"And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O LORD, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. (Daniel 9:3-11)

I want to speak to you on a subject of most importance. You see, most Christians are experiencing little to any victory in their Christian life. Most Christians are just hanging on - just barely existing - living from defeat to defeat. I am convinced one of the great reasons is that we do not employ, in our lives, one word that I am going to look at this morning with you. This one word is absent. When this one word is absent a day in the life of a Christian, it allows us to live a life of defeat.

Curtis Hutson was sixty-one years of age. He was a great preacher friend of ours. He passed away and died. As he died he made very famous in our churches the song that's in our hymnbook on page 272: When I'm on the Winning Side. I tell you, I want to live on the winning side. I want to live on the winning edge. I want to live a life that says, "Man, I tell you what. I'm happy. I'm saved. I'm secure. I'm on my way to heaven. I'm enjoying the journey. I'm just out looking forward to getting there. I'm enjoying the journey on my way there!"

My wife and I were driving years ago. We were driving to see her dad in Rockford, Illinois. We had for years, gotten in the car on a Sunday night after church. We'd drive I-80 across the nation. We'd drive non-stop. Sometimes we'd stop outside of Salt Lake. First stop: 795 miles later. Sometimes we'd stop over there in Nebraska, and it would be the first time. We had driven it straight through. The last time we were driving it - it was years ago now - I said, "Honey, I don't have time to drive this anymore in my life. I like to drive it. It's enjoyable. I believe we'll take the last drive. We'll fly it from now on out." I said, "I believe this could be our last trip driving I-80. Let's enjoy the journey."

There were so many times I had driven that road non-stop. I had made it from there to here, and here to there quickly - just trying to knock off the miles. That last time I said I was going to enjoy the journey. I'm on the journey of life. Next month I'll be fifty-two years of age (did you hear the gasp?). You don't believe that, do you? You thought I was probably thirty-five or thirty six or something of that nature. No, I'll be fifty-two (problem is, you probably thought I was seventy-three).

I stopped over here at the store several months ago. I said to the lady, "How are you doing?"

She said, "I'm doing fine. How are you doing?"

I said, "I'm doing fine for seventy-two."

She said, "You look good for seventy-two."

The same day, one of the fellows that does the concrete around over for years - he's around sixty-five years of age - he said, "Pastor, how old are you anyway?"

I said, "What would you guess?"

He said, "I would guess you are about my age" (he's sixty five).

I said, "I'm not sixty-five."

He said, "Are you older than that?"

So I don't know if you were gasping because you thought I was older, or what.

I tell you what. I have lived more of the journey than I'm probably going to get, if Jesus tarries. I'm going to enjoy this ride. I don't just want to get to heaven and say, "All my burdens, I'm going to lay it down." I'm going to enjoy life. I'm going to enjoy Sunday. I'm going to enjoy Monday. I don't want to live to say, "Is it Friday yet?" Man, I'm telling you what. I'm living for today. Thank God that God gave us today! I want to live on the winning side.

What's so important then? It's the word is missing in Christian's vocabulary. It's the word that Daniel says in verse number four.

"… I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my…" (What, class?)

The average Christian does nothing to confess their sins. Confession is not to a man. You cannot stop by my office with a wall in my office, and you in one room and me in another room, and announce to me your sins. You would just be confessing your sins to another sinner. There's no such thing as a man that's not a sinner.

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23)

These years I've pastored this church, we've had several popes. The last one's been here the longest. I think we've had three. We may have had four since I've pastored here. They always select a pope, and they go in the basilica. After they have selected a pope, there are three puffs of smoke that come out the chimney. When the three puffs come out the chimney, it says we now have a pope, and that the pope is infallible.

That is blasphemy.

There's no such thing as a man that's not a sinner. There's only one, and that's Jesus Christ. You don't come to me, and confess your sins to me. I am a sinner like you are a sinner. But there's one God, and one Mediator between God and man, and it's the man Christ Jesus. Jesus can forgive your sin, but I certainly cannot.

This morning, I'm afraid that too often we want to confess to another man, or confess that "I'm just going to turn over a new leaf", but we don't really confess. What is confession?

I like to look at the definition with the three letter A's.

Confession is acknowledgment of wrong. Confession is, secondly, admittance. You can use whatever word you use, but it's acknowledged that I've done wrong. It's admitting I've done wrong. It's agreeing with God that I am guilty. I am wrong.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I don't know about you, but I know about me. Every day of my life, I do thing wrong. I get upset quickly. I get lazy. I should have passed a tract. I should have helped a person and I get busy and say I can't or I don't have time or they can do it themselves. I neglect somebody. I pray every day of my life as I look at my life, and I pray, "Oh God, I pray that this day you would take my mind and keep it right. Protect my mind. Lord, protect my eyes today. May these eyes see those things that are right in Your eyes. And Lord, when I see things that are wrong, help me not to glance back to see them again."

Job said, "I made a covenant with mine eyes."

"God, these ears that I have, I pray that I might hear the things that You'd have me to hear. This mouth may say things the way You would have me to say them. It's so often I say things so sharp or so abrupt. I have to come back and say I'm wrong. These hands, may they handle what You want me to handle. These feet, may they take me where You want me to go. My heart belongs to You."

Then I normally sing My Life, Lord, is Yours to Control.

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord to Thee.

I find, in my life, every one of those areas every day, it gets out of order. I have to immediately come back to God and confess, "I have failed You here. I have failed You there." That confession restores not son-ship, but fellowship.

My dad is sitting here today. Next Sunday, my father's going to be eighty years of age. Our church will be twenty-eight years of age. Our granddaughter is going to be one - all in the same day. If I were to steal from my father - my dad was about 90 percent deaf all his life until a few years ago when we had surgery and it worked - my dad, if he were sleeping could not hear us in the middle of the night if I snuck in. I took money off of his dresser. My dad was a light sleeper, not because he could hear things, but he just wouldn't sleep. Let's say my dad wouldn't hear me, but he saw me, and I took the money off the dresser. I slipped it in my pocket. I left the next day and began to use that ten dollars I had taken from my father. My dad saw me.

By the way, my heavenly Father sees me.

It would not break sun-ship. I'm still my dad's son. He's still my dad. He still loves me, although his heart is broken, and trust has been broken. Sun-ship has not been broken but fellowship is.

I come back to my dad, and I say, "Dad, I want to just confess something."

"Son, what is it?"

"Dad, I took something from you the other night in your sleep."

"Oh, are you talking about the ten dollars?"

"Yes, dad."

"I saw you, and my heavenly Father sees us."

Do you know what I just did? I didn't restore sun-ship. I restored fellowship. Dad can start to maybe have some confidence back with me. I've restored that fellowship. As a Christian, if we're not careful, our life is like a pipe. If we're not careful - it should be a clear channel flowing - nothing between my soul and my Savior. If we're not careful, we load it up with sin, and debris and we clog it. Ladies and Gentlemen, confession is critical. We must agree with God. We must admit to God. We must acknowledge to God.

With that in mind, what must you admit to today? What must you, and what must I confess to God today? Our pride, our self-will, our embarrassment keeps us from confession.

Last week, I spoke on the one word, the word "chastisement". Chastisement is not necessarily God getting a baseball bat and beating us over the head. That's not chastisement. Chastisement is loving correction and training through discipline. All of us will be chastised. For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth. All of us will have chastening from the Lord, because He loves us. He'll chasten us because of our weights and sins, too. If we don't deal with it, God will. God says if you aren't chastened, it's because you're not His. If I will not be honest with people, God will chasten and bring me back to honesty. It's normally very embarrassing.

I see Martha Stewart in the headlines. I have no idea if she's guilty or not. I don't know. I tell you this, Ladies and Gentlemen, if she's guilty - your sin finds you out. Enron… it finds you out. It always finds you out. It will hunt you down. God will reveal it, but better that we reveal to God. "Lord, I admit I'm wrong. I have sinned against Thee. I only have done this sin and done this iniquity in Thine eyes.

If we're not careful, we allow that poison to stay in us. That unconfessed sin is a poison. Medical doctors have done tests and examinations, and they've said when people store, they store tension, and they store problems in their life. I want to say as a preacher, if you store sin in your life, it's going to show up in strokes, and in heart attacks, and in high blood pressure. I am not saying that about every person in this church with high blood pressure or a stroke. My dad had a heart attack and a stroke. I'm not saying it's because you have unconfessed sin. Many people have sin that's unconfessed, and you're destroying your body physically.

There's something about the inner tension that runs interference with our body. This past week, I was so burdened for our Evangelist brother Davis. We're the same age. We were in college as roommates together. He has this pancreatic cancer that's so awful. They have him off chemo now, and on the fifteenth, they'll start him up for two solid months. Last time he was on it, it was such an awful thing. They can't do any more surgery. I called brother Davis and told him, "I've got some errands to run. Won't you go with me for a couple hours?" He's not eaten in four months. He's got a port. He fills himself up twelve hours a night, and it feeds him through the vein, through the port. So we spent a couple hours together. In our travels, I had to go to a place. When I went to the place, I talked to a man I had known years. He's not a member of our church. I introduced brother Davis to him and he told him, I just want to tell you something. He's a Christian, and he just went off. I don't mean mad or mean or anything. It was a blessing for the next fifteen or twenty minutes listening to this man talk. He said I want to tell you a story.

Of course, I don't think brother Davis is storing any iniquity or sin in his heart. He's a godly man. I appreciate what this man had to say. He said, you know, my wife became very, very ill. They diagnosed her as bi-polar, and they diagnosed her with this thing, and this thing. She had incurable diseases. He said, I'm just telling you that we had the privilege to see the top specialists in this area about her illnesses. He said, we were in church and heard a man preach. I don't know the man he was talking about. He said he wrote a book and he said the man mentioned the fact that God's people store sin. He said, I want to just ask you brother Davis (and he wasn't being rude - don't be unkind to this man. He was being burdened for him.) He said, is there anything that needs to be confessed to God? My wife and I, we heard that man preach. We went home and thought we'd think through our lives and make a list. Is there anything we need to get right with God? He said, we spent three days just rehearsing our life, and things where this was unchecked, and this was unchecked, and this was unconfessed, and this was unconfessed. I'm not talking about healing or where I can heal. I'm not talking about hocus-pocus. This man said, I'll tell you what happened. He said we began to realize that we were carrying in our lives some unconfessed sin. He said we began to confess that to God. An amazing thing took place.

We went back to the doctor. My wife, with her incurable disease, did not have the disease. The doctor said this is not possible. He said, sir I can't tell you anything and I'm not going off on a tangent. I'm not going to start healing people. Hold it. I am just suggesting today that a lot of people, for this cause, many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. What? Unconfessed sin.

What is it today? God says if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Some of you are so man and frustrated at God because you kneel and pray and beg God and say, "Oh God, here's a prayer request. Answer my prayer request. And God doesn't answer, and God doesn't answer, and God doesn't answer." Then you say, "God, what is wrong with You?"

There's nothing wrong with God. His hand is not short that He cannot save. The problem is not God. The problem is the container that's talking to God. Ladies and Gentlemen, you and I must come to God and make sure we can say,

(singing)
Nothing between my soul and my Savior…

What is there today? What relative is there that you are bitter at this morning? What church member? What employee? What problem is there today? Is there anger? Is there bitterness? Is there carnality? Is there deceit? Is there fraud? Is there frustration? Is there envy? Is there gossip? Is there hatred? Is there ill will? Is there jealousy? Listen, ladies and gentlemen. Take inventory today! Confess it before a holy God.

Let's go to the book of First John and chapter number one please. As you turn to First John, way back toward the end of the New Testament, how important is it that God's people come to a point where we admit before God. Oh, but we're so proud.

Thirty plus years ago, I got married to that wife of mine. I'm telling you something. That first time of having to come back and tell her I was wrong - it was so hard for me to do. Here a strapping, muscular man like me… (I'd appreciate it if you would not laugh - you ought to feel my muscle!) I had to come back crawling to that woman and say, "I was wrong." Don't tell me that's fun. It would be nice once in a while if you said it. They normally don't have to because we're jerk weeds, you know. We do it ourselves. We make the mess, and have to come back and say, "I'm wrong."

Ladies and Gentlemen, if we're not careful, we try to cover it, conceal it. My Bible says in First John chapter one, verse number six:

"If we say that we have fellowship with Him…"

And, Oh we do that in church on Sunday.

(singing)
Oh, how I love Jesus.

We're saying we have fellowship. Everything's ok. Everything's right.

"If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:" (I John 1:6)

Ladies and Gentlemen, when we cover and act as if we're right when we're not right, we're walking in darkness, and darkness always begets death.

This past week at our house, I purchased four trees. I had some fellows help me. We put them in the ground. We put some good soil down, and dug some big holes. We put some fertilizer in there. We put the tree in there, and some more good soil. We watered those things at the base. The exciting thing is you keep those moist at the roots and the sun comes out. The sun over a period of time will keep pulling those things up towards the heavens. If you take those same four trees that I purchased and put them in my garage, and seal it, and keep them in darkness, they'll die.

Child of God, if we say that we are in light when we are in darkness, we will spiritually die. God wants us to admit our condition. The Bible goes on to say:

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (I John 1:7,8)

When was the last time you said, "God, this is sin. I am going to acknowledge it like You see it and it's wrong."

I'm not saying you have to tell me about your sin. I'm saying if you get around the life and the light of Jesus Christ, it brings beauty and life. If you get around darkness, it creates death and bondage. We say, "There's nothing wrong with me." Oh, you better be careful because you're poisoning your life. You start to store that in your body.

"It's just a little thing."

Oh, but those little things can grow because it's a seed. Hebrews talks about a root of bitterness. It's just a little seed. It's just down under the soil, but over time it will germinate. All of a sudden, you put a little water on that thing, and it will grow. That seed will overtake you. I'm not preaching at you, I'm preaching to us.

I must confess my sins. I try every night in my life. Turn to Psalm chapter 51. I try every night in my life to review the day and say, "Lord, is there some sin in my life that I need to get confessed?" Knowing I was preaching on this subject, I've tried to work on it more so this week. "Lord, let there be nothing between." I've spent a good amount of time, hours in my office yesterday afternoon just looking through my life saying, "Lord, here's a sin. Here's something. If I haven't confessed it, Lord I bring it to you." Ladies and gentlemen, I don't want to become a preacher to you, and I myself become a castaway. How important it is to reckon with God my sin!

By the way, if you throw rocks at David, all of us have that potential of sinning daily. David committed an awful sin. He committed adultery with another man's wife. It's wicked. I also want to say that those who have committed adultery, you get it right with God. If God's people won't let you get it right, it's God's people's fault, not your fault. The Bible says if ye that are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness and fear… I'm not advocating any sin in this church today. I am advocating when someone wants to get it right, let them get it right. I'd rather see people getting sin right than all of us saying, "We have no sin." He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them… You can cover you sin, or you can confess them and conquer them. We store it.

Would you stop and think with me this morning, and I don't know who's guilty here, but somebody killed O.J. Simpson's wife. Someone killed Nicole, and someone killed Ron Goldman. Somebody in this world killed them. I'm not the authority to say it was O.J. Simpson. I don't know much about the trial. I do know the one statement, "If it doesn't fit, you can't convict", I think what it was - the glove. I don't know if he's guilty. But I do know this, and maybe you do know (now you don't need to tell me at the door). Somebody in America killed two people. Somebody goes to bed tonight, and has to say, "I'm a murderer on the loose." Somebody today is walking the streets, acting like their having a good time, but friend, inside they're being eaten up.

I don't know anything about this Lacy Peterson and the little baby. I think it was a boy or it may have been a girl in the womb. I don't know about it. I really don't. I know her husband's name is Scott. I heard it on the radio. But somebody killed her. Somebody killed that baby boy. Somebody right now, because of unconfessed sin, is living with the guilt.

There's something in your heart today. It's unconfessed. There's something you have to get right with God, and there's something you have to get right with somebody else. I was praying and thanking the Lord for my dad this past week, and my mother who's soon to be eighty. I've not been a perfect son, but I do know if they precede me in death, and I have their funeral (and I do not look forward to that day), I do know that I am right with my dad. I know I'm right with my mother. I know I've tried to respect them and love them. I've failed them. I feel like I don't take enough time with them, and I want to take more time.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have to reckon our lives. If there's something with another person, then get it right. If there's some sin, then get it right. Are you stealing from the government? But you say, "But they take so much." Get it right. Notice that the Bible says that David had committed sin. He said in verse number three, "For I acknowledge…" That's what confession is. I acknowledge my sin, my transgression. "My sin is ever before Him."

A man came forward during the invitation. An old preacher was preaching years ago. He came forward and said, "I'm carrying some sin in my life. I just need to get it right." The counselor that was dealing with him said, "Let's claim I John 1:9: If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The counselor said to the man at the altar, "Why don't you just confess it to God today?" The man began to pray, "Oh God, we have sinned. We have done wrong." The counselor stopped him and said, "Hey, wait and minute. Don't drag me in on your sin. Sir, if you're going to be honest with God, don't say we have sinned. Say I have sinned."

You tell God where your problem is. Don't be telling God where my problem is. Ladies and gentlemen, the wonderful thing about knowing Christ is that we can get it right on the old-fashioned altar this morning. It doesn't take fourteen weeks of counseling sessions. It takes a moment to come down to the old-fashioned alter and say, "Oh God…" You say, "Well, I really don't know where I've sinned." Oh, if you're saved, you know because right now, He's telling you. He's convicting you. He's saying, "How about right there? How about right there? How about right over here? Right over here, you need to get it right, so we may be able to sing, 'Nothing Between My Soul and My Savior.'"