Well, such a great start to our worship service, and we are super excited about being together. And, you know, we went on that two-week hiatus of snow. I know we were back together last week, but I tell you, it's just a reminder of how important it is for us to make Sunday and the time that we gather to make that a priority in our family. Your children need it. Your grandchildren need it.
You need it. And that's not just for us as ministry leaders to just boast about numbers and things like that and big crowds and stuff. No, we truly believe that this is an integral part of your spiritual journey and your spiritual growth. And so the scripture says we're supposed to be together and we're supposed to worship together and serve together and grow together. And so I'm excited that we get the opportunity to do that.
Well, we're continuing a series this week number four of a series that we have entitled Emotions. Can we all say that together? Emotions. And we are kind of, when I was thinking about this, I decided to call it emotions because that's really what we're going to be looking at. But I thought about calling it something like up in our feels, you know, because I feel like we're getting real deep into the feelings, okay?
Some of you have felt very uncomfortable the last few weeks because we are talking about some emotions. that a lot of times we don't like to admit that we struggle with. And I think we can all agree about that. In week number one, we talked about depression. And you know, that's not something that's just for lost people.
That's for Christians. Christians struggle from time to time, going through periods of depression for different reasons. We talked about that. We talked about bitterness. Another emotion that we don't like to admit that maybe we struggle with because we're embarrassed by it.
But we talked about bitterness. And last week we talked about anger. And how sometimes we get... Just our hearts full of anger and just hatred for different reasons. And that's a real emotion that a lot of us struggle with from time to time.
And today, our emotion that we are going to look at is probably, in my opinion, the hardest one we've talked about: it's the emotion of guilt. The emotion of guilt. And here's what I will tell you about any emotion that we're looking at in this series. Um these emotions are emotions of The heart. of the heart.
They're internal. Things that a lot of us from time to time don't like to admit. but we but we struggle with. They're internal Batters. And so that's why the scripture talks heavily about.
Our heart. Because the scripture would say, out of the abundance of the heart. The mouth speaketh. In fact, Jesus said this: that in Matthew 15, that's not where we're going today, but I'm just giving you a little bit of intro. He said things like murder.
Adultery, slander. Theft. All of those things, and he listed a few more, all come from the heart. And so, in other words, all of these things, that's why we must, you know, as Proverbs talks about, Proverbs chapter 4, it says, guard your heart, because out of it everything flows.
So in other words, if we want our behaviors to to match what Christ has told us to behave like. We gotta guard our heart. And that's why, when there's unchecked emotions in our heart, it will eventually affect your behavior. Where sometimes you have an outburst, and you're like, where in the world did that come from?
Well, the scripture tells us where it came from. It came from in here. Everything we do on the outside comes from in here. And so, if you're outside, the exterior part of your life is kind of crumbling and falling apart around you. Here's what I'm going to tell you: where you need to start is internal, the heart, because out of the heart, everything flows.
So, every one of these emotions are matters of the heart and things that we have to stay and keep in check. And guilt. is one of the deepest emotions. that so many of us are faced with And we sometimes don't know how to deal with it, or we're not willing to deal with it. Guilt is a personal internal emotion when we acknowledge.
that we have done something Wrong. When we have done something Wrong. A lot of times, you know, this emotion. It says That I owe somebody something because I took something from From them. And so, therefore, because I took from somebody else, therefore, I am faced with.
With an emotion of guilt, and how do we handle that? I mean, think about it.
Sometimes, because of our sin, we steal people's reputation. Because of our sin, we steal people's trust. Because of our sin, we might steal somebody's childhood, we might steal somebody's self-esteem. And so, a lot of times, this idea when we have done wrong and we have taken from somebody because of whatever sin it is in our life. Here's what we're left with.
Guilt. We're left with guilt. And if you you know anything about guilt, guilt can just Just rip your heart in two. I mean guilt is what makes So many people lay on their head or lay on their pillow at night and worry. Like what's gonna happen if what I did today comes to light.
Or, what's going to happen if whatever it is that I know internally that I have done wrong? What happens if people find out? What happens if this gets exposed? And so, what we do is we internally deal with this emotion of guilt. And we just live with it.
Most of the time, and if you're like me, most of the time, the weight... And you'll agree with this: the weight of coming forward with our sin is so heavy. That we would rather bury our sin. Right. And that's some of you that's your go-to.
You sinned, and so what you do is you just bury it and you sweep it under the rug and you just say, hey, listen, this is going to. This is going to deal with it itself, and I'm not going to mess with it. I'm not going to deal with it. Nobody knows. It's not going to hurt anybody, and things like that.
And so we're going to bury it.
Some of us, that's our go-to. For others of us, the weight of coming forward with sin is so great. That instead of burying it, we just excuse it.
Well, my partner was not treating me the way that I wanted, and so therefore, I went out and met a need that I had. And what we a lot of times do is we excuse. Our our guilt. And we excuse it.
So some of us, we bury it.
Some of us, we excuse it. Others of us We just deny it altogether. And we blame and we make other people out to be the problem. And we deny the sin that is overbearing our hearts and controlling our hearts and leading us to a place of guilt. But here's the problem.
When we choose. When we choose to bury When we choose to deny... or when we choose to excuse our sin. What it often does is it empowers Your guilt. Let me say that again.
When we choose to bury our sin. When we choose to excuse our sin or even deny the sin that we have committed, here's what it does, and this is the problem with it. It really empowers the emotion of guilt. And what happens is, the emotion of guilt begins to control your life. It begins to control your heart.
It begins to control your relationships. It begins to control your world around you. And a lot of times, because we have chosen to bury and deny and excuse our sin, it empowers this emotion of guilt to where now guilt. That is undealt with, it leads to anger. Guilt that is undealt with leads to bitterness.
Guilt that is undealt with can ultimately lead. to depression. And so, therefore, as we look at this idea, we can't bury it because we know that's not. That's not what we should do. And living with it, it just rips our heart out.
We can't deny it, and we can't excuse it.
So, what are we as Christ followers supposed to do with, I mean, all of us, we sin, right? All of us sin from time to time, and sin leads us with this emotion of guilt. How are we supposed to handle this? Like, what are we supposed to do with our guilt?
Well, if you would, I want you to turn to a familiar passage of scripture in the Old Testament. Psalms chapter number fifty-one. Psalm chapter number 51. I'm going to give you a little background while you're turning there so that you can understand and feel the weight of emotion that David, the psalmist. Uh wrote Psalm 51.
So, Psalms chapter number 51 is a psalm that was written. After it was exposed. That David had sinned with Bathsheba.
So, if you forgot that story, or perhaps you're newer to church and you can't remember it. I'll give you a little bit of Cliff Note version today.
So basically, David, the king of Israel. The greatest king that Israel had ever seen. outside of God, of course. And David was leading Israel, and the Israelites had gone to. Gone to battle.
And David had stayed back for whatever reason. As a king, it was very common for them to be on the front lines.
so that they could lead by example. But this one instance David decided to stay back and tarry back at home at the palace. And so he sends all the armies, the soldiers of Israel out to battle. David stays back. He sees, because the palace was elevated, he sees a woman, the scripture says, bathing up on the rooftop.
And so he sends a messenger to come and ask her, Hey, you're wanted at the palace. And so they end up sleeping together. After that, she gets pregnant. And so David's now faced with this internal sin, this problem. That he has that a lot of people do not know about.
It will ruin his career, it would ruin his life, it would ruin his reputation, he would lose respect for everybody around him because of his sin. And so what he ends up doing, he's faced with The emotion of guilt because of a sin.
So, what he does is guilt, because his sin was not undealt with, he chose to probably justify it. I'm the king, I can do what I want. He chose to deny it altogether, and because his sin was unconfessed, it spiraled out of control.
So now he brings Uriah, which is Bathsheba's husband, he brings him back home from battle. And he tries to coerce them to be together, to have a night together.
So then when the baby comes, nobody will know what's going on. It'll just assume it's Uriah's and everybody's good, and he gets away with his sin.
Well, that doesn't happen, and so he needs to do something else.
So he ends up sending Uriah. Uriah dies.
So now David, because of his undealt with sin, he's an adulterer, and now he's also complicit in being a murderer. And shortly after all of that, you can imagine the weight of guilt that he was facing, right? That sin that was undealt with, the weight, that overbearing weight on his shoulder of his undealt with sin. That's led him down a path that. He never imagined he would go on.
Then a prophet shows up at his house. Nathan the prophet. He calls him out. And by the way, there's a lesson here for some of you. is this is that every single one of you need accountability in your life.
Every single one of us. And for some of you that don't like accountability, you're playing with fire and you're playing with danger. Because what we need is we need accountability in our life. And David, he was the king. Who's going to hold the king accountable, right?
He's the king. And so, what happens is Nathan shows up. Nathan calls him out on his sin, which we need those types of people in our life. Nathan calls him out on his sin. And now David's sin that he has tried to cover up and tried to hide, tried to excuse, tried to deny is now fully exposed.
in front of the whole nation of Israel. Can you imagine that feeling? Terrible feeling. All respect lost. And everything changes.
And it's in those moments. Where David was Feeling the weight. of what his sin had caused, he pins the words of Psalms chapter number fifty one. He's feeling the weight of guilt. And he pins these words.
Let's read it together. Psalm 51. Verses 1 through 14. And then I'll give you some thoughts about guilt and how we can deal with it from this song. Says this, have mercy upon me, O God.
According to thy loving kindness, According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity. and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee.
Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest. And be clear when thou judgest. Verse 5: Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part. Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop And I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness.
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all of mine iniquities. Verse 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. and uphold me With thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Verse 14. Deliver me.
from blood guiltiness, O God. Thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy. of thy righteousness.
Now, before we get into kind of some thoughts, here's what I want you to understand. Because I know a conversation about guilt is uncomfortable. In fact, you're probably sitting here, and there's a few of you in here that have sin in your life that nobody knows about. And you're afraid, and you're sitting here, and that weight of guilt has already been exposed in your heart. And you're sitting there like, man, you're on edge, you can't sit still, whatever.
You're feeling all of this weight. Like, what if everybody around me found out what I'm involved in or what I'm doing or anything? I'm losing all. Here's what I want you to know: one thing that we can learn from this story is that sin can happen to any of us. Sin can happen to anyone.
I mean, David was considered a man after God's own heart. He was the king of Israel. And here we are, thousands of years later, saying this is the greatest king of Israel. And yet, in the midst of those claims, David was also a murderer. And an adulterer.
And so I want you to know that you are not above sin. And so we are not above this emotion of of guilt. But let's look at this from David's heart here at Psalm 51. Three things that I want you to see. about guilt.
First, we see the depth. of guilt. The depth. of guilt. Depth or guilt is a deep emotion.
It's deep in our heart. He describes the depth of guilt, and you might have been there in three specific ways that I want to show you. Verse 3. He describes this as, my sin is ever before me. When he says, My sin is ever before me, here's literally what happens.
When you have sin in your life that is undealt with and unchecked, and you're just choosing right now to deny it, to excuse it, and that kind of thing, and you're just going on with life and your sin is tearing away. Here's what I'm telling you, and this is true of your life: guilt will haunt you day and night because of it. Until it's dealt with, you're going to feel exactly like what David said. My sin is ever before me. Here's what he's saying: is that I am faced with this every moment of my day.
It pops up, and in my heart, what I have done, it pops up. It is before me, it is there, it surrounds me. Everywhere I turn, I'm reminded of what I have done. That's the depth of Of guilt, but the second thing that he says. Also, about the depth of guilt, he makes this statement in verse seven.
He says, purge me. With hyssop. Hyssop was a plant. Uh that was often used for purification. And so when he says, purge me with hyssop.
He's basically saying. God cleanse me. God make this right. Here's what I'll tell you. Here's what that tells me about the depth of guilt.
When he says, purge me with hyssop, here's what I'm going to tell you. If you have sin in your life that's undealt with, guilt will make you feel dirty. Guilt will make you feel worthless. Guilt. will make you feel hopeless, guilt.
Will make you feel shame. Guilt will make you feel condemnation. Guilt will make you feel all of those feelings, like you're not good enough and you're not worthy of anything. Nobody around you might know about whatever it is that you're involved in, but here's what I'm going to tell you: if it is unchecked and you choose to try to excuse or deny or justify the sin that is in your life, here's what I'm going to tell you. You're going to find that over the course of time of trying to deal with that internally without anybody knowing, what it's going to lead to is you're going to say things like, My sin is ever before me.
It's going to torment you day and night, and you're going to feel. Shame, and you're gonna feel dirty. But number three, about the depth of our guilt, in verse number eight, he makes this statement. The bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Here's what I will tell you.
is that That shows me that David felt This pressure. That sin produces in our life Like a weight. That crushes us. And here's the truth. That's exactly what guilt does.
Undealt with sin produces guilt that presses on us like a weight so heavy. It almost feels like it's gonna break you. It's gonna break you. And that's what David was feeling. That's why we say things like, and maybe you've been there.
You feel this way? You know, guilt is ever before you. Right? It's pressing on you like weight on your back, just breaking and pressing you, and your bones feel like they're just going to be destroyed. It's all around you.
You feel dirty. You feel shame. You feel all of these different emotions. That's why we say things like when we expose our sin and we ask for forgiveness and we confess something that we have done, you might have to still deal with the consequences of it, but here's a lot of times how we describe that feeling: I feel like a weight. has been lifted.
Why do we feel that? Because when it's Not confessed, and we keep it in our heart, what happens is it just continues to press on us. That's what guilt does, that's the depth of guilt. Have you have you been there? With undealt sin in your life, have you been there?
Like, where this is how you felt? Perhaps that's where you're at today. You're like, man, I can't wait to get out of here because I can't stand this because you're feeling the pressure right now. That's my point. That's what is happening, and that's what was happening with David in his heart because of the sin that he had committed that no one else knew about.
He felt the depth of guilt in his life. And so I'm glad it doesn't end there. I'm not going to say, hey, good luck today, you know, and send you on your way. There's a solution for it.
So if this is how we feel because of unchecked sin. There's a solution. He gives us this very simply. The solution to our guilt. or solution for guilt.
is simply two specific things that I'll show you. Number one, very simple.
Okay, this is very simplistic. But we struggle with these things. The first thing you must do, if you feel that weight of guilt and you feel the depth of guilt, you must first acknowledge your sin. You got to acknowledge it. Stop excusing it.
Stop making excuses for whatever it is that you're involved in. Stop denying it. Stop blaming it on somebody. Stop justifying your sin. Don't you hate that when somebody sins and they try to make all these excuses?
Well, this, but this. You know, it's like, stop it. Just admit it. Just admit it that you sin. That's what we must do.
If we're going to experience the solution for guilt, where the weight can be lifted, where this can be taken off of our shoulders. In our life. Here's what we have to do. We have to acknowledge it. You cannot experience true forgiveness if you continue to justify and excuse your sin.
Just can't do it. And here's what we learn: David in this Psalm, he owns it.
Now, I'm not going to lie to you. It took him some time. He took adultery and it led to murder.
So he wasn't like the moment he committed adultery, like confessing it and acknowledging it and stuff. No, he tried to bury it. He tried to hide it. He tried to go down this path. And that's what happens.
Sin, when it's undealt with, it just gets worse and worse and worse. And it leads to more and more brokenness. And that's what he found. And finally, after it was exposed, he finally said, okay, I'm going to stop justifying it. I'm going to stop excusing it.
I'm going to stop hiding it. And I'm going to acknowledge. That I sinned against God. I'm going to own it. And that's what we must do.
If you're going to experience the solution, if you're going to experience that feeling of the weight being lifted, you have to acknowledge it. You can't, you know, say, okay, I sinned but this. No, forget that.
Okay, I sinned, but them. No, forget that.
You know, you sinned. You gotta acknowledge your sin. You gotta own it. The second thing, you must confess it. We must confess it.
What's amazing to me about this is David, he pleads with the Lord over the weight of his sin. He goes to God in this prayer, in this psalm, and he begs God for forgiveness. He begs God for forgiveness. He begs God for cleansing. And he asked God to take the pieces of his broken life.
and put them back together. You see, for some of you That are experiencing the depth of guilt that we described from Psalm 51. You feel that right now, and here's what I'm gonna tell you: you're gonna continue to feel that way, and it's gonna get worse and worse and worse and worse until you're willing to acknowledge your sin and until you're willing to confess your sin. You got to confess it. You got to agree with God about what sin is, and you got to be willing to go to Him.
And ask for forgiveness and cleansing.
Now, I wanna be clear about one thing because I don't know who I'm preaching to, and I don't know what your story is, and I don't know where you're at in your spiritual life. But this is just what I'm gonna tell you because I've experienced this in my own heart. And this is important. For some of us, if we have sinned directly against other people.
Sometimes uh Christians Christ followers like to use, and maybe you're like this, we like to use. Um the forgiveness of God. As like a loophole. And here's what I mean by that. Your confession habit with God can eventually feed your sin.
Say, what in the world are you talking about? Here's what I'm going to tell you. For some of you. You're committing sin against somebody else, against a brother or against a sister. Maybe it's gossip.
Maybe it's, you know, hateful speech about somebody. Maybe you're stabbing people in the back. Maybe it's immoral. Maybe it's something sexual or whatever. Maybe it's all this kind of stuff.
Maybe you're cheating on your spouse. I don't know. But like, here's what I'm going to tell you or whatever. The weight of sin is all over you. And what we do a lot of times is we look to, okay, I can confess privately to God and all's going to be fine.
And then what happens is we start to do that just habitually. It's like, hey, I can go out and live however I want. And then when I lay my head on my pillow at night, I'm just going to confess to God and all's going to be right. I don't have to confess to anybody else. And here's what I'm going to tell you: is sometimes we can have a confession habit.
that can eventually feed our sin habit. And so here's what I want you. I mean, Jesus talks about this. Matthew 5. 23 and 24.
This is such an interesting thing. Here's what he says: this is Jesus. He says, Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee. He goes on in verse 24: says, Leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer the gift.
So picture this. Jesus is saying, you're at church on Sunday morning. You've sinned against somebody. Maybe it's somebody in this room. Maybe it's somebody outside of this room.
Invitation happens. Pastor preaches on sin. Pastor preaches on guilt. And so you're convicted, you feel the weight just like David did. You come down to this altar, you're going to make everything right.
And by the way, I'm not downplaying how we should be right with God.
So, confession with God is definitely a part of it, and that's the first step. But he says this: this is Jesus speaking, so don't get mad at me. He says, if you come down front, And you come to the altar and you offer your gift of remorse, you offer your gift of confession to God. And he says, in the midst of that, in your heart, you feel that you have all with that person or with somebody else in this room. Here's literally what Jesus says.
He says, leave it. Go, make it right with whoever it is. Confess it to them. Reconcile that. And then you're coming back and then you're ready to do this.
But so often, here's what I'll tell you: in Christian experience, here's what most Christians do. I'm just going to confess it to God and I'm good. That's my point. Because here's the thing that you have to learn. is this Part of walking with God.
is making the call. or sending the text. that you don't want to send. I'm just going to tell you, like part of walking with God and being in close relationship with God is literally not just confessing to him, but being willing to confess to one another. And Christians can be terrible at that.
And that's what he's saying. And so, what I mean is this: don't get into a habit to where you're just constantly habitually sinning against one another and against people and against relationships, against your spouse, and different things like that. And you just lay your head on your pillow and say, Okay, I can just confess it all to God. And I'm good. But then I'm going to be in this same cycle tomorrow.
And then when I lay my head on my pillow tomorrow night, I'll just confess it again. No, part of walking with God and part of walking in fellowship and communion with God is also making it right with one another. That's what Jesus is saying. And that's what we must do. And so, if you want the solution to guilt, maybe you feel that depth in your soul, like David described, here's what I'm going to tell you.
You got to acknowledge it. The first step for you today is for you to acknowledge it. That means stop excusing it, stop denying it, stop justifying it. You're acknowledging that you have sinned against somebody. Or you have sinned against whatever, whoever.
You acknowledge it, and then you got to confess it. You say, What does that confession look like? Here's what I'm going to tell you. I'm just telling you what Jesus said. You got to make it right with him.
And then you gotta be willing to make it right with whoever it is that it impacts. You say that's going to be the hardest conversation. Yes. It will be the hardest conversation, but don't miss this. It'll be the f most freeing.
conversation. You say, I can't do this, I'm going to lose respect. You might, but I'll tell you this: there will be a weight lifted off of your shoulders. Just like David. David felt the weight that was lifted off of his shoulders because he confessed.
He put it out in in the open. Number three. We see the depth of our guilt. We see the solution for guilt. Number three, we see the restoration.
Yeah. Guilt. The Restoration. I'm grateful in verse 12. David uses a word.
That is so good for us. Restore. Restore. You know what Christians are really bad about? Restoration.
I think Christians get it right a lot of times, but here's what I'm going to tell you. When Christians watch somebody who has fallen into sin or done something wrong. It's hard for us to know that we serve a God that restores. That is willing to restore a person. And and put them back together.
And you say, what does restoration look like? If I'm in sin today, and if I come and I confess it the way Scripture tells me because the weight is so overbearing and just overpowering my heart, so I'm going to come, I'm going to acknowledge it, I'm going to confess it with God and with somebody else. What does this restoration look like? Pastor, am I going to lose everything? I can't tell you what the repercussions of your sin is going to be.
Different sins have different measures of consequences. But here's what I can tell you. What David says here in his heart He went from verse 8 and verse 12. He moves from guilt over his sin to joy. Isn't that where you want to be?
Don't you want to move from the weight of guilt in your life to joy that is unspeakable? Yeah, every one of us. I mean, you'd be crazy not to admit that's where you want to be. And then in verse 10, he moves from the weight of his guilt. And the dirtiness of his heart.
And the shame and condemnation that he felt. to in verse twelve or verse ten rather He moves that into a clean heart.
So here's what restoration can look like: you can say you can move from the guilt of your sin to joy. You can move from the guilt of your sin and the dirtiness of your sin to a clean heart. And then in verse 14, he uses a word, deliver. He wants deliverance from it.
So, this weight that is pressing in on his bones and that's just surrounding him, and this terrible feeling that he stays up at night just thinking about what if everybody finds out and he's laying there, he says in verse 14, he wants deliverance from that, which I know you do because when you have sin that is undealt with, it leads to guilt, and guilt is like a prison in your heart. And you're tied to it. And you're chained to it. and you're a prisoner to it, and it owns you. It is your master.
And then he uses this word: I need deliverance. I can't possibly live like this any longer. I need freedom. I need deliverance. Here's what I'm telling you.
Guilt. There is freedom. There is freedom. You do not have to live like this.
Now, you might have consequences for your sin because that's just life. And I'm not going to sit here and tell you the minute you come forward and the minute you confess that there's not going to be repercussions, there's not going to be consequences, and there's not going to be accountability.
Sometimes the consequences are heavy, but here's what I want you to understand: the consequences of your sin after it's exposed pale in comparison to the consequences and prison that undealt sin does in your heart. You don't need to stay there.
So there is a restoration. Because here's the good news. When we confess... He restores. When we confess He restores.
And that's true of every single one of us. And I'm thankful. There's a verse. In the New Testament. That I feel like would be a good place to land the plane today.
And here's what the what the verse is. Roman date one, famous first. In the beginning of that verse. says this there is therefore Now no condemnation. Isn't that a good thing?
If you're thankful for that, can you say amen this morning? There's no condemnation. And here's what I want you to understand. For some of you that have undealt sin in your life. You feel the weight of this.
You feel shame? You feel dirty. You feel like this weight is on your shoulders. And what Paul is saying in Romans chapter number eight. There's therefore no condemnation.
Here's what he's suggesting. Don't miss this. He's suggesting that there is a place. There is a place where you're passed. Is neither forgotten.
Nor Condemned. Listen, the minute you confess, you're going to know what you've done. People around you, when you expose your sin, you're going to know it. People around you are going to know it, and things like that. It's there, it's out there.
I wish that there was a place that we could literally forget it from memory and wipe it out altogether, right? But we can't. But here's what Paul's suggesting. There's therefore now no condemnation. Here's what he's saying: there's a place.
where your past is neither forgotten nor condemn. In other words, here's what he's saying: is that when you expose your sin, there is a place where you can embrace it without condemnation. There is a place where you don't have to pretend it didn't happen. You can be fully exposed and you can still. Experience freedom.
There is a place, what Paul's suggesting here, where you don't have to live in secret. What Paul's suggesting is that there is a place. Where we don't have to feel shame. You don't have to feel dirty. You can literally live knowing it happened and be fully.
You know, exposed in front of people. And it does not have to control you any longer. And for some of you, that's the place because you're living in this constant weight of the prison of undealt with sin. And for some of you. You're literally like man, I want that place I need that place.
I want to be fully exposed, but also fully free. Where in the world? Is a place like That. But we got to finish the rest of the verse. There is therefore, verse 1, again, there is therefore now no condemnation.
to them. who are in Christ. You see, the place that you're looking for at the beginning of that verse, the freedom after being fully exposed, the freedom after being shamed and those feelings of dirtiness and all these things, there's a freeing place that you can be where you can be fully exposed and fully loved. All at the same time, you say, where in the world is that at? Because that's what my heart's been searching for.
It's very simply, it is in Christ Jesus.
So the question that you have to ask yourself is: this: Are you in Christ Jesus today? Do you know Jesus as Savior? Because here's what I want you to understand: is that for Christ, what he did for you, you were born into this world. Just like David admitted, he was born into sin. There was nothing he could do about it.
He was born into sin. And there was nothing that he could do to ever make God, you know, love him more or love him less and things like that. And so there was nothing he could do to have a relationship with God. That's true of you. That's true of me.
And so what God did was God said, I want a relationship with that person. Wait, that sinful person? Absolutely. That's the one Jesus loves. And so, what he did was, he sent Jesus Christ to do two things that you could never do.
You say, what was that? He lived the perfect life. You say, why is that important? Why is that necessary? Because we serve a holy God and because we were created from a holy, righteous Father.
The only relationship worthy of a relationship with perfect holiness? is a holy life. And so, what Jesus did, Jesus lived the holy life that you couldn't live for yourself, and then he did this: he died the death. You say, What's significant about that? Here's what he did on the cross.
He took every sin, every sin that you've thought about in this moment, every sin nobody knows, every sin that's been exposed, every sin that we would ever, ever commit, the worst of the worst. What he did was he hung on a cross and he nailed adultery to his hand. He nailed murder to his hand. He nailed our lying spirits to his hand. He nailed our backbiting, gossip, slander to himself.
And he took on every sin that we've ever committed: the sins that we hide, the sins that we deny, the sins we justify, the sins that we excuse. Jesus took every one of them upon himself.
So that we could experience no condemnation. How foolish are we to live in the prison of our sin? When we that are in Christ. can be fully exposed. and know that we are fully.
loved by God in the midst of being exposed. That's the place your heart's looking for. That's the place we want to be. That's the place. That you want to live.
But that place can only be found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you have it. And you already know him? Then I want you to be reminded that he died for the sin that you're hiding. He died for the sin you're justifying, and he died for the sin that you're denying.
So today, I want you to experience freedom. Acknowledge it. Confess it before him, confess it to one another, and realize that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Christ Jesus.
