BACKGROUND:
The message of this Psalm is that even the vilest offender among God’s people can appeal to God for forgiveness, for moral restoration, and for the resumption of a joyful life of fellowship and service, if he comes with a broken spirit and bases his appeal on God’s compassion and grace.
David appealed to God’s love and compassion as he petitioned the Lord to forgive him by grace and cleanse him from sin. God’s attributes of unfailing love for His servant and His compassion for the helpless, were the basis for David’s appeal for mercy. Even the verb have mercy was a prayer for God to act in accord with His nature. It is also a recognition that David did not deserve forgiveness. God’s forgiveness is by His grace alone.
Blot out implies a comparison with human records that can be erased; wash away compares forgiveness with washing clothing, and cleanse is drawn from the liturgical ceremonial law in which one might be purified for temple participation. These requests stressed David’s desire for God’s total forgiveness of his transgressions... iniquity, and sin.
David confessed that he had sinned against the Lord, and then lamented his moral impotence. When he said that his sin was constantly before him, it must be remembered that his confession came about a year after he had sinned (the young child died a week after the confession. Perhaps David had so rationalized his actions that he did not sense his guilt until Nathan approached him. At any rate, he confessed that he had sinned against the Lord. And he submitted to the Lord’s will, acknowledging that anything God decided about him would be just.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what i have read today?)
I want to give you six steps to get on the path to a clear conscious. Whatever sin you've committed, whatever guilt you’ve been carrying for weeks or months or years you need to deal with it today. Do business with God and go out with a clear conscious and be guilt free.
#1. I review every area of my life.
That’s the first step. We call this making a personal moral inventory. Or a personal spiritual assessment. What you do is you sit down with God in a quiet space by yourself all alone, when you’re unhurried and you do what I just told you, “God, I’m going to do business with you. I’m going to make a list of anything that’s between me and you that’s wrong in my life that I feel guilty about – consciously or unconsciously – help me to see the things that I know are wrong and the things that I don’t know that are wrong.” The Bible says in Lamentations 3 “Let us test and examine our ways.” You get off by yourself with a pen and a notepad where you’re totally undisturbed. You ask God to reveal your sins. You say, Lord, clear my mind.
Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you. [Anything!] And lead me along the path of everlasting life.” That is a prayer saying, God turn your spotlight on my inner self. Find in me the stuff that’s entangled me, that’s hindered me, that’s holding me back.
#2. I repent of every sin.
First, I review every area then I repent of every sin. What does it mean to repent? It means three things. It means first, I take responsibility for my sin. I’m not blaming anybody else for this. Second, it means I turn away from those things. And third it means I turn toward God and his grace. I say, God I don’t want to do that any more. I take responsibility. I turn away. And I turn to. That’s what it means to repent.
What do you do on that? The Bible says this “Let us turn again in repentance to the Lord. Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven and say, ‘We have sinned and rebelled.’”
#3. I resolve to make restitution.
As you go through that list you find somebody that you have hurt and they know it then you go and make restitution. If you’ve hated them, if you’ve hurt them, mistreated them or you’ve cheated them, if possible you make restitution.
Sometimes it’s not possible. They may have died. They may have moved away and you can’t find them. They may have remarried and it would be not a good thing for you to open an old wound. So in some situations you can’t make restitution. But anything you can do to make it right, you do so.
There’s a story in the Bible of a guy named Zacchaeus. He was a tax collector. I don’t want to shock you on this but he was a tax cheat. Can you imagine anybody cheating on taxes?
One day Jesus came to his house and he was so touched by that here’s what he said “If I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to your house.’” I resolve to make restitution.
#4. I receive God’s forgiveness.
Once I’ve reviewed every area of my life, I’ve repented of the sin, I’ve accepted responsibility, I’ve resolved to make restitution where I need to. Now I receive God’s forgiveness.
The Bible says this – and by the way you don’t have to be hesitant or shy about coming to God for forgiveness. He says “Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God and there we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it.” Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God and there we will find not scolding, not punishment, not rejection. When we come to God with our sin, we receive his mercy and we find his grace.
What’s the difference between mercy and grace? Mercy is forgiveness for all the things you’ve done in the past. Grace is the power to change in the future. You need both.
#5. I reveal my faults to a friend.
You don’t have to reveal them to fifteen people. Not to five people. Not to three. Not even to two. But you need one person that you come clean with.
You say, “Come on Mike! Can’t I just be forgiven by confessing to God?” Of course you can. But here’s the question. You need to ask yourself, “Do I want to be emotionally healed or just forgiven? Do I want to be emotionally healed from all that shame and hurt or do I just want to be forgiven?” If all you want to do is be forgiven and you want to carry the weight and the pain and the resentment and pressure all the rest of your life and have it come back and keep messing with your mind, all you need to do is just confess it to God. God will forgive you. You don’t have to tell anybody else. Just tell God and he’ll forgive you. But you’ll keep on carrying it.
Some of you have asked God to forgive you over and over and over for something. And yet you still feel guilty. Why? Because you have never come clean with anybody else.
The way God wired us is that we need other people in our lives for healing. God wired us that we only get well in community. You say, “It’s humbling!” That’s why you need to do it. When you tell one other person, you don’t just tell God but you tell somebody with skin on what you’ve done. Something happens in your life that sets you free in ways you can’t imagine.
The Bible says “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing.
#6. Repeat these steps regularly.
Repeat the other five regularly. Let me give you some advice. Never procrastinate changing a diaper. It’s all going to come out in the end! The longer you procrastinate the messier it’s going to get. Never put off cleaning up a mess.
Let me give you another piece of advice, personal advice. Take a bath every now and then. People will like it. You’ll smell better if you clean up. If you spend some time cleaning up periodically.
Another piece of advice. Take the garbage out of your kitchen every day. What if you only took the garbage out of your kitchen once a year? Your house would stink. Some of you, your life stinks. Because you haven’t taken the garbage out maybe ever.
What I just shared with you, I have done it hundreds and hundreds of times. Personal, spiritual, moral inventory. One of the reasons why God blesses my life is because I try to keep short accounts with God. I’m a very flawed individual. I sin. I make mistakes. I blow it. I’m selfish. But you know what? I try to keep short accounts with God. I say “God I don’t want to carry into tomorrow the garbage of today.” It’s like spiritual breathing. You exile all the carbon monoxide and you inhale all the oxygen.
Friends, God wants to bless your life. I know this from personal experience. God wants to use your life. He wants to bless you and he wants to make you a blessing to other people. You say, “Could God use me?” Oh, yeah. God uses every kind of vessel. He can use small vessels. He can use plain vessels. He can use ordinary vessels. He can use shy vessels. He even uses broken vessels. But the only thing God will not use is a dirty vessel. And this is a test. Are you willing to do what God tells you to do? Are you willing to do it today? Are you willing to be honest to God and honest with yourself?
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
No comments:
Post a Comment