07/25/10
Confession
Summary
Our own inability to accept the reality of forgiveness is the reason that God has given us the practice of confession
Welcome
Today, we’re going to wrap up our Ritual series...and these four weeks have been about rediscovering and recapturing ancient practices that for centuries, people have engaged in to draw near to the heart of God. As we’ve explored the rituals of Sabbath and worship and prayer, the reminder has been...let’s not forget why we do what we do. Let’s not allow what are sacred rituals, rich with meaning and purpose, to become commonplace.
Today, we’re talking about confession and at the end of the service we’re going to invite you to come up to the stage and confess your sins...sort of a confession competition, and whoever has the best story, complete with details...whoever moves the crowd emotionally...they’ll win.
I asked a group of friends to give me their take on confession, and I requested permission to share their thoughts with you... The question I asked them was... When you think about confession, what comes to mind and how was this influenced by your upbringing?
Some talked about their exposure to confession at an early age... like many of us, for them, the image that immediately came to mind was a booth-like room of sorts... and confession was more of an impersonal routine to perform than it was a relationship to pursue. The thought of confession has caused and sometimes still evokes a sense of anxiety and the burden of feeling unworthy...
A few went on to describe how their understanding of confession is beginning to change as they walk with Jesus, and as they continue to grow in their understanding of who God is...and how they are beginning to see confession as a gift rather than a burden...something given to us by God to allow us to draw near to Him, rather than being something to fear and avoid.
We approach confession from a variety of experiences and with a whole array of related thoughts and emotions that have been shaped our own first-hand experience, or by what we have learned in a church setting like this, or in how we have seen confession portrayed in our culture, specifically in film.
So, I want to ask you today if you would be willing to place those things to the side for the next few moments and allow God to speak to you through His Word... Ok?
In Matthew 18 and Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories personifying God as a shepherd, a widow, and a father. In all three stories, something or someone has been lost...a sheep, a coin, a son...and Someone, God, is trying to find that which has been lost.
Matthew 18:12-14
Can I suggest to you that our understanding of God is at times less shaped by God himself and is shaped more so by culture or our past church experience or the environments in which we were raised. As a result, many of us have developed unhealthy ways of relating to God...like the idea that I have to obey Him, be a good or moral person to keep God on my side...because if I don’t things will go terribly wrong. I’ll get cancer, lose my job, or my house will burn down. For some of us, the reason we obey and attempt to love God is simply to keep Him happy...to stay on his good side... so that nothing bad happens to us...
And yet the story found in Scripture is not that you and I have to work to keep God on our side...but that God is already on our side. Jesus’ message wasn’t, ‘run after God and convince Him of your goodness.’ It was simply that God is pursuing you...like a shepherd pursues his lost sheep, God has come to us in our lostness to bring us home...to restore us to Himself...to make us whole...and lead us to be the people He designed us to be. And Jesus said that when even one person comes back to God, God is filled with joy. The Bible calls this grace...
You see... I believe that for many of us who have heard this story... as wonderful and beautiful as the story sounds...that God pursues us, and forgives us, and heals...we still struggle to live in the reality of God’s forgiveness...don’t we?
Our own inability to accept the reality of forgiveness is the reason that God has given us the practice of confession.
1 John 1:8-9 – “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
Illustration – We’re in this season of parenting...with children that are 8,6,5,3 and Beth and I sometimes just feel like one of our primary roles is to be skirmish referees... And oftentimes...it’s hard to know who to give the yellow card to, because we don’t always see the skirmish...and two kids almost inevitably have two different explanations for how one of them ended up on the floor crying.
Have you ever been there? “Do you know what happened?” Well...he hit me first... “What? I didn’t hit anyone... What did I do?” I don’t know how he got on the floor? I don’t know why his face is red... I didn’t do anything. He hit me first...well, he pushed me first. She stuck her tongue out at me...I don’t know why she’s crying... I don’t know... I didn’t see... How does this happen?
Scripture says that if we claim we have no sin...we’re denying reality, and we’re fooling ourselves. We’re not fooling God who according to 1 Corinthians 4:5 sees our darkest secrets and our private motives...and many of the times we’re not fooling the people around us either... we’re simply suppressing what is true in our lives.
Do you know what it’s like to feel that tension of not living in the truth...not being who we really are? We’ve all been there.
Illustration – Have you ever lied...told a lie to cover that lie up... and then before you know it, you’re trying to remember which version of the truth you need to stick to?
And when this happens...we might not immediately identify it as sin, but our souls certainly feel unsettled, don’t they? Instead of having peace...we live on edge? Instead of joy...we’re frustrated... Instead of being free...we live with a fear of being discovered...found out... and our tendency is to run and hide and cover up our sin.
Can I suggest to you that this desire to run and hide stems from a God-given emotion called guilt? And that guilt is God’s way of telling us that something is not right. And that He allows us to experience guilt in order to draw us back to Him...so that He can restore and heal.
1 John 1:8-9 – “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
What does John say is the antidote for self-deception? Confession...
Illustration – When I was in 2nd grade...my mom bought me a new blue and white striped shirt...and for one reason or another, I wasn’t able to wear it to school...don’t remember. I loved this shirt so much that one day, I carefully packed it in my backpack...took it to school, put it on, wore it for the day...and then before I returned home, I folded it up and hid it back in my backpack...it was the perfect cover up. Except that when I arrived home that day... my mother met me at the door and began to help unpack my bag...and there, at the bottom crumpled up, was my new shirt...
You know the feeling of being found out...whatever it is that you’re hiding is revealed...the natural reaction is to respond in ignorance. What? How did that get in there...That’s strange? I wonder what that is doing in there? And then, looking at my mother, I realized, she’s just not going to buy it. So, I confessed... “I did it...I took it...I wore it...I love my shirt.”
Have you ever been there? That moment where the shirt is discovered... the bag is opened, and its contents are revealed. In that moment everything in you wants to cover up the truth?
And yet there’s something freeing...something liberating... about letting the bag remain open!
Confession, in its simplest form is being honest with God about our sin...
The word confess here means to reveal...to own up to something...to admit and acknowledge something to be true.
1 John 1:8-9 – “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
A more accurate reading would be, ‘if we keep on confessing our sins... John is saying that the practice of confession is an ongoing way of living truthfully with God and others that allows us to become fully ourselves.
As we do this, Scripture promises what? God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. He promises one, forgiveness, and two, cleansing.
Proverbs 28:13 says: “People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.”
The writer says that those who confess and turn from their sins will receive mercy... The word mercy also means compassion. Like the compassion a father has for his child.
Confession opens our hearts to the forgiveness, the healing, the mercy, the compassion of God.
Corporate Confession
James 5:16 – “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
James says that there is something healing, something powerful about looking across the table into another person’s eyes and having them say to you...God’s grace is bigger than that sin. You’re forgiven. That somehow, the community of faith called the church...we play a role in making the reality of God’s grace and compassion tangible for one another.
Why do we have such a hard time with this...confessing to another person?
In some cases, our understanding of confession is tainted by our own past experiences. For many of us...especially guys, it’s pride. Our egos will lead us to cover things up until they explode and get messy. For some of us, it’s fear of being discovered.
For the majority of us...it’s also the way that we have come to view the church.
Richard Foster says “Confession is a difficult discipline for us because we view the church as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners.”
We look around this room and we believe that everyone else has passed us by in their love for Jesus and commitment to Him. We can’t imagine revealing our half-hearted desire for God or exposing some weakness or failure or sin because we believe we’re all alone in our sin. Every one of us has a tendency to walk into the room this morning and hide our true selves from one another and act like everything is ok...and as a result, many of us feel isolated and alone.
That’s not what Jesus designed the church to be...and that’s not the kind of community that we want to be...
Jesus said... ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor, sick people do...I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Matthew 9:12, 13b
We understand that it’s the sick who are candidates for Jesus’ mercy. It’s those who know they are sinners whose hearts are open to the healing work of Jesus.
James 5:16 – “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
Have you ever prayed and even begged God for forgiveness...and the feeling of forgiveness has just never come...and so you’ve left that moment doubting whether you’re actually forgiven?
Have you ever asked God to heal the wounds of the past, but you have been met with what you feel is silence? The burden of the sin you are confessing is not relieved.
In those moments...we do our best to take our forgiveness by faith...but deep inside we long for something more...and for many of us...we end up feeling unworthy of the forgiving grace of God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer...
“A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person. As long as I am by myself in the confession of my sins everything remains in the dark, but in the presence of a brother the sin has to be brought into the light.” (148)
Do you have that friend? The person with whom you can be honest? If not...are you pursuing someone like that? This can be a journey...not something that happens overnight, but I’m telling you our joy is on the line...
Let me wrap this way...where do we begin?
3 steps toward confession...
1. Quietly come before God and ask him to help...
“How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.” Psalm 19:12
We struggle to see our sin through the eyes of those we have sinned against...and through the eyes of God.
2. Why? And What Happened?
We go...confess..and to the best of our ability, we make things right.
3. Grace – Grace beckons us...the cross frees us...
I believe that all of us can walk out of here today changed people...I believe that for perhaps many of us, we have some long-overdue conversation with God.
I believe that many of us need to find someone that you can trust who will listen and love you and show you grace as you are honest with them. It’s a journey...it takes time...it’s for our joy.
(Pray)
