Back on Track (June 5th 2016)

Alright, well you can get your Bibles open to uh the 51st Psalm.

Psalm 51 uh is what we're gonna be going uh through here this morning.

Now, um this is uh probably the most well-worn passage uh in my entire Bible.

I just kind of set my Bible down on a on a table or something and just kind of naturally uh opens to that, and that is not to uh to my own horn about how much I read the Bible or something like that.

It just um you'll see why uh as we get going through this, uh why my Bible would turn uh to that place, and it's because um because I am in so much need constantly uh to repent, uh to repent of sin in my life and uh to come back uh to the Lord uh in repentance, and that's what it's all about.

So this morning, as you're turning to that, uh something I find so uh alarming uh in my walk with Jesus is just how often and how easy it is for me to get tangled up in sin.

You ever noticed this uh about yourself?

Uh for me, uh you know, oftentimes it's the same sin, right?

The same thing that God has already forgiven me of uh multiple times, multiple times.

And you know, the very thing, the very thing that we um that we know hurts us, we chase after, don't we?

We chase after that, we go after it, we we know it's wrong, uh, but we explore it anyways.

Uh sometimes for us, maybe it's a little bit more subtle than that.

It's more like a slow drift towards that.

And uh that can absolute absolutely happen.

Um we know it's wrong, but we go for it anyways, and before we know it, uh we're not where we want to be.

We're not where we want to be.

Um passion for God is is uh it seems like distant memory.

Um desire to follow Jesus waning.

Uh and to top it all off, we're often left dealing with the consequences of our own sinful choices.

And uh it's often in many ways that we didn't expect, and it's hard, uh, and it's hurts, and it's tough.

I mean, does any of this sound familiar to you?

Of course it does.

Of course it does.

So we all deal with this, and and when we find ourselves in this place, uh, we're left wondering, you know, how do I get this thing back on track?

Right?

How do I get my life back in order?

How do I come back to the Lord?

This is what we're gonna be going through in Psalm 51 uh really lays this whole thing out for us, and it's it's about King David's process of repentance after he had blown it in a really major way.

Okay, and I heard this uh this definition of repentance before that I thought was really helpful.

It's uh it's agreeing with God about my sin.

Agreeing with God about my sin.

That's a good definition there, and that's exactly what David does here all throughout uh Psalm 51.

And there's so much here through this Psalm that can help us as we try and get ourselves back into the right position, as we as we work to get our hearts and our lives back to a good place uh with the Lord after a time spent uh giving in to sin and uh and hard-heartedness.

And hey, I think there are some of you who really need to hear this part of it uh here this morning, and that is that there is hope for you through Jesus Christ.

There is hope for you.

You are not so far gone that God can't rescue you.

You are not so far away that God can't change your life.

Change is very much possible.

Your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ can be fixed.

I think some of us, some of us here have been caught up in these wrong habits and in this cycle and in this bad place for so long, and you've maybe tried to get back and you've lost hope because nothing seems to be changing.

And it's the same thing, and and despair is starting to flood your soul.

And you're wondering, is it even possible to get back on track?

Well, it is, and and and that's what we're gonna be going through here as we work through Psalm 51.

Okay, so let's uh let's pray and then we'll go through all of this.

Uh so join me as we pray.

God, um, Lord, we we are desperate for you, Lord.

And I think we're all on uh you know a different spectrum within um that.

Uh some of us realize very clearly how desperately we need you.

And we have been crying out to you even maybe this morning as we've come to church, Lord, would you reach into my life?

Would you would you change me?

Would you forgive me, Lord?

Others of us maybe don't quite have that sense.

And maybe there's there's pride in our lives right now that we're not dealing with.

We don't want to.

We we are we're in the enjoying sin stage and we don't want to play with it.

We don't see the need for it.

Lord, I pray that you would crush people here today through the power of your spirit.

Break us down, Lord, so that we would have our sins forgiven and so that we can experience restoration and new life, Lord, that joy would come flooding back into our hearts, Lord.

Would you do this?

Would you have mercy on us here today?

Lord, some of us have major heart work, surgery that needs to be done, Lord, and we want to entrust ourselves to your hand, to your care.

Lord, you can do this.

God, would you do it here today as we talk about repentance and what that is is all about?

God, have mercy on us, our church.

Lord, we will not be a strong church unless you accomplish this in our hearts.

We will not have strong families.

Our marriages will be weak unless you lead us to repentance, God.

This is the key.

Would you do it?

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So, hey, as we get started here, I want you to jot down a reference here.

That's uh 2 Samuel, okay?

Drop down 2 Samuel 11 and 12.

And this would be a really great opportunity for you this week to read that.

And some of you, I know, have read that in preparation for today, so you kind of know the story.

Um, but this really, these two chapters here provide the context for why David wrote Psalm 51.

Okay, and it tells us uh the story, and some of you guys know it really well from 2 Samuel, and you'll remember that uh the context here was that uh life in Israel was going along really great.

Uh the Lord was raising up Israel, raising up David as a mighty king, and and they were having um uh victory in battle, left, right, and center.

And they were going out, and the Lord's name was going forward, and then and the and the surrounding pagan nations, they were they were cowering in fear at the name of the Lord and his strength and his favor over Israel at the time.

Okay, life was life was good for David and uh and for Israel.

Okay, but it all comes undone.

Okay, it all comes undone uh with one uh sin, one major sin.

And some of you know this.

Um what was happening was uh Israel was out at yet another war, and uh they were doing really well with that.

But guess what David decided to do?

He decided to hang back and stay home.

And uh what he should have been doing was leading his army into battle.

He should have been doing that, but he stays back, and you know what they say about idle hands, right?

They get in you get into trouble when you do that, and that's sure enough, that's what happened to him.

And he was uh hanging around the palace one day and probably kind of bored, and he looks out the window and he sees a beautiful woman uh bathing.

Okay, bathing, and you know that that's not going in a good place, right?

It's really not.

And sure enough, uh, one thing leads to another, he decides, I have to have that woman.

I have to have her.

And so he orchestrates this whole plan where he he gets her and uh he uh sleeps with her, and what ends up happening is she gets pregnant.

Now, to more of the story is that she was uh a married woman.

She was married to a guy named uh Uriah, and uh he was a godly man, and he was actually um in battle.

He was he was at war uh with the rest of Israel.

And so David, he kind of realizes, uh-oh, um, we have a problem here, and I've got to try and cover this thing up.

And so this whole thing just starts to spiral and get worse and worse and worse because of the sin of lust and the sin of adultery.

And so he's like, How can I fix this?

And so he decides to get Uriah back, and he's like, I'm gonna get this guy hammered and let and send him back to his wife, and hopefully uh one thing will lead to another, and I can make it look like he got his wife pregnant.

Well, because Uriah was such an upstanding guy, he decides, well, all my buddies are out to war.

They don't get to be with their wives, so I'm gonna sleep outside by myself, outside of the house, and honor the Lord, honor my brothers who are at war.

He has character, doesn't he?

And David's like, uh oh, this isn't working.

And so his next plan is, I just gotta get rid of this guy.

I gotta get rid of this guy.

And so he sends Uriah to the front of the lines, okay?

Because he knows those guys are always the ones to go.

You see any movie, it's like boom, they're gone.

That's exactly what happens to Uriah.

And so he thinks, all right, I got away with this.

I got away with it.

He's now able to have Bathsheba, that's the woman, um, as his own wife.

And sure enough, that happens, and they have a beautiful baby boy, and he thinks, all right, life is all good.

Uh, we're gonna continue with all of this, got away with it.

Well, what happens next?

Well, God stirs it up in the prophet uh Nathan.

Uh, and Nathan comes to David and calls him out, calls him out hard, and it's the Lord doing it.

And and and David, as a result of Nathan being uh calling him out for his sin and calling him to repentance, in uh David is immediately broken and he is crushed, and the weight of everything just comes crashing in on him, and he realizes what he's done, and then it's sin against God.

And so it's in that moment, in that response, that he pens Psalm 51.

Okay, and it's powerful and it's uh and it's amazing.

But you can see the situation for David, uh, it was a mess.

Now listen, this is a story that all of us, all of us, can relate to on some level.

You can relate to this.

Okay, sure, the details of your story are gonna be different.

Maybe you're thinking, well, my story is not as severe as David's, but maybe there's some people here who are thinking, like, mine feels even worse.

Right?

It's easy for us to think, well, nothing's gonna be as bad as that, but maybe it maybe it is.

Maybe it feels even worse, more severe uh than David's does.

Okay, but on some level, uh your situation is similar, right?

You've messed up.

You're not where you know you need to be.

And so what do I do?

What do I do?

That's what you're left with.

That's the question.

How do I get back on track when I've blown in?

Okay, well, here's the first thing here as we work through these verses.

The first thing is I throw myself at the mercy of God.

I throw myself at the mercy of God.

That's step one.

Okay, take a look at verse one now.

Verse one says this.

David cries out, he says, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, blot them out.

And so you really, you really kind of get a get a good sense of the urgency within David here as he just pleads with God.

He says, Have mercy on me, blot out my transgressions.

He's looking for forgiveness.

Then verse 2, take a look.

He says, he says, Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

So again, he's just he's throwing himself at the mercy of God.

He's like, That's that's what I gotta do here.

He's crying out, he's saying, Lord, forgive me.

Please, God, would you fix this?

Would you fix this mess?

And you can sense the the helplessness that he feels here as he's as he realizes the enormity of the problem that he's caused.

He's like, only you can make this right, Lord.

I've got nothing.

He's in this moment acutely aware of his inability to fix the problem.

He's una- he's aware of that.

Okay, his efforts to fix this mess destroyed a marriage, didn't it?

It destroyed a marriage.

It it got a man killed.

One of the consequences is that it cost the the life of his newborn son.

It it altered God's favor on an entire nation.

And so all of this was hitting him like a ton of bricks as Nathan comes and delivers the news of all of this and helps him see it clearly.

And and David, all at once, he senses the futility of his own strength.

And he realizes here that he's got no options left other than to just throw himself, cast himself before the foot of his God, before the Lord.

Oh, that this would be our first response when we make a mistake.

Right?

When we make a mistake.

Because if you think about it, if you think about it, it's really our only move.

I mean, it really is our only move.

In utter humility, in utter brokenness, that we would just fall before the Lord, get on our knees, and plead with God for help, for for forgiveness.

That the Lord would begin to lead us through this messy process.

Okay, because understand here.

Understand that that sin is a heart problem.

Okay, sin is a it's a spiritual problem.

Our sin isn't some kind of external thing that we can get our hands on and and change and fix and manipulate.

That's not the way it works.

It's inside.

We have zero ability uh to fix our hearts on our own.

God is the only one who's able to do that, to be able to repair what's broken.

Okay, but but we don't often get to that place soon enough, do we?

Where we're like, Lord, you're the one that's got to do this.

I can't.

We don't get there soon enough.

We don't get there often enough.

And we we we put up with our sin.

We we play with it.

We like to try and manage it.

I'm gonna go so far, Lord.

Uh so as long as I have a little bit of fun.

So that I have a little bit of pleasure, uh, a little bit of enjoyment out of this.

I don't want to go so too far, right?

We we manage it.

We even savor it at times.

And all of it is is evidence that we're not very broken.

We're not broken.

And I mean, even as I'm as I'm saying this, I I can I can imagine that there are some of you here today, um, right now, kind of having the conversation with yourself.

You know that conversation.

You know, where you're like, well, in my situation, it's it's not as bad as David's.

Right?

You know, I I can handle this.

It hasn't gotten gotten out of control.

I'm only giving in a little.

Right?

I'll deal with this later.

Right, I've got I've got my whole life to figure this out.

Right?

Classic teenager response.

Right, I was there, we were all there.

You might be thinking, hey, no one's no one's really getting hurt here, no one even knows about it.

It's just me.

It's not time to panic yet.

News flash.

Yes, it is.

Yes, it is.

It's time to panic.

It really is.

And I think there's there's a bit of panic in David's words here, don't you think?

There, there is for sure.

And if we're ever gonna get back on track with the Lord, we need to realize that we are flat out ill-equipped to fix the damage in our hearts, to fix that sin.

God simply has not designed us with those capabilities.

We don't have it.

And and that realization, that epiphany of I can't do it, with the realization that that my sin is wrecking everything, those things colliding.

Okay, those that that should just fill us with this sense of desperation, this sense of helplessness, this need.

I need to fall before the Lord.

I need to throw myself at his mercy at the foot of the cross.

Okay, that's really the first step in repentance here.

And that's where we begin to find new life.

Okay, how do I get back on track when I've blown it?

Here's the second thing.

I come clean about my sin.

I come clean about my sin.

Okay, so on top of crying out for help, which is so great, uh, David owns up to what he's done.

He owns up to it.

Take a look at verse 3.

Verse 3 says this, for I know, right?

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

David's just like, I know what I've done, and I know that it was wrong.

He admits it.

He's free in that.

He's done with the cover-ups.

And then verse 4.

Verse 4 he says, 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.

Now, against you and you only have I sinned.

Is it true that that David has sinned against God only?

Right, how do how do we look at this here?

You know, because what about what about Bathsheba?

Right?

What about Uriah?

What about the entire nation of Israel, just to name a few?

Right?

That there's a lot of people that are in the in the in the wake of his carnage and the decisions uh that he's made.

Right?

Is David in denial here against you only, God, have I sinned?

What's going on?

Well, you need to know here that David was well aware of the wreckage that he had caused in these people's lives.

He was well aware of it.

And the temptation for him would have been to focus on that only.

Right?

He's got people coming to him ticked off about things, and he's got his advisor criticizing him, and he's got all these things going on.

He's got the guilt, the shame, all of it bearing down on him.

He would have been tempted to just, I gotta go fix the problems with these people.

And did he have to do some of that?

Absolutely.

He absolutely did.

But what verse uh four shows us here is that he understands that despite the problems, despite the mess that he had caused in so many people's lives, he knows that ultimately, okay, ultimately, all of his sin was against the Lord.

That's what he means here when he says that.

See, it's kind of like it's kind of like parenting.

Right, when you're teaching your young ones, your kids, um, that disobeying mommy and daddy is wrong and it is against mommy and daddy, you're probably also trying to show them that ultimately, first and foremost, it's against God.

Right?

God, God is the one who who came up with the commandment in the first place.

Obey your mother and father.

And so, yes, when when when your young kids disobey you, it's against you for sure, and you will be grieved by it and you will be hurt.

But we need to be showing them that there's a much bigger picture going on here.

It is against your God who created you.

It is causing separation between you and the God who loves you.

And that's the idea here with David, and really what he's doing is he's he's showing us good theology and how to understand what brokenness really is.

He's reminding us of the sobering truth that all sin, no matter what it is, no matter who is involved, it's against God.

It's against God.

And to take it a step further here, he admits that because of his wrongdoing, he's completely deserving of God's judgment.

He's like, Lord, you you are right to judge me.

You are good and righteous.

I am the one who is in the wrong here.

You are right, you are holy, you are pure.

I deserve whatever is coming my way.

Right?

Pretty amazing.

Now he's not finished coming clean.

He's not done with that.

I'll take a look at verse 5.

Verse 5 says, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

And so he admits here what we all need to have a good understanding of is that we're we're we're guilty of sin from birth.

Do you know that?

Do you realize?

Do you realize that you're born with a sinful nature?

It all started back with Adam and Eve, right?

And because they are our original parents, every single person who's ever walked the planet has been born with this sinful nature.

Now, I've heard some people before like, oh, it's Adam and Eve's fault that I sinned.

No, it's not, because you willfully do it too.

Right?

You choose to sin.

And so he understands that and he admits it.

And we need to realize this that we are far more sinful than we can even see, than we want to even face.

The corruption in our hearts is thorough.

We are completely broken.

Now you might be thinking, why?

Why do we have to do this?

What's what's the good in facing this ugly side of us?

I'd rather just sweep it under the rug.

I'd rather just kind of give it a glancing look.

I don't want to face this.

Why should we be so frank?

Why should we be so blunt about our sin?

Well, verse 6 gives us the answer.

Don't miss this.

He says there, behold, you delight in, what's the word?

Truth.

You delight in truth in the inward being.

And you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Listen, a lack of honesty about our sin is to deny what's true.

It's to deny what's true.

If you don't face your sin for what it is, you're a liar.

You're a liar, which is to just sin more.

And that's what David here kind of reveals here.

We need to face the facts.

We're flawed.

Okay, we are flawed.

But that is not a popular message to be telling the world today.

Right?

Do people love that?

No.

No, we don't like that.

Some of us have been Christians for years and we still don't like that.

We don't want to be told this.

But it's the truth about us.

And I love this part too.

It says that God actually delights in, He's pleased when we accept this truth about ourselves.

He wants us to have wisdom in Secret heart deep down, he wants knowledge to reign.

It's all the path towards wisdom and getting right with God and getting back on track.

Now, all of this requires some serious vulnerability, doesn't it?

It does.

It really does.

No more covering up what we've done, no more ignoring the mess.

Maybe your mess has been going on for decades.

I don't know.

Maybe it's just been the last couple of months or whatever, you know, and you've been hoping that it's gonna clean itself up.

No, that's not what's gonna happen.

It just gets worse.

It just eats away at your soul even more.

Hey, no more, no more letting our flesh get the upper hand.

Maybe that's what you've been doing.

No more excuses.

Yeah, that's repentance in action.

Now, is this hard stuff to hear?

Absolutely it is.

None of this is easy.

I'm not gonna stand up here and pretend that facing the facts about ourselves and and confronting our sin and confronting our problems head on is gonna be this easy, simple, carefree skipping through the lilies kind of a feeling.

It's not.

But the alternative is much uglier.

The alternative is much more painful in the end.

Okay, something you can jot down here is Psalm 32.

Psalm 32, it's another one of those uh penitent Psalms, like Psalm 51 is.

It was written by uh David.

It's all about forgiveness and repentance.

You can read these two uh side by side here.

I'm just gonna read this one part of it here, and this is what David said, and I think this is so uh critical and crucial for us.

He says this, uh, for when I kept silent, okay, so when I ignored my sin, when I didn't do anything about it, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

Okay, so what do you see there?

You see the inner rot that happens within us as we ignore our sin, as we don't face it, when we when we remain silent about all of those things, we we shrivel up inside.

Listen, Psalm 32 here, this is a picture of misery.

This is a picture of discomfort.

You really want that?

It's not pretty.

I think some of us are hung up with like, if I don't, you know, I would rather not face my sin and just deal with whatever the consequences is.

We think that that's easier.

It's not.

Facing your sin is gonna be hard for a moment, for a season.

In the scope of eternity, a very, very short season.

Some of us be way more willing to just not deal with our sin and deal with the consequences for the rest of our lives.

There's no more joy, there's no more fruitfulness in ministry, there's no more nothing.

We think that's better.

That's the worst.

Now, maybe there's some of you that are sitting here and you're thinking, well, hang on a second, Pastor.

You know, I you know, I I've been I've been living the way I want to uh for a while now.

And and I I I don't feel any of this groaning you're talking about.

I don't feel any of this bones wasting away.

You know, it sounds like you're being a little dramatic, right?

It sounds like that feels like it.

You know, I'm I'm kind of enjoying my sin, to be perfectly honest.

Maybe that's you.

You know, and I would say, all right, so maybe you're having a good time.

Because let's be real frank about this.

Sin is fun.

Okay, let's not let's not kid ourselves here and pretend that sin is this non-enjoyable thing on some level.

Of course it is.

Of course it's fun.

It's fun for a while.

There's some pleasure we get from it.

If we didn't, we would never go near it.

We would never even need to talk about this kind of thing.

There is an enjoyable aspect to it.

And you might be having a good time with it.

And I would say this for now, for now you are, but the time will come.

At least I hope it does.

And and I honestly I pray it does before it's too late, where you realize that you know what, the way I'm doing things is just not working.

The way I'm living my life, chasing after what the world says it's all about, it's a dead end.

There's emptiness here, there's there's a pit in my stomach.

You know, yeah, there's a bit of fun for a little bit, but it doesn't last.

There's no joy, there's no peace in this.

I'm just hungry and I want more.

And it just makes me feel darker and more heavy.

And I pray you get to that place.

Today, even, where you sense, as David sensed here, the heaviness of the hand of God on you.

And I remember being there in a church service in my early 20s.

I remember sitting, like right here, basically, front row, because I got there late, it was the only seat, right?

Classic move.

Right?

And I sat there, and something that the pastor said, the Lord just used it to crush me.

And I remember sitting there, sweating buckets, like literally, I'm sweating, my friends are sitting beside me, like, what is going on with this guy?

And he convicted me.

He's like, You need to come clean about all this for the first time in my life.

Grew up in the church my whole life.

He's like, You need to come clean, you need to deal with this.

It was the hand of the Lord heavy on me.

It was brokenness.

I pray that you would get there.

For some of you, it's longtime Christians, you just haven't been dealing with it.

Maybe you're in your early 20s or your late teens and you've grown up in the church.

You know all the words to say, you know how to put on the game face and show up to church and make it look like it's all good.

That was me.

That was my wheelhouse.

But you've never really explored and understood what it means to know Christ.

And it starts with repentance, doesn't it?

With dealing with the sin that maybe you've been kind of sweeping under the rug.

Maybe for you, you're you've never experienced what it means to know Jesus.

Maybe you're hearing this for the first time, or maybe you've been wrestling and you sense the Lord pressing on you.

Listen, you need to get this right in your heart.

You need to get this right in your life.

And you need to know that that sin is the thing that's keeping you from knowing God personally.

Do you realize he loves you?

Do you realize he wants to know you?

He loves you passionately more than you could ever understand.

In fact, he sent his son Jesus 2,000 years ago for you.

For you, that you could have your sins forgiven if you would realize that, hey, all my sin is against the Lord.

All of it, like we've talked about.

And I deserve, I deserve him to punish me forever.

And then realizing that the Lord, uh Jesus, went to the cross to take that punishment in your place so that you wouldn't have to.

Would you trust in him today?

Would you admit your sin and ask him to be your savior?

That's how you can become a Christian.

You can do that right now.

You can do that at any time.

As always, we are available to talk that through with you.

Are you gonna have it all figured out?

No, of course not.

You're not gonna have all of your questions answered.

But do you sense that the Lord is pressing on you this morning to get this figured out?

Repent.

Come to me in repentance, confess it.

Let's deal with this, and new life is gonna come.

I pray that you would get to the place where Psalm 32, verse 5 is true for you.

Psalms 32:5

I love it.

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

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

And then he says, And you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Amen.

Amen.

That he would forgive us, that we would wipe that clean, that we could have a fresh slate, no more guilt, no more shame.

Awesome.

And all that really leads to the third thing here.

You know, when it comes to getting back on track after I've blown it, it's that I believe that my restoration is underway.

I believe that my restoration is underway.

Now, hey, do you listen?

Do you believe that God can actually change you?

Do you believe that?

I don't just mean would you say that.

Do you actually believe in your heart that God can do that, that he can change your life, that he can restore even the most messed up and broken life?

I heard this great line here to uh this week uh from Pastor Paul as we were as we were talking, and he heard it from somebody else, uh, somebody else in the church, but it's this unless we believe that we're forgiven, we'll never act like we're forgiven.

Great line, I love that.

And you can see that here in verse 7, that uh that David believed that he was forgiven.

He believed that he was on the path towards restoration here.

Take a look at verse 7.

He says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

Hyssop was a plant that they used to use in cleansing ceremonies.

Keep going.

He says, Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Not kind of like a muddy brown, white, pure.

He's leaning on the promise that God is both willing and able to completely remove his sin, to purify him, to cleanse him, to thoroughly forgive.

And then verse 8, he says, Let me hear joy and gladness.

Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins, blot out my iniquities.

Now let's be clear here.

I want to be really clear about this.

He's not he's not blaming God for the for the predicament that he's in.

He's not blaming God for his sins.

He said, the bones that you have broken.

Right?

It kind of sounds like, God, you've got me into this mess, right?

This is your fault.

No, he's not saying that.

Okay, but David, what he understands is that God has sovereignly orchestrated the events of his life and all of this, and bringing Nathan into it and all of that to bring him to a place of brokenness and repentance.

He uses the sin, he uses the failure, he uses the tragedy even to lead us to that place, into a deeper walk with the Lord.

You realize that that is what God is drawing into you, drawing you into when he leads you towards brokenness and a heaviness and a conviction.

You need to understand that what's behind that.

God is gonna pour out his favor and his grace and his love on you in ways that is amazing.

Keep going, verse 10.

Verse 10, you remember the song that we sang, especially if you grew up in like Baptist churches like me your whole life?

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.

Now, take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Sometimes we wonder about that.

Well, what David is fearing here when he says that is uh is the loss of the Holy Spirit's anointing on his life.

Okay, what he's fearing is the anointing on him to be king.

That's what he's afraid of here.

And uh a lot of people would ask, well, well, can we lose the anointing of the Holy Spirit in in our lives?

Can we lose that?

Well, here's what you need to know about the Holy Spirit uh for us as New Testament believers.

Understanding we're reading uh the Old Testament here in Psalm 51 and the New Testament, since Christ died on the cross and and all of that's a little bit different.

And we need to understand that when it comes to the Holy Spirit, there is uh one indwelling and many possible fillings.

Okay, so one indwelling of the Spirit, many possible uh fillings.

And all of that to say, let me explain that a little bit, when you put your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, when you become a Christ follower, when you become a Christian, when you get saved, all the different ways that we kind of explain that, what happens to you is that God gives you his Holy Spirit as a gift that resides in you.

That is what we call the one indwelling.

And as a Christ follower, you can't lose that.

We are sealed with that, the scriptures say.

And that started happening back, and you can jot down Acts chapter 2, and what happened at Pentecost, as God gave the believers for the very first time the Holy Spirit in a way that resides in us, in a way that helps us obey Him, and in a way that helps us follow His commands.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

You and I we don't have the ability to follow God's commands because his commands are perfection.

We fall short of that.

We need the Holy Spirit to help us, to give us things like desire, even.

We'll talk about that uh as we go.

Okay, that's what we mean by one indwelling.

Okay, the other thing the Holy Spirit does is fills us, fills us, maybe at multiple times throughout our walk, to carry out specific tasks.

And so you see that in the in the book of Acts with the with the um with the disciples.

These guys go from these timid, weak, fearful fishermen, these guys who you would never pick to be a dream team ever, they go from flipping the world upside down, as the scriptures say.

They go from preaching with boldness, they're willing to go to prison, they're willing to die for their faith because the Holy Spirit is filling them in a powerful way to go do this.

Okay, and back in 1 Samuel chapter 16, um, David is being commissioned to be the next king of Israel.

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

And this is what it says in verse 13.

It says, and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.

It rushed upon him in a spower in a powerful, specific way to help him be king, to give him the strength that he needs.

In the same way for us, okay, sin reduces our effectiveness, reduces our ability to be used by God.

The ability to be able to follow him, to be able to obey his commands.

So when we sin, we grieve the Holy Spirit.

We cause a lack of intimacy with God.

We reduce God's power in our lives.

Listen, if you're at the place in your life right now where you're like, why don't I feel the power of the Spirit?

Why don't I sense that God is working in me?

Why don't I sense that I'm growing at all?

Hey, listen, it should be red flags, warning bells.

There's sin in my heart that I'm not dealing with properly.

I've driven a wedge between myself and God.

And his power is withdrawn from me.

It's always, always, always because of some kind of sin in our life.

It's not because of God.

It's not his fault.

Stop blaming him if that's your MO.

It's something that we're doing or not doing.

And the Lord, you have to know He is graciously calling you back to Him through repentance.

That's the path that we have to take towards Him.

Okay, keep going.

Verse 12.

This is so great.

He says, Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Okay, what I absolutely love about this, this is like the greatest thing ever.

It's that God's heart is not to just forgive us, if I can say that.

Right?

I mean, forgiveness, we don't even come close to deserving that.

But God wants to go beyond even forgiving us.

He wants to go far beyond that.

He wants to give us even more.

He actually wants to restore what was lost.

You see God's heart there for you?

Do you see God's heart there for your family?

He wants to restore what was lost when you fell.

And David prays.

And he says, God, God, would you bring back the joy?

Would you bring back the joy that I had and the knowledge of my salvation?

When I was pumped about that, when I was pumped about you, God, I've lost that because of sin in my life.

I don't really care anymore.

I'm kind of cold.

Would you return that to me?

My sin has been robbing me of joy.

Can we go back to that?

Can you give it back to me even in ways that I've never even experienced before?

I long for it.

I mean, how great is that?

How great is that, the heart of God for us, his children.

And David prays, he says, renew a right spirit within me.

Uphold me with a willing spirit.

Powerful lines, powerful lines.

He's like, He's like, my desires, the spirit, the tendencies I have, the joy in me, it's been warped.

It's been warped.

God, would you renew them?

Would you stir them up afresh in me so that I have a desire to follow you again?

So that I have willpower to overcome sin.

So that I have a will to follow you.

Again, do you believe that the Lord wants to restore you?

Do you believe that you are on a path towards that when you repent?

Do you even think it's possible?

Have you lost hope?

It's not deserved, that's for sure.

We don't deserve it.

But it's God's plan to restore each one of us.

Okay, repentance is about confessing sin, but it's not just about confessing sin.

It's about your restoration, it's about your transformation.

He wants to change your heart, he wants to change your mind, your will, your emotions, all of that.

Where you are more conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

That's what God cares about.

One of the things that I've found just super helpful for me is to actually pray through some of these lines in this in this passage.

And that is why it's this is one of the most well-worn passages in my Bible, because I have to continually come back.

And Lord, would you give me, would you give me a desire?

Lord, would you uphold me with the willing spirit?

Would you uphold me with that?

Would you return to me the joy of my salvation?

It's been leaking oil.

It's gone.

Isn't it amazing that God will give you those things?

It's not something that you need to conjure up.

Where's my desire gone?

I've got to like slap myself into action here.

That's not the way it works.

God wants to give it to you.

He produces those things in us.

We just need to humbly, yet I would say boldly cry out for those things.

Ask him, underline those verses, spend time praying through them.

May David's prayer here become our prayer.

How do I get back on track when I've blown it?

Last thing.

I respond to God's grace with praise.

I respond with praise.

Let me read this here, verse 13, just down to the end of the passage.

And notice how David's heart has just turned the corner here.

And he's he's like all about worship, he's all about praise, he's all about honoring the Lord and thanking him.

He's back into a good place.

He's he says, Then I will teach transgressors your ways, verse 13, 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 a sacrifice.

We'll talk about this in a second.

Or I would give it.

You will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are catch this, underline this, a broken spirit.

That's what God's looking for.

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 you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings, and whole burnt offerings.

Then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Hey, when somebody has their eyes opened and they see clearly, uh oh, I've got sin in my life, and this is a huge problem.

When they confess that, when they get right with him, and when they are restored back into good standing with God, when the sin has been wiped away and the joy starts flooding back into their life, you know what the response is?

It's praise.

It is worship, it is gratitude, it is thanksgiving, it's I am, I've been humbled through this.

I am small, God, you are big.

I am low, God, you are high and lifted up.

I am weak, you are mighty.

And Lord, I will praise you.

I will respond in worship.

Okay, David can't help but do that here as the Lord starts to forgive him, as the Lord forgives him from, as we've already talked about, some heavy and traumatic and damaging sins.

Take a look at verse 16 again.

He says, For I will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it.

You will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifice of God or a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise.

What we see here from all of this is that God's not looking for empty acts of worship.

He's not looking for that.

He's not looking for you to come in here with an unchanged heart and throw the hands up in the air during worship and move and put on the smile, and I'm gonna die.

I got the mask firmly locked in place, and I'm not letting people in, and my heart's still the same before it was when I came in here, and I'm just being a big fake.

He's not looking for that.

He's looking for heartfelt repentance where it's real, where you mean it, where your life is being changed.

He doesn't want us going through the motions here and pretending that problem is plaguing the North American church.

Let's not be the church that does that.

Let's be different.

Let's allow the Lord to work, to do the heart work that needs to be done in us.

Don't say words that you don't mean to him.

A heart that's been changed creates an authentic worshiper.

It's real.

And listen, let me challenge you on this too.

If there is no outward response of worship in you, that's a bad sign.

It's a bad sign.

Do you love to thank God for what he has done?

Do you love to praise him in worship when you gather as a church?

Do you thank him throughout the week?

When you wake up in the morning, do you pray?

Is it gratitude?

When you pray and give thanks and blessing for the meal that you're about to eat, do you mean it?

Are you grateful for the fact that God has rescued you?

Do you care?

Where are you at with all of this?

Where are you at when it comes to repentance?

What is the thing that the Lord is pressing on you here today?

What is it?

You probably don't need to search that hard.

If you're letting the Lord have his way in you, it's probably, it's probably real obvious what you need to we need to deal with.

What is the thing that you need to repent of?

You know, trusting that the Spirit is working here this morning, trusting that He is doing the work that I can't do, that you can't do, that He is convicting hearts, that He is calling you to repentance.

Okay, we're gonna have a response time right now.

I'm gonna have Greg come on up here.

And we're gonna have a time just where you are, um, in your seats right now.

Greg is gonna play where he's gonna sing a song over you.

And this point, the point of this right now is for you to do the heart work with the Lord that you need to do.

It's get right with him.

It's confess that thing.

It's to purpose.

I'm gonna have a conversation with my spouse after church.

I'm gonna get this right with them.

I'm gonna confess this thing to my kids.

Maybe it's something illegal that you've done that you need to come forward with.

Let's not forget that the context behind this psalm was adultery.

It was a sin of lust.

Let's be honest.

This is wrecking our culture.

This is wrecking the church.

Is that the thing for you?

Is that the thing that you need to get right with?

For you, maybe you just you feel helpless.

And you're like, I don't even know what to do.

Come forward for help.

Come forward for prayer.

We listen, every week we have people coming up here for prayer that want to pray with you.

As our church is humbled, we should have everybody in the seats coming forward every week, being like, I need prayer.

Is that something that you need to do?

We're gonna have a time right now.

We're gonna go to communion in a moment or two.

But we want to give you a significant amount of time here, just right where you are in your seat to get right with the Lord.

I don't care, get down on your knees.

Well, what is the person beside me gonna think?

Who cares?

Hey, who cares?

It's about you and the Lord right now.

It's about getting right with Him.

So being honest, it's about going through these four things that we talked about here this morning.

You want the Lord to work in your family?

Husbands, dads?

It starts with you.

It starts with you.

Are you gonna lead well?

Are you gonna model this?

Are you gonna model humility and repentance?

I don't know what it might be for you.

It's gonna be something maybe different than what I mentioned.

We're gonna take the next few moments.

Greg's gonna play, like I said.

Take this time to get right with the Lord.

And then we're gonna come up and we're gonna have a time of communion.

So let's do this now.