Principles of Position Lesson 20 week 2

Well, we've been working through lesson 20. Seems like it's been a long haul, hasn't it? It's been a good one. So we left off, Mike left with I believe question 4. Does that sound right? Well in that case, thanks for coming. So the question is, what is the purpose of God's light shining on our sins?

So we've got this concept of light, we've talked about its role, and actually we've been talking about that quite a bit with the kids down in the Sunday school class and the book of John. So what does light mean in the scripture? When used in reference to, well the contrast is darkness, right? Remember the contrast that we did on the board a few weeks ago about light and darkness?

So God himself is light, right? And what does that communicate to us? Truth. Okay, truth. What's the characteristic of God that is associated with light? Or his essence, maybe? Glory. Glory, that's right. So, glory is effectively all of who God is and all of his radiant essence, right? So we use that word radiant essence.

When we see light, we see this concept of God's character, who He is, and all that He is in His glory, revealing what is darkness or not truth. We have these contrasts in the scripture of walking in the light or walking in the darkness. When you're walking in the light, you're walking in fellowship with Him, and you see truth, you see who He is. The Holy Spirit is literally present within you, convicting you and convincing you of that light, whereas the contrast to that as a believer would be walking in darkness, which would be the lack of fellowship, so not the lack of relationship. but the lack of fellowship.

And so that's what we're talking about here. And question four gets to this point. What is the purpose of God's light shining on our sins? Why is that necessary? What would it be like if we didn't have that? So, some thoughts there. Right. So there's a convicting aspect. Let me ask you this.

Is there a condemning? Does God's light condemn? I don't think so. I think he wants to reveal our sins so that we can return to fellowship. Wouldn't you say there's quite, you may have gone through this, I think I have, where you recognize the light of God's word in a situation, in a sin, in a circumstance where you know you're out of fellowship and you feel like, I just read this verse and now I feel like I'm being punished or being condemned for what I've been doing. Have you ever felt that way?

Has the light of God's word ever created a situation where you feel a little bit like you're in trouble and you're condemned and he's sitting there ready with the paddle? That's not from God. Is it not? It's not from God. Have you ever felt that way? Sure. I think that's the point. The purpose of God's light is never to stand over you in condemnation or punishment with the paddle.

God's open arms of love and acceptance are there, and his desire is that sin not be in the way of his intimate relationship with you. I think a lot of times, and Vern has said this in many instances, and it really struck me when I heard it, is that we make such a big issue of sin, and sin's a big issue, but God's concern is that sin is out of the way. He's not sitting there focusing on your sin. He doesn't want to have anything to do with that sin. He wants you. And the purpose of the light is to reveal that sin to you so that it can get out of the way in the proper way.

So just because it's revealed to you doesn't mean that you're going to be restored to fellowship. And that's what the rest of these questions are going to help us understand. But we should be very thankful that we're not left in darkness, we're not given a relationship with Him and then left to figure it out all on your own. I think a lot of believers feel that way. And every time the light makes its way into their life, into their circumstances, into their walk, they feel more condemned and punished than they should, simply because the truth of the matter is that God's love is revealing that sin to you, and literally wooing you back to himself.

Does that make sense? There's a freedom that the light gives you. What is that freedom? What's your response? I think in that article that we were to read, it's talking about assurance of our forgiveness. Let's look at the next question. I think that's a good point. So, before I move on to that, I like where you're headed with that. I think that there's the point of the light revealing sins so that they can be confessed and freely forgiven. Okay? Now, positionally, are they forgiven? They already are, right? However, what's this whole thing about praying for forgiveness? How does this work? Now, I've struggled with this for a long time too.

I think anyone that has not been introduced to the way of, or not necessarily the way, but the concept of positional versus conditional truths could see verse John 1, 9. I'll read that for you. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so the natural reaction to the young believer who does not have positional truth, has not put those concepts together in Paul's epistles, would read this and think, okay, this is a trigger for forgiveness. I am not forgiven if I am not confessing. And what does that set you out? What kind of actions do you think follow from that understanding? The wrong attitude. How so?

So I've got to get him to be not mad at me, or I might have to go through this, like, crank this crank to be forgiven. Yeah, it's like, it's kind of that whole concept of parenting based on behavioral change, right? God is convicting me of my sin, and I know that if I don't confess it, that he's not going to be faithful and just forgive us. I mean, some people could come to that conclusion, right? So now, what is confession? Confession becomes a trigger for forgiveness. And that confession in many religions, if it's even addressed, specifically like in Catholicism, it's simply an action that must be taken in order to receive forgiveness so that I can move forward. There doesn't have to be any heart involved in that. It's simply, I said something and this now has happened. So that's great.

In a situation where you misinterpret 1 John 1.9, you begin to get into this idea of, I've got to pray continually for forgiveness. The question five says, do you ever pray for forgiveness and is that an intelligent prayer? Why or why not? I pray for forgiveness a ton. A ton. Lord forgive me. Have you ever said that in a prayer? I think we've all been in that place. I think what's interesting here is that it's not so much that, again, we have the Holy Spirit who is making right the prayer before the Son, right?

And so while this question and the answer I'm about to give you could feel like, oh, what I've done for so long could be so wrong, I think it's just an opportunity to grow and learn a little bit more. I think that praying for forgiveness is You are simply looking for the effect of what your sin needs. It's like, just cover it back up and let's move on.

But the purpose of God's light revealing your sin is not that you were praying for forgiveness, but that you're heeding the Word, meaning that you want to understand what in God's Word is standing in opposition to the sin that you are struggling with. Simply knowing that it's wrong is one thing, but having God's Word present so that you understand the reasoning behind that and the truth that relates to that sin is just as important along with the confession itself. And you see that forgiveness, or the assurance of forgiveness, is the result of that. As opposed to praying for forgiveness, we heed God's Word and we confess our sins and we receive the assurance of forgiveness. That's what happens.

And so, I think the point that Miles is trying to make and that Mike has brought out in this question is that Praying for forgiveness can be a very honest way of reacting to 1 John 1. But if we compare that with other scriptures and we recognize the truth that we have already been forgiven, I think it's more accurate to recognize in this verse that forgiveness is an assurance from the confession and the time spent in God's Word revealing the sin that you're dealing with. Does that make sense? Well, what does it mean? Is that an intelligent prayer?

Okay, so I think to interpret the question, an immature prayer that's related to 1 John 1.9, so a young believer, or a believer who hasn't understood the truths that we've been talking about in this class, would say, Lord, I struggled with greed. And would you please forgive me for that? And I know you're faithful to restore fellowship to my condition and let's move on. That's a solid prayer for where you are.

The recognition though that I think Mike is trying to get us to see here is that praying for forgiveness is not what 1 John 1.9 is pointing us to. It's rather us confessing and receiving the assurance of forgiveness. Because when you confess, you can stand 100% on solid ground and know that you are forgiven, you always have been forgiven.

Assurance is something that we don't have all the time, right? Sometimes we don't feel like we're forgiven. Well, that's because there's a sin, and it hasn't been confessed, and you're not receiving the assurance of that forgiveness. Yes, you possess it positionally, but in your condition, you're not assured of it.

So a more intelligent prayer could be, Lord, I know what your word says about greed. I'm desiring something that you alone can provide for me. Money cannot supply that need for me. I confess that that's where my focus has been, and I rely on you to assure me of forgiveness. Now, do you have to say it that way? No, I hope not. I hope not either. Because those are my example words. But do you understand the concept behind what I'm saying? Feel free to hop in. Yeah.

Instead of asking, can't there be a place where you, even as a starting point, have thankfulness for recognizing that your sins have been forgiven. I mean, it recognizes that there has been a problem. But that starting point is thankful for the whole process that God put in place. Instead of asking for something you already know you have. That's right. So I think that's a good point, too. And there's another thought that came to mind that we've looked at in this class, too, with regards to 1 John 1, 9. There's the thankfulness side of things.

And in addition to that, there is, it's not who I am in Christ. focusing on who you are in Christ as opposed to who you were in your flesh. Does this make sense? So, what I mean to say here is that 1 John 1 does not give us a mad lib to fill in the blank. I'm not going to give you a statement and say, insert your sin here.

And as you start to read it, insert the truth of God's word as it relates to your sin here, and then say this and say that. This is a relationship, and this is about fellowship. But what we're seeing here is that the forgiveness is a result of confession.

And it's an assurance to you. And it's not meant to be something that you are seeking after just so that you can get things right with God and carry on and wait until the next one comes up and wait until the next one comes up and then say the same types of things over and over and over. This is a process that we've looked at in another class called, What's God Doing in the Life of the Believer, where there is conforming of who you are in Christ. There is a transforming of who you are in Christ. There is a growing, and there is a maturing, and all of that comes together in your sanctification. So God is doing something with you through this process.

And forgiveness has already been granted positionally, but you may not be assured of it conditionally. And so that's where confession comes in. In addition, sin produces a lack of fellowship with God, and your focus becomes yourself, and your walk becomes self-centered. So these questions are meant to drive through that thinking process that God has put in place in order for us to gain fellowship with Him again and continue along that path of maturing, conforming, transforming, growing. Does that make sense? And our salvation is never altered by any of this. Absolutely not. No, it's not.

Well, that bothers me where it says, is this an intelligent prayer? What if it isn't an intelligent prayer? God is going to hear my prayer, no matter if it's intelligent or what. So let me give you an example. If you were to say, hey, I don't feel like things are right between me and the Lord. Lord, forgive me. Does that restore that believer to fellowship with God?

No. So is it intelligent? No, but maybe that was the best that person could do at that time in their life. Yeah, and that's where the maturing happens, right? Right. So it's over time, as you mature and you begin to understand these truths more in depth, that you become more intelligent, scripturally, biblically.

And that's what we're just pointing out, the contrast of, we don't want to teach our children to just ask the Lord for forgiveness, and He'll forgive you and move on. That could go on for months, and they're still not in fellowship. Because that's not what 1 John 1.9 says. It doesn't tell us to go pray for forgiveness. Which brings us to the next question. How deep do we get with this confession thing? So number six. Should we admit sins in general or be specific about them when confessing? I'm not going to answer this for you. Specific. Anyone else agree? I think it should be both, right? Because sometimes it's just a general attitude. and like for me to try to go be like all the ways I was rude to my kids or didn't respond well it's more about me being restored than me trying to go like pinpoint all those things I did and focusing on my sin instead of on the Lord I think you said earlier how you know God doesn't want to He's not focused on our sins and we shouldn't be either and so we don't need to wallow in that state Let me ask you this.

Is 1 John 1.9 for you or for him? In a situation where you're a parent and your child comes up and says, I did the wrong thing. And you're like, well, what'd you do? Just forgive me. You're like, OK. I don't know what you did, but I'll forgive you. I mean, what did you do?

What that says to the parent is that there's something going on there, but they don't want to be honest enough to tell me what's going on, right? Like there's just a communication problem. It's like you're throwing some general kind of like overlaying words on something, but I don't know if you're growing through this, if you're understanding what you're actually dealing with at all, right? That's an analogy here, but I think there's something to, some thought that should be given to being honest and specific about those so that you can grow. If you're simply going through a kind of throw a blanket all over it and get it done with, like at the end of the day type thing, been there.

Are you giving yourself an opportunity to understand what it is that is maybe reoccurring in your fellowship with the Lord that's causing some of these situations? I think if we know that we have committed a sin that violates God's holiness, we should agree with him that that's what happened. And that's what confession means, right? But when it says, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, does that mean that besides the specific ones, perhaps there are those things that we have done we didn't really realize or remember and then he forgave us? I think so, absolutely.

Yeah, so this is not a rummaging through the trash with God. You know, the trash can of sin. This is a family thing we're talking about here. Between the father and his child. And so instead of making this very engineered, so to speak, or laid out in a specific order in order to be carried out and properly executed, This is a conversation that has several components, right?

It has God's light revealing and convincing you of a sin, or sins that are... Now, if you're not being convinced, or there's no sins being revealed, and yet there's something that happened and you don't know about it, is there anything to talk about? So God's light has not convicted you and revealed something to you about a sin. But when it does, when He does reveal, I think it's our responsibility in this fellowship, this relationship with our Father, to confess what we know specifically, and to recognize that the assurance of forgiveness is given.

Now, again, rummaging through the trash, this doesn't say if we confess every single one of our sins, spend a lot of time going through and calculating where and when you might have gone wrong throughout the day, or maybe it's been a month How am I going to go back through the month? I've been so self-centered for one month. How are we going to get all those confessed?"

No, that's not where this passage, I think, leads us. But in a situation where, Les, you brought up all the different times you were rude to your kids, I know that's not something you struggle with, so thanks for an example that doesn't fit. It's the attitude, right? It's not the individual instances. It's the root of the problem. And what's the root of that problem? How does God communicate the mother and father's role to the children? What does that look like, scripturally? And reminding ourselves of our relationship to our children and the privilege it is to raise them and lead them to the Lord.

The real concept here I think that I'm trying to get across is that it's not that you go through and you're looking at every single time, well I said this and I shouldn't have and I said this and I shouldn't have. No, it was the fact that I stepped, I made a decision to stop trusting the Lord with this role that He's given me and I started operating out of the flesh. And that's where I got off on the wrong foot. Does that make sense?

This is a really It's a really exciting way of thinking because this is relationship stuff. You know what I mean? Instead of going through a routine, now you're having conversations with the Lord regularly and it involves His Word because His Word is the light that shines and reveals those things. And as you continue to read, you find out, you know what?

This is an area of growth that I haven't seen for myself. And that brings up a new set of conversations of confession with the Lord. But a confession does mean agreeing with, saying the same thing as. How can you say the same thing about your sin if you don't know what God said? Does that make sense? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive.

Alright. How are we tracking so far? Good. Yeah? I think it's important regarding But it doesn't mean that you're saying that if you just happen to forget two of the ten that, oh, it's not going to work. It's just like you're going to God and you confess he comes from all. I think that. I think you're right. So, again, the specific, I think the term I like better is honest. An honesty. You're bringing honesty to the Lord in the area that you're being convicted of, right? You're calling it what it is.

You're not trying to throw some words over it and make it magically go away with some formula or some blanket statement. And confession I think the more often we understand this and we have the opportunity to go through this process with the Lord, it's not something that you, like, oh man, I gotta do that. It's like, I have the privilege of being able to sit down in prayer with my Father and go through honestly where it is that I'm lacking fellowship and trust, and I know I can be assured of that forgiveness and there's no, you know, spanking spoon being held over me. No big paddle.

It's all about getting back in fellowship and moving on in that process that He's designed for us. That conforming, transforming, growing and maturing. So where we have this concept in the Catholic faith where it's almost like a, ah, it's the confession box, you know, and you slide the door open. I think Christians have their own little analogy of that. And yeah, they don't have a little door, but I think they kind of pretend like that's the way it is.

And it's not the priest, it's God, but hey, I'm here again. Sorry. Oh, yes. Is that how you feel sometimes? No. No, I've been in the Catholic Church. Have you? Yeah. I went from Baptist to Catholic. Oh, that's right. You're one of those. I am one of those. There aren't very many of those, are there? Not really. I'm just kidding.

So she's special. You are special. You know what's really neat about that? He already knows. Oh yeah. When we go to him, we know that, you know, we're just agreeing with him. Saying, yeah, now I know. And we can go confidently without conscience. I mean, we're able to go to him and know that while we're confessing, he already knows all about it.

And it doesn't change his love at all. Yep, I think that's pretty special. This idea of asking the Lord to continue to reveal areas of our lives that we need to think through, that's how a family works, right? That's how growth and maturity works. So, let's talk about real quick with question six.

Does repentance and brokenness have a place in this whole process? So, what does repentance mean? First of all, I think brokenness, we could maybe more easily illustrate. What does repentance mean? Change of mind. Change of mind. So does a change of mind have a place in this? 1 John 1 9. What about brokenness? Well, repent has to do with change of direction to the way you're facing. I think that's the part that's important to us. Mentally. Yeah. Spiritually. Yeah.

So I think there's a place for it. The question is, do you need to change your mind and be sorrowful or broken before you confess? Or in order for it to be effective, do you need to have repentance and a change of mind and need to feel sorrowful or one or the other? I mean, where does this fit? No. No. Why? Well, because... Spray your hands on the sleeve. Yup. That's right. So, you're exactly right.

That's not what it says. There's repentance and brokenness or sorrow or any of the kinds of things that are typically related to an inaccurate understanding of repentance, meaning something to do with sorrow, rather than a simple change of mind. I do think that brokenness and repentance, as it's biblically understood as a change of mind, could have a place in this, but they're not necessary.

So, often times we do have a massive change of mind as it relates to ongoing future situations where this confessed sin is a part of your life. And brokenness by far, yes. There are so many times we come to the Lord in a broken state over our sin. Because sin brings sadness. So yeah, you might have a whole lot of sadness. And you know that you want to change your mind. Okay? So it has a place, but it's not the indication that confession has been successful. Does that make sense?

I think the important thing about all of this is that it's for us, so we feel accepted, treasured. attended to all those things that we crave. And it opens us up to all those. Maybe more than a feeling of knowledge, an understanding of that assurance, that fact, rather than a feeling? Yeah, I think I would make that differentiation as well. But I think you're right that Having our sins forgiven and being cleansed from all unrighteousness is an amazing gift, isn't it? And because of a recognition of that gift, there are many emotions that could accompany it, but not necessarily.

But there are definitely facts there that were told in 1 John 1 9. that produce an opportunity for faith, right? Faith in the facts is like the train on the tracks, and feelings follow. So, if we're confessing our sins, we're honestly acknowledging what it is that stands between ourselves and the Lord that's causing this lack of fellowship, and we're putting our trust in Him and the facts of this verse, or even potentially the facts of other verses of Scripture that have to do with your sin, Faith in those facts is like the train on the tracks. And what happens is feelings can follow. You may feel more broke for a time just because of the sadness that sin has brought to the circumstance of your life. Or you may feel, you might feel treasured and loved, which you are, but sometimes you don't necessarily feel that way. But it doesn't change the facts, right?

And I think that while I said this process is for us, It's also for the Lord, too. This is a family thing, and He is producing something in you, and I have no doubt that it delights Him to see us being sanctified, as opposed to stalling. As opposed to walking in the flesh, walking in the darkness. He's delighted with us positionally no matter what. But He still has a process for you on this earth that is based on what I've been mentioning, the transforming, conforming, growing, maturing. And yes, that's for us, but remember, our focus is not on ourselves, it's on Him, who we are in Christ. And that's the point of that light, is to point us back to that foundational relationship that we have with him and all the gifts that he's given to us, beginning with salvation, and then also the conditional joys that come with walking in fellowship with him. And by joys, I mean the rest, not the emotional representation of joy. Does that make sense to differentiate? So number seven.

How are the discrepancies between our position and our condition manifested by our many failures in growth and service? How are they taken care of? That's a big question. So we have a position and a condition, right? And at some points when we walk in sin, we have a discrepancy. Right? We're forgiven, but we've got a sin, conditionally, that is now causing us to be out of fellowship. And that produces failures in growth and in service. We stop growing, we don't care, we don't serve. How are those discrepancies taken care of? Can you say, by means of confession and cleansing of followers?

I mean, how are you going to like the descriptions of these other ones? That's a good question. What's your answer? I'll read this one to you. So, when we rest in our position in Christ, we find that we are in the light. Does that make sense? We know that our sins have been purged once for all, and therefore our conscience is cleansed. Exactly what you said.

At the same time, we are very much aware that although we abide in the risen Lord Jesus, our everyday Christian life is carried on in a sinful world. There are sins committed as we grow because we take our eyes off the Lord Jesus and foolishly rely upon ourselves. A defiled conscience and broken fellowship are the result. We also know that the remedy is to confess our sins, like you said, thereby to receive cleansing from all the unrighteousness and restoration of a clear conscience and blessed fellowship.

So that's a longer way of saying exactly what you just mentioned. Our present experience is greatly inferior to our eternal position, no matter what the stage of our spiritual growth. What does that mean? I'll read it one more time. Our present experience is greatly inferior to our eternal position, no matter what stage of spiritual growth.

Remember, condition is always moving forward to position. They will be joined at one point in time for us. So everything that's happening conditionally is moving us forward towards our position. And what we have to recognize with position is that is completed. It's already done. Thoughts? Questions?

One of the things that might be commented on here is that anything that is not of faith is sin. God has revealed that to us because I think it's vital for us to recognize that the greatest sin that we need to acknowledge is that we don't believe in about something.

And he's so patient that he will reveal by walking in the light and the spirits revealing him that we will come to trust him versus looking at our sins and being conscious, yes we're sinners, but we're conscious of them because of the contrast of who he is and what he's doing. and the intimacy that he is revealing himself to us so closely that he becomes our redemption, our cleansing. I like that. So let me put it on the board this way.

So, since it's football season, we'll say here's offense, and here's defense. Defense says, or what are the sins to be confessed? Alright? This is biblical. I think what Roy is saying is that there is a a way of thinking about the Christian life, our Christian life, as not constantly playing defense. Saying, what are the sins that I need to confess? What are the sins that I need to confess? In order to be forgiven conditionally, in order to experience and be assured of that forgiveness.

Offense says, what? How much do you feel the sin is in? What are some of your thoughts? Where do you think I'm going with this? Is it what or who? I'm working on this. It's thinking about where are opportunities of faith for me. In other words, thinking about walking according to faith. So, you mentioned everything that is on a faith is sin. Well, if you're thinking about where can I trust the Lord in your time in the Word, and your conversations with him are looking for opportunities of where would you have me trust you right now in these various situations and circumstances that I'm going through.

I think this is the attitude, maybe not in this exact statement, but this opportunity to trust him prior to even getting into this defensive position. Yeah, we get here. But do we think about this? That was last class, the faith class. It's not just that we have this mechanism of 1 John 1.9 in order to gain fellowship again. but to be thinking about our Christian lives as a faith-based fellowship. Because that's what it is. That's how you maintain that fellowship, right? Am I touching on what you're saying a little bit? A little bit.

When we think of the light and revealing sin, that's sort of the negative side, isn't it? And the light also reveals Christ. and all of his glory and essence to us. And in the process the contrast between who he is and who we were in Adam is brought out. But he doesn't make us focus on who we were, he makes us focus on who we are. In reality, in truth, beyond the lie and the false, the truth overshadows it and the darkness not only doesn't comprehend His light, but it doesn't defeat His light.

He is greater than all of that. He becomes to us everything by the work of the Father. And it's not our work. The Confession is not going to make Him greater. It's agreeing with him that makes us understand whom he is and whom he has made us to be in him. We're part of that reality. He's our head and we're part of his body. That's real. That's what's really real. Where can I trust you? Where can you do the living in my life? Where can I get out of the way? But Paul said, when he struggled with this, who can deliver me from this body of sin? I thank God. Well our offense, it seems to me like this is our offense.

That's right. And you can't do that without that. That's right. But if we just have that, and we don't have this, All you have is a book. Well, I wrote something here and I don't even know. I wrote Christ Faithful Advocacy. He's our advocate? Yep. So that means what that it's like. What does that mean? I don't even know. I wrote that down, but I'm not sure. How did you... So, did you read that from the...

You know, how are the discrepancy between position and condition manifested by our failures in growth and service taken care of? through Christ. That's right. So, Christ is our advocate, right? Yeah, okay. Right. And so, He stands before the Father, representing every single believer, positionally and completely. And I think in 1 John 1, 9, it's that faithfulness there that's talking about His advocacy on our behalf. Right. Does that make sense? Yes. Cool. All right. Good stuff guys. Yeah.

I take offense at the word intelligent in number five because we get all our... Okay, let me come at it another way. Having walked with the Lord like 60 years now, I know a lot of stuff out of that book. and I've thought about it and I've been taught over and over all the years about a lot of the same verses and so on and come to a certain understanding, but I am still in this family relationship as a child. And a child, the Lord says we have, those in heaven have to be like children. We trust him by faith and we depend upon him and we reckon and we're not scared all the time of losing that. So being able to think through all these various questions, I may not, like I got hung up back there on number five and I haven't made a lot of progress since we were there.

But... I tell you what, everybody take your pen and mark out intelligent. Okay. It's okay. Just a prayer to pray from my heart. And I have enough understanding of the word to recognize that I'm secure in the Lord because He says so. And even if I can't point to the verse, I've read it before and been taught it and I know in my heart and mind that I am secure. And that I am not perfect yet. I still have my sin nature. that that doesn't matter to him. He does the work of conforming me. He does the work of growing. He's made a commitment to me. I'm not out there on my own trying to keep a commitment to him. He will never leave me. He's in me. He's given me his mind and he's growing me up.

And I think that that generates just that rest. It generates a rest in regard to my sin. or sins that sometimes they're overt and most of the time they're not but they're there somehow and so thank you Lord that you took care of that and we can just go on growing here and having your joy. If I am at rest about my sinfulness and secure in the knowledge that I'm forgiven even if I don't remember a sin and don't confess it that I'm still secure. And that generates from me a great peace and a great thankfulness. And it says to pray with Thanksgiving, all the time with Thanksgiving.

How can we be thankful if we constantly are going, now wait a minute, in that situation, and I did this and so, and I was self-centered, and at what point now did I take my eyes off the Lord? and look at me. Can I look back and find a time and a date or a moment in this day when I stepped out of publishing? I don't believe I have to go through all that. And I do go through it sometimes. But ultimately, at the end of that thinking period, I have to just relax and say, thanks Lord. You've done it all.

No, I think, so to speak of how we find rest and joy in what the Lord has done and the security that we have in Him is all very accurate. In terms of the term here, intelligent, I think the question, and I mentioned as I read the question, we may not like that word, but I think we might say, can we be more biblical about how we think through this?

Confess does mean to say the same thing as, and so there's got to be something to be said about the same thing as. Let's not get hung up in how the trash gets ripped up and looked at. Recognize that That confession and saying the same thing as the Lord gives us an opportunity to trust Him in the areas that He has identified a sin. So we can't trust just knowing that we did something wrong. We need to trust what is the Lord said about it. And so that's your opportunity there.

As opposed to rummaging through and pinpointing times and so forth, it's more about, hey, there's a lack of focus on the Lord here, and it's produced some filthy words or something going on in my heart. And Lord, out of the heart springs the words, and my heart is you. I'm in Christ. And so I recognize that this has no place in the life of a believer, and that's not who I am.

So I just confess that and trust you with everything else. Let's go on. Let's see where this next opportunity to trust you exists because I don't want to sit here and be in defense mode all the time. Confession gives us an opportunity to focus back on the Lord Jesus and that's where our life should be. OK. Yeah.

I was reading or listening to Charlie Claw. And he was talking about how the fatherless son, the bottom line is it's not on him. My father really loves me. I can go back. And this thing about a physician meeting up with our condition. What he said was, the authority, at some point, the authority of our understanding of God's Word, or the authority of God's Word replaced the authority of self. Does that make sense? It does.

We all operate from an authority. When you're out of fellowship, who's your authority? Yourself. That's right. Every single instance of not believing the Lord has you saying you know something better than God. And it has you being your authority. So, you're right. When you're in fellowship, the authority is God and His Word. And it always has been. You've just been operating spiritually in sanity. Right? That's what it means when it says that. You actually think you know better than God. That's what your sins are saying.

Alright, let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for the authority of your word and not only can we stand firm in everything that you've said and trust the very words that you've given us, we also know that you're very intimate and personal and that you have given us your spirit to reveal the Son and we thank you that we have Lord Jesus as our advocate and that it is our reality that we are in Christ and we possess all that you possess simply because you love us and have told us so. We just pray that we continue to understand how confession works and just the opportunity it affords us to continue in fellowship and enjoy the walk that we have with you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.