WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.520 Music. 00:00:05.518 --> 00:00:14.988 Welcome to the Rooted Life Change Podcast. We believe that lasting life change can happen for your good and for God's glory. 00:00:15.268 --> 00:00:21.839 This week we are picking up and we're going to kind of be, again, still talking about 00:00:21.983 --> 00:00:27.508 this idea, this concept of coming out of denial, of admitting that we have a problem. 00:00:27.508 --> 00:00:31.148 We've kind of looked at it from a couple different angles at this point. 00:00:31.148 --> 00:00:40.108 We talked about what denial is and how we can't get help if we're denying that we need 00:00:40.108 --> 00:00:42.625 help or that we have a problem. 00:00:43.028 --> 00:00:48.348 We've talked about the metaphor that the Bible kind of uses to talk about the health of our 00:00:48.348 --> 00:00:53.108 souls, this idea of fruit, and thinking about the fruit that our lives are bearing. 00:00:53.108 --> 00:00:57.758 Are we bearing good fruit, are we bearing sour fruit, unhealthy fruit? 00:00:58.428 --> 00:01:03.961 And what does that indicate about the condition of our hearts, the condition of our souls. 00:01:04.924 --> 00:01:07.148 And how we are doing? 00:01:08.021 --> 00:01:13.548 And when I kind of just revisit and remember, remind us about a concept that I talked about 00:01:13.548 --> 00:01:18.388 a couple weeks ago called choosing your heart, right? 00:01:18.388 --> 00:01:25.593 This was this addressing this whole idea, this whole concept that if we choose that 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:28.068 if we choose to not make a change, right? 00:01:28.068 --> 00:01:33.788 Sometimes we default to this place of like, continuing down the path that I'm already on 00:01:33.788 --> 00:01:36.868 is easier than stopping and making a change. 00:01:36.868 --> 00:01:42.877 And in some ways, it is a little bit easier because it doesn't involve us breaking a habit, 00:01:43.255 --> 00:01:46.460 But that doesn't mean that it is easy, right? 00:01:47.730 --> 00:01:54.220 Sometimes, when we're thinking about making change, making a difference in our life and 00:01:54.220 --> 00:01:59.940 changing the directory we're on, we think that the change option is the hard one. 00:01:59.940 --> 00:02:03.060 And we think, just staying where I'm at, that's the easy one. 00:02:03.060 --> 00:02:05.563 That doesn't take and cost me anything. 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:10.100 And that's not true. Staying where we're at is costing us something. 00:02:10.380 --> 00:02:15.358 It's uncomfortable. It's leading us to a place where we ultimately don't want to go. 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:21.460 If I continue to behave, or to exist, or to have the same things going on in my life right 00:02:21.460 --> 00:02:29.860 now, and those are still happening in 5, 10 years, where am I likely to end up? 00:02:29.860 --> 00:02:34.001 And is that a place I want to be? That's costing me something. 00:02:34.480 --> 00:02:42.840 It costs us a lot of discomfort. And so this whole idea of change is not an idea between, I want us to get rid of the 00:02:42.840 --> 00:02:48.918 the idea that there's a easy option, which is just doing what we've always done, and. 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:51.808 A hard option, making change. 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:57.480 The fact is, is that there are two options and they're both difficult, but only one of 00:02:57.480 --> 00:03:01.800 them has an outcome that we're even remotely interested in seeing. 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:06.761 And that is an important concept to remind and recall ourselves to because I'm going 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:12.495 to talk about sort of some of the consequences of not making change today. 00:03:12.720 --> 00:03:18.200 If we continue to stay in denial, where are we going to end up? 00:03:18.200 --> 00:03:24.360 What are the consequences of it? What are the hard things that are going to come at us if we continue to say, you know 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:24.738 what? 00:03:25.719 --> 00:03:32.560 Like, I know that this addiction, I know that this cycle, this pattern, this hurt, it's 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:39.320 if I don't do something about it, like, I know I should do something about it, but I don't want to. 00:03:39.421 --> 00:03:44.920 Let's talk about, well, if you don't, what is going to be the consequence of not addressing 00:03:44.920 --> 00:03:52.120 that? What's going to happen? So there's a couple of things that kind of come to my mind of what's 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:58.680 staying in denial, what's staying on our current path or trajectory of not opening up and admitting 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:01.458 that there's a problem, there's a couple things that that does. 00:04:02.287 --> 00:04:06.743 The first thing that that does is it suppresses our feelings. 00:04:07.197 --> 00:04:12.279 It squashes our emotions. It shrinks our hearts. 00:04:12.577 --> 00:04:19.337 Because if we're in denial, we can't be honest about how difficult the circumstances we are. 00:04:19.337 --> 00:04:25.800 If we are constantly wearing a mask and pretending that, oh, everything's all right, I don't have a problem. 00:04:26.297 --> 00:04:31.057 And every time somebody asks you, oh, how are you doing? Or how's that thing going? 00:04:31.057 --> 00:04:35.057 You say, oh, it's just fine. Everything's dandy. I've got no problem. 00:04:35.532 --> 00:04:41.311 You are suppressing your feelings and that can cause a whole myriad of problems. 00:04:42.086 --> 00:04:47.457 Feelings are a really interesting thing and we'll talk about them more here on the podcast, I imagine. 00:04:48.081 --> 00:04:52.977 But some of the things that you might not realize about your feelings in one thing 00:04:52.977 --> 00:05:03.717 it took me a while to learn is that our feelings don't go anywhere until they've found resolution, until they have been expressed. Maybe you've 00:05:03.717 --> 00:05:11.457 seen the Disney movie Inside Out. It's this animated story that is fantastic 00:05:11.457 --> 00:05:18.537 and I recommend adults watch it as well as children. And the idea of this story 00:05:18.537 --> 00:05:24.097 is that our main character, we get to see the emotions inside her head played out 00:05:24.097 --> 00:05:29.457 by these little characters. And what we find is that she's living a life where she's constantly 00:05:29.457 --> 00:05:36.009 suppressing an emotion of sadness. She can't allow herself to feel sad. 00:05:37.026 --> 00:05:43.375 And that begins to make a cascade amount of problems until things escalate and she begins 00:05:43.375 --> 00:05:48.835 to feel anxiety, she begins to feel anger, she begins to feel depressed, and she ends 00:05:48.835 --> 00:05:55.595 up running down a road that she doesn't want to go down, and she ends up in a lot of trouble. 00:05:55.778 --> 00:06:01.891 And all because she was suppressing the feeling of sadness. She didn't feel like she could feel sad. 00:06:02.095 --> 00:06:07.655 And when we're in denial, when we're not talking about our problems, our hurts, our cycles, 00:06:07.655 --> 00:06:12.735 and we're not getting the help we need, we're in a place of hiding, we're suppressing our 00:06:12.735 --> 00:06:19.935 feelings and that is going to bind us up inside and it's not going to be good because that 00:06:19.935 --> 00:06:23.190 emotion is going to want to find a way to express itself. 00:06:23.875 --> 00:06:29.475 And that's when we start to pull on multiples of addictions or unhelpful outlets or we begin 00:06:29.475 --> 00:06:33.948 to just, oh, I need this to vent, even if this is a really unhelpful thing. 00:06:34.315 --> 00:06:41.675 Because we're venting pent-up and suppressed emotions rather than addressing them head-on. 00:06:41.675 --> 00:06:48.275 The other thing that staying in denial will do is that it costs us energy. 00:06:48.275 --> 00:06:55.315 It takes energy to constantly be putting on a mask, to constantly be saying, you know 00:06:55.315 --> 00:07:01.635 This is fine. Don't worry about it. This isn't a problem. Oh, you know, I kind of, 00:07:02.275 --> 00:07:07.155 Somebody maybe saw a little bit too much of me at one point. I'm gonna kind of have to hide that up 00:07:07.155 --> 00:07:09.395 I'm gonna have to pretend a lot make a lie. 00:07:10.146 --> 00:07:12.035 Right, it is exhausting to. 00:07:13.468 --> 00:07:18.855 Remember the different lies that we've got going on to feel like we're going to be discovered 00:07:18.855 --> 00:07:22.344 covered, all of that takes energy. 00:07:22.635 --> 00:07:28.455 And rather than us just showing up as who we are, we're taking the energy to put on a face. 00:07:28.455 --> 00:07:35.795 We're taking the energy to keep up appearances, to convince others that we look a certain 00:07:35.795 --> 00:07:37.819 way or we are a certain way. 00:07:38.595 --> 00:07:43.940 That's exhausting. It takes energy from us that we could be using in other ways. 00:07:44.195 --> 00:07:46.035 And then it stunts our growth. 00:07:46.035 --> 00:07:53.501 If we were to stay in our place of denial of continuing down the path that we're on, 00:07:53.755 --> 00:07:55.067 it stunts our growth. 00:07:55.675 --> 00:08:02.795 We're not going to grow if we're in a place of denying any places that we need to grow. 00:08:02.795 --> 00:08:06.635 This is a really big deal. 00:08:06.635 --> 00:08:13.635 This is something that happens in all of us where we are kind of stuck, is one of the 00:08:13.635 --> 00:08:18.221 the things that keeps us stuck is an unwillingness to. 00:08:20.219 --> 00:08:27.049 Admit the places where we need to grow to think and say okay like I maybe don't know everything 00:08:27.469 --> 00:08:35.001 I've got a problem. I Need help. I need to grow right if you've got an athlete and, 00:08:35.669 --> 00:08:37.297 they're on a team and, 00:08:38.422 --> 00:08:40.835 And they think they are the star player, 00:08:42.482 --> 00:08:51.189 But they actually kind of stink right if you've ever seen someone who's on a team and they think they are the best player on that team. 00:08:51.340 --> 00:08:54.707 Right? They're gonna be the one to keep the ball, they're gonna one-to-one to. 00:08:55.382 --> 00:08:59.349 Want to make these big plays, but if they're not actually all that good their 00:08:59.349 --> 00:09:04.669 success rate is gonna be kind of lousy. They're not gonna complete as much as 00:09:04.669 --> 00:09:09.749 they should and what eventually will happen is the coach will eventually stop, 00:09:10.326 --> 00:09:16.589 putting them in the game because they're not getting any better and they would 00:09:16.589 --> 00:09:21.909 rather have a player who knows how good and bad they are that's not going to 00:09:21.909 --> 00:09:27.449 make stupid decisions thinking they are the best player on the team. We need to 00:09:27.449 --> 00:09:32.489 have the humility to recognize the places where maybe we don't know as much 00:09:32.778 --> 00:09:38.189 as we think we do. That someone else might be able to see into our souls and 00:09:38.189 --> 00:09:42.077 into our life and bring understanding that we don't have. 00:09:42.189 --> 00:09:43.130 This is a big thing. 00:09:43.310 --> 00:09:50.309 A lot of times we think we know ourselves best, but sometimes people can see blind spots 00:09:50.309 --> 00:09:55.229 that we don't necessarily see. We become so accustomed to our own blind spots, 00:09:55.229 --> 00:09:56.265 we forget they're there. 00:09:56.634 --> 00:10:02.669 But other people often are very keen at identifying the places where we're not paying attention 00:10:02.669 --> 00:10:04.781 and where perhaps we need to grow. 00:10:05.069 --> 00:10:12.029 So staying in denial is going to stunt our growth. We're not going to get better, we're not going to grow, 00:10:12.029 --> 00:10:14.467 We're not going to progress forward. 00:10:15.304 --> 00:10:20.554 So, so far we've said it's going to suppress our feelings if we were to stay in denial 00:10:20.554 --> 00:10:22.830 about our need for change and help. 00:10:23.074 --> 00:10:27.827 It's going to cost us energy, it takes it out of us to stay in denial. 00:10:28.034 --> 00:10:33.885 It stunts our growth, it keeps us from growing, and then fourthly, it isolates us. 00:10:34.794 --> 00:10:42.434 If we are trying to keep others from finding out that we have problems, that I need to 00:10:42.434 --> 00:10:47.314 grow, that I need help, we're going to be isolated. We're going to need to keep 00:10:47.425 --> 00:10:53.681 people away from us at an arm's distance. There is this massive weight that can, 00:10:54.554 --> 00:11:00.514 sit upon a person's shoulders and it's this question. The question is, if someone 00:11:00.514 --> 00:11:07.554 were to know me honestly, to honestly know, to see me, to know my weaknesses and 00:11:07.554 --> 00:11:11.091 faults to know my past, what would they think of me? 00:11:11.812 --> 00:11:17.672 Would they like me? More important, would they love me? Would they still accept me? 00:11:18.356 --> 00:11:25.514 And that's a question that many of us sit with in the back of our heads, wanting to ask that question 00:11:25.514 --> 00:11:31.734 or to have the experience of someone saying, yes, even with your faults, I still want to be 00:11:31.734 --> 00:11:33.084 in relationship with you. 00:11:33.678 --> 00:11:38.773 We desire to hear that answer, but we never ever want to take the risk of asking that question. 00:11:40.154 --> 00:11:46.474 And that becomes increasingly more so the more secrets, the more things that we're keeping in denial, 00:11:46.474 --> 00:11:48.721 the things that we don't want to talk about. 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:53.456 The more of those we have, the more we don't want to ask that question, 00:11:53.554 --> 00:11:56.616 and the farther we need to keep people away from us. 00:11:57.642 --> 00:12:07.095 So it staying in denial suppresses our feelings, costs us our energy, stunts our growth, isolates us. 00:12:07.095 --> 00:12:14.015 And then here's a really, really important one is the last one is that it lengthens our pain. 00:12:14.015 --> 00:12:20.415 It makes it so that the circumstances that we are experiencing are going to continue 00:12:20.415 --> 00:12:24.073 to be painful, to continue to last as long as possible. 00:12:25.666 --> 00:12:30.075 Let's think about this for a minute. Let's take the example that every kid, 00:12:30.075 --> 00:12:34.218 every human has to figure out at some point, the bandaid, right? 00:12:34.495 --> 00:12:37.495 You've got a boo-boo, you get a scratch, you've got a something, 00:12:37.495 --> 00:12:41.015 and you've got a cover up of a bandaid, and then it's been a day or two, 00:12:41.015 --> 00:12:43.428 all right, time to take that bandaid off. 00:12:43.515 --> 00:12:49.882 What is the best way to take that bandaid off? Is it just a little peel it up and just slowly pull it, 00:12:50.295 --> 00:12:52.355 or to just rip it off, right? 00:12:52.355 --> 00:12:59.535 And we know that ripping it off, Getting all that pain out of the way is way less 00:12:59.535 --> 00:13:03.595 than doing it ever so slowly and peeling it off of the skin. 00:13:03.595 --> 00:13:11.830 I hope I'm not making anyone nauseous or disgusted here. But the whole idea here is that we know, 00:13:12.295 --> 00:13:17.843 that it's better to just get it over with than it is to draw it out. 00:13:19.175 --> 00:13:29.123 Let's think about this in a maybe more adult context. Let's think about the idea of maybe you've got a thing on your to-do list. It is the thing 00:13:29.177 --> 00:13:37.055 you don't want to do. It's maybe a bill you don't want to pay or maybe it's a task. Maybe 00:13:37.055 --> 00:13:44.095 you need to go fill out a form or maybe you need to talk to somebody. There's a task, a to-do thing 00:13:44.095 --> 00:13:52.124 that you just don't want to do. It's your least favorite thing. It's a pain you wish you could could avoid it. 00:13:52.255 --> 00:13:56.015 Now, you've got a couple different options and ways of kind of addressing that. 00:13:56.015 --> 00:14:01.667 You could put it on your to-do list and you could do everything else except for that one, right? 00:14:01.775 --> 00:14:04.979 And you could just kind of, it could become that perennial task 00:14:05.375 --> 00:14:08.295 that you just keep moving to your next to-do list 00:14:08.295 --> 00:14:09.769 because you don't wanna do it. 00:14:09.855 --> 00:14:13.892 You keep finishing to-do lists but leaving that one thing undone. 00:14:14.815 --> 00:14:19.014 And every time you sit down to make that to-do list, you're like, ah, I still haven't done that thing. 00:14:19.935 --> 00:14:24.775 And it's the thing that's gonna come into your mind in the middle of the night when you're laying in bed 00:14:25.108 --> 00:14:28.935 and you can't sleep and you're just like, oh, I still need to do, I really ought to do that thing. 00:14:28.935 --> 00:14:30.843 I just have, I don't want to do that thing. 00:14:31.869 --> 00:14:40.919 We get into this place of continually pushing that off. And what we do is we just feel this weight of this thing that maybe has a due date, 00:14:41.033 --> 00:14:44.999 or maybe is beginning to build up in consequence because we're not getting it done. 00:14:45.895 --> 00:14:54.959 And that and then we eventually get it done. We either because the due date is here or because it's the last possible moment 00:14:55.221 --> 00:14:57.769 at which we could get this possibly done. We get it done, right? 00:14:58.741 --> 00:15:03.224 Oh, and you feel this immense relief. I'm like, oh, that's finally over with. 00:15:03.296 --> 00:15:06.231 That's finally not going to be on my to-do list again. 00:15:06.816 --> 00:15:10.282 That's fantastic. And we feel this immense amount of relief. 00:15:10.444 --> 00:15:14.039 And what I also find is that usually once I've done it, I'm like, 00:15:14.747 --> 00:15:17.484 man, that was not as bad as I like. 00:15:17.646 --> 00:15:21.199 Like it wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. 00:15:21.310 --> 00:15:24.999 And it certainly wasn't worth all of the dread, 00:15:25.316 --> 00:15:34.669 all of the anxiety of all the weight of having that constantly floating around in my mind and nagging at me every day as I said, I really ought to 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:35.425 do that thing. 00:15:37.639 --> 00:15:44.999 We know that that task, as soon as it comes up, if we were to take quick action on it 00:15:45.274 --> 00:15:49.879 and take care of it right away, it's going to cause us much less suffering than if we 00:15:50.180 --> 00:15:52.862 just drag it out and try and push it off. 00:15:53.679 --> 00:16:01.307 We know that, but we still for some reason push it off. And so when we stay in denial, when we're not, you know what, I don't want to talk or 00:16:01.439 --> 00:16:02.927 I don't want to deal with that problem. 00:16:03.679 --> 00:16:06.384 Let's not talk about my addiction. 00:16:07.176 --> 00:16:13.599 Let's not talk about my cycles. I don't want to deal with the fact that my life seems to be stuck here because of these 00:16:13.599 --> 00:16:14.189 things. 00:16:14.599 --> 00:16:20.004 I want to keep pushing those off because I'm afraid of the pain that's going to come with addressing them. 00:16:20.508 --> 00:16:26.979 The fact is, is that you are experiencing pain. We are experiencing pain when we're in denial. 00:16:27.188 --> 00:16:31.939 It's constantly in the back of our minds. It's lengthening our pain. 00:16:31.939 --> 00:16:34.903 It's stunting our growth. It's costing us energy. 00:16:35.159 --> 00:16:43.219 It's suppressing our emotions, and it's isolating us from people who love us and want to support us. 00:16:43.219 --> 00:16:51.521 So those are some of the things that staying in denial can compound and bring about in our life. 00:16:51.674 --> 00:16:57.939 Soon, those things begin to become like magnets for other problems. 00:16:57.939 --> 00:17:03.799 If we're isolated, if we feel our emotions are being suppressed because we don't want 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:10.099 to talk about our addiction, depression is most certainly on its way. 00:17:10.099 --> 00:17:16.339 Anxiety is certainly going to be popping its head up when we begin to find ourselves forced 00:17:16.339 --> 00:17:23.236 to interact with people, we're finding ourselves in a place where we need to kind of hide up 00:17:23.290 --> 00:17:28.939 or cover up parts of ourselves and parts of things that aren't going well in our lives. 00:17:29.943 --> 00:17:37.413 So those things are consequences. And so let's take this week, right? 00:17:37.413 --> 00:17:42.951 Think about kind of the consequences of the path that you're going down. 00:17:43.086 --> 00:17:51.359 If you have an addiction, if you have a pattern that you are seeing repeated in your relationships, 00:17:51.485 --> 00:17:56.059 if you have a cycle, if you have a hurt, if you need to make life change, 00:17:56.194 --> 00:17:59.443 Take a moment and spend some time this week, 00:17:59.803 --> 00:18:06.633 maybe journal out or have a conversation out loud with yourself or reflect or maybe talk with a close friend 00:18:06.915 --> 00:18:11.633 and just wonder aloud, what is my life going to look like, 00:18:12.443 --> 00:18:17.433 if I continue to live exactly how I am living right now. 00:18:19.033 --> 00:18:23.840 How will my life look in five, 10, 15, 20 years? 00:18:24.033 --> 00:18:32.437 How will my life look at the end of my life if I continue to do the things that I am doing? 00:18:32.545 --> 00:18:39.313 If my addiction never changes, if I never enter in and become sober, 00:18:39.313 --> 00:18:46.444 if I never break these chains, what will be the effect on my life? 00:18:47.534 --> 00:18:53.439 Will I lose relationships? Will I continue to be more and more isolated? 00:18:53.898 --> 00:19:00.254 Will the emotions that I'm suppressing continue to well up inside of me and needing an outlet? 00:19:03.251 --> 00:19:10.353 If I never address this hurt that's in my life, will that build up into me a character of 00:19:10.453 --> 00:19:18.193 bitterness, of anger, of frustration that is going to impact how I love and serve others? 00:19:18.193 --> 00:19:22.913 Is it going to limit me from taking risks and exploring new things in the future? 00:19:24.056 --> 00:19:30.826 Take some time, evaluate the path that you are on. Last week we were talking about those fruits, those sour fruits. 00:19:30.826 --> 00:19:37.100 Look at that list and say, if those sour fruits, if those spoiled fruits that are unhealthy 00:19:37.226 --> 00:19:44.914 stay present in my life now, and let's just say they stay at least as bad as they are, 00:19:44.986 --> 00:19:50.180 probably get worse over the course of my life, where is that going to lead me? 00:19:50.306 --> 00:19:57.486 Identify that place that that's going to lead you. And that's not meant to be a condemnation. 00:19:57.486 --> 00:20:02.261 That's not meant to be a, how bad are you? 00:20:02.342 --> 00:20:05.403 It's simply just trying to wake ourselves up. 00:20:05.846 --> 00:20:13.343 It's trying to take stock of where is it that I'm going? And if I know where I'm going, 00:20:13.726 --> 00:20:18.646 and I realize that that's not where I wanna go, we can begin to take the moment and say, 00:20:18.646 --> 00:20:20.406 all right, let's change. 00:20:20.406 --> 00:20:22.399 Let's take the next off ramp. 00:20:22.462 --> 00:20:31.834 Let's find a different way of living. And let's do all of that again through grace. 00:20:31.942 --> 00:20:39.686 I was talking about that whole idea of, if someone knew all of the nasty, ugly things about me, 00:20:39.810 --> 00:20:45.670 if they could see all of my sour fruit, all the problems that are in my heart and life, 00:20:46.006 --> 00:20:47.543 what would they think of me? 00:20:47.624 --> 00:20:51.526 Would they still wanna be in relationship with me? Would they still love me? 00:20:51.526 --> 00:20:57.926 That's a question that we all long to hear answered at some point in our life. 00:20:57.926 --> 00:21:06.606 And the answer to that question, for you, for anyone who's listening, who wants to follow 00:21:06.606 --> 00:21:13.466 after and know God, is that, yes, God does indeed love you. 00:21:13.466 --> 00:21:16.854 That's the fantastic thing about the gospel. 00:21:17.682 --> 00:21:23.966 See, the gospel says that while we were still sinners, while we were still stuck, while 00:21:23.966 --> 00:21:32.509 we were still broken, while we were still in all of our mess and problems, God loved us. 00:21:33.006 --> 00:21:39.986 God loved us first, and God said, I'm going to love you where you're at because I want 00:21:39.986 --> 00:21:42.016 to bring you somewhere new. 00:21:42.406 --> 00:21:49.136 Jesus died not for perfect people, but for broken people. He died for you and me. 00:21:49.286 --> 00:21:57.366 He died for people who need to grow, who have problems. And he loves us in the midst of those. 00:21:58.274 --> 00:22:05.123 Sometimes, we get this idea of God as this kind of taskmaster who expects us to immediately 00:22:05.123 --> 00:22:09.301 change and become this perfect Christian person. 00:22:09.483 --> 00:22:10.255 And that's not true. 00:22:10.517 --> 00:22:16.523 I believe that God has enough grace and compassion and understanding and faithfulness and long 00:22:16.523 --> 00:22:20.608 suffering that He knows exactly what you're capable of. 00:22:21.607 --> 00:22:27.923 If today, where you're at, you can't be where you're going to be in a couple of years 00:22:27.923 --> 00:22:33.863 today, you can only be where you're at. If you're capable of one step forward, closer 00:22:33.863 --> 00:22:40.603 to Jesus, closer to where He's calling you, then that's all He's expecting. He's not expecting 00:22:40.603 --> 00:22:47.383 you to transform overnight. He's expecting you to just fix your eyes upon Him and take 00:22:47.383 --> 00:22:52.923 one step. And we can do that because if we were to look at the face of Christ, if you 00:22:52.923 --> 00:22:58.903 You could behold Jesus and see what He looks like as He sees you and all of your problems 00:22:58.903 --> 00:23:02.406 and your life and exactly where you are right now. 00:23:02.663 --> 00:23:09.373 You would see not a God who's shaming you or shaking His head or is so disappointed. 00:23:09.643 --> 00:23:16.823 You would see a God who is beckoning you closer, who is saying, come on, let's take care of this together. 00:23:16.823 --> 00:23:25.783 A God of compassion, who is not here to bring about judgment on those who are seeking to repent, 00:23:25.783 --> 00:23:33.223 who want to experience love and transformation. That is the grace that God offers in Jesus Christ, 00:23:33.223 --> 00:23:39.623 and that is the gospel. And that is so key to the change that we want to see. Like we said, 00:23:39.623 --> 00:23:47.705 And I believe that lasting life change can happen for your good, and for God's glory. 00:23:47.963 --> 00:23:55.888 Thank you for joining us today, appreciate you listening. Please subscribe, comment, and leave us a review. 00:23:56.183 --> 00:23:58.319 Let me know what questions and things and topics... 00:23:58.320 --> 00:24:15.572 Music.