Good morning and a blessed Thursday morning to you. 

I have to tell you about when I was having a time of devotion a couple of days ago. Earlier in the week I was tired, but I sat down and I began to pray. I had my eyes closed and a thought ran in my head. I thought…. I just want to keep my eyes closed. It felt so good to have them closed. Just not having to look at anything around me, not having to be distracted, just keeping my eyes closed. I was tired. And at that same moment when I had that thought, I immediately afterwards thought….isn't that what we do with sin? Instead of opening our eyes to our sin, opening our eyes to the fact that we are born sinners, that there is nothing we can do to stop our sin, or to save ourselves from our sin. We just want to keep our eyes closed. There's no effort in not opening our eyes. There’s no effort in pretending that we have no sin. But that immediately makes me think of a Bible verse in the letter the first of John, and the words are probably very familiar to you. 

1 John 1:8 

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

We can't close our eyes and walk around blind to the fact that we are born with sin. We are born in sin with sinful hearts and a sinful nature. We can try to walk around with our eyes closed all we want, but if we do we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

But Scripture God does not ever leave us hanging with that. He never leaves us hanging out to dry in our sin. Instead he comes to us and he follows up with a word of grace.

1 John 1:9 

“If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

We can't do anything to truthfully deny our sin if we are being honest. We know that our sin is before us. It's when we open our eyes, when we say, “I am a sinner” that the beauty of the Gospel comes gushing down on us. And we get to hear that second verse to follow it up (verse 9). Where we say that when we open our eyes, when we are real about our sin, when we confess our sin, we are promised that Jesus Christ has forgiven our sin and that he has cleansed us from all of our sin, all of our unrighteousness

It's this beautiful freedom! And we literally see the light the world: Jesus Christ. We get to see the light that we have in forgiveness, and that we are not doomed to live eternally in the darkness of our sin. 

Ash Wednesday is coming up in just under a week, and with that we have the season of Lent. The season of Lent is such a wonderful time to open our eyes and to be honest about the sinners that we are, and the sinners that without Christ we would continue to be. But that we have the opportunity to confess our sin, and in that confession we have the opportunity to receive the grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love that God gushes out upon each and every one of us. And that leads us through lent to the bright light that is Easter morning, where we get to rejoice in the ultimate victory that we have through Christ as our Victor, who reigns sovereign and supreme, not only now but for all eternity. And we have been invited to live in that supreme glory with him, not only now but for all eternity.

Lord, we indeed confess that we are sinners and we lay our sin before you. We lay it before you knowing that we can do nothing to make right for the sins that we have committed. Lord, we ask that by your Spirit you would lead us in your will, that we would walk in your ways, and love you, and put you first and not sin. And we know that when we do sin, we have mercy through your Son, and we have grace that you pour out upon us. We thank you for the forgiveness that we are promised. We thank you for the unrighteousness made righteous through the blood of Jesus Christ. We ask that you would use to share this good news with all of the other sinners. Lord, we lift this to you trust in you, and trusting in the promise that we have in you, and through you alone. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Have an amazing rest of your week. I am so looking forward to worshiping with you this Sunday. God bless.

Pastor Malinak