Pick-Pocketed By The Past

Pick-Pocketed by the Past Psalms 51:1-51:14

I want to begin this morning with a story about a man named Dave.

This is the story of a man who was a godly man. He was used by God in great ways.

He was someone who helped people when they were down.

He was someone who helped people against those who were trying to hurt them.

He was a man who walked by faith.

One weekend, he found himself home alone. HIs wife was gone for the weekend and the guys he worked with were away on business. He should have been off with them, but he was in a bit of a depression. His relationship with the Lord had not been that good for a while and didn’t feel like doing what he should have been doing in his job.

So he was home for the weekend and on the computer. He saw the wife of one of his buddies on Facebook. Her name was Beth and her husband was on the trip that Dave was supposed to be on. He started chatting with her and they were participating in some “innocent” flirting.

She was a bit scared to be home alone, so Dave went to check on things.

One thing led to another and they ended up having an affair.

Maybe you’ve never been involved in an affair,

• But have you ever something that seem to be a defining moments in a negative way?

• Have you ever done something that keep you awake at night thinking if you’d only done things differently

• Have you ever done Things that others won’t let you forget

• Things that hold you hostage to that identity

• Maybe it is an adulterous affair so now you’re, the Adulterer

• Maybe it is a DUI you received and now you’re the Alcoholic

• Maybe it is past drug use and all you hear in your head is that you’re the Addict

• Maybe your past includes jail time and you feel like you’ll always be the Felon

• Maybe in your past you haven’t always acted they way you should

• Maybe you’ve acted up when you shouldn’t have and you got labeled a loser,

• A problem kid and now you can’t seem to shake that identity,

• Now while our past may have included things that contributed to these labels,

• And while we still face consequences for our sinful actions

• We need to understand that It’s Satan who tries to steal our identity

• The identity that we can have in Christ

Satan does this By reminding us about these past sins

• And he tries to keep us tied to that identity

• He tries to keep us away from the identity that God has for created us

This could have easily happened to Dave

• But it didn’t.

• I want you to hear what Dave wrote after he was eventually confronted

Turn with me to Psalm 51.

The story I was telling is really a modern day version of the story of King David and Bathsheba.

• King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had Uriah, her husband, killed.

• After David sinned with Bathsheba, he did experience some difficult times,

• But he also went on to reign and rule Israel and see his kingdom continue in his son Solomon.

• How did David overcome this terrible sin to go on to be known as David,

• “a man after God’s own heart”

• instead of David, a sinful king?

I believe that Psalm 51 gives us some insight into that.

• This is what he wrote after he was confronted by Nathan

• And it helps give us some insight on how we might defend ourselves

against being pick-pocketed by the past.

Ps 51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Ps 51:2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. Ps 51:3 For I recognize my shameful deeds— they haunt me day and night.

Ps 51:4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.

You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. Ps 51:5 For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. Ps 51:6 But you desire honesty from the heart, so you can teach me to be wise in my inmost being.

Ps 51:7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Ps 51:8 Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me—now let me rejoice.