If I Could Turn Back Time

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Celebrating our 12 years.

And uh it was awesome having uh Pastor Danny and Miss Susan back with us.

Um and that was exciting.

Uh and I but I'm excited today.

I'm gonna tell you, it's been three weeks since I preached, and uh, it's like you know, going that long without ice cream or something.

I'm really pumped, and I hope that you are this morning.

I want to tell you, just to let you know, uh just a little of what's coming.

We got two more weeks in this summer series on summer songs from Psalms.

Uh, in two weeks, we're gonna be celebrating uh the ordination of Pastor Dave Roper.

And uh, so don't miss that service.

His counsel will be that Saturday, and as long as he gets an A plus, which he will, uh we'll be celebrating his ordination the last Sunday in August.

And then first Sunday of September, we're going into a series called Contender.

We started the year talking about standing on the mountain, and then we talked about after that the weapons of war for how to stand on the mountain with the weapons, and so we're going on after this series that's coming, Contender, what we should stand for as a church.

So it'll be all of the month of September, what we should stand for.

I want you not to miss any of those weeks.

But today, turn your Bible to 2 Samuel chapter 12.

2 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

And then uh you can turn a place because we're all these songs are from Psalms.

You can turn over and hold a place in Psalms 51.

Today's title is If I could turn back time.

Some of you remember that song.

And uh David, here we're gonna find him in 1 Samuel or 2 Samuel chapter 12, where we catch up with him.

2 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

David has cheated with Bathsheba.

He has Uriah, her husband, move to the front of the war lines in a battle, and he's killed.

And where we catch up with him, there is no sign up to this point of any dealing with his sin.

In fact, I want to take you to Psalms 32.

Just a little bit of information.

I don't know if you know this, but the Psalms are not chronological.

If you go back and find the record, it shows that after this happening in 2 Samuel, that Psalms 32 and 51.

51 was written, they believe, first, and then Psalms 32.

But I want you to see a couple of verses just to see the feeling of where David was at.

Psalms 32, 3 and 4.

He says, When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long, for day and night your hand was heavy upon me.

My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.

So just get a feeling of how David was in this period of his life, in this time of contemplations.

And uh David Jeremiah said this David had no fellowship with God for this season, and as long as he was silent about his sin, he was ill and guilty.

He was able to command his subjects, but unable to command his conscience.

I want you to think about the man himself, a man with a palace, a man with all the money, and a man with a woman that he thought he wanted was groaning, Psalms 32, in misery.

It was in his bones.

So David was miserable.

If anyone ever wanted to be able to take back time, it was David.

And I know that you've been in some messes before and some problems, and you've probably thought to yourself, I wish I could just take back time.

But since we cannot alter time, I want you to go with me today and look at three things that we can do.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we love you, and we are so thankful for your goodness.

God, I thank you for the worship team this morning, God.

Uh those songs ordained of you.

God, couldn't have been more timely, couldn't have matched God even more.

And so we thank you for all the ways we look back and we're reminded that you're good, that you have been so faithful.

And thank you for this church body being here this morning.

I pray that you open our hearts.

God, I pray that everyone here for a moment would be able to just lock out everything that's happened to this point this week, that all the luggage would be left.

And for a few moments, God, we would just unpack and rest in your word and what you have to say to us.

God, speak to us, we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The first point I want you to see this morning is a confrontation with self.

And confrontation with self.

Look at the end of 2 Samuel chapter 11, the very last verse in line.

2 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

It says this.

She became his wife, talking about Bathsheba, and bore him a son.

Here it is.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

This is a cold, bleak, icy way to end a statement.

Look at it.

And the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

I want you to think about this season that he goes through.

How many of you, you've fallen, and it took you a while to get it back together?

Ever been through this?

It wasn't like tomorrow you just bounce right back.

David is going through a season like this.

Pastor Colin Smith said the natural or fleshly sequence of sin is not immediate repentance.

A sinner's first impulse is always to run and hide.

Psalms 32 said David groaned day and night.

We're not told an exact amount of time, but David groaned for a long while, holding on inwardly to that sin, as Pastor Dave said, like a cancer festering.

It says he was like miserable.

But misery, Christian, I want you to know, is good news.

Say, Pastor Rick, I didn't come here for this.

What are you talking about?

Misery is good news.

Misery is good because a child of God should not be capable of happily coexisting with sinfulness in our heart.

So David being miserable through this season was a good sign.

David needed a confrontation with self.

Have you ever needed a confrontation with you?

You and you one-on-one?

Well, that's what's about to happen.

Look with me in 2 Samuel chapter 12, verses 1 through 6, and look at what it says.

2 Samuel 12:1–6

Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him, and he said to him, There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor.

The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and with his children.

It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup, and it laid in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him.

And a traveler came to the rich man who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him.

But he, the rich man, took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

Verse 5.

So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die.

And he shall restore fourfold the lamb because he did this thing and because he had no pity.

Letter A is this an analogy met with anger.

God says, Enough with the situation, the scenario, and the time that it's taken for David in between, and God sends Nathan the prophet.

I bet David wasn't that excited to see a pastor that day.

I've shown up to people's house before who weren't too excited about my presence.

I've definitely been in the grocery store and seen people physically grown, people skip aisles.

You've done it.

You know you didn't want to talk to them that day, and so you saw them and you skirted around.

I've had it happen.

Seen people come on up and they start scattering stuff around.

Like, I'm not, look, I'm not here to check you.

I'm not calling the police.

I'm just shepherding.

Well, that day a pastor showed up, and Nathan has a job to do.

I don't know if Nathan liked the job, disliked the job, but Nathan has a job to do, and his job was to speak God's word.

So he gives him this analogy, right?

You heard it.

A rich man with everything took a poor man's prized sheep.

His one little sheep, the sheep he loved, the sheep that ate with him, the sheep that slept with him, is the family sheep.

Y'all with your sweet little pets.

You know what I'm talking about?

Some of y'all like this.

How many pet people?

You got that?

How many of you got an animal that sleeps with you sometimes?

All right.

You are real honest people.

I wouldn't keep my head up.

But it's true.

Woke up one day and I said, What has happened to us?

And the rich man took that sheep instead of his own and he gave it to a traveler.

David does not know this is an analogy, but David gets livid.

Did you see that in verse 5?

It says, So his anger was greatly aroused.

The kids today say, Why you raging?

I like this phrase.

Why you raging?

He has a biblical come apart, right?

Y'all know what I'm talking about.

He is spiritually ticked off in this moment.

Verse 5 and 6, you see it.

Parents, you ever go off?

I got a button.

You got a button?

My button, listen, my button is this rappers under the bed.

I went into the boys' room one time.

I don't know why we thought it was a good room idea to have them sleeping in the same room for a while.

But I went in there and they knew this already, right?

They knew that I didn't like rappers, food wrappers just on the floor.

But I went in there to fix something, and I looked under the bed and I said, Mountains of rappers, gummy rappers, cracker wrappers, cookie rappers, capri sons, rappers everywhere.

And I'm standing there and I'm like, the laziness, the nastiness, disgusting, filthy children.

And I began to lift up the mattress so that I could get under the bed.

This is a double, I'm not talking about a single mattress, a double mattress, and then I'm a man and I want them to see a point, but the mattress is flimsy and it starts falling on me as I got it holding up and I'm trying to make a point to get to this stuff.

And so I wrestle with the mattress and I throw the mattress across the room in front of two boys and it breaks something.

I'm like, you two are disgusting.

You got a trash can right there, and you'd rather have three pounds of trash here.

The world is your trash can.

You'd rather invite ants to be our unwelcome house guests than to walk a foot and a half.

Filth.

But I broke something because of my anger.

Then I'm angry at myself.

You know what brought me back to reality?

Remembering under my bed as a kid.

I had to say I'm sorry later.

David says the rich man should die.

And after he dies, he should pay back the sheep twofold, threefold, fourfold.

And he's pacing and he's sweating and he's raging.

He's like, I can't believe the nerve, the ignorance.

You know, when somebody starts spitting off stuff like this and they're talking about lamb, what they call that?

They call it muttering.

Thank you, Joe.

That's a dad joke.

He was muttoning.

I don't know what he was doing, but he was mad.

He was angry.

And Nathan, if he'd have just stopped right there, what would have happened?

Well, let's look at letter B.

It didn't stop right there.

It's an accusal that's met with anguish.

Look at verse 7.

Then, we're gonna read just the first part.

Then David, then Nathan said to David, You are the man.

He said, You are the man in the analogy.

You're the rich man with everything.

Who took from somebody else.

It was interesting as I study this week something God gave me that so convicted me.

Look at David here, church.

I want you to see it.

David is, I mean, knee deep, neck deep in his own sin.

David has had a man murdered, he slept with somebody else's wife, he's not confessed it, and he is over here just livid about sheep extortion.

It made me consider you can get very busy and your eyes so utterly focused that you can be focused on somebody else's mess, somebody else's sin, and mad.

I mean, really upset about somebody else's sin while you yourself have unconfessed messes going on in your life.

You can get so focused on what you don't like about what they do and gossip about what they do and not even consider your own mess.

And I want to tell you, Jesus had some really strong words about that.

He said, Thou hypocrite, you strain at the gnat in somebody else's eye, and you got a wooden pole hanging out of your eye.

That was convicting this week.

You need a confrontation sometimes with yourself.

Jesus said, Hey, you without sin, why don't you go ahead and cast the first stone?

We get utterly focused, and sometimes we're the one right here in the mess.

Well, it didn't end with that one line.

Look at as it continues.

We're gonna read through verse 13.

He said to David, You're the man.

And he could have stopped right there.

He could have left right then and there.

He says, You are the man, thus says the Lord God.

Remember, he's there to speak the word of God.

The Lord says, I anointed you king over Israel, I delivered you from the hand of Saul, I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah.

And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more.

Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight?

You've killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword, you've taken his wife to be your wife, and you have killed him with the sword of the people of Amnon.

Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house.

Because you have despised me and you have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.

For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.

So David said to Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord.

You know, Nathan could have left it right there.

Just let David consider.

You're the man in the analogy, could have got on his way.

Because what he said was plenty enough.

But Nathan speaks the full word of the Lord to him.

He musters the courage and he boldly calls out his sins step by step.

And I believe he did it for a right reason.

Church, I want you to know there's a right reason.

Galatians 6, 1 says, Brethren, ye, which are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, lest you also be tempted.

He went there, called of God, so that there would be biblical restoration.

He doesn't want David just to be stung by a call out.

He's not happy to announce his stuff, but to be fully restored.

By the way, some of you have heard this term, seems old school.

It's not church discipline.

This is what church discipline is meant to do.

It's not meant to bring somebody up on the stage and just publish their sinfulness.

Church discipline is to go to somebody and knowing that there is wrong in their life, like Nathan knowing of David, and try to restore them, try to walk them out of their sin.

By the way, James 5, 19 and 20 says something about it like this: Brethren, if anyone among you wonders from the truth and someone turns him back, he who turns a sinner from the error of his way saves a soul and covers him from a multitude of sins.

This is right.

So he continued, Nathan, to speak the word of the Lord.

And he said to him, God says this, I gave you a house, I made you royalty.

Have you forgotten my hand?

If that weren't enough, I would have given you more, David, if you would have just asked.

Instead of asking, you willfully stole another man's wife.

What was not yours?

Instead of praying or seeking or asking for something, you went in on your own.

I want you to see verse 14 because we're going to come back to it.

However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, he says, Because of what you've done, people will not believe in me.

Because of the thing that you've done, people are going to blaspheme my name.

And I thought about that.

Nathan's done.

He walks out, mic drop.

I thought about David and his response here.

Nothing for a very long season would bring David to repent.

Hear me, church.

Some people, why they need to get around church, why people that have been out for a season, the only thing sometimes that'll get somebody to repentance is to hear the word of the Lord.

Sitting in their own self and in their own wallowing in what's happened may not get somebody to just come back, or the sorrow, the guilt, they may sit in it for a long time, but the word of the Lord through the prophet of God is the thing that gets David.

David is spoken to by his pastor, and he's brought, we're gonna find out, to a place of confession.

I want you to hear me.

Never underestimate the word of the Lord.

You might think somebody in your family, somebody that was friends, somebody that's been estranged from the Lord is so far gone from God that they can't make it back.

The Bible says this word never returns void.

Teens, I used to tell your parents, bring them, make them come.

If they don't want to come, make them come anyway.

Oh, well, they'll be a hypocrite then if I send them to church and make them go.

I don't care, bring them.

They may get it by accident.

Bring them to the word of God.

Oh, they can come in a hypocrite, but they might leave different.

Make them come, yes.

It never returns void, is what it says.

I don't even know what happened in my life, but I know this.

I had run from God for a couple of years, and all of a sudden, when it was time to get right, the word was there.

I didn't have to go look for it.

I knew it.

I knew what Dave shared.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful in just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us.

It was already there because the word was coming in.

It wasn't moving out of my feet, but it was in my mind.

The word didn't return void.

Nathan brought the word.

Do you mess up, church?

I know y'all are y'all are good people.

Y'all mess up.

Man, I do.

I mess up with my kids, with Heather, with my church, my friends, and God convicts me.

I have gotten more frustrated in my life about me than any other person.

Amen.

I've said to Heather, I've said to Callie Wyatt Weston, forgive me.

I've said, God is still working on me.

I want to be better.

God help me.

I want to be better.

I want to be a better husband.

I want to be a better pastor.

Don't you want to be better?

I want to please my heavenly father.

I don't want to stay the same.

Hear me.

That's not growth.

I hear people say often, that's just who I am.

This should be convicting.

The other day, I started to say to Heather, and I caught myself, I said, I guess I'm just that type.

And I stopped and I said, Instead, I need to work on that area in my life.

I need to be better at that.

And I'm, I need to work, I need God to help me.

It's my knee jerk reaction to say, I guess life has just made me this type of person.

I guess this is just the way that I've become.

What if David said, This is just who I've become?

Church, hear me.

That is a lie.

That is a wrong, that is a wrong statement that the enemy puts around this.

Is just who you are.

That's wrong.

The enemy puts stuff in your head.

You are what you choose.

Is it fun to deal with?

No.

I got a lot.

Listen, I got a lot.

Just right here.

Is it necessary?

Absolutely.

It's not fun.

I want you to turn to Hebrews 12 for a moment.

Just see a verse.

There you go, Miss Tracy.

You told me that this passage and Hebrews were your two favorites.

Well, we're gonna get them both today.

Hebrews 12.11.

Is it necessary?

Yes.

Is it fun?

Not a chance.

Hebrews 12.11 says, now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful.

Nevertheless, afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

If we will allow ourselves today, church, to look at the reality of where we are and choose differently, it says there is a peaceable fruit of righteousness as a reward.

God allowed David here to sit as the judge over his own life and pronounce a death sentence upon himself.

So that his heavenly father could grant him grace and the gift of a better and clean life.

Oh, it's beautiful.

Well, turn with me to our song in Psalms 51.

Point number two this morning is this a cleansing from sin.

That was the backdrop why we're here, why David wrote the song.

And I want to read verses one through six as we jump in.

Picture what's happened.

David, Bathsheba, Uriah.

And David writes this Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies.

Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me against you.

You only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom.

Letter A is this.

We see a cry of confession.

I've got a slide I want you to see.

Three steps for a proper confession.

We see three steps for a proper confession, and they are these.

One is appeal to God.

We're gonna walk through them in a moment.

Well, one is appeal to God, found right here in Psalms 51.

Two is an aim for cleansing, and number three is acknowledge your sin.

Okay?

I want you to write these down, have these.

These are verses one through six that are broken down, but step for a proper confession.

So number one, there, appeal to God, understanding this that only God can clear a person from sin.

God is just, God is judge, and David appeals to the nature of God's kindness and mercy.

Let me help you understand.

Heather might grab a hold of my arm and she might say something to me like, Oh, Rick, your arms are so strong.

I definitely can tell that you've been working out.

Would you pick up three large cases of water for me and set them somewhere?

And I'll go, three large cases of water?

Ha ha.

Let me add them.

I'll show them cases of water, just what they got in store.

And I'll go grab those waters.

David is appealing to the part of God that is needed for his cleansing.

Look at what he says.

According to your mercies, which are great and many, would you show me mercy?

So, first, church, you need to understand where your appeal needs to go.

Your appeal is to be made to God.

He said, Have mercy, verse one, upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your mercies.

He says, Have mercy.

You have lots of mercy.

I am in need of mercy.

Number two, the aim for cleansing.

I was thinking this week.

Um, I'll give you the quick run of this story.

I was playing softball and I slid and opened up my leg.

And um, this has been years ago.

I was in my 20s.

Church league softball, very important, very competitive.

If you don't open up your leg, why are you even playing?

And so I slid, opened it up later on in the game.

Of course, I hit and got on again, and I slid back into the open wound, into the disgusting dirt that was men's league church softball, that pit, right?

Where spit and everything else happens in that dirt.

And so I slid in again, I went home, and it kind of hurt, but whatever, I'm a man.

And so I poured some peroxide over it, and okay.

Next day, going on about business.

Well, it happened that weekend, that was a Friday.

We were leaving for church camp on Sunday.

I drove a bus full of 50 teenagers of Jacksonville, Florida from Indiana, 20-something hours, right?

And a lot of stuff happened in between there.

I don't have time to tell you, but for the story's sake, Monday night with no sleep at all, from Sunday till Monday night, we go in and we're in service with all these teenagers.

And I hadn't thought nothing about the leg.

Nothing.

Hadn't cleaned it, hadn't touched it, but we're sitting there in service worshiping, and I look down at something at a foot, and I go, what in the Sasquatch is that?

And Heather's like, that's your foot.

And I'm like, no.

The thing was like this.

And next thing I know, we're in the emergency room, and I've got cellulitis in my leg.

I mean, it was disgusting.

And I tell you what, they get, I mean, I went through everything.

MRI, they wanted me, they just wanted me to pay bills, I'm telling you.

They gave me an X-ray, MRI, I don't even know what all the things.

We were there three in the morning, Tuesday morning, mind you, still no sleep.

And finally I go to like Walgreens and get some whatever it is, antibiotic.

I mean, I took three pills and this thing was gone.

But they they gave me everything they could at that.

But what I'm saying is this it got dirty, it got infected, it wasn't dealt with, and all of a sudden, I got a Sasquatch foot.

I want you to, I want you to know today from your pastor, this is the health advice I got to you.

If you get something dirty, clean it.

God does not want you, hear me, just to get by.

God's not in the business of band-aids.

He's not just wanting to patch you.

David went for a year, a year with everything on the inside just messing up and festering.

On the outside, he was still commanding things and he looked apart, I guess.

But on the inside, things were a mess.

He was an absolute wreck.

He hid the story, but his soul got infected.

And so the second thing we do, we aim for cleansing.

He says, Blot out my transgressions.

Wash me, God, thoroughly, wash me.

Not just wash me, thoroughly from my sin and cleanse me from sin.

So, secondly, for confession, aim for cleansing, and third, acknowledge your sin.

David gets it right because in the moment of confrontation, Nathan comes to him.

Nathan shares, This is you, you are the man.

David doesn't run, he doesn't give an excuse.

David, in this moment, finally he owns it.

And so look at verse 3 and 4, for I acknowledge my transgression, my sin is always before me.

Against you, you only have sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge.

He says, Against you, this is this perplexing to anyone?

A little strange.

He says, against you and you only.

What about Bathsheba?

What about Uriah?

What about his wives?

What about Israel?

Did David miss it here?

I think what David is not saying, I don't think David is saying that all of these people he did not sin unto.

I think he's saying, I looked unto another relationship.

I looked unto something else for fulfillment that was outside of God.

I, God, I cheated on you.

Lord, I turned my eyes off of you.

Before he cheated on anyone else, he cheated on God.

And that's what happens, church.

Sin is a heavy burden.

And I want to tell you, today is the day to make a confession.

Because once you confess, then letter B, you can change.

It takes this confession part, but letter B is a cry for change.

Once you see verse 7 and 8 of Psalms 51, it continues, he says, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice.

He says, Purge me with hyssop.

Hyssop is interesting to bring up here.

Here's a picture.

Hyssop is a very abundant plant in Israel.

And what is hyssop known for?

It's known for its absorption.

Hyssop in the Old Testament was a means of transferring the blood of sacrifices to sinners.

They would take a hyssop plant and put the blood on it and rub it over a sinner.

In Exodus is used on the doorpost.

The hyssop was taken from post to post, carrying the blood.

Hyssop is known for that absorption.

And that is when one thing soaks in another thing.

It draws in, it ingests the thing, it imbibes something from another.

So he says, Purge me.

I want you to hold on to that.

We'll get back to it, like hyssop or with hyssop.

Look at verses 9 through 11.

He says, Hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquities.

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

Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

You see, part one was confession.

Part two here is change.

And what is change?

To have a real change, to have a real right response to sin in your life is confession and repentance.

Repentance is acknowledgement of sin.

That's part one, confession, acknowledgement of sin, with sorrow for sin.

If you just acknowledge that you did a wrong, but you don't have a genuine repentance, a real sorrow, there's gonna be little opportunity for change.

You see it with your children all the time.

You say, you say you're sorry.

You go, sorry.

You're like, were they sorry?

Not at all.

You're trying to teach them a principle, get them to say it, but you know you, you know, they really weren't repenting.

They're doing what they've been told.

Right?

Without a sorrow for sin, no difference will happen.

He said, create God, create a clean heart.

Interestingly, the word create is bara.

It's the same word used in Genesis 1.1.

It means in the beginning, God created.

Out of nothing, make something.

He says, barra out of nothing.

That is to say, David said, God, I have nothing, God to give you.

This shell of me exists, but I am empty.

I am desolate.

I am nothing.

I'm hopeless because of sin.

Create, barra, make me new.

He was not asking God to renovate this situation over here.

You see that?

He wasn't saying, renovate this me.

I'm me over here.

I'm kind of a God come into my situation and fix the situation.

He says, No, God, create a new heart, a borough, a new me.

Repentance, hear me, church.

You'll hear people mess this up.

They'll say, repentance, you gotta do a full 360.

Well, that just puts you right back where you were, right?

Repentance is 180.

A new life.

2 Corinthians 5.17 says, if any man comes to Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things are become like new.

And so for there to be a right change, there has to be repentance.

Repentance.

He has to be sorrow.

David was sorrowful for what he had done.

And he's expressing it through this beautiful song.

He says, Hide your face from my sin.

Blot it all out.

Create in me a clean heart, oh God.

Renew a right spirit within me.

Oh God, do not cast me from your presence.

He says, make it new.

Hear me, you can acknowledge God.

You can even confess sin.

But without repentance, there's no change.

This is for salvation.

This is for living right with God.

And by the way, repentance will show itself in your way.

You don't have to tell people, I've repented.

Can't you see it?

No, repentance shows the new way.

It will show itself of you.

When you're sorrowful, just like your children, some of you have seen this.

You've seen them, and finally you go, they really were broken.

They didn't just say they were sorry, they really were broken about something.

Repentance shows its way.

Third thing I want you to see: a celebration of salvation.

Verses 12 and 13.

David continues.

He says, Oh God, if if you would restore to me, this is all about being new, restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your way, and sinners shall be converted unto you.

This is interesting.

Letter A, in the midst of this confession psalm, is an aspiration to be an advocate.

It's kind of fascinating.

David in his prayer says, Restore me.

And immediately seeing the way that God's hand could work, he says, Restore me, and he has an immediate desire to impact others who have messed up like he did.

It's fascinating because remember, 2 Samuel 12, 14, Nathan had just left saying, Because of what you have done, others will blaspheme the name of Jesus.

And David conversely says, wait, it's like he has this illumination.

David says, God, if you'll remake me, I'll use my mess as a message for you.

I will bring you glory.

Pastor John Dice preached a message I've never forgot.

And he said, Let your burden, your sin, your mess up, the thing, the trial, the struggle that you're going through or in or been through, let your burden build a bridge, go across the bridge and bring others out of what you've been through.

He said, Listen to me, nobody can help somebody that's a drug addict like somebody who's been a drug addict.

He says, if you've been an addict, man, let God use that.

Go over the bridge and help carry somebody back to a new place.

He says, if you've walked through divorce, nobody can help somebody through divorce like somebody that's been through.

He says, take your burden and go across that bridge and you carry somebody through it.

And he said, Listen, you've been through pornography or strokes like this.

Let your burden build a bridge.

You've been through cancer like Dave shared.

Nobody can really grasp that like somebody who has had that burden.

I don't know what your burden has been.

But David says, I'll be an advocate.

He says, My story will cause people to look to God, not away from God.

I want to tell you, church, don't run from confession.

Don't hide from repentance because you failed.

That's the work of the enemy.

You have a testimony, storms and struggles and burdens that are overcome.

Listen, in your life, situations are stories.

They're stories that God will use.

Now let me tell you, the situations all differ, but the answer is always the same.

You get to say, J E S U S.

That's what got me through.

That's what walked me through this.

You see, God allows trials and struggles and tests.

And you might have fallen.

But I want to tell you something that the world tells you.

Falling is not failing.

You messed up, you fell down.

Well, get back up.

Get back up.

Because God will take your trial and help you to help others.

Verse 13.

He said, I'll teach transgressors your way, and sinners will be converted.

If you think that God can't use your story today, let David's song encourage you.

I want to tell you, church, that the forgiveness of God has no, there's no barrier, there's no sin barrier.

And David is a prime example, right?

We probably struggle with this.

We go, he committed adultery, he had a man, I mean, he premeditatively, he didn't murder him with his hands, but he premeditatively had a man put in a situation to be murdered, and we go, ooh, I don't know if I can forgive that.

And David continues to be a king.

He's caught a man after God's own heart after this.

And God has forgiven him.

And so for us to sit and wallow in guilt and sin and go, I just don't know if God can, I just don't know if God can do this.

I don't know if he can restore me.

I don't know if he can use me.

Pastor, you don't know what I've done.

You don't know what I've walked through.

And I want to tell you today that when we say things like that, that your sin is too great, it is to cheapen the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Oh my friend.

Romans 8 said, Nothing.

No height, no depth, nothing created, nothing to come, nothing can separate us from the love of God which was shown in Christ Jesus.

Nothing is greater than this love.

Not anything.

Nothing can separate us.

So finally, let her be.

God, there's an assurance that these lips are moving.

I'll be praising.

Look at verse 14 through 17.

He said, Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise, for you do not desire sacrifice, or else I'd give sacrifice.

You not delight in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.

These, O God, you will not despise.

David says, I'll sing, I'll praise, and I'll sacrifice from this heart.

I want you to think on this.

Jesus Christ came, the perfect, sinless, and spotless Son, came, and you know what he came to do?

He came to give God glory, to bring God adoration.

In fact, the apex of the Christian life, the apex of God's glory is found in the moment of Christ dying on the cross.

Jesus' purpose was to bring God glory.

David said, I will bring you glory with all my life.

Matthew 5 16 tells us let your light so shine before man that others will see your good works and glorify.

Your Father, which is in heaven.

Our purpose to bring God glory.

Why is that?

Well, think about this.

Worship is something God can't do for Himself.

In order to worship, you have to have something greater than yourself.

And there is not one greater than God Almighty.

Now listen, Luke 19 says, the rocks will do it.

He says, if you don't worship, the rocks will cry out.

He says, the heavens declare his glory.

David said, God, I've made this mess.

But I know you can take my life and my lips and make my mess a message to anyone I come in contact with.

But what happens, church, here's the harm.

See, church, David saw this, but Satan for us, for you and me, does a really masterful job of injuring us and deluding people into believing that we can never get back.

We can never get right.

I spent two years of my teenage life running from God.

Spent two years and I wallowed and I was sick and I woke up and another day and another thing, and I just kept in this felt like a never-ending cycle.

And I want to tell you some really good news.

I spent two years, 700 whatever days, it took one day for my life to start turning back.

It took one turnaround when 1 John 1.9 became real.

I confessed my sins.

Now I've spent 25 years trying to walk that road.

We can be new.

In 2 Chronicles, this is what starts revival.

2 Chronicles 7.14, the cry for revival is this if my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked way.

If they'll confess their sin, this will bring revival.

God will revitalize the land.

Why?

To bring glory to God.

The same thing that David was saying he would do.

If you fix my mess, I will be a message.

Let's continue.

Verse 16 and 17.

He said, You don't desire sacrifice, or else I would give it.

You do not delight in burnt offering, the sacrifice of God or a broken spirit, broken and contrite heart.

These, God, you do not despise.

I'm going to tell you today, church, God looks down at a broken heart.

All the accolades you could give, and a broken heart, a confessed, acknowledging what I've done and looking into the mirror of my life, God said, That's that's a sacrifice.

That's something that is an offering to me that I can receive.

I don't need all of this other.

I don't need the blood sacrifice.

He says, David said, Today I offer you my broken heart.

I want you to see something.

It's interesting.

In John chapter 19.

John 19 · chapter mention

It got me back to thinking on this hisso.

I don't need a blood sacrifice.

I don't need something put on a branch and wiped on you.

He said, I need your broken heart.

John 19, 28 through 30.

After this, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, I thirst.

Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there, and they filled a sponge with sour wine to put it on Hyssop and put it to his mouth.

So when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It's finished.

And bowing his head, he gave up the spirit.

And I thought about there at Jesus' death on the cross, the apex of the glory of God, in a moment, we're reminded in this little picture of hyssop.

Absorption.

Jesus rejected the wine and the vinegar that was absorbed into the hyssop, and instead Jesus continued on the cross, and I want to tell you about that absorption.

He absorbed all of the wrath, my wrath and your wrath, and all of the wrath for sin of every human that's ever lived in all of history.

In a moment, the absorption was put onto Jesus Christ on the cross.

Jesus Christ is our better hip.

On the cross, he absorbed all of my sin.

He fully blanketed sin so much that sin that is supposedly so greater in our minds that we can't confess.

It blanketed so much that Paul said this, oh death, where is your sting?

Oh grave, where is your victory?

Romans 6.23 said, For the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

He took it like hyssop.

And Jesus' blood has paid the price for our full recovery.

Today I want to challenge you, church.

David said, Create in me a clean heart, oh God.

Renew a right spirit within me.

He said, and I'll give you all my praise.

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