The Prayer of Cleansing

Series: “Connecting with God” - Part 5

"The Prayer of Cleansing"

Pastor Jerry

Hebrews 12:1-2

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Some of you know that I finished building a blacksmith shop back in the spring of this year. However, several weeks ago when I fired up the coal forge, I could not get the air to flow from the blower to the fire pot. By just looking I couldn’t see anything that was wrong with it. So, I decided to tear it apart. After I got inside the works I discovered that a tiny mouse had gotten inside the air pipe and had built a nest that obstructed the air flow. That was the problem. That’s a lot like life. Sometimes small things get entangled & balled up inside of us and can stop us from working properly. Let me ask you this morning. What’s hindering you from being all that you could be in life? A lot of times we want to blame external things. But the truth is what holds you back in life is almost never external. It’s internal. What it is may surprise you. But the Bible tells us that what holds us back more than anything else is unconscious guilt from un-confessed sin. You weren’t made by God to go around carrying a load of guilt. In fact the Bible says in Hebrews 12 :1-2 “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  Did you know that when God made you, HE had a plan for your life? God has a purpose, a plan for your life that is unique and nobody else can fulfill that plan and purpose. The problem is everybody else has a plan for your life too. The sad thing is most people don’t know the plan God has for them. They get side tracked, they get entangled and blocked. And then they give up. The fact is God says we need to throw off the things that hinder us and the sin that entangles us and blocks us.  That which hinders us is un-confessed sin that creates unresolved and unconscious guilt. That guilt entangles us and keeps us stuck. It keeps us stuck in our past. We get entangled in our problems. And like my forge we just don’t work right anymore. A lot of times we know we’re guilty but we try to deal with it in ways that don’t work. We deny it. We excuse it. We rationalize it. When you rationalize anything you know that’s wrong, what you’re doing is trying to convince your mind what your heart says is wrong.  And you feel guilty about it. The truth is God doesn’t want you walking around with a load of guilt. Guilt can make you physically sick. The Bible says in Proverbs 28 “You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins.  Confess them and give them up and then God will show you mercy.”  This is a prayer, the prayer of cleansing – “Forgive us our sins.” When you understand the prayer of cleansing and you practice it, it opens the door to live a life of freedom, a life that is joyful, a life of blessing and a life that God uses. I want you to experience that in your life. You have no idea how much God wants to use your life and wants to bless your life. The things he could do in your life would astound you if your life was a clean vessel. You’ve got to pray the Prayer of Cleansing “Forgive us our sins,” and mean it and get specific. I want to give you now very simply, real quickly the six steps on the path to a clear conscious.  There is no reason you should leave today with any guilt in your life. Do what God asks, and go out with a clear conscious and be guilt free. How do you do it? Six steps.

1. I REVIEW every area of my life.

You could call this making a personal moral inventory. You sit down with God in a quiet space and you make a list of anything that’s between you and someone else. The Bible says in Lamentations 3 “Let us test and examine our ways.” You ask God to reveal your sins. That’s step one. I review every area of my life.

2. I REPENT of every sin.

Next I repent of every sin. What does it mean to repent?  It means three things. (1) First, I take responsibility for my sin. (2) Second, I turn away from those things. (3) And third I turn toward God and his grace. I say, God I don’t want to do that any more. That’s what it means to repent. The Bible says in Lament.3 “Let us turn again in repentance to the Lord.  Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven and say, ‘We have sinned and rebelled.’”  The greatest holdup to the healing of your hang up is you. God wants to heal it in your life. Here’s the third step.

3. I RESLOVE to make restitution.

You find somebody that you have hurt and they know it then you go and make restitution. If possible you make restitution. Matthew in Luke 19 :8-9 (NIV) “…’if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to your house.’” Sometimes it’s not possible to make restitution. The person may have died. They may have moved away and you can’t find them. So in some situations you can’t make restitution. But anything you can do to make it right, you do so. Here’s the fourth step…

4. I RECEIVE God’s forgiveness.

Now I am ready to receive God’s forgiveness. The Bible says “Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God and there we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it.”  There we will find not scolding, not punishment, not rejection. When we come to God with our sin, we receive his mercy and we find his grace. What’s the difference between mercy and grace? Mercy is forgiveness for all the things you’ve done in the past. Grace is the power to change in the future. You need both. Your forgiveness is not based on who you are or your deserving it. It’s based on God’s character.  If we freely admit that we have sinned we find God utterly reliable. Now we come to step five.

5. I REVEAL my faults to a friend.

Here’s the question: “Do I want to be emotionally healed or just forgiven?” The way God wired us is that we need other people in our lives for healing. God wired us that we only get well in community.  The Bible says “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing. Confess, that’s how you find relief.

6. I REPEAT these steps regularly.

That’s step number 6. Repeat the other five regularly. Friends, God wants to bless your life. God wants to use your life. He wants to bless you and he wants to make you a blessing to other people. God uses every kind of vessel, small vessels, plain vessels, ordinary vessels, shy vessels, He even uses broken vessels. But the only thing God will not use is a dirty vessel. And this is a test. Are you willing to do what God tells you to do? Are you willing to be honest to God and honest with yourself? “Let us draw near to God, with a sincere heart and full assurance having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscious. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how we may spur one another on to love and good deeds. And let us not give up meeting together as some are doing but let us encourage one another.”  Hebrews 10:22-25 (NIV) We’re all in the same boat. We all need forgiveness. We all need cleansing. And God wants to cleanse us and bless us all. God wants us to come home. God wants us to get connected to Him and to each other through this church. Won’t you come just as you are, today?