The Power Of Confessing Sins

Icebreaker:

A teacher asks a little boy as to why he was late to school. He replies that his mother served the breakfast late. When his mother was asked, she replied that the milkman delivered the milk late. The milkman, in turn, replied that the cow didn’t give milk on time. But the cow blamed the owner and said that he gave the grass late. Now we can go on adding excuses for why the owner gave the grass late.

Introduction:

Friends, one of our main struggles is to confess our mistakes.

We don’t take responsibility for the mistakes that we make, but we learn to justify our mistakes by blaming something or someone else.

This mode of life is defined as ‘Living in denial’.

Denial simply means, ‘not accepting the reality’ and most of the times it is because it hurts us.

In Psychology, denial is one of the unconscious defense mechanism people sometimes use to deal with unpleasant situations.

For example,

There was a woman named Sandra, who was 45 + years. She did all she can, to look young. She denied the fact that she is getting old and when people asked her age she hated to admit it. She couldn’t face the reality of her age and kept denying it by grooming herself more and more.

Friends, just like Sandra, we are not willing to admit our weaknesses, but we often deny our shortcomings.

We fail to realize that many things that happen in our life, whether it is good or bad is because of our own choices and not because of other external reasons or people.

For example, we often blame the traffic for not being on time for an important appointment.

In Genesis 3, we see how Adam blames Eve and even God, for the choice Adam made, and Eve blames the snake for the choice she made.

Psychologically, ‘living in denial means trying to hold onto our own perception of reality, when in fact we are denying the truth.’

And the sign of denial is when we refuse to listen to truth and argue over it instead of accepting the truth.

People deny different kinds of things:

Some deny health. Some people cannot accept the fact that there is something wrong with their physical body and avoid visiting the doctor.

Some deny their financial condition. Some do not accept the fact that they are not doing well in their finances and in spite of having a lot of debts, they keep spending a lot and project an image to the world that they are doing good financially.

People deny several other aspects of their lives.

But I want to talk about how people deny facts about their spiritual lives.

In denial of spiritual matters, people consciously and sometimes unconsciously deny the spiritual truth of their lives and cover them with their own reasonings and arguments.

For example, I often come across Christians who are addicted to drinking justifying their sins by misinterpreting the Bible.

They try to cover their sinfulness with worldly logic.

Some men give an excuse that they are late for church because their wives served breakfast late or served coffee late.

However, Proverbs 28:13 says that ‘whoever conceals their sins do not prosper’. They cannot grow!

And sadly, denial of spiritual starvation is widely seen among Christians and especially among those who are in faith for a long time.

It is more difficult for a Christian to accept that they have done something wrong or are struggling with sin than an unbeliever.

Friends, when live in such denial, we often fail to enjoy the true life in Christ Jesus.

Text: But according to our text for today, 1 John 1:7 ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’

We receive God’s undeserving forgiveness when we confess our sins.

Confessing our sins helps us to enjoy the true meaning of life in Christ.

Title: I have entitled today’s message as ‘The power of confessing sins.’

We can enjoy our life in Christ when we stop living in denial and start living in the truth.

Firstly, we will look at the problems that hinder us in not confessing our sins. Secondly, we will look at the biblical solution.

Main Points:

I. The Problems.

In my observation, I noticed two main reasons why some Christians choose to live in a state of denial in spiritual matters.

Firstly, it is because of the ‘fear of Rejection’ or otherwise said as ‘approval addiction!’

We all like to be accepted and do not like to be rejected.

But when this desire exceeds beyond what God intends for us, then it becomes a problem.

For example, in Exodus 32 chapter, we see how Aaron goes against the will of God and makes a golden calf to get the approval of the people of Israel.