James 5:13-19, ESV
Why do I need to confess my sins to a person?
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
James 5:16, ESV
Reasons for confessing sins to another:
Why do I need to confess my sins to a person?
1. The Bible expects us to do so.
God assures us that while our relationship with Him is personal, it is not _private_.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Ephesians 4:25, ESV
9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Colossians 3:9-10, ESV
Why do I need to confess my sins to a person?
2. It hinders us from a life of _hypocrisy_.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts he will be blessed in his doing.
James 1:22-25, ESV
Why do I need to confess my sins to a person?
3. It shares the burden of living _righteously_.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and , if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Colossians 3:12-14, ESV
Why do I need to confess my sins to a person?
4. It break’s the enemy’s _strong hold_.
When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. 4 Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
Psalm 32: 3-5, NLT
Why do I need to confess my sins to a person?
5. It facilitates genuine _repentance_.
Why do I need to confess my sins to a person?
6. It promotes genuine _forgiveness_.
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
I John 1:6-7, ESV
Why do I need to confess my sins to a person?
7. It allows the church to be the _church_.
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.
Galatians 6:1-5, ESV
Results for Confessing sins to another:
_Reconciliation_
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
II Corinthians 5:18-19 Results for Confessing sins to another:
_Responsibility_
Results for Confessing sins to another:
_Restoration_
V15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
Genesis 33:4
Regulations for confessing sins to another:
1. It is both unwise and unnecessary to be fully & equally transparent with everyone.
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Proverbs 18:24, ESV
Regulations for confessing sins to another:
2. Even though temptation is not sin and keeping your struggles quiet can seem attractive, confession is an essential part of resisting.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7, ESV
Regulations for confessing sins to another:
3. Confess sins _quickly_ and _honestly_.
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James 4:8, ESV
Wimberley Christian Church will not shoot the wounded!!
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32, ESV