You're listening to Mountain View Church Audio, Christ-centered teaching from the Wilderness City, Whitehorse, UConn. Here's this week's message. It's been one year since my wife was diagnosed with cancer. At first, they diagnosed her at stage two. After surgery and treatment, she was lowered to stage one. Her recent scan showed no signs of cancer, but we're still in a five-year treatment phase before they could officially say that her cancer is in remission. Lord willing, she'll be cancer-free by that time, and this journey will finally be over. Now, if I jump back to a year ago, what if Nicole had never gone to the doctor? What if she had never received regular screening?
What if she saw signs in her body, but instead of booking an appointment, she ignored them? What if she had waited and waited and waited until she finally had no choice but to go to the doctor and then started this journey? By that time, potentially at stage four instead of stage two. Would she have lived through it? How would it have been different? How would our lives as a family have been different?
Now, most people in modern Western culture would book an appointment with their doctor when they notice that something's wrong physically. And we've even come a long way with mental health. And people are more willing to go see a counselor or psychologist when they're struggling with mental or emotional issues, way more than past generations. That being said, spiritual health is still something that people ignore. There are signs that something's off, but maybe you tell yourself it'll resolve on its own. You may even feel God's conviction urging you to stop and address the problem that's starting, that's causing other situations in your life to go wrong.
But you ignore his prompts to diagnose your spiritual sickness, and you stay busy enough that you don't have to think about it. Weeks go on, then months, and the whole time, the thing that you've been avoiding, it hasn't gone away. And there are actually more signs that it's gotten worse, and it's impacting more areas of your life. Now it's actually causing mental and emotional strain that wasn't there before. Although it's a problem of the soul, it's become an infection of the heart and mind, and it needs to get dealt with.
Welcome to Mountain View Church. My name is Jeremy. If this is your first time watching or listening, we'd love to help you get connected with our faith community. Simply visit mountainview.church slash connect, or you can find us on social media at Mountain View Whitehorse. We're in week three of our emotion series, Getting a Grip of Your Heart and Mind. We started this journey with a sobering truth from the prophet Jeremiah, that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?
You see, our hearts mislead us, often in the direction of whatever feels easier or most comfortable. And if we're not paying attention, the noise of our emotions overpowers our spiritual needs. And when we're spiritually sick, our emotions become even more distracting and deceptive. So this week, we're going to seek out a divine diagnosis. Instead of letting our emotions silence our spiritual pain, we're going to let God do the exam. You see, God's word exposes emotional confusion and diagnoses spiritual problems. The truths found in scripture address the heart's sin sickness and prescribe healing.
And so today, we'll see that there's a process to it, that it starts with confession, which invites God's correction. And that correction leads to spiritual healing. Hello, my name is Ruben. Our scripture reading is from Psalm 38, 1 through 4. You are welcome to follow along with the physical Bible. Search the table of contents to locate the corresponding page number for Psalms. Alternatively, you can download the Bible app or visit Bible.com. Psalm 38. O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head. Like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. We're going to move through three Psalms, all written by David. Biblical scholars in church tradition have long recognized these as among the penitential Psalms, passages that deal honestly with the internal weight of sin. Together, they form a spiritual treatment plan.
We're starting with Psalm 38, one of the most raw and honest prayers in scripture. David is writing from a place of inner turmoil. There's a heaviness that follows him from morning to night. It grieves him so deeply that he likens it to physical ailments and he confesses to God that the root cause is spiritual. In Psalm 38, three and four, we read, there is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me.
Sin has a way of taking us farther than we would ever want to go and costing us more than we'd ever want to pay. Through David's prayer, we get a sense that he's reached the end of himself. For far too long, he had been avoiding an inevitable reckoning. Now he's heartbroken, he's ashamed, and he is filled with remorse. David's prayer reminds us that avoidance prolongs the pain. In a way, David's prayer serves as a warning. Don't let this get too far. Address that twinge of spiritual pain or the sickness right now.
But let's pause for a moment. What do the signs and symptoms of spiritual sickness, the spiritually sick heart, look like or feel like? The easy signs are an inability to resist temptation or easily giving in to the vices and habitual behaviors that always seem to pull us down. But sometimes it might just look like a low-grade exhaustion or fatigue that doesn't seem to make sense physically or mentally. Perhaps it's a restlessness that we can't put our finger on. Maybe a weight that's sitting in the background of our days and then weeks, and we refuse to bring it to God in prayer. And maybe he's just simply revealing the cause, but we're ignoring it.
For example, let's say you've been short with your spouse for months, and somewhere underneath the irritability, you know it's not really about them. You've felt God's prompting more than once, but you justify your behavior. But the distance between you and your spouse widens, and it gives tangible evidence that there's a sickness entering your marriage, that it's stemming from your heart. The problem was never really your spouse. It was a lack of patience and an unkind spirit that you were unwilling to bring to God. If we slow down long enough to let God put his finger on something, we might have to deal with it. So...
You might stay busy, maybe reframe the conviction. We tell ourselves it'll sort itself out, but the longer we avoid what God is bringing to our attention, the heavier and heavier it gets. Just look at verses five and six of this psalm. David shows us what prolonged avoidance produces. He writes, my wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness. I am utterly bowed down and prostrate. All the day I go about mourning. Then he says, I am feeble and crushed. I groan because of the tumult of my heart.
That's the prayer of a man torn up by the consequences of his own choices. God never abandoned David. Let's be clear. It was David who walked away, and now he's paying for it, and we see it through his prayer. But now let's move on to our second penitential prayer from David, Psalm 32. He writes,
Notice the nuanced difference between those two psalms. In the previous prayer, David is overwhelmed. The weight of unaddressed sin has crushed him. Then in this prayer, he describes something quieter and more deliberate. When he kept silent about his sin and the painful cost that concealment carries, now we're starting to see that. We learn from his second prayer that concealment crushes progress. When David was keeping something hidden, God's hand felt heavy on him, like a good father who disciplines his children. It's a heavy love. We can't keep hiding things from God. He already sees it.
The pressure only builds as the concealment continues. As an example, let's say you're showing up to church, engaging in the community, but it's all a show. You're keeping up the appearance of someone who has it all together spiritually. However, behind closed doors, there's a habitual behavior you keep returning to, or maybe a bitterness that you're still clinging to. And in a way, you're managing how close you let God and your church community get to you. And that's a problem. It's a problem that will grow. The longer you maintain the performance, the more discontented you become.
The distance will grow. And so whether you're drowning under the weight of what you're avoiding or quietly maintaining a version of yourself that looks fine, the result's the same. The heart can't heal. It won't heal. It can't heal what we won't bring to light and let God acknowledge because he's our great healer. And Psalm 32, I should note, doesn't end in concealment. David's story actually turns. He writes, I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. We see that David stopped covering and started confessing. And again, like a good father with his children, forgiveness was immediate. And this is a pattern that we find throughout scripture, bringing us to our third and final penitential psalm of David. He writes, This is quite a different prayer than the ones we were just looking at. This is a movement toward confession, then opening the door for God to do the spiritual surgical work on the heart. David's crying out for a spiritual heart transplant. And from this third prayer, we learn that confession invites correction. David's prayer is one of surrender. He's inviting the diagnosis, trusting that the great physician who exposes the wound is the same one who heals the wound. He's ready for spiritual cleansing, not minimizing the infection of his sin that had taken root in his heart. He's bringing it to God.
Now, I get it. Confession can feel risky, really risky sometimes. What if nothing changes? What if the shame is too much to bear? It's worth it. David shows us that confession is a starting point for healing. And most important, it's a start to returning to God. But notice where David goes after God restores him. He writes,
The healing that God brings doesn't stay contained. David moves from his own restoration directly to helping others find their way back to God. It's beautiful. And so confession opens the door for our own healing, then positions us to walk alongside others who are still hiding. Restored hearts become guides for other broken hearts. And within this prayer, we have a pointer to God's greater plan, the greatest plan of healing sin-sick hearts. David prayed for a clean heart and a renewed spirit and a restored joy.
But what David was crying out for, God ultimately provided through his son, Jesus. And Jesus was direct about why he came. He said, Jesus didn't come for people who have it all together. He came for the ones who are carrying the weight of sin and shame, the ones who are avoiding it, the ones that are concealing it, the ones that are terrified. because he is the great physician. Once we've accepted that diagnosis, Jesus provides the cure. You see, on the cross, he took the punishment and judgment for our sin-sick hearts. He died and was buried. Then three days later, God raised him from the dead. He conquered sin and death. And through him, we receive a renewed spirit and the restored joy that David described way back in Psalm 51. The diagnosis was deadly and the cure was costly, but it's been paid in full by Jesus.
The Apostle John wrote, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's the invitation for you today, not to clean yourself up, not to have it all figured out, just to come as you are, confess and trust in Jesus. He is faithful enough to forgive and powerful enough to cleanse you from every single sin, even those ones that you're still running from, still avoiding and still concealing. This is what Jesus has made available to you today. You see, God already sees what you're hiding, but he's not waiting to condemn you. He's waiting to heal you. And so here's a process to walk through this week. First, stop avoiding. There's something God has been putting his finger on. You felt it? Stop trying to outrun it. Slow down long enough to let God surface it. Pray what David prayed in Psalm 38, accepting that you need help. For my iniquities have gone over my head and like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. Second, stop concealing. Stop presenting a version of yourself that looks healthier than you really are.
The performance is costing you more than you know. Pray what David prayed in Psalm 32, choosing honesty over silence, saying, I acknowledge my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. Then third, start confessing. Don't ask God to help you try harder. Ask him to do what only he can do. Surrender the whole thing and pray what David prayed in Psalm 51. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Remember that confession invites correction and correction leads to healing. We started this message with the example of someone who keeps avoiding checkups with their doctor and concealing ailments that maybe things will be all right, but the problems are getting deeper. Spiritually, maybe that's where you're at today. You've sensed God wanting to give you a diagnosis, but you've been finding reasons to keep it covered or just waiting a little longer. God already knows. He's already seen every corner of your heart. And as we've already discussed, he has sent Jesus as the great physician for your healing.
The only thing standing between you and spiritual healing is honesty with God. And so if you're ready to be honest with God, would you pray this prayer with me? Dear God, you already see every corner of my heart. Nothing is hidden from you. Search me, Lord, where I've been avoiding and what I've been concealing. Thank you for sending Jesus to take my sin on the cross so I could be forgiven and healed. Create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit within me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Thank you so much for being here today. Whether you're joining us locally here in the Yukon or you're tuning in from somewhere beyond our territory and maybe even beyond North America. If this is your first time watching or listening, we would love to connect with you. Simply visit mountainview.church slash connect or find us on social and drop us a message at Mountain View White Horse. We would love to hear from you. Send us a prayer request. Send us a comment. Let us know who you are. It's great to get your messages. If you're watching on YouTube and you haven't subscribed yet, please do. And hit that bell notification so that next week's message will find its way to your feed automatically. And before you go, there are a couple of events that I want to make you aware of.
First, for the ladies, the Listen Sister Women's Conference is just around the corner on March 20th and 21st, featuring keynote speaker Tess Scott. This will be a weekend of encouragement, honest conversation, and real hope. Tickets are $55, which include all three sessions over Friday and Saturday. For details, go to mountainview.church slash women. That is mountainview.church slash women. Next, Easter is coming. Isn't that exciting? Our Holy Week series, From Darkness to Dawn, begins on Palm Sunday, which is March 29th.
We'll walk through Holy Week together, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday. Please note that we're asking that you pre-register for one of our three Easter gatherings, as we typically have a higher-than-normal attendance. And full details for the whole series are at mountainview.church slash Easter. Now it's time for our connecting questions, helping you bring the sermon content into your community, wherever you're at. So whether you're watching or listening with someone else, ask them these questions. And if you're on your own, simply drop a comment in the feed or DM us at Mountain View Whitehorse. Our first question is this. Is there an area of your life where you've been avoiding what God's word is clearly revealing? Is there an area of your life where you've been avoiding what God's word is clearly revealing? Question two. Where are you tempted to present a healthier version of yourself than what's actually true? Where are you tempted to present a healthier version of yourself?
than what's actually true. Last question, what would an honest confession look like for you this week? What would an honest confession look like for you this week? And we're back next Sunday for our fourth and final week of our emotion series. We've looked at the deceptive heart and then the divided heart. Then this week, we looked at the divine diagnosis of the heart. And next week, we're going to wrap up with the discerning heart, learning to live from this day forward in God's wisdom. So if you've ever felt like your feelings are running the show and you've wondered how to make wise decisions, let your mind speak over your heart, have your logic speak over your emotions, then next week's message is just for you. And we'd love to see you. Bye for now.
If you pray to receive Jesus today or would like to connect with our church community, visit mountainview.church and click the connect link. If this podcast and radio ministry has been a blessing to you, please consider partnering with us or making a tax-deductible donation at mountainview.church. Thanks for listening to Mountain View Church Audio. Join us next week for more Christ-centered teaching from the Wilderness City, Whitehorse UConn.