Message Notes for Lent 5
Mood:  accident prone
Topic: Sermon Staging Area
SIX STEPS TO STOP SINNING
4 of 6
REVIEW
> Stop trying .../Jesus is enough/It's not about keeping the rules, it's about living in love.
MOTIF
> To defeat sin in your life, you've got to learn to confess.
--> 1 John 1:9: Beautiful verse, comforting verse---but one of the most misused verses: "If we confess our sins, God is trustworthy and in the right to release us from our sins and to wash us clean from everything in us that isn't right [with God]"---a beautiful verse, but it means so much more than we usually get out of it.
> What confession isn't ...
--> ... admitting you've done wrong [How we use the term]/Bumper sticker: "Yes, I have the body of an 18-year-old but it's in the trunk and it's starting to smell."
--> ... for the purpose of making you feel better [www.dailyconfessions.com] [Marghanita Laski: "What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me."]
--> ... to avoid divine punishment:
-----> If you are a Christian, your punishment has already been taken on the cross [When some tragedy strikes, "What is God punishing me for?" ... your punishment has already been taken.]
-----> God does let us experience the natural consequences of our bad choices. [Drink poison? Leap from a building? This falls into the general theological category of don't be stupid.]
-----> God does discipline his children---God allows events to happen in our lives to remind us that we are not in control, to call us back to him. He does this in love. [Hebrews 12:7-8]
> When I was younger ... "God, forgive me of everything I've done wrong today," each night. What was wrong with that? I wanted to avoid God's punishment, and I was confessing my sins to God, wasn't I? It was to make me feel better/avoid punishment.
--> "Just do it and then ask forgiveness" or "God knows and he'll just have to understand": That's not confession, and God doesn't have to understand---Jesus did not die so that we could exploit God's grace but so that we could imitate God's holiness.
--> To imitate God's holiness ... real confession.
> What is confession---real confession?
> Homologeo: To express the same idea from one's heart ... to confess sin to God is to agree with God's view of the sin.
--> The goal is not simply release from punishment; it's release from the sin itself---the goal of confession is to break the grip that a sin has in your life!
DILEMMA
> Where do I learn to confess my sins?
TEXT
> Psalm 51
> Ascription: After David's sin with Bath-Sheba ... [describe David's actions ... kept it under wraps for nearly a year] there is no sin that God is unable to deliver you from ... "Thou art the man."
I. 51:1: Chanani elohim k'chesedek ... : In three words, David gives up any illusion that he is in control. [At the essence of sin is the delusion that we're in control.]
--> David's king! But he knows there's a greater king! And he knows it is only by this king's mercy that he can live.
--> "You and you only": Every sin is ultimately against God ... image of God.
--> [[[1]]] In authentic confession, I give up the delusion that I am in control. [If I received what I deserve ... 51:11 ... 51:1b: It is only because of love.]
II. 51:2, 7: "Wash me thoroughly": Not "take away the consequences" but "take away the sin itself": David doesn't want to remain in this sin.
--> Sometimes confession: "Change my situation so I may praise you." David says, "Change me, and I will praise you regardless."
--> [[[2]]] In authentic confession, it isn't about avoiding the punishment for the sin [51:4b!] ... it's about being released from the power of the sin ... breaking free.
III. 51:6: "God, look into my darkest closets---the things I've done that only you can see."
--> Peek-a-boo: Practice ... damaging to child if they don't play peek-a-boo ... "I can hide" ... hide-and-go-seek ... hunting/paintball.
--> We learn that we have the capacity to hide from other people---problem: We think we can hide from God too. [Adam and Eve]
--> We can't play peek-a-boo with God; we can't hide from God. You can hide it from me, spouse, parents; God sees.
--> [[[3]]]In authentic confession, we stop hiding: 51:5-6: "Sin runs deep in me---it always has. But I want to stop hiding from you."
> "I am the problem": [[[While in therapy ... single theme ties together: "I'm not the problem; it's not my fault." Go on TV so that someone can tell them, "You are the problem."]]] Things in my past may make it easier to slip into certain sins, but I am the problem.
--> When I sin, I cannot blame: 1 Cor. 10:13; Heb.12:4.
--> Good news: Even though I am the problem, I don't have to be the solution: Only God can release: 51:10: Bara, creation from nothing ... something only God can do!
> In everyone of us, areas where heart isn't clean ... things that we've never been completely honest with God about [dark closets, corners] ... sure, we know he knows it happened ... but we've never expressed to God how wrong it was, how much it hurt us, how much it hurt someone else.
--> Do you want that "clean heart"? (51:10).
--> What are you hiding? God already sees---but he cannot create new heart until you stop trying to hide it.
-----> It may be God isn't the only one that you need to stop trying to hide from: 51:13.
-----> James 5:16: [not publicly revealing every detail ... openness to brokenness ... rather than gossiping or tearing down: "How can we work together to love and to help?"]
-----> This is not a place where perfect people come to polish their perfect lives; it is a place where we work to put broken people back together.
RESOLUTION
> How do I really confess? Stop living as if you're in control---you aren't. Don't ask God to take away the discipline---ask him to take away the sin. Stop hiding---the one who loves you most of all already knows it all.
APPLICATION
> What are you hiding?
> [Small town in northern Greece/Aphitos/Millionnaire left 2 billion drachmae [[between $5-6 million]]: One condition: Read in public square details of his relative's lives with their consent---things they'd been hiding/Preferred to miss a vast treasure than to confess]