Michael Youssef - Confess and Be Free
Perhaps more than any time in my lifetime, I'm hearing more and more the statement, "victim's mentality". So many individuals and so many groups are claimed to be victimized. The problem with trivializing victimhood, is that real victims, true victims, get lost in the shuffle. And make no mistake about it, there are some true victims. In life, there are true victims, and they must never be overlooked. For when we have this insatiable desire for victimhood, and when it becomes a trend, we lose our compass. Even you see it among children in an early age. You come in the room and you say, "Who did this"? Fingers start flying everywhere, and it's very hard to identify the culprit.
It was T.S. Eliot who once said that "humankind cannot bear very much reality". But I was thinking about this and I thought of the story about a young boy by the name of Jerome. Jerome was a hyperactive 9-year-old, and forever getting himself into trouble, and always denying responsibility. One night while he was asleep in the room downstairs and his mom was asleep in the room upstairs, all of a sudden his mom heard this incredible thunderous crash. Apparently what had happened, a panel truck veered off the road and crashed into the house and, in fact, came to a dead stop right at the dining room. And so the terrified mom, the first thought was her beloved son, of his safety, and she yelled out, she said, "Jerome". And the next thing, Jerome yells from downstairs, says, "I didn't do it, Mommy".
Today we're going to see the true blessing that is often hidden in owning up of one's responsibility. We're going to see the absolute blessing that is hidden in true confession, the absolute blessings that are hidden in facing reality and acknowledging of one's failure. Why? Because when we confess, we come in agreement with God. God already knows what's going on. God already knows when we sin. God already knows when we fail. But when we come in confession to him, we're saying, "God, we agree with you". And God is honored that way. When we confess to heaven, and heaven already knows what is true, heaven is honored. When we repent of sin, there is untold blessings that comes out of that repentance.
Here you find David, a man whose heart after God, accepting full responsibility for his sin. David did not pass the buck. David did not say, as some people do today, "Well, you know, it was Bathsheba's fault. You know, she's the one who walked around naked, and it's her fault". Or, "It was Uriah's fault, because after all, if he handled the sword properly, he wouldn't be killed by the enemies". Or, "I just can't help it because my father was a passionate man and his father before him was a passionate man and I just happened to be a passionate man". Or, you know, "My mother just weaned me too early," or, "I just, I was potty trained too soon". "Oh, my wife doesn't love me". "My mother dropped me on my head when I was a boy".
Or here's the regular one, this is the popular one that I hear it very often: "I'm out of love with my wife". David said nothing of the sort. He did not say any of this. No wonder the Bible said that his heart was turned toward God. It didn't say that he was perfect. It didn't say that he was sinless. Only Jesus was sinless. Listen to me. When your heart is turned toward God, you immediately face up to your responsibilities. You accept the consequences with courage. You will not go around looking for some scapegoats. You will not point your finger elsewhere. You're not going to pass the blame. David immediately confessed to the Lord and repented of his sin.
This is the first step to true and genuine experiencing of forgiveness, not that God has not... he has forgiven you, but it's a genuine experience of that forgiveness and the washing and the cleansing and the restoration. David did not only accept responsibility, David did not only own up to his sin, David did not only acknowledge his failure, but David also confessed and repented, and listen carefully, he accepted the consequences. Beloved, this is an issue over which a whole lot of Christian believers are confused. I've talked to enough people to know there is so much confusion on this particular issue. I'm talking about the differentiation between God's absolute unqualified forgiveness of our sins when we repent and the scars that sometimes these sins leave behind.
Some of them last for a long time and maybe even for a lifetime. Always make that distinction because not making that distinction gets you into trouble. There are some people who look at the scars that are natural consequences of sin and think because of these scars, God has not forgiven them. Listen to me, read my lips. That is a lie from Satan. If you look at the consequences of David's sin, if you look at the tragic scars that that sin left behind, someone might ask or say, "What kind of forgiveness is this? Why didn't God take care of the scars"? I'm going to come to that in a moment. Put a marker in your brain or on your notes because I'm coming to it.
So when you see the first consequence of that sin is that the baby born out of wedlock, been sin, resulted from adultery. He dies. Not all suffering is a result of sin. Some is, but not all of them. We've heard the story of Job. The reason the Bible has it there is to remind us that sometimes the righteous suffer for righteousness' sake. Don't muddle those two. But people say, "Wait a minute, what is the baby's fault here"? Oh no, the baby has no fault. The baby did not suffer. The baby went to heaven like all babies do. It's the parents who suffered. The baby did not suffer.
David had been a great general. David had been a great king. David had been a wonderful songwriter like nothing before or since. But as we saw in the last message, David failed to exercise spiritual leadership and servant leadership and headship, spiritual headship, in the home. Focus with me please for a moment. Just focus with me. If Mom and Dad say to little Billy, said, "Billy, don't play with matches, don't touch the stove. Billy, don't do that. This is dangerous, this is harmful," and then Billy, knowing human nature again, he does, and then he gets burned. Imagine him on the ride in the ambulance going to the emergency room, and little Billy is hurting, and saying, "Mom, Dad, I'm sorry, I should have listened to you, forgive me".
Of course, they're going to forgive him. Am I right? Of course, absolutely. And yet the pain is still there and the scars could be there for a long time. Your sins and his forgiveness never affect the quality of his love for you. By the same token, forgiveness does not stop the consequences or erase the consequences at times. Why? Because God's forgiveness does not alter the fact that sin is a transgression of righteousness. Forgiveness that I am talking about is the daily forgiveness. I'm not talking about salvation. That has been taken care of the moment you come to Jesus. It's not going to affect your salvation.
When Jesus taught the disciples in the disciples' prayer, "Our Father who art in heaven," and then he goes on to say, "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us," he's not talking about salvation. He's talking about the daily life. In the same way when Peter reacted to Jesus washing the feet and he said, "You can't wash my feet," and then Jesus said, "Well, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part of me". Peter again, the same reaction. And he said, "Well, not just my feet, if that's the case, just wash all of me". You know what Jesus said? He said, "No, no, no, Peter. Those who have been washed already only need their feet to be washed".
Beloved, you and I are walking in this world and our feet get dirty, and they need to be washed. That is the daily forgiveness that Jesus is talking about in the disciples' prayer. That's the daily forgiveness we're talking about here. In a day when so many people have lowered down the bar of righteousness, they have lowered it all the way down to the point that they teach that God only winks at sin. Not that he forgives it, he just winks at it. But God forgives sin at an enormous cost to him. He watched his Son bleed on that cross. Don't blur righteousness or lower the bar of righteousness so low that the righteousness and sin get blurred, blurring the line between sin and righteousness. It's not so with God, because sin cost God plenty, and therefore, we can never blur the line between righteousness and sin.
We cross over from sin to righteousness, of course, that is the joy of the believers. Don't miss what I'm going to tell you. Please, this is important because when you blur the line between sin and righteousness, it means that Jesus bled and died for our sin in vain. It means that he left the splendor of heaven and came as an embryo in a virgin's womb in vain. It means that Jesus's holiness means nothing. Let me explain it this way. When God pardoned us, he does not condone what we have done. While God redeems us, he does not accept our shift of blame. "He made me do it. She made me do it. The devil made me do it".
While God does not hold the sin against us, that's what it means when it says God not only forgive but he forgets. It doesn't mean he has an amnesia, no, no, no. It means that he doesn't hold it against you. While he does not hold our sin against us, he does not look at it in a lighthearted manner. "Oh, that's all right". No, no, no, no, no. And that is why we, as parents and grandparents, we need to take time to help our children understand why the wrong is wrong and why we are forgiving them. We need to explain truthfully and very carefully, while we fully forgive them, appropriate disciplines sometimes are needed. We must invest the time to show them why restitution or some sort of discipline is at the very heart of loving them.
Some people, to them discipline means a dirty word. It really is not. It means training them. It doesn't mean beating them up. No, it means training them in the right way. That's what the word "discipline" means in the scripture. God trains us. He loves us. That's why he disciplines us. He trains us. Discipline without explanation, listen carefully, discipline without explanation is as bad as winking at sin. I want to repeat that. Discipline without explanation is as bad as winking at sin. Learn to take responsibility for your action. It's the first step. Beloved, I am convinced that this is the first step for peace. Peace in your heart, peace in the family, peace in society, peace at your workplace. It's the first step.
In 2 Samuel 12, we see God individually forgives repentant David, and he makes it clear and he communicates it so well through the prophet Nathan. David then recognizes the consequences of his sins. Listen carefully. Here it is. The confession is in verses 13 and 14 of chapter 12: "Then David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.' And Nathan replied, 'The Lord has taken away sin. You're not going to die.' And Nathan continued, 'But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.'"
Again, the baby did not suffer, the parents did. Hear me right, hear me right. Do not confuse God's forgiveness with the scars that sin may have created. And don't ever forget that God's forgiveness does not mean that he stopped hating sin. Because he forgives sin doesn't mean that he stopped hating sin or seeing sin as an abhorrent. Don't ever think because God is a forgiving God that we can take that forgiveness for granted or excuse ourselves and think we're entitled to his forgiveness. As I said, sometimes the scars of disobedience will remain for a long time. Please, please, please, please, let those scars not only remind you of that act of disobedience, let them above all remind you of the grace of Jesus and the forgiveness and the loving heart of Jesus.
In David's case, the sword worked both ways. It worked against Uriah, but it also worked against David's household. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 7:2: "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you". That is why I am quick to forgive, because I want to be forgiven. The apostle Paul said, "Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows generously shall reap generously". This has to do with giving money, but it also has to do with everything in life, everything in life. When you forgive generously, you'll be forgiven generously, every area of life. In fact, I can tell you that the harvest is always answerable to the seed, and the reward is always answerable to the work.
You say, "What do you mean by that"? If you sow cotton, you get what? If you sow corn, you get what? You do not sow cotton, and then you reap wheat, right? That's what I mean by the seed is answerable to the harvest. The size of your crop is also dependent on the quantity of your sowing. God's salvation is a free gift. You can do nothing. You can actually work hard for 20,000 lifetimes, and you could not earn it. It is a gift of God to you. It's a gift of grace. But the reward is dependent on the level of faithfulness. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:8, "Each will be rewarded according to his own labor".
Now, beloved, listen to me. God is not going to reward the person who sat and warmed the pew Sunday after Sunday and that's all they've done, the same reward as the person who worked hard, gave generously, sacrificed day and night, and worked for Jesus. God is not an unjust God. I want to tell you this as I conclude. When we first come to Christ, convicted by him, receiving the gift of grace, receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, there's always an image that I keep in mind. That moment, we were like a poor, homeless, stinking person who was picked up off the streets by the King, and the King takes you to the palace. The King takes you home. The King bathes you. The King washes you. The King cleanses you. The King grooms you. The King dresses you in royal robe. The King adopts you, and he gives you his last name, and then he calls you a prince or princess.
Then the King teaches us from his Word how to live like a prince or a princess, how to behave like a prince or princess, how to live up to the palace standards. And out of gratitude, we do everything we can not to embarrass our King, not to bring shame to the name of our adopted King, but in every way we seek to please that generous King. We seek to honor the King. We seek to obey the King. We seek to focus on living like royalties. Now we seek to focus of doing good to the other subjects of the King. May God grant us wisdom in these hard and difficult days to know who we are and whose we are, to know not to blur sin with righteousness, but to know how to cross by confession and repentance from sin to righteousness, to know that when we fall and fail, we most surely, assuredly will, as long as we live in this flesh, to know how to confess, repent, and gratefully receive forgiveness.