So we are continuing on with our study of prayer. And as I was kind of looking ahead somewhat, I have some topics in mind that I would like to talk about. Eventually, I'd like to talk about the dangers of prayer. So what are the things of the errors that are out there, the false teaching? So we'll talk about contemplative prayer. We'll talk about, I don't know if you've ever heard of the concept of a prayer labyrinth. So we'll talk about that and what it is, why we should not be participating in those sort of things. And if you have some other things in mind along those lines, feel free to let me know and I can add that to the list for study. The other area that I wanted to talk about is I wanna look at the posture of prayer. What's the right posture? And I think you probably already know where I'm going with that, but we'll look at what the Bible has to say. We'll look at the examples of how people prayed. And I think the posture is not just physically. I think there is a spiritual posture. You know, we should be spiritually and mentally reverent in our prayers. But at the same time, there's not a prescription on, you know, face down, you know, on your knees, at your bed. You know, God only hears the prayers at the bed altar. None of that. He hears all of our prayers. In fact, he hears the prayers even if you were to be nailed to a cross. And so we'll look at those examples and still kind of somewhat filling this out. So I mentioned that just if you have an area dealing with prayer of interest, then definitely let me know. And I would love to research that. At some point, I would like to look at some examples of prayer. We've already looked at, of course, some examples, but some of the famous prayers, most famous is we will look at the Lord's Prayer. And then we'll look at the real Lord's Prayer in John 17, but we'll look at the Catholic's Lord's Prayer. And what did Jesus mean when he answered his disciples who asked how they should pray? And he said, our Father who art in heaven. What does that mean? Is that something we just recite and there's power in those words that we get? Or is it something else that Jesus is doing there? So any comments or questions on that before we continue? Anything that comes to mind? that I can jot down. If not, we'll move on to the next area. As we look at the types of prayer, we've thus far looked at the first two types. I've kind of combined them with petition and intercession. What is petition and intercession? What's maybe the differences? What's the similarities? What is it? Okay, so intercession is kind of a word we don't commonly use in our vocabulary unless we're in theological circles or maybe reading the Bible. But intercession, we are interceding on someone else's behalf. We are praying for them. What are we specifically praying for? It's kind of the petition side of it. What's a petition? Request right so the petition would be kind of a personal request an intercession is a on behalf of another request and so That is kind of the general Types of prayers as we make requests to God, but that's not all that prayer is right prayer as we've begun to see is a open communication with God. And that may be in the form of requests. It may be in the form of intercession. It may be, as we'll look at later, in the form of crying out to God, frustration, mourning, happiness, thanksgiving, praise. We looked at that. And so the second part that we've looked at is praise and thanksgiving. And I talked about how the cycle of praise and thanksgiving leads to a foundation of peace and joy. And that foundation of peace and joy is the good soil. I'm kind of mixing metaphors, but the good soil that springs up praise and thanksgiving. Well, today, as we introduce two new topics, confession and repentance, this is going to have somewhat of a negative tone, as praise and thanksgiving had a positive tone, but this is a crucial aspect for us to understand. In fact, I would say it's impossible for us to experience the victorious Christian life if we don't understand confession. I've talked about 1 John 1, 9 in the way I've, I used to call it the believer's bar of soap, but I now call it the believer's purification to give it a little bit more reverence. But that is our tool that as we walk, not if we sin, but when we sin, how we can get right back in step with God. And so we'll look at that maybe today, hopefully, depending on how fast we get through these passages. But with that, I want to look at a few passages that deal with the concept of confession. Now with that, you might be wondering, what does confession have to do with repentance? Well, I think there are some senses of repentance that correlate with confession. In other words, some sometimes we see in scripture, you can't repent without confessing, agreeing with God. You can't, as I've said in the Matthew context of repent, return to God unless you agree with him based on your behavior. I'm getting a little bit ahead in defining confess, which is the next step, but any comments or questions before we jump into defining confession? All right, well, the word confess, is comes from the greek word homo logeo and so you might see some familiar familiar words there uh latin greek familiarity but it's a compound word homo same logeo to say or to speak so it's literally put together to say the same thing or to acknowledge or agree with god is is kind of a a smoothed out sense of this word. BDAGS gloss, which is a very reputable Greek lexicon or dictionary, has this for 1 John 1, 9 in particular, but in the type of prayer that we're talking about with confession, this is the gloss that I would be referring to. It's the third gloss, and it is to concede that something is factual or true, Synonyms grant, admit, or confess. And then under subset C is the one they assign 1 John 1, 9. And it's a focus on admission of wrongdoing. So confession is saying the same thing about what we've done or about a particular sin that we are agreeing with God. We are saying the same thing. Now, I think there's an element of this, especially I like how they say to concede that something is factual or true. Confession is not simply saying it, right? I said the words, God, so now you have to forgive me and cleanse me. It's actually, I am saying this because I believe this is true. The way I've been living is sinful, and I lay this before you, God, agreeing with you, seeing it the same way that you see it. So any comments or questions on that? Now, is a question forming? I would think confession would also be a confession of, let's just say, an attribute of God, for example. So it's not necessarily always wrongdoing. Right. Or it's a confession that He has this promise. Right. Or that He is this nature. Right. Therefore, because of that, And as I looked at several examples of confession, the type of prayer, you see that, right? They're confessing that, God, I didn't think this way about you, but now I do, or it wasn't so clear to me, but now I confess you truly are. the only God. You think of Moses and David. Yeah. There was a lot of confession of who God really was. Right. Right. And so I hate to somewhat tamp that sense down, but I'm wanting to kind of focus on the sin confession element just as a focus, but absolutely to your point. And that's where we kind of see with a lot of these types of prayers, there's some blending, you know, Confessing an attribute of God could be the very same as praising, right? Or thanksgiving. Yeah. It reminded me of Hebrews 13, 15. The writer writes, through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips. Numerican standard says that gives thanks to his name. It's literally confess. Sure. The fruit of lips that confess his name. Yeah. But that's a sort of a definition of praise. Yeah. is confessing God's name, saying back to Him who He is. Exactly. And you see it in the Gospels, especially, right? The confession word is used, and it's to say the same thing. So if you are confessing Christ, you are saying everything that is said about Christ, I say the same. I agree. And so in that sense, it could almost be a synonym for belief, right? You're admitting or conceding as true certain facts. So I didn't, forgive me for not getting, I confess I did not get into the nuances as probably we should, but focusing on the confession of sin. But nonetheless, turn to Job chapter 42 to kind of get things started. And I think this is a good start that shows us somewhat of the mixture of confession and repentance, because we see Job repents here at the end. And I think this is also, by the way, a great example that repentance doesn't always mean turn from sin, because the book of Job itself tells us in all these things, Job did not sin. And yet we're told that Job repented and God restored him. And so if we take repentance as basic meaning change of mind, Job changed his mind. And if you're familiar with the book of Job, do you see how he changed his mind? Is there any good reason why he changed his mind? The creator kind of steps in and disrupts everything that he was thinking. All of his struggles, all of his cares, all of his worries, all of his frustrations, his anger, his mourning washes away when he's in the presence of the creator. and God is questioning him. And I love how, I believe, just to go a little bit first to, I think it's chapter 40, 40. Oh, wait, I always lose it. Oh, it's 41. Nope, I was reading 40, chapter 42. So there's two kind of series of questions that God just lays out to Job, and there's a brief response after the first series of questions. Chapter 40, verse 3. So after the first series of questions, it says in verse 3, then Job answered the Lord and said, behold, I am vile. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer. Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further. In other words, I have nothing to say. You have silenced me. I have no argument. I have no complaint. It doesn't mean, you know, those feelings aren't there. He just knows that he overstepped with his mouth, with what his mind didn't understand. And so God continues the interrogation. And if we look at 42 verse one, it says, then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do everything. and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. You asked, Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak. You said I will question you, and you shall answer me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, and now my eyes see you. Therefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. So we see kind of a mixture of these concepts where the confession is he's confessing that I had heard of you with my ear, but now I see you. I fully understand. Well, as far as Job could fully understand God in that moment, I understand you better than I did before. And I therefore abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. And so then we see the clear word or verbiage of repent. And so we see the correlation with confession. He's agreeing with everything that God has just laid out to him. Now, just for a little bit of context of how things worked out. And so it was after the Lord had spoken these words, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, my wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Job has." Now, a few observations. First of all, why does God say to the one, Eliphaz the Temanite, my wrath is aroused against you and your two friends? How many of Job's friends spoke in the book of Job? At least three. But what about the fourth? And I should know. Elihu. Elihu, if you're familiar with the Book of Job, is a younger man. And he apparently is spectating the entire discussion between Job and his friends. And he remains silent, probably because he's young and doesn't have a platform to speak. Well then, when the time comes, he does speak. And he says, And it's wonderful parallelism in the same kind of format that there was a statement by Job, a question or interrogation or rebuke by the friend, and then a rebuttal by Job. In the same way, he lays them all out at once. And he deals with all of the things that he heard. And I think in all of those things, he did not sin. And so I don't think God was angry with Elihu. In fact, that's caused some interpretive issues that some maybe see Elihu as something other than man, but I don't see that. But point being, he responded rightly and Job confessed and repented and changed his mind about what his response was and what it should be. And now it says, My anger is against you, for you have not spoken to me what is right, as my servant Job has." Now, spoken to me what is right, isn't that essentially the concept of confession? To say the same thing? God speaks what is right. And so if you speak of him what is right, you are saying the same thing about that thing that God is. And so we see the confession and then their need to turn to God. And so verse eight, now therefore take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. And my servant Job shall pray for you for I will accept him lest I deal with you according to your folly. And then he repeats because you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Job has. So God is in asking for these sacrifices is contained within the concept of repentance or turning to God. If they are wanting to turn to God in this particular instance, they must offer a sacrifice. Now, this is an example here where you can almost see where there's a lot of confusion that can get interjected with the concept of repentance. So when you hear that word repent, do we have to bring a sacrifice? Not unless God calls for it, right? And so just a quick word on that. So any comments or questions on this passage dealing with confession and repentance? And a lot of this is based on the context of Job, of course, where he struggles throughout the entire book, dealing with his loss and dealing with that major question that we've kind of brought up in this study before. Why do the righteous suffer and why do the evil triumph? Why do they succeed? Why God? This makes no sense in your economy. This makes no sense in what we understand about you. And that's the key. And that's what God comes in. He says, you don't understand everything about me. And so I am going to teach you something about me. And that's why I love the book of Job for that reason, because there's so much, obviously being a wisdom literature, so much wisdom contained in it. All right, we'll next go to 2 Chronicles chapter six. I've alluded to this passage a few times over the last year or so. One of my favorite passages, it's the context of Solomon dedicating the temple. And if you know anything about Solomon's temple, it was a wonder. in the ancient world that caused people from all around the world to come and see it. And so with that, this was a marvelous piece of architecture, not only humanly speaking, of all that went into it and all the gifts and offerings that went towards it, but marvelous in the sense because they followed exactly what God prescribed in building it. Not to mention when we were looking at the study of pneumatology, the Holy Spirit was involved with the builders of this project and the sowers of this project and everyone involved in this project. And so just everything comes together and is now being dedicated by Solomon. And I want to, this passage itself is wonderful, but I want to focus on a concept that Solomon addresses in his dedication. And I want to start in verse 19 of chapter six. And another quick preface, I've made mention of the book of Deuteronomy before. That's a covenant that God entered into with Israel, which was conditional based on an unconditional. In other words, the land was unconditionally given to Israel, but there were conditions on whether or not a generation would live in the land and be blessed or live outside of the land and be disciplined. And so what we see in Solomon's dedication is I think a very solid understanding of the Book of Deuteronomy and the Mosaic Law. As he continues, we're picking up midway, it says, Yet regard the prayer of your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which your servant is praying before you, that your eyes may be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where you said you would put your name, that you may hear the prayer which your servant makes towards this place. And may you hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel. When they pray toward this place, hear from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive. If anyone sins against his neighbor and is forced to take an oath and comes and takes an oath before your altar in this temple, then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head. and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness. Or if your people, Israel, are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned. Now that's a stipulation in the book of Deuteronomy. If they don't keep the commandments, God will cause them to be defeated by their enemies. If your people, Israel, are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you and return and confess your name and pray and make supplication before you in this temple, verse 25, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people, Israel, and bring them back to the land which you gave to them and their fathers. When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned." Again, this Book of Deuteronomy language. When they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people, Israel, that you may teach them the good way in which they should walk and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance. When there is famine in the land. So again, it's a repetition, but I wanted to highlight those three because those three areas are all degrees of divine punishment listed in the book of Deuteronomy 28 through 30, or 28 to be precise, and also Leviticus 26 or 27 and 26. And so he highlights those things, but he's dedicating the temple saying, this is where you have caused your name to dwell. And so when your people confess their sins to you, essentially hear us. Now, does Solomon have to tell God to do this for God to do it? No, but it's right. It's proper for him to make this request of God in dedicating the temple, but also in dedicating the temple for that particular function. Jump down to verse 36. When they sin against you, for there is no one who does not sin, and you become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near, yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive and repent..." I love that, when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive. at least in the New King James, it almost plays on the English idiom you come to, where they were carried captive and repent and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity saying, we have sinned, we have done wrong and have committed wickedness. When they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city, which you have chosen and toward the temple, which I have built for your name, then hear from heaven your dwelling place, their prayer, their supplications and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you. So any comments or questions on this whole section? We're seeing the component of confession, but also seemingly intimately linked with the concept of repent. In fact, that word return in verse 38, when they return to you, The Hebrew word is at times elsewhere translated, repent. And so it's that type of language that I mentioned in our study in Matthew is what the prophets were calling Israel to do, to repent, to return to God, and also with that, their covenant obligations. Yeah. It kind of goes along with your faith first drill, knowing the promises of God and using those promises. Right. Well, exactly. And especially if let's let's put ourselves in the Old Testament Jewish context or dispensation. Right. We are now Jews under the law. The Book of Deuteronomy and the Abrahamic Covenant, of course, was the faith rest drill for them. That was the foundation in which when they wandered, what were they to do? Return. Now, It's not identical. It's not the same because we're not under the law. But as believers today in the church dispensation, don't we essentially have a similar type of relationship? We have certain promises that we are expecting. And when we stumble or wander, we have certain expectations that are placed on us, namely to confess. Or even I don't have a problem saying return. Repent. There are times where believers must repent. We must change our mind about the way we're living, about the thing we're doing, what we're doing. We might justify in our own minds as okay or acceptable or in the idea of the law of liberty, a liberty issue, but maybe it's not a liberty issue. Maybe we need to change our mind about that. But also knowing the character of God and being able to pray that into your requests. and you promised that you will forgive me, so forgive me. Absolutely. And that's the beauty of the promise in 1 John 1, 9, right? It's a promise that if we confess our sins, then He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, we'll get there, of course, but any comments or questions before we go to Psalm 51? All right, go to Psalm 51. Anyone familiar with this psalm? Know what the background is? It's a wonderful psalm written by King David after he sinned. Now, what particular sin is on David's mind with this? His sin with Bathsheba. And it's specifically after when Nathan the prophet confronted him, right? So sometimes, In order for confession or repentance to return to God or for us to agree with God, sometimes it takes someone confronting us. And I think that's what the English word, exhortation, often used in the New Testament is. We are exhorting other people. Yes, sometimes that carries a sense of encouraging, but sometimes it carries the sense of challenging. If we see a believer walking for a cliff, Shouldn't we call out to them and say, stop? No, that's far too judgmental. We don't know. Maybe there's a lake down there, or maybe there's a bunch of jaggedy rocks, right? We don't know. They don't know. Or maybe we do know, and they don't know. It's our job to challenge them, to correct them, to rebuke them in love, of course. But nonetheless, that's what I love about that section when Nathan confronts David, especially the way that he does it. He uses a parable. and gets David totally angry. How dare this thing happen? And Nathan can't even finish the parable. He says, it's you, King. Essentially holds up the mirror, right? And that is when all of David's defenses collapse. And he sees himself and he says, whoa. And then he says thus, Psalm 51 verse one, have mercy upon me, oh God. according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you and you only have I sinned." Now, quick word on that. How can he say that? Didn't he sin against Uriah? even sin against Bathsheba? But isn't all sin ultimately against God? And I don't think he's saying, he's not saying, I didn't sin against him. He's saying, I have sinned against you above all. Against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in my sin, or in sin, my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones you have broken may rejoice." Now, a quick comment there. This has got a lot of beautiful parallels of how God operates convicting an individual believer. And I think it's, It's trans-dispensational in the sense that it's not just the way he operated in David. I think he can operate with believers today that way. In that language of, that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Sometimes when God is convicting us, it feels like we are being crushed. Now that's not cruelty on God's part. He's trying to get us to see the absolute misery that awaits us if we continue down this road. And so that convicting ministry of God is crucial, and I think it's always been at work. Verse nine, hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Now, we have to stop there. What does he mean by that? In the Old Testament, the Spirit wasn't indwelling. Very good. Any additions, Dave, or is that what you're going to say? It means just what it says. Right. He was afraid that because of his sin, God was going to take this Holy Spirit away from him. He concerned, we don't have to have. Exactly. But he did, because he had seen it happen with Saul. Right. And that's exactly, saw it with Saul, and it's not a fear that we should have, but we should have the fear, going back to our pneumatology study, we can quench him, right? We can't lose him, but we can quench him. He can't be cast away from us, but we can hinder him or, oh, I had the word and I lost it, quench and grieve. We can grieve him. And I think those alone, that language, doesn't it imply that he cannot be lost? Which again, under the concept of grace, that's our biggest motivator. We don't do so that we can be accepted or not experience loss. We do because of everything God has done for us, everything that he promises and has promised to us. Question. Yeah. I'm just wondering. I take a lot of comfort in this, and granted I grew up Lutheran, which isn't that far away from Catholic, only Lutheran's got it right, compared to Catholic as far as salvation and faith. In a way, if he's not saying this, if he's not, if he didn't say it with a measure of confidence in knowing that the Holy Spirit won't be taken away from him. I'm speaking of David, maybe not all of us. He's the one that was there for God's own heart. I think the context and what Dave highlighted is definitely on his mind, as he saw the great fall of Saul. And I think he knows exactly Saul's end, that God finally took his spirit from Saul. Now, I don't think that means Saul wasn't saved. In fact, I do think Saul was saved. I think he was at one point a believer, and I think he's one of those, sadly, two common examples, or all too common example of people not ending well in their life. And so I think David is saying, may this not be my end. I want to continue to serve you. I want to do this. I want to do that. But I need your cleansing. I need your forgiveness. And most of all, I need your spirit upon me or else I'm nothing. And so I think that's his focus. But that's where we have to understand scripture in its context. Because if we take this and we rip it out of its context and we say, you know, this is the type of prayer we as believers today need to be praying. It's inappropriate. It's against the will of God or nothing else. At best, it's just empty words. Because that's never a threat. God will not take his spirit from us because of the perfect righteousness that was gifted to us the moment of faith, right? And so that's a major thing that we have to recognize. And also just the immense blessing and privilege that as we understand that truth, that, okay, what was a major fear for David is something I could never experience. So what am I going to do with that? And how can I put myself in that context and understand and appreciate it and take some principles out of that and apply it to my life in the same way of, okay, David saw the need for the Holy Spirit in his life. Do I see that same need or do I keep being a wet blanket on his activity in my life? Do I continue to grieve him? Do I continue to run from God's work in my life individually? Oh, we've got five minutes. I'm not sure if I want to jump into Daniel 9 just yet, but any... Yeah, absolutely. Good, good idea. Yeah. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise, for you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. Now, why does he say that? God doesn't desire offerings. What's the point of the Mosaic Law? Isn't that because God desires it? No, He doesn't. Exactly. But often, we as sinful man, I don't know who said this, but they said God made man in His image and man returned the favor. We made God in our image. And so if you think of the pagan gods, you know, you watch an ancient movie or ancient TV show or read an ancient book, that's how they saw the gods, right? We need a sacrifice to satisfy the gods, to earn their favor. They desire it. They crave it. They lust for it even. That's not the God of the Bible. In fact, I think God does not care for any of that. I think it, dare I say, grieves him that it has to happen because of his value of life. And not just human life, I think he values animal life as well. And so that's an important understanding for us as well, is to understand the Mosaic sacrificial system. It's not for God, it's for us. And sometimes we read past sacrifices without truly thinking about it. Now, if you grew up in the country, you might be a little more familiar with it. If not, imagine taking a sheep and taking a knife and slicing its neck. Now, I'm not trying to be gory to gross you out, but that's the effect that that sacrifice had. And that's the effect God wanted them to experience so that they understood that the cost of your sin is death and it paved the way ultimately for the death of his son. And so it's important for us to understand these things, especially, you know, one of the major issues that people take with dispensationalism is we read later parts of Ezekiel where the sacrificial system spoken of as during the millennial kingdom. What do we do with that? How do we account for that? Well, if we put significance in the sacrificial system for removing sin, then we do have issues. But if we simply see it as a picture vividly depicting what God would ultimately do, but also an act of obedience for the people of Israel, then I think it clears a path for us to have an interpretation with less holes. Yeah. When someone would sin in the Old Testament, if they confessed it, like if the guy is a shepherd and he's out in the field, if he confessed it, it was already forgiven. What he did in the temple was for the purpose of being in the temple, it was the Levitical offering. And you could see how it has even some maybe social aspects to that as well, as far as, okay, yes, before God, you could say that person has been made right, but in order to fulfill kind of all righteousness, he needs to offer the prescriptive sacrifice for that sin that God prescribed so that they can be back in right standing. But what about when there is no temple? What about when the Jews were in Babylon? What about the next passage we're gonna look at next time, Daniel chapter nine? There was no temple, and yet he turned towards Jerusalem, and I think he did that because of Solomon's prayer, by the way, and he prayed. Did God hear his prayer? Apparently so, that's one of my favorite passages. Daniel, when you started praying, I kid you not, God sent us, but we were delayed. The Prince of Persia was hindering us. People misquote verse 12, restore to me my salvation. Yeah. Excellent point. And that's a concern for us. We can certainly lose the joy of our salvation. Yeah. I think it's significant, too, that David has to deal with his sin, verse 11 and 12, before he can be greatly used by God. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and so that you'll be converted to me. Not in his state of being out of fellowship, but after his fellowship is restored, then God can use him and bless his ministry. Absolutely. And I'm glad you mentioned that, because that's where we're getting to. I want to explain for application purposes what this has to do with us. What does confession have to do for us? Well, everything, because our fellowship depends on it. and maintaining our fellowship with God depends on us. I don't wanna say depends on confession alone, because it certainly doesn't, because the reason I'm going down this road is I want to explain to you that confession, this is the words of Pastor Mark. I'm so thankful that he pointed this out to me, because I, for the longest time, would emphasize, yes, we must confess, and that's right, we should. He said, confession is a treatment for the symptom, not the disease. When we confess our sins, we are saying, God, I've gone, I've erred, I've wandered. I agree with you. I want your cleansing and your forgiveness. But what keeps us from doing the same thing? The disease. What's the disease? Sin. Living in sin. And as Paul puts it in Romans, letting sin be our slave master. And we're not under sin, right? And so that's where I love how John starts with fellowship, deals with the confession process, then what's the major theme of John? Abide. Abiding in Christ is our treatment of the disease, not just the symptoms, yeah. Pastor Dean says that it's learning how to live what you already are. Sure. Instead of, it's not, it's not, what you should be, but what you already are, is learning how to be that. Yeah, trying to measure up. I think it reminds me of something I heard from Miles Stanford. Now, there's some things Miles Stanford says, I think he might have even been a Pauline-only dispensationalist, but whatever. He's got an excellent book called The Complete Green Letters, a wonderful book on summarizing spiritual truths, and he talks about that same concept that our job is not to try to measure up to everything God has called us to be, but to live out of everything God has made us to be in Christ. And living out of our position rather than practicing to a higher position. Yeah. That's what I think Paul was getting at when he said, walk in a manner worthy of your calling. Yes. Know who you are, know what your calling is, and then live like it. Yep, absolutely. And I think that's why, I don't know if you guys noticed it or not, Dave and I pounded this understanding in Romans. And that's because Paul was pounding it before us. Position, position, position, position, position, position, position, position. There's no condemnation. Live accordingly. Absolutely no condemnation. No separation from the love of God. Live accordingly. And that's our motivation and that's why we I, dare I say, think we must fight. Not physically, certainly, but mentally and intellectually and... Theologically, against those that oppose that. Because they're causing spiritual abuse if believers start to buy into the idea of, I'm not yet what God has wanted me to be. No, you are. You need to recognize that. And then, walk in a manner worthy of it. And your practice matches your position. Yes? Queen Mary and her son that had epilepsy and learning disabilities. And you see everything associated with Queen Mary, everybody walked the line that was expected. prince, okay, he's the only one that could be himself. But if you think of that relationship in that king thing, there's a structure. Because of who they are, this is what they do. Absolutely. Well, and there's a freedom in that, right? I've started to say this statement, be yourself, but be your sanctified self. Because too often, we as believers, we try to legalistically be someone that we're not, and we pretend. And that's where I think the world sees it, right? They see through the hypocrisy. But if we are ourself, but not just ourselves, our sanctified selves, then God is able to accomplish his work in us, progressively sanctifying us, having our practice measure our position. But we always operate out of our position.