Psalm 51 is our text. David's great prayer of confession, repentance, Psalm 51, verse 10. Creating me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. I like to speak to you on the subject of getting rid of a wrong spirit. In our text here, the psalmist prays, Lord, renew a right spirit within me. I'd like to describe to you a right spirit, the kind of spirit that a Christian ought to have. It's very easy to get the wrong kind of spirit. Amen? That's not hard. You can have a wonderful day on Sunday, and then it seemed like on Monday, you wonder if you even went to church. You wonder what happened so quickly. Sometimes it's not even a day, sometimes between where you're sitting in your car, you think, Lord, am I that depraved? Am I that sinful? So we need all the help we can get. Psalm 51, David commits adultery and murder, tries to hide it for a year. Finally, it's all out in the open, and he prays this great prayer of repentance. Psalm 51. You might find yourself needing this prayer. I'm sure we all have at times. David comes to abhor his sin, to hate it. He's praying for forgiveness, but more than that, deliverance. You know, there's more than getting your sin forgiven. There's more than confession. There is the forsaking of sin. There is, Lord, not only forgive me, Lord, help me not to do it again. Amen. You don't have to confess sins you don't commit. Prevention's always the name of the game, isn't it? Always the best strategy. So he says, Lord, I need a right spirit. I've lost the right spirit. A right spirit, number one, is an honest spirit. It's painful to be honest many times. But God can't help us if we're not honest with him, with ourselves, with others. He's been hiding his deed for months. but there's something about the nature of sin that you can't hide it forever. And I could tell you many stories, you know, illustrations as well that somehow sin becomes obvious, it becomes known. So now at last, finally David gets honest and you can read these verses. painfully honest, admitting what he's done, claiming full responsibility. And here's what could have helped David. He was doing nothing when he should have been out with the army fighting. And so, an idle mind, my mama said, is the devil's workshop. He's in the wrong place and when you are in the wrong place, your right place is empty. So he's definitely in the wrong place. And that led to his great fall. But he blames nobody. I did it, and it's my fault, my transgressions, my sins, my iniquities. And he's being honest with the Lord and trying to get back the spirit that he once had. You know, it doesn't take much. I guarantee you, well, I started to say I guarantee you, I don't know. I don't think anybody here robbed any banks this week. Hope not or killed anybody or anything we'd call big, but it don't take something that big to lose you, Joey. No, it really don't. I read the story years ago, this, This little boy said his daddy came home from work and he had bought a paper on the sidewalk when they used to sell papers on the sidewalk. And his daddy said, uh-oh, that boy gave me two papers by mistake. And the little boy said, daddy, what are you going to do? He said, just one extra paper. And he said, son, I only paid for one, he gave me two. He said, tomorrow I'll go and give you money for this extra one. He said, but daddy, 50 cent, his mistake. I know that, the daddy said, but I gotta live with my conscience. And that little boy said that was something he remembered all his life, the honesty of his dad. So you just make it your business to be honest with God all the time. Amen. For your own sake, for your own conscience, for your own testimony, for your own joy. Amen. Sometimes it's a test. Sure it is. Yeah. if they give you too much money at the checkout. Now here, this ain't mine. This ain't mine. Christians ought to be different. That's right. I was at a donut shop years ago. They went out of business. I don't know why. It was a sad day. What do you want? I said, one of them, please. One of them, please. One of them peanut butter ones, please. The lady said, you're different. She said, people don't come in here and say please and thank you. I said, that's how I was brought up. Besides that, I'm saved. You're not gonna hand me a half a dozen donuts without me saying thank you. Even if I had to pay for them. Most people are rude. Hello, you live in the world I live in? I tell you what really bothers me is when senior citizens are rude. Amen. If anybody ought to be sweet, it ought to be somebody that's been walking with Jesus 50 years. Amen. If you can't be sweet, stay at home till you get right. Amen. Then you can come out and open. That's right. People got enough problems without me and you adding to it or giving Christianity the wrong impression of Christianity. Amen. Well, be honest. Number two, a right spirit is a pure spirit without sins contamination, not defiled, not dirty, not polluted. There's sin everywhere. It's after us. It's in us. This one lady with a white dress said, is there any reason why I can't go in that coal mine with a white dress? And the man said, no, but there's many reasons why you won't come out with a white dress. And I guarantee if you keep your heart clean, you're gonna have to work at it. Probably 50 times a day you're gonna have to say, forgive me, Jesus. Help me, Jesus. Amen. Help me, Lord, what comes in my ears and my eyes and out my mouth. I'm saying, do you want a right spirit? Self-examination, honesty, purity, a right attitude, a pure inner man, where God sees. Folks, we're all made out of the same material. We all have this wild nature that we have to struggle. That's what the Bible was talking about when it says, put it to death, mortify, crucify. I die daily. It's a part of you is wicked. Amen. When God saved you, he did not take away your old nature. He just gave you a new one, so now you got two. And the one you feed is the one that wins. A fella had two dogs and somebody said, did they fight? He said, yes. And the man said, which one wins? He said, the one I've been feeding all week. You know who won last time? There was a struggle between your old nature and your new nature? The one you've been feeding. That's the one that won. Yeah. The one you've been putting the Bible into. And prayer. Amen. So our right spirit is pure. And this is serious. I'm thinking of a fellow I knew. brought up in a Christian home. His dad was a preacher, pastor, but I don't want to tell you the rest of that story. That poor fellow, he just made a lot of bad choices, let sin take over his life. I guarantee you, if I stood in his home church and called his name, half the people there, they'd say, yeah, he's a hypocrite. He's a hypocrite. He's gone. He's written his whole life story. Folks, you can't undo it. You can't undo it. He was super talented. You never heard a better singer in your whole life. I don't care how much talents you got. I don't care how much of anything you got. You need a pure, clean heart. Amen. And the blood of Jesus maintains our fellowship. Don't let things add up or build up. A sweet spirit. Christians shouldn't be rude, rough, but Christ-like, meek, lowly, humble. Amen. Last time you saw somebody lose their temper, you didn't say, that's a Christian right there. Yeah, that's what Christians do. They get mad and they cuss and they lose their temper. No, they don't. That's not what you thought. No. I'm not talking about weakness. I'm talking about meekness. That says Jesus first, and Lord, I'm your servant. And when I got saved, I canceled all my rights. And Lord, you own me, not my will, but thine be done. You see, sin makes you mean. It makes you stubborn. But the grace of God makes you gentle and kind, forgiving one another. We'll come to that. Forbearing one another. You say, that's just my temperament. Well, shame on you. Get it under the blood. Amen. There's far too many people claiming to be Christians that are almost as mean as the devil. And I could name a bunch of them that I've met on the journey. Couldn't you? Do you have a sweet spirit, a right spirit? Do people want to be around you or do they say, oh no, there's him? Huh? Remember Tabitha in the Bible, always doing good things for people. The Bible says they gave her a nickname. They called her Dorcas. They called her Gazelle because she's always running around doing things for people, making clothes for people. And she died and Peter raised her back to life. They said, we want her back. Amen. Sweet, helpful. Christ's life. Self-denying. I'm trying to describe a Christian. Patient. Patient. Not fretful. Patient. You know what patience knows? Patience knows that God's gonna be on time. Patience knows that God is God and He's on the throne. Amen. And He can handle it and it'll be right. toward God and toward others. Let me help you right here. This will help you. How long you've been saved? Answer that in your own heart. Okay? Just remember that it took you that long to get where you are. Okay? Be sure you give the next person beside you the same amount of years to get as far along as you are. Hello? You say it took you 25 years to get where you are? Okay, be sure you give everybody else 25 years to get where you are. Hello. Some of you didn't like that. I might just circle the field on that. Folks, it takes time to turn a sinner into a saint. Amen. Give people a little time, amen. Is that not fair to give people the same amount of time it took you? I think that's fair. Show of patience is the right spirit. Not critical, not self-willed, but helpful and warm-hearted. Amen. Ralph Sexton Jr. said he walked into the cleaners and he wanted his clothes and he wanted them right now and he had to wait a little while and it just bothered him, annoyed him. He said he didn't say, what he said to the lady was not very nice. Anyway, he got his clothes, got in the car, driving to the airport, going to go preach somewhere. And he said, it's like the Lord said to him, Ralph, that wasn't right what you did. You didn't treat that lady right. It wasn't her fault. And by the way, this preaching engagement, the Lord said, you're going by yourself. I'm not going with you. With an attitude like that. Amen. Hey, I know you think this is your world and everybody's your servant, but that ain't a Christian attitude. The Christian attitude is how can I serve you? Amen. How can I serve you? Do you have a right spirit? A right spirit. Patience. Three requirements for a missionary. I heard this quote years ago. The three requirements for a missionary, patience, patience, and patience. That's true for a Christian as well. Number five, and quickly, a forgiven spirit. As Danny said this morning, if we don't forgive, we won't be forgiven. We might have to forgive somebody, but that's nothing compared to what God forgave you and me. The opposite of forgiveness is bitterness. It's not worth it. Hatred and envy and malice, it'll destroy you, body and soul. Corrie Ten Boom, you know her testimony. She was in Hitler's concentration camps. After the war, she said she met one of the guards. He had been a guard in Hitler's regime. He came up to her and asked for forgiveness, but she said, also, I had to ask His forgiveness. And she said, when I did, it was like liberty and freedom came to my soul. Folks, when you forgive somebody, it not only helps them, it helps you. Amen. You'll need that somewhere along the line. Somebody's going to do you wrong, whether it's Intentional or not. Don't you hold a grudge. Hello. A right spirit, a forgiven spirit, a generous spirit, a given spirit. Christians know how to give. We know that everything belongs to God. We know it's more blessed to give than to receive. Amen. You've heard of Carnegie, the billionaire Carnegie. I read what he said about giving. You know, they were always taking a million of his and doing this and doing that and down the library and so forth. And he said, it don't mean anything to me. He said, it's just a transfer from one ledger to the other. He said, there's no joy in it. You see, the worldly man in his given, he doesn't find the satisfaction that a Christian does because a Christian gives as an act of worship, amen, for a spiritual purpose. and the people of this world, they give the Red Cross and say, well, maybe that'll help a little bit on my tax records. There ain't no love to Jesus in that. See, amen. Christians know what it is to be generous and to live on a spiritual plane and to be hilarious about it. That's the Greek word, cheerful, giver, hilarious, amen. which means Jonathan, hurry up with that offering plate, I can't wait to give. Amen, get out of my way, I can't wait to give. Oh, it's time for the offering, my favorite part of the service. Hey, that's the book, hilarious, amen. Some people need a right spirit when it comes to that. You know how to kill a Baptist, just shoot him in the pocket book. Ain't that right? You know how to scatter a mob, don't you? Just pass the plate. Christians ought to say, God's been good to me. Gave me health, gave me a job, gave me a family, gave me a house, gave me a car, gave me health, and lets me keep 90% and he just wants 10%. Let me tell you something, when you was a sinner, you tithed to your God every week. You just didn't call it that. Look at it, think about it. Sure you did. A lot of sinners give the devil 90%. Yeah, they do. Do you have a right spirit? Last of all, David has a rejoicing spirit. He gets right with the Lord and he talks about serving the Lord and sinners getting saved and opening his mouth and praising God. When you have a right spirit, every now and then you can sing and testify and shout, amen, and open your lips. Serve the Lord. Rejoice. Sin will close your lips, but repentance will open your lips. Do you have a right spirit? Any bitterness you need to get rid of? Coldness? What about blaming others? What about selfishness? Could you get a prayer through? If somebody said, hey, I need you to pray for me. Would you have to say, I'll be back in 30 minutes. I got to get right with God. Complaining. Every now and then it do you good to listen to yourself. Amen. Listen to what you say. How you say it? A lady said to me the other day, right here at church, she said, she said, I can take whatever my husband says to me, even when it's a rebuke, because he says it in the right tone. How about that? Tone. There are other things, I'm just out of time. There are other things I can mention. How about a jealous spirit? How about an unbelieving spirit? Are we not slow to give these up? Can we not honestly say there are things we've had in our hearts for way too long? Maybe God needs to do a deep work in us. God forgave this fellow and he went on. He said, that's amazing, terrible things he did. Yeah, adultery, murder. Yeah, it's awful. But there's not a one of us that would say, yeah, go ahead and play my life up there and let everybody watch it. There's not one person here that would say, yeah, go ahead. I want everybody to know everything I've ever done. We're all guilty. We all need mercy. Amen. Most of us need help every day. Don't live with a wrong spirit. Don't go around defeated or mad or whatever you want to put in that blank. David said, Lord, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit. You know when your spirit is right and when it's not. His sin was great, God's mercy was greater. Do you have a right spirit?