Be Real Together:
Take a few minutes to catch up, tell stories, and laugh together. Trust and friendship take time to build. If you’re launching a new DNA, one person should tell their story — what do we need to know about you? Next week, have another person in your DNA share their story.
Read Together:
Hebrews 12:1-2 CSB
1 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Grow Together: Observe and Apply
Jesus made a way, through his own perfect life, for us to be able to run this race set before us. Let’s learn about how we can do that by throwing off the hindrances and burdens that so easily ensare us.
1. The Secret Identity
We have all been hurt in a variety of ways. When we get hurt, emotions spring up and begin to branch out. For example, shame can grow if we believe we did something to deserve the hurt and pain someone else caused us. This shame can change our identities if we let it fester and grow by not talking about the initial pain point with anyone. We can carry on in life and without ever realizing it, create a secret identity.
Psycho Therapist Dr. Robert Masters wrote, “Shame left unattended, shame left in the shadows, is shame that will run us from behind the scenes. Disempowering us and determining far more of our behavior than we might imagine.” The only way we’ll freely be able to run the race before us is to remember daily that we can be free from shame because Jesus died for us and in doing so gave us new identities.
The authority from the One whose name is above every other name, the One who is God and who calls us adopted sons and daughters, the Bible says we now have new identities through him.
Do you struggle with shame from undealt with heart wounds? What would it look like for you to believe and live in your new identity in Christ that has been promised to you?
2. Jesus’s Identity
Jesus was secure in his identity. So, when they mocked and beat him, when they placed a robe and crown of thorns on him and pretended to worship him, when they took his clothes from him and gambled who would get them, and when they walked by and mocked him while he died on the cross, he didn’t doubt his identity. His identity as the Son of God, the sinless sacrificial lamb was not tainted or perverted.
Jesus was able to look on crowds with compassion even during some of the most painful experiences humanity can imagine. He could do this because he was not hindered and saw clearly the reality of the situation.
Do you really, truly, ACTUALLY believe in the authority of Jesus and the powerful freedom he has given you by his death and resurrection? How does your life model this belief?
3. How do we respond?
- Confess your sin and repent; first to God, but also to others (James 5:16) Be kind to yourself. There may be harmful or secret behavior associated with building your secret identity, but the truth is you’re probably doing it because you think you need it (whether you realize it or not). You don’t. Sin and shame want us to keep things in the dark, because as soon as we bring it out into the light we begin to walk in freedom.
- Ask for prayer from people you love and trust.
- Find someone to talk to. Talking to a counselor can be so helpful and healing. You might also find some encouragement talking to a friend in your small group or DNA. We all need people we can have spiritual converations with and finding trusted friends in the family of God are one of God’s most practical resources for us here on earth.
- Book Reccomendation: “Stumbling Towards Wholeness” by Andrew J. Bauman This is a Christian book written by a licensed Christian mental health counselor and it can be helpful in better understanding just how much Jesus really loves us.
Which action step do you think God might be asking you to take?
Pray Together:
God, you are so good. Thank you for calling us your sons and your daughters. Thank you for the secure identity we have in you. Jesus, thank you for doing what we could never do so we could have a taste of the glorious nature of heaven where we are free from shame. Holy Spirit, please give us the strength to believe the truth of your Word that we could walk in freedom. Be our strength when our weakness, when our humanity, when our flesh causes us to doubt.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.