All right, good morning. Good to see all of you this morning. I know that there are going to be a lot more people that make their way in, but if I keep waiting for them to show up, then we're just going to keep starting later and later and later.
So if I try to start as close to nine as possible, then we'll maximize your time, give you opportunities for discussion. That's the goal. The goal today is to have just a compressed time of teaching, just about 40 minutes of teaching, and then about 45 minutes, 30 minutes to 45 minutes of discussion.
Opportunities for you to break out and to talk about this material together in smaller groups, gender-specific, men with men, women with women, and then teens are going to be on your own too.
So we'll work that out when we get to that time, okay? Let me open us in some prayer, and then we will dive in.
Father, thank you for the living word of God. Thank you that you have given us instruction. You have not left us without a voice. We have the word of God, the message, not just through prophets, but through God himself who became man.
The word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. Thank you for that word.
And so as we think about the word today, and as we seek to apply that word to our lives, God, go before us in this conversation, in this discussion of this material.
Father, I pray that you would use your word to transform us, fundamentally change us from the inside out.
Help us to look more like our Savior, and help us to reflect that living Savior light into this dark world. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
We're good. Before we get going, just to let you know, there's two versions of this, okay?
There's an adult version that just has the one banner.
There's a teen version that will always have a second banner that says, ha-ha, this is for you, okay?
It's going to try to get your attention and let you know that this is the one that you should have, okay?
It's not that the material that we're going to go through as adults is really different from a lecture standpoint,
but there are some questions, more specific questions kind of built in for you teens,
as you evaluate your heart and think about the material, and I think just age-specific and gender-specific will be really beneficial.
And then for the grown-ups, there's some questions that are oriented a little bit more for you
as it relates to your heart and purity, especially in this very impure world that wants to bombard you
with thoughts that are unchristian and ungodly.
So we want to give you a chance to talk about that in certain age-specific, gender-specific areas, okay?
So let's begin.
Last time we were together, we spent some time talking about the significance of emotions,
and we built that off of the phrase, we're talking about passions of the heart,
and so we were thinking about emotions in particular because passions and desires and feelings and longings and yearnings,
whatever you want to put into that, they all kind of collide and swirl together, and they produce something, okay?
So what are some things that we learned last week about our emotions, our passions?
Who remembers?
Okay, so our passions will drive our actions.
Good.
What else?
And maybe, why is that important to understand?
Why is it important for us to understand that our passions and desires drive our actions?
Okay, that's a well put.
If we want to control the way we behave, we fundamentally need to understand our heart.
We fundamentally need to understand the emotions and desires and passions that fuel action
and move us in the direction of obedience or disobedience.
Okay, good.
What else?
What else did we learn about emotions?
Yeah, John.
We discussed that they were neutral.
Okay.
That's good.
So our emotions are neutral.
Now, when I first heard that, I thought, eh, that doesn't seem right because I know a lot of negative emotions.
As a matter of fact, I see a lot of negative emotions in me.
And to say those emotions are neutral in some standpoint doesn't seem correct.
We think about anger.
And I think we can think of a lot of examples, right?
How anger pushes us and fuels ungodly behavior.
Can you think of an example where anger fuels righteous anger?
I'm sorry.
Anger fuels righteous behavior?
Maybe I gave you a giveaway.
What's an example of how good anger can be used in the right way?
Think about what Jesus did at the temple, right?
The zeal for the Lord, this righteous indignation that Jesus had for how the temple was being abused, misused, misrepresented.
And Jesus was rightly upset about that.
And it amplified and accelerated action in him, right action.
So anger, in that sense, which we tend to think is almost always bad, has this positive benefit when it's moving and oriented in the right direction.
Can you think of any other examples of a negative emotion we almost always assign sin to?
What are some other negative emotions that we experience?
What's that?
You.
Jealousy.
Okay.
That's a great example.
So jealousy or envy in the scripture, the Old Testament, we're told, thou shalt not envy.
Right?
Don't be jealous.
And yet, what do we know about God?
He's a jealous God.
He is rightly jealous.
Jealous.
It reminds me of, and forgive me for this, but it reminds me of Oprah Winfrey.
Okay?
And there's this little segment, okay, when she's addressing how the insanity of God.
She's addressing how foolish it is for people to actually believe in God.
And she uses jealousy as an example.
Why would God be jealous?
What does he have to be jealous for?
If there's anything that should disqualify God from being God, in her mind, it was jealousy.
Because if he is perfectly self-contained, then what would he ever need to be jealous about?
Why would he ever want somebody else's stuff?
And she totally misunderstands, right?
Because jealousy in God is that God has staked his claim on something and he is rightly wanting or expecting that that object that he has staked his claim on reveres him, worships him, obeys him, submits to him in the way that he has decided it should be.
Right?
And we can go through a lot of these kinds of examples and we can think about the significance of emotions.
Right?
And I trust that we kind of got this closer look at how much we're led by our emotions.
And what kind of grip emotions tends to have in our own hearts.
We see it all the time, don't we?
What are some examples from day to day how our emotions drive action?
What are some examples?
Think about the whole gamut of things that you experience in a given day.
Okay?
Driving on a busy road to work.
Relating with individuals at work who don't seem to understand your perspective and don't seem to appreciate what you bring to the table.
Students, think about teachers that aren't always as receptive.
Or even parents who are homeschooling who don't really understand where you're coming from.
How do emotions begin to affect the way that we respond?
And I think about families.
And I think about friends.
I think about sports.
I think about all of these things that we go through.
How and when do you see emotions begin to show up in your life?
What are some examples?
Okay.
I am not getting what I want when I want it.
That's a great example.
And so when someone is robbing you of what you want, and we're going to talk about this some more as we go along today,
then it creates an emotion in me, right?
Good.
Ellie, did you have something?
I think we're constantly involved in our relationship.
I think that whenever we are engaged with anything, if there's a level of hardness, we need to have for the hurts.
That's good.
I don't think that we can ever separate anything from our natural bent to experience emotion.
That's good.
So wherever we are.
Go ahead.
Well, I was going to bring up in your first question about emotions being neutral.
You've used examples of negative ones not always being negative.
But positive ones aren't always beneficial either.
If I'm driven by my desire for happiness, but it's self-centered and self-consuming,
then it's going to lead to, it's not having an eternal end or a good end for me as a whole person.
And so we face our emotions during the day with our happiness.
Like, I'm looking forward to that free moment when I can go, or I can text my friends, or I can whatever, to Elliot's point, like, weird.
Or to even to Carrie, like, I don't get what I want when I want it.
Right.
Then it leads to what we would call negative emotions because what was driving me to help me be happy is now an interference.
That's good.
So is what I'm driven by really a benefit?
Great.
Did you all hear that?
Okay.
Let me try to summarize for those of you who may not have heard that.
And I want to come back to this anyway, talking about how emotions are neutral.
We did talk about negative emotions, but the same is true with positive emotions.
When joy or delight or satisfaction or happiness becomes the ultimate goal,
then it can be negative if I'm doing whatever it takes to secure happiness and joy and satisfaction and delight.
Right.
And so it drives me towards something at times to hang on to that relationship because I don't want the implications of what it might happen
if I have to be honest with them in confronting sin or addressing an issue in their life.
I'm going to hang on to that emotion of happiness.
I want to preserve that and I'll do whatever it takes to get it because that becomes that emotional response,
that thing that you feel becomes the driving force for activity.
That's good.
So how can our emotions begin to turn positive and negative emotions into something that pleases God?
How can they be good whether they're negative or positive?
How can we turn them into something that is godly?
What must happen?
What's that?
That's right.
We place Jesus at the center of those emotions.
So when we're feeling discouraged, we feel inadequate.
We feel this sense of emptiness in our life.
Where do we turn?
What do we do?
What does a person who puts Jesus at the center do with feelings of emptiness?
What do you do?
What's that?
You tell Jesus.
That's right.
You find that Jesus is the answer for that, don't you?
You find that Jesus is the all-sufficient one.
That he is the friend that never leaves you or forsakes you.
When you feel this sense of elation and joy and excitement and you don't want that feeling to go away.
And you want to just hang on to that.
And I imagine that's a little bit what the apostles or the disciples are experiencing in these moments of seeing Jesus after the resurrection for 40 days.
And then Jesus is like, guys, sorry to break it to you.
I'm leaving.
And by the way, I'm doing that now.
And so I'm sorry.
You're not going to see me for a little while.
What secured their emotions?
Well, what secured their emotions is remembering that this was temporary.
And that while Jesus was physically going to be absent in bodily form, he was spiritually present through his Holy Spirit.
That he would truly never leave them or forsake them.
And so whatever it is, whatever we were feeling, pointing those emotions to Jesus is really the absolute.
That's the primary thing that we need to do.
Okay, so regardless of what that feeling or temptation or desire might be, the strategy is point it to Jesus.
And we realize that we have a lot of coping mechanisms.
That's kind of went through those a little bit last week as well.
You know, the ways that we tend to deal with our feelings, our negative feelings in particular.
And when we deal with those negative feelings, apart from Jesus, we end up finding ourselves escaping, right?
Whether we're scrolling or binge watching or sleeping or overeating or whatever it might be.
Or we not just escape, we try to control.
If we can't control.
What we do to have what we want apart from submitting our feelings to the Lord.
So, while feelings can be bad, feelings are really meant to be this dashboard indicator on the console of our vehicle.
Kind of like that.
That says, hey, warning, warning, warning.
And what we should think immediately is, okay, I'm experiencing an emotion here.
I need to take my emotions to Jesus.
I need to allow Jesus to resolve these good emotions.
To be the center even of the negative emotions that I feel.
So that I can be, so that I'm not vulnerable.
And really that's what this is about.
Not being vulnerable in a very emotion-driven, fueled, amplified world.
We live in an emotional world.
As an emotional creature, we live in a very emotional world.
But, yes.
Okay.
Okay, so thank you for that, Angela.
When I talk about vulnerability, I'm talking about how fragile we are to be swept away in the current of emotions and carried away from Jesus.
That kind of vulnerability because of not being watchful, not being sober-minded, not being vigilant.
As we're kind of going to keep, as we work through a little bit of 1 Peter and see these landing spots.
We're going to see that our vulnerability to sin, that the danger that we encounter is not a danger we have to succumb to.
Because of the strengthening power of the Lord.
Okay.
Our emotions are meant to point us to something.
Not only to Jesus, but as we talked about our hearts.
We talked about some of the things that we know about our hearts.
What do we know negatively about our hearts that goes all the way back to Genesis?
Anyone remember?
Remember?
What does God say about the thoughts of the people who are living in Noah's day?
Okay.
Tremendous.
Right?
That every thought and intent of their heart was always evil continually.
I can't even imagine that.
Of course, the further we go along in life, the easier it is to see.
Right?
And I think the more honest we are with ourselves, the easier it is for us to see in ourselves as well.
But what is God's ultimate objective for our hearts and for our emotions?
That we find in the great commandment.
The first and greatest commandment.
What is it?
To love the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our soul, all our mind, all our strength.
Isn't that just an amazing verse?
What an incredible encouragement that should be to all of us.
It's like, I don't have to live this way.
I don't have to live in the depravity of my heart.
That there is restorative, regenerative power.
That God can change it.
I don't have to stay here.
And God's purpose for me ultimately is worship.
That God has created me to be a worshiping person.
He has created you to be a worshiping person.
Ultimately, God wants you to worship.
So that's where we are.
So turn with me in your booklets, if you would.
You see there John chapter 4.
Right?
And this is really, I would say, arguably the clearest and most comprehensive statement that Jesus makes on worship anywhere in the New Testament.
If you were to just kind of boil it down and try to understand not only what Jesus' heart is for worship, but how worship is possible.
This is where you go.
Okay?
And here it is.
John chapter 4, 20 to 24.
It says this.
Our fathers, and of course Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well.
Right?
And he's just addressed, hey, why don't you go bring your husband?
And the lady's like, I don't have a husband.
And she's like, exactly.
But you've got a bigger problem.
The problem that you have is that you don't have a husband and the person you're living with isn't your husband.
And there's been like five others as well.
But even that, Jesus doesn't dismiss her.
He invites her to something.
He doesn't cut her off because of how wicked her heart is.
This is awesome.
What a great story.
And so Jesus is addressing her.
But she begins.
She says,
Our fathers worshipped on this mountain.
But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.
Jesus said to her,
Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
You worship what you do not know.
We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and now is here,
When the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.
God is spirit.
And those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.
Okay.
Someone summarize this for me.
What do we learn about worship here?
Maybe I'll say this.
Who is worship for?
Especially in this particular context.
Who is Jesus inviting to salvation?
Who is?
Okay.
Everyone.
Right?
And ultimately that is the invitation.
But immediately what do we find in this story?
Who is the person that Jesus is addressing right here?
The woman at the well, and what do you know about her?
She's a sinner.
What kind of sinner?
A bad sinner.
Okay.
Someone help David out.
What kind of bad sinner?
I appreciate, David, your modesty and wanting to.
What else do we learn about her?
She's an unfaithful woman.
And she's like unfaithful to the max.
What else do we learn about her?
Is she somebody that Jesus really should be talking to?
She's a Samaritan woman.
Okay?
She's cut off in a lot of ways.
At least as far as the Jews were concerned.
She's disqualified because she's no longer a true Jew.
She's mixed.
She has some history from Jewishness and some history from outside.
And this mingling of heritage in her from a Jewish perspective disqualifies her from even being considered.
In the mind of the Jew, she was irredeemable.
Okay?
Sorry.
Okay.
Sorry.
It's just too bad.
It's not for you.
But now, how does Jesus describe the kind of worship that he's inviting her to enjoy and thus the kind of worship that he's inviting all of us to participate in?
How does it happen?
What do you see?
Okay.
The true worshipers will worship what?
The Father.
In spirit and in truth.
And I think this is important and it's often misunderstood.
Even as I have kind of thought about and taught this in the past.
I think there is an element where we're worshiping the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.
But that's not what we're talking about here.
Okay?
It's that there's something fundamental.
There's something holistic about the worship that you bring to the table.
It's not just a mechanical kind of worship.
But it goes fundamentally to the very core of your being.
The whole spirit, the heart, the mind, it's all kind of represented in the essence of who you are.
That spiritual side of you that God has made at the very beginning where there's humanity.
He's made physical and spiritual.
And so that spiritual part of you is meant to worship.
And that's what Jesus is inviting her to.
But not just spiritual worship, but spiritual worship that's guided by something.
It's guided by truth.
It's guided by the word of God.
It's guided by the message that God has given.
And here's the astounding part.
That who wants these kinds of worshipers?
It's right here.
The Father does.
And what is the Father doing to get these kinds of worshipers?
What does it say?
He's seeking.
This is amazing, guys.
This is amazing.
We have a seeking Father.
Whatever the baggage that you bring to the table.
Whatever the brokenness.
Swirl of emotion that continues to capture you away and lead you away from Jesus.
Whatever it is.
Every single part of that.
And God the Father indiscriminately seeks you.
Wow.
That's amazing.
Will you respond?
Will I respond?
And what is it meant to lead us into?
I know we've covered this ground already.
It's meant to lead us into worship.
Right?
Because we're supposed to be.
And by the way, we are.
You are a worshiping person.
Okay?
And that's where we're going next.
You are a worshiping person.
And this is very interesting.
I don't want to just keep this example brief.
There was a commencement address that was given by an absolute God hater.
Okay?
To his name is David Foster Wallace.
He was born in 1962.
And he gave this commencement address.
And I forget the place.
It was at some sort of public renowned university.
Listen to what he says.
He's telling in this commencement address this group of graduates.
You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't.
You get to decide what to worship.
Hmm.
Well, that's interesting.
Because here's something else that's really weird and true, he says.
In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism.
Oh, well, that's insightful.
There is no such thing as not worshiping, he says.
Everybody worships.
The only choice we get is what to worship.
And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God or spiritual type of thing to worship
is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.
If you worship money and things, if they are what you tap real meaning into,
then you will never have enough.
Never feel you have enough.
It is the truth.
Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly.
And when time and age start slowing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve.
On one level, we all know this stuff already.
It's been codified as myths, proverbs, cliches, epigrams, parables, the skeleton of every great story.
The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.
Worship power.
You will end up feeling weak and afraid.
And you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear.
Worship your intellect.
Being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.
The real important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline
and being fully able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in a myriad of petty ways.
Now that is really insightful.
But also quite tragic.
And I'll tell you why.
Because while he has landed on some really important truth, it didn't actually change his life.
And it led, inevitably, two years later, to his death.
You see, we are worshiping people.
You are worshiping, right now, someone or something.
You're a worshiper.
And when our worship is not directed to God, then what do we call that?
Idolatry.
Exactly.
And that's the root problem here, right?
The root problem is that our sinful heart not only consistently distorts worship.
And we see that here in Romans 1.
Verses 21 to 23.
Can someone read that out loud, please?
Romans 1.
Do you have that on your page?
Okay.
Elliot, can you read that nice and loud, please?
Okay.
Someone, what's happening here?
What's taking place?
What do they know about God?
They know he exists.
They can see his divine attributes, his power.
It's unmistakable.
They know that there is a God.
And they know that he's not just any kind of God.
But every heart without revelation, without divine revelation, the word of God itself always leads to this.
Idolatry and worship of everything and anything except for God.
And that's the danger.
And even for us.
Even for us as growing up in the church and even believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior,
there are perhaps even some good things, some good things that you enjoy in life that can lead your heart away.
Right?
What are some examples of some good things that can become all-consuming things?
What's that?
Sports.
Sports is a good thing.
And, you know, Pittsburgh made the playoffs.
Now, I don't imagine that's going to happen for very long, that they're going to stay in the playoffs for long.
Probably they'll lose tomorrow.
But, you know, they're there.
And it would be really easy.
And, by the way, it has been very easy in the past for me to get all twisted and wrapped up around the axle when Pittsburgh loses.
I was like, oh!
But I just learned, I've learned to turn the game off and not just, I'm not even going to, I'm not even going to put myself through that rodeo.
Okay?
Sports can become a good thing that turns into a bad thing.
What else?
Acceptance.
Right.
Isn't it amazing that we're accepted by God?
And that we can enjoy His acceptance with His people and with good friends and even in relationships with our spouses.
Now, they're always supposed to accept us, right?
What happens when they don't?
And so sometimes even good things can become all-consuming things.
What else?
What's that?
Cookies.
Or cooking.
Okay.
That's good.
And you can tell looking at Sam that cookies are really his problem.
I want you to get up and show off your cookie figure.
Oh, man.
I wish I had an obsession with cookies.
The way Sam does.
It's good.
But it is true.
It is so true.
I have learned the most about how food controls me when I decide to fast.
And I'm like, you know, that cookie, man.
It's only so small.
It won't hurt anything.
Or whatever it is.
I learn how fragile and vulnerable I am when I make a decision to want to put something away.
And when I don't have it, then it becomes a tendency to become all-consuming.
Okay?
Wow.
We're really going too slow.
I've got an inventory in there for you.
Okay?
And I'm just going to encourage you to do this after the fact.
Because I want to just...
This is meant.
This personal inventory is meant to help expose you.
Okay?
That's my hidden agenda.
My hidden agenda is for you to say, you know, I don't think I'm really that consumed with other things.
But you kind of work through this and you say, you know, actually there are a lot of other secondary gods in my life.
And I'll let you do that on your own so that I can quickly work through the rest of this.
Okay?
I actually want you to turn.
I don't know where it is in your workbook.
But I want you to understand that there is hope.
That God's word does give us hope.
And when we find ourselves, our emotions getting the best of us, we need to turn to the life-giving power of the scripture.
And we talked a little bit about some of those verses that help to reinforce the power of the word of God.
I think about Psalm 119, 105.
Thy word is a lamp.
To my feet.
And a light to my path.
Your word have I hidden in my heart.
That I might not sin against you.
The word of God gives us fundamentally not only the direction for how to live.
But there is some inherent quality of strength that we can enjoy when we're reminded about God's objective for our life.
And how we're supposed to live out that objective.
And so, James chapter 1, verses 13 to 15.
We're going to touch on this.
And then we have some discussion questions that I'm going to give you a chance to discuss on your own.
Once we're done here, I'm going to just a few more minutes.
Five more minutes at the tops.
Okay?
I want to just read this passage.
And I want us to identify these four stages of how sin ultimately leads to consequences in our life.
Okay?
It says this.
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.
For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
Now, just pause for a moment.
What's the promise?
I love how God so often begins a section of warning with a beautiful nugget of promise.
What a God, a gracious God we have.
What's the promise here?
What's that?
A crown of life.
A crown of life to who?
What's that?
I think I heard the word all.
Did I hear the word all?
All who do what?
All who are steadfast.
Isn't it amazing?
Again, this pattern that we enjoy or see in Christ, he doesn't just cut us off.
Right?
He doesn't say, sorry, too late, over, game over.
He continues to invite us to enjoy the benefits of this crown of life.
This especially fellowship, renewed fellowship, forgiveness, cleansing from sin, enjoyment with him.
He begins with promise before the warning comes.
I just, what a great reminder that is for us.
Right?
Those of us who teach and those of us who learn that when you're instructing in whatever capacity you're in,
and especially moms and dads, you're instructing your kids.
Start with a promise.
And I don't do this very well.
But how beneficial it is for us to lead with promise.
Here's what I'm inviting you to enjoy.
Because here's the warning.
And that two-edged approach is so significant.
But here's how it goes.
Verse 13.
Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God.
For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin.
And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change of his own will.
He brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
James wants to cover this difficult topic, but he wants to invite us into this environment
of enjoyment and fulfillment and blessing and favor.
Sure, but what often wants to get in the way of stealing away and robbing away your enjoyment in Christ is sin.
And there are four stages here.
I want to just, again, touch that.
I'm going to just draw attention to them briefly, and I'm going to let you discuss them in your groups.
The first.
What is the first stage that we see there in verse 13?
What do you see?
Let no one say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
But each person is tempted when he is lured away and enticed by his own desires.
What do you see?
Temptation.
Okay, good.
Your desire is stirred by thoughts or experiences.
Sin happens because of me.
It doesn't happen because of God.
And sin happens because of me, not because of that person who just made you do it.
Or that thing that was just too hard to overcome.
It's not the problem.
Fundamentally, it's a heart problem.
Fundamentally, as David said earlier in our time together, it's a passion problem.
It's the things that I want.
The things that I want become so convincing, so dominating, so all-encompassing, that in my mind, I just had to do this.
So our desire is stirred by our experience.
Second, desire is awakened when the will grants permission.
Or when the will says, oh, that's okay.
When you are tempted and you've allowed that thought of temptation to come in your way and you don't say, no, get away, temptation.
I'm going to set my mind on things above, not on the things of the earth, so I can stop this track right before it starts.
You just kind of begin to wallow in that temptation.
And you allow your thoughts to kind of stew over that.
And then at some point, there's a breaking point where you say, you know what?
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I just stepped a little closer.
I want to get a little closer peek at this.
I want to see it.
Maybe it's not as bad as I think it is.
And if I just get a little closer look or I just kind of tip my toes in just a little bit more, it'll be okay.
And so our heart grants permission.
It says, okay.
And so we go.
We go for it.
Number three, the seeds of desire grow into sinful action.
So now you've given yourself permission and now your feet are moving, your mouth is moving, your hands are moving, whatever is moving in the direction of that sin that you want so bad.
And then finally, sin takes over and leads to death.
That's when sin is full grown.
And this is when we allow sin to have its way in our life.
And now it creates these ruts and patterns of behavior.
And whenever those ruts or patterns of behavior become so deep, getting out of those ruts becomes very difficult.
And those reflexes, you've just learned to respond.
This is the how I respond to kind of not feel this way anymore.
And so those impulses, those reflexes, whatever they are, become so entrenched in who you are.
They kind of fashion your identity and they become bondage for you.
It's slavery for you.
It's slavery for me.
But the beauty is, Romans 6 says, that while we're also all worshipers, we're also all slaves.
And you can choose who your master is.
You can either choose to be a slave to sin or you can be a slave to righteousness.
We have that choice.
And that's what I want to give you a chance to talk about a little bit more.