Bowling Green Covenant Church

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You.”—Psalm 51.10-13 [ESV]

As a kid blue jeans and grass stains were as natural a combination as milk and Oreo cookies. Grass stains were the bane of my mother’s existence come laundry day. Forty years ago there was only way to get grass stains out—soak the jeans in detergent overnight followed by a vigorous scrubbing before being put in the washing machine. More often than not, thanks to mom’s hard work, the grass stains came out.

Grass stains are stubborn, but they can be removed. The stains left on the heart made by our sin are not so easily removed. In fact, they are impossible to remove. Hence, David’s request (plea is more like it), “Create in me a clean heart, O God,…” Above all else what we need most is a clean heart.

Lent, the time leading up to the passion, crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus, is the appropriate time to consider David’s petition in Psalm 51. The particular sin that prompted David to ask God for a clean heart was his adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12). At first, David tried to cover up his sin. And for a brief time the cover-up succeeded. Then one day the prophet Nathan confronted David about his sin. Nathan’s act took courage when you consider that David was the king and he had arranged the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, as part of his cover-up.

Psalm 51 is David’s response to Nathan’s courageous act. It is a genuine confession of sin. Most notably, it is an authentic assessment by David of the real cause for his sin. His sin was not caused by poor parenting, not the result of his environment, not the result of his station in life, and certainly not the result of Bathsheba’s taking a bath on her roof in plain sight of the King. No, the cause of David’s sin was congenital. He, like you and me, was born with a cheating heart. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me,” (v. 5). David is not blaming his parents. He is simply pointing out that the offspring of two people who themselves have cheating hearts is going to be a boy with a cheating heart. Stated plainly, David was a natural born sinner.

And so are we. We are all in need of a heart transplant from the moment we are conceived.

But I have good news (and it is a heck of a lot better than saving money on car insurance). God has promised to answer David’s prayer. In Ezekiel 36.26, 27 the LORD God says this, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey all My rules.” This new heart is what Jesus meant when He spoke of His coming so that we might have life and have it abundantly (John 10.10).

Psalm 51 reminds us that God has promised to give a new heart and a fresh start to anyone who confesses faith in Jesus Christ. Sin has stained us permanently. God’s solution is not only to remove the stain by cleansing it with Jesus’ blood, but to give us a new heart and a new spirit.

That is good news worth celebrating, preferably with a glass of milk and Oreo cookies.

You think about that.

MM

“O LORD, you have searched me and known me! …Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts![1] And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting![2]”—Psalm 139.1, 23, 24 [ESV]

I have been considering a question I recently asked of a young man who had just returned from a mission trip to the southwestern U.S. “So,” I posed the question, “what did you learn about yourself from this experience?” Upon deeper reflection that is a perfectly inane question, and I am a blockhead for asking it!

A better question would have focused attention heavenward: what did you learn about God from this experience? I am not trying to sound “spiritual.” I am far too much a son of the earth for that. To ask what did you learn about yourself is to place the emphasis on the wrong subject. What did you learn about God, specifically, what did you learn about God’s passion for His glory is the proper question.

The older I grow in my walk with Christ the more I am convinced that, apart from God, I can learn nothing about myself. It is, after all, He who made me. He alone has the power to search me and know my heart. He alone can expose the grievous schemes that lurk in the musty darkness of my cheating heart. Jeremiah had it right when he said,

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick;

who can understand it?

“I the LORD search the heart and test the mind,[3]

to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Since only the LORD can search the heart and test the mind it is arrogance to assume that every experience I have is designed to help me learn more about me. What if every experience I have is intended to help me know more about God? What if life is all about learning about God’s passion for His glory? What if the things I need to learn, the really important things, start by answering the question: So, what did I learn about God from this experience?

Good heavens! The things I might learn—about God, that is. Could it be the more I learn about God’s passion for His glory the more I will learn about who I am, why I am here and, yes, why God made me the way I am? In a word—yes. That seems to be the point of Psalm 139.

Now I know the Bible well enough to know that God uses life experience to shape me so that I am “conformed to the image of His Son.”[4] However, this shaping is not ultimately for my sake. It is “in order that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brothers.”[5] The more I learn about God the more I learn that I cannot live without Him. The more my life is given to the pursuit of His glory the more I will ask Him to search me and know my heart; to try me and know my anxious thoughts; to see if there be any grievous way in me and to pray with all earnestness for Him to lead me in the way everlasting.

You think about that.

MM

“And then, when you pray, don’t be like the play-actors. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at street-corners so that people may see them at it. Believe me, they have had all the reward they are going to get. But whey you pray, go into your own room, shut your door and pray to your Father privately. Your Father who sees all private things will reward you.”—Matthew 6.5-6 [J.B. Phillips, The NT in Modern English]

In his book, Biblical Preaching, Haddon Robinson warned preachers to avoid sermons spoken in a stained-glass voice. Such sermons may be scholarly accurate, impeccably organized and flawlessly delivered, but they are “dead and powerless because they ignore the life-wrenching problems and questions of our hearers.”[1]

The same can be said of inauthentic prayers spoken in a stained-glass voice. According to Jesus such prayers may impress the hearer, but they fail miserably to gain a hearing from God the Father. Prayers prayed simply to gain attention from the public are “dead and powerless” not only because they “ignore the life-wrenching problems and questions” of those who hear, but because they lack any true substance. The reward comes not by means of answered prayer, but by means of whatever fleeting rush of fame that comes upon the one offering prayer.

Stained-glass prayers, like stained-glass sermons, are stuffed with “code language never heard in the marketplace.”[2] But they sound good. They sound impressive. The lips are full, but the heart is empty and the head is pre-occupied with thoughts distant from being set on heavenly things. Stained-glass prayers are prayed by men and women fascinated more about being seated at the best table than about being seated in heavenly places with the risen Christ.

We’ve all prayed stained-glass prayers. Hopefully, we have grown-up enough in our relationship with Jesus to know that He takes greater delight in prayers spoken in a broken-glass voice than prayers spoken with perfect grammar and syntax. Lest we forget, it was the simple prayer of the tax collector, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18.13), that Jesus said enabled the man to go home justified. Authentic prayer aims to impress God not the public.

Jesus is not ruling out all public prayer. He is ruling out public prayer aimed more at gaining the public’s ear and approval more about the hearing and approval of God the Father. The reward of having God hear and answer is far more lasting and satisfactory than anything the public can offer. Public approval is lighter than a breath. The reward of God is full of weight and eternal.

The essential aim of prayer is to seek communion with God. By exhorting us to private prayer Jesus would have us sift our motives for going to God out in prayer. Authentic prayer seeks the applause of God not the public. Authentic prayer is motivated by the desire to our joy in God. Authentic prayer is “authentic” because it is the overflow of an authentic relationship with God the Father through a faith-relationship with God the Son brought about by the life-giving work of God the Holy Spirit.

You think about that.

MM

“Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise,
but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because
the days are evil.”-Ephesians 5.15-16 [NIV]

“Live life, then, with a due sense of
responsibility, not as men who do not know the meaning of
life, but as those who do. Make the best use of your time,
despite all the evils of these days.”-Ephesians 5.15-16
[J.B. Phillips, NT in Modern English]

I have been blessed and challenged this week by a DVD series
by John Piper called, When I Don’t Desire God-How to Fight
for Joy, based on a book written by him. I have not read the
book, but I have enjoyed his exhortation. My best attempt to
summarize the teaching would be to read the title and
ruminate upon what it says. My preaching mentor, Haddon
Robinson, was fond of saying, “Preaching is not for wimps.”
Well, be warned, When I Don’t Desire God-How to Fight for
Joy, is not for wimps either.

Following Jesus is hard work. It is not for wimps. Carrying
“a due sense of responsibility” may work when you’re asking
for Aunt Maxine to please pass the potatoes; it’s another to
ask Aunt Maxine to forgive you for the unkind words spoken
to her in anger. Asking for the potatoes is just good
manners. No great effort to humble oneself is required to do
that. However, to form the words, “I was wrong,” (and to
carry the metaphor fully around the table) “Please pass me
your forgiveness,” now we’re talking “a due sense of
responsibility.” And sometimes sense of responsibility rips
through our soul like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Dr. Piper could have titled his series When I Don’t Desire
to Do Anything Good for God and it would work just as well.
Being careful how we live means knowing what to do when we
do not desire God and/or anything we know will bring Him
joy. J.B. Phillips captures Paul’s intent for the word
“wise” by translating the verse, “Live life…not as men who
do not know the meaning of life, but as those who do.” Well,
this just takes the whole thing to a brand new level doesn’t
it?

Me? You? Live like we know the meaning of life? Are you
kidding? Two plus two I can handle. Making coffee I can
handle. I can even handle doing my own taxes (if I have to),
but living like a man who knows the meaning of life teeters
on the edge of making me certifiable.

Some might say it is the height of arrogance to live like
someone who knows the meaning of life. The only response is
to think about how Jesus lived. It seems to me He lived most
definitely like a man who knew the meaning of life. He lived
life very much by carrying a due sense of responsibility. He
lived life like a wise man. He found His joy in doing His
Father’s will. That is wisdom. That is the meaning of
life-to find our joy, our heart’s deepest satisfaction in
God.

People who know the meaning of life know God is most
satisfied with us when we are most satisfied in Him. They
understand the fight required to live life by carrying a due
sense of responsibility. And they do not shrink from it. It
is hard to ask for forgiveness when I don’t feel like asking
for it, or that I am worthy of it. It is hard to pray when I
don’t feel like praying. It is hard to do all sorts of
things required to follow Jesus. But difficult or not,
wisdom demands they be done. Not because it is the wise
thing to do, but because by doing them we declare our joy in
Him who created us to do them. That’s living life with a due
sense of responsibility. That’s living life like men and
women who know the meaning of life.

You think about that.
MM