Having honored God with vocal praise and silent love, the door for truly effective praying is opened. At this point it is necessary that we deal with personal sin. If an awareness of our past failures causes us to feel unworthy and results in our not praying, then the enemy has won the victory in our lives. We need to believe the promises of God in these matters. God has given us the way to deal with our sin. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. " cf 1Jn. 1:9 We must confess our sin to God. This is the third part of our 'Sweet Hour of Prayer'.
I. Definition:
A. To confess means to agree with God concerning sin.
B. It also means to admit our guilt before Him. (He already knows we are guilty)
C. This is where our focus shifts to honestly look at our lives and see our shortcomings and failures.
D. Our prayer life will never rise above our personal life in Jesus Christ. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:" cf Ps. 66:18
II. It Opens the Way for Spiritual Surgery.
A. There can be no healing within until there is confession without.
B. A boil filled with infection must be lanced to release the poison within before the healing can come about.
C. "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Ps. 139:23-24
D. Before we pray for God to change our circumstances we should pray for Him to change our character.
III. The Necessity of Confession.
A. It is not optional for God's people.
B. Is. 59:2, "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
C. It is the first step toward repentance.
D. Before we will ever willingly turn from sin, we must first admit that what we are doing is sin.
E. Note the example of Pharaoh.
1. Ex 8:8, "Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the LORD, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the LORD."
2. There is no confession of sin here.
3. Without confession our prayers are incomplete and faulty!
IV. The "How-to" of Confession. (Ps. 51)
A. Cry out for Divine holiness.
1. Realize that cleansing and forgiveness must come from God.
2."Create in me a clean heart, O God;" v10a
3. Ask God to show us what needs cleansed in our lives...we cannot do it ourselves.
B. Ask God for a new attitude.
1. "...and renew a right spirit within me." v10b
2. A right relationship with God (a clean heart) necessitates a right relationship with others (a right spirit).
3. Illustration of Leonardo da Vinci.
a. Painting the "Last Supper".
b. Used the face of his most hated enemy for Judas.
c. He couldn't get the face of Jesus correct...after many attempts he erased his enemy's face from Judas and then he could paint the portrait of Christ.
C. Ask for God's guidance.
1. "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me." v11
2. We must recognize and confess our need for God's presence in our daily lives.
3. God will not take His Holy Spirit from us, but we need to realize that we cannot accomplish anything apart from the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
At different times in history it became necessary for God's temple to be cleansed. One such instance is described in 2Chr 29:16.
"And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron."
Today the dwelling place of God is not a temple made with brick and mortar, but it is the inner soul of the believer. Note: 1Co 6:19, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"
Confession is necessary to private prayer because it initiates the process of cleansing our spiritual temple. Allow time for praise, waiting, and confession.