Conquering Shame

The messages selected for this little compendium are all unique either in the way or under the circumstances in which they were conceived and this is what makes them special to me. For example, one summer day during a round of golf with three other pastors, the conversation came up about the way to deal with leaders who disappoint us. The affected pastor was clearly agitated about the behavior of some members of his leadership team and solicited my thoughts on the matter. I thought about it but did not have much to contribute at the time. But on my way home after the round I dropped into a McDonald’s restaurant, ordered a coffee, pulled out my laptop, asked the Lord for his leading on the said subject matter and began to write. Two coffees and three hours later the message Making Others Great was complete.

My congregation was not a little surprised when the title of my Mother’s Day message appeared on the screen above my head. Who would talk about Conquering Shame on Mother’s Day? That message however impacted the congregation in such a way that soon calls came for me to share it with young people who had suffered abuse and were in recovery programs.

The message God Bought Me was born out of my internal musings about self-worth. I thought about why a franchise would buy an athlete and what they expected from him and I analogized those thoughts into an understanding of the believer as a purchased possession of God and from whom he expects a return. And likewise, while all the others messages boast a unique history, I have no doubt that they were born of and reared by the Spirit to the end that the reader might grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord in all things that pertain to life and godliness.