Misused Tool

[00:00:00]Boldly, boldly come into the throne room of great where we must obtain great come boldly. This is the purpose you the the boldness let it come [music] from not from your own pride that you're worth it but the the the trust and faith and that God created things such as guilt and pain and shame or remorse for this purpose. Let your faith be in that and [music] let that propeller you bolden to you created these things in me and they are working their work to perfection.

[00:00:31]They have brought me to my knees and [music] they brought me to your throne room and let me find grace.

[00:00:37]>> One cried God bless us and amen the other as they had [music] seen me with these hangman's hands listening their fear. I could not say amen when they did say God bless us. Consider it not so deeply.

[00:00:51]>> But wherefore could not I pronounce amen? I had most need of blessing and amen stuck in my throat.

[00:00:58]>> These deeds must not be thought after these ways. It will make us mad.

[00:01:04]>> McBth William Shakespeare act two scene two.

[00:01:11]Then Judas, [music] which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned in that [music] I have betrayed the innocent blood." And they said, "What is that to us? See thou to that." Matthew 27:es 3-4.

[00:01:36]Come on in. As long as as long as you come boldly, you'll you'll see. We're going to we're going to funnel down to that to that exact statement and we're going to go through Shakespeare. I I think this play really focuses in on a universal common experience, a needful experience.

[00:02:00]Part of being human is is really put under the the magnifying glass. um in this play. Now, it is obviously to the extreme um I'll kind of set the stage, no pun intended, of of what has happened in and what you if you're not familiar what you just heard in this video, why he's saying these these things and uh then we'll get to why he is saying things about us. There are things that given they are used for their purpose are um there's no replacement form. They are the right tool for the job is they they do what they are intended to do. But always these things misuse or twisted can have a very adverse effect and that is what we are going to get to this evening. And those two things that that I think have a a very purposeful uh intent from God are guilt and pain.

[00:03:10]That those are two words that invariably have really negative connotations um because of of the the the state of being that those words, those ideas put us in. But what I want to highlight tonight is uh the the the true nature of those feelings in my opinion should be transitionary.

[00:03:36]They they their purpose is not to be a state of permanence. [clears throat] I believe the intent of those feelings uh of those moments of of that momentum is to drive us to a crossroads and at that crossroads is where we see McBth is where we see Judas and also where we see Paul the Apostle and if we look upon our own life's narrative I think many times we have we have been where [clears throat] we're these shoes and and sandals have stood at at this crossroads of what to do [clears throat] with pain and what to do with remorse, what to do with guilt.

[00:04:27]One road leads to the extreme on one way and and and as we'll illustrate, the other just as extreme in the opposite direction. You know, to set the stage of what you heard with McBth, [snorts] there had just been a murder, a murder by his hands. And it was it was not just a murder of a of of passion, of anger.

[00:04:52]It was preconceived. And it was for the the most, you know, the really basist of of human uh desires. It it is it is for a throne. It is for power. It is for prestige. And and there's a a high level of manipulation there with his wife um Lady McBth. And what you see is him coming back into the room, Dunn, daggers in hand, which he he was supposed to leave him in the chamber with who he had just murdered, who was also important.

[00:05:22]We'll go through real quickly. And he's telling her he's heard these voices when he did the deed. Okay? When he took this this man's life. Now, the man's life taken um is important and and there's certainly shades of scripture here. Um he was a king. He was not a king. He was McBth's king. He was not just McBth's king. He was McBth's benefactor. He was not held at some arms length of unknown.

[00:05:51]Just a king on a hill that he didn't know. He he was his bene. He was his uh person who had brought McBth up. There was a closest there so much. So, not only was the king, not only was it benefactor, he was always a guest in McBth's home this night, but the king had come to stay with McBth. He was a friend.

[00:06:11]It was a friend that had something that McBth and his wife wanted, a throne.

[00:06:19]David talked about taking the life of the king and and this couldn't be and all through um ancient cultures taking the life of uh a friend and especially someone who was under your own roof.

[00:06:32]This was this is the the lowest of the low. named Dante uh put someone who who was a betrayer, you know, at the lowest level of of his u damnation and and and and persecution and punishment in the inferno. I mean there's the those who take the life of a family member of of a friend and of a a traveler all in this lowest circle with the the other scripture you the scripture you heard Judas the Scariot our our real example of betrayal is is obviously Judas and and those 30 pieces of silver but all these people we find racked with guilt of of the undeniable nature of the the evil that they had done. And I want to put the other person in in this category as well along with McBth and Lady McBth and Judas's Scariot that that's Paul the Apostle.

[00:07:29]And the reason I want to put him in is I I want to um show you that guilt and and remorse are are not only for those who carry it their entire life.

[00:07:43]This is what I mean about a transitionary force of of what guilt and remorse are supposed to be. I I believe all things uh especially sin when you look down at the root of it there there is something put there by God that is good and godly. It is it is purposeful but it's the twisting it's the misuse of those things that lead into to sin.

[00:08:09]love to lust, uh the the serving to acquiring. It is it is the twisting of something beautiful which I think our enemy is so adept at doing is rhetoric of of taking something and and and it convincing us to misuse it ever so slightly and then the ex exponential growth of that wrong turn and you know years down the road you're miles away from where you should be, a lifetime away from where you should be. But it starts at these moments. And what gets us to those moments are is the transitionary good and godly force of guilt and pain.

[00:08:51]McBth in the plays out those two lives taken the wrong turn. And McBth is saying to his wife, I heard these two voices and one said, God bless us. And the other returned the amen. And he said, "And never in my life more had I needed to the blessing of being able to say amen to to being able to join in this chorus of of purposeful godly nature of of fulfilling this role." And he said the the amen stuck in my throat. He could not say amen. the guilt of what he had done, the remorse and and the visual aspect of what he had just done. These bloody daggers said the amen stuck in my throat as if he had sold his birthright as if he will never be able to know repentance and God again. The guilt was just this overwhelming wave. And you can see Lady McBth in what you had heard at this point is is writing off this feeling of his pretty quickly. Don't think about it so deeply. it'll make us mad. Well, she had not had the the visual um of of what had happened. But McBth is is so paralyzed by this guilt and remorse. He can't put the daggers back to the scene where they need to be to, you know, to play out this deception. So, Lady McBth has to take this into her own hands, pun intended, and and go into the chambers and and and place the daggers there. She sees the visual.

[00:10:21]Her words end up being a prophecy in her own life. and and it does play out into where the end she has gone mad and her life is ended by her own hand. McBth goes uh mad as well with guilt and remorse and he he there's a conspiracy at every corner which drives him to comm commit more atrocities and more atrocities until eventually his life is is taken in battle uh because of his lunacy because of of this wrong turn that he had taken that guilt and remorse and pain had brought him to uh of an act that needed to be addressed.

[00:11:03]and addressed in the right way.

[00:11:07]Paul, we find on this road to Damascus that the same and and Jesus says to him, "Is is not it hard for you to kick against the pricks." The elders when Judas came and threw the 30 pieces of silver says, "You see to this and and they're saying that this is on you. This is your decision to make. this feeling that you have that has driven you into our chambers throwing this blood money back at us.

[00:11:35]This is your decision. This is this is what you have to decide. You are at this crossroads and we all know the the decision that that Judas made. It it it is it is a decision between guilt and remorse leading you into a throne room that we are encouraged to go in boldly and find grace and repentance and a new life that Paul is such a shining example of to you know someone who who murdered and persecuted Christians into uh a a life now that all of us and we could open this book uh and be influenced by that life by that decision to go into the throne room boldly. Isn't it hard for you to kick against the pricks? And then the other, we have three examples that they all lead to the same place and that is destruction. I I don't know if I I can say of myself of the two destinations that that we are are told of at the end of this um life, I I can tell you I have no firm grasp on um what the actuality of either are. heaven or hell. I um I can only judge by my observation in this temporal life, but I I I can't tell you exactly what those two states of being would be. My feeling is that the one being heaven, we will see all things created in their purpose being used perfectly in that purpose. this perfection of creation, the the the the way that God intended it being acted out into the letter and the the joy of being and doing exactly what you were made to do in perfection. This is my my best idea in such a broad sense that I can imagine and and I think transversely that hell will be the the opposite.

[00:13:40]All things that were made with a purpose than than doing the the opposite of that purpose. And and specifically when I feel these transitionary forces of guilt and and shame and remorse and pain being transitionary being temporary being being having a purpose of of movement where they become stagnant they become a state of being they become permanent the opposite of what I believe they are supposed to be.

[00:14:13]And I'm I'm so grateful to be able to share with you through Shakespeare that we are not if you're watching, we are not at that moment. This these these things of guilt and shame and remorse and pain. They are not meant to be permanent. You are not meant to carry this weight for the rest of your life.

[00:14:33]They are meant to merely prod you to this fork in the road. And on one side is a door to the throne room and on the other is destruction.

[00:14:47]And let it push us to that door and don't knock meekly. Don't you know saunter over with your hands in your pockets and then you know I get no it run to the door. Run to the door. Swing open the door. He says, "Boldly, boldly come into the throne room of great where we must obtain grace. Come boldly. This is the purpose you the the boldness. Let it come from not from your own pride that you're worth it, but the the the trust and faith and that God created things such as guilt and pain and shame and remorse for this purpose. Let your faith be in that. And let that propeller you boldly. So you created these things in me and they are working their work to perfection. They have brought me to my knees and they brought me to your throne room and let me find grace. Paul, isn't it hard to kick against the per? Yes.

[00:15:45]Yes. And I don't want to do it anymore.

[00:15:47]There is no guesswork to where it ends.

[00:15:51]great literature, truth of God's word, and our own experience with those around us, those that hold so tightly to guilt and shame.

[00:16:00]We see where it goes. And I want to encourage you. Make the right decision.

[00:16:07]Go boldly.

[00:16:09]I love you. I'll see you in [music] seven days. Bring it on.

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