This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back for our look at Psalm 38 today. This is day three
of our look through Psalm 36 to 40. Few things rob your joy, your confidence,
and your passion faster than guilt.

You might even rationalize it consciously, but it festers in your subconscious,
and it just takes all the energy out of your life. The truth is you can't feel
enthusiasm and guilt at the same time. Verse four of this Psalm says, "My guilt
has overwhelmed me "like a burden too heavy to bear.

" David is honest to God about his sin in this Psalm and about the grief and the
guilt that come from this sin. And as we approach this Psalm, there's a prayer
in my heart as I approach this Psalm and in its honest look at sin. So I invite
you to join me in this prayer and just say, Lord, I know I'm forgiven because of
the cross, but I pray that I would also be unafraid to be honest about the
terrible consequences of my sin, honest in a way that refreshes my trust in you
instead of me trusting in myself.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Psalm 38 begins by telling us the truth about
sin, and then it ends by telling us how to pray about our sin. First, it tells
us the truth about sin.

Sin is the destroyer. What is it, destroy? Let's just go through the list.

Sin destroys, first, my relationship with God, verses one and two. O Lord, do
not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath, for your arrows have
pierced me and your hand has come down upon me. You feel this sense of
separation between you and God.

Now, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're already forgiven for all the
sin in your life. You're going to be with God for all of eternity, but that doesn't
mean you don't feel that sense of separation when you sin. Even though that sin
is forgiven because of the cross, you still have to deal with the reality of
your relationship with God.

You have to come back to a place of refreshing that forgiveness you have because
of the cross. Sin destroys my relationship with God. Sin destroys, he says, my
physical health.

Verse three, because of your wrath, there is no health in my body. My bones have
no soundness because of my sin. Verse four, my guilt has overwhelmed me like a
burden too heavy to bear.

My wounds fester in verse five and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.
Verses six to eight, I am bowed down and brought low all day long. I go about
mourning.

My back is filled with searing pain. There's no health in my body. I'm feeble
and utterly crushed.

I groan in anguish of heart. Pretty honest about the physical effects of sin
here. All sin, all sickness is the result of sin in our lives.

Let me say it that way, but let me say it carefully because sometimes the
sickness is the result of a specific sin in your life, a drug or an alcohol
abuse that has brought sickness into your life. Or it might be because we live
in a fallen world. It's not because you committed some specific sin.

It's just because we're all sinners. Because Adam and Eve sinned and everyone
has since then. And in this fallen world, we have to deal with sickness.

So sin destroys our health. Sin also destroys our emotions. In verse nine, all
my longings lie open before you, oh Lord, my sighing is not hidden from you.

My heart pounds. My strength fails me. Even the light has gone from my eyes.

The light has gone. Just not caring anymore, that's one of the most terrible
results of sin. Sin also destroys my relationships with others.

Verses 11 and 12, my friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds. My
neighbors stay far away from me. Those who seek my life set their traps.

Those who would harm me talk of my ruin. All day long, they plot my deception.
That's the destruction of sin.

I like what Warren Wiersbie sees in the outline of Psalm 38. He says in Psalm
38, we can do one of three things. One, we can focus on ourselves and experience
sin's painfulness.

That's verses one to eight. Or two, we can focus on others and experience sin's
loneliness, verses nine to 14. Or in verses 15 to 22, number three, we can focus
on God and experience sin's forgiveness.

And that's what I want to do the next few minutes. Being honest about the
destruction of our sin, we look for God's solution, not our solution. We look
for God's strength.

We don't look to others for strength or answers. And you find in verses 15, 18,
21, and 22, the five prayers that you and I need to pray when we're honest to
God about our sin. Verse 15, I wait for you, O Lord.

You will answer, O Lord, my God. That's the prayer of reflection, of just
sitting and waiting on God and saying, God, is there anything between me and
you? If there is, I'm open.

I'm willing to hear it. I want to sit here unafraid and I want to listen to you,
God. And you might be praying this with me right now, even as I'm saying this.

Open to hear what God has to say to you. Some sin that is in your life that
you've just come to accept and you don't talk to him about anymore, or some sin
that maybe you're not even aware of. God, this prayer of reflection, I'm open to
hear.

And then as you hear, in verse 18, verse 18 says, I confess my iniquity. I am
troubled by my sin. So in this one verse, you get the prayer of confession and
the prayer of contrition.

First, the prayer of confession. As you sit in reflection, as God reveals things
to you, this prayer of confession, God, I confess it to you. I'm not going to hide
from it.

It is my sin. I'm open with you about it. But also the prayer of contrition.

I am troubled by my sin. Of course, that sin is forgiven by the cross of Jesus
Christ. But I'm troubled by that.

I picture the cross of Christ and what he had to go through so that I could be
forgiven. And that troubles my heart. And I'm troubled by the ways that my sin
has hurt me and hurt others, the ways that my sin has grieved you, God.

I confess my iniquity. I am troubled by my sin. The prayer of confession and
contrition.

Then in verse 21, there's a fourth prayer that we pray. Oh Lord, do not forsake
me. Be not far from me, oh my God.

This is the prayer of invitation. This is the prayer of inviting God in. Now as
a follower of Jesus Christ, if you've committed your life to Christ, the Holy
Spirit is in your life.

So you're inviting in what's already there. You're just recognizing the presence
of the Holy Spirit in your life. But anytime we get caught up in sin and even
recognize our sin, it can make us feel lonely in our relationship with God,
separated from God.

So as part of this prayer of recognizing your sin, you not only need to confess
your sin and recognize that God is forgiven, you need to invite this moment of
fellowship with God. God, I recognize that I can still boldly come to your
throne of grace. That you have not cut off access for me to be with you and for
you to speak with me.

And I recognize that because of what Jesus did on the cross, you and I, we are
living in close relationship with each other. Part of you praying about your sin
is recognizing through this prayer of invitation that God will not be far from
you. God will not forsake you.

And then the fifth prayer is in verse 22. And this is the prayer of salvation.
Come quickly to help me, oh Lord, my Savior.

God is your Savior. Jesus is your Savior. He saves us from our sin.

So in the prayer of salvation, you recognize that in this world, although we
might have to face some of the consequences for our sin, God still saves us from
many of those consequences. Thank you, God. Thank you that that relationship
continued even though I hurt that person.

Thank you, God, that you allow me to continue to serve you even though I
committed that sin. But we also recognize in this prayer of salvation, the
eternity of joy that we're going to share with God, where there is no more pain, no
more sorrow, and no more sin that we're looking forward to that day. He is our
Savior.

He's one day going to take us out of our sin to this place of perfection. And part
of praying about your sin is recognizing that before the Lord. Now, I've talked
this through the last few moments, and I think as I was talking, it may have
been a little hard to pray it through.

So I'd like to take some time, and as we close our look at this psalm, to just
allow you the time to go briefly through those five prayers again in your heart
and mind. So as we pray, first the prayer of reflection. Just say, God, I'm
open.

What is it that's between me and you? I'm willing to listen. And as you hear him
speak to you, pray the prayer of confession, I confess my iniquity.

And the prayer of contrition, I am troubled by my sin. And in that place of
confession and contrition, pray the prayer of invitation, God, I invite you in.
You are already here.

I know you will not forsake me. You will never, never fail or forsake me. Thank
you for your promise of forgiveness.

And pray the prayer of salvation. Thank you for your promise of deliverance.
Deliverance from my sin in this world in part, but also deliverance for eternity
and whole.

I look forward to that day of complete deliverance. I look forward to it in the
name of the one who paid the price so that I could be forgiven. I look forward
to it in Jesus' name, amen.

(gentle music) - Tomorrow we're going to look together at Psalm 39. We're going to
look at when you do what's right and things get worse, how do you talk to God in
those moments of life?