Saved for Celebration

Psalm 51, part 2: Saved for Celebration

Psalm 51:11-15

Last week we ended with the reminder that Christianity isn’t about what we do or how much we have done, because we are all sinners by nature and we can never do enough to somehow appease God or to outweigh our “naughty” list with our “nice.” Christianity is not a religion of “do” – it’s a relationship with Jesus, who has already “done” what we could not do.

We are in Psalm 51, the song David wrote after the prophet Nathan confronted him with his sin after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. As we return to the text, let’s take a moment in prayer.

In college, my indoor soccer team was playing for the league championship. Late in the game, the opponents were rushing toward the goal. I was the last defender back. As the guy with the ball passed the ball across the goal toward his wide-open teammate, I stuck my foot out… and the ball bounced off my foot, past our goalkeeper, and into the goal. We lost the championship game by one goal. In retrospect, that doesn’t matter a whole lot, but there are times when we mess something up to the point where we know the consequences are going to be disastrous.

A danger we have on this side of Calvary, where we know and understand God’s forgiveness in a whole new light, is to understate the consequences of our sin, to easily gloss over them, to shrug and say, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven,” without realizing that every sin actually serves as a barrier between us and God; they effectively push us away from God. So David prays: Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. (Psalm 51:11) Do you ever think about the consequences of sin? How it grieves the Lord? How God has every right to cast us out of His presence? It is because of God’s mercy and precisely because of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross that God doesn’t do this. But every time we sin, especially those sins we know of, we harden our hearts and force the Holy Spirit out. Although God is supreme and can do anything, the one place God won’t stay is where He is not wanted. If But every time we sin, especially those sins we know of, we harden our hearts and force the Holy Spirit out. Although God is supreme and can do anything, the one place God won’t stay is where He is not wanted. If we, by our actions and attitudes, demonstrate that we don’t want the Holy Spirit inside us, He won’t stay.

So David, realizing the depth of his depravity, prays: Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (Psalm 51:12) David understands that forgiveness isn’t all that God has to offer – God offers true joy, joy in spite of adverse situations and circumstances, but that this gift isn’t given independently from salvation. How could a loving God leave us feeling miserable? Because that misery is often an indicator.

We don’t like indicators – for example, when I ruptured my spleen in college, the doctors in the Emergency Room wouldn’t give me a pain killer. No, they wanted to use pain as an indicator. Similarly, when Baby Lily was sick in December, we were really frustrated as the hospital kept giving her Motrin to bring her fever down but they didn’t know what was causing the fever, so as soon as the Motrin ran out, boom, there was the fever again. The fever was an indicator that something else was wrong!

Could it be that God sometimes uses our uneasiness, our struggle, even our misery, to point to our need for Him? This is one reason why Heaven is so appealing, because then we will experience full joy, where every tear is wiped away. And because God knows that the journey is difficult, he grants us a willing spirit to sustain us. Realize that sometimes we aren’t sustained because we don’t have a willing spirit. A covenant is always between two parties; if we’re not willing to obey, God is not forced to uphold His part. So how much more awesome is it that God chooses to love us even when we do not obey?

Remember that God is not forced to love us just because we’ve done good things for Him. All of our good deeds are not what puts us in right standing with God. In fact, the Bible says that all of our good deeds are like filthy rags. We can never do it on our own. BUT once we experience the true joy of God’s salvation, we live our life as a testimony to God. David puts it this way: Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.

Sometimes it can be hard to overcome a reputation. You’ve done everything wrong for so long – who would believe you are now different? Take heart – perhaps God will use your struggle to build a new reputation to turn others to Him. I’ve had conversations with people who think that my life, my Christian life, is so easy, that everything must always be easy for me. But when they hear that I struggle, even with the same things they do, but that living for Christ has given me purpose and meaning, they wonder, “maybe Jesus has something for me, too.”

When people see genuine life transformation, it catches their attention and their imagination. They see who you used to be and they see who you are today and they’re amazed. Sure, they are skeptical to begin with – when’s she going to outgrow this new phase? – but when you continue to live it out, they’ll notice.

Which gets me to this: there are Christian people who are just miserable to be around. They suck the life out of every room they’re in. They’re constantly critiquing everything. They have a permanent frown etched across their faces. Nobody wants to be around them. This is not the picture that God gives us in the Bible. Someone who acts like this has a better chance of driving people away from God than to turn sinners toward Him. If this has described you, it’s time to repent.

David prays for God to: Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. (Psalm 51:14)

David was literally guilty of bloodshed, as he had caused the death of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband. Now, many of us aren’t guilty of the same bloodshed David was guilty of, but if we harbor anger in our hearts, we are just as guilty. Jesus says that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. (Matthew 5:22a)

How seriously do we take our sin? Do we understand that every time we sin, whether in deed or attitude or thought, we are sinning against God? We are opening a rift between us and a Holy, Perfect God who will not allow sin in his presence? So when we sin, it is only God who can repair the relationship – it is only God who can deliver.

I cannot understate the severity of our sin. Again, we can just gloss over it, but it separates us from God and leads to Hell, which is the ultimate separation from God. This is what our sin deserves. So the fact that when we ask God, that we have the assurance that we are forgiven – this is cause for serious celebration!

In Luke 15, Jesus told three parables about loss – a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son, and the response when each the sheep, the coin, and the son are found… is celebration! Listen to what Jesus says: “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:7) “In the same way, I tell you there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)

Did you notice who is doing the celebrating? If there is celebrating in heaven in the presence of the angels, that must mean that it is either the great cloud of witnesses who goes before us, or God Himself, or both. I fully believe that it is both. That God Himself celebrates over one sinner who repents. And this isn’t just a smile and a handshake kind of celebration. God is doing the Harlem Shake for that sinner. God dances wildly when a sinner returns to Him.

How do we respond when someone comes to Jesus? Are we like the older brother, who resented his younger brother coming home, or do we celebrate? Even David recognizes where the celebration comes from: Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Psalm 51:15) Did you notice that he even asked God to give him the content of the praise? He didn’t have words to praise God on his own, so he asked God to provide. This is extremely important as we look to praise God in all circumstances and in all situations – even when we don’t feel like it. God will provide the content!

Which gets me to this: the mission statement of the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church, of the Shawnee Valley District, and of Hope UMC in Wellston are all the same: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The biggest celebration in the life of the Christian is the celebration of seeing new disciples accepting Jesus. When was the last time you celebrated a lost soul coming to the Lord?

We are posed in a great place – because there are tons of people right around us who need the Lord. This church can be the instrument through whom God moves in a powerful way. But it has to start with each one of us.

It starts with us acknowledging where we’ve come from. That we are sinners by nature, and that on our own we are helpless to do anything about it. That it is even purely by God’s grace that any one of us can even approach God’s holy throne, but because of God’s character, he paved the way for us.

When we realize this and as we reflect on what it means, let that be the catalyst for change in our own hearts. On our own, our hearts are constantly focused inward; what do I like? What do I want?  What makes me happy? Our hearts are horribly selfish, but God’s transformation not only transforms us from sinner into clean but from selfish to selfless. Then we, too, will lead fellow sinners to God, and then let the celebration begin!

If you want to begin to turn from inward to outward, if you are willing to do your part, if you maybe haven’t started but you need the push, I want to offer a prayer time where we can begin praying together to do God’s will.