How to Talk with God, Part 3: Get Honest

By Greg Byman
Senior Pastor, St Joe Community Church
​Preached January 21, 2018

Today’s message is entitled, “Get Honest’ and is Pastor Byman’s third and final sermon in a series called “How to Talk with God.” It was preached on Sunday, January 21, 2018 and it is based in Psalm 51. The series culminates on the church’s annual Sanctity of Life Sunday, which celebrates life and affirms the value of the unborn and the frail, and laments the legalization of abortion on demand in the United States by the Supreme Court in 1973.

Transcription

This sermon has been machine transcribed with an estimated 95% accuracy.

​Thank you so much. You may be seated let's begin to continue on in our walk with the Lord this morning in Psalm Chapter fifty one if you'll turn to Psalm Chapter fifty one and we're going to talk about. Wrap up kind of what we've heard already this morning. Again thank you or Shel Thank you Lisa for being here today and for pouring out your hearts towards people who in in so many circles this is a subject nobody wants to talk about and thank you for not no longer being silent and being willing to be used by God. There was a king who lived the greatest king his lineage is Jesus Jesus comes in through the lineage of David King David was the greatest king in the Israelites history to ever live in their minds he is set apart as the King of Kings he is the one guy that they saw as this is the kind of king This is the kind of leader that you ought to be military leaders actually study the military patterns of David to see his strategy for pursuit for pursuing and also evading the enemy military schools look at what he did he was a very smart man a very agile man he was a humble man he came from Shepherd circumstances he came from circumstances where he was the the the right so to speak he wasn't really seen as the most important kid in his family and yet he became and rose as the king of the anointed king really the second king of Israel but really the one that did it right and showed how to do it but he had a chink in his armor and the chink in his armor as women and it got worse with his son by the way Solomon really expanded his horizons when it came to women but David had a problem and he saw a woman that he wanted and he took her into his company one night while her husband was at battle. For the kingdom. And so he took advantage of a woman who was home alone from her husband she gets pregnant. He sends word to hand that she's pregnant and so he says I know what I'll do any brings you back and says hey you're a great guy. Well you we really like what you're doing out there go alone be with your wife you know what he was doing is trying to cover it up well that man was more faithful to his men on the field than David was to his men's what this man's wife. And he did not go home to his wife even got him drunk and said hey you go home your wife you figured you know and they're in your and your neighbor and you just start getting all mines in and he'll certainly go in to being with us WIFE He's been away from her for a long time that didn't even happen he's still a faithful man to the cause that he lived for and he's serving a man that he truly was devoted to King David. They was like well that's not going to work and so in the midst of what he thought he needed to do to fix the problem. He sends a note with your Riah to the commander of the armies and that note said put your eye on the front lines and when it gets hot draw back and let your riot by himself and sensually signing his death warrant. And he figures if you riot dies. Then I can marry best. And nobody will be the wiser. Covering up his sense I'm telling you the Bible has more interesting stories than fiction Well David has found out and I won't go into detail about that you can read in Second Samuel that story and you can read how Nathan the prophet came in and said you're that man and you have sinned against God you've sinned against our nation and God and God is displeased with your life. And David repented. Of his sin. Of adultery and then murder and obviously through that all of those deceit and lying. Which it always accompanies most other sins and then David who was very famous for writing songs to the Lord the songs. It was a psalm missed. Big run silent through these years but suddenly. It began to flow out of him again. And became a song of pent a tense a penitence it was a song of sorrow a song of repentance a song. A song of prayer for God's graciousness to come upon his life. And I want to read this psalm to you and then we're going to break down how to talk with God how to get honest. Be gracious to me God according to your faithful love according to your abundant compassion blot out my rebellion wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin for I am conscious of my rebellion of my sin as always before me against you and you alone I have sinned and done this evil in your sight so you are right when you pass sentence you are blameless when you judge and deed I was guilty when I was born when I was born I was sinful when my mother conceived me surely you desire integrity and the inner self and you teach me wisdom deep within verse seven purify me with hyssop hyssop by the way is that read that they fill with blood and they sprinkle to bring cleansing through the Sacrificial Blood on the altars in the Old Testament ways and I will be clean purified me with hyssop on I will be clean wash me and I will be water than Snow let me hear joy and gladness let the bones you have crushed rejoice turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt. God create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me restore the joy of your salvation to me and give me a willing spirit. Then I will teach the rebellious your ways and centers will return to you save me from the guilt of bloodshed God and the God of my salvation and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Lord open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise you do not want to sacrifice for you are I would give it you were not pleased with a burnt offering the sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God you will not despise a broken and humble heart. In your good pleasure cause Zion to prosper build the walls of Jerusalem and then your lot your you will delight in righteous sacrifices whole burnt offerings then bulls will be offered on your altar Father God. I pray that this heaviness that comes over us in this passage. Will be lifted by the power of your Holy Spirit through the forgiveness of our sins. Through the freedom that we find in the name of Jesus Christ guide us now as we move forward may your words speak to our hearts may I be diminished in May you be exalted and I pray this and well if we were to get honest if we're going to talk to God we've got to get honest and none of this stuff about oh you know just sort of talk about some things and then move on. No no we've got to get honest. He really. Needs us not a representation that we want him to see of us I got to question. It watch that person of interest that's our reruns now came on right after the news last night person of interest where you can see that there's all these cameras all around you it's McCance and serious but how many of you ever look around you all the sudden you see this camera looking at you Anybody here see that around and you go to big cities it's all over now. But everywhere you go there's a camera right well what if somebody were videotaping your life they had a boom mike over you everything you said that boom mike also could spik up on your thoughts the narration of your life that you give to yourself as you're moving along oh that's that that's a nice sunset there's a pretty bird what a jerk that guy is I mean I mean all the different things that you put in there I mean the good the bad the ugly What if God what if somebody did that and then in the here. And then we took that tape and everybody brought their tape and we just randomly picked a tape and on Sunday morning. We started playing it. You know new Sunday. Through Saturday night all fair game and then because we don't have enough time we just sort of pick a spot and you don't get to choose and Grant and Lynette they're in charge of sound and lights and bells and whistles up here. They pick the segment they think would be and they don't even say there's randomly here this twenty minutes how many of you would start cringing to say I wonder what they're going to show of what I did I wonder what people will think of me once they see what I did what I thought how many of you want to get well what I really meant to say when I said that and you want to come up and rebut what you said have a rebuttal or a disclaimer I was having a bad day all right. We would be embarrassed to a point now some of you Europe wide open you tell you told everybody what I was just thinking of you told him out the great room what happened this week God bless you you're just the most fluid people and you're just livin free that's but most of it was sin no I don't know that I want everybody to see everything and that not of I should see everything OK let's just go disclaimer on that. Confession ought to be about as wide as usually your circle of your confession ought to be as wide as as the effect of the sin in your life so let's be careful not to be giving evil its day in the middle of things that on now we say we're embarrassed of something like that happened here in minutes but why are we not embarrassed in front of a holy God that's with us twenty four seven and knows everything about us he knows our motivations he knows our heart he knows our thoughts he knows why we said what we said he knows everything about us and yet we sometimes act as if nobody's there watching why is it that we're not as embarrassed in front of a holy God and I'm asking myself that same question why am I more embarrassed to of what people might think of me in public than what I know God thinks of me so I'm fifty one isn't for a king who has committed adultery and then murdered the husband. Some fifty one is for every single person in this room who has a center. Who is not a center in this room. OK think you got that right. We are all in need of the Savior we're all in need of getting honest with God and to be set free so how do we get honest well how to David do it. How do we get honest First of all we trust who God is we come to a God who openly receives US we come to a God who wants us to come to him. We come to a God who is not there to blast us and push us down like I said the whack a mole he's not here to slice pieces he's here to restore us after we've become broken in front of him verse one he says I come to you David says I come to you be gracious to me of God according to your faithful love for me according to your compassion for me. And in verse twelve he says Create a return to me the joy of your salvation this isn't my salvation this is him he's the savior he's compassionate He is Love God is love now his love is real and it's not false and it's not based on false presumptions and it's not based on illicit affairs and it's not based on wrong things that we've done it's based on truth and righteousness and that's why we oftentimes think our version of Love doesn't match God's real love and so we think what God would we we project on God. What we think about love ourselves well if someone knew this about me they would love me anymore. And in your human circumstances that's actually happened probably. I don't know if I handle that about you I don't think we can be friends anymore that's not God's love God said You come to me as you are and I'll receive you end in myself I've sent my son to show you my love his compassion is continually shown throughout the Scriptures that he wants to have compassion on us if he wasn't a compassionate God he could have told Adam and Eve Well I guess you're going to die and I'm going to start this earth all over again with a couple that actually go and get it right now Gardner. But instead of wiping everything out and starting over which by the way many of us want to do we just want to wipe away that old stuff and forget it move it on and God says No I want to take you just as you are even the junk that was in your life I want to redeem it for my glory and my sake. Many of you would want to get rid of some of the loss in your life because of the scent in your life many of you I would like to remove some ascend that I've done in my life I don't like that part of my testimony. And I'd like for God to just say Well that part of your life doesn't exist. Move on time change or go back change time move it make and then everything shifts that's only in movies and that's not real. That's not how God works you know what I don't know the mystery of God but the greatness of God He wants to use our woodenness woodenness to witness to his power and His glory it brings Him glory when we take our hurt. And we put it at his feet and let him use we don't glory in the her or the pain or the shame we don't glory in the sand we just say in spite of the sin you may be revealed. What we heard today in this testimony we need to trust who God is and kind of him just as we but we also need to own our guilt. We've got to own it we've got to agree with God against you and you alone have I send verse four you've sent I've sinned against you God you're the one that I've sinned against and I own it David didn't say she should have been on the rooftop naked. He said No I did it he didn't say well I was an old man I just couldn't get out on the battlefront and you know I just would blah blah blah blah blah No he said I'm the man and I did it and I was wrong and I take full responsibility for this and you may have been involved in a sin that was with somebody else but you got to own your part of whatever that was. Completely. No blame game ever gets a city where. For for many of you there in recovery you know full well that the blame game never works to bring true healing and restoration. And we in the Christian community need to continue to remember what others that aren't even in the Christian community have realized is that blaming others and passing the blame on and excusing ourselves because of circumstances never solves the problem nor brings real healing in our lives and our own it. And agree with him my rebellion versus three and nine he says it's my rebellion my sin verse three my guilt verse three and verse nine he for it's his guilt his pain his problem. He didn't and this passes we see nothing here where he throws anybody under the bus for their complacent act in what happened here he takes full response by the way David didn't need anybody didn't have anybody in the world or any his nation to tell him what to do. You know that he was the king. There wasn't a single person that could motivate him politically legally by force to do what he was doing he surrendered himself as probably the most powerful man in the world at that time at least in the region that he was had any kind of reach into. And the most powerful man in the world was bowing to the Almighty God for forgiveness no one is too high to fall down on their knees and the higher you get the harder it is to fall on your knees that's why so hard it is for these superstars. To ask forgiveness that's why so many people they do these things because they feel like the rules don't apply to them. Heaven help us if we ever get to the thing point where we think those rules don't apply to us that God's word doesn't have a say in us or that God's Holy righteousness is more important is not more important that we think that we think we're more important we got to own it I was sinful at birth verse five this is not saying that he was sinful because having babies is central he's saying that through Adam and Eve the sin nature came forth and when we're born we're born into send. Little boys and girls don't turn into bad boys and girls because of their circumstances by nature we are born into this world centers and need to be saved by grace we need to agree with God We need to be specific he said this bloodshed that I've done real forgiveness begins with real confession specific confession I did this it was wrong. I stole this it was wrong. I had a little cap gun that I liked. A little tiny thing a bang bang bang you know little red bullets they were bullets and a little I tried to make them work outside the gun right. I did other things that you don't want. Anyway. With gunpowder Trevor's not the only one still have all ten hands fingers hands ten fingers that was from a nuclear thing I did know a way. And I had a friend that had a gun just like mine but his was working better than mine and I switched it. He's my best friend and I switched it. You know when I was twenty five I can't fess that to him I said you know I made a mistake I did I was not a mistake it was a sin he laughed he said you're you're telling me this is yeah it was stupid Now that's a very small sin and I've done more than that but but I and that was just a reminder that even the littlest thing you need to come to God and say God that was wrong. Don't think if it's something that you know was wrong put it down take God forgive me I was wrong. Be specific and face the pain first three for my conscience of my rebellion and my sin is always before me before we come to God and get real forgiveness we can't stop thinking about what we did and it's a shadow that overshadows our life the whole time. And we just live under that cloud. Until we finally say this is what it was. And that pain is a result of what I did wrong. My bones were crushed verse eight let me hear joy and gladness let the bones you have crushed rejoice there is a crushing physical pain that comes with sin and we've got to come to God in our brokenness and feel and experience and acknowledge the pain we need to acknowledge the cost that it put on us we need to acknowledge the cost and the pain that it came about and other people around us we enter into relationships with people with that pain and if we don't deal with it before that relationship we're going to affect that relationship and then we need to finally look at the cost that it cost Jesus on with his life and we've got to face that but honesty with God gives us freedom. You see I'm not coming here to try to get to grovel Ole on the worthless worm worthless worm theology I believe in worthless worm for the ology I am I am not worthy to be in the hands of those but you know what I am I am worth dying for. I am someone that God truly loves I am someone that God really wants to have a relationship with or he would have gone to so much trouble to do so through His Son Jesus no more hiding or pretending you know what it's like to finally be caught. I no longer have to run. Now I'm also a junkie for some of those things he ever crime shows this is wrong and now they have to do two stations on this digital thing and all the farmer five of turned into farmer fifteen or twenty and it's awesome. And I don't have to pay for it but he way but except for the loss of sleep if I stay up too late watching it and there's this one show and you see these stories of how they finally catch the guy that's been bank robbing. And how there's a surrender in his life he finally goes oh. You caught me I don't have to run anymore now he knows he's in not a good thing he's going to jail but it's almost like a relief you finally know what happened and now I don't have to hide any longer all that energy spent trying to be who you really aren't you're in free from that and first forgiveness verses one through two he's asking for that forgiveness big races to me blot out my rebellion wash away my cleanse me from my sin forgiveness there's cleansing. In verse seven it says purify me with his it been I will be clean wash me and be whiter than snow that were purify means to it you can literally say and send me. Unsent my life take the sent out so that I no longer Never was never did send. Change my heart that same word create verse ten renewal were newly its renewal it means create is the same word in Genesis one one in the beginning God created the heavens on the earth god create a brand new heart in my life so that I'm not who I was I don't want to keep doing this any longer I want the pattern of my sin to be a race I want a new hard drive I want to reformat my disc I want to become someone brand now I want you to do heart surgery guy because this when I pump and so good I need renewal. Verse twelve restore to me the joy of your salvation there's joy when we're honest with God. And you notice that he said restored to me the joy some of you have never experienced joy because you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ in this morning I encourage you I beg you I asked you in the name of Jesus Christ I pray and hope that you will put your faith in him by admitting that you're a sinner by believing Jesus died for you and that he rose again on the third day and by committing your life to his name and putting your life in his hands I pray you'll do that today but maybe this morning you've already done that and you will what the joy was but you've lost your joy because you put yourself in a circumstance where you've picked the chains back up in your life. And you put them back in pocket so nobody sees them but they're still there and you're walking around with a limb you're tied down now Jesus didn't tie you down you've tied yourself down and all you need to do to get a different story of the joy is to take the chains that he already took from you and they are not attached to you and they are no walk on it anymore because he set you free from it and just put him back at his feet and say forgive me I need that joy again. And when we find that joy we find purpose our walk with God is restored our lives will glorify God and in verses eighteen through nineteen we see that King David says I want to have influence for your namesake because once we are released let's go backwards then verse thirteen I will teach the rebel you're sure ways and centers to return to you and then the nation will be blessed that people around me will begin to sacrifice to God in a pure and holy way but right kind of faith will begin to develop that the sphere of influence that you're in will be changed because you've been changed. As goes a leader so the people. As goes your pastor as go our elders as go our ministry leaders and the reason for spiritual success is because we choose to find the success in Christ first even as we're willing to use that influence and God works through us to be a success or show had the courage to take her wound in this and turn it into a witness to the glory of Jesus I pray this morning is that as God and by the way story didn't start with right then now and then she got up here and shared a testimony of the next day it's a process two thousand and seven you said two thousand and eighteen let's just talk about that there is a process for when God allows you to have platform to share and God may never give you a public platform he may not need to because your ministry may not it may be far different than that has nothing to do with coming up here and telling a story it has to do with just being willing to be used to the glory of God wherever you are however he wants to be and what a blessing that. Let's stand our feet are teams going to sing one more song I don't know where you're at the smarting but I know all of us have come in here center stage and many of us have come in as sinner saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ all of us have walked this life this week and are in need of a new touch from the Lord this morning me included so I pray this morning that has you are led that you will receive the help and the gift and the encouragement that God wants to give you John and Jane are going to come to the front here and they're going to just receive people for prayer and maybe you can symbolically say I've got change in my life that God has set me free from or I need God to set me free from the chains of thing of sin in my life and if you would just symbolically come to the front maybe you want to come and kneel and give that time to the Lord and say God this is this is your altar This is my time to come publicly to you it may be that you need to put on your card. God forgive me in might be something you want to tell the per team it may be something you don't need to tell the protein you may need to say it were a bully. But I encourage you I pray that you will do business with the Lord in your heart of hearts that you move forward one step in your faith by getting honest with God the small and letting him work through your life through that honesty to bring healing and the hope and the help that you need right now by the god may we do your will into.