Good morning, everyone. My name is Eric. For those of you who don't know me, I'm one of the guys on staff here at Watermark Church.
The year was 1997. There's a new magazine out called Backwoods Homes Magazine.
It was a new magazine, which means that the classified section didn't always get filled up.
And in the times when they were short on classified ads, the editor would get one of his friends to come and fill up the extra space with riddles and jokes.
One week when they were short on classified ads, the friend who typically told the riddles and jokes asked if instead he could submit a couple of personal classified ads for free.
And the editor said, sure, why not?
So the first ad was an ad for a girlfriend.
He was looking for someone to be the love of his life and decided this magazine might be the place to look.
The second one, which you can see on the screen behind me, said wanted.
Somebody to go back in time with me.
This is not a joke.
P.O. Box 322, Oakview, California, 93022.
You'll get paid after we get back.
Must bring your own weapons.
Safety not guaranteed.
I have only done this once before.
Now, he didn't really expect many responses from this.
However, in the 20 years that have gone by since posting this ad, he continues to get responses to this letter.
He has gotten responses from every continent, including Antarctica.
And some people just want to go back in time for the thrill of it.
He said a surprisingly high number of people actually believe that the ad was real.
Some people want to go back in time just for the excitement.
Who wouldn't want to go back and see parts of the past?
But most of the letters that he has received in response to this ad have been people who want to go back and undo a tragedy in their lives.
He said that he has received several dozens of letters from people in prison who want to go back in time and stop themselves from committing the crime that put them there in the first place.
One lady even wrote to him and asked if she could go back in time and stop the hitman that she hired to kill her husband.
Out of all of the responses that this man has received from this ad, very, very few are from people who want to go back and relive a positive, happy moment from their lives.
Most of them are from people who want to go change a tragedy and stop it from happening because those times are the times that have stuck with them and haunted them throughout their lives.
And I'm guessing that each of us here today has one or two moments in our lives that if we had the chance and we had a time machine that we could go back and undo those moments, we would.
You know, I'm hoping that no one in here has hired a hitman to kill their spouse.
But all of us have things that follow us and haunt us.
For me, I have a handful of moments that I think I wish I could go back and undo them.
One of them happened a couple summers ago.
I was back visiting home and as kids, one of my younger brothers used to intentionally try to annoy me a lot.
And he's grown up since then, but it's been years since we've lived under the same roof.
So in my mind, he was still that same annoying little kid.
And while I was home visiting, he did a couple things that just bothered me, you know?
And I decided, I'm tired of him intentionally bothering me.
I'm an adult now.
I don't need to put up with this.
I'm going to say something to him that will make him stop.
And so as we were loading into the van to go celebrate my cousin's wedding, I lashed out at him.
And I sent a very clear message that I am tired of you trying to annoy me.
We got to the wedding and I celebrated because it's a day for celebration and didn't really pay much attention to my brother until we got home that evening.
And we're hanging out as a family and my mom came up to me and she said,
Hey, Eric, you need to go talk to your brother.
I said, What? What's going on?
And she said, He's up in his room and he won't come down because of what you said to him this morning.
And so I went up to talk to him and I still, from time to time, see that image in my head of my brother lying on his bed in tears because of the impact that my words had on him.
And it's painful to know that my words cause such pain to someone that I love.
And if I could go back in time, that's one of the moments that I wish I could go undo, take back those words that I've said.
But as we all know, I can't.
And I'm sure that each of us has moments in our lives, big and small, where we've failed, where we've messed up, where we have sinned.
Sin is rebellion against God.
And times that, if possible, we would want to go back and change.
And today we're continuing our series on the Psalms and talking about worship in all seasons of life.
And we're talking today about Psalm 51, a psalm for the seasons when we are guilty.
And what we're going to see is that in our moments of sin, in our moments of rebellion against God, we need forgiveness that can only be found in Jesus.
So we're going to have three points.
First, sin, the heart of the matter.
Second, the only solution.
And third, the life-changing conclusion.
And then we're going to conclude the sermon by taking communion together.
Normally we take it earlier in the service, but today we're going to take it at the end.
So the sermon itself will be the communion intro.
But first, we're going to talk about sin, the heart of the matter.
Now the Psalms, the book of Psalms, is a collection of songs that were sung by Israel in the Old Testament to worship God.
Here we have songs.
We just finished singing some songs.
And we keep our songs stored on the computer back there so that we can put them on the screen here.
In the Old Testament, they collected their songs in a book, which is now known as the book of Psalms.
And as with many songs, something often happens that inspires someone to write a song.
And in the book of Psalms, some of the songs have little notes at the start that tell us why that song was written.
And this is one of them.
It says,
A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
Now if you've grown up in church, this next couple minutes is going to be a review.
But it's important.
And if you haven't grown up in church, this is very important to understanding this psalm.
The background of why this psalm was written is very important for us to understand what's being talked about in this psalm.
Now David was a king of Israel back in the Old Testament, in the earlier part of the Bible.
And he was an amazing man.
God himself said of David that he was a man after God's own heart.
Now the number of people that God speaks that highly of is very small.
But God himself said,
This man, David, is a man after my own heart.
If I search out the world for people who love me, who follow me with all of their hearts,
this is one of the few.
David became the king of Israel and he led the nation well.
He led the army to conquer foreign lands.
He led the people in worshiping God.
He had established his kingdom.
Things were going well.
And then, one night,
his armies were out at war,
fighting battles.
But for some reason, which we don't know,
he was at home.
He was taking a walk on his rooftop.
And as he looked down over the edge,
he saw a woman taking a bath on a neighboring rooftop.
And he called all his servants and said,
Who's that one?
And they said,
She's Bathsheba.
She's the wife of one of your soldiers in your army.
And David said to himself,
Hmm, she's married to a soldier in the army.
It means her husband's away,
so she's probably lonely.
And she's hot.
Go grab her.
Have her come over here.
And Bathsheba came over
and spent the night with King David.
Now, by all appearances,
it seems that David probably was expecting this
to just be a one-night stand,
have a little fun,
and then move on with life.
However,
not long after this,
he received news that Bathsheba was pregnant,
which created a problem
because her husband had been gone
fighting in the army for months
and wouldn't be home for a few more months.
And so there was no way
that Bathsheba's husband would believe this baby was his.
David was going to be in trouble.
And so he came up quick on his feet
with a plan to cover his tracks.
He sent a messenger to the leader of the army
and said,
Hey, I want to hear an update on how things are going.
Send Bathsheba's husband back here to update me.
So Bathsheba's husband, Uriah,
comes in,
updates David on how things are going in the army,
and David says,
Thanks for the update.
Go spend the night at home,
and I'll see you in the morning.
And Bathsheba's husband says,
No, king, I can't do that.
It's not fair to the other soldiers
that I get to go see my wife
and have a nice night at home
while they're out fighting the battles.
I'm just going to go down to your servants' quarters
and sleep there.
So David's like,
Okay.
Plan B.
The next night,
David keeps Bathsheba's husband around again
and gets him very drunk.
And then at the end of the night,
he says,
All right.
Go home.
Spend the night with your wife.
It's going to be a good night for you.
However, even though drunk,
Bathsheba's husband is still aware enough to say,
No.
I can't do this to my fellow soldiers.
I'm going to sleep in the servants' quarters.
And again,
he goes down
and spends the night in the servants' quarters.
And David at this point realizes,
I'm not going to be able to cover this up.
Uriah is too good of a man
to go spend the night with his wife
when all of his other soldiers
that he fights alongside of
are out at battle.
I need to take more drastic measures
to cover up what I've done.
So he writes a letter
to the commander of the army
and he says,
Here's what I want you to do.
Take Bathsheba's husband,
put him in the part of the fighting
where it's the most intense,
and once he is there,
pull all the other soldiers back
so he is alone in the front
in the most intense area of fighting.
He writes the letter.
He seals it up.
He hands it to Bathsheba's husband,
who has no idea what's inside it,
and says,
Deliver this to your commander.
And Uriah,
as a loyal, obedient subject,
carries this note
with his death sentence in it
to the commander of the army,
who obeys his king.
The news comes to David
that Uriah has been killed,
and Bathsheba mourns her husband,
and then as soon as possible
marries King David,
and nine months after that first fateful night,
a baby is born,
and David may have felt kind of bad about it,
but probably not too bad
because he got away with it, right?
He has a new wife
added to his collection of wives,
and she's really pretty.
They have a new baby.
No one knows about what he's done wrong.
Things are looking good
until a knock comes on the door,
and in walks Nathan the prophet,
and he says,
King David,
I've heard a story
about something that's going on
in your kingdom.
You're going to want to hear about this.
And David says,
Okay, tell me what's going on.
Nathan says,
There were two men.
One of them was very wealthy.
He had lots of sheep,
lots of land,
lots of servants.
The other one was a very poor man.
He had only one young lamb,
but this lamb was precious to him.
It would eat at the table with his family.
It was like a daughter to him.
And one day,
a visitor came to visit this rich man,
and the rich man needed to feed his guest.
And rather than taking one of his lambs
from the many that he had,
he went and took the poor man's lamb
and killed it and fed it to his guest.
And David became furious.
He said,
The man who did this deserves to die.
And he has to repay the poor man four times
for what he stole.
This is terrible.
I cannot believe that this is happening in my kingdom.
And after what I imagined was a dramatic pause,
Nathan responds to King David,
You are the man.
God has given you everything you could have ever wanted.
And rather than living thankfully,
you decided to go out and steal your neighbor's wife
and have your neighbor murdered to cover it up.
And in a moment,
clarity comes to David,
and he realizes,
I have sinned.
And this psalm that we're looking at today,
Psalm chapter 51,
is David's response
after this conversation with Nathan.
Now, I'm guessing
that if ever there was a moment in history
where someone wished they had a time machine
that they could go back
and undo their actions,
it was David in that conversation with Nathan.
And yet he didn't.
And so we have this psalm,
Psalm chapter 51,
David's response
when he recognizes the fact
that he has sinned
by stealing his neighbor's wife
and having his neighbor murdered
to cover it up.
And when we look at Psalm 51,
the thing that we'll see
is that David's first response
when he recognizes his sin
is to run to God
and plead for mercy.
Verses one and two say,
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.
There's no excuses for why he did what he did.
There's no blame shifting.
There's simply an acknowledgement
that I have sinned
and I need help.
So God, please help me.
I think the reason David responds this way
is because he recognizes
that the heart of the matter in his sin
is the matter of the heart.
The heart of the matter
is the matter of the heart.
He recognizes,
I'm not some good person
who just messed up
and had a bad day
and did a bad thing.
No.
I have a wicked heart
that led me to sin
against my neighbor
and against God.
And this is a response that's rare,
especially in our world today.
If you think about the ways
that people respond
when they're caught
doing something wrong
in the world today,
so often it's different than this.
In the world,
we cover up what we've done.
Like Bill Clinton.
I did not have sexual relations
with that woman.
David doesn't do that.
He confesses,
I have sinned.
Or,
in the world today,
when people get caught
doing things
they shouldn't be doing,
we try and brush it off
as an inconsistency.
I'm generally a good person.
I just, you know,
had a bad day.
Like Usher,
the musician,
when he was caught
cheating on his wife.
His response
is fantastic.
I was faithful at heart,
but not faithful all the way.
It's like the Princess Bride.
I was only mostly faithful,
not all faithful.
Or the actress,
Kristen Stewart,
when she was caught
having an affair
with a married director.
She labeled it as a,
quote,
momentary indiscretion.
I'm normally a good person.
I just had a bad moment.
Or Tiger Woods,
when it was revealed
that he had been cheating
on his wife
with several different women.
He said,
I felt I had worked hard
my entire life
and deserved to enjoy
all the temptations around me.
I was unfaithful,
I had affairs,
I cheated.
Yes, I did a bad thing,
but it was because
I'm such a good person
and a hard worker
that I felt that I deserved
to get away with a few bad things.
This is how we typically respond
in our world
when we are caught in our sin.
We deny it,
we make excuses,
we say that it's not in line
with our true character,
and David,
in Psalm 51,
does none of these things.
If you look at verse 5,
he says,
Behold,
I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin
did my mother conceive me.
He says,
I'm not a good person
who just made a bad decision.
He says,
I have been a sinner
since the day
that I was conceived.
And this action
that I just did
is in line
with my character
because I am rebellious
and stubborn.
You shouldn't be amazed
that I can mess up
this badly.
No,
you should be amazed
that I don't mess up
this badly
all the time
because I know
how messed up
my heart is.
Because the heart
of the matter
is the matter
of my heart.
I acted out wickedly
because I had
a wicked heart.
David comes to God
with brutal honesty,
confessing his sin
and begging God
to do something
to make it right.
However,
David's problem
is too big
for David alone
to fix,
which means
that he must look
outside himself
for a solution.
Which brings us
to point to
the only solution.
He knows
that his sin
is his biggest problem,
that his heart
that leads him
to sin
is his biggest problem.
He's created problems
that he could never
make right.
no matter
how hard
David tried,
there's nothing
that he could do
to bring Uriah
back from the dead
and give him
back his wife.
No amount
of hard work,
no amount
of sacrifices,
no amount
of anything
can undo
the pain
and destruction
that David
has caused
through his actions.
And even if
there was something
that he could do,
he still recognizes
that he has
a wicked heart
and his wicked heart
is what led him
to these actions
in the first place
and changing
his behavior
is not going
to change
his heart.
Behavior modification
doesn't lead
to a transformed
heart.
And so for David's
situation
to have
a positive solution,
he needs
that solution
to come
from someone
outside himself.
But the question
is,
who outside
of David
is big enough
to fix
David's problem?
Think about it,
he's the king.
There's no earthly
authority,
no person
on earth
who has the
authority
to pardon him.
He is the highest
authority in the land.
It's not like
he can go to the king
and get a pardon.
He is the king.
And,
if you look
at the Old Testament
law,
God makes provisions
for people
to get forgiveness
for lots of sins.
If you rob
your neighbor,
you make some sacrifices,
you pay the neighbor
back,
and you're good.
for adultery,
there is nothing
that you can do.
The sentence is death.
For murder,
there is nothing
that you can do.
The sentence is death.
And David hadn't done
one or the other
of these,
he had done
both of them.
And so he comes
to God
and he says
in verse 16,
you would not delight
in sacrifice
or I would give it.
You will not be pleased
with a burnt offering.
God,
if there's anything
that I could do
to make things right,
I would do it,
but I know
that I can't.
I know
that there's nothing
within my power
that I can do
to fix my situation.
So God,
I'm turning to you
because you
are the only one
that can make this right.
He turns to God
and he begs
for a deep,
deep mercy.
If you look
at the first two verses again
and look at the words
that David uses
in his request to God,
he says,
have mercy on me,
O God.
This word mercy
means to take pity
and show kindness
that he does not deserve.
He says,
according to your
abundant mercy,
blot out my transgressions.
This word blot out,
it's like if someone
was writing an accusation
in wax
with a sharp instrument
and as they're writing,
instead of continuing writing,
they turn the instrument
and use the long edge
to wipe out
everything they've just written
and erase any record
that those accusations
had ever been written.
David says,
God,
please do that for me.
I know that I am guilty,
but wipe out
any evidence
that I have ever done
this wrong.
He says,
wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity.
The picture here,
the literal translation
of that is multiply
to wash me.
The picture is
of laundry
with a stain on it,
a big stain,
and you need to wash this.
And when you wash it,
the stain is still there,
so you wash it again
and again and again
until the stain is gone.
David says,
God,
wash me
over and over
and over
until the stain
of my guilt
is gone.
and then he says,
cleanse me
from my sin.
This word cleanse
is a ceremonial picture
of him saying,
God,
make me clean
so that I can come
into the temple
and worship you
because the Israelites
needed to be
ceremonially clean
before they could come
in and worship God.
And David says,
God,
bring me back
to a place
where I can join
with your people
and worship you
despite my sin
despite my guilt.
And something I want
to just note quickly,
we've been talking a lot
in our series
on the Psalms
on the importance
of honesty,
being honest with God
and being honest
with ourselves
about what's happening
in our lives,
where we're struggling.
And one thing
I want us to see today
is that if we want
to make true progress
in our fight
against the sin
inside of us,
we need to be honest
with ourselves
and with God
about that sin.
And David sets
an amazing example
of that in this chapter.
You know,
in my life,
I have this tendency
to downplay
the sin inside me.
I don't like
to see the true
depths of sin
in my heart.
When I speak words
intended to hurt someone
and they get offended,
my initial response
isn't to think,
wow,
I'm the type of person
who speaks words
intended to hurt.
My initial response
is,
they're so sensitive,
I can't believe
they get upset
over that.
When in all honesty,
the words that I spoke
were spoken
with the goal
of hurting them.
And as long
as I brush off
my sin
as other people's problem,
as inconsistencies
within me,
I'm never going
to grow,
I'm never going
to make progress
in becoming
more like Jesus.
And David here
recognizes that.
God,
and he comes
to God
with brutal
honesty
and sets us
an amazing example
of the type
of honesty
that we should bring
in our confession
to God.
Not brushing away
our problems,
not ignoring them,
not blaming them
on others,
but taking full responsibility,
but then turning
to God
and begging
for mercy.
But even though
David sets us
this great example
of honesty
that still doesn't
solve his problem
of where his solution
is going to come from.
Because you see,
here's the problem.
David here,
he confesses his sin.
In verse 4,
he says,
against you
and 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.
He praises
God's justice.
Which,
oh by the way,
demands that David
die.
And then
he turns around
in the next breath
and pleads
to God
for mercy.
Now there's
a problem here.
Because God's
justice
demands a payment
for what
David has done.
God's justice
demands
death
for the adultery
and murder
that David
has committed.
And yet David
turns to God
and he says,
God,
cleanse me.
God,
forgive me.
God,
and it appears
at least on the surface
that David
is calling on God
to go against
his own character.
God,
ignore your justice
so that I
can be saved.
So how is it
possible
that God
can satisfy
his justice
and still show
this mercy
and forgiveness
to David?
David?
Well,
if you go back
to the story
of Nathan's
confrontation
with David,
when David
confesses,
I have sinned,
Nathan tells David,
you will not die,
but
the child
born from your
relationship
will die.
And about
a week later,
the baby
that Bathsheba
had had
after
that night
with David
died.
And you know
what?
The death
of that baby
still did not
satisfy
God's
need
for justice
because just
like David,
that baby
was born
as a sinner.
However,
about a thousand
years after
David's sin,
another
descendant
would be born
from the
line of
David.
And this
descendant
would be
named
Jesus,
which means
the Lord
is salvation.
And Jesus
would live
33 years
of perfect
obedience
to God.
And after
33 years
of perfect
obedience
to God,
Jesus would
stand on
trial before
a man
named
Pilate.
And as
the crowds
shout out,
crucify him,
Pilate
utters words
that are
eerily reminiscent
of the words
that Nathan
spoke to
David.
Nathan said,
you are
the man.
And as
the crowds
cry out,
crucify him,
Pilate
shouts out
to the crowds,
behold
the man,
Jesus.
Hours
later,
Jesus is
hung up
on a cross.
He dies.
The one
person in
history
who had
lived the
perfect life,
the one
person in
history who
did not
deserve that
death,
is killed.
And in
that moment,
as Jesus
hung on
the cross,
God's
justice
for David's
sin was
satisfied
because a
debt of
death
was paid
by someone
who didn't
owe it
himself.
And yet
at the
same moment,
God's
mercy is
able to
be shown
to David
because that
debt was
paid by
a willing
substitute.
Jesus
was the
only solution
to David's
sin.
He was
the perfect
solution
to David's
sin.
And just
as Jesus
was the
only solution
to David's
sin and
the perfect
solution for
David's
sin,
Jesus is
also the
way that
God can
be just
today and
yet show
mercy to
you and
me in
the moments
of our
sin and
failure.
If you're
not a
Christian here
today,
I urge
you to
trust in
Jesus for
this
forgiveness
that God
offers us.
So we
have the
heart of
the problem
in sin.
We have the
only solution
in Jesus,
but then we
have a
life-changing
conclusion.
If you look
at verse 12
and 13,
it says,
restore to
me the joy
of your
salvation and
uphold me
with a
willing spirit.
Then I
will teach
transgressors
your ways and
sinners will
return to
you.
What we
see right
here is
that David
promises God,
if you
forgive me,
then I
will live
my life
on mission.
We have
these signs
up on the
stage every
week,
gospel,
community,
mission.
And there
is a
community
aspect to
this too,
but for
the sake
of time,
we're going
to skip
over that
today.
But what
we believe
here at
Watermark is
that as
we believe
the gospel,
which is
that good
news about
the forgiveness
that's available
to us in
Jesus,
that that
transforms our
hearts and
leads us to
live life in
community and
on mission,
going out and
telling others
this good news
about the
forgiveness and
life and hope
available to us
through the
sacrifice of
Jesus.
And David says
to God,
if you will
forgive me,
I will go and
tell everyone
about how amazing
and fantastic
you are and
how great your
forgiveness is.
God bless you
and if you're
here today and
you're a
Christian,
I want to
ask you,
how are you
doing with
sharing your
faith?
My challenge
to you,
share your
faith this
week.
And I know
we usually
want to focus
on heart
change,
not just
action change,
but this is
an action that
reveals what's
in our hearts.
I talk to
many Christians,
including myself,
yeah,
I talk to
myself,
who have
trouble with
this idea of
sharing our
faith.
It feels
awkward,
it feels
uncomfortable,
and I'm
going to throw
this out there.
I think the
reason so many
of us have
trouble sharing
with others
about who
Jesus is is
because we
haven't experienced
the type of
forgiveness that
David is
experiencing right
here.
I'm not talking
about forgiveness
for adultery and
murder, no,
I'm talking about
forgiveness that
goes down to
the core of
who we are.
Forgiveness that
confesses that
we're not good
people who just
had a bad
moment, but we're
sinners to the
core of our
being and we
need God to
rescue us from
the inside out.
I have lived so
much of my life
with this feeling
that I'm generally
a good person who
just needs God to
come in and help
me out around the
edges when I make
my occasional mess
ups.
And living my
life with that
attitude has led
to pride, it's
led to shame in
the moments where
I do mess up, and
it's led to a fear
of sharing my
faith because what
will others think if
they know that I do
occasionally mess up?
And the amazing news
of the gospel, the
amazing message of
this chapter is that
all of us are
desperately messed up
from the moment that
we were conceived
inside our mother's
wombs.
people who need
salvation from
outside of us.
It can be tempting
to look at David
and think, how could
he?
How could he steal
his neighbor's wife and
then have his neighbor
murdered to cover up
for him?
But if I'm being
totally honest, the
attitudes inside his
heart that led him to
do those things are all
present in my heart.
Lust,
self-centeredness,
and overwhelming
urge for self-preservation,
all of these things are
present in my heart.
There's nothing about
what David did that's
any worse than the
desires inside my heart,
and I'm guessing all
of our hearts.
All of us are sinful
like David.
All of us need mercy
like David, but all of
us have a Savior in
Jesus who has come to
forgive us and make us
anew.
And when we realize how
desperately wicked we are
and how amazingly,
abundantly merciful he
is, that should lead
to joy.
Because when we realize
that we're worse than we
ever dreamed, but we are
more loved than we could
ever have hoped, we
realize that we are
free.
And when we're joyful
about something, we want
to share that with
others.
That's our natural
response as humans.
Which is why David says,
God, I'm a sinner.
I need your mercy.
But when I receive it,
when I see how abundant
your forgiveness is, I
will share with others
about how great and
forgiving you are.
And so my challenge for
us today is to be honest
with ourselves and with
God about the sin in our
hearts, to turn to Jesus
as the only solution for
our problem, and then to
live our lives on mission
as a response to what God
has done for us.
And something that's
really cool to me about
this passage is that with
David, the sinful thing
that he did, it could have
crushed him.
It could have caused him to
go run into a hole and
hide because he didn't want
anyone to see his face
after knowing how messed up
he was.
But instead, God takes this
moment of terrible decisions
and terrible consequences
and uses it for something
good and beautiful in
David's life.
He uses the sin to lead
David to share with people
of his day and with us
about how great God's
forgiveness is.
And that same pattern of
God taking these things,
these times of sin in our
lives and making something
beautiful out of them
carries through today as
well.
The amazing truth is that
God takes our sins and
makes them beautiful by
using us as canvases where
he can paint masterpieces of
his mercy for the watching
world to see.
He paints masterpieces of
his mercy in our lives for
the watching world to see
so that as we are forgiven,
as we trust in this good
news, others can be drawn
to him as well.
And you know, God knows
that we're forgetful people.
This message is so simple.
We're messed up.
Jesus saves us.
Yay.
And yet in my life, I forget
that so often.
I forget step one, that I'm
messed up.
And I think I'm an okay
person.
In the moments where I do
mess up, I forget that Jesus
saves me.
And then I forget to be
thankful and celebrate him.
And God, knowing how
forgetful we are, has built
into the rhythm of the
church's life, certain
things to remind us of his
great love and his great
mercy.
And one of those things is
communion.
As we gather for communion,
this is a time that God has
given us to remind ourselves
and to proclaim to the world
around us the fact that Jesus
is our only solution.
As we eat the bread that's a
picture of Christ's body for us,
and as we drink the wine that's
a picture of his blood, it's a
way of physically reminding
ourselves of the fact that the
blood of Jesus is perfect, is
enough to forgive us for our
sins.
And as we eat the bread and
drink the wine, we're showing
those around us and proclaiming
to the world around us that we
do believe that the blood of
Jesus is all we need to forgive
us for our sins.
Amen.