Video Transcript: Coming Clean ... The Power of Confession (Max Lucado)

Video Transcript: Coming Clean ... The Power of Confession (Max Lucado)

Jean  

Hey, today we have a very special guest with his 25 years ago I think it was I read my first Max Lucado book and have read I can't even tell you how many since then. And Max is just a prolific author and teacher and pastor from San Antonio, Texas who has been stretching my life. And millions of followers of Jesus around the globe and millions of people who aren't followers of Jesus have found him because of the writings and teachings of Max and his ability to communicate in just very unique and storytelling ways. was about 20 years ago, I got a call from Max one day we we'd never met and like Max Lucado calling me you know, surely there I thought it was a friend playing a joke on me or something, you know. And Max asked me if I come down to San Antonio and spend a couple days with their, their church board down there. They're leaders, I'm kind of a retreat setting. And, and that was the first time we met. And we've just been friends over the years, ever since. And he's agreed to be a part of our unhooked series that we're in finding relief from vices and addictions. And that you know what, we're not paying him a dime to be here. He just came to us he wanted to serve East side. So we'd like you really bless him and thank him as he comes today to share with us.

Max Lucado  

Well, that's not entirely true. Jean did buy me dinner. This must be an exciting time to be an East sider. Wow, what a stunning history you have as a church, but an exciting future you have. Congratulations, congratulations. I know. I'm looking into the faces of many people who have given years and years of service to this church and offered countless prayers on behalf of this church, may you feel God's blessing in the reward her inheritance for the service that you've rendered. I'm also looking into the faces of people whom God is going to use to usher this church into an exciting new chapter. Building on the past, looking into the future, I really sense that your best days lie ahead of you, in this new facility you have is just going to be such a blessing. I wish I could be here that first weekend in November just to see your expressions. When you walk in, you have so much elbow room and relaxation. The chair is going to kick back do you have there you'd be able to prop your feet up, maybe have a remote control. And when the preacher spoken enough, you can just say, that's what you need in it. That's what my church boy, they tell you what the folks at Oak Hills, I've been there for 24 years. They're so glad when I travel. They've had enough of me. I'll tell you what, I know you're never good enough at Jean. I think there's a probably a short list somewhere of really strategic leaders for this generation that the Lord has, has blessed our kingdom with and Jean is certainly one of those and you're in good hands. I love your pastor, and I love the direction it is heading.

Max Lucado  

I hope you don't treat him the way my church treats me. They're so heartless. One time I was preaching and right in the middle of a sermon. A fella got up and started walking out right in the middle of the message. I can't tolerate that. I stopped everything. I said Sir, where are you going? He said I'm going to get a haircut. I said well, why didn't you get one before you came in? He said I didn't need one before I came in. And then not long ago this youngster came up to me after the service. 13 14 year old kid. He said that was the worst sermon I've ever heard, I know. Then he came up to me the next week he said I was I was wrong last week.

Max Lucado  

I went to our elder board I said you got to do something about this kid. He's He's discouraging me. They said oh don't pay any attention man, he just repeats what he hears. And then not too long ago I went in one of our restrooms we have those hot air. Hand dryers you know I'm talking about you hit the button and a burst of hot air comes down. On one of those someone had written a note on a sticky note and put it on the hairdryer for a brief message from our pastor hit this button. Not really, not really, It's a great church, it's a great church. And if you're ever in San Antonio, please, please come by and see us. I'd love to see you. I think we have a kindred spirit in our congregations and we rejoice with you in what is happening here. I'm very grateful to be a small part in this very important series called unhooked unhooked. Just saying goodbye to these vices to these habits to these chains that pull us down. I I would imagine, I cannot imagine anyone who could not relate to the desire to be unhooked. I struggle just like everybody else with peculiar proclivities, some I think that I've inherited some that I've developed, and often asking the Lord to help me. I have a real proclivity for beer. I like beer. I like everything about beer. Ever since my high school buddy and I drink ourselves sick.

Max Lucado  

On a case of Coors of light beer, I like the way it washes down pizza. I love the way it mutes the spice of enchiladas. And it goes great with a bag of peanuts at a baseball game, seems an appropriate way to crown 18 holes of golf. Out of the keg out of the tap out of the bottle out of the frosty mug didn't matter to me. I like it. Too much. Alcoholism is a blight on our family tree I can remember at the age of 10 or 11. My father taking me to two different rehab centers to visit two different siblings of his who were in treatment for alcoholism. My dear brother bless his heart, he's gone on to heaven now three years older than I he was in and out of three different rehabs in three different states lost countless jobs in two marriages due to alcohol. And then the story continues for different relatives in our family. I came to understand early though I don't think I understand everything about the disease of alcoholism, but it sure has an infected and affected our family. So when I became a follower of Christ, I was 20 years of age. And as soon thereafter about the age of 21, I just decided, you know, I'm gonna swear it off. Just be wise for me to swear it off. I really differentiate between drinking and drunkenness and I decided in my case that the drinking would likely lead to drunkenness and never made a big deal out of my abstinence. 

Max Lucado  

I didn't really announce it. And I've never made a big deal out of someone else's indulgence but just in my case, it made sense for me to quit besides I was a seminary student and then I was a minister in Miami Florida for three years, and then we moved to Brazil I was a missionary for five years, and and then I was back in San Antonio Texas 24 years and counting now and so it just didn't seem right you know a man of the cloth done chum with Heineken products. And so, so I didn't until a few years ago something resurrected my cravings not sure what it was maybe it was just too many commercials. Too many baseball games, maybe too many Episcopalian friends. I don't know quite likely it was just thirst you know that if you've been to South Texas in August or September, it can rage like a range fire there and at some point I reached in to the convenience store. What do they call that refrigerator, Ice Box whatever and I was reaching for a soda and out came can have a can of beer and almost as quick as you could pop the top I was I was hooked again. And so I became a once in a while then once a week and then once a day beer drinker but I kept it quiet.

Max Lucado  

I had an image to protect. I didn't drink in public less somebody see me. I didn't drink at home. I have three daughters. I didn't want them to see me. So we're deadly. I mean, what do you do if you don't drink in public you don't drink at home but you want to drink? I'm not proud of this. But for its short time, I was that guy sitting in the car in he convenience store parking lot, drinking out of that can that was in the brown paper bag.

Max Lucado  

I don't know what resurrected my cravings but I really remember what stunted them. I was going to a men's retreat of all things. Our church was having a men's retreat. In route to the retreat, I passed a convenience store. And my thought was, well, I'm on the other side of town, no one will see me over here. So went in, made the purchase, put it in the brown paper bag, put it down by my leg, walked out real quickly jumped in the car and sat down and felt such a stab of conviction. Just almost a nausea. What have you become? I had become a hypocrite, a pretender. You probably hate hypocrisy as much as or maybe more than I do.

Max Lucado  

But that was living one way in public living another way, in private. It really wasn't the beer, it was the cover up. Right? It was the hip hop. It was the pretense. I'd written sermons about people like me. And so I felt this embarrassment. And I remembered what to do. I'd written sermons about that, too. I thought of this verse. That's a treasured one for me. It's in first John chapter one. If we say we have no sin, we're fooling ourselves, the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He will forgive our sins. Because we can trust God to do what is right and he will cleanse us. From all the wrongs we have done confession leads to cleansing. Confession leads to cleansing if we confess our sins, we can trust God to do what is right now, when I say the word confession, I'm wondering what images come to your mind.

Max Lucado  

Maybe they're not positive. Maybe you have a picture of a backroom interrogation with jack Bauer and 24. Trying to pull a confession out of somebody. Maybe your background would make you think of admitting your dalliances to a person who's sitting on the other side of a black curtain and a confession booth. Maybe when you think confession, you think walking and standing in front of a church and saying something or sitting in a therapy group. What is what is confession?

Max Lucado  

Well, we know this much confession is not telling God something he doesn't know. Right? We can't tell him anything he doesn't know. When we confess he didn't say, Oh I didn't know that. Nor his confession blaming. confession is not just my parents fault. I was potty trained to early, live next door to a jerk. That's not confession. That may be true, but it's not confession. confession is not complaining. It's not whining. Laugh is hard. My bosses is mean. That's not confession. What is confession? Well, really confession is coming clean with God. It's a radical reliance on the grace of God. It's a deep seated belief that what I'm doing is wrong. But God is greater than my sin. And I'm going to acknowledge it.

Max Lucado  

Confession is a belief that God's grace is sufficient, not just to forgive me, but to also change me. That's why the understanding of grace is so important in confession. Because if you think God's grace is small, then your confessions are going to be rare, and they're going to be shallow. They're going to be heads with excuses and qualified with hesitations. But if but if you believe that God's grace is great, then your confession is going to be honest, no secrets, no pretense, because you're going to trust that God's grace is sufficient to bring you for forgiveness and cleansing. The Bible is full of famous confessions, the prodigal son remember when he came home to the Father. He said, Father, I've sinned against Heaven and I've sinned against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. That's a confession. Jesus told us about a tax collector he saw praying and, and the tax collector said, God be merciful to me, I'm a sinner. It's just a sentence of confession. Maybe the most famous confession in the Bible is the confession given by King David remember him in the Old Testament. 

Max Lucado  

Though it seems like it took him forever to get to the point where he was willing to offer the confession. Just a quick review of of his stumbles. Stupid decision number one he didn't go to war with his soldiers when he should have he stayed at the castle with Tom on his hand and romance on his mind. And one day he was on his balcony and he looked out and he saw Bathsheba taking a bath. I wondered if that's where she got her name. Bath Sheba bathing, a bathing beauty. Stupid decision number two, he sent his chauffeurs to pick up Bathsheba and bring her to his castle to his palace to his room where he had sprinkled rose petals on the floor. Had a little bottle of champagne chilling in the corner. And he woo her and romanced her and several weeks later, she got in touch with him and said. Hey, I'm pregnant. And the baby is yours. stupid mistake. Number three, four and five. He deceived Bathsheba's husband he murdered him. And then he behaved like he hadn't done anything. This is the guy The Bible says, was a man after God's own heart. But boy, this is a season of his life, in which he was plagued with denial. And he lived with the weight the weight of this unresolved rebellion, for over a year.

Max Lucado  

He would look back over on this time in which she was trying to keep this secret a secret. And here's how he described the consequence of unconfessed sin. When I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable. And I groaned all day long. You ever feel weak and miserable? Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me my strength evaporated, like water in the summer heat, he felt anemic he he felt tired. It's interesting to me the correlation between the spiritual and the physical here. He came to see that his secret sin was really no secret at all. Again, later he wrote, oh, Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Your arrows have pierced me your hand has come upon me. There's no Look at this. No health in my body. My bones have no soundness because of my sin. My wounds fester in our load some because of my sinful falling. My back is filled with searing pain. 

Max Lucado  

There's something about this suppression of sin suppression of rebellion that causes us to have a physical reaction. He says My back is filled with pain. My bones ache. There's something about that that causes him and causes us to feel it physically. Some years ago, just a couple of years ago, I came across the most interesting story of a man in China by the name of Lee Fuyong and Mr. Fuyong had tried every treatment imaginable for his throbbing headaches, but nothing helped. Finally, an X ray revealed the culprit. Turns out that a rusty four inch blade had been buried in his head. He was attacked by a robber, he thought his jaw was broken. 

Max Lucado  

Turns out that the that the thief had come at him with a knife and when he did, the handle broke off and the blade stayed in his head for four years. No wonder he was in pain. You know, we can't live with foreign objects in our bodies, or our souls. Here's a good question. What would an X ray of your interior reveal? What's done in there that we can't see? Regrets over a teenage choice? Remorse over a bad relationship maybe shame about the marriage that didn't work or the habit you couldn't quit or the temptation you couldn't resist? guilt has a way of lying hidden beneath the surface, festering irritating. Sometimes it's so deeply buried that even we don't know it's there. In the memory of my childhood. I remember reading a book, maybe you'll remember this it was called The Princess and the Pea.

Max Lucado  

Sound familiar? And is this simple story, a childhood story of a princess who couldn't go to sleep, because there was something beneath the mattress and it kept bothering her turns out, it was just a pee, a tiny pee, but she could feel it beneath the mattress. You know what she did, she put another mattress on top, and then another mattress. And by the end of the book, there's like 19 mattresses, and she's climbing up on a ladder. She tried to go to sleep, but she can still sense that tiny little object down. Even as a kid we're gonna reach in there and pull out the pea. Confession is the extraction of that object in the surface of your soul, this causing you to feel unrest? I believe the Holy Spirit says, you know, we can pull that out. You don't have to cover it up. David came to offer this prayer. Search me O God. Know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties. See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. I would encourage you to consider praying this prayer before the end of the day.

Max Lucado  

Just go Lord, search me. Search me. Show me Are there any wicked ways in me something that you and I have not dealt with and not talked about? You see, not only does he save us, but he said he sanctifies us he changes us and he he makes us happier, the more fruitful, joyful, productive people and part of that is extracting these mistakes out of our past. Maybe we need a grace base confession like David's he finally came to acknowledge what he had done in the result is the the poet of the Old Testament wrote this beautiful prayer in Psalm 51. He said God be merciful to me because you are loving because you're always ready to be merciful and wipe out all my wrongs. wash away my guilt. Make me clean again. I know about my wrongs, I can't forget my sin. You are the only one I sinned against. I have done what you say is wrong. You are right. When you speak and fair when you judge, he's waving the white flag. No more combat no more arguing with God. He said, let's just let's just come clean about that. What about you, your moment might look something like this. It's bedtime. The pillow beckons. But there's something in your conscience that just won't let you go to sleep.

Max Lucado  

You gotten an argument that day with a coworker. Words were exchanged names were called accusations were made tacky, tacky, tacky, behavior. The old you would have just suppressed it, pressed it down. Denied that you had anything to do with it. The old you would have just placed that argument in an already crowded cellar of ugly moments with people. Just forget it. But you're not the old you anymore. Grace is happening to you. Jesus has washed your feet. He's come at you like the Pacific Ocean of kindness. Just wave upon wave. And you're sensing in your heart. The way to deal with this is not to hide it, but to talk about it. And so you take a few moments before you go to bed and you sit down maybe with an open Bible on your lap. And you say you know Lord, I really blew it today. Just mainly my fault. Maybe not all my fault, but I got a bit my tongue. I didn't have to say what I said. And Heavenly Father, I just want you to know I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. That's it. No chant necessary. No special lotion require. You don't have to go to some secret monastery. It's just there. Quite likely, you'll sense a prompting in your heart or the direction of the Lord to offer now that you've offered a confession to offer an apology, the next day. And before you even sit at your desk, you go to the desk of your coworker and you just say, I'm sorry, what I said yesterday, I'm sorry.

Max Lucado  

Just sorry. That's how grace works. It's how grace works. And all of a sudden, you have not an enemy, but a new friend. You might even hang a little placard on your cubicle that says grace happens here. For some of you that confession needs to go deeper. It's not about an argument from the day maybe it's from a decade of your adolescence, a year of your youth, a time in which you created more pain than you did piece. And maybe the consequence, or the fruit of the message like this is for you to spend some time walking in the park or sitting out in the backyard or stepping outside and just saying, Lord, remember those years that I spent in the palm of the devil's hands. I just I don't think I've ever quite talked to you about that. And I want to tell you, Father, I'm sorry. The decision, the regrets just, it's not friend. It's not that you're not saved. It's just that you're not whole.

Max Lucado  

I have a friend who always says, God, God wants your whole heart and He wants your heart whole. And there's something about these past mistakes, if we don't acknowledge them, and don't bring them to the surface in the presence of God, our heart is divided. But letting God come in and wash the way those sins, it's just something refreshing about that. It could very well be that, that God will urge you after you've confessed the mistakes to him, to confess them to other people. This is a part of his healing plan. I know. Jean talked to you last week about James chapter five. The Bible says confess your sins one to another, confess your sins one to another so that you may be healed. So there's a confession upward, and then there's a confession outward. Maybe your next step will be to be a part of a group of people to whom you can be honest with whom you can be honest, maybe you just need to go to someone else, maybe a part of the Friday night celebrate recovery that takes place here every week. Whatever your situation is, in my case, I felt like I needed to talk to our church leadership just because of my role in the church. You're wondering what happened with my hypocrisy? Well, I had a good prayer there that day in the convenience store parking lot, threw the beer away. 

Max Lucado  

And I told the Lord, I was sorry that he had taught me better than that. And then scheduled a visit with our elders. I can't remember how many there were at that time, maybe 10 or 12 elders in our church and and I just told them what I'd been doing. I didn't make it any bigger or less than it was. I didn't try to downplay it. But I didn't dramatize it either. I just said, here's what I've been doing. One of our elders is a guy named Jim Potts. He's retired now. But what a good man. And I remember he, in that meeting, he just kind of cocked his head and looked at me, laying across the table. He was sitting next to me and he put his hand on my hand. He said, you know, Max, what you've been doing is really stupid. But what you're doing now is really good.

Max Lucado  

Receive the grace of Christ. The church has been empowered with not just the teaching of grace, but the distribution of grace. Would you receive the grace of Christ? Would you as the Lord brought to mind some parts of your life that need to be confessed, then receive the grace of Christ. As you confess up to God, you confess out to others then there's this promise of healing. And this is the healing that can come into your life. The church is a place where this healing can take place. And I gotta tell you, you're in a church where this is going to happen and has happened. Nobody wants to go to a church where everybody's perfect, right? If you go to a church or everybody's perfect, you're gonna blow the curve.

Max Lucado  

The church, the healthy church is the place where the price of admission is simply an admission of guilt. The church is that one place where you can be honest, and you don't have to be perfect. In fact, the reason you're here is because you're not perfect. So enjoy this fellowship, take full advantage of it, let healing come to you, through your confession upward in your confession outward. And then we'll celebrate with a root beer. We're going to spend some time in prayer. Now, before we go into a time of communion, I'm just going to start a prayer. And then we're going to be quiet, this is going to be very silent in the room for you to have this time of personal prayer with your heavenly Father. This is a time in which you can begin your time of confession. In the silence of your prayer, just tell him what's come to your mind and trust that the Holy Spirit brought that to your mind for a reason. And talk to God about it. Received the grace of Christ. Dear heavenly Father, what a delightful family you have built in our building here. Would you hear us now as we come to you, in the name of Christ, hear our confession.

Jean  

I am asking you to just keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed. And those who are going to help with communion if you could just quietly slip out and prepare to ask you to do that. The apostle Paul instructed the followers of Jesus in Corinth that when they meet around the Lord's table to examine themselves, because when you examine yourself, you see those places of hypocrisy, hiddenness, sin addiction, habits, strongholds in your life. For you need the grace and power of Jesus Christ to come in and make you whole and new again. Max Lucado spin, enormously vulnerable and open and authentic and honest with us today. Given who he is his posture as a Pastor his position as a best selling author, he had every reason in the world not to tell us about his secret. There's freedom in that. How about you? Anybody pretending to be one thing in public, and yet it's another thing in private. Been there done that I know all about that. Confession, as Max said, is a radical reliance on God's grace. And you could do that today right now in these moments.

Jean  

Revealing your feelings is the beginning of healing. Did you notice the freedom that Max has found it didn't just happen in a car when you talk to God though God's waves of grace, flowed into the car that day for his, hypocrisy. But healing and that feeling of being unhooked and finding relief came when he shared with some other human beings that he could trust. Hey, here's who I really am. Here's what's going on. And there's just something about someone who loves us putting their arm around us and saying you know, you're right that that was stupid, but, but this is good. receive the grace of Christ. Some of you need to do that. You need to talk to another human being. You need to hear them say the words. You know what God loves you. Jesus has forgiven you of that. This is good. Oh yeah, we've all done some stupid things. But this is really good. As we prepare to meet around the community table, I know some of you have you're still exploring your spiritual journey and who Jesus is and the implications for your life. Maybe this bread and cup aren't personally meaningful to you. Right now, but I hope you'll use these next few moments just to maybe even reflect on the extent God has gone to love you because he couldn't bear the thought of spending a day without you now, or forever in eternity. He gave His Son for you. Let's come clean with God. While our communion team comes and we participate in the Lord's table.