All right, well, good morning. Welcome to Church of the Grove. My name is Jonah Faulkner. I'm the student pastor here for a Walnut Grove campus and just want to say welcome. If you were here last week, Nathan said that Russ was going to be back this week. He's not. He is here. He's in the building, but it's still me. So that is our way of getting you to come back for one more week. And we want you here next week to hear Pastor Russ. But uh this summer we have been traveling through the life of King David. Um and again, last week we took a little bit of a break. We heard from some missionaries, Bobby and Nan, that we partner with. If you weren't here, would love for you to go back and listen to our conversation with them. But two weeks ago, uh we began talking about one of David's most infamous stories, and it was his sin with Bathsheba. Um and if you aren't familiar with the story, I'm gonna catch you up real quick because it really is kind of a two-parter, and this is part two. So a couple weeks ago, we talked about how David uh at this point in his life in his life was the king of Israel. He's enjoying immense popularity, he's enjoying success that the Lord has brought under his rule, and David begins to allow comfort to become kind of the his main focus. And as a result, when all the kings should have been going out to battle, we see David stay back in Jerusalem. He's not living on mission, and he kind of starts to let his guard down. And then one night he strolls on his rooftop and he sees this woman named Bathsheba bathing. Um, and not only does he see her, but instead of turning away, he calls for her to come to him. He sleeps with her, and she becomes pregnant. And even in the midst of this, David still doesn't confess his sin, but instead he continues to cover it up. He continues to try and hide it, so much to the point that he goes as far as killing Bathsheba's husband on the battlefield. And so a couple weeks ago, we really did kind of leave off with a really bleak picture, a really bleak scene. We saw the reality through David's life that sin will keep you longer than you want to stay. Um, it will cost you more than you're willing to pay and take you further than you want to go. And we saw this scene that the man after God's own heart has fallen and he has fallen greatly. And we're gonna see in a little bit that there had to come a moment in David's life where he looked back over everything that's happened and he just started asking himself, what have I done? How did I end up in this exact spot that I'm in? And if we're being honest, this moment, out of all the stories that we've talked about so far, this moment in David's life where he's probably at rock bottom is probably the most relatable to us. Um and typically, you know, we try to begin a sermon or lesson with some story or or illustration that just helps us connect with the Lord's word a little easier. But I feel like as I've been preparing this, the the Lord just kind of reminded me that I don't really have to come up with some elaborate example, some elaborate illustration for you to connect with the story of David, because again, if we're honest, we've all been exactly where David has found himself in this moment. Maybe looking back, seeing our sin, and asking ourselves, what in the world have I done? How did I end up in this spot? Because again, the reality is every single one of us have fallen. Um, every single one of us have fallen short, and the Lord has kind of laid it heavy on my heart that there's people in this room that are thinking to themselves that I have blown it. I've blown it. There is no way that God could possibly forgive me for the things that I have done. I have fallen short, and there is no possibility. There is no way back to the person of Jesus or a relationship with God. And if that is you in the room, um, then I want to say one that I'm really glad you're here. Um, because at Church of Grove, we serve a King Jesus that says he came to this world to seek and save the lost. Um, and if you are in this room feeling like you have blown it, and there's no possible way that the God of creation could love you anymore or have any plans for your life at this point, I promise you he does. And we're excited that you're here. The Lord has you here for a reason. But I also want to say that what determines your story isn't whether you fall. It's not whether you mess up, but instead it's how you respond when you do, and how you respond when the Lord confronts you and convicts you for your sin. And when we're caught in our sin, we have this decision to make. We can continue to run away from the Lord, or we can repent and we can turn towards the Lord. We can can we can continue to cover and hide, or we can confess and repent. And what we're gonna see this morning is that David, when the truth finally caught up to him and his his sin was brought to light, and there was no more hiding, no more running, he said three things that changed everything. And he just says, I have sinned. I have sinned. So our big idea this morning is that repentance restores what sin destroys. Repentance restores what sin destroys. So I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna hop right in to this story of David. Father, we are grateful uh to just be gathered in your presence this morning. Um, God, and we confess um that we have fallen and we have fallen mightily, we have fallen short of your glory. And if falling disqualified us from your grace, if it disqualified us from being your people, then this room would be empty. And if by some chance there was anyone in this room, then they would be staring at a blank LED screen behind me because there's no way I would be here either. God, we have fallen and we have fallen mightily, but praise be to God for the person of Jesus. Thank you for the gospel. And I pray this morning as we read through this story of David being confronted for his sin and repenting, God, that it would open our eyes up to maybe areas we need to repent, we need to confess. Would we be a people who don't hide and continue to cover our sin, but we lay ourselves before you broken and humbled. Um so, God, would you just give us wisdom as we read through your word? Um, give us understanding. Would you speak to us in ways that only you can? We love you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, like I said, quite the quite the intro there, but um, we're gonna we're gonna hop back into the life of David. And this morning we're gonna be in 2 Samuel 12. So it's a chapter right after we see everything happen with with uh Bathsheba. And uh again, to kind of catch you up, David, this man after God's own heart, he has acted wickedly, and it almost appears that he has gotten away with it. Um again, he he goes on, kills Bathsheba's husband. Um, after that time of mourning is over, he takes Bathsheba to be his wife. They have their son. Um, and again, it it kind of it seems like everything's gonna kind of work out. But at the end of 2 Samuel 11, we see something that's very important, that the Lord had seen what David had done, and he considered it to be evil. So this is where we pick up this morning in 2 Samuel 12, verses 1 through 6. It says, So the Lord sent Nathan, who was a prophet, and in this story, a man that I do not envy at all. But the Lord sends Nathan the prophet to David, and when he arrived, he said to him, There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very large flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised her and grew up with him and with his children, from his meager food she would eat, from his cup she would drink, and in his arms she would sleep. She was like a daughter to him. But now a traveller came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveller who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man's lamb, and he prepared it for his guest. And David was infuriated with the man, and said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die. Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb. So again, we see this scene where the prophet Nathan he comes and uh just blatantly confronts David for his sin, and he tells this story of a rich man who had all the sheep that he could possibly want. Correlating to David, who we also know had had many wives. God had given him the kingdom of Israel. He had everything he could possibly want or imagine, but rather than being content with what he had been given, in this story we see that that greed led to the rich man to take the one small eulam that the poor man owned. And I would imagine with with David's background as a shepherd and probably a love that he had for sheep, that this story hit home in a lot of ways, so much so that we see that it infuriated David. And so much so that David in his anger, not realizing that Nathan had made this story up to really kind of teach a lesson, but David in his anger, he passes judgment on this guy, on this rich guy, and says that this guy, because of what he has done, deserves to die. And now we can kind of see where this where the story's going. We can see what the prophet Nathan is doing. He's setting David up to see his own hypocrisy. He's kind of setting a trap for David to fall in and as as he has him right where he wants him, in boldness, Nathan kind of delivers the punchline of this story. In verse 7, it says, Nathan replied to David, You are the man. You are the man. In this story, the man that deserves to die. That that's you. You are the man in this story. And David is absolutely blinded by his own sin. We can see how blinded he is by his sin, but Nathan has the boldness and conviction enough to look him straight in the eyes and say that you are the man. The truth has finally come out. David is the man that has done something that he himself said is deserving of death. And God has used the prophet Nathan to confront David, and there's no sugarcoating in it. There's no mincing of words, there's no hidden truths. He doesn't waste any time sugarcoating it. And I really do think that we can learn something about the character of God by what he sends Nathan to go and do. By him sending Nathan to confront David, and I think we can learn that God's kindness is what confronts our sin. It is in God's kindness that he confronts and convicts us, disciplines us, rebukes us for our sin. And again, this can kind of be a um it can be a difficult truth for for us to believe. Right? We live in this culture where we we don't like to be confronted. And not only do we not like to be confronted, but we even view it as a negative thing when someone confronts someone else. And so when we talk about it being out of love and kindness that that God confronts us and convicts us for our sin, sometimes it's a little hard to actually see how that's possible. But here's the reality here's the reality that God is a loving father who will always do what's best for his children. He's a loving father who will always do what's best for his children. He may not always do what we want or what we prefer or what's the easiest for us, but he will absolutely always do what is best for us. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12, 5 through 11. He says, And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons or daughters. My son, do not take the Lord's discipline lightly or lose heart when you are approved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives. Endure suffering as discipline. God is dealing with you as sons or daughters. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, which all receive, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn't we submit even more to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them. But listen to this, but he, God, he does it for our benefit, our benefit, so that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. But later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. So again, when the Lord confronts our sins, when he disciplines us, when he rebukes us like he's about to do with David, it's out of a place of kindness, it's out of a place of love. It's a sign that that and in proof that you really are his children, rather than a sign that he's rejecting you. His discipline proves that you are his. His correction means that you belong to the family of God. A couple weeks ago I shared that me and my wife are about to have our first baby. She was up here this morning, she's about to pop any second. But I know for a fact that that when my son, when when our son's here, I'm gonna be his big as hype man. I'm gonna encourage him when he needs to be encouraged. I'm gonna love him well, but I'm also gonna tell him no when I need to tell him no. And I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, I'm not gonna try to disguise it as something else. I'm just gonna tell him no. Because the most unloving thing that I could do for my son is not say something when I see he's headed down a path that's leading for destruction. And the same is true about God. In the same way, the Lord confronts us because he loves us and will always do what is best for us. He gives us his word to convict us, to cut down to the deepest parts of our soul, because he loves us and he will always do what's best for us. And oftentimes, just like we see in the story, God will absolutely use other people in our life to do that. So it is in God's kindness that he sends Nathan the prophet to David to confront David, to tell David that you are the man. You're the man that's deserved something or done something that is deserving of death. And not so that David will live the rest of his life in guilt and shame, but to lead David to a place of repentance and restoration. Let's read the rest of the story. In verse 7, Nathan replied to David, You are the man. This is what the Lord, God of Israel, says. And this is what the Lord says I'm going to bring disaster on you from your own family. I will take your wives and give them to another before your very eyes, and he will sleep with them in broad daylight. You acted in secret, but I will do this before all Israel in broad daylight. Sheesh. Once again, God Himself is directly confronting David for his sin. There is no sugar coating, there's no beating around the bush, no mincing of words, but instead it is a holy rebuke and discipline on David's life. But notice how God begins this rebuke. He says, David, I anointed you. I rescued you from the hand of Saul. We spent so many weeks walking through that story of how the Lord has brought David to where he is in this moment. He says, I gave you your master's house, talking about Saul. He says, I gave you the kingdom of Israel and Judah. You are the king. This is your people. And then he says, if all these weren't enough, then I would have given you even more. And I think there's a reason that the Lord, before he just obliterates David, kind of starts with this because he wants us to see that repentance starts with remembering. Repentance starts with remembering. God has been abundantly generous to David, time and time again, leading up to this point, and David needed to be reminded of really of the goodness of God if he was ever going to turn back and return to him, to return in this place where he truly is a man after God's own heart. And we have to understand that sin is always much deeper than just an action. It's so much more than just the things we do, but it really comes down to the lies that we believe. To this place. Every sin comes from this place where we believe in our heart that God is not enough. That there is something better out there than him. And for David, he believed a lie that God had not given him enough, so he kind of takes matters into his own hands. He sees this woman named Bathsheba, he wants Bathsheba, so he takes Bathsheba. Rather than believing that God has given him everything he could possibly need, and God was able to give him even more. But if we ever want to turn back to God, we have to remember how good he is, he always has been, and always has, or always will be. And we have to get to the point, just like we see in verse 9 in the story, where we ask ourselves, why, why, why then have I despised the Lord's command by doing what he considers to be evil? Why? Why would I why would I worship and serve God's creation rather than the creator himself? Why would I surrender a relationship with God so that I can have this thing that he considers to be evil? So when we talk about repentance, we're not talking about working up enough guilt. But the first step is always coming back, remembering who God actually is, remembering what he's done for you. Because you will never run home to a father or God that you believe lies about, and you don't believe truly is not only good, but the best thing possible. So again, at this point, David has hit, I mean, he's hit rock bottom. He's experienced the confrontation, the conviction, the rebuke of the Lord. And just like we talked about at the beginning, he's taught, he's he's caught dead in his tracks. He's blown it, he is the man, he has fallen, he's fallen mightily, and God has convicted him about it. And it's at this moment that he has a very important decision to make. Do I keep running? Do I try to keep my sin hidden and covered? Or do I turn and repent and do I go back to God? And here's how David responds in verse 13. It says David responded to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. I've sinned against the Lord. And David could have responded a hundred different ways. He could have denied the charges brought against him, he could have had the prophet Nathan killed, he could have executed again Nathan because he didn't like what he said, he could have made up an excuse, but that is not what David does instead he comes clean, he admits I've sinned against the Lord. And if we're being honest, usually our instinct, when we blow it and we know it, and we're caught, our instinct is not always to run back to the Lord. That's not always our first instinct. We start thinking, God doesn't want anything to do with me anymore. He's had enough. I've messed up one too many times. There is no possible way that he forgives me for this. But again, this is flowing from a misunderstanding of the character of God and the truth of the gospel. Matt Chandler says this to believe the gospel is to run to God when you blow it. That's what it means to believe the gospel, to run to him even when you blow it. And this comes in the form of confession. In moments when we blow it, it's falling in the footsteps in the example of David and saying, I have sinned against the Lord. Because here's the reality: confession is the doorway to mercy. Confession is the doorway to mercy. And in this moment, David confesses. He's done hiding, he's done trying to cover everything up, no more managing his appearance, but instead he finally steps into this light, and that's where the mercy of God meets him. His confession is truly what we see in the story, the first step towards freedom. And in Psalm 32, it's believed that we kind of get a glimpse into the life of David during this time in his life between the end of 2 Samuel 11 and beginning of 2 Samuel 12, where we get a glimpse of kind of this hidden year between sleeping with Bathsheba and then being confronted by the prophet Nathan. And this is what Psalm 32, 3 and 4 says. David says, When I kept silent, when I tried to hide my sin, my bones became brittle for my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was drained as in the summer's heat. So again, when David remained quiet, when he tried to hide up, hide his sin, it ate him alive. Because hidden sin doesn't just sit on the surface or doesn't just stay in its place, but instead it works on you from the inside out, and it's like cancer that spreads to every part of your body. You can look fine to everyone else, but your soul is just quietly wasting away. That's what we see here in Psalm 32. David Guzick says that David was in that terrible place where he had too much sin in him to be happy in God, but too much God in him to be happy in sin. Sin. So while David kept everything covered, his conscience was heavy, his soul was heavy, his heart was miserable. So when this confession finally comes, it truly is almost a gift from the Lord. He's finally able to come clean. It's not easy, but it's freeing, it's relieving. And again, this is something that probably a lot of us can relate to. We've all probably been here where we don't want to come clean about the reality of our sin. We don't want to confess our sin to the Lord or to someone else. But when we do, a weight is lifted from our shoulders. And that weight is Jesus taking your sin from you and placing it upon himself and then covering you with his righteousness, with his forgiveness. Again, confession is the doorway to experiencing, to witnessing the mercy and the grace of God in our lives. The rest of kind of verse 13, it says, David responded to Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord, and then listen to Nathan's reply. It says, and Nathan replied to David, and the Lord has taken away your sin. You will not die. It would be, this is a verse that would be so foolish just to fly past. And as you read these words, I want, I want you to feel the weight, the joy, the good news that is found in them, that the Lord has taken away your sin, and you will not die, because Jesus died in your place. This is the mercy and grace of God in the truest sense. A perfect picture of the gospel. That David deserved to die. He was God's chosen and anointed king. God had entrusted him over his people, called him to be accountable to more, and David still messed it up. He went and took another man's wife, got her pregnant, and then killed her husband to cover it up. David himself said, a man that has done something like this is deserving of death. He deserves to die for what he has done. And yet when David confessed to the Lord with an honest and broken heart, he's met with the mercy and grace of God. And David's story is proof. It's proof that God's grace is far greater than our sin. Where sin abounds, God's grace abounds all the more. We're going to look at Psalm 51 here soon and kind of look at David's full uh confession and repentance. But before we do that, I do I do want us to look at the end of the story. And here we see the hard truth that even though David is met with the grace of God, and I do believe he receives forgiveness for his sin, he's still met with some consequences. So again, 2 Samuel 12, 13 and 14, says David responded to Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord. Then Nathan replied to David, and the Lord has taken away your sin, you will not die. However, because you treated the Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son born to you will die. And if you read the rest of the story, you'll see that the Lord does strike David's son with a deathly illness, and even though David prays and fasts day and night, the son that he conceived with Bathsheba does go on to die. But the thing with this part of the story is we can't confuse the consequences of our sin with the forgiveness that God gives us for our sin. Grace is instant, but the consequences of our sin can linger. And that's not God being cruel, but it is God being very real and honest about what sin cost. The cost of sin. Sin damages everything that it touches, from our hearts to our relationships to our legacy, and we can look around the world, the world around us, and see that consequences of our sin are still very real. And that's what we see here in the story of David. And this is something that we're gonna have to wrestle with for the rest of our lives here on earth. But however, this does not take away or diminish the restoration that the Lord brings through repentance. So as we wrap up this message this morning, I want to I want you to see our main idea again is as we're about to read Psalm 51, where we see David's confession. But our big idea is repentance restores what sin destroys. Repentance restores what sin destroys. What does that look like? A few weeks ago in my D group, we were talking about what true repentance looks like. And I truly believe that God has in his sovereignty put Psalm 51 in the book of the Bible to give us a perfect picture of repentance. When Jesus says, repent and believe, the kingdom of God is at hand, this is what he's talking about. This is the repentance that he's referring to. Psalm 51 in most of your Bibles, you'll notice that it's titled A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba. Nathan confronts him, the Lord convicts him for sin, and this is what comes out of David's mouth. This is a psalm of confession and repentance. And as we read it, notice it's not just emotions. It's not just a bunch of built-up guilt or shame. It's not about that. It's not doing something to work our way or earn our way back to God, but it's coming before God with a humbled, honest, broken heart. So this is what David says in Psalm 51, 1 through 12. He says, Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love, according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion, completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin, for I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. And against you, you alone I've sinned and none this evil in your sight. So you are right. You're right, you're just when you pass sentence. You are blameless when you judge. Indeed, I was guilty when I was born, I was sinful when my mother conceived me. Surely you desire integrity in the inner self, and you teach me wisdom deep within. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt. God, create a clean heart for me. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. But instead restore the joy of your salvation to me and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit. Again, as you read through this psalm, you can feel the emotional weight of a man that's broken over his sin, that is full of guilt and shame. But this psalm, it's a model of what repentance looks like, the repentance that leads to restoration. We see in verse 3 that repentance is honest. David says, I know my transgression, I know my sin. It's always before me. I see it, I know it, I confess it. Repentance is Godward. In verse 4, David says, Against you and you alone, God, have I sinned. You are my creator. You are the one who has placed me exactly where I am, and it's against you and you alone that I have sinned. We see that repentance, it asks more than relief, but it asks for renewal. In verse 10, David says, Create a clean heart for me, God, and renew, renew a right spirit within me. And lastly, we see that repentance doesn't just want pardon and forgiveness. Repentance isn't just about getting our ticket to heaven and making sure we covered all of our basis, but instead, repentance. It comes from this place of wanting a joy of being restored. A joy of knowing that we stand in a right relationship with God. David says in verse 12, restore the joy of your salvation. Restore the joy of your salvation to me. God, I I long for that relationship that we had, and then I mess it up, but I long to be restored, to stand in your presence in a rightful state. And then he continues in verse 16 and 17. He says, Lord, you do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it. You're not pleased with a burnt offering. But the sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God. And in these verses, I really do think we start to see the key to our repentance. It's not about bringing a sacrifice, it's not about trying to right all the wrongs we've done. It's not about working our way back or earning our way back to God's approval or working our way back to his presence, grasping our way back up to him. But rather it's coming before God with a broken, humbled, honest heart. And David is a man after God's own heart, and and and here's kind of why I believe he got that name. Not because he did everything right, but even when he blew it, he came back to God with this humbled, broken, contrite heart. And we see kind of in the the life of David, the legacy of David. That the true mark of a man or even a follower of Jesus isn't whether he falls or not, but it's what he does when he falls. And this isn't just David's story, but but again, this is this is a story that we can relate to. We can relate to. Some of you are carrying around hidden sin right now. Sin that's eating you alive, and you don't want anyone else to know about it. Sin that you think is hidden, just like David probably thought, but sin that absolutely the Lord sees. That he sees. And any confrontation, any conviction that you might be feeling, any rebuke that you feel from the Lord, it's not him rejecting you, it's him calling you back to himself. It's in his kindness that he's trying to lead you to a place of repentance. And some of you are exhausted from trying to maintain a cover-up, exhausted of telling yourself lie after lie after lie, and you need to experience the freedom that David and everyone else experiences when we come before the Lord and we confess and we repent and we turn to him. There's freedom found in repentance, restoration found in repentance. And some of you are stuck in shame and think confession and repentance will end you. That your sin coming to light will be the end, will be the end of your story. And that's just not what we see in Scripture. The gospel says confession is not the end, but it's the beginning of healing, it's the beginning of life, it's the beginning of restoration. 1 John 1, 8 through 9 says, if we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If you're sitting in your seat this morning and thinking you have no need for confession or repentance, then you're deceiving yourself. You're deceiving yourself. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. In verse 9, we say, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us. Some translations say that he is just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the gospel of Jesus. This is the good news of the gospel. Repentance restores what sin destroys. So in a moment to kind of close our time together, we're gonna partake in communion and celebrate communion together as a church, and I can't think of a more perfect Sunday than this Sunday to do that. This is a time when we remember what Jesus has done for us so that we can experience the restoration that the Bible promises, the restoration that the gospel promises. The pieces of bread that you'll see on the table, they represent the way that Christ's body was broken for you, for us, for his church. And the juice represents the way that his blood was poured out for us in the forgiveness of our sins. And here at Church of the Grove, we we take a little wafer and we dip it in the juice, and that's kind of how we partake in communion. But this morning you're gonna notice something a little different on each table. Um, there's a mirror that as you come by and you walk by and you take your communion, I want you to briefly look into that mirror. And I want this mirror to be a moment where you realize, just like David, that you are that man. You are that man, you are that woman. That if we're being honest, we have all done something that is deserving of death. The wages of our sin is death. We are that man. We are that man, but also as you look in that mirror, don't forget that that's not where the story ends. You have sinned and fall short of the glory of God that in you were dead in your trespasses, but God in his love for you sent Jesus so that you could become a new creation. And when God sees you, he no longer sees the sinful person that you might see in that mirror, but instead he sees a person that's clothed and covered with the righteousness of Jesus. That's the good news of the gospel. So as we respond today, and as even as you partake in communion, here's kind of the two invitations. For for some of you, this might be the time right here, right now, where you need to repent and you need to step into the light of Christ. And you need to enjoy and receive the good news of the gospel. Maybe it's responding and believing in Jesus for the first time. Maybe you need prayer to confess or repent or to ask God for cleansing. Today is the day, and we don't want you to do that alone. If that's you, if you feel like this is a time where you just need to repent and you need to confess, we have people here that would love to pray for you. People here who have who have sinned just like myself and fallen short, who aren't going to meet you with judgment. We're gonna meet you with with an encouragement to repent and turn your eyes to Jesus. We read some of Psalm 32, um, verse 3 and 4 a little earlier, but I but I'll I want to read more of the psalm as we move into response. Again, this is a psalm that so closely ties with Psalm 51 and probably the season of David's life that we just read about. But David says, How joyful, how joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, how joyful is a person whom the Lord does not charge with iniquity, and whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones became brittle for my groaning all day long. For day and night your heavy was your hand was heavy on me, my strength was drained as in the summer's heat. But then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately. That is the opportunity that that we have this morning as we celebrate communion, that we can acknowledge our sin to a God who loves us so much that he would send his son to die for us, and a God who, when we confess our transgressions to him, he's not gonna reject us, but he's gonna forgive us, and he's gonna welcome us into his family, and he's gonna bring restoration in our life, and because of that, anyone who's faithful, anyone who's faithful, would you pray to God immediately? Today is the day of salvation. Today is a day of confession. Today is a day where you stop hiding in your shame and your guilt and you experience the restoration in the life that's found in the person of Jesus. Another way that we can respond is the simple act of either finding a Nathan or being a Nathan in the life of someone else. Finding someone that we trust enough to say, hey, if you see anything in me, let me know about it. If you see any sin within me, anything that I might not see, anything that I'm blinded to, would you confront me about it? Would you rebuke me for it through through the love of Jesus? But then also we might need to be a Nathan in a loving and kind way. We need to love others enough to help them walk back to God, to help them walk back into a restored relationship with God. So as our team leads us, the invitation is just to respond to what the Lord is saying to you, to come to the table whenever you're ready. But the kingdom of God is here. And the gospel is good news. And let us be a people, just like just like Jesus says, let us be a people who repent and we believe that He is King and that there is life and forgiveness found in the name of Jesus. Father, we are grateful for the gospel, and we're grateful that in this story of David, there's so many ways that we can, there's so many ways that we can relate to him. So so many times, so often, God, we feel that we have we have fallen too far. God, that we have blown it one too one too many times, and and that that there is no forgiveness, no grace left for us. But God, remind us of the truth of the gospel. God, let this be a day where we come to you in confession and repentance. God, you don't want to sacrifice. You don't want us working our way back to you, but God, all you want is a humbled and contrite heart, a humbled and contrite spirit, a broken heart that calls upon you for restoration. So, God, as we partake in communion, would you remind us of the way that Jesus' body was broken and his blood was spilled so that we could have a relationship with you, so that we we could become a new creation, so that when you look upon us, you don't see the sinful person that we so often see in ourselves, but God, you see someone who is clothed and covered in the righteousness of Jesus, who is cleansed and washed white as snow. So, God, as we remember what Christ has done for us in communion, would you just sanctify us? Would you make us more like Him? And I pray if there's anyone in this room who has never experienced the salvation, the joy of salvation that's found in the name of Jesus, then today would be the day that they would come to you and they would pray to you immediately. And they would experience the forgiveness that you have in store for them. God, we love you. We thank you for the gospel, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.