Hidden Sin & Stolen Joy

Hey, Porch. How are we doing? Are we doing okay tonight? Great to see you. Welcome back. I'm so glad to have you in the room. It's so great to have everybody tuning in online as well. We do not take it for granted that everybody here and everybody there, wherever it is you are, would be a part of what God is doing here on Tuesday night or whatever time of the week you might be listening to this. Special shout-out to all of our Porch.Live locations. We love that we're united to what God is doing in multiple major cities across the United States. Particularly, a special shout-out to Porch.Live Springfield, Indy, and Fresno.

Well, I am not the most seasoned traveler, so several years ago, when Brooke and I got the opportunity to go to Italy, I knew there were several things that I (and we, of course) wanted to do. I knew I wanted to tour the Colosseum. I'd heard of it, so this was my chance to actually experience it. I knew I wanted to drive through the hills of Tuscany and take in all its majesty. I really wanted to go and swim in the Blue Grotto. We didn't quite get to swim in it, but we did get to paddle along through it, which was incredible.

I wanted to wind our way down the Amalfi Coast and take in all the scenery. I wanted to make sure we could go and see the Sistine Chapel and behold its glory. I wanted to take in as much of Italy as I could, yet one thing that did not make my bucket list for this Italian trip was an authentic cooking class we somehow found ourselves in the middle of. No shade to cooking. I just admittedly prefer eating to cooking.

When the opportunity came for us to slide into some family friends' reservation that they weren't able to make in Florence, we decided, "Why not? When in Rome." Or Florence in this case. So we went and took this class. Now, this class was awesome. Truly. I'm not a cook. I've been working on it recently. Yet this thing was incredible. We were rolling the dough, and we were making the ravioli, getting lost in the sauce, yet the class was actually not the best part of the experience. It was the location of this class.

You see, the class itself was not located in some professional kitchen or a boutique restaurant like you might expect. Instead, it was located in a medieval watchtower on the hillside of Florence. Just picture a castle, and you pretty much have the right idea. That's where this class was taking place. Once we finished our cooking, part of the experience was we got to tour the property.

So, we finished up all our cooking. We also concluded the eating. As we made our way to the rooftop of the watchtower, bellies full, the sun going down, taking in the landscape around, the Arno River cutting through the city, Florence glistening in the distance, I noticed for the first time since we had arrived (because we were finally at a vantage point high enough that I could take it all in) that we were one of many other watchtowers littered across the landscape.

So, I naturally looked at our cooking instructor and asked her, "What's with all the watchtowers?" She said, "Well, it's funny you should ask. In Florence, there are watchtowers all over, both within the city and outside of the city. These watchtowers existed to protect Florence whenever enemies would invade the area."

They worked like a defense system. If one tower ever lit their fire, it would serve as a notice to the surrounding towers that danger had come, similar to what you might have seen in The Lord of the Rings or Mulan. This is what would happen in Florence. They would light a fire to announce to the surrounding area that danger was here, that the region was under attack, that help was needed.

Now, why do I tell you that? Because in a similar way, our conscience works like this too. You see, whenever something goes wrong or danger begins to arise or you find that you need to be on guard, your conscience begins to trigger. When you look at the data and some of the studies on young adults in the last few years, there is an entire generation of consciences all signaling the same fire that we are in danger, that you are under attack.

There is an enemy that has decided to darken your door, pillage your life, and plunder your pleasure. What do they want? The enemy wants your joy. Your joy is under attack. Tonight, I want to teach you how to fight back. So, if you have a Bible, you can open it and turn with me to Psalm 32.

We've been in a series called Joy, and the reason we've been working through this series is because I genuinely believe there is more life on the table than many of us are actually living. I've become increasingly convinced, as I've studied through this topic, that there might not be a more important paradigm shift for our generation than this idea that God is the source of all happiness and all the joy you want is, in fact, found in him.

That's not just a nice religious platitude for me to preach on a stage like this; it's something to be found and experienced. I won't bore you with the research, yet in the simplest of terms, our generation is experiencing a joy crisis. We are experiencing historic levels of joylessness, the likes of which we've not seen and yet don't have to actually experience.

Scientists generally agree that while 10 percent of your happiness is circumstantially dependent and somewhere around 40 percent is dependent upon your genetic makeup, 50 percent of your happiness in life is the product of the decisions you make…how you choose to think, how you choose to act, and how you choose to react, which means that, yes, 50 percent of your joy is on God. He has to be entrusted with over half of the joy and happiness you experience in life, and sidenote: he's not going to let you down.

The other 50 percent is on you. You actually have some agency, some control over the joy you experience in life. That's an empowering reality. That's something you probably should want to know tonight. You actually do have a thumb on the trigger of the happiness you find in life. So much of your happiness is not simply subject to circumstance, nor is it a victim to your genetics or personality makeup; it is the product of your decision-making. You have some control.

That is why we talked a few weeks ago about how you can find joy. If you remember (and I'll resist the temptation to re-preach that message right now), you can find joy by way of three different steps. You pursue innocence, you walk in obedience, and you make a discipline out of celebration. This is how you do it.

Yet, while we should make good decisions, we often, instead, find ourselves making not-so-good decisions, decisions that are slightly lackluster and leave something to be desired. Although we know we should pursue innocence, sometimes we do things that are corrupt. Instead of walking in obedience, occasionally we behave in disobedience. When we should be making a discipline of celebration, sometimes we slide into making a discipline of debauchery.

Put most biblically, we sin. It's not just because we want to be bad people and we delight in wrongdoing. That's not why you sin. You don't sin because you just want to be the most evil version of yourself you can be. No one is doing that. Why, then, do we sin? Think about it for yourself. The answer may surprise you. You sin because you are seeking happiness. That's what you're looking for.

When we talk about coping, what are you doing? You're trying to make the best of a less-than-ideal circumstance. Why do you drink too much? Because you want to have fun with your friends. Why do you stress out at work? Because you want to do good at your job. Why do you cut yourself? Because you just want to relieve some pressure. Why do you obsess over social media? Because it feels good to be approved of. Why do you masturbate? Because it releases dopamine, that happy hormone. Why do you talk about other people? Because it feels good to be on the inside of something.

Don't you see the irony? We want something good, but we do something bad. We love the right things…just in all of the wrong ways. The consequence is rather than finding joy, we lose it. Sure, sin can make you happy, but it will not leave you happy. Instead, it only leaves you to be tempted again and again. "This time will be different." Yet what happens? That time is never different. It's the same as the last time and the time before that and the time before that. It always overpromises and consistently under-delivers.

We indulge our cravings, gratify our insecurities, and oblige our carnal nature in the misguided pursuit of happiness in some place it is impossible to find. I love the way Randy Alcorn says it. Randy is an author, as well as a professor of a class called Happiness 101 at Western Seminary. He says, "These two premises—that God is the source of all happiness and that sin separates us from God—lead to this conclusion: sin separates us from happiness." Meaning, if you want to fight for joy, then you have to learn to fight against sin.

As I even say that… Some of you have been raised in the church, and you know exactly where this is going. You might even be familiar with Psalm 32, and you're like, "You know what? I get it, brother. You just want me to confess my sins that I might be forgiven." Yes! That's exactly what I want for you, yet what I'm trying to help you understand tonight is that confession is not just leading you to a place where you're doing the right things; it's walking you back in the path of pleasure that you want so badly for yourself. That's what's on the table tonight.

When you sin, perhaps it's not just that you're doing a bad thing. Maybe, in fact, it's indicative that you're a sad person. Have you ever thought about it like that, that you're wanting for happiness, yet you're looking in all of the wrong places? God in his kindness, through his Scripture, is going to tell us, "Hey, there is a way to find the kind of joy you want." So let's look at it together.

We're going to see here in Psalm 32 that David is going to teach us the path to pleasure. He is going to reveal to us the sadness of sin. He's a really good teacher for it, because David, though a man after God's own heart, did some pretty bad things, one of which was he slept with Bathsheba. He grabbed one of his buddies' wives, slept with her, got her pregnant, and had that guy killed. He confesses all of that sin in Psalm 51. Psalm 32 is proposed as being the response to Psalm 51. It's the relief he feels from having confessed those things to God.

So, here's what it says as we get into it, starting in verse 1: "Blessed [happy] is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed [happy] is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit." David makes it very clear that honest sinners have the happiest hearts.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not perfect people with perfect lives and perfect homes with perfect jobs and perfect relationships and perfect families who live the perfect life and have the happiest outcomes. That's not the case. Do you know who has the happiest outcomes? It is imperfect people who are acquainted with a perfect God who ultimately find the greatest happiness in life. Why is that? Because when…not if but when…we fail, when our imperfections rise to the surface and our failures pile up and our mistakes are littered all around, it's then and there that God's forgiveness is found.

Now, how does forgiveness impact your happiness? Let's just talk about that for a minute. Why would forgiveness ultimately matter and be consequential in the pursuit of your happiness? Well, if you think about it, forgiveness is about so much more than releasing resentment. Yes, it is about that. There is a lot of power in you offering forgiveness, where you're taking back control, where you're releasing resentment and regaining authority.

That is 100 percent true, but it's more than just releasing resentment; it's restoring relationship. That's the heart of forgiveness. Without a relationship to God, who is, as we've described (and I tell you again tonight), the universal source of all happiness… Without a relationship to him, the richest kind of joy, the realest form of happiness, is impossible.

Now, you might hear that and think, "Kylen, I don't need God to be happy in life." You would be right. You didn't think I was going to say that, did you? You would be correct. You do not need God to be happy. It's interesting. Dr. David Murray defined six different kinds of happiness that are available to all people everywhere. Regardless of background, regardless of history, no matter where you come from, there are six kinds of happiness that are fully available to you right now, regardless of where you are on the spectrum of spirituality. Here's what they are.

The first one is nature happiness, joy that's derived from creation. You know that feeling. Why do you like to be outside so much? Because it feels good, especially in the season we're in right now, to be outside when the weather is nice and go for a walk and hear the birds chirping and flying in twos. Nature produces some joy.

The second is social happiness. That's joy from being with friends and family. How many of you when filling out your bio put something along the lines of… What are your hobbies or interests? "Hanging out with friends. Spending time with family." There's good reason for it. It actually does produce happiness.

The third is vocational happiness. Ever heard of job satisfaction? Oh man. Maybe not. But there is such a thing as joy in your work. It's worthy of searching after and ultimately finding.

Fourth is physical happiness. Now, I know happy doesn't necessarily describe many of your gym-going experiences, yet there is joy in being healthy, fit, and strong.

The fifth is intellectual happiness, the joy that comes from understanding something, putting the pieces together, the light bulb going off. I remember, as a young boy, I loved brain teasers, because I loved whenever I would figure them out. It was the greatest rush of excitement. I knew something nobody else did. It was so great. That is intellectual happiness.

The sixth is humor happiness, which feels really obvious. It's the joy of laughing. According to the science, laughter is the best medicine. It boosts mood, strengthens your immune system, diminishes pain, and protects you from stress. Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to get laughs at someone else's expense in order to feel happy, but that's another sermon for another day.

These six joys can be experienced by all people everywhere, Christians and non-Christians alike. Here's the thing that's amazing about it. How incredible is God that he would make this much happiness and these many different kinds of happinesses so we could experience great joy in life. That's awesome. What a kind God. What a good God.

Yet, there is a seventh kind of happiness, wouldn't you know. That happiness is known as spiritual happiness. This is the joy of being in relationship to God. Dr. Murray describes it as containing more pleasure and delight than the other six combined at times. Meaning, sure, you can be a happy version of yourself without God, but you cannot be the happiest version of yourself without God.

He is the only one who offers infinite delight, eternal satisfaction, everlasting joy. It's found in Jesus, and you have to find it by way of relationship with him, which is only possible through forgiveness of sin. Why? Because there is a rift in the relationship between you and God. It is the product of your sin. You have sinned against a holy, just, good, beautiful, true God, yet in his kindness, by way of his Son, should you believe in him for the forgiveness of your sins, you can be reunited. The rift can be repaired, relationship can be restored, and joy can be found.

That's why forgiveness matters. That's how it impacts your happiness, and that's what David says. He says, "Happy is the one whose sin is forgiven." But he doesn't just say that. He could have. He could have been like, "Happy are you, blessed are you, if you're forgiven. Good night, everybody." But he doesn't do it. He goes on to verbally flourish over the course of these couple of verses.

He says, "Blessed (or happy) is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, against whom the Lord counts no iniquity." Why? Why would you overcomplicate this? Why all the aspirational speaking, David? Just say what you mean, man. Preach it plain for me, would you? He does it very purposefully.

It's interesting. Sin is so radically evil that there are actually 15 different words in the Hebrew for it, yet David picks three. He picks them very purposefully in this moment. He picks the words transgression, sin, and iniquity. It's a very strategic selection, because out of all of the 15 words, these three describe the most all-encompassing form of sin.

Transgression is an attack against God, sin is an attack against yourself, and iniquity is an attack against morality or goodness. David covers the widest range of wrongdoing possible by using these three words, but he doesn't stop there. He not only chooses three words to describe sin; he chooses three words to describe forgiveness: forgiven, covered, and cleared, or doesn't count ("Against whom the Lord counts no iniquity"), which are all-encompassing themselves.

To be forgiven is to have the weight of shame on your life lifted. You know what that feels like, when you've done something wrong and it feels like everywhere you go there's a looming cloud over your head. Misery is your company. You can't seem to shake the fact that you feel perpetually sad, weighed down, that gravity is a little bit heavier wherever it is you stand. That's what he's unpacking. When you're forgiven, that weight is lifted off.

To be covered is to have it removed from sight as if it never happened. Wouldn't you love that? That thing you're so desperately trying to hide, to keep away so nobody ever sees it, when covered by God, is actually removed as if it never even existed. And to be cleared is to have the debt paid in full.

What does all that mean? It means, very simply, the totality of your sin receives the totality of God's forgiveness, which is a wild idea when the totality of our sin deserves the totality of God's wrath. But that's not what he does, for in Christ Jesus forgiveness is available, not just for some of your sin, not just for those things over there, not just when you are a semi-good person. No. It is available for the totality of your sin, everything you've done. Every sin you've made, every ill word you've spoken, every hurt you've ever caused… He heals all of it, because he offers forgiveness without discretion. He can forgive any sin anytime from any person.

The amazing news is it keeps us near him. That's the thing. It's not just "You know what? You did wrong. Now you're better." No. It's "You did wrong, and now we're together. We're together again. You were separate from me in a land of loneliness, completely divorced from delight, and now, because of my forgiveness, you're brought close again, and we are united, not just in loving relationship but joyful union." That's what's available to you by way of Christ.

But (there's always a but) there's a condition. What's the condition? We must have a spirit without deceit. Meaning, we have to be honest, truthful, genuine, sincere, and transparent about our sin as we live our lives and walk with God. Put in the simplest of terms, we have to stop being fake, justifying sin because it feels good and we just need a release. "Man, you don't know what I've been through. I need this. It'll be okay this time. I've been through the wringer. This thing is going to give me the kind of relief I need."

You try to justify it, yet you are living with the deceit, putting up a front because you don't want others to find you out. "If they knew, Kylen, what I did, if they knew the things I said, the places I've been, the acts I've caused, they would not accept me; they would reject me." So you put up a front, which is spiritually deceitful.

Scrolling through reels. "Kylen, that's not porn. They're just reels. Sure, yeah, she could wear more clothes, but I've seen way worse. You know what? Actually, this is progress from where I've been in the past. This used to be a huge problem for me. This is a step in the right direction, not in the wrong direction." That is spiritually deceitful. Flirting with him just because he gets your emotional needs met. "You know what? I'll scratch his back; he can scratch mine. I'll text him occasionally. He wants to hear from me, and you know what? I like to feel wanted, needed, and desired by someone."

Speaking a certain way just because we know that person or those people will approve of it. "Yeah, you know what? When I'm in a religious context, I'm going to speak religiously. Whenever I'm in my workplace, I'm going to speak in a way that gains the approval of all of my coworkers. When I'm hanging out with my friends on a Friday night, I'm going to make sure to talk in a way, act in a way, and live in a way where they all approve of me."

Here's the thing. There is no pulling the wool over God's eyes on any of it. There's no sleight of hand where it's like, "I'm doing good things over here, God. Look at this. Be distracted," while I do bad over here instead. He sees it all. God and sin are like oil and water. They do not mix. Meaning, you cannot have life in God and life in sin simultaneously. You can't do it.

That is why David goes on in verses 3-4 and says, "For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer." When David tried to hide his sin, what was the result? Well, the report is in. It's joylessness. God, in his kindness, does to David what he will do to you. He will zap your zeal and steal your strength, because he knows secret sin leads to lost joy. God so kindly wants us to come back to him, into the presence of pleasure.

He is the happiness of heaven. He is the source of all satisfaction. The glory of his gladness is available when we are close to him. When we sin, we remove ourselves from his presence and all that it promises. He's saying, "No, no, no. I want you here next to me." When we do things that lead us away from him, he will prompt us back. He will command us back. He will tell us to come back, but here's the thing: he will never force us to come back. That would not be loving.

God does not force your hand and cause you to return. He doesn't just forgive your sins, clean your conscience, and wipe your worries away, whether you ask him or not. Why? Because God knows your response to sin proves what matters most to you in life. What's God's response to sin? Forgiveness. Why? Because you matter most to him. His response to every error and any egregious decision you make against him is he lavishes forgiveness, because he wants you most.

What about our response to sin? At times it's like David. It's not confession; it's concealment. It's secrecy, because what we want is this and not him. That's why David kept silent, which is very different than David was silent. One is passive, the other active. The word here for kept silent actually carries the picture of engraving something, like you would engrave your initials into a piece of wood. How do you do that? By way of persistence and effort.

When I went to Texas A&M, there was a tradition where you would go and carve your name into the wooden tables of a local restaurant called the Dixie Chicken. So, being a senior in school, I wanted to go and participate in this tradition, yet I did not have a knife with me. I had a paper clip. So how did I get it done? With persistence and effort, baby. I went to work to make sure my mark was left on the wood at the Dixie Chicken.

That's what David is doing here with his sin. He is persisting in his silence. He is making every effort to keep his sin hidden. Some of you know exactly what this feels like because you're living it right now. You know what you did today or yesterday or last week or the week before. You know you're making every effort under the sun to cover your tracks, to wipe your browser history, to rationalize the fact that "I was just processing with a friend, Kylen. I needed someone to work through the details of what happened with that person."

You're justifying him staying over. "It's just cheaper for us to stay in one room as opposed to paying for two rooms." You're telling half-truths to get by the whole truth. "If I told the whole truth, they really wouldn't like what they heard." David didn't want anyone to know, and neither do we so often. We don't want God, we don't want family, we don't want friends, we don't want our colleagues…we don't want anyone to know what, in fact, we've done that we should not have done.

Here's the thing. When we start doing this, we start managing sin, and we start managing decline. When you start managing your sin, you start managing decline…the decline of your joy, the decline of your satisfaction, the decline of your peace, the trust you have with other people, the kind of energy you have available to give to people and places in life…because sin is consequential. David says that right here.

David says, "My bones wasted away." That sounds pretty bad. That's a physical effect. The stress of concealing his sin was so toxic it led him to feel like, "Man, my bones are withering. Whatever I've done is eating me from the inside out. It has produced sleepless days and sick nights." "Through my groaning all day long." That's a mental effect. He's in emotional upheaval. All day is misery in sin for David. He is what many of you can relate to. He is anxious and insecure, and he is despairing, distraught, and paranoid that people will find out.

"Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up." That's a spiritual effect. He's in a spiritual drought. Do you feel that? Like, "Man, I just can't seem to find water." Brother, the living water is right here. Maybe you just need to drink of it. Maybe you're not actually in a drought; you're just choosing sin.

His vitality was gone. His strength was zeroed. His energy was exhausted. You see, when we conceal our sin, we erode our soul. So, why do we do it then? Because we think, "If they knew what I did, my reputation would be finished. If they knew what I did, they would never want to keep me around. If they knew what I did, then everything I've worked so hard to earn would be forfeited. If they knew what I did, I'm not even sure life would be worth living."

Here's the thing: nobody may know right now, yet life isn't worth living anyway. So often, we focus on the sin we did and making sure it never gets out rather than focusing on what that sin is doing to us and the way it's eating us from the inside out. David is looking at you and saying, "Hey, I'm not so concerned about what you did but what it's doing to you, because so long as you keep it locked up inside, pushed down into the depths of who you are, it will rot you away."

We have to stop hiding. We have to start confessing, because our joy is at stake. I love the way Saint Augustine said this. He said the beginning of knowledge is to know oneself to be a sinner. So many people fear that confession will be the end of everything for them, but according to Augustine, it's only the beginning of everything for you, because the freest person in the room is the person who has nothing to hide.

It's the person who walks into a space like this and isn't trying to manage facts or control the narrative or monitor people's perceptions. It's when we're honest with ourselves, with God, and with others that life, truth, joy, happiness, and satisfaction come racing into the recesses of our souls. When we admit we're a sinner, there awaits a savior, Christ, he who is happiness himself and gives without discrimination to any who would seek him, confess their sins, and receive the love he has to offer.

First John 1:9 says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, which is exactly what David does next. Verse 5: "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."

This is the longest verse in the entire psalm because it's the center, the heartbeat, of everything David wants you to understand. It's summarized very simply in this: confession is never easy, but it is always worth it. Why? Because it is the first step on the road to rejoicing again. That's what confession is. It's the first step on the road to rejoicing. It puts us on the path of repentance.

How many of you are so disenchanted with the idea of repentance? "Man, you just want me to return to where I was?" No. I want you to go where you were always meant to be. Not back into a life where "I guess Jesus is enough," but into a life where Jesus is better, where you move into an existence where you can stack up anything in comparison and he outclasses them all, because the satisfaction he gives is greater than that of the world.

He is more satisfying, more gratifying, and more energizing than anything this world could ever offer. So, how do we do this? Very quickly, how do we actually move through a process of confession? It's not just a matter of "Let me just tell you what I did." That would be wrong. David gives us three steps on how to confess well, a blueprint of sorts.

He says, "I acknowledged my sin to you." David doesn't keep the knowledge of his sins pent up inside. He doesn't bury them down deep. He doesn't try to conceal them from God. He openly admits them before God, because sin must be acknowledged. That's the first thing. If you want to confess well and return to rejoicing, you have to acknowledge your sin.

Secondly, "I did not cover my iniquity." David doesn't hide it. He doesn't veil it from view. He outs it, and then he owns it. He says, "This is what it is, and it is, in fact, mine." Secondly, sin must be exposed. It has to be acknowledged, and then it has to be exposed. Then he says, "I will confess my transgressions." That word for confess carries the idea of casting something off, throwing something down.

He says, "I will confess my transgressions. I will empty it all out. I've been carrying this too long. The weight is too heavy, and the natural result is for me to give it over and lay it out flat." Because sin must be released. That's the third. It has to be acknowledged, it has to be exposed, and it has to be released.

We have to acknowledge, "God, I've done something wrong. I've been hiding this from you, Lord. I've been keeping this under wraps because I know it's not good and I fear, God, what you'll say about it, yet, Lord, I know in your Word, by way of your Son, I should acknowledge this is in me. You already know, God. It's not the fact that this is unknown to you. You know what I did. It's just that I don't want you to know what I did, but, God, I acknowledge it."

As he leans into you, you expose it. "God, let me tell you what it was. Let me give you vivid detail. Let me confess, not generically but very specifically, what I did to you, God. Let me not use cagey language or generic terminology. 'Well, I was struggling.'" That doesn't work. "Well, I was wrestling." That doesn't work either.

We have to move past broad, blanket, categorical ideas of lust, anger, control, and pride. We have to get specific. We have to be willing to say what it is. Too often, we are processing the things we're confessing to God and to other people, and we're wondering, "How much should I say?" Why don't you ask a different question. "How much can I say? How much detail can I give?"

"Let me tell you where I was. Let me tell you who I was looking for when I went to that place. Let me tell you what I searched in my browser. Let me tell you what I consumed and where I got it from. Let me tell you who I'm jealous of and what I'm jealous of about them. Let me make sure I give you as much specific clarity as possible," because the more of this I can get out of my heart, the more of God I can get into it.

How much of God do you want in? How much happiness do you want right now? Then get rid of the sadness. Remove the sin, that which breeds insecurity, paranoia, anxiety, stress, and all of those ill, rotten feelings. Get them out, and God will fill you up. That's the way this works. Then, like David, we have to throw it down. Before you can receive forgiveness from God, with two hands you have to empty those hands that have been carrying these sins for far too long.

Does anybody hate taking multiple trips to the car to get your groceries? My men are like, "I'm vibing now. I'm locked back in. I know all about that." What do you do? You load up, you race inside, and then you throw them down because they're heavy, even though you don't want to admit it. You cast it off. You get rid of it. That's how we're supposed to approach our sin. Psalm 86:5 says, "For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you." Why, then, would we not confess? When we confess fully, we're forgiven freely.

Now, some of you hear that, and you think to yourself, "Kylen, it's too late for me, though. You don't know what I've done. You don't know where I've been. Sure, this is a good message for everybody else. I even believe God might have a heart like this for all of these people, but that's not the heart God would have for me. My list of sins is long. My past is littered with mistakes. My road is filled with regret. I've done some things the likes of which I could never come back from. This may work for them, but it will never work for me."

If that's you, then you need to know joy is never too far off, and it's never too late for you, because although your past may consist with sin, your future can be filled with joy. How do I know that? Well, science supports it. According to Jonathan Grant, neurologists have shown that while most brain development stops sometime in childhood, the brain's joy center, located and observable in the right orbital prefrontal cortex, is the only part of the brain that never loses its capacity to grow. That's fascinating.

God has hardwired into you, what's known as the emotional command center of your entire being, infinite levels of joy. You can have joy, which begs the question, then…How do we get it? Well, this is where it gets really fascinating and we part ways with the science and connect it to the Scripture. From a neurological perspective, joy is always relational. Meaning, it isn't found in what you have, what you do, where you go, or how much you get. Joy is found in who you know.

I've noticed this with our newborn, Kash. I've taken it as my personal mission to make him the happiest boy in the world, yet I have a minister's salary, so that will not come by way of me spoiling him rotten with all manner of different things he can own, places I can take him, things he can do, or how much he can have.

Sure, I can give him more Baby Paper. I can even change his diaper. I can unwrap the latest whatever, that toy which will stimulate him for a moment, but do you know what gives him joy? Time with me and time with his mom. I've noticed his joy center fires when he sees me, when we connect, when we're together, when we relate to one another, when we enjoy each other's presence.

Yet, here's what I've also come to learn. If my goal is to make him the happiest boy in the world, then even my presence will be insufficient for him, because he needs a better father than I am. Praise God that there is one. There is a God who loves my boy and loves you too and wants more than to lavish you with all manner of material that might produce something good in you, some feeling or excitement. He wants to give you the very best thing he has, which is himself.

God is so loving that should there be anything better than him, I firmly believe he'd be like, "Go. Get to it," but because there is not, he says, "Come to me. It is through our relationship that all the joy you want and more can be found." For it is in his presence that there's fullness of joy. It is at his right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

In a world that wants to take our joy, we can be assured our Jesus came to give it back. He came to pursue not perfect people but imperfect people, to give them a happy heart, the kind of heart he himself had. He came to broach our secret sin and give us the very joy we had lost, a joy that can only be found in him.

Though he knows confession is never easy, he has made it so very worth it, that any who would confess and believe him as Lord might be with him forever and not just have eternal life but have joy both today and tomorrow and forevermore. Sin isn't just a bad thing we do; it is the response of the sad people we are. Where, then, is our joy found? It is found in Christ. Look to his cross, for that tells you how much he wanted you to have it and find it in him. Let me pray for us.

God, we love you. Thanks for tonight. God, I acknowledge that coming into this evening, I knew this message is heavy and it's hard. The room might feel weighty and even worried, but, God, I think it's too important to look at these people, your people, and tell them the road back to joy is found in Jesus in whom we not only find everlasting life but the forgiveness that makes it possible.

If you don't know Christ, I pray you would confess your sin and believe he is Lord, for it is in him that all satisfaction is found. If you're here and you've not told somebody, if you've not told him, it's time to confess and get your joy back. That's where the fight begins.

God, we want to start right now. We love you. It's in Christ's name, amen.