Neighborhood Church

The Lie: I need to do everything possible to prevent people from seeing my failures and weaknesses.

The Truth: God delights in you, even though you aren’t perfect.

Jesus doesn’t love the polished version of you.

He loves the real you. He loves the broken, messy, struggling, doubting you

Grace is the absolute and unrelenting goodness of God toward humans.
Scot McKnight

Shame is the internalization of ‘There’s something wrong with me. I’m gross, dirty, bad.’ And the minute you give those thoughts power, shame settles over your heart and the poison begins to infect every facet of your being.
Jefferson Bethke

The simplicity of the gospel is that God promises to accept us when we give ourselves to him by telling God the truth about ourselves.
Scot McKnight

Confession is the courageous act of naming your brokenness in the presence of God and others.

Cycle of Grace
Conviction: recognizing what’s broken
Confession: surrendering to Jesus
Consent: receiving his grace
Compassion: passing that grace along to others

Your ability to give grace is directly linked to your capacity to receive grace.

As soon as we become aware that we are unconditionally loved by God, we can begin to see that the love we have received can be shared. But when we live in fear, we begin to blame and criticize others for the emptiness within ourselves.
Henri Nouwen

Cycle of Shame
Condemnation: identifying ourselves as broken.
Concealment: hiding from Jesus.
Cowering: resisting his grace.
Criticism: projecting our shame onto others.

If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.
Richard Rohr

We can’t offer compassion or understanding to others when we’ve never truly received it ourselves.

Jesus' Invitation is to move from
• Condemnation to Conviction
• Concealment to Confession
• Cowering to Consent
• Criticism to Compassion

I am not perfect, I am a work in progress,
I surrender my shame to you, Jesus
In exchange, I freely receive your love and grace
And promise to share it wherever I go. Amen.

Conviction: I am not perfect, I am a work in progress,

Confession: I surrender my shame to you, Jesus

Consent: In exchange, I freely receive your love and grace

Compassion: And promise to share it wherever I go. Amen.