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Psalm 51:1-17 (read) * Ever felt like if the Bible were being written today, your life story would be in it? Can you imagine having your life acted out on a flannel-graph during children’s church? God has purposed for the preservation of the ugliness of humanity (all the self-destruction) in the scripture, but never in such a way as to make it appear acceptable. ►Only love can call me out of the bushes! Confession is an invitation to come out in the open. Only love is powerful enough to produce in me the courage to face God, myself and you in a way that is authentic and healing. Larry Crabb… “Only two things have ever changed the human soul- the fall and grace”. Eventually, we all desire to be found! (i.e. hide and seek: we enjoy having found a place where we elude discovery; after all, that’s part of the game. After awhile, that place begins to feel really uncomfortable and really lonely. Why? Because it isolates us from others and inhibits relationship). ►Our sin will always pale in comparison to God’s love. Romans 5:20 “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,…”NIV “As people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful kindness became more abundant”. NLT “You know the problem—we don’t talk about sin enough!” I think we talk “too much” about it! * Although our sin must never be minimized, neither should it be exaggerated (become the focal point of our relationship with God). * There is nothing “extraordinary” about sin (it’s a given); it happens quite naturally (I’ve reviewed my “Family Tree” and discovered that I come from a long line of sinners!) Romans 2:4 “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?” 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 “For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them…” “Well, isn’t grace kind of a risky message? Won’t people take advantage of it?” Absolutely. Love is always “vulnerable” (the appropriate response is to love Him back! But, it can be either embraced and returned; or treated with indifference and ignored), (i.e. On 20/20, detective investigating a murder; the deeper into the investigation, the evidence began to point to his own son. He finally got his son to admit to the crime; not by coercing or manipulating a confession from him, but by reassuring him of his unconditional love. ►Sin is not primarily a moral term, but a relational one. It’s not about identifying and categorizing “sin”; sin is about our avoidance of God; our refusal to accept his invitation to be with him. Isaiah 59:1-2 “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God;…” NIV “Listen, the Lord is not too weak to save you, and his is not becoming deaf. He can hear you when you call. But there is a problem—your sins have cut you off from God…” NLT Psalm 51:3-4 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. ►Confession acknowledges not only the particular incident, but our continued vulnerability (“…my sin is always before me”.) You not only get the impression that David is struggling with the guilt he feels over his sin, but his recognition that sin is always as near as his willingness to yield to it. To admit such vulnerability is to help prevent self-deception (“That won’t happen to me again!). I have discovered that it’s actually a strength, not a weakness! It’s one thing to admit a particular sin, but another to recognize and declare that the potential for such behavior is something that must be perpetually addressed. Psalm 51:10 “Create (bara- only used with God has the subject: to create something from nothing) in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” David realizes that the solution was not to “sell the palace” and move to another neighborhood; that would not have dealt with the issue of his heart (it was not just about “behavior modification”). ►Confession always appeals for compassion, but accepts the consequences. It basically determines that whatever consequences God allows or mercifully prevents…He is right! 2 Peter 3:18 “continue to grow in the grace and knowledge…” Grace- dimension of love which allows for failure. Knowledge- continued experience of God and his love which prevents me from attempting to justify it. “So, how do I get to God?” You don’t… The Bible is not so much the account of man’s attempt to get to God as it is God’s attempts to get to man (the Bible is all about rescue… “ For the son of man came to seek and to save what was lost” Luke 19:10) * In some profound way (a way that escapes me), when Jesus died, he was taking upon himself all that was wrong with us (all the ways that we had failed to be fully human); he was rescuing us. He was not forgetting our sins, or just ignoring them; he was choosing to remember them no more! (Hebrews 8:12)
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