Live Free with Josh Howerton - Bleached with Grace | Ep. 382 | Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

Dirty laundry piles up quickly, and stains set in when you never address them. The same is true with our shame and sin, but your failures are not fatal. There is real freedom with Christ! Today, let God bleach your record clean with His grace. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what is up, everybody? Thanks for joining us on the Daily Drive. I hope your summer's going great.

My name is Bro, and we've been downloading some new music into our hearts. Don't really know the beat. Don't know the melody of these songs, but the lyrics are more than Grammy-worthy. Inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. David writes from the honesty of his heart just pours out the truth about himself, and then he lands on the truth about God. We left off yesterday with him owning his sin of abuse and adultery, murder and cover up. His guilt was absolutely eating him alive, so he finally takes it to God.

And we read some of his prayer from Psalm 51, and in Psalm 32, he starts writing about the freedom he found through that process. He says this, oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight. Now that's a cool concept right there. Some people sometimes say, forgive and forget, that's really not. humanly possible, but you know what? God can pull that off. Not only is the sin forgiven, but it's put out of sight. It also says in scripture, as far as the east is from the west, he has removed our sin from us, or he blots out our sins and remembers them no more. He takes our sin and hurls them in the depths of the ocean. And I always love what Corey Tim Boone said,

and he puts out a no-fishing sign. David goes on in Psalm 32. Yes, what joy for those, whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt. Now, this is the imagery of a criminal record that has been expunged, and the perpetrator was found guilty, but then unbelievably was exonerated. That's God's grace. And not only that, did you catch how the guilt is also history? Because the guilt has served its purpose. And why is all of this true?

Let me read the whole verse. What joy for those whose record the Lord is cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty. No faking it, no cover-up, no hiding, no stuffing. Hasn't it been your experience that secret sin cannot coexist with inner peace? I mean, research has shown over and over the effects of unresolved guilt and shame on the body, on the mind, and the soul. I mean, it's devastating. Dr. David Belgam, in his book, Gilt where religion and psychology meet,

estimates that about 75% of the people in hospitals with physical illness, have sickness rooted in emotional problems. He writes this. Their physical symptoms and breakdowns are for many their involuntary confessions of guilt. It's why they say in AA, you're as sick as your secrets. And David acknowledges that. In verse 3, he says,

when I refuse to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night, your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water, in the summer heat. He said, man, I was physically, emotionally, spiritually miserable in my guilt and shame. Hiding it all was eating me alive. Verse 5. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you, and I stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord, and you forgave me. All my guilt is gone.

Listen to me, our failures don't have to be fatal. They really can be forgiven. There is real freedom in honestly confessing our sins, to ourselves, to God, and to a trusted friend. And the sin we want to conceal the most is the sin we need to reveal the most, because there is no healing in hiding. I like how the message translates Psalm 51. Again, this is David writing after the big scandal. He says, I know how bad I've been. My sins are staring me down.

You're the one I violated, and you've seen it all, seen the full experience. extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you, so whatever you decide about me is fair. I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born. What you're after is truth from the inside out. So maybe like David, you need to take your guilt, your sin, your past, your dirty laundry, and just get honest with God, because what he's after is truth from the inside out. And guess what? He won't be shocked. He already knows. Confession is not for his benefit. It's for ours.

1.9 says, but if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. So why not come clean with the lover of your soul today and let the bleach of his grace remove your stains, restore your soul, and give you back your joy? I'll see you back here tomorrow. Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.combe. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out?