Restoring Joy

I'm trying to get healthy because I want to see my kids graduate.

!

These numbers act like indicators, right?

They're indicators of actual health.

So no matter how you feel, you could feel like you're doing fine, but the numbers tell you the truth.

The numbers tell you how you're really doing.

And so as I've been going through all these scans and looking at my health by the numbers,

it got me thinking, what about spiritual health?

What indicators are there for spiritual health that, regardless of how you think you might be doing,

will tell you this is how you're actually doing?

And Psalm 51, which is the text we're going to focus on this morning,

would actually suggest that one of the strongest, clearest, most reliable indicators of spiritual health and growth and flourishing

is the presence of joy.

It's the presence of joy.

So let me ask you this.

How joyful are you feeling these days?

How much joy do you experience in your daily life?

For those of us who may not be feeling joyful right now,

why don't we feel more joy?

For Christians, if we believe everything that we're hearing and confessing and praying and singing about this morning,

why don't we feel more joy?

If you're here and you're not a Christian,

is there any difference between the experiences of joy that you feel like you've had in your life

and that that a Christian might feel?

Do I really need to be a follower of Jesus in order to experience joy?

I don't think so.

How can we, for those of us who feel like we've lost our sense of joy,

how can we recover it?

Psalm 51 speaks into these questions,

and it's going to show us the source of joy,

kind of where it comes from,

the loss of joy,

why we can have it and then lose it,

where does it go,

and then finally the recovery of joy,

how to get it back.

So let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word,

and we thank you for this season of Lent,

and we thank you for this song.

Lord, thousands of years when David wrote it,

he never could have imagined that we would be sitting here this morning

contemplating words that flowed out of one of the most personal and painful experiences of his life.

And yet, Lord, through the power of your Holy Spirit

and through your eternal wisdom,

you have appointed these words for us this morning.

So I pray that you would open our hearts to receive

what you have to say

through these words to us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So first of all, the source of joy,

I want to clarify a little bit what we mean

when we talk about the word joy in this context.

I don't just mean happiness.

I don't just mean optimistic.

You know, some people just are naturally wired.

Some of you, I love seeing you on Sunday

because it doesn't matter if it's raining and cold and nasty outside.

When I see you, I know you're going to be smiling

and you're going to say,

How you doing?

Good morning.

Hopefully, if you're that kind of person, you're on the welcome team

because those are the kind of people that we want on the welcome team.

And you're a naturally optimistic person.

But that's not what I mean by joy.

In the Bible, joy is more like a deep, settled assurance

that all is well, no matter what the circumstances might be.

It could be sunny.

It could be raining.

It's a deep, settled assurance that all is well,

no matter what the circumstances might be.

So no matter what we read in the news,

when we're doom scrolling,

no matter what current crisis du jour is unfolding in our world,

no matter what we might be facing in our own lives,

true joy is marked by the fact that it remains solid and unshakable

because it's not affected by outward circumstances.

That's really the difference between happiness and joy.

Happiness depends on what we feel like at the moment.

Joy depends on what is unshakably true,

regardless of how we feel.

Let me say that again.

Happiness depends on what we feel like in the moment.

Joy depends on what is unshakably true,

regardless of how we feel in the moment.

It's a very different thing.

So think of your emotions.

Our emotions, the world of feeling is like shifting sand.

And the shifting sands of emotions are always blowing this way and that.

So one day we might be feeling happy and optimistic

and hopeful about our lives,

but maybe a couple of days later,

the direction of wind has changed

and the sand's blowing in a different direction

and we're feeling sad and hopeless.

We're feeling despair.

We're feeling pessimistic and morose.

But below those shifting sands of emotions,

joy is like that bedrock.

It sits under the surface.

It's the bedrock of joy

that is deep and rooted and secure.

Think of an ocean where there's a storm raging

and there's waves and there's wind,

but if you go down deep,

go down a mile below the surface,

you'd never know there was a storm up there.

It's calm.

It's quiet.

It's peaceful.

It's still.

That's joy.

And here's the thing about true joy.

Here's the, at times, frustrating thing about this kind of joy

is you can't get this kind of joy by aiming at it.

You can't wake up and say,

I want to have this kind of joy and aim at it.

You'll never reach it.

You'll always fall short of it.

You know, some churches try to stir joy up

and, you know, you create an emotional high for people

and the music is raging

and everybody's kind of whipped into a frenzy

and jumping in the air,

and that is super fun and awesome.

Right?

I love going to experiences like that,

but you can't replace joy with something like that

because you can't manufacture joy.

You can't.

It's not an experience that you can engineer.

Joy is the byproduct of something else.

It's downstream of something else,

and if we don't have that something else,

we'll never have this kind of joy.

David, the king over Israel,

who wrote many of the Psalms,

including this one,

he had experienced this joy firsthand,

and he knew that there's only one place it can be found,

and so there's a number of places in the Psalms

which are like his prayer book

where he writes about this joy.

Psalm 16 is very clear.

Verse 11, he writes of the Lord,

In your presence there is fullness of joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

David's saying the times when I feel most full of joy

the times when I have that assurance,

when I have that bedrock,

those are the times, Lord, when I'm in your presence.

These are the only times when I feel that,

the fullness of joy.

So true joy can only be found in God's presence,

and by in God's presence,

I don't just mean being physically with God

because that's not how it works.

Being in God's presence means that our hearts

are fully aligned with his heart.

It means that we are spiritually connected to God,

that his will is our will,

that his heart is our heart,

that we're moving in step with his Holy Spirit,

that we're living out his desire for us as his creatures.

And so that's where true joy can be found.

So biblically speaking,

joy might be defined this way.

It is the deep, settled assurance

that God is in control of every aspect of my life,

and that therefore all is ultimately well

even when all is not immediately well.

The deep, settled assurance that God is in control

of every aspect of my life,

and that therefore the ultimate assurance

that all is ultimately well

even if it's not immediately well.

That's what we find in God's presence.

So when we lose that sense of joy,

it means that something is not right

in our relationship with God.

Because if that's downstream

from being in God's presence

in the way we described,

if we're not feeling it, experiencing it,

then it means that something is wrong

in that relationship.

And that's what Psalm 51 is really about.

David's relationship with God

has been fractured.

It's been damaged.

And all of the joy

has drained out of his life.

And that's why he prays

in verse 11 of this Psalm,

cast me not away from your presence.

That's David's worst fear,

to be cut off from God,

to be cast out the way Adam and Eve

were cast out of the garden.

Because he knows that life and joy and peace

are only to be found in God's presence.

And once you taste that, as David had,

you never want to do without it.

You can't imagine living a day without it.

So David is seeking to repair

that relationship.

And in the heart of the Psalm,

he prays,

and this is really the heartbeat

of Psalm 51,

restore to me the joy of your salvation.

I want to know what it's like

to live in your presence again.

So that's the source of joy.

It's living life in God's presence.

So why do we lose that?

How do we experience the loss of joy?

And what does that say?

And how do we understand that?

Well, in David's case,

it's pretty clear when we look back

and we read the text in 2 Samuel,

David, frankly, had done some terrible things.

David had abused his power.

David had slept with his best friend's wife.

When she got pregnant,

came and told him that she got pregnant,

David initiated a big mass cover-up operation,

including arranging to have his best friend killed

by sending him to the front lines

of a suicide mission.

And then David tries to go on

pretending that everything's okay,

which is what most of us do.

Tries to go on pretending like everything's fine,

nothing to see here.

Of course, we know all the servants

knew everything that was going on.

David's the only one

that actually thought it was a secret.

Of course, God knows

everything that's going on.

So David tries to pretend that everything's okay,

but his heart is not okay.

And his heart is very far from God.

And it's not a sustainable place to be.

And so in 2 Samuel 12,

his friend Nathan the prophet confronts him.

And only after Nathan confronts him

does David finally have the courage

to stop pretending that everything is okay.

I wonder if you've ever had that experience

where you just sort of reach a point

where you say,

I can't pretend that things are okay any longer.

I can't keep wearing the mask.

So David takes the mask off.

Everything comes pouring out.

And to our great benefit,

it comes out in the form of Psalm 51.

And there are some extraordinary insights here

into the things that drive us away from God

that would apply to all of us.

First, we see as we look at this Psalm,

what we see is that our relationship with God

can be damaged,

both by things that we have done

and things that we have left undone.

That's what we confess sometimes in our liturgy.

We confess things that we've done

and things that we've left undone.

So David uses several different words

to describe this problem

that has gotten in the way

of his relationship with God.

One of the words that he uses is the word peshah,

which we translate as transgressions.

Transgressions are,

this means active rebellion.

This is insurrection against God.

So part of what David has done

to damage his relationship with God

is he's rebelled against God.

In other words,

he's knowingly disobeyed

and gone against God's will.

You know, over the years,

I've had conversations with people

who've come to me

and they've wanted to talk.

I want to have a theological conversation

with you and ask you about this

with that aspect of the faith

because frankly,

I'm having a lot of doubts.

I'm not sure if I believe

any of this anymore

and I'm thinking about leaving the faith

or they're massively questioning their faith.

And sometimes those conversations

end up being theological,

but a lot of times I'll start out

by just asking,

what's going on in your life?

And it's surprising how often

that conversation ends up

taking a very different turn

because sometimes,

a surprisingly high amount of times,

you find out that other shifts in life

have coincided with that shift in faith.

You know, they moved in with their boyfriend

or they moved in with their girlfriend

or it turns out they're nursing

a deep resentment against somebody

and they're refusing to forgive that person, right?

So you begin to realize,

oh, the problem isn't theological.

You can't be actively living

against God's will

and still feel connected to him

at the same time, right?

So there's a way that some of that doubt

is your brain trying to make sense of the fact

that now all of a sudden

because you're rebelling against God,

there's no connection

or even sense of God's presence

in your life any longer, right?

But then later,

he uses the word hatat,

which we translate sin.

And this is a very different nuance.

It means missing the mark.

So imagine archery and you aim

and you miss the bullseye,

you miss the target.

Or it means falling short

or failing to live

according to God's standard,

way we might say it is living

as though God doesn't exist.

So maybe this is somebody

who's not in active rebellion against God.

Maybe this is somebody

who doesn't even acknowledge

that there is a God.

Or maybe they believe there's a God

but they think that God

is for religious people

or church-going people

but God doesn't really have anything

to do with me.

Or maybe they think that God

created everything

and just kind of wants us to be happy

but doesn't really get involved

in the everyday affairs of our life.

He just kind of lets us do our thing, right?

These are popular ideas

that people in our country have about God.

So, you know,

maybe in the way we,

maybe we think,

you know, when I go to church

and I pray, that's God stuff.

But the way I spend my money

and manage my budget,

that's kind of my business.

or what I do with my body,

that's my business.

But it can be in how we deal

with things like anxiety in our life.

Right?

Anxiety, it turns out,

is actually deeply rooted

in our desire to have control.

So, ultimately,

anxiety is the result of us

trying to control things

we can't control.

We try to control future outcomes.

We try to control

other people's choices.

Man, you have teenagers

and you just give anything

to just be able to just control

what they do, right?

Don't do this, do this, right?

You know, anxiety is sometimes

just trying to control

what other people think about us.

Trying to manage

what other people think about us.

The point is,

these are things

that we can't control.

Only God can control these things.

So, in reality,

when we try to control things

that only God can control,

we're living in a functionally

atheistic way.

We're living as though

there is no God.

We're living as though

maybe we are God, right?

So that would be a way

that we live in God's world

as though He doesn't exist.

So, that damages

our relationship with God.

When we live in a way

where we're failing

we're willing to let God be God

and we're trying to be Him instead.

So, the first thing

that we see here

is that our relationship

with God can be broken

both by things

that we're actively doing

in rebellion against God

but also simply by living

as though God doesn't exist.

Or not doing things

that God has called us to do.

The second thing we learn

is that the problem

that we're talking about here

runs a lot,

a lot deeper

than our actions.

In verse 5, David says,

Behold, I was brought forth

in iniquity

and in sin

did my mother conceive me.

Now, that word iniquity

is a third word

and that refers to

a kind of inner bentness

or crookedness.

And it's something

that we inherit from birth.

There's a kind of inner,

you know,

St. Augustine articulated it

as with the Latin phrase

in curvata sensei.

There's a curving inward

on oneself

that we are born with.

A kind of spiritual condition

that means

what comes most naturally

to us, right?

So, we live in a society

where for the last hundred years

there's been a lot of emphasis

on letting people do

what comes most naturally

to them

and not getting in the way

of what comes naturally

to people

and letting people live

out of their natural inclinations.

And what this is saying

is that what comes

most naturally to me

is to turn away from God

and to curve in on myself.

And I was born that way

and there's nothing

that I can do

to change that

in my own strength.

So, what this means

is that because this is rooted

in my nature

as a human being,

because I was born this way,

this is not something

that we can fix

on our own.

You can't read a book

to fix this

and think your way out of it.

You can't go to a therapist

and get this treated

with CBT

or DBT, right,

or any of the other interventions.

We can't fix this therapeutically.

We can't fix it

with the right life plan.

You can't fix it

through diet and cold plunges.

You can't engineer

your way out of this.

So, that's the second thing

we learn.

This problem goes a lot deeper

than our behavior.

And then the third thing

that we learn

is that this disconnection

that many of us feel

from God

is because part of our heart

is actually closed off

from God.

Verse 6 talks about

our need for God's truth

in the inward being

and the secret heart.

And that word

for secret heart

is satum.

And it shows up

a number of times

in the Old Testament.

And that describes

situations

where people

plug up a well

or plug up a spring

or plug up a water source

to prevent other people

from having access to it.

And David very poetically

uses that word here

to describe a part

of our heart

that we wall off

from other people

and from God.

It's part of your heart

that you say

no access

beyond this point.

No trespassing.

Right?

So, we might say

to other people,

you can know this part of me,

you can know this thing

about me,

I will let you in

on these aspects

of my life,

but I won't ever

let you know

about this.

Right?

I read this study

that said that

on average

people carry around

13 secrets,

five of which

they've never told

another living soul.

And then apparently

somebody did

some related research

on insurance

and that they correlated,

and I don't know

how much there is to this,

they correlated

the amount of secrets,

the number of secrets

that people said

that they were holding

and weren't sharing

with the people around them

and their perception

of their endurance

over time.

In other words,

people seemed to feel

physically burdened

and have less endurance

in a way

that was proportionately

related to the amount

of secrets

they were carrying.

Now, I don't know

if that's true,

but I do know

that there's been

a massive rise

in online anonymous confessions.

Maybe you've read

about this too

because people are hungry

and desperate

to unburden themselves.

But there's a part

of our heart

that we sort of wall off,

and so, you know,

we've experienced this.

This is what David

was doing, right?

He's pretending

everything's okay,

and it's easy to think

that the best way

to deal with our sin

is simply to hide it

and to wall it off

and to hide our true self,

and we're incentivized

because it's scary

to be vulnerable.

We're afraid

that if people

really know who we are

or really know

what we've done

or really know

what we think

or the things

that we struggle with

that they're going

to immediately reject us.

And so,

we will wall off

parts of ourself.

We'll hide our true self.

The problem is,

it's impossible

to have a real

three-dimensional relationship

with other human beings

if nobody really

fully knows us.

And it's no different

with God.

The only difference

is that you can't

hide from God,

and yet if we're

actively walling off

parts of ourself

from God,

we can never really

have a life-giving

relationship with God

because we're trying

to convince God

that we're somebody

that we're not.

And God knows.

He knows that that's

a lie, right?

So God desires wisdom

in the secret heart.

God desires access

to all of us.

So all of these

are aspects

of the issue

that comes between

us and God,

the reason why

we can live

so much of our lives

with a kind of

fractured relationship

with God.

So the question

then arises,

how can we

reconnect with God

and recover the joy

that comes with that,

which is the whole

point of this psalm.

And the key

to repairing

our relationship

with God,

the key to

restoring joy

that comes with

that repairing

of the breach

is what the Bible

calls repentance.

Now,

when you say

repentance,

the challenge is

that for some people

who've grown up

in the church,

this feels like

Christianity 101.

I've heard this

a thousand times.

For other people,

it sounds like

this kind of

archaic word

that only kind of

traditionalist Christians

even talk about anymore.

You go to a lot of churches

and you don't even

hear this word.

The problem is

that regardless

of what category

or camp you're in,

a lot of us tend

to misunderstand

repentance.

Psalm 51

is one of the

clearest places

to see what actual

repentance,

what actual

relationship-restoring

joy-restoring

repentance looks like.

And the path

of repentance

involves a few things

that basically

determine whether

or not it's

actual true

repentance or not.

The first thing

that we see

in this psalm

is this,

is that repentance

involves appealing

to God's mercy

alone.

Appealing to God's

mercy alone.

So I don't know

when the last time

you said you were

sorry to somebody

or to God was,

but we tend to say

things like,

I'm so sorry,

I'll try to do

better next time.

Or,

I didn't mean

to do that.

Or,

it was a huge

misunderstanding.

Or,

I made a mistake

but that's not

who I really am.

And in all

of those cases

what we're really

essentially doing

is that we're

actually appealing

to our own character.

We're saying,

forgive me

because of who I am,

forgive me

because of who

I really am,

and you just

misunderstood it

or forgive me

because of what

I promised to do

differently.

It's all based

on me

and my character.

But David

doesn't do that.

David appeals

solidly and squarely

to God's character.

He says,

have mercy on me,

O God,

according to

your steadfast love,

according to

your abundant

mercy.

We'll come back

to this,

but God

doesn't owe

you anything.

He doesn't

owe me

anything.

Have mercy

on me,

O God,

according to

the fact

that it is

your character

and nature

to have mercy.

Number two,

so appealing

to God's mercy,

honestly admitting

our sin.

Friends,

I think this

may be,

in everything

we talk about

this morning,

the hardest

thing for us

to do.

If you've

ever,

and I assume

most of you

have,

really had to

admit that

you were wrong,

it is never

not excruciatingly

painful.

If you're

really doing

it,

if you're

really naming

it,

there's always

something in

you that

goes,

when you do

it,

it hurts.

But this

is saying

that true

repentance

means unblocking

the parts

of our hearts

that we have

walled off

and letting

everything flow

out.

Pulling out

that stopper

and just letting

it all come

out.

But that

is really

hard to

do.

You know,

a few years

back,

a couple

of social

psychologists

wrote a

book,

and it

was a

book

primarily

on marriage,

and it

was called

Mistakes

Were Made

But Not

By Me.

So I like

the title,

Mistakes

Were Made

But Not

By Me.

And based

on their

research,

they say

the majority

of married

couples who

drift apart

over time

do so

slowly.

So they

drift apart

slowly over

time in

what they

describe as a

snowballing

pattern of

blame and

self-justification.

So each

partner focuses

on what the

other one is

doing wrong

while justifying

his or her

own preferences,

attitudes,

and ways of

doing things.

So the big

conclusion of the

book is this.

You know,

this is a

CliffsNotes

version.

I'll spoil the

ending for you.

The thing that

chokes the love

out of these

relationships

is not

conflicts,

it's not

misunderstandings,

it's not

personality

differences,

it's not the

fact that you

have different

hobbies and

interests,

or that one

of you goes

to bed early

and one

of you goes

to bed late,

or that one

of you likes

a clean house

and one

of you doesn't

mind a mess,

or that one

of you likes

to plan ahead

and the other

one likes

to live

spontaneously.

It's none

of those

things.

The thing

that chokes

the love

out is

self-justification.

Self-justification.

Question is,

if we're tempted

to do that

in our marriages

with the people

that we supposedly

love the most

of anybody

in the world,

how much more

are we tempted

to do this

in our relationship

with God?

Or another way

of putting it,

what makes us

think we would

do any better

with God?

You know,

I don't know

if you're like me,

but sometimes

it feels like

we're all born

with this little

team of defense

attorneys in our brain.

You know,

you're born

of these little

defense attorneys

and they're yours

and they work

for you.

They work pro bono

just for you.

And so when somebody

comes along

and they say,

when you said

or did that,

you hurt my feelings

or you did this,

the defense attorneys

are like,

we're here to go.

You know,

and they all

stop to attention

and they start

taking notes,

right?

And they use

on some of

who are defense attorneys,

right?

And you know

all the tactics,

right?

We're going to

discredit the witness.

We're going to,

did you really say this?

And you really,

and I,

you know,

and then they start

to just poke

a thousand holes

in that person's claim

that you've done

something wrong

against them,

right?

And their sole job

in your life

is to get you

off the hook.

Those defense attorneys,

they exist for one

purpose alone.

It's to convince you

and everybody around you

that you're actually

innocent,

maybe even the victim,

and that that other person

is the one

who's in the wrong,

right?

And you know,

I would say

to a certain extent,

I think we live

in a culture

that has kind of

inflamed and empowered

our defense attorneys.

We live in a culture

of victimization

where there's a,

there's a readiness

to jump into

the role of victim.

People sort of want

to claim that they've

been victimized.

You see that all the time.

You see it in the church

as well as anywhere else.

People who are,

you know,

somebody raises concerns

and they respond

by saying,

you're victimizing me.

And then the entire

conflict becomes

who's the bigger victim?

Who's been more wronged,

right?

All the while,

what's not happening?

Nobody's taking responsibility.

Nobody's owning their stuff.

So what we see here,

what we see in David's words,

is that true repentance

requires that we fire

our defense attorneys.

Right?

We fire them.

We stop trying

to justify ourselves.

And we start to do

the hard work

of owning our sin.

And it's not easy.

And I can imagine

for David

it would have been hard

to write these words.

For I know my transgressions

and my sin

is ever before me.

He's like,

it's all right here.

I'm not going to hide anymore.

No defense attorneys.

Here's my sin.

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.

Here's how to own your sin.

What's he doing?

Number one,

he's saying,

I admit my sin.

I'm not going to try to hide it.

I was wrong.

And then he says,

and all of my sin

is ultimately committed

against God.

And you say,

well,

he kind of mistreated Bathsheba

and her late husband.

And you're like,

absolutely.

Yes,

he sinned against Bathsheba

and her dead husband.

He sinned against

the whole nation of Israel.

But guess what?

Before he ever committed

adultery with Bathsheba,

he committed adultery

against God.

All sin we commit

horizontally

flows out of sin

and rebellion

that we've committed

first and foremost

against God.

But then David goes on

to say a final thing

that we would often overlook.

He says that God

is fully justified

in condemning him.

And this is very important.

We come back to what

we said a little while ago.

We have to realize

God doesn't owe us anything.

And God would be fully justified

in condemning us.

God's judgments

are just.

And we have to recognize

if we get what we deserve

from God,

there would be no hope

for any of us.

And David names all of that.

I've sinned.

All of my sin

was ultimately

against,

in first and foremost,

against you, God,

and you would be justified

and right

in condemning me.

And then finally,

repentance involves

asking not only

for forgiveness,

but for a new heart.

Create in me,

he says,

a clean heart,

O God,

a pure heart,

and renew

a right spirit

within me.

So repentance

is more than just

behavior modification.

It's a cry

from new creation.

It's a cry

for recreation.

God who said,

let there be light.

God who created

the heavens and the earth.

I need you

to recreate me.

God has the power

to transform us

from the inside out

through the power

of the Holy Spirit.

And this is where

we see the good news

of the gospel.

That when we come

to God in the way

that we have just laid out,

when we come to God

appealing to God's mercy,

honestly admitting

our sin,

and asking for a new heart,

guess what?

God's answer

is always yes.

It is always yes.

Because God

has already accomplished

everything necessary

to set us free

from sin.

David was praying

this before the cross.

He was praying

with a kind of uncertainty.

I don't know.

Maybe God will forgive him.

Maybe he won't.

But we're praying

yes, friends,

on the other side

of the cross.

So we're not looking

ahead into the unknown.

We're looking back

on what is known

and certain.

Because of the cross,

unlike David,

we know that when we

pray this way,

God's answer is always yes.

We just have to come

and ask him.

The people who aren't

reconciled to God,

the people who are

disconnected from God,

the people who don't

know the Lord,

the people who've never

experienced this life

in joy,

the reason that is the case

is because they have

never come to God

and asked.

There is no one

who has ever come to God

where God has said no.

So when we know

that we've been forgiven

and restored to God,

that's when the joy

begins to return.

And that is that kind

of unique,

powerful joy

that comes from being

fully known

and fully loved

because we've unstopped

the secret places.

And that makes us

fully secure.

And that's,

I think,

friends,

what many of us

are really after,

what we really need,

is I need to know

that somewhere out there,

the one whose opinion

matters most,

more than anyone else

in my life,

fully knows me,

fully loves me,

and in him

I am absolutely secure.

I mean,

just when I say those words,

don't you feel,

do you feel something

in you just kind of go,

fully known,

fully loved,

absolutely secure.

Right?

So let's step back

and look at all this together,

just kind of pull it together.

God desires for you

and for me

to live lives

marked by joy.

Christianity is not

about a grim compliance

or grudging obedience.

Some people treat Christianity

as though we're children

learning to like broccoli.

God's invited us

into a life

of joy and peace.

Don't you understand?

God wants to teach us

to dance.

God wants to invite us

to fly.

Right?

God wants to lift us

right out of the mire,

set us on solid ground.

That's the life

that we're invited into.

So if we lack joy

in our lives,

if we don't have

that bedrock assurance

that all is well

and that God

is in control,

that means that something

has come in the way

of our relationship

with God.

It means that something

has gotten in the way

and as we said,

it could be things

that we're actively doing

in rebellion.

Maybe you already know

exactly what that is.

It could simply be

the fact that we're living

by our own standards

instead of His

or it could be

that we're living

like He doesn't exist

in certain areas

of our lives.

But in every case,

the answer is always

the same.

There's only one path

back in

and that is the path

of repentance.

And friends,

this is the first Sunday

as we've said

of the season of Lent

which is entirely

focused on repentance.

And hopefully by now

it is abundantly clear

that that doesn't mean

Lent is a time

to be morose

and self-critical.

Lent is about

restoring joy.

I think Lent

is often misunderstood.

Lent is about

the restoration

and the recovery

of joy

that is found

in God's presence.

The last thing

I'll say is this.

Depending on how

you're wired,

this might look

different

depending on

how you operate.

So just a couple

of final

case applications

here

because I want

to press this home

a little bit

for you.

Some of us

really struggle

with all due respect

to admit

that we need grace.

We tend to be

very defensive.

We tend to have

a very hard time

seeing or admitting

our own sin.

And so,

again,

with all due respect,

for you,

if that's you,

Lent is a time

to stop pretending

that everything

is okay.

Because like David,

chances are

everybody around you

knows it's not.

It's the emperor

has no clothes.

You're only fooling

yourself.

It's time to start

being honest

about who you

really are.

And before you

can experience grace,

you may need God

to show you

that you need grace.

You may need to pray

for God's truth

and wisdom

to illuminate

your own inward

being to help

you see your need

for him.

And just to push

this a little further,

when David prays,

let the bones

that you have broken

rejoice.

Okay,

that's a sobering

reminder.

What's he saying?

Sometimes God

uses

uses

or even

introduces

hard and painful

experiences

to humble us

enough

so that we will

see our need

for him.

It's like the

smelling salts

meant to wake

us up.

So some of us,

that's what Lent

may need to be

for you.

I suspect

there are many

of us who have

the opposite

challenge,

that we are

all too aware

of our sin.

We're never

not aware of it.

Most of the time

we feel like

failures.

I'm failing

at being a

faithful Christian.

I'm failing

at my friendships.

I'm failing

at parenting.

You know,

kids,

maybe you don't

know that most

of the time

your parents

feel like they're

doing a horrible

job.

And we're plagued

by all the things

that we know

that we should be

doing,

but we're not

doing.

So in order

for us to

experience joy,

we not only

need to repent,

but we need to

repent and then

believe the gospel.

We need to

actually believe

what's on the

other side of

repentance.

We need to

understand,

as it says in

this psalm,

that God does

not see us

the way we

see ourselves.

That God

has cleansed

you.

God delights

in you.

Right?

And when we

go on acting

as though we

are miserable

sinners,

when God

has declared

us clean,

when God

has,

as David

prays,

blotted out

our transgressions,

it's a denial

of the gospel.

There's nothing

that you can

do,

friends,

that would

make God

love you

any more

than he

loves you

right now.

And there

is nothing

that you

could ever

do that

would make

God love

you any

less than

he does

right now.

If the

gospel is

true,

and you

have come

to him

in repentance,

then you

are clean.

Period.

So Lent

is about

no longer

denying that

fact and

living out of

the freedom

that it

imparts.

So no matter

where you are

this morning,

the invitation

is the

same.

Repent and

believe the

gospel,

because repentance

is the key to

enjoy the

love.

of

sin.

Lord, we

thank you

for your

word.

Oh, that

it would

become

fresh in

us.

Please,

Lord,

dwell in

us,

move in

us,

that we

fall on

knees and

cry out,

mercy on

the way

God,

what

you

said to

us.

And if

Lord,

lift us

up,

teach us

to dance

in the

joy and

freedom.

Teach us

to dance

in the

developed

joy.

Teach us

to dance

knowing

that we

are

filling

them

in

full.

Teach us

to dance

in the

absolute

spirit

of living

life

before

we

are

alive

of

this.

We

pray

this

which

on

the

way.

Amen.