May 4, 2025 Rooted Wk 2 -"Battling Sin with Jesus: A Journey of Confession and Renewal"

Music.

Thank you, Ben. So we have been, we started just a little bit ago, a new series, Rooted.

And we are diving into scripture, how we apply scripture to our everyday life.

And what it means to be rooted in God, not in man, not in our own wisdom, but in God.

So last week we looked at several different passages, but one of them was in Deuteronomy.

And that we're to love God with all our heart, with all our soul,

and all our mind. And we're supposed to repeat it to our kids and prepare ourselves.

So we want to equip ourselves now with truth so that we can fight like Jesus later.

When the evil one attacked Christ and he attacked him, And he was drawn away,

and Satan was tempting him and trying to attack.

Jesus constantly brought back truth, right? So we want to learn how to fight like Jesus did.

Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9, God tells us, listen to Israel. The Lord our God is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,

and with all your strength.

These words that I am giving to you today are to be in your heart.

Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house,

when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.

Find them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.

Write them on the doorposts of your house and your city gates.

God calls us to understand and know scripture constantly.

And so when we are to understand the Christian life,

and Ben was touching on it there in our understanding, our confession,

our way that we are to live in a rooted way,

before we can really dig deeper and apply things, we have to understand how

to deal with our sin, right?

Because you're not perfect. Liz is James perfect.

James is Liz perfect.

No, right? None of us are perfect, right?

And so we have sin. We need to deal with our sin, but not just shove it under

the rug, not just pass over it, ignore it.

We have to deal with it God's way. It's not our own power.

It's not our own strength. We're to deal with it God's way. so

psalm chapter or psalm

51 excuse me we have

this passage now where david did

something evil right david had

seen a woman that was not

his own wife he continued and he

brought her to and he committed adultery and and

this sin had set for over

a year and finally nathan the prophet comes

and can and confronts him and says look you've you've sinned you've done this

evil and so this is the psalm now that we have so david could understand with

us what it's like to have sin in our life, to let it fester,

but it also gives for us a pattern how we are to deal with our sin.

So we're going to jump to the end and then come back to it, because this is

what God's desire is for us.

This touches on religion, on this man-powered Christianity, which he does not want.

So he says, you do not want a sacrifice or I would give it.

You are not pleased with a burnt offering, but this is what you want, God.

I finally realize now this is what you want.

Verse 17, the sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit.

You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.

Jesus, I pray today As we

get really personal And we allow

our pride to fall And

try to understand your mind

on sin And what you did for us And your solution You do not want us to continue

to brush things and ignore You want us to deal with our sin and then enjoy a life focused on you.

So Jesus, I pray today that your word would come alive, your Holy Spirit would

do a work in all of us as we are real and transparent before you.

In Jesus' name I ask this, amen.

So David starts out this psalm, he says, be gracious to me, God,

according to your faithful love, according to your abundant compassion,

blot out, remove my rebellion, completely wash my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.

Notice verse three, for I am conscious of my rebellion and my sin is always before me.

Against you, you alone have I sinned and done this evil in your sight.

So you are right when you pass sentence, and you are blameless when you judge.

Our posture, right? Your posture, like your position, when we go to God and we know we have sin,

our position is, one, that we're going to a gracious, loving God.

He's not maybe like you're, maybe you've had men in your life before in the

past, your father figures in your life who didn't want to talk to you.

They dealt with things with anger and not love, but God desires a right relationship with him.

So David cries out, be gracious to me, O God, according to your faithfulness,

according to your abundant compassion.

Remember David, God said of David that he was a man after his own heart.

David was a man after his own heart. So that to me, I'd be like one thing you want to know. Okay.

So God's heart was revealed. So this guy, David, that he chose to be the leader

of Israel to fulfill his promises.

Now he says he is a man after my own heart, but yet he did some things that

weren't exactly following God's rules.

So that for you and me should be encouraging that God is not, expecting perfection.

But what he does want from us is confession when we do sin.

So now David is saying, completely wash away my guilt.

So this guilt that is weighing heavy on him, later on we'll see that it weighs so heavy.

And the King James talks about how his bones literally waxed old.

They were so heavy, the pressure of not dealing with it.

Verse 3 says, I am conscious of my rebellion. I know that I've done wrong.

We got to wake up here, guys. It doesn't matter how old you are,

how long you've been a believer.

We're born with a rebellious heart. We're going to die with a rebellious heart.

We will die with a rebellious heart. And so we're constantly having to battle sin to the grave.

And if you don't believe you have a sinful heart and that you're battling with

sin, you're not looking at the right God.

Because we all have it. But sometimes we want to ignore it.

Or sometimes it's easier to look at somebody else who is worse off than me.

But no, God knows your heart. God knows my heart. This morning,

I had to go spend time With this little lake over here Three lakes And talking

and confessing to God Because you know what?

I'm not perfect and neither are you Newsflash, right?

We have sin and we have to deal with it You want to have a good relationship, right?

With God You want to be growing You can't grow I can't grow Unless I'm dealing

with the crap in my life And neither can you,

And your crap may be old But you've never dealt with And that's between you

and God And you have to deal with it,

Whether it's bitterness, whether it's your tongue The way you look at life The

way you look at his creation The way that you look at where God puts you Maybe

there's bitterness and say God, why are you letting this happen? Why, why, why, why, why?

And I'm angry at God, and I'm angry And there should be some deep-booted anger,

God wants to get all of that crack.

Burn it at the cross and get that freedom

so that we can have this amazing relationship and growth with jesus,

so david says look i'm i'm so conscious of it and then he says before against

you and you only have i sinned of course he knew that he sinned against this

woman he sinned against the her husband who ended up dying right so he did all

that he was conscious of that he was well aware of that,

but at the end of the day when we

are sinning when we are saying that

unkind words to our spouse or a neighbor or getting

impatient with our kids or having thoughts that we should not have whatever

it is you know what god knows it what david is saying here and god is saying

through david is like look when you sin it's against me other people are impacted

by it but ultimately it's me,

so he says against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight.

You are right when you pass judgment on this.

You are right. When you give me that sentence, I know I deserve the punishment.

And for David, he got it. He got the punishment.

And next, we want to look at our curse that only Jesus can cure.

Because right in the midst of this, he says, look, indeed, I was guilty when I was born.

I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

So even before I took a breath, I was lost. I was cursed.

I had the curse of sin, right?

That's part of the fallen world that we live in.

And that curse, only Christ can cure it.

As Ben was talking about, that blood spattered frost, that blood was shed for the cure.

And then next now we get into what it looks like to deal with the junk in our

life and we need to have a deep full and whole confession and then this crying for cleansing.

So david says surely you desire integrity in the inner self and you teach me wisdom deep within.

And he says, purify me with hyssop.

Hyssop was this plant that was used for in the atonement and washing away things for cleansing.

So he's asking, purge me with hyssop.

So he's painting this word picture that we have in this amazing psalm.

He wants the cleansing.

Purify me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow.

This is all before Christ and the cross. Now we know what the true hyssop is,

is Christ's blood, right? Christ's blood is that cleansing.

Christ's blood was given for us for that cleansing, for the permanent cleansing.

We have a whole confession. You desire this integrity from the innermost parts, deep within.

So you have to have an entire whole confession, whole time with God where you

and God are being real, not worried about your spouse, not worried about your

kids, not worried about your parents.

You and God need to get real. So we have to have this full on,

full, complete confession.

And then we cry out for cleansing purify me with hyssop and i will be clean

wash me he says let me hear the joy and gladness what the bones you have crushed rejoice.

What a picture right there right you ever had issues where you had sin and and

junk in your life and it's been heavy on you.

And finally, he's just having that deep purging, that deep cleanse.

He's like, let these bones, what you have, they're so heavy. The sin is so heavy on me.

This rebellious heart that is so heavy on me. I'm finally acknowledging it before you.

Let these bones once again rejoice. I know what it's like to have a good relationship with you.

I know what it's like to have this walk with you to be rejoicing in who you are.

And we cry out for that rejoicing. We would cry out because as he cleanses us,

the rejoicing can begin.

In verse 9, turn your face away from my sin and blot out my guilt.

He's asking God, look, I know of the sin.

I know it's there. I want it gone. please don't look at it.

So now Jesus' blood, he offers cleansing, he offers renewal,

and he offers restoration.

God created me a clean heart for me and renew the steadfast spirit within me.

So we've acknowledged our sin, we've confessed our sin, and now we need the

cleansing, now we need the renewal, and now we need the restoring.

So he says, God created me, this clean heart and renew the right,

this spirit where we're in complete agreement again.

And he says, God, don't banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

He's saying, look, God, please don't remove your, I have to be with you.

This is what we're building back up to, right? The restoration of relationship.

Now we have the Holy Spirit in foot where we are understanding the Holy Spirit.

We're listening to the Holy Spirit because we've dealt with the sin.

We've dealt with the dross now.

It's just don't manage me from your presence. That tells us,

right, that David had this longing to have that relationship again.

That year that had passed, He wanted this relation.

He wanted this place in his life where he knew where he was before.

He knew when sin was there.

He knew when sin was there and he didn't deal with it.

It wedged this wall between him and God. And he missed that presence.

Verse 12, restore the joy of your salvation to me and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.

God wants us to have this relationship restored when we deal with our sin.

And lastly, what happens after that? Our rejoicing in cleansing and unstoppable joy.

This is a place where we should be living every day.

This is our position. This is where we should be living every day.

You and me, not a perfect life, nothing ever going wrong, that's not it,

but it's a mindset, it's a heartset, it's understanding who we are and the way

God looks and he says, look.

Then I will teach the rebellious your ways.

Now that I've dealt with my sin, now those who are also, I know them because

I was right there with them.

I'm not judging them, but I know the rebellion. I live the rebellion.

Now I can talk about the rebellion and help those that will teach those,

the rebellious, your ways.

And the sinners will return to you.

Again, not from this posture of holier than thou, but it's knowing where they've

been saved from. And verse 14, save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God.

God of my salvation and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

Remember how Hebrew poetry works. A lot of times you'll have these things where

it'll say one thing and it'll restate it again.

So he says, look, I will teach the rebellious your ways and the sinners will return to you.

Then he goes and just save me from this guilt of the blood. The bloodshed.

God, God of my salvation and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

What is the bloodshed there? There was a guy who died because of his sin.

A woman's wife was killed because of his sin.

So can you imagine the blood, the blood guilt that he had?

And when you and I have sin that we don't deal with, that blood guilt can get there.

But he's reminding himself, look, save me from the blood guilt.

I've been washed, I've been cleansed, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

And then verse 15, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.

My mouth that I could sing once again your praise. So God wants from us,

us to deal with our full sin because his goal for us is what we started with.

He goes, you don't want a sacrifice.

You don't want the sacrifice or I could give it. If he's a king,

he can, he can sacrifice anything.

He doesn't want religion.

He does not want church attendance. He does not want you to do these things that you do every day.

Getting up and reading your Bible, which is a great thing. Obviously, we need to be doing that.

But if we're reading our Bible and we haven't dealt with a sin, what good is it?

Because his Holy Spirit needs to speak through his word. but if we are in violation

and if we are in rebellion with the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit can't.

And the Holy Spirit is going to do that work and he's going to turn those lights

on and say, you know what, look, dude, you just got angry with your wife.

Don't come and pray to me right now. Go confess to her first and then get your

behind back here and start getting to my word.

Deal with the sin now.

Lady, you've been running your mouth. You have been gossiping.

You have been slandering people. You've been doing something.

Before you can get there and pray, you got to go back to God and say,

God, I have sinned against you.

And it's you only that I've sinned against. And I need to confess that.

And then, my friend, you get back. And then we get in God's word because then

the Holy Spirit can use his truth. He can take this Holy Spirit.

And then when we read throughout scripture, Then his Holy Spirit will be there

and allowing and enlightening us to grow.

And then what's going to happen? As you're in scripture, more things are going

to pop off the pages or off your phone that you need to confess.

And then you deal with it the same way. And then you come back to God's word

the next day, and more things are going to pop up, and you deal with that.

So we deal with our sin. We enjoy our relationship with Jesus. but God wants us.

Into that full, amazing relationship that he desires for us.

Jesus, I pray today for my,

let's tell you, it was primarily about my sisters and brothers,

but maybe if there's one here, God, that isn't your child today,

but hasn't been born again, has been mentioned,

God, I pray that you would use your holy spirit to realize that hey my blood

was shed for you and you desire,

you desire to change people you desire that's why you you tied on the cross

so that we may be born again jesus for my brothers god i pray that we as men

would lead our families better than we're right now.

Not get discouraged, but just deal with the junk. So then we can lead our families

well, the way you want us to.

Not our flesh, not our pride, not our arrogance, not our ego, none of that.

But in submission to you. And Jesus, for my sisters in Christ, your daughters.

Jesus, I pray that your daughters would see grace that you offer,

perfect love, not look to their husband for perfection, not look to their husband

as a position that you hold.

Or maybe my sister doesn't have a husband right now. So maybe she feels all alone.

Jesus, I pray that you would rebuke that evil thought from the evil one because they are not alone.

They have a Holy Father. And that Father, Jesus, you, God, you want a restored relationship.

So, Jesus, I pray that my sister, who seems to feel like she's all alone and

lonely, and Jesus, that has to be real, and that feeling has to be real and difficult.

I pray that you would supernaturally step your feet in their life,

in her life, and that you would help her as she begins to confess her sins,

that you would restore that beautiful relationship and that you would be the

God that she would understand, this amazing God that she has.

And for my sisters who do have husbands, who do have kids, they have a lot on their plate.

Have lots of confessing that has to take place throughout the day.

And that's okay. Because you want that relationship.

I pray that they would not get discouraged in that, but they would be empowered

by this unstoppable joy.

And Jesus, I pray that you would keep the enemy from them.

Because the reality is, God, that the enemy, the deceiver wants to discourage.

So I pray for my sisters, your daughters, that they would not fall prey to the

evil one and be discouraged.

But instead, they would speak your truth back to you, claim your forgiveness,

and live with unstoppable joy.

So Jesus, I pray for this week as we go out into our week that you have planned out for us.

We don't know what's ahead. You do.

But Jesus, I pray that we would deal with the junk in our lives,

deal with the sin, confess that, and then just go out throughout our week learning

these new things about you through your word.

And Jesus, you would get all honor, that you would get all glory.

So Jesus, we confess that we don't have it figured out, and we cannot do it by ourselves.

We confess that we have to be dependent on you.

We confess you as Lord of our lives.

Help us every day to take that breath that you've given to us and live as you

want us to live. In Jesus' name I pray.

Music.