What is Repentance?: Psalm 51

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have we have some information I think that is really

relevant and incredibly important to most of our listeners today.

And of course you know, we scour the Internet for

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our favorite source of news. And this article today that

we're bringing to you is Heaven confirms God keeps list

of people who leave church early to watch football games.

So this is really relevant to most of our listeners.

I think, well, especially now.

I mean so in Detroit, by the way, because the

lines are good.

There you go, that's right. So eternal glory dateline, eternal glory. Yeah.

Confirming fear is long held by Christian sports fans, an

announcement from Heaven confirmed that God keeps a list of

people who leave church early to watch football games. Though

suspected for many years, it was never known for sure

if a record was kept to identify individuals who chose

the NFL over church. Heaven's press release sent shock waves

through Christian circles as the new football season was set

to begin. Yes, it's true, set a spokes angel. This

isn't something new. God's been keeping track of this since

the beginning. Depending on which time zone you live in,

there's always a temptation to leave church early so you

can make it home in time for kickoff. The Lord

keeps a detailed list of these things, and he knows,

and you will be judge accordingly. Churchgoers reached for comment

were simultaneously fearful and resigned to their fates. I've always

wondered about this, said professing Christian and football fan Bill Garrison.

As long as I've been skipping out on the end

of sermons to make sure I see the start of

every Raiders game, I've worried that there would be consequences.

It's troubling to hear, but I get it. Go Raiders, though, right.

Right.

Though the announcement did not detail any punishment someone would

receive for being on the list, the spokes angel clarified

that the list would be used for something. He doesn't

ever do anything without a reason. The angel said, the

people on this list will be on the receiving end

of something. They'll just find out when they get here

publishing time, unconfirmed rumors circulated that God felt a Raiders

fan was punishment enough for anyone.

That's funny. Being a Rangers fan was punishment. That's really good,

very funny. I love that, you know, So watch out.

That's all we're saying. We feel obligated to warn people choice.

Now, this may be funnier for church workers than the

average person, right, Well.

The average person's hoping nobody notices.

Well, yeah, the average person lives in their own little bubble,

which is either they leave early or they don't. And

and and honestly, if some people leave early and they don't,

they really don't notice, probably all that much.

But we're standing on stage watching you leave, yes.

Yes, or we're in the back because there's another moment happening,

and uh and I've and i've you know, I'm in

the back of that tournament.

People just get up and they just start filing out

and uh.

Now, granted, you know, like the parking is when you're

in a church that's really busy, the parking could be

pretty cruel.

You could easily take seven or eight minutes to get

out of the parking lot, easily longer than you would

anticipate it. It's it's it's horrific. I don't know how

people survive it, to be honest with you, it is

so funny. I have old age sitting in the parking lot.

That's so good.

Yeah.

Yeah, But people don't like traffic.

There's there's an anxiety thing that happens, Jeff, Yeah, you know,

and sometimes they want to be first at the restaurant.

That same person has a whole pocket full of xanax.

Just take one to sit in the parking lot for

five more minutes. That's how I feel about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that person is a pocket wow.

King David, I am, yeah, I am. I am not

merciful when it comes to this.

Yeah.

So, so I'm all about show up on time yep,

and then stay to the end.

Yeah. Well, And honestly, it's.

Because it's not people spent their entire week getting ready

for you, and that they planned out all those minutes

right right right, and literally at Heritage Church it's one

hour in five minutes max max. Most of the time,

it's less than one hour five minutes right most of

the time.

Yep.

So, boy, you're so good to God giving him those

fifty seven minutes. God is so grateful to you.

Wow, the hammer's coming down.

It's just silly. It's a silly thing. Now, I do

have mercy on the people that drank three cups of

coffee that we gave away for free in the lobby. Yes,

and they're hustling out not to get to the car,

but they're hustling out because they're bladder is about to burst.

Everybody's going to be embarrassed if that happens.

Right, And let me say this too, and that is

as a person who is you know, oftentimes in charge

of the moments that we that.

People walk out on.

Right, I'm in charge of sometimes planning those moments, right,

Like this song we chose.

For well, maybe it's your fault in another I think

about it, plan to that moment.

Listen.

So sometimes sometimes we chose a song thinking myself to ourselves. Okay,

when someone hears the word of God and you know

they're confronted with this truth, then they're going to be

able to use this song least three and a half

minutes to reflect on Man, what does that mean for me?

So like the song will like put an exclamation point

on it. It'll give them a time to process it,

because oftentimes, you know this, if we hear something, we're

like wow, and then as soon as we get up

and we're off with our day, we.

Forget about those things.

But if you spend those extra three minutes, you know,

listening to the lyrics of the song, which by the way,

is incredibly challenging and gives you time to go, I

know what this means for me? Or whow god, you

are correct. I mean those three minutes are a solidifying, reflective,

even repentive kind of a kind of a moment that

is planned and there and it could be really, really

really powerful. And so it's like, okay, yeah, we've planned

all this, people have worked hard, they've practiced, and then

all of a sudden, somebody gets up because they want

to be the first that Bob had.

Us and because you know, Christianity is all about you, right,

So if this next song doesn't feel relevant to you,

just go ahead and interrupt everybody else. Excuse me, excuse me?

I wonderuse me?

Was time over them?

I wonder if Desiree chose this article because she knew

would go to this direction, right.

Right, So interrupt everybody else because it couldn't be for

anybody else either. If it's not for you, it's not

for the other seven hundred fifty people in the room either. Right, right,

that's right, that's right. Anyways, that man a life. Did

I sound bitter?

Well, no you lightened up? Or no, no, no, you

lit up. That's what it was. I didn't lighten up.

But all.

You've come alive, Jeff, No, so so, sarcasm is one

of my spiritual gifts. Yes, so you know I'm joking

to flush some But what makes the sarcasm funny is

it's kind of true, right, that's what's funny. Buzzing, Yes, yeah,

kind of true. It can be funny if you don't

if if the fire's not burning down, I mean, if

the building's not burning down, if you don't have a

body part hanging on, I'm going to say something else.

If if the building's not burning down, you don't have

a body part hanging off, and you're not about what

to wet our seats, you can wait five more minutes,

so you really can.

Okay, anything else? One more thing, Jeff is really passionate.

I just think it's it's bad manners.

Okay, here we go. You did say something else?

There you go, I'm sorry.

That's so great. Okay, well, how do you transition to

this this is gonna sad psalm.

I could say I'm sorry. I could say I'm sorry,

and maybe I crossed the line there. Maybe it's because this,

this whole, this whole uh psalm we're gonna read is

David saying he's sorry.

Okay, yeah, okay, all right, so you can say you're sorry.

Speaking of saying.

Sorry, yeah, yeah, on a whole other level speak, maybe

maybe one of the most beautiful passages in the entire Bible. Yes,

by far, one of the top three or four most

beautiful passages David writes is Psalm fifty one.

And by the way it announces it says the author

is David. It says for the choir director, a psalm

of David, regarding the time Nathan the Prophet came after him,

David had committed adulter of Isheba.

So this is directly that's a note David probably wrote

on this song to say, here's why I wrote it,

and he gives it to the choir director. This is

really profound. So he says in Psalm fifty one, have

mercy on me, oh God, because of your unfailing love,

because of your great compassion. Blot out the stain of

my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt, and purify

me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion. It

haunts me day and night. Against you and you alone.

Have I sinned done. I have done what is evil

in your sight. And you will be proved right in

what you say. And your judgment against me is just,

for I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment

my mother conceived me. But you desire honesty from the womb,

teaching me wisdom even there. Purify me from my sins

and I will be clean. Wash me and I'll be

whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again.

You've broken me. Now let me rejoice. Don't keep looking

at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create

in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a

loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence,

and don't take your holy spirit from me. Restore to

me the joy of your salvation and make me willing

to obey you. And then I will teach your ways

to rebels and they will return to you. Forgive me

for shedding blood, Oh God who saves, And then I

will joyfully sing of your forgiveness. Unseal my lips, o Lord,

that my mouth may praise you. You do not desire

a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not

want to burn offering. The sacrifice you desire is a

broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repent heart.

Oh God, look with favor on Zion and help her

rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And then you'll be pleased

with sacrifices offered in the right spirit, with burnt offerings

and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will again be sacrificed

on your altar.

Well, it's a hard one.

It is a hard one, and it's amazing, and it

is a model for us when we are to go

to God with repentance. Have mercy, I mean every single verse.

I mean, for crying out loud, this is beautiful. Have

mercy on me, Oh God, because of your unfailing love.

Even that opening line, right, your unfailing love. Continue to

give me mercy because your love never fails. You have

great compassion. And then he admits the blotting out the

stain of my sins wash me free from what my guilt.

He's owning this from the very beginning where I've recognized

my rebellion.

It says it haunts me.

Night, which means, you know what there's value in, you know,

having remorse and guilt. However, I want to throw out

there and that God never intends us to live in guilt. God,

you can use guilt as a very powerful weapon, but

once guilt leads to repentance or excuse me, I'm sorry,

did I say weapon? Ye?

I meant yeah, he uses guilt as a tool.

Ah, yeah, I don't know why I say weapon, but

he uses it a powerful tool. But once we repent,

and once we understand that God forgives our sins, then

God never intends for us to beat ourselves up because

guilt does not have any place after God's forgiveness. But

guilt does have a place in the midst of our sin,

doesn't it.

Yeah, So so guilt that leads you into some kind

of you know, bad pattern that that that buries you

in depression and those kinds of things and blocks you

from moving forward with your life. God doesn't intend for that, right,

But from that day forward, every time his sons rose

up and rebelled against him. He knew he had to

take responsibility.

Sure, there's always some measure of guilt, isn't that right?

Well, so his guilt never went away, he was forgiven

for it. There's a difference between those two things. But

what he said was God, from this day forward, I'm

going to serve you God, from this day forward. I'm

going to tell everybody. I'm going to use this as

a testimony to teach other rebels. That's what he says, Right,

I'm not going to just stay home and sit in

my bed and cry anymore. I'm not going to let

the guilt that I'm carrying trap me. Instead, I'm going

to use what I've done, what I'm talking about, Right,

that's what you're talking about, because that's what a lot

of people do, is that I'm guilty, so I can

never serve God.

They think they deserve their punishment. They beat themselves up

because they because nobody else want to beat them up, right,

So they punish themselves.

They disqualify themselves.

And so David Acknowledge is throughout the rest of his

life that this is that my son rebelling against me

is my fault, that my family problems are my fault.

I did this, and that is a big part of

repentance is accepting the fact that you are responsible for

your bad choices, for your sins, and so there's that.

But God uses guilt, but he doesn't want us to

walk around feeling guilty. There's a difference between those two things.

Understanding my responsibility is different than me walking around and

saying because I'm guilty, I can never serve God again.

Right Instead, David says, restore to me the joy of

my salvation and make me willing to obey you, and

then I'll teach your ways to rebels and they'll return

to you. He says, forgive me for shedding blood, and

I'll joyfully sing of your forgiveness. Unseal my lips, and

I'll praise you. You know, he was one of the

main worship leaders for the whole nation. He led the

people in worship, and he said, I'll get back out

there again. As a matter of fact, he writes this

song and gives it to the head song leader, going

use my story as a testimony to others, right right,

So God will use your messages your greatest message. He

sure did. Yeah, he wrote this. He wrote this with

that intent. He didn't write it and then go, hey,

you can go ahead and use that. So I'll give

you permission you use that song. He wrote it for

this purpose. He wrote it to let the whole nation

know this is how you repent, and then God will

restore you. You sir. So what he did is he

let God use his mess to become his message, and

he stepped back into ministry. The kind of guilt you're

talking about is the kind of guilt where you retreat

from ever trying to serve God anymore because of the

things that you've done. So acknowledging that the consequences of

your sin rests on your shoulders is one thing. But

he's also appealing to God's grace here, right, and God's mercy.

Verse six is a reference to life in the womb.

Life begins in the womb, yep. But you desire honesty

for me in the womb, teaching me wisdom even there,

acknowledging basically life. He's acknowledging life.

And I was born a sinner from the moment my

mother conceived me. So he's saying at conception, I was

a sinner. At conception, I was That's right, that's significant.

Yep, that's right, right, that's right. And then and then

he goes on.

And now I've always said this, my wife already knows

exactly what I'm going to say.

She already knows.

She knows me so well.

But what I'm going to say next is, I'm going

to say most people when they think of Psalm fifty one,

the verses that are highlighted the most are what verses

verses number ten and eleven right in twelve, right, because

those are the verses in the songs. I think I

know three songs that say created me a clean heart,

O God, renew a loyal spirit within me, right, And

I know three different melodies for those types of songs.

But I always think that the most powerful verses in

this whole chapter are not ten, eleven, and twelve, because

that is a great prayer to pray, but you know,

that's saying, Okay, God, create something that happens in me.

I think the more powerful verses are verses sixteen and seventeen,

where he says, you do not offer you do not

desire a sacrifice, or else I'd offer one.

You do not want a burn offering. And you know

what he's saying.

He's saying, if right now, I could snap my fingers

and offer a thousand rams, I could snap my fingers

and offer a thousand you know, lambs or sheep, And

he says, but that's not what you want from me,

That's what he's saying. He's saying, you don't want a

big offering. Hey, you don't want me to write a

check for a million dollars, right, even though a million

dollars and a burn offering of a thousand rams are

good things. What he's saying is that's really not the

heart of what you want. The thing you want first

is you want me to have a broken and repentant heart,

because these things you will not despise.

So God wants us And what does the King James say?

A broken and contrite heart, contrite heart, broken spirit and

a contract heart and or whatever contrayte spirit, whatever it says.

But the idea.

Is is that God wants your heart first before your service.

And that's what God wants. God wants you to acknowledge

who he is. He wants you to surrender, to repent,

to love him. God wants your heart before anything else.

So yeah, you can go ahead and serve God. You

can serve it a food pantry or write a big check,

but that's not really what God wants first. God wants

your heart first, and then as an overflow, all those

things will come next.

Yeah, it's interesting. He starts off, pleading to God's mercy. Yep, right,

because of his unfailing love. God is merciful because God

is love. Right. And then he says, because of your

great compassion, blot out the stains of my sins and

wash me clean, purify me. He said, I recognize my rebellion.

It haunts me day and night. There's that guilt thing again, right,

it's haunting me. So my only hope is your grace.

My only hope is your mercy. My only hope is

your compassion. And sometimes it's important for us to remember

it's against Him and him alone that we sin. Sometimes

as Christians, we we we concentrate so much on God's

grace that we think, oh, God's gonna understand, And David

does not come to the conclusion God understands. Sometimes you know,

boys are going to be boys, boys do what boys do.

Oh well, thank God for his grace and mercy right right.

Sometimes in our in our Christian culture today in America,

young people, old people, whatever. Will will say, well, you

know God's merciful. Yeah, yeah, we're all sinners. That's not

David's attitudes. Dad's attitude is not, well, we're all sinners,

Thank God for his mercy and grace. Instead, David is like,

it's haunting me God because of what I've done to you,

and I'm pleading for your mercy and grace, not assuming

your mercy and grace. There's a big diferen between those

two things, right, And so Paul kind of talks about

this a little bit in the Book of Romans. He goes, Hey, well,

if if if sin is is what causes God to

expresses grace to us, then let's just keep sinning, right,

so that grace may abound. That's what he says. And

so Paul says, God forbid, because of his grace, we

should stop sinning, or we should try stop sinning, right,

we should walk away from those things. Because he's acknowledging

the flip side of what David's acknowledging. David's acknowledging God,

I have no reason to expect your mercy. I'm pleading

for it. I have no reason to expect your compassion.

I know you're compassionate, but I don't deserve it. And so, God,

this haunts me what I've done because I've offended you.

And so many times I hear people talk about sin

in our Christian culture where they're like, there's an expectation

that God's grace is coming, so oh well, oops, ah

ah right. A lot of times that well, you know,

I know I shouldn't be living with my boyfriend or girlfriend,

but you know, thank God for his grace. I know

I shouldn't be doing these things, but thank God for

his grace. And I'm telling you, I'm not sure that

there's an ex expectation for grace and compassion in that moment.

God's good and he might not be smacking you too, heart,

but buddy, it's coming, right, And in this situation, he

has exactly the opposite view. God, I don't deserve it,

I'm thankful for it. And then you find him saying

through the whole rest us, I don't want to do

that anymore. I don't want to be that guy. Right

might have a broken and contrite heart. I have a

spirit that's that's coming to you. I'm repenting and you

will accept my repentant heart. Repentance means that I was

going one way and I turn and go the other way.

So I made a bad choice. I've changed my mind.

I'm going your way now. And he says, you'll accept

that heart and that spirit. So we don't want to

abuse grace. But man, thank God for it.

Yeah, that's great right by the way.

You know, as I was sitting here thinking, do you

know the tune to create me a clean heart?

Do you know a tune to that?

I don't know.

You can't think of a Okay, so you know a

lot of times we know the same songs right right,

growing up. Uh, there's there's three that I know. But

the one that follows this, the closest goes creating.

Me a clean heart, Oh God, and renew red spirit

within me. You don't know that one.

Cast me out away from thy presence, O Lord, take

not thy holy spirit from me, restore unto me the

joy of my salvation, and renew red spirit within me.

You don't know that one anyway. It's really good.

But we love it now. Well, it's it's one of

the Bible Guy's top hits.

Now they're gonna put in I think maybe the only

one that I've saying.

You've sung a bunch of songs.

Well not through the whole thing. Listen, here's here's why

I did it, because.

That's what this was. It was a song.

That's exactly right. I was gonna say, uh, there is

value and learning the scripture with songs.

Yeah, there's value in it, right, because you'll remember it forever.

That's right.

And you know I could I could quote you so

many verses. In fact, the staff meeting, the staff meeting.

Just yesterday, you were at the staff meeting and you're like, hey, everybody,

take take out your Bibles and look up Matthew Sikes

thirty three.

And what did I do? I started loving minute. I

started loving it. And I'm like, I don't need to

look it up. I know exactly this verse.

Well, so people listening, that's the importance of putting things

to song. Those are you that in your fifties, sixties,

seventies you still remember song lyrics from when you were

a teenager, But you can't remember history lessons, right, you

can't remember grammar lessons.

Well, even if there.

Are people who even have Alzheimer's who can't remember anything,

but you can still do.

I can still do music.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, So there's a benefit to that. Also,

I was going to say one other thing. For many people.

I'm not this guy necessarily, but for many many people

that I know, writing out your prayers like in a journal.

So if you're a journal type person, if you're a

thought full person, there can be great benefit to writing

out your prayers, and then if you're a musical person,

put a tune to it. Did you know most of

Martin Luther's songs he wrote out the lyrics, He wrote

them out like a prayer, but then he just put

him to tunes that were already popular. They were singing

them in the taverns and stuff, and he just put

them to common tunes. You know, Mary had little lamb.

Can you could write out your prayer, put it to

a tune, and it'll be amazing how much easier it'll

be to remember that prayer.

When I was on staff with like twenty pastors on

a big, really big church staff, there's three hundred and

ninety seven people on our staff, the lead pastor said,

can anybody here quote all the Old Testament books in order?

And I was the only one because I crammed for

that test in Baba College, and I stayed up and

I put it.

To the tune of one Little, two little three little Indians.

Oh yeah yeah.

I was like, yeah, I can do it.

Genna says Exus, Leviticus, numbers, Romy, Jush, Judges, Ruth first

thing first, second, Samuel first, first and second, Chronicles and

Esther job's all proverbs because yes he sung a Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremy, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniels, Joel.

So anyway, I did that, and it's like that's how

I know them. And so every time when.

I flush it, now, amos Ob, yeah, amos.

Obde Jonah, make a name a back exeph and I

had guy. Then comes Zecher, Right, don't forget Malachai. These

are the books of the Old Testament. I had to

make it work. There wasn't enough.

So you had three hundred ninety six people on your

staff church staff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the only one.

I was the only one who stood up and said.

We should do that, we should do that test in

our staff.

Yeah, creon, Okay, well, hey that's our time.

So hey.

We had a lot of fun and then at the

same time there was a lot of heavy reflection. So hey,

the best of both worlds. We'll see you next time

on the bibble guys,