“Cleaning Up The Mess”
Proverbs 28:13
Sermon Series: “Unstuck”
Main Idea: Hiding our sins will ruin our lives while true confession brings God’s mercy.
1. It does not work to try to hide our sins (“he who covers his sins will not prosper”). Pastor DeWayne Howard says, “If you spent as much time being honest about what’s not right in your life as you do covering it up, you’d have a lot more energy for what is right in your life. Be honest with God and yourself.” Why is this true?
A. It is impossible to hide anything from the God who sees and knows everything (Proverbs 5:21). When we try to run from God, we always run into Him.
B. We carry guilt, shame, and fear (Genesis 3).
C. There are built-in consequences to our sins (Proverbs 5:22, the Law of the Harvest).
D. God’s disciplines His children (Hebrews 12:5-11).
E. It will ultimately lead to destruction (Proverbs 5:23).
God has designed life where it will only work when we live it His way. The implication of the phrase, “he who covers his sins will not prosper,” is that the person who does this will be a failure instead of a success. There is pleasure in sin for a season (Hebrews 11:25), but the end result is always death (Ezekiel 18:4).
2. Here is how we go about confessing our sins.
A. Be open and honest. We are to do the opposite of
covering our sins, even though that is our natural reaction. This requires us to humble ourselves. Rick Warren says, “We are only as sick as our secrets.” This always includes confessing to the Lord because He is ultimately the One who forgives us, but it sometimes includes other people, such as when:
-We wrong someone else.
-Our sin is ongoing and/or public.
-We need prayer and help from others to overcome it (James 5:16).
B. Be in agreement with God. This is the basic meaning of the word. It means that we view sin in the way the Lord does.
C. Be specific. Note that the text says, “sins,” instead of, “sin.” This is not talking about a general confession but a particular confession of a specific sin.
D. Be repentant (Hebrews 12:16-17). Our text says, “Whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” We are not to just say, “I’m sorry,” but we are to stop what we are doing. Confession is not a license to keep sinning.
3. The result of true confession is that we receive God’s mercy.
Remember that true confession includes repentance, but this is the ultimate point of the verse. God is merciful and want to forgive us, but we must confess our sins in order to experience His forgiveness. The basis for Him forgiving us is the blood that Jesus shed on the cross in order to atone for our sins. We can confess our sins and receive forgiveness through God’s mercy and grace based on what Jesus did for us (1 John 1:5-2:2).
Conclusion: Are you truly a Christian? Have you repented of sin and trusted Jesus alone? If you are a Christian, is there sin that you need to confess and repent of so you can receive God’s mercy instead of His discipline?
