Genuine Confession
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Parashat Bechukotai
A Protestant Minister and a Catholic Priest enjoyed teasing their Rabbi friend, continually asking him when he was going to convert to their faith.
When the Holidays rolled around, the Rabbi sent them a card with the following:
Season's Greetings!
Roses are reddish,
Violets are bluish;
When the Messiah comes,
You'll wish you were Jewish!!"
Ha-Foke Bah Hebrew
Ha-Foke Bah English
Today is our last message in the book of Va’Yiqra “Leviticus.” When I started this series I was so excited about it and I hoped that I could somehow communicate to you that excitement and bring this amazing book to life.
And in the very beginning I made the statement that Leviticus addresses something that almost every person holds in a common, “We all long for the world to be good.” By that, I mean we long for it to be just, to prioritize the right things, to have shalom and security. A world where not only can I be the best version of me possible but I can be accepted as the best version of me even when I am not at my best.
I said repeatedly that in Leviticus grace is a central theme. After the golden calf Moses could not go into the Tent of Meeting but because of the sacrifices of Leviticus he is able to enter in by the time we get to the book of Numbers. We said that Aaron was the golden calf maker and yet God chose him to be Israel’s spiritual leader. We said that in Israel’s daily sacrifices and especially on Yom Kippur he has totally taken away our sins. Throughout this sermon series I have tried to show that there were natural things that happened as a result of grace: prioritized our lives better, loved the outcast more, love our neighbor enough to have a conversation, ending the blame game and so on.
Last week we talked about the Year of Jubilee, I believe God’s greatest challenge and aspiration for Israel. A challenge that when heeded as the effect of restoring the world every seven years and restoring lives at the end of every 49 years. As the commentator Samuel Balentine said, “It is a sabbatical year when the land lies fallow, but no one goes hungry. A jubilee year when all debts are canceled, slaves are set free, and everything lost is returned and restored. The laws in chapter 25 paint a wonderful picture of worship in the service of social justice.” I put forward for you what my greatest wishes are for us as a congregation so that we could put our worship in the service not only of social justice but of the Gospel.
Today, our Torah portion introduces something that is odd. When I was in college, undergraduate and graduate, my writing professors and preaching professors would always tell us that when you are wrapping a paper or sermon you never introduce a new topic, new idea. At the end of your work, you tie everything up, maybe give a great ending story or love poem but don’t introduce a new idea or new topic.
Yet, Moses our writer is not playing by our rules. And, he introduces a topic that is almost counter everything he just taught about sacrificial repentance. You see in the previous chapters all repentance or thanksgiving hinged upon the worshiper putting animals to death either because of sin or because of praise.
Here at the close of Leviticus Moses introduces the concept of confession and repentance apart from the sacrifices.
Such an announcement anchors a unique and innovative approach in Israel’s understanding of the atonement for sin. Forgiveness will be found, God’s favor restored, and relationship restored by confession of sin alone.
Sin-Bucket
Now, when I say confession, it draws ups lots of images depending on your background. If you had a protestant background it is the image of emptying out your sin bucket to the tune of 1 John 1:8-9, if you were Jewish it is emptying out your sin bucket on one long day called Yom Kippur and if you were a criminal it is what you do to mitigate the consequences of your crimes.
Basically it is just emptying out your sin bucket a way of saying, Oh, I feel so terrible! You empty your sin bucket, and God or the courts somehow magically forgets your sin.
I am picking on everyone. Everyone has a system for dealing with sin and offloading it from their guilty conscience. All of this kind of confessional systems is just our attempt to outsmart God.
It is like one of my children who when I asked my child “did you put all your dirty clothes up” that child said of course I did. This child smiled and grinned. Yet, when I walked in this child’s room the dirty clothes were “put up” they were put in piles on the far side of the bed where they did not think I would see them. My child thought he was outsmarting me. Not cool and we had to have a talk.
Trying to outsmart and outmaneuver God is a sin. So if you have some sort of system where you’re treating God like he’s an idiot or kind of a gotcha or you’ve kind of have found the loophole, then you are dishonoring God. Trying to find a loophole in your theology or a loophole with God is a sin. It’s so dishonoring to God.
Our Torah Portion starts with a blessing and a warning: a blessing for a life of holiness and a warning: don’t try to “outsmart God” it brings horrible consequences.
You see, chapter 26 pictures Israel’s propensity for disobedience, trying to outsmart God and God gives a lex talons style warning: blessing for blessing, cursing for cursing. And after the long list of curses, the final section of chapter 26 announces a new and perhaps unexpected word from God. Despite Israel’s propensity for disobedience, and despite the repeated warnings that God will punish, and punish it severely, in ways that seem to erase every possible avenue for escape, God now announces that Israel’s future remains open, not closed, to new possibilities. If Israel confesses its sins (v. 40), allows its heart to be changed (nrsv: “humbled”), and accepts its punishment for violating God’s commands (v. 41), then God will remember both the covenant with the ancestors and the land (v. 42).
In other words, when you stop trying to outmaneuvering God, outsmart God and instead get real about sin in your life, get real about repentance then God will begin the process of restoring the land and also begin to bless you right in that horrible situation you find yourself (land of enemies v. 44).
Now, here is the thing most of us have been taught a very twisted idea. The idea is this: God forgets your sin. Immediately someone will say but that is at the heart of the new covenant. Hebrews 8:12 says, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more.”
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more.”
And what about Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
So how can you say, “God does not forget our sins.” What we have is an error by way of definition. We see the words “I will not remember” and the words “removed our sins” and then we say that equals our word “forget our sins.”
What we mean by “forget” is “total erasure of our sins.” What we mean is that there was writing on the chalkboard and then I said the magic words in the name of Yeshua and and the words were totally completely wiped off the board and water was then taken and the board washed perfectly down so it looked brand new and there were no traces of that word at all on the board.
That is from our definition of “forget” we find in the Merriam Webster Dictionary, “to lose the remembrance of: be unable to think of or recall.”
Yet, that is not what the Hebrew or Greek phrase “there sins I will not remember no more” means.” Just logically follow with me on this one. There once was a king named David. That kind committed a horrible sin with a woman named Bathsheba, then did an even more horrible sin and had her husband Uriah murdered and all of this was written down in something called the BIBLE. Do you suppose that every time we read this story out loud God says to himself, “I don’t remember it happening that way at all.” Or what about Peter’s denial? Paul’s murders?
When the Bible says he will not remember our sins. It does not mean they just magically go out of his mind. God neither learns nor forgets. When he says he will not remember them what it means is “I'll never bring it up and use it against you.”
When I was in Middle School back in pre digital age which mine as well be the stone age I could never remember all the coma rules. There are so many rules about the coma. I would constantly ask my teacher again and again, what is that rule, what does that mean and at a certain point my teacher came to anticipate that when I raised my hand it was about the coma rule but she never said to me, “Michael, that is it. When will you ever get it! I have told you so many times what the rule is a out commas for a sequence versus commas for a list. I will tell you one more time but you better…” See that would have been remembering my past sins and holding them against me in the present. She did not do that, no, Mrs. Allen was as gracious as the day is long.
When the Bible says he will not remember our sins. It means, “I'll never bring it up and use it against you.”
What do you do about passages that says God “disciplines us as children” Heb 12:7, “It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons—for what son does a father not discipline?”
It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons—for what son does a father not discipline?
Here is the thing don’t confuse discipline with punishment and recalling sin. To discipline someone in the Bible is the same as “training” them for righteousness. It is helping you to acquire the tools, skills and resources to do better next time, to get further than before.
Dr. Watson said to his wife Mary after finding out about her spotty past, “Your past is forgiven. Your future is my privilege.” In other words, God is not punishing you for your past, He is training you to have a better future, a future He is privileged and you are privileged to have together.
Or, like Matthew 12:36 “But I tell you that on the Day of Judgment, men will give account for every careless word they speak.”
But I tell you that on the Day of Judgment, men will give account for every careless word they speak.
I know what my wife says, “It says men’s careless words and not women so women can say as many careless words as they want and only men are accountable.” Just joking. Context drives the meaning of this passage. In the context, Yeshua was just told by the Pharisees that he cast out demons by the prince of demons. He then rebukes the Pharisees teaching rooted in unbelief about Yeshua and says, “I tell you that on the Day of Judgment, men will give account for every careless word they speak.” So unless you are a Pharisee who just died believing that Yeshua did my deeds by the Prince of Darkness himself this is not for you.
God does not forget our sins, He forgives our sins.
He does not bring up our past against us and He does plan a better way forward for us.
The reason I why I am spending so much time on this. The reason why I am throwing a wrench into your system is because if you think God just forgets your sins then confession is nothing more than your attempt to out-maneuver God.
Confession is not a way to outmaneuver God or other people.
Just confess before God gets to it and nothing can come from it. This is dangerous. This just you trying to feel good about yourself. This is just about you. This is not genuine confession.
Confession is not a way for you to better about yourself.
Let’s say You don’t feel good about you. You feel like there’s something between You and God. You feel like you did something wrong between you and a someone. You feel bad for what you do. How do you get rid of this guilt? How do you get rid of this bad feeling about _____?
Confession is not primarily about Guilt Relief, though it does help. And for some reason we think confession is all about guilt relief. If we think confession is all about clearing our conscience just wiping the chalkboard clean of words, we will just create a society of highly functional socio-paths and predators.
That is not the good world God envisions. A good world where sin costs something and grace is the payment factor. This kind of a world is dangerous because it is a world where confession is just another way of avoiding the reality of sin, the effects of sin on me, on you, on your family and on the world.
Confession is not admitting something.
Genuine confession is about genuine responsibility.
When you open the Scripture, genuine confession, genuine confession leads to genuine change. That’s what confession was given to us for. God never intended for us to come up with these internal games to try to out maneuver God or that make us feel better about ourselves and we relieve our conscience. It was never intended for that. Religious systems have developed that. We’ve developed that. But genuine confession, genuine confession leads to genuine change.
In fact, if you were to look at all the passages of Scripture in the Bible about confession, get this, most of them have people going to confess to other people, not to God. In fact, there’s so little teaching in the Scripture about confessing our sins to God that when it shows up, we better listen up. And when there is reference of confessing sins to God, it’s always attached to holding ourselves and others accountable to restoring the world, our families and our relationship to the good world God envisioned.
First, it is not a matter of “if” it is a matter of “when” you confess your iniquity.
Lev 26:40 (NET) - However, when they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, by which they also walked in hostility against me.
“But if they confess their iniquity and that of their fathers, in the treachery they committed against Me, and how they walked contrary to Me
The TLV and other translations say “if they confess” their sins. But the Hebrew in this verse lacks what we call the “if” particle “im.” It is better to understand this as a circumstantial statement of fact.
Lev 26:40
However, when they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, by which they also walked in hostility against me
It is like when my mother told me as a child, “Michael when you decide to clean your room then you go outside and play.” There was no “if” you decide there was simply a “When” you decide.
This is an important point because I believe God is always creating moment to help you get to then “When” you decide confess.
(and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for their iniquity,
Notice Lev 27:41 (NET) describes the “when” moment, “…and then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for their iniquity,
In that “when” moment your experiences two thing: humbleness and the desire to make things right. Humbleness is not self-hatred nor is it self-love, it is loving others more than ourselves. It is not thinking less of ourselves but thinking about ourself less and thinking about others more.
When we say something like “God really humbled me what we mean is “God helped me so stop thinking about me so much and to start thinking about you more.” When this happens there is a genuine desire to make up for the wrong that was done. A genuine desire to set things right.
However, when they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, by which they also walked in hostility against me
I want you to notice “when you confess” your iniquity. Iniquity is the Hebrew word עָוֹן (ʿāwōn). When you were a kid or if you have a kid, that is a 100% of you, at some point someone asked you “why” did you do that thing. Not just a statement of fact but something at a deeper level. What was motivating you to do this evil: that is the iniquity.
Statement of Fact: I stole something.
Iniquity is
I stole from you because I hate you.
I stole from you because I envied you.
I stole from you because somebody made me feel unimportant and I thought having this would make me feel important.
Iniquity is not always something ugly, horrible and evil. It can also be something coming from a psychological wound, worry or soul fracture.
Regardless of where it comes from, it is toxic to you, to your world and your future. When God shines the light of His Spirit on your iniquity, that toxic thought, He is doing so to set you free from what has kept you held back.
However, when they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, by which they also walked in hostility against me
Notice it goes on to say “and their ancestors’ iniquity.” This is not at all to suggest the idea of what has been popularly and wrongly called “generational curses.” This is talking about those learned behaviors that we all have because of the influence of our parents. Some were behaviors they were hoping to pass on like the famous Hatfield–McCoy feud. Those folks passed on hate from generation to generation. I know people who had to break out of families that taught them to be racist, atheist and baptist haters.
Other times parents can pass on or project their insecurities, doubts, fears, worries, anxieties to their children. That parent who was shy and bullied growing up will instill in their a child a “be careful on the playground, always watch out for..” They will create a “us vs. them” or predator vs. victim world for their child and turn their child’s world into their old world even though it may be nothing like it.
This cremates an abnormal relationship with God one that is described as walking on the wrong side of the fence “trespassing” and open treason “hostility” against God. At a bare minimum, you are where you should not be and a maximum you have declared all out war on God.
Confession begins by accepting responsibility for the “why” underneath the “what.”
When we offer genuine confession it sets off a sequence of God kind-of-events that brings about real change.
Leviticus 26:42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and also My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
First: The awareness of God’s presence will empower you.
What God remembers, He empowers. When God remembered the Israelites He made his presence known to Moses in a bush set a fire but not burned. This presence of God empowered Moses who had fled from his people as a criminal and hypocrite and now returned as a prophet.
Leviticus 26:43.
But the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its Shabbatot while it lies desolate without them, and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes.
Second, Restoration is the bridge back to God’s blessing.
The land and the people will be restored each in its own way. The land will be restored by its being left alone. It is left untouched, desolate, so that it can return back to its proper use. And the people would be restored by “making up for their iniquity.” They are reversing the tide of that internal toxic way of thinking that drove them to begin with.
This is not an easy process. For the parent that has passed on their fears to their children they are now going to have to confess that and make up for that iniquity. Maybe they stop rehearsing all those us vs. them stories, all those stories about being the victim and maybe they start teaching their kids that the world is not at all bad, people are not all bad and we don’t have to be either victim or perpetrator but we can be friend and hospitable.
This may take some time. Restoration is a process but here is where the third promise comes in.
Maybe more:>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Here>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Leviticus 26:44-45 In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’ ”
“Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I hate them into utter destruction, and break My covenant with them, for I am Adonai their God.
But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am Adonai.”
Third, God will assume full responsibility for your needs in the present and for the future.
Conclusion
A good world is a world where genuine confession leads to genuine change.
A change from being full of me, to thinking much more about you. A change from being controlled by toxic iniquity to being controlled by faith-filled obedience. A change from feeling abandoned to being aided by God’s presence.
A good world is a world where stop trying to out maneuver God, stop trying to use confession as a way to just cleanse our sin bucket while planning to do nothing about it.
After everything I have said today, if you have no plans on making genuine confession would you please be willing to pray honestly, and quit playing this stupid confession game that dishonors God and dishonors you? I want to challenge you to start praying prayers like this:
Dear heavenly Father, I admit I did __________________ and I just want to let you know I’m going to keep doing it. Bless my wife, my children, my job and my vacation. In Yeshua’s name, amen.
You probably think: No, I can’t pray like that. Why not? Chicken? Just pray. Come on, come on, come on, pray real prayers. Be honest with yourself and be honest with God, but please don’t live in the fantasy world of thinking that God’s saying to himself, Well, at least he admitted it. What do you mean at least he admitted it? It’s God. It’s not like God is going, Huh? If you hadn’t told me I wouldn’t know. Admitting things to God is not the same as confessing things to God. God knows before you admit! You deceive yourself, you’re trying to deceive God, and you’re trying to deceive your family or whoever else is involved, so just be honest. Say, Dear heavenly Father, I’m a Believer, I know better, I shouldn’t, I’m sorry I’m doing this. But honestly, God, I’m not sorry enough to quit, and I’m not going to play the confession game anymore. I’m just going to be honest with you. And please watch over my family and give me a safe trip. And then you start asking all this stuff you ask God.
Don’t play a game with God. That dishonors God. And here’s why I tell you to do this, because I’m as serious as I can be. Here’s what I know: If you’ll decide you’re going to take your little confession thing that’s worthless and just say, I’m not going to play that game anymore. I’m at least going to crack my soul open to the light of truth a little bit, just an itty, bitty crack. I’m going to at least start praying some honest prayers: God, I have no intention of ending this relationship; I have no intention of getting out of this business; I have no intention of telling them the truth. I have no intention, but God, and I’m not asking you to forgive me because that’s silly, and I’m not confessing it like I’ll feel better. But at least I want to begin honest dialogue with you, maybe for the first time in a long time. And maybe just your newfound honesty with God would begin to form a crack in your resistance. And maybe, by God’s grace, you’ll get so sick and tired of your duplicity and so sick and tired of the distance you feel from God and sick and tired of the deceit, maybe one day you would be willing to like really confess to somebody where it can make a difference.
But if you are sick and tired of it, confession’s a pretty simple thing.
Dear Heavenly Father, I confess I ___________________ (the what) because ____________________ (the why) and I take responsibility for the what and the why. I ask you to forgive me and my first step is to make things right by talking to __________________ (a who) and doing _______________________________ (a how).
My Dare to You is Context
Confession is in the light.
But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of His Son Yeshua purifies us from all sin.
If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
You just tell God and be willing to ell the person that you’ve hurt. And if it’s a habit that no one knows about, you tell someone that can help you. You tell the person you’ve robbed; you tell the person you’ve injured; you tell the person you’re insensitive to; you tell the person you’re running around on; you tell your teacher; you tell your professor; you tell your boss. You just tell I’m confessing. I told God and God said, That’s awesome; step one. Step two is you’ve got to tell the person you’ve taken from, that you’ve robbed, that you’ve hurt, that you’ve offended. And if there’s not anybody in this box that you’ve robbed or hurt or offended, then you tell someone that you know that can help you with your debilitating habit that you can’t seem to break.
Now let me just say this, there are habits, and there are addictions, and there are sin patterns that you cannot break by just telling God about it. Ask anyone who has been in an addiction recovery group or has sought help from a counselor. And it’s not because there’s something wrong with God, and it’s not because there is something wrong with you. It’s because God put you in a body, and God connected you to people, and God has connected you to relationships. And the people and the advice and the strength that you need is available, but to get it you’ve got to open up to somebody besides God in secret.
There are habits and addictions that have never been broken by simply willpower as people have struggled on their own. The change came, the genuine confession that led to genuine change came when they opened their souls and confessed to some real-life flesh and blood people. I know what the tension is; I don’t live in a fantasy world, either. Do you know what the tension is? It’s our fear of consequences. Look at this. It’s fear of consequences. We fear the consequences of confession more than we fear consequences of concealment. We fear the consequences of confession—what are they going to say, what’s going to happen—more than we fear the consequences of concealment.
Now, let me tell you who fears the consequences of confession more than they fear the consequences of concealment. Let me tell you who those people are. They are the people who have yet to experience the full-blown consequences of concealment, because ultimately the consequences of concealment are far worse than the consequences of confession. You’re going, Oh, you don’t know my wife; you don’t know my mama. You know, when I tell them . . . I’m just telling you—listen, secrets grow, and they get stronger, and they get darker, and they begin to impact all of your relationships, and you carry certain secrets from chapter to chapter, stage to stage of your life. The consequences grow and they grow and they grow. Confession, when you confess, the consequences are immediate and they’re local.
The consequences of concealment stretch out and can stretch out over a lifetime. So, you know what? Genuine Confession, confess—that’s what God says can bring about the good world you really, really want. We are supposed to do this, but not just privately to God—to one another, and to the people that we’ve wounded and that we’ve offended, because at the end of the day, genuine confession leads to genuine change.
Let me ask you this: Have you really, really changed just keeping this sin a secret with you and God? If you have been doing it long enough I know something, you also know. If you have not been doing it for long I know something you don’t really know yet.
You don’t feel freedom. You’re not a different person; you’re just a religious person with secret sin, secret sin that you’ve kind of arranged a little deal with God, and there is no change. After the sin, you feel like a hypocrite and if you manage a few weeks without revisiting that sin you start to feel better until…the cycle starts all over again. And you don’t want this, in fact, you hate this, but that’s what you’ve become because you’re playing the confession game.
What do you need to tell and who do you need tell? What do you need to tell and who do you need to tell? And did you know, if you’re willing and able and ready and decide, you know what, I think I’m going to fear the consequences of concealment more than the consequences of confession, and if you begin to open your box appropriately to the right people, you will see life change like maybe you never thought was possible. Because genuine confession is extraordinarily, extraordinarily powerful. Because Genuine confession is what leads to a good world, a world where we belong, where we can be authentically loved and accepted.
And genuine confession always leads to genuine change.
So, what do you need to tell, and who do you need to tell? And are you ready to put on your big boy pants, have that difficult conversation, but decide, you know what, I’m a follower of Yeshua. Why in the world would I want to live any other way than wide open? And why would I want to forfeit the freedom of having things exposed that make me a better person than living my life in the dark? What do you need to tell and who do you need to tell?