You must confess your sins to God. Yes, He already knows you committed them. In addition, He already knew you were going to commit them. Why do you need to confess if God already knows all the sins you committed and will ever commit? You do it as an act of obedience and sincerity to God. You must confess to God and ask that He forgive you for your sins. He will.
You must also confess your sins to each other. I don’t mean the people you wrong. I mean your brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes, this may be a little more difficult. It shouldn’t be. After all, who here on earth has the power to save, condemn, or forgive sins? No one. Therefore, it should be a lot easier to confess to others.
Even though it may be difficult, you must still confess to your brothers and sisters in Christ. The reason for this is so that they can pray for you and help you overcome your sin. You need to be willing to be vulnerable. Be willing to find fellow Christians that you trust so that you may confide in them.
The act of confessing your sins to another person is something that may really help you deal with the negative emotions and feelings associated with those sins. In addition, if you are struggling with something, you need all the prayer and support you can get.
Referenced Verses:
Leviticus 5:5
Acts 3:19
1 John 1:9
Matthew 18:15
Luke 17:3
James 5:16
Ephesians 4:2
Colossians 3:13
Video Transcript
Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries, my name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you for being with us. Today we are continuing on. We are in a four-part sermon series about forgiveness. Today we are on part number two, so thank you for being with us.
Hopefully, you watched last week’s message. If not, check out the playlist to see them all. That would be awesome. You can do that, it is a playlist about forgiveness on our YouTube channel. You can also find it on our blog, wherever, and start watching.
Today we are talking about confessing your sins. Now if you were with us last week, you learned a little bit about how it is important to confess our sins. Now when we say confess, there are many things in that. Confessing not to a priest or someone for forgiveness, from in a confessional, but confessing to God.
Seeking forgiveness from Him for your sin, confessing to the person you have wronged to forgive you. They do not forgive your sin, they forgive you. Then confessing to your brothers and sisters in Christ for prayer and support in whatever it is you are struggling with.
I hope that you watch that sermon, if not, please check it out. In addition, feel free to share it on your social media accounts so that other people can learn more about forgiveness and why it is so important in their life. God wants you to confess your sins.
Leviticus, we have got a lot of verses today, so I hope you have your Bible handy and you are ready with your fingers to turn those pages. Leviticus 5:5, ‘When anyone is guilty in any of these ways, he must confess in what way he has sinned.’ Confess, God wants you to confess your sins.
Let’s go to Acts. Acts chapter 3 verse 19. Are you ready? It says, ‘Repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.’ So when you confess, you are repenting. You are asking God to forgive you of your sins. He is wiping them out, you are refreshed. You have a relief. You sin, bam.
Okay let’s say that was a sin, I got this pain, I confess to God, He takes it away. He soothes it. Then if I wrong someone, I confess to them. They forgive me or they do not forgive me, it is up to them. But it is them. I confess it to them and I get it out. I was harboring it in here. I wronged this person and I was scared to admit it. But I got forgiveness from God and now I have to go to the person.
That could be hard, it is hard. So it is like this impending doom, you are afraid. That is you. You are harboring that inside of you. That is a sickness. It is a spiritual sickness, it could manifest itself in your body. You can have aches and pains, you do not know where they are coming from or why. Sick in the head, yes your spirit is sick.
So go get it out, tell that person I am sorry, I wronged you in this way. It is gone now. They can forgive you and you will be refreshed even more, or they do not have to, that is up to them. But they are only hurting themselves if they choose not to forgive you, because guess what you already got it out.
Then go to your brothers and sisters in Christ, get it out with them, and be refreshed even more. Get that sickness out, be free. Then if someone has wronged you, of course, you need to forgive them. We are going to talk about the importance of you forgiving others in the future sermons to come in the next couple weeks. So stay tuned for those.
But just like you are harboring that thing inside of you that you need to confess, you are also harboring it if you refuse to forgive others. You are holding on, you are holding a grudge, you are mad about something that happened 10 years ago, 30 years ago, 2 months ago, whatever. You are mad about it. Let it go. God will give you that refreshing. He will give you peace and calming. Get it out. Forgive them and let God deal with them.
Someone wrongs you, all right, that is fine, whatever. Learn from it so you do not do it again. But you learn from it, you are not going to let them wrong you again, but you have learned from it. You say all right, I forgive you. You are forgiven.
Whether you physically tell them that or you just do it in your heart and with God. You say, all right God I am letting that go. This person has wronged me time and time again and I am letting it go. It is up to you God, I am letting it go, I have forgiven them.
I forgive them and you let it go. God will deal with them and guess what, you do not want to be on the receiving end of God’s wrath, so let God deal with them. You have forgiven them, you have gotten that sickness out. You have let it go. It is gone. He will refresh your spirit.
Not only do you need to confess your sins though to those you have wronged, to God, and to your brothers and sisters in Christ. You have to seek forgiveness from God. So you can tell God, say God I am really sorry I lied the other day, that is my sin, I confess to you. I am really sorry about that or I am sorry I stole or I am sorry I cheated in a game of cards or whatever.
You can confess that to God, but then you have to ask for forgiveness. Ask and you will receive. God is not just going to give you something without asking, you have got to do the work. You have got to ask, so ask for forgiveness and then you will be forgiven.
1 John 1:9, ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’ You have to confess it to God and then ask for Him to forgive you. Ask for forgiveness. Do not just say, oh Lord Jesus, please forgive me for my sins. What sins? Confess to Him.
Now of course we are not going to remember or sit and sift through everything we did wrong. Yes, praying for forgiveness of your sins is a great start, but if there is something you specifically did, that day before you go to bed, confess. God, I messed up today.
I lied on the phone when I said whatever it could have been, something simple. Hey did you contact so and so today? Yep, I did and then you get off the phone and contact them quickly. Now you said today you contacted them so you did do it today, so it might technically not be a sin. Just confess it to God. It is weighing on you and then ask for forgiveness.
Then maybe confess to the person you wronged, call them back up. Hey, I told you I did that today, well I did not do it before, but I did it after. Sorry about that. I should have said I was doing it and they are gonna be like, whatever man, no big deal because it is not. But let it out. Do not let it weigh you down because it will. It will weigh you down. Release it. Seek forgiveness, confess, get it off your chest.
Matthew 18:15, ‘If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.’ Now the same thing as a sister. What is it meaning brother and sister? As in your family? No, brother and sister in Christ.
If someone sins against you and they have done wrong to you, they have stolen from you, they have wronged you, whatever it is, show them it is their fault. For example, I purchased a vehicle and it was from a dealership, they miscommunicated and said that they had cleaned it. I took it there, dropped it off, they were supposed to have cleaned it, they did not, they kind of just wiped it down.
So then I went and got the manager and I said, hey what is the story? Oh, well, they said they cleaned. I said, they did? Well, there must have been a miscommunication between all of us. I said a miscommunication on your end. He said yes, the fault is ours. I said great, can you get it clean for me and make it right? They did of course.
But the point is, if someone wrongs you, point it out to them. Not rudely, like hey you messed up, you should have cleaned this. No, there must have been a mistake on your end. You make it very apparent it was you and they say, yep it was us. Okay now let’s make it right. If they listen to you, you have gained them. I have gained them, we built a trust and a rapport and a relationship and if I need another car I am probably going to go back.
Continuing on in this verse. If they will not listen then you need to take a couple more people with you for some support and then maybe even go to a judge and pursue legal claims. Obviously, in that example, I would not, but that is what the Bible is saying. If someone wrongs you go to them first, take it between the two of you, see if they are willing to confess, and make it right. Because that is what we should be doing.
If we know we have wronged someone, we gotta make it right. Do not let it get any further. Do not let two or three others get involved. Do not let the courts get involved. Do not let it go so crazy. Just confess, seek forgiveness, move on
Luke 17:3 says, ‘So watch yourselves, if your brother or sister sins, rebuke them, and if they repent, forgive them.’ How cool is that? If they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you and says I repent, forgive them.
Now we are going to talk about the importance of forgiving others in the weeks to come, but you gotta be that person who confesses. If you sin against someone seven times, go back seven times and confess and those seven times also seek forgiveness from God for the sin and also speak to your brothers and sisters in Christ and seek their support.
Have them pray for you because guess what, if you sin against someone seven times you are probably struggling with a certain sin. Maybe it is drug addiction, pornography, and you are trying, you are fighting, you are trying to stay sober or clean or whatever, but yet every once in a while you slip up and then you gotta go apologize to whoever you promised that you were gonna be sober.
To maybe your spouse, your kids. They say, Dad you were drinking again or Mom you were drinking again. I am sorry. So you apologize to them, then you seek from God, then you go to your brothers and sisters in Christ and say, hey I need help, pray for me.
Comment below if you are struggling and you need prayer. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Maybe I am not struggling with that sin, I can pray for you because it is not a struggle in my life. My prayer is going to be more powerful and effective because I am more righteous in that area than you are.
God wants you to confess your sins to your brothers and sisters in Christ so that they can help you through whatever it is you are struggling with. That is why we are here. If you have brothers and sisters in Christ and they are struggling, be there for them. Let them come to you.
I want people to come to me not because I want to know the dirt or the town gossip, I want them to know that they can come to me and I will pray for them and my prayer is effective and they will be released in Jesus’ name from their sin and that they can trust me with it.
I am not going to hold it against them. I am not going to bring it up. Oh, I know you, you are mm-hmm, you got this problem. No, it is not going to be like that. They are going to tell me and it has gone out of my mind. I pray for them and nothing else, no judgment because it is not our place to judge.
James, great book. James 5:16, ‘Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.’ Last week we said there are three parts to that. You got to confess to each other. Now this is talking with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
So you have already confessed to God, you have got forgiveness for the sin. You have confessed to the person, they have forgiven you as a person. Now you are confessing to your brothers and sisters in Christ, getting their support.
So you confess. You let it out. You are not harboring that sickness in. You are letting it out. You are confessing to them so that you may be healed, so the sickness is out. You are healed and then they are praying for you because they are righteous in that area hopefully. They are praying for you. That prayer is powerful and effective.
Why do we need to confess? Well if those three reasons were not enough, the big reason is so that you can pray for each other. Prayer is what is important. You got to be praying for others. You got to pray with others, not just for them. Pray with them.
Ephesians 4:2, ‘Be completely humble and gentle.’ So if someone is confessing to you, be humble with them. Not like, oh yeah, I got some good ammunition now I can use the next time they say something to me. Hey, remember what you told me? I am gonna use that. No, be humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Patient, gentle, bear with them in love, support them, be there for them. It is very very important.
Colossians 3:13. This is an excellent verse for you to memorize. Colossians 3:13 says, ‘Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive, as the Lord forgave you.’
God forgave you. He did. Jesus even said on the cross, forgive them for they know not what they do. Now He was talking about people specifically, but He was also talking about the world in general. Sometimes if we are children of the devil, before we are saved, before we follow Jesus, we may not know right from wrong.
We do not know what we are doing is bad because you are under someone else’s control. Jesus says forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Later you learned that it was wrong. Or maybe a child, maybe you have not taught them that it is not okay to do something yet. They do it and then you teach them.
Now should you be mad at them that first time? No, they did not know any better. You should be mad at yourself for not teaching them. But the next time they do it, now comes consequence, punishment. Because guess what, they were already taught, they should have known better.
That is the same way with us. We are children of God. We did not know what we were doing before. We are forgiven, it is okay. Now we start doing wrong, punishment, consequence. Yes, we can still be forgiven but life is not going to be as easy if we keep choosing to do what we know is not right. Confess your sins. Seek support. Get people to pray for you.
After all the more people who are praying for you, the better off you are going to be. Would you want one person praying for you or a hundred? Personally, I want a hundred. So pray for me. You do not know what to pray for? Just pray. Pray for my health, pray for insight and wisdom to be able to speak and bring more people to Christ. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Seek your brothers and sisters in Christ.
You may be praying for a release from the bondage of sins. Whether it is some addiction or maybe you like to steal things or maybe you are a pathological liar. I mean we are taking these to the extreme, it could be very very simple, could be something even more minor than that. Maybe it is thoughts of jealousy when you see someone’s nice car and you are jealous.
You wish you could have that nice car or you see their really nice watch and you are jealous because why would they have a $10,000 Rolex when you have a $20 Casio from Walmart or a Timex or something? When you can barely afford to do this, they got a Gucci belt buckle and $5,000 earrings. Maybe it is just something simple like that. Seek forgiveness, confess, and get others to pray for you.
Maybe you are praying for the release of that bondage, but your prayers may not be as effective as someone else who is not struggling with that sin. You need the support and prayer of someone who is righteous in that area. Seek it now.
You do not have to go around and be like, hey excuse me, do you struggle with this sin? Then okay good, you can pray for me. No, just tell all of them and then they will all be praying for you and if three of them are struggling with the same sin you are, sure maybe they are not righteous in that area, but their prayer is still helping. But the other people who are, their prayer is powerful and effective and maybe together all of you can defeat that sin.
So seek prayer, confess your sins, remember what we need to do. Confess to God for the forgiveness of the sin, confess to the person you have wronged to forgive you as a person, confess to your brothers and sisters in Christ so that they can help you through whatever you are struggling with. If someone has wronged you, go to them directly, see if they are going to make it right. If they do not make it right, bring more people. They do not make it right, then it has got to go legal.
It is all about confessing and forgiving each other within ourselves, without bringing other people into it. No gossip, no slandering on social media. Share good things on social media, not negative things. Forgive, confess. Why? To let it out so that we may be healed, so that the Lord will bring us peace. So we will have calming, so we will be fulfilled, so that we will have rest.
Let that out and have your body restore itself. Yes our spirit is in here, but if your spirit is sick it can manifest in the body. Do not let that happen. Confess and be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
With that let’s pray. Lord Jesus, I ask that if anyone out there right now is struggling with any type of sin that you would free them from that. That they would be inspired to confess to you to get forgiveness for the sins. That they would confess to the people they have wronged to be forgiven as a person. That they would share with their brothers and sisters in Christ and seek prayer from that bondage, from that struggle, and they would be released in Jesus’ name.
Lord, I ask that they would forgive others as you forgave them. That they would simply let things go, but they would also learn from the experience so that they would not fall into that again. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
We got two more weeks left, so please stay tuned. In addition, share these messages on social media. Try to get other people into this. Maybe there is someone in your life that is harboring a grudge or holding a grudge, share it with them. See if this can help them release.
Maybe they need forgiveness, maybe they are struggling with something, share it with them. It is a great sermon series, we are halfway through. They can get caught up. Do not worry about that. Just try to get them in and help them change their life. Give them that healing that maybe they so greatly need. God bless.