Peace of Mind, Week 2: Confession Is Golden

Tim Ross | March 20, 2022

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Transcription

Tim Ross: What's up to vitamin E church. I'm so grateful that you are joining us online and I hope that you are having a great day. This is a good day because you're alive and God is in it. It's filled with purpose and I know God's going to do some amazing things for your life. We are in a series called peace of mind and we started last week. As I told you all, it has opened up a can of worms. We have had some people that walked out triggered and was like, "I'm not ready to deal with anything." You're so brave you came back and you logged back in and you're watching us. It's all good.

I do want to give you one of the people that wrote in and I just want to commend her for her bravery but I know that she represents so many people. We got a huge response from people far and near that were telling us about what this series has done already to impact their lives. Lisa Miles wrote in and this is what she said, "Yesterday--" This is the Monday after last Sunday. "Yesterday was very, very difficult for me. Even after watching your series, I found it difficult to talk it out with anybody.

I spent the majority of the day in an emotional downward spiral but MY CONSTANT COMPANION, the holy spirit told me that I really need to seek help now and break this cycle. I contacted a therapy and counseling center yesterday. Thank you so much for your transparency and willingness to lead by example as God's vessel. Be blessed cousin." I don't know if she's my cousin or not, but if she's saying cousin,-

[laughter]

-I'm hereby a cousin and uncle now. I don't know. I just got adopted into the family and it's all good. If you're like her and you've taken a brave step forward, we actually have had pastors that listened last weekend that said, "You know what, I've never gotten counseling for myself. I counsel all these other people and I haven't gotten counseling for myself. I set up a counseling session for myself."

[applause]

Let's celebrate the fact that God is already doing something. A lot of people, especially if the subject has never been broached, and honestly, there are many, many churches that don't broach this particular subject but they need to be brave enough to do so. We're not the only one but I'm grateful that we are one that understands that it's not just a preached word that's going to be what gets you where you need to be in your relationship with God. It's going to be a whole community of people that you open yourself up to that can layer on the spiritual growth that you need to receive to be the person that God has ultimately called you to be.

I had a lot of people say, "Well, last week, oh my goodness, you just ripped my heart out. Man, I guess I'll come back but dang." My response was, "I didn't even start yet."

[laughter]

Last week was prep. This week starts heart surgery. The message that I'm about to teach today, I usually teach as one message but I've broken it up into two messages because the holy spirit just let me know I need to dig deep into this. I want to give you the passage of scripture I'm going to read from and then I want to give you some context because you all know I'm a wordsmith. I used to be a rapper. I used to do spoken word. I live with words. My whole life is living with words and because I'm a literalist, the words need to mean what they mean. They can't be slang and colloquialisms. They got to mean what they mean.

I want to give you the passage then I want to give you the title. Then I want to pray. Then I want to break some stuff down and give you some points. That's just the whole thing. Y'all ready? 1 John 1:5, here's what it says, this is John writing. This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declared to you. God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. If we are living in the light as God is in the light-- oh, I'm sorry, I skipped a verse. I'm so excited about this message I'm skipping verses. We are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness.

We are not practicing the truth but if we are living in the light as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling who?

Congregation: Ourselves.

Tim: Who?

Congregation: Ourselves.

Tim: Louder.

Congregation: Ourselves.

Tim: If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth but if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. Not a little bit of it, all of it. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar.

Every time I read that, I feel the same way you just reacted.

[laughter]

That's harsh. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. Last week the title of the message was what?

Congregation: Silence is not golden

Tim: Silence is not golden. I just wanted to make sure my note-takers were in here. Silence isn't golden was last week's message. You all know I'm basic. This week's message and it's part one because it's two parts to this is confession is golden. Very, very simple. Confession is golden. Let's pray. Shall we? Holy Spirit, give us the strength to confess. Amen.

Congregation: Amen.

Tim: Now I told you I'm a wordsmith and words are very, very important to me. You have to have the right context to the word confession or this will not land the way it needs to land on you. I just want to go right off the gate just giving you some stuff to jot down. These are not my points but these are just some things I want you to jot down because I want you to have the proper orientation around the word confession, or you won't do it correctly. There's a lot of people thinking that they have confessed some stuff and they have not actually made biblical confession.

Here is the first thing I want you to write down. Confession isn't just admission, it's acknowledgment. I'm going to say that again. Confession isn't just admission, it is acknowledgment. Well, man, if I admit what I've done, isn't that confession? Admission and acknowledgment are two different things. Are we clear on that? That the word admission and the word acknowledgment are two different words. You can admit something and still not acknowledge something.

I know people that can admit that there is a God but not acknowledge that there is one true God. There are people that can admit that Jesus was actually alive but they cannot admit that He is Lord. There are some people that can admit they've done some wrong but don't acknowledge the wrong they've done. If they admit it, how do they not acknowledge it? Because they keep doing it.

[laughter]

The biblical context of confession, please write this down. Confession means, according to the scripture we just read, to say the same thing about. That's what confession is. It's not just to admit something, it's to acknowledge and agree that I now say the same thing about it as God said. Confession means that I say the exact same thing about it that God has said. That's when you are confessing for real. I'm not just admitting it. I agree with the way God sees this. This is why I cannot have this in my life.

When I gave my life to Jesus on January 14th, 1996, I was a born-again porn addict. Very religious people wit when I say that every time because they think that as soon as you give your life to Jesus, freedom. Your soul saved but this stuff here takes a little longer to catch up. I was born again and I was a porn addict but here's the reason why porn was not going to rule and reign in my life because I agreed with God about what He said about pornography. I didn't agree with psychologists. I didn't agree with culture. You're not hurting anybody. It's a struggle but it's not so bad.

You're not really wilding out having sex. You ain't got your body count up.

[laughter]

What's the issue with a little porn and a little masturbation? You need a release. You're a man. Oh, my goodness. No, I agreed with what scripture says about this particular sin. That if I look at a woman lustfully, I've already committed the sin of adultery in my heart. Because I agree with the way God sees it and says it, I was relentless in my pursuit of true freedom from the addiction to pornography because I agree with God and the way He sees it. That's confession. It's not just, I have a struggle, it's, I have a struggle and I see how this is making a disconnect between my relationship with you. I see it the way you see it, and therefore, I cannot go along with this in my life on a regular basis.

Congregation: Yes, that's good.

Tim: Let me give you some antonyms to the word confession. The opposite of confession, the antonym to confession. Not things that are similar which would be a synonym but the antonym. First one, denial, refusal, repudiation, secret, silence, that's the word from last week, Cover, disavow, I can never see the word disavow or disavow and not think about the OG Mission: Impossibles, not the Tom Cruise ones. I'm talking about the old school [singing].

Should you accept this mission, here are the parameters but if it doesn't go well, we will disavow any knowledge of you. [laughs] Which means if somebody ask us, "Do you know these people?" We will not confess that we know you. It's a disavow, but I want you to think about it, if these are the antonyms to confession, then when we do not confess our sins to God, we are in denial. We are also refusing to see it the way God sees it, which means we repudiate our relationship and start holding secrets.

If you start holding secrets, it leads to silence. In order for you to perpetuate that silence, you have to start covering. The moment you start covering, you become somebody you are not and you disavow our relationship that you have with God. It's now you start doing one of those antonyms, you become all of them. Confession is important and there's two parts to confession. There is a confession that is vertical, that's between us and God and there is confession that is horizontal. In part two, I'm going to talk about horizontal confession.

This weekend I have to talk about vertical confession. If we were not believers in Jesus, I would not be teaching this message. If we were part of a rotary club or just a little speaking session, a little group therapy and we're just going to just somehow zin to a higher power-

[laughter]

-I wouldn't even bring this up. As believers, there is a process that comes to confession. If you don't get this in agreement with God vertically first, nothing you say horizontally will matter. You can't get it right with other people and not get it right with God. There's a order to this. There was a vertical and there was a horizontal. That is the cross. There is a vertical beam and a horizontal beam. There is something from north to south, us to God, God to us and there is something east to west for us to embrace each other.

I want to talk about the verticality of confession. Three things about vertical confession. These are your three points. I want to talk to you about three things about vertical confession. Your confession to God is important. Say it with me, "My confession to God is important." Again, "My confession to God is important." One more time, "My confession to God is important." Vitamin E clickity-clack, clack, clack. Clickity-clack, clack, clack. Clickity, clickity, clack, clack, clack. Clack, clack.

[laughter]

I have rhythm so I had to. Type that in the chat, "My confession to God is important." Type it more than once. Because this has to become your mantra. If your mind is going to be free, If your mind is going to be at peace, you will never be a believer of Jesus Christ and have a wonder relationship with God if confession is not part of your life. It can't be something you do only when you're backed in a corner, this has to be a part of your lifestyle. "I confess."

There are some people that have gotten hold of a really, really ridiculous version of the grace message that feel like they don't have to confess anything because it's all under grace. Why confess it in the first place? God's already forgiven me. Confession's not for God, it's for you. He already knows what you did. Do you? [laughs] Point number one, please write this down. The first thing you need to know about vertical confession. Confession turns the light on.

We want to be lovers and livers in the light and confession turns the light on. 1 John 1:6, we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in darkness, spiritual darkness, we are not practicing the truth but if we are living in the light as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus, his Son cleanses us from how much sin?

Congregation: "All."

Tim: All sin. I have grown up in churches where the preacher was firing, "You need to come out of the darkness and live in the light." … Because I'm simple, how? Because you said that and I felt it but you just kept going and I just wanted clarity on what you said. How am I supposed to do that? The way you live in the light is by confession. That's how you turn the lights on.

The way you turn the lights on your own life and get your mind free and clear is that when you find yourself doing something that is not in agreement with what God has asked you to do, the way he's told you to live your life, you literally just say, "That's me. I need to make a confession that I'm not doing that right now." Guess what? The lights come on. The moment you turn the lights on, you can see. People that live in darkness have a bunch of stuff going on but they can't see it.

Have you ever been in your house, your own house that you are absolutely familiar with, you know that house, you can wake up at three o'clock in the morning, never open your eyes and make it all the way to the bathroom? Sit on that pot or stand over it, groggy, get it in there, get all the way back to your room, get back into bed and it's fine. Middle of the night, dark and you can navigate. You can navigate but you can't see.

I know a lot of people, believers, living in spiritual darkness that feel like because I'm navigating-

[applause]

-I'm actually seeing but you're not seeing, you're just feeling yourself around the familiarity of your life but you cannot see that there are socks on the floor, that there's a Lego right there, that your aim was bad.

[laughter]

Somebody said that you didn't wash your hands.

[laughter]

Your nasty self.

[laughter]

There's a difference between seeing something and navigating something. You don't need to see to navigate but if you are going to see, you need light. The only way you get light in your life is to confess to God what's going on with you. He already knows it anyway so why don't you just tell Him? It turns the lights on. I'm going to date myself with this reference but I grew up with the old-school commercials, Motel 6. What did they say?

Congregation: We will leave the light on for you.

Tim: We will leave the light on for you. They didn't say we will put out a spotlight for you, nor did they say we will put out a searchlight for you. They said we will leave the light on for you so you find your way out of that darkness into our light. We're not coming for you. You got to come find us. You got to walk to the light, Caroline.

[laughter]

I love this church.

[laughter]

You got to walk into the light. There is a power that comes when you choose to walk in the light. You are literally choosing not to have areas of your heart that you keep from God. He already knows what the areas are, but you won't know unless you're in the light. You'll be acting it out, but you won't be able to call it out because you can't see it. When we confess, we literally turn the lights On. Point number two, please write this down. Confession keeps us from fooling ourselves. Confession literally keeps us from fooling ourselves. 1 John 1:8 says this, if we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.

See, the biggest deception of keeping your mind from seeing and your being from seeing where you really are in your relationship with God is that you fool yourself. Before you start lying to others, you start lying to yourself. Before you start deceiving others, you start deceiving yourself. Because the longer you are staying in the darkness, the more comfortable and accommodating you make the darkness. Then we actually start to act like the darkness is really light.

We are living in the generation and the culture now where, I'm talking about believers. We are so shocked when we find out, "aah" Did you hear about what so and so did? "Aah." Did you hear what hit the news about so and so? "Aah." Everybody's so shocked. It's disappointing to me, but I'm not shocked anymore because I've read scripture. I know exactly how people get there. I'm a dad, and so all dads-- I won't even have to say what I'm about to do. I'm going to just do it.

[laughter].

That's all we do.

[laughter].

Is manage electricity.

[laughter].

It's two o'clock in the afternoon, fool. Why is this light on?

[laughter].

Why is your closet light on-

[laughter].

-two o'clock in the afternoon? Open the blinds, fool.

[laughter] [clapping].

I can't tell you how many people I know have walked through the corridors of their own soul. They didn't start off turning off the lights, but once you get comfortable with one dark corner, it's too bright in here. The Lord can see everything. It's too bright, but the Lord can see it even in darkness. You can't see it without the lights on. Really, it's too bright in here is, I don't want to see this as vividly anymore. Turn those lights off. Let me set the mood. Let me turn these lights down low. Before you know it, low turns into darkness.

I've had several of my peers in ministry that I love, friends of mine who have had to step down from their churches, wound up in scandals. I know they didn't get into ministry to-- nobody gives their life to Jesus and they're like, "Can not wait to embarrass the kingdom of God one day. Whooo. Can't wait to grow this church real big and really have a name and a presence out there for Jesus and then just embarrass everybody." Nobody gets into ministry to do that. It doesn't happen overnight.

I would keep this on because I would stay accountable in that. No, I don't really need to. I've been okay. Haven't done it in like six months, so I'll just turn it off. If I keep all the lights on, dang, nobody needs to see everything all the time. Before you know it, the enemy is like, "Yay, [claps] dim the lights. Now turn them off. Now navigate. You. Okay. You know the scriptures, just navigate. You're just going through a dark season." No, you turned the lights off and when you got caught, you said it was a dark season.

To be sincere about one's life is actually taken from two Latin words and I've been studying Spanish, so this got me super, super hype. [Spanish language]

[laughter]

"Sine" means without. "Cera" means wax, sine cera. In Roman times when a sculptor would make a marble statue or some type of marble object, if there were cracks or flaws in the design or in the pattern as they were making it if they were less than integral, they didn't have character, they would fill in those cracks with wax. Because it was marble, once the wax is smoothed into the marble surface, it's hard to see the cracks and the flaws that are in this particular piece of marble.

They would get away with it up until the object that they made was sitting in the sun for a while. Once the light from the sun stayed on that particular object for a long time, the wax would begin to melt When the wax would begin to melt, people would know, oh, I got tricked into thinking that this was something that it's not. Do you know how many people are living their lives with wax? That instead of being able to call out their flaws and say, "God is still working on filling this in for me with more marble, character, and integrity." That literally what they have waxed on is melting off under the light of God's word.

We see these people that love God, and they're in ministry, and you can see man, they look a little melty. Well, the character and integrity is not there, and they've just been trying to fill it in with wax. They are not sincere about the way they've been living their life. Well, I'm here to tell you that you don't have to live your life with these cracks. If you would just confess where you are because you do know, He knows. You're not going to shock God. Like, "Hey Lord, oh man. Ooh. I know you're going to be disappointed. I know. This thing right here."

God's like, "[claps] Thank you. I saw that when you were born. I couldn't wait for you to identify that, to let me in, to acknowledge that this is something that needs to be fixed. Because I'm here to help." Point number three, please write this down. Confession cleanses us. Here's the verse, 1 John 1:9, but if we confess our sins to who to?

Congregation: Him.

Tim: To who?

Congregation: Him.

Tim: To who?

Congregation: Him.

Tim But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness, He doesn't just forgive us. He cleanses us. That cleansing is so important because forgiveness is so something that we thank God for, but there is nothing like having a clean conscious. When you're not walking around guilty. When you're not walking around with all this condemnation. Why? Because I still got something I'm holding onto and I don't want to put it all out there. He cannot cleanse what you do not speak on.

Until you can put it into words, [claps] He can't do anything with it. I am desperate to produce a church and a group of believers that can come down when it's time to get some help. Before God and man, vertically and horizontally say, "This is what I'm dealing with because I want my mind clean. I want my conscious clear." When I put my head on the pillow, [claps] I want to go to sleep. I'm tired of living in the dark trying to remember my lies." Abraham Lincoln said, "If you're going to be a liar, you better have a good memory."

Because to keep up with all that stuff, where were you? Huh?

[laughter]

I called you four times. Oh. Well, I was with Marcus. I called Marcus. There was an accident on 6:35. I came home the same way. There was no accident. Oh.

[laughter]

That's a lot to keep up with fam. Confess. Why? Because I want to be forgiven and I want to be cleansed of my righteous. When we make that confession before God, He can help us. He can literally go, "Okay, [claps] I'm so grateful you said something now. I can do something with this." I carried secrets from 8 to 19. That was the secret of my sexual abuse. Then I carried secrets again in my 20s with pornography and all that stuff I was dealing with because from 8 to 19, I was afraid of losing my parents.

If I say that this dude abused me, my mama going be heartbroken. My daddy going to kill him and my brother going to bury the body. I was eight thinking this. Just think about if you have a small child around that age, that's torture. I grew up thinking vulnerability was dangerous because it was going to hurt the people I love and kill the people I hated. None of which I wanted, but that's what was trapped in. I've been able to replace that lie because the enemy love, "Oh yes, that's right. Don't say. Don't share nothing because all it's going to do is mess everything up."

Now I understand that I'm responsible for telling the truth, I'm not school for people's reactions.

[applause]

This is why we confess to God first because He's going to forgive us and cleanse us. Let me tell you something. I need to help some people in this room. People are not going to respond to your confessions the way God does. You cannot try to guilt them into doing it. "Well, God forgave me. Why can't you?" They ain't God, God's literally built different. [chuckle] He can handle stuff in a way that other people cannot handle. When you confess that to God, you're like, "Thank you for cleansing me. Thank you for your forgiveness." You feel so light and you come skipping out.

[laughter]

You're about to share this news with your spouse or your children or your family and friends and they did not have the same reaction as God. You're like, "I don't understand. What's the big deal? I'm free now."

[laughter]

You're free now, they're hurt now. If you don't give them permission to grieve the person they thought you were--

[applause]

Don't be mad at them because they're now disappointed and heartbroken based on the character you've been portraying for the last nine years. Now that they know the truth, they have to go process, and then now they got to get this counseling session too because they got to try to deal with, "Well, who have I been with the last nine years? Who I've been attached to. I'm happy and I'm hurting." Two things can coexist at the same time. We need to get a lot of butts out of our narrative and learn to integrate the negative realities of the situations that we're going through. This is happening and this is happening.

I still love you and don't touch me.

[laughter]

I don't want to hug you right now. I'm going to stay, but eww.

[laughter]

It's real talk because everybody's quick to label everything canceled now. In a cancel culture, we're quick to label every-- "You just go cancel me?" Everything's not about being canceled. Some stuff is about just processing the context. "I'm not canceling you, but I'm confused by you. You've been lying?" "Yes, I was a liar and God showed me that I'm lying and I'm free now, yey." Trust has been broken. God can throw it into the sea of forgiveness, but I live in Dallas.

[laughter]

All we have is a few manmade lakes around here-

[laughter]

-and the closest beach is about four and a half hours away and it's dirty. No disrespect to my Houstonians, but that's a dirty beach. I'm just going to need some help processing what you've just told me. If you'll just give me some time I can come back, but this is a lot. This is why if you just live in the truth and in the light up front, you can tell people where you are right then because if they find out later after your wax melts, thank you, Holy Spirit, I'm going to help somebody. Some people would've made a different decision if they knew you prior to the wax you put on.

You cannot blame them for taking some time to pray and carefully figure out if they want to be with who you really are. That's the consequence of your lie, not their inability to forgive. Now I needed to say that.

[applause]

What does confession look like, Tim? How should I do it? I'm going to say the same thing that God says about it, absolutely, but you need to put it in detail. It's not enough to just say it, agree with it, but you need to call it like He calls it. Do you see it like He sees it? Can you explain it like He explains it? I told y'all prior, the reason why I am not a porn addict is because of what God says about it. Let me tell you the truth. Some of y'all might pass out and not even come back next week, you might leave now.

[laughter]

I like porn. This here, I started consuming it, using it when I was 12. My flesh loves porn. When I gave my life to Jesus, my soul got saved. My flesh did not. My flesh is still every now and then like, "Bro,-

[laughter]

-what are we doing today?"

[laughter]

After you read your Bible and after you listen to your worship music and after you chill out and jubilee and learn your little Spanish and all the kind of--

[applause]

What else are we doing today? I know you love your wife and she beautiful and all that kind of stuff and blah, blah, blah, but after that,-

[laughter]

-what are we doing today? I'm trying to help y'all.

[applause]

-because I already know this is going on. Because most time, a pastor or a preacher won't say it because they too busy trying to protect themselves. I ain't got nothing to protect. You know why? Lights on.

[applause]

I'm telling you right now, your pastor lives with the lights on, all of them. Click, click, click, click, click, click, clickety, click, click, click, click, click. I live with the lights on. Please don't get it misunderstood. I hope nobody takes the seven seconds of, "I like porn," and turns it into some meme, and I wind up on Church Milk, "I like porn. I like porn. I like porn." "Your pastor likes porn. Embassy City's pastor likes porn. Christian Today, "Pastor likes porn".

[laughter]

Y'all listen to the whole message and stop listening to 20 seconds of it, and you'll get the whole thing.

[applause]

Let me get back. Let me get back. Let me get back. A little LA coming out now. I need to. You breathe deep. My flesh likes porn, a lot. I trained it to. Duh. Can't do nothing for 10, 15 years, and then quit and think that you're not going to have no severe reaction to it? My flesh likes it. God doesn't. And because God doesn't, I don't, not because I don't. If you went to your doctor and your doctor said, "You're one cake away."

[laughter]

You all know I'll be coming for you all. I try to get it right where you are. If your doctor came to you and said, "You are one cake away from getting your leg amputated," and you like playing kickball, and the leg that's going to get amputated is the kicking leg. If the doctor said, "You're one cake away from getting your leg amputated, stop eating cake," you would stop eating the cake, not because you don't like cake, you want your leg. You have so much discipline not eating that cake. Wow, you've really changed your life. No, I just like my leg more than I like the cake. I like the cake, man. Had my first piece at Tofu. I like cake. It's not the cake, it's the fact I like my relationship with God more than I like pornography. I'm not going to lie and say I don't like it, because that's just going to cause dissension in my body. My body knows I like it.

Me confesses, "Oh no, don't confess that, it'll grow." No, no. When I confess, I get healed. I'm set free when I confess. You all be lying to yourself, that's why you're still in the dark. That's why I'm trying to help you. Just tell the truth about what it is, God already knows, and so does Satan. So does Satan. Eve never said out loud, "I love that tree I would love to eat it." She just looked at it long enough that Satan just kept on looking at, "What she looking at?"

[laughter]

I'm going to talk to her about that fruit. She's looking at it long enough. I just need to give her permission to do it. "Did God now say you could not eat of every tree?" That's how the conversation started. Who starts a conversation like this? Imagine being in the grocery store. You know I got an example for everything. Imagine being in the grocery store and you're waiting in line, and somebody just walks up behind you and says, "How come you can't have the apple pie?" "Sir, I don't even know you. I hadn't had a privy conversation. Why are you?" "Well, I saw you looking at the pies for 20 minutes, and then you walked away. How come you can't have no pie?" "Well, the doctor said it." It's not just about confessing what it is if you can't describe what it is to you.

Joshua 7. Let me set it up for you really, really quick. The first battle of Joshua and the Israelites is? Is? Jericho. Okay? Joshua fought the battle at Jericho, Jericho, Jericho. Joshua fought the battle at Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down. Some of you know that. The first battle was at Jericho. The second battle, that was a major battle. Jericho was straightly shut up, and God gave them a victory after they walked around it and the walls fell.

The second battle was against Ai. Ai, light work, really small territory, they didn't even send the whole nation after them, they send like two tribes, "Go get them," and they lost the battle. Joshua could not understand it, "How do we lose this battle?" He goes and prays to the Lord, and the Lord says, "There's sin in the camp. Somebody in your community sinned and it cost all of y'all the victory."

I hate this. Achan is the guy that sinned, and I'm going to read it to you in a minute, but I just got to acknowledge that I hate this for Achan and for what he put the whole community through, because when you know you are in sin but you live in the dark, it's hard for you to step into the light without confrontation. This is why I want confession to become such a normal part of your life because I'm tired of people having to get pushed into a corner before they tell the truth.

Now, we got to go get your computer and get an FBI digital forensic scientist to go pull up stuff that you tried to erase, and then we got to get four years of your text messages back and forth to see if you lying about-- Just tell the truth. Stop. Especially when you know you did it, but now we're doing all this work, at the end you'll be like, "Yes, I guess you caught me."

[laughter]

You know how much time we could have saved you to just say this up front? But when you're in darkness, you have to be pulled out, most times. Most people don't just walk out, they have to be pulled out. I want to show you this because Joshua and the whole nation had to do this whole American-Idol-type search to get down to Achan. Here's what it says, "Early the next morning--" This Joshua 7:16.

"Early the next morning, Joshua brought the Tribes of Israel before the LORD, and the tribe of Judah was singled out. Then the clans of Judah came forward and the clan of Zerah was singled out. Then the families of Zerah came forward and the family of Zimri was singled out. Every member of Zimri's family was brought forward, person by person, and Achan was singled out." Now, can you just imagine this whole situation? Achan knows the whole time it's him, but he lied, just in case.

[laughter]

Millions of people out there, "This fool." "Out of all the 12 tribes and now Judah." "Okay, well." "Now Zimri." "I don't like that." "Now Zimri. Now every person individually." "Foolish you." Here's what Joshua says. Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, by telling the truth. Do you not know that telling the truth brings glory to God?"

You ever want to bring glory to God? You don't need to shout. You don't need to be like doing all this in worship, [simulates] especially over a lie. Don't do all this over no lie. Put your hands down, confess, then put your hands back up. He sees it anyway. That's all I'm trying to tell y'all. Give glory to God by telling the truth. "Make your confession and you all get that, please notice that, "Make your confession and tell me what you have done. Make your confession and tell me what you have done."

I need you to come into agreement with what God says about it, and tell me exactly what you've been doing. Well, God already knows, but do you? Because you can't get free until you know what you're dealing with, and you don't know what you're dealing with until you can say it. I know exactly what my weaknesses are because I can say them. "Well, I've been struggling with stuff." All generic. I have been at altar calls and people come down, "I just want to confess. I've been struggling with some things." Like, "What is it?" "Well, you know, just, it's between me and God and whatever the Lord will show you as you pray." "No. You know what it is. Say it. You say it." Because until you say you won't be free.

The reason why I'm free from porn is because I know porn is an addiction in my life that I needed to be free from. I can't just be generically like, "You know what, I'd be listening sometimes." I hear wiling out. One guy tell me, "You know what? I got a problem with lust sometimes." Found out six months later, "No, you have a whole woman on the side. You have a rib, which is your wife, but then you got some spare ribs."

[laughter]

Where did spare ribs come from, son? It's not a good look. Because he couldn't name what this was, he wound up in a whole affair, a whole one, being generic about what he was really trying to help. Don't hide it from me. Achan replied, "It is true. I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel." Thank you, Achan. This is confession right here. That's confession. Confession. Whoo. He's already giving glory to God. Let me tell you what, Achan. It's commendable in my eyes. The very next thing he says is, "Among the plunder, I saw a beautiful robe from Babylon 200 silver coins and a bar of gold weighing more than a pound. I wanted them so much that I took them. They are hidden in the ground beneath my tent with the silver buried deeper than the rest." Because whatever is at the bottom is what you love the most.

Well, he said after the first service. He said it makes me think about the phrase differently, I love you from the bottom of my heart. Because whatever is at the bottom is what you love the most. Thank you, Holy Spirit. There's some people you confess some stuff that's at the surface but what you love is at the bottom. Until you can move the blanket and the gold and all that stuff and pull up what's at the bottom. "This is what I love the most. I love my anger the most. I need to tell you about my anger, Lord. I love it the most. I love this little secret thing I've been doing. I love this one the most. I know I gave you going out. I stopped clubbing but this is my precious."

[laughter]

Until you can come with that one, you're not ready to live in the light. I'm telling you as a former secret keeper who lived in silence, repudiated by relationship, disavowed at times, depending on the place I was at, someone who was silent and in denial, when you can get down to the bottom and show God what that is, freedom is yours. I want everybody to experience that level of freedom because I want everybody to have their mind that-- You want real peace of mind? Start really confessing your sin.

The last thing and I promise I'll shut up. I thought about doing an experiment. Just stuff comes to my mind and I'm like, "I can't logistically even get that out." I wanted everybody to wear white to church. All white, because subconsciously you move different when you have on all white. You put on an all-white outfit the way move you like, "Mm-hmm, let me just--"

[laughter]

"Hey, man. Hold the door open. It's a little dirty. I just want to--" You try not to brush up. Anybody ever wore all-white? You try not to brush up on something. Your self-consciousness is just elevating. You're like, "Just to make sure I'm not dirty." You ever got through a whole day and then sit down? "Oh, I don't even remember? Is that Great Jimmy…? Where was that with some grapes?"

If you ever get asked a question, "Is there any sin in your life?" And your answer is no, you're wearing the wrong color. The stain is there. You just decided to wear a color where it wouldn't show up. When I go to my prayer closet and I get ready to pray, none of you come up. None of y'all. I don't get in my room, "Hi, Lord, I'm before you. Lights are all on." The Lord doesn't go, "Seventh row. The girl with the fluorescent blouse. She got some sin in her life so next week preach this." That has never happened in the history of the 26 years I've been preaching.

When I give before the Lord with all the light on, here's what happens. The Lord goes, "Do you see that?" I say, "Yes, Sir. I see it." "It's right there, huh?" "Yes, it is right there." "That is great jelly, Lord, and I didn't even eat it." I was just around some people that like grape jelly and I got comfortable in the conversation and before I know it some of that grape jelly was on me. … I don't like no grape jelly. Lord goes, "You confessed that I can cleanse that. It'd be like that spot was never there." I go to sleep at night because my consciousness free, but if I don't tell the truth about where I am, then I start looking down on others because I don't want to see me.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is part one of confession is golden.

[applause]

Remember, this is all vertical and we'll deal with horizontal in two weeks. Bow your head. Close your eyes I want to pray for you. Thank you for allowing me a little extra time to get through this. I needed to get all of this out. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you? What is the Holy Spirit showing to you? I promise you if he's pointing out something, it's not to condemn you, it's not to make you feel guilty, it's not to make you feel bad. I promise you.

Anytime the Holy Spirit points something out it's because He loves you. I would hate to be walking through half my day with a booger on my lip and nobody was kind enough to tell me, "Hey, man, you got something right here," or, "Hey, here's a napkin." You ever went to the restroom, looked in the mirror, and thought to yourself, "Nobody was going to tell me that I had spinach in my teeth? That I had a chrome on my lip?"

I promise you, if you ask the Lord, He'll show you. Most people don't want to know so they never ask. They get in God's presence and just start talking about all the stuff they want. "Lord, give me the promotion. Lord, give me the breakthrough. Lord, heal me. Lord, fix it," but you want to fix it without ever acknowledging it. This is a grow-up series. The only reason why the Lord would allow me to teach this series is because you're ready to grow up. You're off the milk and you need some meat. If you're going to be a strong believer, not just a churchgoer, you're going to have to put in some work.

That's what I'm here to do. I'm here to help you grow. I've already done it. This is the only reason why I'm teaching. I would never tell you to do something I haven't done but I've done it so you're going to do it too or you're going to find a church where you can just stay on some milk. Your choice, not mine. This is the Lord's church. He's going to grow it. I'm begging nobody to stay here. You figure out if you want to grow or not.

Jesus, thank you for some growers. Thank you for some meat-eaters. Thank you for some believers in Jesus that want to live with the lights on. God, we confess that we have sin in our lives, that we have thoughts, that we have ways, that we have wills, that we have inclinations and leanings that, oh my goodness, they're so gross because you said so. They're so bad because you said so. We like them but you hate them so I guess we got to stop, but we can't do that with little power, we need your power to do that.

You told us through the apostle Paul's writings that your strength is made perfect in our weakness, so we're not even trying to present ourselves as strong, we're coming weak, knowing that when we come in our weakness, you make us strong. Father God, thank you for making us strong. Give us the strength that we need in this season of our lives to be who you have called us to be. We confess to you knowing that you are faithful and just and will forgive us and cleanse us from all weakness. In Jesus' name, Amen.