Worship in All Circumstances: Guilt

Good morning, everyone. My name is Eric. For those of you who don't know me, I'm one of the guys on staff here at Watermark Church.

The year was 1997. There's a new magazine out called Backwoods Homes Magazine.

It was a new magazine, which means that the classified section didn't always get filled up.

And in the times when they were short on classified ads, the editor would get one of his friends to come and fill up the extra space with riddles and jokes.

One week when they were short on classified ads, the friend who typically told the riddles and jokes asked if instead he could submit a couple of personal classified ads for free.

And the editor said, sure, why not?

So the first ad was an ad for a girlfriend.

He was looking for someone to be the love of his life and decided this magazine might be the place to look.

The second one, which you can see on the screen behind me, said wanted.

Somebody to go back in time with me.

This is not a joke.

P.O. Box 322, Oakview, California, 93022.

You'll get paid after we get back.

Must bring your own weapons.

Safety not guaranteed.

I have only done this once before.

Now, he didn't really expect many responses from this.

However, in the 20 years that have gone by since posting this ad, he continues to get responses to this letter.

He has gotten responses from every continent, including Antarctica.

And some people just want to go back in time for the thrill of it.

He said a surprisingly high number of people actually believe that the ad was real.

Some people want to go back in time just for the excitement.

Who wouldn't want to go back and see parts of the past?

But most of the letters that he has received in response to this ad have been people who want to go back and undo a tragedy in their lives.

He said that he has received several dozens of letters from people in prison who want to go back in time and stop themselves from committing the crime that put them there in the first place.

One lady even wrote to him and asked if she could go back in time and stop the hitman that she hired to kill her husband.

Out of all of the responses that this man has received from this ad, very, very few are from people who want to go back and relive a positive, happy moment from their lives.

Most of them are from people who want to go change a tragedy and stop it from happening because those times are the times that have stuck with them and haunted them throughout their lives.

And I'm guessing that each of us here today has one or two moments in our lives that if we had the chance and we had a time machine that we could go back and undo those moments, we would.

You know, I'm hoping that no one in here has hired a hitman to kill their spouse.

But all of us have things that follow us and haunt us.

For me, I have a handful of moments that I think I wish I could go back and undo them.

One of them happened a couple summers ago.

I was back visiting home and as kids, one of my younger brothers used to intentionally try to annoy me a lot.

And he's grown up since then, but it's been years since we've lived under the same roof.

So in my mind, he was still that same annoying little kid.

And while I was home visiting, he did a couple things that just bothered me, you know?

And I decided, I'm tired of him intentionally bothering me.

I'm an adult now.

I don't need to put up with this.

I'm going to say something to him that will make him stop.

And so as we were loading into the van to go celebrate my cousin's wedding, I lashed out at him.

And I sent a very clear message that I am tired of you trying to annoy me.

We got to the wedding and I celebrated because it's a day for celebration and didn't really pay much attention to my brother until we got home that evening.

And we're hanging out as a family and my mom came up to me and she said,

Hey, Eric, you need to go talk to your brother.

I said, What? What's going on?

And she said, He's up in his room and he won't come down because of what you said to him this morning.

And so I went up to talk to him and I still, from time to time, see that image in my head of my brother lying on his bed in tears because of the impact that my words had on him.

And it's painful to know that my words cause such pain to someone that I love.

And if I could go back in time, that's one of the moments that I wish I could go undo, take back those words that I've said.

But as we all know, I can't.

And I'm sure that each of us has moments in our lives, big and small, where we've failed, where we've messed up, where we have sinned.

Sin is rebellion against God.

And times that, if possible, we would want to go back and change.

And today we're continuing our series on the Psalms and talking about worship in all seasons of life.

And we're talking today about Psalm 51, a psalm for the seasons when we are guilty.

And what we're going to see is that in our moments of sin, in our moments of rebellion against God, we need forgiveness that can only be found in Jesus.

So we're going to have three points.

First, sin, the heart of the matter.

Second, the only solution.

And third, the life-changing conclusion.

And then we're going to conclude the sermon by taking communion together.

Normally we take it earlier in the service, but today we're going to take it at the end.

So the sermon itself will be the communion intro.

But first, we're going to talk about sin, the heart of the matter.

Now the Psalms, the book of Psalms, is a collection of songs that were sung by Israel in the Old Testament to worship God.

Here we have songs.

We just finished singing some songs.

And we keep our songs stored on the computer back there so that we can put them on the screen here.

In the Old Testament, they collected their songs in a book, which is now known as the book of Psalms.

And as with many songs, something often happens that inspires someone to write a song.

And in the book of Psalms, some of the songs have little notes at the start that tell us why that song was written.

And this is one of them.

It says,

A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Now if you've grown up in church, this next couple minutes is going to be a review.

But it's important.

And if you haven't grown up in church, this is very important to understanding this psalm.

The background of why this psalm was written is very important for us to understand what's being talked about in this psalm.

Now David was a king of Israel back in the Old Testament, in the earlier part of the Bible.

And he was an amazing man.

God himself said of David that he was a man after God's own heart.

Now the number of people that God speaks that highly of is very small.

But God himself said,

This man, David, is a man after my own heart.

If I search out the world for people who love me, who follow me with all of their hearts,

this is one of the few.

David became the king of Israel and he led the nation well.

He led the army to conquer foreign lands.

He led the people in worshiping God.

He had established his kingdom.

Things were going well.

And then, one night,

his armies were out at war,

fighting battles.

But for some reason, which we don't know,

he was at home.

He was taking a walk on his rooftop.

And as he looked down over the edge,

he saw a woman taking a bath on a neighboring rooftop.

And he called all his servants and said,

Who's that one?

And they said,

She's Bathsheba.

She's the wife of one of your soldiers in your army.

And David said to himself,

Hmm, she's married to a soldier in the army.

It means her husband's away,

so she's probably lonely.

And she's hot.

Go grab her.

Have her come over here.

And Bathsheba came over

and spent the night with King David.

Now, by all appearances,

it seems that David probably was expecting this

to just be a one-night stand,

have a little fun,

and then move on with life.

However,

not long after this,

he received news that Bathsheba was pregnant,

which created a problem

because her husband had been gone

fighting in the army for months

and wouldn't be home for a few more months.

And so there was no way

that Bathsheba's husband would believe this baby was his.

David was going to be in trouble.

And so he came up quick on his feet

with a plan to cover his tracks.

He sent a messenger to the leader of the army

and said,

Hey, I want to hear an update on how things are going.

Send Bathsheba's husband back here to update me.

So Bathsheba's husband, Uriah,

comes in,

updates David on how things are going in the army,

and David says,

Thanks for the update.

Go spend the night at home,

and I'll see you in the morning.

And Bathsheba's husband says,

No, king, I can't do that.

It's not fair to the other soldiers

that I get to go see my wife

and have a nice night at home

while they're out fighting the battles.

I'm just going to go down to your servants' quarters

and sleep there.

So David's like,

Okay.

Plan B.

The next night,

David keeps Bathsheba's husband around again

and gets him very drunk.

And then at the end of the night,

he says,

All right.

Go home.

Spend the night with your wife.

It's going to be a good night for you.

However, even though drunk,

Bathsheba's husband is still aware enough to say,

No.

I can't do this to my fellow soldiers.

I'm going to sleep in the servants' quarters.

And again,

he goes down

and spends the night in the servants' quarters.

And David at this point realizes,

I'm not going to be able to cover this up.

Uriah is too good of a man

to go spend the night with his wife

when all of his other soldiers

that he fights alongside of

are out at battle.

I need to take more drastic measures

to cover up what I've done.

So he writes a letter

to the commander of the army

and he says,

Here's what I want you to do.

Take Bathsheba's husband,

put him in the part of the fighting

where it's the most intense,

and once he is there,

pull all the other soldiers back

so he is alone in the front

in the most intense area of fighting.

He writes the letter.

He seals it up.

He hands it to Bathsheba's husband,

who has no idea what's inside it,

and says,

Deliver this to your commander.

And Uriah,

as a loyal, obedient subject,

carries this note

with his death sentence in it

to the commander of the army,

who obeys his king.

The news comes to David

that Uriah has been killed,

and Bathsheba mourns her husband,

and then as soon as possible

marries King David,

and nine months after that first fateful night,

a baby is born,

and David may have felt kind of bad about it,

but probably not too bad

because he got away with it, right?

He has a new wife

added to his collection of wives,

and she's really pretty.

They have a new baby.

No one knows about what he's done wrong.

Things are looking good

until a knock comes on the door,

and in walks Nathan the prophet,

and he says,

King David,

I've heard a story

about something that's going on

in your kingdom.

You're going to want to hear about this.

And David says,

Okay, tell me what's going on.

Nathan says,

There were two men.

One of them was very wealthy.

He had lots of sheep,

lots of land,

lots of servants.

The other one was a very poor man.

He had only one young lamb,

but this lamb was precious to him.

It would eat at the table with his family.

It was like a daughter to him.

And one day,

a visitor came to visit this rich man,

and the rich man needed to feed his guest.

And rather than taking one of his lambs

from the many that he had,

he went and took the poor man's lamb

and killed it and fed it to his guest.

And David became furious.

He said,

He said,

The man who did this deserves to die.

And he has to repay the poor man four times

for what he stole.

This is terrible.

I cannot believe that this is happening in my kingdom.

And after what I imagined was a dramatic pause,

Nathan responds to King David,

You are the man.

God has given you everything you could have ever wanted.

And rather than living thankfully,

you decided to go out and steal your neighbor's wife

and have your neighbor murdered to cover it up.

And in a moment,

clarity comes to David,

and he realizes,

I have sinned.

And this psalm that we're looking at today,

Psalm chapter 51,

Psalms 51 · chapter mention

is David's response

after this conversation with Nathan.

Now, I'm guessing

that if ever there was a moment in history

where someone wished they had a time machine

that they could go back

and undo their actions,

it was David in that conversation with Nathan.

And yet he didn't.

And so we have this psalm,

Psalm chapter 51,

Psalms 51 · chapter mention

David's response

when he recognizes the fact

that he has sinned

by stealing his neighbor's wife

and having his neighbor murdered

to cover it up.

And when we look at Psalm 51,

the thing that we'll see

is that David's first response

when he recognizes his sin

is to run to God

and plead for mercy.

Verses one and two say,

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love.

According to your abundant mercy,

blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity

and cleanse me from my sin.

There's no excuses for why he did what he did.

There's no blame shifting.

There's simply an acknowledgement

that I have sinned

and I need help.

So God, please help me.

I think the reason David responds this way

is because he recognizes

that the heart of the matter in his sin

is the matter of the heart.

The heart of the matter

is the matter of the heart.

He recognizes,

I'm not some good person

who just messed up

and had a bad day

and did a bad thing.

No.

I have a wicked heart

that led me to sin

against my neighbor

and against God.

And this is a response that's rare,

especially in our world today.

If you think about the ways

that people respond

when they're caught

doing something wrong

in the world today,

so often it's different than this.

In the world,

we cover up what we've done.

Like Bill Clinton.

I did not have sexual relations

with that woman.

David doesn't do that.

He confesses,

I have sinned.

Or,

in the world today,

when people get caught

doing things

they shouldn't be doing,

we try and brush it off

as an inconsistency.

I'm generally a good person.

I just, you know,

had a bad day.

Like Usher,

the musician,

when he was caught

cheating on his wife.

His response

is fantastic.

I was faithful at heart,

but not faithful all the way.

It's like the Princess Bride.

I was only mostly faithful,

not all faithful.

Or the actress,

Kristen Stewart,

when she was caught

having an affair

with a married director.

She labeled it as a,

quote,

momentary indiscretion.

I'm normally a good person.

I just had a bad moment.

Or Tiger Woods,

when it was revealed

that he had been cheating

on his wife

with several different women.

He said,

I felt I had worked hard

my entire life

and deserved to enjoy

all the temptations around me.

I was unfaithful,

I had affairs,

I cheated.

Yes, I did a bad thing,

but it was because

I'm such a good person

and a hard worker

that I felt that I deserved

to get away with a few bad things.

This is how we typically respond

in our world

when we are caught in our sin.

We deny it,

we make excuses,

we say that it's not in line

with our true character,

and David,

in Psalm 51,

does none of these things.

If you look at verse 5,

he says,

Behold,

I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin

did my mother conceive me.

He says,

I'm not a good person

who just made a bad decision.

He says,

I have been a sinner

since the day

that I was conceived.

And this action

that I just did

is in line

with my character

because I am rebellious

and stubborn.

You shouldn't be amazed

that I can mess up

this badly.

No,

you should be amazed

that I don't mess up

this badly

all the time

because I know

how messed up

my heart is.

Because the heart

of the matter

is the matter

of my heart.

I acted out wickedly

because I had

a wicked heart.

David comes to God

with brutal honesty,

confessing his sin

and begging God

to do something

to make it right.

However,

David's problem

is too big

for David alone

to fix,

which means

that he must look

outside himself

for a solution.

Which brings us

to point to

the only solution.

He knows

that his sin

is his biggest problem,

that his heart

that leads him

to sin

is his biggest problem.

He's created problems

that he could never

make right.

no matter

how hard

David tried,

there's nothing

that he could do

to bring Uriah

back from the dead

and give him

back his wife.

No amount

of hard work,

no amount

of sacrifices,

no amount

of anything

can undo

the pain

and destruction

that David

has caused

through his actions.

And even if

there was something

that he could do,

he still recognizes

that he has

a wicked heart

and his wicked heart

is what led him

to these actions

in the first place

and changing

his behavior

is not going

to change

his heart.

Behavior modification

doesn't lead

to a transformed

heart.

And so for David's

situation

to have

a positive solution,

he needs

that solution

to come

from someone

outside himself.

But the question

is,

who outside

of David

is big enough

to fix

David's problem?

Think about it,

he's the king.

There's no earthly

authority,

no person

on earth

who has the

authority

to pardon him.

He is the highest

authority in the land.

It's not like

he can go to the king

and get a pardon.

He is the king.

And,

if you look

at the Old Testament

law,

God makes provisions

for people

to get forgiveness

for lots of sins.

If you rob

your neighbor,

you make some sacrifices,

you pay the neighbor

back,

and you're good.

for adultery,

there is nothing

that you can do.

The sentence is death.

For murder,

there is nothing

that you can do.

The sentence is death.

And David hadn't done

one or the other

of these,

he had done

both of them.

And so he comes

to God

and he says

in verse 16,

you would not delight

in sacrifice

or I would give it.

You will not be pleased

with a burnt offering.

God,

if there's anything

that I could do

to make things right,

I would do it,

but I know

that I can't.

I know

that there's nothing

within my power

that I can do

to fix my situation.

So God,

I'm turning to you

because you

are the only one

that can make this right.

He turns to God

and he begs

for a deep,

deep mercy.

If you look

at the first two verses again

and look at the words

that David uses

in his request to God,

he says,

have mercy on me,

O God.

This word mercy

means to take pity

and show kindness

that he does not deserve.

He says,

according to your

abundant mercy,

blot out my transgressions.

This word blot out,

it's like if someone

was writing an accusation

in wax

with a sharp instrument

and as they're writing,

instead of continuing writing,

they turn the instrument

and use the long edge

to wipe out

everything they've just written

and erase any record

that those accusations

had ever been written.

David says,

God,

please do that for me.

I know that I am guilty,

but wipe out

any evidence

that I have ever done

this wrong.

He says,

wash me thoroughly

from my iniquity.

The picture here,

the literal translation

of that is multiply

to wash me.

The picture is

of laundry

with a stain on it,

a big stain,

and you need to wash this.

And when you wash it,

the stain is still there,

so you wash it again

and again and again

and again and again

until the stain is gone.

David says,

God,

wash me

over and over

and over

and over

until the stain

of my guilt

is gone.

and then he says,

cleanse me

from my sin.

This word cleanse

is a ceremonial picture

of him saying,

God,

make me clean

so that I can come

into the temple

and worship you

because the Israelites

needed to be

ceremonially clean

before they could come

in and worship God.

And David says,

God,

bring me back

to a place

where I can join

with your people

and worship you

despite my sin

despite my guilt.

And something I want

to just note quickly,

we've been talking a lot

in our series

on the Psalms

on the importance

of honesty,

being honest with God

and being honest

with ourselves

about what's happening

in our lives,

where we're struggling.

And one thing

I want us to see today

is that if we want

to make true progress

in our fight

against the sin

inside of us,

we need to be honest

with ourselves

and with God

about that sin.

And David sets

an amazing example

of that in this chapter.

You know,

in my life,

I have this tendency

to downplay

the sin inside me.

I don't like

to see the true

depths of sin

in my heart.

When I speak words

intended to hurt someone

and they get offended,

my initial response

isn't to think,

wow,

I'm the type of person

who speaks words

intended to hurt.

My initial response

is,

they're so sensitive,

I can't believe

they get upset

over that.

When in all honesty,

the words that I spoke

were spoken

with the goal

of hurting them.

And as long

as I brush off

my sin

as other people's problem,

as inconsistencies

within me,

I'm never going

to grow,

I'm never going

to make progress

in becoming

more like Jesus.

And David here

recognizes that.

God,

and he comes

to God

with brutal

honesty

and sets us

an amazing example

of the type

of honesty

that we should bring

in our confession

to God.

Not brushing away

our problems,

not ignoring them,

not blaming them

on others,

but taking full responsibility,

but then turning

to God

and begging

for mercy.

But even though

David sets us

this great example

of honesty

that still doesn't

solve his problem

of where his solution

is going to come from.

Because you see,

here's the problem.

David here,

he confesses his sin.

In verse 4,

he says,

against you

and 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.

He praises

God's justice.

Which,

oh by the way,

demands that David

die.

And then

he turns around

in the next breath

and pleads

to God

for mercy.

Now there's

a problem here.

Because God's

justice

demands a payment

for what

David has done.

God's justice

demands

death

for the adultery

and murder

that David

has committed.

And yet David

turns to God

and he says,

God,

cleanse me.

God,

forgive me.

God,

and it appears

at least on the surface

that David

is calling on God

to go against

his own character.

God,

ignore your justice

so that I

can be saved.

So how is it

possible

that God

can satisfy

his justice

and still show

this mercy

and forgiveness

to David?

David?

Well,

if you go back

to the story

of Nathan's

confrontation

with David,

when David

confesses,

I have sinned,

Nathan tells David,

you will not die,

but

the child

born from your

relationship

will die.

And about

a week later,

the baby

that Bathsheba

had had

after

that night

with David

died.

And you know

what?

The death

of that baby

still did not

satisfy

God's

need

for justice

because just

like David,

that baby

was born

as a sinner.

However,

about a thousand

years after

David's sin,

another

descendant

would be born

from the

line of

David.

And this

descendant

would be

named

Jesus,

which means

the Lord

is salvation.

And Jesus

would live

33 years

of perfect

obedience

to God.

And after

33 years

of perfect

obedience

to God,

Jesus would

stand on

trial before

a man

named

Pilate.

And as

the crowds

shout out,

crucify him,

crucify him,

crucify him,

Pilate

utters words

that are

eerily reminiscent

of the words

that Nathan

spoke to

David.

Nathan said,

you are

the man.

And as

the crowds

cry out,

crucify him,

crucify him,

Pilate

shouts out

to the crowds,

behold

the man,

Jesus.

Hours

later,

Jesus is

hung up

on a cross.

He dies.

The one

person in

history

who had

lived the

perfect life,

the one

person in

history who

did not

deserve that

death,

is killed.

And in

that moment,

as Jesus

hung on

the cross,

God's

justice

for David's

sin was

satisfied

because a

debt of

death

was paid

by someone

who didn't

owe it

himself.

And yet

at the

same moment,

God's

mercy is

able to

be shown

to David

because that

debt was

paid by

a willing

substitute.

Jesus

was the

only solution

to David's

sin.

He was

the perfect

solution

to David's

sin.

sin.

And just

as Jesus

was the

only solution

to David's

sin and

the perfect

solution for

David's

sin,

Jesus is

also the

way that

God can

be just

today and

yet show

mercy to

you and

me in

the moments

of our

sin and

failure.

If you're

not a

Christian here

today,

I urge

you to

trust in

Jesus for

this

forgiveness

that God

offers us.

So we

have the

heart of

the problem

in sin.

We have the

only solution

in Jesus,

but then we

have a

life-changing

conclusion.

If you look

at verse 12

and 13,

it says,

restore to

me the joy

of your

salvation and

uphold me

with a

willing spirit.

Then I

will teach

transgressors

your ways and

sinners will

return to

you.

What we

see right

here is

that David

promises God,

if you

forgive me,

then I

will live

my life

on mission.

We have

these signs

up on the

stage every

week,

gospel,

community,

mission.

And there

is a

community

aspect to

this too,

but for

the sake

of time,

we're going

to skip

over that

today.

But what

we believe

here at

Watermark is

that as

we believe

the gospel,

which is

that good

news about

the forgiveness

that's available

to us in

Jesus,

that that

transforms our

hearts and

leads us to

live life in

community and

on mission,

going out and

telling others

this good news

about the

forgiveness and

life and hope

available to us

through the

sacrifice of

Jesus.

And David says

to God,

if you will

forgive me,

I will go and

tell everyone

about how amazing

and fantastic

you are and

how great your

forgiveness is.

God bless you

and if you're

here today and

you're a

Christian,

I want to

ask you,

how are you

doing with

sharing your

faith?

My challenge

to you,

share your

faith this

week.

And I know

we usually

want to focus

on heart

change,

not just

action change,

but this is

an action that

reveals what's

in our hearts.

I talk to

many Christians,

including myself,

yeah,

I talk to

myself,

who have

trouble with

this idea of

sharing our

faith.

It feels

awkward,

it feels

uncomfortable,

and I'm

going to throw

this out there.

I think the

reason so many

of us have

trouble sharing

with others

about who

Jesus is is

because we

haven't experienced

the type of

forgiveness that

David is

experiencing right

here.

I'm not talking

about forgiveness

for adultery and

murder, no,

I'm talking about

forgiveness that

goes down to

the core of

who we are.

Forgiveness that

confesses that

we're not good

people who just

had a bad

moment, but we're

sinners to the

core of our

being and we

need God to

rescue us from

the inside out.

I have lived so

much of my life

with this feeling

that I'm generally

a good person who

just needs God to

come in and help

me out around the

edges when I make

my occasional mess

ups.

And living my

life with that

attitude has led

to pride, it's

led to shame in

the moments where

I do mess up, and

it's led to a fear

of sharing my

faith because what

will others think if

they know that I do

occasionally mess up?

And the amazing news

of the gospel, the

amazing message of

this chapter is that

all of us are

desperately messed up

from the moment that

we were conceived

inside our mother's

wombs.

people who need

salvation from

outside of us.

It can be tempting

to look at David

and think, how could

he?

How could he steal

his neighbor's wife and

then have his neighbor

murdered to cover up

for him?

But if I'm being

totally honest, the

attitudes inside his

heart that led him to

do those things are all

present in my heart.

Lust,

self-centeredness,

and overwhelming

urge for self-preservation,

all of these things are

present in my heart.

There's nothing about

what David did that's

any worse than the

desires inside my heart,

and I'm guessing all

of our hearts.

All of us are sinful

like David.

All of us need mercy

like David, but all of

us have a Savior in

Jesus who has come to

forgive us and make us

anew.

And when we realize how

desperately wicked we are

and how amazingly,

abundantly merciful he

is, that should lead

to joy.

Because when we realize

that we're worse than we

ever dreamed, but we are

more loved than we could

ever have hoped, we

realize that we are

free.

And when we're joyful

about something, we want

to share that with

others.

That's our natural

response as humans.

Which is why David says,

God, I'm a sinner.

I need your mercy.

But when I receive it,

when I see how abundant

your forgiveness is, I

will share with others

about how great and

forgiving you are.

And so my challenge for

us today is to be honest

with ourselves and with

God about the sin in our

hearts, to turn to Jesus

as the only solution for

our problem, and then to

live our lives on mission

as a response to what God

has done for us.

And something that's

really cool to me about

this passage is that with

David, the sinful thing

that he did, it could have

crushed him.

It could have caused him to

go run into a hole and

hide because he didn't want

anyone to see his face

after knowing how messed up

he was.

But instead, God takes this

moment of terrible decisions

and terrible consequences

and uses it for something

good and beautiful in

David's life.

He uses the sin to lead

David to share with people

of his day and with us

about how great God's

forgiveness is.

And that same pattern of

God taking these things,

these times of sin in our

lives and making something

beautiful out of them

carries through today as

well.

The amazing truth is that

God takes our sins and

makes them beautiful by

using us as canvases where

he can paint masterpieces of

his mercy for the watching

world to see.

He paints masterpieces of

his mercy in our lives for

the watching world to see

so that as we are forgiven,

as we trust in this good

news, others can be drawn

to him as well.

And you know, God knows

that we're forgetful people.

This message is so simple.

We're messed up.

Jesus saves us.

Yay.

And yet in my life, I forget

that so often.

I forget step one, that I'm

messed up.

And I think I'm an okay

person.

In the moments where I do

mess up, I forget that Jesus

saves me.

And then I forget to be

thankful and celebrate him.

And God, knowing how

forgetful we are, has built

into the rhythm of the

church's life, certain

things to remind us of his

great love and his great

mercy.

And one of those things is

communion.

As we gather for communion,

this is a time that God has

given us to remind ourselves

and to proclaim to the world

around us the fact that Jesus

is our only solution.

As we eat the bread that's a

picture of Christ's body for us,

and as we drink the wine that's

a picture of his blood, it's a

way of physically reminding

ourselves of the fact that the

blood of Jesus is perfect, is

enough to forgive us for our

sins.

And as we eat the bread and

drink the wine, we're showing

those around us and proclaiming

to the world around us that we

do believe that the blood of

Jesus is all we need to forgive

us for our sins.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.