Confession: What’s Keeping You from God? – From the Ashes, part 3
Are you hurt, angry, or bitter? Sometimes we commit sins, but sin can also be committed against us to cause these feelings. Regardless of how you got here, confession is liberating and removes your burdens.
With God, we are promised forgiveness when we confess our sins. It removes the burden of unhealthy fear and allows the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God to flow. Come home today, He is waiting with open arms.
Feeling empty, burned-out, or overwhelmed? Each week this month, we'll look at an aspect of Jesus' life and ministry, where we'll find hope and forgiveness to overcome our struggles.
Does your life sometimes feel like a pile of ashes? The good news of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection means you can experience new life and have your life raised from the ashes. This series will help you grow in faith and understanding of Christ.
Experience God’s grace, mercy, & forgiveness.
about this series
Today we continue our Easter series. Our lives, no matter how bad, are not irredeemable. In other words, you are not broken beyond repair. In and through Christ, you can rise above the ashes and experience abundant life. This series is for anyone who wants to grow in the knowledge and understanding of Christ.
Confession is liberating and removes our burdens
Confession is this week’s topic as we journey to living an abundant life. Confession is the act of the recognition of sin, and choosing to turn from it and experience the forgiveness of God. We need to develop a regular practice of asking the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and reveal any sin in our lives. We need to allow the light of the Gospel to reveal areas in our lives that need changing and confess those things and turn away from them.
We must cultivate a life full of grace and mercy as we rise from the ashes of past sins and poor decision making in our lives and live for Christ.
I remember having a bad grade on a report card and was somewhat afraid to show the card to my parents. Another time, I cut school one day in elementary school. I do not remember why but my father returned home and found me. I was quickly sent to school and had to confess what I had done to the school. Maybe you broke a neighbor’s window playing baseball and were terrified to tell your parents for fear of their reaction.
Admitting failure is difficult. Confessing and coming clean when we are at fault is not an easy task. I’m sure many of us have a similar story about a time we were reluctant or afraid to admit an offense for fear of the consequences. Honestly, we probably all have numerous stories that sound similar.
Thankfully, the stories end differently when God gets involved. With God, we are promised forgiveness when we confess our sins, turn from them and seek repentance. When we find ourselves choosing to live in the light of the Gospel we are able to live free, unburdened or hindered by the sin that so easily entangles, so that we can run the race set before us.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NIV).
Confession and turning from sin are spiritually freeing and liberating. It removes the burden of unhealthy fear and allows the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God to flow. Confession of sin also allows you to experience the love and peace of God that you need both spiritually and emotionally.
Jesus led a sinless life, so we won’t see any specific examples from His life that include sin. However, it is because of Jesus’ sinless life and His humble sacrifice on the cross that we can experience the loving forgiveness of the Father when we confess our sin.
As I said several weeks ago, you are not broken beyond repair. Jesus is the reason we can confess and experience complete forgiveness in our lives.
This divine forgiveness is truly amazing grace, and it is such a different response to our wrongdoing from how the world responds, and to how we might have grown up experiencing (and still experience at times) a response to wrongs.
A world divorced from God is a world without forgiveness. The current cancel culture has no grace or forgiveness whether the situation is confessed or not. The offense may have been done decades ago and with ignorance to what future generations might consider condemning, but that doesn’t seem to matter to those who are doing the judging.
Here are two scriptures that encourage us to confess our sin. Both of the scriptures speak of forgiveness and express the heart of God:
‘If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”’ (Romans 10:9-11).
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:9-10).
We all Squander and sin at times
Our teaching today is going to follow the story of an arrogant son and his journey from the spiritual ash heap back to the arms of his father. In Luke 15, we find the story of the prodigal son:
‘Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.”’ (Luke 15:11-13).
This is where most of our stories begin. We are convinced we know how to run our lives better than God does. So, we take all that He has given us and we waste it on living as we want. We double-down on our bad decisions and hurt ourselves and others in the process.
The word used here for wild living describes an extravagantly wasteful lifestyle. It may have seemed like a good thing to do at the time for the young man, but it wasn’t. He wasted his rightful inheritance on wild living without any thought to his actions or the future. Eventually the money ran out, the parties came to an end, and the nerves wore thin. Later, he realized he was in an awful situation. He remembered how good his father was to those who worked for him. He realized his sin and humbly headed home not knowing how his father might act.
Sadly, not everyone acknowledges or admits their sin and they simply dig a deeper hole for themselves. They spiritually spiral down deeper into sin and bondage. Some begin to feel that they are broken beyond saving. But that is a lie from Satan.
The truth is: we have all sinned and we each need to realize that we, in a way like the younger son, have turned and run from our heavenly Father. At times we have, unknowingly, squandered our lives away, in spiritual rebellion that is, until we come to our senses, confess and repent of our sin with all our hearts. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way…” (Isaiah 53:6).
No Matter out past, God Always Welcomes Us Back
Thankfully, that is not the end of the prodigal’s story and it is not the end of ours.
‘“After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.”’ (Luke 15:4-20).
There needs to be a time in each of our lives where we simply come to our senses and realize that our life is not what it should be without Jesus. The fact is we will never be who or what we are meant to be apart from the Heavenly Father.
It is not God’s plan that we would lose everything before we come to our senses, realize our sin, and the need to confess our sin and repent; but often it is not until our dreams are reduced to ashes before we turn back to God.
However, the good news is, we are able to make the decision to head home and back to the heavenly Father at any time.
Some of us simply have to come to the end of our worth and realize that in Christ alone we are found worthy before the Father. Not based upon anything we can or cannot do, but based upon the finished work of Christ on the cross.
As the younger son reaches despair, look at the confession he was practicing: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you…” He recognized the depravity of his life and he understood his sin not only touched his earthly father but His heavenly Father as well.
This is where every sinner finds themselves at some point if they are truly honest: so far down spiritually, that the only way to go is up and to seek forgiveness from the heavenly Father, and those they may have hurt along the way, as they followed their sinful hearts.
‘“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”’ (Luke 15:20-24).
This is one of the most beautiful scenes of compassion in the entire Bible. The younger son reaches the bottom, and begins heading home. But even while he’s still a long way from home, his father sees him and runs out to meet him. You can almost hear the son's muffled apology coming through the sound of his father’s warm embrace and smothering kisses. The young man's humility, confession, and willingness to return home after having lost everything says a lot about his true character. Yes, he was physically starved, and yes he was in a foreign land with nothing to show. But there at rock bottom, what really mattered became clear to him. The abundance of food, mercy, compassion, warmth, and love of his father’s house called him home.
The knowledge of his father’s character and love was the guiding light that gave the son hope. The hope of being welcomed as he humbly sought his father’s forgiveness and confessed his sin.
A humble heart, confession of sins, and turning to God almighty is a sign of true repentance.
Today, many need to humble themselves and cry out to Jesus. People all around need to hear the truth of the Gospel. Some are in a pit of despair and do not know which way to turn. Others are searching for answers. The answer is found in Jesus.
Confess your sin against God and others today, and return to the heavenly Father.
I’ve shared before how a teenager friend invited me to his youth group. I was accepted by everyone and heard of the love and grace of God. I also experienced the love, grace, and peace of God for myself at the altar in a Sunday service. I asked God to forgive me of sin and I walked away that day knowing I was forgiven that day.
Is there anything keeping you from the Father today?
Anything can be confessed, repented of, and healed today.
Anger?
Unforgiveness?
Offense?
Unmet expectations?
Past hurts?
“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).
As we move closer to Palm Sunday and Easter, search your heart and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any area that may need to be resolved or confessed and act upon it.
Your heavenly father is waiting and looking for your return if you walked away, weather it was yesterday or years ago.
Let me close with this scripture:
‘“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity’ (Joel 2:12-13).
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This and other sermons brought to you by Faith Chapel, an Assemblies of God church in Pleasanton, CA.