One More Thing with Pastor Tim Burchill 11.02.2026

Sometimes A Quote Says It All

          As I said Sunday, our new sermon series: Reversing Heart Disease, is based on a book by Pastor Andy Stanley.  He’s a great communicator and his book, The Enemies of the Heart, has his inimitable conversational style.  When we need to we’ll quote him, but most of the time we use his discussion as a springboard for our own interpretation and preaching.  This morning I want to share with you a few of the quotes behind Sunday’s sermon.  That way, you get a sense of the writer behind the preaching (more or less).

         “Guilt says, “I owe you.” Guilt is the result of having done something we perceived as wrong. Every wrong we do can be restated as an act of theft, as we’ll see in a moment. If I steal from you, I owe you. So the message from a heart laden with guilt is, “I owe!”’  …

          “For example, consider the man who runs off with another woman and abandons his family. Without realizing it at the time, he has stolen something from every member of his family. He stolen his wife’s first marriage; he has robbed her of her future, her financial security, her reputation as a wife. From his children’s perspective this man has stolen their father and all that a father means to the home. He has robbed them of Christmas, traditions, emotional and financial security, dinners with the family, and so on.

          Now the man who did all this doesn’t think in terms of what he has taken. Initially, he thinks in terms of what he has gained. But the first time his little girl asks him why he doesn’t love Mommy anymore, his heart is stirred. He now feels guilty. Dad owes. A debt-to-debtor relationship has been established. And whenever you or I wrong another, we create the same dynamic…”

          “Nothing less than paying that debt will relieve a guilty heart of its burden of guilt. People try to work it off, serve it off, give it off, and even pray it off. But no amount of good deeds, community service, charitable giving, or Sundays in a pew can relieve the guilt. It’s a debt. And it must be paid or canceled for a guilty heart to experience relief.”

          We are created with a conscience that can be informed by the wisdom and commandments of God.  And guilt is just part and parcel of God’s early warning system—morally speaking.  But we are created to carry great loads of guilt around us that have no outlet for relief.  Confession—face to face, person to person—as well as honest confession to God, these are the gifts we’ve been given to experience healthy and whole hearts.