Spiritual Formation // Healing From Sin

Coming soon!

Good morning, church. Good morning. You are here on a rainy, sleepy Sunday. And I am glad that you're here. Hey, do this for me. Stand up to your feet while we read today's key scripture.

 We're continuing our series in spiritual formation. And our theme verse for this has been Romans  verse , where it says, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 Father God, we just invite you into this place and into our minds and our hearts this morning as we hear your word. Lord, as we walk through today's subject and we continue to press into what it looks like to grow and to become mature believers through Christ, Father, we just pray that you keep our minds and keep our hearts, that you lead us and guide us in the path that allows us to walk in your righteousness.

 We thank you for everything you're doing here in this church and in our community and our families. It's in your holy name we pray. Amen. Amen. You may be seated.

 Okay. Hey, so today we're continuing our series. If you've missed any of them, I encourage you to go back and listen to any of them, whether it's on the podcast or on the YouTube channel. It's a really, really powerful series. We've been learning a lot. Some of you have been walking through the spiritual formation class that's also been meeting on the midweek since we've started that. And it's been a really, really great, great time. And today's subject is a really important subject in the concept of spiritual formation and our growth as believers. If you are a believer who's been walking with Christ for a really long time, or if you're very new or young to the faith, this is an important thing that we need to walk through. And it's important we study and we discuss it and we talk about it because some people have some different preconceived notions around this idea or the subject. And so it's important that we get a really healthy biblical perspective on what we're talking about because today what we are talking about is in our journey of spiritual formation and in our process of becoming more and more like Christ, one of the things that we have to confront and we have to walk through in this journey is the need for each and every one of us here in this room to find healing and forgiveness from sin.

 Now, sin is not the thing that people like to come to church and hear about because sin, for most people, it's like a very negative word because it is a negative thing. But a lot of people have a very adverse reaction when we talk about sin. Maybe you have different backgrounds of what that looks like. A lot of times when people hear about sin, it's very behavioral and so it comes down to behavioral modification and we think about certain things that the problem is. And so a lot of people have a very emotional reaction to where they're like, "Hey, today we're going to talk about sin." And they're just like, "Oh, I'm not into that," which I totally get it. But here's the thing that we need to realize. Sin is really just naming a reality that both Christian people agree upon, but even people who are non-Christians, just people who look at society in general, which is that there is something wrong in the heart of mankind.

 There is something broken in the heart of mankind. And what is broken is not just that we do bad things to others and to ourselves. It's actually the fact that in this process, when we look at life, whether this is within Christianity or outside of it, people do things that they know are not the best for them or the best for others. And in fact, it goes a step further. They actually, in times, want to do things that are bad to themselves or bad to others. They actually have that desire to do it, even though they know it's wrong.

 And then maybe you can take it a step further, which is the fact that then you can get to the point where they know it's wrong and they don't want to do it and then they can't stop doing it.

 And they still do things that they know are wrong and broken, even when they have a desire not to. And so when we look at the understanding that when the Bible talks about, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," this is just a reality of what we live in. Sin is something that is present in our world and sin is something that is in the heart of men and women that we need to address. But it's very important that we understand what sin is and what the antidote or the fix to sin is and what the cause of sin does in our life. And sin is a really interesting thing. I wish we had more time to really get into some different texts in Hebrew and Greek words and different things. But the biggest thing that we need to understand about sin, sin is not a list of do's and don'ts. Like this is sin and this is not. Like sin is absolutely more nuanced than that. But ultimately the heart of what sin is, is missing the mark. Like in fact the Hebrew word for sin, katah, which means to miss the mark or to miss the opportunity. And when we sin, what we're missing is we're missing God's best for us. And so even when we look at something like a text, for example, like the Ten Commandments that's giving us a list of kind of do's and don'ts, really what we're seeing is half of them are dedicated to what it looks like to miss the mark in your relationship and loving God. And the other half is looking at what it means to miss the mark in your relationship of how to love others. Like this process of missing these two things that God commanded us to do.

 And so when we look at this understanding that sin exists, we then get to ask ourselves the question of, well then what can Jesus do about it? And what we profess is that Jesus came and died for the forgiveness of sins. What does that mean? And I would like to present today, I think it actually means much more than maybe you or I give it credit for.

 I actually think the forgiveness of sins is far greater than that you could actually think or imagine, especially at first glance. So listen to this verse, Matthew chapter one verse , it says this, this is the angel speaking about Mary and it says, she will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.

 The thing that we know from the prophets and from this, this is actually the angel speaking to Joseph, that Jesus came with the intention of saving people from sin.

 Saving people from sin, but he wasn't just saving people from actions. It's far greater than that. And so today we're going to look at a couple of other things. We're going to look at three dimensions of sin and how sin can look differently and different things. And then we're also going to look at four layers of each individual sin. And so we're going to kind of unwrap this a little bit and then talk about what that looks like. So here's the thing, three dimensions of sin. And I think as you unpack this, you'll be like, oh yeah, this makes total sense. Okay.

 First, there are sins that are done by us. So sins that I personally do, things that miss the mark in my life for myself that I do. So this is like when I mess up, when I lie, when I decide to accept shame in my life, if I'm not kind to someone, if I'm dishonest, if I'm angry, like these are sins that I can commit and the sin that's done by me. And I love what this author that I read talks about that sin, personal sin, sin done by us is a disruption or it's a culpable disruption of inner peace.

 That my peace is removed and disrupted when I sin. And it doesn't matter if I'm sinning against God or I'm sinning against others. When I do actions that don't behave the way that Christ leads me and the way that Christ would live. When I do things that are missing this mark, whatever they may be, and we can talk about specifics as we go on, but if I do anything in that process, what happens is, is the peace that my peace that was purchased by Christ is disrupted because I'm missing this idea.

 Because God's desire for me is to live in a way in which he defines what is good and bad for me so that I can walk in that truth. But from the very beginning of the garden, man gave up that right for eternal life and chose to define good and evil on their own. And so we live in a time where that is what men and women have been doing ever since, that we walk around trying to define what's good and evil on our own. And the result is we will call things good that are evil, we'll call things evil that are good, and yet our peace is the thing that is robbed from us.

 When I walk around and I start sinning, this is not a thing of like, "Ooh, God's just about to punish you." Because the thing is, as a believer, the punishment for sin was taken out on the body of Jesus.

 My sins are forgiven. So the reason that I'm not sinning is not for fear of punishment.

 The reason that God doesn't want me to sin is because sin does not lead to thriving in my life. It does not lead to good things for me personally, nor the people around me. It removes my peace. So the reason that I don't sin, whatever that may be, lying, cheating, stealing, the reason I don't do that is not because I'm worried that if I do them, God's going to punish me.

 I'm worried that in doing those things, I will not be experiencing His abundance in my life because I am choosing to do something that's outside of what He has said is good for me.

 And I end up dealing with those consequences. So there's sin that is done by me. But then the next thing is, and this is important because a lot of times that's all we think about. We think about our actions, our actions, our actions, our actions.

 And Jesus is here to heal you and to forgive you from those things, the sin that's done by you. But it goes even deeper because Jesus is also here for the sin that's done to us.

 Every person here has experienced where someone else's choices and behavior have sinned against you, that you have been sinned against,

 and that you have experienced the consequences of someone else's actions. Someone else was abusive, someone else lied or slandered you, someone else made a decision that affected you, and you are the one who is dealing with the consequence of someone else's sin. This can be something very minor or it can be something really big, but everyone here has experienced something in their life where you have been marked and you have been wounded and you have been hurt by the choices that were not your choices but were someone else's.

 That someone else has made the decision to not love God and love others. Someone else has made the decision to miss the mark of what can allow thriving to happen and it has hurt you.

 Maybe you were betrayed, maybe you were abused. This is the problem and it leaves a mark in our soul when we experience sin that's carried out on us.

 And unfortunately, the thing that we know and the thing that we see is often the thing that has done to others is the thing that they ultimately repeat in their life, which is why people who were cheated on many times become cheaters and people who were abused many times become abusers and people who grew up in households that were dysfunctional continue to establish dysfunctional households because this idea becomes part of their identity. And if we don't allow Jesus to heal these wounds and this sin in our life, then we continue to repeat this pattern because it marks us.

 And see, often when we think of sin, we just think of it as the stuff that I do, but what we have to understand, it's things that other people do to you and Jesus says even that the thing that someone else did to you, I went to the cross to bring healing for you. To bring forgiveness for others so that you could be healed so that the sin that was committed against you could not be something that holds you back, but something that you can bring to him and he can bring healing to that in your life. And then the third category of sin is not sin that's done by us, not sin that's done to us, but sin that's done around us.

 And this is the category of sin that we have to extrapolate what we see in Genesis and you understand this, that when Adam and Eve fell and they made that decision, the world became cursed and we live in a fallen world. And until Christ comes back, the world that we live in is cursed. And as a result, all of creation is in this state of going against the very good, pleasing will of God, which is why Paul talks about that. Even creation is longing for the day when the salvation of Christ will come to save creation. We live in a world in which all around us sin is happening, both sin committed by individuals that doesn't necessarily directly affect us, but we are experiencing the consequences of a society that lives sinfully and then also the world itself, which is still reeling from the original fall and living outside of the context of what God has for them.

 Whether you know it or not, you experience sin that's done not necessarily by you or not necessarily to you, but things that are just done around you.

 And it marks you.

 It will be part of you. Things that we've experienced as a society, as a culture, events that happen around you, they are not something that you are just immune to. Your spirit is too sensitive to not allow these things to be marked on you. They create wounds inside of you.

 And whether it's things that were done by you or things that were done to you or things that were done around you, all of this sin is something that needs to be dealt with and needs to be healed from.

 Which is why we have such good news in Jesus.

 He didn't just come to forgive the sins that you did. He didn't just come to forgive the sins that were done to you. He didn't even just come to forgive the sins that were around you. He came to forgive and bring healing to all three for you.

 And when we realize that the dealing with sin is not just things that I've done, but it could be things that were done to it. When we broaden our scope of how sin can affect, we may be able to see certain areas in our life in which we need to experience Jesus's healing touch.

 In which we need to experience healing.

 And maybe you're good. You're like, "Yeah, I know God forgave me for my choices." But maybe you still haven't experienced healing from someone else's choices.

 But what the Bible says this, Mark chapter two verse , it says, "On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who needs a doctor, but the sick.

 I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

 You see, everyone here is sick. Everyone here has been affected by sin in some way.

 Some of us know it, and some of us try to pretend like we don't, just like we talked about last week. You just deny it or you try to pretend like it doesn't exist, detached from it.

 But here's the thing. We have the doctor of the soul. We have Jesus.

 And Jesus doesn't just want to look at the symptoms because sometimes we have sin in our life and there's a symptom that comes out. You lash out in anger or you're fearful or you walk in a certain habit or you can't get your mind right or you deal with anxiety or depression. Like there's certain symptoms that come out of it. But the reality is the reason that we're dealing with it is that there's a core issue. There's a core.

 And Jesus says, "I don't want to just deal with the symptom, some behavioral modification. I'm not just going to make it where you don't lash out in anger. I'm not just going to make it where you're not. I actually want to get to the root of what is causing this dysfunction, this wound in your life."

 And he is a doctor that not only looks surface level but looks interior and goes and says, "I want to heal from the past and the present and the future."

 That Jesus, our great physician, says, "I'm coming to bring healing, healing to your soul, healing the things that you did to yourself, that you did to others, that others did to you, that has been done around you. I'm here to bring healing. All you have to do is the invitation that he has to all of us, which is come to me. Come to me. Come to Jesus and allow him to bring healing."

 But the thing about sin is sin actually goes very deep. The effects of sin goes very deep in our hearts.

 And I want to talk about the four layers of sin. There's kind of four layers. This was kind of popularized by John Wesley, but there was thinkers before him that talked about it, but he makes it really clear in this idea. So the first layer, the first layer, if we're looking at it like as far as the depth of how it affects our souls, the first layer is what we call gross sins. And no, I don't mean like sins that are disgusting, right? Like eating your boogers. Yeah, it's a sin, but that's not it. I was very sinful for a long time. And then my wife said she wouldn't kiss me anymore. Yes, I was that old. And then I stopped. Love is a powerful tool.

 We're not talking about gross sin. We're talking about major big sins. Okay, like what we consider these big extravagant sins. So like an example, Galatians ,  kind of gives us some of these. It says the acts of the flesh are obvious sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of race, selfless, ambition, dissension, fractions, and envy, and druginess, and orgies, and the like. Right? I warn you, as I did before, those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. He doesn't mean they're not going to heaven. He means you won't live the good life.

 You live like that. You're not living the good life. You're disrupting the very inner peace of your soul. You don't enjoy the good life. Now, gross sins are often the very first thing in our walk with Christ that go away. In fact, sometimes they go away very quickly. You make a decision to follow Jesus, and you were living like hell.

 And now all of a sudden you're like, "Hey, I don't do that anymore." And like these big gross sins are quick, and they're much easier to overcome to some degree.

 And sometimes they're quick, but they are this big layer. And so we're going to spend a little less time on this, not because they're not important, but because this is kind of this first layer. And often, the moment that we make this decision to live for Christ, they're the very first things that kind of are removed from our soul. Right? Now, the next layer is called conscious sins. These are things that are like, they're socially acceptable, or even maybe celebrated in our culture, but they're not the way of Jesus. They're not the way of Jesus.

 You know they're wrong based on what the Bible says, maybe not based on how you feel, but you choose to do them anyways. Things like materialism, or bragging, or dirty TV, or gossip, or cussing, or crude humor, or white lies, or negativity, or rudeness. These are things that are not in the heart of Christ. You know they're not in the heart of Christ, but sometimes, you know, it's like that all it's saying is like, "I love Jesus, but I love Jesus." I cuss a little. You know, sometimes, just like, "I know what's wrong, but I still do this thing." It's conscious. Like, you know, you think about it, you do it,

 you maybe try to do it a little less, but it goes against it.

 These are areas that our will is yet to be surrendered to Jesus. And here's the good news. When you continue to walk in a direction with Christ, you continue to bring yourself in your heart to Christ. You continue to allow Him to say, "Hey, will you shape inside of me? Heal me. I'm dedicating myself to you, and if there's anything inside of me that's not from you, change it. Allow me. Lead me." God will continue these conscious ends. He will continue to change your heart so that your view on these things are changed, and your appetite or your desire, even for these conscious ends, will be changed, and you'll no longer do them.

 He will transform you, and it may be incremental. Maybe you used to cuss a lot, and then you cussed a medium, and then you cussed a little, and then you only cussed the small words, not the big ones.

 And then one day, you don't cuss anymore. And it wasn't just one moment. It wasn't through your willpower. It was through the transforming of your mind over time and relationship with God. And He changes you, and you're no longer a cusser. So conscious ends.

 But then we go another layer. We go another layer to unconscious ends.

 These are often sins of, like the technical term, there are sins of omission, not commission, meaning there are things that you didn't do, not things you did do. Right? These unconscious ends. And there's things that, like, things like there was a friend that was hurting, and the Holy Spirit brought it up into your mind, and you knew you should call and reach out to them, but you've been busy, and so you just didn't do it.

 You just didn't do it. Right? You don't speak up when you see an injustice because you don't want to be the only person in the room saying, "Hey, this is wrong." Right? You ignore an opportunity to be generous even when the Holy Spirit's tugging on you to give, and you're presented with something, and you're like, "Nah, I'm not going to do it because I just, you know, whatever."

 We ignore it. So it could be this omission for commission. It could also be a sense of motivation. Maybe you're doing something that's actually really good, but the motivation's wrong.

 Maybe you show up to church every Sunday, but it's because you think you're getting brownie points with God. Maybe you wake up early and you pray, but it's because you think that that'll be what gets you that promotion at work.

 You're doing the right thing, but for the wrong reason. Your motivation is wrong, and as opposed to finding yourself in this place where I'm here because I want to experience the heart of the Father more, and I already have everything I need in Christ, you think that you're somehow earning or gaining. You're doing the right thing, but the motivation is wrong. That's a heart posture, and that's deep,

 and that's sometimes what sin can do in our hearts.

 The last one is dysfunctional relational patterns, like how other people experience you just naturally. We kind of talked about this earlier in the series, like this whole left brain, right brain. Your natural reaction is your defensive, or your moody, or your negative, or your judgmental, or your ugly talkative, and you've convinced yourself, "This is just who I am. Deal with it."

 And Christ is like, "That's not who you are, because that's not who I am."

 And these are a little harder, because these can be exposed. Sometimes they're exposed through times of suffering, like we talked about last week. Sometimes they're through intimate relationship. Sometimes they're through prayer. And the problem with these are, sometimes these are so ingrained, and when we start to realize they're not truly part of who we are, it's embarrassing to admit to them. It's embarrassing to realize, "I need to talk about this," or, "I need to find help," or, "I need to be in this place." Or, "I need to go to counseling," or, "I need to look at something." Some of these things, and the way we react, we say, "Oh man, this is hard." But these unconscious sins are things that have made a mark deep inside of our soul, and Jesus says, "Even there, I can meet you. Even there, I can change the way you respond. Even there, I can change the very person of who you are."

 And then the last one, the last one is attachment sin. This is kind of the deepest layer of who we are. In biblical words, this would be the idols that we've set up for us.

 They're trust structures, or what we would consider emotional things that we need for happiness. It's the things that we believe we need to be happy and at peace.

 They're not bad things, but we believe that if I don't have this thing, I won't be happy. That I won't be okay. And this is really hard, and I want you to hear this. This is really tough.

 It's the belief of stuff like, "If I'm not healthy, then I'm not happy, and my life won't be great, because health is more important than my relationship with Jesus."

 Or money, or my children, or my job, or success, or beauty, or youth, or retirement, or your reputation, or your plans, or your friends. Like we set up these things that are not bad things. In fact, all of these things are from God and are gifts to you. But when you realize that in your soul, you have placed them above the place of God, that you are worshipping the created things, not the Creator.

 You realize that you are missing the mark, and there's something inside of you that needs to be healed. And this layer is so hard, because you find out there are certain things that you've put above God in your own heart.

 And it's hard, because like I said, it's not evil to desire for your kids and your family to be healthy. But if in your mind, you think, "The only way I'll be healthy, God, I'll be happy, is if you do this for me."

 You've elevated something above where God is. And what that does is that makes you live distrusting. And if any of that is removed, if health is removed, or youth is removed, or beauty is removed, or a relationship, or you experience loss, all of a sudden, you question everything about God, and you think, "How can I even trust or exist?" Because this, but all of that comes from the fact that the brokenness in our world has made such a mark in our heart. We believe that that is what we need to be happy.

 And Jesus says, "You should never base your joy, your happiness on the temporary things of this world." When you find your satisfaction in the Creator, you view everything else differently.

 And the health and the protection of your family is a gift from God, and you get to walk through these different things, you get to realize, "I will trust that God is good to me.

 No matter what I see, I'll believe that He is good to me."

 And that although there is the fallen nature of this world, there's all these things that they are not where my joy and my happiness is, that I can say it is well with my soul, even when I'm walking through difficulties and hardships and pain. That I can get to the point where I can even believe the same thing that Job said, that even if He slayed me, I'll trust Him. I'll trust Him.

 This comes so hard, and this is so far from, "Oops, I stubbed my toe and I said the bad word."

 A lot of times we think that's all we want, and Jesus is like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want it all the way in. I want it all the way deep.

 I want to get to those motivators. There's motivators. There's motivators, and I want to go in there, and I want to heal them from the inside out."

 Because when you get these attachments changed, you trust Him more,

 which means you don't have the wrong motivation and your emotions are healed. Like when you realize that He wants to heal you from the inside out, but a lot of times we keep sin at surface level of my behavior, and like, "Jesus, just help me with my behavior," and He's like, "Hey, we can help with the behavior, but really I want to talk about just not your behavior, but I want to talk about the conscious, I want to talk about the unconscious, but I really want to get all the way down to what you're attached to."

 Because I want you to be attached to me, and when you're yoked with me, everything else begins to pour out differently.

 Which is why I command everyone, you will have no other God before me. No other God.

 Not your marriage, even though your marriage was a gift from God. Not your money, even though it can be used by God. Not your health, even though God wants you to be healthy and prosperous in all things. Not your children, even though that's the greatest joy of your life. Not any of those things can be above Him. And when you get your attachment straight, like, "You are who I'm attached to," so everything else comes. You realize that all those things all of a sudden have the proper value and the proper order, and they exist for the proper reason and the proper use. And then you begin to see that what's flowing out of my unconsciousness is the things that comes from the fact that I trust that God has good things for me. And so He's continuing to change my thoughts. And you begin to realize that the things that I'm committing, I don't look at the ways of this world. I don't care that it's acceptable in society to live this way, or to watch that, or to say that and do that. I don't behave that way. Because the thing that I'm rooted to and I'm attached to is producing fruit inside of me that is transformative. That is who I'm connected to.

 But if we think that we don't need to deal with the consequence of sin in our life and bring that to Jesus, then we are forgetting the very reason He said, "I'm here to deal with sin in your life.

 I'm here for it." Not in the way that you think, not to punish you, not to condemn you, not to judge you, but to heal you from the brokenness that you're carrying.

 And yes, some of that was by your own choices, and I'll heal you from that. And some of that was from other people's choices, and I'll heal you from that. And some of that is being just in this world and where you've grown up, and I'll heal you from that. And I will make you bring forth new fruit inside of you because of what you're connected to and what your attachments are.

 And watch everything else line up. Watch everything else line up.

 It's uncomfortable when we deal with this because sin is so hard. No matter what layer it is, it's hard. It's hard. And sin holds over our minds, and it creates bondage inside of us.

 And the only thing, Jesus is the only thing that can bring healing, but the Bible does lay out a practice, a thing that we can do, and this is wild, but this is a thing that we can do in our lives to be able to help find freedom from the effects of sin and healing from sin,

 and allow us to physically experience in person what Jesus is doing inside, and only the miraculous part of Jesus can do.

 And it's something that is not popular. It is something that people have a very negative connotation to, depending on your background. It is not something that you look forward to, and in fact, the very word may bring up more fear than sin itself.

 And it's the word confession.

 Oh, man, I hate that word.

 And maybe you came from more of a liturgical or a Catholic background and your idea of confession is like the whole booth and like telling your things they're priests and saying this thing and like, and then you have to like, that's not what we're talking about.

 Confession is a tool that the Holy Spirit can use that in a relationship with another person or a small group of people that's trusting, that has relational equity, that you can expose sin in your life and open up the light and see what healing power can come from that.

 And it may be sin that was done by you, it may be sin that was done to you, it may be sin that was done around you. It's not just your actions, but that you can expose that and it produces healing inside of your life. That's why James chapter five verse  says, "Therefore confess your sins, each other, and pray for each other so that you may be healed."

 And the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

 Here's the thing.

 I don't have time to get into all the details, just for time's sake.

 But Vivi and I were going through, and this has been ,  years ago at this point, we were going through a struggle and I was personally struggling with something and I had had confessed to my wife what was going on and we were finding healing and I was walking through it, but I was still walking through struggle because the biggest struggle I had in my mind was that if anyone else found out about this, my wife forgave me, but that's because she stuck with me. But if anyone else found out about this, I'd be ruined, I'm humiliated, it's so embarrassing. They would lose respect for me, they would lose friendship for me, I would be broken. And I believe that and I walk around every day thinking I am just a broken ticking time bomb that if one person finds out, I'm broken, I'm done.

 And finally through conversation, my wife and I were like, "Hey, we need to confess this to someone else. We need to get this out and open. This is what the Bible says, you can confess this." And I was petrified. I was petrified. We felt like we knew who you were supposed to go talk to. They were very close friends, some of the best people I know. And I was like, "I can't do it. I'm humiliated. I'm embarrassed. If I tell them this, they're never going to talk to me again. Our friendship's going to be over. I probably will lose my job. Everything is going to be, I can't do this. This is it." Because this is what sin does in your life and this is what the enemy makes you think. It's like, "Yeah, maybe Jesus forgives you, but no one else will."

 And you're broken and you're damaged for the rest of your life. And Jesus says, "No, no, no, no, no. You have been fully restored and I want to show you." So I go to this place. We go to this meeting. We go over there and I'm like, "Okay." And I literally start to confess, "This is what I've been going through and this is what we've been going through." And I can't even look at them. Like I won't even look at their eyes. I'm just telling them this thing. I feel terrible. My heart's racing. I say the whole thing and I finish this entire thing of what we were struggling with.

 Thinking like this is where they leave or they tell me never to come back or like this is what happens. And I look up and all I see from two very close friends are tears in their eyes.

 And I'll never forget for the rest of my life what they said. They just looked at us and they said, "Us too."

 We've gone through the same thing. But let us tell you how faithful God's been to us.

 And you wouldn't believe the burden that was lifted from my life.

 I already knew Jesus forgave me, but I thought he was the only one. And wouldn't you know it? The ones who call themselves followers of Christ can also extend forgiveness and healing and love unconditionally. And they're like, "Us too." Look at what this is. And now light has been shined to this place. And Jesus said, "I can bring complete healing inside of you."

 You see, you were worried more about your reputation than what you actually did. And I'm actually worried about your heart. And Jesus went right into that place. I was attached to something wrong, but by me bringing it up to someone else and all of a sudden other people giving me the ability, the freedom to believe you are okay.

 It gave Jesus even deeper access to my heart.

 Now listen, there's all sorts of, and I wish I had more time, there's all sorts of weird teaching about confession. Some people do it wrong. I don't walk around and then meet someone at a coffee shop and be like, "Let me confess to you my biggest sin." That's not how it works. This is an intimate, this is a very, like there should be two or three people in your life that you confess to.

 It's an intimate, but it is something that you get to be with. You get to hear it from someone else and you get to confess it. Like this is a powerful tool to not to remove the power of sin. You see, confession is not something like for God. You're not confessing to someone else for God's good. He's not waiting like, "I'm not forgiving you to confess to someone else." No, that's already happened in Jesus.

 Confession, like so many other gifts from God, is for you. You confess and you're the one who experiences the freedom that comes from it.

 And I can tell you, even though I've had many experiences and sometimes I'm still a little bit nervous, I have never walked through this process.

 I've never walked through this process and not come out of the other side feeling infinitely better and then allowing Jesus even deeper into that place that I was carrying.

 It's a beautiful, that's why we need to be in community. That's why we need to be in relationship. That's why you need to have close brothers and sisters and friends and people of likeminded faith that you can speak with because that is the thing that allows it to open up your heart. Because sometimes it's really nervewracking to make that confession of things you did or things that were done to you or around you.

 But Jesus is here for it. He's for all of it. He's in it.

 And you'll be shocked that the people who you have surrounded yourself with are not sitting there full of guilt and condemnation and judgment.

 They are there with love, with forgiveness, with the ability to point you back. And you never know, you may share your story and you may hear the same thing that I heard.

 Me too.

 But isn't God good that he can forgive and restore?

 What a powerful thing we have in him. What a powerful thing we have in him.

 Here's how I want to close. I'm going late. I'm sorry, church. I'm sorry. You don't have anywhere else to go. It's raining.

 Because we got one other thing after this, but before we do, I don't want to rush this moment. I just want to pray. I just want to pray.

 I'm not going to ask you to stand up. I'm not going to ask you to come to the front, but I just want you to be searching. This is between you and God.

 And if there's something in your life that needs healing from sin, I want you to just mentally in your mind as I pray.

 See yourself either opening yourself up or giving that place to God.

 Giving that place to God, giving that thing to God. Saying, "Jesus, I've been carrying this hurt in this wound for a while. Can you heal me from it?"

 And the second part for that, and I'm not saying you will, but if the Holy Spirit leads you to confess something to someone else, be brave and do it.

 The first time is really hard, and like any practice, it gets easier as you do it.

 But it can be one of the most freeing moments of your life and can be the thing that gives Jesus the access to your heart because you were guarded. Wasn't that he wasn't willing? It was that you were not open.

 So just allow that to wash over you as I pray. Father, we just thank you for you today. We thank you for Jesus.

 We thank you that he came not just as a contractual agreement, so that we can find healing for our souls at every level, at every depth.

 Healing that you want it all.

 Lord, if there's anything inside of us, search us, Father. If there's sin that we need to confess, or there's sin we need to turn from, or there's sin we need to bring to your feet for healing, Lord, allow us to do that in this moment.

 Lord, if there's anything we need to share to find full healing, Lord, lead us and guide us in that decision.

 So that we can confess to one another, so that we can be healed by you, our great physician, who has a desire for us to live free.

 We love you so much, Father. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Amen. Church, if you need prayer for anything afterwards, our prayer team would be down here. But before we're dismissed, I mentioned this last week. Some of you guys weren't here. I forgive you.

 The, we talked about this last week, just so the ones who are here, you can have a heads up and be preparing and planning, but maybe this is the first year hearing about it. We talked about how we are doing a remodel in the Destiny Kids building that's been an ongoing project, and we've been ordering stuff and doing little pieces, and we had a bigger piece. But we came to a realization a couple weeks ago that we absolutely, it was nonnegotiable that we needed to replace the flooring and decay. If you've been to decay, you already know, if you haven't been to decay, just walk through there and you'll be like, "Oh my gosh, this is worse than I thought." It's terrible. It needs to be done. It's been a problem, and it's something that as a church, we just have to do. And so we went, we went through the process of getting all the quotes and all the different stuff, and so it's a huge space that we're needing to redo because that's a big building. But when we do this, it'll totally be the last piece of being able to transform that spot once we do that with the things that we're starting here in the next couple weeks. In the physical structure. And so what we need to raise as a church to be able to make this project happen is $,, which is a lot of money.

 But it will totally, it will replace all the flooring. You'll get rid of all the old nasty carpet. It'll be a place where it'll be good. And even until the roof is fixed, it won't be a problem if a little bit of water gets on there, which we're working on that too. So that's a whole other process. But here's the thing. My hope, my goal, if you want to know where my faith is, my faith is that it all comes in, obviously. That's what I'm believing. But if the moment that we can get half of it raised, I'm going to go ahead and pull the trigger and start ordering the supplies and get that process done. And then we'll allow ourselves some time to keep moving forward because I think it's really, really important for our kids, for their space, their environment. It honestly is probably a failure on my part to not take care of this sooner and make it a bigger priority. But like we learned today, there's forgiveness even when you fail. So that's where I'm at today. So I'm excited about this in the future. And so, like I mentioned last week, everything that comes in this offering will go towards that project. I thank you in advance for your partnership for our kids. It's going to be a really great space to be able to move forward in. And so we're looking forward to it. So I'm going to pray. They're going to pass the buckets and then, yeah, I'll bless you and we'll be dismissed. Father, we thank you for today. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to give towards your kingdom. Lord, we just see by faith this place restored and rejuvenated. Lord, we see you doing with the finances, the things that we can't do, Father God, which is multiplying miracles. And so we're thankful for that. We thank you that we get to minister your word every week. It's in your holy name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, yeah, don't forget about the different things that are coming up as these buckets are passed. If you are in that group, where were you in , don't miss it. It's going to be awesome. For those of you who are in the spiritual formation class, we only have three left, two left, three left. Don't miss them. I know, and I'll just speak to this. I know some people, because it's summer, because it's travel, because people are sick, you maybe missed one. And you may have this little nagging lie, like, "Oh, I already missed one. I probably shouldn't go back." Don't do it. Keep coming. It's awesome. It's not like if you missed one, you're not going to be able to make it. In fact, if you've never been at all and you say, "These sound interesting. I'm going to come check it out, but I didn't sign up." We have a place for you. Just show up on a Wednesday night,  o'clock. It's an awesome time. The discussions are great. The content is really rich and everything. And it's been a really great time. So don't allow any kind of guilt because you missed one to make it where you don't come back to the next one. Because I'm telling you, it's going to be an awesome, awesome time. I'm looking forward to this week. And every Wednesday, I've been enjoying myself probably more than I should, because it's awesome. I love it. It's great. We'll do this. Stand with me. I know the last little buckets are passing, but I'm going to bless you and dismiss you. Father, thank you so much for today.

 Thank you for Jesus. Settle and bless our hearts today. Lord, we give you full access to find healing from sin. We love you, Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. You guys are dismissed. Have a great Sunday. Stay dry. We'll see you next week.