June 8

Transcript

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

It's not in its usual spot, Alexander. There is a reason for that, too, this morning. Thank you for your word.

We want to see Jesus, and only Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Amen.

We're in the third week of our series, What Are You Thinking? Think about what you think about. Guilt. It's that heavyweight, that Muhammad Ali, of our emotions, isn't it? It comes at you with that straight left jab of should've, and then follows it up with that right hook of could've, right? I should've not lost my temper.

Oh, I could've handled that so much better. And then we try and defend, right? We deny and we blame, but nothing slows guilt down. It's that ugly troll that lives under the bridge of our conscience.

And every time we cross that bridge, it reminds us of those guilty moments. Oh, do you remember that night? Oh, oh, oh, and last week in the car and all those fingers that were going all over the place. Oh, and when you got so angry at, always trying to convince us not to like ourselves, and often succeeds, and just continues, just putting that guilt on us, laying all these guilt grips all over and over and over in our lives.

But let me illustrate that for you, and you're going to see how it really looks like. So Alexander, I'm going to abuse the poor Alexander this morning. Will you come put on this wonderful fly fishing, this wonderful fly fishing thingamajig, whatever you call that.

Thank you. I'm going to abuse this guy. So the choir, get ready, because I need you.

So let's say, and come on up, come on up. Let's say that every mistake you've ever made is written on a card. And these cards are handed out to you.

Every angry word, every angry thought, every one of those emotions, those choices that were so selfish, every transgression, just being handed to you over and over. And you need a kind of a jacket like this, right, with all kinds of pockets inside, outside, wherever you look at them. And you try to put them in there.

But at some stage, as they just continue doing this, you just don't have any more space for this, right? You're going to need a lot more hands to do that. But they never stop. You see this, they never stop.

That lie you tell, you get a card. That moment you lose your temper, there's another card. Thank you, folks.

You can go sit, except for one. Every time you do one of these things, you gossip, you get a card. What about those seasons, those seasons of failures, those days, those weeks that just come in bucket loads of failures? Thank you, Carrie.

Thank you, Alexander. You can take that off, put it back, go for therapy. It's going to be a mess.

We'll clean this up before we get the elders up here. Did that make sense? That's what it does. Just hands them, and at some stage, you just don't have any more room.

It just overwhelms you. So what do we do? We hide them. I mean, I can't let anyone else see that.

Why don't people think? And so we get really good at card games. We put them everywhere. We hide them.

We play the game. Problem is, can't hide them from myself. Every time I look in that mirror, they come at me.

I walk down the street, they come at me. Put my hand in my pocket, they come out. Here's the thing that makes it even worse.

At some stage, we start defining ourselves according to what these cards say. And here's maybe the more hurtful thing. It also affects my attitude towards God, because I kind of think, how in the world can I go into God's presence dressed like this? How can I stand before him with all this stuff that's on me and that's laying on me? What do I do with the cards? Our good brother, John, in 1 John 1, verse 8 and 9, has these beautiful words of what to do.

Verse 8, if we say we have no sin, none of this. We're fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But, and there's your biblical but, but if we confess our sins, he, God, will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right.

Can I just stop it there? I will do the last piece a little later with you. If we confess our sins, God will forgive them. Now, I know when I use that word confess, for some folks, it kind of doesn't sit well, because you kind of conjure up this image of going to sit in a little box, dark, pull this curtain.

On the other side sits someone that you don't see, and that you don't know, and you have to tell them all the stuff in your life. Hey, they got it all wrong. It's not what confession is about.

Not if you read, George, you like this. Not if you read the Greek. That's why I read the Greek and the Hebrew Bibles, because the wonderful Greek word that John uses here for confession is the word homologeo.

I think you have a slide for that, Ted. There you go. Homologeo.

There's your Greek words for the day. It's one of those combination words again, and let me break it open for you. First word is the word homo, which means the same.

Next one is lego, which means to say or speak. So you know this word homo. When you speak about a homophone, what does that mean? Homo, the same.

Phonos, sound, like see and see. One is to see, and the other one is the thing you swim in. Homograph, homo the same.

Graphos means to write, written the same, bark and bark, the dog barks and the other stuff you find on a tree. Homologeo, homo, the same. Lego, to say.

To say the same. In other words, to acknowledge or to agree. Now look at the word confession again.

Confession means to agree with God. Not complaining, not denying, not telling God anything that God doesn't already know. Confession is to agree with God and to come clean to God.

Why? Let me read you this. This is mind-blowingly beautiful. Second Corinthians, Ted, you have that.

710, and I'm reading from the Passion translation. God designed us to feel remorse over sin. That's what God said.

He doesn't like this stuff. He doesn't want it, and He doesn't want us to want it. But in order to produce what? Repentance, confession, and where does that lead? That leads to victory and salvation.

Why do I agree with God? Why do I come clean with God? Because it leads to victory and salvation. But then there's a beautiful word that comes in. This leaves us with no regrets.

But the sorrow of the world brings death. So Paul says there's two ways to respond to guilt. The first way is I go and I give it to God, and I say, God, I agree with you and all this stuff, but can I give it to you? And God takes it away, and I can breathe, and it leads to salvation.

It leads to victory. The second one is when I try and bubble this up, keep it away, pretend that it's not there, continue living in that, and that leads to death. The death of embarrassment, the death of walking with this guilt upon my life the whole time, the death of not knowing how I can pretend anymore.

You know what that does to you because we've all done it. The one is healthy, and the one is deadly. So let me borrow from last week's sermon.

How do we uproot the guilt and replant it with seeds of grace? How do we do that? There's one word. Confession. Agreeing with God, standing before Him.

Because confession is God's gift in which God frees us from that thing that hangs over us and takes away the joy of my life, the joy of being in my Father's presence. So three things. Confession is, and there's a slide for this dead, confession is agreeing with God about the reality of my sin.

Not pretending I don't have it. Not trying to make light of it. Not trying to change God's standards.

Not trying to justify it, but standing before my Father saying, Father, this is the reality. This is it. I can't do this.

The only one that can do this is you, Father. The confession is not just agreeing about the reality. There's a slide for this one too.

But it also is agreeing with God about the remedy. There we go. The remedy for our sins.

Let me tell you a little story to explain this. It comes from the Middle Ages. Talks about the two monks that were sent from the monastery down to the town to go buy some food and other supplies.

The old monk and the young monk. The old monk says, I'll get the supplies. The young monk says, I'll get the food.

They decide they'll meet each other later in the afternoon at a specific time at the gate of the town again. The old monk comes to the gate at the specified time, finds the young monk sitting there crying. Crying his heart out.

He says, what's going on? He says, I have to tell you, but I spent this whole afternoon in infidelity. The old monk puts his arm around him and he explains to him God's forgiveness and grace. Young monk says, I'll never be able to go into that sanctuary alone again ever and stand before God after this.

Old monk says to him, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll go together and I'll stand with you and we will confess your sin as if it is our sin. And that's what Jesus did.

No, actually Jesus did a lot more than that. Jesus doesn't just stand next to me. Jesus doesn't just say, okay, you confess it and then it can be seen as ours.

What did Jesus do? He took them. He took them. You come to him like this.

You're going to leave without a single one of these in your pockets. They're all going to be gone. Can I remind you of that? Second Peter's chapter two verse 24.

He, Jesus, personally carried our sin in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. Now here's the word, by his wounds, you are healed. In confession, we trust in the remedy.

And the remedy, by his wounds, we are healed. I agree with you, Lord. I'm a mess.

I agree with you, Lord. This is how my life looks like. I'm sorry, Lord.

And Jesus says, say, dad, can I just give you my glasses for a second? And Jesus's glasses are made of the blood of Jesus Christ. And when dad puts on those glasses and he looks at John, he says, wow, look how clean he is. Confession is the remedy for our sin.

Because by his wounds, by his wounds, you are healed, made whole, stands there right next to you, holding you. Because on that cross, he took them all. Remember what Amos says? And then God dumped those sins in the deepest of the deep oceans.

And he put a sign on the, that piece is not in the Bible, put a sign there. And he says, no fishing, because Jesus took them. They're gone.

When that silly thing that hides under that bridge comes at you, you tell him, you go talk to Jesus, because I don't know what you're talking about. They're gone. Because I am healed by the wounds of my Jesus.

But confession is also, Ted, and there's a slide for this one. It's also the removal of my sins. I agree with God about the removal of my sins.

Not just the reality, not just the remedy, but I stand and I agree. And I say, they need to be removed. But the only one that can do that is you.

And I told you, I'll come back to that last line. So I'm going to go back to first John chapter one, verse nine. But if we confess our sins, when we agree with God, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust him to do what is right.

And what is right? What does he do? He will cleanse from all the wrongs we have done. Don't let these things get you down. Don't let the devil come put stuff in your head.

That's not true. Don't let the devil take your life and make it feel like I can't live this life. Remember what we've said over and over, because Jesus says, come to me and I will make you live lightly and freely.

Don't let him do that. When the stuff comes, go talk to your father. Go say, hey dad, can we sit down and agree on a few things? Talk to him, tell him, listen to him, ask him, and above all, agree with him that he loves you, that he forgives you, that he heals you, and that he has cleansed you.

If we confess, he is righteous and true, and he will cleanse us. You want to take a few moments, allow the Spirit of God to just speak into your heart. Maybe there's a few things you have to say, and maybe you need to agree with God about a few things.

Can we do that? Holy Spirit, thank you that you are the one who helps us to do this, helps us not to hide, helps us not to try and pretend or deny or blame, but allows us to go sit with our Father and say, Father, can we just have a moment? Thank you, Lord, that you don't stand there with your fingers pointing at us, but that you stand there with your arms wide open, welcoming us, crying with us over the things that we mess up sometimes, broken heart with us, then reminding us how much you love us, doing the right thing, and you cleanse us by your grace. We love you. Thank you that we may come to you in all the things of our lives.

This we pray with thanksgiving in the name of Jesus.