What is this sermon about?
"The Hospital, Not the Courtroom" is week 5 of Footprints Church's sermon series What You're Really After, reframing confession as healing rather than judgment and closing the series' movement on honesty, based on Luke 18:9–14, 1 John 1:9, and Psalm 32:3–5.
Many people avoid honesty with God because they picture confession as a courtroom scene — a judge, a guilty plea, a sentence. Pastor Ben Moore reframes it through 1 John 1:9 as a hospital instead: a wound shown to a Physician who wants to heal, not punish. The message opens with Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and tax collector (Luke 18:9–14), naming the "At Least" game of measuring ourselves against others' failures instead of looking honestly at our own hearts. Drawing on David's confession in Psalm 32 and Lamentations 3:40's call to "examine our ways... and return to the Lord," the message closes with a guided introduction to the Examen — a simple, ancient practice of reviewing each day with God — leading directly into communion.
Closing message in the "Honesty" movement of the 8-week series What You're Really After, exploring identity, honesty, and desire at Footprints Church, a Church of the Nazarene congregation in Ridgefield, WA.
