Lord, Teach Us to Pray III, Give Us This Day, Forgive Us Our Sins
August 24, 1986
52:01
SUMMARY
This lesson covers the prayer categories of "Give us this day our daily bread" and "Forgive us our debts". Dr. Passavant teaches that receiving God’s provision requires specific asking and placing Jesus as Lord over all finances and priorities. He strongly warns that unforgiveness acts as a prison, delivering believers to spiritual "tormentors," and urges the congregation to choose a lifestyle of preemptive forgiveness to maintain their own liberty.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
This is North Way Tape number 534. This message was delivered by Pastor Jay Passavant on Sunday, August 24, 1986. Turn to Matthew chapter 6, please, and that will be, as it has been, the basis of our teaching time tonight. Last two weeks and Wednesday nights, we have begun this teaching on how to pray for an hour. I really am gratified by the response of those of you who are saying that the practical nature of this material is such that you believe you can do it. You know, that's one of the most important things, for you to believe that you can pray, because we've all had so many failures that the likelihood is that we give up and we say we're not going to be able to do this. And this is so important, beloved, because it's not just the fact that everywhere I go people are talking about prayer, because, you see, talking about prayer, that's been for ages. It's doing it that's the big thing. It's not really important simply because we know we should pray, and how many of you just would love to be alleviated the guilt of not praying for once, right? Get that condemnation off you, well, you may not be praying, but now we're going to move past that point of saying, well, I wish I could. But the reason why I feel this is the most important thing that I can give you is this. The conferences come and go. Jimmy Swaggart is folding up his tent and going back to Baton Rouge. The Happy Hunters won't be here again for a couple of years. The Charismatic Conference won't be back again until next May, or all these great things where you go and get charged up. Come and they go, and they come and they go, but Jesus always remains. And if you know how to touch Him, you can get your revelation straight from God. Now this may not be any great unfolding to you, but I want you to know something. It will change your life when you know that you're hearing from God for your everyday living. It will do something inside of you that's more exciting than going and seeing Pat Robertson or Jimmy Swaggart or somebody like that. I'm not against, I love those men, that's fine, they're great. Go if you can. But beloved, the exciting thing about the Christian life is every day getting before God and saying, Lord, I'm here today. I'm your instrument today. I'm presenting myself to you today. Speak to me today. And if this church is doing anything for the kingdom of God, it's because we're seeking to do that. And for the last six years, we've been in prayer nearly every morning, seeking the Lord, seeking to hear His voice. And God wants that for you. You don't have to be some, you know, special anointed one. God wants you to hear. Didn't Jesus say something like, my sheep hear my voice? How many of you ever told someone you hear a voice? I hear the Lord. They sometimes think it's really weird. In fact, I've heard someone on the radio not too long ago saying, I don't believe God speaks today. Someone that you all listen to, by the way, most of you. I'm not going to name it, but you need to be real discerning about what you tune in on the radio there. Make sure it's, you drink it from the same well, beloved. Just going to make for confusion otherwise. Now, I have told you that praying for an hour may be overwhelming for some of you. You say, I don't have an hour. Well, let's be honest. Turn to someone and say, I have an hour. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Doris, it might be five for you. Okay. Okay. And it might be six for Mark. I don't know. We all have an hour if we want to take that out. But for those of you who aren't really at that point of discipline yet, I want to encourage you with something. You can learn to do what I'm sharing with you and break it up some in the day if you need to and still find it effectual. And so I want you to liken this to a little running track. If we'll just cover the bottom of that. So all we're seeing there is a track for a second. Okay. Thanks, Pat. All right. Liken this to like a football running track. All right. Run a football field. Okay. And picture yourself starting there at point number one in this track in your communion time, in your prayer with God. And your goal is to spend that hour. That track represents an hour of time in communion with God. And remember, we're not talking about formulas for the sake of trying to earn. We're talking about a discipline that will help you to be in fellowship with God. And the first thing that we'll do, according to the word of Jesus here in Matthew chapter six, is we'll come to our Father in heaven and we'll say, Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed be thy name. Now, I'm not going to take the time tonight to go over all that teaching that was taped number one in this series or the lesson of two Wednesday nights ago. But I want you to just see those names. I think we only have one copy. Do you have that copy of the names, the compound names of God? Go ahead and flash that up there, would you? We come to the Lord and we say these things. I'll just touch this. How many of you have not been here for these Wednesday nights? I mean, is this worth going over? Put them up there. Okay. God bless you. You didn't think I was going to say that, did you? God bless you. I want you to get this. Okay. Let me touch this for you. These names are names that we find in the Old Testament that represent God. Now listen, God wants to be known by his names. Gene knows me as fellow elder, Alan knows me as pastor, Carol knows me as husband, I know Alan as a friend as well. Different names represent different parts of us, understand? My children know me as daddy. And God wants to be known by these same different facets. His names reveal who he is. And these eight names represent his character and also, we said a couple Wednesday nights ago, they represent five covenant blessings. Now these are on your outline. The first two names, Jehovah Sidkenu and Jehovah Makedesh represent the fact that God is our deliverer, the one who forgives our sins. And what I do in that first hour of prayer, remember now, I go through and I say, Father, because of the blood of Jesus, I come to you, Jehovah Sidkenu, my righteousness. Now I've explained that. And by the way, we have a green sheet over there or, yeah, thanks Vicki. Well, there's one that has all the names listed on it, is that it? Yeah. There's one with another green sheet that has all the names and I kind of expounded this a little bit. Now, why is that so important? Because when you get before the Lord and you say, I'm hallowing your name, Jehovah Sidkenu, my righteousness, God starts teaching you about that, do you know that? And you begin to just get loosened in that forgiveness. And over the years, God has, I've been praying this for about 18 months now, the Lord's teaching me more and more and more about what it means for him to be my holiness, Jehovah Makedesh. And then I go on and I praise him that he's Jehovah Shalom, my peace. And I go on and praise him Jehovah Shammah, my, the God who's present with me. And right down the list, Jehovah Rophe, my healer, Jehovah Jireh, my provider. I always get stuck in that one for a while. Do you? I mean, that's the one I just, Lord, I go off in that for a while. Jehovah Nissi, my victory, my banner, that means, what that's talking about in the scriptures is that God has raised a standard over you. You are his. That's what that's talking about. Doesn't it do something for you when you can walk into that office and you've got this banner over you? You know, I belong to God. And the day comes, when the day comes that you see yourself as God's own possession, it changes you. Jehovah Nissi, and finally, Jehovah Rohi, my shepherd. Now someone said, well, are those the only names? And you know, I did a little digging and here's seven or eight more for those of you who think you had them all down. Those of you who've been bored the last couple of minutes, here you go. He's Jehovah Sabaoth, which is Lord of hosts. He's Jehovah Elyon, which is the Lord Most High. I'm not going to, that's right. I'm just going to let you fumble. Jehovah Hosanu, our maker. He's Jehovah Gibor, the mighty one. He's Jehovah Safat, our judge. Pass on that. Now listen, how many of you are glad there is a judge in the earth? Otherwise, what about everything that you see going on around you, right? I worship God for the fact that there's a day that justice is part of God's character. That's what that means. And finally, Jehovah Elohim, this is a beautiful one, our redeemer creator. Wonderful to hallow the names of God, to praise his glorious name. Then I go on and I praise the Lord. Now I'm reducing down an hour's teaching into five minutes. Then I go on and I praise him that he's in Jesus. You see, he's all of that to me. And I never fail to praise the name of Jesus. And I sing all the Jesus name choruses I can think of. By the way, it's fun to sing those names. I've never heard a chorus of Jehovah Sid Canoe yet, but I'm going to believe Susie's going to get one of those. You have one, Grant? I have one. You're not. Okay, we have Jehovah Jireh, right? You know that one. But anyway, it's fun to just... Now, what do I mean? What I'm saying is that this warms me to God. You see, this draws me to God. Then I'm prepared to begin my petitioning. And that's when I pray, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. And I move into that second part of the track. And that's where I get my priorities prayed into order. Oh, Lord. How many need your priorities just to be right in order? It's tough. It is really tough to bless everybody and still feel like you're a living human being, right? But I pray, Lord, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And I am refreshed many times in my spirit to know that God is in heaven. We read today, I don't know if you picked it up as we read this morning, you know, that in Acts chapter 4 where they were praying, they said, And Lord, the things that Herod and all these guys have done, you allowed them to do according to your sovereign will. Do you remember reading that? That was so beautiful to me. You know, nothing's happening right now in Red China that God's not aware of. Nothing's happening in your marriage relationship that God has just lost track of. You know what I'm saying? He's in control. And so I say, Lord, set my will in accord with your will. See, the kingdom is the presence of God and the will of God, thy will be done, is His power. The presence and the power. That's what I'm praying. And I pray in four areas. I told you about this last one. I pray for myself because I need it. Good, no amens. Secondly, I pray for my wife and my family and I ask God to bring His kingdom into their lives. And they need it. And then I pray for the church. My third priority. Now, remember, what I'm establishing here are my priorities before God. Understand, this isn't just some prayer. I'm also getting my life in order because you know what happens to me after this? I believe God then to consciously lead me in decisions according to those priorities so that I won't say yes to an invitation to go out when I need to be at home. Do you see what I'm saying? I pray my priorities. Number three, I pray for the church. And that's where I taught you about praying for leadership. We pray that the will of God will be done in faithfulness in the people. We pray for the harvest of God and we're going to be doing that this week. How many know there's a harvest coming in, church? Oh, there's a harvest. God is going to... It's coming. And then finally, I pray for the nation and the world. And I pray for our missionaries. That's when I pray for the people that are around the world in different mission fields and so on. I pray for the nation, our president, the leadership. I try to remember our state officials. I don't have a listing of all those currently. But anyhow, then I've done two steps in that track. And when I'm listening to the Holy Spirit and when he's prompting me along the way, I have usually gone 35 to 45 minutes in prayer in those two things. There's no real problem. Then I go on to the next thing, which is for tonight, give us this day our daily bread. Now, I'm going to have to do something here because I can see it's not going to work to get through this here. Okay. Give us this day our daily bread. Now, beloved, when we get to this part, this should be the part of the prayer that for us really starts to get us confirmed in the goodness of God. But there are many of us who have not really ever come to understand God's will in terms of providing. And tonight, obviously, in the next few minutes, 10 or 15 minutes, I can't begin to give a whole teaching on stewardship and all the rest of it. But I want to say to you today, as we come to this point in the prayer circle, as we're racing around that track in our minds, just communing with God, here's what I want you to hear. In order to see God provide for you, there are several things that need to be right in your life. In other words, God isn't some magic Santa Claus. When you say, God, you know, I need $5,000 by the end of the month, he's not just up there writing checks, right? There are things in your life that have to be in order to receive from God. And so I want to give those to you, and others, there's four things that you need to do to practice the will of God in your life in order to receive his provision in your financial area. If you're going to say, Lord, give me this day my daily bread, and how many know it takes more bread now than it did last year? It's expensive to live. It's expensive to maintain stuff. Stuff is always getting in the way. Well, anyhow, I could just go off on that for a while. Now, here are the four things that you need to be sure are happening in your life in order to receive from God. The first one is you've got to know. Here's why. You can't ask in faith unless these things are true in your life. That's what I'm telling you. If I'm going to say, Lord, today, give me this day my daily bread, I've got to know these four things are true. Number one, that I'm in fellowship with Jesus. He's my Lord. I have sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Beloved, if I have not done that, I will have no boldness before God. I won't be able to come and say, how do you know if you're hiding something from God? You're not real prone to go in on the other side and say, but by the way, I sure would like to get this from you. You warm over there, brothers? You want to turn that air on? You've got to be right. Jesus has to be Lord. You've got to be in the place where you're receiving that assurance from Jesus himself. If you're not, you can't have faith. Then I go on and say, and I say, Lord, if there's something that's keeping that lordship, then I will go past that point. I'll let the Lord show me that. Then I go on. The second thing, you have to be in fellowship where God wants you to be. You have to be in a place. Boy. I personally believe that the context of God's abundance is the family of God. Let me say that again. I believe that the context of God's abundance is the family of God. God gives abundance so that you can pour out to the church and the purposes of the kingdom. That's why you're blessed. How many of you have had a more prosperous 1986 than 1985? Look at that. Glory to God. We thank you for that. Why is that? So you can just be more fat? So you can swim in the gravy a little bit more in 1986? No. So you can pour out. And it's so important, beloved, that you know you're in the place where God wants you to be. We are becoming more and more convinced as elders in the church that unless you're committed to a local church, you're going to eventually just move out of the will of God in your life. You're going to fall. The enemy is going to pick you off. And so the abundance comes for that reason. And look down there just a few verses, would you? Verse 21 of Matthew 6. This is Jesus, by the way, in case you're wondering about the authority. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I think it's interesting of the order of that, don't you? We'd like to think where our heart is, there our treasure will be. What did Jesus say? Where your treasure is going, that's where your heart's going. One of the reasons why it's wisdom to you to give, one of the many reasons, to give to the purposes of God in the local church is because your heart begins to be drawn into it. I had an interesting conversation with someone who was having financial struggles, and they'd been around here quite some time, and I asked them about their giving. They hung their head down and said, Well, I give. In fact, I might even come close to tithing, they said, but I don't give very much to Norfolk. I mean, I send a lot down to some ministry near the beach, and I send a lot down to some ministry in the mountains, and I send a lot of money down to feeding children that are hungry. Very interesting to me that the last thing that they were coming to terms with was where their real storehouse was, where their heart was being. And you see, they had all kinds of struggles fitting in. That was the point. They came to me not to talk about giving. They came to talk about relational struggles in the church. But there's a link there, you know that? There's a link between your treasure and your heart. And if you're having a hard time fitting in, that may be one of the reasons. Take that step of faith and put your treasure in there, and you know what's going to happen? Your heart will be there also. Praise the Lord. Did somebody say that's okay? I see this being the great divide, if you will, in many Christians' lives. There's two great extremes that Christians get into in this. Number one, they get into the extreme of working until they drop. There are some believers who work six days a week, and if they possibly can, on Sunday they'll sneak something in at home, put it in their briefcase and bring it home. And they just mount up and they work and they work and they work and they work. And you know why they're doing that? Because they feel as though it's a matter of proving their value, proving that they can do it, they can be a good provider. And I have to say to you that there is so much of that in the world today. And beloved, it's killing families. It's killing families because parents are off too jobbing it, you know? Trying to keep up with the one next door, the one down the street, or the friend at work, whatever it is. I just feel like if you're into that kind of a scene, if you're working six days a week, I think the Bible's pretty clear as to what we're to do. We need a day of rest totally, and we need time with the people of God, and that needs to be worked in our schedule. But the other extreme is there are some Christians, some believers, who love to play. By the way, those are also the ones that love to work because they've got to pay for what they're playing with. But there are some for whom... Now listen, I don't say this with any kind of... I've worked through this now. It's not a big problem with me. But there are some Christians who think the weekend is theirs, and they don't even ask God about whether or not they should just buzz off for this weekend and buzz off that weekend and go every place they can. You know what the net result is? In many churches, it stifles a lot of growth in church because you can't depend on anybody. Brother So-and-so's not here to teach today because, well, you know, we've only got 16 weeks left in the boating season or whatever it might be or the fishing season or the hunting season. You see, we need to ask God what our responsibilities are and then function in accordance with that. And I just want to say to you, it's so important to balance those things out. Does God want us to have fun? I think... Listen, how many of you are fathers? No, keep them up there. How many fathers gave your kids some toys? Don't put your hand down. What kind of father would you be if you didn't give your kids toys? If you didn't give them something to play with? No, I'll move it out of the way. God wants us to enjoy these things, but, beloved, let's not let Him capture us because where our treasure is, that's where our heart is. Are you with me in that? I trust you understand my spirit is to have you enjoy all that God has for you, but it's got to be God's way. It can't be our own way. All right, and finally, number four in this thing of things that need to be in order, you need to be obedient in our giving. I just want to... I am not going to go off into this because we don't want to take the time, but I want to say this. We are growing so much in our giving, I believe, in the spirit of our giving in the church. I'm really excited about it. I think there's something happening, and I feel more and more that God just sort of... people are looking for ways to be generous rather than feeling like it has to be extracted. How many remembered today that I forgot the offering? Did anyone miss that today? No. Don't say no. What do you mean? I forgot the... Scott remembered that I forgot, but I walked out and I said, Lord, I forgot the offering, and I felt like the impression in my heart was, I'll take care of it. So we'll find out, won't we, Andy? That's right. Okay. I just believe there's something happening. Again, it's in the spirit that God's loosening, and people aren't following every check. They're trusting that God's in this place. I had a brother come up today from Ohio. He'd been visiting off and on for a few weeks. He comes all the way from Finley, Ohio to visit family, and now he said, this is a long way to go, but I've got to go to a place where the presence of God is. Well, when the presence of the Lord is in a place, God's going to take care of the finances. He's going to do it. And you know how He's going to do it? He's going to do it through you. He's going to bless you. And when I saw those hands go up, put them up again. How many of you have been prospering in 86, more than 85? That's the fruit of what we're teaching. Hallelujah. That's exciting to me. I'll tell you what. Put your hand up, Scott. You're going to prosper more and more. All right. So God's teaching us how to give. Now, very quickly, when I pray this, then, beloved, there's just one more thing I want to share on this, and I'm just going to go on for tonight. You need to believe that God's going to bless you. Do you know that? You need to believe it. And there are many of us who are afraid to believe that or who think that somehow God would prefer for you to be poverty-stricken. I discovered not too long ago, actually, just a few years ago, that God was not blessed by all the concern I had about paying bills. And He also was not blessed by the fact that I dealt with it many times by ignoring it. That's right. And Carol was not blessed by that either. And so I've come to the point of boldly believing God wants to take care of me. Do you want to take care of your children? You bet. And I believe God wants to take care of me, and I've set myself to receive from His hand. Number three on there. I'll just go through them. Go ahead. Here it is. Now, church, I confess to you. Here's my time of confession. I have missed this point in my prayer life for a long, long time. Write it down. You must be specific with God. You must be specific. Say, Father, this is my need. Now, sometimes God just steps in and provides for you, just like we do with our kids. Not too long ago, I remember, I think it was Jonathan was trying to put his tennis shoes on. He was working at it for a while, and I said, what are you doing there? Just put your shoes on. He said, well, I noticed that he was jamming his feet down in this thing. You know how little kids do, and they get mad at the shoe and stuff, and they're pulling on it. Well, I realized that the shoe was that long and his foot was that long. I said, well, maybe it's time for a new pair of shoes. So I saw that, and I didn't require him to do any pushups or anything. I just said, well, go get some shoes. Well, God does that for us. He sees some things that we need. But, beloved, there are many things, many things that we need to come to the Lord and say, Lord, God, this is where I'm at. I may have even messed up, but you're going to take care of me. Let me tell you something. I had come to a point in the springtime. This was about March or April. When I had just slipped behind, we had gotten some furniture for the boys and stuff like that, and a couple of these things sort of slipped in the side. Do you ever hear that happen? They just, where did that come from? $700, where did that come from? Well, so I had a couple of bills, and I said, Lord, and I realized they weren't lavish things. They were things that were necessary. And I needed $1,000. That's what it boiled down to. I needed $1,000. Now, Alan's here. Kent, you were in this time when we were praying for this. And so I said, Lord, this is it. I need $1,000 because I owe these creditors, and I don't want to have that on my back. And I prayed for, what, six or eight weeks maybe? What do you think happened inside of me for six or eight weeks? But I'll tell you what I started doing. I started walking out to the mailbox, not looking for bills. I pushed those aside. Where's that? Where's that $1,000? And I'm saying, Lord, you told me to tell you exactly what I need. I'm still looking for that. No, I'm not. No. On the 15th of March, someone gave me a check for $1,000. And I was so excited. You know what? I have to be honest with you. I almost didn't want to receive it because it just blew me away. This was a loved one. This was a loved one that gave me a check. I wasn't telling them what I needed. But God knew, and my Heavenly Father provided for me. And I was excited. I believed that God heard. Now, I want you to know, we all fall short on pinpointing our needs. Let's not do that. When I pray now, I'm saying, Lord, man, this is where I'm at. And the last thing on there is to persevere, isn't it? You've got to hold on. Praise the Lord. Now, if you'll do those things when you pray, and I'm going to cut through this now and just conclude that, God will begin to show you his faithfulness. I want you to remember, when we first did this teaching, this is when I challenged us as a church to believe God. I started to pray for $10,000. Our offering was $5,000 to $6,000 a week, early 1985. And the church, you know, we just got pushed into St. Teresa's, and it was a really interesting time. We had a lot of needs at that point. We took for granted here, we didn't have there, and all that stuff. And the Lord put this teaching in my spirit, and I began to pray for $10,000 a week in the offering. That's a lot of money. When you're getting five or six or seven at the most, seven was a big week. And you know, it was about six or eight weeks after that that things just started to break loose. That's when the building came. That's when people just started to give, and God just moved us right up through $10,000. And I've been praying, and we've been praying now for almost a year for $20,000, for the Lord to provide every week $20,000, because he put it in my heart, because that's what we need. And I said, Father, we need $20,000. If we're going to be sending people out, if we're going to be getting a ministry school underway, if we're going to be finishing, we owe money in this building. A lot of bills coming in for this renovation. I'm saying, we need $20,000. Now, that's been a tough one. That one didn't come in six or eight weeks. That's been about nine or ten months, but it's coming. The Lord's already showed me it's coming. He's already showed me what's next. It's coming, by the grace of God. We need to ask the Lord to give us this day our daily bread. Now, we go on to the fourth thing, and I'm going to just stand up for a second, because I want you to grab this. I'm only going to touch this for about 15 minutes, and then we'll be on. Let's sing it together. Jehovah-Jireh. Jehovah-Jireh, my provider, his grace is sufficient for me, for me, for me. Jehovah-Jireh, my provider, his grace is sufficient for me. My God shall supply all my need. According to his riches in glory, he gives his angels charge over me. Jehovah-Jireh cares for me, for me, for me. Jehovah-Jireh cares for me. Amen. Boy, I believe it. Glory to God. All right, you may be seated. The fourth step in praying an hour is to pray this. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now, what am I doing? Again, just let me, I hope you're not misreading this. This isn't some formula. This is just guiding me in my prayer time. Are you with me? It's guiding. Now, I know that some of you are thinking something like this. It's a whole lot more natural for me just to kind of pray and just talk to God about whatever comes into my mind. Well, let me ask you something. Do you find that when you do that, you can consistently pray for an hour? I haven't been able to find that in my own life. I can get really hyped for 10 minutes. Sometimes I can get on maybe for a half an hour, but I just start wandering around. And this has gotten, remember, Jesus said this. This was his idea, and that's why I think it works. He's generally had things right. All right. Now, let's go on, and I want to just touch this very important thing. Why is this so important? Look with me, beloved, back in Matthew 6. This is what God wants to do in us tonight. This is the focus of tonight, and I'll keep it brief because I won't have time to pray before we're dismissed tonight. Not only did Jesus say in verse 12, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors, but then he goes on down in verse 14 and 15. Do you see that? It was so important that he reiterated it, and he said this. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Forgiveness, beloved, is always so important. It is so important to learn to live in forgiveness. I'll never forget that pictorial image of the Pope, Pope John Paul II, praying over Mahomet Ajah. Remember that? Remember that picture was on Time magazine's cover, I think it was, when he had been shot by this man, and then a couple of years later he went to prison to visit him. That just incredibly powerful image of this man who stood for, in many people's minds, ultimate holiness, all that stuff, giving forgiveness to this one. It was really a stirring picture because I believe the Pope understood this principle, that unforgiveness in our spirits will destroy us. Unforgiveness in our spirit will rob us of the blessing of God. Now, I'm talking tonight, and I want you to know, from now on tonight, there is going to be really prophetic application in your lives. I believe this is what the Lord is doing tonight. Because there are people here tonight who have not come into forgiveness. And if you are living in a relationship with someone, and you know in your heart there's bitterness, you know in your heart there's unforgiveness, then I need to tell you tonight, that you are not going to be able to go on with God. You might be able to go through a lot of emotions, but you will not enjoy the liberty and joy of God and his fellowship with you. Now, when I come to this point in the prayer time, first thing I always do is this. I say, Lord, as in Psalm 139, verse 23. You might want to write that down. I begin, I say, Lord, search my heart. Test me, O God, and see if there be any wicked way within me. How many of you know that there's always some things that God is going to show you? Attitudes, actions, thoughts, words. But, O Beloved, it's wonderful to be able to start the day and just know that that slate's been just cleaned right off. Because 1 John 1.9 says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all our iniquities. That word, to confess, is homologalo in the Greek, which means to say the same thing. What confession is, is agreeing with God. Do you realize that? You're agreeing with God. You're saying, God, you're right. I sin. Your Holy Spirit was right on it. He saw me do it. And every day goes by that God doesn't see you do it. You never get away with one. I say, that's a fun way to live. You start thinking about what you're not doing, God sees you not doing it. Sins of omission. Sins of commission that you don't t
