How to Stop Feeling Guilty
Jeremy MacDonald · Tidal Church Moncton · October 22, 2023 · Check Your Baggage series
Jeremy MacDonald looks at 1 John 1:9, Romans 7 and Psalm 51 to show that guilt and shame come from both our past and our deeper nature. Confession, to God and to those we have hurt, opens the way to Jesus' forgiveness and cleansing.
More from Jeremy MacDonald · The Check Your Baggage series
Topics: Grace, Forgiveness, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] Well, tonight at 7:00 PM I'm leaving on jet plane. I do know when I'll be back. It'll be next week. But I'm going to, Vancouver and then later on to Ottawa as well. For the last four years, I've worked with this organization called the Youth Worker Community, and we get a chance to train and equip youth workers all across our country, through our school at the bachelor's and master's level, through digital resources and through events. And so I'm going to these two events and this is my, bag for tonight. Legitimately, it's packed. It's got about 45 pounds. I had to test it to make sure it's underweight. And, I absolutely love when I travel, being able to pack, like I have a lot of stuff to take with me, you know, some of our, materials and, you know, some cords and that kind of stuff, and, giveaways. And so I love being able to put it into a bag, get to the airport, and just hand it off to somebody and that they become responsible for it. Like, I don't have to carry it around anymore.
[0:58] I don't have to worry about it between there and my destination as long as things go well, that it will be there when I get there. And, that for that entire journey, I've been able to check my baggage. And to be honest, if you've flown in airplanes, if you've experienced the life inside of that little tiny tube with other people, how awful would it be if we had to bring our luggage with us? Like there'd be no space for it. You'd bump into people, it would be disruptive, it would be uncomfortable. There would be a lot of angry eyes if you're bringing in a lot of stuff. And sometimes I have a lot of baggage to bring with me. And so the idea of being able to tonight be able to hand that off, it's just, it brings me a little bit of joy and, that joy and freedom that comes from being able to check my bag is the kind of thing that we were wanting to tap into for a few weeks here as we talk through this series that we've called Check Your Baggage.
[1:52] And the idea here at Moncton Wesleyan is that we'll not often, want to just talk in one message, but instead, we really appreciate being able to have a number of weeks where we can, dissect an idea together, dig into Scriptures together, and unpack something over multiple weeks because it, together as a community over time, that kind of thing ends up being a little bit more robust than just being able to cover one thing in one message. And so this series, if you caught it at the start last week, incredible Sunday where for, Nathan coming and preaching, like he brought us to this place for so many people, a really sharp understanding that maybe we've been bringing things into our life that just isn't actually meant to be there. Like perhaps the, life that God calls us to, the flourishing that He would have for us, the joy that He would have for us as we follow Him is something that we've sometimes and for some of us have rejected and instead tried our own path and it just doesn't work. And in such, we bring baggage and hold onto it. You know, next week we're gonna hear from Rhoda, and she's gonna talk about what happens when baggage comes into your life.
[2:57] Not because you've brought it there, but because other people have given it to you. You know, there's, circumstances and relationships where you experience somebody else's issues that now changes your trajectory in your life. What do you do when it's not your fault? And yet you are now holding onto somebody else's baggage? And then the following week we'll get from Debbie Currie, an incredible message on how, if we're not careful, if we don't check and get rid of our baggage in our life, that we might miss out on God's power and His purpose for our lives and His presence, wanting to be with us each and every day. And then for today, for right now, I want us to take a few moments and wrestle with the baggage that we have brought into our own lives. We can't point the finger, but this is our story and this is our baggage.
[3:48] And if we don't find a way to hand it off and to offload it and to give it up, it is gonna continue to carry with us an enormous amount of frustration. It's gonna affect our relationships, and it already has. It's gonna be something that weighs heavy on us. It's gonna cause us to feel guilty. It's gonna cause us to wanna try to figure out how to forgive ourselves because we've got things in our lives, in your life that if we sat down and had a conversation about it, you would say, yeah, this is kind of like my baggage. If I told you my story, this is all the baggage that I come with. You know, maybe when you get into a new relationship and you at some point have a talk and a conversation where you're like, now I get to share with you all of my baggage. Now that we've got a little bit of a rapport, and it goes back to all sorts of different examples and, stories and situations and circumstances, and, sure it wasn't completely your fault, and yet you made some decisions and you went to that place and you logged onto that website and you downloaded that app and you sparked that conversation that led you to a regret and a thing that now is a part of your story that you wonder what you're supposed to do with it. It's an experience that at the very, like bare minimum, just so that we're all on the same page, at least I think we're gonna be on the same page on this one. Last weekend, my friend said, let's go for ice cream at 9:00 PM, which I know is not a good decision, but something within me said, let's go for ice cream.
[5:14] I drove to the one place and it was closed. And he said, well, let's just go. We're done. We don't have to get ice cream. And I said, no, we're gonna find ice cream. And we found the open spot. And I didn't order the small, I ordered the medium, but it was late at night. I knew it was gonna disrupt my sleep. I knew it was useless. Like I knew what is it inside of me that causes me to create at the very bare minimum these kinds of experiences in my own life. And you've got those stories, and some of them are funny and you'd be willing to share with them in public settings, but some of them are secrets. You know, some of them are the things that nobody else really knows, and yet they're with you and that you carry them in your day to day life. And so when you think about those things, different emotions, well up inside of you and no matter where you're at in your journey of, faith, I mean, obviously we gather together and we talk about this Christian God, but, you don't have to believe in this God to recognize that this is an issue we all face. No matter what your faith story is, you have examples when you think about these things, it wells up emotions that, you know, we gotta figure out how to deal with them.
[6:22] And so when you think about those things, they, end up bringing up different emotions, for example. So for some of you, you might feel a little bit sad because you wish it could have been different. You know, you had this hope and dream for your life, and then, you know, you did something or something came up, or, you know, you just didn't respond the way you should have. And, and you just feel regret over your decisions and what that has done in your life. And so that kind of sadness wells up and you, wrestle with what you're supposed to do with that. For some of you, it's a little bit different, your thing, whatever the thing is, and the experience, you start to feel a bit mad. You're mad because you feel like somebody should have warned you better. Maybe your upbringing could have been stronger. Why didn't somebody protect you more? And then because of whatever happened and or didn't happen, now you've got this kind of thing inside of you that you have to wrestle with.
[7:13] And again, it's something that you are responsible for. We'll talk about the things that happened to you, but like the things that you're now responsible for and you're just, makes you angry. For some of you, it's not that it's about you. You feel bad because now your decisions are affecting other people and you recognize it like you didn't wanna be like him. And yet now that you have the people following you, the kids or the students or the other folks, or the new direct reports, you end up becoming just like the person you didn't want to become. And now you feel bad. Why is that? Why am I this way? And as this kind of wells up inside of you, this is what happens. You end up feeling guilty, you end up feeling guilt because inside you realize, oh, I could have done this differently. I could have been stronger, I should have done something.
[8:03] And yet this is the situation and this is what's happening, and this is who I am. And so guilt and then guilt wells up and even gets stronger. And it turns into this, you feel shame, and shame is destructive. Shame changes your life, shame adjusts your path. Change, shame ruins your relationships. Shame will take you out. And so all of these kinds of things, if, we can get to look it maybe a little bit more, maybe more specific to be more helpful and understand how this fits into categories. There's kind of two categories that I think of. And when we, we wrestle with this, it comes down to like your past, the things that you've done. And, we all have those stories again on the small scale to some of the big scale things. And we've got things that we've done that we wish we hadn't, but we also have, and this is important, our present and who, Who you are and who I am, and why can't I be the dad that I really want to be?
[8:57] Why can't I always act as the kind of husband I know I should be? Why can't I always be the type of employee? Why can't I, like, I know what I want to be like, and yet, and yet I don't even live up to my own expectations of myself, let alone anybody else's. And the question that comes out is kind of this question, and this is a big one that I think we should all wrestle with throughout our lives and at different times. And when this stuff comes up, why can't you do the things that you want to do and be the person that you want to be? Because you actually know what the right answer is. It doesn't take a lot of thinking to realize what would somebody thoughtful and wise and full of character and a good person do in these situations? We can usually come up with the answer. The struggle is, why can't we be that person and do those things in every situation?
[9:51] Well, this has been a human universal. Again, no matter your faith background, no matter what you believe about God, it doesn't matter. This is something we all face and wrestle with from the beginning of our lives, honestly, probably mostly to the end of our lives. And this has been something that is written about in ancient wisdom all the way back to the very first century when the Christian church started gathering together. And one of the most famous of authors in our New Testament, the apostle Paul, writes specifically about this issue. And the fascinating thing about Paul is that he was actually like the best of the best, like in lots of ways. When he was growing up, he was, he was the teacher's pet. He knew the right answers. He was the Pharisee of all Pharisees. He knew the law, he knew the right things to do, he was trying to do the good things. And then Paul had this miraculous encounter, and all of a sudden his life completely changed, and he fixed his eyes on Jesus, and he became the church planter extraordinaire, spreading the gospel message of Jesus, telling everybody about it. And in lots of ways, for somebody in our world today, Paul was really the kind of person you would think should have this together and have this kind of thing sorted out, like me in my own, you know, depravity and, you know, destruction, like, man, I can mess things up. But like, you see that person that's preaching on the platform, like surely they know how to get it all together.
[11:12] And that would've been people's expectations of Paul. But he writes this letter to the church in Rome, and this is what he says. It's fascinating. This is him speaking. "I don't really understand myself," which is so interesting, because how many times do we confuse our own selves? How many times do you say something or do something or go back to that old habit or go back to that old thing and you think, why am I doing that? Why do I keep going back? And Paul is saying, "I don't understand even myself. For I want to do, I really do at the deep core." It's not that I want to be an evil person. It's not that I wanna be a bad person. It's not that I wanna break these relationships or cause this dysfunction or ruin this kind of trajectory.
[12:00] "It's just that even though I really want to do what is right, I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate." What is that? He goes on, he says, "I wanna do what is right, but I can't. I wanna do what is good, but I don't. I don't wanna do what is wrong, but I do it anyway." And without, nobody needs to put their hands up. But like, come on, this is us. Like this is you. You've had these moments, you've had good moments. I'm not saying you're like completely evil and bad all the time. Like you have stood up to you, you know the wrong things and you've made wise choices for sure. And yet there's still the examples. And so what did we do with that internal wrestle? He explains kind of what this is and gives us some language for it.
[12:47] "There is another power within me that is at war with my mind." And there's another power within you that is at war with your mind and with your heart, with your best interests. There's a war going on inside. "And this power makes me a slave." This is strong language, "but it makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me." Here's a preacher as he's planting churches, as he's spreading the good news, and he says, this is a wrestle that I'm still dealing with. And sin is this fascinating word that we sometimes obviously talk about in church world. This is the central part of our faith journey. What do we do with sin? And yet sin is sometimes easily relegated to like that lie that we told or maybe that thing that we did that we knew we shouldn't.
[13:40] And it becomes like maybe there's a list of check boxes of the sins of our lives. But it's actually much more deep than that. It's a lot more complicated than that. When the writers are talking about sin, when we read in the Scriptures about the experience of sin, it's a lot more encompassing. And so there's this fascinating YouTube series. You should check out the Bible Project. The Bible Project. They've got a very fascinating website. They've got an app. They've got, all sorts of wonderful tools on diving deeper into some of the big concepts and even the different parts of Scripture. And so the Bible Project, when you watch their videos on sin, they explain it this way. And I just wanna quote it, because I think it can be a little bit helpful for expanding our understanding of what Paul's saying when he talks about sin. It says this: "Sin or moral failure.
[14:27] And this is often kinda what we think. It's like that moral failing within us is depicted in the Scriptures as a wild hungry animal that wants to consume humans, this wild hungry animal inside of us that wants to consume us." They go on, they say this, "The Bible is trying to tell us that failed human behavior, our tendency towards self-deception, it actually runs really deep. Like this is baked in, this is really rooted deep into our souls, and this is something that we wrestle with." And then they finally, and the wrap of the quote here is, "It's rooted in our desires, our selfish, selfish urges that compel us to act for our own benefit at the expense of others and at the expense of what God has invited us into."
[15:16] And so there's this really important spiritual notion too, the framework that we were just talking about a second ago. So like we mentioned that there's kind of two frameworks here. You know, you think about your past, the things that you've done, the things that you'd be embarrassed to talk about. You think about the present, about who you are and about not quite measuring up to who you would want it to be. And in the Scriptures it kind of comes out this way. It would, maybe we could say like the sin, those things that you've done before, for sure. But then there's a sense of sin that actually is baked in at our core that becomes this unrighteousness. It's our nature inside of us, this sense that there's something at war within us that we have to figure out how to wrestle to the ground and root out, otherwise it becomes the baggage that we carry with us throughout our entire life. And it shows up in the most inopportune times, in the conversation with that person that you love.
[16:02] And then all of a sudden you're saying and doing things that you wish you didn't do, or in that business deal or that transaction where you know the right thing, and yet there's something inside of you that caused you to go the different way or that invitation that you knew you should have said no to. And yet you went anyways. And for all of those situations and all those things, it's not to let you off the hook, it's just to help you understand yourself, that there's something deep going on. Now in our culture today, if you google this, if you go on YouTube and say like, how do I stop feeling guilty? Or how do I forgive myself? Or how do I move on from these types of things? There are all sorts of videos. And I watched a bunch of them 'cause I was so fascinated by what do people do if they don't have a way to approach this from like a faith perspective?
[16:47] And so there's lots of ideas and there's lots of things that can come good from some of these things. And so if you go after and you're like, "Hey, I don't believe anything that you guys are talking about, but, you know, I wanna wrestle some of this stuff out in my own life," you might try some of these things and you might get a measure of results from it. And so, and you've heard this before, so you've heard some of these things. For example, there's things like self-care, you know, like you're, you know, you're struggling and so maybe you need to take some time to care for yourself and like, gosh, yeah, you need good rest and you need healthy eating. But there's sometimes a self-care that can sometimes turn a little bit too far inwards and all of a sudden becomes just kind of like Netflix binging. And I don't know if that's self-care, right? Like there's even a wrestle in the midst of that, of like, what actually is healthy for me that actually cares for my soul? And what do I do just to be self-indulgent? And and the difference between those two things is important to recognize, but for our culture, how do I deal with these, these inside emotions and these situations and this, this guilt? Self-care becomes a part of it.
[17:46] And so maybe you try that for other people that go further that might say forgetfulness. I watched a lot of videos about the idea that, hey, if you've done something wrong in your past, the best thing that you could possibly do is just forget about it, which is an interesting idea. How's that going for you? Because honestly, the thing that you did, or the thing that you wrestle with shows up again and again and again. And forgetfulness maybe works for a moment, but the next time, in the next relationship, or the next time you get a chance to spend time with them, or the next time you get to see them, or the next time you're in that store, forgetfulness crumbles, and that memory comes rushing back in. Other people might say this, and again, from YouTube or from Google, you know, giving yourself more grace.
[18:38] There's this sense that we need some level of grace to just live in the midst of life. And so is there a way that you can just give it to yourself for yourself's sake? It's an interesting idea. I don't know if it works. Again, a fourth one. Maybe just tell yourself that you've changed. If you tell yourself enough, if you give yourself enough positive affirmations, maybe you could become that different person, and then that separate person from your past, you don't have to worry about anymore because you're not that person anymore. I'm a new one. And you know, again, there's some helpfulness in that perhaps. And yet your past follows you into the future. And the things and the hurt that you've caused in the past are still there to be dealt with.
[19:23] And sometimes if your story and part of your regret is actually that there's been other people hurt by your actions, there's a sense that even if you move on, other people can't. They're forever changed by the decisions and the things that you've done. Number five, just tell yourself, nobody's perfect. Nobody's perfect. This is everybody's deal. And it's true. This is everybody's experience of life. This is what we all have to wrestle with. And so if nobody is perfect, then surely I'm okay to be imperfect, and we can just move on and not talk about it and not think about it. But when you lay your head at night, or when you get into a, you know, a new situation, all this stuff comes back. And the fact that you're wrestling with it becomes a reason, I think, to absolutely deal with it. And then lastly, sometimes you just hear people say, well, you just aren't lucky. Like, there's lucky people in life that don't have to live this out, but this is gonna be your lot and you just have to accept it.
[20:16] And that would be a tough message to hear. And all of this kind of gets wrapped up into a, you know, a cultural message that sometimes you might hear and wanting you to move to a new reality or walk away from all of these things that maybe hold you back. And culturally, kind of the idea is this, is that if you just live your truth, rewrite the story, decide, you know, cognitively, this is what I think it's all about. And then you speak your truth, that if you can just say it out loud, that's gonna make it a reality. But the issue, the issue is that the truth follows us. And the truth is actually really clear. You see, when Jesus was on this earth, He had a band of brothers that journeyed with Him, His disciples that ended up launching the movement after His resurrection.
[21:07] And it's surmised that John was the one that actually lived beyond most of them. Most of them were martyred for their faith, but John lived beyond most of them. And he penned the Gospel account of John explaining Jesus' life well after the fact of the other ones coming out. And then he began to write letters to the Christians wrestling through what it means to live out this kind of faith and what do we do in light of this message and the unique thing that Jesus did in our, in His day and age. And so we assume it's John, and that writes 1 John. And we read an interesting bit exactly about what we're wrestling with here this morning. And so I wanna read this to you from 1 John 1, verse 8. If we claim that we have no sin, and again, not just the actions, not just the things, not just the itemized list of stuff, but the actual nature that is at war with our minds.
[22:00] If we say that we have no sin, we're only fooling ourselves and we're only perpetuating the issues that we deal with, we're not living in the truth. The truth follows us, the truth. You can't just make up, and you've experienced it enough to realize you can't just speak out a new truth. This is your reality. But, but there's good news, and this is the good news, and this is what John gets to. He says, if we, if you, if I would confess our sins, and not just the list, but the nature, if we would confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will actually forgive our sins and then purify us from all unrighteousness. And this is the thing, this is not just, not just forgiving the sinless, but actually purifying our righteousness, changing our nature, adjusting the inside of our heart and soul and our whole being so that we could become a different person. And who is He talking about? Who is He referencing?
[23:03] Of course, it's Jesus in verse 7. He says, the blood of Jesus, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. This is the message, the Christian message, that because of Jesus being fully God and fully man coming to this earth and then paying the price for all sin, for all time, that faith and trust in Him transforms us. That if we align ourselves with His kingdom and then do what John has said here by confessing our sins, that we can experience dramatically different lives. But it's because of Jesus's power. So we go back to this verse, if we confess our sins, faithful and just, forgive us our sins, which is a huge thing, which is big. It's very, very big, the forgiveness of our sins. But this, this other bit is something I think that for a few of us that are Christians, we sometimes miss this fact, like when I became a Christian for the first time, and because I grew up in church, I felt like I became a Christian a lot, right?
[24:06] Like I was five when I became a Christian. I prayed the salvation prayer. In fact, the guy that had led me to the Lord, I preached a couple weeks ago at Hillside, he attends there. And so he's just, his name's Steve, he's wonderful. And so I love being able to see him because he remembers that early moment when I turned from my sinful ways of, you know, when I was four and just like a hellion, right? Like, obviously. And so it, you know, it's funny, but it's true. But, and then as I grew and I get into middle school and I realized, oh, there's a lot of things I could be sinful about, right? Like, wow, middle school, like all of a sudden new world, and then all of a sudden, you know, you get to high school and I'm like, oh, there's a lot more things that I could do to be sinful. Like the list of opportunities just grows and grows and grows. And so it's, it's the individual sins, sure. But there's also this bit that we wrestle with and we wonder about, like, hey, can my nature change?
[24:56] Can, like, the inside of me become different because I find myself, even after following Jesus for years, that this becomes a part of the fight. And so if you thought that your faith was just this moment of, like, oh, I got the forgiveness for those things and now I'm left to myself, it's like, no, no, no, there's actually something much stronger at play here. God's Spirit is wanting to do something much more in each of us. So if we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and just, will forgive us of the sins, but He'll purify us from all unrighteousness. And so then when you go back to this framework, this idea of, like, the past, the things that you've done, the present, the about who you are, and we wrestle with the fact that this is spiritual. This is more than just those things. It's the sins that we've done and this unrighteous nature that we have.
[25:44] We have this sense that the story can be so different for you and for you and for you and for me. So 1 John 1:9, we have to confess. Ooh, that's the hard part. Like, it's kind of nice to hear, like, the opportunity, right? But, like, what do you mean by confess? Like, we don't, we don't really do that around these parts. Like, what do you mean? Like, tell people about the things, like the things that have been secret for so long, like how far does confession actually go? That's a reasonable question. But if you're looking for something, if you're looking for the thing, if you're looking for, like, what do I do, the answer and the response to how to forgive yourself, for example, how to stop feeling guilty, the key is really, really clear.
[26:37] It's really simple to say. It's very difficult to do. The key is this, it's just confession. Okay? But for you and for you and for you and for you and for you, like taking that as an action step is a bit much. And now I'm not gonna change it, 'cause obviously it's the Bible, like you gotta take it up with John, Jesus. You can, He'll sort it out with you. Like that's fine. Like I'm just the messenger, don't shoot me. Right? The commentators talk about this because it is a big ask, and I wanna explain a little bit about what this means. But, but when we go through the act of confession, something important happens. So Stephen Smalley, writing about 1 John, says this. He says, the removal of sinful desire in general as well as the guilt attached to actual sins. This is what happens in the act of confession. Now, I've learned a lot about confession over my years, but probably the most that I've learned comes from these experts right here.
[27:34] Those are my kids. They're very cute, most times, not all the time. But you know, eight and now they're, this is a couple eight year old, but you know, eight year old, a four year old, a three year old, five-year-old, three year old, when you have kids, you get a chance to experience some of these spiritual truths in like really raw, profound kinds of ways. And at least for me, it's taught me a lot. So, so when my kids sin against each other, they, you know, and it's typical kids kind of stuff, right? Like, you know, they hit each other or they throw things at each other, they wanna make them cry. And like, I wanna be cautious here because you'll see them in the lobby. And so you should be kind to them. But Ember, Ember is really good at that stuff. Like she's sneaky. And anyways, we will continue to pray for her. But, you know, the hellion years of four are still yet to come.
[28:27] And so she'll experience grace at five and we'll sort it out. But, but the point being, when you see kids, of course, so you see kids and they break relationship with each other by sinning against each other and bringing something as simple or as clear as like a smack or like a bad word or whatever it might be, and they cause somebody to cry. What does confession look like for them? This is what we've had to wrestle with as parents, for Chantel and I. What does a confession look like for kids? And at that stage, it becomes a little bit more clear. We make it complicated as adults, but for kids it's like super clear because when we're teaching them about confession, it's not when you hit your sibling, you don't come and just apologize to Mom and Dad. Like, that's not confession. That doesn't do anything. Your confession needs to be to the person that you have broken with your sin. And it has to be authentic. It can't just be the, "I'm sorry." Like, it has to be authentic. It has to be eye to eye.
[29:23] It has to be like, I'm, you need to know that I recognize that this has been wrong. And so I, with my kids, like, I get that. But what does that mean for you? What does that mean for me? It means that confession is a big step. To confess our sins requires a lot, and the cost is really high. It's extraordinarily difficult, and it's for that reason that most people don't take that step and don't take that path. And so what will happen here today, just so that you're aware, like we'll make space in prayer to confess our sins to our Heavenly Father. And that's a good first start.
[30:10] But you have to realize that true confession is going to send you out. That we read throughout the Scriptures that God is looking not for just holy people that treat us in a vertical relationship with Him in a good way, but that we would treat others in that same holy way and look to others and treat them as Christ treated us. And so that confession of what we've done and who we've been to the people that we have hurt, that's heavy. And I don't, I don't fully understand and know the cost for you if you were to actually take that seriously. But I know this much, and I know this much from my own life, and I know this much from journeying with a lot of other people, is that we fear the consequences.
[30:55] This is a quote from a preacher that attracts with fear the consequences of confession. Because we've yet to experience the consequences of concealment. And if you've lived with concealment for any length of time, you recognize that there are heavy consequences to that. It's the baggage that you're holding onto, that you've been dragging with you, that you need to get rid of, that you need to hand off to somebody. And Jesus is willing to take that. And yet, He's going to ask you to go one step further. So I wanna read you the psalm. And the psalm, the psalm of David here is gonna be a framework perhaps for prayer. 'Cause what I want us to do is take a moment and actually allow us to have a moment to kind of pray just on our own, in our own space, in the quietness of these seats.
[31:48] Because the first step in all of this is just to acknowledge the fact that we need to confess something. And so if you've been harboring and holding onto something, that secret, that embarrassment, that regret, whatever it might be, the first step is, before Heavenly Father, to invite that act of confession to happen, to own up to it, to repent of it. And then from there, the Holy Spirit will guide you and lead you. And you'll need to take steps beyond that. But in this space, in this time, I wanna make some opportunities just for us to kind of own it up. And then after we do that, we'll be able to celebrate with cleaner conscience, we'll be able to then celebrate the Lord's Supper together, which is this recognition of what Jesus has done for us, for the forgiveness of our sins and the transformation of our sinful nature so that we can be a new creation, and that He can change even our desires and our deepest longings so that we can become the kind of people that He would have us to be.
[32:47] And it's a daily occurrence that we wrestle with this. And so David, who by no means was sinless, like he was a sinful man and understood this. King David from the Old Testament wrote this in this psalm, this song, this prayer, wrestling through what this means to confess. And so I wanna read it to you once, and then we'll pray it together and then we'll go from there. Have mercy on me, O God. And this is the invitation that we recognize we need mercy in this act. Have mercy on me, O God, because of Your unfailing love, because of Your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. I don't deserve this. And yet, perhaps because of Your unfailing love, God will be faithful and just to forgive us.
[33:36] Wash me clean from my guilt, because the forgiveness is not enough. There's a guiltiness that we've wrestled with and that we've carried, and we need to hand it over. And so wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin. This deep adjustment in our souls needs to happen. It's not just this surface level forgiveness. That's the thing that we can so easily miss as Jesus followers for the length of time that we've been following Him. There's something in our souls, as Paul has said, it's deep rooted. It's a war within us. Purify me from that and create in me a clean heart, O God, renew a loyal spirit within me. This is the invitation. And so if you're not a Christian, if you're not a Jesus follower, this is obviously zero. You know, there's no expectation that you have to do these things.
[34:33] You can come here. You don't have to do any of that stuff. You can just enjoy being with us. You can. Church is always gonna be free. It's always gonna be open. But if you ever get to a point where you're recognizing and realizing that you've got some baggage in your life that you need to unload, Jesus wants to take it. And the way that He takes it is through a prayer like this and through a prayer that we're gonna join together. And it's a prayer that we as Christians pray oftentimes day after day and year after year, as we ask that Jesus would transform our own hearts, minds, and souls. And so would you join with me just in the quietness of this moment and pray. Heavenly Father, it's easy to say these things, but it's incredibly difficult to actually live them out. Like in some ways, the easiest thing is just to read these kinds of stories, but then to wonder what this actually means for each and every one of us.
[35:31] It's profound. And so we go back to this psalm and let this psalm be our prayer even today. And so I pray, and I'm sure lots of others pray along with me, have mercy on me. O God, because of Your unfailing love, because of Your great compassion. Blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. God, create in me a clean heart. I need You to create in me a clean heart. I can't do it on my own. God, I need You to create a clean heart within me. Renew that loyal spirit within me, and then give me the power to walk into that each and every day. And God, let it make the difference in my life, in my relationships and the people around me.
[36:23] Let people recognize and know that it's not my own strength and power, but it's Your strength and power within me. And heavenly Father, for all of us. We ask that Your Spirit would guide us into this act of confession and then prompt us to know what we need to do with that and where it causes friction and difficulty. I pray You give us strength where it causes discomfort, discomfort. I pray that You would bring even comfort. And God, let us not shy away from the calling that You have on each and every one of us to be a different kind of people, a different kind of people in this world today. And that those around us would know that You are real because of how we live these truths out. I pray this in Jesus' name.
[37:13] Amen. So what we're gonna do is, if that act of confession is real and you have confessed and you have followed after Jesus, one of the practices that we have as Christians is the act of taking communion together. This opportunity to reference back to that Last Supper, when Jesus gathered with His disciples, with John being there, and explained to them that the way that this was gonna work was because of His sacrifice. That we would have now this new arrangement with God. And so communion, the Eucharist, the Last Supper, is the Christian act of celebrating that event and remembering the sacrifice of Jesus. You don't have to participate in it.
[38:00] You can absolutely pass along on the elements. But what will happen here is our team are gonna lead us. You're just gonna stay seated and reflect, continue in prayer. Our ushers will offer you a cup. And on the bottom there's a little wafer. The top is the juice. And I'll come back in just a few moments and we'll be able to take that together in remembrance of Jesus, but a reminder of the power that God has given to each and every one of us to live into these truths. So as you reflect and remember and pray, we'll be back in a moment.