Why Do I Keep Doing What I Regret?

And there's not even the S word on the ground yet, but the sleigh bells are starting to ring. You can hear them. Don't say it. Don't say the word. I'm enjoying my fall. I love my fall cozy season, OK? Hey, if we haven't met before, my name is Dylan. I'm one of our pastors on staff and grateful for the chance to get to share with you from God's word today and dive in together. And I've been really enjoying these past couple of weeks as we're getting into really a collection of messages around wisdom. Stemming from the Book of Proverbs, which is this book in the Old Testament, it falls under the category of the genre of literature we call wisdom literature. And it's a book full of practical insight and instruction for right living. And to recap really quickly, two weeks ago, Pastor Josh gave a message. And each week, we're kind of tackling a question and then drawing on what does wisdom have to say about this? And the first was, what if I make the wrong choice? And then last week, talking about the question, why can't I get my life together? And I just want to say, if you haven't watched or listened to those, you absolutely should. Incredible messages from Pastor Josh.

And I just know from conversation with people, people have been finding them so, so helpful. Because really, wisdom is about applying things in our everyday lives, in our living, that we want to live well or live rightly. And we all want to live right, right? Anybody out there who's like, no, I'm actually good with just living pretty poorly and not enjoying the good life. And like, we all want to live right. But despite your best efforts, do you ever feel maybe like, you can't quite get it all right? Like, there are some things that are not quite where you want them to be. Do you ever resonate with the Apostle Paul's words, as he writes, I do not understand what I do for what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do. But the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. I think that's a lot of do's, Paul, like almost as many as baby shark, or it's just a lot of do, do, and don't do, but I'm with Paul on this. There are moments where I feel that in my life where it's like, man, I feel like I'm not doing what I want to do. I feel like there are things that I'm wrestling with that I wish weren't still a part of my life. And really, what I want to get out today is this message titled, why do I keep doing what I regret? Maybe you've asked yourself that.

Why do I keep doing what I regret? And really, the more direct question today, which is the less fun question, and it sounds not as good as a message title, but the more direct question is really, why do I wrestle with sin? Why do I struggle to do what is good, or to not do what is not good, or what is bad? And as we come to this, even on the very front end, I just want to acknowledge two temptations that may come to you right now in this moment as we get going, that the first is, I tell you, we're going to talk about sin in this message, and you may immediately consider who this message is for. And Joe should really hear this one. You start texting Mary, hello, I really think you should come to church today. Maybe you want to put an elbow in your spouse's ribs and say, take notes today. You've been putting the sin in sync, and you're not doing the dishes. And you're thinking about like, oh, there are some people who really need to hear about sin. And I just want to issue a warning right away to us that as soon as you think that this message is not for you, you are in trouble. Because none of us have arrived at perfection, and you have not either. In fact, the pattern seems to be that the holiest people are those who are most acutely aware of the fact

that they fall short of God's glory, that as they draw nearer and nearer to God in the light of his perfection, it becomes clearer and clearer their imperfection. And that doesn't mean that these are people who are self-deprecating and so down on themselves, because they also tend to be the people who are most aware of their belovedness, because they know that despite the fact that I am not perfect, despite the fact that I have not earned God's love, God has loved me so deeply. And so they rest in this assurance of their belovedness, but in honesty as well about their sinfulness. And this is why even, I think the Apostle Paul is a great example of why he can write would be able to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ for you." And that's something that I want you to especially consider if you're someone who's prone to fall into the second temptation, which is that I tell you we're going to talk about sin. Again, everyone's favorite topic. And you immediately begin to heap so much shame and guilt upon yourself that you would not be able to hear anything about God's goodness. And what I want to tell you as we begin this today is a reminder that the gospel is not a shame on you message. It is about God getting shame off of you, which is a beautiful thing that we read. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So as we start together here, I just want you to even tell yourself remind yourself, "This is for me, and it is for my freedom. It is not just for someone else, and it is not for my condemnation." And with that, we're going to jump into some scripture in the book of Galatians in chapter 5, and we're going to read a good chunk together, verses 13 through 26, where we read this. It says, "For you have been called to live in," what? Freedom. You've been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command, "Love your neighbor as yourself." But if you are always

biting and devouring one another, watch out. Beware of destroying one another. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outburst of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these, the apostle Paul just clarifying. It is not an exhaustive list. Other sins also like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, there is no law against these things. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited or provoke one another or be jealous of one another. So really quickly, why Galatians? I thought we were in this group of messages from Proverbs and learning wisdom from Proverbs. Well, if you read Proverbs, it is over and over again doing something. Time and time again, it is comparing and contrasting the way of wisdom and the way of folly or this kind of anti-wisdom, the opposite of wisdom. We see repeatedly that the way of wisdom leads to life and the way of folly to the opposite, that it leads to death and destruction. And their personified is competing voices, inviting us to follow them, come and walk my path, walk with the wise or walk the way of folly. And if you take this concept and you then go and overlay it onto the New Testament, we see the same kind of dynamic between the Spirit and the sinful nature or what some translations call the flesh. I really like in the NLT how it renders it sinful nature because we want to remember with this when we read the flesh in this way. It is not simply talking about our physical bodies. Jesus again did not reject the body but embraced it. And so we embraced the body but there is this sin nature within us. And in this dynamic that we see that walking with the Holy Spirit like wisdom is the way that leads to life. And following the desires of the flesh like folly is what leads

to death and destruction. And the Spirit and the flesh are at odds within us. So today for every And I'm not talking about the Taco Bell that you ate too late last night or the extra candy that you took dad tax on out of your kid's candy bucket or something. But there is a battle that is between the disordered cravings of the sinful nature and the good desires of the Holy Spirit. And the question that comes to mind for me is, why is it a battle if we know what we should choose? Like if our sincere desire is to follow Jesus and become like him, we obviously want to walk in the way of wisdom and walk with the spirit. And what I think of is this. I'm going to ask you guys for some participation. Just kind of pull the room. And if I put two buttons in front of you right now, got button one, button two, button one, they're both going to give you something. Number one, we'll give you as soon as you press it, it's going to put you into the best physical shape of your life. You're going to be healthy, fit. If you're like a cardio person, your VO2 max is going through the roof. You're going to get those washboard abs that you've always dreamed of. Jesus, if you're listening, I wouldn't mind. That's button one, like the best health of your life. And button number two is that you get the Big Mac combo,

or like your junk food of choice, whatever your favorite fast food would be. Who would push by show of raise of hands? Who would push button one? You're like, give me the really good health, the good physical shape. Anyone going with button two, you want the Big Mac? OK, I see a few hands. We're being honest today. I appreciate the honesty. So of course, the vast majority would say, well, yeah, I'd rather be in great shape and good physical health and happy than just to have the food that tastes really delicious to me. But if that's the case, why is it that so many workout plans and so many diets fail? The reason is that we come to this reality that our deepest desires are often not our strongest desires. And it's often the case that our deep desires are things that become fulfilled through discipline. And our strong desires often are things that can be quickly fulfilled by a lack of discipline, i.e., go through the drive-through and get the burger that you really want, and upgrade to onion rings. And I'm just going to keep confessing to you what I-- you know? There's this contrasting, our deepest desires, or rarely our strongest desires. And so why are there times when we don't do the good that we

want to do, and the evil that we don't want to do, we keep on doing? Because we have deep desires from the spirit within us that are met with strong desires in our flesh or in our sinful nature, which is what we read in verse 17, that the sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These are two forces that are constantly fighting each other so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. That we have many good intentions that go unrealized because of this war within us. So the question for me then becomes, well, how can we weaken the strong desires of the flesh and draw to the surface of our lives the deep desires of the spirit? What would it look like to do this? And what does a wise person understand about this? And the first thought is that a wise person understands the seriousness of sin. A wise person understands the seriousness of sin. The voice of folly says about sin. It's not that bad. Or even looks at sin and says, oh, this is actually a good thing. If it feels good, how could it be? Bad, but wisdom is very clear on things. Wisdom understands that sin is destructive. We know that sin introduced death into the world. It wasn't a part of God's original design,

but it came about as a result of sin. That sin creates conflict between us and God. It wreaks havoc on our relationships with one another and on our own souls. And we read the results of the byproduct in verses 19 through 21 that when you follow the desires of your sinful nature, these are the results that are clear, sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of this whole long list down to envy, drunkenness, wild parties, And let me tell you again is that you have, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. So sin produces an experience of life for us that is the opposite of what we are meant to experience in God's kingdom, that it leads us away from the kingdom. And I think it's worth saying, especially in the world and culture that we live in today, that many of us need to take sin more seriously. Which, again, is not like the most fun thought in the world. They're way more fun things that I could say. But it's true. We need to oftentimes take sin more seriously. The illustration that comes to mind for me is these videos that you'll see of people who will approach wild animals, and they just don't see the wild in the animal. The moose that comes into town. And so you've got the city folk who

want to see the moose, or someone's in a national park with a buffalo, or there's a bear, or something. And there's just not a lot of survival skill going on in this area, you know? Little lack of wisdom. And someone's trying to get a selfie, or something, or go up and take a picture. And the animals know they're like, this is not snow white, singing to the woodland creatures. This person is like lunch, or they've got a target on them, or something. And people get into these really dangerous, scary situations because they just-- they don't recognize and realize, take seriously, that they're dealing with a wild animal. And I think of first Peter, which likens the enemy of your soul to a roaring lion prowling around looking for someone to devour. It's not something that you mess around with. Now, tell me, though, does that mean that we live afraid? No. Doesn't mean that we live afraid. It means that we live wisely. It means that you don't treat sin like it's a play thing, or like it is a pet. You take it seriously. And a wise person understands this, but also more than just the seriousness of sin. That what I think of with this is

that if you come to this realization, but you stop here, if you just stop here, you will get stuck in shame. If you stop here, you'll get bogged down in legalism and sin self-management and this kind of anxious perfectionism of, OK, just don't sin, just don't sin, just don't sin. And as we bear in mind the seriousness of sin, we must learn another thing, which is that a wise person understands the goodness of God's grace. Wise person understands this. And this might sound like an unusual thought as it comes to you, but I also believe that many of us need to take God's grace more seriously. I really think we do. And here's something that I was thinking about this week because I was preparing the message and just pondering because I've seen this at times an interesting thing, which is that in some people's good desire to wage war against sin, which I'm with, right? Because we just talked about sin as it's not something to mess around with. It's a destructive force, something that desecrates the image of God and humanity. So sin is a very bad thing. We should, just like God, detest sin. But there can also then develop from this, just again, I've noticed at times, we can develop this kind of sentiment of something to the effect like, well, don't emphasize grace too much because if you emphasize grace too much,

people will think that they can just live, however, do whatever they want because of grace. And there are some people who live this way, but I want you to hear me on this that I think that that is not too high of you of God's grace. I think that is far too low of a view of God's grace. That when somebody has that kind of perspective, it's a low view to consider God's grace as no more than fire insurance as to wildly underestimate the goodness of God's grace. It is so much better than that picture of, I just live how I want and God forgives me. That's a low view of grace. And I would say you have not taken grace seriously enough if you believe that you are beyond forgiving, that you just think I've messed up too badly, there's no way God could forgive a person like me. You're not taking God's grace seriously enough. You've not taken it seriously enough if you believe that you can be forgiven, but you can't be changed. If you think, oh, God can forgive me, but I'll always be stuck in this cycle, or I'll always be this way. You know, the voice of fallies But to take God's grace seriously is to trust that it is sufficient for both your forgiveness and for your transformation. That it is both and. When we look at verses 22 and 23 that we read,

it says, "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, there is no law against these things." So notice, the work of the Spirit is not only about ridding us of what is wrong, but it's also, and maybe even more so about cultivating what is right in its place. So in other words, God is not simply trying to change your behavior. God wants your behavior change, but it's more than just your behavior. He wants to shape you actually into a different kind of person. It's not simply about abstaining from acting on disordered desires, but developing new desires that are actually in alignment with God's desires in your life. That God doesn't simply want us to act more kind to people who we just really hate. God is desiring to shape us into people who are actually kind and loving and compassionate. That those are not just things we do despite our flesh, but actually that we're being moved into the likeness of Christ in these things. And I just have to say, I'm so grateful for this. I'm so grateful for the depths of God's grace. You know, I'm a pretty chill guy. I've got like a pretty relaxed demeanor about me most of the time. And yet they're these moments where

I am just like shocked at how angry I can get. And it's surprising even to the degree of like, why do I? Why can I react this way in moments like, you know, you think that you're doing pretty good on a day and you're starting to feel like I actually might be the next Mother Teresa. I am quite loving, aren't I? You know, I'm like, man, I'm doing good. And then I have to install a car seat in the middle of the summer. And you're in there and you're wrestling this thing. And not that long ago, I was messing with a car seat. And I'm like, we drive a minivan. These are made for families. Why did they make these latches so inaccessible and the cords of death were entangling around me in, you know, two minutes. And I'm just sweating and rebuking satan whoever designed this, you know? I think there's got to be a better way. And then just stepping back and like, oh my gosh, I am losing it over a car seat, people. And then the dominoes fall down from there. Like, something can happen. And then all of a sudden, I'm just like, why do I get so defensive with my wife, like react, or get short with the kids, and again, react rather than respond lovingly? Like, I look at, I examine my life, and I know have this deep desire for love and the peace

of God, and yet it's shocking how easily that deep desire can be crowded out by these strong emotions that come up. And it's just, I mean, it's amazing how we wrestle in this way. And I come back and I say, yes, Paul, I'm with you. I get it. I react in a way that I don't want to react. I say what I don't want to say in a moment. And I'm so grateful that God's grace is one which doesn't simply say, you can be forgiven of that. But also, I'm shaping you into a new kind of person, making you more loving. Making you more patient. Making you more kind. You know what doesn't work well when someone's super frustrated? It's calm down. I don't know why that doesn't work. It's really good advice. If you're not calm and you calm down, you would just be calm. But of course, that doesn't really work, right? If you want to try that in your next kiff with your spouse, just you're free to do so. I've got a prophecy for you about how that's going to work out. But you know what humanity proved all throughout the Old Testament when they had the law of Moses, which was reference in Galatians 5? Just stop sinning. Like, here's a bunch of laws and regulations and just follow them. Just stop sinning and you won't sin anymore. Again, pretty good practical advice, but in practice, it doesn't work so well.

We realize very quickly from the past and also from our present experience that as people dead in our sin, we need a Savior to give us new life and new desires. And it brings to mind for me this quote that I love from Chris E.W. Green, where he writes, "Obedience is not the breaking of our will by a more powerful will. Obedience is the healing of our will by participation in its source." This beautiful picture that as we surrender to God in obedience, he's continually living drawing our will further and further into alignment with his. You know, I've got young kids and oftentimes you have to say no to things as a parent, right? Like especially when there's a week filled with candy, like even stores are handing out candy. I'm like, we're not eating that right now, maybe later, you got to say no sometimes. And I think often there are people who get a picture of God in their mind as this parent whose favorite word is no, where God is just all about like, no, don't do that, no, you can't do this, no, you can't have fun, I don't like fun, God's created fun, okay? And I just, I know that's not who God is, that in reality, as we delight in God, God delights in giving his children the desires of their hearts that are in alignment with his desires. It's always his will above our will, but God is not simply out to crush your will. He is out to heal and mend and draw your will into alignment with his that again, we would desire what the spirit desires. And so here's the key that we need to keep in mind with this though, which many people I think forget or we can leave behind that our reception of God's grace in our lives does not merely passive. And what I mean by that is that grace does not mean that God does everything while we do nothing. This means that we do what we can do while God does what we cannot do. And it's a good reminder that there is a lot that you cannot do on your own. In fact, apart from Christ, we can do nothing. He tells us. But there are with God, there are things we can do.

He does what we cannot do and we step into alignment with him in this way. I always come back to this quote from Dallas Willard where he writes that grace is not opposed to effort, grace is opposed to earning. So we can never earn God's grace. But that doesn't mean that we don't work hard in following Jesus. That doesn't mean like it's exactly what Pastor Joshua was saying last week that we are called to diligence, that we do put an effort, we do work hard, but we don't work hard for God's grace. We work hard with God's grace and from God's grace and nothing you ever do will be able to earn it because by definition it is not earned, it is unmerited. And so the Holy Spirit directs our lives. We see how this plays out that the spirit directs our lives, not by coercion, but by invitation. And the implication that then follows is we have to respond to the invitation as he gives it. You know, God expects me to love my wife and to serve her. I cannot expect God to possess my body and do the dishes in the kitchen. That would be nice, wouldn't it, because God just helped me to serve my family today. And then the Holy Spirit starts taking over and I'm like, I don't want to do the dishes but I'm doing the dishes and I'm doing all the chores around the house and I can't help myself. Talking out all the projects at home and like, God just did it all for me. Hasn't happened yet. I mean, again, Lord, if with the abs we could get, but it hasn't happened yet because that's not the way it works. We have to be diligent. We do work hard but what we can also, what we can expect is this, that as we do good works, as we fulfill what God has called us to, we can expect that he is going to empower us by his spirit and he is going to sustain us by his presence, that we don't do it alone. It's not just our effort.

In fact, I would say it is, again, apart from his grace, we can do nothing. So God does all the heavy lifting but we have to show up to him. We have to make ourselves available. It's an active submission. to God is not only saying a prayer, but also saying yes to a process that he invites us into, that he desires to form us by. And so with that, I wanna give you just some handlebars today. Again, Proverbs, wisdom, all this, it's very, it's meant to be practical, it's meant to be applied in our lives. And so a few practical things that I think are really helpful ways that we can work with God's grace in this area of overcoming sin in our lives. The first one is be quick to resist temptation. If you're gonna write anything down today, write down these things. One, be quick to resist temptation. I wanna acknowledge, make clear, temptation is not sin. Sometimes people wrestle with guilt or shame even because they're experiencing temptation and they feel like they've already failed. And I wanna be clear, temptation is not sin. And Jesus faced temptation, yet he was without sin. And I have this kind of working theory that God, or not God, but the enemy loves when people would think they've been in temptation, they've already sinned. Because then it just kind of encourages people to go the rest of the way. It's like, well, I already messed up,

like maybe you've heard the phrase, if you're gonna sin, just lick the bowl kind of thing. Like I already messed up, I might as well continue on the path and yet temptation in and of itself is not sin and we will all face temptation. And when a thought drops in your mind, what does this look like to resist temptation when a thought drops in your mind or a desire stirs in your heart that you know is enticing sin, it's gonna lead down this bad path. We take it captive and we submit it to Jesus. Really practically, yes, well, like how do I do that? What does that look like? One of the best things that you could do is go to God in prayer and say, God, I really wanna commit this sin right now. Which is not, that's a humble prayer. It's a hard thing to pray with pride in your heart. You say, God, I am wrestling with this very strong desire right now, would you help me to overcome it? Would you give me a way out and you submit that desire that wrestling to God with this memorizing scripture is a really great way to combat temptation when Jesus goes into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. With every temptation given he responds, it is written and he gives a truth from God's word to combat the lies of the enemy and it's one of the best things that we can do as well. To have some scripture committed to memory

that in moments of temptation we can combat the lies with truth and so we store it in our hearts and respond in this way. We wanna be quick to resist temptation. Second, be quick to confess and repent when you do stumble, when there is sin present or you do the wrong that you didn't want to do or you failed to do the good that you intended to, to be quick to confess and repent. I love this thought from Augustine who writes in failing to confess, Lord, I would only hide you from myself, not myself from you. This reality that if I try to hide my sin from God, I'm never gonna succeed in that. God sees every aspect of our lives. He knows, like God is not surprised when you confess a sin. He's like, yeah, I knew that. It's not like, oh my gosh, Dylan, I thought you were a pastor. You're supposed to be perfect, you sinned? Why, no, God knows, but when we allow shame to say, I can't go to God, I can't confess, I can't be honest before him, all we really do is in a sense, hide God from ourselves. We create this self-distancing 'cause God's never, he's never like, hey, I'm gonna run the other way, but we run from God and we hide like Adam and Eve in the garden and so we wanna be quick to confess and to repent, to turn the other way, confessing to others is a really incredible practice in this too because when we resist the urge to hide

and instead self-reveal with other people, it's always a rejection of shame. It says, no, I am not my sin, I'm gonna separate myself from my sin and again, be honest and be humble and so we reject shame and confessing to others and part of wisdom too in repenting is recognizing where there are slippery slopes to temptation and then mitigating those things. So like, just to give you a word picture, if you're trying to stop eating candy, a really good thing would be to not keep it on the counter where you walk by and can easily grab it, right? a valuable thing? And then lastly is this, that as you notice sin surfacing in your life, one of the best things that you can do is to identify the root and then sow the opposite. And so just a couple of examples of what this could look like. If you notice that you struggle with lust, you could sow self-control through a practice like fasting, that you, hey, I struggle with bodily appetites, and so I'm going to literally discipline my appetite, this strong desire that isn't even bad in and of itself. We've got, like, made us to eat and stuff, right, but we abstain from something that's not even bad in order to train ourselves that when something illicit or sin does come up that we desire, we've trained our bodies in righteousness to say no to something. If you wrestle with outbursts of anger, it could be sowing patience through waiting. You, like, make a holy practice of driving the speed limit and staying behind that car that you want to pass and honk. And you just pray, God, develop patience in me, like putting yourself into moments of where you have to wait and practice patience. If you're dealing with envy, you're so gratitude through thanksgiving, thank God for what you have in your life, rather than getting upset about what you don't have, or in other people's lives practicing kindness through celebrating other people.

God, I'm so glad that they got that job, God, I'm so glad that they're experiencing X, Y, Z to celebrate other people rather than wishing that their success was your success. Wrestling with pride, it could be sowing humility through service, putting the needs of others before your own, putting yourself below other people in serving, cultivating that in your life with the Spirit. Practices to cultivate virtues, all of these, that directly counteract vices or roots of sin in our lives. And it's like feeding the desires of the Spirit that are in that tug of war within you. So like I said, as we close, some practical thoughts, but like I said in the beginning, none of us have arrived. We all have rustlings happening within us. Some that we're aware of, there are some that you're not aware of that are kind of below the surface of your consciousness. A little poem that I think of often reads what blind spots says the fool. I don't see any. We all have blind spots, things that we don't see. And for that, I love coming back to Psalm 139, 23 and 24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life." And as we close, I just want to spend a few moments in prayer. And beginning with this, and allowing the Spirit of God to search us, I want to encourage you to not leave sooner than you need to. If you're joining from another location, if you're with the online campus or wherever, this is for you as well, to join in this time of prayer. And if you've never repented, if you're someone you've not repented, you've not turned away from your sin and toward Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins in Him as Lord and Savior, this is a perfect opportunity to do that as we join together in this prayer. But I just want to pray, Psalm 139, 23 and 24, invite you to pray that in your mind and heart. And then I'm just going to give like a minute of silence for you to listen to the voice

of the Spirit. And when I say that, you're probably not going to hear an audible voice. I mean, what are the impressions in your heart, the things that come to your mind that He may be bringing to you, to your awareness? And just to respond to that. So Lord, if there's something that offends you, show me a better way, what would it look like to walk in freedom in this area of my life? Something that you could walk away with today, and so let's pray together right now, search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Holy Spirit, draw to our awareness these things in us. [BLANK_AUDIO]