So we're a full-service church here, And I feel inclined to give you the weather report for today, OK? Because, well, I know. And I looked it up again right before the service, and it stands. There's a decent chance of rain this evening as we go into the evening, and maybe a little more rain coming Tuesday, and then some nice cooler highs and lows in the days to follow. So I'm excited about that. But it's still a little warm in my mind. And when you have warm all day, and really the weekend, and then it rains, what comes up out of the ground? And they try to crawl hugely unsuccessfully across your sidewalk and your driveway. If there's rain tonight, there's a good chance we're going to have worms, right, on the concrete. That's not on the Weather Channel. That's just my expertise talking there. And I want to start our sermon this morning talking about Worms. This is a particular worm. It's a worm that wreaked havoc. This worm, as far as we can tell, first appeared in 2008. But in its wake and in view of its destruction, this particular worm, this single worm and the worms that came from it, if you will, affected 15 million computers. As a matter of fact, it even got into government computers here in our country. And this one worm affected, as far as I can tell in my research, 190 countries. It was first reported in 2008. You say, well, what kind of worm are we talking about? I hope that one doesn't show up on my driveway tonight. Now, this is a worm that we would also call a virus, a computer virus known as Conflicker. Conflicker. And it started and then continued to grow outward and update itself into different versions. And it created at least, at the very least, 15 million what we ended up calling zombie computers. And it was interesting with worms and viruses like this. I'm not a computer tech guy. I don't understand this. We have professionals in our church that do this on a very large scale. But my simple mind understands and grasps this definition of a computer virus. It's a program that's launched in the past, it infects the present, and eventually controls the future when it comes to your computer. It's launched in the past, infects the present, and controls the future. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Because sometimes, well, our lives can be defined like that based on our choices. Dark chapters in your past can throw a cold despair into your present and eventually end up with paralysis in your future, it seems. Especially when it comes to this issue, this topic we've been studying together in the series Swimming Upstream. Especially when it comes to moral failures at every level. As we've been learning how to swim, so to speak, we've watched David, the man of God, drown. We've listened to Paul instruct believers who were saved out of immorality there in the city of Thessalonica. We watched them hear Paul say, God's called you away from that and to holiness. And it's not just well-wishing from God. He has put his 1 Thessalonians 4.8 Holy Spirit in you. We went over to Proverbs and we met the strange woman in Proverbs 5 through 7 and listened as a father strained with his affections and his love for his son, his young middle-aged school son, and appealing to him to stay clear of this woman, of this sin, of immorality. Then we went back to Corinth where immorality was expected and was even part of the pagan worship. We heard Paul remind them as well as he did to those in Thessalonica that their body matters to God. We saw in 1 Corinthians 6 that the body is the last beachhead that sin can get to you through as a child of God. And it's this body that we are to glorify our Lord with. And then we went to Proverbs 5 again to catch up with the father and the son and hear him again plead and teach his son, his children, how to remain pure. And at that point in the series, I think we might have been appreciative of scripture's clarity, of scripture's exhaustive treatment of this topic of swimming upstream. But for some, and probably more than we can realize, there was guilt that descended. Guilt at our heart level, at our conscience level, because there have been decisions in the past to experience something, to experiment with something morally that was out of bounds for a holy person. There has been unceasing lust, perhaps, memorized videos and images that you can't unsee. And there may be habits that have been developed, either public or group or solo habits. There's been new friend circles that's based on the culture of immorality. Maybe not people we gather with physically, but people we gather with online or entertainment choices. And perhaps we ourselves have done what I called last week a cultural cannonball right into the middle of this world. And so we listen to the series, we listen to Proverbs and Corinth and Thessalonica and all that we've seen. And there can be a crushing guilt of sin and shortcomings and failure on our part. And that required an additional sermon. And that was our sermon last Sunday morning. And it was a sermon entitled, Come Up for Air. And it talked about the liberating freedom of confession for the Christian. We spent time in Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 listening to the psalm writer confess sin and experience in that moment forgiveness. We went to Proverbs 28 13 and we were reminded of these words. If we cover or if we self forgive our transgressions, we won't prosper. But if we confess and forsake them, we'll have mercy, we'll find help. And we ended That sermon, where we're beginning this sermon, and it's with 1 John chapter 1, look at verse 9 to a verse you've memorized without even trying. If we confess our sins, written to Christians, the we is us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the invitation last week was, if you have fallen, if there's been moral failure in your life, thank the Lord for the convicting work of His Spirit. Thank the Lord for the clarity of His Word. And thank the Lord for the freedom of confession. As children, as the children of God, our good Father forgives us when we own up to our sin. But that brings us to this morning. You might have an objection in your heart right now. And the objection is a question. And the question is this. What if I have confessed it? What if I have confessed that one moment of weakness? Or what if I have confessed that years-long habit? What if I have confessed that dark chapter that I'm not in anymore? but no one knows about except God. What if I have confessed it but I can't believe I'm forgiven? What if I have confessed it and I just can't let go of it? What if I have already confessed it to the Lord but for some reason I cannot move forward? What if I'm confused? What if I've confessed it? And yet, I'm stuck. I will answer your question with a question. In your life, are confessed failures dogging your conscience as much as unconfessed failures? If so, you need help. It's not going to come in the form of a pill or a therapy session. It's going to come in the form of a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm assuming I'm speaking with Christians now. If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, I have something for you in this sermon. Hang on. Listen in, though, because I'm talking to those who profess to be Christians. If you are still finding it hard to have forward movement over confessed sin issues in your life, you need to learn this morning to trust the life jacket. The life jacket of grace that our Lord has thrown to you as his child. Trust the life jacket. The fresh air that you feel hitting your lungs is for real. It might be jolting at first, but as it continues to fill your lungs, it'll settle in. Or perhaps you've come to the light, as John speaks in 1 John. You've come out of your sin, that chapter, that darkness you've been in morally, and you've come out to the light. And I tell you, the light hurts your eyes at first. It's blinding. It's not comfortable. But stay in the light long enough. And it'll get warm. And it'll be familiar. And that light that hurt your eyes initially will give you clarity and joy. So I'll stick with that wording, trust the life jacket. If you've confessed moral failures and you just don't seem to be able to get yourself past the fact that you failed like that, trust the life jacket. So again, what I want to do as we close down this series this morning with this message, This one's going to sound a lot like last week. As a matter of fact, it's outlined the same way, the same three gospel questions. I want you to wrestle with these questions if this is you that I'm speaking to this morning. And as last week, it's the same this week. We've done our expositional work in this series in the previous messages. I'm being pastoral with you last week and this week. Now we're not going to have a fancy outline from just one text. You and I are having a coffee together, we have our Bibles open, and we're going to look at a couple passages together before we finish our coffees and head out. The first question, as you learn to trust the life jacket, you've confessed sin, how do you move on? The first question is this, well, what are the common indicators that this may be your struggle? The fact that you are not moving on from confessed sin in your life. God has forgiven you in 1 John 1.9's sense, but you can't seem to move forward. I want to see more about that. I want to know more about that not moving forward thing. What are the common indicators? Let me give you a couple of these quickly. First of all, this might be you if there's constant talk If this is the constant topic of your talk, your failure, even though it's been forgiven by God, even though it's been forgiven by others involved, it's still something you want to talk about. It's like when you introduce yourself to someone, you always have to work that into the introduction, if not out loud, in your heart. And if someone's pleased to meet you, your thoughts are saying, if only you knew where I've been and what I've done, though. Is it the constant topic of your talk, what you've been forgiven? This isn't saying that we don't remember and treasure grace and work that into our testimony, but this is something that fills your heart and comes out of your mouth all the time. And it's way beyond a treasuring of grace. You're stuck. Matthew 12 verse 34 says, for the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. You know what's on someone's heart because of what they say often. I never got to, in person, meet Pastor Mark Graham. I have a picture of him in my office and in a book that I open up to from time to time. And look at the guy who used to sit at the desk I'm sitting at now and the guy I hear so much good about. But I have never met him and didn't have a friendship with him like I did with Don Rowe. But I can tell you some stuff about Mark Graham because I listen to you talk, those of you who are here for his ministry. You knew what was in Pastor Graham's heart. You knew what he treasured, what he was thinking about when he was shaving. I mean, you just knew what he was thinking when he was driving. Why? Because it came out of his mouth all the time. Two things that he treasured, and I can say this about a man I never met. Number one, he treasured biblical counseling. He trained some of you in biblical counseling. I'm not going to ask you to show your hands, but if we did, I bet there would be a sea of hands that went up that sat under his biblical counseling. He treasured the sufficiency of scripture in helping people. And there's something else I know that Mark Graham loved. Why? Because, according to you, he talked about it all the time, the Detroit Tigers. So already he's my friend. We haven't met yet. We'll meet in heaven. He talked a lot about the Tigers, and opening day was a big party. That's fun with biblical counseling and Detroit Tigers, but it's not a fun thing with your struggles morally in your past where there's been failure and you've confessed them. But man, they're always just right here. Number two, what is another common indicator? It's a constant topic of meditation. Number one and two are pretty much the same. It's just number one is, and it comes out your mouth. Number two is, whether it comes out your mouth or not, it's always in your heart, in your thoughts. Proverbs 15, 13 says, when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken. And your spirit is broken because you're fixated on this, this failure, even though you've confessed it. Proverbs 18, 14 says, as for a broken spirit, who can bear it? It's a heavy load. And what you meditate on as far as your failures in the past, either the recent past or the distant past, what you meditate on, it's just a matter of time before your meditation becomes a distraction. And it actually affects how you are moving through your days. And meditation that becomes a distraction will eventually settle into just a fixation. It's almost like the glasses you wear to make sense out of your days. You look at your present and your future through the lens of your past. What's another common indicator? that you're not getting past confessed issues. Number three, it's a constant topic of prayer. You say, is that bad? No. I mean, you're praying to your good high priest who stands before your good father on your behalf. I'm not talking about praying that you don't enter into temptation. We're supposed to pray that in the Lord's Prayer. I'm not praying that you don't trust your flesh. And there's a healthy mistrust of you left to yourself. But I'm talking about continuing to confess the sin that God has already said He's forgiven. The shortcoming, the failure, the revolt. There are some people that go through their days saying, please forgive me, please forgive me, please forgive me. Until they are mentally fatigued. Number four, what's another common indicator? A growing coldness. A growing coldness. Number three is talking about an act of praying that's not informed by scripture fully. Number four, I mean, there's a stopping of your prayer life. If you can't get past confessed sin in your life, do you understand that this could lead to a growing coldness, which by that I mean prayerlessness. And these are the kind of thoughts that come to your mind. Maybe not in front of other people, but when it's time to pray, or it's time to get up and spend some time with the Lord, thoughts like this come to your mind. Me? Me? Approach God? And there's a lack of an eagerness to enter the presence of your good Heavenly Father in secret. You never really put Psalm 130 verses 3 and 4 together. You want to stay in verse 3. Verse 3 of Psalm 130 says this, If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? Remember those words? Who could stand? You like that verse. You're like, well, how do I approach God? I mean, look what I've done. I confess it, but look what I've done. How can I approach God? And I want to say to you this morning, keep reading. Because verse 4 says, but there is forgiveness with you. But for someone who won't let go of their confessed past, there's a growing coldness. And number five, and this is a very dark point, there's a looking for opportunities for auto-atonement. I want to explain that. I put that in quotes, auto-atonement. What does that mean? Self-atonement. It can get to this point, not just with teenagers, not just with college students, But you can be so convinced of your badness and not even worthy of the forgiveness God's Word said you get when you confess your sin, it's as if you just continually think you should be punished a little more. And if something goes on between you and someone else, you're like, I'll take the blame. I deserve it anyway. Or? You may start inflicting not just emotional pain on yourself by deprivation and isolation, but you may begin, sadly, to inflict physical pain in your body because you think you deserve it, because you feel dirty. It's as if God's forgiveness and your confession is incomplete. and you have to finish it off. So you see why I'm pretty earnest about this. You look at these five common indicators and I have a question. Are you writhing in anguish? Is this you? Are you writhing in anguish over something that you have already confessed? The time to tackle this is right now, so that leads us to the second question. What are the dangerous pitfalls? You've got to face this. If I just described to you, you've confessed sin of any size, of a moral failure, a one-time, a habit, a long chapter, you've confessed it as a Christian and you won't move on. There are some dangerous pitfalls to beware of. You know, Proverbs 14, verse 8 says that it's the prudence of a man, of a woman, to understand their way. In other words, to look at their life, to step outside of their life and look at how they're thinking, look at how they're acting, look at where they're going. It's the wisdom of a man, of a woman, to understand their way. And it's important for you to step outside of yourself. If this is you, I'm speaking with love and I'm pleading with you this morning. Understand where you're heading. Because you've got problems towards yourself, towards the body of Christ, and towards God. Towards self, number one, you could have a real fear of death. If you don't take care of this, you will never allow yourself to be certain of heaven, even though God says He saves those who come to Him. Mark Dever has written these words, and I find them so helpful. And he's saying these to his own church family and to us as well, as a brother in Christ. He says, there is the problem of people who don't think that they're converted when they really are. They know that the scriptures teach that Christians will not be given over to sin, and so whenever they sin, they feel the accusation of the devil, and they tend to agree with him that perhaps they are not truly Christians. And he continues, but my poor doubting friend, if this is you, if you are quick to agree with the charges of the devil whenever you sin, let me urge you not to forget God's goodness to you. the good work that he has done in your heart, the work that perhaps even your friends have seen God doing in you. Consider Joan of Arc's response when she was asked a tricky and trapping question by some judges. She was asked whether she knows she is in the grace of God, and she answered with these words, if I'm not, may God put me there, and if I am, may God keep me in it. I appreciate what Deborah has written. It goes right along with that song we just sung. He will hold you fast. When you and I sin, in a 1 John 1 sense, the love of God does not go on pause for you until you fix it. He loves you just as much before you confess that sin. He uses his word, he uses the body of Christ, he uses his indwelling Holy Spirit, he uses his kindness in your life to draw you to a place of acknowledging your sin, confessing it, and having freedom and liberty again, and confidence that the fellowship has been restored, but the relationship wasn't in danger if you're truly saved. What are the dangerous pitfalls? Well, towards yourself, it's a fear of death because of salvation doubts. Number two, towards the body of Christ, it could be the absence from ministry. You just kind of fade back. Don't attend. Attend enough to stay in the good graces of the Constitution and bylaw. But no intentional activity and giving towards others and attending to pray and sing together and to study God's Word together. Oh, you may come so that the right people see that you showed up, or you may come and stay in a silo of just a few friends, but the broader body of Christ is missing your presence and your investment in them. And eventually, if you don't think that God's forgiving you like he promised, guess who's going to start being slow in how they forgive others? You. But towards God, what's another dangerous pitfall? A blindness to his presence. A blindness to his presence in your days. I'm not saying God leaves you. It's just that it's just not real obvious to you how close he is. When you sing songs like we've sung this morning, even though we have here in Revelation chapter one that the Lord is in our midst as we worship him, you're not aware of it. Oh, you'll sing the songs because you've got a catchy tune or they're popular, but you just don't get into it. As a matter of fact, you live off of other people's faith and experience. I'm not saying this to condemn you. I'm not laying these two heavy questions on your shoulders to crush you. I am so full of joy and love for you that I want you to get out from under these. You don't have to stay there. You can trust the life jacket. If you've confessed failure, you've been forgiven. And that brings us to our third and final question, It's a question that reminds you and it reminds Jim Newcomer, too, that none of us ever stray far from the cross. We don't stray far from the cross ever when it comes to the restoration of fellowship as well as the preservation of our fellowship with our Father. And the question is, what is the gospel answer? What is the gospel answer? The gospel, listen, the gospel, the good news of Christ that you've embraced as a born-again Christian insists that you conduct a nine-point heart inventory. We're going to do about two minutes each one. You ready? I'm going to give you some verses. I'll read some of them. What is this nine-point heart inventory if we've described you as not being able to move forward from confessed sin? Number one, observe the sincerity of your repentance. Observe the sincerity of your repentance. We've already looked at Proverbs 28, 13 last week. He who covers his transgression will not prosper, but he that confesses and forsakes it will find mercy. It is true that when we come to Jesus to confess our sins, we have to mean it. In Matthew 3, verse 8, remember these words during the ministry of John the Baptist? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Acts 26 verse 20 performing deeds appropriate to repentance or even in Revelation chapter 2 verse 5 when dealing with the church at Ephesus we read these words from the Lord to his church. Remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first." Written to believers. We need to start here to observe the sincerity of our repentance. Was it merely our feeling we bumped into Jesus and we said, please excuse me, excuse me. I did it again, excuse me. Pastor Kevin DeYoung has a statement I came across just a few days ago, and it has gripped me since then, and it's this. Repentance is more than repeated apology. Repentance is more than repeated apology. See, true repentance, when the child of God confesses and turns from sin, It's going to be a battle, yes, but there is a new discernible trajectory for that battle towards holiness. It doesn't deny the gravity of that sin calling back and even grabbing the ankles and tripping her or him up every once in a while, but there's a new trajectory, a new fight. Observe the sincerity of your repentance. Were you merely saying, oops, sorry, Jesus, I know you're holy and I shouldn't have done that. I apologize. Or was there more? Was there a brokenness? Saying, Lord, Father, I sin. And you know it already. I need you to know I know and that there's gonna be changes by your grace. Number two, meditate on the mercy of God. Meditate on the mercy of God. Now, I want you to hold your finger here in 1st John chapter 1 and go with me to 1st Timothy chapter 1. A few books to the left in your Bibles. You say, what do we find in 1st Timothy chapter 1? Well, we're going to be in there for over a year coming up starting next Sunday, Lord willing, as we come to this new series. And we'll get to these verses, but you know what's really cool about this chapter? There's a lot that's cool, but in verses 12 to 17, watch this, we get to read Paul's diary. He left it out, he left it open, he's not in the room, we get to read it. Paul never got over, listen, what he was forgiven. what he had done prior to coming to Christ. You say, well, that's kind of going against what we're saying this morning. Look how he remembered it, though. That's key. If anyone had a right, so to speak, to wonder if he really could be forgiven that much, it was Paul. But whenever his conscience or the deceiver pointed out what he was before, what he's done before, he would come back and read this out of his journal. Verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant. with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus." It's a trustworthy statement, I'm telling you. And it deserves full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am. He didn't say I was foremost of all. He says, left to myself, I would go right back to what I've always been. But grace found me. And he says, I am the foremost of all, but I have found, verse 16, mercy. So that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. So how do you end this? How do you tie this off? And Paul would say, enough talking about me. I gotta talk about my forgiver, verse 17. To the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. That's all I can say. Meditate on the mercy of God. Let me tell you something about your sin, and I'm saying it about my sin right now too. Listen, as a believer, you and I are supposed to be overwhelmed with the gravity of our sin and our failures. But we're also to be overwhelmed with the immensity and the supply of mercy from our Heavenly Father towards us. I know I say it all the time around here, and you've heard it, you've read it before, but the Puritans used to say, until sin becomes bitter, grace doesn't become sweet. It is heavy. And I promised I'd talk to you who are here who don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord. Can I just have a little sidebar with you right now? We're talking about those who are Christians. You're listening to us talk here of Christians who already have been reconciled with the Heavenly Father through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. We're talking about Christians who still struggle with sin. We're not perfect. No one makes that claim. But when we sin, it grieves us. And because we have His life in us and His Spirit indwelling in us, we run back to our Father and we confess our sin. And we've never stopped calling Him Father the whole time. As a matter of fact, we go to Him with this confession because He is our Father. And then we go on with our journey, treasuring grace and mercy. But if you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior yet, you still can't even call Him Father. There's a name that you have for God, whether you would like to face it or not. I say this with all the kindness I can. You can't call him father in a saving sense. You have to call him judge. And you will meet him. And it'll be your sin. Not just that, not merely every act, but the fact that you are born a sinner. The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's what the judge is going to look at. And he'll condemn those who don't repent of their sins and come to Christ in faith. Here's the really good news. You can do that, like, in the next four seconds. Right now. Where you say to the Lord in prayer, in your hearts, right there in your seat, Lord, I know I'm a sinner. I didn't need the sermon this morning to know that. left to myself and by myself. This is what haunts me. I might be enjoying life. I might even be seen as others as a success. But I know I'm not ready to face my judge. And I'm tired of being crushed with that guilt. And I say to you, that's a loving father who's drawing you to himself. Come to him. Confess your faith in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross and his victory over the grave. Confess your sin and enjoy eternal life. You'll be born again. Well, we must push through this nine-point heart inventory. Number one, observe the sincerity of your repentance. Number two, meditate on the mercy of God. Number three, reject the mindset of legalism. reject the mindset of legalism. Legalism is not, listen, it's not the presence of guidelines and barriers and standards of any sort. If you define legalism as that, your definition is shallow and wrong and unbiblical. Legalism is any time I do do something or I don't do something in order to make God owe me something. That's legalism, either by an organization or an individual. I won't do these things. Or, I will do these things, so God, you must pay up now. That's legalism. And I'm saying reject the mindset of legalism. You say, what do you mean by that? This is someone that says, okay, look, I checked off all the boxes on this confession thing, man. I've memorized Proverbs 28, 13. I've confessed, and I've done my best to make sure I'm not a self-forgiver, and I'm trying to chart a new course, and I'm checking these boxes at least one time, but there's no joy in my heart. I don't feel any better. I don't feel any different. When we're talking that way, we've gone into legalism. If you and I confess our sin because we're broken over it, it's like Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, I mourn my spiritual poverty, and I am hungry and thirsty for righteousness, not just a positional righteousness, a practical righteousness that's sourced outside of myself. Until that defines us, we stay in this legalistic mindset of, okay, I said I'm sorry, To God and to the other person, I said I'm sorry and I just don't feel any better. You say, what about that list in 2 Corinthians 7.11 that I'm angry at sin, and I want to be identified more with Jesus like I wasn't before. I want to be more aware of his presence. And there's seven boxes, Lord, and I checked them all. And you have to understand that Paul himself says that his list is not prescriptive. It's descriptive of a heart that's already truly repented. Because Paul finishes 2 Corinthians 7 verse 11 with these words after the seven little boxes, if you will. He says, and in all of this you've shown yourself to be innocent. You don't work these things out. This is what comes, you don't work these things out by pushing them out coldly and mechanically. This is something that works its way out of a heart that is grieving over sin. Number four, evaluate your reconciliation with man. If you can't let go of failure in the past, maybe you haven't taken care of it with also others that were involved or that it would impact. Acts 24, 16 and 2 Corinthians 1, 12 talk about having a conscience void of offense, not just towards God, but towards men. We can't just leave it with God and say, I want to talk to Jesus. Did it affect other people? Involve other people? You've got to take care of that too. If not, you're not going to be able to move past it yet. You still have work to do. Have you followed through completely? Number five, guard Scripture's theology of God. And with this, I'm thinking of Psalm 103, verses 8 through 14, where we read of how far our iniquity is removed from us. When God says, listen, when he says he forgives, he forgives. He provides a restoration of that fellowship. And when God makes a promise regarding forgiveness and restoration, he means it. He means it. Biblical counselor John Butler wrote these words, when you move from your experience to God, you always distort God. You catch that? When you move from your experience to God, you always distort God. And he says this. Notice, I'm not saying that you shouldn't take your experiences to God. Of course you should. Anybody who reads the Bible, even casually, knows that you bring your experiences to God. But when you see God only through those experiences, you distort God. The Bible turns this upside down. He says, start from God and then work down to your experiences, whether past or present. Define who God is and then bring that to bear on what's happening in your life." That's what I mean by guard Scripture's theology of God. In Psalm 103, in Psalm 40, in Psalm 51, in 1 John 1, when he says he forgives, he forgives. Number six, identify the presence of idolatry. You say, what? You could be struggling with heart idolatry because you're not letting go of something that you've confessed to God because you don't think you were perfect and pristine and every noun and verb was in the perfect place to get by with it. Your joy is sourced only in perfect performance, even your perfect performance of sin, and you grade yourself violently that you haven't said the right words when you confess the sin, and then you're looking for joy. Well, now you're, I would be so careful to say you've shifted your worship now from the God that you're confessing to to yourself and how perfect your confession can be. Just come running to him. Learn from the man at the temple that says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Don't try to be the model prayer. Number seven, flee from the trap of pride. Perhaps this is part of your story that something you've been involved in in the past or the recent present or the distant past, morally speaking, you look at it now and you've confessed it as sin, but you are like, How did I get into that? I shouldn't have done that. I'm above that. The first Corinthians 10 12 says let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Many of us this week in the last four days have watched the fall and I would say of a man that is in my top five top influencers in my discipleship for decades. I saw him drop this week to moral failure of some sort. I can't look at that and say, wow, how could he do that? Even though I don't know all the details. How could someone with that type of a reach and decades and impact in my own life, how could he do that? 1 Corinthians 10, 12 says, Jim, take heed, you could fall. Jim, Galatians 6.1, if a brother is overtaken in a sin, you who are spiritual, go to them and restore them in a spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. There's no place for pride, even pride over forgiven sin in your past. We all can do any sin. Period. Number eight, what will move you forward? Treasure the intercession of Christ. And it's here I think of Romans 8 verses 26, 27, and 34, our series on Sunday nights we're going through. You have a high priest that's interceding for you when you're awake and when you're asleep every moment. Let that be a soothing of your soul. Treasuring the intercession of Christ on your behalf delivers you finally, finally, from the quest for the perfect faith, the perfect repentance, the perfect confession prayer. This frees you of it, because there's no such thing. But your high priest intercedes for you perfectly. What you can't do perfectly, he does perfectly on your behalf. as your High Priest. He's interceding for you. Why? Because you are His. You are a gift from the Father to the Son. Number nine, enjoy the freedom of moving forward. Enjoy the freedom of moving forward Remember Philippians 3, whatever things were gained to me, those I've counted as loss for the sake of Christ, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Yeah, that. You've gained Christ. You move forward. Our time is gone, so I must ask the question. Are confessed failures dogging your conscience as much as unconfessed failures? Then my simple challenge to you pastorally over our coffee as we take the last sip, fold up our napkins, get ready to go out to our cars, it's simply this. Trust the life jacket. If Christ says he's forgiven you, and all the whole thing. He never stopped loving you as a father. If he says that you're forgiven, trust the life jacket. You are. You say, well, I don't see the life jacket. Well, I ask you to hold your finger in a place. Go back there, 1 John 1, as we close. Here's the life jacket. You say, oh, verse 9? More than that. This is an amazing life jacket written to Christians who struggle with sin, like me and like you. And as you look at this life jacket, you notice real quick there's a tag hanging off the side of it with the small print, you know, the stuff we don't usually read. Verses 8 of chapter 1 down through chapter 2 verse 2 is the small print on this life jacket that you can trust. Verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. In other words, you need this life jacket. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, not just some. And just in case you missed verse 8, verse 10 says if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And his word is not in us. I'm not speaking his heart, his truth. My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, that's verse 8 and 10 again from chapter 1. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Watch this. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins. Too bad that this verse usually is popular because the second half of the verse. We want to debate what it means when it says, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. And that's a wonderful truth there. But I want to push you back to the front end. If everyone in the world were to repent of their sins and come to faith in God, there would be sufficient covering for them. Every sinner, every sin. That's what the verse is saying. at the end. But did you miss the first part? We were talking about your sin. If he could, should, every person repent and place their faith in Jesus, there would be sufficient covering. Not all of them will, but even if they could, he's big enough of a God to be able to do that, to forgive. So why do you doubt that he could forgive what you've done in your past? You're just one. If he could do everyone's stuff, he can take care of your past, confess it, and enjoy the freedom of moving forward. Swim hard upstream every day, not shocked by the current, but buoyed by the grace of your Redeemer. Father, thank you for this time to be in your word as we have taken the approach of a coffee and a pastoral talk that stands on the shoulders of the expository work we've done in your word and the clarity of your word. Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ who are walking with a limp still because of past failures, past moral failures, perhaps. I pray that today they will walk without a limp, treasuring grace, keeping this nine-point inventory handy so that they can help others, too, because they're going to be able to spot others who still need to make this change, too. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your church. Keep us pure. Our bodies are yours.