Hope for the Ashamed Heart

In this episode, Brody will walk through Psalm 51, in which King David refuses to hide behind excuses after Nathan exposes his sin with Bathsheba. Instead, he brings raw confession and a desperate plea for mercy to God.

Brody will explore how repeated patterns of sin can trap believers today, and how David’s prayer points us to real cleansing through the grace of Jesus Christ. This episode talks about repentance, restored joy, and why a clean heart, not religious performance, is the only path forward.

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Transcript

hy Psalm 51 Still Helps

SPEAKER_01 0:10

In today's episode, we're going to look at Psalm 51. It's one of my favorite passages of scripture. I think I'll probably say that on here a lot, but this truly and genuinely is one of my favorite passages of scripture. The reason I know that is because I constantly go back to it. I read it yesterday morning. Um, and I I find that the the passages that are most helpful and meaningful to me are the ones I would call favorites. And those are the ones that I constantly go back to. Those familiar passages that I read often. Psalm 51 is one of those, and you might remember the context for this. It's a psalm of repentance after David's adultery and the murder cover-up. And what I want to do this uh uh this week and this week's episode is I want to look at that psalm and hopefully give you some encouragement. I recently shared this with students at our annual Pure and Holy Retreat, which is a uh retreat that we do in February where we focus on biblical sexuality. We talk a little bit about gender and marriage and dating and uh but but really looking at God's design for sexuality. There's this misconception that I think was really prevalent for years, especially when I was growing up, and I would say the early years of Snowbird, that almost made all things that pertain and are related to sex so taboo that you almost didn't talk about it. And if you did, it was just very condemnatory where, you know, you've if you've made this mistake or that mistake, it's just catastrophic. And the reality is God gives us a very high standard, what he expects out of us when it comes to sexual fidelity, both to him as a worshiper of the Lord, and then to our spouse or future spouse, uh, so that God's plan and purpose for sex inside of marriage is fulfilled. But what I think we fail to understand sometimes uh is a couple of things. One, God intended for sex to be extremely fulfilling and gratifying, and anything short of God's purpose and plan does not fulfill and gratify. It may feed a craving of the flesh in the moment, but we've all been there. It's like that satisfied a craving, much the same way it satisfies a craving to eat junk food when you're really hungry, but it doesn't give you what you need and it doesn't bring you fulfillment and lasting satisfaction. Second misconception I think that we all we know, but we still fall for is that um I'm sort of stuck and duped to just repeat the sins of my past. And so what this looks like is I end up in a cycle where it's like, man, I just keep falling into the same thing over and over and over. And then we become discouraged, which makes us fall more into the same thing over and over and over. And the truth is God has a plan of victory for us, and some days are harder than others, some days we fall, and the reality is for the believer, the trajectory of my life, like we talked about a few episodes back, that trajectory on the graph or the chart of my life is an upward trajectory where even when there's dips and falls and crashes, I'm continually moving more into the direction that is conformity to Christ's image. Paul tells the Corinthians that we're being changed one degree of glory at a time. So this week's episode, my hope and prayer is that you will get some encouragement that even if you're in a season of struggle or maybe failure, maybe today, as you're listening to this today, you failed today sexually, whether that was pornography or something uh outside of God's design for for you and your marriage, whatever that looks like, that you can today turn from that, pray Psalm 51, get back on the horse, and keep riding. Keep striving and driving and moving forward to pursue what God has for you. And be encouraged, even though you're very discouraged, be encouraged by the encouragement that the word of God brings. I hope it's helpful. I'm excited to share it with you. It's been very helpful for me. It continues to be helpful for me. Welcome to this week's episode of No Sanity Required.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Welcome to No Sanity Required, from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, a podcast about the Bible, culture, and stories from around the globe.

DC Update And A New Light

yle’s Story And Floating In Grace

ecording Reset And JB Update

avid’s Complacency And Moral Collapse

ercy And Confession Before The Cross

leansing That Restores Real Joy

roken Hearts Over Religious Activity

echnical Glitch And Final Encouragement

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Okay, a couple of uh housekeeping um or by way of announcements, a couple things I want to share with you before we dive in. Um we recently had our uh I got an announcement here. We recently had our annual security training. And um we've talked a little bit about that before. I think we talked about it back when I did the EDC episode, which has turned out to be a huge episode. Um so much uh feedback from that. I even had several people ride in and say that they went and ordered a premium Bible. I think a couple guys bought the Schuyler Bibles, and that's what I'm reading out of today. And uh love my Skylar Bibles. I've got several of them, and I love them. And so I know that a lot of people uh enjoyed that episode, but uh I talked in that episode kind of as the object lesson or the illustration, and that was a filmed. I think I videoed that on my phone. We're not videoing today, but I videoed that on my phone. And that episode was um I showed you my carry pistol, which for me, my carry pistol is is uh some glock uh 90% of the time. Sometimes I carry a beretta, um, but usually I carry a Glock, and then occasionally I carry a little revolver. It's a little what's called a J-frame, which is a five-shot revolver. I carry that with hand loaded bullets that are a very specific. It's it's what's called a wad cutter. So in a little short-barreled revolver, it's a really effective bullet with low recoil because small guns kick harder. But I in that episode I said that I don't put a light on my gun, and I have found a light. I wanted to for for the for the 25% of our listeners, maybe more than that, but maybe 50% that are uh that that care about this kind of thing. I was gonna tell you, I now am running a light on my daily carry weapon. The reason I wasn't running one before is they were all either too big or too small. So you got these big long um lights that stick off the end of your gun that are just massive, and I'm like, ah, I don't want to do that. That's just too much. Um, or little bitty uh lights that sort of blend really well into the frame of the gun, but they're just so small and not easily manipulated to turn them on. But in that training we just went through, I knew we were gonna be doing some night training, so I thought, what a good opportunity to experiment with maybe a new light, a new light system. So I bought a light. Let me see it. Let me let me look here and tell you what it is. Because I'm now running this on my gun every day. Streamlight TLR-7. Now this is important because there's a there's a bunch of different models. HL-X. That's a lot of words and numbers and letters. The bottom line is you want the HL-X. TLR7, HL-X. This thing is so bright. And the reason I bring this up is because we ran some night scenarios where we're shooting, we're working around barriers and we're shooting in low light. When I say low light, we're pitch, it's pitch black. I mean it's nighttime. And put that back up. Um, and I was blown away by how effective this little light worked. But the two things that I have been really pleased with is how it really does just blend into the frame of the gun, and so it, I don't notice it. Anyway, thought I'd give you that little update on my EDC. I'm now running a light, a stream light, TLR7, and make sure the model of TLR7 that you get is the HL-X. It's phenomenal. So it was a cool training. Okay, so the reason I bring the training up was not to tell you about the gun or the light. That's just extra. You're welcome. The main reason I brought that up was to tell you that uh one of the guys that is is our one of the lead instructors in our training each year, uh, who I've mentioned on here before, his name's Kyle. And uh Kyle has agreed to come on NSR. It'll be later this year, it'll be in the summer, but he's gonna be coming back to Andrews uh and coming to Snowbird, and we're gonna sit down and we're gonna walk through Kyle's testimony, how he came to faith in the Lord, um, a couple of crazy combat tours and what that did to his mind, and just sort of, you know, coming back from the gravity of not just war, but the the things that happen that nobody knows about except you guys that have been downrange. You know, the things that you don't write home about, some of the some of the darker things that are just reality when you're in combat, when you're in a war zone. And but how God's grace is bigger than all that and he can bring healing and peace and the importance of learning how to just drift into the sea of God's grace, just in a dead float. I always picture when I'm dealing with guilt over my own mistakes or sin or shame or or the the stress that comes from having been in a traumatic experience. I imagine that I'm in uh one of these chambers. They have them, uh Tuck has them in his that he's always had them access to these in football, where it's like a it's like a you lay in this water, but it's got such a high concentration of salt that you just float. It's like a gravity-free flotation tank, and it's very therapeutic. I imagine I'm floating like that in a sea of God's grace, and what's holding me up is just the density of his grace, and I'm just drifting and floating, and he's got me. And I just let all of that go. That's for me a visual. Hopefully it's meaningful and helpful to you, but that's how I kind of see that. And but anyway, uh Kyle and I've talked a lot over the years, and we spent a lot of time around the fire, and dude that loves the Lord is leading his family well, and the reason I ask him to come on here here's the reason. I've watched in 10 years, I've watched that man grow in a way that uh it's just encouraging. You you see people grow, I see a lot of people grow in their faith, but to see a man start that growth arc later in life, you know, he was in his 30s. Um, and to watch the Lord shape and mold someone who's willing to say, you know what, I'm gonna set my pride aside. I want to be a better husband, I want to be a better dad, I want to be a better Christ follower, and it's been very encouraging. And uh and we'll have some fun when Kyle's on here. We'll talk, we'll talk some guns and gear. Uh that'll be pretty cool. Looking forward to it. So you can look forward to that. That's coming this summer. And uh Kyle is a faithful listener to NSR, so um uh it'll be fun having him on here because he's an NSR person. A lot of times we have people on here that have have never even heard or listened to the podcast, and so this is gonna be really cool. Um, all right, let's jump into Psalm 51. Now, here is the funny thing about this. This is the third time I'm recording this. Um so I recorded this, and I'll just be transparent with you. I recorded it on the heels of just uh my own moral just crash where um now I was not unfaithful to my wife or anything like that. Um but but just moral crash in that, man, you know, there's times where you know when the Lord talks about the importance of transforming our mind or being lazy with what we think or watch or say or see or do, or you know, I was just in a I the Lord had just kind of whooped me over just complacency, laziness spiritually, and I was pretty beat down. And I'd turned to Psalm 51 that morning and uh just drunk from God's grace out of this text, and and I ended up, I'm like, man, I'm just gonna record my thoughts. And I did. When I got done, I was like, man, that's a little bit too it felt too heavy, and and I don't want to ever say we don't want stuff to be on here that's that's too heavy, but it felt too heavy in the sense that it felt way too personal, even for the listener. I thought, I think it'd be hard for somebody to listen to this because it was just, I was just kind of under the weight and burden of my own sin. And, you know, we have those moments, those days, those times where it seems like the Lord just makes us aware of how dependent we are on him or how dependent we need to be. So anyway, after listening to it, I felt like, man, that was too much of that was more like a conversation between me and myself and between me and the Lord. So then I was like, well, you know, I really like this idea. So let me so I ended up preparing a message from Psalm 51 and doing it at that pure and holy event. After that, the week after that, I was like, I want to record that as an episode. So I recorded it and something happened to the audio. I was very uh excited about that recording. Something happened to the audio. So it didn't work. Uh you can't hear it, you couldn't hear it. JB said, no, uh, that's not gonna work, and so wasn't able to use it. Um, but hopefully today we won't have that problem. Hopefully the audio is gonna be good. And also it's gonna give you an update on JB. So when this episode drops, JB should be back in town. She's been gone for over two weeks. And I hope y'all have been praying for her. I've been praying for her daily because this is an incredible ministry opportunity, but it was a very confidential situation that we'll we'll eventually be able to share with you. It won't be confidential forever. But a really cool ministry opportunity on a really large platform. And uh so we'll we'll share it, share that with you. But uh she should be back uh this week and hopefully the next episode, or at least in the next couple of episodes, you'll be hearing from her. I've got an episode I want to do with her that I'm excited about that I think would be better as a dialogue with me and JB than just me talking about it. So JB and I will sit down and we'll walk through the lesson that I do for our Girls Institute and intern staff each year. And it's a lesson about like self-awareness, self-defense, uh, not being a victim. And what I'm talking about is a literal victim of assault, abduction, sexual assault, physical assault, robbery, you know, whatever. Like so many girls, I'm not throwing off on y'all, so don't get mad at me. I'm not making a chauvinistic statement, but too many girls are just not aware of um their surroundings. I was talking to my youngest daughter on the way to school this morning as I'm recording this. It was this morning on the way to school, and we were talking about how she said all of her friends say that she seems to be aloof and sort of out of the loop on things a lot of times, except when they're out in public, she's real aware of every person. So, like if they're at a restaurant or they're they went bowling at the, you know, we've got a Harris casino here, and there's a you know, big food court and a bowling alley and a game room, and the kids will go there, a lot of local kids will go there, and uh, they've gone bowling, and she's she was saying that they noticed how she's like hyper in tune to everybody around her. Go to a store and she's paying attention and pointing stuff out like that guy, look at that guy, something's up, or that guy's creepy or whatever. And so we were talking on the way to school this morning, and I said, It's because you've been raised with me drilling that into your head. There's a lot of bad people out there. Be alert. I'd rather you be hyper-vigilant than to let your guard down. So anyway, we do this talk with the girls each year, and I give them each uh a brand new um uh package of pepper spray. The specific brand that we use is Palm P O M. So I'll buy a case of it, hand it out. We do this whole talk. So I want to sit down with JB and do that. I think for you dads, it'll be there'll be some insight that uh you might speak into your wives and daughters. Um for you ladies, I think there's some things that we'll tell some stories, several crazy stories that have happened through the years. Um yeah, it'll be fun. So I want to do that with JB. That'll be uh an upcoming episode that I'm gonna do with her that uh she doesn't even know about yet. But when she gets back, I'll explain it to her and we'll have fun with that. Because she sits in that class each year. So it'll be good to get her feedback and how she's maybe implemented some of that. Yeah, so let's dive into Psalm 51. So the background to this psalm, just let me let me set the stage here. Most of our listeners are gonna be familiar with this, but King David had risen to prominence as the king of Israel. And you can read his story in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel. It's where most of that is contained, most of the narrative of David's life. Starts about the middle of 1 Samuel and goes through the end of 2 Samuel. And he really he comes on the scene before the incident with Goliath, but the the Goliath story is the one that really launches him, both in his day, launched him into a public prominence, but also for us now, a few thousand years later, as we study him, 4,000 years later, whatever it is, um 3,000, 3,000 years later, I think 3,000 years later, as we study David's life, this is um of the the story that of prominence is the story of Goliath. I was speaking to a group of students recently and we're doing a Q ⁇ A and they were asking me my favorite Bible, book of the Bible to teach. And so we're walking through some different things that I really enjoy teaching. And I was explaining to them I love teaching the life of David, especially the young, the life of the young man David. And um then I said, What's the story everybody knows of David? And you know, they all said, David and Goliath. And so that story kind of kicks him off as far as being a prominent figure. And from there, there's about a 20-year process of him becoming king. It takes about 15 to 20 years, if memory serves me. And he becomes king of a consolidated, unified nation. Now he becomes king of uh of part of the kingdom uh uh uh maybe maybe at 15 years after the Goliath incident, 12 to 15 years. But then there's some some tensions, some some upheaval, and and eventually the kingdom is unified under his rule. It's about a 20-year process. And then he he rules and governs for the rest of his life. I don't know, four decades, something like that. I might be a little bit off on some of my timestamps and timelines here, but but there's a point in the story where David becomes king and you're reading through the narrative of 1st and 2nd Samuel, and he's he's got these military conquests. We see him as a poet, we see him as a warrior, we see him as an artist, we see him as a musician, we see him as a leader, we see him as a friend, and there's all these really cool characteristics of David that emerge out of the story. But then there's this really weird turn in the story where David is uh it's he he's just finished a lengthy campaign of conquest against Israel's enemies, and then the winter time comes and all of Israel goes goes home. You know, in the winter, kings and their armies would go home and go go wait out the winter, and then spring campaigns would happen, and you'd have you know battles and campaigns and wars would go on spring, summer, and fall. And so you get to this part of the story, and it says, and I think this is 2 Samuel 10 and 11. It says, and then that was the the time of year when kings go off to war, but David was at home on the couch in the middle of the day, and you're like, whoa, wait, what a wait a minute. What? That doesn't make sense. Why was he at home in the middle of the day? Like, it's not just like you raise an eyebrow and go, wait, the kings are supposed to go off to war. I see the play on words here. It's it's a contrast that's meant to get your attention as a reader. It's the spring of the year, the time when kings go off to war. Israel's army goes off to war, and David is at home. And so there's this contrast of David's not where he should be. He's not where God would have him to be. And it gets him in trouble. And um as a result of his complacency, his laziness, his you know, he's in midlife crisis. He's he's fifty he's probably fifty. Um, I you know, I'm in my fifties now and identify with that like you. There's a there's a battle against complacency and laziness that I didn't fight as a young man. I don't know how much of it is just physiology. I don't I don't have the vitality and strength that I had as a young man. I heard Ronald Reagan make a make a tell a joke. He said it was when he was campaigning for president and uh he was on Johnny Carson's show. This is really funny, and he's talking about uh government waste and how much money gets spent on stupid things. And there was like a half million dollar study, and in that study, what they determined is that young people are happier than old people, rich people are happier than poor people, and healthy people are happier than sick people. And he said, so our government just spent half a million dollars, which in today's money would be a lot more. Our government just spent a half million dollars to determine that young, rich, healthy people are happier than sick, old, poor people. And uh and I'm like, wait a minute, there's actually a lot of truth to that. It was pretty funny. You realize, oh yeah, our government wastes a lot of money on stupid things. But that part of the uh story aside, it's like, man, the older you get, the the the less vitality you have, the harder it is to get up in the morning and and hit the ground running. Now, that doesn't mean you don't. I mean, I'm I'm gonna give 100% effort and get up and exercise and try to eat right and and like I do, I try to do those things. I I try to actually yesterday I exercised um to the point that I felt it when I went to bed last night, I was good tired, you know, that good exhaustion because I had I had exercised through physical manual labor. I had exercised by going on a long, hour-long hike, uh, which is not long, but I mean a good clip for an hour. I mean, I went I covered almost five miles, and then I had done some strength training. So those three things exhausted me. But I was even, I was even thinking, man, this looks so different than it looked when I was 30, 35, even 40. And so as you get older, it just gets harder to do things. And our listeners who are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, you really feel this. You don't have the strength and vitality and energy and drive and all those things that you have as a young man. Now, you have things that offset that. You have wisdom, you have experience, you have a different appreciation for certain things, you have a different sense of urgency. Um, there's still a lot that you can do even in your later years, even as your eyesight dims and your hearing goes, and there's still so much you can do as long as there's breath in your lungs. But I think David is at a midlife crisis. I think that's just me rambling. This is not true biblical commentary here. It's just like for the first time in my life, I can kind of identify with that part of it. And I was having a conversation with a couple of our ladies at camp and one dude the other day, uh Michael Fitzpatrick, who everybody knows him as Big Mike. I was talking to Big Mike, and then I was talking to a couple of gals in the office about this, and it was two different conversations. But we're talking about how um I when I was a young man, I thought, you know, if I can just make it, if I can stay faithful to my wife, faithful to the Lord, and and do that for the years ahead, then when I get to a certain age, then maybe that I won't really struggle with that anymore, with those temptations, or it'll be easier to be faithful. But I've I've recanted that. I don't believe that anymore because there's too many prominent pastors and leaders that have fallen sexually, moral failure after the age of 50. I can think right now, without even, I'm just boom, snap of a finger, and I've got four names and faces in my mind right now that are prominent. And some of you would know some of them. Recently it came out that Philip Yancey had uh who was uh an author and a speaker and a teacher. He wrote a book in the 90s called What's So Amazing About Grace that was really and just really influential in a lot of people's lives, mine included. And at age 66, he entered into an extramarital affair and it just became public knowledge. He's now 70, maybe 68. He was late 60s, and it's just become public, and he's in his 70s. Like, dang, how does that happen? Um, many of you were wrecked by the allegations against Ravi Zacharias Ravi Zacharias after he died. That was a man that God used early in my Christian formation. I was in my 20s. In my 20s and 30s, I probably listened to Ravi Zacharias, John MacArthur, and John Piper more than anybody else. And probably Billy Graham. I've always, to this day, I love listening to Billy Graham's sermons. It's such clean, pure gospel presentations. But those people that are influential and and uh now I've moved on. There's other guys I listen to now. I think I've mentioned on here, I love to listen to Alistair Begg. And then I like to listen to guys I know. Both of our board members are pastors. Uh I'm sorry, two of our nine board members are pastors, and I like to listen to those guys teach because they're my friends and I trust them. Um other pastor friends, uh, a pastor down in Noonan, Georgia area, Sanoia, Noonan, just south of Atlanta, who is one is a phenomenal communicator that I enjoy always listening to. So trying to listen, I'm rambling now, but the the point I was getting at is those guys that have been really influential in my life, and then a guy like Robbie Zacharias, after he dies, you find out there's all these allegations about sexual misconduct. Steve Lawson, who many of you are familiar with, a year or two ago, it came out that this 70-year-old man was in a five-year sexual relationship or five-year inappropriate relationship with a woman 40-some or 50 years his junior, I think 40, 40 plus years younger than him. How does that happen? And I I tell you, I I'm not taking up for David because David already had a pattern of polygamy. He already had concubines and multiple wives, and so he had established a pattern in his life that eventually brought destruction. There's a lesson there that if you establish patterns that are dishonoring to the Lord and that that are unhealthy and unholy for you as a child of God, they're gonna bring destruction at some point. And so David had done that, I think. And so we get to the point where Psalm 51 is written. What's happened is David has committed adultery. That back to the story, this the spring of the year when kings go off to war, David stayed home. He ends up manipulating situations and circumstances, and he ends up having a sexual relationship with a woman who is the wife of one of his closest and most loyal friends, which to me is just crazy. It's so shocking to me when I hear of someone having a sexual affair with a friend's wife or a friend's husband or a a sibling. I I remember, gosh, there was this family uh that we ministered to one of the ladies years ago. I'm sorry, one of the yeah, yeah, well the actually little and I ministered the husband and wife. Um we'll call him Caleb and we'll call her Jackie. Those names have been changed. Um I have to do names when I'm telling a story, it just makes it make sense. Um but Caleb had had an affair with his brother's wife. And so we're helping Caleb and Jackie work through this. They've ruined relationships within the family. His brother wants to kill him. Like, how do you do that? Like, how do you do I like I get I can totally I have a category for a guy falling into sexual sin, but betraying your brother, your close friend, that one's like hard for me to wrap my brain around. It's like, but then you just have to remind yourself, oh, anybody's capable of anything. And David falls into this horrible sexual sin with his friend's wife, and then he kills his friend. He murders him. And it's a dateline episode. This is literally a dateline story. David kills his buddy, and there's a massive cover-up, and then it gets confronted. And he's confronted by the man of God. A man named Nathan comes and confronts him over his sin, and everybody's gonna know. And Psalm 51 is David's response to habitual sin. This is important. It's an important part of this episode. It's not just, whoops, I made a mistake. Let me ask God's forgiveness. It's why do I keep on doing this stupid same old thing? David had been sexually immoral before. And for some of you, the the frustration of falling off the wagon, as it were, each time you fall off, you just kind of sink into a depression. And I get that. But the point is, I've got to always have a get up and keep going mentality. That's critical. And Psalm 51 is David's get up and keep going mentality. So let's dive into it. I'm just going to spend a few minutes and work through this psalm. Okay, so if you've still hung with me, because I just rambled for half an hour. Um, but I'll be honest with you before we dive into Psalm 51. Part of part of the rambling is the feedback I'm getting from people is that uh they enjoy listening to the content. And since we've gone to just one episode a week, it's been a slower, kind of a slower feed, I guess, and and just less less material. So I think one thing I think we're gonna do, and we've done this a little bit already here in 2026, we're gonna start dropping bonus episodes that, you know, I don't know that it'll turn into a two-episode every week kind of uh schedule, but we're gonna try to drop more content, more episodes, because we have such a long list of requested and recommended material and topics, and then we've also got things that we're wanting to cover. So um I don't feel so bad about rambling for 30 minutes, but this is the part I really want to get to, diving into Psalm 51, because I think we all identify with David in the struggle just to get free, to get shed of his sin. It reminds me of um, it just reminds me of my own life, you know. Like, man, why do I keep falling into the same thing? Or why do I keep struggling in different seasons of my life, especially where I feel like, why did I struggle with the same thing again here, you know? And so um for David, this was this was I think a high watermark moment of his life because it took him till he was in his 50s to really, I think, cry out to God in this level of desperation. And I think sometimes the Lord humbles us the older we get so that we don't grow complacent or or more prideful as we get older. So let's start Psalm 51. The the prayer and the the cry of a man who is broken over and because of his sin. In the New Living Translation, the heading to this chapter says, A Psalm of David regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. So let's give you some thoughts from these. Uh first two verses have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love, because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins, wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion, it haunts me day and night. Against you and you alone have I sinned and have done what is evil in your sight. Let me stop there. Let me let me I actually got into first four there. I want to look at the first two verses actually. So again, have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love, because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins, wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sins. So that's how we begin a prayer of confession and repentance. And I think there's a couple of things that stand out to me in these first two verses. And if I was going to sum that up, I would say it these two verses answer the how and why when it comes to crying out to God. How do we cry out to God and why do we cry out to God? The how is in humility and desperation. And the why is because of these two characteristics of the Lord towards us, unfailing love and great compassion. Unfailing love and great compassion. That's the why. The how, I want to focus not just on the how we cry out, but how does God, so how do we cry out? We cry out in humility and repentance. Why do we cry out? Because we recognize that God has unfailing love and great compassion, and we're we're crying out towards that end to receive his love afresh and anew, and to experience his compassion afresh and anew. But the the way that the how and the why are possible is because of the cross. And the way that the how and the why are necessary is because of the cross. So unfailing love and great compassion are first and foremost in the scripture where we see those in in their fullest, most meaningful expression is at the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ is possible because of the love that Jesus has for us and because of the love that the Father has for us. And when I say us, I mean desperate, broken sinners. The cross of Christ is necessary because of the justice of God. God is just, God is righteous, so we can't look on our sin or take part in our sin. But the cross is possible because of his love for us. So it's necessary so that sin might be punished, and it's possible as the ultimate expression of God's love, and that love is unfailing there in verse one, according to your unfailing love, or because of your unfailing love. Listen how Paul he addresses and writes along these lines in his letter to the Colossians, Colossians chapter one, verses 21 and 22. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. And then in Colossians two, verse thirteen, he says, You were dead because of your sins, and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. In those verses you see the power of the cross in that God's justice that is necessary for God to maintain his righteous character, his justice is on display. But then his love is on display, and that's what makes the cross possible as a means of salvation. So David, you know, a thousand years before the cross of Christ, is crying out to those to those same aspects of God's character and expression towards us. He's crying out, you know, that that justice would be met, but that love would be expressed through compassion. Okay, so then continue in verse three, he says, For I recognize my rebellion, it haunts me day and night. Against you and you alone have I sinned and have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. For I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me, but you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. And these in these uh four verses here, I love this because what you've got and give you four words. I know most people aren't note takers when they're listening to a podcast, you're probably driving or exercising or something like that, but here's four words. What you've got in this part of the prayer is acknowledgement, admission that comes from conviction and drives towards repentance. So the in other words, he acknowledges his sin and he admits his sin. I've got that as a distinction because acknowledging sin is one thing, admitting it as a personal failure on your own part comes from the conviction that the Lord gives us and then drives us towards repentance. And so acknowledgement, admission, conviction, repentance. Think of it this way: we've all been guilty of this, or we've known people that will acknowledge that something's wrong. The adulterer that says, I know this is not what God wants, but, and then he continues to do it. But when acknowledgement moves to admission, I know this is wrong, and I admit that I've sinned against God in doing this, and I want to repent, and that comes from conviction. True repentance comes from conviction and leads to change. That's what we see in those four verses. Get to verse seven, he's and he and he asks for this sort of repetitive request for cleansing, but then he adds to it something. So he had asked for cleansing in the first two verses. In verse two, he had said, Wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sins. So he's asking for cleansing. Now in verse seven, he says again, Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again. You've broken me, now let me rejoice. Don't keep looking at my sins, remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God, renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. So in these verses, you've got repetition in that again he comes back to asking God to purify him. So in verse 2, he says, Purify me from my sin. And now in verse 7, he says, Purify me from my sins. And then he says, he acknowledges, and I will be clean. So he recognizes that the cleansing that the Lord provides gives you purity and cleanness. It doesn't come from me being religious enough. This is important for us to understand that our purity and our cleansing come from the work of Jesus to remove our sin and the stain of that sin. And he says, Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Um, I remember getting in the shower after a long day of working outside and I was wearing shorts, and this was last summer. I'd been outside all day and, you know, just filthy. I think I'd weed eated some. I'd been in the dirt. I think I'd I'd been goofing off around camp. And so I'm just dirty, you know, just filthy and dirty. And um, and so I take a shower and I'd and I'd take the shower and I wash myself and I get out of the shower and I dry off and there's dirt on the towel. And I'm like, uh, I don't think I cleaned myself good enough. So I got back in the shower and did it again. And I remember another time I got out of the shower and dried off. And then as I was putting on new new clothes and clean clothes and a new pair of shorts, I looked down and the whole left side of my shin and calf is got dirt on it. And I'm like, did I not wash that? And so the washing wasn't thorough. It was, it was, it was in insufficient or incomplete. And so he, I love that he says, the Lord, when he washes us, he purifies and cleanses us. And it's this picture of the inner washing of our soul and our spirit and our mind and our conscience. And so he's asking the Lord to do that. But then I love this. He says, Restore my joy. He's like, give me back my joy again. Most of you, if you memorize this, you memorized it here. He says, Oh, give me back my joy again. But but most of us memorized in a translation that says something like, Restore to me the joy of my salvation. So he's it's a plea for joy. David is like, man, my sin has created misery. And this is an important principle that we often think uh we think so short-sightedly when it comes to sin. If I do this, I'll experience joy or fulfill this craving or whatever. You know, it's it's I'll this will this is what I want to be happy. But then it br it doesn't bring that joy. And it's because as children of God, the only true joy that we can experience is the joy that comes from the Lord, that the joy that goes deep into our soul and the core of our being. And so he's asking for the Lord to restore that, to bring that back to him. If you're a Christian, you remember times and seasons where you had this overwhelming fullness of joy. And uh, and so he continues that then in verse 12 and says, Restore to me the joy of your salvation. There's that familiar verse again, and make me willing to obey you. So he's saying, Not just give me my joy back, but rejoy, restore the joy of your salvation. Salvation and make me willing to obey you. So the evidence or the fruit of that joy is going to be obedience. A truly joyful person, a person that's joyful in Christ, satisfied in Christ, is going to be a person that obeys the Lord. He says, Then I will teach ways to your rebels. They'll return to you. Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves. Then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness. Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you. The result and effect of that true and full cleansing is restored joy that's associated with a recognition that I'm a child of God. And that will then push me when I begin to experience that cleansing power of the Lord. It's going to make me want to sing and worship and praise. He says, I'll joyfully sing of your forgiveness. And then he says, I'll teach your way to rebels. He's like, I'm going to, I'm going to tell people about Jesus and I'm going to sing and worship and praise the Lord. I'm going to have a song in my heart and a desire to honor the Lord. All because He's restored my joy to me, the joy of my salvation. And the last few verses, he says, You don't desire sacrifice, or I'd offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You do not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. Look with favor on Zion and help her rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit, with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings, then bulls will again be sacrificed on your offer on your altar. So he's saying what God receives as a sacrifice, it's not religious activity. So if you've fallen into sin, going to church doesn't fix it. Just reading a bunch of chapters in your Bible doesn't fix it. You go back to that episode a few weeks ago about you can read your Bible, but if you don't come to it in humility and submission and come under it, then it it may not do for you and in you what you're hoping for and praying for and seeking, you know. I love Romans 12, one that says you're familiar with that. And and most of us are familiar with these verses in a more in a translation where it says something like, I urge you or I beseech you, brothers, by the mercies of God to present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable and pleasing unto God, which is your reasonable service. But I love uh I love again, listen to the NLT. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all of He's all that He's done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. And so the idea is at the end of Psalm 51, God's not looking for religious piety. He's looking for people that live sacrificially, that they see themselves as an offering to the Lord. Their lives are like my life is consecrated to God. My life is in surrender to God. And when I've when I walk out of that surrender and take hold of things in my own power for my own selfish pleasure, I'm in disobedience. And so I've got to every day put my own life back on the altar. And and remember what Jesus said that um I've got to take up my cross and follow him. And Paul said, I die every day. And John, you know, John the Baptist talked about decreasing. And so every day I'm to live sacrificially, and that is my gift and act of praise and worship to the Lord. So I want to I want to give you uh, let's see, three, three things that David recognizes. I just jotted this down. Number one, first thing David recognizes, only God can cleanse me. You can't make yourself feel better about what you've done. You can't self-medicate or you can't look for someone else to to cheer you up. If you've sinned against God and when you've sinned against God, and we all have, what brings us out of the funk of that sin, what brings us out of the discouragement associated with that sin, what brings us out of the defeat of that sin is recognizing that cleansing comes from God alone and crying out to him and asking him for it. And you're like, man, I just did this three days ago, and now I got to do it again. Every single day, present yourself as a living sacrifice unto the Lord, holy and pleasing and acceptable to God. That's that's what's and you know, Paul says in Romans 12, that's what's reasonable. It's reasonable for what God's done for us, it's reasonable to every day give myself to him afresh and anew. Some days that's harder than others. Some days I bring a whole bunch of dirt and filth and grime to the table. And then some days, like, ah, yeah, man, you know, yesterday was I'm not perfect and I've made mistakes, but gosh, I had a pretty good day. I spent good time in the Word. I walked to the Lord, I had an opportunity to share Christ with somebody. I feel like I expressed to my wife and children love and support and affection. You know, we ended the day on a high note, and but then some days you're like, Man, I I failed miserably yesterday, or you end that day and you go, Man, how do I put my head on my pillow tonight? I've I've done things, I've said things, I've seen things, I've touched things, I've experienced things that now I'm living with the the the blood guilt that's associated with that. And David recognizes number one, God can cleanse me. God can cleanse me. The cleansing power of of Jesus and his blood are greater than my sin. Number two, there's only one thing for me to say. There's only one thing for me to say, and that goes back to that verses three through six to acknowledge, admit, and repent. He says, I recognize my rebellion, and then he says, Against you and you alone have I sinned. I've done what is evil in your sight, and you're right and you're just and I'm a sinner. That's all there is for me to say. There's no but, but, but, but, but you know, it's not a quantified or qualified apology. It's a humble confession. There's a difference in that. There's a difference. We've all done it where we apologize, but well, I'm sorry I said that, but you shouldn't have done this, or I'm sorry that I lost my cool, but you know that gets on my nerves, or I'm sorry that that I said those things, but I just didn't sleep good last night, and I've had a rough couple of days. But buts are big butts, what I call big butts. And for the unqualified repentant person, it's the only thing for me to say is, man, against you and you only have I sinned, Lord. You've been ugly to your husband, your wife, you yell at your kid, you've been, you know, defiant or disrespectful to to authority in your life. The only thing for you to say is, against you and you only have I sinned, Lord. Now, did David go and and repent and apologize to other people? I'm sure he did. We we don't totally see that play out, but um well, we don't know the details of what the next day looked like and the and the and the days after, but we know that he became a man who was repentant and who owned his sin and admitted it and took responsibility for it and sought the Lord's forgiveness. And I think recognizing um the importance that that for me, that the only thing I can do and say is to admit it and cry out to God, that's the second thing that David recognized. And the third thing, and this is where I want to end, and this is a really cool thought. The only solution to David is a new heart. And that's basically in in when he says in verse 10, create in me a clean heart, oh God. He's recognizing I need a recreation, I need a new heart. And if you think of this in terms of heart surgery and a heart surgeon, I would I would break it down. I heard Alistair Begg say this, uh, he was teaching on this psalm, and he broke it into three things. I have a crucial need, there is a radical solution, but it requires a skilled but gentle serv uh surgeon. Crucial need, radical solution, skilled but gentle surgeon, and that in the way of needing a cleaner and a new heart. And what I share with these students was I remember several years ago, um, there was a man that came here. There's uh he was from JB's home church. And uh there's I think about uh several people that listen to NSR that are from that church. Um uh a gal, a lady who's uh just a a sister that I love so dearly, um, whose name is Blake, and so there's a little shout out to Blake. Uh she listens every week and and she'll often send encouragement from uh from the episodes and and she and JB went to the same church and grew up in the same youth ministry. But that and there was a man in their church, in JB's church, and I wish JB was here, and maybe we'll I I'll I'll follow up with her. I don't know if she would remember this or not because she's younger, but years ago when that church first came to Snowbird, there was a man from that church who had had a heart transplant. And the youth pastor introduced me to him, and I was fascinated by it. And so I just had a hundred questions that I wanted to ask this guy. So I said, I sat down with him at a meal and I was like, man, I I know you probably get sick of telling this, but I want to hear about this heart transplant. It was pretty fascinating because he said, he said, man, it's crazy. He said, they opened my chest, you know, they they cut my sternum, opened my, or what, you know, however he described it. But remember, just they opened his whole chest cavity, and then they go in and they, they, they hook, somehow they ran his blood through a machine that kept pumping it through his body. And once they cut and unhooked, I don't know, like the arteries and whatever, the main arteries in and out of his heart, they cut all those, they take that heart out that was bad, they put a new heart in from a heart donor who I don't even, I mean, that's a crazy story in itself. They cut that heart out of some dude that maybe got a head injury in a car wreck or something. I don't know. They take a younger person's heart out, they then have 20 minutes to get that heart attached. You're talking about intricate but fast, radical, aggressive surgery to get those blood vessels stitched back. And he said, he said, if if if a stitch doesn't hold or something's not sealed up perfectly, he'll bleed out internally, you know, or it'll rupture and come apart. And so they've got about 20 minutes to pull this off once they, once they start the actual heart replacement process. And hearing him describe that procedure, which obviously he was unconscious for it, but he knew everything that had gone on. And so then that turned into a conversation with an actual heart surgeon that had had that has done heart transplants. And that guy's comment was, yeah, that's why they pay us a lot of money. I'm like, that's fair. Um and so I love what Aleister Begg says. Crucial need, radical solution, skilled and gentle surgeon. And you think about the physical heart transplant. What David's asking for here is a heart transplant. But what's crazy is now imagine that that man could get a new heart transplant every time he needed it and he needed it often. That's the condition of our spiritual heart. We receive a new heart when we become Christians. That's the beauty of a doctrine called regeneration. That's that's one of the components to regeneration, which is this doctrine that God creates in me a new and clean heart at salvation, and he puts his spirit in me. You see this in Paul's letter to Titus, where he says there's a washing of rebirth and renewal by the Spirit. It's this picture of washing and cleansing from the inside out. That's what David's praying for. It's a new heart. And maybe you need a new heart today. Maybe you're my age or older, and you're you've hit that midlife stage of or past midlife crisis, or maybe you're maybe you're younger and and you're and you're dealing with discontentment or pride or selfishness, whatever. Or maybe there's been infidelity in your life. You've you've you've had an emotional affair, a sexual affair with somebody other than, you know, with with a person outside of your marriage. And and you need you need a new heart. You need God to cleanse you. You need to acknowledge your sin, admit it, turn to the Lord, receive his forgiveness and his cleansing, and know that when we do that, he promises he'll give it to us. And he will. Um, oh man, he will. I love that when Jesus says, what what kind of dad, if his son asks him for food, is gonna give him a rock or a snake, you know? He's not gonna do that. He's gonna give him food. Well, I don't know what just happened, but we had a major glitch with our podcaster. I don't know if it's the microphone or what, but right as I was about to wrap up that last point, I lost uh technical difficulties. That's what we're having. So I pull my phone out. I'm gonna close this thing out on my phone, so I'm sure the audio is gonna sound really weird and it's a weird shift, but that's okay. Let me uh let me wrap those thoughts up. Just that idea that if if a loving father will provide a meal for his child, you know, Little's out of town last week, and I'm not a kitchen dad. I struggle. I can I can run the grill and that's about it. But we had a couple, if I do say so myself, we had a couple of pretty good meals. And it's because I wanted to provide for my kids. I wanted them to eat good and enjoy it. And Jesus uses that example. He's like, man, if a kid asks his dad for a piece of fish, his dad's not gonna give him a poisonous snake. If a kid asks his dad for some bread, he's not gonna give him a rock. And your loving father wants to provide for you. And the thing he wants to provide for you more than anything else is healing and forgiveness and reconciliation, and he wants to keep you on the path that he knows is gonna bring you joy and fulfillment. And depending on where you are in your life right now, the the the step that you need to take to get back on that path might be to pray David's Psalm, Psalm 51, and and to say, you know what, Lord, I've I've been in this inappropriate relationship, or I've uh and maybe it's with a person, maybe it's with pornography, maybe it's um, maybe it's something that is kind of weighing you down and hovering over you, and you just need to be set free from that. Just cry out to the Lord to have mercy on you. He's a loving father, and he wants to provide that for you, and he will. He'll set you free from it. He'll he'll release you from your blood guilt. And I love that Lamentations 3 verse that I quote on here all the time. Um, the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever. His mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. And so he's gonna be faithful to you and me when we ask him for that forgiveness, when we ask him to blot out our transgressions, and he'll do it a hundred times over, he'll do it. Don't ever forget that. Have an awesome week. We'll get our uh equipment figured out, back up and running so that the next episode will be um will be smooth. We'll be a smooth operator. Please keep uh praying for JB. Um she is I don't know when we're gonna get her back, but she I we did get a message from her. I didn't think she'd be able to communicate, and a message for her came through in the middle of me recording this. And uh and it w it came, it actually came from her mom, who is her point of contact for where she's at. But just know it's an incredible mission field where she's at. It's a very hostile area when it comes to the gospel. Um, but the Lord has put her there and she's gonna flourish and do awesome. I miss her. She brings so much to this uh to this podcast, but I'm so excited for this opportunity for her. I'm so proud of her as a young woman that's really wanting to make an impact for the gospel. I think God's given her incredible opportunity to do that. Can't wait to tell y'all about it. It's wild. It'll be cool to tell you the story. And I don't even know, I mean, I can't wait to hear the story from her when she gets back. Um but she's not back yet and won't be for a little while. So um, as soon as she's back, we'll get her back on here and uh y'all get to hear from her. But pray for her. Pray for JB in the meantime, and pray for this upcoming weekend. Uh, last thing, this weekend we have our Be Strong Men's Conference, the spring conference. So excited about it. It's the fullest, biggest one we've ever had. We've got over 500 men coming to this, and I'm stoked. I'm excited about my sessions that I'll be preparing this week. And um, yeah, I'm just excited for it. Appreciate you. Love you. Um, hope you have an awesome week. We'll talk to you soon.

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