Prayers That Stick – DUH

Prayers That Stick – DUH (Psalms of Confession)
Sycamore Creek Church
April 1, 2012
Tom Arthur
Psalm 32

DUH Friends!

This past week I found myself facing something of a trial.  I was throwing my own little pity party and saying to myself, “I deserve better than this.  I shouldn’t have to deal with this.  People should make my life easy.”  I was driving down the road speaking this way to myself when I heard more clearly than I’ve heard in a long time, “Who promised you a trial-free life?  Jesus certainly didn’t have one.”  DUH!  The next morning as I was writing in my journal and examining myself for sin, I realized the sin I had fallen into: pride.  Pride is a tricky sin.  It’s subtle and hard to notice, but pride basically tells us a lie.  Pride tells us that we’re something that we’re not.  Humility is telling the truth about yourself.  So in my journal I confessed my pride to God.

Today we continue a series called, Prayers that Stick.  We’re looking at the book of Psalms which is basically a book of all kinds prayers in the form of poetry.  These aren’t the kind of prayers that feel shallow.  They’re prayers that stick with you for a long time.  They’re prayers that are worth sticking in your memory by memorizing them.  They’re prayers that we believe stick with God too.  So far we’ve looked at prayers of praise, prayers of wonder and awe, prayers of lament and cursing, and today we look at prayers of confession.

It’s a good time to consider confession.  It’s a good time to confess.  Well, actually any time is a good time to confess, but today is Palm Sunday and it begins the week leading up to Easter called Holy Week.  This week ends the 40 days of Lent in which we prepare ourselves for Easter.  Part of that preparation is confession.  I’ve picked Psalm 32 to help us do that this morning.  Admittedly, Psalm 32 is more a psalm about confession than a psalm of confession, but I think we’ll still learn something that will stick with us.  So let’s begin with Psalm 32.

Psalm 32 NLT

Oh, what joy for those
whose rebellion is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
Yes, what joy for those
whose record the LORD has cleared of sin,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty!

When I refused to confess my sin,
I was weak and miserable,
and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.
Interlude

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide them.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.”
And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
Interlude

Therefore, let all the godly confess their rebellion to you while there is time,
that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.
For you are my hiding place;
you protect me from trouble.
You surround me with songs of victory.
Interlude

The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you.
Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”

Many sorrows come to the wicked,
but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the LORD.
So rejoice in the LORD and be glad, all you who obey him!
Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!

Thank you God for Psalm 32!

Did you notice that there were a lot of different ways to describe sin in the first couple verses of this psalm?  There are four kinds of sin according to Psalm 32:

32:1 Rebellion (pe-sha) – an active rebellion against God’s will;

32:1 Sin (hka-ta-ah) – un/intentionally missing the mark of God’s will;

32:2 Sin/Iniquity (a-ohn) (guilt) – accumulated guilt from rebellion or missing the mark;

32:2 Deceit/honesty (ru-me-yah) – deceiving oneself and/or others.

When I look at this list of the ways to sin, I realize that there are a lot of different ways to sin just like there are at least four words to describe it.

When we commit these kinds of sin there are consequences.  We learn more about that as we keep reading the psalm.  In verse three we read about how unconfessed sin tears us apart inside, and how God doesn’t leave us alone but convicts us of this sin:

When I refused to confess my sin,
I was weak and miserable,
and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

In the end we’re left without much strength, perhaps physical, emotional, or spiritual strength.

When I was working at another church, we had a copier that you really weren’t supposed to put card stock through it.  It was apparently bad for the machine.  But I needed something printed on card stock and decided to run it through it anyway.  As I was doing this the secretary walked up and noticed I was using the machine in a way I shouldn’t be using it.  So what did I do?  I lied.  Yes, I was working at a church, and I lied.  I told her that I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to do it.  Active rebellion.  DUH!

Well, over the rest of the day my conscience would not let me go.  My stomach was in knots.  Every time I saw her I felt like I had betrayed her trust.  I probably didn’t look any different on the outside, but on the inside I was being eaten up.  Finally I went to her, and I confessed.  I said, “Sue, I need to tell you something.  When you saw me putting card stock through the copy machine, and told me I wasn’t supposed to do that, I lied to you.  I told you I didn’t know, but I did know.  I’m sorry that I lied to you.  Will you forgive me?”  She was gracious and forgave me, and I felt the weight of the sin lifted off of me.  Thank you God!

What are all the kinds of ways you find yourself sinning and what is it doing to your physical, emotional, and spiritual strength?

Just in case you’re having a hard time coming up with ways that you’re sinning, there are several places in scripture where different writers list different sins.  That’s one of the benefits of daily Bible reading.  You learn how you’re life isn’t hitting the mark, and you’re given the grace of conviction so that you can confess those sins and be made right with God and others.  Here are some of those lists of sins to ponder and examine yourself:

Romans 1:29-31 NLT

Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving.

Ephesians 5:3-4 NLT – Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes — these are not for you.

Colossians 3:5-9 NLT – So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Don’t be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry…Now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other…

1 John 2:16 NLT – For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world.

Revelation 2:5 & 3:16 NLT – Look how far you have fallen from your first love…Since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth!

Have we become Luke Warm?

When I look at that last one in Revelation, I regularly ask myself, have I become lukewarm?  Have I lost my first love?  Have I made anything else in my life more important than my love for God?  Sometimes, church, I wonder if we have not become a lukewarm church.  Here are some questions to ponder about whether we’ve become lukewarm or not:

• Do you spend unhurried time daily with God? Or does God get your crumbs of time if even that?  If you’re too busy for this, then you’re too busy.  (I was talking with Jana Aupperlee earlier this week.  Jana is helping to lead the Run for God small group that is doing spiritual and physical training to prepare to run a 5K race.  She told me how she has been convicted in the past that she is able to find daily time for exercise and running but not always for God.  Are the rest of us like that?)
• Do you seek counsel from other Christians in your spiritual walk?  Are you in some kind of small group?  Or are you a solo-Christian who thinks you can go it alone, that everyone else is wrong, crazy, and ignorant?
• Do you give cheerfully? Do you give regularly and intentionally?  Do you give sacrificially?  Do you give from the first portion of what you receive?  Or do you give begrudgingly when you feel like it or not at all?
• Do you serve cheerfully?  Or have your extracurricular activities so overcommitted you and your family that you serve only because we chase you down?  Do you serve only when it’s convenient for you?
• Do you have an overflow of joy for inviting people to know Jesus in and through the community we call SCC?  Does your love for God and for this church naturally flow into your conversations with people around you?  Or is this whole church and Jesus thing just a game rather than life and death and eternity?  Have you taken the opportunity to invite three people to Easter seriously or do you brush that opportunity aside and ignore it?
• Do you come to church with a bib on only to feed yourself, or do you come to church with a towel in hand so that you can help feed others?  Do you stick to the people you know on Sunday morning or are you regularly working on building community here at SCC with people you don’t know, especially guests among us?

Friends, if we are turning into a lukewarm church, then that’s something we need to pray to be convicted about, confess to God, and then do a U-turn and get going the other way.  But how do we confess?  What does a confession look like?  Psalm 32 provides some guidance.  Just like there were multiple words for sin, so too are there multiple words for confession.  We read about four ways to confess in verse 5:

1. I confessed (ya-da) – Made known;

2. I did not hide (ca-sah) – Uncover, only God can cover our guilt;

3. My iniquity (in the NLT it simply says “Them”, but literally the Hebrew says “a-ohn” or guilt) – Take responsibility, the guilt is mine;

4. I will confess (ya-dah) – Cast it off (and onto God).

So confession includes making the active rebellion, missing of the mark, guilt and deception known, uncovering it and putting it where it can be seen, taking responsibility, and casting it off of oneself (by God’s grace) onto God.

Usher, a contemporary R&B singer has a song called Confession.  In it he tells the story of how he cheated on his loved one and now his “chick on the side” is having his baby.  Here’s the lyrics to the song:

Chorus: These are my confessions
Just when I thought I said all I can say
My chick on the side said she got one on the way
These are my confessions

Verse 1: Now this gon’ be the hardest thing I think I ever had to do
Got me talkin’ to myself askin’ how I’m gon’ tell you
’bout that chick on part 1 I told ya’ll I was creepin’ with, creepin’ with
Said she’s 3 months pregnant and she’s keepin’ it
The first thing that came to mind was you
Second thing was how do I know if it’s mine and is it true
Third thing was me wishin’ that I never did what I did
How I ain’t ready for no kid and bye bye to our relationship

Is this a real confession?  It’s not bad, but somehow it feels forced to me.  It feels like he’s been backed into a corner and is looking for a way out. If he found it without confessing, I get the sense that he’d take that route.  If his “chick on the side” would have an abortion, then he wouldn’t have to confess.  If he found out the baby wasn’t his, then he could deny the accusation.  But for now, it appears that he’ll have to “man up” to it and confess.  I’d prefer for him to take more responsibility.  His confession could go something like this:

I have done wrong to you.
I have done what I should not have done.
I was unfaithful emotionally and sexually.
I would like to ask you to forgive me, but I expect that if the relationship continues, it will require a lot of hard work to repair the broken trust.
I am sorry for what I have done.

In the same way that there are several ways to sin and several ways to confess, there are several ways that God forgives us.  We read about these back in verse one and two:

32:1 – Our active rebellion is Forgiven (na-sa) – It is lifted up off of us.

32:1 – Our sin is Covered (ca-sa) – We uncovered it in confession and God covers it with forgiveness.  The verb here is passive.  God does the work.  We receive it.  Augustine says, that our “sins are buried in oblivion.”

32:2 – Our guilt is Cleared (hka-sha) – God does not count it in some heavenly ledger.

Interestingly there is no word for forgiveness that is paired with deceit.  Maybe that’s because deceit hinders us from making the sin known to begin with.

When I read about all these ways that God forgive us, an image comes to mind.  Many mornings I do exercise in my living room.  Micah, my sixteen-month-old son is usually running around at my feet.  He often wants to use all my exercise equipment: bands, pads, balls, and dumbbells.  I have one set of five pound dumbbells, that he can barely lift if at all.  The weight is way too heavy for him.  He is bent over by it.  But I can pick it up with ease.  I could easily throw it across the room.  The five pound weight is everything to Micah, but it is nothing to me.  Maybe our sin is to us and God what that five pound weight is to Micah and me.

If we begin to confess our sins in all their shapes, colors, textures, flavors, and styles, there are some new habits that we’ll be practicing.  Psalm 32 lists those new habits.  In verse eight of NLT we read “The LORD says, ‘I will guide you…”  But in the Hebrew the phrase “The LORD says” is not there.  The line of the psalm just begins with “I.”  Who is the I?  Obviously the NLT translation team thinks the “I” is God speaking.  I tend to disagree.  I think because its poetry that the I can be both God and the psalmist who is writing the psalm. Thus, not only does God guide us but the wisdom of those around us guides us too.  Verse eight goes on to list three things that this person does with us: guides us, advises us, and watches us.  In other words, we don’t do it alone.  We do it with God in community.  We share in the wisdom of those who have gone before us, and God gives us the grace and power not to do it again.

There are at least three ways I seek guidance from those around me.  First, I have a small group that I meet with regularly.  I don’t lead this small group.  I just show up and participate like any other person in the group.  Some of that participation includes  confessing my sins to them and seeking their guidance on how to make my relationship right with God and with the person I sinned against.  Second, I also have another pastor that I meet with regularly.  His name is Jon, and Jon is also my internet accountability partner.  I have a program called X3 on my computer that monitors what websites I visit.  It also runs on my cell phone.  Every two weeks it sends a report to Jon for us to discuss.  In this way I confess my true self to Jon.  Third, my wife, Sarah is a confession partner.  I regularly confess my sins, screw-ups, mistakes, and hang-ups to her.  In my better moments I even listen to what she has to say after I confess.

Who are the people who are guiding, advising, and watching you?

Psalm 32 draws a picture of the results of this kind of confession.  Our hiding place becomes God rather than hiding in sin.  The sorrow of sin, for sin itself is its own torment, disappears and is replaced with God’s unfailing love for us.  All of this can  simply be called joy.

Remember that sin of pride I told you I confessed to God in my journal earlier this week.  After I confessed it to God I sensed a kind of release from the weight of that pride, and some release from the anxiety of the trial.  I was given a new energy and enthusiasm to tackle the problem.  That’s what confession does.  DUH!