Week 1: Confession

INTRODUCTION

Week 1: Confession today, we are starting a new series called “Dealing with Sin.” As you can guess from the title, in this series, we are talking about how we, as Christians, can deal with the sin in our lives. As we get going into this series, let me tell you about something that happened to me when I was younger.

[Speaker Note: Start with your own illustration about picking at scabs when you were younger, or you can talk about the concept in general, or of how you didn’t let an injury heal.]

Tell the story about falling at elephant rocks … if you ask nicely after the service, I might show it to you) and a pretty deep cut.

One of the bad habits I had back then was picking at my scabs. I know it’s gross, but don’t act like you have never done it. So instead of letting this cut heal and putting anti-bacterial cream on it, I would just pick at it and make it worse. Eventually, the wound would reopen, and it would just start bleeding again. It took forever to heal because I didn’t just deal with the cut like I should have. I didn’t take the necessary measures in dealing with the wound and allowing it to heal.

In the same way, we as Christians sometimes fail to deal with the sin in our lives. Instead of taking the necessary steps to deal with sin, we allow it to remain in our lives, and it continues to reopen and bleed and mess with us. Before we go any further, let me remind you of this: sin is serious, so we should take sin seriously in our lives. As Christians, we must deal with the sin in our lives.

Before we can dive into the tools that God has given us to deal with sin, we need to answer two basic questions.

First, what is sin? One of the best definitions I have ever read of sin is this: “Any act, attitude, or disposition that fails to completely fulfill or measure up to the standards of God’s righteousness.” God has a standard and a way we should live, act, and think. When we fail to live up to that standard, it is called sin. Sin is when we do something God tells us not to do or when we don’t do something God tells us to do. We are all guilty of this.

Second, do Christians still sin? The answer is obviously a big fat YES! There isn’t a Christian on this planet who can say they never sin. But here is the tension that we face as Christians: if you are a Christian, that means you have realized you’re a sinner, turned to Jesus, and He has forgiven your sins, past, present, and future. But even though this is true, Christians still struggle with sin. Until we go to heaven and spend eternity with Jesus, we will struggle with sin. We will disobey God, we will mess up. But as Christians, we know our sins are forgiven, and we can get back up.

We see this clearly in the life of one of the greatest Christians who ever lived, and that was the apostle Paul. Paul was a guy God saved and did amazing things with. In Romans 7:15-20, Paul says:

Romans 7:15–20 NIV

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

But as we struggle with sin, God wants to help us. He doesn’t want us to handle sin on our own. He wants to give us what we need to deal with the sin in our lives. So He has given us various tools to use. According to the Bible, the three main tools that God has given us to help us deal with sin are confession, repentance, and war. Tonight, we are going to talk about the first tool: confession.

So, what does the Bible say about confession?

The Bible says a lot about confessing sin, but the one verse I want us to look at is 1 John 1:9. Let’s look at this verse together:

1 John 1:9 NIV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

This verse tells us that if we confess our sins to God, He will forgive us. One thing you have to be careful with when understanding this verse is to remember to whom John is writing. He is writing to Christians and people who have already had all their sins (past, present, and future) forgiven because of what Jesus did for them on the cross.

If that’s true, then why is John telling them to confess their sins so God can forgive them? Hasn’t that already happened? Let me try to explain what John is saying here. When Christians sin, our relationship with God isn’t broken or ended. The Bible says that once we become Christians, we are placed into God’s hands and nothing can take us away from Him. Not even our own sins. All of our sins have been paid for and forgiven in Christ.

So when Christians sin, their relationship with God isn’t messed up—but what is messed up is their fellowship with God. So, there isn’t a relationship issue that needs to be fixed when Christians sin; it’s a fellowship issue that needs to be fixed. There is something between you and God that makes your relationship feel less intimate and disconnected. The relationship is still there, but you’re not experiencing healthy fellowship with God.

Let’s say you disobey your parents and break one of their rules. They set your curfew to 11:00 p.m., and they told you that you can’t go to a certain friend’s house because that friend is a negative influence on you. So they set clear rules: “Be home by 11:00 p.m. and don’t go to that person’s house.” You disobey, and you come home from that person’s house at midnight. You walk in and your parents are sitting there waiting for you. You disobeyed them and broke their rules. Even though you did that, you are still their child. They’re not going to sever their relationship with you because you disobeyed them.

Yes, they are disappointed in you, but your relationship with them is still intact. However, what is going to be messed up between you and them—until you apologize and own up to your disobedience—is your fellowship with them. You’re not going to have a great family dinner after that. You’re not going to pull out a board game and enjoy some time as a family as if nothing ever happened. Until you apologize and deal with the issue, it’s going to be awkward, and the fellowship between you and your parents is not going to be all that great.

That’s how it works when Christians sin. God is still our heavenly Father, and our relationship with Him is always secure, no matter what. Our sin isn’t going to end our relationship with God. However, when we sin, our fellowship with God is messed up, and until we come to God and practice confession like we see in 1 John 1:9, it will feel like there is a distance between us and God. And until we confess our sin and deal with it, our walk with God is not going to be where it needs to be. It isn’t going to be healthy. It isn’t going to grow.

The Bible tells us that we need to confess our sins to God, and that confession restores our fellowship with Him. But what exactly does confession look like? What exactly does confessing your sin to God look like?

Confession is not just telling or informing God that you sinned, but agreeing with Him and acknowledging to Him that you have sinned. In 1 John 1:9, when it says, “Confess our sins,” it means “to say the same thing about sin that God does.”

So when you go to God to confess your sin to Him, you’re not going to tell and inform Him that you sinned. He is God and already knows you sinned. In fact, He knew you would sin before you actually sinned. What confession is, then, is agreeing with God that what you did was sinful. It means going to God and saying exactly what He says about your sin. You agree with Him that you sinned and messed up. You acknowledge that what you did was sinful.

So let me show you how confession should work. Let’s say you committed a sin by lying. So, you might go to God and say, “God, I’m sorry I lied. I know you say that lying is a sin, and I realize and acknowledge that what I did was sinful.”

That’s it. You see what happened there? You agreed with God that lying, what you did, was sinful, and you acknowledged it as such. That is a confession. It’s not informing God that you sinned, but agreeing with Him that what you did was sin and acknowledging it as such.

I want to share two practical tips that can help you when it comes to dealing with your sin through confession.

1. Confess quickly. Don’t wait to confess sin. When you sin and mess up, take a few moments right then to confess it to God. Remember that when you sin and don’t confess, it means you don’t have fellowship with God, and your walk with Him is hindered and unhealthy. Don’t let that happen. Quickly confess your sin so your fellowship with God can be quickly restored.

Many people have a bad habit of waiting until nighttime, or at one time, to confess all their sins for that day. Don’t waste hours or even days walking in broken fellowship with God when you don’t have to. When you sin, quickly confess and keep following Jesus.

2. Boast in Jesus. Many times when Christians sin and go to God in confession, they view it as this depressing thing that they have to do. But when you step back and see confession for what it really is, you see that it is an amazing gift from God to help you stay in fellowship with Him, as well as a chance for you to boast in Jesus. I always end my confession time by reminding myself and proclaiming in prayer that Jesus has paid for my sin, and even though I blew it, I can freely confess it to God and claim forgiveness because Jesus died for me and my sin. I can confess and move on, because Jesus has already taken care of my sin. I get to confess and be right with God.

CONCLUSION

Let’s look one more time at 1 John 1:9 [Speaker Note: Read back through the verse again.] God has graciously given us this tool of confession so that we can enjoy fellowship with Him and have a healthy relationship with Him. This is one of the major ways we can deal with sin in our lives. I want to encourage you to use this tool.