10/17/2021 | Trinity UCC Sermon Only | Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III

1:06 When you discover what does not belong, I ask, O God, that you would remove it. Let the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight. Lord, you are my strength and my redeemer. Holy Spirit, do thy will, do thy will, Holy Spirit. We offer this prayer this day in the mighty and wonderful healing name of Jesus, who is the Christ and the people of God, who love God and may say, Amen. Amen. For those of you who have your Bible with you, actually everybody should have their Bible if you have a phone. I'm going to ask that you will turn to the 51st Psalm, Psalm 51. For those of you who are online, Psalm 51, Psalm 51.

2:02 I'm just going to read a few sections, but in your own devotion time, I want you to read the entire Psalm 51, but here's what I'm going to ask that you do. I want you to go in your house, in your own prayer closet, maybe it's in your room, bedroom, kitchen, wherever it may be. I want you to read this Psalm out loud in your home. I want you to read it out loud. Read it out loud. Not as if David is talking, but you are talking. read Psalm 51 out loud. That's all I ask that you would read it out loud and watch God move. Watch God move. Read it out loud. But I read this beginning with verse 1. I'm going to read sections of emphasis today.

2:57 Verse 1 reads, and my sin is always before me. Verse 4, against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. But verse 10, I want you to hear, create in me.

3:57 A pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. If I could give the OM3 translation of verse 1. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion. Blot out my transgressions. for God I am not okay wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin it is against you verse 4 that I've broken the covenant it is against you and only you I have sinned and rebelled it is against you that I've lived this dysfunctional life and done what is destructive and evil in your sight.

4:54 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. That is verse 10. Create in me a pure heart. For those who are listening, it is verse 10.

5:17 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of God's holy word. You may be seated in the presence of the Most High God. If I could have the tea, I'd just appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. I want to put a tag here on this text. We're in this series and we'll continue in this series entitled, I Am Not Okay. I want you to turn to your neighbor at this time and look at your neighbor. Look at your neighbor. Don't look at me. Look at your neighbor. Just raise your eyebrows. Just raise your eyebrows with your neighbor. and say, neighbor, oh neighbor, I am not okay. Now find another neighbor, maybe the same one, raise your eyebrows again, and say, neighbor, it's okay to not be okay.

6:21 Amen. I am not okay. We want to put a subtitle on this series, on this message today. A leader states, I am not okay. A leader states, I am not okay. I'll begin this way, beloved. Healing is waiting in a room marked true. Healing is waiting in a room marked truth. The day we not only know the truth, but speak the truth, is the day we allow healing to enter our lives. Healing is waiting in a room marked truth.

7:24 And this series is actually one sermon in four different parts with a simple idea that when uttered opens the door of healing. I am not okay. When we have the courage to claim this truth, that God has ordained this truth, that truth will set us free and will heal some old wounds. Healing is waiting in a room marked truth. Truth. The truth is that we have made an idol, yes, an idol, especially within the faith community, an idol of David. Now, the myth of David is far from the painful truth of the man. Healing is waiting in a room marked true.

8:24 For those of us, Reverend Tyrone raised in the church, the stories of David echo in our memory. You can't go to a black revival, especially if you grew up Pentecostal, AME, or Baptist. The preacher from that five-day revival, at some point, he or she is going to talk about David. David's courage. David and his slingshot slaying Goliath. David who turned into a king from a shepherd boy. David, who danced before the Lord, danced out of his clothes. We created a myth around David, but failed to tell the full story of who he is. The truth is, David was not okay.

9:19 David, now know this, was anointed, flawed, gifted, insecure, brilliant, broken, savvy, and a misogynist. Let me say it again. David was anointed, gifted, brilliant, and savvy. But David was also flawed, insecure, broken, and a misogynist. Let me let you know this. You can be anointed and flawed. You can be gifted and insecure. You can be brilliant and broken. You can be savvy and a misogynist. Sin does not scrub away your gifts. And our gifts do not remove our sin. Being human is living in contradiction.

10:15 Being Christian is knowing the truth. But being a disciple of Christ is turning it over to God. An anointing does not keep you from the deficiencies you have nurtured and nursed all your life. There is a myth, David the myth, and then there is David the man. The myth is the book of all of his accomplishments, great things that David did for Israel. The man is the truth of his contradiction and sin. Israel, and the beauty of this, that one must understand as I was reading about David and reviewing, why would Israel frame and write and remember David, who is considered to be their greatest king, with all of the stuff he did.

11:17 Most recorders of a leader's legacy who have been paid by the king or the president or prime minister or Caesar will make sure that the parts they don't like are edited out of the story. So why would Israel, when every other community, Assyria, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, when they have their official record of their leaders, they never talk about their insecurities, flaws, or brokenness, only good things and not any of the things that are troubling? Well, let me help you out. is because Israel wants the truth of David recorded so that future generations will know that even if you're anointed and brilliant, that the brokenness of who you are is not scrubbed away just because you've been elevated by God.

12:32 It means that you have to be careful about the things that sneak around in your spirit that may be hidden because you're wearing some nice clothes at the moment. The reality is you're still human and you need God every day. So Israel does what no other community has ever done during that time period to say that even though God gave us leaders, most of them, all of them still messed up.

13:13 Saul was super insecure. and y'all know Solomon had a major To be nice about it, he liked the ladies. And that's being nice. I could say some other things. But... For those of you who didn't hear, sister said, that's too nice, pastor.

13:44 And the truth is, Solomon learned his behavior from his daddy. see here is here it is this that i want you to know this is the thing that you just need to know if you don't remember anything that i say today remember this david shows us the dangers of being dysfunctional and thinking dysfunction is actually functional because so many people affirm your dysfunction you think that the functional people are actually dysfunctional Because you got too many yes people in your category that affirm and say it's all right, baby, even though you're doing dysfunctional stuff. Ain't nobody ever pulled your coattail to tell you that what you're doing is dysfunctional and destructive to you and to everybody else. So you grow up thinking that what I do is all right.

14:40 And since God anointed me, I can do this. And you become abusive to everybody around you because nobody told you the truth. David was dysfunctional. The king now, you know the story. I'm not going to go through it all in detail, but you know the story of David. Yes, he was a great king. Yes, he took out Goliath. We know all of that. He was a poor shepherd boy. We know all of that. But we also know that when he stood on his balcony one day and looked out and was staring, he saw a sister bathing. Now, today, if you are on your balcony staring at a naked person in their house, you can be arrested for being a peeping Tom. David is standing looking at Bathsheba and he warns her and invites her over.

15:53 No, he didn't invite her over. That would be nice. If the king invites you, that means they sent soldiers. Bathsheba, the king wants to see you. So two men with swords and shields come to your house to escort you to the king. if you say no they will drag you. And they have authority to handcuff you to take you to the king. So she's not invited. They use the language of invitation. She is forced to come before David. And David ends up sleeping with her.

16:48 not because she wants to, but because if she refuses, the alternatives are death or the death of her family. Because she is married, married to somebody who works for David. So David Weinstein, I'm sorry, David. David is a person of power, exerting his position and power on someone else. and then it gets worse y'all know the story he he he finds out she's pregnant and he says oh lord how am i gonna cover this up so what i'll do is i'll invite her husband home so that he can sleep with her and he'll think the baby's his but it's actually mine now this is some really messed up stuff. Because if she has the baby and he thinks the baby's here, then the baby becomes the heir to you just completely. This is soap opera stuff. But Uriah, the husband, has so much respect for David and commitment to his position. He says, wait a minute. You pulled me off the battlefield and want me to have a three-day pass to spend time with my wife. My men are out there dying.

18:27 I can't do this. I'll sit outside the room. And David is like, shoot. And so David has Uriah killed and he ends up with Bathsheba. I'm sorry, y'all. I got issues with David. And then the other issue is with David is an amazing military leader. There is no argument about this. He is one of the most gifted military leaders in Israel's history. He is an amazing political leader, but he is an awful father. He does not know how to raise his sons nor protect his daughter. is the king of Israel.

19:26 This is the greatest king of this time. But they wanted to make sure that everything about David is included in his history. Because we want the future generations to know just because you're anointed, it does not mean it scrubs away your flaws. Which means you've got to fall before God every day even more when you are in a position of authority. David refuses. David had so many people around him. Here is the problem. David had so many people around him who smiled and said yes. No one told him the truth. They said that you are the greatest, that everything that you do, anything that you say, any way that you act, anything that you speak, it's okay and I will justify how you behave. No one around him said anything and how often this happens to people in leadership. It's even happened in our country with people who have taken on the mantle of leadership in this nation that you surround yourself with people who just say, ooh, yeah, yeah, you're right. You're the greatest person ever. You are phenomenal.

20:53 David had so many people around him who smiled and said yes to everything. David loved the crowd, the sounds of the people saying, look, it's David who's killed his tens of thousands. It's the poet Rudy Francesco who offers a word that I believe speaks to David's heart. This small little poem, and I think it speaks to David and so many of us. He says this, there was a moment in my life when I couldn't tell the difference between a window and a mirror. I could look into both and see everything but myself. Ah, so often we can become lost because of a position, because we are serving, you've been given a title, and we are unable to see the contradictions in our lives because we don't have the necessary people around us who can pull our coat tape. but I have to tell the truth. I don't like David and the reason that I don't like him is from what he has done.

22:04 The reason I don't like David is to be truthful is because I can see some of myself in David. Now I'm not talking about the horrible acts, the extreme behavior that he's participated, but one simple aspect that I believe that all preachers, that all servants, that all leaders, that all people who serve in any capacity must come to grips with, and that is the false drug of affirmation and the addiction to the crowd. I remember, I remember, I tell this story. Monica didn't even know I'm going to tell this story, that I tell this story that one time Monica said something that literally stopped me in my tracks. I preached a message, this is years ago, And I said something that it made the crowd shout, but Monica started frowning. She said to me afterwards, she said, you said that because you thought you would get a shout, not because the Spirit led you to say it, or the Word compelled you.

23:09 I was stunned, and I was silent because it was true. I wanted desperately to make an impression, And I thought that I was savvy enough to make a shift in my message, to put an illustration that was completely irrelevant, but the people would like. I wanted the affirmation instead of resting on God's truth. I fell victim to what the crowd wanted and lost my compass, and instead of seeking what God desired. Your anointing doesn't move away your flaws. if you do not speak truth to yourself and fill the void in your spirit with God's wisdom or you have somebody in your life who loves you enough to tell you the truth and I'm here to let you know that real love is not being a fan of somebody real love is being a friend to somebody and willing to tell the person the truth enough that your stuff is raggedy you can do better and I want you to grow because I love you.

24:13 David, with all his flaws and faults, didn't have anyone around him in his immediate circle. But God sent somebody named Nathan and said, I'm going to tell you the truth because I'm a prophet. So let me tell you about a man who stole some sheep from a poor man. This man was wealthy and had hundreds and hundreds of sheep, but stole one from a poor man, and that man had nothing, then killed that man. What would you say we should do to that man? And David got out of the throne and said, that's the worst thing I've ever heard in my life. Where is that man? And Nathan smiled and said, thou art the man. Don't you know what you did to Uriah and Bathsheba? And David was broken at that moment.

25:13 What I like about David, with all of his faults, with all of his misogyny, with all of his flaws, with all of his brokenness, David had the gumption to make a confession to God. in Psalm 51 that all the stuff that he did at the end of his life he wrote a poem publicly to let every leader know that I'm not okay. He said I don't care who knows about it. I'm not ashamed because I did it. And he goes before God and he utters something that no leader has ever uttered in Israel. He said have mercy upon me oh God according to thy unfailing love. According to thy great compassion, I've sinned and sinned before you. I'm not okay.

26:05 But what makes me shout is he says this. I know I messed up, God, but create in me a clean heart. You missed your shout today because no matter how far you have fallen, no matter how much you are broken, No matter how many scars you have, God can pull you from your dysfunction to your destiny. Is there anybody in here where you can say, create in me? Maybe. That's why this word makes me emotional and shout on so many different levels. This is the good news, and it causes me to tremble and shout no matter how far you've gone, no matter how many scars you have, no matter what you have done. We serve a God who will redeem you. You shall be redeemed.

27:04 This is the good news. Our God celebrates confession. Our God embraces brokenness. The truth is that we are not okay, but the truth is also that we are a vulnerable people. We are of a vulnerable population. We have a pre-existing condition of insecurity, ignorance, and arrogance, pettiness, and foolishness. But thanks be to God that we serve a God that is willing to say, I'll pull you out of your pit if you're willing to confess. And I've got to get out of here, but where are the broken people at? Where are the flawed people? Where are the folk who've been hurt and bruised and scarred? I want to know where are you in this house? If you've been broken, if you've been bruised, if you've been cut, if you've been scarred,