Psalm 51

God, we thank you that we are continuing to worship you and hear from your word.

And Lord, I look to you that you would be with us in such a tangible way right now as we dig into your word.

Lord, I ask that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would speak through me to all of us, including me,

that you would shape us and change us and maybe be able to behold more perfectly the image of your Son,

that we might be transformed into evermore the people you made us to be,

who love you with all that we are. In Jesus' name, amen.

Please be seated.

Every single one of us in this room knows what it's like at some time or another,

or maybe even for an extended season of life, to be having done something wrong or said something wrong, sinful,

and not confessing it, not bringing it into the light.

To be in a place where your bones feel like they're wasting away,

where you feel almost sick inside and you're ridden with guilt.

This is common to every single human being at one time or another.

Psychologists and shrinks and counselors, all these different people, self-help books,

try to medicate this because it's common not just for Christians but for anyone on planet Earth.

And although there's lots of solutions out there, so-called, to medicate this,

the Bible speaks right into this human condition and gives us a way out of it.

Not a way to medicate it, but a way to actually deal with it by the power of God.

And that's what we're going to be looking at today.

The psalm that we're looking at, Psalm 51, was written by an incredible, godly man after God's own heart.

He was the king of Israel and the king by which all other kings after him were compared to.

He's the gold standard of what it means to be a good king and even a good man.

So much so that God promised him that the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of the world,

would come from his descendants, his line, because he loved God so much and God honored that.

This was a man, a giant of a man, a giant in the faith.

And yet, he finds himself in bed with another man's wife, his best friend's wife.

They conceive a child, and he tries to cover up his sin by bringing back his best friend from the battlefield

so it would look like it was his best friend's son.

It doesn't work.

His deception doesn't work.

And so, he ends up having his best friend, one of the mightiest warriors in Israel, Uriah the Hittite, murdered.

David finds himself now a murderer and an adulterer.

And for nine months, he didn't tell anybody.

And in Psalm 32, he records that experience of not telling anyone, not confessing his sin to God,

and how his bones are wasting his way and his strength is sap.

And that experience, I know, is something that I've experienced,

and it's something I know that you've experienced as well.

When you're not bringing your sin to light, and it's eating away at you, you're riddled with shame, with fear.

And that is when, after nine months, the prophet Nathan, a friend of David's, comes to him,

and he, in this beautiful, prophetic, poetic way, confronts David of his sin.

It says, God knows what you've done.

Confronts him of the adultery and the murder.

And David pens this psalm, Psalm 51.

This is his response.

And though we just read it a few moments ago, as Laurie read it, we'll read it again now.

So, if you can turn with me to Psalm 51, verse 1, let us read.

Psalms 51:1

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.

For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

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.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive,

me.

Behold, you delight in truth and the inward being,

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

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've broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins and blottle all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation.

Uphold me with a willing spirit.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is the word of the Lord.

Amen.

The very first words out of David's mouth in this psalm prayer to God is,

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy.

Blah out my transgressions.

This is remarkable.

Because we human beings, when we're confronted with wrongdoing,

even if we come to bring it into the light, we so often will do that,

whether it's to God or to our friends,

we so often will do that with some excuse, some mitigating circumstance,

so that people will be willing to forgive us.

You know, in David's case, he could have come to God and said,

God, Bathsheba was on the roof, and she was naked, and I stumbled upon that.

It wasn't really my fault, but would you forgive me for the fact that I still lusted after her?

You know, there's a lot of mitigating circumstances.

We can always find, we're genius people when it comes to excuses,

to try to lessen the weight of our guilt.

But David has no desire to try to provide an excuse.

This would be a lame excuse, as it always is, to try to get God to forgive him.

Instead, David knows that his only hope for forgiveness is not an excuse.

His only hope for forgiveness is by the character, by the mercy of God.

And so the first word out of his mouth is,

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your steadfast love.

It's his only, it's his only hope.

And so today we're going to be looking at five steps to biblical confession and restoration.

We'll be looking through Psalm 51 as it gives us five steps that we can look at.

And the first one is that biblical confession is centered on the character of God.

It's centered on the character of God.

And so the very first words are,

God, have mercy because of who you are, because of your steadfast love.

So often when Christians, when we try to take confession seriously,

when we decide, you know what, we're going to practice the discipline of confession,

we'll bring our sin to the light, it's an opportunity for us to spiritualize navel gazing,

for us to spiritualize introspection.

And so I know that I've experienced this when I'm going to get serious about dealing with my sin.

And so now my focus is all about my sin.

But for David, his focus right from the get-go, right from the start is,

God, you're the God of steadfast love.

And in view of your mercy, would you have mercy upon me?

I'm 26, but I'm only now learning to drive.

First time I took the test, the G2 test, I failed.

But this past week I had a breakthrough in my driving.

And if you drive, I'm sure you've had the same breakthrough.

Hopefully you did this before you're 26.

No shame if you haven't.

But for me, there's so many things to pay attention to.

You're checking your rear view mirror, all this kind of stuff.

But when I finally, it hit me this past Sunday, last week,

I was driving with my mom and I finally clued in

to what they've been telling me all along,

which is where your eyes are, there the car goes.

There's so many things to pay attention to.

But by and large,

you're keeping your eyes on the road,

a certain amount of feet in front of you.

I'm still getting it.

But as I learned that, all of a sudden, I'm able to drive.

And we're no longer just going on residential streets.

Like, my mom and I are driving all around Ottawa.

It's awesome.

And I booked myself into a test.

I'm pretty confident I'm going to pass this

because I know where my eyes need to be.

And this is so important when it comes to confession,

that our eyes are not on our own self and our own sin,

but our eyes are on the character of God.

God, according to your steadfast love,

would you give me mercy?

In Numbers, not Numbers,

in Nehemiah chapter 9,

Nehemiah 9 · chapter mention

the people of Israel have done horrible things

for hundreds of years,

and they come together in Jerusalem

to confess their sin to God.

And they have a lot of things to confess.

They've been doing horrible, horrible things

in all areas of life for a long time.

And so you'd expect them

to just have a long laundry list of their sin.

And they do confess their sin.

They identify what they've done wrong.

But if you read it,

you'll find the most common word

in that huge, full chapter of confession

is you and your,

as the people beautifully recount

again and again,

the character and the deeds of God.

They've come to confess their sin,

but their focus is God.

You delivered us from Israel,

and you are the one who chose Abraham,

and you're the one who continues to redeem,

and you're the God of steadfast love.

And this is what we've done wrong.

But you are a forgiving God.

Their eyes,

even though they've come to confess their sin,

their eyes are not on them,

it's on God.

It's on God,

and he is the hope for forgiveness.

Now, as David goes to confess his sin,

the first words are about God and his character.

And then as he identifies his sin,

he says,

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me.

David had been such a steadfast man,

you would think,

at least I think I would,

if I was in his shoes,

would have been like,

God, please forgive me

according to your steadfast love.

And Lord, I've been so faithful.

Like, I have said no

to so many opportunities for sin for so long.

I slipped up.

Please grant me some slack.

Like, come on, God.

I'm a man after your own heart.

Instead, David says,

from the very moment that I existed,

from the very moment I was an embryo,

from the moment I was a zygote,

the moment I was conceived,

I was sinful.

David sees,

even though he's been such a man

after God's own heart,

David sees this wrong he's done,

and he says,

God, that's consistent with who I am.

In no way is David trying to limit what he's done,

or rather, like,

provide excuse for what he's done.

He is completely owning the sin he's done

and taking that to God,

knowing that God can deal with it.

So often,

the reason that you and I are afraid

to bring our sin to light

is that we really fear

that if our friends,

if God really knew what we were doing,

if he really knew what we were like,

that it just,

this time,

it would be too much.

I mean,

how many of us in this room have wondered,

have I,

I've just done the impartable sin.

Like,

I don't even know what the impartable sin is,

but I've just done it.

I know that.

No.

No.

So,

as we know,

and David only knew in part,

but we know in full,

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice.

And so,

there is no sin

that you and I can bring to light

that the mercy of God,

that the blood of Jesus

isn't able to fully cleanse

and fully address.

David,

even though he was writing this

before the coming

of the promised Messiah,

somehow knew

that God,

because of the character of God,

not because of the character of David,

but because of the character of God,

was able to forgive

this wretched,

sinful man.

So,

biblical confession

is centered on God.

It takes full responsibility

for what it's done.

It confesses

in view of the character of God.

Now,

the second element

to biblical confession

is a plea

for cleansing.

You'll see in verse 2,

he says,

wash me thoroughly

from my iniquity

and cleanse me

from my sin.

And down in verse 7,

he continues with this plea,

purge me with hyssop

and I shall be clean.

Wash me

and I shall be whiter than snow.

His plea

to be purged

with hyssop

is very likely

a reference

to either Leviticus 14

or Numbers 19.

Leviticus 14

outlines that

when someone

has been defiled

by leprosy,

their cleansing process

is to come to the priest

and there's blood

sprinkled on them

and hyssop,

which is this type of branch,

is used in the process.

And the Numbers 19 reference

is that

when you've come in contact

with a dead body

and you're defiled,

that's a similar process

and it includes hyssop,

which the priest uses

to cleanse you.

David is writing this

at a time

where the priests

were very active.

This is not today

where the temple

has been destroyed.

There were priests

he could have gone to.

But David is saying,

God, my sin is so big.

Only your hyssop,

only you can cleanse me

from my sin.

Lord, cleanse me.

He's saying,

God, I need you

to be my priest.

And there's more to it.

He says,

purge me with hyssop

and I shall be clean.

That's almost

a direct,

a verbatim reference

of Leviticus 14

and Numbers 19

where it says

that they'll purge

them with hyssop

and he shall be clean.

It's in third person.

But instead,

David said,

purge me with hyssop

and I shall be clean.

It's become personal

for David.

He's looking to God

to be his personal cleanser,

to be the one

that makes him clean.

I shall be clean.

What is it

that compels David

to pray this

with such earnestness

that he would not only

be forgiven for his sin

but cleansed

from the defilement?

The next verses

are a little further down

rather.

In verse 11,

he says,

cast me not away

from your presence

and take not

your Holy Spirit

from me.

Cast me not away

from your presence

and take not

your Holy Spirit

from me.

This is David's

big plea

and this too

is remarkable

because when you

and I are caught

in sin,

whether it's

conviction

just by the Holy Spirit

or someone

who speaks into

our life

like Nathan did

for David,

often our very

first concern

is about our reputation.

often our first tears

are because we've been caught

not because we have sinned.

We're so concerned

about that.

David's great concern

is not that his name

is now in the muck,

it's not that people

aren't going to respect him,

it's that he doesn't want

God to take away

his presence from him.

You know,

David had watched

first row seats,

front row seats

to see King Saul

have the anointing of God,

have the presence of God

and then lose all of that

because of King Saul's sin.

And King Saul

has a similar confrontation

where Samuel,

the prophet at that time,

like Nathan was the prophet

at David's time,

comes to him

and confronts him

with his sin.

But instead of saying

like David,

have mercy upon you,

O God,

King Saul tries

to make excuses

and say,

actually,

I disobeyed God

because I'm going to be

worshipping him this way.

He tries to excuse it.

He doesn't repent of it.

And God removes

so much from him

and strips him

of his anointing

and takes away the kingship.

David,

his first response isn't,

Lord,

please keep me as king.

His first response isn't,

Lord,

keep your promise

that my children

will stay on the throne.

As he had seen God

strip that away

from King Saul,

David had every reason

to be afraid

that that would happen.

Maybe that would happen.

But David's concern

isn't that that would happen

as much as God,

don't take your presence

from me.

David's chief concern

was for the presence of God.

At the Church of the Messiah

Tuesday night prayer meeting,

we had been going through

the book of Nehemiah.

Now we're going through

the book of Matthew.

And what struck me

as I was preparing

for the first,

for chapter one

in the Gospel of Matthew

is that although regarding

Nehemiah,

and it's such a rich book,

it's the word of God,

although about Nehemiah

we were studying a man

who had lived and died

2,500 years ago,

the Gospel of Matthew

we're studying a man,

Jesus,

who's alive today.

And so the way

that we talk about

the one we're studying

is different between

Nehemiah and the Gospel of Matthew

because with Jesus

we're talking about

a man who's alive today.

We talk about people

who are alive today

different than people

who are simply

alive in the past.

And then it hit me

as I was preparing

that first message,

not only am I talking

about someone alive today,

I'm talking about

someone here in the room.

Like when we talk about

someone who's in the room

with us,

it's different than

when they're not

in the room with us.

Like if I was to say,

you know what,

I'm so thankful

that Diane Sharpe is here,

like I love her so much.

Like I'm talking about her,

if she's not in the room

I'll talk about it one way.

If she's here

I can actually turn to her

and be like,

Diane,

I'm so glad

for your friendship,

thank you.

Right?

I talk about people

differently if they're

in the room or not.

When we talk about Jesus

and we're talking about God,

He's here with us.

As I've been trying

to wrap my mind

and my heart around

the reality

of the presence of God,

that He is Emmanuel,

God with us.

This week as I was

reading through Psalm 51,

it was bringing this home

to me that David's

chief concern,

his great delight

is in the presence of God.

And when I searched

my own heart

this past week,

I find that as much

as I love the presence of God,

I'm in awe

by the presence of God,

that I still have

so much to grow

in becoming like David,

a man whose chief delight

is in the presence of God.

That my deepest concern

is not for my name

or my reputation

or my ministry,

my job,

any of that stuff.

My great concern is,

God,

I want your presence

in my life.

And I know that

this isn't only true for me,

that there's no one

in this room

who fully savors

and values the presence

of God

as we were made for.

And so as He's

in the room with us,

let's take a moment

quietly to bow our hearts

before God,

just interrupt the sermon

right now,

and let's just quietly pray,

God,

cultivate in our hearts

a heart that would

love and savor

your presence

above all else.

God,

we thank You

that You're in the room

with us.

We thank You

that we are the temple

of Your Holy Spirit,

that You're here

and You dwell within us

and amongst us.

Lord,

we pray that You would

make us ever more aware

and attentive

to the reality

that You're here with us,

that You're in the hard times

and the happy times.

You're here with us.

Help us to savor that,

to value that,

to treasure that

more than riches

and reputation,

even more than our jobs

and our ministries,

even more than our very lives.

May You give us

the same heart

as David

that our chief longing

would be

to be in Your presence

as we are

even in this moment.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.

So David's first,

the first step

to his restoration process

is God-centered confession.

The second thing

is a request for cleansing,

knowing that God

is not that

purge me with hyssop

and I might be clean.

No, God,

purge me with hyssop

and I will be clean

because I long

to be in Your presence.

And then the third thing

is that He,

the third step

is that He calls out

for restoration.

A lot of us

get the fact,

like if we've,

if you've gone to church

long enough,

we know that God

takes away our sins

so we can confess our sin,

we know God cleanses us

from our sins

so we'll do that.

But a lot of us

stop short.

When we've fallen short,

I've actually asked

God for restoration.

But David has the faith

and the longing

to be restored.

Verse 12,

restore to me

the joy of Your salvation

and uphold me

with a willing spirit.

When he has so many

different things

to ask for restoration of,

David chooses to ask

for the restoration of joy.

And the reason is that

David has fallen greatly.

He loves God

but he's been defeated

by his fleshly desires

of,

for,

for sexual pleasure,

his desire for reputation

by trying to get rid

of Uriah.

He's,

he's fallen short

because of these desires.

And so David

comes before God,

a broken man

but a man ready

to come out swinging,

coming,

ready to come

and fight his flesh.

Ready to come into,

it's a fight to be

the man that God

made him to be.

And the chief way

he does this

is by looking to God

for joy.

Back when I first

entered my teens

and one of my

great Christian buddies

and I decided

that we were gonna,

we were gonna be

men of God,

we were gonna be

men of purity,

we were gonna fight

all sin in our lives.

And so we were on the phone

all the time

confessing our sin,

of all manner of sin,

all types of sin,

confessing our sin

to each other.

We became so,

like just so trying

to cultivate

hatred for sin.

One of us,

I think it was probably me,

and this is a confession,

like I can get

into big trouble for this.

One of us decided

that every time

we fell short

that we'd shred $20.

Okay?

That's actually a felony

to shred money

so they might come after me.

This might be the last

term I ever preach.

Okay?

So come visit me in jail,

remember my chains.

But,

so it helped us

for a good few days.

But even,

like,

so we thought,

like,

we didn't even want

to donate the money

to some charity

because we thought

that would be

an excuse for sin.

So we're just,

if we fall,

we're going to shred $20.

And that kept us,

we thought,

like,

I don't know how you

value sin or not,

but we felt like

we were doing good,

like we're living

perfect lives

for a few hours,

maybe a few days,

but then there we were

shredding $20

and $40 and $60.

Eventually,

we're like,

okay,

I think it was him

that discovered

that it was a felony.

We're like,

we can't do this.

We're actually sinning

by shredding,

like this isn't good.

You with me?

What's the point?

Maybe you can't relate

to shredding money,

but all of us can relate

to trying to fight sin

by just trying to hate sin

and trying to put

all these safeguards in.

And safeguards are good.

Safeguards help us,

help us fight sin,

but the way

to actually overcome sin

isn't by simply

focusing on sin

and hating sin.

You defeat the love

for pleasure for sin

with the love

for a greater pleasure.

And the greater pleasure

for David

is a joy he's found

in God.

And so he's saying right now

in the midst of his

miserable,

sinful state,

he's saying,

God,

I don't have this joy.

He's not saying,

God,

I have the joy.

He's saying,

God,

restore to me the joy.

Is this our response

after we've sinned?

Lord,

restore to me the joy.

If finding such joy,

a joy that's bigger

than the joy you'll find

in any kind of sexual pleasure,

any kind of economic pleasure,

any kind of recreational pleasure,

if the joy of the Lord

as a greater pleasure

than any of that

is something foreign to you

or something that isn't

as much as you want it to be,

let that be another prayer of yours.

God,

restore to me the joy

of your salvation.

Lord,

may the joy found in you,

may the exuberance

and the delight

and the savoring

and the treasuring of you,

may you as my joy

be a bigger joy

than anything the world

has to offer,

anything the flesh has to offer.

Lord,

be my chief joy.

Let that be a daily prayer

for you and for me

because all of us

can grow in the joy of the Lord.

It doesn't matter how deep

and how much joy you have,

there is more

and it is the greatest

and the most deepest

and profound joy

we'll ever find.

A joy that we can find

even when we're going

through dark times

and dry times,

a joy that is,

that words cannot even express.

David wants that joy

and David doesn't simply

confess his sin,

he doesn't simply ask

for cleansing,

he says,

Lord,

restore to me the joy.

He knows that God can do this

despite the wrong things

he's done.

And if he simply stopped there,

I think a lot of us

would still be pretty impressed

with the Bible's view

of restoration.

But David goes one more

than simply restoring

his personal joy

and praying for that.

David asks that God

re-engage him

in the mission of God.

David wasn't simply

a king,

he wasn't simply

the political leader,

he was also a great

worship leader.

From before he had ever

become king,

he was already ministering

in worship in the fields

with the sheep,

ministering worship

in the courts of King Saul.

And again,

as king,

he was still a worship leader,

a songwriter.

And so,

as he is saying,

Lord,

open my lips

and my mouth

will declare your praise

and I will teach

transgressors your ways

and sinners will return to you.

He is speaking right

into the mission

that God had called him for

as a worship leader,

as a teacher,

saying,

God,

would you re-engage me

in this?

And so often

when we see someone

who's fallen,

whether they're a great

famous pastor

or a politician

or whether it's you or me,

we lose hope

that they can ever

be used by God again.

We're just,

a lot of,

you'll see the media

and everyone just crying

for their blood.

David has fallen greatly.

He has slept

with his best friend's wife

and he committed murder

against his best friend

and David is saying,

God,

God,

would you forgive me

because of who you are?

You're a merciful God.

God,

would you cleanse me

from a sin

that should be imparable?

Would you make me clean?

Lord,

would you restore to me joy?

And God,

would you help me re-engage

in the mission

that you made me for?

Now,

if you have

done something

so serious

that you may need

to take a step back,

there's time for that.

There's room for that.

But no matter what,

what you've done wrong,

no matter what dark things

you've done,

and we've all done them,

we're able to re-engage

in the mission of God

because of who God is,

because he's restoring God.

As long as there's breath

in your lungs,

you are made like David

to be someone

that not only worships God

if I join him,

but to be pointing people

toward God.

Whatever that looks like

in your workplace

or your neighborhood

or your home

and ministry

and your church.

And so,

I want to invite us,

for those of us

who have lost hope

of being able to make

a radical difference

for God,

to invite us

to remember

that our God

is a God

who restores

not only our own joy,

but re-engages us

in mission.

To do that

in a healthy way,

but to believe

that we are able

to be people

who are living out

God's calling

in our lives,

not because we've

avoided sin for a while,

but because of

who God is.

And so,

David,

he goes from talking

about leading

the people

and teaching them

and leading them

in worship.

He ends

still as their king,

interceding for them.

Do good to Zion,

to your good pleasure.

Build the walls

of Jerusalem.

This is a king's prayer

for his people,

knowing that God

has called him

to re-engage

in the mission of God.

So,

those are four steps.

There's confession

that's centered on God,

a request for cleansing

that he might be able

to be in the presence

of God.

For indeed,

it's our sin

that separates us

from being able

to be with God,

but because of Jesus,

we're able to be

in the presence of God

to savor that.

He asks for restoration

of joy.

He asks for re-engaging

in mission.

But there's a fifth step,

and the fifth step

isn't after that.

It's actually before all that.

We started in verse 1,

but something to note,

if you don't already know this,

you probably do,

but in our Bibles,

you'll find these bold headers,

and that's not sacred scripture.

That's just the translator's

titling of that passage.

But after the header,

you'll sometimes see

in a lot of psalms

the subtext,

in this case,

to the choir master.

And this is the original.

This is the original Hebrew.

This,

even though it's not,

it doesn't have a verse number

beside it,

it's before verse 1,

this is part of

the word of God.

This actually is part

of sacred scripture,

God-breathed words.

Let us read it.

To the choir master,

a psalm of David,

when Nathan the prophet

went to him

after he had gone into Bathsheba.

This is remarkable.

Because when someone comes

to a king with bad news,

when a messenger comes to them,

it's not uncommon

for the king just to kill

the messenger.

How much more so

when the bad news

is about your own sin,

a sin that you've successfully

hid for nine months,

and all of a sudden,

this guy,

he's the one person

who knows what you've done.

A lot of kings

would just kill him.

And not only kings.

When someone comes to you

and me,

at least me,

when someone comes to me

and confronts me

about wrongdoing,

I so often want to

defend myself.

I want to make excuses.

I don't want to actually

embrace what they've said.

David embraces

the conviction

from Nathan.

How is this possible?

He's a human

just like you and me.

How is this possible?

I believe we've Psalm 51

because we've Psalm 139.

And I believe that Psalm 139

was written before Psalm 51.

Psalm 139,

a famous psalm

that talks about

God being with us

and the depths

and the heights

and everywhere we are,

we can never leave his presence.

It ends

with this beautiful prayer.

Verse 23,

Search me, O God.

This is David writing.

Search me, O God,

and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts

and see if there be

any grievous way in me

and lead me

in the way everlasting.

David has been praying,

maybe daily,

maybe weekly,

regularly praying,

Search me, O God.

Find where there's wickedness.

Find where there's sin.

Find where there's things

that grieve you.

Convict me of it.

Lead me in your way.

As he's praying that prayer

over time,

Nathan comes to him

and says,

Nathan, God has found sin in you.

David, God has found sin in you.

And David's response is,

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love.

If we are going to be people

who can be free of the shame

and the fear

and the guilt

that we rightly have

because we've done wrong,

we need to be people

who are regularly looking to God

to convict us of sin,

to create in us hearts

that long more than anything

for the presence of God

so we'll welcome conviction

and we'll welcome rebuke,

whether that's from a person

or whether that's by conviction

of the Holy Spirit.

Would you add that

to the prayers you pray?

Lord, search me

and know me.

Finally, there's wickedness

so we can bring the things

that make us shameful

and filled with shame

to God.

There's one more thing.

David writes this

to the choir master.

This is not David's

private confession

in his own bedroom

or prayer closet.

This is David's public song

for the people to sing

in Jerusalem

and throughout the ages of time

included in scripture

for us today.

This is a public song.

David has successfully

hidden his sin

but now he brings it to light

for people to join him

in confession

and cleansing

and restoration

and reengaging in mission.

David's written this

for us to share.

So often the reason

that we don't confess our sin

is that we're so afraid

that God will judge us,

that people will judge us

and condemn us

but David has confidence

that he can bring this to light.

In 1 John,

it talks about

how we all have sinned

and it calls us

to confess our sin

one to another

that we may be cleansed,

that we can pray

for each other

and be cleansed.

Catholics,

there's something right

to Catholic doctrine

of confession

that they've instituted.

You don't simply

confess your sin to God

but you actually confess it

to someone else.

In the Roman Catholic way,

it's to a priest

but as a priesthood

of all believers,

we can confess our sin

not to a specific person

like a reigning priest

but we can confess our sin

one to another.

I want to invite you

to do that.

Find someone that you trust

whether that's Pastor George

or if it was me

or Louise, Diane.

Find someone that you trust

and you can confess your sin to

one to another

as the scripture says.

David wrote this to be sung

not just in a private

prayer closet

but publicly

because we find healing

as we bring our darkness

to light.

Just last week,

I had a very precious friend

to me

confess to struggling

with some really heavy stuff

and he shared how

he'd been struggling

with this stuff

for years

and the isolation he feels,

the darkness he feels,

how when someone affirms you,

you feel like,

well, if you only knew me,

you wouldn't say

those nice things about me

and so the more affirmation

you get,

the less affirmation

you feel.

The more affirmation

you get,

the more isolated you feel

for people don't know

the real you.

It's been eating at him

for years

and I got to watch

as he confessed

his struggle to me

and I got to see light

enter his eyes again

and this past week,

if you follow church news,

one of my favorite

worship leaders

in the Church of England

confessed,

not distant,

confessed and brought

a struggle of hers to light

and has embraced

the lifestyle

and she's given up

the fight

and as I read

with a broken heart

this long article

where she talks

about her struggle,

it was the exact same

as my friends,

for years,

a hidden struggle,

for years,

a hidden sinful struggle

and giving into it

but not being able

to tell anyone about it

and as a result,

she's thrown in the towel,

she's not going

to fight this anymore,

she's going to embrace it

which is destructive,

it's not good

and as I read this,

I knew that I could

relate to that

because you and I

have done the same thing

where we're keeping

wrongdoing we've done

in private,

we're trying to keep it

from anyone knowing

about it

because we don't really

believe that God

would forgive us

or that people

would be able

to embrace us again

but David has found

forgiveness,

David has found

cleansing,

David has found

restoration of joy

in the presence of God

and he's reengaged

in mission

because David

no longer was going

to keep his sin

in private,

instead he embraced

the conviction of God

and found life in God.

We don't need to kid anybody,

all of us are broken people,

we've all experienced

the same thing

where there's things

that we're ashamed of,

let us bring a brokenness

to God

and in public

to each other

in a safe setting,

in the church

is a safe setting,

let us bring a brokenness

to God

because he forgives,

he heals,

he cleanses,

he restores,

in him there's life

and joy

for he's with us.

Would you stand with me

as we pray?

Heavenly Father,

we love you

and Lord,

we don't always

understand you.

Lord,

you forgive us

for things

that we never would

forgive ourselves

for.

Lord,

you forgave David

for sleeping

with his best friend's wife

and murdering

his best friend.

Against you

he had sinned,

even more so

than against these people.

And Lord,

we know that

even if our sin

is called by a different name,

we also have transgressed

against you

every single one.

And Lord,

it is so human

for us to try

to keep it hidden,

for us to try

to present

a version of ourselves

that people will like.

But God,

each one of us

is brokenness

and each one of us

knows shame.

Lord,

would you help us

like David

to look to you

for forgiveness

as we confess our sins

centered on you.

Lord,

would you help us

to look to you

for cleansing

that we experience

you saying

that we are clean.

Lord,

would you help us

to savor your presence

and delight in your joy.

Would you restore

evermore your joy to us.

And Lord,

would you help us

to reengage evermore

in the mission

that you've called us to.

Lord,

we want to walk with you

in the freedom

and the life

that you've made us for.

God,

we love you.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.