I remember the night that I became a Christian very vividly.
Even now, it's one of the nights that I look to as potentially one of the most overwhelming and significant nights in my life.
As a 14-year-old boy, I cried that night.
14-year-old boys aren't supposed to cry, but I did.
In fact, I wept that night.
I was absolutely levelled and humbled by this incredible, unconditional love that God would show me in sending Jesus.
I remember that even as a 14-year-old, I was pretty aware of the parts of my life that weren't particularly love-worthy.
And even though I had great parents who loved me incredibly, there was clearly something special, something more about this love that God had for me.
And so I was overwhelmed with gratitude.
And at the same time, having for the first time understood how amazing God's love was, I was convicted and I was committed that from that point on,
I was going to serve God in every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every year that he gave me.
I was going to be all in.
And I remember it happened on a camp in January of 1996.
I came home from that camp still buzzing, still on fire for Jesus, still enthusiastic to a fault.
I was ready to change the world.
I was ready to be completely different.
I was ready to leave my old life and my old sinful habits behind.
And then I was on that same camp 12 months later.
And I had a moment of just incredible guilt as I realised that all of that resolve and conviction that I had had,
had just kind of worn off over the year.
In fact, if I'm honest, by mid-February of that year, I was basically back where I'd started, back into the usual rhythms of life.
And so this new me that I had resolved to be seemed like an embarrassing overstatement.
I remember standing, I was in the same place.
It was the same point on camp where they were inviting other people to become Christians, other people to respond to God's love.
And I remember suddenly realising I hadn't arrived.
I wasn't this person that I thought that I was supposed to be.
Now I knew and I believed that God loved me more than my weakness and failure and my sad attempts at following him couldn't undo that.
But I also just felt pretty embarrassed that there was almost nothing in my life that said something had changed,
that said now I belong to Jesus.
And so the preacher is standing at the front of the room, 12 months later giving a similar message,
talking about Jesus, inviting people to become Christians.
And I'm sitting there thinking, something needs to change.
I'm not where I'm supposed to be, but I can't do that because I've already done that.
I've already done the becoming a Christian thing.
So what am I supposed to do with my guilt?
Maybe you've heard Christian testimonies, stories of stuff, of how people became Christians,
and they go something like, before I was a Christian, I was a jerk.
Then I met Jesus, and now I'm amazing.
That wasn't my story.
Before I was a Christian, I was a jerk.
Then I met Jesus, and 12 months later, I was still a jerk.
And some of you might think that I'm still a jerk nearly 20 years later.
It wasn't my story.
And so I was sitting there with this guilt, conscious that something wasn't right,
but not sure what I was supposed to do with that.
I figured I only had two options.
I couldn't admit that I hadn't gone anywhere and start again.
That was too embarrassing.
I couldn't admit that.
So I figured my best hopes was either to play down how bad I still was and kind of act like
I was doing better than I really was, or I could just try harder from now on and just
have such a good year in year number two that kind of makes up for how bad I was in year number one.
I felt this pressure that if I was going to follow Jesus, I had to meet some kind of standard.
I didn't want to be another one of those Christian hypocrites.
I figured I figured I needed to be as good, at least as good as the other Christians around me,
who all looked like they were doing much better than me.
And if I'm honest, what I actually thought I had to do was be like Jesus.
I even had the wristband to remind me of it every day.
WWJD, what would Jesus do?
Nothing like what I was doing.
I felt a pressure to be perfect.
And that's a pressure that a lot of Christians feel.
That could even be a pressure that you're feeling right now as you attempt to follow Jesus,
or as you figure out whether or not you want to follow Jesus, or you're allowed to follow Jesus,
or it fits for you.
It could be the intimidation of feeling like, can I meet up to this standard?
I mean, Christians never say you have to be perfect because that would sound ridiculous.
It does sound ridiculous.
But think about the way that you respond to moral failure.
When you come across sin in someone else,
do you ever find yourself wondering whether or not they're really a Christian?
Do you find yourself looking around the room and kind of measuring who the better Christians are
based on their level of goodness or morality?
Or what about in your own life?
When you discover something, some sin in your life,
are you tempted to justify it, play it down as it's not such a big issue,
kind of pretend like it's not there?
Or maybe you feel the pressure to somehow up your game, try harder, make it up to God?
Does it get compounded by this fear that other people might find out?
Find out what you're really like?
Find out that you're not as great as you've been pretending to be?
Not as holy as you've been pretending to be?
And so then you just do everything you can to cover it up.
Keep it a secret.
Try harder at church.
Put on a bigger show of godliness.
And the pressure just builds.
So where you're saying you're here and you're slowly doing this,
and so it gets harder and harder to live up to a standard that you're getting further and further away from,
and the pressure is building, and you're feeling more guilt,
and you're driven to serve more or read your Bible more or give more,
but inside you're just feeling horrible.
Somewhere along the line,
we started to believe the lie that if we're going to follow Jesus,
we have to be perfect.
Or at very least, we've got to be better than most people.
Better than the people out there.
We started kind of expecting ourselves and other people
to have arrived as Christians.
To be like Jesus.
We read verses like the one that Deb read in 1 John 5.
Have a look at it.
It says,
This is the message we've heard from him and declare to you.
God is light.
In him there is no darkness at all.
If we claim to have fellowship with him,
and yet walk in the darkness,
we lie and do not live out the truth.
And so we look at a verse like that,
and we go,
God's light,
and we can't have any darkness,
so basically the only answer is we've got to be perfect.
That's not what it's saying.
I mean, if you go just down to the next verse,
verse 7,
it says,
If we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus,
his son,
purifies us from all sin.
So walking in the light,
whatever it means,
doesn't mean being perfect,
because you still need to be purified by the blood of Jesus
when you're in the light.
So it's not saying that,
but somehow we've grabbed verses like this
and put a pressure on ourselves
and on other people
that if you're going to wear the Christian badge,
you've got to be up here.
You've got to be better.
You've got to be putting on a show.
And I want to start this series
by saying really clearly
that that is a poisonous lie.
That is absolute rubbish.
If there is any part of that sentiment
that sounds familiar for you,
that resonates with you,
if you feel even a little bit
like there is a standard you have to meet
for God to love you,
for you to be valid as a Christian,
you need to really listen today
and through this series.
Jesus wants you to understand what he means
when he says,
my yoke is easy,
my burden is light.
Following Jesus is a journey.
It's about becoming something.
It's about being slowly transformed.
Christians are not finished products.
They haven't arrived yet.
They're on a journey.
Billy Graham,
the famous evangelist,
his wife Ruth,
when she died,
had these words put on her tombstone.
End of construction.
Thank you for your patience.
Jesus describes following him
like being on a narrow road,
a road that leads to life,
but being on the road
is not the same as being
at the end of the road.
Being on a journey
is not the same as being
at the destination
that you're trying to get to.
Anyone who has ever been
on a road trip with kids,
some of you guys in this room
are still closer to being
the kids on that road trip,
know the haunting chorus of,
are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
And after answering no
for the thousandth time,
as a parent,
you start to try and get creative
about how you might answer this.
And so you come up with,
well, we're on the way.
We're there.
Or we're almost there.
Or, you know,
the euphemism,
which is actually close to a lie,
it's not about the destination,
it's about the journey.
That's rubbish.
A journey is about the destination.
That's why it's a journey.
It's about getting somewhere.
Kids are pretty astute
and they quickly work out
that no matter how you spin it,
being on the journey
is not the same
as being at the destination.
The point of the journey
is to get to the place
that you want to get to
and they know
that you can use
fancy, clever words
and profound,
seeming statements,
but it's still not the same thing.
We are on a journey
and so we shouldn't expect
our life to be
as if we're already
at the destination,
we're already finished.
If you're a Christian,
you haven't arrived yet.
You are between two points.
Jesus says
he will carry on the work
till the destination,
till completion,
but that will happen
at the end of the journey.
The completion will be heaven.
The two points
that define being a Christian
are the cross.
The first time
you understand
and encounter the fact
that Jesus died
so that you could be forgiven
and you hand your sin over,
that's the beginning
of the journey
and the end of the journey
is heaven.
It's home.
It's when finally
you're with God,
you're with him forever
and in heaven
you will be perfect.
You will be sinless.
It will be amazing.
You will be just like Jesus
but that is not a standard
that he expects
of anyone before then.
That is not a bar
that he is holding you to.
And as long as we keep
expecting it of ourselves
and each other,
all we're doing
is adding pressure
and burdens
in our lives
and in the lives
of other people
that just don't belong there.
In fact,
for some people
who are trying to decide
whether or not
they should follow Jesus,
it's this pressure,
it's this standard
that we add
that deters them,
that turns them away.
Jesus sounds great
but I can't realistically
live up to that perfection
that the rest of you guys
are apparently living up to.
When we hold ourselves
and others to this standard,
for some Christians
that's enough to crush them
and make them give up
because we've made
following Jesus
harder than it's supposed to be.
In fact,
we've put an impossible task
in there
and so we're surprised
when they feel so guilty
that they decided
just be easier to jump out
and not have any standard
to live by.
Being a Christian
means being unfinished.
That means
that every person
in this room
who is following Jesus
is unfinished.
That is not perfect.
No one's got it all together.
Every one of us
is failing.
Every one of us
is struggling
to obey and love God
the way he deserves.
The issue is not
if we will fail.
It's what we do
when we fail.
That's the important thing.
Have a look at verse 8.
If we claim
to be without sin
we deceive ourselves
and the truth
is not in us.
See,
none of us,
again,
is claiming to be sinless.
I haven't heard
any of you say
and I probably will challenge you
if you do,
I'm sinless.
I'm perfect.
We don't say that explicitly
but if we're not
recognizing
or acknowledging
or confessing
specific things
regularly,
we're more or less
doing the same thing.
If we're not saying
here's something I've done
that I need forgiveness for,
we're more or less saying
I don't have anything
that I need to say
and ask forgiveness for.
We're kind of
claiming perfection
and if you talk
a big game like that,
if you walk around
with this persona
of I've got this
all sorted,
I'm nailing it
at following Jesus,
people will expect you
to back it up.
So if you're not
confessing sin,
it's a reasonable assumption
for the people around you
to make
that either you don't
have any
or at least you don't
think you have any.
And either way,
that's a recipe
for pressure
on you
because you've said
here's where I'm traveling.
I'm nailing it.
I'm perfect.
And so people will be watching.
And so if you make a mistake,
it's even harder
for you to admit it now
because you've been saying,
no, no, I'm up here.
I don't make mistakes.
I'm doing it right.
It's a recipe for pressure,
for insecurity
and ultimately
for hypocrisy.
And so you've got to
ask yourself the question,
why do you do that?
Why do we do that?
Why do we try and act
like we're doing better
than we actually are?
Especially as Christians.
Christians,
who is it that
we're trying to impress?
The other failures
who are sitting around us?
We know we do it.
It's why the world
calls us hypocrites.
Because we claim
we're here
and in reality
we're nowhere near it.
We know it's true
because often people
come into church
who don't fit
our moral code,
maybe who have
the self-awareness
to realise
that it's an impossible one
and so they feel
like they don't belong here.
But why do we do it?
Why do we hold ourselves
so rigidly
to an impossible standard?
Because it's not a pressure
that God places on you.
The Bible never says it.
Jesus never says,
I'll save you,
I'll die for you,
I'll forgive you,
I'll love you
if you just
meet this level
of goodness.
He doesn't even say,
look,
I'll love you
even though you don't
deserve it
but from now on
I'll only let you
stay around
if you start being
a certain amount
of goodness.
See,
the power
of sin,
the power of failure
is fear.
It's fear
of the judgment
that might come
if people knew
what we were really like.
It's fear
of what we might lose.
Fear of what people
might think of us.
And it's a fear
that Satan loves
to grab hold of.
Satan's sometimes
known as the
great accuser
because when we fail
he will push the button
of insecurity
that we already feel
sometimes
with God.
He'll remind us
of something
that's actually true
that we don't
deserve to be
loved by God.
And then while
we're conscious
that we don't
deserve it
and he's reminded us
that we're failing
he'll just kind of
put the pressure on
and go,
you may as well
give up.
You're not anywhere
near the standard
anyway.
Or he'll go,
you better keep
trying harder
because if you
stay down there
maybe God
won't actually
love you.
So many
Christians,
people who are
trying to follow
Jesus,
live with that
pressure when they
fail.
with that
fear,
how would God
respond if he
really knew
what I was like?
How would the
people around me
treat me if they
really knew that I
wasn't as holy
as I pretend to be?
On the outside
their commitment
levels might be
increasing.
They're trying
harder and harder
because they're so
scared and inside
they're just
petrified that at
any moment God's
going to stop
loving them.
But that's
not how God
responds to
failure.
That's not what
he's like.
Look at verse
9.
If we confess
our sins,
he is faithful
and just
and will
forgive us
our sins
and purify us
from all
unrighteousness.
Jesus responds
to your moments
of sin and
shame and
failure
with a gentle
invitation to
come back.
Jesus calls
you to
confess to
him and
says I
will forgive
you.
Not I
might forgive
you, not
depending on
how many bad
things you've
done leading
up to this,
whether or not
this is a
track record,
whether or not
we've been
over this
before.
He says I'm
faithful, I'm
just and I
will forgive
you and
cleanse you.
So often
we let our
failure become
a moment of
insecurity and
fear when it
comes to
following Jesus
but we
actually don't
have to.
It doesn't
have to be
that.
In his grace
God has made
your weakness,
your imperfection,
your low
moments an
opportunity to
deepen your
security in
him, to
grow your
confidence in
just how much
he loves you.
One of the
things that I
love to do
with my two
boys is
building with
blocks.
We have
like three
different kinds
of blocks and
we make all
sorts of
towers and
hotels and
tunnels and
whatever else.
Sometimes they
ruin my
excellent
creations but
I'm growing in
my grace to
forgive them
because they're
little.
But something
I've noticed
in particular
in my eldest
son Bailey is
this fierce
independence.
He has a
deep desire to
be able to do
whatever it is
that he's trying
to do on his
own.
He doesn't
want me to
get involved
and so he'll
be sitting
there and
he'll be
struggling to
get this
tower to
balance or
to get these
two pieces to
connect properly
and I'll offer
would you like
me to help?
He will
quickly let me
know that he
doesn't need my
help and then
I'll watch as he
continues to
struggle, still
unable to get
this thing to
balance or these
blocks to
connect.
I'll watch for
as long as I
can physically
restrain myself
for and then
I'll feel the
need to offer
again and so
I'll be like
are you sure
you don't want
daddy to help?
Daddy can help
you with that,
I can do that.
He'll reject my
offer a little
bit more
aggressively second
time around and
he's getting
increasingly agitated
and frustrated
but the struggle
here is that
what he's trying
to do, his
desire there is
actually good.
he wants to
be capable,
he wants to
broaden his
skills, he
doesn't want to
always have to
ask for help
but that good
desire becomes
toxic when he
lets it stand
between him and
the one thing
that can actually
solve his
problem and in
this situation
that's me
sitting there
desperately wanting
to get involved
and fix the
issue.
in the same
way we have
this right
desire to
please God
when we're
following him.
We have this
good desire to
live up to a
standard that
honors him, we
have this correct
response of shame
and guilt when we
do the wrong
thing but those
responses and
those desires
become toxic when
they drive us away
from the one thing
that can actually
help us in our
failure.
The only way that
you will ever
deal with sin in
your life is
through the death
of Jesus in your
place.
No amount of
trying harder and
he's saying every
time you fail just
come back to me.
You don't have to
do it by yourself.
Have a look at
chapter 2 verse 1
it says my dear
children I write
this to you so
that you will not
sin that's the end
game but if anybody
does sin we have
an advocate with
the father Jesus
Christ the righteous
one.
he is the
atoning sacrifice
for our sins and
not only for ours but
also for the sins of
the whole world.
The only thing that
can deal with your
sins is the death of
Jesus and it is
enough to deal with
every sin you have
done could possibly
ever do and not just
you but the sins of
the whole world.
This is written to
people who are
already following
Jesus.
It says my dear
children those who
have already started
the journey who have
discovered the cross
who have asked for
forgiveness at some
point and it's
saying don't leave
confession behind.
Don't leave
confession at the
beginning of the
journey and try and
do the rest of it
out of kind of good
intentions and hard
work.
Every time you sin
there is still grace
on offer.
no matter how big or
how bad there is
forgiveness offered
freely and the only
thing that could stand
between you and that
offer of grace and
forgiveness is your own
pride.
Is your own attempts to
try and self-justify.
Is your insistence to
hold on to your mistakes
and try and make up for
them.
Whether it's playing down
your sin as if it
doesn't matter or whether
it's trying to make up
for it.
So long as you
somehow believe that
God needs you to be good
enough for him to love
you, you will always be
crushed by the standard
that you are trying to
reach and you will never
live up to.
If you're following
Jesus, God knows what
you're like.
The Bible says that while
we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
Before we had a chance
to try and impress him,
Christ had already
decided to die for us.
Before the creation of
the world, God chose to
send his son so that we
could be forgiven.
God knows who you are.
He knows your deepest,
darkest secrets better
than you do.
And he's decided to love
you anyway.
When you fail, grace is
on offer.
And again, this isn't an
if you fail issue.
This is a when you fail.
When you fail, God
offers grace and he
offers forgiveness.
And this matters more
than just trying to
relieve the discomfort
that goes with being
guilty.
This is more than just
trying to take the
pressure off so that you
don't have to worry
about the fact that
you've done something
shameful and embarrassing.
It's not just about
escaping guilt.
coming back to God
and confessing sin
is a chance to
encounter God's grace
again and again.
And that is essential
if you are going to do
this journey home well.
It is so important
that we confess sin
because it is an
assurance-building
activity.
I'll say that again.
Confessing sin is an
assurance-building
activity.
Confessing sin is scary
because you're airing
your dirty laundry.
And so often we don't
want to do it.
And it comes from that
place of fear.
Will God still love me?
But he's actually
designed confessing sin
to be a chance for you
to be more secure
on the other side of it.
I mean, think about
what you did when you
first became a Christian.
Now, you confessed sin.
It might have been
vague.
It might have been
kind of generic and
not particularly well
expressed.
But on some level,
when you became a
Christian, you said,
God, I don't deserve
it, but I want you
to forgive me.
I want you in my life.
And he said yes.
And he did forgive you.
And he did wash you.
And he did purify you.
And every step since
then, if you're following
Jesus, has been a
response to the love
that you experienced
in that first moment.
Every step has been
fueled because you
tasted God's grace
there and it was
enough to drive you
forward.
regular confession
draws you back
to that first
experience.
Engages you again
in how incredible
it was
to be loved
and forgiven
for the very first
time.
See, it's
kind of like a
long-distance
relationship.
If you don't
speak to or see
the person that
you're in love with,
it's inevitable
that over a period
of time,
the power that
that love has
to drive your
actions and
your emotions
is going to
slowly decrease.
Now, it might
still be sufficient
that you remain
faithful and
committed to that
person, but it's
never going to have
the same force
or energy or
power as is
possible if the
distance is removed
and you get to see
and enjoy that
person face-to-face,
day in, day out.
Now, in the same
way, that first
experience of God's
grace, when you
said, I'm in, I want
to follow you and
you learnt that you
were loved unconditionally
and irreversibly,
that's enough to get
you home to heaven.
I want to say that
really clearly.
If you've taken step
one, God promises
he'll make sure you
take all the steps
until you get to
heaven.
But God doesn't
want you to just
kind of survive life
and then collapse
over the finish line
and think, oh,
thank God that's
over.
That's not his
desire for you.
He wants your life
to be amazing.
He wants you to
gain momentum in
your Christian walk.
He wants every day
to be a day where
you are more confident
in how much God
loves you, more
fearless to stand
up in a world that
thinks maybe you're
crazy for following
him because you
know he loves you,
you know nothing's
going to change and
you are getting more
and more excited for
how good heaven's
going to be when
you get that love
with nothing in the
way, with no
restraints.
And for that to be
your reality, you
need to keep tasting
grace.
You need to keep
growing your appetite
for grace and
confession, regular
confession of sin is
God's gift to you
for you to taste and
experience his grace.
It's a tool he's
given you.
If you feel insecure,
if you feel unsure
about whether or not
you're going to spend
eternity in heaven,
confession is a tool
that God has given
you to help you grow
in your confidence,
in your certainty.
It's an invitation to
come back again and
again and again and
find him faithful.
You need to dish up
your dirty laundry.
You need to lay out the
things that you are
embarrassed about, the
most shameful sins in
your life to him in
confession and you know
what you'll discover?
According to this verse,
that he's faithful, he's
just and he'll forgive
you again and again
and again and again
and again and again.
It doesn't run out.
He is faithful and just
and he will continually
forgive you and purify
you.
And as you find him
forgiving you, your
confidence will grow for
next time.
Because I remember that
when I dumped that
thing, he forgave me and
he still loved me and so
I'm confident he's going
to do this one.
And then suddenly you've
got this track record.
God just keeps coming
through and keeps loving
me and so you get more
confident and more
excited even to
acknowledge that you
have stuffed up, to
acknowledge that you
need his help because
you are so confident that
his love is more
powerful than your pride
or your lust or your
greed or your laziness or
your selfishness.
confess.
Every time you confess,
it's like reliving in
mini version what it was
like to become a
Christian for the very
first time.
It's like tasting that
incredible love of God
again for the very first
time.
That first time joy over
and over again, driving
you to love God and serve
him and confess to him
absolutely secure in God's
reliable and effective
love.
But for that to happen,
you've got to confess
sin.
Regularly.
Specifically.
Jesus says he who's
forgiven much loves
much.
He who's forgiven little
loves little.
And so if you're not
asking for forgiveness,
if you're not regularly
recognizing that you
need it, acknowledging
things that you've done
that are wrong and
handing them over and
being forgiven, then his
love is going to seem
kind of small, kind of
distant, maybe inadequate
in your life.
You might find yourself
like I did a year into
following Jesus.
Sure, I was a Christian
but I wasn't going
anywhere.
So often, if you find
yourself with a lack of
energy for God, a lack of
enthusiasm, a lack of
drive, you can trace it
back to only ever having
an entree-sized encounter
with God's grace.
grace.
Just grabbing that bit at
the beginning and
thinking that should hold
me for the rest of the
day.
God is inviting you to a
grace buffet.
He's inviting you to
feast on grace.
All you can eat grace.
Just keep coming back
every time you fail and
he will keep loving you
and forgiving you and
getting you more excited
for heaven when you will
not have to do it anymore
because his grace will
have finished his work and
removed all those bits
that you're embarrassed
about, all the things
that bring you shame.
If you want to be
someone who runs the
path God has for you,
who thrives, who
flourishes on this
journey between the
cross and heaven, if
you want to be somebody
who is certain, certain
in the hope of heaven,
fearless in the face of
opposition, you've got
to be somebody who
walks in the light, who
walks honestly, who
regularly and specifically
confesses to God and
finds him faithful and
just to forgive.
We as a church here at
St. Paul's have a core
value.
It's something that
likes to define the
culture of who we are.
A core value called
humble authenticity.
That's where this hits us
as a group.
We want to be a
community that doesn't
fake how we're going, but
is honest with one
another.
Because when you're
honest, that gives me
permission to be honest.
When I'm honest, you don't
have to live up to my
standard because my
standard's not particularly
high or impressive.
What you see in me is an
amazing God who forgives
even people like Sam.
And you think, actually, I
belong here too.
We want to be a
community that is so
humble and so honest
about what we're doing
that people don't turn up
and think, wow, what a
moral and good group of
people.
They think, wow, their
God must be amazing if he
can love them.
And also, maybe that
means he would love me
too.
Maybe that means the
people who walk in here
fresh out of prison, the
people who walk in here
fresh out of having an
affair, fresh out of
supporting a drug
habit, fresh out of all
the sort of things that
maybe make us blush and
embarrassed and are not in
our world, our version of
what we think good and bad
is.
If we would be honest, if
we were regularly putting
up a hand and going, I
need God's grace as much
today as I did the first
day I started, maybe those
people would get to
discover the grace that
we've found.
We regularly confess here
at church.
We say prayers together on
the screen, we sing songs of
confession, but there is the
potential when we do that to
just kind of dodge it, not
engage it, say the words,
oh yeah, God, I haven't been
good enough, I haven't done
the stuff I'm supposed to,
yada, yada, yada, without
actually going, no, no, no,
what's going on in your own
life, specifically.
If you want to taste grace,
you've got to be honest.
If you just say, hey God, I'm
generally not good enough, that
doesn't sting really, because
everyone's not good enough.
But if you say, hey God, I've
been struggling with lustful
thoughts, that feels
embarrassing, that feels
shameful, that's something you
need grace for.
If you say, hey God, I've been
really selfish with my money
at the moment, that's maybe a
bit embarrassing.
If you say, hey God, I've been
talking about some of these
people who I'm sitting with in
a way that doesn't honour them
or you, that's embarrassing.
That's not something you want
everyone to know, that's
something you need grace for.
Confession needs to be regular,
specific, honest, and because of
Jesus, it can be confident and
even joyful.
And so I'm going to finish up
right now and the band's going
to come up and they're going to
play some songs and then they're
going to lead us, but just as
they begin, I want to encourage
you, in fact more than
encourage you, I want to push
you, I want to say take this
opportunity right now.
If your life has been surviving
on the entree of grace, it's
time to come to the buffet.
It's time to be specific.
As they play and as we sing and as
we reflect, I want to challenge
you, you don't have to say it to
anyone else, although I would say
there is some real gifting that
God has given to us in brothers
and sisters who walk with us.
But for right now, maybe for step
one, just confess to God.
Just one thing.
If you're sitting there and you
can't think what that would be,
maybe that's your starting point.
Maybe you've gotten so good at
playing down sin in your life that
you can't even recognise the
things.
Remember, you're unfinished.
There's stuff you need to confess.
And so maybe step one is to say,
God, open my eyes to recognise
that I'm not there yet.
Give me the grace to see the
things that I need grace for so
that I can get more of your grace.
Take this opportunity.
Take the gift God has given you
and find that again,
He's faithful.
He's just.
And He will forgive.