I want to take the life of David from Psalm 51, and that's going to be our main Psalm tonight. And I want to overlay it with the life of Jonah because when it comes to sinners, they're kind of cousins. David sees a woman, Bathsheba, taking a bath and he orders his men to go get her and takes her home. Jonah is called by God to go and warn the people of Nineveh about an impending judgment. And if you read the whole book of Jonah, you will actually find out that Jonah doesn't like these people and doesn't want them to know God's grace.

But I have a word that I believe is God's breath to you, the breath of God. There is no situation in your life that has gone too far that God cannot redeem. There is no situation for you in this room, those out in the ohana tent, those watching on the Internet campus, wherever you are, I want this to be God's breath to you. There is no situation that has gone too far that God cannot redeem. There is no stain too dark that God cannot erase.

1. David experienced the downward spiral of sin.

Maybe you have too. Someone said that sin is taking temptation and putting a collar and a leash on it and taking it home as a pet. That's what it is. See, we're all tempted, but we don't have to respond to the temptation.

But here's what I'd like you to hear as well, and you may have heard these statements before. Sin will take you farther than you want to go. Sin will cost you more than you want to pay, and sin will keep you longer than you want to stay. It will take you farther than you want to go. It will cost you more than you want to pay, and it will keep you longer than you want to stay. Just ask David or Jonah.

But remember this: There's no situation in your life that's gone too far that God cannot redeem.

In 2 Samuel 11:27 it says, “But the Lord did not like what David had done.”

What is in your life right now that God doesn't smile upon? It's a tough question. But if we let the word of God speak to us, we let the Holy Spirit speak to us; the Lord comes in and begins to erase those stains in our life. Sin will always take us downward.

2. Jonah, runs from God and leaves wisdom far behind.

Every time we run from God, we're leaving wisdom behind because what we find in God are all wisdom and all truth.

Jonah 1:3 tells us these words: “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port, and after paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.”

The last thing we want to do is flee from the Lord.

People who run from the Lord always run to the strangest places.

They lose all wisdom and self?control and right thinking.

When we start running from God, we'll always go farther than we want to go, and we'll always end up in the strangest places.

In David's case, God sent a prophet, Nathan. In Jonah's case, God sent a storm to discipline his life.

3. God is generous in grace and thorough in discipline.

See, we want God to be a God of grace. We're not so big on a God who disciplines us. But if you read the scripture, it tells us in the book of Hebrews that God is like a father who disciplines His children because He loves us.

Now, sometimes we might want God just to look the other way when it comes to our sin. But, see, if God could turn His back on sin, then why would He send His son Jesus to die on a cross for us? He did so because He wants to redeem us. He wants us forgiven.

Psalm 51:10-12 says, “Create in me a pure heart, 0 God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.”

You see, before Jonah ran away from God and before David embraced sin, they both were men who knew the presence of God in their lives. And now God's discipline is not just Nathan the prophet coming to David, but it's also God lifting his hand away. Lord, don't take your presence from me.

David worshiped God through dance and instruments and he felt God's presence. But now for some reason he feels the presence of the Lord lifting.

Remember: When you encounter the Holy Spirit, his first name is holy, and so things in your life that may be unholy, he wants to redeem those things and erase those things so his presence can come and he can be with you.

Jonah 1:17 and also Jonah 2 says: “Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow

Jonah… ‘In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and You listened to my cry.’” (Jonah 1:17, 2:1-2 NIV)

In your distress, whatever it is you're facing, you cry out to the Lord because He will hear you, He will listen to your cry, and He will come and help you.

God's discipline is not to pay us back, but to bring us back.

Whenever God causes His hand to lift, whenever God causes something in our life, a confrontation of truth that comes in like Nathan to David, God will use that to bring us back into his presence.

God responds to the cries of desperate people who are in desperate circumstances of their own creation.

David's circumstances are because of David. Jonah's circumstances are because of Jonah. And yet God would say, “I don't care who caused it. I'm here for you. I'm a redeeming God, a God of forgiveness, a God of grace.”

You can run from God, but you cannot outrun God.

The process to forgiveness:

Whenever you are facing guilt or shame, remember, God will convict you, but he will never condemn you.

See, the Devil likes to condemn you. God comes in and says He can redeem anyone.

1. Run to God.

Train your heart ?? and this is hard to do, but I'm learning this lesson along with you. Train your heart. The minute you start to drift, run back to God's presence. Because, see, once you start drifting and you start moving away from God, your conscience gets seared, and it's easy to keep drifting.

Consequently, sin will take you farther than you want to go. It will cost you more than you want to pay. It will keep you longer than you want to stay.

Confession begins the restoration process.

Some people believe, well, I confessed, you know, when I said yes to Jesus some time ago, so I'm done confessing. No, you're not. You study the New Testament, confession is an ongoing thing.

And when we confess, like 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he's able to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Romans 8:1 is a powerful verse, and it reads this way:

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Confession is when I say, Lord, I can't fix this. David tried to fix it, the downward spiral of sin. He gets Bathsheba pregnant. He takes his command and has her husband killed. This thing goes on and on, and finally he says, Oh, Lord, I have sinned before you.

2 Samuel 12:13:

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

And Nathan replied, “The Lord's taken away your sin.

Your sin, sin of adultery, sin of murder, sin of lust; The Lord took them all away.”

And then here's what he said: “You are not going to die.”

God comes to clean our hearts out.

So in Psalm 51:1-2 David says, “Have mercy on me, O God according to your unfailing love.”

Some of you need to hear that tonight.

In Jonah 2:2: “From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”

Or you look at the eyes of Jesus on the cross and when he said, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do; he wasn't just speaking to those who were gambling for his garments, those who were mocking him. He was speaking down the quarters of time to people like you and me who needed redemption.

For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. You know what the joy was? Well, theologians say the joy was for him to be returned back to God in heaven. Yes, but I have a second answer. You're his joy. When he died on the cross, he was thinking about you and he was joyful. Even though he's in sorrow and pain and his blood is being shed for our sins, he's joyful because he knows that those who believe in him and those who say yes to him will make the most eternal decision they've ever made before. There's nothing that's gone too far that God cannot redeem.

2. Receive God's cleansing.

Receive it. It's a gift for you. His freedom, his love is for you.

In Psalm 51:2, 7, the Psalmist says, “Wash away all my inequity and cleanse me from my sin. Cleanse me with hyssop.”

Many of you know that hyssop was a plant, and if a house had a disease in it, the priest had to come and take that plant, kind of like a brush almost, and dip it in blood and then put it upon the house to declare that the home was now clean.

One of my favorite verses on God's redemption is Acts 3:19: “Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out and that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

In Jonah 2 verse 3: “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them.”

He calls himself an idolater. He was a believer. Where did he commit idolatry? He doesn't have a golden calf. He doesn't have an image of God anywhere.

Oh, Jonah teaches us that when we put our own decisions above God, when we sit on the thrown of our heart instead of God sitting on the thrown of our heart, that that's idolatry. So here's my answer. Just get off the thrown of your heart, and let God take his rightful place.

When we run from God what we pursue is never worth what we gave up.

When somebody really hits rock bottom, when an alcoholic really hits rock bottom, I mean, really hits rock bottom, they don't ask for another bottle. They ask for help. When a drug addict really, really hits rock bottom, I mean really hits rock bottom, they don't ask for more drugs. They ask for help.

When Jonah comes to God and cries out of the belly of the big fish, he doesn't ask for another boat. He asks for God's help. And when David cries out to God, Oh, Lord, blot out my sin, he's not asking for another woman. He's asking for God to redeem him and restore him so he can sing again, and he praises God again and so does Jonah. He worships the Lord and says salvation comes from you, and he shouts with shouts of grace before his God.

3. Realize that God has more for you.

I don't know what's going on in your world and in your life. I know what's going on in the church, and here's my word for New Hope. God has more for you. And here's my word for you and your family and your marriage and your situation. God has more for you. He is not done with you. He is not done with you.

So as we finish, I want to ask you this simple question. If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and your savior, you cannot get rid of the stains that you've created on your own, but he can. And many of you already know Christ, and I celebrate the fact that you walk in a relationship with Jesus, but I have a question. Is there an area of your life where you need to surrender right now?

Jonah had to surrender. David had to surrender. And their lives were better for it. And I can tell you this from my own experience knowing the Lord a long time. Whenever I've surrendered to God, I always win. See, surrendering in life, you lose. But when you surrender to God, you always win. He will lift you up and take you where you can't go. He will erase your sin. He will make you whiter than the snow.

Questions:

1. What is in your life right now that God does not smile upon?

2. If God could turn his back on sin, then why would he send his son Jesus to die on a cross for us?

3. What are some of the ways that people commit idolatry?

4. What are the downward consequences of sin?

5. Why does God discipline his children?