Sunday, February 22, 2026

Scripture: Matthew 7:1-4

Sermon Title: “Confession”

I grew up in an Arts Magnet School First through Eighth Grade. We had art, music, dance, and drama classes every week. Now I’m not very artistic visually. I excelled more in the performing arts. That’s why I’m really enjoying singing in the choir and playing bells. I can barely draw a stick figure. But looking back now as an adult, I realize that because of my Arts Magnet Education, I can recognize a lot of famous artists and their masterpieces. I learned all about various famous artists in elementary school. Whether you can draw or not, do we have any art lovers here? We’re going to do some masterpiece trivia to see if you can recognize these artists too.

You ready?

Anyone know who painted this? (Show a Van Gogh painting) Correct, Van Gogh. What about this one? (Show a Monet painting) Correct, Monet. What about this one? (Show a PicassoPainting) Last one. (Show a Degas painting) Correct, Degas.

All right, we’ve got some art lovers here.

Now this one isn’t a painting, it’s a statue. Anyone know this one? (Show the David Statue in Florence) This is The David. It’s a sculpture by Michael Angelo in Florence, Italy. This statue stands 17 feet tall and is one of the most famous statues in the world, if not the most famous statue. And it was sculpted from a piece of marble that had sat there for 25 years before Michael Angelo got his hands on it, because other artists had given up and said the marble had too many imperfections.

Now I’m not sure how true this story is, but the legend states that when Michael Angelo was asked how he made this statue, he said, “I just chipped away at everything that wasn’t David.”

Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Lent is a season of preparation as we journey to the cross and empty tomb on Easter Morning. It’s a period of 40 days not counting Sundays. So about 46 days total from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Lent is often a time marked by fasting, people will give up certain foods or take on new spiritual practices. It’s a time to grow in our faith as we prepare for the crucifixion on Good Friday and the empty tomb on Easter Sunday.  

This Lent our sermon series is called “Masterpiece.” We’re doing the same sermon series as First United in Ormond and The Gathering Place. It’s inspired by this verse from the New Living Translation of Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Have you thought of yourself as God’s masterpiece?

Let’s say that together, “We are God’s masterpiece.” “We are God’s masterpiece.”

This Lent, like Michael Angelo and the David Statue, we’ll be talking about what it means to chip away at the things in us that are not of God, until nothing but God’s masterpiece remains. So often during Lent we focus on giving up foods, but maybe this Lent, we could give up behaviors that are not of God. We’ll be talking about anger, pride, anxiety, worry, selfishness. But first, this week, we’re simply starting with confession.

Before we can be transformed into the masterpiece that God is calling us to be, we must first confess our sins and repent from the things that are not of God.

Our scripture today comes from part of Jesus’s famous Sermon on the Mount. Remember we talked about the Sermon on the Mount just a few weeks ago? In today’s scripture, Jesus is speaking about judging. Jesus is talking about hypocrites in this section.

Jesus says, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3, NIV) Isn’t that the truth? How often do we look at the minor sins in other people’s lives, but we don’t look at the major sin in our own lives? We maybe roll our eyes and talk about others’ sin, not recognizing how we’re gossiping about them.

Then Jesus says, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5, NIV) How often do we focus on the small sins of others rather than recognizing the larger sins in our own life? We should be more worried about our own sins than the sins of others.

A few years back there was a Youtube video that went viral of a dad asking his toddler if she needed help getting her car seat buckled. And she kept saying to her dad, “Worry about yourself!” Worry about yourself. Now, not to say we shouldn’t worry about others, we should care deeply about others and what others are going through. But when judging sins, we should worry about ourselves. We should judge our own sins, confess our own sins before we judge the sins of others.

If you’ve ever flown on a plane, you’ve probably heard the familiar emergency instructions before take-off. In case of emergency, make sure you have oxygen for yourself before assisting others with their oxygen. Because you can’t help others if you’re passed out from no oxygen.

And the same can be true in our spiritual life and our life of confession and sin. We must focus on our own spiritual growth. We must focus on the sins in our own life before we point out the sins in someone else’s life. Because the truth is, if we don’t first repent from the sin in our own lives, if others can see our negative attitudes or bad behaviors, it doesn’t help give us a strong witness for Christianity. Others will think, “why should I listen to you, when I can name all these sins about you?”

The David Statue is David when he is younger; he’s holding a slingshot about to face Goliath. And yet many of us know there’s a lot more to David’s Story. David will become Israel’s Greatest King, and yet we will see that even David is not perfect.

Remember David has an affair with Bathsheba, she becomes pregnant, and then David has her husband Uriah put on the frontlines so he is killed in battle, and David can cover his tracks. I know, scandalous right? In 2 Samuel, Chapter 12, Nathan the prophet rebukes David. But he doesn’t do it directly. He tells a story of a poor man and a rich man. And he tells a story of the rich man taking the poor man’s only lamb and killing it.

David is outraged by this story and says, “anyone who does such a thing deserves to die.” (2 Samuel 12:5, NLT)

Then Nathan rebukes David and says, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7, NIV)

And after this rebuke from Nathan David says, “I have sinned against the Lord.” (2 Samuel 12:13, NIV)

David, when he is confronted by his sin, confesses his sin to the Lord.

Now I know that I’ve been stressing worrying about yourself and focusing on your own sins before confronting others about theirs. That’s all true. I imagine Nathan would have confronted his own sins before confronting David’s sin. And it’s important to keep in mind as well that Nathan was a prophet, and prophets were called to speak God’s truth to God’s people, even when it’s difficult news. But notice as well, Nathan did it in a gentle way, telling a story to make his point.

We can point out sins in others, but it should be after we have carefully worked on the sin in our own lives. We can call out the sins in our leaders, like Nathan did, especially when people are supposed to be representing God and are not doing so. But we can also do so in a way not to shame, but to bring about healing and repentance.

And really this should be done with people we have a deep relationship with already, not people we barely know. Otherwise, we will push people away.

For example, sometimes we may see a friend is not treating someone well, and we can say, “Hey, I don’t think you realize you are doing this, but that’s hurtful.”

Can you imagine if we all had a Nathan in our life? Someone who would call us out gently, to help us become the person God is calling us to be. Can you imagine if all our leaders at all government levels had a Nathan in their life? How different might our world be?

Make sure you have a Nathan in your life.

So yes, we can call out sin in others, but we should do it gently, to people who we have deep relationships with, not strangers. But above all, we should first focus on the sins in our own life.

It is believed that Psalm 51 is written after this confrontation with Nathan. It is a Psalm of Confession. I’m not going to read this whole psalm to you this morning. I encourage you to go home and read the whole Psalm this week. But for this morning, let’s look at these first four verses of Psalm 51.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 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.” (Psalm 51:1-4, NIV)

When David is confronted by what he has done, he asks God for mercy. He proclaims God’s goodness, God’s unfailing love, and compassion. He asks to be cleansed from his sin. He knows that what he has done is wrong.

We too, when we have realized what we have done, should not ignore the sin, but go to God, confess, and repent, and allow the Holy Spirit to transform us into people who no longer do those things.

Now I’m guessing most of us here have not done the sorts of things David did. I don’t think most of us have ordered someone on the frontlines to die to cover up our mistakes. But we have all sinned. We have all probably tried to cover up our sins in some way.

Maybe you’ve snapped at your children or spouse. Maybe you’ve gossiped about others. Maybe you’ve shown prejudice to someone based on outward appearances. Maybe you have been greedy and cared about money and put profit before people.

Or maybe your sins have been more of sins of omission. Not speaking up or standing up for people when you should have. Maybe not helping someone out when they needed help. Maybe turning a blind eye to injustice.

Whatever your sins have been, no matter how small or large, we must confess to the Lord, so that we can be forgiven and transformed into the masterpiece that God is creating us to be.

Each week we say the Prayer of Confession in our Communion Liturgy. And I realized sometimes we can be speaking these words and maybe not realizing what we’re saying. So, I want us to hear this confession in the message this morning.

As you hear these words. Reflect on what they actually mean. Maybe even close your eyes and allow these words to soak in.

“Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy. Forgive us, we pray. Free us for joyful obedience through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

I want to give you some homework this week. And don’t worry, you don’t have to turn it in, so I will have no idea if you did it or not. But maybe take this prayer of confession and write it out in your own words. Make it specific to you and your sins. Then pray that prayer to God. After, maybe shred it or burn it in a fireplace to symbolize your forgiveness.

When asked the greatest commandment, Jesus said to love God and to love others. I know most of us probably don’t have the prayer of confession memorized. But every night, at the end of the day, what would it look like to ask ourselves, “Lord, how did I do at loving you today? How did I do at loving others?” And when you see where you didn’t do well, confess those things to God. When you see where you did do well, praise God for that.

Let’s make this Lent not a time of simply giving up chocolate or junk food, but let’s give up the spiritual junk that is not of God. Like Michael Angelo took the marble with so many imperfections and chiseled away at it until only David was left, let’s allow the Lord to chip away at our imperfections, until only the masterpiece is left.

Confession is not a dirty word, its all about getting rid of what is not of God, so that we can be the masterpieces God is calling us to be. Confession is not about shame. It’s about transformation. I love that the confession in our liturgy ends with these words: “Free us for joyful obedience.”

Confession is about finding freedom in Christ. Freedom to be the masterpiece God has created and called us to be. Confession is not about shame. But a life of joyful obedience. Through confession this Lent, may we be set free to live a life of joyful obedience. And to others, may that life of joyful obedience look like a masterpiece.

Amen