North Point Church - Sunday Sermons
Same Old, Same Old –1– New Year, Same Me
Welcome to North Point. It's great to have you if you're joining us here at Springfield or right now you're joining us at NYX. If you're joining us online, we have a very robust crowd online and welcome to a winner in the Midwest. It is great to have you. If you came out today at one of our campuses, so glad to see you and just feel free to pour the coffee on you to warm whatever you need to do. If you're joining us online today, hey, would you do this? If you're joining us either the YouTube or link of the YouTube platform or the Facebook way to join us here where you got comments, just hit Dream Center in the comments. Everyone, every unique person, don't try and rig the system. Every unique person who comments Dream Center on one of those platforms will make a $10 donation per to the Dream Center. We want to know you're around here. We want to make something good here for the Dream Center together, so we'll make that today. I'm glad to have you with us. However it is you're joining us. I love this new year. How many of you made New Year's resolutions? Anybody make New Year's resolutions? Anybody still have some still in play? Here's what we're going to do today. Instead of asking you to make your own New Year's resolutions, here's what I would love for you to take a moment and write down some resolutions you wish the person sitting next to you would make this year. It'd be kind of like an intervention. Just write down a couple of specific things you would like for them to grow in and then afterwards in the lobby, we're going to hand you the resolutions that the people close to you wish that you would have. That would be a helpful deal. The resolutions are an interesting deal. This idea that we are going to resolve, we're going to try and it's something about us, our tendency as humans is to try and improve. To say, "Okay, this is the time I'm going to do it." New Year, new me, or is it New Year, same me? This series that we're in, same old, same old, it's about what do we have to do to deal with the same old tendencies but to have a different result? So we're going to walk through that together. One of the things though that we have is this understanding that we want to grow, we want to improve. That's why self-help books are a huge deal. Every year, 15,000 different self-help books are published for the very first time. It's a $14 billion industry. I mean self-help is titled from the author's perspective because you're making a lot of money and you make a self-help book. I'm a self-help junkie which when I say that out loud, I probably could use a little help for that. I've got this office and I've got this library in my office and it's filled with self-help books which is ironic because you'd think if I have so many they may not work. You should only have one, I guess. But I've said to the staff, I said, "Hey, you can go to the office. You can take any of those books. You can borrow them, whatever." And Terrell, my son alive, he'll come in and he's like, he's wanting to read and he'll say, "Hey Jeremy, which of these self-help books should I read?" And I'd be like, "Well, I tell you." But it kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Like you should kind of help yourself figure out which one you need. And self-help books are this huge deal. So here's what I did. I went to AI and I asked them to help me write a self-help book. I said, "How would you write a self-help book?" And here's what AI said. It says, start with chapter one, explaining the problem and the pain associated with the problem. Then connect the reader with personal stories to build empathy. And I thought, "That's pretty good. That's pretty typical out there." Then chapter two, introduce the solution that you have and how the reasons why the solution is so effective and then share some real-life examples from your own story. Then it says chapters three through nine offer step-by-step solutions. And at the end of each chapter includes some exercises and activities for readers to participate in. And then in chapter ten, conclude your book on a positive note with a motivational speech of some sort. My friends, that's how you write a self-help book and there's room for them. And so I decided I'm going to write a self-help book this year. I decided it's going to be called lather up that hope is soap, okay? Use it daily. If you feel washed up, just wash up. So I'm working on that. AI will help me with the title. But this idea that we're obsessed with self-help, we're obsessed. Why? Because we understand that we need some improvement in some sort. Whether relationships or finances, parenting, job skills. We want to learn. We want to grow. And so today I want to talk about this need for us to quench this desire for more. And I believe, and I'm biased, I'm a pastor, I believe that God desires us to be able to live out this opportunity we have with those around us, connect the dots with those around us, with things he's placed within us, and that's where we find our purpose. So in this series, today as we talk about what does it mean to bring that old self to a new year? Next week I want to talk about growing through the motions. And we're going to talk about some different rhythms that are important if we want to avoid same old, same old, right? And so I'm excited about these habits that I think could really help us. The third week we'll talk about community, fourth week we're going to talk about connecting those dots on the outside with purpose. So in this series, I think it's an opportunity for all of us to grow. Side note, I want to say this, within in February we're going to do a series will be a topical series. Starting March 1st, I want to start something we haven't done. I've never done. And we're going to do a, normally we do four to five, six week series, you know, attention span, I don't know, probably the attention span, I think we're a pastor. But we're going to start a new series, March 1st. It's going to be a 66 week series. So we're going to break every rule of church. Okay. And it's good. I'm going to walk through the Bible, the entire thing, not like verse by verse. Okay, that would be more than 66 weeks. But I'm going to go book by book and the whole idea is I want to see how does Jesus evident in every single book of the Bible, that Jesus is buried in the scriptures. And how do we find him in every book? I'm very excited about that. So we're going to start that March. Bottom line is, I want us who are on this mission, or maybe you're new to this mission, or maybe you're just exploring the claims of scripture. I want us to, let's dive in this year. Let's grow, let's grow the right ways, not with our own efforts. We'll talk about that. And then let's get into this scripture and find Jesus right there in the scripture. And let's learn how to apply that and reflect that. And so I'm really excited about this new year and to be able to share that with you. So let's go to our outline. You'll find it on North Point Mo app, or if you're just jotting along, or whatever. The first thing is this, that my life is perfectly designed to give me today's results. That's not rocket science. That probably comes out of one of the billions of self help books that have been written. My life is perfectly designed to give me today's results. So I don't know what results are there in your life right now that you're not fired up about. But a lot of them aren't there on accident. Now they're the outliers. Okay, there's some things that happen to you that that's there that is not because you brought it on. But for a lot of our situations, my life is perfectly designed. It's not a surprise what I'm experiencing because of what I'm doing. If someone were to watch, they would be able to be like, okay, that's why you're getting the results you're getting. I was, I used to play basketball. And when I was in high school, played basketball, varsity basketball, I want to drop that before I out myself. And it was a very small school. And everybody with a pulse could play on this team. And so I played high school basketball. And we got a new coach my senior year. And he was college basketball player just graduated. And so he's all excited. And I don't know if you've ever seen me play basketball, chances are you have not. But my natural basketball shot, it's a little, well, it's, it's unique. Like if someone throws me a pass and I catch it by my right ear, I'm in position to shoot because my natural instinct to shoot basketball is right here. I take it and I just shoot it from here. Now that's not, I mean, it's kind of Larry Burdish. Okay, but it's not, it's not, that's not great. Okay, this is not what they teach you at the Pete Merrimich clinic or anything like that. So I just, and so it has this little side spin, which isn't great. And it's all about hand eye coordination. It's not technique. So we get this new basketball coach my senior year. And he says, Jeremy, I want to spend some time with you after practice. And I'm thinking, well, he's playing favorites. Okay, and it makes sense. Like I average 7.2 points every game. And so my coach wants to spend time with me. And so he's like, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna redo your shots. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, we're going to tuck this elbow in. You got this little chicken wing going on in your shooting. And you got to tuck this in. And so he made me shoot like two feet from the basket. And he's trying to develop this new rhythm, a new muscle development of me shooting with my elbow in front of me, instead of cock eye to the side. And he would say, you've got to make 90 out of 100 shots from here. And then when you make 90 out of 100, then you can step back 90 out of 100, step back. And of course, I've never been able to step back from the two foot line. But the thing is, it was so unnatural. I'm thinking, why would you waste this talent? Okay. Well, why would you tinker with this natural perfection? And what he's saying is, you're shooting percentage isn't an accident. Okay, it's perfectly your, your whole shooting ability is perfectly designed to give you today's current results. And you got to change them. And it's going to feel unnatural. It's going to feel like a step back. It's going to, it's going to be, it's going to be really awkward. But the only thing that's going to impact your result is if you look at what's creating that. Now, when it comes to our own life, when it comes to our faith, some of us, we've got some natural tendencies and habits that we picked up along the way that are not providing the life that you desire or that God has in front of you. There are some things in your life. There's some things in my life that we are missing out on, not because God doesn't have a plan for us to have an impact. But because we picked up some things along the way that waste opportunities, waste gifts. And what we need to do is we need to go back to the basics and say, God, is it possible that my life is designed to give me results? So if I want a different result, I got to say, okay, what's a different input? So I have a different output. So I want us to look at that. Some of us in our faith, when we come to a moment like the beginning of a year, we come to an environment like a church service. We feel less than because of some of the tendencies that we bring to the table, because of some of the past that we have, and we have this sense of guilt and shame. And I want us to understand that sense of guilt and shame, that doesn't need to be your identity. At the same time, you're going to continue to wrestle with guilt and shame, because guilt and shame is a natural response for missing the mark that you have for you or missing the mark that God has for you. And so what we need to do is say, okay, we can either continue to do what we're doing and live in this guilt and shame, or we can say, God, is there any way you can have a different result in my life in this area? Maybe for you, that specific element of faith is like in parenting. You don't love the way you have a relationship with your kids right now or your parents right now, or your spouse right now. And you're like, man, I'm coming into the new year, I want to turn over a new leaf, a new year, new me. And I'm like, really? What if it's same old, same old, because if you keep shooting like this, you're probably going to have the same results. And I'm not meaning to guilt any of us for shooting like this, I want to invite all of us to try something different. So, I got to finish that story. I went from 7.2 points a game with this to 27.3 points a game doing this. I'm just kidding, it didn't happen. But so, so let's dive into some scripture. It says this in Isaiah, chapter 43. It says, forget about what's happened. Don't keep going over old history. Some of us need to hear this. Let me start over. Forget about it. How many of you could think of something you regret? You chose it, you bought it, you drove it, you married it. Don't put your hands up right now. Okay. So, like, we've all got regrets. We've all got regrets. And here's the deal. You brought you into this new year. That's the good news. And that's the tough news because we all brought us into this new year. So, what are the things that you brought into that you're like, forget about those things. Don't keep going over old history. And then I love these words. Be alert and check out these next two words. Be present. Let your mind and heart be in the same room that your feet are. What a challenge that is. Some of us can never be here because we're always there. Because we're always thinking about what we did wrong or what we should have done right, this guilt or this regret. And because of that guilt regret, it pulls us out of the room that we're currently in. It pulls us out of the opportunity we currently have. Don't mess up this year because we messed up last year. Okay. Then it says this. I'm about to do something brand new. And I love these words. It's bursting out. Don't you see it? There it is. I'm making a road through the desert. Rivers in the Badlands. Now, I don't know if this is written to those who lived in South Dakota. Okay. The Badlands. But I think it's interesting where it was originally written to. It's saying I'm going to bring rivers, streams of life, which in an agricultural society, I'm going to bring life to areas that you thought were dead. I'm going to bring some health to things you thought were checked out. What Badlands do you have in your life? Maybe you feel like you reside in the Badland. Okay. Is what if God can bring some rivers of life to the Badland? Okay. So let's dive into three lousy ways to deal with some dysfunction. We all have some dysfunction. We all have some things that we regret. So how do we get past our past? Okay. So three lousy ways. The first is this, is to decorate my dysfunction. This is a very ineffective way to deal with your past, to decorate your dysfunction. I don't know if you've ever watched a show Fix Her Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines, right? Joanna says that her least favorite day is Demolition Day. Because Demolition Day is unpredictable. You don't know what's behind those walls. You don't know what those beams are holding up. You don't know what's under that carpet, which side note is Ty's favorite day or Chip's favorite day. I get my home improvement shows mixed up, I guess. Move that carpet. So, so, so, so, so Demolition Day, it could get scary because you don't know what's behind the things that are hiding it. It'd be like this. How many of you have ever like had a little kid or babysat a little kid or you know what a little kid looks like? Anybody? Okay. You know, let me describe something and see if you can smell it. Sippy Cup. That cinch tight. That somehow was hiding underneath a couch for weeks or a month. Have you ever experienced one of those? And then you got to crack that sucker open. It's like a sixth grade science project in there. It's an ecosystem. It is nast. It is stank, right? Like, can you imagine if I found one of those sippy cups and I'm like, oh, that's nasty. Let me just top it off with a little fresh milk and offer it to you. I guess it's terrible, right? When we decorate our dysfunction, what we're saying is I just want to look better from a distance even though I'm a mess on the inside. When I say I'm a mess on the inside, I don't mean that I've got flaws. We've all got flaws. So, by definition, maybe we can say we're all messing. What I'm saying is I've got undelp with issues that are providing a lot of challenge to function in my life. I'm not spiritually thriving in this area. I'm not relationally thriving in this area because this stuff that's been pulled up inside my heart, my mind, my attitude. And for me to just try and pass it off as fresh because I poured something fresh on it. That's lame. Jesus, he talks to a bunch of religious leaders. And when he's talking to these religious leaders, these were people who were known as the most spiritual people in the land, okay? These were the Jewish people's spiritual leaders. And he says this to them. He says, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites." He's borrowing a theater term. This means you are an actor. This is all facade. This is rich insults for first century right here. Jesus is the first century Nate Barghatzi in front of these religious leaders, mocking them, saying, "Look at all your fancy dancing robes, okay? Look at all the way you walk and the way you talk. Y'all are hypocrites. You're like a grave that's been whitewashed, a whitewashed grave." We don't use that term a lot. A decorated grave, right? If you're old enough to remember the movie, "Weekend Up Bernies." He's calling them a bunch of dead people praying around like they're at a party. And he says, "You look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you're full of molverine bones and decaying rots." Jesus has got some, what spot, okay? Jesus is a little sassy here. Why? Because the dysfunction is being decorated and people are saying, "Man, you're spiritual." No, you're not spiritual. You're just fake. How do we decorate our dysfunction? When we add spiritual rhythms without dealing with dysfunctional heart, that's decorating dysfunction. Let me give a practical example. Maybe I come into this new year and I'm just a jerk at home. I'm a jerk. I'm not a safe person. And then in the new year, I'm like, I'm going to read my Bible 365 days this next year. But I don't deal with me being a jerk. I just add spiritual components and I post about it 117 days in a row, baby. Praise him, right? And I'm the one who raises my hands, the highest at church, right? I'm the one that's just carrying my Bible all around, but I'm still a jerk at home and I've never talked to my kids about the words I've said. I've never talked to my spouse about how I'm treating them. Guess what I'm doing? I'm decorating a grave. I'm topping off nasty sippy cup with a little milk thinking I'm life-giving. And you know what that creates? That creates kids who want nothing to do with the faith of their parents. That creates spouses who are so crushed and jaded because the very thing that they need from you, you feel like you don't need anymore because you've upgraded your spiritual habits, but you haven't checked your dysfunctional heart. Sometimes it's the healthy habits we add without the important conversations that we need that make us feel spiritual and we're still as mean as a rattlesnake. Now, if that brings some conviction or guilt or shame to you, I think it's worth checking. I'm not trying to be like Debbie Downer. I'm just saying that's a normal American tendency that we think if we recognize we're not clicking spiritually, we just add something healthy and think we're good when I would encourage you if you feel because I felt this way before. I'm like, but I'm trying harder and I really was trying harder. But the difference is it's not about trying harder. It's about inviting God into the areas that I'm struggling and being honest and vulnerable with the people I'm impacting. I'm not saying don't add the spiritual stuff. I'm saying deal with the dysfunction first. You've got to demolish before you decorate. Ephesians says this, when the light shines that's having conversations that need to be had, it exposes even the dark and shadowy things and turns them into pure reflections of light. So my challenge for you this year, I'm not the kind of pastor that says, hey, here's how you need a new you. Just read the Bible every day this year. Just show up to church more. I'm like, blah, blah, blah, blah. Not that those things are bad. I do want to read the Bible. I do want to engage in community. But the most important thing is that I expose the darkness in my own life. What part of my life is dark? Talk to God about it and talk to the people I'm impacting with it. When I do that, that's life giving and that's my way forward for a new me to be able to talk about the old me. Second thing that's a lousy plan if you want to get past your past is to fixate on your failure. Just to be like, I suck. Okay, here's exhibit A, here's exhibit B, here's 10 more examples. I just begin to focus on the thing that I do wrong. When I fixate on my failure, I'm not allowed to be what the verse said earlier to be aware and be present because I'm just getting trapped in my past. Failure's got this deal to make us a ability to make us feel less than or to make us feel jaded. Either way is a response. We feel that you're less than because you didn't recognize my greatness or I'm less than because it's obvious that I've failed. I want to give you a couple examples in history of people who failed greatly, who didn't allow that to rob them of potential. Let me show you this picture. Okay, this first one, we got a picture of this. Anybody know who this is? This is my senior picture. Okay, no, it's not. This is Steven Spielberg. This is him as he is a college age student. Steven Spielberg, when he went to college, he applied to the USC film school because he was interested in film and he was rejected, which, you know, I think that was a mistake looking back. They're like, because we just need creative people. We need the kind of people we're gonna, we can't let everybody into our film school. So he was rejected by USC. I'm glad this dude didn't stop. Well, I've seen some of his movies. Maybe some of it, you know, maybe he could have could have used a little encouragement there. But the guy became a legend. Matter of fact, here's a picture of him now. Do you know that right now he is on the board of the USC film school? I am way too petty to have accepted that. Like if they would have denied me and then I became Steven Spielberg and then they're like, hey, Steven, are you still interested in USC? You want to be on our board? I'd be like, no, thanks. I am going to UCLA and I'll be on their board, right? Like, I would be too petty. Why was he able to be like, great? Yes, I'm in because he didn't allow failure. One, he didn't allow failure to get him to steer a different career. And he didn't allow failure to make him jaded over the other people who had spoken that to him. He looked at failure not as an identity, but as a thing. And when we connect our identity to our failure, you're not what you did. You're not what you did. What you did was big deal probably. What I did is a big deal, but that's not who I am. I need to learn from it. Learn from it. And then I grow into who God's called me to be. And then I don't need to be jaded because of what happened. I don't want to be guilt-ridden. We got another guy. I got a picture of this guy. Anybody know who this next person is? Anybody? Albert Einstein. Okay. Rarely do you see a picture of him as a kid, but I got a picture of him as a kid. So there's Albert Einstein as a kid. Actually, here's the next picture of Albert Einstein as a kid. Wait. Albert Einstein is a kid. Hold that picture out. Let me tell you this journey of Albert Einstein. He couldn't talk until he was four years old. He couldn't read until he was 10 years old. When he was 10 years old, he got a letter sent home from his school to give to his mom. It's pretty safe that he wouldn't read it, right? And the letter says we can no longer have Albert in our class. He's holding back all the students. We don't have the resources to have patience to work with him. Albert looks at his mom, says, "Mom, what did my teacher write?" And his mom says, "Albert, this is amazing. They recognize how brilliant you are. And they said as much as they'd love to have you in class, they don't think they'd be able to have you in the school because they would be holding you back because the education, because you think, I see things so differently than everyone else. How many love a lying mom? Okay, I love that. And something about a mom's words allowed someone who struggled to create hope, you know? And what about my journey? What narrative have I attached to my failure that has kept me down? Or even if I've fought through, now I've got an attitude about it. Like, dude, I'm going to elb-- like, I elbowed my way and I had no help in grades and so I'm not going to give anybody any help now that I've figured it out. Neither of those are God's best for us. So how do we get past the challenge? One, don't just decorate your dysfunction. Don't fix it on your failure. Lamentation says it this right. "Because of the Lord's great love, we're not consumed. For his compassion's never fail. They are new every morning." And here's what I love. It says, "Great is your faithfulness." And you want to get the right pronoun there. It's your. Great is your faithfulness. Not great is my faithfulness. It's not great is Jeremy's faithfulness. Great is Jeremy's faithfulness, right? He grew up in a church, maybe that sounds familiar, but I changed the word. It's not about my faithfulness that allows my mercies from God to be new every day. It's his faithfulness. God will not fail. He's faithful. He's faithful. Now I've got something here that I want to show you that anybody know what this is? WD-40, okay? Anybody know what WD stands for? Water displacement, okay? You got a squeaky door, right? You know what 40 stands for? The 40th patent because the first 39 didn't work. They had WD-1, WD-2, WD-38, WD-39, and finally it worked at WD-40. Now I was thinking, what if we labeled ourselves like this? Every time we failed, that new number, and we had a shirt that we had to wear. Mine would probably look a little like this. JJ-78-99, and then tomorrow I'll have to add a new shirt. JJ-78, you know, or 700-900, right? What number, what revision are you on? Self-help industry says that we've got a pretty high number. Our nature says we've got a pretty high number, but God's faithfulness is new every morning. That's not about us perfecting it. It's about us saying, God, I want you in my life. I want a new me, but my belief in me isn't what makes the difference. My belief in me isn't going to be what takes me over the top. It's God's love for me. It's God's faithfulness. One last way that I want to talk about of how to, you know, allows you a way to get past your past is just to enhance your effort, just to try harder, decorate your dysfunction, fixate on your failure, and enhance your effort. Ratchet it up. I'm going to try harder this year. I'm going to try so hard. I don't even care if it kills me. It'll kill you. Next week I want to talk about how do we grow the natural fruit in our life without sweating them? Apple trees don't sweat apples. They just grow them. You don't have, fruit is natural. Not that we don't try, but trying harder is not the answer. Some of us, we come into this new year, we're like, me plus Jesus, and I want to stop us. And that's our next outline. I want to say the idea of me plus Jesus sounds spiritual, but I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Because me plus Jesus isn't as effective as me in Jesus. It's Jesus. It's His power. It's His grace. It's the Spirit of God that now lives within me, that is bursting out, making the river of life in a bad land. It's God that does this. It's not me sweating my way, and I'm going to be moral this year, and I'm going to stop cussing, and I'm going to start reading even through Leviticus. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, and we try, we try, we try, and those aren't bad things, but it's silly of us if we think that's going to make a new us. Those should be natural products that flow out of our life when we surrender our life on the daily to Him. Otherwise, we're going to have same old, same old, with more disappointment. Psalm 32 says it this way. It says, "When I finally saw my own lies, I owned up to my sins before you got, and I didn't try to hide my evil deeds from you, and I said to myself, I'll admit all my sins to the eternal, and you lifted and carried away the guilt of my sin." What do we do when we come into a new year? What do we do when we get to a spot where we want to add a new thing to our life when we realize we are made for more? And I'm not opposed to reaching for a book. I'm not opposed to logging into that master class. I'm a fan. But something more important that will help us avoid the same old, same old, is say, "Jesus, what part of the old me? What part of the now me needs you? What part needs demolition? What part needs to come to the light? What part needs surrender, not just intensity? And we invite Jesus in. I wrote down this way that Jesus rarely invades or He's not invited. He rarely invades where He's not invited. We all feel bad about things we've done. We've got regret. Now, regret, if handled right, will lead you to repentance. Repentance isn't just something you did on a Thursday night at a Bible camp when you were in seventh grade. Repentance is something I do every time I feel regret. When I realize I missed the mark, missed an opportunity, did something, didn't do something, I have this regret. It's natural. When I stop feeling regret, that's when I get nervous. Regret can either trap you there and you try and decorate your dysfunction by working hard and being more moral, even though you got regret. Or you go to repentance. Repentance, here's what it means. The word repentance literally means re means back, pent, top, like penthouse, top house, okay, the building. So it means back on top. Repent means to get back on top. I've got regret because of what I did. God, I invite you. Give me back on top. God, I feel buried by my mistake. God, help me to get back on top. And I don't need to live in this guilt because I have grace. And I get to choose every time I've regret, do I live in the land of guilt? Or do I let a river of life come in the middle of this bad land? And it's grace. And so then all of a sudden I've got, I've got redemption. Regret leads me to repentance. And when I repent, it triggers redemption. That means God brings the value out of me right here and right now. That God's not going to waste these times. So today have you invited Jesus to meet you in the area of your regret. Repent of that. Say, God, meet me here. Forgive me of this sin. Forgive me of this waste. Meet me in my pain. Maybe it's not a sin issue. Maybe it's a pain issue, a disappointment issue, a hurt issue. Invite Jesus to meet you there. Invite him to make you back on top. Bring you back on top. And as you go into this new year, you don't need a whole new person. You need a new strategy in saying, Jesus, every day I surrender to you. Help me to be aware of the areas where I'm dysfunctional. Help me to deal with that. Help me to be very present where I'm at. Help me to take advantage of every opportunity you have in front of me. And that's called purpose. So I want to pray with you today. For some of you today, it might be inviting Jesus, this repentance, inviting him to meet you where you're at for the very first time. For many of you, it's you can think of an area where you need him to come in and make things right, make things whole and give you purpose. So let's start this new year with that prayer. So Father, today, I pray for those who need a relationship with you that you would meet with them right now, that you would see where they're at. You would meet them right there, this gift of grace to replace the weight of guilt. And God, as they repent, they invite you to forgive of sin, to meet with them and their pain, their hurt, their miss. God, I pray that you would be very present in their life. And from this day forward, while we're not perfect, we will be present and will be surrendered and submitted to you in Jesus' name. We pray. Amen.