Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Today is super Sunday, and as a football fan, it’s one of the days each year that stands out.
Ironically, one of the Super Bowls that I most remember was one that I didn’t even get to watch.
It was 2004, and I was working at Winn Dixie in Jacksonville at the time, and I remember it like it was yesterday.
It’s a slow night because everyone fortunate enough to not be running a register at WD is watching the Super Bowl.
So, we’re all kind of leaned up against the registers and talking when these guys come in loud and laughing and talking about the half-time show.
And, you’ll remember that was the time when the phrase “wardrobe malfunction” became a thing because of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s mishap.
In the aftermath, everyone was looking for someone to blame.
Some wondered if it had even been intentional.
And, so everyone’s PR teams went into high gear with Janet Jackson trying to seek forgiveness to save her career, and Justin Timberlake just kind of went silent.
But, when he received a Grammy that year, he took the opportunity to apologize.
And, that’s when he said it: “I’m sorry if you were offended.”
That’s the worst, isn’t it?
Nothing feels more sleezy than a non apology, than some celebrity mindlessly reading a statement that someone else obviously wrote and they obviously don’t mean.
And, nothing hurts worse than when someone we love deeply wounds us and then follows it up with an obviously insincere apology.
God’s Word
This morning, I want us to ask: what’s the difference between true and false repentance?
What’s the difference between a non apology that you have to say and a truly meaningful confession?
You’ll remember that we’re with David at the lowest point in his life.
He’s raped a woman, and she became pregnant.
He tried to coverup with a series of lies that ultimately led to murder.
He was confronted by God himself through his prophet, and now he’s lost his son as a result.
Psalm 51 is powerful because it gives us insight into what David feeling, thinking, and praying during this time.
You can imagine that these words were likely forged in the tears that he prayed at his dying son’s bedside.
And, they help us to see the nature of true repentance (headline) so that we can ensure we aren’t making non apologies to God and to those we wound.
True repentance doesn’t “manipulate.”
David owns his sin.
Psalm 51:1-3 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”
My degree is in public relations, and the major thrust of public relations is maintaining control of your image.
That’s why PR so often gets called spin.
Why do corporations do charity work?
They want their image to be philanthropic, not greedy.
Why do companies have friendly faces with believable voices release bad news statements?
They want to be people that you sympathize with, not a faceless corporation you blame.
And, why did David seek to cover up his sin?
Why do you seek to cover up yours?
You want to control your image.
You want to manipulate the circumstances so that others think more highly of you than they ought.
We all have a tendency to become the PR reps of our own lives.
And, if we’re not careful, repentance can just become a PR stunt.
We’re sorry that we got caught, but now we need to save face, we need to scramble into crisis management to minimize the damage to our image.
So, we say the right things and look the right way and cry the right tears to show adequate remorse so that our image is preserved.
But, of course, this isn’t repentance.
Repentance isn’t PR.
Repentance isn’t damage control.
Repentance is personal ownership of your sin and the destruction that it’s caused.
That’s what we see here in David.
Notice that five times in the first three sentences he uses the phrase “MY sin...” In fact, David uses all three words for sin found in the OT to confess his sin: “transgressions, iniquity, and sin”.
It’s as if he’s saying, I’ve sinned in every way a person can sin.
There’s no blame-shifting.
There’s no playing of the victim card.
There’s no face-saving.
That is, there’s no PR.
It’s just the ownership of what he did.
Are you owning your sin or shifting blame?
You will not find freedom from your sin until you take ownership of your sin.
David sees his sin as it really is.
Psalm 51:3-4 “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”
You’ll remember in his message to Joab after Uriah’s death that David had sought to minimize his sin.
He said, “People die in battle.
What difference does it make if it is Uriah or someone else?”
But now, we see the exact opposite in David.
We see the fruit of repentance.
He’s no longer oblivious to his sin.
“(His) sin is before (him).”
He’s see it in HD.
In other words, he can’t unsee it.
He can’t stop seeing it.
It’s haunting him.
He feels how big it is.
And, that’s what culminates in verse 4 when he says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned.”
Does he mean he hasn’t sinned against Bathsheba or Uriah or his dead son?
No, David is not diminishing his sin; he’s heightening his sin.
He’s not allowing himself to minimize his sin.
This isn’t a mishap or a booboo.
This isn’t a mistake or a bad day.
This is evil done to God, and it deserves hell.
God’s judgement against him is blameless.
That is, David is refusing to make his sin look smaller so that he looks better.
Are you trying to spin your sin so that it doesn’t look and sound so bad? “I may have a problem with my temper, but I get up early and work hard.
Who wouldn’t?”
“I may be drinking a little too much, but I’m not hurting anyone.”
You cannot deal with a sin as seriously as you must until you see your sin as severely as it is.
David understands who he really is.
Psalm 51:5-6 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.”
David’s comes to the ultimate realization, and it’s a devastating one.
When he moved past the spin and past the image PR, he realizes that he did what he did because he is who he is.
He did what he did because of what’s in his heart.
How could he shift the blame?
This is who he’s been since his birth.
That’s the point of verse 5.
He was born a sinner.
The NIV captures the sense well: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”
David wasn’t a good guy who had a bad day.
David is a sinner by nature who showed just how capable of evil he really is.
Satan’s PR teams have been working over time to prove to you how good you are, and it’s so that you won’t realize your need from God.
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