Good morning. It is a joy to be in this space together. I just wonder, in a room this size, is there anyone who’s ever had a real shark encounter, not like discovery channel? Yeah, so there’s like, so there’s only two of us, sir. There’s very few of us. I remember my first encounter, I was just enjoying my time in the water as I had before, and all of a sudden I kind of saw it and felt it at the exact same time. And I immediately go into this fight recovery. I’m doing everything I can to get the upper hand and out of nowhere my mom says, you’re splashing all the water outta the tub. I’m going to get your father. <Laugh>.

Life was tough for 8-year-old Bronson. The reality is very few of us will ever encounter a real shark. But the heart of this series has been that all of us will encounter a shark of some kind at some point in our life. The shark of anger, the shark of addiction, the shark of anxiety or fear or whatever it may be. And today, some we’re not aware, are very close to us. Some in this space this morning would have a testimony that says, yeah it has left its mark on my life. But I think the biggest, most common group is the group that’s somewhere in the middle today that would say, I am sensing that it is present. I am aware of this struggle, but I’m really too afraid to talk about it. I’m really too afraid to name it. And that has been the whole heart of this series that Pastor Kirk kicked off just a few weeks ago.

We’ve been talking through this whole series about what it looks like to stop running, to stop avoiding, and to start naming the things in our life that are threatening our peace, that are threatening our relationships, and that are even threatening our walk with God. Because the whole heart of this series has been very simple and it’s been focused around this truth right here. You can’t fight something that you won’t face and you can’t face something that you won’t name. And so this morning, as we prepare to name our shark, would you go through the Lord and prayer with me? Father, thank you for this space. Thank you for this opportunity. I pray a sensitivity in this room over a very difficult situation, one that will hit home for many of us, Lord, that you would remind us of your power, that you would remind us of your presence.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Now, today is not just a holiday weekend is a very significant moment personally in my life. It is the return of college football, which I <laugh>, which I take very serious. I celebrate often. Yesterday was one of those glorious days where I realized the Lord is good. He hath provided. I remember looking at my wife on that February day after the Super Bowl ended and just asking her, how will I survive, honey, how will I make it? And I did. I did yesterday. It was nice when the TV pops up, Hey, are you still here? Then I know I’ve accomplished my goal again, I know I’ve been sitting for long enough, but there’s something as the season arrives that every single team at every single level has in common, every single team is setting goals for the season ahead.

And here’s what I think is really crazy is it doesn’t matter what that team is or how good that team has been, every team takes the same approach to setting those goals. It, it doesn’t matter if you take the Broncos who had a wonderful season last year and a playoff run, and yet if you listen to Sean Peyton talk, he is saying things like last year doesn’t matter. Right? Those wins don’t carry over. It’s a new season. We have to do it again. We have to move forward. Bo Nick said a ton of rookie records and yet when you hear him talk, he says, Hey, those wins. We don’t get any credit of those yards or those touchdowns. We have to move forward. There has to be a new trajectory. And yet on the other side, our teams that haven’t been good since your remote control still had a cord.

And like when you listen to the Cowboys talk, it’s the same thing, right? They’re saying the same, it’s a new season. It’s those things don’t count. And then you know, they just both teams say the same thing. Why? Because they are setting goals not based on what was, but focused on what is to come. But when I look at what allows those teams to actually achieve those goals, what is it that sets them apart? A team that can truly move beyond the past to be able to accomplish something in the future? I think there’s some distinction in there. Teams that are able to do it, set commitments, not just goals. You see, goals are one of those things that have an outcome in mind, but commitments have an action in mind. When we set a goal, we frame a goal as a desire and a dream, but we shape.

But we frame a commitment as a statement of fact. A goal is something that we set in our life that causes us to look forward. But a commitment is something that calls us to move forward. And I think for us, every single one of us, we desire this idea of moving forward, every team desires to move forward, to move out of the past and to move toward the future. And yet we recognize how hard that is. I think that’s why we all love a a good underdog story. It’s why we’re suckers for a rags to richest story. It’s why we love a defeated to dominating or a comeback story. And I was thinking Friday night as I was watching the Baylor game and seeing all the advertisement, it’s why this little town called Waco, Texas has all these people from around the world that go because of that show called Fixer Upper, where they took a bad pass and they transformed it into an amazing future.

And this morning in a room this size, no doubt there are people in here who have something in their life that they would desire to move toward. No doubt in this room this morning, there are people who have something in their past they desire to move away from. We all have something. No matter who you are, you have something in your life that today you desire to do better. But even as we feel that, and even as we sense that, and even as we come to a place in our lives where we are very aware of that, I think the hardest thing that we would all agree about moving forward is that there’s something in our past. The hardest thing about charting a new course is there’s something that keeps coming up. There’s something that keeps dragging us back. There’s something that keeps weighing us down that that we are held captive to this moment, whether in the past or whether we’re just held captive in our mind and whatever it is, there’s this thing that no matter how hard we try to go forward, something keeps pulling us back.

And that’s where we encounter the shark called shame. Shame is a very powerful shark. Oftentimes we put shame and guilt together as if it’s one word. The reality is, is that when we study that shame and guilt are two very different experiences, guilt can have a positive impact on our life. I have a buddy who is traveling for a family weekend and he said, man, I’m so looking forward to the weekend. I feel guilty. I’m missing church. I can’t wait to get back next week. Right? When you set a goal to eat better or whatever, and you and you miss it, you say, man, I feel guilty that I fell off the wagon this week. I can’t wait to do better, right? Guilt can be good at times. Guilt can draw us to make a change. Guilt can draw us to want to improve, but shame can become our very identity.

Guilt can be this thing that we feel, but shame can become this thing that we wear. Guilt is often presented to us as this kind of response to sin, but shame can become the very emotion and identity attached to our sin. And the enemy can use shame as this weight that gets put on us that becomes tied to our very sense of worth and value and identity. I’m here to tell you this morning that even though the enemy may have you convinced that you are too far gone, that you are irreparable, that you are unsavable, that shark that is circling you today as a liar. And if you have your Bibles, I would love for you to open them to Acts chapter eight when we meet a guy named Saul, a guy who understood a past that he was trying to move on from a guy who had hunted Christians, a guy who stood by while Stephen was stoned to death, a guy who had kicked in the doors and drug believers outta their homes and took them bound to prison.

If anyone had a past that would’ve caused him to have an identity rooted in shame. It was this guy. In Acts chapter eight, verse one, here’s what we see. Saul was in hearty agreement with putting Stephen to death. And on that day, a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women. He would put them in prison. And then when we get to chapter nine, verse one, we we see that that even though this time has passed, Saul, it says, was still breathing out threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord. And he decides to go to the high priest and ask for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way both men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

And so Saul oversees the stoning death of Stephen, and then he continues on this rampage of believers dragging them outta their homes, and he gets word. Then there’s a group of Christians in Damascus. And so he goes to the high priest, the same high priest who had condemned Jesus, and he asks him for permission to make the trip up there, to find them and to bring them back bound to Jerusalem. And I would say, just in a moment of honesty, this is where I really wrestled. Is there any other passage I could preach to achieve this topic? Because I fear this is one of those stories that we all know so well that there’s a tendency from someone in this room this morning who desperately needs to hear this message who says, well, I already know how it plays out. He was a bad man.

He got a new name. God is good. Yay. That’s what I was told as a kid. And if you think that today we just don’t know the depths of this story, Damascus is 150 miles from Jerusalem. It’s a one and a half to two week journey by foot. Then he’s gotta spend the time rounding up these believers. How long would it take to find them? Then you gotta put this whole group together or bound and chains and then walk another 150 miles back to Jerusalem. This isn’t just a guy who who was like, man, let me go see if I can find him. This is the guy whose whole desire for his entire life was to stop the spread of the gospel at all costs. And yet as he was traveling, verse three says, it happened that he was approaching Damascus and a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Now, I don’t necessarily know this moment, but I know a similar moment. I remember as newlyweds, my wife and I had our plan. Here’s where we were gonna live. Here’s when we were gonna have kids. Here’s how many kids we were gonna have. Here’s what we were gonna do for our jobs. And in hindsight, even though God had sent hints, it ultimately took a total destruction and collapse of all of those ideas for us to see the plan that God had in store for our lives, for us to see God’s plan was very different. Saul had a plan. Saul’s plan was ravaging. The church, Saul’s plan was stopping the gospel at all costs. That word ravaging me in the Greek means total destruction and ruin. That was Saul’s plan. But God had a very different plan for Saul’s life. And this morning, I don’t know what may be in your past, but what I can tell you is that God likely has a very different plan for your future than what you’re currently walking through right now.

God had a plan for his life. The devil wants us to believe that our past has ruined us, that our life is not salvageable, that’s beyond repair, that it’s no way off the boat that the sharks are circling and there is nothing we can do. And I just think it’s so crazy how quickly and how easily we forget that the absolute worst we’re capable of is still nothing compared to the grace of God. Like how crazy that we think we are capable of some act that supersedes the love, the death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the enemy convinces of this verse four says, Saul fell to the ground and he heard her voice saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you Lord? He said, I’m Jesus whom you are persecuting. Get up and enter the city and it will be told to you.

Now, Saul physically blinded just a few days, but Saul was spiritually blinded all of his life up to this point. And what God is doing is he’s humbling him. He’s helping him understand there is no physical power within you, even though you are this important figure. There is no physical power you have that can overcome your past. It is only through God. This summer, I had the privilege of traveling. I took just a few short trips, flew to Florida, pretty short trip, flew to Arkansas, even shorter trip. Then I just took that quick trip to Uganda. <Laugh>

Just wasn’t that short, but it was on that plane. It was on that trip that I realized, man, they make a lot of instructions on planes. They make a lot of announcements, right? Have you ever flown international? And then like there’s that leg where they’re doing it in three different languages. I’m like, this lady’s been talking for 30 minutes, like what is going on? But it is also in that moment that I realized how many of these announcements no one listens to, right? Have you ever heard that announcement where they say ladies and gentlemen, please keep your seatbelt fastened until the plane has come to a full and complete stop. And then what do you hear from the front to the back? Click, click, click. My favorite is when the pilot comes on, he is like, oh, ladies and gentlemen, why do pilots mumble to begin with?

Like why can’t they just speak clearly into the microphone? I don’t, but they’ll say something like, oh, ladies and gentlemen, and no notice. They never say anything positive. It’s like, it’s never like, Hey, surprise, we’re an hour ahead of schedule. So they’ll say ladies and gentlemen, the plane is about to encounter turbulence and we are gonna thrash this plane from top to bottom, left to right, <laugh>, you’re about to puke your guts out. Please stay seated. And yet there will be a dozen people on that plane who think this is the perfect time to go to the bathroom, right? <Laugh>, why? Why do we do that? But when I think about that moment, and when I think about that moment connected to our faith, I think how easily we get convinced, hey, God is trying to get everyone else’s attention, but ours how we love to think, Hey, they need justice.

I need grace or my favorite one. How many times have you had a friend walking through a difficult situation? You told that friend, Hey, God can redeem this. God is capable of doing anything in our lives, but you don’t believe that truth applies to you? How many of us are like, yeah, I know the story. God is capable of all of this, but that doesn’t apply to me. He’s not capable of fixing my past. He’s not capable of fixing my shame. He’s not capable of overcoming the things I’ve done. That only applies to everyone else. Or we fall for this idea that God can forgive us. But the enemy says, but you can’t forgive yourself. You’re stuck right there. And in Galatians, here’s what Paul said about his past. He said, I used listen to this. I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and I tried to destroy it, but God set me apart and called me through his grace.

You know, the thing I wonder about is how hard it was for Paul to live with his preconversion life. Like I wonder we, we always preach about the change that happened in Paul’s life, but the thing I wonder about is how did he handle the flashbacks? Like how did he handle those memories? How did he handle that when he laid down at night and the enemy does what he does to you and he begins to bombard you with all these pictures and all these images and all these reminders of the things you used to be of the life you used to live that when Paul would lay down at night and the enemy would send him images of the families he separated, of the people he put to death of the people he had shackled and put in prison, how did he handle those things?

See, I didn’t start out in ministry. That was never my plan. I never once had a dream or a desire to be Pastor Brunson. I took a very different route, and the reality is God has used it in tremendous ways at times to meet people, connect in spaces and spheres that otherwise I’d have never had a chance to do. But the enemy uses it plenty as well to allow people to attack me with an unorthodox approach, an unorthodox route to ministry, much the same way that the enemy may be attacking you today. I know there are many in here that you fight that battle, that as you lay down at night, the enemy bombards you with your past, that as you try to move on from something a wrong you wish you could make right, or a relationship you, you wish you could redeem, the enemy says, no, this is your identity.

This is who you will forever be. But maybe today, maybe it would be the time where you say, transformation comes and I’m able to move forward not from what is but to what is to come. And I’ve just asked this simple question right here. What would it take here in this space this morning for you to take all that emotional energy you’re spending, believing you’re not good enough, and just lay it down today? I just wonder what it would take for you to take all that weight that you’re carrying around on your shoulders today of the shame of the past, of the things that you were, and just take it off and say, that’s not who I am anymore.

I just wonder what it would take this morning, somebody I know there are many that Sunday mornings become the absolute hardest. I’ve met with so many families over my time in ministry, and no doubt in this room this morning, there was someone that spent hours preparing to cover up the unworthiness that you see when you look in the mirror and you’re doing everything you can to cover up this reality of what you feel deep down about your value and your self-worth. What would it take for you today to name it so that you could let God face it and fight it and completely transform your life? Here’s how it happened for Saul. There was a disciple. Verse 10 says, man, Ananias. And the Lord told him in a vision, go to the street called straight, inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.

If I was blind, I would probably be praying too. That sounds about right. He’s seen in a vision this man named man, Ananias come lay hands on him that he would regain his sight. And I love and Ananias answer because it’s very honest. He says, Lord, have you heard about this guy? Have you heard what he did to the saints at Jerusalem? Have you heard He has authority from the chief priest to bind all of us who call on your name, but the Lord says, no, go. He’s a chosen instrument of mine. And so Ananias departed and after laying his hands on him, he said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road has sent me so you may regain your sight, be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight and he was baptized.

Some of you today are blinded just like that. You can’t name the shark because you won’t want God to show you the very next step, and because he isn’t, you’re too afraid to move. A indecision is still a decision. Some of you today, you’re too afraid to just name it and face it because you want to know how it all plays out. I work with teenagers every day. It’s the number one thing. They want to know how it all plays out. I really would like to know what I should major in, where I should go to college, who I should marry. I’m like, yeah, that would be nice to know for sure. I don’t think God works that way. Some of you today are just too afraid to name it because you don’t know if you can truly trust God to be who he says he is.

I just want to give you quickly five biblical truths and attach to each. I just kind of want to give a tip for naming that shark and just pray in the strongest way possible that God would use it to do a mighty work in your life. The first is this shame tells us who we were, but grace tells us who we are. We have to lean in. We have to hold tightly to the life raft of grace. Grace is what separates Christianity from all the other religions of the world, is this idea of getting what we don’t deserve. It’s not about the collection of information. If it was information, Saul wins, he had the Old Testament memorized. The Lord says, no, it’s about grace. It’s about this undeserved favor. Paul was religious at the time, but he wasn’t right with God. He was deep into religiosity, but ultimately he was lost.

We see that chapter nine verse one. He was breathing out threats and murders. His past was bad, his past was incriminating. His hands were stained with blood. His name was feared. And even though he had this ugly past, watch what happens. God interrupts Saul’s life not to crush him under the weight of shame, but to call him by name. Notice what God did. He said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It’s because grace redefines our name. Grace redefines our life doesn’t mean we pretend our past didn’t happen. I’m not saying that today, but I’m saying maybe today you would let your past quit writing the chapters of your future life story in order to name the shark. We gotta talk to ourselves instead of listen to ourselves. Those voices that can creep in, they’re liars, but the voice of truth rescues. The second is this.

The world reminds you who you were. The Lord reminds you who you’re becoming. Verse 26, when he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him. And I hope you understand. I don’t claim to know what you’re going through today. I don’t set up the things, things that I’ve gone through as a way to say, Hey, look. Look, I, I’ve been there. I, I may not know how hard this process is going to be for you today. I may not understand that, but we all have spots where we’ve tried to move forward. We all have a past. We’ve tried to move away from we. We have moments where we make changes, where we try to grow. Maybe some of you in here are a new believer or you’re trying to give your life to Jesus and you’re like, man, I’m trying to figure out this whole new life thing.

I’m trying to move forward. But no matter how hard we try to move forward, it feels like we live this life in this class reunion where every single person around us only remembers this one moment in our life. Just as we try to move forward, we meet someone who says, Hey, didn’t you used to be the guy who, whatever? Hey, didn’t you one time, Paul definitely got that, but notice verse 27 says, Barnabas took him and he brought him to the apostles. We need a Barnabas. We all need someone in our life who can see beyond our past and who can speak into our calling maybe for you. In order to name the shark today, you need to surround yourself with grace based community. You need to surround yourself with people. The enemy attacked through isolation. He had Adam and Eve separated, but God heals and redeems through grace based community.

You cannot walk the shame recovery alone. You’ve gotta walk it with people who will point your eyes to the cross instead of constantly reminding you of your past. The third is this, shame loses power when you walk in purpose. Now, our world has programmed us that the opposite of true, our world has programmed us to chase our passions at the expense of our purpose. You see what we see, it’s funny to think, but Saul’s passion was persecuting the church. It was ravaging the church, but his life changed when, when he started walking in obedience to the purpose that God has placed on his life. That’s what we see in verse 15 when, when the Lord said to Ananias, go for he is a chosen instrument of mine. Now, understand what I’m saying? It’s not wrong to chase your passions. I just think it’s wrong to chase your passions at the expense of your created purpose.

And I think this is what we’ve created in the arena of youth sports today, and we have created a platform where we have young boys and girls growing up believing that their soul created purpose. On earth is a sport. Sport is a great teacher of life, but sport is a really bad God. And I think that’s why we see this revival among athletes all across the spectrum. ’cause They have this moment where they realize, I have a value and a purpose. This may be my platform, but the purpose that God has for my life is beyond this field. It’s beyond this arena. And they’re finding the freedom that comes in that. I’m not saying don’t chase your passions, but I think today to name the shark, you’ve gotta choose purpose over passion. That when you are willing to lay down your selfish pursuits of the things you’re passionate about and live according to the purpose that God has created you to live most of the time, then God is faithful to give us the desires of our heart.

Number four, God uses our past story for his future glory. You remember when your kids were little and you gave them a bath? You remember that? And then you remember you would take them out and you would drain the water and you would see that ring around the Yeah. That’s why I don’t bathe <laugh> because it feels like you’re kind of canceling each other out at that point. But you see, I think so many of us, we don’t move forward ’cause we just sit in the filth of this past like, I’m not trying to offend you here, but can I just be super, super honest? Like God didn’t send his one and only son Jesus to walk this earth to die this vicious death and to be nailed to a cross so that you could live in the shame of your past. Like God didn’t send Jesus to be the sacrifice, to forgive you of everything so that you could carry a weight you were never meant to carry.

Henry Blackaby says this amazing quote, he says, don’t think that your background is too rebellious, too difficult, or too sinful for God to use you. If you have been guilty of deceit, robbery, hatred, racism, adultery, murder, or rebellion, you are in the same company as Moses, David, Paul, Abraham, Jacob, and others. What a wonderful reminder that whatever you’ve done in the past, can I just tell you it’s time for that season to be over that God loves to take our past story and to use it for his present and his future glory. I think in order to name the shark, we have to understand we we, I think sometimes we think of this like hope or fear who wins out like they’re these polar opposites. Hope and fear are actually the same. They’re both based on a future that hasn’t happened yet, and whichever future you’re gonna let play out is determined by this tiny fulcrum called faith today.

Do you have faith that God has a plan and a purpose for your life that he has been preparing you and your story for in order to carry it out for a reason only you are capable of doing? Number five is this. Your identity isn’t earned. It’s given. You see, when I say forget, I’m not saying erase the past. We can’t erase the past. There are some things probably in your past that are always gonna still surface. There may be consequences from your past. Forget doesn’t mean erase, forget means refocus to view it in a different light that when whenever shame tries to drag us back, we respond like Paul and we say, that may have been who I was, but that’s not who I am anymore. And I think it for me, it’s this idea that I call thought replacement, that, Hey, whenever I’m bombarded by this thought, that just seems to overwhelm my mind.

I just need to stop and I need to filter it through scripture and I need to decide, is this something worth resting in or replacing with truth that whenever the enemy bomb begins to bombard you, whenever the enemy begins to say, Hey, you will never move past that. You say, no. The truth is, I am a new creation. Second Corinthians five 17, whenever the enemy just begins to bombard you about your value and your worth, you can never overcome. You can never move past that. You can say, yes, I can. I’ve been crucified with Christ. It’s no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me. Galatians two 20, whenever the enemy begins to just overwhelm you and say, they will always remember you as that person, you can never move forward. You say, no. The truth is he who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it. Philippians one, six. You see, here’s the truth this morning. If you get nothing else, please get this. The truth is that the value of your life is assigned by the creator. The truth this morning is that your worth was settled at the cross. And the truth this morning is that your identity is sealed by God’s grace and forgiveness, not by your performance.

And because of all of those things, the truth is you can name it, you can face it, and you can move forward this morning off of the boat, not because of who or what you are or have done, but solely because of who and what God is has done and will continue to do. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for being good enough. God, thank you for being all that we need. Father, for the person this morning, who needs love? Would you provide love the person who needs forgiveness? Would you be forgiveness? Who needs acceptance of their value and their worth and their identity? Father, would you clearly define those things in their life? For the person who walked in here this morning having spent hours this morning to cover up the unworthiness and the shame that they feel when they work, when they look in the mirror, father, would you put all of that to death and would they walk out of here with newness of life? I thank you that your grace redeems, it restores and it overcomes. Father, we pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.