The Blessing of Forgivness (Psalm 32)

Well, good morning. It's good to see you this morning.

Glad you're here with us, if you have, every bodyble's

turned with me to Psalm thirty two this morning, some

thirty two.

We're back in our series through the through some of

the psalms in November, and so I'm glad that you're

here with us, if you'll.

Turn there with me.

You know, today, as we celebrate Veterans Day, we think

about all the sacrifice our veterans make for our freedom,

for our independence, that we might live in a free country,

worship in a free country, and pursue freedom. You know,

our forefathers wrote the declar Decoration of Independence, and then

that it outlines what we have the freedom to pursue,

and what it says here is we hold these truths

to be self evident, that all men are created equal,

that we are endowed by the Creator with certain in

the alivial rights, and that among these are listen to

this life liberty and to pursue happiness. You know, those

who served our country, they serve that we might have

life liberty and that we might pursue happiness. You know,

if you ever thought about that, all of us, as Americans,

we have the honor and the privileges to have freedom,

and that allows us to seek life.

And liberty and happiness.

You ever thought about what what do you pursue as

an American? What do you pursue to make you happy?

You know, you think about there's many different things. I

just did at Google search and I'm preparing for this

message and thought about what are different ways that people

pursue happiness. So there's this thought within our forefathers that

happiness can be found, right, it can be found in

things that can be found in actions and.

Things that we do or things that we experience.

I did a Google search and I was looking for

how what people do that they feel like makes them

feel happy?

In Some described popping bubble or.

App You ever remember that as a kid, the parents

would get in a little package and have the little

big bubbles or small bubbles. Just something about it, right,

bringing those together and just feeling them popping underneath your fingers.

Some say that brings them happiness. Some describe happiness this

smelling fresh baked bread.

I think I don't like to smell it, I don'

want to eat it. That makes me happy.

Some are like the beach, and some say they feel

happy when they're feeling the sun on their skin. Some

say a cozy bed after a long day, some of

those who love sleep. Some describe maybe those who are outdoorsmen,

they like the smell of.

Fresh, fresh cut grass. So maybe that's you.

Maybe one of these things that you do and you

sense makes you feel happy. Some talk about little victories

in life and how they make them feel happy.

Some say finding money in a jacket pocket. Just yesterday,

we were going.

Out on a run with some friends of mine, and

as we started running, we looked down and my friend

found a ten dollar bill and next thing, you know,

you know, we just thought it was a you know,

a fluke. And next thing he said, look there's something else.

He found another one, I said, or to look in

ourselves after he There is a little joy of finding

some unexpected money, right.

Some say receiving an order you've been waiting on, maybe ordered.

Something from Amazon, or some something you ordered and anticipation

for that to come in.

Now, all these many different things.

Of senses or things that happen to us make us

feel happy. Some describe but the idea of happiness is

happiness is something that we can pursue, something we can

feel something, we could sense, something we.

Might do, But the reality.

Is none of the things that we feel, or nothing

that we do, actually can truly make us happy. There's

a writer names Clarence McCartney, and he wrote about this,

and he said, happiness is not found in pleasure. Lord

Byron lived such a life as anyone did, and he

wrote the Worm, the Canker, and the Grief.

Or a mind alone. Here's a man who had great pleasure, but.

He never found happiness. Happiness is not found in money.

Jay Galed, a millionaire, have plenty of that, And when

he died he says, I suppose I'm most of the

miserable man in the on the earth.

Position. Fame don't make you happy, right?

Lord Beckenfield enjoyed more in his share of fame and

in position. He says, youth is a mistake. In manhood,

manhood a struggle, and old age.

Is a regret.

Happiness is not found in military success. Alexander the Great

conquered more than more of the world than he could

have in that day, but that was a loon. Wasn't

good enough for Alexander Great? He says, there are no

more worlds to conquer. Happiness is not found in things

we do right. It's not found in pleasure, it's not

found in military success, it's not plant and money.

Or our position.

Happiness is found in the Lord. As we come to

this passive of scripture and Psalm thirty two, David is

writing about where is happiness found? You know, there's as

I mentioned to you last week, there are several different

types of psalms in the psalms, and last week was

a hymn, and this week is a psalm that is

written with the style that describes forgiveness and confession. This

is a psalm that outlines how someone's find forgiveness and

how they confess.

To their sin. And as David writes this psalm, this is.

The first out of this literary style, David is describing

how he has found forgiveness, how he's confessed his sin

to the Lord. As you noticed, as you look at

the beginning of the verse, at the very beginning, there's

a subscript. You see these a lot in psalms, and

you see it starts with a mascule of David. The

word mascal there means instruction, giving of instruction. David is

instructing you, and I today, or he's instructing God's people

to how to find happiness and forget. I wonder today,

as we read today, I wonder, where are you finding

happiness this morning?

What are the things that you look to?

What may be sleeping in at night on one morning

yesterday morning, Maybe it is cutting your grass, Maybe it

is cooking a cake, maybe it.

Is watching a sports game, whatever it may be, what.

Are you pursuing happiness in? And you recognize today that

happiness is not in found in the things of this world.

It's not found the things that we do. It's found in.

What God wants to do for you and I.

And so this morning, let's explore together David's instruction of

how happiness is found in forgiveness that God gives us.

We stand with me unless read God's word together today

Psalm thirty two will read it all. It's eleven verses.

The Bible says, Blessed is a one. This is this

whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is

a man against in whom the Lord counts no iniquity,

in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I

kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all

day long, for day and night, your hand was heavy

upon me. My strength was dried up as by the

heat of summer. I acknowledge my sin to you, and

I did not uncover. I did not cover my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and.

You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer a prayer to

you at a time when you may be found. Surely

in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

You are a hiding place from me. You preserve me

from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah,

I will instruct you and teach you in the way

you should go. I will counsel you with my eye

upon you. Be not like a horse or mule without understanding,

which must be curved with a debt and bridle, or

it will not.

Stay near you. Many are the sorves of.

The wicked, But the stepfast love surrounds the one who

trust in the Lord.

Bleek, be glad in the Lord.

Rejoice or righteous, Oh, and shout for joy, all you upright.

In the heart.

Let's pray together, Father, we thank you Lord today for

your word.

Lord.

I pray today, as we look at Psalm thirty two,

that you would use your word to speak to our hearts. Lord,

I declare today, we declare as a body loved Lord,

that these are not my words.

These are your words. Your word.

Is it without error, It is infallible. Lord, it is

the authority by which we live our life. And so Lord,

I pray today that you may speak.

Father through me. Lord. I am a sinner, Lord that desperately.

Needs Lord, your forgiving, your forgiveness, and your anointing in

my heart, in my life. Lord, I pray you would

anoint me today that I might be filled with your spirit,

that I might deliver your word. Lord.

Lord.

May today as you speak, Lord, may we have ears

to hear and a heart to obey.

Lord. We love you, We thank you today for your word.

In your name, we pray you may be seated.

It's come to Psalm thirty two, David. As I mentioned

as writing, the psalm begins with the beatitudes. It's very

similar if you remember Jesus's Sermon on the Mound.

There's the beatitudes.

Blessed is the poord Spirit that blessed those This is

the same idea. David starts with a two part two

verse blessed. There blessed is the lord whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered. Verse two blessed as a man

who against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and whose

spirit there's no deceit. So this term this idea is

is maybe translated blessed. There would be more accurately blessedness.

It's the idea of being blessed. In our matter day English, we.

Would use the word happy.

Happy is someone whose sin is forgiven. David said it,

and Jesus does this as well discernment.

On the mount.

We see this beatitude structure also found in someone. Actually

the very first psalm in the Psalms and the writer

describes the blessed man who takes certain actions, and someone's

blessed the man who walks not in the council of

the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor

seat in the seat of scoffers. This blessing is describing

someone who is blessed by his choices and his actions.

But here David describes happiness not found in choices or actions,

but happiness actually found in.

What God's done for him.

David describes happiness as found in God's forgiveness. It's interesting

as David writes this beatitude and he's leading others to

find happiness found blessing and being right with God.

He describes forgiveness and in doing so he describes also sin.

You know sin.

This passive scripture, I think is one of the a

beautiful passive scripture, but was one of the greatest passive

scripture that describes sin. Actually, David uses three descriptions of

sin in this passive scripture, and he also gives us

three parallel descriptions of God's forgiveness. Let's look at these

descriptions of sin that David gives us and the forgiveness

that he found ever sin. Listen, what says blessed is

the one whose transgression is forgiven. There's the first word,

the first word for sin, this transgression.

It literally means going away or departing. It's the idea

of rebellion.

If you think about going away or departing is in

the idea in relationship with God is God is here

and it's going away or it's departing away from God.

It is the idea of rebelling from God, running away

from God. That's the idea here. You know, as we

think about sin and we think about this term transgression,

it's very important for us to understand at the heart

of our sin, when we sinned against God, we are

turning away and.

We're rebelling against him.

We're moving away from God, We're running away from who

he is.

David said this.

By the way, is believed that David wrote Psalm fifty one,

and I'll get I mean Psalm thirty two in his

response to fifty one, and I'll get to that earlier.

But if you remember in Psalm fifty one, David wrote

Psalm fifty one right after the sin of Bathsheba.

You remember sin of Bathsheba.

David was the king and he went up onto his

balcony that day and he looked out and the woman

was bathing, and her name was Bathsheba, and he lusted

after her, and he brought her into his court, and

while all.

The kings were at war, he laid with her. He

had an affair with Bathsheba.

She comes back and says that she's pregnant, and David

then realizes he's got to do something about this sin.

So he decides to he's going to hide this in

He's going to cover up.

So he brings your Ayah home and he sets forth

a to have Uriyah lay with his wife that she

might the people in the community might think that he

got her pregnant.

So he does that.

Devis that does That doesn't work, so he sends Uriyah

back to war, and he sends him to the front

of the lines that he might be killed, and he

has Uriyah killed, and then he takes Bathsheba's wife.

He does all that to cover his sin.

David writes Psalm fifty one right after that sin, and

right after Nathan confronts him of his sin.

And this is what David says and Psal fifty one, to.

Listen to these words in verse fifty.

One to four, he says, listen to this against you,

and you only have I sinned and done what is

evil in your sight, so that she might be justified

in your words and blameless in your judgment. David sinned

against Euryah. David had sinned against Israel. David had sinned

against so many others throughout his story.

But when David confesses his sin.

Before God, he said it was only you God. I

rebelled against my sin. God was against you. Do you

recognize this morning when you sin, the gravity of your sin.

You may be sinning against your family member. You may

be sending against a classmate. You may have done something

against your family member. You may have done many different things,

and it's impacted many others in your life. But listen,

primarily when it comes to your sin. Understand your sin

is against.

A holy God.

One writer or one pastor once said this. He says,

you don't understand the gravity of the most trivial wrong

act when you think of it as sin against the

order of nature, or against the law written on your heart,

or as the breach of the constitution of your own nature,

or as there a crime against your fellow, against your friend.

You've got to get to the bottom of the blackness

until you see that it's flat rebellion against God.

When you sin, you're turning away from God, and you sin,

it gets the Holy God. He not only.

Describes that sin is a transgression, but he describes sin.

Listen to this.

Look at the verse here blessed the ones whose transgression

is forgiven. The third the second word there is who's

sin is covered. This term sin has described as would

be translated as coming short or falling short. In ancient times,

this Hebrew word would be used to for someone who's

used did archery.

Right, they had a target, Okay, all right, okay, all right.

Well you're all awake if you're falling asleep earlier and

now you're awake, so okay, sin is falling short. So

someone again an archery they had a target and say

they shot in error and the air fall short of

the target. That's the imagery of this Hebrew word. What's

the target?

God's holy word?

This is a standard by which we live our life.

When we sin, we follow short of God's holy word.

David describes his sin as God, you had a standard

for me to live as a king, as a man,

as a god fear. You gave me instructions of how

I've lived my life, and God, I fell short of

your word. I fell short of your what You've desired

for me. Second word that David uses describes sin here listen,

transgression is forgiven.

Whose sin is covered. Listen to this verse two, Blessed.

The man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. The

third word here is iniquity, iniquity. If you think about

these words, the first word, the first term, describes our

sin in relationship to God. We've departed the Lord. We've

turned away from God. We've rebelled against him. The second

term describes our in a relationship to God's word. We

fell short of God's word. There's a holy standard which

we live. We live holy as God is holy, and

we fell short of that.

The third word here for.

Iniquity, describes our sin in relationship to ourselves. It describes

really who we are as sinners. The term can be

described as iniquity means corrupt, twisted, or crooked. When we

sin as individuals, within.

Our heart, we're twisted, we're corrupt, we're crooked in our being.

When we indulge in sin, we have to recognize in

our heart of hearts, our hearts are evil, and our

thoughts and our actions and our desires are crooked. They're corrupt,

they're twisted. It's amazing to hear how David describes his sin.

And you can think about David and what he did

with Bathsheba and the corrupt nature of him bring her

in and having an affair with her. But then you

think about the twisted nature of him bringing your ayah

in to have him sleep with his wife that they

might think that the child is your ayahs.

And then that doesn't work.

And then the twisted nature to have him put on

the front lines, to have him killed, just that he

might cover his sins. And David says, my sins, I've

repelled against God, my sins, I have fell short of

God's holy standard. And I recognize within my heart my

heart is twisted.

I'm corrupt.

David says all that, But the beautiful thing of this,

David's declaring to us in this psalm that there's happiness

that we can found in this world. There's happiness that

David has found. And what is that happiness? That happiness

is in forgiveness.

Listen to the words he describes.

He describes sin, but then he describes the blessedness of

being forgiven. He gives three different words to describe how

he was forgiven. The first word here is blessed is

the one whose transgression is forgiven. The word forgiven there

literally means to have our sins lifted off. Before we

are forgiven. We carry the weight of our sins. And

David says, when when I had this transgressions, I rebelled

against the Lord.

There was a burden on me of my sins.

But when Jesus forgave me, he lifts the burden of

my sins up. Listen to this the second imagery of

this passage. He says in verse two, blessed them. In

verse one, blessed to the ones whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

This term covered brings back the imagery of the day

of the Toement.

And we've just been reading through numbers for my Bible study,

and we've been looking at this. But if you remember

in the in the Day of Atonement, the priests would

would offer a sacrifice for the sins of is Israel,

and he would take the bl blood of that sacrifice,

and he would go in the Holy of Holies and

he would take that blood and he would put it

over the mercy seed. You remember what was in the

mercy seed. The mercy seed was what the ark of

the covenant. But it also was within the ark of

the Covenant was God's word.

It was the tablets of stone.

When we sin, we fall short right, and the good

news when we find Jesus, says our Lord Savior, and

we ask God for forgiveness.

Listen, He takes the blood of Jesus and he plies.

It over our hearts and our lives, that he might

cover our sins. He might cleanse us of our sins.

Of how we fall in short of God's glory. If

you think about the imagery of the putting the blood

of the Ark of the Covenant over the mercy seed

over the law. You remember the story of in the Exodus,

that Angel of the Lord was coming to kill all

the first worms.

What were they commanded to do. They would take the sacrifice.

And take the blood of that sacrifice right, and they

would put it over the door frames of that house, right,

and by the blood over the home when it would

appease what the wrath of God that was coming. And

because they were covered in the blood right, the wrath

of God would pass over. The word here for cover

is the same word in the New Testament for propuitiation.

You know what that means. Because we sin and we

fall in short of the glory of God. What is

our penalty, death and hell? The good news of Jesus

is when we found forgiveness of him. Listen, he covers

us of the blood of Jesus. And one day his

judgment's coming right, and the good news of Jesus right

when we found forgiveness of him.

His judgment will pass over us. Why because He's covered

us in his blood.

David says, Listen, I've sinned against the Holy God. I

fell short, but God covers me with his blood.

I'm forgiven.

He's made atonement and he's appeased the wrath of God

of what I've.

Done against the Holy God.

Once you see third here he describes it covers. But

the third description counts no iniquity.

It's a term for counts here is.

It's a book keeping term. It means to impute. But

it's a bookkeeping term.

If you think about it for a minute, just imagine

there was a book that had your life. In heaven.

There's a book, and God has a record of your life.

Imagine in that record in your life, he writes down every.

Sin you've committed against all of God.

Every time you've created a transgression, you rerailed against him.

Every time you've fallen short of the glory of God.

Every time you did something twisted, God wrote a letter.

He wrote their sense by your name. In that Ledger. Right,

that's the imagery of this passage scripture. But the imagery

of this passage is listening to this blessed as a

man against the Lord counts no iniquity. You know, the

good news of Jesus, the good news that David said.

David says, listen, there was a time that God was

writing my iniquities down. But the good news as I

found forgiveness in the Lord. And he what he took

out my He did not count my iniquities against me. Instead,

he what forgave me, He cleansed me. He remembers them

no more. If you imagine today if you had a

book that had your sins listed on a ledger, and imagine, yeah,

there was another book beside that book, and there was

a book and it was a book of Jesus. If

you opened up the book of Jesus, what it wouldn't

be anything in the book because he was sinless. Now

imagine if you opened up the book and it said sinless,

the righteousness the pure life of Christ written in it.

Now imagine he opened up your book and everything that

you had done against the Lord he took out of

that book, and he wrote in Jesus's book, everything you'd

done and gets the Holy God, he writes in Jesus'

pledguer and in your book.

It said the righteousness of Christ.

That's what the good news of Jesus is.

When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, listen that

he only forgives our transgression. Not only does he cover

our sin, but listen, he does not count our iniquity

against us. And David says, listen, there's many things in

this life that we might find happiness. We might find

happiness and things and feelings, sleeping in different foods, being

with different people, spending.

Time with people. But the true happiness is when the

Lord forgives you of your sins. Do you know that today?

Do you know the blessedness, the happiness of having your

sins forgiven, that he covers your sins, that he doesn't

count your sins against you, that he forgives your sin,

that he lifts the burden of your sins all of you?

Do you know that today?

I wonder today if you've come in this in this

room and you're looking for forgiveness or or you're looking

for happiness in all kinds of different places in this world,

and you search with it. You search for it in

your career, you search for it in your happy I

mean in your hobbies, you search for it in your relationships,

and time after time after time again you cannot find happiness.

And the reason why you're trying to find happiness as

you're trying to find.

That outside of the Lord and outside of.

Some sin that's in your life that you've never found

forgiveness of heard the story of a priest.

He was from the Philippines, and he had.

Served the Lord for many years, but there was a

time when he was in seminary that he had a

secret sin that he committed against the Lord, and he

struggled with just he'd asked for forgiveness and he repented

of that sin, but he just had had a peace.

One day, there was a lady that was in his church,

and it was believed that she had just a special

relationship with the Lord, and he had heard about that,

and he was just really suffered and he was kind

of skeptical of her, and so he told her one day,

I tell you, what, if you're so spiritual, why don't

you ask the Lord what I did in seminary and

see what the Lord has to say about it. He

was trying her a little bit, and she the next

day he saw her.

A few days later, he saw.

Her and he said, did you ask the Lord about

what I'd done?

She said, I did.

She asked him about what sin I committed when I

was a seminary.

She said, yes, I did.

The priest looked there and says, what did the Lord say?

She said, The Lord says, I don't remember. You see

what the Lord forgives, the Lord forgets. You know, the

Bible says that he casts her sin as far as

the east from the west. I wonder today, do you

know the happiness in forgiveness? David teaches here, happiness is

found in forgiveness. Where's your happiness this morning? What is

it found in? Is it found in the Lords? It

found in being right with the Lord. As you look

at the next part of this passive scripture, David continues,

he tells us he teaches that happiness has found the Lord.

But secondly he teaches it forgiveness is found in the Lord.

It's interesting as you walk this pastes, let's read what happens.

As you come to verse.

Three through five, you kind of see again David's teaching.

That's what the whole structure of this psalm is David's teaching.

He's teaching that happiness has found in forgiveness. He kind

of begins in talking about how happiness is found in forgiveness.

Is kind of a teaching moment verses one and two,

and then from three to five, he's kind of giving

a testimony. David's describing his personal experience for finding forgiveness,

what happened in his life, what he thought he could

find happiness in, and how he found forgiveness in the Lord.

Listen to what he says here he says, here's David's testimony.

He says, when I kept silent, my bones wasted away

through my groaning all day long, for day and night.

Your hand was heavy upon me, and my strength was

dried up as by the he is summer. I knowledge

my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.

I say, I will confess my transgressions to.

The Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Selah, You know, the reality is most of us, we

might know the right thing to do right. We might

know this about sin. We might know that there's happiness

in forgiveness. But reality is, many times we don't do

the right thing doing well. Guess what, You're not alone.

Neither did David. And David describes how after Bathsheba, after

the sin with Bathsheba, how he messed up, and how

did he mess up? David described how he tried to

cover his own sin. Right list is what David describes.

In this passage.

He says, when I kept silent, I hear I've done

this awful thing about Sheba and had an affair with

her and had Uriah killed and betrayed my country.

And I'd done all this thing, and I thought I

could fix it.

I thought I.

Could make this better.

And what was my solution is to cover it up,

stay silent, act like it didn't happen, brush it under

the rug. Just go on with my life, just continue

as things up, and try to find happiness in my being,

keening in the different successes.

Just keep moving on. But listen what David says. David

said when I did that.

Listen to what it describes David's When I silent, my

bones wasted away emotionally. As I was quiet about my sin,

my physically it was tearing me apart. David even describes,

through my groaning all day long, I may have put

the part on as a king that everything was okay,

but inwardly it was tearing me apart. David even describes

here for night and day, listen why there was tearing

me apart, Because night and.

Day your hand was heavy upon me.

David described that as he turned away from the Lord

God's hand, a conviction continually be heavy upon him. He

couldn't he couldn't shake the burden of his sins, and

the burden that he had rebelled against God, that he

had sinned against God, the burden that he had all

in short of what God had called me to do,

the burden of he was twisted and corrupt, and the

hand of the Lord was upon him.

David said, my strength was dried up as the heat

of summer.

I was so weak as if I was in the

middle of the summer, and I didn't have any nutrition

and hadn't drink anything, and I was just dry, and

spiritually I was dry. You know, we are a lot

like day, aren't we. We make mistakes, we sin, we

return against the Lord, We fall short of the glory

of God, we fall short of what.

His word tells us.

We are twisted and we get involved in things, and

our solution is, yes, what we can find happiness?

I can't.

I'm not right with the Lord, so let me go.

Try to find happiness is something of this world, and

we can't find it there, and as a result, we

just co own day by day. We put on a

happy face, we put on a face that everything's okay,

but anwardly we're wasting away. We come to church and

we put on that happy church face, we sing the

happy church songs, and we go home and we're miserable.

Why because we've not found forgiveness. And we think, listen

to this, just as David thinks, we think the solution

to our sin is not that God might cover it,

that we might cover it up.

We might cover our sin.

Up by being silent, by trying to move on, trying

to act like it didn't happen. And as a result,

we think the solution to happiness is covering up our

own sin and finding happiness in this world, and as

as a.

Result, spiritually were dry.

Spiritually, there's no life in us, and we are falling apart.

I remember a student, and I may have told you

this story before.

But I remember I was a teenager, I mean nineteen

year I was a college student at North Greenvihene.

I was serving as a church part time as a.

Youth pastor, and I got a phone call by a

parent one day and said, hey, can you come over?

We need you?

And so I remember they were just down the street

from where I was in college. I was just apart,

just down the street from where my dorm was. And

I went to the house and I remember walking in

the door and the mom and dad were visibly upset,

and they said the student was a student in my

youth group. He's in his room and he needs you.

And I remember walking in. I didn't really know the

details and knew something was wrong. And I remember walking

in and there was that teenage boy sitting on the

edge of his bed and he was just weeping, and

I called him by name, sat beside him. I said,

what's going on? He said, back then, we didn't The

internet wasn't like it is today.

And that's what's even bad is it's so available today.

But then he was buying sheets of pornography from people

at school for like quarters.

They would give a quarter.

And he'd get a sheet, and he had hidden it

in his room, and he had hidden it in different

places through the house, and the parents had found it.

And there that teenage boy just began to weep. He

thought that he could just cover it up, hide it.

But that boy, a teenage boy that day, was wasting

away because of the.

Sin that was in his life.

I'll tell you that story because there's people in this

room today and you think that you can cover your

sin and that it'll be okay, and you may put

it on a good front in this room, just like

he did in our youth group many times before. But

then literally you're falling apart.

It's destroying you.

The solution, to David says, for him was not him covering.

The solution for David was what true happiness is when

the Lord covered.

Listen what he says here.

Verse five is he doesn't cover it any longer, or

what he acknowledges it. He says, I acknowledge my sin

to you. I did not listen to this. I did

not cover my iniquity. Look into three words, right, I

did not I acknowledge my rebelling against you. I did

not cover my what my iniquity? How I fall in

or my iniquity, the twisted things that I did, and

I will confess how I.

Fell short to the Lord and listen.

I love this passage because David didn't say that was it.

Look what I did. I went to the Lord. I

told him everything I did, and that was it. David says,

you forgave me God, God. I thought all alone that

I could clean up my life and I could fix that,

I could cover I can maybe go through a self

improvement plan, that I could be a better person, or

I can do better things. I've done a lot of

bad things, but maybe I can do better in the future.

David says, that wasn't the answer. The answer is when

I uncovered it to the Lord. I told the Lord

what I did. I knowdged the Lord, and the Lord

forgave me.

My solution for.

Happiness is not what I can do, but what God.

Could do for me.

How God can forgive me of my sins. Today I

wonder for you. Are you thinking happiness is something that

you can find on your own outside of the Lord.

Are you recognize today.

Happiness is found in God's forgiveness. Are you today thinking

that you might you might confix your life? You might

confix the things that you've done, and maybe today you're

trying to cover it and you're trying to trying to

do better and try to do better with your life

or some self improvement plan, or do you acknowledge the

day Lord, My only hope is to stop trying to

cover up what I've done against you God, and tell

you God what I did with knowing that my only

hope God is not me. My only hope is you, God,

your forgiveness.

David acknowledged his sin to the Lord, and God forgave.

I wonder today Listen, there's some of you today, listen

that spiritually you are not where you need to be

with the Lord. And the reason why you're not listen,

the reason why you're wasting away spiritually today is because

you've never gone to God and say, God, I did this.

Some of you're right with the Lord, I mean writing

that you've been saved, but you're not right in that

You've got unconfessed sin in your life today and you're

trying to pass it. You're trying to do I'm okay,

I'm okay. You're trying to cover it up. You're trying

to just do better, maybe even today coming to.

Churches, you're trying to do better.

Maybe today the Lord's calling you to say, it's time

to stop covering up your sin. It's time for you

to come and a knowledge or sin to me. And

it's time for you to allow me to forgive you.

And you find the joy of having your sins forgiven

by me. Hey, I want to I want to forgive you.

I want to take that. I love the imagery. I

want to take that burden. I want to lift it

off your shoulders, the burden of sin you've been caring.

I want to cover your sins that my wrath might

be spared. And listen, I don't want to count your

sins against you any longer.

Come confess that to me today. You do that today.

The Bible says in First of John Listen one eight

and nine. If we say we have no sin, we

deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us.

But if we.

Confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive

us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Listen,

happiness is found in forgiveness. Forgiveness is found not in us.

Forgiveness is found in the Lord. Thirdly, forgiveness has taught

to others. You know, David in Psalm fifty one described

his sin and his need that God would forgive him

restore him.

And in Psalm fifty one three.

In that same psalm, David described his desire that once

he found forgiveness, he wanted to teach others forgiveness. Psalm

fifty one three says, for I know my transgressions and

my sins are ever before me, and he later describes

how he wanted to teach others forgiveness, and that's what

he doing here.

I believe why David wrote Psalm thirty.

Two is that David is doing.

What he promises on fifty one that he wanted to

teach others to find forgiveness. And so the rest of

the verse, in verse six through eleven, David is giving

out kind of teachings of things that he wants people

to do. The first thing he says here, and just

very quickly here in verse six he says, therefore, let

everyone who is godly offer a prayer to you at

a time where you may be found. Surely the rush

of great waters shall not reach him, David says, seek

the Lord White may be found. So that as the

Lord is moving by this morning today, listen the spirit

of God in this place, David saying, listen, offer to

a prayer to the Lord. Why may be found Lord's moving.

Don't harden your heart to the Lord. Seek him today,

David says. Secondly, seek his protection. Why should you seek

the Lord today? You should seek forgiveness because happiness is

found in forgiveness, and forgiveness is found in the Lord.

But seeking today why he may be found. But also

David describes protection that's found in the Lord. It's very

similar as we just let the Lord's prayer. What does

the Lord says, deliver us from evil? Right, it's a

prayer for protection. And David recognize, my hope for the

future and avoiding the sin is the hand of the

Lord being upon me and my finding my refuge in

the Lord.

And David says that you are my hiding place.

You preserve me from trouble, You surround me with shouts

of deliverance. Seek the Lord way he may be found.

Seek his protection. Third seek his guidance. It gives us

imagery of the Lord instructing its different thoughts. Here in

verse eight, whether this is God Who's instructing, or where

there's David who's instructing. I think both both are good interpretations,

but both come with the sense of the Lord guiding

us and guiding us by his word. I won't struct

you and teach you and the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my open upon you. Why

should we seek the Lord today? We should seek his protection,

but also we should seek his guidance. You know, the

God God wants to lead you in your life. God

has a plan for you. Jeremi twenty nine eleven says that,

and he wants to guide you what steps you want

to go. So today let's seek him. Why he may

be found, but let's seek him because he wants.

To lead us in our life. Lastly, David in verse ten.

Leads others to only seek the Lord, to seek his protection,

to seek his guidance, but lastly to seek to rejoice.

This is what he says here in verse ten, he

says many are the swords of the wicked. It's a

summary of what David says. You know, I thought, when

I was living away from God and a rebelled against

the Lord, that this affair would bring me happiness. But

it did not bring me any happiness. It brought me

nothing but despair. And so are all the other ones

who are corrupt and turning away and rebelling against. But

those who seek the Lord, he says, But the stepfast

love surrounds the one who trust in the Lord. Therefore,

what does David say, Rejoice, be glad in the Lord,

Rejoice or righteous, and shout for joy to all who

you who are upright in other heart? You know you

think about this just psalm, and David at the very

end just says, hey, we should seek the Lord way

maybe found. We should seeking because of his protection. We

should seek his guidance. But lastly we should seek.

To rejoice in the Lord.

You know, if you think about it today, we you know,

when something makes us happy, what do we do? Most

natural responses, we want to tell somebody right when we

graduate college, we want to tell people that we graduated

high school or college. When we get married, we want

to have people come to our wedding so we can

rejoice God.

Bringing us a spouse. We want to rejoice when a

new baby comes. We want to tell others.

We want to tell others about that baby and what

it looks like, how much it weighs and how long

it is. When our sports team went and my tar

Hills won two games this weekend, we want to rejoice.

It didn't happen very often, right. We want to rejoice.

We want to rejoice when we do many things, But

do we rejoice that our sins are forgiven? This week,

one of my best friends in high school, his wife

passed away. And her name's Ali. How I actually prayed

for Brad. He has had four kids. She was forty

six or forty seven. She had cancer, So pray for

Brad and his four kids today. I went back and

had been back home and saw my friends from high

school in twenty plus years. And so I was at

the funeral and I was walking through and I was

kind of in the back, and sudden this lady walked

to start walking my way, and I was looking at

her and I had not seen her in twenty plus years.

But it was my coach. It was my tennis coach.

I played tennis in high school in my ninth grade,

tenth grade, I think it was tenth. I was driving

at the time. I was struggling. My parents had separated.

I was not living for the Lord. I was saved

but I was not living for God. I'd rebelled, I

turned away. I was running. I was bitter, angry. I

had to send a bitterness in my heart, and it

was eating me away.

I tried to put on a good run.

I still went to church and did a lot of things,

but inside of me, it was tearing me apart. It

would manifest itself on the tennis court. When I would lose,

that bitterness in that sin that was inside of me

would manifest on the tennis court. I would throw my racket,

break my racket, you name it, I did it. Coach

Horva would pull me aside and said, Jonathan, I don't

know what's going on, but something you need to find

the Lord.

You need to get some things right. This is something

not right.

Not long after that, she came to me and she

said I got saved. And she said, you're the only

Christian that I know. And she said, would you come

and watch me be baptized. I don't know any other

Christians that sapt you. You're only a Christian I know.

Even though I wasn't living for the Lord. That Sunday

I went to church with her, and in that moment,

God began doing good work in my life to help

lead me to find forgiveness of her bitterness and anger

and sin that was in my life. The other day

at the funeral, I saw Coach Corbath and the first

thing she said to me, she said, you're the one,

the only one that came to my baptism because you

were the only Christian I know. In that moment, listen,

it changed my life. Why because she understood when God

saved me. I want to tell others and I want

to lead others to find the same forgiveness that I found.

And listen today, if Jesus has done something in your life,

if you found the happiness the forgiveness of sin, the

natural response for us is to go tell others and

lead others to find that same forgiveness.

And in this passage of Scripture, at the end of.

This passage, David, because of what God has done for him,

he wanted to tell others and he wanted to lead

others to find that same forgiveness. Can I ask you today,

where's your happiness? Are you finding happiness in this world?

Or have you found happiness and forgiveness of sin today?

Have you found.

Forgiveness of your sins from the Lord, or are you

covering your sins? And if you found forgiveness today of

your sins, how are you like David? How are you

like Coach Horvath that you want to lead others to

find that saying forgiveness that you found the Lord. I'm

gonna give you a chance to put this into practice.

Right now that Tennor's gonna come. We're gonna sing a song.

Wherever you are tenor there, We're going to sing a song.

It is well.

Now. I don't know if you know.

This, but one thing about my wife, who leaves our choir,

she'll tell our acquire this. Don't sing it if you

don't mean it, don't sing it. If you don't mean it,

if you don't.

Mean the words that you sing, don't sing it.

Well. In this song we're gonna sing. Listen what it says?

The right to him?

The one who wrote to him writes, my sin, oh

the bliss of the glorious thought. My sin, not the part,

but the whole is knell to the cross. And I

bear it no more. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord,

O my soul.

Listen.

In just a moment, we're gonna have this song imitation,

and I ask it to you today. Have you found

that forgiveness? Have you found the happiness of when God

forgave you of your sin? Have you found forgiveness in

the Lord that he took that burden off of you,

He forgave you of your sin, that he doesn't count

your niquity against you today, that he through his blood

is a propitiation for your sin. And he appeased the

wrath of God what you have done against him, Holy God, listen,

and he remembers your sin no more? Can you sing

that today? If you can, would you sing? We stand

with us, and let's sing that together. Let's pray together

before we sing.

Lord.

I thank you Lord for this word. I thank you

Lord for that happiness has found in you. Lord, Lord,

forgive us in the ways that we try to find

so many counterfeits in this world, happiness and our strength

through our ability or actions or the things that we

do in this world. Lord, I pray today that we

would recognize Lord, that happiness is found in forgiveness. And Lord,

today I pray we'd find forgiveness in you.

Lord.

Today, Lord, I pray that be those that sund this

room that are wasting away because of unconfessed sins. Or

I pray that'd be those today that would not cover

their sins any longer, who would confess their sins to

you today, while you may be found.

And Lord, I pray today they would hear the.

Moment they confess to you, the moment Lord you'll forgive them. Lord,

I pray today that we would stand and rejoice, Lord,

that we bear it no more today. And Lord, may

we long to lead others to find that same forgiveness.

Or we love you today, or lead us?

Or we pray Dame, we pray.

Jesuits, pain and all and all to Him