Gospel Liturgy: Guilt
Notes
Transcript
For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. 1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. 7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. 16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. 18 By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.
Intro
How often is our view of the world truly unfiltered? In the age of digital media we live in it’s becoming increasingly rare to get an unfiltered view of anything. When you see family photos of friends or family on social media everyone looks so happy and well-dressed. All the normal stress of life gets left out of the photo. If your parents you know you need 17 photos before you get one good one. If you look at the news these days how many stories are really arriving unfiltered and unbiased? How often do the famous and the powerful present themselves in one way and years later we find they weren’t like that at all. It’s not just people of prominent position though. On a personal note, how often do people ask us, How are you? and we provide the filtered answer, “I’m fine.” There’s a natural persuasion in all of us to want to display the best version of ourselves to the world, the filtered version. What’s at the heart of this persuasion? We want to be accepted don’t we? We want to be liked! We want the praise and adoration of those around us, so we hide the ugly and present the good.
If we recall the story of David for a moment, there’s a lot of ugly in the background! David slept with a woman married to another man, a man who swore his loyalty to David the king. In an attempt to hide the ugly David had this woman’s husband killed so David could have her for himself. David goes to the extraordinarily evil measure, but he’s trying to cover it all up like we are all prone to do. He’s guilty of murder, he’s guilty of adultery, and in order to maintain his image before the people he tries to hide it until he’s approached by the prophet Nathan who shows him his sin. By the grace of God David here’s the words of Nathan the prophet and comes to repent of His sin. It’s in that heart of repentance that David comes to write this extraordinary Psalm - a psalm that not only bears witness to David’s openness before God, but His openness before the people of Israel. David’s not hiding anything from God and he’s not hiding anything from the people. He’s totally forsaken the filter! This isn’t merely a press briefing that acknowledges wrong doing from the head of state. This a song intended for the people of Israel to sing time and again. Why would David totally abandon the preservation of his public appearance and acceptance like that?
He recognizes that his acceptance will never be found in how people view him, and his preservation will never be found in hiding. Only in God can acceptance and preservation be found, and so he invites the people to join Him in confession of their guilt that they too might find that acceptance and preservation in God even at the expense of their public image.
We need not hide our sins from God. He stands ready to cleanse us of our sin and restore our hearts that we might worship Him with pleasing sacrifices.
We need not hide our sins from God. He stands ready to cleanse us of our sin and restore our hearts that we might worship Him with pleasing sacrifices.
Acknowledgement of sin to God
Ask for cleansing from God
Address the heart before God
Ambition to worship God.
Acknowledgement of sin to God. (vs. 1-4)
Acknowledgement of sin to God. (vs. 1-4)
Last week we spoke about how important it is for us to see God for who He is as we are coming before Him to worship. We should strive to see Him in all His glory and mercy and grace as we come to worship. The Psalmist is inviting the congregation to see God with the very first verse in order to worship, but it’s in a posture of confession. The foundation of all of David’s confession is who God is. His invitation to the congregation of Israel to confess and sing is rooted in who he knows God to be.
1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
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Notice David is not asking God to cease being what He is that He might be spared. If God were a little less just, a little less holy, or a little less perfect then maybe I’ll be spared. David knows that he is not spared by making God more like us.
Furthermore, he doesn’t seek to ascend to God saying, “Look at all this good which I have done aside from the wrongdoing as I come before You” David knows that he is not spared by trying to make himself more like God.
I want to pause and recognize just how unnatural David’s posture is to our human condition. What is our natural predisposition when we recognize we’re guilty - we’ve failed to meet the standard. How do we try to bridge the gap between us and the standard?
Sometimes we hide, like Adam and Eve in an attempt to avoid the gap altogether.
Sometimes we try to lower the standard so the gap isn’t as big as it really is.
Other times we try to raise ourselves by our own merits to bridge the gap appealing to the rest of our good deeds.
When David comes before God he knows who God is, He knows the standard of God, and he knows he’s guilty. God is glorious and I am not that. What is David’s hope for bridging the gap between Himself and the glory of God?
God Himself! The grace, lovingkindness, and compassion of God! David is calling upon God to be Himself. Isn’t that good news for us!? God does not need to change for us to come before Him with all of our sins. We need not ascend to Him, He need not become less than He is, and we need to hide from Him. We can come before Him just as He is “according to His lovingkindness; according to the greatness of His compassion”, and so we come before Him just as we are in our transgression. That is our hope!
In that assurance of hope we can freely acknowledge our sins before Him.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.
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In four verses David mentions his sin before God seven times, and uses four different words to describe it. (my transgression, my iniquity, my sin, and evil) He’s not mincing words or trying to put a nice finish on something ugly. David knows he’s committed murder and that is evil. David knows he’s committed adultery and that is heinous sin and a transgression against Holy God. He brings it all into the light before God and before the entire nation of Israel. He knows what he deserves! If God so chooses he would be justified to judge David in his sin, and David acknowledges even that before God.
“You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge.”
David appeals to the lovingkindness and mercy of God , yet God does not cease to be the God of all justice. He does not cease to be the one who judges the wicked in their evil. When David states that it’s against You and You only have I sinned, he’s acknowledging that God is the only one who sets the standard and judges by that standard. As much as he has sinned against Bathsheba, he’s sinned against Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband who he had killed, they have not set the standard of the law of god. They do not judge him at the end of the day.
That goes for us today as well. When we sin against our spouse, or our children, or our parents, or a coworker we sin against God! He is the one who determines what is right and wrong. He is the judge. We may have reconciled with our spouse, or our children, or our parents, or our neighbor, but as much as they may not hold that sin against us we have still sinned against God. We must be reconciled to God!
There’s a natural disposition in ourselves to want to right the wrongs we’ve committed. We want to be accepted by those around us, so we’ll do whatever it takes to regain our right standing in our relationships. Maybe we work a little harder the next week to make up for our mistakes or wrongs. Maybe there’s a well phrased note or email that can smooth things over. Increasingly now our culture is giving us means and methods to remove our guilt and be accepted. Do a little more here or there. Say these words. Give money to these things. Our natural disposition and the world around us is training us to ask, “What can I do?” when we see our own guilt.
What does Scripture teach us to do with our guilt? What does David do with his guilt? He is not asking, “What can I do?” He looks to God, the judge of all, acknowledging he would be right to judge me in my sin, yet I know he is merciful and compassionate. He puts the burden of His guilt in the hands of God and asks, “blot out my transgressions”, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”
Acknowledging our sin before God is not a work of bringing our sin into the open so we can do something about it. It’s bringing our sin and guilt into the open before God so He can do something about it.
When we gather together for worship on Sunday, and we sing with a posture of confession. When we pray together as we did this morning in a prayer of confession, we come humbly, looking to God to be merciful. We look to God to be compassionate with us. We look to Christ to bear the burden of our guilt which we bring into the light, and when we put our sins in the hands of our merciful God then we will know His grace.
We’ve just sang this morning:
“But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace.”-
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We can acknowledge our sins before God, because Christ has dealt with our sin. We can even sing about it! He is merciful and He is ready and willing to cleanse us from our sin.
Ask for cleansing from God. (vs. 5-9)
Ask for cleansing from God. (vs. 5-9)
David has acknowledge his sin and his guilt has been brought into the light, and David continues to seek the Lord’s cleansing.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. 7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities.
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As David shows us, seeking the cleansing which God provides begins with honesty about ourselves. We’ve acknowledged our sin before God, but David goes one step further before continuing his plea before God. As awful and wretched are the sins which David has committed in having Uriah killed and committing adultery with Bathsheba, his need for cleansing goes back to his conception. What’s David trying to say here? Simply put, sin is more than an action against the law of God; It’s a condition that plagues us from the very beginning. We are all sons and daughters of Adam and His original sin and therein we are under condemnation.
Our own confession states it this way,
(Adam) transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original holiness and righteousness. As a consequence, the guilt of his sin was imputed to all his posterity, they are under condemnation, and inherit a nature corrupt and wholly opposed to God and His law, from which proceed all actual transgressions.
David recognizes the truth about himself. As treacherous and evil as his sin with Bathsheba was it was only the fruit of an unclean condition. Whether or not we have committed the heinous crimes of David we all stand in a state of uncleanness and sin apart from Christ.
3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
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Our very nature apart from Christ is to walk in sin and await the wrath of God. So when we come before God to cleanse us, it is good for us to address the deeds of sin which we have committed but we must also come before Him with our very nature as sinners. Up until this point, David has been asking the LORD to wash him from his iniquity, to cleanse him from his sin, to blot out his transgression: a good and right request for us to bring before God, but now he’s laid aside his transgression aside for just a moment to look at himself.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
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David’s need goes beyond the most recent deeds of evil as awful as they are. He himself, the whole person needs to be washed clean because his very nature is corrupted, and yet as deep as this sin condition goes and as great as his sin has been in murder and adultery he knows there is hope. Because we come before God with our sins, the Creator and Lord of all, merciful and kind, we have hope that we will be made whiter than snow. The cleansing is absolute! It’s as if no evil deed has ever been done. Only God Himself in the perfection of His cleansing can give us such a hope, and because of this hope David continues with a striking contrast of verses.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities.
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Because God can make us clean, totally clean - whiter than snow we can pray for restoration! A restoration that would allow us to rejoice in gladness again. Even after the Lord has broken us we can come to a restoration in which we will rejoice. This is only possible if our record can be truly wiped clean and our sin condition can be fully addressed.
In all of the world’s means of addressing sin and guilt which can promise and provide a cleansing such as this? What of our own efforts can cover our guilt like God can? There is no cleansing that the world thinks it can provide that is as absolute and final as the cleansing which God provides.
As Christians we have the comfort of what Christ has accomplished knowing we are made new and the justice of God has been satisfied.
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
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As new creatures we no longer bear the burden of the curse of sin. Our old selves with it’s worldly lusts has been put death, and we’ve been made new, washed clean from the inside, because through faith we are now in Christ.
And because we are in Christ we can rest knowing that our sins have been paid for.
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
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Our record of sin has been wiped clean because it’s been given to Christ and He has paid for it in His death on the cross. God in his justice will not judge again a sin which has already been paid for.
There is nothing this world can offer that can address our guilt, much less our sin nature. Only Christ can do both!
Whatever sin may be in your past this morning, In Christ we can be made new. In Christ our sins can be paid for such that our record is clean. In Christ we can hope and pray for joy again even after such wretchedness and sin.. because He is merciful, gracious and compassionate!
Keep in mind this is not a one time occurrence. David has written this down as a song that it would be sung again and again. As Christians we know that we have been accepted in Christ. We know our sins have been forgiven. We know that His record of righteousness is ours through faith, and yet we know we still do battle with sin. As long as we are in this life, we will be confessing sin. That’s just the truth of it. Jesus washed his disciples feet saying,
10 Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”
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We can say as Christians, “We have been made clean in Christ!” We are new creations! And at the same time we must admit, I need the Lord to wash my feet. I continue to sin though I am made clean. It’s with the assurance of His forgiveness that we confess our sins. It’s the confession of a son or a daughter knowing they will not be cast out yet knowing their guilt should be brought into the light, acknowledged and forgiven by the mercy of the Father.
Knowing this is part of our Christian walk, Christians have been including confession into their worship services for hundreds of years. The very reason we gather together is because we are redeemed sons and daughters of God, and yet we confess our sins together before God knowing we still do battle with sin. We even sing about it as Israel did knowing, we are always in need of God’s forgiveness even as redeemed saints.
In the assurance of His cleansing we can look ahead to our restoration, a restoration of the heart.
Address the heart before God. (vs. 10-13)
Address the heart before God. (vs. 10-13)
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.
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I think we can all recognize the difference between life and fruitfulness.
Right now in our back yard we have an apple tree that I had to remove a dead limb from not too long ago. If you go look at it, most of the leaves are green, It’s alive, there are even a few apples on it, but it’s a pretty sorry looking apple tree. It’s already starting to lose it’s leaves. It lacks every measure of fruitfulness you want from an apple tree. At some point in the next year I might just cut it down because it’s not even nice to look at it. There’s a giant limb missing, the leaves are yellowing in the middle of the summer. It’s alive, but it’s not vibrant or fruitful.
By contrast we also have a pear tree in the back yard, and it is the definition of fruitful. It has a great uniform shape. It’s tall without a single dead branch on it. It’s green, and I’m not sure what we’re going to do with all the pears.
There’s a big difference between life and fruitfulness.
When David comes before God with his sin, he’s not just looking for life, or survival, He’s looking for spiritual fruitfulness - A vibrancy that is seated in the heart and bears fruit in years to come.
He begins by asking the Lord again for a clean heart, but then asks the LORD
to renew a steadfast spirit with him.
He asks for the continued presence of the Holy Spirit in HIs life.
He seeks the Lord for joy.
All this so that he can teach sinners of the ways of God.
Sin is not only a matter of life or death, it’s a matter of fruitfulness and fruitlessness; vibrancy and stagnation.
David identifies three areas of vibrancy which sin threatens.
Our steadfastness or our readiness
Our abiding with God
And our joy.
We can be alive as Christians, washed clean by the blood of Christ and yet
Be unstable and vulnerable due to sin.
Our abiding with Christ and the Spirit can suffer due to sin.
We can suffer from fruitlessness and a lack of joy due to sin.
We don’t confess our sins as Christians so that we can be saved again. That work is done and God will bring it to an end. We confess our sins before God time and again for the sake of our spiritual walk that we may continue to abide with Christ and be fruitful as sons and daughters! We’re seeking the restoration of our hearts and the intimacy we enjoy with Christ!
To continue on with sin hidden in the dark is to actively undermine the glorious gifts which God has given us!
We deprive ourselves of the abundant life which God has intended for us, a life of comfort in the Spirit, joy in the work of Christ, and steadfastness in the face of suffering and trial.
Before going any further we need to pause and realize the equation doesn’t work the other way. In the presence of unconfessed sin we can expect a lack of joy and comfort and stability in our faith walk, but just because we lack joy or comfort or stability doesn’t mean there’s some sin hidden somewhere we don’t know about. We won’t give much time to them this morning, but the brokenness of the world, the brokenness of our bodies, and the work of the devil outside of the work of our hearts all work against our spiritual fruitfulness. Sin isn’t the only thing which hinders our spiritual fruitfulness, but it’s the one we should certainly take most seriously! David is doing just that for the sake of his own walk, but that of others as well!
Notice the conclusion to this prayer for restoration.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.
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The restoration that comes with the confession of sin and the cleansing of God does not merely reap benefits to the individual (David in this case) it brings benefit to everyone around him.
In the restoration of His own heart to fruitfulness he prays for the restoration of others as well! He wants to be effective toward the advancement of the kingdom. He sees that the very same sin condition and rampant immorality that has plagued him, plagues those around him as well. He’s no longer seeking his own gain in selfish ambition as he did with Bathsheba. Now he sees the plight of humanity and says, Father restore my heart, make me steadfast, grant me the presence of your Spirit and joy that I may be instrumental in saving others.
It’s the only natural thought if you think about it. What does a survivor of a shipwreck do once he’s made into the lifeboat? He looks for others who may be drowning! To stop and enjoy the blessings of the lifeboat while others drown is simply an unthinkable picture to us. By the grace of God, David has found the lifeboat of forgiveness and he’s immediately looking to who else may be drowning in sin. David’s understanding of confession has more corporate implications than we might naturally think.
I think it’s good for us to consider, who stands to benefit from my fruitfulness. What neighbor or coworker whose drowning in their sin apart from Christ needs me and the fruitfulness which God has granted me in Christ? Who of my fellow church members - a fellow member of the body - depends on my fruitfulness and my gifts? When my brother or sister is weak can they lean on me because I stand steadfast in the forgiveness of Christ. Which of my brothers or sisters battles with sickness and needs a fellow church member to love them with the joy of the Lord this week? When our children and younger believers look at our lives will they find someone who walks in the comfort of the Spirit as we abide with Christ?
Confessing sin is has corporate implications and since the time of David the people of God have been confessing their sins together corporately even in song. We do well to confess our sins before God in our quiet time, but there’s a reminder to us when we confess together in song and in prayer on Sunday morning. We’re reminded that we’re a part of the body. We’re reminded that our sin affects the body and at the same time God’s mercy for me is a blessing to my brother or sister in the row in front of me.
When we seek the restoration of our hearts before God in confession we seek the good of the church. We love one another that much more, when we bring our hearts before God in confession and seek the fruitfulness He provides in the Spirit.
And when we enjoy that renewal together - when we step into fruitfulness having confessed our sins to God, we are all the more equipped to worship together.
Ambition to worship God. (vs. 14-19)
Ambition to worship God. (vs. 14-19)
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. 16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. 18 By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.
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Confession isn’t just a matter of personal benefit, though it is that!
Confession isn’t just a matter of corporate benefit, though it is that!
Confession brings glory to God! It’s a matter of our worship.
David links the two explicitly. He comes back to his basic plea of confession. “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.”
Last week we talked a bit about how our satisfaction with God brings glory to Him. When we express our satisfaction with God from the heart in song we glorify Him in our worship. David is coming back to that very idea, yet in the context of confession knowing his sin has kept him from joy and satisfaction in God. In his desire to return to worship, he pleads with God for deliverance from guilt that he might once again rejoice in the righteousness of God in song - a corporate song in which all the saints express their joy and satisfaction in God because we’ve been delivered from the power and penalty of sin!
David continues to emphasize this heart of worship contrasting it with the mere external sacrifices and worship which the LORD is not pleased with.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
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There’s great news here for us as Christians! When we recognize there’s sin in our lives - when we know we’ve done evil in the eyes of God we don’t need to come up with a worthy sacrifice to come to God in worship. We don’t need to reform ourselves before we come to God in worship. The Psalmist calls the whole congregation of Israel to simply come broken! You don’t have to have it all together. In fact we shouldn’t have it all together because then we’re often just fooling ourselves. There’s no point in putting on a facade of personal sacrifice or external worship before God. Come broken before Him to be healed. Come honestly having seen the glory of God admitting, I am not that! I have fallen short of His glory. The rest of the world might look on such brokenness and reject it altogether, but God does not function by the wisdom of the world. The Creator of all can work with broken. The Creator of all can redeem the broken. It’s the whitewashed sepulchers he can’t work with. When we come to Him broken to worship, then we are welcome. It’s then that our tears can be turned to rejoicing because of the extraordinary mercy of God who washes us white as snow. By the sufficiency of the blood of Christ who paid the price for our sin can our brokenness be turned to joy. Then our lips will declare the praise of the Lord with the help of the Spirit and Lord will delight in it!
18 By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.
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David concludes by showing the congregation a view of themselves in a very tangible way. He reminds them, you are a broken people, and when you come to him broken, He will favor you and you will be rebuilt. Once again the Lord will delight in the external sacrifices and offerings because they’re the fruit of a broken heart which has received mercy.
It’s a bit of a humbling reminder to us that concludes the Psalm.
To some degree will still do battle with sin. To some degree we are a broken people in daily and weekly need of the mercy of God, and yet the wonderful news is that when we come to Him broken and humble, he promises to restore us - to build us up that the whole of our worship would delight Him.
We have the incredible privilege as broken sinful people to delight the Creator of all the universe in what we do in the gathering on Sunday morning! Have you ever thought about that? What we do here brings delight to Maker of heaven and earth! Let’s not neglect that extraordinary privilege! Let’s not neglect the work of bringing our hearts before Him when we worship hearts that are broken if necessary so that we might truly delight in our glorious and gracious God.
At the end of the day confession
is the pursuit of our own fruitfulness in Christ
the pursuit of the fruitfulness of our brother and sister
and the pursuit of the glory and delight of God in us.
Let’s not hesitate to come before our God in confession - Our God who stands ready to cleanse and restore the broken hearted.
Let’s Pray
