Embracing Truth: The Transformative Power of Confession

Devotional

Day 1: Confession Is Telling the Truth About Ourselves and God

Confession is not just about admitting guilt or sin; it is the practice of telling the truth about ourselves and about God, both to ourselves and to others. This means acknowledging reality as it is—our struggles, our joys, our doubts, and our hopes—without hiding or minimizing. True confession is about being real, not just with our shortcomings but also with our gratitude and excitement for what God is doing. When we practice confession in this way, we open ourselves up to deeper relationships with God and with others, and we allow the truth to shape us into people who instinctively live out the kingdom of right relationships. [05:30]

Psalm 136:1 (ESV)
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Reflection: What is one truth about yourself or about God that you have been hesitant to acknowledge or share? How might you take a step toward telling that truth today, even if it feels vulnerable?

Day 2: Confession Is Broader Than Admitting Sin—It’s Acknowledging Reality

In both the Old and New Testaments, confession is not limited to admitting sin; it is about agreeing with reality, declaring what is true about God’s goodness, and professing faith. The biblical words for confession encompass praise, thanksgiving, and the public acknowledgment of truth. This broader understanding invites us to confess not only our failures but also our faith, our gratitude, and our honest experiences—good or bad. Confession, then, becomes a way of living truthfully before God and others, embracing the fullness of our reality and God’s presence within it. [07:23]

Romans 10:9-10 (ESV)
Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Reflection: When was the last time you openly expressed gratitude or faith as a form of confession? What is one way you can practice confessing God’s goodness or your faith today?

Day 3: The Challenge of Being Real in a Distracted World

In our modern world, it is increasingly difficult to be real and to acknowledge what is truly going on inside us. Distractions, digital noise, and the pressure to present a curated version of ourselves can numb us to reality and make honest confession feel risky or unnecessary. Yet, God invites us to step out of the fog of distraction and into the clarity of truth-telling, even when it is uncomfortable. Being real with ourselves, with God, and with trusted others is a countercultural act that opens the door to healing, connection, and spiritual growth. [10:49]

Ephesians 4:25 (ESV)
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Reflection: What is one distraction or habit that keeps you from being real with yourself or others? How can you intentionally create space today to acknowledge and share what is truly going on in your heart?

Day 4: Confession Requires Time, Trust, and Safe Spaces

Practicing confession is not just a personal act; it is something we are called to do in community. This requires making time to reflect, having people we trust, and creating safe spaces where we can share honestly without fear of shame or judgment. True confession flourishes in relationships where we are known and loved, and where we can process both our pain and our hopes. As we cultivate these spaces, we help each other experience God’s presence in reality and grow together in authenticity and grace. [19:15]

James 5:16 (ESV)
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Reflection: Who is someone you trust that you could share honestly with this week? What would it look like to create or seek out a safe space for real conversation in your life?

Day 5: Confession Leads Us to Hope in Christ

When we acknowledge reality—including our limitations, pain, and longing—we are reminded of our finiteness and our need for God. Confession does not always remove the hurt, but it points us to the hope we have in Christ, who is making all things new. In our honesty, we encounter the realness and goodness of Jesus, who invites us to bring our whole selves—fears, failures, and hopes—to Him. As we practice confession, we are drawn into deeper dependence on God and a greater anticipation of the restoration He promises. [25:26]

Revelation 21:3-5 (ESV)
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Reflection: Where do you feel your own limitations or longings most acutely right now? How can you bring these honestly to Jesus today, trusting Him to meet you with hope and restoration?

Sermon Summary

Every fall, we take time to focus on practices—habits that shape us, not because we do them perfectly, but because they help us grow. Just like learning a new basketball move, it’s not about instant mastery, but about the slow, repeated work that forms our instincts. When life moves quickly, what comes out of us should be shaped by the kingdom of right relationships. This season, we’re exploring the practice of confession, a word that often carries baggage and misunderstanding. Too often, confession is seen as either a quick reset button or, worse, a tool for public shaming. But in the story of Scripture, confession is much broader and deeper.

In the Old Testament, the word for confession, “yada,” is about open-handedly telling the truth—sometimes about sin, but often about God’s goodness and reality itself. In the New Testament, “homologeo” and “exomologeo” mean to agree with reality, to speak truth, whether about our failures, our faith, or God’s character. Confession, then, is the practice of telling the truth about ourselves and about God, both to ourselves and to others. This is not just about naming sin, but about being real—naming our hopes, our confusion, our pain, and our gratitude.

Yet, being real is hard. We live in a world that numbs us to reality, that distracts us with endless content, shallow relationships, and curated personas. Even in the church, it’s easier to hide behind busyness or surface-level sharing than to risk vulnerability. I shared some of my own struggles—confusion with Scripture, the pain of watching a loved one decline, the sting of friendship disappointments. These are the real things that shape us, and often, we’d rather ignore them than bring them into the light.

Confession requires three things: time to reflect, people we trust, and spaces where we can be honest. Too often, our lives are too busy or too structured for real conversation. But God invites us to be present in reality, to bring our whole selves—hopes, fears, hurts—into community and before him. Naming reality doesn’t make the pain disappear, but it does lead us to hope in Christ. Our finiteness, our limitations, point us to the God who is infinite, who promises restoration and new creation. As we practice confession, we step into the realness and goodness of Jesus, experiencing his presence and hope.

Key Takeaways

1. Confession is More Than Admitting Sin In both the Old and New Testaments, confession is about telling the truth—about ourselves, about God, and about reality. It’s not limited to guilt or failure, but includes gratitude, praise, and honest acknowledgment of what is. This broader view invites us to live truthfully in every area of life, not just in moments of moral failure. [05:30]
2. Vulnerability is a Spiritual Practice It’s often easier to confess a sin than to admit confusion, pain, or disappointment. True confession means being real about what’s happening inside us, even when it feels awkward or insignificant. This kind of vulnerability is difficult, but it’s where real growth and connection happen, both with God and with others. [07:23]
3. Our Culture Numbs Us to Reality We are surrounded by distractions that keep us from facing what’s real—endless content, shallow relationships, and the pressure to curate our identities. This digital fog makes silence and reflection feel unbearable, and it’s easy to lose touch with our true selves. Practicing confession is a countercultural act that helps us wake up to reality and reconnect with God and community. [09:41]
4. Confession Requires Intentional Space and Community Being real with others doesn’t happen by accident. We need to make time to reflect, build trust with people, and create spaces where honest conversation is possible. Without these, we default to surface-level interactions and miss out on the depth God intends for us in community. [19:15]
5. Naming Our Limits Points Us to Hope in Christ Acknowledging our finiteness—our inability to fix every relationship or control every outcome—can be painful. But it also leads us to long for the restoration that only Christ can bring. In our weakness and longing, we find hope in the God who is making all things new, and we are invited to participate in his work of renewal.

** [23:07]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:22] - The Power of Practice: Basketball and Growth
[04:13] - Redefining Confession: Telling the Truth
[05:30] - Confession in the Old Testament: Yada
[06:30] - Confession in the New Testament: Homologeo and Exomologeo
[07:23] - The Challenge of Being Real
[09:41] - How Our Culture Numbs Reality
[10:49] - Confession in the Church and Personal Struggles
[12:27] - Honest Confessions: Joys and Pains
[14:40] - The Pain of Friendship and Vulnerability
[16:19] - Hiding Hurts and the Need for Safe Spaces
[17:58] - Three Essentials for Confession: Time, Trust, Space
[19:15] - Creating Space for Real Conversation
[20:44] - The Cost of Hiding and God’s Invitation
[23:07] - Our Finiteness and Hope in Christ
[25:26] - Communion and Stepping into Truth
[26:41] - Closing Prayer and Invitation

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Psalm 136:1 (ESV) — > Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

2. 1 John 1:8-9 (ESV)
> 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.

3. James 5:16 (ESV)
> Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Observation Questions

In Psalm 136:1, what is the main truth about God that the psalmist is confessing or declaring?
According to 1 John 1:8-9, what happens when we confess our sins? What does this reveal about God’s character?
In James 5:16, what is the connection between confession, prayer, and healing?
The sermon described confession as “telling the truth about me and about God to myself and to others.” What are some examples of this kind of confession that go beyond just admitting sin? [05:30]

Interpretation Questions

The Old Testament word “yada” includes praise, thanks, and telling the truth about reality—not just sin. Why might it be important to broaden our understanding of confession in this way? [05:30]
The sermon mentioned that sometimes it’s easier to confess a sin than to admit confusion, pain, or disappointment. Why do you think vulnerability about our struggles can feel harder than admitting a moral failure? [07:23]
The speaker described how our culture numbs us to reality through distractions and curated personas. How might this “digital fog” make it harder to practice true confession? [09:41]
The sermon said that naming our limits and finiteness points us to hope in Christ. How does acknowledging our limitations help us experience God’s restoration and presence? [23:07]

Application Questions

The sermon challenged us to make time to reflect on reality. What is one practical way you could create space in your week to slow down and be honest with yourself and with God? [17:58]
Who are the people in your life that you trust enough to be real with? What would it look like to take a step toward deeper honesty with them this week? [19:15]
The speaker shared about the pain of friendship disappointments and the temptation to just “move on” instead of processing those feelings. Is there a recent hurt or disappointment you’ve been avoiding? What would it look like to bring that into the light with God or a trusted friend? [14:40]
Our culture often encourages us to hide our fears and hopes. Is there an area of your life where you feel pressure to “keep it together” or present a certain image? How might practicing confession help you experience more freedom and connection? [20:44]
The sermon described confession as naming not just sin, but also hopes, confusion, pain, and gratitude. What is one thing—good or hard—that you want to confess to God or to someone else this week? [12:27]
The speaker said that confession doesn’t make pain disappear, but it leads us to hope in Christ. How have you experienced hope or healing through being honest about your struggles in the past? [23:07]
What is one step you can take to help your small group or community become a safer place for real, honest conversation? [19:15]

Sermon Clips

Practices are something you actually have to go and do, right? So you're practicing. And then the second piece is that practices shape who we are, right? And the word practice promotes this idea of growth, of you don't have to get it perfect, right? But it's just that you're practicing, you're engaging, you're moving forward. [00:00:30] (20 seconds) #PracticeShapesGrowth

All that practicing and now this is my natural instinct—that's what we want to do at Discovery with the practices, right? It's not about being able to say I did it, but it's about the joy of knowing what could be, a glimpse of what the kingdom of right relationships could be like, and having the practices shape who we are so that when life happens super fast, the natural instinct of what comes out is the kingdom of right relationships in us. [00:02:47] (28 seconds) #InstinctOfRightRelationships

At Discovery, we define confession to be the practice of telling the truth, acknowledging reality, about me and about God to myself and to others. Let me say that again. The practice of confession is the practice of telling the truth about me and about God to myself and to others. [00:04:38] (23 seconds) #ConfessionIsTruth

I think in many ways, I have a great example of the challenge of confession, because I'm like, always smiling, right? And, and it's not fake, like, I am generally happy most of the time, and I think I also do naturally have a pretty high threshold for just dealing with stuff and being okay with it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, right? [00:11:56] (23 seconds) #EmotionalCaregivingTruth

And maybe some of the more painful things, right? Can I confess that, you know, you guys know my mother-in-law lives with us, and as much as we love having her with us and the opportunity to love her, that I am learning that it is emotionally draining sometimes to watch her health and her mental capacities and sometimes even her personality degrade and change, right? That I'm learning that it's so different when you're a caretaker either way, but when you're taking care of a kid that's growing, there's that joy of, oh, how are they going to develop, right? But when you're taking care of your mom or your mother-in-law, it's watching them degrade from who they used to be, and that...the emotional toll of that is very different. And I know some of you guys feel that, right? [00:13:02] (53 seconds) #IntrusiveThoughtsAndCommunity

And here's the crazy thing, right? Like I feel like I, one, when I first learned it, the first thought in my mind was like, oh, like there's all these other intrusive thoughts that come in, right? When you start to deal with reality and how you feel, there's also all these unreal thoughts that come in, like was my friendship with him ever real, right? Or is my friendship with anybody real? Or do people just put up with me because I asked them to hang out and nobody actually wants to hang out with me, right? And this is one of the reasons why we encourage practicing confession communally, right? Because there's other people who can speak into your life on that. [00:14:49] (34 seconds) #ProcessingHurtTogether

Going back to K-pop demon hunters, your faults and fears must never be seen. I think one of the things that sticks out about that is that if your fears can't be seen, that also means that your hopes can't be seen, right? Because if you hope in something, our fear is that the hope doesn't come true, right? And so what ends up happening, what ends up happening is we end up just being these really rounded, you know, people, rounded edges that don't want to rub anybody the wrong way, that don't want to put ourselves out there, right? We only show people a shell of ourselves because we're afraid of what'll happen if we're really real. [00:21:18] (40 seconds) #GodInReality

But I think this is what God invites us into, right? That God is present in reality, that he's with us in reality. And he's inviting us to experience him and community in reality, right? [00:21:59] (15 seconds) #AvoidingRealityIsEasy

He gave us his body and he gave us his blood, not just for the forgiveness of sins, but also as an invitation to be a part of him, right? To be a part of what he's doing into this new creation, into restoration, into hope. [00:25:05] (19 seconds) #InvitationToNewCreation

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