The Struggle of Confessing to God

The Struggle of Confessing to God

Selected Verse

Establish the need: When was the last time you confessed your sins to God?

 

Purpose: Today we shall see three points concerning how Jesus is the one who made it possible we can pray.

• What is Confession?
• Struggles of Confession
• Helps for Confession

 

What is Confession?

Proof

1. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
   1. The Greek verb for “confess” is a compound word of “same” and “say.”
   2. So confession means saying and seeing our sins the way God sees it.
   3. What we are to confess here is “our sins.”
2. We see confession of sins during John the Baptist’s ministry before they were baptized: “And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.” (Mark 1:5)
3. We also see it done in the early church: “Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.” (Acts 19:18)
   1. Here this is in the church of Ephesus.
   2. Believers here were confessing their involvement with occult practices.
   3. Here they confess and that means “disclosing their practices”
   4. One thing we see here is that confession occurs even after salvation and as believers!

Practice

1. As a result of this teaching, do you know know something more accurate about what is confession?
2. Knowing what is confession, ask yourself is this something you think about praying often?

 

Struggles of Confession

Proof

1. Pride:
   1. Scripture tells us we shouldn’t speak with pride: “Do not lift up your horn on high, Do not speak with insolent pride.’”” (Psalm 75:5)
   2. Of course if we are too busy with being prideful with our lips we don’t have time to confess our sins.
2. We love our sins: “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)
3. We don’t want to give up our sins
   1. This is an extension of the previous point.
   2. If we love our sins we don’t want to give it up let alone properly confess it to God.
4. We don’t know God’s law enough
   1. Ignorance of God’s requirement and prohibition would mean we don’t know when we sin.
   2. Thus we don’t confess
5. We have blind spots: “Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.” (Psalm 19:12)
   1. David here is speaking.
   2. Notice here David acknowledge that sometimes we cannot discern our own error.
6. We think God owes us: ““I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You” (Job 42:5)
   1. This is after God confronted Job with the assumption that God owes Him.
   2. But before that remember Job thinks God owes him things besides suffering.

Practice: Which one of these roadblocks do you struggle with the most?

 

Helps for Confession

1. Read God’s Word regularly: “Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.” (Psalm 19:11)
   1. Recall earlier sometimes we have blind spot in our life with sin mentioned in Psalm 19:12.
   2. Here the verse before it we see the importance of God’s Word to warn us of it.
2. Also we also see God’s Word also give us positive motivation because obedience to God’s Word according to David brings about a “great reward”
3. Meditate on the blessed result of confession: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
   1. Result 1 is sins forgiven: “to forgive us our sins”
   2. Result 2 is cleanse from unrighteousness: “and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnes”
4. Listen to your critic to find what you might need to confess
   1. Your worst of critic might not be totally right, but they might notice a grain of truth of a fault you have.
   2. Listening to your critic is helpful to consider what are possible sins you need to confess to God and others.
5. Confess to others: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” (James 5:16)
   1. The confession here is to one another.
   2. Sometimes it is hard to confess one’s sin and there is a need for reassurance that God forgives; so confess to others is a mean that God can have to comfort you of God’s promises that confession to God for your sins will result in forgiveness.
6. Of course confession result in our forgiveness because of Christ!