107 Coldren Street, Johnstown, Pennsylvania 15904, United States
Upcoming Sermons & Devotional Message
August Sermons 2025
8-31 - The Need for Change
Proverbs 2: 5-7, 1 Corinthians 13: 11-13
September Sermons 2025
9 -7 -Ordinary Heroes
Daniel 3:13-18 Acts 6:7-15
9 - 14 Finishing Good
Ruth 1:16+17 2Timothy 4:6-8
9-21- Rosh Hasanah
Numbers 29:1-6 Acts 11:1-4; 18
9-28-The Lord is in This Place
Genesis 28:10-17 Acts 16:25-31
Devotional Message : These will change 1-2 times a week. Stop by often to read the new message.
Some Thoughts on the Purpose of Guilt
As children of God, we need to understand two powerful feelings if we’re ever going to live into the grace God offers to us in Jesus.
The first is guilt. Guilt is the sense that something is wrong and needs to be made right. I believe guilt is evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit—which results in conviction of sin and a growing desire for forgiveness. Adam and Eve first experienced guilt after they ate forbidden fruit—and as a result, they tried to hide and cover their nakedness.
The second is shame. Shame is the tool used by the enemy of our souls to keep us bound in the consequence of sin long after we are forgiven, and our sin is forgotten by God. I know many individuals who can’t seem to move past what he or she did—and it prevents them from living into the freedom they have in Christ.
Genesis chapter 3 records the first sin in the human family—and its consequences:
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (Genesis 3:7).
This story in the first book of the Bible tells how a sense of guilt resulting in conviction first entered the world. Adam and Eve had nothing to hide before they sinned—but after they sinned, they wanted to cover themselves. So they gathered fig leaves and stitched them together in a desperate attempt to cover their sin. If you've ever dreamt of being naked in public, you know how they felt.
But even if we don't experience physical guilt, we still carry a sense of guilt from a moral wrong. If everything you ever did became public information, you would likely never leave the house. One survey showed that fifty percent of adult males carry a secret so dark that, if it were exposed, it would destroy them.
This sense of guilt has a positive side. If we experience guilt, it means we also have a conscience. The work of the Holy Spirit is to convince us of our sins (John 16:8) so that we can repent and be restored to God.
Allow guilt and conviction to do their work, my friends!
