Rev. David Holwick D Twelve Step Christianity series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 30, 1994
Psalm 4:1-8
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Step 4: Take a fearless moral inventory of your life.
Step 5: Admit to God, to ourselves and to another human being the
exact nature of our wrongs.
I. Taking stock of ourselves.
King Frederick II, the eighteenth century king of Prussia, was
visiting a prison in Berlin.
The inmates tried to prove to him how they had been unjustly
imprisoned.
All except one.
That one sat quietly in a corner, while all the rest protested
their innocence.
Seeing him sitting there ignoring the commotion, the king asked
him what he was in prison for.
"Armed robbery, Your Honor."
The king asked, "Were you guilty?"
"Yes Sir, " he answered. "I entirely deserve my punishment."
Then king then gave an order to the guard:
"Release this guilty man.
I don't want him corrupting all these innocent people."
#2029
A. What assessment would you make of yourself?
1) The fourth step is a fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
a) We must assess exactly where we have gone wrong.
b) We must realize how these errors have affected our lives.
c) To encourage thoroughness, they write it out.
2) In the Bible, this is an important feature of repentance.
a) 2 Corinthians 13:5 - "Examine yourselves to see if you
are in the faith; test yourselves."
B. We must learn not to minimize our defects.
1) An honest assessment will bring out good points, but it is
often the defects that trip us up.
2) Brutal honesty: sin is not just a small problem, it defines
us.
For those who grew up in the sixties, a simple ceremony
recently brought back memories.
For the first time since their breakup, all the living
Beatles assembled.
Paul McCartney even hugged Yoko Ono.
They have agreed to finally have a reunion on stage, but one
thing cannot be made right: John Lennon cannot be there.
On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman walked up to the
former Beatle in New York City and shot him to death.
Chapman is now serving a 20 year to life sentence in an
isolation cell in Attica State Prison.
He says he feels great remorse for the killing.
"I'm not an evil person."
"Like everybody, there's a small part within me that's evil,
and that's what took over in my case.
You can't judge a man's life by one act.
Before I became 'the man who murdered John Lennon,' I was
basically a decent person."
In a sense Chapman is right.
There is a little bad in the best of us.
There is also a little good in the worst of us.
None of us is angel or demon.
Nevertheless, as Chapman's example clearly indicates, if we
are satisfied with just a little of the worst in us, we
run a tragic risk.
Because that little bit of worst has within it the ability
to destroy our lives and to devastate those we love.
Repentance involves a commitment to righteous living.
But that is not what most people think of when they think of
repentance.
They think in terms of being sorry for a mistake and of
making a promise not to make the same mistake again.
They do not understand repentance as a complete change of
direction.
It is not enough for us to attack our weaknesses as an
isolated part of our personality.
They are at the core of who we are.
#1643
C. In order to change permanently, we must know ourselves intimately.
1) This is an on-going process.
2) Our relationships are a good barometer of our inner condition.
II. "Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact
nature of our wrongs."
A. Acting upon our self-evaluation. 2 Cor 7:10
1) Judas was sorry for actions (realized error), but unwilling
to act accordingly.
a) He tried to escape (suicide), as all addicts do.
2) Godly sorrow seeks reconciliation and change.
3) This is the second stage of repentance.
B. Confession is hard, because it requires humiliation, but it also
reveals the power of God to change lives.
Mikhail Gorbachev popularized the concept of "glasnost."
It must be understood, in part, as "repentance".
In the fall of 1988, in the city of Rostov on the Don River in
southern Russia, a man approached an evangelist and pleaded for
forgiveness.
The Pentecostal preacher, Joseph Bondarenko, did not understand
what the man was talking about.
Then the stranger reached into his pocket and pulled out his
KGB identification:
"I am the one who put you behind bars. Please forgive me!"
At another service, a young man came forward and accepted Christ.
He then turned to the congregation and made the following remarkable
statement:
"I am the editor of an atheist paper.
People, I have been deceiving you.
Please forgive me. God is real!"
#1517
III. The basics of confession.
A. Confessing to God.
1) All sin is ultimately against God, and God alone. Ps 51
2) God promises to forgive.
B. Confessing to people.
1) Can be the hardest of all, because so immediate.
a) Yet is also among the most liberating.
2) Have you ever confessed to another person, and asked
for their forgiveness?
C. Confession is ancient, but controversial.
1) Protestants rebelled against automatic confession.
a) Even today, Pope John Paul II has publicly stated
that people cannot obtain forgiveness directly
from God. #1364
b) The route to God must be through a priest.
2) Bible never says confession must be to a priest. Jam 5:16
a) But it does tell us to confess to one another.
b) Confession is hard, but makes our repentance real.
1> A caring atmosphere is necessary.
IV. True inventory and confession must be followed by actions.
A. Some pour out heart for attention. Handshake is not enough.
B. Applied honesty.
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