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The Confession of Christmas | Psalm 51 · Saint City Chapel

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Well, good morning St. City, how we doing today?
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Well, if I don't know you, my name is Brandon.
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I get to serve on the teaching team here at the church and also
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get a service one of our pastors.
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And so thankful to be with you in this Christmas season and
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celebrating Jesus arrival to planet earth in the form of a
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baby. And we are just so grateful for
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each and every Sunday that we gather.
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We're just a, you know, baby church plant here in Tempe.
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We've only been around for a few months, but we are excited about
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what God is doing in and through our people.
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And we just want to invite you to join in on that as much as
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you can. That His word is what we believe
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in. It's what we trust to keep
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sanctifying and changing us from the inside out to be more and
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more like His Son. And so I want to invite you to
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turn your Bibles to Psalm chapter 51, as we're going to be
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today, Psalm chapter 51. We are in this series called the
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Mothers of Jesus, looking at the women in the genealogy in
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Matthew where there are five women listed, 5 mothers of Jesus
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who are unique in each and every one of them.
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Presents for us an inside look at who God is and how he loves
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people and why Jesus came on Christmas for people like Tamar,
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people like the mother. We're going to learn about
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Bathsheba here in Psalm 51. She was 22 years old and she was
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in love. She was in love with a man that
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shouldn't have been hers to love.
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And then the shame came. The national public humiliation
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followed and in the 90s we met a young woman named Monica
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Lewinsky. Years later she would film a Ted
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talk, one of the most viewed Ted talks of all time. 14 million
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views later, we would get a behind the curtain view into the
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price of shame that Monica Lewinsky paid.
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In a gut wrenching confession, she says in that Ted Talk that
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she felt like she lost her reputation and her dignity.
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I lost everything. And I was deeply, deeply ashamed
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at the very worst version of myself.
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And that's what shame will do. Now, shame is complex.
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It's layered. It's not just what we've done.
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It's what sometimes we experience.
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It's sometimes what we carry from how we were made.
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But today I want to talk to you about this.
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The shame that comes from our sinful choices.
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The shame that gets you to a painful belief that not only did
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you do something wrong and are guilty, but that something is
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wrong with you and nobody could ever love you or ever accept
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you. That you'd be rejected by people
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because you're stuck in rehearsing the situation, frozen
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in a self-assessment That you are defined by the worst version
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of yourself. You are left guilty and ashamed.
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Now imagine for a moment how good it would be if you could
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stand before a holy God without blemish, without that situation,
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without that version of yourself coming to mind.
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That God could not only see you, not only be near to you, but you
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would feel the joy of being without a stain, without shame
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altogether, and that God could love you despite the worst
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version of you. The problem is that many of us
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don't actually realize this is a benefit of following Jesus
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Christ. This is the power of the gospel.
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Because we've let an unnamed enemy until now, shame, crush
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our relationships and distort our relationship with God.
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We feel unclean with God, therefore we feel unclean with
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people, and therefore we hide ourselves.
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But you have to name an enemy in order to fight it.
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And today I want to help you lay aside the spiritual weight of
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shame to crush this enemy that in the story of Bathsheba that
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we're looking at today, AKA known as the wife of Uriah in
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the genealogy, that she is a woman who is sinned against by
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King David. In the story in the Bible, in
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Second Samuel 11 and 12 depicting what happened, there
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isn't really all much about her. And so I think what we can
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discover together, what we can learn together in this Old
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Testament passage about Christmas, about Jesus, is
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something profound about our shame and the nature of it.
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We're going to be in Psalm chapter 51, Psalm chapter 51.
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And here's what the Bible says. Have mercy on me, O God,
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according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant
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mercy. Blot out my transgressions.
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Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my
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sin, for I know my transgressions, and my sin is
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ever before me against you. You only have I sinned and done
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what is evil in your sight, so you may be justified in your
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words and blameless in your judgement against me.
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Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my
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mother conceive me. But behold, you delight in truth
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in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret
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heart. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
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be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
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than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness.
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Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
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Hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquities.
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Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit
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within me. Cast me not away from Your
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presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
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Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.
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Uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors
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your ways, and sinners will return to You.
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Deliver me from blood guiltiness, oh God, oh God, of
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my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of Your
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righteousness. Oh Lord, open my lips and my
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mouth will declare Your praise, for You will not delight in
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sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a
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burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a
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broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.
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O God, you will not despise. These are God's words for us
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today and I want to help you connect the dots on how what
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they mean for your life and what they mean regarding Christmas.
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I'm calling this message the Confession of Christmas, the
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confession of Christmas, that when Jesus came to planet earth,
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he was teaching us something about himself and about his
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family that he came to save, people like us that he came to
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save. And the confession of Christmas
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teaches us this big idea right here in Psalm 51, the story of
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David and Bathsheba, that the confession of Christmas doesn't
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bring perfection, it brings peace.
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That it's not, it's not just that Jesus came to planet earth
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that you believed he came, but you're believing something about
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why he came. You're assigning A significance
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to his arrival on planet earth. And you're confessing, you're
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agreeing with God about something that it is not your
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perfection that gets you in relationship with God, but it's
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with God how he brought peace through the world, was his
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arrival, and his Son, Jesus Christ.
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There's a lot of talk around Christmas time about being on
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the naughty or nice list. My kids are obsessed with all
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the Christmas movies, so we're just watching them all the time.
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You know, the Santa Claus, elf, all these things, right?
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And I think when you're growing up around a Santa Claus culture
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like we are, that there's a misconception about what it
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looks like to be a good person or a bad person.
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That to be on the nice list or the naughty list.
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That many of us are convinced that the way to clear our guilt,
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to clear our shame from the Ledger with God, to get on the
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nice list is by doing more good deeds.
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That more perfection in our life, more obedience is what
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makes God love us more and like us more.
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But make friends. Don't listen to the world,
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listen to God. That the way to be spiritually
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clean is not by stacking up more good deeds, it's by surrendering
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to the Savior and confessing and agreeing with Him.
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That is how you erase your guilt and shame.
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Because shame can die and peace can live in your relationship
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with God and with man. And here's what the Bible's
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going to teach us through these confessions of Psalm 51.
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There are going to be 3 confessions that are going to
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kill the shame in your life. So shame.
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Write it like this. Shame dies.
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And I confess first that what I've done is sinful.
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Shame dies when I confess that what I've done is sinful.
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Look back at the text with me. Psalm 51 at the headline of your
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Bible will say this to the choir master, a Psalm of David when
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Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to
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Bathsheba. So this is David's confession to
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what happened. This is David's inside.
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Look at his heart about what's going on after the mess of
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Second Samuel 11, because what David did is sinful.
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Look at Second Samuel with me 11 one through 5.
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I just want to read it for you. So you know what happened with
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him and Bathsheba that in the spring of the year, the time
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when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab.
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So verse one's telling us David's not where he's supposed
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to be. He's supposed to be out in
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battle. He's out at his house with his
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servants beside him, and all Israel and the armies, they're
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ravaging their enemy, the Ammonites.
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They besiege them. And David's remaining at
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Jerusalem. And verse 2, it happened late
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one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking
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on the roof of the house that he saw from the roof a woman
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bathing. And the woman was very
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beautiful. So what did David do?
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He didn't just see somebody beautiful.
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Next verse verse three, he sent and inquired about the woman and
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one of his messengers said that is this not Bathsheba, the wife
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of Uriah, the daughter of Elium? So David sent messengers and
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took her. He sent and he took after he saw
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which in the Bible is always code for that's the Sinner when
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he saw something and he took it, just like Eve saw the apple and
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took it just like last week we saw Judah saw and took Tamar.
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David saw Bathsheba, he took her, a woman who was not his
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wife, and she came to him and he lay with her.
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Then she returned her house and the woman conceived and she sent
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and told David, I am pregnant. David commits 3 sins right there
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in those three 5 verses 3 sins. He breaks three of the 10
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commandments. First, he covets a woman that is
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not his wife. That's one of the 10 commands
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you shall not covet that is not his wife.
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He sees her, he covets her, and then what does he do?
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He commits adultery with her. David is married, she is
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married. He commits adultery with her and
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to cover that sin, to cover his shame of committing that sin,
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David goes crazy. He finds out she's pregnant.
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And then the next 10 verses we find out here's how I'm going to
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solve that problem. I'm going to kill not, I'm not
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only going to kill her first, I'm going to try to get her
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husband to sleep with her so that it looks like it's his
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baby. So he gets the guy home and he's
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like, hey, let me get you drunk and let me you sleep with your
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wife. And then then it won't look like
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I got her pregnant. It'll look like you got her
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pregnant. And that doesn't work because
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Uriah has more character than David.
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And then eventually David's left with no option in his mind but
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to murder Uriah Bathsheba's husband.
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And in his shame, it drove him to make more sinful choices
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after more sinful choices after more sinful choices.
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And then we get to Psalm 51, and David is telling us what he's
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thinking. God, have mercy on me.
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Verse one, have mercy on me according to your covenant
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steadfast love, according to who you are, according to the God
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you introduced yourself as to us.
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Have mercy on me. Don't give me what I do deserve.
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Withhold your judgement upon me is what mercy is saying.
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It's miraculous. And David is pleading with God
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in verse one, according to your steadfast love, according to
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your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
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Give me a cosmic white out over my sins.
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Blot it out. Wash me from my iniquity because
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I feel dirty and unclean. Cleanse me from my sin.
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What David did is sinful. He saw a woman who wasn't his
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wife. He committed adultery with her,
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and then he committed murder. And in verse 4, David said
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something very interesting in the midst of his sin.
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Against you, Lord, and you only have I sinned.
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That's interesting because he definitely sinned against
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Bathsheba. He definitely sinned against
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Uriah. Would you agree?
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Yes. But what David is highlighting
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for us that in the moment of your repentance, in the moment
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of your confession, the person most egregiously sinned against
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is not the person you see on planet earth.
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It is the God. You cannot see that the first
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thing to get right in the midst of your shame is not getting
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right with others. But you have to get right with
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God because he's the person most violated by your sin against
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you, and you only have I sinned. David is right sizing his sin
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before a holy and big God, and we must do the same.
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He's confessing the deepest reality that every sin is first
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rebellion against God himself. Now you might be thinking to
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yourself right now like, OK, so David is obviously sinful.
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I've heard about King David in the Bible.
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I maybe have not read this story in a long time or this chapter,
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and I didn't realize just how bad he was.
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I ain't as bad as that guy, right?
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Maybe you're not putting yourself in the same category as
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David, but listen to me. Sin is not something that's a
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lot is needed to contaminate the whole thing.
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If I this is going to be graphic intentionally so brace yourself.
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If you were to have a soda and somebody would leave a drop of
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urine inside of it, is that whole thing contaminated?
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Would you drink it? If you say yes, leave.
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OK, like it's it's not a lot needed to contaminate the whole
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thing. Sin is the same way.
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Sin is the exact same way that it actually breaks the entire
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thing. It contaminates the whole being.
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That one sin makes you eternally sinful, eternally worthy of
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judgement before a holy God. Once it's unclean, it is forever
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unclean. But listen to me.
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That is why Jesus came, because there is no hope of you cleaning
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yourself up. Perfection is not the answer for
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peace. Perfection is not the way for
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God to be in relationship with you.
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You won't be able to do that. That's not your way of through
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it and there isn't. It happened in your life like
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David, a sin that you've committed, a pattern that you go
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back to, a struggle that you keep falling into.
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That you might not have committed adultery, but you
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might have lusted after somebody in your heart.
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You might not have committed murder, but you might have
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committed character assassination with your words.
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That that's the nature of sin. It goes beyond just what we do
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on the external, that it goes so deep internally in our life, in
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our heart, that we need a miraculous solution.
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We need a real savior. Otherwise, how the heck are we
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going to have peace with God? How are we going to be free from
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shame? How are we going to get that sin
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out of our cup? I think we do a few things to
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try to get around with our sin other than turning to Jesus.
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One thing we try to do is we try to hide our sin.
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We don't let others see it or we try to hide it from God.
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And this is a self protection. We make it look like we have it
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all together, like we've got it figured out, like we don't even
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really sin that much. That's self protection.
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We try to wash it ourselves. That's self righteousness.
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David tells God wash me, but we try to wash ourselves with doing
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more good deeds, stacking them up, saying God look at me, I'm
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doing a lot of good things. Or we try to cancel it
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ourselves, which is self justification.
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We rationalize it saying it wasn't that bad or that's just
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the way that I am. That's just how I respond to
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stressful situations. We hide it, we wash it or we
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cancel it. But there is a better way, and
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it's to fall on God's mercy and confess it.
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That we confess our sin as sinful.
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That this verses one through 4 are not just about having an
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affair or committing murder. This is about sins of the heart,
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your selfishness, your pride, your greed.
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That you need to be this broken over your sin.
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Shame dies when I confess that what I've done is sinful, But
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not only that second point. Sin dies when I confess that
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what I've done is not only sinful, but shameful.
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Sin dies when I confess that what I've done is shameful.
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Shame ruins relationships. It ruins our reputation.
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That's why we want to hide. Like in the Garden of Eden when
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they first sinned, they were naked and unafraid before they
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sinned. And then the first thing they do
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is they try to cover themselves in their shame because they want
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to hide from God their sinfulness.
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It disrupts your sense of being clean and pure and righteous,
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that when you commit sin, that's what happens.
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And David gets a right sense of the shamefulness of his sin.
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And first, second Samuel 11, the end of the chapter, it says that
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the thing David had done had displeased the Lord.
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Yes, your sin is sinful, but it is also shameful that one of the
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consequences, one of the consequences of sin is the
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experience of shame that you're intended.
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Actually that when you read when sin happens in your life, that
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that's one of the things that breaks, that's one of the things
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that fractures is that you feel shame because of sin you did,
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which was shameful. And so David comes to a
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theological conclusion in verse 5.
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He said, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did
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my mother conceive me. David has a conclusion here
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that's helpful for us, is going to teach us about the nature of
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being a human being. It is this that you are not a
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Sinner because you sinned, but rather you sin because you're a
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Sinner, that you were born in iniquity.
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The thing that made you a Sinner was not because you did the
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sinful thing. You are a Sinner.
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That's why you did the sinful thing.
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That means new behavior isn't going to fix it.
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Your shame probably doesn't get fixed by doing more good things,
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by being more perfect. Peace won't come to your life
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through that way. You need a new heart.
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You need a new mind. You need to be brought from
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death to life, reborn. That's why if David says in
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verse 6, Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and
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you teach me wisdom in the secret heart, then he goes
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through a list of things about asking God to clean him from his
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shamefulness. He says, purge me in verse 7 and
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I shall be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than
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snow. Let the bones you have broken
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rejoice. Let God, would you hide your
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face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
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This is the man confessing the shameful nature of the things he
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has done. And I'm sure David, like many of
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you, that when he was taking advantage of Bathsheba, he was
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not considering how guilty, how dirty and how broken he was
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going to feel from his actions. That's not what was on his mind,
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but it was the outcome of his sin.
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And that's what sin will do. It'll sound good at the moment
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to lash out in anger. It'll sound good at the moment
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to look at that thing on your phone you shouldn't be looking
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at. It'll sound good to type that
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comment on social media That'll make you feel better because you
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once again, you're just getting angry at somebody and you dunked
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on them. You felt self-righteous in it.
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It'll feel good in the moment. But in the end, here's what sin
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does. It steals your joy, it kills
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your peace, and it destroys your life.
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Sin wants to take you out and take you down, and God wants
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shame from that sin to die in your life.
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He just wants you to live trapped in that prison cell.
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Now you might be asking yourself if, if God wants me to feel free
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from shame, why should I look at my sin then as shameful?
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Because there's a difference between conviction and
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condemnation. There's a difference between
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conviction and condemnation. Conviction is having a sense of
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guilt before holy God for what you've done, and it brings
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freedom. Condemnation is having a sense
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of guilt for who you are. Condemnation goes hand in hand
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with shame because if you're in Christ, you keep going back to
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the old you, not the fact in reality of Romans 81, that
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therefore there is now no condemnation for those of us in
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Christ Jesus, that Jesus paid for your shame.
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And so the believer is not meant to live under condemnation.
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You are free from that. You're free from shame.
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And conviction is actually the moment where you actually look
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at your sin and realize that it's sinful and shameful what
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you did before. Holy God, that's different.
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Conviction is the violent sweetness of God.
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It cuts to your heart and it makes sure that sin doesn't lie
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comfortably in your life and you have to have a gross view of
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sin. You have to think it's terrible,
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like it's urine in the cup terrible for you.
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Conviction is the difference. Excuse me, conviction and and
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condemnation is the difference between an athlete getting to a
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post game interview and he goes, hey, I made a bad play versus
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I'm an embarrassment. Conviction.
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I did a bad thing, I made a bad play.
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Condemnation. I'm an embarrassment
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internalizing it. And the believer is not meant to
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be there. We are meant to be free from
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that because apart from grace, condemnation is where all the
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world sits under judgement, under wrath, needing God's
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mercy, needing to be free from our shame and guilt.
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But condemnation is the prison cell of unforgiveness in your
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life. God does not want you to live
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there in unforgiveness. It is the result of it.
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And here's what I know because I've been there, that that it
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happened one day phrase. You haven't.
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It happened one day phrase in your mind and in your heart.
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And it'll hide in a comment like this that you'll say, man, I
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just can't forgive myself for that.
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I just can't forgive myself for that.
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That you know what you did is sinful.
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You know what you did is shameful.
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That's not actually something you need to agree with or
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confess. But freedom.
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Listen to me, person saying that freedom isn't on the other side
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of you forgiving yourself. Freedom, peace is on the other
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side of God forgiving you. That you need to receive the
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forgiveness of God. He needs to wash.
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He needs to purge. He needs to blot out your
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iniquity. That is not your responsibility.
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Your responsibility is to confess that Lord, what I've
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done is shameful and sinful and I'm in desperate need of your
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grace and your love and your forgiveness.
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That is the cleansing you need. That's why in verse 7 he says
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purge me with hyssop. Now hyssop is a word I would
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assume you're not very familiar with unless you like trees.
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I don't like trees. Hyssop was what was used in the
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Bible by priests for purity rituals.
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OK, and this was Dave. It's a little branch that they
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would use to wipe blood. Interestingly, in Exodus, it one
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of the greatest miracles in all the Bible at the Passover in
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Exodus chapter 12, that they, the Israelites, actually used
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hyssop to take the blood of the lamb and to spread it across the
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doorpost of their house. That that's what hyssop was used
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for. So when David's saying that he's
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saying hey Lord, Passover my sins.
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Hey Lord, look past my sins, purge me with hyssop.
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Clean me like you would in a priestly ritual not realizing
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David is at this point in time. He's not realizing he is
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foreshadowing something incredibly true of the Bible.
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That the same instrument of protection in Psalm 51 hyssop is
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the people need. An exodus was the blood stained
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branch of a lamb. I bet you can already see it
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that Jesus is actually the true hyssop that you need, the true
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cleansing that you need. That the confession of Christmas
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is not that you have perfect and that you can clean up your own
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life, but rather you need Jesus's blood to cover your life
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so that you would be forgiven, so that your iniquities be
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blotted out, so that God would hide His face from your sins.
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You would be stuck in sin, stuck in shame if not for Jesus
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Christ. He is the only hope for anyone
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on planet earth for their sins to be taken care of.
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That's it. This is how The Dirty are made
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clean. How the ashamed become
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unashamed. It's Jesus Christ, the true
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hyssop. Because shame will tell you that
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you need to hide from God because you feel dirty, you feel
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gross, you feel ugly, and guilt will tell you that you did
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something wrong. Shame will say because I did
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wrong, I am unlovable. Condemnation will say there's no
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way back, but listen to me. Conviction says this, I did
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wrong, yes, I am guilty, yes, but there's only one way to
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peace, only one way to God, only one way to be washed as white as
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snow. It's Jesus.
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It's Jesus. And it is hard to imagine that
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when God looks at me, that's what he sees, because I'm deeply
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aware I am not as white as snow. But that's the confession of
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Christmas. That's what Jesus does in his
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mercy and his love. He cleans us from the inside
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out. He purges us.
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And that's just a great thing about the Bible that it doesn't
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actually sanitize its heroes like King David.
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That's not the story God's interested in writing.
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Like, if I were writing a story, I'd probably elevate David a
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bit, probably hide some of this story, you know, make sure my
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hero looks more like a hero instead of an antihero.
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But this is King David, the man after God's own heart.
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This is King David, the one who slayed Goliath, who spared his
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greatest enemy's life, the one who's the primary author of the
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book. We're reading Psalms right now.
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That's him. This is Israel's best king, and
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he still falls short of Jesus by a lot.
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That's the story of the Bible. There's no earthly achievement
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that you can do to get to God. But God came to you because you
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needed him to. You needed Jesus to save you.
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You. He is the hero you were looking
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for, the hyssop that you need to clean your soul.
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Because like you, like I, David needed cleaning.
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He's a Sinner in need of freedom from his shame, from King Jesus.
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He looked forward to him in faith.
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We look back to Jesus in faith. Saint City, the Gospel frees you
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from the prison, from the chains of having to be perfect.
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That's what confessing that your sin is shameful does.
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You are not perfect. Even the week past you committed
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sinful and shameful acts. But let me announce to you once
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and for all that Jesus is the perfection your heart needs and
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your soul longs for. Would you let him adopt you?
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Would you let him cover you with his forgiveness?
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You need not live a perfect life, but you can't live a life
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with a peaceful conscience, even from your worst decisions, that
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the step of a life free of shame is admittance and confession.
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That you are a Sinner who has done a shameful thing and in
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desperate need of a good and merciful God.
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Shame dies the moment you confess that no achievement you
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can hang your hat on, no other righteousness to claim just
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Jesus. So confess that it happened to
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God. As shameful that's a true
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confession is, it's naming and owning your sin to God.
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Name it as sin, own it as your sin and avoid the temptation to
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blame shift. Avoid the temptation to sanitize
30:38
it. Name your sin, Own your sin,
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Lord. It was shameful and sinful when
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I sought pleasure and sexual intimacy outside of my marriage.
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That was me, Lord. It was sinful and shameful when
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I pridefully judged my coworkers.
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That was me and I own that, Lord.
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It was sinful and shameful when I went throughout my day being
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prayerless. I own that.
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That was sin and it has to break your heart because it killed
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your Christ. That's what sin did.
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It put Him on the cross to die for and it was the grace and
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mercy of Jesus that held him there to cover a multitude of
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sins. He has cast them as far as the
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east is from the West. And when you realize that, and
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you draw close to God instead of running from Him in your shame,
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you can marvel at the mystery that the shamefuls can stand
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unashamed before God. So shame doesn't have to have
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the last word in the story. Yes, what you did is sinful.
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Yes, what you did is shameful. But what else do we confess?
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We don't just have to confess our sin.
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We have to confess the truth, which is this, the Third Point.
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Shame dies. And I confess that what I need
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is God's mercy. That's what you need most in
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your life. I thought I needed most of the
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Bears to beat the Packers, and it was great last night.
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It was awesome. Hear me out.
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And it was a good Saturday. But what I need is the new mercy
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of God each morning. That's never ending, that never
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ceases, that never stops. God's mercy is what you need
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most. David had every reason to be
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stuck in an eternal cycle of shame, of guilt and regret,
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every reason to feel unacceptable before God.
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But mercy is what frames his whole confession.
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Look back at verse one. Have mercy on me, O God,
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according to your abundant mercy.
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That means God's got a mercy spending account that never runs
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dry. That as much mercy as you need.
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He's got plenty of it and then some.
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That's why in verse 14 David can say deliver me God from my blood
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guiltiness before you. I am guilty.
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What I did was sinful was shameful, but God, you're the
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one who saves and I'm going to single out of your
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righteousness. I'm going to open my lips and my
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mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in
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sacrifice or I would give it. Think about David's a king.
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There's a lot of money he doesn't have in this moment, no
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amount of cattle he couldn't kill off for a sacrifice.
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But he realizes something. It's not a sacrifice that you're
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looking for, God. You're not going to be pleased
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with the burnt offering, the sacrifice that you're looking
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for. In the moment of my repentance,
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God, in the moment of my confession, in the moment that
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I'm trapped in my shame, trying to be free and trying to want
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peace for my life instead of this debilitating, crushing
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memory of what I've done. What does he call out to that?
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The sacrifices of God are broken spirit and a broken, contrite
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heart. Oh God, you will not despise.
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Mercy is not getting what you do deserve.
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David does deserve judgement. What he did was terrible and
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shame would say that David is unacceptable because of who he
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is or what he has done. Make him not want to go to God
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right now, make him want to hide.
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But mercy who God is says because of Jesus I am not who I
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am or what I've done, but rather I am in Christ and because of
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him I can run to God. I think of the Apostle Peter,
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one of Jesus best friends who denied him, denied him after
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spending years with him, that he was on a beach. 1 morning Jesus
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was on a beach and Peter's out in the water and he sees his
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resurrected friend Jesus, and he runs to him, runs to him.
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And Jesus, after the moment of Peter's worst mistake where he
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was running from Christ at the end of the Gospel of John, he
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runs to him and Jesus receives him with open arms and some fish
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tacos. That's who Jesus is, is my
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point. Shame would want you to run away
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from him. Shame would want you to stop
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going to Jesus, thinking that it would ruin the relationship
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forever. But Jesus is not fragile.
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He doesn't reject you, He welcomes you and says in your
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confession, your repentance come to me, all who are weary, all
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who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
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Mercy is shocking to us because we feel like we have to earn it,
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that we have to earn it, which is why many of us feel stuck in
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our shame. We feel like we have to earn it
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and that we don't deserve it. But you know what?
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Like if God would just let us try harder, we could get to a
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spot where we feel like we're worthy of His mercy and His
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grace in our life. But some of us are stuck there
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because we've never repented of why we're unashamed to begin
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with. You see, many of you are living
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ashamed in your life right now, not because you've sinned
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against God in an action that you committed, but rather in
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your heart you've lost favor with your false God, human
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approval. Here's what I mean.
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Some of you here, you're living in shame because you are living
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for the God of human approval. And that heaven for you is not
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about being with God, it's about being raved about.
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And hell is people disapproving of you and that on the altar of
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your worship of approval, you're the one who gets sacrificed
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because something has to get sacrificed for a God.
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So you put yourself on the altar.
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And what leaves you ashamed is that you keep coming up short.
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You can't get enough people to like you.
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You can't, you can't go about your life and everybody worship
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you. You don't even really want the
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worship. You just want to be liked and
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loved and seen. And so you feel ashamed because
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you feel rejected by people. You don't feel approved by them.
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And here's how you can know this is you, that when the first
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time, when you sin, here's the first thought that goes through
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your head is what are people going to think about me?
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This is how you know you're not, you're not in a place where your
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conviction is going towards God, but it's going towards people
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that you're caring less about getting right with God and
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caring more about what others think of you.
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Listen to me, friends, The first thing that you have to do in
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confessing and the first truth that you need to know is that
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you need God's mercy and the sinful shameful thing.
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You confess that to God and you care about getting right with
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God, and God takes care of your relationships.
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He takes care of your reputation.
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He takes care of the rejection you thought you would receive
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from others. You don't need it because you've
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been approved by God because of what Christ has done for you.
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That is the best place to live on planet earth, which is God's
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unending mercy. It is not a hotel that He
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visits. It's a home that He lives in.
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God's mercy doesn't visit our deepest shame and our guilt and
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regret and just pass through like a hotel.
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That's not how Jesus does it with mercy.
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But it's the home that we live in with Him that every time you
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go to Jesus, guess what? He has mercy upon your shame,
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mercy upon your sin. Mercy had Him running toward us
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when we would run away. It means our haunting shame is
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not a problem for Him, but it's the very thing he loves most to
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work with. Our sins cause his love to surge
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toward us, not away. That's why in verse 10, the
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title of the chapter in your Bible says this.
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Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit
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within me. David realizes that mercy isn't
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just him needing a second chance.
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It's not him needing God to fix his behavior.
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What David needs is a new clean heart.
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You need God to breathe on your life.
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That's Christianity. And that's what Jesus died to
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give. A righteousness that outweighs
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every mistake you've ever made. And sin won't taste bitter.
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It won't be awful until Jesus tastes better.
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And mercy is what Jesus gives as a gift.
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So how are we going to receive God's mercy?
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It's as easy as ABC. I'm not an elementary school
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teacher, I promise you, but I'm wanting to make it memorable for
40:15
you. How do you receive God's mercy
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for your life? God's mercy rushes toward us
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first when we admit our brokenness.
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How do you receive God's mercy? You admit your brokenness.
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You look at your life and you realize just how fractured it's
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become because of your sinful choices.
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And you say I am a Sinner, broken and ashamed, in need of
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rescue. God, I admit my brokenness.
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Second, God's mercy rushes toward us when we believe in his
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Son, that we look at Jesus as our true hyssop.
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Who is going to purge us? Who's going to clean us?
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Who's going to give us righteousness when we couldn't
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have it ourselves? Admit, believe in Jesus Christ,
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believe in his bloody cross, his empty tomb, the occupied throne
41:02
he sits on and say that is the only hope for my brokenness.
41:05
The only hope of rescue from my shame is Jesus Christ.
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And that will bring in my life peace, A conscience that is
41:13
clear, a reputation that is clean.
41:16
Why? Because of a Christ has done for
41:19
you on a cross. And finally, when we confess
41:28
that mercy isn't a one time moment in your life where you
41:32
turn from your sin and you get saved.
41:34
That's not it. Mercy is non-stop.
41:39
You need God's mercy just as much today as the day when you
41:42
got saved. So go to him, confess and
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confess and confess, because God draws near to the broken
41:50
hearted. He wants your broken heart over
41:54
your sin. He wants your contrite spirit,
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that this is the one to whom God looks, the one who is humble and
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contrite in spirit, the one who trembles at his word, says
42:07
Isaiah. So don't leave today stuck
42:12
chasing perfection when peace is ready and promised for you.
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That the biblical opposite to shame in the culture, that it
42:21
was written in honor, but in our soul.
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You know what the opposite of shame is?
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It's peace. It's right relationship with God
42:31
and right relationship with people.
42:34
It's a clear conscience because the guilty stain has been
42:37
removed from your life. I can say that one of my
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greatest battles in the faith has been walking through the
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shame of my past. That when I'm in worship over
42:51
there, the thing that's hardest to find joy in is when I look
42:56
back and I see all the sinful things I've done, all the sinful
43:00
comments I've made, all the selfish choices I've done, all
43:05
the stain of my sin. All I sense at times is my
43:08
dirtiness before a holy God. But the thing that gives me joy,
43:12
the thing that pulls worship out of me, is that I have a Christ
43:16
who washed me clean. I have a Christ who took away my
43:20
shame, who paid for it with his blood.
43:23
That I have a Savior who I look to the founder and perfector of
43:26
my faith, who for the joy set before Him, went to the cross
43:31
for my sake, despising the shame, so that I may have life
43:35
with Him. And I can lay aside every single
43:38
weight that entangles so close to me and keeps me from running
43:42
as hard as I can after Jesus. And in those moments, there's a
43:46
song that always comes to mind for me because I just can't
43:48
believe this is how God sees me. Would you listen to the words
43:51
that all my days I've been wearing, the mistakes I've made,
44:02
like a coat I could have thrown away.
44:04
I should have brought it to you. And so, God, show me what you
44:11
see when you look at me. Show me what is real more than
44:16
what I feel. Because I have stains, it's
44:19
true. But when your light shines
44:21
through, oh God, we all look like stained glass windows to
44:25
you. No more stains, no more chains,
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no more shame. That's what the mercy of Jesus
44:37
does. The confession of Christmas
44:40
doesn't bring perfection, it brings peace.
44:44
Would you pray with me, Lord? Thank you for the grace and
44:48
mercy of God that washes us clean, that purges us, that
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blots out the sin that we know is there, that is sinful and
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shameful, but we have a Savior who's bigger than it.
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Oh God, will we not try this Christmas to be more perfect, to
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be more righteous, but rather God, will we look to Jesus
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Christ, the one who is perfect, the one who had mercy, the one
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who loved us to set us free from our sin and shame?
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And God, would you set us free from the prison of it?
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That is not intended to be a place where we live.
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God, that you paid for that with your life.
45:29
And so, Lord, would we not run from you, but we run to you in
45:32
our sin, that when we fall, when we fail, when we do the thing
45:40
that we wish we had never done, we run to you instead of a way.
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Jesus, we love you, we worship you now.
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Amen.