How To Perform A System Reboot

1 John 1:5-10 (KJV)

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 2:1-2 (KJV)

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

My devotional work recently has had me in the book of Genesis studying Isaac and his sons, Jacob and Esau.

This last week has been with the sons of Jacob and their union with their brother Joseph.

If you can imagine.

These brothers had captured their own brother and sold him to be a slave.

Then, to compound the sin, they had taken the coat Jacob had given to Joseph, soaked it in blood, and given it to Jacob to make whatever deductions a man could make having received something like that.

Jacob believed Joseph to be dead, killed by a wild animal.

Imagine –

·   For twenty years Jacob believed his favorite son, Joseph was dead, mauled to death is a cruel and painful manner.

·   For twenty years Joseph’s brothers lived and worked alongside their dad, witnessing his pain and refusing to tell him the truth.

Can you imagine the guilt they must have carried?

You might think that they could one day just forget about it, but sin isn’t like that.

It hangs on.

Besides, they were reminded of their sin every time they looked into their father’s hollow eyes.

Perhaps they could have reasoned that Joseph may have been killed by his master.

No matter!

They are sinners of the worst sort, and they could see no way of removing the burden of their sin.

After all, they are complicit.

It wasn’t just one of them who had done this deed, and they had not all agreed on what they did.

There was no way for one of them to come clean without getting his brothers into trouble.

They must have believed themselves to be trapped, caught under a weight of sin they could by no means get out of.

I know they carry this burden because, when they went to Egypt to buy grain, and come under judgment by the master there, their first impulse was to blame it on their sin…

Genesis 42:21

And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.

I don’t know why they associated their distress in Egypt with their sin against their brother.

·   Maybe there was something about that Egyptian master that reminded them of Joseph.

·   Maybe they lived with a guilty conscience every time anything went wrong.

But,

Even after the had re-united with Joseph, and had moved their families to Egypt to be under Joseph’s protection,…

….it was not until Jacob died that they were able to finally get peace in their hearts by speaking to Joseph about their sin.

That leads me to say this…

Too many Christians carry on their persons the burden of unresolved sin.

You can’t undo what you have done, but you can unload the burden.

1 John 1:9 says,

If we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

I want to liken that unloading process to rebooting an electronic appliance.

Whether it is your:

·   Computer

·   Cell phone

·   Tablet

·   Modem

·   DVD player

Even some of the modern appliances like:

·   Washer/Dryers and

·   Kitchen Stoves

Once in a while they benefit from being turned off, unplugged and rebooted.

I don’t know if it is still true, in the old days it would have been because of the capacitors inside them.

It’s a little electronic component on the circuit board that stores electricity. It needs, once in a while to be relieved of those stores so it can get new stores of information in it.

It happens in each of our lives that, when we hold on to the burden of sin, it gets so overwhelming that we stop being of service to:

·   Ourselves

·   Our Saviour and

·   Others

I want to give you four points on the subject, How To Perform a System Reboot

The key to the reboot is to,

I. CONFESS YOUR SIN

A. David confessed his sin with Bathsheba

Psalms 51:1-12 (KJV)

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Notice that his is more than merely saying, “God, I am sorry I sinned.”

He said, “I acknowledge my transgressions.”

He didn’t hold anything back:

·   He was a sinner by nature and

·   He was a sinner by action

His sin had robbed him of the joy of his relationship with the Lord (salvation) and it had ruined his ability to be a testimony for God.

Further, there was nothing he could do to change all of that. He needed God to:

·   Purge him and make him clean

·   Create in him a clean heart

·   Make him to hear joy and gladness again and

·   Renew a right spirit in him

There is a sort of confession that is insufficient:

B. King Saul also confessed but was unchanged

1 Samuel 15:24-25 (KJV)

And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.

Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.

He knew he had sinned but notice:

·   He asked Samuel, not God to forgive him and

·   He trusted Samuel, not God to restore his worship

King Saul believed in God, but his relationship was one meant to please people and not really to please the Lord.

C. Judas confessed but was not free of the burden and hanged himself

Matthew 27:3-5 (KJV)

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

Judas wanted free of his crime but never sought to rebuild his relationship with the Lord.

Confession is not merely saying “I have sinned.”

It is an honest acknowledgment of the sin and its offense.

Some people do the same with the prayer of salvation:

·   Salvation is obtained by asking

·   Saying a prayer is not the same as asking

A spiritual reboot begins by confessing your sin.

Secondly

II. ACCEPT YOUR CONSEQUENCE

A. David’s sin with numbering the people.

2 Samuel 24:10-14 (KJV)

And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

For when David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.

So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.

And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.

David had been warned that it would be folly to number his armies.

The reason for the wrong is not important for this message.

Suffice it to say, David knew better and, as soon as he had committed the sin, his heart smote him with conviction.

No doubt you have experienced something like that:

·   You knew you should not do a thing

·   You do the thing anyway

·   You feel guilty for doing it as soon as you’ve done it

God sent the prophet Gad to confront King David, who was then given three choices for consequences.

God gave him three choices.

David chose to fall upon the mercy of God.

Perhaps we all have at least three choices concerning the consequences of our sins:

·   The choice that results from stubborn rebellion

·   The choice that results from attempting to cover our sin or

·   The choice to trust the mercies of God

David relied on God’s mercy, but that did not remove all consequences, it only mitigated the damages from the consequences.

·   Confession leads to forgiveness but

·   Forgiveness does not necessarily rid us of consequences.

God’s mercy is new every morning. Trust Him. Confess your sins to Him and trust Him to do right because of it.

The third step in the spiritual reboot is to,

III.  BELIEVE GOD’S PROMISE

1 John 1:8-2:2 (KJV)

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Notice what this passage gives us:

A. An acknowledgement of sin

Vs 8

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Vs 10

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

B. An answer for sin

Vs 2:1-2

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

The answer for our sin is not the confession. The answer is Jesus Christ.

Confession is just the way to access the answer.

It’s not turning off your computer that fixes the problem.

What fixes the problem is letting all that stored junk drain out of the capacitors.

Turning the computer off is what allows that to happen.

C. A promise concerning sin

Vs 9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I want you to notice just two words in this verse:

ALL unrighteousness.

·   Not some unrighteousness

·   Not most unrighteousness

·   Not less offensive unrighteousness

All unrighteousness:

·   The unrighteousness you can never forget you have committed

·   The unrighteousness others will never let you forget you have committed

·   The unrighteousness that stares you in the face every day

·   The unrighteousness that has hurt others beyond repair

·   The unrighteousness that you suffer consequences for right now

That unrighteousness:

·   It is forgiven

·   It is cleansed

·   It is therefore removed

My final point is an example

IV. PAUL, THE REBOOTED BELIEVER

1 Timothy 1:15 (KJV)

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

The Apostle Paul is an interesting character in the Bible.

A. On the one hand, he was confident and bold in his service to the Lord

1 Corinthians 15:10 (KJV)

But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

1 Timothy 1:12 (KJV)

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;

B.  On the other hand he knew himself to be chiefest of sinners

And he never forgot it.

He called himself:

·   The least of all saints

·   A chief of the sinners

·   A blasphemer, persecutor and injurious

Twice he gave the story of his conversion, including that he was on his way to capture Christians in Damascus.

He makes reference to his pre-salvation sins in:

·   Romans

·   1 Corinthians

·   2 Corinthians

·   Galatians

·   Ephesians

·   Philippians

·   1 Timothy and

·   2 Timothy

But he never let it stop him.

2 Timothy 1:12 (KJV)

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Conclusion

I just want to say today that you do not have to live under the burden or guilt and sin.

It is true that there are some consequences we can never escape and some things ought never be forgotten.

But the guilt and the shame can be unloaded.

First, acknowledge the sin

·   Don’t hide from it or sweep it under the carpet.

·   Don’t avoid talking about it when it is appropriate and necessary to do so

·   Don’t get angry when something akin to it gets mentioned in sermons at church and PLEASE,

·   Don’t try to excuse it away

Second, accept the consequences

They may not be pleasant, but God is merciful. He will help you to live through them and serve Him despite them.

Third, Believe the Word of God

He has forgiven and cleansed you from all unrighteousness.

He is not holding those things over you.

Move on for His glory:

·   Confident

·   Bold and

·   Unashamed