Transcript: Confessions of Sin

When I grew up in Dallas, Wisconsin, in the 1960s and 70s, every single week in the liturgy was a section about confession and the call to confession which was then followed up with the assurance of pardon, then a prayer of confession, my child, but entire childhood. It was in the officiating acts of the ceremony of the worship service every single week, my entire childhood. Now, in many churches, things like this are going away. Now let's talk about the Catholic Church one. the Catholic Church actually has a confession booth. there is a booth by which someone can go to the Minister of the priests and say these words bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It's been this long since I came to my last confession. A confession occurs and someone's unburdened and leaves. for me, every week, we have the confession booth, sort of speak at the church. I would be praying for any sin I did the week before. I would be reminded that God hates sin, and that sin will destroy me. But I was also assured that if I confess my sin, He is faithful and just from 1 John 1:9 to forgive me my sins and purify me from all unrighteousness. 

It seems as if the confession pieces of Christianity are going by the wayside. In confession going by the wayside, we are not helping our world. Like more and more people don't see their own faults. They don't see their own sin, but they sure can see it in the center of others. as an officiant, we are going to bring the need for confession back, and we will help someone in a formalized process. let's, first of all talk about confession in the Bible. they really know where we're starting from and how it actually works. the penitent heart is highly prized in the Bible. 1 John 1:8-9, suppose we claim we are without sin, then we are fooling ourselves. The truth is not in us, but God is faithful and fair, faithful and just, if we admit we have sinned, he will forgive our sins, He will forget every wrong thing we have done, he will make us pure. here is a powerful and right the heart of a human fallen humans. As we relate to God, notice to the blood of Jesus is cleansing us from sin. He's faithful and just but the act of confession, confessing our sins help us. They help us greatly. How do they help us? Confession brings healing of a soul in the body. James 5:15- 16. The prayer offered by those who have faith will make you well. 

The Lord will heal you. If you have sinned, you will be forgiven. admits to one another, that you have sinned, prayed for one another, that you might be healed. The prayer of a Godly person is powerful. It makes things happen. I love that prayer of a Godly person. That's you, I believe. When you get ordained to ministry, people see you as, Whoa, here's a person and God's team, Godly person. I noticed after I was ordained decades ago, that the Lord was faithful, that, you know, he knew me that I was to be a minister that served Him. There were some times, as I look back at decades of ministry, when the power of healing the power of forgiveness came right into the scene, even times I was surprised. I remember one time, I was praying with a woman who had been sexually abused as a child. This person struggled with hurt, and she and her husband could not have normal sexual relations. There was great brokenness. She identified that she needed to be healed. People were praying for her and I remember one person asked me to visit her at the hospital. She had occasionally come to our church, so asked me to visit her in the hospital. 

I know that she was prayed over by many people, and she had become a believer. I went there. As I was in, wherever I was driving into the parking lot, I thought to myself, I'm representing guy knowing him, because I'm a minister. I just asked, Lord, I'm your person in this, please, help this woman. This one was in a psychiatric ward, by the way, because of attempting to commit suicide. She had had done this attempt many times. I asked her what she wanted. What when it came to her father, her father, by the way, also sexually these two other daughters or sisters, and asked her, you know, what do you want? I just want to be well; I want to find joy. in a formal process, I asked that the Lord would heal her that, and she felt guilty about sins that she had done. Yeah. that's understandable. Don't, you know, pardon me when I say don't feel responsible for that. But it was something she felt. 

finally, it was okay. Let's pray for healing. I remember that. It was as if the wind of the Holy Spirit came into that room. She indicated that voices were telling her to commit suicide. We prayed exorcism prayer there as well. We're going to talk in another week about spiritual warfare prayer, exorcism, that is the old way to talk about that. We prayed and that I was in my 20s. Early in ministry, I didn't even know and realize what being a minister was really all about. But God showed up and brought healing. I remember about 10 years after I was in this church, I got an Easter card. The Easter card from this gal was, thank you, thank you. My life is totally turned around. That prayer that you gave changed the story for me. She ended up and still no voices. I remember crying in tears about that and thinking, yeah. It wasn't my righteousness that I brought into the room. It was Jesus blood in righteousness. It wasn't that I prayed everything so perfect and all of that. It was that I officiant, a Minister for the Lord was called to do something for her benefit. It was her heart It was her connection to God, that really made all the difference. 

She needed to confess something, and she needed to be healed. She needed that prayer. It brought healing. The fact is the humans need to confess. Psalm 32:5 that acknowledges my sins to you ended up cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. humans want a Godly conscience and freedom in their soul. Psalm 32:6, there for anyone who has Godly pray to you, while you may be found, surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. For I'm about to fail, and my pain is ever with me in Psalm 38:17, I confess my iniquity, I am troubled by my sin. There's a burden that sin brings upon humanity. It goes way back to Adam and Eve when they fell into sin. They basically wanted to take control of their own life without God, part of it. When they sinned it was a fall, and even their first children, Cain and Abel, Cain killed Abel, unrepentant sin, unconnected to Jesus Christ is so devastating. If we can just deny it, you know, I find it fascinating that many, many questions that that human nature has fallen into sin. That we have polluted from birth, our iniquities from birth, and many people today are out there. 

Many of the psychologists are out there saying that no, humans are all good, and they get corrupted by an evil environment and we're just going to help them find the goodness inside of them. No, no, no, we're created by God and His children. But we are fallen children, thanks to Adam and Eve. In Jesus Christ, we have been redeemed, but we, in our default setting, are fallen sinful people that need the forgiveness by Christ on the cross. Yet we still sin. It can be frustrating. Romans 14:10. You then why do you judge over your brother, or why you look down on your brother, for we will all stand before God's judgment is written as surely as I live says the LORD, every knee will bow before me and every tongue confess to God, so that each of us were given account of himself to God, we are all in the situation where sin has hurt ourselves, has hurt this world. Confession is important that we unburden our lives from the sin as it says in Hebrews chapter 12, that clings so closely, not even interested in the Bible. There have always been confessional or confession ceremonies. Leviticus 16:20 is a fascinating one. When Aaron had finished making atonement for the most holy place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar. He should bring forward the live goat used to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness or rebellion of the Israelites and their sins and put them on the goats head. He shall send the goat way into the desert in the care of a man appointed for this task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place. The man shall release it in the desert. 

That is an interesting start, but it's a ceremony. It's taking sins so seriously, that they would have a public ceremony. Again, this was before Christ. In Christ, he became that goat in a solitary place, and he bore the sins for us. But this is an Old Testament example of that. It's also fascinating that in the Old Testament, confession and restitution are connected, Numbers 5:6 and forward, say to the Israelites, when a man or woman wrongs another in any way. I'm faithful to the Lord, that person is guilty and must confess the sin he has committed, he must make full restitution for as wrong as one fifth to it and give to all give it all to the person he has wronged. But if that person has no close relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the Lord, and it must be given to the priest along with the ram with which atonement is made for him. Now, I find that fascinating, and you know that our society has these restitution and confession pieces still in it. if somebody confesses to a murder, that's different than someone who did the murder and did not confess, if someone did confess, often their sentence is lighter, because their heart acknowledges the wrong, there's still restitution that comes. 

But you see how that works. In Jesus Christ, we all are sinners, who needs forgiveness. Now I'm fascinated by the 12-step program. The 12-step program has a confession piece and a restitution piece, making amends. in for those who do make amends, who confess and do make amends, they're further along in that 12-step program. as officiant, we're always helping people get closer to the Lord and unburden their souls. I find this so amazing and fascinating. confession is a prominent theme in the Bible. As a minister, we are agents of bringing confession. Now, different people in different churches address this differently. Like the Catholic Church has a confessional booth. When I grew up, we would be called the confession every week. There's Acts prayers at A C T S, and many people pray the A C T S for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. In the Acts prayer, there is that time of confession. I want to close by making something really clear. Are you unforgiving? When you confess, you're forgiven again, you know, in Christ Jesus. Jesus paid it all. But I will tell you this. When you confess, you are the winner. 

When you bring confession to others, they are the winners. If they bow their head before the Lord and being humble and being tentative as they open up themselves to the very blessing of God. You do well as an officiant to serve those God calls you to serve by reminding them and helping them without judgment. Helping them see the benefits of restitution, forgiveness, teaching your children how to be forgiving people who do not take offense, I believe that we live in a world of offence. Political leaders are in offence, and they're not willing to confess their wrongs, they have to spend their wrongs. We live in a world of blaming, it's always someone else's fault. I actually believe that much of the counseling that people actually pay for is helping them hold on to things and not confess their wrongs, but to see how the other person should be doing the confessing, and looking over their whole life and seeing how they were wronged. Rather than saying, what do you take responsibility to confess? Christianity is so amazing. It's another approach that is counter intuitive. Human strength would say, destroy your enemies. 

Christianity says, forgive your enemies. human strength would say, you know, don't be ashamed of anything, do anything you want to do, you've got the power do it. But the cross of Christ, Christianity says, he who is about sin deceived themselves, confess your sins. He is faithful and just you actually have been saved and you need a savior, you've been saved, and you're being sanctified, made holy, the forgiveness, just pour down once, it just keeps pouring down. as an officiant, you are a bringer of the practices, and the message and the ceremonies of forgiveness, of confession of Acts, that lead to letting go of bitterness and pain, of asking people to humble themselves before the Lord, because the Lord will lift them up. Now, I said this at our other presentations, this is sensitive, material. Never come out judgmental. Make sure you ask permission. When you explain things like forgiveness. Talk about it in terms of the benefits like have you really thought about what forgiveness or confession or bitterness can do for you. 

When you teach about confession, teach about it from the freedom of justified person in Christ, not the condemnation that you know, unless you confess, you know, you're not going to be forgiven. We do see in the Bible, that people who cannot be penitent do not do well. I know those things are all there, but this is the human heart. Be gentle, says in Galatians 6:1, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual, mature, restore that person, but do it gently, gently. Confession is part of the gentle message of an officiant but when you bring that message, you can also bring people free and they never before would believe that would be theirs.