The Power of Confession

Welcome to episode 247 of Grasp the Bible. In this episode, we will examine the topic of confession. 

Key takeaways:   

• Confession—real, honest, unguarded acknowledgment of sin—feels dangerous because it makes us vulnerable. 
• The path to freedom runs straight through the thing we most want to avoid. Confession, not concealment, is where healing begins. 
• When we confess sin, we are saying the same thing about it that God says. We are adopting His verdict. 
•  Unconfessed sin does not change God’s love—but it absolutely affects our capacity to experience it. 
• The gospel does not just forgive what you have done. It changes who you are. You are not defined by your worst moments. You are defined by the blood of Christ and the verdict of God: justified, redeemed, and adopted. 

Quotable:   

Confession without change is not repentance—it is performance. True biblical confession is not just a change of words; it is a change of direction. 

Application:   

Doctrine without direction is incomplete. Here are five specific, actionable steps for walking in biblical confession. 

1. Confess to God Specifically, Not Generically.  Biblical confession names the specific sin before the specific God who was specifically offended by it. 
2. Distinguish between guilt and shame. Guilt is the conviction that I have done something wrong. Shame is the conviction that I am something wrong. Biblical confession addresses guilt and refuses the lie of shame. 
3. Confess to people when appropriate.   
4. Forsake the sin, not just confess it.   
5. Seek help when confession alone is not breaking the pattern. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Graphs of the Bible is a podcast of Spring Baptist Church. It walks through selected books of the Bible verse by verse as well as spends time exploring biblical ideas and topics to help you understand and apply God's Word in your daily life. Pastor Dale Stein of our Klein Campus will be leading each week's podcast. Pastor Dale is good to have you with us. Thank you. It is great to be back. It is, it is, and we are kind of if you're following this in a linear fashion, which we I'm guessing some people are and some people won't, we may be very far down the road, and somebody's listening to this many years later, but in our current timeline, uh we're finishing up our spring 26 um season, and this is your last one for the spring, correct? Correct. And so what are we looking out for today?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

So today we're gonna be looking at the power of confession, and we're also going to examine the chain that come along when we send it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

I don't know, you know, that's such a hard way.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

It is not why it's so critical for Christian what confession really means. We need to use a word what guilt is and what shame is because they are very they come at confession from two very different angles. You know, guilt tells us that we um that we have done something wrong. Shame brings a conviction that I am something wrong. And there's a big difference, and we need to make sure that that we as believers understand the difference between the two, and that we don't allow shame to creep in and allow it to take over our lives, then.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

I think this is a lesson we all need today. Well, let's jump into today's study.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Well, welcome back, and today we are going to talk about the power of confession. And the the subtitle I have here is The Weight That We Were Never Meant to Carry. In the summer of 1994, South African President Nelson Mandela walked out to a polling station and to cast his first vote in the cast his vote in the first free election that the country had ever known. Because previously he had spent 27 years in prison, most of it on a place called Robin Island, where he spent all day long, most days, breaking up rocks out in the hot sun. When reporters asked him how he survived, he gave the answer that surprised many of them. He said that one of the most liberating moments of his imprisonment came when he stopped pretending, stopped performing, and simply told the truth about his own failures, his own fears, and his own need. What Mandela described in human terms, the Bible describes in spiritual ones. There is an enormous weight that we carry as human beings that we hide that is true about ourselves, and that is the weight of guilt, shame, pretense, and spiritual distance. And Scripture promises something astonishing that this weight does not have to be permanent. And there is a word that brings about liberation, and that word is confession. And confession is the key to putting down all the weight and all the pressure that we bear. But you know, the world, unfortunately, it trains us to do just the opposite. Because we live in a world of perfectly curated social media content. We always put our professional lives forward. People only see the best. And when we get caught in a mistake or doing something we should not be doing, our first instinct is to bury it or to hide it or to blame someone else or to blame shift or call it simply a mistake. But confession, real, honest, unguarded acknowledgement of sin, that feels dangerous because it makes us vulnerable. And yet scripture makes it extraordinarily clear that the path to freedom runs straight through the thing we want most to avoid. Confession and not concealment is where real healing begins. And so we're going to look at this concept today because biblical confession, agreeing with God about our sin, forsaking it, and bringing it into the light is not spiritual weakness. It is the path that God has ordained to bring about forgiveness and healing and renewal in our lives. So let's begin by taking a look at what confession actually is. What confession actually is, and John tells us in his epistle, 1 John chapter 1, verses 8 through 10, he says this if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. So John is addressing people in the church, and he's warning them against two devastating lies. Lie number one is that we have no sin, and lie number two is that that sin doesn't need to be dealt with. And between these two lies, he delivers to us one of the most hope-filled promises in all of the Bible. Now, we need to look, first of all, at what the word confession means. When we confess, it means we say the same thing. When we confess sin, we are saying the same thing about it that God says. We are adopting his verdict. We stop calling our anger being passionate. We stop calling our dishonesty being strategic. We stop calling our lust simply being human, and we start calling it what God calls it, and that is sin. And there's an essential difference between admitting something and confessing something. When we admit things, we tell facts, right? But confessing is about a relationship. When I admit wrongdoing, I admit what happened. But when I confess, I stand before God and I say, I chose to do what you said was wrong, and I chose to do it. Admission comes with a tale of excuses, but confession cuts off that tail entirely. And John makes two promises in this particular passage here. So if we confess our sins, he tells us two things, and they're later intentionally. First of all, that God is faithful and just to forgive our sins. Notice that forgiveness is not rooted in God's mood. Do you ever ask for forgiveness with someone? And if they don't want to forgive you, they get in a really cranky and bitter mood. But God's not like that. Forgiveness is rooted in his character. Now the word for faithful that John uses here means trustworthy. So God's forgiveness, it does not depend on how badly you feel, on how dramatic your confession is, or whether you cried, but rather it depends on who God is. And the word for just or righteous is equally important because this is not God simply looking the other way. He can forgive freely because Christ already bore the penalty of our sin on the cross. And so every act of forgiveness has already been purchased with the death of Christ. And so when God forgives us, he is not compromising justice because it has to be paid for, but he is fulfilling justice. And so the Greek word here for forgiveness means to send away or to release. It's the same word they used back at that time for releasing a prisoner. And so when God forgives us, the debt doesn't simply go into a file somewhere. Rather, that debt is canceled. But John doesn't stop at forgiveness because he adds this that God will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So what he's saying here is that God will purify us as well. Because forgiveness removes guilt, but cleansing removes the stain. And he talks about all unrighteousness. No sin falls outside of God's reach. That thing that you are most ashamed of, that thing that you've carried around the longest, that thing that you are most afraid to name, that is included in all. None of it is too much for the cleansing work of God. And so having established confession and mission there, we need to look and see what hidden sin does to us. And for that, we're going to turn to Psalm 32. This is a Psalm David wrote after his affair with Bathsheba. And remember, David tried to cover up his adultery with her, ended up having uh one of his soldiers, Uriah, killed in battle, and so it kept getting worse. And David writes this in Psalm 32, verses 3 and 4. We'll look there first. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my strength was dried up by the heat of summer. So David talks, first of all, about the physical toll that him covering up his sin is taking on his body. And he gives us four different images here. His bones wasted away. It felt like his body was wearing out and decaying. Second, he groaned all day long. Kind of like a lion in pain. David was in so much pain. God's hand felt heavy upon him. And then finally his strength dried up as by the heat of summer. Now, they lived back at that time here in the summertime when there was no rain, the ground would be all parched and dry and cracked. And David said that that is how his strength felt, that it was all gone, that had been zapped by God. And so David is describing the physiological reality of carrying around unconfessed sin. And when we look at psychology and it studies the effects of that, it is remarkable, the Bible's account is remarkably consistent with what psychologists study here. Clinical studies of guilt and shame, they document increased rates of anxiety, insomnia, depression, and a compromised immune function because people carry around long-term hidden guilt. And so the most notable phrase in all this is he says, When I kept silent, David wanted this to be a secret. And so David's suffering wasn't primarily because of what he had done, it was because of what he refused to do afterward. And so his silence was only compounding his sin. So not only did David write about the physical toll, but then we also see Isaiah writes about the spiritual toll as well. So let's take a look at Isaiah chapter 59, verse 2. Isaiah 59, verse 2 talks about the relational consequences. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he does not hear. And so the word Isaiah uses for separation. It means to create a distance between two things that belong together. And so this is the spiritual dynamic that confessing Christians often cannot name. That feeling that God has abandoned them. But there is a barrier and there is a distance and there is a sense that our prayers go nowhere. But unconfessed sin doesn't change God's love, but it absolutely affects our capacity to experience it. So we have the physical toll of unconfessed sin. We have the spiritual toll. And then now we also have the relational toll. Because hidden sin rarely stays contained. It typically radiates outward. And so the guilt we experience here makes us feel defensive and irritable. And the secret sin that we carry around creates emotional distance in our closest relationships with others. And our lives require more lives to maintain. And the shame causes us to withdraw from other people. And so what begins as a private sin becomes a relational infection. And so, Lynn, let's look here at the freedom on the other side. What happens when we confess our sin? And David writes, going back to Psalm 32, David writes and tells us what happened to him on the other side. And David writes this I acknowledge my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. So look at what David does not do. He doesn't confess a category, he doesn't say something like, I'm a sinner. He confesses specific content. And he uses three different words for his wrongdoing. First of all, he uses the word sin, which is missing the mark, missing that path that God wants us to go on. And then he uses the word iniquity, which refers to a moral perversion or crookedness. And then finally, he calls his sin a transgression. It was a willful rebellion against authority. And so he is acknowledging the full dimension of what he did. And let's look at the result. You forgave the iniquity of my sin. And so the weight of everything he felt collapsed the moment that he finally confessed it all. Now, he confesses to God what he did. But then James also gives us another dimension of confession in James 5.16, and that is confession to one another. So James writes this: therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. And so James uses a different word for confess, and this means to bring sin out into the open, out from concealment and into the light of community. And so James says that this brings about healing and spiritual restoration for the one who confesses. And so some sins not only need to be confessed vertically to God, but also horizontally to people. And I think we can break these down into three different categories. Sin against another person, that's one. If I have wronged you, confessing to God without confessing to you is incomplete. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus makes a point of this. Hey, if you have something wrong against your brother, leave your gift on the altar, go make things right, and then go back to the altar. Right? So if we sin against another person, we need to confess that to them. Sin with a pattern of recurrence. If the same temptation that you are dealing with happens over and over again, it can help if we bring that and confess it to a trusted brother or sister so they can help hold us accountable. Because sin thrives when we're alone and in darkness, but when we bring out what we're doing to other people, then they can help us navigate through that. And then finally, another category to confess to others is a sin that has become a secret. And so when we carry it around and we become more isolated and more separated from others, we bring it into the light and confess it to others to try to get rid of the leverage that sin has over us. So we see confession, and then we also see a pattern of freedom when it comes to confessing sin in Proverbs chapter 28. Proverbs 28, 13 says this: whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. And so Solomon here, he gives us a very distinct binary on this particular topic. And so notice the pattern he writes here: confess and forsake. You know what? Confession without change is not repentance, it's simply performance. You're simply saying something out loud. You have no desire, no intention to change. You're simply saying, I did this thing that's wrong, right? But true biblical confession is not just a change of words, it's a change in direction. And so when we repent, we actually have a change of mind. We're not just saying different things about our sin, but we're going in a different direction now. Now, how do we actually do this? So, how do we move from theology to something very specific that we can practice? Because doctrine without direction is simply incomplete. So, what are some things that we can do to walk in biblical confession? Well, number one, we can confess it to God specifically and not generally. And you know, there's a pseudo-confession, and I'll be honest, I've done this, I don't know about you, you decide this, right? But it's really just a vague criticism. I'm not a very good person. I haven't been as good as I as good as I should be. I know I can do better, right? And so we're being just very vague about this, but that's not confession, that's simply self-deprecation, right? Biblical confession names a specific sin before the specific God who is specifically offended by that sin. Right? So we have to be very specific and name it. And so before we go to bed tonight, ask God to bring to mind any specific unconfessed sin in your life. And when it surfaces, don't generalize it, name it specifically. For example, today I was dishonest with my spouse. I know that doesn't happen here because you are good Christian people who go to church. But some people I know are not always truthful with their spouse, right? So, right, I was not honest with my spouse today. I told a partial truth, right? And so confess, that partial truth was actually a lie because I did not tell him or her the full thing. Also, what we need to do is distinguish between guilt and shame. And there is a critical difference here because guilt is the conviction that I have done something wrong. Shame is the conviction that I am something wrong, that I am fundamentally defective, that I am unworthy, and that I am beyond repair. See, biblical confession addresses guilt and refuses the lie of shame. The gospel doesn't just forgive what you've done, it changes who you are. And so you're not defined by your worst moments if you are a Christian. You are defined by the blood of Christ and the verdict of God that says you've been justified, redeemed, and adoption. And so for us, confession is the doorway through which you walk through from guilt into that identity. But here's the thing: we always have our enemy, Satan, who always wants to bring shame back into our lives. And shame will try and convince us at times that God would not forgive us, that we are not worthy of his forgiveness here, that we've gone too far, that God's patience has run out. But we know from reading scripture that that is simply not true. Charles Spurgeon tells about the story of the weight of pastoral guilt. Charles Spurgeon was perhaps the greatest English-speaking preacher of the 19th century, and he was known not only for his extraordinary gifts, but for his extraordinary honesty about his own spiritual struggles. He suffered from severe depression throughout his ministry, and he was remarkably transparent about it. In one of his private letters, he wrote about the temptation to preach grace to others while withholding it from himself, to proclaim the forgiveness of God from the pulpit, but refusing to receive it personally. And he called this one of the most dangerous sins that a preacher could commit, knowing the truth and exempting yourself from it. And so when Spurgeon counseled young ministers, he said, the man who cannot confess his sin to God will eventually confess it to the world, whether he intends to or not. The only question is whether your confession will be chosen or forced. So, again, we have the opportunity to come before the Lord. Lord, and confess our sins freely. We also need to confess our sins to others when appropriate. And I mentioned that before, right? Confess to those that we have wronged. If our sin has directly harmed another person, we need to go to them and confess what we did specifically. Confess to those who can help you, like I mentioned before. If we are in a recurring pattern here, we need to find someone who's a mature believer, not a gossip, and tell them what we've done and ask them to pray with us and hold us accountable and walk through us. Also, confess only our sin, right? Don't confess another person's involvement in something. You're responsible for what you did. Others are responsible for their own actions. And we need to be prepared for the process to be slow. Once we've wronged someone, once we've sinned against them, and we confess that sin and ask for forgiveness, and they do forgive us, don't expect always that trust is restored immediately. Depending on the nature of the sin here, it could take some time for that trust to be rebuilt. And so we don't need to be demanding immediate forgiveness or immediate reconciliation. That is not confession. That is simply pressure. Once we confess to someone else, then we need to give them the room to process it and work through it to forgive us fully. And so if there's someone in your life that you've wronged but not fully acknowledged it, we need to go to that person. Now, here's what we don't need to say when we confess to someone else. I'm sorry if your feelings got hurt. Well, good for you, that's really nice. Right? That is not what we do. What we need to say is something like, I did this specific thing, I was wrong, and I know it hurt you. And I'm asking you to forgive me. That is confession to others. Also, we need to forsake the sin and not just confess it. You know, Proverbs 28, 13 pairs confession with forsaking. True repentance, like I said earlier, is not complete until our direction changes. And this is where many of us, I think, get stuck. We confess sin genuinely, we feel the relief from that sin, but then we walk back into the same pattern because we haven't made any structural changes to avoid that sin. And so sometimes, what does that mean? Well, maybe it means that we remove an app from our phone. Sometimes it means we have to cut off a relationship with someone else. Or we change a routine, or we avoid going to a particular location, or hanging out with specific people, because we know that if we continue engaging in these things, we will simply end up right back where we were before. And so we need to look at our lives, examine Israel's sin that we keep on forsaking constantly, and then ask ourselves, what structural change in my life am I willing to make to prevent this from happening again? And then number five, we need to seek help when confession alone is not breaking the pattern. And so there is no shame in admitting that some patterns of sin, things like addiction, deep-rooted shame, trauma-driven behaviors, or compulsive patterns, they require more than a private confession. Sometimes they recover, they require counseling from a professional counselor or a recovery community, or a professional Christian counselor, right? And so seeking help isn't a failure of faith, it is an act of wisdom. Because the same God who gave us uh 1 John 1 9 also gave us pastors, he gave us our brothers and sisters in Christ and the full range of human wisdom to help us address these issues. Because we were not meant to carry this weight alone. And so, as we try to wrap up here tonight, we'll go back to where David ended, because his bones were wasting away, and after groaning all day long, after the hand of God pressed down on him, he said, I acknowledge my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. And then, he writes, You forgave the iniquity of my sin. And that's the whole movement of the passage in Psalm 32 in one verse concealment to confession, weight to freedom, and silence to song. Psalm 32 opens with one of the most exciting declarations in the book of Psalms. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. And the word here David uses for being blessed is a word denoting happy flourishment, things being right. It's the same word that Jesus used in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. And here David uses it right at the beginning of this psalm about confession, because joy is not possible with confession without the honesty that precedes it. And so here's the thing is that we do not confess our way into God's love. And I tell you, this is a place where I was for many, many years. Oh, I can do this, and then God will be happy with me. If I do this, then God will love me. Do you know where you confess your sin from if you're a believer? You confess your sin from within God's love. Right? That is where it begins. And so God is not simply waiting on you on the other side of your confession here, like a disappointed father with his arms crossed. He is the father that Jesus writes about or tells about in Luke chapter 15, he sees you coming from a far away off, he runs to you. And so the confession that you speak is not the price of his forgiveness because Jesus already did that on the cross. The confession, what it does is it simply opens up our hands to receive the forgiveness that God already offers to us. And so, whatever you came here today hiding or carrying around or minimizing or making excuses for, or simply trying to outrun, what I encourage you to do is enjoy the path of freedom and being rid of the shame and guilt and not conceal that anymore. And the way you do that is by saying seven simple words, but they can be so hard for us to say, I was wrong, I'm sorry, and please forgive me. And you know what? When we confess this to God, right, those words themselves, they may not actually cost us anything, but for God, they cost him everything to forgive us for our sins. You know, we hear a lot uh today about uh debt collect about canceling student loan debt and things like that. Well, that money doesn't simply just go away. The debt doesn't go away, it's got to be coming from somewhere, right? When we sin, that sin has to be paid for. God can't simply sweep it under the rug. He can't say, oh, that's no big deal. It is, and it has to be paid for. But the good news is that the blood of his son Jesus Christ covers all of our sins. And that is good news for all of us. Let's pray. Father, how grateful we are that when we sin and we all sin, Lord, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins. I pray that we would that we would get out from under the guilt of sin and shame that we experience when we hide our sin. Lord, you see all things. You know all things, nothing is hidden from your sight. Forgive us for those times when we when we run away, when we feel too guilty to come before you, when we feel like you would reject us, when we feel like you would not approve of us. Oh Lord, there is nothing too great that the blood of your son does not cover, and that is hard for us to imagine. Lord, we know that your ways are not our ways, your thoughts are not our thoughts. And so, Lord, for those who were here carrying around unconfessed sin that's eating away at their lives, that is making them feel distant from you, whose hearts are growing cold and farther away from you and pulling away from others, I ask, Lord, that they would repent today, that they would not hold back, that they would run to you and openly confess what they've done. And in doing so, Lord, may you forgive them abundantly and completely because we know you know you will, because your word says that you will. And may they experience an incredible freedom. And Lord, also that you would guide their path so that they would not return to that again, that they would put a system in place that would prevent them from going back to that same destructive behavior. And Lord, in doing so that you would continue to transform our lives to look more like your son, that we would experience lives of freedom that you want us to experience, not being slaves to sin, but slaves to you. And may we in turn then go and share the good news of the freedom that is offered through your son. And we ask this all in his name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Thank you for that teaching time. Now, as we do every time we're together, we like to take a moment after the teaching time and just kind of talk through a big takeaway or key idea from today's time together, and then talk about some application. Because um at the end of the day, all the knowledge in the world doesn't matter if we can't have the rubber meet the road in our Christian life, right? Right. So, Pastor Dale, thank you for that message. Now, what is the the big idea or the key takeaway today?

SPEAKER_00 32:12

Confession without change, it's not repentance, it's simply performance. True biblical confession is not just a change of words, but it's a change of direction.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

The first time someone gave me that uh definition, it was revolutionary in my spiritual life. Because I had seen, you know, growing up in the church, I felt like confession was okay, now I'm learning how to jump over the hurdles of my sin and keep going in the same direction. Right. And then when somebody looked at me and said, No, you need to run the other direction, right? You know, I was like, whoa.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

So let's let's dive into that a little deeper, if that's okay. Sure. When we confess sin, we're saying the same thing about it that God says. We're adopting his verdict on that. And like you said, I think so many times we go, okay, I know I need to confess this, so I'll just confess it there. I've done it. But we have no intention, or maybe we have a superficial intention of actually doing something about it, of changing our direction and putting guardrails in place to where it doesn't happen again. But most of the time we simply stay down that path, knowing that, okay, this is going to happen again. And so we um say, well, I'll just confess it at that point again, right? But that really is not what what confession is. Kind of like, you know, you've got a few kids last time I checked. A couple. Yeah. You ever have some of them get into an argument with each other?

SPEAKER_01 33:42

I know it's rare because we're Christian parents and I have seven girls, they never argue are argue. Lord, I need to confess then. I just total liar.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

So so you know, when we tell our kids, hey, you need to apologize to your sister or your brother, and they go, sorry. They didn't mean that. Like side eye, bad tone. Right. They're simply just saying the words fine. Sorry. Like, no, you don't really mean it. And if we're real with ourselves, so many times you come to the Lord and we do that same sorry. Well, why are you saying that? Because I know I should. You don't mean it. You don't intend to change. And so that's why there's a big difference between confession and admission. When we admit, we say, okay, here are the facts. Fine. But that's all that's just the facts. And confession goes not just the facts, but then also a change of heart, a change in direction. And so that's so important for us to remember as Christians is that biblical confession is very different from a worldly admission that I've done something wrong. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Good word on that. And this isn't a bunny trail, it's a pause and clarification. I think one of our problems is that we don't see sin the way God sees sin. And you said that. We see sin as the action. And God knows that sin is the output of our brokenness. Right. You know, sin really is displacing God as the center of truth. And God says, This is bad for you, don't do this. We do it anyway. It's not the action, it's our heart. And so many times we think we fix the action that we're tricking God into thinking that, but no, he wants the heart fixed because he knows that's where we thrive. You know, and and and that's where I I think we get so off basis in sin, and and we create a hierarchy of sin. You know, like this sin's worse than this sin and and yes, in this world there are sins that are heinous, but the smallest sin offends God as much as the big sin. And I think we just forget it's because we're looking at God and going, In my heart, I think you're a liar, and I don't trust that your way is the best in the right way, and I'm not gonna follow your. I mean, that's why it offends God. It doesn't offend him because we told a little lie or a little this or a little that. No, it's we looked at him and said, Your way is not better. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I would be pretty irritated if my kids looked at me and said, Dad, I know you told me to do this, I'm gonna say sorry, but you know, we offend God with our sin.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

So Jesus taught his disciples to pray. One of the things he says is, you know, your kingdom come, your will be done. But what do we say? Not your will be done, but my will be done. So every time we sin, that's exactly what we're telling God. I know what you say about this, but I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna do my own thing. And we wouldn't put up with that from our children, not for a second. And so, why should God put up with that from us? And so we need to be carefully examining this and saying, no, this is exactly how God sees this. This is why it is so offensive, and this is why true biblical confession is so necessary. And here's the important thing I want people to hear, though, is that unconfessed sin, it doesn't change God's love. God still loves his children, but it absolutely affects our capacity to experience it because we feel that there is a chasm, there is a divide, there's a separation of two things that belong together, but now been separated by that sin.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Good word on that. And you will never have a fullness of relationship with God with that. Now, and I I do say this caveat. I'm amazed at how much God uses us and loves us, even when we are a steaming mess. Right. And so sometimes I think we forget in God's grace when he does great things in us because of his will and he wants to do those things. Sometimes we see that as an approval of what we're doing, and we don't see it as uh overarching grace where God is doing great things even though we're a mess. Right. Okay, very good. So this is so heavy. We could probably go another hour, but let's kind of um slow down a little bit and let's go through the application tollbooth here. Like what is the application for this? Because it's pretty theoretical. I mean, the the idea, but again, if we can't put this into action, all the knowledge in the world isn't gonna help us here.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Absolutely, because and and you're hitting on this doctrine, knowing what to believe, knowing the right thing to believe, but doctrine without direction is not complete. We can have all the head knowledge, but not do anything about it. So I want to give people five specific and actionable steps for walking through biblical confession. And the first one is this that we need to confess to God specifically, but not generically. And here's what I mean biblical confession names the specific sin before the specific God who is specifically offended by it. Now, how many times do we pray? Oh God, I'm a sinful person versus God. I sinned, I did these specific things wrong. And that's what I mean. We need to be very specific about what we've done. Also, we need to distinguish between guilt and shame. Okay, I talked about this earlier. Guilt is a conviction that I have done something wrong, and shame is a conviction that I am something wrong. And biblical confession addresses the guilt and refuses the lie of shame. That's number two. Now, sometimes we sin against other people, and so it's not simply enough for us to confess it to God. We need to confess that sin to those whom we've wronged and ask for forgiveness. And here's another thing: we need to forsake the sin, not just confess it. So fine, we've confessed it, but we need to put guardrails in place. What are we gonna do differently going forward to eliminate or at least greatly reduce the likelihood that we're going to commit that same sin? And then finally, we may try to to forsake a sin and we struggle with it, and then we keep going into it over and over again. And there may be times then when it's appropriate to seek help from others. Maybe it is a trusted uh trusted Christian brother or sister, maybe it is a pastor, maybe it is a professional counselor who can help us navigate through these to help break this pattern of sin that we find ourselves in at times. Good word on that.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

And I would say this um come from my counseling background on the last one. Sometimes you're gonna feel like, you know, because we all have sins that we will carry and have to deal with. Like they're they're very often found in maybe the people with our personality types or our backgrounds. Sometimes you'll have a sin that just you fight with and you struggle against for a lot of your life. There will be times though when you have that sin licked, and then you'll let your guardrails back down and then it'll sneak back in. And it's so I just want to encourage people that this is the right way to handle it, but it's not a one and done. It's not like, oh, look, I passed this video game level, I go to the next video game level, and I never have to go back. There there are, you know, who was it? Paul prayed for the thorn in the flesh to be gone. You know, you see different things. People just struggle. And there are some sins that will be hard because of choices we've made for our whole life, but God still wants to struggle and struggle alongside you. And the Holy Spirit still wants to convict you, forgive you, and help you have victory, right? What is it that um oh, it's it says when when talking about the the uh abounding, like there's lots of sin, but then grace abounds even more. We don't sin so we have grace, but man, when we sin a lot, God gives us a lot of grace. Yes, absolutely. Oh, very good. That's such that's so good. And that should be encouraging to people. Because normally confession, I mean, you grew up Catholic. Oh, yes. Um, confession was what number three thing on the list, you know, do this, do this, do this, and and you're good. And then but at the end of the day, we as Baptists and evangelicals, we see confession as this dirty thing that happens in a corner. But it is the most glorious daily reminder of the salvation that God gives us.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

And I'm so glad you said daily, because if we're really honest with ourselves, we sin daily. Every day we need confession hourly, every day, yes, minimally. Every day we need to experience that the grace and mercy and forgiveness that God offers to his children when they confess. And that's what I love so much about the psalm that we went through today with David, just the immediate relief that he experienced knowing that he made himself vulnerable before the Lord and confessed everything and didn't hold back and how liberating and freeing it is uh for us. So let me encourage folks that that confession is something that we need to practice daily. And if we believe, oh, I didn't sin today, look.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

You just did. Okay, one last thing before we leave. As a worship pastor, I always think about these things in worship. And most people listening to us are probably church going folks. Sometimes when people have a hard time stirring their hearts towards God and worship, like they might not be an overly emotional person, all those kind of things. I find the the greatest way for me to slide into a worshipful mindset, you know. I've said it a thousand times. I believe thankfulness and praise are different sides of the same coin. But man, when I start thinking about the things God's forgiven me, the things He's brought me through, the the times in just this week that He has His grace has abounded more and more in my life. Even if, you know, I'm having trouble with things, that that drives me to worship. That drives me, like that drives me to just go, Lord, you are so good and your mercy endures forever. So I just want to encourage people. Sometimes when we're having struggling, connecting in with worship or connecting with God's word, just sit down with him. There may be something in your life that he just wants to chisel through. And there may be a sin that you never would have seen because remember we said little sins are as offensive as big sins. And God just wants to make you more like him. And there may be something there he wants to work on. If you feel distant, go to him and ask him. He is faithful to tell us. Yes, absolutely. He may not send Nathan. Right. You know, may not send a prophet, but man, he's faithful. And I tell you, the other side of that, like shaping and honing, is one of the glorious, most intimate moments you'll ever have with Christ. Absolutely. Well, very good. Sorry I didn't mean to go there. You're good. Anything else as we wrap up today? No, that's all I have. Um now I think we have one more um session with Pastor Drook coming up uh in the spring session. Do you want to talk about the summer at all?

SPEAKER_00 45:29

Yeah, I'm really excited about the summer because we're going to be looking at some of the lesser-known passages in scripture. Maybe they're ones you've never heard preached on before. So we're going to be exploring the these hidden little nuggets and unpacking them. The format will be pretty short, uh, maybe 15 minutes or so for the teaching time. Uh so it'll be a light uh uh teaching time for this summer and perfect for a quick commute about town or to running kids somewhere or maybe to the office. So I hope you will stay with us this summer and enjoy our summer series. Great.

SPEAKER_01 46:03

I've got I've got a verse no one ever preaches on.

SPEAKER_00 46:08

Um okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

Okay, maybe not. I don't think so. Okay, good. Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining us. If you've made it this far, God bless you. And uh we we just we I I hope you know that uh we pray for you and and we pray that God's word would dwell richly in you and that he would change your life through it. We know this studying God's word will make a momentous change in your eternity and your future and how you struggle for Christ each and every day. It has brought us to a place of immense joy, and we hope that for you as well. Join us next week as we continue to grasp the Bible.