Posted on June 21, 2025 Posted By: TJ Schultz Categories: Sermon Notes

Who in here has a decision to make in life, big or small, it doesn’t matter? Who in here has a question or decision in front of you, and you wish that God would magically download an answer for you? I’m going to attempt to help you with that right now. Would you think about what that dilemma or decision is? Should I _________? Do you have it?

8 BALL + Improv (Ouija board for church kids)

Who among us is convinced that God communicates to us like that? That’s absurd. Nobody believes that. And yet, some of us read the Bible as if that’s how God communicates to us.

Just a few days ago I overheard a conversation in the locker room at my gym. Two men were talking about their Bible reading plans. Awesome. But one confessed that he is making his way through the Psalms, and half the time, he doesn’t know what to do with it. He said he was trying to get something out of it. I think a lot of us can relate to that. It’s easy to get bogged down, not to know how what you just read has any relevance for your life. And in that moment, it’s incredibly easy to latch onto a phrase or a sentence and shoehorn it into whatever circumstances or decision you’re facing.

That’s reading the Bible like it’s a Magic 8 Ball. This is a cheap toy. This is a treasure chest. Let’s do the work, not just to open it and read it, but to understand it so that we can benefit from its riches.

Did you pick up on this from the video?

The Psalms are POEMS for EXILES.

When the Israelites were cut off from their land, taken as captives to another country because of their sin, when the Israelites were cut off from the temple, the place where God makes his presence known, they were cut off from that because of their sin. The Psalms were for them. So, does the Book of Psalms have a similar benefit for us? Are we exiles?

1 PETER 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

We are supposed to think of ourselves as exiles because we are exiles. We are not cut off from a place or the presence of God because of our sin. Be we are cut off from something. Do you know what that is?

HEBREWS 13:12-14 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

If we have placed our faith in Jesus, giving him our allegiance, we are cut off from the way of sin, we are cut off from primarily identifying ourselves with a culture or country. Our primary identity is citizens of heaven. That makes us exiles.

Either we are EXILED from Jesus, or we are EXILES with Jesus.

Either we are exiled from Jesus because of disbelief and unwillingness to trust and follow him, or we are exiles with Jesus. If we are exiles with Jesus, we follow him and bow to him, not the dictates of culture, country, political affiliation, world leaders, market trends, or the deceitfulness of our own hearts.

1 PETER 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

What we read in the Psalms is poetry for exiles. Let’s read from the perspective of exiles with Jesus. I know that describes every one of us. If you aren’t a follower of Jesus, I’m glad you’re here. You have such a great opportunity. You get to listen and ask yourself, “If I followed Jesus, would he bring truth, goodness, and beauty to my life?”

For those who are followers of Jesus, abstaining from sinful desires means breaking up with stuff that comes from inside of us. It means breaking up with all kinds of things that are common in our culture.

Breaking off our love affair with money and greed.
Breaking off our love affair with lust, pornography, and any sexual activity that is disconnected from covenant to one person for life.
Breaking off our love affair with power and attempting to achieve and build by our own efforts and wisdom.
Breaking off our love affair with ideological tribalism, discrimination, and hierarchies of people.
Breaking off our love affair with pride and being our own authorities.

Instead of all of that, we’ve put all our hope in Jesus. We believe that the life that is truly life comes from him. It’s our intent to be fully devoted followers of him. To make that quick and clear, we’ve broken that down into three parts.

AUTHORITY: I find joy in being with Jesus, submitting to him, and following his way.
- Who is in charge?
IDENTITY: I find joy in defining myself by what Jesus did and becoming more like him.
- What is the story I tell myself about myself?
ACTIVITY: I find joy in doing as Jesus did and loving others the way Jesus loved me.
- What does love require of me?

But what do we do when we must admit that we’ve messed that up big time? What do we do when we realize that we’ve lived in contradiction to that? What do we do when we have to admit to ourselves and others that we’ve dropped a grenade on our own lives?

PSALM 51

If you’re still getting used to how the Bible is laid out, it’s in the first major chunk called the Old Testament. It’s basically in the middle. If you open your Bible to the exact middle, you’re probably in Psalms. If you’ve opened to Proverbs, go back one.

What we are going to read today from Psalms is intended to encourage us as exiles, to cultivate and nurture a deeply rooted sense of hope and faith. So, will grab a Bible and open it to Psalm 51?

PSALM 51 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;

His love doesn’t fail even when we do. For some of you, this is worth the price of admission. His love doesn’t fail even when we do.

according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

This is a somewhat tricky Hebrew phrase. I’m not convinced it’s trying to communicate that God taught him wisdom when he was in utero. Rather, at the core of who we are, God wants us to know and understand wisdom.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

SERIES THESIS: There’s a BACKSTORY to the story.

Most Bibles have a heading at the top of this chapter to describe the context. What was the sin? David’s adultery with Bathsheba. That heading was added by whoever published this copy of the Bible. That’s not an inspired part of the Bible. That’s someone doing their best to help you quickly understand. The problem is, we let that heading shape how we read this. Was the David’s sin adultery? I don’t think so.

One evening, while walking on the roof of his palace, he was able to see a woman bathing. He was captivated by her beauty. It appears that he couldn’t stop thinking about her. At some point, it’s not clear if it was that night, or some time the next day, or later in the week, he sent someone to find out who she was. Facebook stalking wasn’t even a thing yet. People have been doing that sort of thing for a long time.

He discovered who she was and that her husband was in the army. He then sent some of his men to summon her to the palace. When representatives of the King, who were most likely armed, showed up and said the king wants to see you, do you think she could have opted out? Was it reasonable to expect that she could say no?

When she arrived, it was clear why he wanted to see her. I’m sure she knew before she got there. I don’t know the details of what happened next. We know this, it wasn’t two consenting adults who became enflamed with each other and crossed a line they shouldn’t have crossed. This was one man who became enflamed with another man’s wife and used the full weight of the crown to put her in his bed. That’s not adultery. That’s abuse.

This is relevant because this happens now. Whenever a person in a position of power and authority uses that power to get sex from another person, it could be a politician, pastor, businessman, or counselor. When power is used to get sex, we add to the evil of it when we label it adultery. It’s not adultery. It’s abuse. It’s a form of rape.

She gets pregnant. The short version is that David has her husband killed. Thinking he was in the clear and that no one would find out, God sent the prophet Nathan to King David. He confronted him with message that God knew. What we just read in Psalm 51, is David’s gut-wrenching poem of confession and repentance.

THE PIT DIAGRAM

The pit represents any moral choice or cluster of moral choices that took you further than you wanted to go, kept you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay. This is the place of realizing we can’t hide from our moral mess-ups anymore. Psalm 51 was written from within the pit.

In this room, no doubt, there are people [POINTING TO GRAPHICH] here, here, and here. Today, there is encouragement and good news for everyone, no matter where you find yourself. To those who are here, you’re not in a pit, would you remember this?

It takes far more energy to RECOVER from failure than to PREVENT it.

Do whatever you’ve got to do to put up guardrails in your life to protect yourself from wherever you are vulnerable to moral mess-ups. For anyone who thinks that being a Christian means that you won’t drop a moral grenade on your own life, I want to introduce you to my friend Tullian. You may not know him, but you know his grandfather, Billy Graham.

Tullian was nationally known pastor, best-selling author, a regular on cable news, a trusted by many. Then he was exposed for multiple affairs. His marriage blew up, and he was ready to take his own life. Sometime after that I asked him to speak to the men at a church I pastored in Utah. Would you tell us what you learned about grace in the aftermath of sin. It was raw and honest and good. I’ll never forget something he said to us.

If you don’t believe that your greatest moral failure could be in front of you, you don’t understand the gospel. –Tullian Tchividjian

I’m not just as vulnerable to sin as I ever was. I think having more responsibility in life makes me more vulnerable to sin. I’d be a fool if I was casual with sin. Do you think it’s different for you? Remembering that it’s far easier to prevent failure than to recover from it...

You can’t OUTLAST temptation, but you can OUTRUN it.

It is foolish and we are asking for disaster if we let linger in our minds. If in the solitude and hiddenness of our thoughts, we toy with whatever the temptation is, it will fester and spread and weaken our ability to resist. You can’t outlast temptation, but you can outrun it. Put distance between you and whatever temptation you’re vulnerable to.

David’s sin was lust. Can I give you some wisdom about the reality of lust?

The problem with lust isn’t LOOKING, it’s not SEEING.

Hang with me. Lust is a failure to see the whole person, the true person. Instead, they are reduced to an incomplete caricature of themselves. In David’s case, this is what he did not see.

He didn’t see her as an image bearer.
He didn’t see her as someone’s cherished daughter.
He didn’t see her as someone’s beloved wife.
He didn’t see her as a full, complex, multidimensional person with strengths and weaknesses, hopes and insecurities. He couldn’t see what she had built and hoped to build with her husband.

Right now, think about all the things that make you, you. Think about all the things that make up someone. This is what lust does. It erases all of that, leaving only a body. Believe it or not, this is how lust and racism are similar. It erases the person, leaving only a body, reducing someone to physical features to be possessed, used, owned, or rejected.

The problem with lust isn’t looking. It’s not seeing. And if we truly see each other as we are, we will not reduce one another to objects of sexual utility.

THE PIT DIAGRAM

To those of us who are here or here. I want to share some wisdom I learned from Pastor Tim Keller. How should we respond to our sin?

RESPONSE TO OUR SIN

See it.
Confess it.
Mourn it.
Hate it.

This will bring about an earthquake that will result in a transformed life. –Tim Keller

There is a line in Psalm 51 that’s borne out of David truly seeing his sin, and yet this line has created confusion and led some to be mistakenly offended it.

PSALM 51:4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.

It’s understandable that people are confused. Some read this as David saying the only person who he wronged is God. That’s not at all what this is saying. Of course, David wronged Bathsheba. Of course, David wronged her husband Uriah, who had killed. Of course, David every person in his life who looked to him for leadership. He wronged an entire nation. Do you believe that? If you believe that you must be able to explain why it was wrong.

Why was it wrong for him to use his power to his advantage and have sex with a woman he was attracted? Why was it wrong for him to use all the power at his disposal to cover it up and eliminate consequences? If you appeal to empathy, why must he be empathetic? Why must he elevate the concerns of another over his desires? If you appeal to the law, he was the king and could do as he pleased. If you appeal to consequences, he had the power to distance himself from consequences. If you appeal to culturally based morality, why must we submit to one culture and not another? Why submit to a culture over our wants? I’m asking us to explain the moral truth of it all.

It can only be morally wrong if he violated an actual moral standard. God is that standard. He is holy and he is love. Anything that contradicts truth, goodness, beauty, and justice, anything that violates love is sin, it’s immoral, it’s evil. What David was saying was that he was truly wrong because he rebelled against the true moral standard.

Of course, he sinned against Bathsheba and many more. And yet, we can only sin against someone by sinning against who God is. And it’s impossible to sin against someone else if we haven’t sinned against who God is. Moral truth is not a matter of perspective.

Quickly I want to draw our attention to two more observations.

PSALM 51:8,12 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice… Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Before we lose our WAY, we lose our JOY.

This is why the notion that God cares about your holiness more than your happiness isn’t just wrong—it’s dangerous. Whenever we sin, we do so because we’ve stopped delighting in God’s good commands and we think we can find joy or happiness in outside of his way.

What is it that has convinced you, that if you have it or if you experience it, you will be happier? You don’t have to be religious to ask that question. What is that you don’t have right now, that you’re toying with in your mind, that you believe would bring more happiness to you? Whatever that is, bring it in the light. Get honest with other people who love you and who love Jesus. Put on your track shoes and run from that temptation.

PSALM 51:16-17 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

Maybe you’re in the pit right now or you’re trying to live your life in the aftermath of the pit. Maybe you’re here today because you’re hoping that if you can do the right religious things that God will smile on you.

Religion works OUTSIDE IN. The gospel works INSIDE OUT.

God isn’t interested in your religious activity as the means by which can achieve acceptance. God wants our hearts, humble, broken, contrite, messy, and messed up though we may be. Does he want us to sing, take communion, and express ourselves through gathering like this? Absolutely. The answer is yes. Does he want any of that as a replacement for our hearts? Absolutely not. We don’t obey and express worship so that we can be accepted; we do it because we are accepted.

And this is where some of us need to reckon with confusion and maybe even anger at God. Some of us may be mad or feel wounded that God would allow a man like this to write Scripture.

If you discovered that I used my influence as a pastor to seduce a woman, I should be fired, perhaps prosecuted. I should probably never be allowed to pastor ever again. And yet, God let him remain king. God even inspired this dirty dog’s poetry for our own spiritual formation.

Why would God respond that way? I don’t know. I can’t explain that to you. All I know is this.

Grace is ridiculously offensive,

Grace is ridiculously offensive, until YOU’RE the ONE in need of it.

I want to close by sharing with you what Jesus had to do save me from my sin. This is what he had to do to save you from your sins, too.

ISAIAH 53:4-6 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

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Message Notes: Holy Lit week 4: Poetry