Psalms 51:1-12
Topic: How to R.A.P. when you have messed up in this life
All of us, whether we are young or old, black or white, male or female; Baptist or Methodist, Pentecostal or Apostolic; all of us at one time or another has messed up bad in our lives. It does not matter how long you have been saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost, at one point or another in our life, we have messed up bad by doing something that was a sin against God. It does not matter if you are a preacher, choir member, deacon, Sunday School teacher, at one point of our lives, we have messed up bad by doing something wrong in our lives. And the sad thing about is that we have some people in the world, on our jobs, in our families, in our communities, as well in the church that is still messing up bad by continuing doing the same thing over, and over again. Now in this message, we are going to define say messing up as sin. That is, to mess up means to commit a sin before the Almighty God. You see, sin is disobedience towards God. Sin is when God tells you to do something, but yet you don’t do it. Or sin is when God tell you not to do something, but yet you do it anyway. And the bible tells us that all of us have messed up bad, all of us has sinned in our lives. The scriptures says in Romans 3:23 that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Also it says in Ecclesiastes 7:20 that “there is not a just man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not.”
Yes, all of us have messed up bad one time or another. You may not have messed up bad like Kobe Byrant, but you still have messed up. You may not have messed up like R. Kelley, but you still have messed up. You may not have messed up like I have messed up, or I may not have messed up like you have messed up, but we still both have messed up.
The thing is that when you have messed up in your lives by sinning against God, you may can keep it a secret from me, or from someone else, but God sees and knows all about our mess ups. You might keep your mess ups from your momma, your daddy, your brother, your sister, your grand parents, your neighbors, your pastor, teacher, from whoever. But you can never keep anything a secret from God because he knows all, and he sees all of our mess ups. King David thought he had gotten away with murder and adultery when he had Uriah killed and got Bathsheba pregnant. In other words he thought he had gotten away with his mess ups. But God sent the prophet Nathan to King David to tell him that what he had done in the dark, had already been exposed in the light before the Almighty God; for God sees and knows all of our mess ups. You see, you can’t cover up your mess ups before God. God sees and knows all about our mess ups. And the thing about is that when you try to cover up your mess ups, you create a whole lot of unnecessary mess for yourself. You will find your self in a unnecessary deep hole that will be hard for you to get out of when you try to cover up your mess ups. You will find yourself in a web of lies that will get too sticky for you when you try to cover up your mess ups. You will find your self losing sleep, losing some of your hair, losing some of your friends, losing your job when you try to cover up your mess ups. You will have no peace, no joy, no victory, no deliverance, no blessings coming forth for yourself when you try to cover up your mess ups. But the good news is that God is able to deliver us and help us when we mess up in our lives.
So the question is: What should we do when we have messed up in our lives?
When you have messed up before the Almighty God, you need to know how to R.A.P. Yes, you need to know how to RAP when you have messed up before the Almighty God. I know, some of you are probably saying to yourself, “You mean to tell me that I have to know how to rap like Jay-Z, Nas, P. Diddy, 50 cent, Lil Kim, Foxxy Brown, Bow Wow, Master P., or any other famous rappers when I have messed up before God? The answer is no.
When you have messed up before God by sinning and by doing the wrong thing, you need to RAP by following the letters of RAP, for each letter in RAP stands for these 3 important things:
1.When you have messed up and sinned before the Almighty God, you need to do the letter R, which means you need to Repent. To repent means to turn away from sin, turn away from evil, turn away from doing wrong, and start doing the right thing and come to Jesus Christ to be saved. When you have messed up, you need to repent of your mess, by turning away from it, that is. by stop doing those things which is wrong, which is not right, and start doing those things that are pleasing to God, and those things that are right according to the Word of God. And when you repent from your wrong doing, when you repent from your mess, if you are not saved, you need to come to Jesus Christ to be saved.
Isaiah 55:7 says, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
Matthew 3:2 says, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
Luke 13:3 says, “To repent or perish”
Acts 2:38 says, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Acts 3:19 says, “Repent ye therefore, and be ye converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”
So the first thing you should do when you have messed up, you need to repent.
2.When you have messed up before the Almighty God, you need to do the letter A, which means that you need to Acknowledge before the Lord that you have messed up and that you have sinned before God. That is, you need to confess your sin before the Lord. You need to tell the Lord that you have done wrong. You need to agree with God in his word that what you have done wrong was a sin in his sight. When you confess your sin before the Lord, you don’t just say “Lord, I have sinned.” But you tell the Lord exactly what you have done. If you had said a cuss word, you confess you sin by telling Lord, “I have sinned by saying a cuss word, please forgive me” If you were looking at a woman or a man, and you were lusting after their flesh, you need to come clean before the Lord, and confess that sin by saying, “Lord, I have sinned by lusting after that woman’s or that man’s flesh, please forgive me.”
Ezra 10:11 says, “Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land and from the strange wives.”
Proverbs 28:13 says, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”
Jeremiah 3:13 says, “Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and has scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green trees, and have not obeyed my voice”, saith the Lord.
I John 1:8-10 says, “If we say that we have no sin. We deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
Now, what I like about God is that you don’t need to confess up to everybody about your mess ups. That is, you don’t need to confess up to everybody about your sin. In other words, you don’t need to tell everybody about your business. There are some things you just need to keep between you and God. Yes, the bible does say in James 5:16 to “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual feverent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Yes, the bible does say confess your faults to one another, but not everybody in the church is righteous. You can’t tell everyone your faults because you have some people who won’t pray for you, but rather they will scandalize your name, talk about you behind your back, put your business out in the street, and try to destroy your reputation. Instead, if you are going to confess your faults some one, you need to find somebody who is mature in Christ, righteous, trustworthy, and is a prayer warrior to tell your faults to. But if you can’t find anyone who you can confide in about your faults, you just need to confess it before the Lord privately and let it between you and the Lord.
So the second thing you must do when you have messed up, you need to acknowledge your sin before the Lord.
3.When you have messed up before the Almighty God, you need to P, which means you need to Pray to God and ask God for forgiveness and mercy. When King David had messed up when he committed murder and adultery, he prayed this prayer in Psalm 51:1 by saying, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.”
You see King David prayed that the Lord would have mercy upon him and to forgive him for commiting murder and adultery. And guess what? God forgave King David for his sin because God is a merciful and forgiving God.
And when you have messed up in this life by sinning against God, you need to get on your knees and ask God for forgiveness of your sins.
2ND Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then when I hear from heaven: and forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
And what I like about God is that God will forgive you when you have messed up in this life. God will have mercy upon you when you have messed up in this life. Not only that, God will give you chance after chance, after chance when you have messed up in this life. In other words, God will not give up on you when you have messed up in this life because Psalm 103:8 says, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.” And also it says in Jeremiah 31:3 that “God loves us with an everlasting love.” God never stops loving us even if we have messed up in our lives. And it does not matter what you have done in this life, no matter how bad you may have messed up, God is able to forgive and to have mercy upon you because in I John 1:7 says that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” Yes, the blood of Jesus Christ is able to wash us clean from all of our mess ups. The blood of Jesus is able to cleanse us from all our sins. When you have messed up, all you need to do is pray and and asked God for forgiveness, and the blood of Jesus Christ will wash all our sins away.
Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, and let us reason together saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Conlcusion
When you have messed up in this life you need to:
1.Repent
2.Acknowlege the sin I committed before the Lord
3.Pray and ask God for forgiveness. And if you truly want God to forgive you of your sins, you need to believe and receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior because it is only by the blood of Jesus Christ that your sins can be forgiven, and washed away. There was a song that asked this question, “What can washed me whiter than snow?” And the answer is nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ.
And if you are here and you are not saved, God wants you to be saved. And to be saved, is easy as ABC:
A= Admit that you are a sinner (Romans 3:23)
B= Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ(Act 16:31)
C= Confess the Lord Jesus Christ( Romans 10:9)
…..And you shall be saved because Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. He was buried, but in 3 days he got out of the grave with all power in his hands. All you got to do is trust in Him, and have faith that He is the Savior of the world, and He will give you eternal life.
