A Move is Coming: Forgiveness, Part 1 (Psalm 51) // 2.23.25

grow so bless what was given today Lord

let it multiply tenfold so we can see

your name honored and glorified in the

nations in Jesus name amen amen here's

Christian

woo thank you good morning Psalm 51

we're going to look at a song of David

this morning just uh like we did a

couple weeks ago but this one I I

struggled with an

intro and uh I kind of want to weigh up

two things I want want to talk about our

uh obsession with love

affairs how many of you if you're

honest you just love a

runchy scandal just

like maybe you got addicted to the OJ

Simpsons Scandal years ago and uh you

know the the the celebs that are just

supposedly have it all together it just

deeply blesses you to see their love

life

tarnished miserable and pathetically

impossible to enjoy for more than about

5 seconds if you're just being honest

with me this morning no one's going to

be honest well when we call for

salvation how's that going to go if you

can't be honest

now you're all

liars well how how about ones that like

feel like we're just following the news

like Princess Diana and Charles like

like that one's like well that's just

following like Global News um but the T

IDs live off that and look at their

their poor children just they don't know

what to do with themselves and how to

identify in the world's family or out

it's miserable um or maybe you're

following I think the latest one Blake

Lively and

uh Justin B baldoni baldon something

like that I actually Sue and I watch the

movie simply because I like oh they've

been in the news let's see what's going

on there and there's something about oh

this must be newsworthy people are

talking about it there's there's some

kind of tension with a relationship and

we love it we love it we love

it um the reason why I didn't want to

start with that introduction is I just

feel like it's

too I want to put next to that okay

scripture Psalm 51 is the love affair

reference it's the song about the

tragedy of the most intense and ugly

love affair in all of scripture David

and beath sheba before we jump into it

though uh what I want to kind of

juxtapose if you will next to this

runchy love affair Obsession that we

have is that scripture doesn't just give

us details of things that are uh highly

interesting though it does it leads us

somewhere far beyond just something

that's entertaining all of that stuff

whether it's in a People magazine or

whatever your tabloid preference

is it's it's all fluff and entertainment

but it's it's ultimately getting at an

interest level a relational Heart level

something I want to just put that aside

for a moment and what I really want to

get at today this love affair in Psalm

51 is only is only significant because

it's the most profound Act of repentance

potentially in all of

scripture repentance is something that

has almost been a trigger word in the

church over the last I don't know couple

couple decades not that we eliminate it

completely but we're almost like afraid

of it because of the people that just

stand at the corners and just say repent

and and and it just gets into this ugly

religious whatever I believe that we're

actually coming out of a decades long

breaking and severing in the at least

the American Church away from religion

in this idea that the message of the

Gospel is just like repent the wrath of

God is after you hell damnation all

these horrible things and most of you if

we're being honest did not grow up in

churches that that was the emphasis in

fact the emphasis was much more about um

you know how cool could your pastor look

and how great could the music sound and

and how trendy could this space be so

that we can invite friends that might be

like oh church is cool now and it's

like it's lower lit than my living room

on a Saturday night wow it's amazing

maybe I'll pay attention and uh and then

we we and there's nothing wrong with any

of this there's we were going through a

process did church have to look like

this or could it also look like this

could the music sound like this or could

it also sound like

this when I was in college there was um

I I've told this before Rick Warren many

of you know Rick Warren um he's down in

the the south in the Bible Belt Orange

County

but um when he planted the church in the

the California Bible Belt um he actually

looked at where was the most unchurch

the biggest potential ever I was

interesting to see his process uh and

Saddleback Church the church he planted

uh grew to be uh the largest church in

the in the country and uh they they I

honestly honor him we we we bash mega

church pastors and we love to bash

Orange County pastors and I will and I

commit to you that I always will so even

though I'm not going to do that today I

commit to you I will go back to bashing

Orange County pastors people and

everything that I possibly

can but for the moment I just want to

honor Rick Warren he retired recently I

think a year or two or three ago um

there was the pastor that ended well do

you know that that happens pastors end

well that just makes somebody's day it

makes my

day all and uh even though he he had he

has the the bestselling book of the last

50 years bestselling Christian book of

the last 50 years you have to go back to

like CS well even CS Lewis I'm not sure

beats that tolken and and those guys

they sold a little bit better but but in

literally modern Christian books nothing

has has touched the Purpose Driven Life

uh why do I say all that well in college

I went out there we were on spring break

with some friends um I was in the

process of trying to move to California

for carnal reasons I eventually we would

move to California for Spiritual reasons

uh but at the time uh we were like oh

let's just go check out Saddleback it

was like the only church I knew of in in

Southern California and uh I literally

don't remember a thing it was fine it's

good I don't remember anything other

than they had like a really cool

Fountain that's all I kind of remember

and uh I think the message was good I

don't remember anything like it's

literally kind of like whatever um but

they they're very influential Church

what what I love about what he

emphasized is he he says that the the

key to their impact was that they

emphasized the the depth and intimacy of

community above everything else and they

bragged about bragged that's the wrong

term he they valued that their church

had more people in their Community

groups than than Sunday attendants and I

thought that was huge and they they

obsessed over the intimate places while

they grew wider and whatever else so

there's a church that despite the fact

that he had his son pass away of suicide

went through tragic horrible hard things

and still came out giving God praise

being vulnerable and raw in the process

so wonderful wonderful wonderful stuff

there um this weekend I was reading of a

of a pastor um that just came back from

Saddleback and I think that uh how many

of you were here maybe year and a half

ago when I talked about something

happening in Asbury um a renewal of

students and so forth a couple years ago

there was this um I guess they just

called it the Asbury Revival and a bunch

of college students just lingered after

a chapel and it turned into this

phenomenon where tens of thousands of

people flocked to nowheresville Kentucky

for for multiple multiple weeks to to

listen to to like rough college students

just strumming songs from the 90s and

2000s in a Holiness and repentance and

Beauty just broke out and they refused

to have the big names up front loved it

loved it and I feel like it represented

something it was probably the last time

I've referenced something happening

culturally of a move of God and I feel

like that was the precursors of

something that our nation is longing for

the raw real authentic we're putting

aside as as fine as it can be the bells

and whistles and fog lights and

whatever the performance we want the

real repentant heart of the Gospel to

come that's what we actually want we

want our hearts

transformed and so in that still my

introduction by the way by the

way this is this is a two-part message

so my plan today is to just introduce it

crash land it hope something is there

for you to take away with and then the

real message is next

week but so this is my very long I I may

never get out of the introduction so

it's okay you're still going to get out

at the same time it's fine the the but

the idea that I want to get before us

today is that there there was a move

happening where a real raw authentic

Holiness and a repentance spirit and

heart was there and and and I feel like

the breaking of religion has has just

been something that we can go back to

the concept of what what our issue with

sin and our need of real forgiveness

looks like in a way that we're not

thinking about this kind of uh Uber

spiritual unhelpful

ugly you're a sinner type of

message but more about like I'm hungry

for the go goel to reveal the absolute

impossible Brokenness of my heart and to

show me what's possible to give me a

renewed

heart Psalm

51 says this have mercy on me oh God

according to your steadfast love last

week I told you how there was a key in

the little words before the psalm

there's one in this one as well this one

a Psalm of David to the choir Master

when Nathan the Prophet went to him

after he had gone into beath Sheba so

the prophet of Israel Nathan calls David

out for this horrific Affair this is way

worse than you think it is than I

thought it was and as I as I often do I

love to look at really familiar passages

in Scripture that we think we know and

then realize H it's so much more intense

than you realize we think that David and

bath Sheba if you're not familiar with

the story King David the greatest King

in all of Israel the line of the Royal

line of David is what the Messiah came

through Christ is a as a descendant of

of David there there's this there's this

common story or kids draw coloring books

to it in Sunday school class where David

should have gone to war and he's walking

around bored he sees this beautiful

woman and he calls her to his chamber he

sleeps with her she gets pregnant he

tries to cover it up uh tries to draw

her husband back Uriah who was one of

his men soldiers and and the the guy

doesn't doesn't doesn't sleep with her

he's too righteous and and then goes

back to war and David lets him go into a

dangerous area lets him get killed and

then tries to cover it up and then

marri's Beth

Sheba and the prophet calls him out on

it and what we see is and then

ultimately that he repents and we go ah

David yeah had a rough week but man does

that guy have a beautiful heart love his

song such a good worship leader

man that's what all we do with it I

there's two things that may or may not

happen today what I hope happens is that

you get into a almost feel a heavier

weight of David's sin than you ever felt

before good news then the second part is

that you would resist the urge to

separate yourself from identifying with

David because you have never done

anything close to as evil as David did

so that's the Temptation I'm going to

hit you with the heaviness of David's

sin and then the Temptation is going to

be through comparison that you're able

to go I'm nothing like that if you do

that you are missing the entire

invitation and beauty of this passage

I'm not going to say you're you you've

done stuff just as bad as David I'm not

David actually breaks six of the Ten

Commandments all in one Fell

Swoop and he might have done the others

but like how do you dishonor your mother

and I mean it was probably dishonoring

his mother and father too all these

different things that that he probably

still broke in the midst of

this but here's here's what happened at

Saddleback just this past weekend as we

lead into this passage this pastor that

was just

there said there was a Prof it was

profound to see a church again Rick

Warren has passed this church off and

how many of you know that often times

passing a church off to the next

generation is impossible it never goes

well I it might go fine but it usually

like either ends in in a death or a slow

death or or just like a

blah I pray that never happens here I

pray that when my time is up that

Frontier would finally be able to get

breakthrough and is like I'm serious I I

do but that is actually that should be

every pastor's heart is this the next

generation is a stepping stone it's

probably it's this is probably a

compliment for Rick Warren the fact that

he did also did something where when his

in his absence in the Next Generation

they're now stepping into something

that's different but that's building

upon the foundation that they LED

maybe but this pastor there I've never

seen a

profound shift from one identity to

another in a major church that

represents an entire movement he says

there's a hunger to shift towards the

presence of God pursuing the Manifest

presence of God now he wasn't saying

that Saddleback didn't care about the

presence of God but when you think of

out about you think of like just the

American Church from the last 30 years

the good things of it but just the

realities of it maybe they called a

three-day solemn assembly called the

return Gathering to call the church back

to the heart of God away from

complacency self-righteousness and

relying on the past and stretching into

the future the quote the final

night from the from the pastor of the

church was turning to God and turning

away from the wrath of God

using a quote of Jonathan Edwards

sinners in the hands of an Angry

God and the invitation was simply repent

and there was a holy conviction of sin

that was

beautiful and he said this pastor that

observed all this was saying he believes

this is a prototype of what God is doing

in the American

Church drawing Us near preparing our

hearts in the invitation prepare your

hearts prepare the church there are days

of the glory of God Among Us and it's

time to return to the

Lord I think that is a one paragraph

summary if you want to know what our

hearts are at

Frontier we want to be a

people that prepare our hearts that

prepare the

church that don't cry out for Revival

that cry out to be people by whom he can

unleash his

Revival and you cannot ask for a Revival

if you are not asking for a renewed

heart that comes through the Forgiveness

of

repentance the cry for Revival and

renewal has to be built on the

foundation of the cry to create in me a

clean heart oh God and renew a a right

spirit within

me that's the prayer for

Revival and so what's holding us back

three things are holding us back I may

or may not get into it here in my

introduction but there are three things

holding us back I believe and these are

themes that we talk about often we're

going to Target them through the lens of

this passage the number one thing is

comparison I'm not like anyone else I'm

not like David my my problems are unique

I hate myself but I'm the most unique

special flower in the universe and no

one understands

me but but here the Temptation again is

going to be I'm not like David I've

never done anything as severe as David

that's not the point I'll tell you why

the other element is guilt now many of

us have gone to the Lord to take care of

our guilt and we still carry the guilt

there's like a process where we've done

surgery to remove the shrapnel but it's

still there the Pain's still there the

infection still there and there's

something in here for us to see that

like the Lord wants to do the Deep work

but sometimes whether whether it's the

church itself that hasn't shown us what

this looks like to do this well or or

it's simply that we haven't allowed the

Lord to do the Deep process of

completely completely allowing us to be

so broken in not taking any credit or

Identity or performance of any shape or

form how can David possibly sing a song

of Victory and blessing and God's

goodness from what he's done we'll look

at that in a moment and and finally it's

a false Vision comparison guilt and

false Vision we do not have God's sight

we have our

sight okay so back to the psalm have

mercy on me oh God according to your

steadfast love according to your

abundant Mercy blot out my

transgressions Wash Me thoroughly from

my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin

for I know my transgressions and my sin

is ever before me against you only you

have I sinned and done what is evil in

your sight what he is not saying is that

he hasn't sinned against everyone else

what I'll show you in a moment is he has

sinned against everyone else in his

entire Kingdom and his entire

house he's not saying this he's saying

that here's the issue I've put myself on

the

throne but you're the only one that has

ultimate authority of right and wrong we

are craving in our society modern

society secularism whatever you want to

look at it today we do not know how to

look at an ultimate Authority and say

this is right and wrong and so we right

now have a country we have a culture

that has no idea how to define what's

right and wrong we we debate over morals

because we have no standard for our

morals and the Christians keep going

like well it's the Bible but no one

cares about the Bible unless they've met

Jesus so how do we how do we debate or

how do we in exchange and how do we

wrestle with a culture that doesn't

respect the word of God in the same way

that we do you have to demonstrate a

clean heart and so why does it why is it

so hard for Christians when you've got

obnoxious people that agree with us on

on on some things maybe that are then

spewing a kind of heart they can't

possibly see the face of Jesus and we

wonder why our culture is so confused

and why they don't all agree with our

morals that seem so

sound well how about we just we stop

with the moralism for a moment and just

remind ourselves thank God that I am not

God

where I sit on the throne of my own life

thank God that I do not have to

say follow my heart to figure this

out I think I'll tell tell this um

example next week but um how many of you

remember 9020

childhood you guys do not want to

interact with me today okay whatever

9020 Beverly Hills Tory Spelling any

fans yeah all right

she's an interesting character by the

way I I have been profound she I believe

her father Aaron spilling was like he

was the guru like multi multi

multi-billionaire and she was recently

like I think living in a trailer like

for fun like she's just like rejecting

all this whatever she's a really

interesting character anyway she there's

this one scene in 92 and0 where she goes

to a priest to seek guidance I think for

sleeping with her boyfriend or something

like that um I stole this example from

Keller I'll I'll share it more next week

but the the idea was this this priest in

90210 tells her to follow her

heart and she I mean the connotation is

kind of like well was kind of she came

to the priest for advice she's like

doing she's doing her part and he's

going follow your heart like how does

that work out there's plenty of people

that followed their heart and they

they're and they go off and murder

someone like David followed his heart

didn't work out

well Hitler followed his heart I a lot

of people follow their heart like at

what point can you just say your heart's

wrong and his color goes if if he would

have told

her rightly what to do with the heart he

would have actually had to do his job

but the priest in this set setting

didn't and that's one of the issues that

we have in culture is that we haven't

done our job to show what it looks like

to follow the

heart David didn't follow his heart

Jesus isn't called the son of David

because Jesus followed his heart or

David followed his heart Jesus is called

the son of David and the lion of the

tribe of Judah because these are the two

men in Scripture that showed us

repentance Judah is the first example in

all of scripture to repent many of you

don't know judah's story I've told it

before but that's the literally the

first example of repentance in all the

scripture David is the most significant

the deepest most horrific turn of

repentance that you see in all of

scripture and Jesus's name the only two

names Jesus gets that are that are human

beings son of David Lion of the tribe of

Judah are two men who

repented God wants you to know if you if

you want to go to the standard of Jesus

the only man who never had to

repent learn the power the power of the

miracle of

forgiveness only comes when we surrender

to the process of repentance and allow

the Deep work to happen in our lives so

here's how horrible this story

is this is the biggest tabloid in Bible

History

history David knew exactly what he

wanted to do this is all if you want the

background go read it in your quiet time

this week week's second Samuel 11:1 12

2 Samuel 11:1

I'm not going to have the scriptures up

there I'm just summarizing it for you

because again introduction I've got five

minutes this is not the first time baath

Sheba was bathing I have actually taught

at times that he that you know that she

probably was enticing him this and that

they bathed on the roof though and the

scripture actually makes very clear that

she has no blame in this matter

whatsoever what you need know about her

was that she was not some nobody that

just looked amazingly attractive to a

King what happened was her husband Uriah

is one of David's key Warriors her

father she's the daughter of Elam he was

one of David's Mighty Men you know the

guys that defended him against King Saul

when Saul sought to take his life for

years that's her dad her

grandfather is one of David's most

trusted advisor ERS and is currently in

the king's

court meaning like all of David's

Messengers to to pull this horrible

Scandal off are literally going through

her

grandfather so this is not hidden her

dad's going to know about this her

grandfather's going to know about this

and her husband's the only one that's

not going to know about this and he's

going to be

murdered there's no way people don't

know that this is happen happening this

is so

public was she raped by David that's

also a thing that's come up often maybe

but that's not actually the emphasis

that goes on here there's probably no

way that she would refuse a king in that

setting but that doesn't mean it's her

fault the issue is that David is doing

an evil evil act that he knows he's

going to do before he does it and

there's a reason why he doesn't go off

to war it says at the beginning of that

passage in Samuel when the time came

when kings go off the war David stayed

why because he knew that UAH would be

gone and his wife would be there and he

would have an opportunity to do this and

yet he knows he can't pull it off

without many many many many many

servants going and doing his dirty work

and he knows that all these people are

eventually going to find out he knows

that her dad's going to find out her

grandfather's going to find out and

everyone's going to know and he does it

anyway his heart is right rotten to the

core the man after God's Own Heart is

rotten to the

core one of the things we see about how

ugly his heart is is it says about Beth

Sheba after this act where he comes uh

brings her in sleeps with her she leaves

and she does what the levitical law

requires and and she goes and has a

ritual

bath David does not which shows us

something it shows us the purity of her

heart and it shows us that David has

already shoved off the Lord long before

these actions have

happened this wasn't just a momentary

thing David has an ugly side and the

public already is starting to know there

are countless unnamed people in his

court that have pulled this off she

finds out she's pregnant he tries to get

Uriah home to sleep with her he doesn't

UAH sleeps at the door won't go in his

own house

he even gets Uriah drunk which also for

those of you that you know have got

stories where it's like I was just drunk

well there are some stories also that

even when you're drunk you can have

character and that's what's actually

being shown here is the absolute beauty

of uriah's character and the debauchery

of David's

character and so UAH despite being drunk

despite being home and having his wife

right there he refuses to go in and have

any pleasure while his men are on the

battlefield and you know what David says

he makes a comment that attacks if you

understand the language he's attacking

uriah's masculinity like what kind of

man wouldn't take advantage of that

what's wrong with

you meanwhile this man is going to go

back into battle for his

King David is going to put him in a

dangerous situation and then make the

men who have sacrificed their lives for

him that have lived an entire an entire

culture of Honor in the military he's

going to require these men to pull back

and abandon their leader and watch him

die so David is going to pull other

people into his murderous

plot and then when it's all said and

done he makes this horrible excuse and

dismisses it that shows the hardness of

his heart says don't let this displease

you for the sword devours one as well as

another that's in second Samuel 11 what

does that mean he's basically saying uh

you know it's just

battle and then the prophet Nathan calls

him

out and literally tells him that he's

despised the word of the Lord meaning

that Nathan is basically saying the sin

that you have done is so is so heinous

so

dark it's like you have no you have no

connection to the Lord your

God so what's happening this is this

this is exposing our core issue the

Temptation though most of us have never

killed another person most of us you

like that most of us just want to make

space you know just in

case and if you have I hope you're done

yeah most of us have never had an

affair despite that most of

us in fact maybe all of us carry some

sense of guilt some sense of

unworthiness some sense of shame that we

cannot seem to shake maybe not daily

maybe

daily maybe Moment by

moment but what this Psalm shows us is

that David who should be carrying shame

unworthiness and guilt the rest of his

life do

not if you're if you are a peer of

David's in any way shape or form you

look at him and the only thing you

should feel is I hope he feels guilty

the rest of his

life and David does not feel guilty the

rest of his

life I just want to take you back back

to the

ssong we'll get into more detail next

week verse four against you only you

have I sinned and done what is evil in

your sight he's recognizing his

sin hide your face from my sins verse 9

blot out all my iniquities and then

verse 10 then we're we're going to sing

this in

response create in me a clean heart oh

God and renew a right Spirit within

me he's a man after God's Own Heart

because God gave him his

heart human beings cannot have God's

heart David's heart is nothing like

God's you're not trying to live a life

where your heart's like

David's you're trying to face the fact

that your

heart has no hope apart from God

renewing it and cleaning it and most of

us if we're trying to wrestle with

comparison can prop ourselves up and say

thank God I've never done anything that

bad you know there's if you're being

real if I'm being real I think about

this pretty regularly what what are the

kinds of things that if they happened to

me or if I did I couldn't live with

myself my kids just went on a a plane

ride four of my five kids went on a

plane ride with my with my wife um the

other day someone also I I know I've

mentioned you many times we have five

kids two on purpose and all of that but

the the thing that I that I I also

mentioned that I love kids but I don't

love kids that much I love my

wife I love my wife a lot uh that's how

that happens so if you're wondering just

this wasn't a plan even though we are in

population collapse and we need to do

our part

but there's don't give me too much

credit but I will say once once we've

had them I embrace

them and I love them a whole lot like

I'll die for them every single one of

them and when when when six of the most

important people in my life all get on

one plane and I'm not on it like I need

to distract myself you know there's too

many there's too many things happening

right now on the airwaves and planes

running running into helicopters and

whatever else I know the odds are still

in my favor but the the thing is is that

I think about if they all

died would I be able to like ever love

the Lord again if I'm honest I don't

know my theology says yes the history of

the church even tells me it's

possible everything I'm doing here is

like well I

better but I don't I don't

know mess me up would I ever get over

that

or and that's not even something I

did what if what if I got drunk one

night and killed somebody how do you get

over

that and even that is like a secondary

thing in nothing compared to

David and we probably all know someone

that's in some sort of situation like

that some of you are probably still

living with the guilt of one bad

decision in your life and maybe you've

asked forgiveness maybe you've tried to

do all the right repentance work and you

still have have that ache in your

soul and then you look at David here who

says creating me a clean heart renew a

right Spirit restore to me the joy of

your salvation and uphold me with a

willing Spirit then I will teach

transgressors your ways and sinners will

return to you he he in in a couple lines

of a song He's acknowledging that if God

gives him a clean heart if God doesn't

cast him away from his presence which he

saying to the Lord this is who you are

despite who I am this is who you are you

don't cast us away for our absolute

horrific you restore Joy the joy of your

salvation and uphold me then if you do

that to me

God you'll use me he sees he sees hope

to not just be forgiven but to be

utilized that that the pain would have

purpose

and that's the number one way that you

know whether you have fully experienced

the joy of repentance and forgiveness of

God is have you allowed the pain to have

purpose and then he goes on my tongue

will sing aloud of your righteousness my

mouth will declare your praise he's he's

getting into this reality that how and

this is where it should offend

you comparison says I'm not like David

so thank God I don't have to deal with

that guilt the reality says is the

gospel is telling us that David has done

the worst series of things you could

possibly do that's worse than yours and

here's what bothers me and here's what

should bother you he's done the worst

things you can imagine and he is

experiencing a greater breakthrough a

Greater Joy and a greater victory in his

life than you and I who haven't done

anything close to that bad

how how is a man in an inferior Covenant

experiencing a superior blessing how is

a man who has done the most horrific

things way worse than you or I

experiencing a better life of

joy and overflow than you and I how is

this guy have now the heart that God

says he's giving to his

son what it should be is how is it

that he gets to experience this and you

and I are still rattled by comparison

guilt and identity

crisis is anyone else does this hit

anyone else this is this is this is this

is why this offends me and it should

offend you it should offend us that he's

sitting

here singing

songs about how great God is

while we're dealing with our

unworthiness guilt and

shame for things that aren't nearly as

bad and I I would look across the room I

don't know all of your lives but I know

enough about most of you and I see lives

of faithfulness I see lives that have

made good decisions that have done so

much

right but the gospel says is that you'll

never have the joy of your salvation

because of how much right you've done

the joy of your salvation purely

comes from how you are not

depending on the

actions of your right

living to prop up your self-esteem and

identity you will only experience the

depths of this kind of joy of the

Gospel when

you stop trying to let your

heart earn its

right and I don't like that part of the

gospel because it it and it's the best

part are you with me on that is there

anyone else that's like you don't even

like the best part of the Gospel

El that's my

introduction our problem is we don't

like the best part of the gospel because

my whole life all my actions are built

at being able to have something to offer

for my

life have something to give the Lord

with my life and he's basically saying

the man after his own heart has nothing

to give him his heart's absolute garbage

and he gets the clean

heart and my heart's almost clean but he

can't do anything with it till I let him

trash it and give me a new

one so where is your heart still still

trying to keep itself breathing in an

air that it was never meant to

breathe if the team could come up I need

to land this and it helps when there's

music playing and it reminds me I need

to stop preaching and start applying

here's here's what I want us to do

what's holding us back comparison guilt

or an identity

crisis there's this and I'll tell this

really quickly I've I told this about a

year ago I think we have this issue in

in

culture self the modern self there's a

debate between a traditional self and a

modern self Charles Taylor who's a

Catholic philosopher he wrote the

sources of the self the making of the

modern

identity and he said I don't believe you

can understand modern culture without

understanding unique modern identity we

look at three questions you and

I what do I live for that's the main

thing what defines

us am I reaching it what do I live for

am I reaching that

thing and ultimately then the is becomes

the third question who gives the final

verdict on what defines me what I'm

reaching

for who gets to have a say every culture

directs its members to an identity

without telling them or asking their

permission what it's

doing and you and I need to be aware

that everything around us is pulling

us towards a voice that is defined by

saying look

inside you define what's right for you

you determine what's right and

wrong and hope for the

best and even though I've been following

Jesus for many years I still feel

myself still trying to measure up my

life based on kind of does my heart feel

like I'm doing a good job with right and

wrong and I get pulled into this

moralistic false

gospel and what's really going on here

is that there's there's this outside

vers inside

voice and we have to

understand that the way of Christ is

allowing someone else to speak your life

over you something else to say this is

right and wrong something else to say

this is how the created order works this

is where your heart fails

and the gospel says the beauty is what

is this God like what is this artist

like what is this creator of all things

like could he actually be good could he

actually take the Brokenness of our

hearts could he actually take our guilt

and

shame could he give us could he give us

these examples of ultimate scandals of

Broken Love broken identity broken

purpose and show us how we can have a

renewed heart a clean

[Music]

heart and I just want to invite you if

you're with me this morning and you

need and you want to step into a greater

measure of experiencing a

renewal I just want to invite you to

stand and you're going to join me in

praying over my heart and yours

that this house would be part of a move

of our nation and

[Music]

Beyond we don't reject right and wrong

we reject the ability to attain it we

start with I'm

wrong and I need a clean

[Music]

heart I want to invite some of you that

are still lingering on pain and shame

from Years Gone

by would you just bring that to the Lord

open your hands to him in

worship and I just ask you with the last

shred of Hope in your

being give that to him and see what he

says holy spirit on behalf of the people

everyone one of us that is still dealing

with an open

wound from this week or 20 or 30 or 40

years

[Music]

past we ask for the strength to bring

those before

you clean our

hearts those of us struggling with the

pride of comparison The Pride of I've

done so well I've done all the right

things where is the

[Music]

Lord It's very possible to have guilt

and pride in the same breath cuz that's

me one moment I feel impossibly guilty

and shameful the next impossibly

prideful but I've done all this I've

done it all right where are you

God create in me a clean

heart create create

renew not take my pretty much good

almost perfect

heart I want a new

one and if this is the first time you've

ever prayed that prayer and this is the

first time you've met God I want you to

find me after the service I just want to

join you with that prayer if you don't

know how to pray here's the

[Music]

prayer take me

God all of me

make me

[Music]

new David was seeing

something this song he doesn't even go

into the sacrificial system of the day

because he sees it at the heart of

Israel's sacrificial system there's a

greater atonement it always pointed to

something it wasn't about the physical

act of sacrifice it was about what is

God like he's the one that atones and

he's looking to God to be his ultimate

covering for everything he's done done

wrong and that's the gospel and that's

who Jesus came to be to be the ultimate

sacrifice it isn't some weirdo thing on

a cross it's not some crazy idea Christ

came to be the ultimate place to go

between us and say new heart New

Beginning it's impossible to do this on

your own and Christ says come to me know

me follow me I'm for

you and David saw it

and he prayed the Prayer of Salvation

there was an absolute Miracle of

forgiveness and the absolute

demonstration of true repentance created

me a clean heart that's our

cry I want a couple minutes long but do

not miss this moment this team's going

to lead us in a song on this

Psalm respond however your heart needs

on your face hands in the air the team

will be here to pray over you respond

and then we'll dismiss you we pray this

in Jesus

[Music]

name

foms I've been building on my

own for the times I chose to play it

when you said give it all away for the

idols that i' into my

home cre me a clean heart

God

and andew right Spirit Within

Me cre me a clean heart God

and renew a right

spirit and renew a right Spirit within

[Music]

me when I leaned into fear instead of

faith

for the narrow paath

I I in my Str you said look I just

looked

away well I'm looking now create in me a

clean

[Music]

heart and ren a right

spirit and renew a right Spirit Within

Me

cre in me a clean heart

gu and R right

spirit and renew right Spirit within

[Music]

me

spir a new heart

[Music]

the kindness of

gued it leads to

repentance the arms of the

father are full of

forgi you gave me a clean

heart a place where your glory can rest

you made me a

temple a place where your presence can

live the kindness of

God it leads to

[Music]

repentance the arms of the

father are full of

forgi you gave me a clean

heart a place where your glory can rest

you made me a

temple a place where your presence can

live you gave me a clean

heart a place where your glory can rest

you made me a

temple a place where your presence can

live in me clean heart

God and renew right

spirit and renew right Spirit Within Me

made in me a clean heart

God and renew a right

spirit and R Spirit Within Me

[Music]

we thank you that our prayer this

morning is

not will you create a clean spirit it's

a promise that you've given us in your

word that you've demonstrated in human

history and that you've made very costly

by your own measure in giving your son

we pray that we would be a people

convinced of our own

salvation with renewed minds and renewed

Hearts thank you that you are patient

with us in the

journey thank you that we get to battle

and step into this with people that are

full of faith and are

imperfect

imperfect imperfect

parts and thank you Jesus for your

Perfection and for your beauty lift our

eyes this morning we would not be a

people Bound by the guilt and shame that

the world is in but that they would see

that we are not unlike them we are just

like them we simply have a savior that

is giving on offer the kind of clean

renewal that every human soul

craves remind us of fresh

lift our

eyes fresh Joy fresh life and fresh hope

over every soul in Jesus mighty

name amen amen feel free to stay and

linger the ministry team would love to

pray for you we're at Hamilton next week

have a great Sunday and do not come here

ever again I'm just kidding come here

during the week just not Sundays

h