[For the video elements associated with this sermon, please visit http://store.northpoint.org/life-apps-starter-kit.html.]
Well, a couple of weeks ago we began a brand new series called Life Apps, and basically we’re talking about the importance of not just listening, but the importance of doing. And when we launched this series we looked at this verse. This verse, it’s a pretty convicting verse, because this verse explains something or looks at a dynamic that takes place in churches all over the country, all over the world, every single Sunday. James, the brother of Jesus said this:
James 1:22 (TNIV)
22Do not merely listen to the word, [which is like listening to messages and listening to preaching and listening to the Bible being taught] and so deceive yourselves.
And remember, we talked about this the very first week, that in churches all over America, and if you’re not like a church person you’re going to love this. This is great news for you, because you know this goes on. It’s just those church people—we’re not clued in sometimes. James knew—and this is two thousand years ago—James knew that there would be a community and a culture where people would gather and listen, and because they had listened, felt convicted. They would confuse listening and feeling convicted as a real, genuine religious experience and people would listen to preaching and go, Oh, I feel so bad. And they would equate guilt with a connection to God. And they would, Oh, I just feel close to God, because I feel so bad about myself. And I went to church. And then they would leave church and go, Oh, I’m a church person. And God loves me because I went to church and feel bad about myself. I mean what could be better than that?
James says no, that’s not a religious experience. You’ve just manufactured that. You’ve made that up. That has nothing to do with walking with God; it has nothing to do with following Christ. This is just something you’ve made up. He said:
James 1:22 (TNIV)
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.
Don’t deceive yourself into thinking, Wow, I’ve done something really genuine. I went to church, I was in the building, I fought the traffic, and God looks down on me and says, I’m going to bless you because you’re in church; you’re a church person. James says that this has nothing to do with listening and being in a building or being in church. He says:
James 1:22 (TNIV)
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
So you say, Well, that would kind of wreck my whole life if I had to start doing this stuff. Isn’t it enough that I attend church? Isn’t it enough that I listen? Isn’t it enough that I’m in the building and have my family in church? James, the brother of Jesus, says, No, you’re deceiving yourself. Unapplied paint doesn’t do you any good. Buying a treadmill doesn’t do you any good. Joining a health club doesn’t do you any good. Taking a class on nutrition doesn’t do you any good. Application makes all the difference. To which the people who know you, who aren’t church people, and they know you’re a church person—they don’t normally say amen, but to that they would say amen, because you act like you’re better than them. And you’re not better than them, you just go to church more.
And the people who don’t go to church—and isn’t this great, I get to pick on us and you get to go amen or whatever you say—go Dawgs, or whatever you say—because this is where we’ve so confused our communities. Because they see us get up in the morning and we go to church and we don’t do anything differently. We just go to church. And then we say, Hey, you ought to come to my church. They’re going, Why should I go to your church? I do the same kinds of things you do; you do the same kinds of things I do. There is no real difference in the way we live our lives. Why would I want to give away my Sunday morning? You’re going, Oh, because you’ll be closer to God. James goes time out. No; listening is nothing. Doing is everything. You have to do something.
So for these few weeks in this series, Life Apps, we’re talking about five very, very specific life applications, and if you’re a Christian, you’re supposed to do this stuff. You’re not supposed to listen to sermons on it and go, Ah, I really ought to do this stuff. James is going okay, don’t deceive yourself into thinking oh, you get credit with God because you felt guilty. It’s all about doing. Doing makes all the difference.
Last week we began the list. Jeff was here and what an amazing, amazing Sunday you guys had. I was over at Watermark, with our church over in Canton, but what an incredible service. If you did not hear last week’s message you really owe it to yourself to go online. But Jeff talked about forgiveness, and he said that forgiven people—what? What do forgiven people do? That’s right, forgiven people forgive people. If you’re a Christian, you’re not supposed to think about forgiving people; you’re not supposed to feel like I really ought to forgive people. If you’re a Christian you’re supposed to forgive, because you are a forgiven person, and as Christians we lost all our excuses not to forgive. So, last week we talked about this big life app, forgive. Today the life app is confess. Today, for a few minutes, I want us to talk about confession.
Now, when I say confession, and you’re Catholic, I know what comes to mind, and that’s good. If you’re Catholic, and they must all be sitting right here in front of me, all the murmurs and laughing because you feel closer. I don’t know what you feel. Anyway, guilty most of the time I know, but that’s okay—we’re trying to help you with that here. If you’re Catholic and you think confession, you think of the sacrament of penance. You’re taught that after you’re baptized, then if you go to see a priest and you confess your sin to a priest. Then you’re absolved of your sin. And that’s a routine, and that’s just part of your lifestyle, and that’s a good thing.
If you’re Protestant, we have our own system. And see, Protestants, we feel superior to Catholics because we don’t have to go to a priest. Here’s the Protestant version: we are taught that you get in bed at night, or get beside your bed, on your knees if you’re really committed, and you just tell God directly about all the sins you’ve committed. Then we’ve been taught that once you tell God all the sins you’ve committed, once you confess your sins, then God doesn’t remember them anymore. He erases them and you’ve basically emptied out your sin bucket. Then you take your empty sin bucket back into the week and fill it up again. It’s awesome. Then you come home that night and say, Oh God, I feel so terrible! You empty your sin bucket, and God somehow magically forgets your sin. And then we feel superior to Catholics because we think we have a better system. Don’t we? I’m picking at everybody, but here’s the deal.
In all religious systems, I’m telling you, in all religious systems, Catholic system, Protestant system, Baptist system, Presbyterians have their own version, even outside of Christianity, in all religious systems there is a scheme or there is an effort or there is a way by which people outsmart God. They do. There’s a way in which, and of course the Protestant one is that we think God is so dumb that once I’ve confessed my sins and he forgets them, then I repeat them—he thinks I’ve done them for the first time. And again, this is an abuse of the Catholic system, and this isn’t the way it’s supposed to work. But for some of you, many of you, most of you, all of my Catholic friends who are honest, the whole penance thing is really about emptying my sin bucket. I get to go out and do it again, and I have a tendency to confess the same things over and over again and God is going, Oh—got me! Okay.
In every religious system, when it comes to sin, there is some sort of ploy to try to outsmart God. But here’s the problem with that. Trying to outsmart God is a sin. So if you have some sort of system where you’re treating God like he’s an idiot or kind of a gotcha or you’ve kind of have found the loophole, then you are dishonoring God. Trying to find a loophole in your theology or a loophole with God is a sin. It’s so dishonoring to God. And there’s one that we never, ever confess. Now, let me just kind of get to the point of this. You know if you’re Catholic—you should know this, because you’re Catholic and I’m not, but you know the whole confession system that you’re accustomed to didn’t show up until about 600 AD. That’s not a Bible thing. That’s about 600 years after Jesus that it developed. And it’s not a bad thing; it’s just not a Bible thing.
But here’s the convicting part about that. It didn’t begin as penance, it began as, and get this—you know where the word penance came from? Repentance. And see, repentance is way worse than penance, because penance is you’ve got to through penance; repentance means like oh—repent means like don’t do it anymore. I like penance better than repentance, because I want to do it some more. I want to be forgiven. But that’s where it came from, and in fact, you can check it out for yourselves or ask your priest. In the old days, you only got to confess a sin to a priest one time and the expectation was once you confessed it you weren’t going to do that anymore. What kind of system is that?
Okay, now Protestants, before you get too excited, you need to know this. Come on, when you confess your sins to God he does not forget your sin. You know how I know that? Because your mama won’t let him forget your sin, and your brother won’t let him forget your sin, and you know your ex-wife will not let God forget your sin, and your ex-spouse, and your friends, and the people at work. People talk about you, and the more notorious you are as a sinner, the more people talk about your sin. And you confess your sin to God every single night, but there are a dozen people running around talking about you out loud. And God’s going, He did? I had forgotten all about it, but thanks, now I know.
No, no, I just made all that up. That’s not true. But here’s the deal; here’s the deal, although people do talk about your sin. God doesn’t forget your sin. The Scripture doesn’t teach that. There are a couple of verses that have been kind of twisted; he doesn’t forget your sin. Here’s how we know God doesn’t forget your sin just because you confess it, and if you’re a Bible person then you’ll know this. Remember there’s this Old Testament story about King David? David and—don’t say her name, in case God’s forgotten. I mean the Bible documents some sin. Every time Jesus reads the Bible—Jesus doesn’t read the Bible, but every time God looks at the Bible—and you know I’m making all this up. God knows the story of David and Bathsheba. Do you think that’s the only sin God hasn’t forgotten? No. God doesn’t forget your sin.
I just kind of throw all that random information out to point to an arena of huge confusion when it comes to this area of confession. Somewhere along the way, somewhere along the way you began to believe and I began to believe, I don’t know if somebody taught us this or we just assumed this, I don’t know where it came from, but most of us, probably all of us somehow believe that the reason we confess, the point of confession is to relieve our guilt, or to relieve our conscience. So over time, confession really becomes all about me. I don’t feel good about me. I feel like there’s something between me and God. I feel bad for what I do. How do I get rid of this guilt? How do I get rid of this bad feeling about Andy? What can I do? Oh, I’ll confess. God, I just want to confess my sins to you and now I feel better. I’m going to confess my sin to a priest and now I feel better. I’m just going to get on my knees and confess. And for some reason we think confession is all about guilt relief. We think confession is all about clearing our conscience. When you open the Scripture, that is not what you find at all. In fact, when you study the Scripture about the word confess or confession, you know you look up every word, there is never any passage in the Old or New Testament that brings the idea of confession and conscience together.
But here’s what you will find in the Scripture—that genuine confession, and we’re going to look at a few passages in just a minute, genuine confession, real confession, like Bible confession serves as a first step towards something different. That genuine confession serves as a first step towards repentance. Oh! That’s like you don’t do it anymore. And reconciliation—as in when you sin against someone else, true confession leads you back to that person to make things right with that person. True confession is I’m not going to have a secret confession between me and God. Real confession is I’m going to tell God I’m sorry, and then I’m going to go tell you I’m sorry. Real confession is I’m going to open the lid on my soul to someone other than God, because I like to keep the lid on my soul tight. So inside my soul, me and God can have all kinds of conversations; they’re the same ones over and over. I confess the same thing over and over and over and there’s never any change, but I feel better about myself. But when you embrace confession and the idea of confessing the way that the Scripture teaches, the way that Jesus taught, it’s threatening, but it results in change, which is the ultimate goal of confession.
In fact, genuine confession, genuine confession leads to genuine change. That’s what confession was given to us for. God never intended for us to come up with these internal games that make us feel better about ourselves and we relieve our conscience. It was never intended for that. Religious systems have developed that. We’ve developed that. But genuine confession, genuine confession leads to genuine change. In fact, if you were to look at all the passages of Scripture in the Bible about confession, get this, most of them have people going to confess to other people, not to God. In fact, there’s almost no teaching in the Scripture about confessing our sins to God. And when there is reference of confessing sins to God, it’s always attached to confessing our sins to other people, people against whom we’ve sinned and people that can hold us accountable to make sure there is repentance, and when necessary, reconciliation.
Now, really quickly I want to give you some examples. In the Old Testament, and this is so cool, when God—you know God had delivered the nation of Israel (this is such a big story), God delivered the nation of Israel from Egypt. Moses, let my people go—that whole story—and then they don’t know anything about how to live, because they’ve been slaves. For four hundred years they were a slave state, so everybody who came out of Egypt, all they knew was how to be a slave. Being a slave is easy, you just say, Yes, Master, and that’s about it. You don’t have to have any rules, you don’t have a society, you just are told what you do, and you don’t have to think for yourself. And so God gave them a social order in the Old Testament, and here’s what he said about confession. Check this out:
Numbers 5:5-6 (TNIV)
5 The Lord said to Moses, 6 “Say to the Israelites: [In other words, here’s how we’re going to handle this part. And there are like a gazillion of these rules, but here’s one.] ‘Any man or woman who wrongs one another in any way
That is, you do something against them in any way, it could be a verbal wrong, it could be a steal wrong, it could be a mistreatment wrong—anybody who mistreats someone in any way and so is unfaithful to the Lord—which is interesting that he says if you mistreat a person you have been unfaithful to God. Let me say that again. If you mistreat a person you’ve been unfaithful to God. Now we like to split those things out. We like to go to church and get on our knees and say, God, me and you are cool; I hate her, but me and you are good. Right? And God is going, No. If you hate her, me and you are not good. You can’t hate her and love me. Now, we love to distinguish, and that impacts our confession, doesn’t it? Because I can treat you terribly, get on my knees and say, God, I’m sorry I treated her terribly. Are we cool? And we think God goes, Yeah, we’re cool. You don’t have to tell her, just tell me. And even in the Old Testament, God said to Moses, make sure everybody knows that if you treat her badly, then you’ve offended God. These things go together.
Numbers 5:6-7 (TNIV)
6 and so is unfaithful to the Lord is guilty 7 and must [And now here we go; here is our introduction. This is 101 Old Testament into the topic of confession.] confess the sin they have committed.
To which we say, Good, I’ll do that. I’ll confess. Who are we confessing to? He continues:
Numbers 5:7 (TNIV)
7 They must make full restitution [Another “R” word. We have repentance, we have reconciliation—here’s the third “R” word.] for the wrong they have done,
That is in, pay back; make up for. It doesn’t stop with saying, I’m sorry: oh, it was a mistake, I didn’t mean to. God says no, no, no; if we’re going to keep relationships on this earth going like they’re supposed to go and we’re going to have peace among the people, then there must be restitution for the wrong they have done—to which we’re like, Okay, can we stop there? And God says no, I’m not quite finished.
Numbers 5:7 (TNIV)
7 add a fifth of the value to it and give it to the person they have wronged.
So—Old Testament, here’s how a confession went: Confession is me coming to you saying or me realizing, okay I’ve stolen, I wasn’t fair, I cheated, I said what I shouldn’t say—whatever. And God, I’m really, really sorry. And God is going, I’m glad you’re sorry; now make this right. It’s not going to be right with me, but make it right with them. Go confess to them. Can’t I just confess to you? No. Go confess to them. But if I confess to them, then I have to make restitution. Yes, you have to pay them back and twenty percent. There’s a system. Confession in the Old Testament was associated with and attached to restitution, reconciliation, repentance; I’m not going to do it again. And it wasn’t just between God and man; it was between people and other people.
Now after this law was given, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years go by. Hundreds of years go by. Okay, the Old Testament, and the Jews are keeping these laws, and Jesus shows up and one day, and you know this story, some of you, and we might sing this song together. Jesus is walking down the road—and it’s so cool when you read the gospels—everywhere Jesus went there was a crowd—crowds, crowds, and crowds. He’s walking down the street; he’s a miracle worker; he’s a rock star at this point; everybody is loving Jesus. He’s going down the street and there is this guy that wants to see Jesus, but he’s too short. He can’t see over the crowd. His name was Zacchaeus. That’s right. Zacchaeus was a wee little man—that’s right. Okay. Be careful, though, because you may meet Zacchaeus someday and you’ll go, Oh, you’re the . . . tax collector. So, Zacchaeus climbs up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. All the Sunday school people are here and it’s awesome. That’s good. We learned this silly song in Sunday school.
Okay, so Jesus stopped. Now, Zacchaeus is a tax collector; he was a tax farmer. Let me tell you about Zacchaeus. He was a super wealthy guy because he had tax collectors that worked for him, and he sent them out and they collected taxes, plus a surplus. Rome said, Hey, as long we get our taxes you can keep the rest. And they had Roman soldiers that went around with these tax farmers and they were just wealthy. They were traitors. Everybody hated Zacchaeus; everybody hated tax collectors. They were traitors. They were sinners. Remember in the New Testament, they would talk about sinners and tax gatherers. Tax gatherers had their own category. There were tax gatherers and sinners. The sinners didn’t even want the tax gatherers in their category. I’m a sinner, but I’m not a tax gatherer. That’s how bad they were.
So Jesus sees wee little Zacchaeus up in the tree and he says, Zacchaeus, I want to go to your house. This kind of throws everybody off, and Jesus goes to Zacchaeus’ house and they have lunch. And as a result of this come to Jesus meeting—like Jesus was really there at the meeting—they had a come to Jesus meeting with Zacchaeus, and when Zacchaeus is finished listening to Jesus teach, whatever Jesus taught, we don’t know, here’s how Zacchaeus responds:
Luke 19:8 (TNIV)
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, [talking to Jesus] “Look, Lord! Here and now [And check this out, especially as you think about what we just read in the Old Testament] I give half of my possessions to the poor,
Now Zacchaeus, suddenly this generosity has come over you. What happened? Well, I have been in the presence of Jesus and I just realized I’m coming clean. I’ve had some inner turmoil about the tax gathering and the hardship I’ve created for people, but Jesus came and I gave him a peek into my soul, and a little light shone in my soul and I’m ready to make a change. Listen to how the story goes:
Luke 19:8 (TNIV)
8 I give half of my possessions to the poor, [And this is the Old Testament part] and if I’ve cheated
And you know anybody who heard this is going, If you cheated? You’re a tax gatherer; that’s what you are, a cheat. I mean the sinners don’t even want to hang out with you.
Luke 19:8 (TNIV)
8 And if I have cheated anyone of anything [and check this out] I will pay back [not twenty percent more—the Old Testament said, Hey, you give them restitution, you give them what you’ve taken and twenty percent.] I will pay back four times the amount.”
In other words, I’m going to confess, I’m going to own up to what I’ve done, and I’m going to make restitution. Listen to Jesus’ response: And Jesus said unto him, Zacchaeus don’t get carried awayeth. He continued: Thou hast confessed, and it is enougheth that thou hast confessed thy sin to me in private. I made that up. That’s not in the Bible. But this is what we do. We go, Well, you know what, me and God, we had a private conversation. That’s what we say. Put a lock on this, it’s nobody’s business; it’s just between me and God. I want you to know something. The God of the Bible says, No, it’s between me, and you, and everybody you’ve affected, that’s who it’s between. And when Jesus showed up at Zacchaeus’ home, we don’t know what Jesus said to Zacchaeus, but Zacchaeus came out on the front porch and said, You know what, I just want to let the light shine in. This isn’t between me and God; this is between me and God and everybody I’ve offended. Now I want to make it right.
Here’s what Jesus said, and this is awesome. This is what Jesus really said:
Luke 19:9 (TNIV)
9 And Jesus said unto him, “Today salvation has come into this house. Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.”
Jesus didn’t say, No, no you don’t need to start paying people back. You don’t need to start asking people if you’ve offended them. You don’t need to make this public. Jesus said absolutely, that’s what confession is. Genuine confession leads to genuine life change. See, the problem with Zacchaeus at this point, if he’s going to go to all the trouble to giving half of his possessions away, because he stole them anyway, and if he’s going to go to all the trouble of sitting down with everybody he has robbed, paying them back, plus four times as much, guess what Zacchaeus is not going to do going forward? He isn’t going to steal from people anymore, because genuine confession leads to genuine change.
One more passage—this next verse is from James, the guy that kind of got us into this to begin with. James is the only person in the New Testament who commands us to confess. This is the only place in the Scripture where we are specifically commanded to confess. And listen to what James, the brother of Jesus says.
James 5:15 (TNIV)
15 Therefore, confess your sins [Let’s just read this out loud.] to each other.
No, you don’t understand. Okay, if I start “confessing my sins to each other,” okay, that’s going to be complicated. You see, I like my private confess to God, or maybe to a priest that I have a casual relationship with, but we don’t work in the same place. He doesn’t see me, you know. If I start confessing my sins to “each others,” let me tell you what will happen. You’ll have to change won’t you? You’ll have to change, which is the point, because genuine confession leads to genuine change.
James 5:15 (TNIV)
15 Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
When you read this within the context of what James is saying, he’s not addressing a religious hierarchy, he’s just saying, Christians, when you get together, when you gather in homes, open up your lives to each other. Open up your souls to each other. Open up that part of you to each other that you really don’t want people to know because you’re afraid of how they will respond. And would you let the light of God’s truth shine in here? Because you know what James knew, what many of us know from experience, what many of learn the hard way—that secrets are like splinters. The longer they’re there, the worse it gets. The best thing to do with a splinter is to get it out. And the best thing to do with a secret and the best thing to do with a besetting sin (that’s King James talk), the best thing to do with a sin that just keeps happening over and over and over and you said, God, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry and God is going, Okay, you’re sorry. God says, I know you’re sorry; you don’t have to tell me you’re sorry anymore. Let’s just skip that. I know you’re sorry. What I would like for you to do is handle this in such a way that there’s change.
Because the bottom line is this: Genuine confession leads to genuine change. Now, let me just get real personal with you for a second. The bottom line is this: If you have a secret sin, habit—whatever it is—and you’re in this rhythm of telling God you’re sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry but there’s no change, then you need to understand there’s a word for that. And you’re not going to like this. But there’s a word for that, and you know what that word is if you’re on the other side of it, so let me flip it around. Let’s just decide for just a moment that you have a retail store that’s a cash business; you have a small family restaurant; you have a coffee shop and I work for you. There are other people that work for you, and you notice week after week there is $200.00 or $300.00 missing. You just know that there’s $200.00 or $300.00 missing week after week after week, and you finally figure out it’s me.
You put a camera in there, or somebody told you, or finally you realize for weeks and weeks and weeks, maybe months, I had been stealing $200.00 or $300.00 out of your cash register. And you confront me and I say, It’s me, but before you get too upset you need to understand something. I’m a Christian, and so I know I shouldn’t steal. And I want you to know every night when I go home, I get on my knees and I say, Dear heavenly Father, would you please forgive me for stealing $187.29 today from the cash register? And before you get too mad, I want you to know this—because I’m a Christian, I support my church financially with your money that I stole. How would you respond? Would you say, Oh, God bless you; that’s awesome? No. There’s a word for that and it starts with an H. What’s the word? Hypocrite. You are a hypocrite. You are playing a game.
You’re pretending to be something you’re not. You’ve got this little deal worked out where you think you and God are cool. You and God are cool. You and God are cool, because you’ve got a little prayer thing all worked out, and in the meantime you’re ripping me off. You’re a hypocrite. Now here’s the hardest part of the sermon and I’ll try to get by it quick. If you’ve got a little routine worked out with God and you’re a Christian, you’re like a Jesus follower, and people know you go to church and you’ve got this little thing, you’ve got it all covered up. And you think God is going, I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I’ve already forgotten it. Or, you’re absolved, sin bucket empty, go fill it up again. If you’ve got this whole thing going on, by your own definition if the roles were reversed, you’re a hypocrite.
You’re not honoring God. I’ve got to tell you, the good news is this: God’s too smart for that. God is not going, What? He is not confused. He’s patient; he is not confused. You’re a hypocrite, because you’re trying to spin confession in such a way that you feel better, but there’s no change. But genuine confession leads to genuine change. Now, here’s another category. It may be that you say, Andy, okay you’re right. Busted, busted, I’m so busted. Okay, I’ve got secrets. But I’ve got to let you know, Andy. And you don’t have to tell me this personally, because I’m the preacher; you know people are pretty bold these days. But you know, basically you’re saying, You know what Andy? You’re right, you’re right. I’ve got a little routine all worked out, but I’m not going to change. If the point of this is you know you’ve got to change, I’m not ready to change, I’ve got a thing going on, my wife doesn’t know, I’ve got it all worked out, they’re in different cities. I know it’s wrong, and I’ve told God it’s wrong, and I thought maybe I could get a little credit with God, because at least I’m admitting it, but I’m not going to change.
Okay, I’ve got this thing at work and it’s illegal, and I feel bad about it sometimes, and I’ve told God I feel bad. God, please forgive me; I’ve asked God to forgive me, but if you’re talking about going into work tomorrow and say, I need to have a meeting; hey everybody, take a look inside of here. I’m not doing that. I have a suggestion for you, and I’m serious about this. Would you please shift—and this is huge, this is actually going to help you—I’m not being facetious, this will help you. Would you please be willing to pray honestly, and quit playing this stupid confession game that dishonors God and dishonors you? I want to challenge you to start praying prayers like this: Dear heavenly Father, you saw what I did today and I just want to let you know I’m going to keep doing it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
No, I can’t pray like that. Why not? Chicken? Just pray. Come on, come on, come on, pray real prayers. Be honest with yourself and be honest with God, but please don’t live in the fantasy world of thinking that God’s going, Well, at least he admitted it. What do you mean at least he admitted it? It’s God. It’s not like God is going, Huh? If you hadn’t told me I wouldn’t know. Admitting things to God that no one else knows, listen, is worthless. You deceive yourself, you’re trying to deceive God, and you’re trying to deceive your family or whoever else is involved, so just be honest. Say, Dear heavenly Father, I’m a Christian, I know better, I shouldn’t, I’m sorry I’m doing this. But honestly, God, I’m not sorry enough to quit, and I’m not going to play the confession game anymore. I’m just going to be honest with you. And please watch over my family and give me a safe trip. And then you start asking all this stuff you ask God. Then you go, This isn’t working.
But don’t be a hypocrite. Don’t play a game with God. That dishonors God. And here’s why I tell you to do this, because I’m as serious as I can be. Here’s what I know: If you’ll decide you’re going to take your little confession thing that’s worthless and just say, I’m not going to play that game anymore. I’m at least going to crack my soul open to the light of truth a little bit, just an itty, bitty crack. I’m going to at least start praying some honest prayers: God, I have no intention of ending this relationship; I have no intention of getting out of this business; I have no intention of telling them the truth. I have no intention, but God, and I’m not asking you to forgive me because that’s silly, and I’m not confessing it like I’ll feel better. But at least I want to begin honest dialogue with you, maybe for the first time in a long time. And maybe just your newfound honesty with God would begin to form a crack in your resistance. And maybe, by God’s grace, you’ll get so sick and tired of your duplicity and so sick and tired of the distance you feel from God and sick and tired of the deceit, maybe one day you would be willing to like really confess to somebody where it can make a difference.
But if you are sick and tired of it, confession’s a pretty simple thing. You just tell the person that you’ve hurt. And if it’s a habit that no one knows about, you tell someone that can help you. You tell the person you’ve robbed; you tell the person you’ve injured; you tell the person you’re insensitive to; you tell the person you’re running around on; you tell your teacher; you tell your professor; you tell your boss. You just tell I’m confessing. I told God and God said, That’s awesome; step one. Step two is you’ve got to tell the person you’ve taken from, that you’ve robbed, that you’ve hurt, that you’ve offended. And if there’s not anybody in this box that you’ve robbed or hurt or offended, then you tell someone that you know that can help you with your debilitating habit that you can’t seem to break.
Now let me just say this, and all of you AA people, you don’t have to say amen—or CA or NA or all the A’s—I’ve been to a bunch of those. You know this. Here’s what you know, that the rest of us idiots haven’t figured out. There are habits, and there are addictions, and there are sin patterns that you cannot break by telling God about it. And it’s not because there’s something wrong with God, and it’s not because there is something wrong with you. It’s because God put you in a body, and God connected you to people, and God has connected you to relationships. And the people and the advice and the strength that you need is available, but to get it you’ve got to open up to somebody besides God in secret.
There are habits and addictions that have never been broken by simply willpower as people have struggled on their own. The change came, the genuine confession that led to genuine change came when they opened their souls and confessed to some real-life flesh and blood people. I know what the tension is; I don’t live in a fantasy world, either. Do you know what the tension is? It’s our fear of consequences. Look at this. It’s fear of consequences. We fear consequences of confession more than we fear consequences of concealment. We fear the consequences of confession—what are they going to say, what’s going to happen—more than we fear the consequences of concealment.
Now, let me tell you who fears the consequences of confession more than they fear the consequences of concealment. Let me tell you who those people are. They are the people who have yet to experience the full-blown consequences of concealment, because ultimately the consequences of concealment are far worse than the consequences of confession. You’re going, Oh, you don’t know my wife; you don’t know my mama. You know, when I tell them . . . I’m just telling you—listen, secrets grow, and they get stronger, and they get darker, and they begin to impact all of your relationships, and you carry certain secrets from chapter to chapter, stage to stage of your life. The consequences grow and they grow and they grow. Confession, when you confess, the consequences are immediate and they’re local.
The consequences of concealment stretch out and can stretch out over a lifetime. So, you know what? Confession, confess—that’s what Christians are supposed to do, but not just privately to God—to one another, and to the people that we’ve wounded and that we’ve offended, because at the end of the day, genuine confession leads to genuine change. Let me ask you this: What’s in your box? You’ve been telling God about it as if God needed you to tell God, but I mean you’ve got a little deal going on here, but you know, come on, there is no change. There is no freedom. You’re not a different person; you’re just a church person with secret sin, secret sin that you’ve kind of arranged a little deal with God, and there is no change. You’re a hypocrite. And you don’t want to be, in fact, you don’t even like hypocrites, but that’s what you’ve become because you’re playing the confession game.
What do you need to tell and who do you need tell? What do you need to tell and who do you need to tell? And did you know, if you’re willing and able and ready and decide, you know what, I think I’m going to fear the consequences of concealment more than the consequences of confession, and if you begin to open your box appropriately to the right people, you will see life change like maybe you never thought was possible. Because confession is extraordinarily, extraordinarily powerful. Because confession is part of the sequence of events that brings about real change. And genuine confession always leads to genuine change.
So, what do you need to tell, and who do you need to tell? And are you ready to put on your big boy pants, have that difficult conversation, but decide, you know what, I’m a follower of Jesus. Why in the world would I want to live any other way than wide open? And why would I want to forfeit the freedom of having things exposed that make me a better person than living my life in the dark? What do you need to tell and who do you need to tell?
Let’s pray together.
