In the movie Shadowlands, a really well done look at the life of Christian author C.S. Lewis, Lewis has returned to Oxford from London, where he has just been married to Joy Gresham. Joy is dying from cancer, and through the struggle with her illness, she and Lewis have been discovering the depth of their love for each other.
As Lewis arrives at the college where he teaches, he is met by Harry Harrington, an Episcopal priest, who asks what news there is. Lewis reflects on his recent marriage to Joy, and her medical condition, and decides to answer the question based on the marriage, and gives a very positive response.
Harrington, not aware of the marriage and thinking that Lewis is referring to Joy’s medical situation, replies, “I know how hard you’ve been praying. Now, God is answering your prayer.”
“That’s not why I pray, Harry,” Lewis responds. “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God; it changes me.”
We are building block, upon block about the power of prayer. And as we venture forward, I hope we understand what C.S. Lewis understood. Prayer is not so much about changing God. It is about our being changed. It is about our finding ourselves in a place of desperation where we are unable to not pray. And it is about learning to experience prevailing prayer which can change us.
One of the ways that happens is through the unleashing of the power of repentance in our prayers. Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah. One of my favorite books, documenting the life of one of my favorite characters in the entire Bible. A man of great passion for his city. A man with a clear call to the restoration of a city. A man that realized that for things to once again be as God intended, there was a greater work to be done than simply the rebuilding of a wall.
In the book of Nehemiah you will find the ninth chapter. It has been called the “Levites Psalm”, and is known to be one of the most eloquent recitals of God’s marvelous acts in Israel’s history. Many cite the tradition that Ezra wrote these words, and call this “Ezra’s Grand Psalm.” It is one of a number of great psalms of Scripture actually located outside the book of Psalms. Similar to “The Song of Moses” that you find in Deuteronomy 32, or “Deborah’s Song” in Judges 5, and “Hannah’s Song” in 1 Samuel 2.
This chapter is arguably one of the most significant in the whole of Hebrew Scripture. It recites the basic Old Testament story line, with a glorious focus on the work of Yahweh in the lives of His chosen people. However, the passage does not end with history but with response. Because any true understanding of the person and work of God leads to a human response.
Journey with me quickly through the book of Nehemiah. In chapter 1, Nehemiah receives word while serving as the cupbearer to the king in Shushan that Jerusalem is in a desperate state. The wall is in disrepair. The city is unprotected. The naked eye sees little more than rubble, destruction, and the city is in a condition of despair and great reproach.
Chapter 2, Nehemiah secures King Artaxerxes blessing, and journeys to Jerusalem to lead the effort to restore the city. In the third chapter the work of rebuilding the wall begins with a fervor. By chapter four, enemies surrounding the city of Jerusalem are getting concerned with the progress, and begin plotting and planning attacks to disrupt the work.
Chapter 5, the grumbling begins among the people doing the work. They have been making significant sacrifices to focus their efforts on rebuilding the wall, and it is beginning to take a toll on them financially, physically, and emotionally. So they let their leader Nehemiah know it. In chapter six, the villains of the story Sanballat and Tobiah scheme and plan to pull Nehemiah away from the work, but he stands firm to the great work that he has been called to. And the wall is completed.
Chapter seven provides us a genealogical listing of those individuals who were a part of this great reconstruction effort. And with the physical structure restored, in chapter eight it is time to focus in on the spiritual condition of the community. So Ezra gathers all the people together, and reads from the law of God. Reestablishes the order of feasts and celebrations that God had commanded of His people. And spiritual renewal, revival begins to take place within the nation.
So we have now arrived at the twenty-fourth day of Tishri, sometime in the September –October window. . .just like the current point of our calendar and two days after the completion of the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. Nehemiah 9:1 (read through verse 3).
An interesting picture of desperate, community prayers that now include our third power of prayer - the power of repentance.
This period of public worship had begun on the first day of the seventh month. We are now more than three weeks later, and the people were still engaged in public worship. And as the people are engaged in this public worship, they begin to enter a period of confession. . .repentance of their own sins. Repentance for personal and corporate forgiveness. One-fourth of the day. More than three hours were spent in public reading and three hours were spent in corporate worship, and confession. Repenting of their sins.
What follows these verses is a psalm about the history of Israel’s salvation. And this psalm evoked a response: the Israelites humbled themselves before their Lord and recommitted themselves to His covenant.
Notice how the language turns in the latter part of this psalm. Verse 30 (read through verse 31). Notice the “them” language (highlight).
Verse 32 (read through verse 38). Notice the “us” language (highlight).
Now, get this this morning. A true understanding of God’s merciful work on our behalf always leads to confession, worship, and renewal. This need for repentance has been brewing within Nehemiah’s heart since day one. Think back to that time when Nehemiah hears of the crumbled walls in Jerusalem. Did he blame God? No. Look at his prayer all way back in chapter 1, verse 6 (read through verse 7).
This is the second most powerful man in the kingdom turning himself in, accepting responsibility for the downfall of his people. But this scene of his personal confession is nothing compared to this day when the entire nation repents.
Can you picture this event? Hundreds of people spending hours in prayer, not making requests but making confessions. “I’m guilty, God.” “I’ve failed you, Father.”
And this kind of public honesty is common in Scripture. God had even instructed the high priest in Leviticus to “put both his hands on the head of the living goat, and he will confess over it all the sins and crimes of Israel. In this way Aaron will put the people’s sins on the goat’s head....The goat will carry on itself all the people’s sins to a lonely place in the desert. The man who leads the goat will let it loose there” (16:21–22).
With the backset of this dramatic, priest led confession, the people learned that God despises sin and God deals with sin. And they learned that before there could be honest worship, there had to be honest hearts.
I want us to notice a few things about this passage in Nehemiah 9 today. First. . .
1. CONFESSION PRECEDES THE POWER OF REPENTANCE.
You see, there is great power in prayers of repentance. Healing power. Many of us are familiar with the famous words of 2 Chronicles 7, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Forgiveness and healing are available when we turn from our wickedness. When we repent of the sin in our lives. But confession and repentance are not the same thing, and this power of repentance begins in humble confession and acknowledgement of who we are and what we have done.
Many people in the church and the world today desire to be delivered. They want to be free from the guilt and chains that have bound them for so long. But they are not prepared to enter into a time of confession so that the power of repentance can be unleashed in their lives. They aren’t ready to acknowledge their own responsibility and behavior of sin that has impacted the place they find themselves.
In fact, we live in a day and age when no one is responsible for anything. Every court trial begins with a plea of not guilty, and then ensues with excuse after excuse of how it wasn’t the guilty parties fault. Seemingly no one is ready to acknowledge sin in their life.
But as you explore and examine the life of the nation of Israel, you will repeatedly find this cycle of confession, repentance, and deliverance. Unfortunately, very much like in our own lives, the cycle often continues with new acts of sin and disobedience. But when the nation once again turns in confession and repentance, deliverance follows. And the deliverance portion of this cycle begins with confession. “Fessing up” to what we have done.
Often we find ourselves bogged down in difficult situations that we need God’s delivering grace from, but know that God will often wait for the burden and consequence of our sin to humble our souls before He acts.
There is great power in repentance, but it begins with confession. Next, we see that. . .
2. PUBLIC CONFESSION IS BIBLICAL.
Did you know that there is a call-in line in Las Vegas called “Connection Confession”. People can call and confess their sins to a recording. America’s first confession line makes it possible, for a fee of $9 per three minutes, you can record your sin and if you want to pay a little more you can listen to other people’s sins. Apparently the service is being bombarded by calls. One of the originators said, "It’s a technological way to get something off your chest without the embarrassment that comes from confessing one-on-one."
“One-on-one” would often be the mode of the Catholic Church. Utilizing a confessional booth that Protestants have from time to time mocked. What’s the big deal of confessing your sins through a screen? Right? In full privacy? Anyone can do that, right?
The story goes of a parochial school where they children often forgot their sins when they entered the confessional. So the priest suggested that teachers have the students make lists. The next week when one child came to confession. The priest could hear him unfolding paper. The youngster began, “I lied to my parents. I disobeyed my mom. I fought with my brothers and...”
There was a long pause. Then a small angry voice said, “Hey, this isn’t my list!”
But you know what? Confessional booths are a step above what most protestant churches participate in any more. (Public confessions & testimonies as a child.)
We, the church universal, need to return to a biblical process, cycle, and opportunity of ministry that includes public confession.
James 5:16 says, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”
I wonder how many people in our midst and in churches today are walking around bruised, hurt, and in bondage. And one of the reasons is because of unconfessed sin. But the church is no longer providing an environment where those sins can be confessed free of judgment or guilt.
We need to be a place where confession is received with rejoicing that healing is taking place. We need to embrace the Biblical model of public confession. And when we begin to do that, we will see that. . .
3. CONFESSION AND REPENTANCE IS NEEDED ON MULTIPLE LEVELS.
You see, when you enter into a body. When you partner with others. You remove yourself from island life, and become a part of a corporation. Whether it is in a marriage, a family, a community or a church. You become a part of something larger than yourself. So confession and repentance has to take place on more levels than simply the most obvious.
Of course, that is where we start. . .with. . .
a. Personal Confession
When we discover sin in our own life, we need to confess it and repent of it. Dishonesty, envy, lust, greed, gluttony, pride. Things in our lives that we know God would not have us be a part of. Recognizing sin in our lives. But it goes beyond that and includes. . .
b. Generational Confession
Have you ever had to apologize for the behavior of your children? I have not. . .but I am quite confident that my parents have had to on a number of occasions. It can work both ways. In fact, we are told in Nehemiah that they not only began to confess and repent of their own sins, but even the sins of their fathers.
Maybe you run into some racially oppressed African-Americans. You were never in the KKK or directly prejudicial to them. But you know of a parent or grandparent that was. There is great power when we become ministers of reconciliation, and confess the sins of previous generations so that healing can begin.
And as we look at the even larger entities that we are a part of, we will see the need for...
c. Corporate Confession
Today this can look like a local church, a denomination, even the body of Christ throughout the country. Together, as corporate bodies, there are things we may need to confess, and repent of.
The church universal has been guilty of incredible hatred, and anger spewed at homosexuals, and post-abortive women. The church of today. . .this body can stand in the gap as ministers of reconciliation and confess on behalf of he body of Christ that we have not demonstrated the love of Christ in those situations.
Pastors, staff members, parsonage families have been abused, taken advantage of, slandered, mistreated by the church. The corporate body of Christ needs to stand in for those past hurts and pains, and provide a corporate confession that can bring healing and wholeness to those damaged lives.
Because this is the beauty of this whole process. Whatever the type of confession, we know from I John 1:9 that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” But it all begins with the “if” of the “if/then” statement. “If we confess our sins.”
Finally, for just a brief moment, I want us to understand that. . .
4. REPENTANCE IS MORE THAN CONFESSION.
To unleash the power of repentance through our prayer life, we need to understand that confession is the starting point, but repentance moves us well beyond an acknowledgement of sin. Confession is an acknowledgement of the wrong that has been done. Repentance is an actual turning from that wrong. Changing our lives. It is the covenant with God that says not only was I wrong, but I am committing to live differently from this point forward.
This is so significant. The people in Nehemiah did not simply say they were sorry. They did not simply acknowledge their wrong, and then plan to go right back to it. They made a covenant with God. They wrote it. They sealed it. In the beginning of chapter 10 you can trace those families and individuals who signed it. And in a few weeks we are going to look at another power in prayer. . .the power of covenant.
But this was more than saying the way I have lived is wrong. It was saying, the way I am going to live will be different.
Look at these words from the prophet Jeremiah. Look at the difference between simply saying the words, and the power that is unleashed when we actually behave differently:
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Amend your ways and your doings (that’s repentance), and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’ For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.”
Don’t just say some magical words like “the temple of the Lord.” Like confessional phrases such as “Forgive me father for I have sinned.” We are to change our ways and our doings. Turn from our current way of living. Move beyond confession, and truly repent of our behavior.
It looks like this Hosea 14 (verses 1 to 3), “For you have stumbled because of your iniquity; take words with you, and return to the LORD. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity; Receive us graciously.” Words of confession.
“For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips. Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride on horses, nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’” Repentance. Actual commitments to a different type of behavior.
Each week of this series we have been providing time following the message to apply the prayer power that we have studied together, and we want to do the same today. In a day and age of “user friendly” churches, it is not common to have a time for confession and commitments of repentance. But we are going to today.
As the praise team comes, we are going to sing together, and I want to encourage you to search your heart and see if the power of repentance is being withheld in your prayer life due to a lack of confession and being honest with God about areas of sin in our lives.
If God reveals something to you. If you know of a need for confession and repentance in your life. . .I want you to take this opportunity to bring it to the altar. To confess your sins to God, and maybe even another member of your church family.
Let’s allow God to unleash the power of repentance in our life, as we seek His face.
(Prayer of preparation)
