I ain't never gonna..." He continues: "For all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice, and he who argues..." In other words, what he's saying is if everyone knew you had a magic ring and knew that you were not doing it, if you didn't use the ring for bad things—you probably didn't even use it at all—everyone in the world would think you're a fool because they would use the ring for bad things.

And they would praise you in front of you. They would say, "Wow, you are so righteous!" But behind your back they say, "What a fool. He could have whatever he wants." "One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them." This is where J.R.R. Tolkien got the idea of the ring that was in *The Hobbit*. The ring in *The Lord of the Rings*—when Frodo puts it on, what happens? He disappears, right? It's the most sought-after thing. All of the land, everybody's trying to get it. Why do they want this stupid little ring? Because it has power. The underlying focus is the power.

If you have this ring, it's to do whatever you want. You can overtake the land and no one can stop you. At the base, because it makes you invisible and no shame would ever come upon you, you would be the most powerful being in the world. Isn't that interesting?

Tolkien on Power and Control

Right? Matt, what are you talking about? J.R.R. Tolkien didn't say that. Well, we have a lot of letters that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote during his lifetime, and here's one of them that he wrote in 1958: "I should say that it was a mythical way of representing the truth that potency or perhaps potentiality, if it is to be exercised and produce results, has to be externalized, and so it were passes to a greater or lesser degree out of one's direct control."

In other words, he's making a link to the ring and collectivistic and individualistic cultures and honor-shame, particularly. In other words, you yourself with your internal conscience cannot control something. What he's saying is an external influence, like what is illustrated in honorshame cultures, are the only thing that can truly control a person. If people see your shame, if people see your honor, then that is the influence that builds you and guides you through your life, not some internal force. That's exactly what the whole premise around the ring was, guys.

Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" Hmm, anybody know who this guy is? He was the coolest poet ever in middle school! So I admit, I'm not a big fan of poetry and short stories and so on and so forth. In middle school, whenever we had to study poetry and you had to pick a poet, everybody wanted Edgar Allan Poe. Why? Because he's cool, because he's dark, because he's bad—a little evil in some of the stories made it cool. And I remember reading his stories in middle school. I don't think I knew what I was reading. I went back and read a couple of his stories recently. This guy was messed up. This guy was one messed up creepy little man.

So I read this story called "Tell-Tale Heart." Anyone ever read it? That's a creepy little story. And I'm captivated by it. I'm reading, I'm like, what's he going to do? The guy's eyes open. What is he going to do? He sees you. What's he going to do? What's that sound? What are you hearing in your head? The story, if you're not familiar with it—about to get gruesome, don't stow me—is about a man who believes he's normal, just like all of us. He's not a psychopath, because a psychopath would know he's a psychopath, right? And there's this old man that lives near him, and the old man has one eye that's really big and blue, and it bugs this guy.

He just looks at it, and he's always looking at him with this eye. So for weeks, he begins practicing going over to the guy's house, opening the guy's door to his home, going up to his bedroom, opening the door slowly and peeking in. He wants to kill him, but he doesn't do it yet. For weeks every night, he goes up there and spends hours tiptoeing around the guy's room, looking at him, closing the door, making sure he can't make a sound. And finally, the night comes where he's going to do the deed, and he goes up there and—long story short—he kills the guy. He kills the guy, dismembers him, puts him underneath the floor of his house.

Matt, this is church. You can't talk about stuff like this. It's a point. It's a point. It's American poetry.

Well, the neighbors heard a scream when this happened, and so the police came over, and the man was like, "Well, there's no evidence anywhere. Come on, police officers, come on in." So the police are sitting in his living room, and right under the floor is the evidence of this poor old man. And the guy's sitting there with the police officers, and he's looking at them, and he's speaking with them, and he begins to hear something. Ba-boom. What is this? Can they hear it? What is this? Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom. He looks down, feels like a heartbeat. What is this? It's getting louder and louder, and it's coming from underneath the floorboards.

Are the police going to hear it? Are they going to know? Are they going to know? I don't want them to know. Maybe it's all in my head. It's just all in my head. The police will not leave his home. They're casually talking. They're having a good time since he invited them in. And this heartbeat keeps getting louder and louder inside of his head. And it drives him crazy and he can't take it anymore. So he says, "Police officers, it's underneath the floor. The evidence, I killed him. Just make it stop. Make that sound stop."

The Western Conscience

The illustration here that Edgar was trying to portray is our conscience in the West, this introspective internal voice that leads us to know what is right or wrong. And if we do something wrong, then internally we know it eats away at us. We can't take it anymore. We cannot live with ourselves for the things that we've done, right? In non-Western cultures, that really didn't exist. Well, Matthew, that's horrible. It is what it is. That's the shift—from the ring that can hide you from everyone else knowing to the Western idea that Edgar portrays, where you don't need a ring. A ring cannot help you in a Western culture with your individual emotions inside of you.

And the ancient world morality was typically influenced by external forces, not internal. No inner voice, no matter of guilt, no invisible weight that's on your shoulders for the things you've done—only the expectation of society as a whole. If people knew what I did, I can never let that happen. Therefore, I'm not going to do this bad thing because if I do this bad thing, then people will find out and then I will be shamed. My reputation will be tarnished. I don't want to let that happen. So that is what blocked you from doing evil in the ancient world and in non-Western societies even today. You with me?

Did that story kind of creep you out a little bit? Sorry, I got into it. I kind of got dramatic with it.

Honor and Shame in Community

If a person commits violence that is approved by the community, then there is no reason to feel guilt or shame. This is where face comes in. You maintain your face, right? Duane Elmore states, "The Thai word for being shamed, for losing face (if you will), literally means to tear one's face off so that they appear ugly before the community and their friends." I don't care what's going on inside my heart. As long as no one knows, I will keep my face. I will keep my honor. How many of you guys think that's awful? You can get away with so much stuff. Right? I mean, what if the community is doing something bad?

What if the community is agreeing that murdering someone is okay? Well, then it's not really murder because it's not really an ethical, moral thing. It's something that's approved by society, and therefore it's not shameful. I have a hard time comprehending that growing up in a Western culture. I read a book about a couple in Indonesia that the author was ministering to. He was a missionary. The husband was caught in adultery with another woman. Now he goes over there, and he's trying to comfort the wife, and maybe the wife wants to leave him. What's she gonna do for income? How is this whole social structure gonna change?

They need to find her a place to stay so she can move out. It's not what she wanted. She was devastated, not because her husband did this thing to her, but she kept exclaiming to him, "Where can I put my face? People know the shame that is on my household now." It wasn't even her fault, but she wanted to run and hide because of the reputation that her husband brought upon the house. You see? How can this be? Deep down inside—I mean, if a person really does something wrong, deep down inside they have to be able to feel some guilt, right? I mean, something, right? Something!

Paul Without Guilt

Let's see. Paul is writing. You ready for this? "In my zeal for God, I persecuted the church." Remember? Holding the coats for Stephen. Probably responsible for a lot of, at least a few people dying, whipping people, throwing Christians in jail. Persecuting the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law, I was blameless. Paul didn't feel guilty for any of that.

Paul's Righteous Path Before Confrontation

Not really. Didn't really feel guilty. Why should he? There was no inner voice saying "you're wrong" eating away at him. "Persecute the church." Everyone was in on it. Paul was a righteous man. He was righteous, but he was righteous within the mold of the first century. Totally different mindset. Remember, we spoke about external influences in an honor-shame culture. You guys know what external influence came to Paul and caused him to repent? "Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples." Murderous threats! No internal conscience conviction. He went to the high priest and asked for letters to the synagogues in Damascus so that if he found any there who belonged to the way—messianics, if you will—whether man or woman, he might take them as prisoners in Jerusalem.

You're a Christian? Thrown in jail. You're a believer in Yeshua? Thrown in jail. "As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground, heard a voice." Was it an internal voice? He heard an external voice. "Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Master Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Yeshua, whom you are persecuting," he replied. External influence. That's when Paul was like, "Ah!" There was no move of the Spirit inside of him. Yeshua had to come down there, knock him over the head, blind him with light, and say, "Listen, you've got to straighten up."

External influence. We see this in Galatians as well when he's having a problem with Peter. It says that he shamed Peter in front of everyone to get Peter to stop doing what he was doing with the Gentiles—eating with them and changing tables and all that. External influence.

Wrong Versus Shameful: A Cultural Difference

Here's what it comes down to: there's a difference culturally in Scripture between viewing something as wrong or as something that's shameful. Wrong sounds like it'd be better. You'd think it's wrong, so therefore you stick with it—it's wrong. Shameful just seems like a status, but it was a huge status. It should be noted that we use terminology about shame in our society. Shame itself is not a negative thing. Having a sense of shame is good because it defines your moral compass in honor-shame cultures, right? Have you ever heard the phrase, mostly from an older person with American heritage, "Have you no shame?" Anyone? No, just me. Or, "Are you shameless?" You're just shameless. What is that saying? It's saying you have no concept of honor and shame in your life. You have no concept of a moral compass in your life. "Have you no shame?" That's where that phrase came from. That's why I put that slide in there. I thought that was interesting.

Yeshua's Death as Shame

Yeshua was killed because of this. Yeshua was killed not because he was preaching, not because he was healing, not because he was doing miracles, not because he was making people jealous. He was killed because he brought shame to the religious leaders who were in charge. That's it. They wanted him dead for it, and they killed him. Honor was viewed as a limited resource. You cannot afford to lose any of it. It's your reputation, right? And that's your credit line. That defines the rest of your life. That could define who you're going to marry. That could define your children's lineage, their heritage, because you take on the honor or shame of your father by default, right?

"Who is this Yeshua? Isn't he the son of the carpenter?" Your father's reputation becomes yours. We spoke about public contests, these honor-shame contests that took place. Every time Yeshua was out in public, the Pharisees would try to trip him up, and every time, he stumped them. They were silent. Imagine a gladiator arena with Yeshua on one side, the Pharisees on the other, and thousands of people watching. And they're going back and forth. Every one of those battles, Yeshua won. Can you imagine the people in the stands? Ooh, boos for the Pharisees. It might as well have been a gladiator arena. And they dropped the stones and walked away. Shameful.

Coming to Yeshua in Private

This is why all of the disciples came to Yeshua in private whenever they asked him questions, because they wouldn't dare appear to be playing the game in public. They didn't want to trip their master up in public. We asked the one question that trips Yeshua up; it was in public. They wanted to make sure they didn't do that, so they always came to Yeshua in private. "Master." Remember Nicodemus? Right? So, in John 3: "Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council." This was a big wig, okay? Big guy. "He came to Yeshua at night and said, 'Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God, but no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.'" He approached him at night, and he continues the conversation with Yeshua.

The reason he came at night was because he wanted Yeshua to know, "I'm not playing the honor game with you. I want to learn from you. Teach me. I want to ask you a question that is private, and whatever you say will not be heard by anyone. Even if it's the wrong response, no one—we will not have an audience to accuse you." That's why he came at night.

You guys want to read some familiar biblical stories in light of honor-shame context? This is an immense subject, guys, and I felt like I needed to revisit it because when I was studying a couple of other resources, I got a glimpse of an angle that I had not realized before. And I'll show you the resources that I used. All of you can access them. There's one big one online at the end of the slide and two books that I highly recommend.

David's Shame: The Bathsheba Story

You guys remember the story of David and Bathsheba? That's when David messed up, right? He committed all those sins. He murdered a guy. He committed adultery, right? He lied. Did all these things, right? I don't know. Is it a trick question? We'll see. This chapter in Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 11, the whole thing is painted with honor-shame terminology. You guys still with me? Verse 1: "In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war"—who goes off to war? So David's fighting for his country, right? "David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Zereubbaim, but David remained in Jerusalem."

I thought David was a king. He should be out fighting. Yeah, he's supposed to be out fighting with his men, right? What's he doing back at the house? Verse 1 brings shame to David. It paints the picture of what the rest of the chapter is going to illustrate. David's a shameful king. He's acting in a way that brings shame to the nation. "One evening, David got up from his bed and he walked around the roof of the palace. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her." See, it's not like today. David just didn't text her, right? He sent messengers, "Go and find her."

This was not a private scenario, guys. Folks knew what was happening over the next two chapters. Folks talked. "What are you doing bathing naked on the top of your roof in the middle of the night?" So you've got to have enough light to—I mean, if I take a bath in the bathroom, I've got to turn the light on, right? So you're going to have enough light to see the bath, which means you're going to have enough light so other folks can see you. It's interesting because in antiquity, at least, people were very aware of how central they were to the powers around them. So this wife knew she was near the palace.

Okay? People weren't oblivious. When I worked at the hospital, my office was down the hall from the CEO's office, and it's not like I was surprised to see him walking out of his office sometimes when I came out of mine. "Oh, I didn't know the CEO was gonna walk out and see me! Hey, hello, sir!" It wasn't like that. She knew she could be seen from David's palace up there with the lamp. I imagine floodlights. I'm being extreme. I'm painting that picture. It's not said. I think that's the context. You can take from it what you wish. And so David sent someone to find out about her. Now remember what I was talking about earlier—how when you're with the king and you don't want to accuse the king of anything, right?

Notice what the servant says to King David. The servant says to King David, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Isn't this the wife, King, of Uriah the Hittite—one of your mighty men?" And the servant is pitching this to David. He's not shaming David. He's not saying, "Dude, don't you know she's a wife? Don't you know she's married? What are you doing? Isn't this Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah?" David's response would have been something arrogant like, "That is correct. Go get her." He didn't shame him by asking that specific question. That's why the narrative has that in there.

Then David sent messengers to get her. Plural. Lots of folks. She came to him and he slept with her. Now she was purifying herself from the monthly uncleanliness. That is a horrible translation. Ignore that. That's not quite what it says in the Hebrew. Basically, it says in the Hebrew, after she cleansed her impurity, which, in my opinion, would have been because of them canoodling. So she stayed at the palace, at least a day, hung out, and then she went home. Imagine if this happened at the White House. This is not a private event. All of the guards, all of the staff, everybody in the palace knows what David's doing.

And then what happens? He's the king. He can buy someone's wife off of them if he wants. He can do that. Hey, Uriah, your wife's hot. I'll give you 100 grand for her, whatever. A million bucks, I'll give you half the kingdom for her. He could have bought someone else's wife. Instead, he sleeps with her and then sends her away back home. Shameful. Shameful. Anyway, keep her around. David's acting like a jerk, I'll say it. Meanwhile, all the staff knows that David is bringing shame upon himself. So what happens? The woman conceived and sent word to David saying, "I am pregnant." Of course she did. What could happen next, right?

So David sent word to Joab. Joab is the general fighting, doing David's job out in the battle. "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent him to David. Now remember, Uriah is not an Israelite. He's a Hittite. Most likely he was a mercenary. Well-paid. Most likely he was a mercenary. Be like having a Blackwater contractor fighting with you in Iraq, right? Well-paid, had a house near the palace, but was not an Israelite per se. He was not as authentic as an Israelite soldier as far as that aspect of honor fighting. With me? When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were doing and how the war was going.

See, at this point in time in battle—you guys remember World War I, World War II, of course, too?—messages were flowing back and forth to the battlefield every single day. News about everything, from political stuff to gossip. I think Uriah knew what happened. Why else is he being summoned to the palace? He's a mercenary, one of David's mighty men. Probably a friend. But still, bringing him from the battlefield would look suspicious. Can you imagine being a fly on the wall just watching all this in the palace? Uriah's coming in. What's going to happen? Does he know? I don't know. I never noticed that until recently.

A gift? What was the gift for? Maybe the gift was to cover up the shame that David did. "Uriah, go back to your house. You need to lay with your wife, Bathsheba." So if that happened, she would have been pregnant, the child would have been born. It would have been David's child, but it would have been Uriah's—the honor would have been restored. Everyone would have known what happened, but the honor and shame would have been balanced back to the norm. Okay? You with me? The gift was either to pay Uriah for that, or the gift may have been to pay him for his wife. One of the two. The gift was to cover up what David had done and compensate Uriah, in my opinion.

Still with me? It's about to get fun.

Uriah's Refusal

But Uriah slept at the entrance of the palace with all of his master's servants and did not go down to his house. Why would he do that? If he knew what David had done with his wife, I'm not going. I'm not biting. You dangle that in front of me, nope. I'm going to sleep on the front steps. When David was told that Uriah slept on the front steps, people were talking. He's not going to let David recover from the shame that he created with his wife. When David was told Uriah did not go to his house, he summoned him again. "Haven't you just come from a long distance? Why didn't you go home?" See, a lot of people think David and Uriah were really close because Uriah, according to Scripture, was one of David's mighty men.

But here, he's not calling David his master. He's calling the general—the one he fights for—his master. That's just a bit of relationship context. "And my Lord's men are camped in the open fields. How can I go to my house, eat, drink, and lie with my wife?" Can you imagine emphasizing that to David? "And lie with my wife." How can I do that? So you have Joab out there doing David's job, and Uriah's throwing it in his face. All his men are out there fighting. And I'm just a mercenary. How am I supposed to stay here? How am I supposed to stay home when all of your kingdom is fighting, David? How's your couch feeling?

Your bed feeling nice? Your soldiers are sleeping out in open fields. They don't know what that feels like because they're actually fighting—doing your job— and Joab's doing your job too, but that's okay. So I can't go lie with my wife, my wife, while my kin are out there fighting. Notice how he starts his response—with the ark, God's mercy seat. Not only is Joab out there fighting in the front lines, but all the men of Israel and all the men of Judah are out there fighting. God is even out there in the front lines, and you're sitting back here in Jerusalem, David. How am I supposed to go lay with my wife and do these things, eat, drink, and be merry, when your God is out there fighting for you, and I'm a Hittite from the land of a thousand gods, and you're just sitting here?

The Murder Plot

Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. At David's invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David got him drunk. All right, I can fix this. I can fix this. We got Bathsheba, and we got that circumstance. Maybe I can get this guy drunk and go back home. All shame will be done away with, all honor will be restored, everything will be balanced, everything will be fine. I'll just get him drunk and he can go home. "But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among the master's servants. He did not go home."

Oh, he didn't go home again, guys! What's David going to do? This is a big problem for the king! "In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it with Uriah." All right, Uriah, I'm sending you back. Get this figured out. I'm going back to fight—for the job I'm supposed to do. You need me to send a letter? Yeah, yeah, Uriah, I need you to deliver this letter to your master, Joab. And in the letter he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is the fiercest. Then withdraw from him so that he will be struck down and die." We know what happened. He died, along with a lot of the other king's men, right?

A lot of folks died in this incident, okay? If you read the context, David didn't care. He didn't care how many men died because of this incident. No internal conscience—that's what I'm trying to emphasize there. People died. David writes back to Joab: "The sword kills everyone. It's no big deal. Don't worry about it, Joab. You lost some men. It happens. It's war."

Everything's Fine

When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought into his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord. David was cool at this point. I've cleaned up the mess. Everything's fine. Uriah is gone. She's my wife now. That way the child that's born will be mine, honorable in the public eye. No big deal. Cool. Everybody wins. David goes back to life, but it displeased the Lord. I love that. At no point does David ever give any indication that he had a guilty conscience.

Honor was restored in the kingdom. Bathsheba moved in with him. The only person that suffered was Uriah, and David most likely thought that was probably his fault anyway. He should have taken the gift. He should have just gone back home. He could have fixed all this. He didn't want to do it, so it's his fault. We do that sometimes, do we, in conflict? No, it's their fault. They should have done this. Their fault. It was over. Honor had been restored. All parties were silenced. David never gave it another thought, except God.

God's Loudspeaker

Now remember we speak about external and internal convictions, right, in our world. Internal, right, eats away at our heart. "Oh, I'm so wrong for doing that thing with Bathsheba and Uriah, the killing, and so on and so forth." David didn't live in a time period where they had this conscience, this internal conscience, so God had to give him a loudspeaker. That's why God had something called prophets. The generation of society David lived in did not have a way to bring up this matter to the king. No one could approach David formally and say, "Dude, really? I mean, you got around it technically, but really?

It was a very shameful thing you did." We might assume this matter might eventually break through to David's heart, like Edgar Allan Poe's story —the boom, boom, boom, the heartbeat of Uriah. Nah. God sent a prophet by the name of Nathan. Remember what happens? You guys remember in 2 Samuel 12? The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, Nathan sat down with David. "Hey, David, how you doing? New wife?" "Yeah." "Having a kid?" "Yeah, she's pregnant." "Awesome. Cool. So I want to tell you a story, David. This happened, and it bothers me because it happened in your kingdom." "Really, Nathan? What was it?"

"There were two men in a certain town—one rich and one was poor." "Okay, Nathan, go on." "The rich man had everything." Can you imagine the imagery? Good night, little lamb. It was like a daughter to him. Okay, okay. What about it? A traveler had come to the rich man's house, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took this poor man's ewe lamb that belonged to him and prepared it for the one that had come to him. David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as Yahweh lives, this man who did this deserves to tell me who he is."

So in our generation, we have a compliment us guys give each other. "You're the man. Yeah, you're the man. Now you're the man. High five. You're the man." So what's Nathan say to David? Nathan said to David, "You're the man, David." It was not a positive thing. "You're the guy. This is what the Lord says. The God of Israel, the one fighting in the front lines with the ark. I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. And this is what you do?"

Shamed into Repentance

At this point, in my opinion—and only at this point—this is when David cracked open. This is when David was sorry. This is when David was repentant. Why? Because he was shamed. External. You still with me? He wrote a whole psalm about this incident. You guys know that? Psalm 51? It's about Bathsheba, right? I want to read just a few verses of it. "From the director of music, a psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba: 'Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgression.'" Remember from the Yom Kippur teaching, transgression is rebellious sin.

You know what's right, but you do the wrong thing anyway. Verse 4: it's a pretty good heartfelt apology, but notice what David says. Not what he says. "Against you only have I sinned, Father." See, we always like to make up sins. David can send his soldiers wherever he wants. If he had an internal conviction—"Oh, that's kind of like murder if I send them to the front lines"—it didn't exist. He was within his rights to send Uriah wherever he wanted to. He could have bought any woman in the city that he wanted to, and at the end of the matter, he took Bathsheba as his wife, which the way it happened was not correct.

But the end result is okay, fine, whatever. What's he talking about? How did he sin against God?

Coveting and God's Honor

In the Torah, there's a commandment that says you shall not covet another man's wife. That was the big one that David was convicted of. I shouldn't have done that. It's amazing because when we do things here on earth, when we do things in our culture, sometimes we like to think we get away with them. Sometimes we don't even acknowledge that maybe this isn't cool with God. We should be thinking about what have I done? Am I doing this? And how does it affect God? Is his Torah convicting me? Torah is an external thing, right? Honor, shame. It's what it was designed to do. It's designed to be a witness against you in the things that you do, or it should tell you what's honorable, right?

Fascinating scenario there. Absolutely fascinating. A couple more verses, Psalms 22, 23. "You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, honor him, revere him. All of you descendants of Israel." Talking about honoring God. How do we honor our king? Do what Joab was doing, Uriah was doing. The soldiers of Israel, go out and fight for your king. If he's a good king, he'll be with you during your fight. Psalms : "And call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you will honor me. I will bring you into my kingdom. You will know you are my child and you will live a life that reflects my glory on earth and it will honor me."

His Name Is On You

Everyone thinks that taking the Lord's name in vain means like saying profanity and stuff like that. None to do with it. Once you're in the covenant, his name is on you. Every step that you take is planting his name somewhere. You better watch where you step. You better watch what you do. Because the community is watching you and they see the name of God on you. And if you're acting a way that is not in line with Torah and the scriptures, then you're taking his name in vain. That's exactly what it means. "I don't like this message anymore, Matt." "Yeah, it's hurtful, huh? Kind of rubs you. Ooh, that's a lot of responsibility. When you walk, people should see Yeshua. Matt, that's kind of, you're not supposed to, that's not right."

Resembling Everything He Resembled

Yeah, if we're his emissary, if we're the ambassadors of Christ Scripture tells us to be—we're the messengers, we're supposed to resemble everything that he resembled. Are we doing that? We're supposed to be that external barrier to the world, right? That's who our witness is going towards. How about this? You guys remember Exodus 4? Fixing to start concluding here. Exodus 4— remember the whole burning bush incident? Moses was there and God says, "Listen up, Moses, listen. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I got you. Israel's fixing to be pulled out. I'm gonna pull them out of Egypt. I'm gonna systematically destroy, shame all of their deities in Egypt and I'm gonna use you as my prophet to do it."

And Moses was like, "I got this, God. Yeah, give me, yeah, let's do it. Give me a big staff or something." What did Moses say? "No, not me. Not me. Not me. They won't listen to me. They don't honor me. They don't revere me. They don't respect me. I'm not going to be a good witness for you because I've been shamed in Egypt and my reputation is not good." That's what that reflected back on—the shame that pushed Moses out of Egypt in the first place. Make sense, kind of?

Stiff-Necked People

And so we have this incident way at the end of the book now—this is out of the book of Exodus. Israel's messing up one after another, and God finally just gets upset. He's like, "I've seen these people, Israel. The Lord said to Moses, they are stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy all of them. Then I will make you into a great nation." In other words, God got to a boiling point. You ever lose your temper? You don't want God to lose his temper. Pfft. I'm going to destroy all of Israel, and Moses, I'm going to start over with you. How about thin apples?

Okay, he didn't use that line, but that's me interpreting. What's Moses do? Moses convinces God to let Israel live. But do you remember how he does it, "But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. 'Oh Lord,' he said, 'why should your anger burn against your people whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say it was with evil intent that Yahweh brought them out to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce anger. Relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel to whom you swore by your own self: I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

I will make your descendants in this land I promised them and it will be their inheritance forever.'" Then the Lord relented and did not bring his people to disaster as he had threatened. Moses said, "God, your honor will be destroyed among the earth if you do this. If you do this, it will be a shameful thing in the eyes of everyone who watches because you made a promise and everybody will talk about you. Everybody will say, 'Look, Yahweh's intent was just to bring him out of Egypt to destroy him anyway. Yahweh doesn't keep his promises to Abraham. Yahweh is not an honorable God.'" It's interesting, right?

It's honor-shame. The guy was like, "I could destroy them all, but I want my name to be great among nations, because I want all men to know me." So he relented. "Fine. I'll let them live so that the honor of my name can be honorable and remain honorable in Israel." That's what happened. We miss these things.

The Whole Community

How about this? 2 Corinthians 5: "Now I know the conscious there." Oh! Honor-shame society was still very high in Roman culture and in Israel at this time. Notice what he's saying. This is where we get the foundation for the whole great white judgment thing, right? Which I think is going to happen. So we were taught growing up: we're going to die, and we're going to go before the judgment seat of Messiah, and he's going to judge us for all the things we did good and bad in our life, right? Unless they just taught on grace, and then they don't mention this—you're all wiped away. But for the most part, a lot of churches teach that you're gonna have a reel that rolls, and it's gonna replay your entire life.

And Yeshua is gonna sit down with you and look at everything that you did in your life. Sounds pretty bad, right? Is it doable? I mean, to get eternal life, I can do that. I can do that. A couple hours sitting in front of a projector reel—it's not devastating, right? Not devastating. Why is Paul saying this to Corinth? "Since then, we know what it is to fear the Lord." What do you mean, "fear the Lord"? Is it really that scary? I mean, I know I've done wrong things in my life, right? God already knows. He's just gonna replay it. This wasn't envisioned to be just you and Yeshua sitting there watching your life.

Remember? It's the whole community. They're gonna pack the movie theaters full with all of your friends, all of your family, and they're gonna play that movie. What you do not feel guilty for now, you will be exposed before God and everybody around you in this life and outside of that. I even put hashtag devastating because it is. That's why Paul pushed this. Doesn't seem that big of a deal to us, because individualistic culture, guilty conscience, I'm already guilty for the things that I acknowledge I did wrong, and we're just going to play those in a movie. No, your mom's going to know everything that you hid.

Your brothers and sisters are going to know everything that you did. Your wife and husband's going to know everything that you did in this life. Your grandparents, your children, everybody are going to watch that film at the Great White Throne Judgment. Time to shape up. Quick. Quick. You see? And maybe you guys, I feel it. I feel the pressure. I'm like, oh, well, that'll put me in line pretty quick. Honor shame. It's ingrained in us, even if we don't realize it in our culture. It's a big deal. That's why Paul used that scenario and pushed it so hard.

If Your Brother Sins Against You

So how should this affect us? And I'm going to spin it a little bit. If your brother sins against you, this is what Yeshua talks about in Matthew 18. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Okay, well, in a guilt conscious society, yeah, it's just a nice thing to do. You tell him. But remember, people went to Yeshua alone, not to tell him his faults, but to ask questions. Why? Because they didn't want it made public, because it would bring shame to him if something got out that wasn't need to be. So someone has a fault and you go to them in private first, so no one else knows about it.

Honor, shame, society, right? If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. Amen. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. So now you're gonna take a crowd. A little bit of shame coming on. You mean they know about my sin now? Okay, I repent or... Jerks, go away. I'm gonna continue in my faults. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the entire assembly. And if he refuses to listen even to the fellowship, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. This tactic makes sense now.

Tell it to everybody if he doesn't listen. Shame. Bring shame. You don't want to do that, but if that's what it takes, then Yeshua is using what was already instilled in the culture in the first century to do this.

Gently and Humbly Help

Galatians 6, 1 through 3. I love this. Paul states that, "...dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should maliciously and fiercely help that person back on the right path." You who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back on the right path and be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other's burdens in this way. Obey the Torah of Messiah. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You're not that important. It's amazing because in Hebrew roots, I meet a lot of people who follow Torah and so on and so forth.

Do you know how I can tell if someone is truly a follower of Yeshua or not? At least in Hebrew roots. Galatians 6:1. Do they approach people gently in a godly manner, humble manner, to try to bring them back on track? Or do they club them over the head? There's a difference. And the reason you do it gently is because you don't want to shame them. You don't want them to feel shamed for something if they don't need to be. Listen, man, come on. We need to get back on track. Ephesians 4, "'As a prisoner of the Lord, then I urge you to live a worthy, a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle.

Be patient, bearing one another in love.'" This phrase indicates Paul is encouraging individuals to live worthy of the standards of God, but remember he's talking to the entire fellowship of Ephesus. He's saying, "Listen guys, you need to live and resemble the image of God and the body." Guys, you need to live like me, like the disciples, like the apostles, like Yeshua told us how to live. This is a community effort. We always view this first and think it's just internal. No. When it was written, it was written to a group, a whole group of people. You guys need to live worthy, leaning on each other to meet the goal.

Your Sin Affects the Whole Community

Hmm, get in trouble with that. If we believe our sin only individually affects us and does not affect the community's honor, the community's honor, the body of Messiah, we've been deceived. Your sin is not just something that corrupts your inner being and is only between you and God. That's why Paul states to Corinth, "A little bit of leavening leavens the whole lump." It's not talking about you. You are not the lump. We are the lump. You're leavening. If you're corrupted, living a corrupted lifestyle in sin, and you come into the lump, it will spread and it will corrupt everyone. That's why he's, listen guys, we need to make sure, we need to go to him, get believers back in their place, and if they refuse everything, kick them out, like a tax collector, because we don't want them to affect the body.

What's amazing is if you have sin in your life, it does not just affect you. If you're here today and you have sin in your life, then it affects everybody in these pews. Well, that's not correct. Yeah, it is. It is what Paul says, Yeshua says, Leviticus and 19. Make you think twice. Make you think twice. Is what I'm fixing to do, this corrupted thing that I entertain in my life, is this worth tearing down the entire body of Messiah? Because that's what it does. That's the whole purpose of Yom Kippur. One person messes up and it defiles the temple for everybody. That's rough.

Wearing the Jersey

That's how I'm concluding this week's message. Is there sin in your life? Is there something in your life that you believe is so hidden that no one will ever know about it? It'll never be shameful. It's just between you and God. In reality, it's shaming the entire community of Messiah, whatever it may be. Shame. When people view you, if it's ever exposed, and even if it's not, if you say that you're a believer, then you're wearing the jersey, guys. You're wearing the jersey of the team and everything you do is bringing shame to that team, to the body of Messiah.