 We started this series about from the story of Esther, when Esther was chosen to be a queen and how she faced a very big problem and how she was going to the presence of the king and looking for his counsel and wisdom and then how God brought about freedom and deliverance. Today I'm going to talk about a message that I believe is very key in receiving deliverance. Almost every person who's seen change in their life or growth in their life or who experienced certain deliverance or certain freedom or certain breaking out of things had to embrace this truth and practice it. It's extremely easy to talk about it and extremely excruciating to do. Four preachers got together for a little lake retreat and decided to take time to confess all of their sins. So the first preacher confessed that he likes to watch inappropriate films. They all looked down and shook their hands and said well that's really bad. The second guy said when I feel down I pick up cigarettes. The third guy he says you know I've I have not been doing really good in my marriage and the fourth guy didn't say anything and so they asked him they said we all confessed it's your turn why don't you confess anything. He said see my problem is with gossip and I can't wait to get out of here to tell everybody about all of your problems. Saint Augustine Saint Augustine said confession of evil works is the beginning of good works. Through the story of Esther and in our story in our personal stories every person I believe has four parts to their life. The first one is your crown or I would like to call it your arena it's it's who you are it's your identity it's what people see about you that's the first part for Esther it was her position in the palace she was the queen for you and me it's our position in Jesus we are children of God we are the Bible says royal priest who we're chosen generation we're not what we've done we're not how we look we're not what we struggle we are who Jesus says we are in other words who we are comes from who's we are and we belong to Jesus therefore what Jesus is we are come on somebody the second part of your life is your blind spot for Esther her blind spot was that she was not aware that Haman in the palace was plotting against her and Mardukai her nephew came and told her hey you are actually in a battle and you don't know it so the second part of your life is your blind spot those of you who drive you know that when you drive and you take the take a turn switch the lane you have to check you have to move your head because there is the blind spot and you can get in a car accident and see in life unfortunately you can't turn your head instead of turning your head God gives you people who are your friends your family your mentors who kind of tell you hey there's a car there hey there's a weakness there and Esther had a Mardukai and each person in here you have to have a person who points your blind spots because blind spot is something everyone sees except you it's everybody sees that issue in you except you and if you're willing to allow God to reveal your blind spot you'll avoid many accidents in life number third part about every person's life and it was in Esther's life is also your mask not only you have a blind spot blind spot is something that everybody sees except you a mask is someone only you know but nobody else does and Esther she had a mask her master mask was this is that she was an orphan she was a captive her family was destroyed and nobody in the palace knew Esther's true identity meaning her true past what was really going on in her life because she put on a mask she actually changed her name her real name was Hadassah her queen name was Esther she changed everything about her she almost like had a new identity and nobody knew about her mask and the enemy was growing stronger and stronger watch this the enemy did not break down until Esther came clean about her Hadassah until Esther revealed her mask the enemy didn't get on his knees and did not get terrified I believe that each person wears certain masks it's the things that we don't want nobody to know about us it's our inner struggles our inner pain the reason why God has us at hungry gent have home groups is so that we can come to a time in our walk with God when we can be safe and comfortable to remove our mask thus beginning our freedom when you remove your mask God can remove your enemy God can begin to remove certain issues of your life and that's what we gonna talk about today but there's a fourth part about your life is when you are when you know who you are when you allow people to speak into your blind spots and when you come to a point you stop hiding your mask but you reveal it to God you reveal it to people that you trust this is what happens that sometimes we don't realize we stumble into our potential Esther did not know that her true potential was more than being a beauty queen her true potential was being a hero and being a savior of a nation but she did not become a savior of a nation until she recognized who she is her identity until she was willing for somebody to speak into her blind spot and until she was honest with herself to remove her mask many people they chase their potential but when you allow people to speak into your blind spot and when you are feel safe with God and with people you trust to remove your mask your potential will seek you you will step into your potential you will realize what you were born for and what you were created for so that is what we're gonna talk about today this message is is gonna be a very unique very different um but I believe it's necessary it's remove your mask especially we just had Halloween and so remove your mask looking at the story of Esther i'm a three-point preacher and so um and we take notes note takers are history makers and somewhere in the bible it says those who take notes have a higher chance of going to heaven it's a made-up joke by the way that doesn't bible doesn't say that but it helps you to remember because a short pencil is better than a long memory amen confessing your sin confessing who you're struggling with with Esther I want you to see this when she came to meet the king second time in the presence of the king Esther became honest about the part of her life she kept as a secret she kept hidden and she kept concealed but watch this when Esther revealed her past she did not cancel her present write this down don't remove your crown when you remove your mask many people when Christians and I'm speaking to Christians right now those of you who are not Christians just kind of sit and watch our problems if you're a Christian and you fall into sin a lot of times we're like prodigal son we come to our father remember how prodigal son came back he says father I must stop I've done this and then he says this I am not worthy to be called your son see prodigal son felt like the only time if if I'm going to repent of my sin I have to resign from my sonship but the father stopped him the father did not let him finish that confession he stopped him and then he says bring the ring bring the garment kill the calf and he says this my son was dead he didn't say my slave he said my son yes he was not sick he was dead he was beyond repair but it was my son see God doesn't want you to remove your crown when you remove your mask Esther did not come to the king and say I'm not worthy to be a queen because I have a part of my life I kept this secret she says I'm still a queen even though I have a hadasah hiding in my closet what am I saying your sonship is not something that you deserve he says I'm not worthy sonship is not a place of worth it's a place of birth you don't deserve to be a son you're born to be a son and therefore you can't say I'm not worthy you were never worthy you were born into that family you were not worked for that family sonship is is a thing of a birth not a thing of a worth as a Christian when I confess my sin I don't break or cancel my identity in Christ I confess my sin out of my my identity in Christ out of who I am in Jesus Christ not canceling it come on somebody are you with me so repenting of your sin is not resigning from your sonship when I come and I remove my mask before God I don't remove my crown in Jesus the Bible says in 1st John chapter 1 verse 7 says the following but if we walk in the light as he is in the light and we have fellowship with one another the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin if we say 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 our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness watch this it says if we walk in the light and have fellowship with one another the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin and so that means that it's possible to walk in God's light to be in communion with other believers and still mess up why do you need to confess your sin if walking in the light and having fellowship makes you perfect it doesn't make you perfect that's why never leave a church if you meet imperfect people and if you ever find a perfect church don't join it because you'll ruin it there is no such a thing as walking in the light of God and having fellowship that makes you know that makes it unnecessary to repent of your sin Christians are not perfect people yes they have perfect standing but Christians still need to confess their sins and repent from their sins regularly because and we're going to see that in a moment how that links to freedom but what I'm first saying is that when you mess up and you feel disgusted and you feel sick and you feel like you broke somebody's trust maybe these sins have caused you to lose your license maybe these sins have caused you to lose your relationship as a child of God I want you to still understand that your mask no matter how much pain it brought you no matter how much complications it has introduced into your life removing a mask is not removing your crown God does not judge your identity based on your issues God judges your identity based on his son Jesus Christ and even if you're so messed up that God from heaven calls you dead make sure you remember you are his dead son you're not a slave to him you're not his servant you have a servant heart but a position of a son it's easy to talk about that but when you are overloaded with shame and guilt we don't feel like wearing a crown anymore we feel like that prodigal son and I want to cancel that over us today to say you have to know who you are in Christ even when you confess your sin confess it from the position I walk in the light and I have fellowship with one another can somebody say amen the second thing I want you to see that when we confess our sins that we don't cancel out our a sonship we don't cancel our status before God we don't cancel our position before Jesus I want you to see when Esther revealed her identity excuse me when Esther revealed her mask she revealed her issue the king immediately if you read the story the king ran from the palace angry and sometimes you know this is what causes people to be afraid to get right with God is that they fear that their sin makes God angry but the king was not angry at Esther he was angry at the enemy that was close to Esther in the palace and what I want us to see is this is that Jesus wants to help us overcome this sin we are embarrassed to come clean about Jesus is not interested in dropping us and he doesn't run from us when we come clean and remove our mask his anger is against sin not against us his anger is against Satan not against us amen what write this down confessing your sin removes consciousness of sin confessing your sin removes consciousness of sin in other words when you confess your sin it's like washing your hands in the culture that Jesus was in people wash their feet more than they probably wash their hands and you see the the time of during communion where Jesus was washing the feet of his disciples in fact he came to Peter and he says the the servants were supposed to wash feet he comes to Peter and he says I need to wash your feet and Peter responds back he says that's never gonna happen Jesus you ain't touching my feet you're not gonna wash my feet and Jesus says Peter if I don't wash your feet watch this you and I have no part together now Jesus is not talking about physical washing feet now he switches to a spiritual principle how do I know that because then he says the following and if when Peter hears hears that we me and Jesus I have no nothing together Peter's like hey watch the whole part Jesus like no no no buddy I'm not about to wash your whole body okay just your feet and he explains to Peter something he says he who has bathed meaning he who is clean only needs to wash his feet and he says all of you are clean now he's not talking about the physical he's talking about the spiritual he says all of you are clean except one which he made reference to Judas and he says he who is clean means who he who is saved he who is washed by the blood of Jesus he who has surrendered to God only needs to wash his feet meaning he only has to repent of his sins not for salvation but for sanctification for growth for a cleansing of his heart for intimacy with God and then Jesus washes the feet of his disciples now it's interesting to notice that the feet Jesus washed were the feet that walked with him disciples feet were not walking around selling dope disciples were not walking around with the running a mafia disciples were walking with Jesus so the feet Jesus washed were the ones walking with him and that's what Jesus says you already took a shower meaning you already surrendered your life you yielded your whole life to me but because you walk in the light as I am in the light sometimes your feet pick up certain dirt it becomes pick up guilt it pick up certain behavior certain habits certain hurts certain pain and Jesus says I want to wash those things in you so that we can have intimacy so we can have closeness amen now I understand the foot washing example doesn't necessarily connect with you and me because seeing Jesus wash our feet it's just or us washing our feet all the time we we we have good roads we have amazing shoes and we have incredible socks so that story doesn't connect with us let me give you a story that does washing your hands every day you take a shower hopefully one shower a day minimum right two for some of you who work in jobs where you sweat a lot or construction you take showers maybe twice a day but once a day you take a shower no exception and if you don't take a shower I would like you to reconsider your hygiene and take a shower once a day but how many of you you wash your hands more than once a day your hand better be up right now okay because I see your neighbor saying like I'm scooting away from you so you wash your hands every time you use the restroom you wash your hands anytime you can't come in contact with questionable people some of you use that sanitizer on the side today after everybody shook your hand you're like I don't know where these people have been and everything I'm just gonna sanitize my hands we wash your hands more than we take a shower why because we come in contact and we understand one thing is that when we don't wash our hands more every single day our hands get germs and germs are not seen but they spread and they make us sick what Jesus says to Christians in other words is this he wants us to confess our sins all the time for the same way we wash our hands to remove germs why because germs make you sick secrets make you sick everyone is in here as is as sick as your secrets when you allow a sin to stay in your heart it's like a germ you might not see it and then the reason why we don't confess our sin is that this is what we tell ourselves is I'm gonna contain it I looked at that thing deleted the browser history wiped out the text messages nobody's gonna see it I will never do it again but this is what happens anytime you contain sin it's like containing germs on your hands they can't be contained because they contaminate germs on your hands they don't you can't contain them because small touch to your eyes and the germs go there if you touch your friend the germs go there if you touch your head the germs go there everywhere you go your germs they get contaminated they spread the reason why you need to confess your sin is for your own benefit any secrets you keep make you sick your intimacy becomes sick you can't have intimacy with your spouse if you're keeping secrets you can't have trust in your marriage if you're having secrets you can't have intimacy with God if you have skeletons in your closet that you first of all God already knows it but you are becoming sick and contaminated if you don't confess your sins it eats you alive and this is what happens with you and happens with me you become conscious of that sin all the time you're thinking about it you're thinking make sure that doesn't surface again you extra careful you're extremely calculated in your behavior around certain things where you fall and stumble and you watch make sure your spouse doesn't sneak in into the closet you're spending more energy on protecting and contaminating than living your Christian life for the glory of God and when you confess your sin this is what happens the awareness of that sin is gone the consciousness of that sin is removed I want to encourage each one of you confess your sin now that does not mean that you go on Facebook do a Facebook live where you tell all of your dirty laundry to the world I'm not talking about that I'm not talking about confessing your sin to the world I'm not talking about I have these people all the time on Instagram and on Facebook all the time writing I need to confess to you something especially like sometimes people who are in marriage I am doing this this this and it's easy to confess to somebody you don't know or somebody who can't follow up on you Judas confessed to the Pharisees and they got killed himself because if you confess your sin to the wrong people it actually will hurt you not help you you got to confess your sin first to God and then to other people that this sin has affected you with me so confessing my sin confessing your sin is kind of like removing germs from your hands you got to do it regularly and you got to do it right away it will cleanse your consciousness I remember a few years ago there was a month where I was my mind was attacked with lust powerfully I didn't commit any sin but it was like there and my wife started to notice that she asked me the question she said is everything okay of course oh everything is fine I'm just there's too much in my mind and I'm lying through my teeth because why because I told myself I got this I'm gonna contain it I'm gonna beat it and then I'm gonna tell her of the testimony that you know it's been a month and I just just crushed that devil under my feet knowing that if if I tell her the testimony she's gonna be mad at me that I didn't let her to be a part of the process to achieve the testimony because you know nobody if you're married nobody wants to tell you know your spouse that hey I'm battling with this and I'm not one of those guys if I thought came in I'm gonna go to everybody no but it's been a month and then a month and a half already and then I remember this one time we were going to sleep and she looks at me she said is everything okay with you she's like you're just different and I said babe I'm just just under just a lot of stuff and we're about to go to sleep and I hear this small still small voice at least I just ask her to pray for you tell her the truth and I said she'll kill me right here in the bed and then she'll go to jail and I'm like I'm gonna be dead she's gonna be in jail this is not gonna help anybody and so I told her I'm like listen I'm like don't take this personal but I'm like I'm just been under my mind has been under attack and I don't know what's happening to me and I feel like I'm this close to fall back into my old sin and so she looks at me she's like let me pray for you so right there in the bed she laid her hands on me and so uh and just just prayed for me this is what happened after that it's like somebody vacuumed the whole thing out of my brain I fell asleep and the consciousness completely I was delivered now I thank God for my anointed wife some spouses wouldn't deliver their husbands like that they would say get up you go on a couch and there is your deliverance or they'll send you on the floor but what I'm saying is this if something wears you down David says this I hid my sin watch the scripture where David says when I kept silent my bones grew old through groaning all day long I know some of you have been there when you're hiding something when you're committing you keep silent your bones the Bible says not your heart your bones are getting old and you're groaning inside all day long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my vitality was turned into drought of summer meaning I lost my energy I lost my passion I'm no longer excited about life and then he says this I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I have not hidden I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin see when Esther confessed her her true mask the king wasn't irritated or upset with her in fact he helped her to process that through your God will do the same if you keep it you're actually allowing a virus to affect you it will affect your intimacy with God and your intimacy with your spouse and your intimacy and your vitality meaning you're no longer excited for life because you're too busy containing something cannot be contained sin needs to be repented of confessed not concealed or contained can somebody say amen now this whole message I'm just preparing for this most important part number three I want you to write this down okay so I do have other points that I just missed sin neglected makes you infected when you neglect your sin you become infected sin cannot be contained because it contaminates and preventive care is the best care number three when you remove the mask God removes your enemy in Esther and I'm not going to read the that verse right now in Esther where Esther tells the king that I am Hadesa I was lost my parents to war I'm an orphan I have not been truly honest with you about what I've been through what I came from when that happened the king leaves the palace and the Bible says the Haman got on her knees he got on his knees and he starts begging Esther for mercy and the Lord showed that to my heart the connection between removing your mask and God removing your enemy see some people you need to understand people who who carry hurt who carry abuse who carry secret sin who carry certain battles and you are holding that to yourself when you confess that to God and you get honest with God God is not going to start digging or spinning that through or or trying to judge you he wants to take care of that but there's a connection between you removing the mask and God removing the enemy the enemy loses his grip because the power of sin is always linked to staying in secret when sin is out of secrecy it loses its power it loses its grip over your life and when you get honest with God God begins to tremble and begins to torment the enemy but the devil lies to you and says if you get honest with God and you get honest with somebody that this sin is affecting you are going to be the one in torment in reality it's the devil who's going to be in torment not you can somebody say amen I want you to see James chapter 5 verse 16 confess your transgressions to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed confess your sin to one another the Bible says so you will be healed not forgiven but healed we already mentioned that your heart becomes clean you're no longer aware of that sin you're free to enjoy your life but we also see here you can experience healing in your mind you can experience healing in your in your body and you can experience healing in your soul confessing your sin removes the enemy out of your palace but it doesn't necessarily remove the battle out of your world I want you to see this the Haman was removed from the palace but the war was not over what happened with Esther when she removed her mask is that the enemy that was in the palace was removed and she experienced peace but there was still better be battle behind the palace meaning when you confess it doesn't mean that you no longer have temptation war or conflict in your life it just means in your heart there is peace because confession brings peace because somebody say man who do we confess to number one we confess to God David says I confessed my sin to you prodigal son said I have sinned against you Saul did not confess his sin to God he came to Samuel and he says I've confessed to your God he never directly confessed his sin to God number two you confess the sin to your spiritual elders or people who are providing oversight over your spiritual life it doesn't have to be a priest or a pastor but who is the one that you go to for mentorship advice and covering it could be your parents you confess your sin to them now for some of you who are like well this guy on tv I watch he's my spiritual mentor so I'm gonna write him a letter with a five dollar check and confess my sin no that's not who we're talking about number three is that you confess your sin to those your sin has affected you confess your sin to those your sin has affected so if you're married your sin probably affects your spouse if you're a woman and you bought something for five hundred dollars you need to tell your your husband that the devil came over you and you bought it I'm just kidding don't say that that will come over you if you're your husband and you looked at something or you've done something you come clean you say hey this is what happened and if we can knock him up until I call us that'd be good and so you tell your spouse if it affected them if you work and in work your sin has affects your work you tell that in your work I remember I was speaking at this one school and young men stole 200 dollars from his mom and she was looking for the money never found it and so as I was speaking the Holy Spirit started to convict him and he comes to me afterwards and he says what do I do I was like well you didn't steal money from me why are you coming to me you go back to your mom and you apologize he says no I'd rather confess it to the whole world but not my mom I said that's the whole point is that this is where the cleansing and deliverance happens I'm like you're dying inside he's like glad I'm stuck spiritually I'm not doing good in my walk with Christ he's I'm constantly thinking about that and I ask God million times to forgive me I said but you didn't steal from God right I'm like you need to also ask your mom and so this was I think on Friday and on Saturday I saw him again he came and his face was beaming he says you have no idea he says I am free I'm like I could fly like a feather I'm like so good my relationship with God is another level I said I'm like you told your mom he said yes she prayed for me and everything is fine I remember a young man I preached a similar message and he sold a car that had a broken engine but you know he found a way to replace the the Christmas light bolts on the dashboard and to make the light not show and so he sold the car and then he quickly deleted the guy's number so that in case he comes back to him you know he says I don't know who you are you know stop bothering me so I'm preaching and he gets convicted and so he comes up he comes up to me he's like what do I do and so and I was like well you have to find a number and probably write to him because it's bothering you you duped him not me and so he finds the number he sends him $200 he says hey I just want to that's all the money I have I'm giving you if you need more you know I will help you but I'm so so sorry that delivers you delivers your finances you can come here for prayer every single day of the year but if you duped people if you cut corners if somebody lost their job if somebody's taken antidepressant pills because of you it's not enough to say God I'm so sorry you didn't just hurt God you hurt those people and you gotta come clean with those people you may say but it hurts so much well you should have thought about that before you did it a young man on our team he was working at this particular job and he would clock in at home instead of you know check in for his work at work so to add extra 20 minutes and then he would clock out not at work but it was on the app he would clock out back at his home so he would add about 30 minutes a day to his work schedule in reality he wasn't working for those extra 30 minutes so we had a youth service we talked about like conviction of the Holy Spirit and so I remember he comes to me and he's like man I feel so bad I need to what do I do I was like man I don't know you'd probably need to go talk to your boss I asked him the question I said what would you like to do if you would have your own employees would you like them to come clean to you he's like yeah I'm like one day you'll have your own business so why don't you do what you would want your employees to do to you so he goes to his boss and you know when you try to do that it's always the wrong time the boss got a suitcase he's about to leave town he's walking out and my friend he comes up to him he says hey I need to talk to you he says can we make it quick I'm running late and my friend he says oh no boss it's not going to be quick we better go to your office and you better sit down so they go to his office they sit down and I mean he's sweating he's turning red and and he tells him he says hey I've been stealing from you the boss looks at him how could you steal from me he says I've been clocking in early I've been clocking out late and I'm so so sorry he says if you fire me it's your choice if you want me to work for a week for free it's your choice whatever you want but I I really want to make it clean and the boss looked at him and he said I knew that all of you are stealing actually like that he's I was planning to start firing people he says I'm so proud of you that you came clean he says whatever made you do that he says that is good and so today that man has his own business has his own employees but the crazy part he gets out of the boss's office and he's about he's like he feels so relieved and there was this bald guy there that he was always making fun of and the Holy Spirit convicts him and he says he says since you started on this path of removing the mask why don't we finish it go up to that guy and tell him just confess just get real with him tell him honestly and apologize before him and so he said when I did that he said I thought the guy's gonna kill me but he says we prayed together I forgave him he forgave me you have to confess because that's where your deliverance lies and I share one more story it's a young lady in our church she's one of our leaders and when she was in high school she just got saved three months before she got saved in our church she was a 4.0 student and so she was taking this test in this class where there was no way she could finish the test and still keep her a 4.0 so everybody in that class was was asking the Chinese students to help them Asians to help them and so she decided to recruit the help and she cheated on her exam so three months later she's in our youth service and Holy Spirit is convicting her so she goes back to her teacher and she says I need to confess to you that I know I'm 4.0 student I really need to keep my my GPA but I cheated on my exam and I'm so sorry and she knew that this will cause her not to be a 4.0 student and the teacher was so surprised she says I'm so disappointed but I'm also very happy that you came clean and you came honest you won't believe what the teacher did the teacher let her retake the exam gave her the exam to take home and trusted her that she will retake the exam without looking at the book with the right time that she gave her she says if you confess to me I know that it will be painful for you and I know that you will do it right and this student took the test home and within the time that was allowed it she only answered 34 out of 100 questions so she knew there is no way she will pass that class and when the class was over in the summer when the quarter was over she saw that she had eight plus in that very class and God's supernaturalist of that deliverance is painful see some of us think deliverance is that you mess everybody's life up you do whatever you want and then you come and you do father forgive me for I have sinned and everything is washed away God will forgive you but your life might not change for your life to change you must confess and you must make it right Bible says you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free meaning get honest about your life and they will be freed on the other side get somebody to say amen