Fairness is a horse

Fairness is a horse the Captain of the host rides into
battle. He’s casting down Honor and punishing
Diligence with his lack of concern. Having turned aside
his advisors and esteemed men, (Punctuality, Diligence
and Integrity) he pushes forward to that which is
naught : Utopia. While Manhood is thrown asunder, idle
babblers and vain talkers are lifted up with false
prestige. He has been led astray by Team-speak and
Group-think, agents of that unfaithful deceiver,
Emotion. Upon arrival to this promised valley
they find it an androgynous pit of hopeless despair.
Engulfed with an enumerable league of enemies his
heart sinks with a dark and clammy death.
In their effeminate state of darkness they are trapped
and confused. Having thrown off Honor; Manhood,
Faith and Purpose went with him. Without this kind of
character immaturity and immorality had crept into the
troops, they no longer have a will to fight! That poor
lame horse will not deliver you from your old enemy
Deception that has long pillaged your borders and
now seizes your very life. There is no one to turn to
for help, save a miracle from The Most High.
 

Family trouble

Being a parent is a wonderful thing, there is so much love

Receiving a precious gift, from way up above

Sometimes that gift can be heavy, as we live our life

Maybe too much sorrow, adds to our strife

It could be too many dark days, for a husband and a wife

How can that child be to blame, no it’s not there blunder

Some people embrace bitterness, is it any wonder

That separations in our families, are the result of sin

When we embrace bitterness, its evil we let in

The solution is quite clear, and there is no cost

When we invite Jesus in, the darkness is lost

Bitterness in our families hurts more than you know

It’s the bystander unaware, who takes the swiftest blow

It’s bad enough you hurt yourself, like a hunter to a rabbit

The legacy of this game, becomes an evil little habit

One generation to the next, hand it on down

If we really knew the damage caused, it would knock us to the ground

Please stop this madness if you can, is my tearful cry

Pour lots of love on everyone and look them in the eye

If there is a problem overcome it real-quick

So when special occasions arise you won’t be sick

If you see yourself in here you know what to do

Clean up your heart and your life so the light can shine through

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Judge not?

There are a lot of things that are unacceptable in our culture. Most of what is accepted is cursed by God. Satan being a crafty liar, in an attempt to silence the warriors of the Lord from destroying his sand castle -uses demonization to silence opposition.

One such ill-used passage is Matt7:1 , "Judge not…" we can all quote it because it's a culturally religious objection to the proclamation of transcendent truth and standards of righteousness. It runs like this, if I live in sin and you say something than you are living in a greater sin "Judging". We all know how horrible and unloving that is (the litmus test for all good). What a twisted feminist society! Love is righteous and we are defending immoral actions in the name of Love! I need no other proof that this is indeed a reprobate culture and those who commit these crimes of syntax do so for their own self-justifying immoral reasons. God alone decides what is right and wrong (John 14:6)-In Gen 3:5 satan tells us that we can decide. When we separate righteousness from love we doom our culture and posterity to all matter of debauchery, nothing is safe and the future sure (slavery) Deut 28:7

    If you look a little deeper at Matthew 7 it is better said to "Decide not lest you be judged" Before we can know truth and apply it to others it has to be received from God. You cannot decide it for yourselves unless you first reject God and his bible. What's being said is don't you decide right and wrong for you but to find it in the eternal truths of God. We either agree with him or make our own decisions and thereby dam ourselves. God decides what is evil and if you do evil things it's because you are evil. We are all judged/measured by Gods standards of right and wrong – therefore use that as your standard to know what is good.

    We do not need to judge the world, it is already condemned by its actions – remember you were likewise condemned by the law of God and found mercy at the cross of Jesus Christ.

Words

Men need words and we rarely have time to think about it. If you are raising a son to be a man in the context of Gods call then you had better take the time to display your vision and make sure it is consistent with the word of your father – The Bible.

1. Accountability – equipping, challenging and informing one another so as to live a consistently Christian life.
   
2. Manhood – A state of living in maturity – based in a heart that has strong affection for honor, integrity, and work – a love for righteousness – Stand fast -1 Cor 16:13
   
3. Diligence – utilizing my time and resources as a good Stuart of the Lord Jesus Christ – to give glory to His name. Matt 25:14-30
   
4. Love – having and cultivating a commitment and affection to another so as to tend to their need and be mindful of them. 1cor :13
   
5. Maturity – the purposeful putting away of the foolish things and deliberate putting on the things od Christ. 1Cor 13:11 Col 3:10 Eph 4:24
   

Religiosity

            Christ died for sinners purchasing a relationship between the bride and himself in all tenderness, gentleness, truth and righteousness. We being simple men who tend to go astray can miss this beautiful gift from heaven and instead choose ritualism and religiosity. We are prone to hide our hearts and put on facades of superstition rather than the bold truth of Christ. He must be first and last the definer of all reality.  On the one side we have petty lusts and narcissistic protectionism. Not wanting to open our hearts to the Lord who knocks. So as we walk a little. foolishly, outsiders can be offended at our apparent lack of piety. Still there are those who are mainly concerned with the external. If this becomes a point of pride then they will be susceptible to all manner of cults and religious forms that will pacify their arrogant hearts. Oh how we need the reformation sound bites!  Put off all forms of religion and embrace the pure bosom of the Lord Jesus Christ our groom. Sola Cristo - Sola Scriptura - Sola Gratia - Sola Fide.

Confession- Truth in the inward parts.

 

Our study in prayer has brought us through

1. God is sovereign and prayer changes things
   
2. God answers prayer, just not when and how we think
   
3. How to wrestle with God righteously
   
4. Today we look at Confession.
   

 

Reality –Christians believe and rightly so that God alone defines it but are we consistent with that belief? Do our day to day activities reflect that Jesus Christ is Lord of all, does our heart and mind give glory and honor and service to the mighty God as it should? Who are you? You are named after Christ! "Christian" The things of God are seated in the heavenlies but everything on earth should respond to it as a sunflower to the sun. Is that who you are? Does your joy and hope rest in His parameters for your life? Are you cheerful in obedience?

    Our Elders have wisely considered and chosen a topic that is so basic yet so vital to the church in the fight that the flesh has with the spirit. We are always battling, if it is not the enemy without it's the enemy within. If you don't believe that you're in the battle then check your obedience it's a great barometer.

 

A wise philosopher once said "The goal of brainwashing is to supplant right affections with others that will drive us to a desired outcome. Pride plays a critical role in shielding these things from scrutiny." B.A.Worel

 

God defines reality, the order of your life and declares there is a war. But we are suffering under generations of cultural brainwashing such that our affections are engaged in things that God has not designed for us, clouding our vision of ourselves and others. Pride being a terrible curse that satisfies our flesh binds us to this course of destruction. Confession is a process of humility and revelation that changes us step by step; conforming us to Christ, from glory to glory. 2Corinthians 3:18

John Piper said "Christian hedonism says God is the measure of right and wrong and it's a sin not

to like it".

 

Proverbs 16:1-6

 

    Vr2. All the ways of a man [are] clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth

        the spirits

1. The heart is self-deceptive.
   
2. It justifies itself.
   
3. God sees right through it.
   

Vr5. Every one [that is] proud in heart [is] an abomination to the LORD: [though] hand [join] in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

1. Pride is a great evil, a prevalent sin in those who forget / ungrateful.
   
2. So much for Democracy or conspiracy –God alone is lord
   

Vr6 By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD [men] depart from evil.

1. Where does this mercy and truth come from? Jesus Christ
   
2. The fear of the lord is a proper motivation
   
3. How do we depart from evil? Confession and repentance.
   

"The law of God is a hammer that crushes our self-righteous hearts and drives us to repentance" B.A.Worel

        Paul said when the law came I died. Romans 7:9

Oh silly man can you save yourself? Not with anything; not even a silly prayer. All you have left is to throw yourself at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and cry out with all your might as a broken vessel; for forgiveness and a covering.

Matthew 11:12 "and from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."

 

1. We are taught as small children to reject all violence/passion and so as effeminized men we may miss this verse and also miss this blessing.
   

1. Bee-as-tace Har-pad-zo
   

   Fired up by God to seize the prize in an open display of force.
   

   
    

We are here today to talk about Confessional prayer.

Confession is the acknowledgement of a crime fault or something to one's disadvantage; open declaration of guilt, failure, debt, accusation. Webster's 1828

        Romans 10:10 with the mouth confession is made unto salvation

1. Confession is the flame from the fire of faith.
   
2. All confession is prefaced on the fact that we are speaking what is true.
   

Not to be confused with …

Repentance is the relinquishment of any practice from conviction that it has offended God.

    1. 2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

    2. Hebrews 12:17 Esau when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

àThe world's repentance is without God and does not focus on character but for personal want and loss.

Confession and repentance are similar but not the same. Confession does not always include repentance. But repentance always includes confession. We are commanded by God to both confess and repent but it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.

While confession is the work of faith repentance is the work of God.

1. Reset             2. Reveal         3. Results

1. Touchstone –Stone used to test the purity of gold or silver – a buyer could test a product and be assured that it was real.
   
2. Tuning fork- a tempered steel fork available in different notes – a musician can be assured of proper tuning using one.
   
3. Rosetta stone – an ancient stone engraved with a decree, written in three languages. It was the key to unlock Hieroglyphs
   
4. Benchmark- it is not a mark on a bench for measuring wood or rope.
   

       
   

   When I was a boy in the third grade we lived close to Ellensburg WA in a place my Mom called Timbuktu. It was out on the end of the county road bordering the State forest. Our house was situated in a treed area next to a crick that had good trout and crawdads. Out back was first a field and then rolling hills before you got to the forest. The furthermost hill had a tree on it affectionately known as hangman's tree because it looked like someone could easily be hung from it. At the top of the first hill which was large enough that we rarely ventured further; was a very large rock pile of volcanic stones, it could easily be seen from the road and our house below. My brother and I would often play on these hills; having all sorts of grand adventures. What is of note here is that on the ground next to the rock pile was a marker set in concrete. It was a legal state land management marker used for surveying the land. All the property lines below got there perspective and reality from this one point. The same is true for us; we get our reality from the fact that we were vile unrighteous sinners and if we were thrown into hell all heaven would rejoice of the justice. If Jesus Christ hadn't paid that penalty for me than that's where I would go– that's where my children would go and there would be no hope or light in the culture. No matter what happens to us we have not received what we deserved. Instead we get love mercy and sanctification at the hand of the God who sacrificed himself for us. That's the Christian reality!
   

       Confession brings us back to the very basic relationship we have with God. Back to that surveyors stake in the ground, back to the cross!
   

   That Mighty God of thunder & Hell fire has honesty & tenderly covered all our sin as far as the east is from the west He paid it all. This should break us anew when in confession with God.
   

 

Confession Resets our perspective

1. We are sinners –He is God
   
2. We are lost and vulnerable- He is our rock/fortress/protection
   
   1. Psalm31:3-4 61:1-4 5-11 14-6 46-1 9-9 2-12 7-1 11-1 16-1 17-7 18-2
      

      18-30 25-20 28-8 31-1 31-2 31-19 34-22 36-7 37-39 37-40 46-7 46-11
      

      48-3 57-1 59-16 - this concept is used hundreds of times.
      

3. Born as children of Adam and have sinful lying hearts bent on self-service.
   
   1. Gen6:5 "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
      

   Now in Christ as he is the truth we are children of the truth and lovers of truth
   

   1. John 14:16 –the way the truth the life
      
   2. John 17:13"And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth."
      

 

àConfession in truth is a powerful factor in the Spirits work of sanctification, when you are struggling then God is directing you to focus on these.

 

Confession Reveals our heart

    

Psalms 51 Lets look and see if confession is vital. This sin he speaks of is bad very bad

and we being self-justifying must admit that we have never done these things. Maybe the depth of these verses doesn't apply to us. Nonsense these are great verses, some of my favorites. What is the context?

1. David is involved in murder and adultery.
   
2. This is David the
   
   1. High born –prince of the tribe of Judah
      
   2. Warrior and champion of Israel
      
   3. The King of Israel that demands honor
      
   4. A mighty man of God
      
   5. One who suffered for God and committed to building the temple
      

 

1. Vr1 Have mercy on me because of your character
   
   1. Steadfast love
      
   2. Mercy
      
2. Vr1b-2 this is what we need- sin should not cripple us but be a platform for Gods glory, even if that means proclaiming His justice.
   
   1. blot out – legal, debt forgiveness
      
   2. wash thoroughly- remove the guilt
      
   3. cleanse me – make acceptable to God
      
3. Vrs3-5 what is David saying?
   
   1. I see my sin.
      
   2. It is against God.
      
   3. God would be just to destroy me.
      
   4. I have a sin nature
      
      1. Jeremiah 3:24-25
         

   David here is speaking truth –these aren't reasons or excuses but simply what is true. He is confessing and discovering deeper truths about who he is.
   

It is important to note that we don't simply fall into sin; these things don't just happen with no relation to us. No we have coddled the terrible thing in our bosom. If we are struggling with lying, it's because we are a liar – stealing, it's because we are a thief – adultery, it's because we are adulterers. When we confess this to God he will hear us

 

1. Vrs6 "Truth in the inward parts"
   
   1. God's desire for us is truth in the inward parts.
      
      1. Genesis 25:27
         

         Up till now Jacob had been a deceiver and God called him to confession to truth in the inward parts. "What is your name?"
         

         1. Proverbs 20:9-11 don't be inconsistent your actions show who you are.
            

         
          

         1. Proverbs 28:13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh [them] shall have mercy.
            

   
    

   
    

 

Confessions Results

 

1. Vrs7-13 the living God will work in your heart. Its Gods delight to have relationship with His creation.
   
   1. Verse 17 says it all The sacrifice of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
      

 

1. Forgiveness 1John1:9 Confess your sins to God- He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
   

   
    

2. Pardon Psalms 32:5Then I acknowledged my sin to you
   

   and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord"—and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
   

   
    

3. Renewed fellowship Psalms 51:13-19
   

   
    

4. Healing James 5:16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
   

 

"One another-ing" and "brotherly" are sermon topics on their own. This is about the work of unity and selflessness in the lives of Christians.

1. Accountability
   
2. Encouragement
   
3. Unity against a common foe
   
4. Familistic relations
   

Jeremiah3:19-25

19"I myself said,

"'How gladly would I treat you like sons

and give you a desirable land,

the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.'

I thought you would call me 'Father'

and not turn away from following me.

20But like a woman unfaithful to her husband,

so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel,"

declares the Lord.

21A cry is heard on the barren heights,

the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel,

because they have perverted their ways

and have forgotten the Lord their God.

22"Return, faithless people;

I will cure you of backsliding."

"Yes, we will come to you,

for you are the Lord our God.

23Surely the [idolatrous] commotion on the hills

and mountains is a deception;

surely in the Lord our God

is the salvation of Israel.

24From our youth shameful gods have consumed

the fruits of our fathers' labor—

their flocks and herds,

their sons and daughters.

25Let us lie down in our shame,

and let our disgrace cover us.

We have sinned against the Lord our God,

both we and our fathers;

from our youth till this day

we have not obeyed the Lord our God!"

 

God defines reality and declares there is a war. But we are suffering under generations of cultural brainwashing such that our affections are engaged in things that God has not designed for us, clouding our vision of ourselves and others. Pride being a terrible curse that satisfies our flesh binds us to this course of destruction. Confession is a process of humility and revelation that changes us step by step; conforming us to Christ, from glory to glory. 2Corinthians 3:18

 

Luke 12:34 For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.

Psalms 4:6-7 Lift thy countenance upon us. Thou has put gladness in our heart, more than when

corn and wine increase.

Where is your Joy?     

John Piper said "whatever makes you most happy is you're God"

Goodness

A Nation sins and there is hope, the judgment of God comes. He is just, true and slow to anger. If this Nation will humble itself and turn from its wicked ways then perhaps the Lord will show mercy and the nation shall live. In the midst of this pain and suffering while real death and destruction are in front of our very eyes. Instead of Gods people brining the message of hope and repentance with a clear path towards dominion and honor. They instead have embraced a narcissistic message of escapism and covered the truth of God with a lie. This is prophetic hocus pocus and a scapegoated dereliction of the calling from the almighty God on his invincible warriors. They are to be the standard and lead the nations. Because we have despised discipline and would heed not the instruction, the work of dominion has become as a forgotten illusion and nihilism our daily bread. When we misread the truth of Gods covenantal judgment we the very priests of the nation damn our existence and future to a terrible and horrifying end. Do we remember the story of Lott? He hid from the world and lost it all.

A life of compromise and tolerance will lead to a bitter end, But the Spirit of the living God commands you and He says:

Go – Occupy – Dominion

Revelation 12:11"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" The God of the bible demands action on his behalf, overcoming and dominion have the same sense of purpose and order of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

We must be those who "occupying till I come" or else we become the disobedient enemies of

God and he says "bring them here and slay them before me."
Luke 19:27

Immorality – Immaturity – Narcissism

    Our cultural appetite has become unnatural and self-defeating. The social and official structures we have built are to the rewarding of evil and the punishment of good. So much for nation building and cultural establishment but oh yeah all our affections are coming from an apathetic stupor. Being blinded by the titillations of our mind, like so many lemmings running off a cliff we are blinded by ourselves. If we are to save the land of the free and the home of the brave, this precious land that I love. These pits of destruction must be filled in with maturity and personal sacrifice. Having a strong conviction based on eternal truth that comes from the fear of the Lord. We can and we must put down these self-defeating chains that drag us to hell.

    If we by contrast become a moral mature self-denying people there is hope. God is no respecter of persons. He does not sit idlely by as a fickle fool weighing the positions of various sides trying to decide which one will best suite Him. He is the way He is the Truth He is the life. The real question is not "if God is on our side" but are we on His?

-Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord!

-What does God require of you oh man? But to do justice to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.

Please forgive me oh God for my slack hand in the midst of all your blessings; please help us walk in the light while it is called today. We must mount up the battle and not grow weary. If you can't run with men how will you run with horses? If we repent and embrace morality maturity and self-denial our nation will be great again and that's what it means to give me liberty or give me death!