Honest to God | Jeremy DeWeerdt

Thank you for being here today. I'm excited on behalf of Jen and I. So grateful you're here. Welcome all of our locations. And you know what? I wanna just say something real quickly before I jump into my message today. At all of our locations, we have what is called a new people party. And I wanna just add my voice to the announcement videos and such like that. If you are new at City First Church and you have never been to a new people party, we as the pastoral team would love to meet you right after service, all right? So right after service, come to the new people party area. It's easy to find and just stay for a couple of seconds. And we would love to be able to shake your hand and just say welcome to City First Church because we say this all the time that we are not just a friendly church, we're a family church, and we just wanna welcome you to the family. Can one more time we give all of our new people a huge round of applause. We will say thank you for being here for the very first time or recently being new. Just very grateful we're a growing church. And so I have a question,

how many of you by up raise hand, you have had an idiot light or a Czech engine light go off in your car in the next, in like a year, in the last year, in the last year, right? Yeah, okay, a lot of people, a lot of people, all right? My hand is up on that. Now I discovered something when these little Czech engine lights or idiot lights come on, there's basically two types of people. There are some people who immediately say, "Uh oh, I'm gonna make an appointment "because something is wrong and I need to get this checked." How many of you you are one of those kind of people, all right? And then there's another type of person, has a different type of strategy. And that is, if I ignore it, it may go away. How many of you you're that type of a person, all right? You know what, it's true. It's like, you know, I will get in some people's cars and I'll look over and like, literally, their dashboard is like a Christmas tree. And I'm like, "Bro, you need to do something about that." And they're like, "Ah, it's fine, it's still running," right? It's kind of like, if you ignore it long enough, it'll just go away. Well, one thing happens a lot of times when the idiot light comes on or the Czech engine light comes on or whatever. And it's been on for a long time.

This is what I've noticed. You've stopped seeing it. You literally stopped seeing it. The problem didn't go away. But literally, you just stopped seeing the little light, right? And this happened to me. I had like a pressure sensor go off in one of my wheels and I think it just had like a low battery or something like that. And I drove on that thing for like five months before I took it in. And I'm just like, you know what? I began to not even see it anymore. And that's one thing that I've learned even when it comes to my spirituality or us as individuals. It's kind of the same thing. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will kind of give you a little warning light about something. Maybe it's an attitude. Maybe it's an action. Maybe it's something that you're doing or you should be doing. And that little warning light goes off on the dashboard of your soul saying something is wrong, you better check it. But then we have two responses. The two responses are, number one, we own it and go, yeah, Holy Spirit, you're right. Or the second response is, how kind of ignore it.

And today, what I wanna talk about in our sacred rhythm series, we're talking about holy habits, which I admittedly am just saying, they aren't exciting because habits many times aren't exciting. But they're so necessary, they're so important. And this month, I'm literally giving you tools how to get in touch with your creator, with the divine in a new and a fresh way. Well, today's holy habit I wanna talk about is the sacred rhythm of confession. Confession. Now, no one amends me today when I said that. No one's like, oh, praise God, right? Because here's the thing, confession, right? But these holy habits, they are sometimes uncomfortable but we gotta understand this one specifically on confession. If we learn the holy habit, the sacred rhythm of confession, we will experience healing and we are gonna experience freedom at a whole 'nother level. Let me give you, ask you a question. What is more dangerous to your soul than sin? What is more dangerous to your soul than sin? Here's the answer, ready? Becoming comfortable with it. All of us can fall into this trap. All of us can. This is why the practice of confessing our sins to God

So today I'm asking you lean into this subject. Lean into the uncomfortable subject because here's the thing, this practice of confession, if you do it consistently, all of a sudden you become more and more uncomfortable with compromise actually. Confession is how we stop pretending the warning light is on. On the dashboard of our souls. So this is something we want to talk about. There's a very kind of famous verse. If you've been in church, it's found in the book of James. James is the half brother of Jesus. He gets saved, you could say after the resurrection. He didn't believe Jesus was who he said he was while he was doing his ministry. And it wasn't until he saw his half brother get crucified and come back to life again. But James goes, you know what, you are God. You are God. So it says in James five, 16, this verse. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be, what's that last word? Heal, heal. So important. There's actually something interesting here in James's language that he's using. He uses the word confess.

That is a present imperative. In other words, it is an ongoing confession and ongoing action. It's not that you just did it once, but you keep doing it. In fact, another way we could say it in English is that you should keep confessing to one another. It isn't just a one time event, why? Why? Because you and I miss the mark often. This isn't a one time offense. It's not a one time response. But you know what, it's something we have to do often. Let me just say this again, up raise hand here. How many of you have had a bad attitude this week? All right, my hands up. How many of you had a bad attitude? Some might be like, well, that depends if I drove behind a Subaru or not, right? So here's the thing. Now I just gave all of you Subaru owners a bad attitude, right? How many of us don't raise your hand, but how many of us, you did something wrong this week? You know, the Bible says this in Romans chapter three, verse 23, says for all have sinned. Oh, that word all means oh. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In other words, God's glorious standard. He's perfect, we are not. We fall short often, weakly.

I'm not making an excuse for it. I'm just pointing out the reality, the truth. And so the habit of doing confession, which would involve this process. Conviction, which means that there is an awareness of sin. After that, repentance, which means that you ask for forgiveness. After that, confession, which means that you admit that you're wrong. After that, God's healing comes, which means that you start experiencing closeness with God again. And the last thing is change, that you actually start living different. Now sometimes this is a process. All of us have habits and hang ups that it's hard for us to get over. So sometimes we have to confess often, right? Until the change comes. But this needs to be on repeat in our lives. And today I want you to remember three things. If you forget everything I say, remember these three words today when it comes to confession. Upwards, side words, inwards. Upwards, side words, inwards. Let me define that for the remaining time that we have together. First of all, upwards confession requires a conviction. You can't confess what you refuse to see, all right? And this is one of the problems and one of the challenges in our culture right now. Our culture does not want to feel bad about itself.

It doesn't want to admit that there is wrong, that they are doing, or we as a culture are doing. And this is one of the challenges because we now have this term and we've been saying it now since basically COVID. But it's kind of like, you know, I have my truth, my truth. Nobody can tell me how to live. These are themes in our culture, but I'll tell you there's a problem with that. And the problem is this. If I get to define truth, I also get to define sin. And when you think about that. And if I get to define sin, eventually I can define a way anything in my life that makes me feel uncomfortable. I can kind of define it out of my life. And why would I confess something if I already am convinced that it's not wrong? See, truth cannot be subjective or have fluidity. Truth needs to be a standard. Truth needs to be something that is defined that in other words, I acknowledge as a person and I align my life too. Truth does not align itself to me. I align myself to truth. If I don't do that, then there is no real truth. Then you really, you think about it. If there's no real truth, then everything is a social construct. There's just opinions about what is right. Or I do what I feel is right. This is why as Christians, as Christ followers,

we have to acknowledge that there's a standard of truth. It is the word of God. The word of God is our truth. Now, I don't expect everyone in culture to believe that. But if you are a follower of Jesus, there has to be a standard of truth. And we believe that the Bible is the standard of truth. Even Jesus himself is truth. The Bible says in John 14, six. It says, Jesus answered, I am the way Jesus says, I am the truth. So not only, Jesus didn't just speak truth. He goes, I am truth. He's like, I am the embodiment of truth. And you know, he is, in a sense, truth. And he says, I am also the life. No one comes to the Father. No one comes to the Father. Except through me. Oh, the exclusivity of Jesus. We don't like talking about this in our culture, 'cause we're pluralistic in our thinking. We wanna think there are many roads to utopia. There are many roads to truth. There are many roads to what is right. But Jesus says this, no, no, no. There's not many roads. There is a door. And he says, I am the door that you have to walk through. If you wanna have eternal life,

if you want truth, he goes, I am truth. He is the truth. The only way to forgiveness, he gives life. God decides what is right and wrong. We don't get to. He decides it because he created us. He knows the way that we are designed to live. He is the one that spun the universe and put it in order. He created truth and he's in charge. He's in charge. See, that's one of the things that many times we in our culture, we just, we miss the idea that we aren't in charge. Like we really aren't in charge. He's in charge. The word Lord means absolute authority, ruler over all. When we make Jesus the leader and the Lord of our life, that means he becomes the ruler. He is the boss of us. Does that make sense? My kids used to fight with each other and they used to tell each other what to do. And one, out here in the other room, one would be like, you're not the boss of me. Well, I will tell you, Jesus, if he forgave you, if he died for you, which he did die for you, and if you've received his forgiveness, he's the boss of you. So conviction comes when we listen to God. We listen to his word and we respond to his spirit. That's why confession is something deeper.

It is saying that the Holy Spirit must be allowed to correct me. We have to make this decision because the Holy Spirit's not gonna come and possess you. The Holy Spirit's not gonna come and arm twist you. The Holy Spirit's not gonna come and put you face down on the floor and handcuff you to the truth. He's not gonna do that. Instead, the Bible even says this that the Spirit is subject to the prophet. In other words, we can grieve the Holy Spirit by blowing him off. And so we have to invite the Holy Spirit to convict us. We need to say, Holy Spirit, I'm listening to you. and when he, meaning the spirit of God, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment. So the Holy Spirit is to make you more like Jesus. That is his job. Let's break that down. How does he make you more like Jesus making you less like you? Because you're acting many times and I'm acting like me. And he's like, oh, Jeremy, no, no, no. You need to act like Jesus, less like you. And so we need to have a sacred rhythm. And the sacred rhythm is a constant prayer of saying, Holy Spirit, show me what needs to change. Show me what needs to change. I don't want to just keep living the way I'm living. Show me what needs to change. Where is my attitude not right? Where has pride kept crept into my heart? Where have I allowed bitterness to enter in and hang out? Where have I compromised? Show me where I've gotten comfortable, where I should be prayerful and bothered. See, conviction is not God's way of pushing you away. Conviction is God calling you back. Conviction is saying, hey, listen, I want you to come back into alignment. I want you to come back into relationship. I want you to come back into holiness. See, when the light comes on, on the dashboard of our souls, it's the Holy Spirit saying, hey, listen, it's time to look upwards, upwards. John 1 John 1 John 1 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive. He will, it's a promise.

If we confess our sins, God will forgive. No matter how bad those sins are, he will forgive and he'll forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. It's basically saying, God, I've sinned. I'm coming clean. I'm opening up the drapes. I'm letting the light end of my life. God forgive me. I own it. I own it. It's an upward conversation. It's an upward repentance. And then what do we do after that? Upwards, then, side words. Upwards first, then, side words. What does that mean? It's confession to trusted other people. Other people. James did not write just confess your sins. He said this, confess your sins to each other. Now, we need wisdom with this though. All right, so let me just dial in real close with your attention right now to what I have to say because if you don't do this part right, you're going to feel very frustrated because this isn't just confess your sin to anyone. James is not telling, saying, tell everybody, everything. That's not what he's saying here. If you do that, you're going to be frustrated. Probably other people are going to be frustrated. It's not going to work. The Bible is not commanding us to be indiscriminate with our vulnerability. That's huge because some people don't want to confess to another person because they're like, I don't trust that with another person. And whatever that is, I would say you're not wrong. In fact, you should not just talk to anybody about what's going on in your heart and in your soul. Some of you are like going, I don't trust, and can I be honest with you? That is sometimes legitimate. Not everybody is mature enough to carry your vulnerability. Do you hear that? Confession requires vulnerability and vulnerability requires wisdom. So we have to be vulnerable, but we ought to be wise. You don't need 50 people. You may need a person, maybe two, and you are vetting these people because you don't just bear your soul to anybody, and you shouldn't. Here are some characteristics. I think of people that you can be vulnerable with. The first characteristic is this, and I didn't put They need to be spiritually mature. They need to be spiritually mature. They need to have a vibrant, living, mature relationship with Jesus. For you to bear your soul, there needs to be a certain level of spirituality about that person, and it's a mature spirituality. Second thing is they need to be trustworthy.

Like, how do you know if somebody's trustworthy? It's a track record. Like, like, like, you've already entrusted them with some things and they are trustworthy, okay? Here's another one. They aren't impressed by you. In other words, they don't need your approval all the time. Like, like, that's huge. Like, like, they don't need you to always like them. And what I mean by that is a good friend doesn't need you always to like them, love them, but not always like them. There's a difference, why? But because here's the thing, sometimes truth, when it's spoken, can create a little weirdness. And so if the person is always trying to make sure you're impressed, then they're not gonna speak truth. Also someone who loves you enough to tell you the truth. Someone who loves you enough to tell you the truth. Someone who won't weaponize your weakness. Someone who will not take your weakness and go talk about it or gossip or weaponize it in any sort of way in the relationship. Someone who will pray for you. So when you confess to them, they're gonna go to the prayer closet for you. Someone who's also gonna ask you honest questions next week. So when you come to them and say, hey, I just wanna confess, I've been struggling with this. I need accountability, that they aren't just gonna go,

okay, and forget about it. They're gonna come back to you and they're gonna ask you honest questions about that. Everybody doesn't need to know everything about you. But somebody needs to know the real you. That's huge, yeah. So I mean, one person wanted to clap. So let's join that one person, shall we? (audience applauds) We have the ability to normalize ourselves to ourselves. Let me say that again. We have the ability to normalize ourselves to ourselves. In other words, we can easily rationalize and explain away our attitudes and our actions. We can say to everybody, well, you know what? At least I'm not as bad as that person. Or you know what? Everybody's doing it. Or you know what? I'm sure it's okay. God doesn't care. We can normalize ourselves to ourselves. But you know what a trusted friend will do? We'll not allow that. You need somebody who loves you too much to believe every version of the story you tell yourself. Take a picture of that one. That one was worth the money today, right? Because that is so true. You need someone who is going to not just allow you

to give in to the version that you believe of yourself. In fact, it says this in Proverbs 27.6, wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy. What does that mean? A friend who is willing to sometimes make you feel bad for your own good. That's a sincere friend. I'm not saying they're at all malicious. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying that they're just trying to make you feel bad. No, in other words, truth can hurt. Can I get a big amen on that one, right? Truth can hurt. And when someone speaks truth, it can kind of be like a wound. It feels a little bit like a wound. When they're holding you accountable, it feels a little raw, right? And the Bible says that's a sincere friend. This is why many people don't want to confess their sin one to another is because they don't want the accountability. They don't want the person to check up on them when it comes to the area that they're confessing. Why? Because it hurts sometimes. That's why so many people would rather kiss the enemy. They'd rather have kisses from the enemy. Just people always affirming me no matter what I do. You are the greatest thing since Mike Wade Popcorn Pastor Jeremy. You are amazing.

You are awesome. And I know that that's not true. You could ask part of what? In fact, one of the-- look at me and she'll be like, "You know what, Jeremy?" And she'll speak truth to me. She sees me at a level that no one else does. And here's the thing, it'd be easier just to go out and seek kisses from the enemy. If all your friends are telling you what you want to hear, they are not really sincere friends. If all you're doing is being kissed, you're being conned. Got real quiet in here. Because real friends tell you truth. People who really love you want you to get better. They're not trying to beat you down. They're trying to build you up. You know, they're trying to coach you up. Maybe that's a better way of saying it, all right. But here's the thing. You need to invite truth and not make people pay when they try to have an honest conversation with you. That's an arsenic. Some people maybe in your world want to speak truth to you, but you make them pay. You get pouty. You get mad. You get back. Because you have created an environment with truth cannot be spoken because when it is spoken, you become a little toxic. So here's the thing. You and I, we need to create an environment where people can be truthful and honest with us. Because truth can only be spoken in an environment where love and humility are shown. And that is the groundwork that you know what? You have a humility and you have a love. And so when people come and speak truth to you, even if they don't do it right, here's another thing that we don't like. See, I'm going to say a lot of things you don't like today. I just know it. All right. But here's the thing. Sometimes people don't even speak the truth in a right way to you. But it's still true. It's like, can you, can you, in a sense chew on the meat and spit out the bones? Can you sit there and go, okay, they didn't do that right. But what they said was right. See, we have to create environments. We have to create environments where other people can hold us accountable because accountability is only as strong as the truth that is being spoken between two people. So once you repent upwards and you confess side words, James says something really, really awesome and amazing happens. Healing comes. Healing comes. This is where it goes inward. Upwards, sidewards, inwards. Inwards is where we begin to experience the healing of not hiding anymore. See sin that's hidden can grow. Sin that is confessed begins to shrink. Here's the thing,

God begins to heal because we're not hiding anymore. Guilt and condemnation can't reign and rule because now we're confessing it. See, when you don't confess, you feel guilty. You feel condemned. And the enemy starts having a heyday with your mind. But the minute you go to somebody, first to God and say, God, I repent and then you go to someone else and you say, can you hold me accountable? Guess what? Guilt begins to shrink. It begins to deteriorate. The enemies hold on your life because to loosen. You know this. You know this that when you're not honest, when I'm not honest, when things are done in silence, it's like the enemy can just absolutely have a heyday. But when you confess, first to God, then to others, then all of a sudden healing starts coming. One of the most powerful stories of confession is found in the Old Testament. And I don't have time to develop the whole story. Some of you have heard it before. But just real briefly, I'm going to FedEx this. It's the story of the Old Testament about a king by the name of David that we talk about often. And he used his power and he used his authority to commit adultery with a woman by the name of Bathsheba. Talk about abuse of power. And then he covered his tracks. By covering his tracks, he basically made sure that Bathsheba's husband, because she was married, was put in a defenseless position on the battlefield and he ended up being killed. It was all strategic. And then he went on with life. And a prophet, kind of like in the Old Testament, that'd be like like a pastor, a prophet by the name of Nathan. You've committed adultery. You have basically arranged a murder. I don't care if you're king. That's wrong in God's eyes." And David confessed. He came underneath conviction. He confessed to God, and he confessed to the prophet. And David was willing to ask for forgiveness and even face the consequences. And let me just say this. Sometimes when you confess to God and to others, there are some consequences. Like you have to face those things. Confession does not mean that you remove every earthy consequence of sin, but it restores

the fellowship with God that sin disrupted. Does that make sense? So you basically say, "I'm going to cowboy up here, I'm going to cowgirl up here. I'm going to face it." And that's what David did. And he wrote this Psalm. And I want to end today by reading it. It's a famous Psalm. It's Psalm 51. Listen to his tone, listen to his words. This is after he was confronted, after he repented, after he confessed. He wrote this, "Have mercy on me God because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the sin, the stain of my sins, wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellions, it haunts me day and night against you and you alone I have sinned. I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say. And your judgment against me is just, meaning it's fair. For I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me, but you desire honesty from the womb. Each me wisdom even there, purify me from my sins and I will be clean, wash me and I will be wider than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again. You have broken me. Now let me rejoice. Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt." I love verse 10, "Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.

Do not banish me from your presence and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you." In a beautiful picture of confession, David was later on he was named and has been known for millennia as a man after God's own heart. Wouldn't you like to be known as a man after God's own heart, a woman after God's own heart? You know how, confess. You blow it. I blow it. Don't hide it. The original sin in the garden was the very first thing that Adam and Eve did after they sinned. They hid. We do that thousands and thousands of years later still today in 2026. We blow it and we hide it. We sin. We hide it. Stay for us, for many of us, for most of us to agree for all of us. It's the day we come clean and have a spirit like David had. God, I'm sorry, I confess, I repent. And then when it is right and you find the right person, confess to that person and say, "Hey, can you hold me accountable? Can you hold me accountable?" I keep tripping over the sin. Can you check on me? Can you pray for me? You say, "Where do I find a person like that?" Well, the best place to do that is in church. Build a relationship in church. If you don't have that person already in your life or in your sphere of influence, then get in a life group.

Get in a freedom group. I love it because people are doing this right now at City First. They're holding each other accountable, not out of legalism, but because they want to They want to help each other. We can't do this on our own. We need God and we need others. So remember, upwards, repent to God. Side words, confess to others. Inwards, receive healing and change. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you. I thank you, Lord God, that you've put this plan in place of first confession to you, and secondly, to get that trusted other to help us. Hold us accountable to pray for us. And you promise, according to your word, you will bring healing, you'll bring change, and you'll bring difference in our life. So Lord, today, made this holy habit be one that we embrace, that is a present imperative we confess often. We say, I'm coming clean, God. I'm coming clean. Help me. I can't do this on my own. I need you. Even as I've been preaching today, I know there are people that are thinking of things they've done even in the last 72 hours. Lord, we confess to you. Forgive us.

Lord, we don't want to keep tripping over the same sin. May we find somebody else that we can go to and we can say, help keep me accountable. Bring healing in our hearts. With every head bowed and never I close, this is a sacred moment. I don't know if you could feel it. I can feel it. God's here. And if you're like, I need to confess that I just need to ask for forgiveness in general. I've never asked for forgiveness. I've never asked God to be the Lord and leader of my life. And I want my sin forgiven. This is the best part God forgives us. The Bible says that he erases our sin, that he removes it from our life and his memory, as far as the east is from the west. And they say, you know what? I believe that God died. Jesus died for me and he was God and I need forgiveness. And if today you want Jesus to be the leader of your life and you want forgiveness for your sin, you're not becoming a member of a church today. You're becoming a member of the family of God today. If that's you, you say, I need forgiveness. Just raise your hand. I want to pray for you. Yeah, hands are up everywhere. Can we go ahead and let's all say this prayer together?

And if you raise your hand, realize that God is listening to your voice. He's listening to all of our voices individually. He is God, he can do that. And he loves you, he knows everything about you, he cares for you. And he wants to save every single one of us. Save us from ourselves and from our consequences of our sin. If you want eternity in heaven as your home someday, let's all pray this prayer together. Ready? Jesus, I come to you today and I believe that you died on a cross for me. I repent and confess my sin to you. Forgive me for all the wrong I've done. Come into my heart, give me a new life and a brand new start. Thank you for loving me with an unconditional love. In Jesus' name, everybody said, amen. Can we give God a huge round of applause for everybody that prayed that prayer, right? What an amazing time together, family. And if you just prayed that prayer to make Jesus the leader, the forgive of your life, we're celebrating with you. This is the best decision you will ever make. And we would love to come alongside of you in your journey of faith. So we have a few next steps just for you. First, tell somebody about the decision you made. We are not meant to walk alone.

Second, we have a free resource for you called New Beginning. It's a simple 14-day devotional. As you start growing in your relationship with Jesus, this devotional will help you take those next steps along the way. And when you sign up for this resource, well, you'll also receive a link to a few videos from our pastors. These videos will guide you through how to pray, how to engage with Scripture, how to build a Christ-centered friendship. And as you start this journey, please let us know. If you have any questions, you can drop a line in our chat or DMS on social media. - Then after you walk through that New Beginning resource, a great next step is growth track. It's a great way to discover your God-given purpose and design. - Come on. - You can attend in-person or online, so if you'd like more information or you wanna sign up, you can visit the app or scan the QR code. - And finally, if you need prayer for anything, visit the app and you can enter a prayer request. We have people praying over them consistently and often. The best thing you can do is come back to church. When we gather together, we grow exponentially more. - That's right, we love you guys. We're praying for you this week and we will catch you next Sunday at church. - I see you there. (upbeat music)