Supplementing Your Faith Sunday School Lesson Take Aways

Dear Class:

Today we continued our study of the Book of Psalms with a focus on Psalm 51.  In this well-known psalm, King David painfully expresses his guilt regarding an adulterous affair, his awareness that only the Lord can forgive and restore him, and his sincere plea for divine cleansing.

It’s important that believers understand that repentance is not merely about turning from sin, it’s mostly about turning to Jesus in loving obedience and submission to His power (Rom. 6:11-14). Cleansing is not just about avoiding and resisting sin; it’s more about abiding in Christ and allowing His Spirit to flow through us!  Although God will certainly convict and correct sin (to set us free), the sin should not to be our continual focus – Jesus is our focus.  It’s from Him that we have the power to overcome sinful strongholds in our life.

Confessing our sins before God is important but we don’t gain victory by continually obsessing on our weaknesses. As we learn to continually “behold Him (by faith), we are progressively transformed into His image from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). This is what David did.  Because David knew God intimately, he knew about God’s infinite capacity to forgive us and restore us to Himself when we seek His face with a broken and contrite heart as our offering.
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Note:

Please note that next Sunday, Aug. 13, we will continue our study of the Book of Psalms with a focus on Psalm 32.  This psalm of David expresses the gratitude and joy that David felt over the forgiveness of his sins.  Although there are consequences for our sins from which God’s forgiveness doesn’t necessarily deliver us.  His forgiveness always delivers us from the consequence of separation from Him.

Special Note:

As requested, attached is the handout we used in class today for confession from the National Day of Prayer Service.