Unashamed (1 of 6)

Mike Connell

Page 9 of 10
Right, so unashamed - let me just give you three things that unashamed would look like. I just didn't go looking in a book. I thought man, I just need to get the handle on this: God, show me what it would look like, and I've come up with some things. Number one, you are a connected person. I'll explain these terms in a moment. Number two, you are a confident person; number three, you are a creative person. Now there's probably lots of other things. I kind of nailed those three down, because I think that's what God wants to shift for us, connected first of all, connected instead of being disconnected. I'll explain that in a moment - confident in what I am, and what I can do, and creative. Now let me just explain each one, I'll give you a couple of examples as I go with it.

Number one, connected: that means I can remove all the masks, and live out my true identity as a child and representative of God. See, connected means I can actually connect with myself, connect with God and connect with you. I can be true to who I am. If you don't like it, that's not my problem. See, I'm not going to be shamed or afraid of what you think, or what you're like. I can be me! Don't like it, it's no problem, I don't want you to like me. See, God likes me, loves me, and I'm content to draw from that. The other's inconvenient and hurtful at times, but we can get over that, see? That gets you to be a connected kind of person, see so shame causes us to cover and conceal ourself. We can't connect properly, can't connect for one another. Often church is a very lonely place because of shame, people can't connect.

Okay then, so that's the first one. Now let me give you an example. Unashamed means I am free to live out my true identity. I can be ME! A great example of it is found in 2 Samuel 16:6. It's King David, and David is absolutely uninhibited, unashamed, expressive. He can just be himself in front of the whole, whole nation. He goes out there, and they've never done it before. They've got trumpets, they've got musicians, they've got everyone out there, and he just girds himself up, and he's leaping and dancing and not worried about anyone, don't care what anyone thinks - but that's David. Jesus was called Son of David, so Jesus must have been quite expressive too. In fact with the religious people, when they saw everyone yelling when Jesus came into town, they said stop - stop, stop, stop, stop! See, religions don't want you to be expressive. It thinks that's irreverent. Oh give me a break! It's not being irreverent. It's actually expressing - Jesus said this. He said listen, He said you shut the kids up, even the stones will yell out. I wish they'd shut the kids up, have the stones all yelling, banging together, man!

So David was totally uninhibited. He could be free and expressive. He didn't worry what anyone thought. He was free inside to express his joy, his life, his feelings. Jesus of course was free as well. He could weep at the tomb of a friend. He could laugh with His friends and His disciples. He could have fun with them, He could be straight up and angry. He could express His emotions freely, so one of the things is, when you're unashamed, you're free to be who you are. When I asked that question years ago of myself, I was shocked. I couldn't answer it. I thought I'd got so lost - when did I get lost? When did I just get lost, and I didn't know who I was, or what I really wanted, see? So the first thing is, if you're unashamed, you're actually free to be who you are, and don't worry what people are thinking of you. If you're not controlled by what they think of you, you can just actually express, you become very expressive.

Now a lot of people are unexpressive because actually it's demonic bondage. It's demonic bondage. They've been shamed, and what for them is normal and they think that's me, actually I'm sorry, I have to inform you - gladly inform you today - that that uptight, staunch, locked up, emotionless person that you project out as who you are, is a broken, damaged, fallen short of the glory of God person, that God loves and values, and wants to lift up and heal that broken part of your life. So what? So you can be free. Now you'll express the life different to me, but you'll still express it. There are many ways we can express joy, but it should show on the face.