7 Penitential Psalms show man's repentance and God's forgiveness

Pastor Dave Gibson has famous "one liners" that make you smile, brings up God and allows him to share his testimony. True evangelism is simply taking your hand away from your mouth. Pray, "God give me a natural way to share my faith with my friends and co-workers". Here's some of the favorites I hear him say

• Growing up I had a serious drug problem, my parents drug me to church all the time
• For  years I was twelve inches from Salvation, I knew the words but they weren't in my heart
• Longest most difficult journey is from head to the heart
• 3 types of people in the church true believers, non-believers and make believers
• We welcome non-believers: The church isn't a hotel saints, it's a hospital for sinners.

Last Sunday Dave gave his testimony powerfully in his sermon titled "Come Clean", here are the thoughts I recorded from that sermon:

Dave's one liners build a bridge to share the good news of salvation from the judgement of God. Dave says, "Friend if you're a "make-believer" like I was, listen to the startling words Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23...

• "Standing before the Holy God at judgement 'Many will say, Lord, Lord...' professing Jesus Christ but not possessing Jesus Christ, there's a huge difference
• Practicing religion but having no personal relationship with Christ
• Jesus declares: "Depart from me!" - "I never knew you!"  you who practice lawlessness
• "When we reject Christ in our daily lives, he will reject us in the judgement..."

The Gospel is made effective in our lives with the Word of God, Fellowship in the Spirt of God with fellow believers. When you come to know Jesus you need his word and fellowship with believers

• Dave says, "Only one person more miserable than a non-christian and that's a Christian whose not walking with Jesus Christ...
• At least I could enjoy sin when I was not saved but when God gives his Spirit to us - we grieve the Spirit (Eph 4:30)
• 2 things you can't do along: Marriage and Christianity
• When you get discourage, knowing you've blown it as a Christian, start reading the Psalms, start with Psalm 1:1-6. Be encouraged - not to move in counsel of the wicked 
• Moving in the counsel of the wicked is like listening to popular songs during our commute, popular songs that steer us away from Jesus
• Instead, meditate on the word of God. The promise is that you will be successful in all that you do, like a tree by the water.

How can you come back to Jesus after you have fallen away in apostasy? Read how the saints have done this in the Psalms. 7 penitential Psalms in the Bible; Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143. These are graphic pictures of man's repentance, God's forgiveness of sin. We notice David is both a sinner and a man after God's own heart

• In Psalm 6:1-7, David's soul is troubled, he's weeping, grieving and turning to God for grace and salvation. As Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in Spirit and those who mourn", "There's is the kingdom of heaven and they shall be comforted" Matthew 5:3-5
• In Psalm 32:1-5, David shows there is blessing when we confess our sins to the Lord and he encourages us to "offer prayer to God at a time when He may be found" Psalm 32:6. God instructs and teaches us with constant love, not with a bit and bridle. Our understanding of God's instruction, develops trust, makes us glad and joyful. 
• Psalm 38:1-8, God's discipline is debilitating, our sin is crushing and causes health problems. Wounds stink and fester because of our own foolishness. The world says, "At the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold-on" but God's word says, "I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me. I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin...Do not forsake me, O Lord! O my God, be not far from me! Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!" Psalm 38:17-18,21-22
• Psalm 51, we see the result of Nathan coming to David and saying "Your the man!" but not in a good way but in a condemning way. We see how David cry's out to God for mercy/forgiveness; Dave like acronyms as well;
• Grace is God's riches at Christ expense
• As Christians, Grace is God's righteousness at Christ enabling
• Apologies are not repentance; David confessed his act of treason against God; not weakness but wickedness; not an accident but an atrocity; Psalm 51:3-4
• Sinful at birth psalm 51:5-6, we have a bad case of "normal" - temptations are normal (1 Cor 10:12-14) but we put a stake in the ground. 100% of "No" is easier than allowing for "occasional sin". Jesus prayed, "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil" Matthew 6:3 and we know God is faithful to deliver us when we come to him (1 Cor 1:9; Heb 10:23; 2 Peter 2:9)
• Psalm 51:12-16, David is not content to be saved but to teach those caught in sin the ways of God (like Paul, compelled to tells others 2 Cor 5:14)
• The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)
• In Psalm 102:1-28, Sadness and madness brought to the Lord, remind us of who we are and who God is
• We are lost and broken apart from God (Psalm 102:1-10, 23-24)
• God is enthroned forever, remembered throughout all generations, all nations will fear the name of the Lord and he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer (Psalm 102:12,15,17). 
• God brings freedom to the prisoner, those doomed to die (Psalm 102:20)
• God is the Creator, Eternal, Ever-lasting, never-ending and is our security (Psalm 102:25-28)
• Psalm 130:1-8, we cry to the Lord and wait for Him for forgiveness that reaches our soul. Our hope is in the Lord, we find steadfast love and plentiful redemption.
• Psalm 143:1-12, 
• Calm prayer, acknowledging no one living is righteous before God - our enemy pursues our soul, crushes us and our spirit faints, our heart is appalled (Psalm 143:1-4)
• Yet we remember God's faithfulness, meditate on all God has done, pondering the work of his hands (Psalm 143:5)
• We stretch out our hands in trust to God asking which way to go for Him to lift up our soul (Psalm 143:6-8)
• Deliver me, I fled to you for refuge, teach me to DO YOUR WILL, for you are my God! (Psalm 143:9-10)
• Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! (Psalm 143:10)
• You will destroy the adversaries of my soul, FOR I AM YOUR SERVANT (Psalm 143:12)

Check out Dave's preaching here:
http://www.atgrace.com/information/general/sermon-archive/sermon/coming-clean

Psalm 51, graphic pictures of man's repentance, God's forgiveness of sin

6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143
Penitential_Psalms
Grieve-quench-Holy-Spirit
10 Reasons David is Called “A Man After God’s Own Heart”