welcome back to mental health integration. In this section, we are going to be  talking about shame. We have already talked a lot about shame. We've talked  about how the man and the woman were separated from God, that their  relationship was fractured and shame set in. We talked about the shame that  sets in with a mental illness, these ideas that I am not good enough. I can't be  enough now. And we've even talked about how there's this separation that exists between us and God and us and human beings and even us and ourselves.  That's because of this shame. In this section, we're going to talk less about  shame itself. We're going to spend a little time defining it according to Brene and some other folks, and then we're going to start pushing into what God does in  that shame. So this is the shame section, but it's more or less a response. So  let's jump in. Shame is a painful emotion caused by consciousness or guilt of  guilt, shortcoming or impropriety. This is from Merriam Webster. This is your  dictionary definition. And Brene Brown says it this way, the Intensely painful  feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of  love and belonging, something we've experienced done or failed to do makes us unworthy of connection. So there's something that's missing, there's something  that's wrong, and Merriam Webster, this is like the guilt of something that we've  done leads to shame for Brene, this is something deeper. This is about being  unworthy of connection, unworthy of love, because there's something defective  about us. Now, the story of Israel is not this straightforward story of a country  that just gets established and then does really well. It's this constant back and  forth between following God and not following God that ends up with Israel  being taken out of their homeland by the Babylonians, Assyrians, then trying to  come back. And because of that, just the story of Israel. It gives us this beautiful  framework for understanding shame, and a big piece of that is how they saw the land. Now, in the ancient Near East, they didn't see the land, as we do a lot of  the time. We see land as property. This is ours, and we own it. But in the Near  East, land was far more important. Everything was linked to land. The way they  saw gods was that they were localized upon certain lands. When you got to the  land of Baal, this is where Baal lived. So this was his land. So they worshiped  his this god, Baal. When you go to different lands, if you went to the land of  Egypt, they had their gods because that's where their gods lived. If you went to  the Babylon, they had their gods because that's where their gods lived. And God Yahweh of the Old Testament, God was the God of the desert. And then they  broke into the promised land. They overtook all the gods of the Promised Land,  and that became their land. So that's where their God was now. The other thing  about this is provision came from the land, right? These are largely like farming  societies, cattle raising societies, lots of sheep. Everything comes from the land.  This is how you eat. This is how you're nourished. This is where your food  comes from, everything. And because of that, your identity was tied to the land.  This is who we are. We are Israelites, we are Egyptians, we are Babylonians. 

This is the land that we have. This is what provision comes from. This is where  our gods are. This is everything was localized. So with this incredible localization of everything, there's this direct correlation the land gives us our identity. So in  the ancient Near East, being displaced from your land was so much more than  having to move. It was not the same as having to move to a different town or a  different city or a different state. You would lose everything that you knew. Who  are the new gods? Who do we're supposed to worship? How does this work?  What is like? What is our provision? How do we do that? What is our identity  now that we're not home? And in some ways, we've talked about this with  mental illness, that there is upsetting of the reality of who we are. In the case of  the United States, everything is linked to capacity. Our idea of God is based on  God's demands of us, and our ability to fulfill those. Provision comes from our  capacity. Identity comes from our capacity. Relationships come from our  capacity. We've covered this pretty in depth over the last few sessions. What I  can do dictates who I am. That's not true, but often that's kind of our framework  that we're working through. And then when we can't perform, when we can't do  everything, we start thinking, please forgive me, I am not good enough. But  God's response to this is just beautiful. In the life of Jesus, in Luke, he goes to a  temple, and he opens up a scroll, the scroll of Isaiah, and he keeps opening it,  and keeps opening he's going all the way to Isaiah, 61 and he reads it in front of  the crowd. And then he stops and he says, this Scripture is fulfilled in your  hearing. In other words, this is what I am doing. In the last section, we talked  about the kingdom, moving from sozo, from this place towards health and  healing, to a place of shalom, to a place where everything is made right. And  Jesus in Isaiah 60 quotes, Isaiah 61 and that's where we're going to start today.  This is the last of the servant psalms of Isaiah about Jesus's life, and he quotes  it to say, this is what I'm bringing, and this is what will happen. The spirit of the  Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed Me to proclaim good  news to the poor. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the  year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of  beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of  praise instead of A spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a  planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient  ruins and restore the places long devastated. They will renew the ruined cities  that have been devastated for generations. Strangers will shepherd your flocks.  Foreigners will work your fields and vineyards, and you will be called priests of  the Lord. You will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the Wealth of  Nations and in their riches. You will boast instead of your shame. You will  receive a double portion instead of disgrace. You will rejoice in your inheritance,  and so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be 

yours, For I the LORD, love justice. I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my  faithfulness, I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with  them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring  among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people  the Lord has blessed. I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God,  For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe  of his righteousness. As a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a  bride adorns herself with her jewels, for as the soil makes the sprout come up  and the garden causes seed to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make  righteousness and praise spring up before the nations. We have this beautiful,  beautiful outline, Jesus comes and says, I am actually going to reset everything. I'm going to bind the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for captives and release  the prisoners. Now, what kind of a situation were these people in? Now we know the kings of Israel hadn't done great, right? They had worshiped Baal and Shira.  They had pulled the people away from God. And then the exile happened.  Babylon came through and conquered Assyria came through and conquered  Persia came through and conquered both of those and then there's the  Maccabean revolution. We end up with Israel, back in Israel, right? King  Artaxerxes plants them back in Israel from Persia. We have a Maccabean  revolution. They rise up against the Romans. After the Romans take over, and in the time of Jesus, Israel is back in their land, but not under their control. They're  under Roman control. They're a city state with Roman occupied. With Roman  occupation. They're soldiers. It's not their home the way that they're used to it  being their home. And we just talked about how the land was their identity, and  suddenly they're back in their land. But this isn't the way it's supposed to be.  When Isaiah quotes this, or when Isaiah speaks this, the people are about to go  into exile, and this is the promise that they'll come back in the time of Jesus. He  says, This is so much bigger than this, because this is actually going to happen  and bring the kingdom, and the kingdom is going to move forward and do some  amazing and beautiful things. Now we've been talking about shame, so I want to touch on the shame piece of this section, and kind of push on this. It's right here  in verse seven, instead of your shame, you will receive a double portion. Instead of disgrace, you will rejoice in your inheritance, and so you will inherit that  double portion of your land, and everlasting joy will be yours. Jesus's promise is  actually a promise quoted back from the Pentateuch, you will receive a double  portion. The double portion is the inheritance of the firstborn son. This is actually a promise of adoption, instead of your shame, instead of being displaced,  instead of not knowing who you are, instead of being dysfunctional and being  bad, I will give you a double portion. I will adopt you as my sons and daughters  as a promise from God, and you will rejoice in your love. Now we've talked  about shame. Brene defines it as something is wrong with me, right? Something is wrong with me that causes me to be unworthy of love and connection, and in 

this God, 2500 years ago, is completely reversing that narrative, saying, No, you are worthy of love because you are my sons and daughters, and I am adopting  you in this place and caring for you. In some ways, this flips our theology on its  head just a little bit. I remember when I was a brand new Christian. I came to  Christ and a church. And the predominant theology was, you are terrible, and  God saved you by the hair of your chinny chin chin. Right? It was sinner saved  by grace, with extra emphasis on sinner and extra emphasis on saved by grace. But no, none of us talk about adoption, sanctification, who you were created to  be, not your image. All that was missing. It was just sinner, you're bad, and God  saved you. But why this idea of did he save you just because he wanted to, or  did he save you because he cared for you from the beginning? Because this is  what it means to be made in the image of God, that He cares for you from the  beginning, and he wants to be with you, and he pursues you, which is the story  of Jesus in the Bible, that He is God is constantly pursuing Israel and pursuing  his people and pursuing us because we're in his image bearers. We're his kids,  and he desperately wants that adoption back into the family. Now I'm going to  fast forward just a little bit. Actually. We're going to go backwards in Isaiah a little bit, but we're going to move and we're going to talk a little bit more about shame, and we're going to see how else this looks. In Isaiah 54 it says, Sing, barren  woman, you who never bore a child, burst into song. Shout for joy. You were  never in labor, because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband, says the Lord, Enlarge the place in your tent. Stretch your  tent curtains. Why do not hold back, lengthen your cords, strengthen your  stakes, for you will spread out to the right and to the left. Your descendants will  dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. Do not be afraid. You will  not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace. You will not be humiliated. You will  forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your  widowhood. For your maker is your husband, the Lord Almighty is his name, the  Holy One of Israel. Is your Redeemer. He is called the God of all the earth. The  Lord will call you back as if you were a wife, deserted and distressed in spirit, a  wife who married young only to be rejected, says your God, for a brief moment, I abandoned you, but with deep compassion, I will bring you back in a surge of  anger. I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness, I  have compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer. Now in this section  there are, there is this predominant theme. You will not be put to shame. You will not be humiliated. This is the idea that you are less than you don't measure up,  and God's saying that will not happen to you. Instead, he says throughout the  passage, I will be your Redeemer. Now we know from the Bible the Redeemer,  in many cases, for a widow, would actually marry her and restore her dignity,  because she was basically out on her own, unable to fend for herself, the way  that the ancient Israelites was set up. So there would be an idea that a  redeemer would be a person who would invite them into their family, into their 

fold, and they would become one with them. And God says, I will be the Holy  One of Israel. Is your Redeemer, and God says the LORD your Redeemer. That  God is actually the one taking away our shame and making things right with us,  that there is nothing defective about us and nothing broken about us as God  continues to heal. That does not mean we don't sin, to be clear, because we do,  but it does mean that God moves that aside and redeems us as people, taking  away our shame and are the things that make us unworthy, if it were, and  restores us back to that image bearer, that son or daughter. So how does that  change with this idea of the identity coming from the land? Well, let's take a look at Zephaniah. Zephaniah 3:18-20 says, I will remove from you all who mourn  over the loss of your appointed festivals, which is a burden and reproach for  you. At that time, I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame. I  will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they  have suffered shame. At that time, I will gather you. At that time, I will bring you  home. I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth. When I restore your fortunes before your very eyes, says the Lord, are God's promise.  Your identity is your land, and I will bring you home. I will make you the way that  you were always meant to be again, this removal of shame, this removal of  everything that's wrong. So how does this apply to mental illness? Well, this is  God's promise in Isaiah, 61 from the very beginning, I came here to heal you.  And it's not a promise that everything is just going to be perfect and right that  we'll be immediately completely right with our mind, and everything will be  restored perfectly. But it is a promise that God will restore it. We're not promised  timetables. We're not promised how it will happen. But it is God's work, this work of sozo, complete health and healing, towards shalom, towards everything being right. Let's take a look at Psalm 23 because I think it captures some of this  beautifully. The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in  green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He  guides me along the right paths, for his name's sake, and here we see the  struggle and the hardship right even though I walk through the darkest valley, I  will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my  head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. David has a  very uncanny way of saying things are going to get bad but God is with me in  them, and because God is with me in them, I don't have to fear it will be okay.  So this kind of reorients us. We were disoriented from shame, and this reorients  instead of our identity being our land, our identity moves us to our land, correct?  The Beloved who we are is moved to a good place. It's almost completely  backwards of the way this thing should work, instead of our value coming from  our land. Our land is something that we're placed in because we are valuable. In John 17, it says it this way, after Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and 

prayed, Father, the hour has come glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify  You, for You have granted him authority over all people that he might give  external life to all those whom You have given him. Now this is eternal life that  they know you the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent, I have  brought you glory on Earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. And  now, Father glorify me in Your presence with the glory I had with you before the  world began. He continues. I have revealed to you those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me, and they have obeyed  your word. Now they have now they know that everything you have given me  comes from you, for I gave the words you gave me, and they accepted them.  They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent  me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given  me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. All glory has  come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still  in the world, and I am coming from to You, Holy Father, protect them by the  power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I have protected them and kept them safe by that  name you gave me, none has been lost except the one doomed to destruction,  so the scripture would be fulfilled. We see this immense care on the part of  Jesus. This is backwards to shame, right? This immense care, these are the  ones I care about. Make them one as we are one. I'm leaving them in the world.  Guard after them. Watch after them. I pray for them. And these are the people  who we are. This continues in verse 13. I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, that they may have full measure of my joy  within them. I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them, for  they are not of this world any more than I am of this world. My prayer is not that  you take them out of this world, but you protect them from the evil one. They are not of this world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by your truth, your word is  truth, as you sent me into the world, I've sent them into the world for them, I  sanctify Myself that they may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray for all those who believe in me through their message, that all of them  may be one, Father, just as you and me, you are in Me and I am in you, may  they also be in us. So the world may believe that You have sent me, I have  given them glory, that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in  them, and you and me, so they may be brought to complete unity, then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.  Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see  my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the  creation of the world. Righteous. Father, though the world does not know you, I  know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to  them, and will continue to make you known, in order that the love that you have  for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. God's response to this 

shame is powerful. Here is a Roman occupation over the land, and instead of  throwing out the Romans. Instead of saying, here is your land back, God is  blessing his disciples and saying, This is my love, as we just talked about, the  beloved goes into the land, not the land, making the one Beloved. And that's the  way of the kingdom. It's backwards, it's upside down. It's not what we expect it  to be, but it's the way God is. And you see this immense care from Jesus for His  disciples, as he prays that they would be one, as we are one, that they would be united with His love, that they would be united with his glory, that they would see who Jesus is. And in that we see that the answer to shame is belovedness. The  answer to shame is a belief that you are worthy of love. And sometimes the only  way to get through that is to start doing that heavy work and saying, why don't I  believe that because Jesus is pouring this out on me, and this is how I was  made from beginning. This is who I am, worthy of love. But what's getting in the  way of all of that? So as we leave this section, you have the opportunity to  continue to pour into people what it is to be valuable and worthy and loved, what it is to release them from their shame, and what it is for you to release yourself  from that shame by letting that love in and by beginning to rip off the band aids  to heal those wounds, and by God, for complete health and healing Towards  Abundance in those places where you do not feel worthy. Next, we're going to  talk about depression and anxiety, which getting back to mental health. These  feelings of depression anxiety cause a lot of these things, so I am excited to  jump into that with you. I will see you in just a minute.



Last modified: Thursday, March 19, 2026, 2:13 PM