God, we thank you that we are continuing to worship you and hear from your word.
And Lord, I look to you that you would be with us in such a tangible way right now as we dig into your word.
Lord, I ask that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would speak through me to all of us, including me,
that you would shape us and change us and maybe be able to behold more perfectly the image of your Son,
that we might be transformed into evermore the people you made us to be,
who love you with all that we are. In Jesus' name, amen.
Please be seated.
Every single one of us in this room knows what it's like at some time or another,
or maybe even for an extended season of life, to be having done something wrong or said something wrong, sinful,
and not confessing it, not bringing it into the light.
To be in a place where your bones feel like they're wasting away,
where you feel almost sick inside and you're ridden with guilt.
This is common to every single human being at one time or another.
Psychologists and shrinks and counselors, all these different people, self-help books,
try to medicate this because it's common not just for Christians but for anyone on planet Earth.
And although there's lots of solutions out there, so-called, to medicate this,
the Bible speaks right into this human condition and gives us a way out of it.
Not a way to medicate it, but a way to actually deal with it by the power of God.
And that's what we're going to be looking at today.
The psalm that we're looking at, Psalm 51, was written by an incredible, godly man after God's own heart.
He was the king of Israel and the king by which all other kings after him were compared to.
He's the gold standard of what it means to be a good king and even a good man.
So much so that God promised him that the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of the world,
would come from his descendants, his line, because he loved God so much and God honored that.
This was a man, a giant of a man, a giant in the faith.
And yet, he finds himself in bed with another man's wife, his best friend's wife.
They conceive a child, and he tries to cover up his sin by bringing back his best friend from the battlefield
so it would look like it was his best friend's son.
It doesn't work.
His deception doesn't work.
And so, he ends up having his best friend, one of the mightiest warriors in Israel, Uriah the Hittite, murdered.
David finds himself now a murderer and an adulterer.
And for nine months, he didn't tell anybody.
And in Psalm 32, he records that experience of not telling anyone, not confessing his sin to God,
and how his bones are wasting his way and his strength is sap.
And that experience, I know, is something that I've experienced,
and it's something I know that you've experienced as well.
When you're not bringing your sin to light, and it's eating away at you, you're riddled with shame, with fear.
And that is when, after nine months, the prophet Nathan, a friend of David's, comes to him,
and he, in this beautiful, prophetic, poetic way, confronts David of his sin.
It says, God knows what you've done.
Confronts him of the adultery and the murder.
And David pens this psalm, Psalm 51.
This is his response.
And though we just read it a few moments ago, as Laurie read it, we'll read it again now.
So, if you can turn with me to Psalm 51, verse 1, let us read.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.
According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive,
me.
Behold, you delight in truth and the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness.
Let the bones that you've broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blottle all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation.
Uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God.
O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it.
You will not be pleased with the burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God.
You will not despise.
Do good to Zion in your good pleasure.
Build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Then will you delight in right sacrifices, and burnt offerings, and whole burnt offerings.
Then bulls will be offered on your altar.
This is the word of the Lord.
Amen.
The very first words out of David's mouth in this psalm prayer to God is,
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy.
Blah out my transgressions.
This is remarkable.
Because we human beings, when we're confronted with wrongdoing,
even if we come to bring it into the light, we so often will do that,
whether it's to God or to our friends,
we so often will do that with some excuse, some mitigating circumstance,
so that people will be willing to forgive us.
You know, in David's case, he could have come to God and said,
God, Bathsheba was on the roof, and she was naked, and I stumbled upon that.
It wasn't really my fault, but would you forgive me for the fact that I still lusted after her?
You know, there's a lot of mitigating circumstances.
We can always find, we're genius people when it comes to excuses,
to try to lessen the weight of our guilt.
But David has no desire to try to provide an excuse.
This would be a lame excuse, as it always is, to try to get God to forgive him.
Instead, David knows that his only hope for forgiveness is not an excuse.
His only hope for forgiveness is by the character, by the mercy of God.
And so the first word out of his mouth is,
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your steadfast love.
It's his only, it's his only hope.
And so today we're going to be looking at five steps to biblical confession and restoration.
We'll be looking through Psalm 51 as it gives us five steps that we can look at.
And the first one is that biblical confession is centered on the character of God.
It's centered on the character of God.
And so the very first words are,
God, have mercy because of who you are, because of your steadfast love.
So often when Christians, when we try to take confession seriously,
when we decide, you know what, we're going to practice the discipline of confession,
we'll bring our sin to the light, it's an opportunity for us to spiritualize navel gazing,
for us to spiritualize introspection.
And so I know that I've experienced this when I'm going to get serious about dealing with my sin.
And so now my focus is all about my sin.
But for David, his focus right from the get-go, right from the start is,
God, you're the God of steadfast love.
And in view of your mercy, would you have mercy upon me?
I'm 26, but I'm only now learning to drive.
First time I took the test, the G2 test, I failed.
But this past week I had a breakthrough in my driving.
And if you drive, I'm sure you've had the same breakthrough.
Hopefully you did this before you're 26.
No shame if you haven't.
But for me, there's so many things to pay attention to.
You're checking your rear view mirror, all this kind of stuff.
But when I finally, it hit me this past Sunday, last week,
I was driving with my mom and I finally clued in
to what they've been telling me all along,
which is where your eyes are, there the car goes.
There's so many things to pay attention to.
But by and large,
you're keeping your eyes on the road,
a certain amount of feet in front of you.
I'm still getting it.
But as I learned that, all of a sudden, I'm able to drive.
And we're no longer just going on residential streets.
Like, my mom and I are driving all around Ottawa.
It's awesome.
And I booked myself into a test.
I'm pretty confident I'm going to pass this
because I know where my eyes need to be.
And this is so important when it comes to confession,
that our eyes are not on our own self and our own sin,
but our eyes are on the character of God.
God, according to your steadfast love,
would you give me mercy?
In Numbers, not Numbers,
in Nehemiah chapter 9,
the people of Israel have done horrible things
for hundreds of years,
and they come together in Jerusalem
to confess their sin to God.
And they have a lot of things to confess.
They've been doing horrible, horrible things
in all areas of life for a long time.
And so you'd expect them
to just have a long laundry list of their sin.
And they do confess their sin.
They identify what they've done wrong.
But if you read it,
you'll find the most common word
in that huge, full chapter of confession
is you and your,
as the people beautifully recount
again and again,
the character and the deeds of God.
They've come to confess their sin,
but their focus is God.
You delivered us from Israel,
and you are the one who chose Abraham,
and you're the one who continues to redeem,
and you're the God of steadfast love.
And this is what we've done wrong.
But you are a forgiving God.
Their eyes,
even though they've come to confess their sin,
their eyes are not on them,
it's on God.
It's on God,
and he is the hope for forgiveness.
Now, as David goes to confess his sin,
the first words are about God and his character.
And then as he identifies his sin,
he says,
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
David had been such a steadfast man,
you would think,
at least I think I would,
if I was in his shoes,
would have been like,
God, please forgive me
according to your steadfast love.
And Lord, I've been so faithful.
Like, I have said no
to so many opportunities for sin for so long.
I slipped up.
Please grant me some slack.
Like, come on, God.
I'm a man after your own heart.
Instead, David says,
from the very moment that I existed,
from the very moment I was an embryo,
from the moment I was a zygote,
the moment I was conceived,
I was sinful.
David sees,
even though he's been such a man
after God's own heart,
David sees this wrong he's done,
and he says,
God, that's consistent with who I am.
In no way is David trying to limit what he's done,
or rather, like,
provide excuse for what he's done.
He is completely owning the sin he's done
and taking that to God,
knowing that God can deal with it.
So often,
the reason that you and I are afraid
to bring our sin to light
is that we really fear
that if our friends,
if God really knew what we were doing,
if he really knew what we were like,
that it just,
this time,
it would be too much.
I mean,
how many of us in this room have wondered,
have I,
I've just done the impartable sin.
Like,
I don't even know what the impartable sin is,
but I've just done it.
I know that.
No.
So,
as we know,
and David only knew in part,
but we know in full,
Jesus is the perfect sacrifice.
And so,
there is no sin
that you and I can bring to light
that the mercy of God,
that the blood of Jesus
isn't able to fully cleanse
and fully address.
David,
even though he was writing this
before the coming
of the promised Messiah,
somehow knew
that God,
because of the character of God,
not because of the character of David,
but because of the character of God,
was able to forgive
this wretched,
sinful man.
So,
biblical confession
is centered on God.
It takes full responsibility
for what it's done.
It confesses
in view of the character of God.
Now,
the second element
to biblical confession
is a plea
for cleansing.
You'll see in verse 2,
he says,
wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity
and cleanse me
from my sin.
And down in verse 7,
he continues with this plea,
purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean.
Wash me
and I shall be whiter than snow.
His plea
to be purged
with hyssop
is very likely
a reference
to either Leviticus 14
or Numbers 19.
Leviticus 14
outlines that
when someone
has been defiled
by leprosy,
their cleansing process
is to come to the priest
and there's blood
sprinkled on them
and hyssop,
which is this type of branch,
is used in the process.
And the Numbers 19 reference
is that
when you've come in contact
with a dead body
and you're defiled,
that's a similar process
and it includes hyssop,
which the priest uses
to cleanse you.
David is writing this
at a time
where the priests
were very active.
This is not today
where the temple
has been destroyed.
There were priests
he could have gone to.
But David is saying,
God, my sin is so big.
Only your hyssop,
only you can cleanse me
from my sin.
Lord, cleanse me.
He's saying,
God, I need you
to be my priest.
And there's more to it.
He says,
purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean.
That's almost
a direct,
a verbatim reference
of Leviticus 14
and Numbers 19
where it says
that they'll purge
them with hyssop
and he shall be clean.
It's in third person.
But instead,
David said,
purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean.
It's become personal
for David.
He's looking to God
to be his personal cleanser,
to be the one
that makes him clean.
I shall be clean.
What is it
that compels David
to pray this
with such earnestness
that he would not only
be forgiven for his sin
but cleansed
from the defilement?
The next verses
are a little further down
rather.
In verse 11,
he says,
cast me not away
from your presence
and take not
your Holy Spirit
from me.
Cast me not away
from your presence
and take not
your Holy Spirit
from me.
This is David's
big plea
and this too
is remarkable
because when you
and I are caught
in sin,
whether it's
conviction
just by the Holy Spirit
or someone
who speaks into
our life
like Nathan did
for David,
often our very
first concern
is about our reputation.
often our first tears
are because we've been caught
not because we have sinned.
We're so concerned
about that.
David's great concern
is not that his name
is now in the muck,
it's not that people
aren't going to respect him,
it's that he doesn't want
God to take away
his presence from him.
You know,
David had watched
first row seats,
front row seats
to see King Saul
have the anointing of God,
have the presence of God
and then lose all of that
because of King Saul's sin.
And King Saul
has a similar confrontation
where Samuel,
the prophet at that time,
like Nathan was the prophet
at David's time,
comes to him
and confronts him
with his sin.
But instead of saying
like David,
have mercy upon you,
O God,
King Saul tries
to make excuses
and say,
actually,
I disobeyed God
because I'm going to be
worshipping him this way.
He tries to excuse it.
He doesn't repent of it.
And God removes
so much from him
and strips him
of his anointing
and takes away the kingship.
David,
his first response isn't,
Lord,
please keep me as king.
His first response isn't,
Lord,
keep your promise
that my children
will stay on the throne.
As he had seen God
strip that away
from King Saul,
David had every reason
to be afraid
that that would happen.
Maybe that would happen.
But David's concern
isn't that that would happen
as much as God,
don't take your presence
from me.
David's chief concern
was for the presence of God.
At the Church of the Messiah
Tuesday night prayer meeting,
we had been going through
the book of Nehemiah.
Now we're going through
the book of Matthew.
And what struck me
as I was preparing
for the first,
for chapter one
in the Gospel of Matthew
is that although regarding
Nehemiah,
and it's such a rich book,
it's the word of God,
although about Nehemiah
we were studying a man
who had lived and died
2,500 years ago,
the Gospel of Matthew
we're studying a man,
Jesus,
who's alive today.
And so the way
that we talk about
the one we're studying
is different between
Nehemiah and the Gospel of Matthew
because with Jesus
we're talking about
a man who's alive today.
We talk about people
who are alive today
different than people
who are simply
alive in the past.
And then it hit me
as I was preparing
that first message,
not only am I talking
about someone alive today,
I'm talking about
someone here in the room.
Like when we talk about
someone who's in the room
with us,
it's different than
when they're not
in the room with us.
Like if I was to say,
you know what,
I'm so thankful
that Diane Sharpe is here,
like I love her so much.
Like I'm talking about her,
if she's not in the room
I'll talk about it one way.
If she's here
I can actually turn to her
and be like,
Diane,
I'm so glad
for your friendship,
thank you.
Right?
I talk about people
differently if they're
in the room or not.
When we talk about Jesus
and we're talking about God,
He's here with us.
As I've been trying
to wrap my mind
and my heart around
the reality
of the presence of God,
that He is Emmanuel,
God with us.
This week as I was
reading through Psalm 51,
it was bringing this home
to me that David's
chief concern,
his great delight
is in the presence of God.
And when I searched
my own heart
this past week,
I find that as much
as I love the presence of God,
I'm in awe
by the presence of God,
that I still have
so much to grow
in becoming like David,
a man whose chief delight
is in the presence of God.
That my deepest concern
is not for my name
or my reputation
or my ministry,
my job,
any of that stuff.
My great concern is,
God,
I want your presence
in my life.
And I know that
this isn't only true for me,
that there's no one
in this room
who fully savors
and values the presence
of God
as we were made for.
And so as He's
in the room with us,
let's take a moment
quietly to bow our hearts
before God,
just interrupt the sermon
right now,
and let's just quietly pray,
God,
cultivate in our hearts
a heart that would
love and savor
your presence
above all else.
God,
we thank You
that You're in the room
with us.
We thank You
that we are the temple
of Your Holy Spirit,
that You're here
and You dwell within us
and amongst us.
Lord,
we pray that You would
make us ever more aware
and attentive
to the reality
that You're here with us,
that You're in the hard times
and the happy times.
You're here with us.
Help us to savor that,
to value that,
to treasure that
more than riches
and reputation,
even more than our jobs
and our ministries,
even more than our very lives.
May You give us
the same heart
as David
that our chief longing
would be
to be in Your presence
as we are
even in this moment.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
So David's first,
the first step
to his restoration process
is God-centered confession.
The second thing
is a request for cleansing,
knowing that God
is not that
purge me with hyssop
and I might be clean.
No, God,
purge me with hyssop
and I will be clean
because I long
to be in Your presence.
And then the third thing
is that He,
the third step
is that He calls out
for restoration.
A lot of us
get the fact,
like if we've,
if you've gone to church
long enough,
we know that God
takes away our sins
so we can confess our sin,
we know God cleanses us
from our sins
so we'll do that.
But a lot of us
stop short.
When we've fallen short,
I've actually asked
God for restoration.
But David has the faith
and the longing
to be restored.
Verse 12,
restore to me
the joy of Your salvation
and uphold me
with a willing spirit.
When he has so many
different things
to ask for restoration of,
David chooses to ask
for the restoration of joy.
And the reason is that
David has fallen greatly.
He loves God
but he's been defeated
by his fleshly desires
of,
for,
for sexual pleasure,
his desire for reputation
by trying to get rid
of Uriah.
He's,
he's fallen short
because of these desires.
And so David
comes before God,
a broken man
but a man ready
to come out swinging,
coming,
ready to come
and fight his flesh.
Ready to come into,
it's a fight to be
the man that God
made him to be.
And the chief way
he does this
is by looking to God
for joy.
Back when I first
entered my teens
and one of my
great Christian buddies
and I decided
that we were gonna,
we were gonna be
men of God,
we were gonna be
men of purity,
we were gonna fight
all sin in our lives.
And so we were on the phone
all the time
confessing our sin,
of all manner of sin,
all types of sin,
confessing our sin
to each other.
We became so,
like just so trying
to cultivate
hatred for sin.
One of us,
I think it was probably me,
and this is a confession,
like I can get
into big trouble for this.
One of us decided
that every time
we fell short
that we'd shred $20.
Okay?
That's actually a felony
to shred money
so they might come after me.
This might be the last
term I ever preach.
Okay?
So come visit me in jail,
remember my chains.
But,
so it helped us
for a good few days.
But even,
like,
so we thought,
like,
we didn't even want
to donate the money
to some charity
because we thought
that would be
an excuse for sin.
So we're just,
if we fall,
we're going to shred $20.
And that kept us,
we thought,
like,
I don't know how you
value sin or not,
but we felt like
we were doing good,
like we're living
perfect lives
for a few hours,
maybe a few days,
but then there we were
shredding $20
and $40 and $60.
Eventually,
we're like,
okay,
I think it was him
that discovered
that it was a felony.
We're like,
we can't do this.
We're actually sinning
by shredding,
like this isn't good.
You with me?
What's the point?
Maybe you can't relate
to shredding money,
but all of us can relate
to trying to fight sin
by just trying to hate sin
and trying to put
all these safeguards in.
And safeguards are good.
Safeguards help us,
help us fight sin,
but the way
to actually overcome sin
isn't by simply
focusing on sin
and hating sin.
You defeat the love
for pleasure for sin
with the love
for a greater pleasure.
And the greater pleasure
for David
is a joy he's found
in God.
And so he's saying right now
in the midst of his
miserable,
sinful state,
he's saying,
God,
I don't have this joy.
He's not saying,
God,
I have the joy.
He's saying,
God,
restore to me the joy.
Is this our response
after we've sinned?
Lord,
restore to me the joy.
If finding such joy,
a joy that's bigger
than the joy you'll find
in any kind of sexual pleasure,
any kind of economic pleasure,
any kind of recreational pleasure,
if the joy of the Lord
as a greater pleasure
than any of that
is something foreign to you
or something that isn't
as much as you want it to be,
let that be another prayer of yours.
God,
restore to me the joy
of your salvation.
Lord,
may the joy found in you,
may the exuberance
and the delight
and the savoring
and the treasuring of you,
may you as my joy
be a bigger joy
than anything the world
has to offer,
anything the flesh has to offer.
Lord,
be my chief joy.
Let that be a daily prayer
for you and for me
because all of us
can grow in the joy of the Lord.
It doesn't matter how deep
and how much joy you have,
there is more
and it is the greatest
and the most deepest
and profound joy
we'll ever find.
A joy that we can find
even when we're going
through dark times
and dry times,
a joy that is,
that words cannot even express.
David wants that joy
and David doesn't simply
confess his sin,
he doesn't simply ask
for cleansing,
he says,
Lord,
restore to me the joy.
He knows that God can do this
despite the wrong things
he's done.
And if he simply stopped there,
I think a lot of us
would still be pretty impressed
with the Bible's view
of restoration.
But David goes one more
than simply restoring
his personal joy
and praying for that.
David asks that God
re-engage him
in the mission of God.
David wasn't simply
a king,
he wasn't simply
the political leader,
he was also a great
worship leader.
From before he had ever
become king,
he was already ministering
in worship in the fields
with the sheep,
ministering worship
in the courts of King Saul.
And again,
as king,
he was still a worship leader,
a songwriter.
And so,
as he is saying,
Lord,
open my lips
and my mouth
will declare your praise
and I will teach
transgressors your ways
and sinners will return to you.
He is speaking right
into the mission
that God had called him for
as a worship leader,
as a teacher,
saying,
God,
would you re-engage me
in this?
And so often
when we see someone
who's fallen,
whether they're a great
famous pastor
or a politician
or whether it's you or me,
we lose hope
that they can ever
be used by God again.
We're just,
a lot of,
you'll see the media
and everyone just crying
for their blood.
David has fallen greatly.
He has slept
with his best friend's wife
and he committed murder
against his best friend
and David is saying,
God,
would you forgive me
because of who you are?
You're a merciful God.
God,
would you cleanse me
from a sin
that should be imparable?
Would you make me clean?
Lord,
would you restore to me joy?
And God,
would you help me re-engage
in the mission
that you made me for?
Now,
if you have
done something
so serious
that you may need
to take a step back,
there's time for that.
There's room for that.
But no matter what,
what you've done wrong,
no matter what dark things
you've done,
and we've all done them,
we're able to re-engage
in the mission of God
because of who God is,
because he's restoring God.
As long as there's breath
in your lungs,
you are made like David
to be someone
that not only worships God
if I join him,
but to be pointing people
toward God.
Whatever that looks like
in your workplace
or your neighborhood
or your home
and ministry
and your church.
And so,
I want to invite us,
for those of us
who have lost hope
of being able to make
a radical difference
for God,
to invite us
to remember
that our God
is a God
who restores
not only our own joy,
but re-engages us
in mission.
To do that
in a healthy way,
but to believe
that we are able
to be people
who are living out
God's calling
in our lives,
not because we've
avoided sin for a while,
but because of
who God is.
And so,
David,
he goes from talking
about leading
the people
and teaching them
and leading them
in worship.
He ends
still as their king,
interceding for them.
Do good to Zion,
to your good pleasure.
Build the walls
of Jerusalem.
This is a king's prayer
for his people,
knowing that God
has called him
to re-engage
in the mission of God.
So,
those are four steps.
There's confession
that's centered on God,
a request for cleansing
that he might be able
to be in the presence
of God.
For indeed,
it's our sin
that separates us
from being able
to be with God,
but because of Jesus,
we're able to be
in the presence of God
to savor that.
He asks for restoration
of joy.
He asks for re-engaging
in mission.
But there's a fifth step,
and the fifth step
isn't after that.
It's actually before all that.
We started in verse 1,
but something to note,
if you don't already know this,
you probably do,
but in our Bibles,
you'll find these bold headers,
and that's not sacred scripture.
That's just the translator's
titling of that passage.
But after the header,
you'll sometimes see
in a lot of psalms
the subtext,
in this case,
to the choir master.
And this is the original.
This is the original Hebrew.
This,
even though it's not,
it doesn't have a verse number
beside it,
it's before verse 1,
this is part of
the word of God.
This actually is part
of sacred scripture,
God-breathed words.
Let us read it.
To the choir master,
a psalm of David,
when Nathan the prophet
went to him
after he had gone into Bathsheba.
This is remarkable.
Because when someone comes
to a king with bad news,
when a messenger comes to them,
it's not uncommon
for the king just to kill
the messenger.
How much more so
when the bad news
is about your own sin,
a sin that you've successfully
hid for nine months,
and all of a sudden,
this guy,
he's the one person
who knows what you've done.
A lot of kings
would just kill him.
And not only kings.
When someone comes to you
and me,
at least me,
when someone comes to me
and confronts me
about wrongdoing,
I so often want to
defend myself.
I want to make excuses.
I don't want to actually
embrace what they've said.
David embraces
the conviction
from Nathan.
How is this possible?
He's a human
just like you and me.
How is this possible?
I believe we've Psalm 51
because we've Psalm 139.
And I believe that Psalm 139
was written before Psalm 51.
Psalm 139,
a famous psalm
that talks about
God being with us
and the depths
and the heights
and everywhere we are,
we can never leave his presence.
It ends
with this beautiful prayer.
Verse 23,
Search me, O God.
This is David writing.
Search me, O God,
and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts
and see if there be
any grievous way in me
and lead me
in the way everlasting.
David has been praying,
maybe daily,
maybe weekly,
regularly praying,
Search me, O God.
Find where there's wickedness.
Find where there's sin.
Find where there's things
that grieve you.
Convict me of it.
Lead me in your way.
As he's praying that prayer
over time,
Nathan comes to him
and says,
Nathan, God has found sin in you.
David, God has found sin in you.
And David's response is,
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love.
If we are going to be people
who can be free of the shame
and the fear
and the guilt
that we rightly have
because we've done wrong,
we need to be people
who are regularly looking to God
to convict us of sin,
to create in us hearts
that long more than anything
for the presence of God
so we'll welcome conviction
and we'll welcome rebuke,
whether that's from a person
or whether that's by conviction
of the Holy Spirit.
Would you add that
to the prayers you pray?
Lord, search me
and know me.
Finally, there's wickedness
so we can bring the things
that make us shameful
and filled with shame
to God.
There's one more thing.
David writes this
to the choir master.
This is not David's
private confession
in his own bedroom
or prayer closet.
This is David's public song
for the people to sing
in Jerusalem
and throughout the ages of time
included in scripture
for us today.
This is a public song.
David has successfully
hidden his sin
but now he brings it to light
for people to join him
in confession
and cleansing
and restoration
and reengaging in mission.
David's written this
for us to share.
So often the reason
that we don't confess our sin
is that we're so afraid
that God will judge us,
that people will judge us
and condemn us
but David has confidence
that he can bring this to light.
In 1 John,
it talks about
how we all have sinned
and it calls us
to confess our sin
one to another
that we may be cleansed,
that we can pray
for each other
and be cleansed.
Catholics,
there's something right
to Catholic doctrine
of confession
that they've instituted.
You don't simply
confess your sin to God
but you actually confess it
to someone else.
In the Roman Catholic way,
it's to a priest
but as a priesthood
of all believers,
we can confess our sin
not to a specific person
like a reigning priest
but we can confess our sin
one to another.
I want to invite you
to do that.
Find someone that you trust
whether that's Pastor George
or if it was me
or Louise, Diane.
Find someone that you trust
and you can confess your sin to
one to another
as the scripture says.
David wrote this to be sung
not just in a private
prayer closet
but publicly
because we find healing
as we bring our darkness
to light.
Just last week,
I had a very precious friend
to me
confess to struggling
with some really heavy stuff
and he shared how
he'd been struggling
with this stuff
for years
and the isolation he feels,
the darkness he feels,
how when someone affirms you,
you feel like,
well, if you only knew me,
you wouldn't say
those nice things about me
and so the more affirmation
you get,
the less affirmation
you feel.
The more affirmation
you get,
the more isolated you feel
for people don't know
the real you.
It's been eating at him
for years
and I got to watch
as he confessed
his struggle to me
and I got to see light
enter his eyes again
and this past week,
if you follow church news,
one of my favorite
worship leaders
in the Church of England
confessed,
not distant,
confessed and brought
a struggle of hers to light
and has embraced
the lifestyle
and she's given up
the fight
and as I read
with a broken heart
this long article
where she talks
about her struggle,
it was the exact same
as my friends,
for years,
a hidden struggle,
for years,
a hidden sinful struggle
and giving into it
but not being able
to tell anyone about it
and as a result,
she's thrown in the towel,
she's not going
to fight this anymore,
she's going to embrace it
which is destructive,
it's not good
and as I read this,
I knew that I could
relate to that
because you and I
have done the same thing
where we're keeping
wrongdoing we've done
in private,
we're trying to keep it
from anyone knowing
about it
because we don't really
believe that God
would forgive us
or that people
would be able
to embrace us again
but David has found
forgiveness,
David has found
cleansing,
David has found
restoration of joy
in the presence of God
and he's reengaged
in mission
because David
no longer was going
to keep his sin
in private,
instead he embraced
the conviction of God
and found life in God.
We don't need to kid anybody,
all of us are broken people,
we've all experienced
the same thing
where there's things
that we're ashamed of,
let us bring a brokenness
to God
and in public
to each other
in a safe setting,
in the church
is a safe setting,
let us bring a brokenness
to God
because he forgives,
he heals,
he cleanses,
he restores,
in him there's life
and joy
for he's with us.
Would you stand with me
as we pray?
Heavenly Father,
we love you
and Lord,
we don't always
understand you.
Lord,
you forgive us
for things
that we never would
forgive ourselves
for.
Lord,
you forgave David
for sleeping
with his best friend's wife
and murdering
his best friend.
Against you
he had sinned,
even more so
than against these people.
And Lord,
we know that
even if our sin
is called by a different name,
we also have transgressed
against you
every single one.
And Lord,
it is so human
for us to try
to keep it hidden,
for us to try
to present
a version of ourselves
that people will like.
But God,
each one of us
is brokenness
and each one of us
knows shame.
Lord,
would you help us
like David
to look to you
for forgiveness
as we confess our sins
centered on you.
Lord,
would you help us
to look to you
for cleansing
that we experience
you saying
that we are clean.
Lord,
would you help us
to savor your presence
and delight in your joy.
Would you restore
evermore your joy to us.
And Lord,
would you help us
to reengage evermore
in the mission
that you've called us to.
Lord,
we want to walk with you
in the freedom
and the life
that you've made us for.
God,
we love you.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.