Alrighty. So this morning, I want to just start by clearing the air. I see some people just staring at me thinking, there's something different about you. If you know me, I generally have a beard, and this morning I do not. And that's not on purpose. You might be thinking, how does one accidentally shave his beard? And I will default to what? My wife says Often she says, ian, sometimes you just don't pay attention to the details. And she's true. That is an accurate statement. I just so happened to be trying to trim my beard like I do most weekends, and I didn't pay close enough attention. Just like. And I was like, well, that was more hair than that was supposed to be. So you guys get baby face and mustache today. So congratulations. Thank you. I appreciate that. It wasn't on purpose. Let me clarify that. It wasn't planned, but it does serve as an illustration as we start talking about our text this morning. Okay. Have you ever started doing something and then in the middle of it, realized, oh, I am making a mistake? That was this morning for me. As I was trimming, I thought I had the right setting. I did not. And I take one swipe through, and as I'm going, it's like, that feels like more hair than I should be taking off. And sure enough, it was. And I had two options. Most of the time, that's what we have when we're in the middle of a mistake. We can either try and scramble and fix it and just try and make our way through it, push through it, or we can just completely go on in our mess and just say, yeah, you know what? We'll just keep going. That's what I did this morning. I just kept going, cut it all off. It worked out. It's fine. But what about you guys when you're in the middle of a mistake or maybe you realize that you've been doing something wrong? Maybe it's shaving a beard. Maybe it's putting together IKEA furniture with the world's worst instructions and the world's tiniest wrench. And you're like, yeah, I see that hand, sir. We've all been there. I was putting together an IKEA kitchen just like a few years ago and realized about 80% of the way through that I put it on wrong. And so I had to go back and undo everything. But what about when it comes to things maybe a little more serious than facial hair and IKEA furniture? What do you do when you realize that you're in the midst of sin? Like, what's your response when you realize, oh, I am in the middle of sin right now, you can either keep going in the mess, keep going in your sin, or you can turn, you turn away from your sin and turn back to God. Or the biblical word for that is you can repent. And this morning, the text I want to dive us into this morning is a text on repentance. And just to clarify, when I talk about repentance, I am talking about the turning away from your sin and turning back to God and walking with God. That's what we mean by repentance. Turning your back on your sin, turning away from it, and walking rightly with with God. That's repentance. And so this morning I want us to look at a text that shows us the right way of repentance. Because here's the deal. I think too many of us, we get repentance wrong. I think for a lot of us, maybe we like, we want to repent, maybe we even try to repent, but in the midst of all this, we get it wrong and we don't actually know the path to take to reality lasting repentance. We equate confession with repentance, but they're not the same. Confession is you going before God saying, God, I have sinned. Here's my sin. I'm declaring it, I'm confessing it, I'm telling myself, I'm telling you and I'm telling others that what I just did was against you, it went against your ways. That's confession. But it's not repentance. And oftentimes we make them the same thing. Sometimes we equate feeling bad and guilty about our sin with repentance. And sometimes we try. We equate trying really hard not to sin with repenting. And I want you to know up front, like I've been in all three of these camps, like this is oftentimes especially younger, in my years, how I would view repentance. But that's not real repentance. Those aren't bad responses to sin. In fact, we need all of those within our repentance, but on their own. Each of those things do not lead to lasting repentance. And maybe you're in here this morning and you're struggling with sin. Maybe you're stuck in a cycle of sin that you can't seem to get out of. And maybe you're stuck in that sin because you've never actually understood repentance from sin. And so this morning, I want us to get what is repentance. I want us to understand what is real repentance, what leads to real, lasting and effective repentance from our sin, so that we can turn from sin and walk rightly with God. And so with that, we're going to turn to Psalm 51. So if you have your Bibles, you can open up there. We're just going to camp out in Psalm 51 for the most part. And before we get into a specific verse, we need to know the context of this psalm. We need to know what's happening in King David's life that would make him write this psalm. And so as you look at Psalm 51, this Psalm actually includes a heading that's really helpful. It says to the choirmaster a psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. This psalm, the backstory of this psalm, is the infamous sin of David and Bathsheba. It's when he had committed adultery. And so I want to go back to the story of David and Bathsheba. I want us to understand what's happening there so that we can better understand repentance from sin. Sound good? So we're going to go back to 2nd Samuel, chapter 11, verse 1, because this is where this story starts. This is where we see this sin start unfolding. It says, in the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabba, but David Ra remained at Jerusalem. This is the backdrop for the entire story behind David and Bathsheba. And it starts with David staying at home, with David staying in Jerusalem when he should have been at war. Now, this doesn't sound like that big of a deal you might be thinking. It's like, he's a king. He can do whatever he wants, right? Like, what's so bad about him staying at his kingdom, sending his people, saying, ah, you guys can take care of it. What's bad about it is we see David in this moment. He's abdicating his kingly responsibilities as a king. He should have been at war there. And what seems like a little thing, what seems like a small thing, leads to this unraveling of sin in David's life, guys. And that's often how sin starts in our own life as well. That we think that it's just something small, it's just an inc. Like, it's just an insignificant decision. It doesn't affect that much. But oftentimes that one little compromise, that one little thing, that one Tiny sin, or at least tiny in our eyes, leads us down a path and down an entire cycle of sin. I think that's especially true for sexual sin, that you make one little compromise here, you stay when you should be at war, and then ultimately it all unravels. And we see that happening in David's life here. He stays home, he passes up on his kingly responsibilities and see what happens next. It says that he sees and lusts after a woman that's not his wife. That's adultery. If you remember From Matthew chapter 5, When Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount, he lusts after a woman that's not his wife. He impregnates that woman, which is adultery again, if you're keeping count. He tries to cover it up by bringing her husband home from war to get him to sleep with his wife to make it seem like he's the one that impregnated her. But this guy doesn't have it. He has more integrity than the king does. And so David tries to cover it up again. And ultimately what ends up happening is David has Bathsheba's husband killed, murdered. And what started with what seems like such a small thing, just kind of passing on his kingly responsibilities, goes down and down a cycle and path of sin. All that happens in 27 verses. And then in chapter 12, we see Nathan the prophet confront David. We see Nathan the prophet point out David's sin to him, and David confesses his sin. And then we see David pay the punishment or the discipline for his sin. Because that's what's going on as David is writing Psalm 51. All of that is what he is processing, what he's going through. What he's thinking about in Psalm 51 is this beautiful, well known psalm of repentance where David is turning from his sin against Bathsheba and her husband and turning back to God. Because what's crazy is that even in the midst of all of the sin, in the midst of all that David had done, who is David still known as a man after what God's own heart? And I'm convinced that part of what makes David a man after God's own heart is how he deals with his sin. It's how he responds to his sin and church. I want us to be people who respond to our sin in the same way that we see David respond to his sin here in Psalm 51. So go back to Psalm 50:51. We have the background of the text, we have the background of what's going on. And I want us to see from David's repentance what our repentance should look like. And I want to see three things that I think this psalm shows us about how we can be people who really repent with a repentance that lasts. And so Psalm 51, we're going to be in verse 12 primarily, and we'll jump into 13 and maybe 14. We'll see says in verse 12, restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Up to this point in the psalm, David has confessed his sin before God. He's pleaded for God's mercy. He's asked God to cleanse him and forgive him. And now in verse 12, we're seeing David say, who restore to me the joy of your salvation. That is David's request here. And here's the thing. The first thing I want you to see about getting repentance, right, we need to fix our focus. If we're going to get repentance right, we need to fix our focus. As you look at this verse, and really it's more so like the whole first part of this psalm, you'll notice something, though. This is a response to David's sexual sin against Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. Do you notice what's not mentioned anywhere in this psalm? Sex and murder. This is a psalm of repentance from those specific sins. But yet those specific sins are not mentioned in the psalm. They're not mentioned in his repentance. He's not asking God to help him stay away from lust. He's not asking God to keep him from the anger that leads to murder. He's not asking God for any of those things. This psalm is a psalm of repentance from sin, yet the specific sin is not mentioned at all. And when I first started to realize this in college, it completely wrecked me because it showed me how wrong I was getting repentance. It showed me how wrong I was getting, turning away from my sin. Because here's what I would do, and maybe you guys can relate to this. I would see sin in my life. It would either get revealed to me by someone else through God's word, through the Spirit convicting me. I'd be confronted with sin in my own life, and I would focus on my sin. I'd be grieved by it, and then I would promise never to let that happen again. And I would just keep focusing in on that sin. And then I would put things in place to help me not sin like that again, like that's where I was. But in all of that, where's my focus? The entire time? It's on myself. And more than that, it's on my sin. I realized that in trying to turn from my sin, all of my attention was still on it. And if repentance is turning away from your sin and turning your focus and attention and your walking to God, it is really hard to walk rightly with God while you're still focused on your sin. It's like trying to drive your car straight when you're yelling at the kids in the back, turning around, trying to get them to pay attention, right, and stop arguing. It's like, it's really hard to drive straight when you're turned backwards. And it's really hard to turn from your sin and walk rightly with God when you're still focused on your sin. This entire psalm, David's focus goes. Goes off of his sin, and it goes onto the God that he had sinned against. Guys. And we have to start by getting our eyes off of our sin and onto the God we've sinned against. If we want to have a lasting repentance, we cannot be so focused and glued in on our specific sins. We have to, at some point, turn our attention back to our Father, turn our attention to the one that we sinned against. Now, don't hear me say, don't worry about your sin. Don't hear me say trying. Don't hear me trying to give you a pass with your sin. Don't hear me say, you don't need to confess your sin. You do. Like that is a vital part of repentance, and confession is a vital part of repentance, but it's not repentance. Confession and repentance are different, but you need both. And so, yes, confess your sin. Confess it completely. Confess it. Specifically, confess who you've sinned against. Take time to confess your sin, but don't confuse confession with repentance. And at some point, you have to move from confession to repenting. And when you do that, you have to move your focus from your sin to and onto the God that you've sinned against. That's what David is doing in his psalm. His attention is shifting from the sin that he had committed, and it's shifting to the God that he had sinned against. We need to fix our focus. Some of you might be finding yourself trapped in sin because you can't stop paying attention to it. You're giving all of your attention to sin. And that's where your focus is. And it's not focused on God. We have to fix our focus. That's first. And then as we dive into verse 12 specifically, we see the second thing that we need for repentance. We need our joy restored. Look at the first part of verse 12. It says, restore to me the joy of your salvation. Now, in context, this seems a little off, doesn't it? Like, it seems a little selfish that David is in the midst of confessing and repenting of his sin, and now he's asking for joy. Like these other requests, they seem to make sense. It's like, purge me with hyssop. Hyssop was a plant used in the purification and ceremonial cleaning processes. They would use a hyssop branch to sprinkle blood to help purify and cleanse. So purge me with hyssop. Like that makes sense. Yes, David sinned. He should want to be cleansed. He says, wash me. Yeah, his sin has made him dirty. It stained him. He wants clean from. It says, hide your face from my sins. Created me a clean heart. Cast me not away from your presence. Like all of those things track along with some, with someone trying to turn away from their sin, right? But joy, like, restore my joy. What does joy have to do with repentance? I think David understood something that we need to understand that the joy of your salvation is necessary for your repentance. It has everything to do with repentance. David understood that has everything to do with real and lasting repentance. That if you want to really repent, you have to have real joy from salvation. David understood that he would constantly be drawn to the thing that he found the most satisfaction in. He would constantly be drawn to the thing that gave him the most joy. He'd constantly be drawn to the thing that he most desired. And so while in first reading, the restore to me the joy of my salvation can feel like a selfish thing. Like, David, are you just trying to feel better about yourself? Are you just trying to feel better about your sin? It's not that at all. It's not a selfish plea. It is a plea of a needy man knowing what he needs the most, that he needs to have the joy of the Lord's salvation restored unto him. He knew something that we have to get that until you find more joy in God than in sin, you will choose sin over God. David understood that. And so he pleads with God for the joy of his salvation. He had known the salvation of God, yet he had lost the joy in it he had known what it meant to be saved, but the joy was gone. Sin hadn't robbed him of his salvation, but it had robbed him of the joy salvation produces. Church, I think for many of us we can be in the same boat. David had been sitting in unconfessed, unrepentant sin for around a year, and it completely sapped the joy that he had. And if you've ever been in unconfessed and unrepentant sin, you know that feeling. You know the joy that's been broken. You know the joy that you once had, but you can't find anymore. Listen, Church, you can't lose your salvation, but you can lose your joy. And a fear that I have is that we are so consumed with our sin and our self that we've lost all the joy of our salvation. You can't lose your salvation, but you can lose your joy. And one of the things that we need if we want to truly repent is we need to have our joy restored. Real, lasting repentance has to come from a restoration of the joy of our salvation. And far too often, and I've done this myself too, we see repentance as something that we have to do just because we sinned against God. We feel bad about our sin. We know that we sinned, we did something that we shouldn't have done, or we didn't do something that we should have done. And we try and turn from our sin and fight it because we know that's what we should do. And we do it out of obligation. We do it because that's what a Christian does. They turn from their sin. But very rarely does that sort of repentance last. Very rarely does that sort of repentance last. That kind of repentance is done out of duty and not delight. That sort of repentance is done out of obligation, not out of adoration. And that sort of repentance won't last because sooner or later the appeal of sin will creep in. And if your joy has not been restored, you're going to see sin as better than your salvation. You're going to see sin as better than walking with God. David knew that if he really wanted to turn back to God, it had to come from a place of beholding the goodness of God. Because compared to the joy found in salvation, sin doesn't stand a chance. That's what David understood. So he begged for the restoration of the joy from God's salvation. And maybe you're stuck in that same place this morning where you know you're saved. That's not a question. You know you're saved, but you have no joy in it. The joy of your salvation has been robbed. It's been taken away. It's been stolen by sin. And maybe you're struggling and fighting so much because you're seeing repentance just as turning away from sin and not as turning to something better. Maybe you're stuck in your sin because you haven't had your joy restored and you're just focused on turning away from your sin and you're not focused on turning to the one who is better than your sin. So, Church, how's the joy of your salvation? Like if it's a fuel tank? If the joy of your salvation is your fuel, is it full? Are you running low on the joy of your salvation? Maybe the gas light's still on, but now you're just pushing through. Or maybe you're completely dry. If that's where you are this morning. My plea for you is that you would beg God to have the joy of your salvation restored unto you. That he would make Himself beautiful to you again, that he would make his salvation sweet to you, that you would understand your salvation, that it would overflow in joy. So what do we do when we find ourselves low on the joy of our salvation? We ask God to restore it. We beg God to restore. We do what David does here. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. But we don't just beg God. We remember that oftentimes to have the joy of our salvation restored to us, we need to rehearse to ourself the salvation that we've experienced, that we need to remember that we've been saved. We need to remember what we've been saved from. And so if your joy is low this morning, in case you've forgotten, let me remind you of the salvation you have in Christ so that can stir up joy in you. Here's your salvation. If you have been saved by Christ, you were once separated from your sin or separated from God by your sin. You were by nature a child of wrath, following the course of the pattern of this world, following the Spirit that is now at work at the sons of disobedience. That's who you were. That's Ephesians 2. That's where we all were started. Separated from God, against God, under his wrath, but at the right time, while you were still a sinner. Christ. Christ died for you. Romans 5, 6. And that Jesus who died, he took your sin and gave you his righteousness. 2nd Corinthians 5:21 and now you don't have to pay the punishment of your sin because it's been paid first. John 4:10 and your sin has been removed. Psalm 103:12 and you're not separated from God anymore. You're a son of God. You're a child of God. You're not a child of wrath. You're a child of God, a co heir with Christ. That should stir up joy. So many of you have just heard the joy. You've heard salvation and you're still frowning. How is that possible? The joy of our salvation produces joy in us. And if the salvation you've experienced doesn't produce joy in you, I will question if you've actually experienced it. Because your salvation produces joy. When you remember who you were and who Christ has made you. When you remember that you were an enemy and now you're a son. When you remember that you were separated and now you're brought close, your salvation brings joy because you recognize that your salvation brings you to God. Amen. And when you compare the joy of your salvation to anything else this world offers, you easily turn your back on sin. Because you're like, why would I want that when I can have this? Of course I'm going to turn away from my sin. It doesn't satisfy me anymore. It doesn't please me anymore. It's not what I want anymore. The salvation of God produces a joy in the people who have experienced it. And if we're going to repent and turn away from our sin, this has to be the place that we start having the joy of our salvation restored to us, begging God to restore it, helping us remember the salvation we have, so that the joy that comes from it just exudes from us. True repentance of sin starts with the joy of God's salvation. That's David's first request in this verse. Restore to me the joy of my salvation. Restore to me the joy that sin has sucked away. Restore to me the joy that I haven't cultivated. God, do that work in me. Help me have this joy restored unto me. Remind me of the salvation that I have so that I can experience the joy that comes from it. And that request leads right into his next one. And the third thing that we need if we're going to be a repenting people. And that's a willingness to obey. A willingness to obey. This is how David says it at the end of verse 12. He says, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me With a willing Spirit. This is an intriguing phrase because different translations say it differently. Some translations will say David is asking that the Holy Spirit would uphold him. Other translations, like the esv, would say that he needs upheld, that he needs God to uphold him and give him a desire to please God. And so. But either way, at the end of the day, I think this is what David understood, that he needed the help of God to walk in the ways of God. David understood that if he was going to really repent, not just turn away from his sin, but continue walking rightly with God, he needed not to just have his joy restored, but he needed a willingness to obey. He knew that he needed God to work in him, a desire to obey God and walk with him. Guys, the same is true for us in our repentance. We need to have the joy of salvation produced in us and a desire to please God upheld in us. If you want to really repent, you need both joy of your salvation restored and you need a desire to obey upheld. That's what we need if we're going to be repenting people. And I don't think it's random that joy comes first. I don't think it's random that David says, restore to me the joy of salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Because I think he sees joy of salvation so closely tied to desire to honor and please and walk closely with God. He sees that you can't separate following God closely and the joy that comes from your salvation. He noticed that. He sees that because when joy is found in your salvation, why would you turn to other things? If your joy is found in salvation, why would you walk towards other things to satisfy and fulfill? Like, part of me wonders if David's sin against Bathsheba, like, didn't just take his joy away, but was caused because of a lack of joy. That it wasn't just his sin that took away his joy, but it was his lack of joy that even led him to that sin to begin with. Like, if he had his joy in his salvation, would he have looked for comfort and joy and satisfaction in staying home when he should have been at war? Probably not. Would he if he had looked for fulfillment and being with another man's wife? No. I think what David sees here is that joy in his salvation isn't just what causes him to turn away from sin, but it's also what causes him to walk rightly with God. And as much as sin steals the joy of our salvation, I would argue that joy in our salvation also keeps us from sin. That the joy of our salvation is what upholds a willing spirit within us. That as God restores our joy, he works the joy of our salvation to keep our eyes and our attention and our focus on him and off of the sin. That the joy of our salvation makes us want more of him and less of the world. Because that's what joy does. We naturally want what produces joy in us. We naturally want what feels best. We naturally want to look for those things. And we'll always turn to the thing that seems most satisfactory in the moment. Like take. Take barbecue for existence, okay? Or example. Love barbecue. I lived in Tex. Anyone else fan of barbecue? Half of you know the true way. That's great. Love barbecue. I didn't grow a love and appreciation for it until I moved to Texas. Lived in Dallas, Texas for seven years. Texas is the home of good barbecue. If you want to disagree, you're wrong. And there's no point. That's where you go if you want good barbecue. Kansas City, whatever. Texas. That's where you want to go. But while in Texas, I grew a love for good barbecue. Now, if you were to present to me barbecue or broccoli, which one am I taking? Barbecue. Of course I'm taking barbecue. Why? Because the joy found in barbecue far surpasses the joy found in broccoli. Far surpasses. It's not even close. Not a question you hold both out in front of me. I'm going for the brisket, not the broccoli. Right? Because the joy of a brisket far surpasses the joy of broccoli. The same is true with sin. You will go to whatever you think is going to produce the most joy, Whatever you think is going to satisfy you the most. And is it going to be God or is it going to be sin? Is it going to be walking in the ways of God, or is it going to be walking according to the world? And you can often tell where you find your joy based on how you walk church. I want us to be a people who find our joy and in the salvation of God. So that when we are confronted with sin, what goes on in our head is just as ridiculous as choosing between brisket and broccoli. It's like, why would I want that? Why would I want that when I have God? Why would I want to walk this way when I know the joy and satisfaction of walking with my Savior? Why would I choose porn when I could choose closeness with Jesus? Why would I choose to walk in greed when I can be satisfied in the Lord? Why Would I choose to try and be satisfied in coveting my neighbor's things instead of being satisfied in the Lord? I want us to be people who have our joy restored to us so much that when sin presents itself, we're like, why would I even do that? I've experienced the salvation of God. I've seen the joy of that salvation. Of course I'm going to choose this. Of course I'm going to turn away from my sin, and I'm going to walk rightly with God. The joy of our salvation causes us to turn away from something lesser and stay away from it. So when your joy is in the salvation of God, you look to God to satisfy you desire what he desires, you want what he wants. Joy in your salvation turns you from your sin and keeps you from sinning. You say it like this. The joy of our salvation starts our repentance and sustains our obedience. The joy of our salvation starts our repentance and sustains our our obedience. That's what it means to repent. That's the pathway of repentance. Taking your eyes off of your sin, putting it on God, begging him to have the joy of your salvation restored unto you, knowing that that's how you turn from sin, and knowing that the joy of your salvation then produces in you a desire to plead, please. A holy right and perfect God. That's the path to true, lasting repentance. Because I want us to be a church that repents like that, that doesn't just know sin is bad and try not to do it, but a church that knows how good salvation is, that experiences the joy of salvation so that we easily turn from sin and turn to God. That's who I want us to be. And what's the outcome of all this? We see David get to that in the next verse, verse 13. So in verse 12, he says, restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. Then in 13, he says, then. So after this, after all of these things, throughout the rest of Psalm 51 and especially verse 12, after all this, then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. David understood that as the joy of his salvation was produced in him, restored unto him, as he continually turned away from his sin, turned his attention back to God, walking closely with him, he knew that that would overflow in a desire to teach others to do the same. It would fuel his mission as the king of Israel. Because the king of God's people in Israel at this time, the King of Israel wouldn't just be there to lead a nation, but they'd be there to lead a nation in the ways of God. Because all throughout the rest of the kingdom of Israel, we see a bunch of kings who follow in their Father's footsteps of disobeying God and leading their people to sin. But David understood that when repent, when I turn to God, it's going to teach others to do the same. His joy being restored, his repenting was used to teach others to do the same. It fueled his mission and church. Your repentance fuels your mission. The repentance that you walk down the way that you walk away from your sin, the joy that you experience in walking with God fuels your discipleship of others. It fuels your teaching of others. And guys, I want to be a church filled with people who are so overflowing with the joy of their salvation that they cannot help but disciple their kids. Well, be like, I've tasted how good God is. I've experienced salvation. I have the joy of it, and I want my kids to know it. Experiencing the joy of your salvation should lead to you evangelizing to your friends, your co workers and your neighbors because you've experienced it, you've seen it, you've witnessed it, you've experienced the joy from it. And you're like, I want them to know I'm going to teach them. The joy of your salvation isn't just for you. It overflows in your discipleship and your teaching of others. It overflows into mission. And if you're low on mission right now, I would argue that you're probably low on the joy of your salvation. So the plea here is having our joy restored to us so that we can be people who turn from our sin, turn back to God and teach others to do the same. You could put it like this. Delight in God to walk with God and help others to do the same. Delight in God. Like, experience the joy of the salvation that he offers. Delight in him. And as you delight in God, you're going to walk with him because you delight in him. You're going to choose to walk with Him. It's like, I love my wife. I delight in her. I want to spend time with her. I want to do what she does most of the time, unless it's target. But like when your joy is in the salvation of the Lord, that's what you want. You want to walk with him, be with him. So you delight in God and that helps you walk with God, and then you help others do the same. Because You've experienced something that you want them to experience. You've seen something you want them to see. You want them to experience the joy that you've experienced that can only come from the salvation of God. So, church, what do we do this morning? This morning is a call to repentance. Not just a call to stop sinning, but a call to turn your back on sin because you find God far more satisfying than anything else. A call to plead for your joy to be restored unto you so that you can return to God. I was reading in Amos this morning, in Amos, chapter four, there's this repeated phrase says, yet you did not return to me. God's talking to his people through Amos, and he says, all of these things happened. I brought about all these things, yet you did not return to me. I don't want that to be true for our church. I want to be people that return to God. Return to the God who saved us, return to the God who loves us. We turn to the God who provided salvation while we were yet far from him, made that statement, Never be true of us as a church. And the way that it can be not true for us is if we truly experience the joy of the salvation we've been given. So this morning, repent. And repent by experiencing the joy of your salvation. But you can't experience the joy. You can't experience the joy if you haven't experienced the salvation. I believe there might be some of you here this morning who you have never experienced the salvation of God. You've heard of it, it's been taught to you, you've read about it, but you've never yet experienced this morning. I just pray that God will would open your eyes to the beauty of Jesus, that the Holy Spirit would convict you of your sin and your foolish living and that he would call you to repent. That he would call you to turn from your sin and turn your eyes to Jesus, who was sent by God to take on your sin so that you could be made right with him, so that you could have life with God again. So I pray that some of you this morning would repent for the very first time. That you would turn from your life of sin and you would turn to the God who gives life. And if that's you this morning for the first time, please come down front and talk to one of our pastors or elders after service. We'd love to pray with you, we'd love to encourage you, and we'd love to celebrate the joy of your salvation this morning. But some of you. You've been following Jesus for a long time. You've experienced his salvation, but your joy is shot. So this morning, experience the joy of your salvation. Have it restored unto you. Start by begging God, asking Him that he would restore to you the joy of your salvation this morning, that he would help you remember what it means to have gone from death to life, that he would restore your joy. Beg him for it, ask him for it, and then cultivate it. Memorize scripture, confess your sin. Surround yourself with believers who will point out the sin in your life. Be in God's word. Find ways to cultivate the joy of your salvation. So ask for it, beg for it, plead for it, then cultivate it, and then express it. Express the joy of your salvation through teaching others the ways of Jesus so that sinners can return to Him. Let's be repenting, people. And as we turn to communion, what a great opportunity to practice this. What a great opportunity to be able to take the cup and the body and remember the salvation that we have been given. Remembering the sacrifice that brought your salvation. We take communion often around here, but we don't take it lightly. We take it as a remembrance of remembering what Jesus has done on the cross that he bought our salvation for us. We do it declaring our unity in him through the blood of Christ. We do it declaring our dependency on him and our need for Him. That's what we're doing as we take communion. And as you take communion this morning, I want you to take time to remember your salvation. That Jesus body was broken for you and his blood was shed for you. Remember those things and then ask God that those things wouldn't just be remembered, but they would help restore your joy to that those things would produce joy in you. And then when you're done taking communion and you're done remembering and you're done asking God to restore the joy of your salvation. Want to be people who sing out loud with the joy that we have? Only supposed to do two verses, but I'm going into verse 14. Sorry. And I'm just going to end with these words. David says, deliver me from my blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation. That's what we're declaring as we take communion, right? That Jesus has delivered us from our blood guiltiness. He's delivered us. He's been the sacrifice for us. He's taken our guilt upon Himself and given us his righteousness. So deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness Take communion. Remember the salvation of God. May it produce joy in you. And then may you sing to the one who is righteous. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for saving me. Thank you for your salvation. Thank you for Jesus, who took the wrath that we deserve for our sin. God, this morning, remind us of our salvation. Remind us of the life that we have in Jesus. God, as we remember that, would you produce more joy in us? That as we behold you and your glory and your goodness, as the joy of our salvation is built up within us, that we would turn our back from sin and joyfully walk after you, you, God, May that be true of us this morning. It's in Jesus name. Amen.