Admitting It to God, Yourself, and One Other Person

In one paragraph

This message was the fifth installment in Pastor Mark's series on the 12 steps, read through a biblical lens. After two weeks away delivering his daughter to Auburn University, he returned to walk the congregation through Step Five: admitting the exact nature of our wrongs to God, to ourselves, and to another human being. The whole sermon made the case that this kind of honest confession is not a...

Read together

1. Galatians 5 (works of the flesh) list of works of the flesh used to illustrate what step one looks like when examining sin in one's life
2. Galatians 5 (fruit of the Spirit) list of fruit of the Spirit used to illustrate what sanity and wholeness under God looks like in step two
3. 1 Peter 5:6-11 humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, resist the devil who prowls like a roaring lion, referenced as the passage preached at the fair connecting to step four
4. Psalm 55:1-5 quoted as a biblical example of recognizing powerlessness and crying out to a higher God
5. Romans 7 Paul's 'what a wretched man I am' used as a biblical parallel to step one and step two
6. Psalm 42:1 as the deer pants after water, cited as a text early AA founders spent time on, illustrating willingness to seek God
7. Hebrews 11:6 without faith it is impossible to please God, he rewards those who earnestly seek him, used to support step two
8. Matthew 6:33 seek first the kingdom of God, used to support the seeking aspect of step two
9. John 7:17 anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether the teaching comes from God, attributed to Jesus in support of step three
10. James 5 (confess your sins to one another) used to support the step five practice of confessing sins to another human being
11. 1 John 1:9 described as the mechanism whereby God forgives sin and cleanses from all unrighteousness, central to step five
12. Psalm 139:23 search me oh God and know my heart today, quoted as the closing hymn text and as David's prayer connecting to step four self-examination
13. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 benediction: God comforts us in all our troubles so we can comfort others, the more we suffer for Christ the more God showers us with comfort

Talk about it

1. The pastor described 'deflation at depth' as a place of complete humility where a person admits they are powerless. When have you experienced a moment like that, and what did it take for you to get there?
2. The sermon drew a contrast between the two lists in Galatians 5, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, and called them as stark a contrast as you will ever see. Looking honestly at both lists, which items on either side do you find yourself most drawn to or most resistant to acknowledging in your own life?
3. The pastor said that admitting sin to God and admitting it to yourself are closely connected, but that confessing to another human being is where many church people hesitate. What makes that third part so difficult, and what would need to be true about a relationship for you to feel safe enough to do it?
4. The Michel Quoist poem describes sin as something desired, pursued and then possessed, something that 'sticks to me and flows in my veins.' God's response in the poem is 'it is not falling that is the worst, but staying on the ground.' How does that image sit with your own understanding of how God responds when we fail?
5. The pastor said the goal of modern therapy is often to get rid of a guilty feeling, but the goal of God is to get rid of guilt. What difference does that distinction make in how you approach confession and repentance?