How to Worship When You’re Ashamed | Psalms | Mark Moore

if you picked up a Bible and just went right to the middle of it and opened it you would be in the Book of Psalms it's the longest book of the Bible and it's right in the middle of the Bible and I think God did that for a reason the book of Psalms has all these emotions in the full range of human experience in it and so through the Psalms we learn how to connect with God in whatever emotional state or whatever season that we're in and that's the purpose of this series on Psalms we want to walk with you through four of the Psalms I know that's just scratching the surface but each of the four Psalms in the series represent one of the emotions and some of those emotions make it more difficult for us to connect with God for example last week we talked about anger how to connect with God and worship God when you're just mad this week is even harder because it's not the emotion of Ang but the emotion of Shame and if you put the whole sermon in a single sentence here's the question how can we worship when we failed God and look this is not just you it's not just me all of us have had this Human Experience where we we failed God we we didn't live up to a standard we just kind of made a mess of things and we're ashamed and when we're ashamed we want to hide hide from other people and hide from God and so Psalm 51 is an incredibly important Psalm because David writes it when he is at his emotional lowest he is ashamed because of an incident in his life and the title of the psalm actually tells us what that incident was the titles of Psalms there's 150 Psalms in the Bible and over a hundred of them have a title some of the titles tell you what instrument to use to Play the song some of them tell you who wrote the song but when you're lucky it tells you the story behind the song and if you know the story behind the song the song means so much more so here's the story behind the song in the title for the director of Music a Psalm of David when the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with basba oh our boy got caught and in a worst possible way you can actually read the story of David and basba in 2 Samuel 11 now it's is such a gift of God we can read the biography of David in 2 Samuel and then the Diary of David right here in Psalm 51 so we know what he did and we know how he felt about it it's a gift but before I tell you the story of David I want to tell you the story of Rick Rick was a friend of mine I met him in the early 80s and and back in the day I was a pastor of a small Church in San Antonio he was a youth pastor of a larger Church in Austin and we the two of us met at camp now uh Camp is a cool time and you get to meet some really cool people Rick is one of those guys that you can't help but like but you also can't help but Envy cuz the dude like he's this good-look dude he led worship oh yeah the songs he wrote himself he's got this long gray hair and everyone's like oh Rick I hated him loved him but you know and then he could preach as well so it wasn't just like a one-trick pony the dude he had the whole range and I loved and envied Rick we lost touch when I went back to teach at ozar Christian College so for about 10 years I hadn't heard from Rick or of Rick but our youth ministry Professor knew Rick and he knew that I knew Rick and one day in the hall as we're passing he goes hey have you heard what happened to Rick no we got fired fired why uh because of Serial adultery it wasn't once or twice it was a lot and what bothered me so much about that is I I know Rick like I prayed with him and he talked right to the father he wasn't faking it and when he led worship it was authentic from the heart he was a True Believer but he just had this moral failure that was catastrophic several years later I was speaking at a conference in Florida and I'm looking at the back of the room and I'm going that that looks like Rick but it can't be Rick because Rick's not that old and Rick's not that out of shape and after the talk he came up to me sure enough it was Rick he told me that the anti-depressant medication made him get bloated and his hair was thinning and he was aging prematurely because of the stress of that situation he was actually there at the conference to talk about what happened and really talking to pastors about warning signs for their own life and he said look we we're friends I I just want you to know you can ask me any question you want and I wanted to I asked him three were you a predator he simply said yes how many were there and Rick said I I don't know there were a lot you you were you were finding women at Christian place like your church he goes yeah H H how did you know what women were available in a Christian Community he goes oh that was easy you just walk into a room where there's a bunch of bunch of people and you find a woman whose husband is ignoring her now obviously not all women who were ignored or all men who were ignored by their spouse are available for adultery but Rick found plenty that were was a warning sign for me to go home and take care of my wife because she is not a right I have she is an obligation to cherish a gift from God so I it helped me to change my behavior become more aware after that Rick and I didn't talk for oh gosh it was probably another 10 years and and after he contacted me again I was getting ready to speak at a Men's Conference in Alaska and I thought man Rick's story could be powerful for these men to hear so I asked him would you want to come with me and I'll put you in front of these men and let them let you tell their story so he did these guys were Rough and Tumble Alaskan Wilderness dudes like they hunted bears with a bowi knife which they didn't really do that but it felt like like these are tough dudes and while Rick is talking I'm looking out of the audience thinking These Guys these guys are mad and the more Rick talked the angrier they became and I one point I thought they're going to take him out and bury him in a snowbank I just know it so right at the peak of their anger I I turned the question said' Rick why don't you tell these guys why you did it and he started to unpack the story going clear back to Childhood of how he was abused by his father now all his siblings were he was his dad was a mean man but Rick was abused in every conceivable way and after each of the molestations his dad was so ashamed of himself that he didn't want to look at his son so he made his son go outside to sleep in the yard like an animal well that'll scar you and Rick as he grew into a man in Ministry the stress of ministry allowed that emptiness to resurface and Satan began to promise him if you if you want uh if you go down this route I can provide you I can fill the hole in your heart with the Embrace of this woman course Satan's a liar it's never going to work and what Satan didn't tell him is all the price tags of his behavior and Rick told these men that what surprised me was not that there's a price tag I knew there was a price tag and I knew it could cost my Ministry if I got caught it could cost my marriage if I got caught but there were so many other price tags that I didn't see coming and they came for years just around a a blind curve I would turn over a price tag and it had the name of my daughter on it I didn't see that coming I turned another price tag again was a friendship that I had fostered for decades I didn't see that coming my my own self-esteem my physical health I didn't see all that coming Satan seduced him to fill a hole from a childhood pain now it doesn't justify anything he did it was it's wrong it's always wrong and the way he did it was particularly wrong and Rick knows that but sometimes beyond the wrong is a reason a hole you're trying to fill and all of of us no matter what campus you're on if you're watching online all of us have a wound that given a right set of circumstances can rise now your your wound might not be fulfilled by a sexual exploit maybe for you you're hiding something that really needs to come out and what you're hiding is not a sexual sin but maybe it's a maybe an emotional affair or or maybe you have a bank account that your spouse doesn't know about or or maybe you have a drawer at work that your boss doesn't know about or you're taking things home that nobody sees but it could be an eating disorder or some kind of self harm all of us have these failures in our lives that cause us to be ashamed and when we're ashamed we all all of us hide it that's Rick's story and it's quite a bit like David's story back in 2 Samuel we read these words in the spring at the time when kings go off to war David sent joab out with the King's Men and the whole Israelite Army but notice David doesn't go I don't know exactly why my guess is that he's getting older and it's no longer safe for him to go into battle and I mean he used to to be like a he was the dude on a battlefield but now he can't go now theoretically some men as they age can't do the same things that they used to do like you get an injury you can't play that sport anymore not that I've experienced it but others I'm sure have when you retire and people aren't calling you for advice or your opinion or your kids leave the house and it feels like they don't need you anymore or or or maybe you move to a different place in a location and you you just don't feel valued when you lack of value that's a space where some of those Old Wounds can resurface and David's goty has his own father wound remember when the prophet Samuel God said go to the house of Jesse that's David's dad go to Jesse's house one of his seven sons is going to be the next king find out which one so he goes to the house and Jesse starts with the oldest and they go NOP not him not him not him they go through all six brothers and and Samuel has to ask do you have another son yeah but he's out watching the Sheep he doing what you didn't even bring your son in when the prophet came to choose an anointed king for the nation oh he's got some baggage and I think as he's retiring from war that baggage resurfaces and he's bored and lonely and feeling insignificant that's a bad combination and so from one of his Palace rooftops he looks down and there's a neighbor there who is uh bathing wow that'll get your attention now it wasn't necessarily wrong I mean they don't have indoor plumbing so of course she's outside bathing and David likes what he sees and sends an invitation she comes and they commit adultery and so she goes back home oh by the way the woman basiba her husband was Uriah Uriah was one of David's Security Forces he's in the Inner Circle of David's Band of Brothers they had done battle together and David does him dirty like that well a few weeks later she sends a message to King David it was the last thing any adulterer wants to hear I'm pregnant and dav's got a problem this is a PR problem for sure so he thinks okay I got to cover it up isn't that our initial response I I can I can manage this I can cover it up and so plan a was let's just bring Uriah back from the battle ostensibly to give information about what's going on at the Battlefront that would be totally natural so David sees Uriah they talk how things how the troops how's the battle going he gives him the report and David says okay you're you're free to go you can go back to the Battlefront tomorrow David's thinking he's going to go home and as they say in romantic novels enjoy Hearth and hear and so David gets up the next morning thinking it this is done he's going to sleep with his wife he'll come home after the battle he'll have a a baby it's a little preey but you know no question about it and he didn't sleep with his wife in fact he slept with David's servants in the courtyard and David Goes Uriah what's what's going on like why didn't you go home and what Uriah said was how could I go and enjoy my wife when my brothers are out on the battlefield fighting for your honor sir I would not do that considering what David just did that's got to pinch so David decides Plan B if I get him drunk that'll work because when guys get drunk they you know lower their inhibitions he gets Uriah drunk and Uriah still doesn't go sleep with his wife Uriah drunk was more moral than David sober so now he's got to go to plan C and this was a ugly with a capital ug he writes a letter to the general and he says to the general I want you to put Uriah on the front lines of the battle I want you to put him at the fiercest part of the fight and when it when it gets like raging give an order and have all the men around Uriah pull back it was an execution he rolls up the scroll seals it and he puts it in the hand of Uriah who carried his own death sentence to the Battlefront and it worked it covered it up David is now scot-free until this Prophet comes in his name is Nathan you read about him in the beginning of the poem Nathan would think of him as David's spiritual adviser he's always meddling and David invites it because the moral voice helps you to be a moral man so Nathan comes in and said David I want to tell you a story there was a man rich man had all kind of flocks and herds his neighbor was poor he had one lamb and it wasn't life stock it was a pet lamb well this rich man had friends come from out of town to visit him and when the friends came he was too cheap to provide a lamb from his own flock so he went next door stole his neighbor's lamb his pet killed his pet and fed it to his friends David was fuming and he in a rage he says that man deserves deserves to die and Nathan with his bony little Prophet finger points at David and said you're the man and that's when he wrote this poem you want to hear what it says the reason you need to hear what it says is this is a template for how you can connect with God when all your impuls is to hide from other people and to hide from God some of you are hiding right now right on the campus you're on you're hiding you might even be here to show how righteous you are but you know there there's unfinished business with God how do you worship God when you have let him down that's a question every one of us there's no exception every one of us needs to know the answer and it starts with what David does in this poem when you move from how to who like I'm a fix it guy if my wife tells me a problem she just wants me to listen I don't care I'm going to fix it I'm that good if you're a fix it person when your sin is exposed you want to fix it so you will ask first how do I cover it up and when you can't cover it up anymore then you switch from how do I cover it up to how do I manage it and if you can't manage it you switch to how can I make up for it how can I recover but none of the hows are going to solve an unsolvable problem because some of the Brokenness in our lives it is so broken we don't need a how it's beyond us we need a who and David turns to the only who for you verse one have mercy on me oh God according to your unfailing love according to your great compassion blot out my transgression wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from sin notice David is identifying God not for the God he hopes God will be but for the God who he has proven to be twice he says according to your unfailing love according to your great compassion David has experienced it time and time again God is faithful to you th this word unfailing love it's a single word in Hebrew it's it's a word that is used a lot for the Covenant of marriage and maybe you made a a a covenant promise to your spouse at the altar where you said for better for worse for rich or for poor and sickness and in health till death do his part that is the Hebrew word Hess said it's a thick Rich word that means I'm going to be here regardless of what you do that's our God the second word is not a marriage word it's a mother word compassion the Hebrew root for the word compassion is the word womb a w m b half of you know what that is and some of you with a womb had have had something come out of that womb and the something that came out of that womb you love that thing even if nobody else does even when they're at their worst you you believe the best you will love your child because it came out of your womb listen God has a bigger womb than any of us it is through his own creation that he made you out of him came you he looks at you differently than you look at you and if you could just for a millisecond see the way God is looking at you right now you would not see yourself through the lens of your past you would see yourself through the lens of your beginning how God created You In His Image to be his child and nothing that you have done or could do is going to hinder his love for you the the problem problem with our with our sin is it often impacts the way we view ourselves and we begin to see ourselves in unrealistic light I'm a horrible person no you did a horrible thing that's different I I'm a I'm I'm a sinner granted we all are but you're also a saint saved by God if I could just preach one message it would be this to Christians can you accept the Forgiveness of God stop saying untruths about you and the way you do that is to see who God is and then see how he sees you and begin to see him yourself through his eyes listen to what David says this is not this is not true David says in verse three for I know my transgression and my sin is always before me all he sees is this adultery look I get it I've been at that dark place where I've done something that I swore I would never do and I I can't stop thinking about it but that's not who you are that's what you did and then David says this this is not true against you you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight really David the only person you sinned against was God tell that to Uriah tell that to basba tell that to your family our sin impacts people more than we really want to admit and we keep saying untruths about how about this one this untruth of David surely I was sinful at Birth sinful from the time my mother conceived me that's not true David truly felt that the the the Psalms are telling you the true feelings that the author has now I know some theologians will say no you're sinful from birth look I get it we have sin bent but you're not a sinner as a baby David is feeling the way many people feel through sexual sin of I am such a horrible person sexual sin has a way of destroying your identity but it's not just sexual sin again for some of you it has nothing to do with sex it has to do with greed it has to do with a shame of body image it has to do with the with a shame of NE El almost every mother I know at some point weeps because she I've got to be the worst mother on the planet you're not and if you could see you the way God sees you you wouldn't say that about yourself so H how can we how can we move from our view of us in the middle of the shame we're not we're not denying that we sin we're not denying that we hurt people badly but in the middle of that how how can we move from a view of the mirror to the view that God has of you as his child there is one way that I know for sure and it works and I'm not sure I want to tell you because you're not going to like it it's not it's not complicated it's just really not fun but if you promise not to hate me I'll go ahead and share it with you you ready confessing our sins versus covering our sin and I know some of you right now are go well I confessed it to God I confessed it to God isn't that enough no is that is that essential yes in fact this whole poem is a confession to God of David's sin but no that is not enough David was forced to confess when he was confronted you don't want that kind of confession you can get caught and that will become your confession that is never as healthy as a voluntary confession and some of you right now need to have a conversation with the person that's sitting right next to you and man is it scaring you to death but if you don't have a if you don't have a conversation with someone who can hold you accountable for the wrong you've done for the secret sin that you have if you don't have the conversation the sin will continue I know you swear I will never do it again God I swear I'll never do it again but you will and you might get caught sometime and if you have been one of those that get caught consider yourself fortunate because in getting caught there is freedom but that same freedom is inv voluntary confession some of you need to confess to your boss you might get fired but you could lose your job but at least you won't lose your soul I know this isn't everybody this moment but it's all of us at some moment where we have to confess the secret so that we can be released from the addiction of it you are only as sick as your secrets but if you will seriously take this Challenge and confess the sin listen to what is on offer Psalm 517 cleanse me with hisp and I will be clean now I I know most of us don't have hiip in our backyard but it's a plant it's a shrub that they used a branch from the shrub and they would dip it in the holy water in the temple and they would sprinkle things on it I know aren't you glad you're not Jewish our hsip is actually baptism because what God promised through the temple is fulfilled in Jesus he says I will be clean wash me and I will be whiter than snow let me hear joy and gladness let the bones you have crushed rejoice and for some of you that's your next step if you're already a Believer you've been baptized man you might have to make a confession as difficult and uncomfortable as it is because if you do you can sing this song create in me a pure heart oh God and renew a steadfast Spirit within me do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me restore to me the joy of salvation and grant me a willing Spirit to sustain me isn't that what you want isn't the freedom is way more enticing than the difficulty of having that conversation you can actually this is pretty extraordinary you can live in forgiveness what does that look like to live in forgiveness I I told you Rick reached out to me again just after Mother's Day he had written WR this kind of a Blog poemes thing it was it was very beautiful it was about the night he spent on Mother's Day ubering people around the city he started at midnight and went to 7 a.m. I hadn't ever thought of this before but if you're out between midnight and 7:00 a.m. on Mother's Day Mother's Day is not a good day for you and he had in his car exotic dancers who lived in in in torturous shame in conditions that they didn't choose he had Jon's in his car living in shame trying to fill a hole and Rick knew all about that he he had drug dealers in his car and people who were stoned out of their mind probably won't remember a Thing Rick said but Rick preached all night long and you know what his sermon was it was his confession his confession became coaching and on the other side of your confession Your Darkest Day can be somebody's brightest light would you be willing to take the risk of having a difficult conversation so you can say what David said then I will teach transgressors your ways so that Sinners will return back to you okay straight talk real talk some of you right now are here because of Shame you're still on the how God how can I make this right what if I go to church would that would that would that make up for it no what if I tithe would that make up no what what if I serve would that make up for it no God doesn't need you to go crazy trying to earn his love he's already freely given it listen to what David says in verse 16 you do not Delight in sacrifice or I would bring it you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings My Sacrifice oh God is a broken Spirit a broken and contrite heart you God will not despise what God wants from you is he doesn't want all this religious activity he just wants you to be straight up honest with him and with the people that your life impacts I know this is terribly difficult so let me tell you a couple of things that I have done in the past that helped me with confession one is I know I need to confess it but I'm too chicken so I'm not ready to have the conversation so I'll send a text that says we need to talk I need to tell you something now I'm not really I'm not able to tell you yet but I've already said the text so now it's out so we're going to have the conversation sometimes I've said to an accountability partner listen I I need to confess this but I don't think I can you have to force me to do it you have to help me do it a confession like that to a parent to a boss to a friend if you don't have someone like that in your life that immediately popped to mind then you walk out the doors of the room you're in go straight to the Welcome Center and there will be people ready to have that conversation with you it is too important to procrastinate because on the other side of confession is freedom isn't that what you want it's time to stop holding it inside let it out so that you can connect with God fully and freely and it's not just your desire to do that that's God's desire for you Holy Father not everyone needs to do this right now but all of us need to do it at some point to confess not just to you but to a human being who can hold us accountable and to help us Chang the trajectory of our life so for those right now whose heart is pounding in their chest would you give them the courage of a simple text or a simple conversation at the next step Center so that somebody else could begin to open the door yeah we're cracked but it's through the cracks that you let in the light Lord help us to put in the light of day our darkest moments so that they can be stripped of their power over us I pray this in the powerful and saving name of Jesus our lord amen let's go make him famous

Channel: CCV (Christ's Church of the Valley)

Views: 4,430

Keywords: christianity, faith, spirituality, church online, purpose, meaning of life, Jesus, Christ, God, church, ccv, ccvonline, ccv online, ccv live, worship, worship service

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Length: 32min 49sec (1969 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2024