SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thanks for the privilege of doing what we were created to do, and that is to worship you.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we want to worship, we want to be the kind of worshipers the Bible tells us that you're seeking, and that is people that worship you in spirit and truth.
SPEAKER_01: People that tell the truth about you.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've come to tell the truth about you.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that you uh you live in an atmosphere of glory.
SPEAKER_01: And so we want to just come and kind of give you what is rightfully yours.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, speak to us today from your word.
SPEAKER_01: Uh say something today that has our name on it, uh, so that it can get in our lives and get fleshed out uh uh through our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, that's what we want today.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't come to get a religious whipping.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't get cut we didn't get we didn't come to get condemned.
SPEAKER_01: We came to be set free.
SPEAKER_01: And so use the truth today to wash off of us all that is unnecessary so that only what is necessary remains.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before I finish this prayer and say amen, I want you to just take about 20 seconds and just pray for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you got going on, however you came in today, I want you just to take some time and just whatever's the heaviest on you right now, I want you just to lift that up to God.
SPEAKER_01: Father, you've heard every every burden in this room, every curiosity, every concern.
SPEAKER_01: And you didn't lose your place at all while everyone was thinking and talking to you.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we all that we lay at your feet.
SPEAKER_01: We want to receive from you today.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, speak.
SPEAKER_01: Your servants are listening.
SPEAKER_01: We pray and we listen in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Do me a favor, before you're seated, would you scoot in if there's room on your row?
SPEAKER_01: We have some folks that are kind of standing in the back trying to find a place to sit.
SPEAKER_01: That's a good problem.
SPEAKER_01: So if you could just kind of scoot in, that would be glorious.
SPEAKER_01: Go ahead and have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to the 30-second Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 462.
SPEAKER_01: 462.
SPEAKER_01: We're in a series called Life Songs, where we're just kind of looking at different songs that come out of our heart involuntarily most often.
SPEAKER_01: And today I want to talk to you about this right here.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the the song coming out of your heart is God, I've messed up.
SPEAKER_01: God, I've messed up.
SPEAKER_01: And so what do we do when we've messed up?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't want to assume that you've ever messed up, so let me just start with a question.
SPEAKER_01: How many in this room have ever put it in the ditch?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, like in a huge way, and you're just like, man, I have screwed this up.
SPEAKER_01: Could I see your hand?
SPEAKER_01: Hold it up real high.
SPEAKER_01: Look around you.
SPEAKER_01: You're in good company, just a bunch of messed up people.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, but here's what we do.
SPEAKER_01: Like in my house growing up, my dad was very strict.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't legalistic, but he was old school.
SPEAKER_01: And if you messed up, you got a whipping.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't get put in time out.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't say, hey, think about what you did and write a little paragraph about what your character trait of the week is.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, that never came out of my dad.
SPEAKER_01: As a matter of fact, my dad used to, me and my brothers called it sweating us.
SPEAKER_01: We'd say, Man, dad's sweating you.
SPEAKER_01: If my dad knew, because we thought our dad knew everything, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We would do something wrong, and we thought we got away with it, and then our dad would look at us and we'd walk in and him, my stepmom would be laughing.
SPEAKER_01: I'd be like, Are they laughing about me?
SPEAKER_01: Do they know?
SPEAKER_01: And they're just kind of waiting.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what my dad would do.
SPEAKER_01: We'd sit at the kitchen table, we'd eat supper, and when you'd get ready to get up when you got done, you had to ask to be excused from the table.
SPEAKER_01: That was another thing my dad did.
SPEAKER_01: You couldn't just eat and just bail, like, I gotta go to my room, watch Netflix.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: My dad was like, you had to say, May I be excused.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad would not even make eye contact with you.
SPEAKER_01: He'd just be eating, and he'd go, sit back down.
SPEAKER_01: Whoo! We knew somebody getting a whipping.
SPEAKER_01: And so we just sat there, and the next person, can I be excused?
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: And so me and my brothers would be made to sit there at the table while my dad took his time and finished eating, and then he'd wipe his mouth with his napkin, push the plate back, and he would say, There's something you boys want to tell me.
SPEAKER_01: And I would just be like, Oh man, and my brothers under the table are kicking me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't say anything, don't say anything.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad said, Now I'll make you a deal.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever tells the truth first, I will go easy on you.
SPEAKER_01: You're still gonna get a whipping, but I'll whip you lighter than I whip your brothers.
SPEAKER_01: I would shoot my hand up like I just won the lottery.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, oh, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Kotter, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Kotta.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad would go, you know something you want to tell me?
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't get it out.
SPEAKER_01: The dam would just break and I'd be and my dad would say this, cry, oh you want boy, I'm still gonna wear you out.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, here's what happened, dad.
SPEAKER_01: And sure enough, as I was done crying, my dad would go, All right, get up.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad would make my brother sit there and stare at the wall.
SPEAKER_01: He'd take me over there into the kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: We were in a little house.
SPEAKER_01: The table's right here in the kitchen's right here, and he'd just whip you.
SPEAKER_01: My brothers couldn't see it.
SPEAKER_01: They would hear me.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad said, Move that hand, move that hand.
SPEAKER_01: I'll whip your hands in every other part of your body.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't have CPS back then.
SPEAKER_01: I'd have had them on speed dial.
SPEAKER_01: I'd have hit the button number one.
SPEAKER_01: It's me.
SPEAKER_01: He's doing it again.
SPEAKER_01: Get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: He whipped me, whipped my brother, whipped my other brother, and then he made us set at the table.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think about what you did and how wrong it was.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I also want you to think about.
SPEAKER_01: You thought you could get away with it.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to read in a 30-second Psalm this morning about a man who thought he could get away with it.
SPEAKER_01: He's writing after the fact.
SPEAKER_01: He realized he didn't get away with it.
SPEAKER_01: He messed up really bad.
SPEAKER_01: God knew all along, God put his hand on him and just kind of let God, God let his hand feel heavier and heavier and heavier on the heart of this man, David, until David couldn't take it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Bible says it like this in Psalm 32, verse 1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: Now, David, by the way, is writing after the fact.
SPEAKER_01: The secret's out.
SPEAKER_01: The dam is broke, and he's like, Oh, I'm so glad this is over.
SPEAKER_01: I have to be trying trying to fake it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is a man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and whose spirit there's no deceit.
SPEAKER_01: For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away, and through my groaning all day long.
SPEAKER_01: For day and night your hand was heavy upon me.
SPEAKER_01: My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
SPEAKER_01: I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
SPEAKER_01: Selah.
SPEAKER_01: There's that word.
SPEAKER_01: Selah means slow down and just kind of savor what you just read.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6, therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.
SPEAKER_01: Surely in the rush of great waters they shall not reach him.
SPEAKER_01: You're a hiding place for me.
SPEAKER_01: You preserve me from trouble.
SPEAKER_01: You surround me with shouts of deliverance.
SPEAKER_01: Say lah.
SPEAKER_01: I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go.
SPEAKER_01: I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
SPEAKER_01: Be not like a horse or mule without understanding, which must be curved with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
SPEAKER_01: Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
SPEAKER_01: I read the whole psalm, but I just want to preach from the first five verses this morning.
SPEAKER_01: There's three things I want to extrapolate out of the text.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one, when we've messed up, here's three things we need to remember.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the Bible assumes our sinfulness.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible assumes our sinfulness.
SPEAKER_01: That's verse one and two.
SPEAKER_01: David says, Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
SPEAKER_01: Right off the get-go, God kind of says, let's don't kid each other.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in Romans chapter 3 in the New Testament, he says, we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say the Bible assumes our sinfulness, this is not a statement of condemnation, but it's establishing this baseline reality because we live in a culture that kind of sells us the lie that man is inherently good.
SPEAKER_01: Now think just for a minute, beloved, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We live in a culture that everything, the media, everything, kind of tries to convince you that man is inherently good.
SPEAKER_01: This past week, big news story on Good Morning America, ABC, World News Tonight, 70 people, 65, 70 people in Panama City Beach, Florida, saw a family caught in an undertone and they made a human chain and they got out there, they rescued the family.
SPEAKER_01: That is great, and that's what we should do.
SPEAKER_01: But the media cannot help themselves.
SPEAKER_01: They said, this is just another example of the inherent goodness of human nature.
SPEAKER_01: I would balk at that part of it.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the thing: if man is inherently good, then there's a lot of things that are unnecessary.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's some questions you have to answer, like I just kind of put the questions up here.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to try to jot them down.
SPEAKER_01: You can whip out your phone and take a picture if you want.
SPEAKER_01: But if man is inherently good, then you've got to ask yourself, why do you need God?
SPEAKER_01: Is the existence of God even necessary?
SPEAKER_01: How does the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus make any sense?
SPEAKER_01: What is there to be redeemed for from or for?
SPEAKER_01: If man is inherently good.
SPEAKER_01: Uh fourthly, is there an objective moral standard by which all of life is evaluated?
SPEAKER_01: Because if man is inherently good, then you're all free to live in light of your own goodness.
SPEAKER_01: Just what you defeat, what how you define good and how you evaluate good.
SPEAKER_01: Another question is, is there such a thing as truth and who decides?
SPEAKER_01: If I'm gooder than you, do I get to tell you what the truth is?
SPEAKER_01: Another question you've got to ask is, does absolute truth even exist?
SPEAKER_01: See, doing away with God, which which our culture likes to do, is just kind of make this kind of that's that's for superstitious people that cling to their guns and religion.
SPEAKER_01: Sound familiar?
SPEAKER_01: Uh doing away with God's like removing Sodom Hussein.
SPEAKER_01: You might want to think through the ramifications of who takes his place.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's somebody worse than ISIS.
SPEAKER_01: It's you.
SPEAKER_01: See, when you do away with God, then you get to be God.
SPEAKER_01: You get to be the master of your own destiny.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, when I say the Bible assumes our sinfulness, if this isn't true, and by this I mean the doctrine of total depravity, uh, the inherent sinfulness of all humanity, if this isn't true, then there's a couple things you've got to explain.
SPEAKER_01: See, you don't just get a few questions.
SPEAKER_01: There's a couple things you've got to explain.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the state of the world.
SPEAKER_01: The state of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody just look around at the world today and just think, my gosh, what's happening?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, people come to my office on a weekly basis and they're like, Pastor, I'm concerned.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I look at the world and what's happening, and I'm deeply concerned, and I smile and go, yeah, it's pretty bad, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, you're supposed to be helping me.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not supposed to give you religious pep talks that insulate you from the reality of living in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's one of the things, again, if man is inherently good, if you think man does not need God, he does not need redemption, he's not a sinner, he isn't he is just inherent by nature, he is a good person, she's a good woman, then you have to ask yourself this fundamental question of human existence.
SPEAKER_01: What went wrong?
SPEAKER_01: Why is the world like it is?
SPEAKER_01: If God is good, then why does bad stuff happen?
SPEAKER_01: If God is in control, why does so much life seem out of control?
SPEAKER_01: See, because you can't have it both ways.
SPEAKER_01: You can't waste your life, you spend your whole life saying, well, man is good, religion is the opiate of the masses, or whatever phrase you ripped off of the internet.
SPEAKER_01: You can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: And then when the culture, when the world begins to break under the weight of its depravity and sinfulness, you can't turn around in an act of utter hypocrisy and say, hey, how could a good God let this happen?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Your goodness has made God unnecessary, so you can't now blame this God you spent your whole life denying even existed?
SPEAKER_01: That's the greatest hypocrite in the world.
SPEAKER_01: It's the agnostic or the atheist who says, I don't believe in anything, or I don't believe in this specific God, and then all of a sudden, when when man is good, because if man is good, how do you explain the two boys up in Ohio that shot four boys this past week and buried them 12 feet under the ground?
SPEAKER_01: Because they lured them to the woods to buy weed.
SPEAKER_01: Man's good?
SPEAKER_01: How do you explain that?
SPEAKER_01: But see, we live in a culture that kind of it just kind of seeps into our culture, into our dialect, into our music, into our entertainment, that man is inherently good and man is the hope of the future.
SPEAKER_01: And here's a quote I think that kind of kind of captures it and puts it in good perspective.
SPEAKER_01: This is a quote from a guy named Tim Keller.
SPEAKER_01: He says this we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe.
SPEAKER_01: Yet at the same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope for.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to accept that.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what allows you to accept that.
SPEAKER_01: Because at the very same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope for.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say the Bible assumes our sinfulness, that's why David begins this psalm just by saying, Hey, by the way, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is a man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
SPEAKER_01: Because unless you embrace the sinfulness of humanity, you have to embrace being a deceitful person.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of things that you have to deceive and cover up and try to explain away.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another thing you got to explain away.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, not just the state of the world, but secondly, our sinful choices.
SPEAKER_01: Our sinful choices.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're logical people, it would stand a reason.
SPEAKER_01: If man is inherently good, then he would inherently choose goodness over badness, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: You're smart people.
SPEAKER_01: If man's inherently good and you have the power in yourself to take care of yourself, then why do you choose wrong?
SPEAKER_01: It does you can't have it both ways.
SPEAKER_01: It contradicts the laws of logic.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, you ever know?
SPEAKER_01: Let me just put it like this.
SPEAKER_01: You ever know the right thing to do, but you deliberately and purposely do the wrong thing?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: How do you explain that?
SPEAKER_01: Again, if inherently we're good, then what how do we explain our sinful choices?
SPEAKER_01: God named Paul in the New Testament book of Romans said this.
SPEAKER_01: He's a believer, but he's reflecting back, he's thinking back because he was trying to be a self-made man and make himself right with God by keeping the rules.
SPEAKER_01: And he he he reflects back and he writes about this in Romans chapter 7, verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For I do not understand my own actions.
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: You ever woke up one morning, the first thing you wanted was some Advil and a red Gatorade?
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are like, Yeah, I know what that means.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I do not understand my own actions.
SPEAKER_01: Or you woke up and the first thought in your mind was, What was I thinking?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you woke up before and thought, Whose apartment is this?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, the Bible speaks to that.
SPEAKER_01: I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good.
SPEAKER_01: So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
SPEAKER_01: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
SPEAKER_01: For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another thing you gotta explain.
SPEAKER_01: If you if you believe that man's inherently good, you also gotta explain Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If we're not sinful and there's not a penalty for sin, then why is Jesus Christ necessary?
SPEAKER_01: See, the goal of a secular worldview is to convince you that he isn't.
SPEAKER_01: And if you follow this logic to its ultimate conclusion that man is good, then the only person to blame for the badness of the world is God.
SPEAKER_01: God can't be trusted because if God were really God, then God would do something about this world and it wouldn't be the way it is.
SPEAKER_01: Yet the Bible teaches us the world is the way it is because of who we are.
SPEAKER_01: That we are sinful by nature and by choice.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Bible calls us to.
SPEAKER_01: But also, the Bible assumes our sinfulness, but it also announces on every page God's provision for this.
SPEAKER_01: On every page, the Bible kind of says, Ali in free.
SPEAKER_01: Hello, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible points out, and it doesn't come to condemn, it comes to say, hey, let's just start with a baseline definition of reality because this is the problem that God came to solve.
SPEAKER_01: This is the need that the Bible speaks to.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing David tells us from this Psalm of Confession is that there's always a consequence for sin.
SPEAKER_01: There's always a consequence for sin.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know that the thought is, hey, I hear it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: We're not hurting anybody.
SPEAKER_01: We're considering adults.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not hurting anybody.
SPEAKER_01: It's my body.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's legal in Colorado, it's eventually going to be legal in Texas.
SPEAKER_01: I hear it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know, people, yes, people come make an appointment with me, they're pastor, who I love.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I'm not making fun of people when I talk about things like that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not make, I mean, I just think, oh, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: I get where you're going.
SPEAKER_01: I know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean, Pastor?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I hear what you're saying, but I disagree with your logic.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, or how about this one?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, man, uh uh a friend of mine used to work for the cable company and he knows how to hook it up out the box, and so I'm not really stealing, it's just free cable.
SPEAKER_01: No, you're stealing.
SPEAKER_01: You're just a biggest thief as somebody that puts on a mask and goes in a bank.
SPEAKER_01: You're just stealing less value, but you're stealing.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the biggest hypocrite in the world today.
SPEAKER_01: You're the parent that tells your kid, don't steal.
SPEAKER_01: And you watch a TV, you still challenge them all the time.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of a hipster crime these days.
SPEAKER_01: I'm 53, I have friends that steal cable.
SPEAKER_01: And they say to me, Why are you paying for cable, Neil?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just like, are do you hear the words coming out of your mouth?
SPEAKER_01: What did you just say?
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Oh man, I mean, hey, hey, they're not gonna miss it.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is not if they're gonna miss it.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is are you prepared for the consequence that's gonna come on you?
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing you can choose your sin, but you can't choose your consequence.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the consequence doesn't come on you, it comes on your kids.
SPEAKER_01: And then what are you gonna say?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, you shouldn't do that, despite the fact your dad's done it for years.
SPEAKER_01: When I say there's a consequence for sin, David says in verse 3, for when I kept silent, my bones wasted away.
SPEAKER_01: And through my groaning all day long, for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.
SPEAKER_01: My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
SPEAKER_01: There's just two phrases I want to point out.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is when I kept silent.
SPEAKER_01: When I kept silent.
SPEAKER_01: When I kept silent, in other words, I did this, I committed this horrible sin, and I tried to keep it on the down low because I'm just gonna work it out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I'm gonna cover my tracks.
SPEAKER_01: No one's gonna ever find out.
SPEAKER_01: No one ever has to know.
SPEAKER_01: This could just be our little thing.
SPEAKER_01: When I kept silent, look at me, beloved, secrecy is the power of badness.
SPEAKER_01: And by that I mean the more you keep something a secret, the more power you give to it.
SPEAKER_01: And it has the capacity to begin to affect you physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: And David says, When I kept silent, my bones waxed old.
SPEAKER_01: Modern medical science is caught up with what the Bible's known all along, that sin, when you keep it to yourself, it begins to affect your body.
SPEAKER_01: It became it begins to take an emotional and physical toll on your well-being.
SPEAKER_01: That's why David says, When I kept silent.
SPEAKER_01: Second phrase I want you to see is that he says to God, Your hand was heavy upon me.
SPEAKER_01: Your hand was heavy upon me.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I told you before, uh, my dad wasn't a perfect man.
SPEAKER_01: He's very flawed in a lot of areas, but my dad was a strict disciplinarian.
SPEAKER_01: I remember being in public every once in a while, me and my brothers would be popping off, and all of a sudden, this little hand would come up on the back of our neck.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have to turn around.
SPEAKER_01: My dad had hands so big he could palm a pumpkin, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So he put his hand on my neck and it was like his fingers just wrapped around it.
SPEAKER_01: And if we were really being disrespectful, he would squeeze it a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: And we'd be talking all of a sudden, I'd be like, I'm done now.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all talk among yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad would say, like he was giving you a treat, why don't you go sit in the truck?
SPEAKER_01: Which meant I'm gonna beat you when I get you home.
SPEAKER_01: That's just the way it was in Redneck, East, Texas, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So don't take offense.
SPEAKER_01: Don't come up to me and go, I'm praying for you, brother.
SPEAKER_01: I think you experienced child abuse.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Never got one I didn't deserve you.
SPEAKER_01: How do you know?
SPEAKER_01: Because my dad would give you a pop quiz.
SPEAKER_01: It's like the movie Speed, pop quiz, hot shot.
SPEAKER_01: My dad would say, What'd I tell you to do?
SPEAKER_01: What'd you do?
SPEAKER_01: Bend over.
SPEAKER_01: That's just the way it went.
SPEAKER_01: Every time, three-point sermon.
SPEAKER_01: What did I tell you to do?
SPEAKER_01: What'd you do?
SPEAKER_01: You had to acknowledge your sinfulness, and then you received your punishment.
SPEAKER_01: And so my dad would just give us a little squeeze.
SPEAKER_01: David says, Hey, to God.
SPEAKER_01: He says to his father, hey, your hand was heavy upon me.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, just the law of averages dictates that this many people in a room, some of you have got some secret stuff going on right now, and because nobody knows, you think you're getting away with it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not coming to rant and rave and say, I am to say this.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a child of God, God's hand will get heavier and heavier and heavier on you until it begins to vex your soul, to turn you towards repentance, because sin will destroy you.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're a child of God, God loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna let you destroy yourself.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna put his hand on you because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: It's not child abuse.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-uh.
SPEAKER_01: It's a loving father saying, Hey, this is not what you're created for.
SPEAKER_01: God's hand upon you is not abuse, it's consequence.
SPEAKER_01: So two phrases under the banner of there's always a consequence for sin, because see, we've denied the, I mean, and we said man's inherently good.
SPEAKER_01: And so because we're good, we cannot sin.
SPEAKER_01: No one sins anymore, which we'll get to in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But hey, we say there's a consequence for sin, it's like a consequence for what?
SPEAKER_01: We've invented a consequenceless society.
SPEAKER_01: We got so many people that are addicted to opioids.
SPEAKER_01: We came up with a remedy, so if you OD, they shoot you with this little shot and it reverses the effect.
SPEAKER_01: Of it, it's kind of like, and I think it's great by the way, but can we just stop using drugs?
SPEAKER_01: You see, we just act like no, we we can't.
SPEAKER_01: So we got to create a world in which there is no consequence.
SPEAKER_01: You are hating your children if there's not a consequence for their sinful behavior.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll take it one step further since I'm already out here.
SPEAKER_01: You should tell your kids when they disobey you, that's sin.
SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't say, Oh, that's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: You should use the word sin.
SPEAKER_01: Now don't shame them, don't yell at them, just hey, hey, by the way, when you did that, that was sin.
SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time I was in public and I said to my older daughter, because her sister is five years younger than her, and she's like, Dad, I mean, she just gets on my last nerves.
SPEAKER_01: That's because she's a sinner.
SPEAKER_01: Some little 18-year-old hostess in a restaurant said, Oh, you shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: That's gonna, that's gonna, that's gonna warp her inner child.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm gonna whip your grown child in just a minute, okay?
SPEAKER_01: If you want to parent some kids, get a man to take you on, and you have some kids, you parent them.
SPEAKER_01: I'll parent mine, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because I want my kids to understand their behaviors in a bigger context than just themselves.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's sin.
SPEAKER_01: When you disobey mom and dad, it's sin.
SPEAKER_01: And God's not happy when you do that.
SPEAKER_01: Can you feel what's in this room right now?
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are like, You said that to your precious daughters?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll go even further.
SPEAKER_01: I think one of the reasons they're precious is because they understood it.
SPEAKER_01: They just did.
SPEAKER_01: I love them, but I'm like, hey, Dad's not always be around to figure out and find out what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01: But I promise you, God's hand will be heavy on you.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing David tells us is we have this example to follow.
SPEAKER_01: We have this example to follow.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I acknowledge my sin to you.
SPEAKER_01: Underline that in your Bible, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: I I acknowledge my sin to you.
SPEAKER_01: I did not cover my iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that such a big deal?
SPEAKER_01: Because we cover our iniquity and we don't acknowledge anything.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
SPEAKER_01: Selah.
SPEAKER_01: That ought to have a scratching sniff pad right there.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, get a whiff of that, boys and girls.
SPEAKER_01: You say, why?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you would think this would be the easiest part, but usually it's the most difficult because we want to save face.
SPEAKER_01: We want to manage people's impression of us.
SPEAKER_01: And the older you get, the harder.
SPEAKER_01: I would say, dare say, it's almost close to impossible.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to begin with a confession, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, at this point.
SPEAKER_01: I want to confess to you the fact that I, as your pastor, 53 years old, as your pastor, I am committed to continue to sin.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are like, thank God, finally, somebody that understands me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying what you think I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all like, no, no, I like that other part.
SPEAKER_01: Because I can say to my wife, I'm committed to sin too, like the preacher said.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not, I'm not declaring my intention to sin, but I am embracing my responsibility when I do sin.
SPEAKER_01: Allow me to explain.
SPEAKER_01: Over the past year, I've kind of noticed this about people, especially over the age of, say, 30.
SPEAKER_01: And 40, it gets even worse.
SPEAKER_01: 50, where I am, it's it's worse.
SPEAKER_01: 60 and 70, good Lord, no one sins.
SPEAKER_01: No one sins.
SPEAKER_01: No one acknowledges their sin.
SPEAKER_01: When is the last time you heard somebody your age just say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, hey, when I when I said that, that wasn't true.
SPEAKER_01: That was just a lie.
SPEAKER_01: I was just trying to cover myself because I didn't want to make the, I didn't want to face the consequences.
SPEAKER_01: You would think after being a Christian for 26 years, I wouldn't be that way, but sometimes I am.
SPEAKER_01: Please forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: See, the looks on your face say, no, I never heard that.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just resolved that when I do sin, and and and and and I don't, I'm not saying I'm gonna go sin, but when I do, hey, I'm I'm gonna call it what it is.
SPEAKER_01: You you say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Uh here's here's what we've done.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we don't acknowledge our sin like David said.
SPEAKER_01: We do not follow the example that we have.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we have this well-devised, thought-out, void of integrity and spiritual logic list of these verbal, Vaseline excuses that get us out of these tight spots that sin gets us into.
SPEAKER_01: Like this.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, well, I'm sorry if you thought that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, this is so popular because it transfers responsibility from the sinner to the other person.
SPEAKER_01: As if your sin is our fault for listening to your exact words and being offended by what you said because it was a lie.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, people that use this phrase tend to have deeply ingrained patterns of sinful irresponsibility, which means they've been saying this for a while.
SPEAKER_01: And when lovingly confronted, they're surprised at the thought of them sinning, which means it's easier and more comfortable for me to show empathy, i.e., I'm sorry, than it is to repent.
SPEAKER_01: Apologizing is a great habit, but it's not the same as repenting of sin.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry if you thought that.
SPEAKER_01: Your sin's not my responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Don't make this about me.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another one.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of acknowledging our sin, here's another one we do.
SPEAKER_01: There must have been some sort some sort of confusion.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I mean, you you you know you're on a slippery slope when you're uncertain as to the kind of confusion there was, so you just say, Oh, there was some sort of confusion.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we do we can't know anything all of a sudden.
SPEAKER_01: See, you nobody has to repent.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to repent.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to repent.
SPEAKER_01: We can just say, oh, there was some sort of confusion.
SPEAKER_01: Ah.
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: You want to go with that?
SPEAKER_01: That's really your best salvo?
SPEAKER_01: Here's another one.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure what happened.
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: Is that we all have to live in this place of chosen uncertainty where everything is vague and gray and unknowable.
SPEAKER_01: I I mean, I've met with people who made an appointment and called me and said, Hey, we need to meet with you because this.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I walk in and I say, by the way, and they go, Oh, I mean, you're probably surprised.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not surprised.
SPEAKER_01: The cross has made sinners of us all.
SPEAKER_01: This is how sin manifests itself in your life.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't change the way I think about you or feel about you, so I'm not surprised.
SPEAKER_01: Have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray, let's get started.
SPEAKER_01: And then we start asking for details, people come back to this thing right here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not asking details of what they did, just trying to extrapolate.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, let's get back to the source of this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not really sure what happened.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, this is free.
SPEAKER_01: When you go meet somebody that's not your spouse at a hotel, you know what happened.
SPEAKER_01: But see, we can't we can't acknowledge that.
SPEAKER_01: We can't just say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I I I deliberately thought through this.
SPEAKER_01: I've come up with a plan, and I executed the plan.
SPEAKER_01: We do not acknowledge our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last one I'll give you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have a problem with it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've had people, you you you you get them, and it's just like, hey, so this is what happened.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, and this may surprise you, but I just, you know, I don't have a problem with it.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's pride, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: That's just sheer, unadulterated, cocky, arrogant, non-repentant pride.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll be glad to know I don't use any of those words.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, I just say, hey, uh, that sounds great until you meet someone that doesn't have a problem with other things.
SPEAKER_01: And so one gentleman came to me and he had been involved in horrible behavior, and I said, So what's this like for you?
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Well, I mean, I don't want to offend you or anything, but I don't have a problem with it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh-oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, so so in my eyes, it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, there's a word for that.
SPEAKER_01: That's called relativism, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: As much as it relates to me, as much as I get to decide, yeah, I don't have a problem with it.
SPEAKER_01: And so, hey, if you've got a problem with it, that's tough for you, but I get to decide.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Okay, can we apply that to your life?
SPEAKER_01: What, relativism?
SPEAKER_01: Can we just apply that to your life?
SPEAKER_01: Like, tell me about your life.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know anything about you other than you made a counseling appointment with me and I want to help you, but clearly you don't need help because you don't have a problem with anything.
SPEAKER_01: Well, hey man, live and let live.
SPEAKER_01: What are you, a biker?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, live and let live, man.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I got it, I got it, okay.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, so tell me about your life.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, you know, I said, You got a mom and dad?
SPEAKER_01: They say a lot, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, my mom's in the hospital.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Great, can we start with your mom?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Be careful.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No disrespect to your mom.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to apply your relativism to your mom.
SPEAKER_01: Are you okay if I apply your worldview to your mother?
SPEAKER_01: You better watch it talking about my mother.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about your mother, I'm talking about you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Your mom's in the hospital.
SPEAKER_01: What if today your your mom encounters a nurse who believes in euthanasia, that your mom's eventually gonna die, so she just gives her an injection of sodium pentathal and she kills your mom because your mom, she has 14 patients and she wants 13 so she can have a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_01: That ain't funny.
SPEAKER_01: That's your worldview.
SPEAKER_01: That's relativism.
SPEAKER_01: Because one of the principles of truth is if it's truthful in this situation, it has to apply to every situation.
SPEAKER_01: It can't be truth.
SPEAKER_01: That's circumstantial, but you're saying, hey, I don't have a problem with it.
SPEAKER_01: And that's great until you meet somebody who doesn't have a problem with something that bothers you.
SPEAKER_01: If you go home today and your house has been robbed, you're gonna call the cops?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: People stole your stuff, they don't have a problem with stealing.
SPEAKER_01: You're the really the biggest hypocrite you know.
SPEAKER_01: You realize that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Man, you are frustrating, you know that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm strangely warmed by that.
SPEAKER_01: But see, here's the thing, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Look, are you still with me?
SPEAKER_01: We're about done.
SPEAKER_01: See, David says, I will acknowledge my sin.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds like that would be the easiest thing in the world, but it is the hardest.
SPEAKER_01: And the older you get as a Christian, I'm not talking to the non-Christian, as a Christian, you get in your 50s, you get in your 60s, it is next to impossible.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you just you're out of practice.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what what what happens?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's just, I mean, let's just let's just say I start doing this.
SPEAKER_01: What what what acknowledge my sin and confess it?
SPEAKER_01: What would that be like?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the rest of the text tells us.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 6 and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: He says, therefore, let everyone who is God, therefore, in other words, in light of what I just said, I'm saying this.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found, because this is what godly people do.
SPEAKER_01: Godly people acknowledge their sin.
SPEAKER_01: Godly people don't hide and practice iniquity and deceit.
SPEAKER_01: Let everyone who's godly offer prayer to you at a time when he may be found.
SPEAKER_01: Surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.
SPEAKER_01: You are a hiding place for me.
SPEAKER_01: You preserve me from trouble.
SPEAKER_01: You surround me with shouts of deliverance.
SPEAKER_01: Say La, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.
SPEAKER_01: I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
SPEAKER_01: Be not like the horse or the mule without understanding, which must be curved with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
SPEAKER_01: Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it would be like if you practice this.
SPEAKER_01: If you just embrace the Bible, it assumes my sinfulness.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells me there's always a consequence for sin, and the Bible tells me clearly and uncertainly there's an example for me to follow.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just free to acknowledge what the Bible already says is true about me.
SPEAKER_01: And when I live in this freedom, this is what it looks and sounds like.
SPEAKER_01: I don't walk in a room and think, who knows?
SPEAKER_01: Who knows?
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to be like the horse or mule that has to be controlled with bit and bridle, or it won't stay close to you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a person that wants to stay close to God just because that's who I'm created to represent in this world.
SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, I acknowledge my sin.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Bible calls us to, and that's what the Bible tells us we were created for.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Just take a moment, if you would, and think about the text today.
SPEAKER_01: Think about what David said.
SPEAKER_01: He said, When I kept silent about my sin, your hand was heavy upon me.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible calls us to this spacious place of freedom to say, Hey, it doesn't have to be this way.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be what you've been told or what you may think or what you fear.
SPEAKER_01: God's not come to shame you or embarrass you.
SPEAKER_01: He already knows because the Bible assumes our sinfulness.
SPEAKER_01: And so, really, the invitation today is for you to come out of hiding and come to this God that already knows and says, I'd be glad to forgive you for that.
SPEAKER_01: So just ask yourself, hey, what do I what do I take away from today?
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest this morning, we like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: So Clyde and Lindsay are just going to sing a song over.
SPEAKER_01: So it just kind of reminds us that God is our safe place.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to be afraid of the person that knows us the most.
SPEAKER_01: He's not come to shame us or condemn us, he's come to set us free from all of this.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about God in these terms.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of moving parts in our service today.
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate your presence and your and your attention.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you're our guest today, this is what we do on a consistent basis.
SPEAKER_01: We like to worship God, we like to teach the word, we like to teach the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: We're never gonna beat you up.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: When I talk about meeting with people, I meet with all kinds of people.
SPEAKER_01: I meet with people all across the spiritual spectrum.
SPEAKER_01: I meet with people that say, I don't even know there's a God, I don't even believe any of this.
SPEAKER_01: To people like, I've been a Christian 50 years uh and I got stuff I need to work through.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's my point.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: You're all welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ever come and think, I don't know where the books of the Bible are, I can't come back.
SPEAKER_01: You can come back.
SPEAKER_01: All you got to do is come and just listen.
SPEAKER_01: God speaks a language you understand, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And God has a message he wants you to hear.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget to come get a prayer card for our Costa Rica team.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing you can tell God that he does not already know.
SPEAKER_01: And there's nothing you can tell God that's going to change his mind about you.
SPEAKER_01: He loves you.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.
SPEAKER_01: You're dismissed.