Embracing Healing Through Confession and Community

"Hopefully it's felt that way for you. If you've been doing the work of this, if you've been listening in, if you've been taking the intentional time to pray and write and reflect and sharing that with somebody, that is something to celebrate. And so we want to welcome you back to that. If you have missed the last three weeks, if you haven't been here, I'd love to encourage you to go back and watch the last three weeks of our sermon series that we've been in. We've been going through the eight principles of Celebrate Recovery, which is a ministry that's been going on for a long time. And we're going to be starting here at our church. And we've been talking about how these eight principles that are embedded in the words of Jesus Christ are really a description of a journey that we take with him." [00:24:27]

"I don't know about you, but actually, I think sometimes I wish those were the next things because I don't want to deal with the sin and the damage that came from it. You know, that sin that we repented of, it caused damage in our lives, right? And maybe it's not just the sin that we did, it's the sin of others, that caused damage in our lives. And as much as we might want to skip it, it doesn't work that way. Then maybe that damage has caused some hurts. Maybe we have some resentments. Maybe we have some broken relationships. Maybe we have some people in our life that we just can't seem to talk to anymore or even think about." [00:27:30]

"Maybe there's some past pain we just can't get over. Maybe it caused some habits. Maybe there was something that you started doing that you just can't get over. Maybe there was something that you started doing while you were in your sin that you just can't seem to stop. No matter how much you want to, no matter how much you cry out for it, you just can't seem to find the light switch to flip it off. Maybe that damage caused some hangups. Maybe there's some guilt or some shame or some depression or some anger or some anxiety or some cloud of emotion that you just can't seem to see through." [00:28:17]

"Well, our title this week is coming clean and maybe that makes you a little nervous our principle is principle four and it's the o in recovery and it's openly examine and confess my faults to myself to god and to nobody else no and to someone i trust why don't you read with this with me read this with me read this with me read this with me read this with me read this with me read this beatitude with me blessed are the pure in heart for they will see god i don't know about you when i've read this statement in the past i've seen it as an as a as a disqualifying statement right like like in my mind for somebody to be pure at heart is somebody that can pull the excalibur sword out of the stone or somebody that can pick up thor's hammer it's somebody that doesn't have the baggage that doesn't have the brokenness somebody that hasn't made all the mistakes and hasn't hurt so many people and where i can relate to mourning i can relate to feeling poor in the spirit i can relate to feeling meek sometimes it's hard for me to relate to being pure in heart because maybe that ship has sailed for me and what we're going to look at this morning is the idea that maybe jesus christ's definition of this idea of pure in heart is different than this never been blemished never made a mistake never made a mistake untouched perspective that we have sometimes" [00:29:18]

"Jesus answered everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life the woman said to him sir give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming back here he told her go call your husband and come back I have no husband she replied Jesus said to her you're right when you say you have no husband the fact is you had five husbands and the man you have now is not your husband what you've said is quite true and this part of the conversation has always gripped me because what Jesus does here is so far from what I would have done I should have agreed to message you really come to just give me this water" [00:35:58]

"I think all of us love the idea of this prayer creating me a pure heart oh god but we don't want to go to we don't want to go through the car wash to get it it's too painful it's too hard we just want him to come and give us a new heart and we don't want to go to the car wash to get it clean it up so we can move on but when we try to hide a piece of our pain we prevent healing to the whole person" [00:42:14]

"Jesus says blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God and that's not a statement about people that have never had mistakes that's not a statement about people that have never caused damage that's not a statement about people that don't have baggage what Jesus is saying there is oh congratulations man here's your shovel we're gonna start digging you and I we're gonna dig out of your life and your past and your memories and your heart all of the stuff that's keeping you from being pure oh it's gonna be great we're gonna work all the stuff that you've been holding back that's been weighing you down that's been keeping you captive captive we're gonna dig it out even the stuff that you've forgotten about the stuff that that caused damage and you've been living because of that damage but you don't even remember where it came from oh we're gonna get it we're gonna dig it out and you're gonna see me you're gonna finally see me past the shame past the guilt past the condemnation you've been feeling you're gonna finally see who i am for you that i'm not somebody that just comes to clean up your messes i'm not somebody that just whitewashes your tomb i'm somebody that wants to give you a pure heart no matter how long it takes" [00:42:44]

"but it takes time it takes a willingness a willingness to let him in a willingness to let him in to let him work our principle this week is openly examine and confess my faults to myself to god and to someone i trust we've been putting the same four next or same three next steps in front of you each week during this series and those three next steps are perfectly encapsulated in this principle openly examine and confess my faults to myself through writing to god through prayer and that's it unfortunately no and to someone i trust" [00:44:44]

"this is hard i think the two that we probably do the easiest are the first two somewhere along your your journey you really lean into the reality that god sees it all you're not hiding anything there's no spiritual closet that you can keep set aside that's like got led around it and he can't see through it that's not a thing he sees it every dark corner and cranny that you feel ashamed of and worried about he already knew about before you ever accepted him and before he ever offered himself to you and he still he still did that there's nothing that's surprising him in your life there's nothing that's making him second guess or question he's all in he was all in from the get -go but it's hard it's hard to let him all in amen it's hard to write about it and celebrate recovery we call this a moral inventory and the first part of our moral moral inventory is you have to be willing to pray this prayer out of Psalms 139. Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts." [00:45:37]

"See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. You have to be willing to pray that prayer. You have to start there. The next thing, you have to make time for it. You have to make time for it and you have to make space for it. I love to go work on stuff at coffee shops and in public places. Don't go work on this at a coffee shop. Because you're going to need some private space. If you're really going to do it, if you're really going to work it, I would encourage you to bring some tissues. Because it's hard. You have to write down the damage that you've caused to yourself and to others. You have to." [00:47:04]

"You have to write down the inverse. You have to write down the damage that's been done to you. You have to. You can't be afraid of it. You're going to be afraid of it. Both of these. But you can't let it stop you. You have to write it down. You have to get it out there. It can't keep being the boogeyman in your closet that's harassing you and keeping you up, keeping you in shame. You have to get it out there. I know you don't want to. I know what it's like to sit in a pew in a row with a secret sin that I feel terrified for people to know. I know what it's like when you bring it into the light. I know what the next day feels like when you realize, oh, they weren't going to judge me after all. There were all these people that loved me, that will help me." [00:48:41]

"The Lord is faithful 100 % of the time. Never let you down 100 % of the time. There is always forgiveness 100 % of the time. And he himself is the one that commands us to share it with other people. Because he knows we have to. We've looked at this verse recently, James chapter 5. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." [00:50:05]