[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Thank you for being here tonight. It's time for us to begin.
I appreciate so much the encouragement, and Andrew does too, that you have given to us about the class. But especially we have appreciated the discussion and the comments and the things that you have added to the class, and we want that to continue.
So please feel free to make comments whenever you want to.
Tonight we're going to be talking about prayer and confession.
When our oldest son, Ron, was just a toddler, he could not keep his sins secret.
As soon as he did something bad, he would come running and confess it.
Mama, I slapped Shannon.
Daddy, I threw dirt on your car.
Mommy, I said a bad word. I told.
I called Sherry stupid.
He remained honest and candid person for the rest of his life.
He was always that way. He could not keep things that he had done to himself.
And I wish I were more like that, actually.
So I have a question for you.
When you commit a sin, to whom do you confess?
The Lord.
Okay, we'll talk some more about that.
Okay? Now, I'm not really asking who we should confess to. I'm asking you who you do confess to. And maybe that is true. So I'll take that.
All right. If we confess to God, remember we talked about last week? Satan will try to get us not to because he would like for us to believe that once we commit a sin, God doesn't love us anymore. We can't go to God.
And maybe it's the shame that keeps us from doing that. Okay.
But it might be easier to confess to him because you can keep it secret that way, just between you and him.
And some things need to be secret between you and him.
What about your spouse?
Would you confess to your spouse?
Probably depend on what the sin was, right?
If that is not against them, against your spouse, him or her say, okay, I Got mad and yelled at my boss at work. It might be easy to confess to your spouse.
Again, it depends on what the sin is as to whether or not you would confess it to your spouse. Right? Suppose that you were unfaithful to your spouse. Would you confess that? Or maybe you were looking at porn. Would you confess that?
I'm not asking for a verbal answer on that here tonight. Just think about it.
And whether or not you should confess to your spouse depends on a number of factors. And if you want to know what I mean by that, you can talk to me later.
Do you have a close friend or a brother or sister in Christ, maybe someone here in the Madison family that you would feel free to go to and confess again? Would that depend on what the sin was?
Maybe it's little sin.
Maybe you lost your temper with your kids.
That'd be easy to confess to a friend, wouldn't it?
You dinged somebody's car in the church parking lot and drove off.
You need to confess that to Andrew. No, just kidding.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Security.
[00:04:51] Speaker C: Security.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: Security. Yeah. Okay.
Or what if it was a big sin, like having an affair, or you drank too much at the office party, or you're developing a pornography addiction.
These are some of the things that we want to explore tonight. Okay. Number one, the need to confess our sins and to whom.
And secondly, the need that we have as a congregation to. To create an atmosphere to overcome that natural reluctance that we have to confess, especially publicly.
That's what we want to talk about tonight.
First, we have to know that we are going to sin.
Every single one of us will sin.
I want to see a show of hands. Is there anybody in here tonight who has never sinned?
Didn't think so.
We didn't raise our hands either, because we all do. And we know Romans 3:23 very well. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It's only a question of how often and how much.
So we can't deny that struggling with sin is something that we all do, that all of us do.
So it shouldn't surprise us, and it doesn't surprise us. And it shouldn't shock us when we learn that someone else has sinned. Right. In fact, I'm encouraging you don't let it.
Because if somebody does confess a sin to you, or maybe somebody comes forward in a worship service and confesses a sin, don't let it shock you and don't show that shock to that person. Why?
Because everybody does.
And what does that do if you seem shocked that they sinned?
Because see, like you say, we did too.
So that's what we need to keep in mind. It's our carnal earthly nature.
But we also need to understand that there is a difference, a big difference in committing a sin and living in or practicing sin.
Turn in your Bibles to the book of First John.
We're going to look at chapter one, beginning in verse five, First John, chapter one. It's a familiar passage, but it's pretty telling in regard to sin and confession of sin.
John says verse five, this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
I want you to notice that God is where light is. That's righteousness and holiness. Okay, and then verse six shows a contrast. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. What does the term walk mean to you?
Walking in darkness.
Okay, it's a pathway.
All right, Andrew, what does it mean that we walk in darkness walking?
[00:08:46] Speaker C: To me, it's the difference between committing and living in sin.
You know, God doesn't rank sin, but how we sin is definitely different.
There's a difference in committing that one time sin and then continuing to practice it, or especially most dangerously, living and dying in it.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: So to walk in darkness is a way of life.
All right, verse seven. But if we walk in the light, see, that's also a way of life.
Walking in the light is contrasted to walking in darkness. Our way of light, our way of life is generally doing that which is right. Living in the light, being righteous.
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 Christ, his Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say we have no sin now, see, that's the committing sin to me.
We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We don't have to walk in the sin to commit sin.
But if we confess Our sin, verse 9, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
So yes, we will sin, but we do not have to walk in in sin or live in sin.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: One of the things I think is kind of interesting is do you think there's a connection between verse 6 and verse 9? In verse 6 he says, you know, he describes a person that says they have fellowship with God, but they're not practicing. They're walking in darkness. So they say, I have fellowship. But then they're walking in darkness. And then right after that, he says, talks about confession. The reason why, I think we all kind of know the answer to that, but I think that is part of the challenge of why we don't confess is because maybe we can get away with, hey, everybody kind of perceives that I'm okay. Right.
I think a lot of this is fresh on my mind because have y' all been keeping up on the news with, like, Caleb Flynn trial? And then there's another guy. So he was, I think, a worship leader. There's another guy that was a preacher that. And they might be convicted both of murder. But anyway, they were. I mean, they were people out front. They were, you know, people that people looked to and. But they had this kind of like, we were talking about that room and never confessed. Like, just kind of kept it hidden.
And then that sin that they didn't confess took them in a place they never thought what they were walking in darkness would ever take them. So I don't know. I just think it's very purposeful there by John to mention those two together.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
So let's assume that none of us want to walk in the darkness to live in or to practice sin. So when we commit a sin, what does this say that we do for sin to be forgiven? Look back at verse nine.
If we, what, confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We'll talk some more about that in a minute. Let's be sure we know what we're talking about. Okay.
Confession, of course. Remember that the New Testament was written in Koine, Greek, the common language of the Roman Empire.
And the Greek word for confession, confessing is homo e logeo.
And homo means same. Logeo means to speak. So literally, to speak the same thing, or to assent to. To agree with, to declare openly, to speak out freely.
So basically, to acknowledge, to declare and to admit openly. Okay.
Jesus says, whoever confesses me before men, him will I also confess before my Father, which is in heaven. So what does it mean to confess? Jesus means to acknowledge our faith in him. Right. And that we believe that he is the Son of God. That's why we are asked to confess as we become Christians. So let's talk about our confessing sin first.
Andrew and I want to make sure that when we leave tonight that we are confident that we serve a God who doesn't strike us down when we sin and make mistakes like Satan wants us to believe. But rather we serve a God who loves us and who wants us to come to him and so that he can forgive and restore when we do sin.
Secondly, that we as brothers and sisters feel the same, the same way that God feels about that. That we encourage each other and want each other to confess with us, to come to us, to be with us, so that we can be encouraged or they can be encouraged and we can encourage them so that we work diligently towards creating a culture and an atmosphere in our congregation where it's easy and acceptable.
And we are encouraged to confess our sins to one another and to pray one for another that we might be forgiven and that we can renew our walk with God and with each other.
Does any part of that last statement sound familiar?
James, chapter five. Turn there. We've looked at this already a little bit in this class. I want us to look at it again.
James, chapter 5.
Beginning in verse 13, James talks about the context, says that God cares about his children and he wants to hear from us. Is anybody suffering? Pray if you're cheerful, sing Psalms if is anybody sick? Pray.
And then he gets down to say, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed.
And notice what he says. The effective fervent prayers of righteous people avail much.
A big part of that caring about us is forgiveness of sins and the restoration of relationships with him and with each other.
So what does he say the vehicle is that brings that about?
It's effective fervent prayer of righteous people.
That's where we come in, in our relationships with each other. Not that we're perfect, none of us are, we just talked about that. But because we love one another, we help each other through these things. Any thoughts?
[00:16:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
One of the things I was thinking about is if it only said, therefore confess your sins to God and there will be healing, I think we would be like, yeah, because just in the verse we read in First John, he says that when we confess, there's forgiveness and cleansing.
And don't forget that there's not just we think, alright, I'm going to confess. He's going to wipe away what was done before. But he's saying when we confess our sins, there's the past and future. We talk about righteousness, sanctification, we go all those ways. But why is there healing from. Confess your sins to one another and there will be healing.
Why is there healing and confessing to other people?
Accountability.
Okay.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: And hopefully our conscience will Lead us will be keen enough to lead us to do what we need to do about our sins.
Good point.
Okay, so let's talk about confessing our faults, our sins, and praying for one another, for healing.
Now, if we take the meaning of confession to mean to admit who is the very first person that you need to confess to yourself.
That's exactly right.
And that's probably the most difficult confession or acknowledgement to make, isn't it?
When King David was confronted with his sin with Bathsheba, it was not until he was confronted that he admitted it. Otherwise, he tried to cover it up. Remember when did Achan admit his sin of taking the spoils from the city of Jericho?
When he was confronted with his sin and he said, I have sinned. And so did David.
When did Peter face his sin of denying Jesus?
In Luke chapter 22, it says that when he denied him the third time, Jesus turned and looked at him, and then immediately he went out and wept bitterly.
That look confronted him with his sin.
So that's the most difficult thing. Speaking of David.
Well, one other thought, at least these three were courageous enough that when they were confronted with their sins, what was their response?
I have sinned.
And they were honest enough to admit it. And speaking of David, we see the deep remorse and confession that he made. I want us to look at some quick Excerpts from these two Psalms. Psalm 51. First, if you'll turn to that.
This is Psalms David. Prayer of repentance starting in verse 1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgression. There is confession right there.
And my sin is always before me. Confession. And that's where it eats us up. It was eating him up.
Notice this against you, and you only. Have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. Now go down to verse seven. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones you have broken may rejoice.
Isn't that something?
Think about that. Then verse 12. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then verse 17.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise.
David knew his God and he knew that he would forgive, but he knew that he had to repent. And confess. Now go to Psalm 32.
[00:21:15] Speaker C: By the way, there's a lot of.
Selina, is it called a personal pronoun? Me, My. Mine. Yeah, there's a lot of those in there. A lot of ownership.
My sins, my me.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered. Verse 3.
When I kept silent, my bones grew old. There's the physical part. Right.
At least he seemed to be feeling that in his bones through my groaning all the day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Notice how he was willing to do that.
I have to confess to you that I have used these two psalms as my prayer of confession and repentance on occasion. With terrible sins that I've committed.
I can't say it any better than he did. Yes.
Yeah.
[00:22:34] Speaker C: I hope you all heard that. He's basically saying, put this today. It would be like a song of the church.
It was a public song that we are going to be a people of confession. The one that always gets me is when he says in 32, when I kept silent, my bones were rotting and I was groaning all day.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: That's what sin does to us. That's unconfessed and unrepented of. Exactly. Okay.
Some of the hardest words that we'll ever have to say are, I have sinned, but we need to say them. Here's a side note. One of Satan's ruses is that it's okay for us to say, I'm a sinner.
All of us are sinning. He knows we know.
Romans 3:23 and 1 John 1:8, 10. He knows we know that. Yes, we all sin.
I think he's fine with that. But what he doesn't want is for us to be specific.
Here's what I did.
Here is the wrong thing that I have done.
That's even harder, is it not? And why is that?
Why is it hard to be specific?
[00:23:57] Speaker C: Especially publicly?
You can come forward and I'm not saying this is bad. Please. I don't want anybody to misunderstand me. But I do think you can come forward and say, I have sin, or I've got sin in my life or something, and God can do what he needs to do. But I think the part that we miss out on with being specific is someone mentioned this, the ministry, and the accountability that come with specificity, like being very specific because you think about what confession means to agree to say the same thing. So we're just saying what is happening and starting to derail just a little bit. I was thinking about.
And I think I've probably mentioned. I can't remember what I've said, and I haven't said sometimes, y', all. So I'm sorry. But when I was a campus minister at Faulkner, we had a young man that came forward and said, I'm struggling with some sin in my life. And people hugged him, loved him. And then he, you know, went about his way.
And few weeks later, he came to me. He's like, andrew, I am still struggling. I said, well, yeah, what's going on? Like, you know what is going on? And then he told me and said, oh, well, buddy, I got some people that probably help you with that. Like, I didn't know what it. I mean, we all struggle. Like, he said, there's a difference in saying, I'm a sinner and this is how I've sinned.
We're all sinners. So then. And by the way, I wasn't encouraging him to do this, but this is what he did. He came back forward, like, a few weeks later and was specific. And the scene in the room was way different than before. So before everybody hugged him, he went on his way.
The scene after that, all these men were standing by him, talking to him. It was like he was still there when we were trying to get the doors closed. And then he ends up having breakfast and lunch with people that struggled with the exact same thing. So that's, to me, like, when we are specific, it. Yes, we're agreeing, number one, with God. So we're already agreeing with what. And I think they're. I just wonder. And again, this may not be. I just wonder if God really is like, I need you to be specific even through that confession, because that's what that means. But the other part of it is so the accountability and the ministry following can actually take place.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: Aren't we afraid of what other people will think of us if we're specific?
But what you said, Rick, was what happened afterwards for you with 75 or more people. Right?
So when somebody is specific and if it is wrong, still we love, we care, we encourage, and we let them know that.
And that's why it's okay.
We want to justify. A lot of times, at least I do. Well, that person caused me to do that or this circumstance caused me to do that.
And so I haven't taken ownership.
Or maybe I try to rationalize, well, it's not really that bad.
It's not. And that makes me want to compare then, well, my sin's not nearly as bad as Sonny's.
Sorry about that.
But really think about that. Don't we think sometimes it's not really that bad in comparison to somebody else?
And like you said, we want to deny the consequences. So it's hard to say I've done wrong because I don't want to think about the consequences of what I've done.
So we do need to think about that.
Okay, so the first thing we have to do is admit to ourselves our sins, Right? Who is the second person that we should be willing to confess our sins to?
God. Exactly.
Why?
Because even though our sins might be against others, who is every sin against, it's against God.
What did David say? We read that in the psalm. Against you and you only have I sinned. But now, wait a minute, David. You sinned against Bathsheba. You sinned against her husband. You had him killed. You sinned against your nation.
Why does he say to God, it's you and you only that I've sinned against?
Completely different level. I think his.
His relationship with God had been so good and so close that when he sinned, it was like, it's against God.
I have disappointed God, so I need to confess my sin to God, don't I?
So what does our sin do to our relationship with God?
It separates us from God. Okay, there's David saying that it separates us from God. Isaiah 59, 1:2. And why does sin separate us from God?
Because God is ultimate righteousness and cannot abide or live where sin is. Now that's where Satan gets to us and says, if you sin, then God's not going to have anything to do with you. He's cut yourself off or you've cut yourself off from God.
But since we know that, as we've already mentioned, Satan tries to do that, but he's a liar. God wants us to confess our sins and to turn from them. He begs us to so that he can forgive.
I'm going to try to do this before the last bell rings. If you're taking notes, I want you to write these down.
Isaiah 55, verses 6 and 7.
These passages I want you to have at your disposal when you have sinned and you are not sure whether or not God will forgive you. Okay?
Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the sinner forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
That word abundantly in the Hebrew carries with it the idea in some writings of a chalice that is full. It's not empty. It doesn't have just a little bit in it. It's not half full. It's not even full to the top. It's full and running over.
That's how abundantly God will pardon, we'll forgive.
Isaiah 1:18 write that one down. Come now, and let us reason together, says the lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Micah 7:18 and 19 who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us and subdue our iniquities. Look at this. He will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. To the Jews, that was the furthest that you could get from your sins would be the depths of the sea. And God will do that for your sin. He will cast them into the depths of the sea. First John 1:9 we read, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And one more. 2nd Peter 3:9 the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness. He is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Have these at your disposal so that you don't have to worry about whether or not God will forgive you if you turn back to God. And if you're sorry for your sin, he will forgive.
And I've had questions in my mind in the past. Will God really forgive me of that? It was awful what I did, but he will.
And I camp out on these verses. God wants to forgive you.
So then, once we've admitted our sins to ourselves and confessed them to God, why does he tell us to confess them to each other and pray one for another?
Confess your trespasses and pray for one another that you may be healed.
That's why Andrew has an announcement to
[00:33:24] Speaker C: make to you, so I won't be here next week. But Ronnie, he wanted me just to publicly admit that. That he's the faithful one.
And last time he threw me on the bus said, I'm doing this to volunteer. Andrew's getting paid to speak somewhere. So this is not that, but I was going to give a commercial for next week. One of the questions that we have this, and I want y' all to be thinking about it. What does it look like to be a confession friendly church?
Be thinking about that. What does it look like to be a confession, like public confession friendly church?
Be marinating on that.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: You may depart as long as you don't run and make noise in the hallways.
