I'm trying to get healthy because I want to see my kids graduate.
!
These numbers act like indicators, right?
They're indicators of actual health.
So no matter how you feel, you could feel like you're doing fine, but the numbers tell you the truth.
The numbers tell you how you're really doing.
And so as I've been going through all these scans and looking at my health by the numbers,
it got me thinking, what about spiritual health?
What indicators are there for spiritual health that, regardless of how you think you might be doing,
will tell you this is how you're actually doing?
And Psalm 51, which is the text we're going to focus on this morning,
would actually suggest that one of the strongest, clearest, most reliable indicators of spiritual health and growth and flourishing
is the presence of joy.
It's the presence of joy.
So let me ask you this.
How joyful are you feeling these days?
How much joy do you experience in your daily life?
For those of us who may not be feeling joyful right now,
why don't we feel more joy?
For Christians, if we believe everything that we're hearing and confessing and praying and singing about this morning,
why don't we feel more joy?
If you're here and you're not a Christian,
is there any difference between the experiences of joy that you feel like you've had in your life
and that that a Christian might feel?
Do I really need to be a follower of Jesus in order to experience joy?
I don't think so.
How can we, for those of us who feel like we've lost our sense of joy,
how can we recover it?
Psalm 51 speaks into these questions,
and it's going to show us the source of joy,
kind of where it comes from,
the loss of joy,
why we can have it and then lose it,
where does it go,
and then finally the recovery of joy,
how to get it back.
So let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for your word,
and we thank you for this season of Lent,
and we thank you for this song.
Lord, thousands of years when David wrote it,
he never could have imagined that we would be sitting here this morning
contemplating words that flowed out of one of the most personal and painful experiences of his life.
And yet, Lord, through the power of your Holy Spirit
and through your eternal wisdom,
you have appointed these words for us this morning.
So I pray that you would open our hearts to receive
what you have to say
through these words to us.
In Jesus' name, amen.
So first of all, the source of joy,
I want to clarify a little bit what we mean
when we talk about the word joy in this context.
I don't just mean happiness.
I don't just mean optimistic.
You know, some people just are naturally wired.
Some of you, I love seeing you on Sunday
because it doesn't matter if it's raining and cold and nasty outside.
When I see you, I know you're going to be smiling
and you're going to say,
How you doing?
Good morning.
Hopefully, if you're that kind of person, you're on the welcome team
because those are the kind of people that we want on the welcome team.
And you're a naturally optimistic person.
But that's not what I mean by joy.
In the Bible, joy is more like a deep, settled assurance
that all is well, no matter what the circumstances might be.
It could be sunny.
It could be raining.
It's a deep, settled assurance that all is well,
no matter what the circumstances might be.
So no matter what we read in the news,
when we're doom scrolling,
no matter what current crisis du jour is unfolding in our world,
no matter what we might be facing in our own lives,
true joy is marked by the fact that it remains solid and unshakable
because it's not affected by outward circumstances.
That's really the difference between happiness and joy.
Happiness depends on what we feel like at the moment.
Joy depends on what is unshakably true,
regardless of how we feel.
Let me say that again.
Happiness depends on what we feel like in the moment.
Joy depends on what is unshakably true,
regardless of how we feel in the moment.
It's a very different thing.
So think of your emotions.
Our emotions, the world of feeling is like shifting sand.
And the shifting sands of emotions are always blowing this way and that.
So one day we might be feeling happy and optimistic
and hopeful about our lives,
but maybe a couple of days later,
the direction of wind has changed
and the sand's blowing in a different direction
and we're feeling sad and hopeless.
We're feeling despair.
We're feeling pessimistic and morose.
But below those shifting sands of emotions,
joy is like that bedrock.
It sits under the surface.
It's the bedrock of joy
that is deep and rooted and secure.
Think of an ocean where there's a storm raging
and there's waves and there's wind,
but if you go down deep,
go down a mile below the surface,
you'd never know there was a storm up there.
It's calm.
It's quiet.
It's peaceful.
It's still.
That's joy.
And here's the thing about true joy.
Here's the, at times, frustrating thing about this kind of joy
is you can't get this kind of joy by aiming at it.
You can't wake up and say,
I want to have this kind of joy and aim at it.
You'll never reach it.
You'll always fall short of it.
You know, some churches try to stir joy up
and, you know, you create an emotional high for people
and the music is raging
and everybody's kind of whipped into a frenzy
and jumping in the air,
and that is super fun and awesome.
Right?
I love going to experiences like that,
but you can't replace joy with something like that
because you can't manufacture joy.
You can't.
It's not an experience that you can engineer.
Joy is the byproduct of something else.
It's downstream of something else,
and if we don't have that something else,
we'll never have this kind of joy.
David, the king over Israel,
who wrote many of the Psalms,
including this one,
he had experienced this joy firsthand,
and he knew that there's only one place it can be found,
and so there's a number of places in the Psalms
which are like his prayer book
where he writes about this joy.
Psalm 16 is very clear.
Verse 11, he writes of the Lord,
In your presence there is fullness of joy.
At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
David's saying the times when I feel most full of joy
the times when I have that assurance,
when I have that bedrock,
those are the times, Lord, when I'm in your presence.
These are the only times when I feel that,
the fullness of joy.
So true joy can only be found in God's presence,
and by in God's presence,
I don't just mean being physically with God
because that's not how it works.
Being in God's presence means that our hearts
are fully aligned with his heart.
It means that we are spiritually connected to God,
that his will is our will,
that his heart is our heart,
that we're moving in step with his Holy Spirit,
that we're living out his desire for us as his creatures.
And so that's where true joy can be found.
So biblically speaking,
joy might be defined this way.
It is the deep, settled assurance
that God is in control of every aspect of my life,
and that therefore all is ultimately well
even when all is not immediately well.
The deep, settled assurance that God is in control
of every aspect of my life,
and that therefore the ultimate assurance
that all is ultimately well
even if it's not immediately well.
That's what we find in God's presence.
So when we lose that sense of joy,
it means that something is not right
in our relationship with God.
Because if that's downstream
from being in God's presence
in the way we described,
if we're not feeling it, experiencing it,
then it means that something is wrong
in that relationship.
And that's what Psalm 51 is really about.
David's relationship with God
has been fractured.
It's been damaged.
And all of the joy
has drained out of his life.
And that's why he prays
in verse 11 of this Psalm,
cast me not away from your presence.
That's David's worst fear,
to be cut off from God,
to be cast out the way Adam and Eve
were cast out of the garden.
Because he knows that life and joy and peace
are only to be found in God's presence.
And once you taste that, as David had,
you never want to do without it.
You can't imagine living a day without it.
So David is seeking to repair
that relationship.
And in the heart of the Psalm,
he prays,
and this is really the heartbeat
of Psalm 51,
restore to me the joy of your salvation.
I want to know what it's like
to live in your presence again.
So that's the source of joy.
It's living life in God's presence.
So why do we lose that?
How do we experience the loss of joy?
And what does that say?
And how do we understand that?
Well, in David's case,
it's pretty clear when we look back
and we read the text in 2 Samuel,
David, frankly, had done some terrible things.
David had abused his power.
David had slept with his best friend's wife.
When she got pregnant,
came and told him that she got pregnant,
David initiated a big mass cover-up operation,
including arranging to have his best friend killed
by sending him to the front lines
of a suicide mission.
And then David tries to go on
pretending that everything's okay,
which is what most of us do.
Tries to go on pretending like everything's fine,
nothing to see here.
Of course, we know all the servants
knew everything that was going on.
David's the only one
that actually thought it was a secret.
Of course, God knows
everything that's going on.
So David tries to pretend that everything's okay,
but his heart is not okay.
And his heart is very far from God.
And it's not a sustainable place to be.
And so in 2 Samuel 12,
his friend Nathan the prophet confronts him.
And only after Nathan confronts him
does David finally have the courage
to stop pretending that everything is okay.
I wonder if you've ever had that experience
where you just sort of reach a point
where you say,
I can't pretend that things are okay any longer.
I can't keep wearing the mask.
So David takes the mask off.
Everything comes pouring out.
And to our great benefit,
it comes out in the form of Psalm 51.
And there are some extraordinary insights here
into the things that drive us away from God
that would apply to all of us.
First, we see as we look at this Psalm,
what we see is that our relationship with God
can be damaged,
both by things that we have done
and things that we have left undone.
That's what we confess sometimes in our liturgy.
We confess things that we've done
and things that we've left undone.
So David uses several different words
to describe this problem
that has gotten in the way
of his relationship with God.
One of the words that he uses is the word peshah,
which we translate as transgressions.
Transgressions are,
this means active rebellion.
This is insurrection against God.
So part of what David has done
to damage his relationship with God
is he's rebelled against God.
In other words,
he's knowingly disobeyed
and gone against God's will.
You know, over the years,
I've had conversations with people
who've come to me
and they've wanted to talk.
I want to have a theological conversation
with you and ask you about this
with that aspect of the faith
because frankly,
I'm having a lot of doubts.
I'm not sure if I believe
any of this anymore
and I'm thinking about leaving the faith
or they're massively questioning their faith.
And sometimes those conversations
end up being theological,
but a lot of times I'll start out
by just asking,
what's going on in your life?
And it's surprising how often
that conversation ends up
taking a very different turn
because sometimes,
a surprisingly high amount of times,
you find out that other shifts in life
have coincided with that shift in faith.
You know, they moved in with their boyfriend
or they moved in with their girlfriend
or it turns out they're nursing
a deep resentment against somebody
and they're refusing to forgive that person, right?
So you begin to realize,
oh, the problem isn't theological.
You can't be actively living
against God's will
and still feel connected to him
at the same time, right?
So there's a way that some of that doubt
is your brain trying to make sense of the fact
that now all of a sudden
because you're rebelling against God,
there's no connection
or even sense of God's presence
in your life any longer, right?
But then later,
he uses the word hatat,
which we translate sin.
And this is a very different nuance.
It means missing the mark.
So imagine archery and you aim
and you miss the bullseye,
you miss the target.
Or it means falling short
or failing to live
according to God's standard,
way we might say it is living
as though God doesn't exist.
So maybe this is somebody
who's not in active rebellion against God.
Maybe this is somebody
who doesn't even acknowledge
that there is a God.
Or maybe they believe there's a God
but they think that God
is for religious people
or church-going people
but God doesn't really have anything
to do with me.
Or maybe they think that God
created everything
and just kind of wants us to be happy
but doesn't really get involved
in the everyday affairs of our life.
He just kind of lets us do our thing, right?
These are popular ideas
that people in our country have about God.
So, you know,
maybe in the way we,
maybe we think,
you know, when I go to church
and I pray, that's God stuff.
But the way I spend my money
and manage my budget,
that's kind of my business.
or what I do with my body,
that's my business.
But it can be in how we deal
with things like anxiety in our life.
Right?
Anxiety, it turns out,
is actually deeply rooted
in our desire to have control.
So, ultimately,
anxiety is the result of us
trying to control things
we can't control.
We try to control future outcomes.
We try to control
other people's choices.
Man, you have teenagers
and you just give anything
to just be able to just control
what they do, right?
Don't do this, do this, right?
You know, anxiety is sometimes
just trying to control
what other people think about us.
Trying to manage
what other people think about us.
The point is,
these are things
that we can't control.
Only God can control these things.
So, in reality,
when we try to control things
that only God can control,
we're living in a functionally
atheistic way.
We're living as though
there is no God.
We're living as though
maybe we are God, right?
So that would be a way
that we live in God's world
as though He doesn't exist.
So, that damages
our relationship with God.
When we live in a way
where we're failing
we're willing to let God be God
and we're trying to be Him instead.
So, the first thing
that we see here
is that our relationship
with God can be broken
both by things
that we're actively doing
in rebellion against God
but also simply by living
as though God doesn't exist.
Or not doing things
that God has called us to do.
The second thing we learn
is that the problem
that we're talking about here
runs a lot,
a lot deeper
than our actions.
In verse 5, David says,
Behold, I was brought forth
in iniquity
and in sin
did my mother conceive me.
Now, that word iniquity
is a third word
and that refers to
a kind of inner bentness
or crookedness.
And it's something
that we inherit from birth.
There's a kind of inner,
you know,
St. Augustine articulated it
as with the Latin phrase
in curvata sensei.
There's a curving inward
on oneself
that we are born with.
A kind of spiritual condition
that means
what comes most naturally
to us, right?
So, we live in a society
where for the last hundred years
there's been a lot of emphasis
on letting people do
what comes most naturally
to them
and not getting in the way
of what comes naturally
to people
and letting people live
out of their natural inclinations.
And what this is saying
is that what comes
most naturally to me
is to turn away from God
and to curve in on myself.
And I was born that way
and there's nothing
that I can do
to change that
in my own strength.
So, what this means
is that because this is rooted
in my nature
as a human being,
because I was born this way,
this is not something
that we can fix
on our own.
You can't read a book
to fix this
and think your way out of it.
You can't go to a therapist
and get this treated
with CBT
or DBT, right,
or any of the other interventions.
We can't fix this therapeutically.
We can't fix it
with the right life plan.
You can't fix it
through diet and cold plunges.
You can't engineer
your way out of this.
So, that's the second thing
we learn.
This problem goes a lot deeper
than our behavior.
And then the third thing
that we learn
is that this disconnection
that many of us feel
from God
is because part of our heart
is actually closed off
from God.
Verse 6 talks about
our need for God's truth
in the inward being
and the secret heart.
And that word
for secret heart
is satum.
And it shows up
a number of times
in the Old Testament.
And that describes
situations
where people
plug up a well
or plug up a spring
or plug up a water source
to prevent other people
from having access to it.
And David very poetically
uses that word here
to describe a part
of our heart
that we wall off
from other people
and from God.
It's part of your heart
that you say
no access
beyond this point.
No trespassing.
Right?
So, we might say
to other people,
you can know this part of me,
you can know this thing
about me,
I will let you in
on these aspects
of my life,
but I won't ever
let you know
about this.
Right?
I read this study
that said that
on average
people carry around
13 secrets,
five of which
they've never told
another living soul.
And then apparently
somebody did
some related research
on insurance
and that they correlated,
and I don't know
how much there is to this,
they correlated
the amount of secrets,
the number of secrets
that people said
that they were holding
and weren't sharing
with the people around them
and their perception
of their endurance
over time.
In other words,
people seemed to feel
physically burdened
and have less endurance
in a way
that was proportionately
related to the amount
of secrets
they were carrying.
Now, I don't know
if that's true,
but I do know
that there's been
a massive rise
in online anonymous confessions.
Maybe you've read
about this too
because people are hungry
and desperate
to unburden themselves.
But there's a part
of our heart
that we sort of wall off,
and so, you know,
we've experienced this.
This is what David
was doing, right?
He's pretending
everything's okay,
and it's easy to think
that the best way
to deal with our sin
is simply to hide it
and to wall it off
and to hide our true self,
and we're incentivized
because it's scary
to be vulnerable.
We're afraid
that if people
really know who we are
or really know
what we've done
or really know
what we think
or the things
that we struggle with
that they're going
to immediately reject us.
And so,
we will wall off
parts of ourself.
We'll hide our true self.
The problem is,
it's impossible
to have a real
three-dimensional relationship
with other human beings
if nobody really
fully knows us.
And it's no different
with God.
The only difference
is that you can't
hide from God,
and yet if we're
actively walling off
parts of ourself
from God,
we can never really
have a life-giving
relationship with God
because we're trying
to convince God
that we're somebody
that we're not.
And God knows.
He knows that that's
a lie, right?
So God desires wisdom
in the secret heart.
God desires access
to all of us.
So all of these
are aspects
of the issue
that comes between
us and God,
the reason why
we can live
so much of our lives
with a kind of
fractured relationship
with God.
So the question
then arises,
how can we
reconnect with God
and recover the joy
that comes with that,
which is the whole
point of this psalm.
And the key
to repairing
our relationship
with God,
the key to
restoring joy
that comes with
that repairing
of the breach
is what the Bible
calls repentance.
Now,
when you say
repentance,
the challenge is
that for some people
who've grown up
in the church,
this feels like
Christianity 101.
I've heard this
a thousand times.
For other people,
it sounds like
this kind of
archaic word
that only kind of
traditionalist Christians
even talk about anymore.
You go to a lot of churches
and you don't even
hear this word.
The problem is
that regardless
of what category
or camp you're in,
a lot of us tend
to misunderstand
repentance.
Psalm 51
is one of the
clearest places
to see what actual
repentance,
what actual
relationship-restoring
joy-restoring
repentance looks like.
And the path
of repentance
involves a few things
that basically
determine whether
or not it's
actual true
repentance or not.
The first thing
that we see
in this psalm
is this,
is that repentance
involves appealing
to God's mercy
alone.
Appealing to God's
mercy alone.
So I don't know
when the last time
you said you were
sorry to somebody
or to God was,
but we tend to say
things like,
I'm so sorry,
I'll try to do
better next time.
Or,
I didn't mean
to do that.
Or,
it was a huge
misunderstanding.
Or,
I made a mistake
but that's not
who I really am.
And in all
of those cases
what we're really
essentially doing
is that we're
actually appealing
to our own character.
We're saying,
forgive me
because of who I am,
forgive me
because of who
I really am,
and you just
misunderstood it
or forgive me
because of what
I promised to do
differently.
It's all based
on me
and my character.
But David
doesn't do that.
David appeals
solidly and squarely
to God's character.
He says,
have mercy on me,
O God,
according to
your steadfast love,
according to
your abundant
mercy.
We'll come back
to this,
but God
doesn't owe
you anything.
He doesn't
owe me
anything.
Have mercy
on me,
O God,
according to
the fact
that it is
your character
and nature
to have mercy.
Number two,
so appealing
to God's mercy,
honestly admitting
our sin.
Friends,
I think this
may be,
in everything
we talk about
this morning,
the hardest
thing for us
to do.
If you've
ever,
and I assume
most of you
have,
really had to
admit that
you were wrong,
it is never
not excruciatingly
painful.
If you're
really doing
it,
if you're
really naming
it,
there's always
something in
you that
goes,
when you do
it,
it hurts.
But this
is saying
that true
repentance
means unblocking
the parts
of our hearts
that we have
walled off
and letting
everything flow
out.
Pulling out
that stopper
and just letting
it all come
out.
But that
is really
hard to
do.
You know,
a few years
back,
a couple
of social
psychologists
wrote a
book,
and it
was a
book
primarily
on marriage,
and it
was called
Mistakes
Were Made
But Not
By Me.
So I like
the title,
Mistakes
Were Made
But Not
By Me.
And based
on their
research,
they say
the majority
of married
couples who
drift apart
over time
do so
slowly.
So they
drift apart
slowly over
time in
what they
describe as a
snowballing
pattern of
blame and
self-justification.
So each
partner focuses
on what the
other one is
doing wrong
while justifying
his or her
own preferences,
attitudes,
and ways of
doing things.
So the big
conclusion of the
book is this.
You know,
this is a
CliffsNotes
version.
I'll spoil the
ending for you.
The thing that
chokes the love
out of these
relationships
is not
conflicts,
it's not
misunderstandings,
it's not
personality
differences,
it's not the
fact that you
have different
hobbies and
interests,
or that one
of you goes
to bed early
and one
of you goes
to bed late,
or that one
of you likes
a clean house
and one
of you doesn't
mind a mess,
or that one
of you likes
to plan ahead
and the other
one likes
to live
spontaneously.
It's none
of those
things.
The thing
that chokes
the love
out is
self-justification.
Self-justification.
Question is,
if we're tempted
to do that
in our marriages
with the people
that we supposedly
love the most
of anybody
in the world,
how much more
are we tempted
to do this
in our relationship
with God?
Or another way
of putting it,
what makes us
think we would
do any better
with God?
You know,
I don't know
if you're like me,
but sometimes
it feels like
we're all born
with this little
team of defense
attorneys in our brain.
You know,
you're born
of these little
defense attorneys
and they're yours
and they work
for you.
They work pro bono
just for you.
And so when somebody
comes along
and they say,
when you said
or did that,
you hurt my feelings
or you did this,
the defense attorneys
are like,
we're here to go.
You know,
and they all
stop to attention
and they start
taking notes,
right?
And they use
on some of
who are defense attorneys,
right?
And you know
all the tactics,
right?
We're going to
discredit the witness.
We're going to,
did you really say this?
And you really,
and I,
you know,
and then they start
to just poke
a thousand holes
in that person's claim
that you've done
something wrong
against them,
right?
And their sole job
in your life
is to get you
off the hook.
Those defense attorneys,
they exist for one
purpose alone.
It's to convince you
and everybody around you
that you're actually
innocent,
maybe even the victim,
and that that other person
is the one
who's in the wrong,
right?
And you know,
I would say
to a certain extent,
I think we live
in a culture
that has kind of
inflamed and empowered
our defense attorneys.
We live in a culture
of victimization
where there's a,
there's a readiness
to jump into
the role of victim.
People sort of want
to claim that they've
been victimized.
You see that all the time.
You see it in the church
as well as anywhere else.
People who are,
you know,
somebody raises concerns
and they respond
by saying,
you're victimizing me.
And then the entire
conflict becomes
who's the bigger victim?
Who's been more wronged,
right?
All the while,
what's not happening?
Nobody's taking responsibility.
Nobody's owning their stuff.
So what we see here,
what we see in David's words,
is that true repentance
requires that we fire
our defense attorneys.
Right?
We fire them.
We stop trying
to justify ourselves.
And we start to do
the hard work
of owning our sin.
And it's not easy.
And I can imagine
for David
it would have been hard
to write these words.
For I know my transgressions
and my sin
is ever before me.
He's like,
it's all right here.
I'm not going to hide anymore.
No defense attorneys.
Here's my sin.
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.
Here's how to own your sin.
What's he doing?
Number one,
he's saying,
I admit my sin.
I'm not going to try to hide it.
I was wrong.
And then he says,
and all of my sin
is ultimately committed
against God.
And you say,
well,
he kind of mistreated Bathsheba
and her late husband.
And you're like,
absolutely.
Yes,
he sinned against Bathsheba
and her dead husband.
He sinned against
the whole nation of Israel.
But guess what?
Before he ever committed
adultery with Bathsheba,
he committed adultery
against God.
All sin we commit
horizontally
flows out of sin
and rebellion
that we've committed
first and foremost
against God.
But then David goes on
to say a final thing
that we would often overlook.
He says that God
is fully justified
in condemning him.
And this is very important.
We come back to what
we said a little while ago.
We have to realize
God doesn't owe us anything.
And God would be fully justified
in condemning us.
God's judgments
are just.
And we have to recognize
if we get what we deserve
from God,
there would be no hope
for any of us.
And David names all of that.
I've sinned.
All of my sin
was ultimately
against,
in first and foremost,
against you, God,
and you would be justified
and right
in condemning me.
And then finally,
repentance involves
asking not only
for forgiveness,
but for a new heart.
Create in me,
he says,
a clean heart,
O God,
a pure heart,
and renew
a right spirit
within me.
So repentance
is more than just
behavior modification.
It's a cry
from new creation.
It's a cry
for recreation.
God who said,
let there be light.
God who created
the heavens and the earth.
I need you
to recreate me.
God has the power
to transform us
from the inside out
through the power
of the Holy Spirit.
And this is where
we see the good news
of the gospel.
That when we come
to God in the way
that we have just laid out,
when we come to God
appealing to God's mercy,
honestly admitting
our sin,
and asking for a new heart,
guess what?
God's answer
is always yes.
It is always yes.
Because God
has already accomplished
everything necessary
to set us free
from sin.
David was praying
this before the cross.
He was praying
with a kind of uncertainty.
I don't know.
Maybe God will forgive him.
Maybe he won't.
But we're praying
yes, friends,
on the other side
of the cross.
So we're not looking
ahead into the unknown.
We're looking back
on what is known
and certain.
Because of the cross,
unlike David,
we know that when we
pray this way,
God's answer is always yes.
We just have to come
and ask him.
The people who aren't
reconciled to God,
the people who are
disconnected from God,
the people who don't
know the Lord,
the people who've never
experienced this life
in joy,
the reason that is the case
is because they have
never come to God
and asked.
There is no one
who has ever come to God
where God has said no.
So when we know
that we've been forgiven
and restored to God,
that's when the joy
begins to return.
And that is that kind
of unique,
powerful joy
that comes from being
fully known
and fully loved
because we've unstopped
the secret places.
And that makes us
fully secure.
And that's,
I think,
friends,
what many of us
are really after,
what we really need,
is I need to know
that somewhere out there,
the one whose opinion
matters most,
more than anyone else
in my life,
fully knows me,
fully loves me,
and in him
I am absolutely secure.
I mean,
just when I say those words,
don't you feel,
do you feel something
in you just kind of go,
fully known,
fully loved,
absolutely secure.
Right?
So let's step back
and look at all this together,
just kind of pull it together.
God desires for you
and for me
to live lives
marked by joy.
Christianity is not
about a grim compliance
or grudging obedience.
Some people treat Christianity
as though we're children
learning to like broccoli.
God's invited us
into a life
of joy and peace.
Don't you understand?
God wants to teach us
to dance.
God wants to invite us
to fly.
Right?
God wants to lift us
right out of the mire,
set us on solid ground.
That's the life
that we're invited into.
So if we lack joy
in our lives,
if we don't have
that bedrock assurance
that all is well
and that God
is in control,
that means that something
has come in the way
of our relationship
with God.
It means that something
has gotten in the way
and as we said,
it could be things
that we're actively doing
in rebellion.
Maybe you already know
exactly what that is.
It could simply be
the fact that we're living
by our own standards
instead of His
or it could be
that we're living
like He doesn't exist
in certain areas
of our lives.
But in every case,
the answer is always
the same.
There's only one path
back in
and that is the path
of repentance.
And friends,
this is the first Sunday
as we've said
of the season of Lent
which is entirely
focused on repentance.
And hopefully by now
it is abundantly clear
that that doesn't mean
Lent is a time
to be morose
and self-critical.
Lent is about
restoring joy.
I think Lent
is often misunderstood.
Lent is about
the restoration
and the recovery
of joy
that is found
in God's presence.
The last thing
I'll say is this.
Depending on how
you're wired,
this might look
different
depending on
how you operate.
So just a couple
of final
case applications
here
because I want
to press this home
a little bit
for you.
Some of us
really struggle
with all due respect
to admit
that we need grace.
We tend to be
very defensive.
We tend to have
a very hard time
seeing or admitting
our own sin.
And so,
again,
with all due respect,
for you,
if that's you,
Lent is a time
to stop pretending
that everything
is okay.
Because like David,
chances are
everybody around you
knows it's not.
It's the emperor
has no clothes.
You're only fooling
yourself.
It's time to start
being honest
about who you
really are.
And before you
can experience grace,
you may need God
to show you
that you need grace.
You may need to pray
for God's truth
and wisdom
to illuminate
your own inward
being to help
you see your need
for him.
And just to push
this a little further,
when David prays,
let the bones
that you have broken
rejoice.
Okay,
that's a sobering
reminder.
What's he saying?
Sometimes God
uses
or even
introduces
hard and painful
experiences
to humble us
enough
so that we will
see our need
for him.
It's like the
smelling salts
meant to wake
us up.
So some of us,
that's what Lent
may need to be
for you.
I suspect
there are many
of us who have
the opposite
challenge,
that we are
all too aware
of our sin.
We're never
not aware of it.
Most of the time
we feel like
failures.
I'm failing
at being a
faithful Christian.
I'm failing
at my friendships.
I'm failing
at parenting.
You know,
kids,
maybe you don't
know that most
of the time
your parents
feel like they're
doing a horrible
job.
And we're plagued
by all the things
that we know
that we should be
doing,
but we're not
doing.
So in order
for us to
experience joy,
we not only
need to repent,
but we need to
repent and then
believe the gospel.
We need to
actually believe
what's on the
other side of
repentance.
We need to
understand,
as it says in
this psalm,
that God does
not see us
the way we
see ourselves.
That God
has cleansed
you.
God delights
in you.
Right?
And when we
go on acting
as though we
are miserable
sinners,
when God
has declared
us clean,
when God
has,
as David
prays,
blotted out
our transgressions,
it's a denial
of the gospel.
There's nothing
that you can
do,
friends,
that would
make God
love you
any more
than he
loves you
right now.
And there
is nothing
that you
could ever
do that
would make
God love
you any
less than
he does
right now.
If the
gospel is
true,
and you
have come
to him
in repentance,
then you
are clean.
Period.
So Lent
is about
no longer
denying that
fact and
living out of
the freedom
that it
imparts.
So no matter
where you are
this morning,
the invitation
is the
same.
Repent and
believe the
gospel,
because repentance
is the key to
enjoy the
love.
of
sin.
Lord, we
thank you
for your
word.
Oh, that
it would
become
fresh in
us.
Please,
Lord,
dwell in
us,
move in
us,
that we
fall on
knees and
cry out,
mercy on
the way
God,
what
you
said to
us.
And if
Lord,
lift us
up,
teach us
to dance
in the
joy and
freedom.
Teach us
to dance
in the
developed
joy.
Teach us
to dance
knowing
that we
are
filling
them
in
full.
Teach us
to dance
in the
absolute
spirit
of living
life
before
we
are
alive
of
this.
We
pray
this
which
on
the
way.
Amen.