Psalm 51

[0:00] My name is Jesse. Those of you who I haven't met, haven't met yet, you're new, man, welcome to One Harbor Church. I'm going to throw this off to the side. All right, there we go. I have all the Bible on my... That probably looked really wrong.

[0:14] If you're new, this is not how we think of the Bible. There's just limited space on my podium and... Actually, I stand on the Word of God. I'm just kidding.

[0:26] All right. Having a hard time saving this one. All right. I am a pastor of this church and an elder.

[0:41] Good luck. Those of you who are listening online, thanks for listening online. And what just happened is why you should try to show up as much as possible because I frequently embarrass myself.

[0:53] Those of you who are new, welcome to our church. If you have a Bible, open it, turn to Psalm 51. We are continuing in our Psalm series. And our goal for this Psalm series, trying to get serious again, our goal for this Psalm series is that, man, we want to grow as a church, and we want you guys to grow individually, of being authentic with God, enjoying your prayer life, and learning how to be your true self with who God is and trusting Him with your true self.

[1:23] And the Psalms are beautiful because they express the wide range of emotions that we can feel. And one of those big things, I think, is shame. And shame is one of those things where, you know, either when we are sinned against with what we talked about last week, people hold us in contempt and they sin against us or they belittle us and they mistreat us.

[1:43] We can pick up that shame and really start to feel like that is who we are. And, man, it's hard to deal with that. It makes us want to run and hide and isolate. But the same thing can happen when we sin.

[1:55] Sin is accompanied by shame. We could be ashamed of what we did. And so oftentimes what we do with our faults and our failures and our sins, instead of running to God with Him and trusting Him with it, what we do is we hide it.

[2:07] And we hide it from other people. And so what we end up doing is we walk around as Christians wearing this mask, and we get really good at pretending to be something we are not, not only to other people but to God Himself.

[2:19] And we can even fool ourselves. And so this psalm that we're going to look at today, Psalm 51, it is that kind of psalm which is a taking off of the mask that we can tend to get so comfortable with.

[2:34] Psalm 51 is what is called a penitential lament. That doesn't mean you lament in the penitentiary. It is a word, penitence. It comes from the word penitence, which is a good word to express sorrow and grief over something, over sin.

[2:51] It's a posture of the heart in repentance. And this is a penitential lament of David. And there's a really interesting backstory to this. It says at the beginning of this psalm, before verse 1, it says, To the choir master of Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba.

[3:13] So before we launch into this, context is really helpful. And I want to get into a little bit of the history behind this psalm so we can better understand and appreciate this psalm.

[3:25] And so the background is this story, right? David, about David and Bathsheba. And it starts this way, 2 Samuel, verse 11, 1 to 5. And sorry if you're already in Psalm 51, if you want to hold your finger in there and then go to now 2 Samuel, verse 11, you could do that.

[3:40] Otherwise, the verses will be up behind me as well. But it says this, In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, because there's no time to fight like in the spring, apparently, David sent Joab, one of his captains of the army, and his servants with him in all Israel.

[3:58] And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. Interesting plot point there. David isn't where he's supposed to be as king.

[4:09] He's also general of his army. And he's not there. So then what happens? Well, it happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing.

[4:25] And the woman was very beautiful. So little pause there. We could think like, Well, why was she doing that? Is she being seductive?

[4:35] Actually, no, that was what most women did in the day. Bathing time, they went up on their roofs to bathe. So this isn't a coincidence. And it's not like David's being a victim here.

[4:47] He's actually being a peeping Tom. Like, he knows what's going on, right? He knows like about that time of day, all the husbands are out to war. And guess what he does?

[4:58] He goes out on the roof where he could see everything and look on those rooftops. David sent and inquired about the women he saw. And one said, Oh, is this not, is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

[5:14] So David sent messengers and took her. Doesn't sound like a very warm invitation. It's not that like he invited her and said like, Hey, I'm David.

[5:24] You want to meet me? It says he sent his messengers and they took her. And this denotes and kind of conveys that there's some abuse of David's power and position going on here.

[5:37] And then it says, And she came to him and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house and the woman conceived and she sent and told David, I am pregnant.

[5:55] So, man, David now is in a pickle. The fruits of his sin are literally the fruits of his sin in the womb. There's no hiding that.

[6:08] Uriah, which is Bathsheba's husband, had left to war. Obviously, you know, at a time where she couldn't get pregnant and all of a sudden she's pregnant. There's going to be some explaining to do when he gets home.

[6:21] So David sees what's going on here and so instead of like owning up and confessing and repenting, he doesn't do that. He doesn't stop his sin spiral. He tries to cover his tracks and so what he does, he comes up with this really clever plan.

[6:35] You know what? I'm going to pull Uriah from the front lines and he's going to come home and, you know, be, you know, hey, just a little vacation for you, Uriah. You get to see your wife. Maybe one thing he's open, one thing will lead to another.

[6:49] That'll happen and then the pregnancy could be explained. But Uriah, he's not like David. He's not going to enjoy the comforts of home while his countrymen are off dying and fighting Israel's wars.

[7:04] And so he doesn't go into his wife. He actually chooses to sleep outside on his doorstep and then goes back to the front lines. And David's like, dang it, man, that didn't work. So what does he do? He doesn't repent.

[7:16] Man, now he makes a plan to have Uriah killed in action and he's successful. So now, David's an adulterer. Well, he's a peeping Tom, an adulterer, and now he's conspired to kill a guy and is successful at it.

[7:34] He's a murderer. But David thinks he's covered his sin up, all good and done. And then God sends Nathan the prophet and we see this in the next chapter of 2 Samuel.

[7:48] And David knows Nathan the prophet. He appreciates what Nathan the prophet brings to the table. He knows Nathan helps him out and God sends messages to David through him a lot and so he's receiving him and Nathan starts with this story.

[8:02] He's like, hey, I got to tell you, about this story of something that just happened in Israel. It's like, okay, David, yeah, there's this poor man. He doesn't have anything else but he has this one little sheep and he loves this one little sheep and he cares for this one little sheep and he loves it as its own and he nurtures that sheep and David's like, okay, okay.

[8:23] And his next door neighbor is this rich guy. He has lots of sheep. And this rich man had some friends over and instead of killing one of his sheep, he went and took the poor man's sheep for himself and killed it to feed his friends.

[8:39] And David is infuriated. He is so upset. He says, just let me know who that guy is. That dude is as good as dead. And Nathan turns around and says, you are that man.

[8:49] And David's, his whole sin is exposed and he repents. And this is the psalm after Nathan leaves that David writes.

[9:03] Psalm 51. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

[9:17] Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. And my sin is ever before me.

[9:29] Against you, 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.

[9:41] Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. And in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, hold you delight in truth in the inward being. And you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

[9:54] Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

[10:07] Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

[10:21] Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

[10:33] Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

[10:46] O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with the burnt offering.

[10:58] The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure.

[11:11] Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will be offered on your altar.

[11:24] This is God's word. There's an honesty in David's words about himself, about his sin, about his helplessness in that moment, and about his need for God's mercy.

[11:42] And you can't repent until you're willing to be honest about hard things like David is here. That's what repentance is. Repentance is saying hard words that are true. Repentance involves confession.

[11:56] And confession is simply the act of declaring what is true, right? If David says here that God delights in truth in the inward being in verse six, in six, God delights in confession.

[12:09] Man, if you say the sky is blue today, right, you're confessing something true. You're stating something true. If you confess Jesus is Lord, you are confessing, you are saying something true.

[12:21] And in repentance, confession means declaring out loud the truth about yourself and about your sinfulness. Sounds easy enough, but it's not so easy because shame makes it so hard.

[12:37] Last week, again, we talked about the shame that comes from being sinned against. And we see from today's psalm and the backstory of it how shame works to hide, to push us away from repentance.

[12:51] Shame makes it hard to honestly confront your sinfulness and your sinful actions. It's why David didn't stop his downward spiral into more sin. Man, he shouldn't have stayed behind on vacation when he sent his armies to suffer and die.

[13:06] I mean, think of it. That would have been like the closest equivalent I can think of is like Eisenhower like deciding to go to the Bahamas on D-Day while everybody's invading Normandy.

[13:18] He's like, yeah, it's been tough, man. I'm going to check out. I'm going to go over here, sip on some cocktails and like enjoy some sunshine. That was terrible leadership on David's part. Terrible leadership.

[13:29] But David didn't face that insignificant sin. I mean, we look at that and we're like, okay, bad call, but really not a big deal. Pretty insignificant. But because he didn't face that and deal with that, guess what?

[13:42] It led him to doing it again and again and things got worse and worse. David shows us the wrong way to deal with our sin. Right? Shame that makes us hide our sin and minimize it.

[13:57] But repentance is different. Repentance brings sin into the light and repentance doesn't minimize sin. The thing about shame is it wants us to live in the shadows.

[14:11] When I was young, there was a steakhouse that every once in a while we would go to and I always remember walking in there as a kid and the thing that always struck me is like, why is this place so dark?

[14:23] I didn't get it. Like, why is there low light? Well, and then as I grew up, I realized, well, everybody looks good in low light, right? It's like, man, it's a great place to go on a date because you're just like, man, you're looking good and you're looking good.

[14:36] I can't, you can't see the pimples and the crooked nose and the hair that's like, you know, going out that way. Shame, shame doesn't let people see the real you.

[14:48] Shame keeps the real you covered up in the dark. It says, man, it's safer to live in the shadows. And the crazy thing about that is like, we're just not fooling other people when we do that.

[15:02] We start fooling ourselves too. And that's why repentance is so hard because it's, when we really repent, when we really confess, it's like walking in and flipping the lights on in a room that is full of like, LED lights and mirrors.

[15:18] You can see everything. Nothing is hidden anymore. I mean, that's like the stuff of nightmares. I don't want to do that because I don't want to see my flaws if I'm perfectly honest with myself.

[15:31] I don't want to walk in and have my soul exposed in that way. But exposing sin is the only way to deal with it before it destroys you.

[15:42] I mean, look how hard King David had to work in that story to keep his sin covered up. He wasn't being honest with himself. All along the way, he wasn't being honest with himself about his sin and what was going on.

[15:58] And then finally, God sends the prophet Nathan to turn the lights on. And that's what happens. David's sin finally gets exposed.

[16:08] And here's the tragedy. It didn't have to get that far. He could have repented. He could have gone to be with his army. That episode wouldn't have happened. Here's the thing. When you and I minimize small sins, they never stay small.

[16:22] It's tempting to think that they do. That wasn't a big deal. That small little compromise. I didn't get hit with a thunderbolt or a lightning bolt. Thunder doesn't bolt.

[16:39] But it doesn't. And so it's tempting to think like, oh, there wasn't really any consequence for that little thing that I did. So we don't repent. But what that does, it inoculates us to what sin really is.

[16:51] And so that prepares us for the next step into even more heinous sin that we commit. Every small indulgence of selfishness is just a pretext for larger indulgence.

[17:05] Sin will take you further than you thought you'd ever go, and it costs you more than you thought you'd ever pay. The only way to stop that from happening is bringing sin into the light. And that starts with being honest with yourself about your sin.

[17:18] Too often, our sin, we kind of confess in a very general way. Like we do something like, man, Lord, forgive me for that thing I did. It's very kind of like, I want to say, that kind of confession is like low light confession.

[17:32] It's like having confession on a dimmer switch and going like, I'm going to bring it right down there. It lets you look at yourself when you confess that way. It lets you kind of look at yourself in that low light in the mirror and think like, yeah, I still look pretty good.

[17:46] That wasn't that bad. But that isn't real repentance. Real repentance calls sin what it is. Verse 14, at the beginning, David says this, deliver me from blood guiltiness, oh God.

[17:59] He doesn't say, Lord, deliver me from that thing I did. He gets very particular here. He's saying, and he is admitting that he shed Uriah's blood.

[18:10] Uriah's blood is on his hands. He's not minimizing his sin. He's really owning it. He's being honest with himself about it. He's being honest to God about it, about what he's really guilty of.

[18:26] And this kind of, this kind of honest naming of sin, this kind of confession, and why I really want to harp on it is because it's something that has been a massive blessing to me. It has really helped me.

[18:36] So if I'm on the beach and a pretty lady walks by and I'm like looking and lusting, I could say and confess this way, like, Lord, forgive me. I shouldn't have done that.

[18:47] I'm sorry. And that's cool. But that's low light confession. Or I could say this, Lord, forgive me for dishonoring that woman that you created in your image.

[18:59] You created her for beauty and glory and dignity and I used her for my own debased desire. I sinned against her. Forgive me for dishonoring the covenant faithfulness I promised to my wife to love and cherish her alone.

[19:13] I've sinned against her. And forgive me for despising the perfect gift of my wife that you gave to me. I've despised that gift. Forgive me, Lord. I've sinned against you. See the difference there?

[19:24] A quick I'm sorry tends to minimize sin. Dim light repentance. Real confession turns the spotlight up on what you've done.

[19:40] And there's something that happens when you get more particular and honest about your sin. What happens is your heart breaks over it and grieves over it more deeply.

[19:51] And that's a good thing. Verse 16, it says, for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with the burnt offering. So David's saying, like, I could go through the mechanics.

[20:04] I know how to, like, go in and get atonement. I can go and do that. I can say I'm sorry. But it says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.

[20:15] A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Repentance comes from a place of sincere brokenness and sorrow over your sin. It's not a mechanical thing you do.

[20:28] It's in the heart. It starts there. And here's the thing. God wants us to see sin how he sees it. God isn't ho-hum over sin. It grieves him deeply.

[20:40] In fact, the first time grief, that word grief, occurs in the Bible, it's connected to God and man's sin. Genesis 6, verses 5 to 7 says, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart.

[21:04] Man, God looks at sin and he grieves it. In the New Testament, God says, we can grieve the Holy Spirit because of sin. When you have godly sorrow and are grieving your sin, you aren't far from God, I would say, actually, you're drawing closer to God.

[21:21] You're getting closer to his heart and how he feels about your sin. That happened to me one time. It's one of the most blessed things that can happen to you. I remember I had sinned one time and it was something that I was trying not to do and I did it again and like, God, in that moment, convicted me.

[21:41] He, I think, he just, by his grace, brought me in to feel his grief over that sin and I got to sin, see my sin as he saw it, I never wanted to do that again.

[21:53] That sin that I committed, I was like, I didn't realize how much I had grieved God and so him letting me into that was one of the most beautiful things that happened in my walk with him and it really helped me to fight that sin into the future.

[22:10] So, repentance is more than just knowing that you've done something wrong and saying you're sorry. Other people can do this. Actually, Pharaoh's an interesting example because he does apologize to God.

[22:23] Exodus 9, verses 27, Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, this time I have sinned. Oh, wow, is Pharaoh kind of getting this now? The Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong.

[22:34] Plead with the Lord for there has been enough of God's thunder and hail. I will let you go and you shall stay no longer. And it looks like, sweet, man, Pharaoh's figured this out but he hasn't.

[22:45] He hasn't broken over his sin. He just doesn't like the consequences of his sin that he's sitting in. Verse 29, Moses kind of responds to Pharaoh's statement there.

[22:56] He says, as soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord. The thunder will cease and there will be no more hail so that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.

[23:11] Like Moses is saying, I'm going to go and I'm going to plead on your behalf and God's going to stop this but you know what? I know you haven't really repented and he calls it because we see after the thunder and the hail stops, Pharaoh turns around and sins again.

[23:30] Hardens his heart. See, remorse is different to repentance. Remorse only wants out of sin's consequences. Remorse is sad because you got caught. It doesn't want anything to do with God and fearing God and following him.

[23:45] But repentance, the end goal of repentance is a restored relationship with God. I mean, look at David's ultimate desire. Verse 11, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

[24:01] That right spirit, that is a faithful spirit it's talking about. Then he says in verse 12, Cast me not away from your presence. It's just pleading on David's behalf. Like the worst thing that can happen to me is that I am cast away from your presence, God.

[24:16] And take not your Holy Spirit from me. See, David, he cares about the fellowship he has with God. And it's no mistake that these verses are right in the middle of this psalm.

[24:29] I mean, all of David's confession and repentance for a sin and being honest with himself and pleading for God's mercy, it's flowing towards this end goal of wanting to be with God and be restored to union with God.

[24:44] And it's funny because the rest of the psalm is actually what it looks like to live out of that union with God. Those fruits of a life keeping with repentance. See, sin does more than just violate God's rules.

[24:59] It actually violates the relationship we have with God. It does create separation. Sin is more than an obedience problem. Sin is first a love problem because God, he is righteous.

[25:14] He is just and he loves you so much and all his commands and his rules are his way of representing himself to us and saying, man, you can look and see how just and righteous and good I am when you look at these things.

[25:28] And so when we sin and we violate his commands, we transgress those boundary lines he has given us to live with them. It's more than just breaking his rules.

[25:39] We're standing in opposition to who God is. We're saying to God, we don't really like who you are. I'd rather go my own way even if that means me standing in direct opposition to you.

[25:55] And so repentance has to start at this heart level. It has to be deeper than just a mechanical thing that, oh, I got to do X, Y, and Z and then boom, my sins are clean. The heart's affections have to be changed.

[26:07] Our heart's affections have to be turned back to loving who God is and wanting to be with him again. That is the essence of repentance.

[26:19] And the question for us is how does that change take place? How does that change take place? And without God's help, we would never do that.

[26:30] We would never be able to see our sin for what it really is. We won't be able to be honest with ourselves and with God about it. We won't be broken over it and feel God's heart that grieves over it.

[26:42] And so God has to step in and he has to wake us up. He did that with Adam, right? Adam wasn't running to God after he sinned and said, help, help, help. What did he do? Covered himself in fig leaves, hid in a tree or a bush, whatever, from God.

[26:54] Like he wanted to escape. God had to call him out. He had to pull that confession out of him. Adam, what did you do? He did the same with David and he's kind enough and gracious enough to do the same with us.

[27:09] And this is good news. It's not bad news. It's not like, oh no, God, please don't treat me that way. This is good news. Here's the reason. It's like, man, if God's the one pursuing us to pull that confession out, it's because he wants our relationship restored with him even before we do.

[27:25] He's the one that makes that first initiation step toward us, even in our sin, when we're running from him and hiding from him. And this shouldn't, this should give us, this should give us boldness in our repentance because we realize something.

[27:39] Man, God wants to forgive you and me. He wants to forgive us. He wants to restore us. He wants to renew us. He wants to heal us. He wants to do that. And throughout this psalm, we see David, he's crying out to God for forgiveness and he's praying for a renewal to happen within him because he has this faith and he knows who God is and he believes that God alone can do it and he also believes that God wants to.

[28:07] And God's desire for that is communicated to us in his mercy, in his steadfast love, his desire to want to be with you, to want that relationship restored with you, that separation that you caused.

[28:21] God wants it back. He wants you and him to be back together like this once again. And that's what David cries out at the beginning of this psalm. It says, have mercy on me, oh God, according to your steadfast love.

[28:35] God, I know you are a God of faithful, unbreaking, unchanging love. I'm going to lean into that. I'm going to lean into that attribute of who you are.

[28:47] Have mercy on me according to your abundant mercy. I know you're a merciful God. Blot out my transgressions. Wipe them away. Don't keep them in front of you.

[28:58] Please. God doesn't bring your sin into the light because he just loves confrontation and likes to see you squirm. That's not what he's about.

[29:09] He doesn't break your heart over sin because he's getting you back for hurting his feelings. He does all that because his end goal is for you and him to be one again.

[29:22] And that's always the end goal of love. We see that from the beginning of the Bible to the very end. The end goal of love is oneness. It's unity. John 17, 11, the second half of the verse, Jesus is praying this prayer over his disciples, both the ones that were there with him and he's praying for us too.

[29:43] He says, Holy Father, keep them in your name which you have given me that they may be one even as we are one. When you repent, that is God the Father loving you so much and doing whatever it takes to keep you in his name that he's willing to expose your sin.

[30:03] He's willing to break your heart over that sin. He's willing to do whatever it takes to pull that confession out of you so you can see it what it is and really repent and turn to him. And the cross is no greater proof that God will do whatever it takes to make you one with him.

[30:23] Right? John 3, 16, For God so loved the world he sent his only son. Jesus had to come to make a way for God to forgive and to heal us and to restore us.

[30:34] God can't sweep our sin under the rug and declare us not guilty. He can't just be like, oh, let's just pretend that never happened. That's not how he does it. He is righteous and he is just and so he has to punish sin accordingly.

[30:50] And the Bible tells us that sin deserves death. Now that seems harsh but it's really, I would argue that's the only way to explain an existence of separation from God because if God is the author of life and if God is life then to be separated from him is the opposite of living.

[31:13] It's the opposite of life. And if sin is separation from God then sin is ultimately death. So how can our sin be forgiven? How can we be restored to God without dying?

[31:27] Right? It's an impossible position to be in. Like how do you pay off the penalty of sin which is death and yet still be able to go through that, satisfy God's justice for our sin and then live again?

[31:42] You can't. Once you're dead, you're dead. And the only way that happened God knew how to do it. A substitute.

[31:54] An acceptable substitute had to die in our place. And that is why Jesus came because God loves sinners like you and me and was willing to die in our place. His death was our death.

[32:08] The cross is where God's justice and his mercy meet and both are satisfied. God did whatever it took to bring you back to him.

[32:19] That is how much he loves you and me. As the band comes up I want to invite us to consider how to respond to this. I want to say to you if you're in the room and you're not yet a Christian man this is hope for you.

[32:37] You don't have to try to earn your way in heaven. There is no way that you can pay off your debt of sin and God is saying to you you don't trust in yourself you trust in me. Jesus is saying you don't trust in your work you trust in my work.

[32:50] My sacrifice that I stepped in in your place and I died for you. I suffered. I took on your death for you that you can be forgiven. And the Bible says all you have to do is confess.

[33:05] Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. It calls you to just man confess what is true. I am a sinner. I need you Jesus as my Savior.

[33:17] Both of those two things are true and it says when you do that you will be saved. your sins are washed away. And I want to invite you to do that today.

[33:28] You just make that confession to God. Those of us in the room who are Christians I want to say this to us. When you and I minimize sin we end up minimizing grace.

[33:45] I want you to think about this. Who is more joyful who is more thankful in this scenario? I go and I have a friend who decides I own five bucks and he says hey Jess don't even worry about it.

[34:07] Or the man on the electric chair about to die who gets pardoned and released. Who do you think is going to be more grateful in that scenario? we are the man on the electric chair.

[34:23] Our sin every time we sin we are that man on the electric chair. And Jesus says no I've pardoned you. When you minimize sin you minimize grace.

[34:35] When you own up to your sin you let let the lights turn on it. It's going to be tough it's hard to do. It's really uncomfortable to say sin for what say what sin is.

[34:47] But when you do that you realize that oh my goodness God's grace is more deeper more immeasurable more powerful more forgiving than I ever could have imagined.

[35:06] Shame wants to keep you from stepping into God's grace. what I want to do right now is allow us opportunity to respond.

[35:18] We're going to take a moment to examine our hearts. Do business with God. What is that sin that you can bring to him?

[35:34] It's probably already popped up in your mind. Typically it's the first thing that pops up in your mind and you say nah let's not let's not deal with that. That's the one. That's the one you need to bring to him. Bring that to God.

[35:49] And if you are bold enough to write that out or speak it softly you don't need other people to hear it but just say say what it is call it out for what it is shine a light on that thing and then step in and say man Lord forgive me.

[36:09] I'm going to trust in your grace and your mercy over this. I know that through Christ that has been washed clean. That stain of sin is taken away.

[36:24] I'm going to give us all a minute to examine our hearts and pray to God right now. Let's quietly do that solemnly with eyes closed. Eck Eck Thank you.

[37:02] Thank you.

[37:32] Forgive us. Restore us. Renew us. Amen. If you want to stand with me, we're going to continue responding with communion.

[37:49] And thinking about love and oneness, communion has the word union in it for a reason.

[38:06] And this is reminding us that we are one with Christ because of what he's done. His death in our place. His sacrifice. But we partake of it.

[38:20] And we eat and we drink of it. And it both symbolizes, but by faith it's this means of grace that encourages us and reminds us and stokes that union with him.

[38:30] And so as we eat and drink this today, what you are doing as a Christian is you are saying, I have examined my heart.

[38:41] I have repented of the things the Holy Spirit has convicted me of. And I am in union with Christ. And so we get to take this with joy.

[38:55] Because Jesus always forgives. Jesus always heals. And Jesus always brings us back into oneness with him. We can't run from him.

[39:05] He chases us down. So let's eat his body broken for us. And drink his blood shed for us. Amen.