Review & Reveal

Unstuck. That's the name of the series we launched a few weeks ago here at Twin Lakes Church. Good morning. Who's happy to be at church today? Awesome. My name's René. I'm another one of the pastors here. I'm one of the two pastors that are here on the platform this morning. I'm the shorter one. Jared's so tall, and then he makes his hair even taller. It's like Abraham Lincoln wearing a stovepipe hat. It's unnecessary, but he's awesome. You guys, I know you. The more you get to know Jared, the more you just love him and his whole family.

Hey, I have just been informed that we need to do a scooch-in announcement. So whatever pew that you're sitting in, if you could just move toward the center of that pew and leave a little bit on the aisle because there's still some people coming in who would love to find a seat here in church. Thank you so much for doing that. Here they come. We want to welcome you. Whether you are seated here in the auditorium or whether you're joining us online, it is great to have you a part of this service today.

So I want to invite you to grab your message notes, open your Bibles to Psalm 32, where we're going to be exploring this morning. But I'll start with this. I was online the other day and I saw a product that you can order. And I took a screen cap of it because I thought it was remarkable because it could potentially put us out of business. And it's this, it's the wash away your sins soul saver pack. It is bishop tested and cardinal approved, as you can see there, guaranteed results. It is for liars, cheaters, and wrongdoers. So I won't ask for a show of hands, but you might find this a valuable product.

I needed to investigate. So I discovered that when you open the box, two bottles come out with detailed instructions. And you've got to listen to these instructions. So the first little bottle says, holy water for those little sins. And here are the instructions, four steps. Number one, remove cap. Number two, admit wrongdoing. Number three, anoint forehead. And number four, go forth purged from sin, ready to do it again. Because now you've got your saver back.

A little too enthusiastic over there, but then the second bottle, it says bubble bath for those more major sins. So after this investigation, I feel like this completely checks out theologically. We're going to be selling these as a fundraiser for the Hope Center in the lobby this morning. Is there a better way to cleanse your soul? Yes, there is. Grab your message notes again as we continue our series.

Where are you stuck in your life right now? Maybe you're stuck in a habit of worrying or maybe substance abuse or other kinds of risky behavior. Or maybe you can't stop eating or watching or texting or resenting or doom scrolling or smoking or something else. Or maybe you are just stuck in neutral in your spiritual life. That's what we've been talking about in this series. It's a biblical look at the 12 steps of recovery, rediscovering and reclaiming their original biblical foundations.

We've been taking a look at this for, this is our third week of this series. If you're just joining us for the first time, we're looking at these as kind of a scaffolding that you can build your whole spiritual life on, whether you're in recovery or not. Plus, learning the language of the 12 steps gives you a way to communicate and converse with your friends and family who may be in recovery, and it gives you an opportunity to maybe even help each other and share your own faith journey with them. So there's so many good reasons to do this.

This week, we're looking specifically at the review and reveal steps. And we're tying into the excellent new book, Steps by John Ortberg. We have these available in the lobby for as little as we could get them for. We're just making them available to you because we'd love to get these into your hands. Now, here's something really exciting. This is by John Ortberg, and John is going to be here next weekend preaching to you as we continue our series. I'm so excited about this.

John is one of my favorite speakers, one of my favorite authors, one of my favorite human beings, honestly. He's a good friend. I know you will love him. Invite your friends. Don't miss this. I guarantee you will like this. Double your tithe money back if you don't like this. It's going to be fantastic. And also next weekend, after this service, he's going to be leading a recovery workshop over at Monski Hall next door here. You can get all the details at tlc.org/recovery and at the table out in the lobby.

Right in the center of the lobby, we've got a recovery table. They've got details about this. And just people who are in our recovery group as leaders. We have groups many nights and mornings of the week. And if you're kind of recovery curious, they would be happy to talk to you about this confidentially and tell you more about the 12 Steps and how they can help you get over a habit or a sin, addiction, something else that's in your life that you think this might be helpful for. So I'm super excited about this.

Okay, quick recap. So far in this series, we've looked at steps one, two, and three. Step one, we admitted we were what? Powerless. That our lives had become unmanageable. Step two, we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. And step three was the decision step. That was last weekend. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.

And as we saw, that's not a phrase you have to be afraid of. Because ultimately, when we make that first step toward the Lord, we're making that step as best we understand. And we're turning toward here, we talk about Jesus Christ. We're turning toward Jesus Christ as our Savior. You don't have to have a theology degree. You don't have to have all your questions answered. If it sounds good to you as much as you can understand, you can take that step toward God.

So you can summarize these steps this way: step one I can't, step two he can, step three I think I'll let him. So let's read those out loud together: I can't, he can, I think I'll let him. Those are the foundation steps for what comes next. And what comes next is tough. These steps are like faith steps where you're just in desperation. I cannot save myself. I need a savior. God help, have mercy on me.

But next comes the application. What comes next is where people quit. What comes next is where people, even in 12-step programs, often say, no, no, that's not for me. Yet what comes next is what takes all of this knowledge and emotion and applies it to actual life experience. And what comes next is all through the Bible. In fact, what comes next was seen as normative, daily Christian behavior for all Christians, for most of Christian history. Yet, frankly, it is rarely practiced by Christians today.

Would you like to rediscover what I'm talking about? Would you like to discover something that is going to change your life today? Are you ready to be challenged today? Are you ready to exercise some muscles of faith today? About a tenth of you. So the rest of you can observe. But here's what we're talking about today: steps four and steps five. Step four is this. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. That sounds kind of scary.

And step five is then we admitted these things that we discovered to God, to ourselves, and to another person, the exact nature of our wrongs. If you want to summarize them, you could call step four the examination step and step five the confession step. Now, I told you that there's a lot of hesitancy typically when approaching these steps, right? And maybe you're hesitant right now. You're looking at these thinking, why should I do this? I did the first three. I don't want to be this introspective.

I certainly don't want to talk about what I see. In fact, I kind of like my mess. I'm comfortable with my mess. I've grown used to my bad habits. I don't want to be some stupid navel-gazing whiner. Why'd I even come to church today? Well, let me explain why to do it this way. If you recognize this famous person, shout out her name. Let me hear it. Yes, this is Marie Kondo. Now, for those of you who don't know who Marie Kondo is, as John Ortberg points out in his book, she has made millions just teaching people how to tidy up.

How to tidy up your house, how to tidy up your office, how to tidy up your closet. And here's what she does. Here's her method. It's very simple. She says, you go into your drawers, your closets, and you take out whatever is hidden, and has probably been there for a long time, and probably some of the stuff is stuff you haven't seen in years, and you hold it up, and you ask a question of it. And if you know what the question is, shout that question out. Does this bring me joy?

And she says, if you look at it, and you realize that this doesn't bring me joy anymore, at least maybe it used to, you say to it, thank you. Your purpose is complete in my life. It's time to go. And you toss it. That's the plan. Now, I don't recommend this uncritically. Generally, it's a good idea. But the other day, I was going through my drawers and tried this and held up my mortgage bill and thought this does not bring me joy.

But cleaning up in general does bring joy, right? That can happen. That part is true. And step four is about cleaning house in your soul to recover joy. And this is a thoroughly biblical idea. I mean, it's all through the Bible. I could have shown you dozens and dozens of verses, but look at Lamentations 3:40. Let us examine our ways and test them. Don't live an unexamined life. And let us return to the Lord.

So when the Bible talks about examining our ways, which it does many times, what's it talking about? What are you supposed to examine? What do you look for when you do your own house cleaning in your soul? Well, typically in recovery circles, they talk about taking an honest inventory of your resentments, of your fears, and then I always add of your sins and of your regrets, right? Resentments, fears, sins, and regrets.

First, resentments. When you take a deep look inside your soul, maybe you discover, well, I'm resentful of my boss. Not if you work at Twin Lakes, obviously, but perhaps other jobs. Or I'm resentful of my spouse or of my friend, or I'm resentful of God. Now, maybe you say, well, I don't really have resentments down in there. I'm your fears. What am I afraid of? Maybe you'll see something like, well, I'm afraid I'll lose my job. I'm afraid he or she doesn't love me. I'm afraid I'll run out of money. I'm afraid I'll never get married.

The point is those fears and regrets are often what is propelling your self-destructive behavior. You're overeating, or you're using, or you're binge-watching, or doom-scrolling, or whatever it is to numb that fear or resentment, or suppress that fear or resentment, or maybe even to feed it and justify it. And then also ask, you know, what are my sins? And you're like, well, you know, where do I even start? Well, you've got the Ten Commandments. You can use that as a handy, you know, analysis tool.

And then you've also got the Sermon on the Mount, the things that Jesus talks about there. And you look at yourself honestly. And what are my regrets? The regrets that keep me up at night, even though they happened a year ago, 10, 20, 50 years ago, and I still am regretting those things. Now, why is it good to get this specific, to name things? Let me give you a personal example from my own life.

For much of my life, I would have said resentments, you know, fears, sins, regrets. I don't resent anybody. I don't resent people. I hate people. I just jump right over resentment to hatred. And specifically, I hated one person with some, you know, obvious justification. I've gone into detail here many times, and I won't today. But I nursed and rehearsed hatred toward the man who molested me as a child.

But I found, as I've told you before, once I was willing to talk about it and examine it, I found it explained, didn't excuse, but explained so much of the reason that I struggled with anger myself. It was a result of that hidden resentment. And I kind of hid it. I mean, I talked to my wife about this and my closest friends, but I really kept it covered up for so long. Once I saw how it was killing me, honestly, I became happy to talk about it. Why not? You know, I didn't do anything shameful. I'm happy. What a relief to get it out.

And it almost felt like I got better every single time I shared it. Why? There's a saying in recovery, you can't tame what you can't name. How do you expect to change something that you're not even allowing yourself to get specific about? You know, most of us, when it comes to our spiritual life, will say things, well, I just want to be better. I want to be more spiritual. I want to be happier. What are the obstacles to that? For you, not generally for humanity, but specifically for you.

Because you can't tame what you can't name. So if it's such a good idea, what's keeping us from this? Again, paraphrasing from John Ortberg's book here, there's some common obstacles to taking inventory. There's what about-ism. Why should I do this? I don't really have any problems. What about those people who really have problems? My boss, unless you work at Twin Lakes. My parents, my kids, my neighbors. They've really got problems.

It's kind of like saying, why should I clean my house? Their house is way messier. It doesn't make sense, right? Their house is their problem. Your job is to clean your house. And then there's at least-ism. There's another saying in recovery. Drinkers say, well, at least I'm not on drugs. Users say, well, at least I'm not on hard drugs. Users who are Christians say, well, at least I go to church. And those who don't go to church say, well, at least I'm not some religious fanatic, right?

As John says, all this begs a question. How bad a problem do you really need to have before you begin to take steps to improve your life? And then very common in church, there's easy believism. I'm under grace, brother. Why should I examine my life and confess my sins? Even if I don't, God will forgive me anyway. Of course God will forgive you. God is always gracious and forgiving. Your forgiveness was settled by Christ's sacrifice for you on the cross. You are forgiven.

Wouldn't you also like to be free? This isn't about your forgiveness. This is about your freedom. This is about your health and your growth, about your healing. This is about you living an abundant life. And incidentally, this is also about the other people in your life who have to live with you. So this is good for me in so many ways. This makes me coachable. The most uncoachable players are the ones who think they already are perfect.

This breeds humility because I take an honest look and I see flaws in myself. This fights self-deception. We all have an amazing capacity for self-deception, and doing honest evaluation fights that trait. And this is the most important. It widens my lived experience of God's grace. Because when I look at myself and I see what I need help with and what I needed to be forgiven of, oh, I'm so much more grateful to God for his grace. I'm less judgmental of other people. I draw closer to God.

Now some of you may be thinking, well, I've tried to examine myself and confess my sins but I didn't feel any of this positive stuff. All I felt was I just felt terrible about myself, miserable. Well, I got a theory. I think many people mistake introspection for inventory. Self-pity is not the same as self-evaluation. Inventory is not just about, look what a terrible human being I am, you know.

And introspection, as John points out, that's something you can do all by yourself. And it can turn into almost a toxic obsession with your past hurts, your past regrets, your past in general. Inventory is not that. Inventory is something to do with God right at your side, loving you and prompting you and encouraging you the entire time. Inventory isn't really about dwelling in your past. It's about preparing you for your future.

It's like when you clean house, it's not about you sitting in the mess. It's about you preparing for the future, right? Having a clean house for what's next in your life. Like the Bible says, godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. But worldly sorrow leads to death. It's not about regret. It's not about beating yourself up. It's about turning your life around to God, to abundance.

So that's step four, that searching and fearless moral inventory. Doesn't that sound hard? Doesn't that sound uncomfortable? Well, you ain't seen nothing yet. Because what you do with this stuff, you go to step five. Step five is even harder. Yet step five is so life-giving. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another person the exact nature of our wrongs. Let me say that again. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another person the exact nature of our wrongs.

And as John says in his book right now, most of us are thinking, well, two out of three ain't bad, right? Why do I need to confess to another person? Again, this is all over the Bible, like in Proverbs 28:13. Whoever conceals their sins doesn't prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Or James 5:16. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be what? Healed.

You can be healed of so much when you just get honest. In fact, often sharing your secrets is all you really need. What many people have discovered is that so often you don't really need a cure. You just need a witness. Just a friend, that's all. Somebody who's just with you, affirming you, somebody who just sees you in all your glory and all your shame and is nonjudgmental and just unconditionally loves you.

Now you might be thinking, well, that sounds awesome. I know God's like that. I'd like to think my dog's like that, but how do I find another human being like that, right? Well, first be patient. Don't be in a hurry. Don't feel like if it doesn't happen right away, it'll never happen and then you just give up. But also be proactive. God will help you find somebody. Why can't I be assured of that? Well, because Jesus said, ask and you will find, seek and you will find, ask and it will be given to you, if it's God's will.

And we know on the basis of Scripture, it is God's will for you to have somebody to whom you can confess your weaknesses and sins. So God will help you do this, but you do need to keep your eyes open and pray about it. Third, be discerning about who you tell these things to. It's kind of like that old joke where three pastors are on a camping trip and one night around the campfire they decide to confess their sins to each other and the first one says, well, I never really told anybody this but I I lied on my resume I don't have any education.

And the second pastor says, well, I never really told anybody but this but I once embezzled funds from a previous church. And the third one says, well, I never really told anybody this, but I really struggle with gossip, and I can't wait to get back home, right? That's a nightmare. And finally, don't be coerced. And this is serious. Listen carefully to this. One of the biggest differences between a healthy church and a cult is that very often a cult makes people confess.

In a cult, people are pressured to reveal potentially damaging information, especially to the cult leaders, and maybe even to stand up and say these things to the whole entire congregation. In healthy churches, it's 100% your decision, what you reveal, to whom, when, where. And by the way, while you are thinking, where can I find somebody safe? It's a really, really good idea to ask yourself, am I someone safe? Am I the kind of warm and non-judgmental friend that somebody would feel safe sharing with?

And if your honest answer is, I don't know that I do kind of give up those kinds of vibes, well, that's something that you can work on. So each week in this series, what we do is first we explain the steps and understand them, and then we always look for them in a passage of the Bible to make sure, you know, we're not proof texting. Is there a part of the Bible that is actually about this and that is teaching this? And that's where we go to Psalm 32.

We're going to very quickly read through the whole thing, every single verse. I think you're going to be very interested now that we've examined steps four and five. Even the title of Psalm 32 is interesting. It's Psalm 32 of David a maskeel. That's in the original text. So Psalm 32 is of David. So this was written 3,000 years ago. And we're talking about King David, who was far from perfect. King David who tried to conceal his adultery and his terrible, terrible murderous scheme to get rid of her husband. King David who was confronted and who finally changed. That King David.

And it says a maskeel. Do you know what a maskeel is? Neither do I. Nobody really does. This is an ancient Hebrew word whose meaning is now obscure, but scholars say it probably meant a song that was meant specifically for teaching, like the whole nation would gather together at the temple and a singer, a cantor would sing these to inspire, to teach the people to do something. So what is Psalm 32 designed to teach or inspire the people to do exactly what we've been talking about today. Watch this. It just leaps off of the page.

Three things this teaches about, you know, revealing your feeling about confession, and they're this. First, the pain of concealing. The pain of concealing. I'm going to jump over the first two verses, but I'm going to circle back to them in a minute. Verse three. When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night, your hand of discipline was heavy on me, and my strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. What a great picture of the emotional, the physical, the psychological, the spiritual burden, the pain of concealing.

But then second he moves to the power of revealing. The power of revealing. Look at verse five. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you, to the Lord, and incidentally also to the whole nation in Psalm 51, and I stopped trying to hide. You know, I love that, trying to hide, because you never really successfully hide. I stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord. And guess what happened? You forgave me. All my guilt is gone. We imagine the most horrible consequences to confession, but what really happens are good consequences.

And he says, therefore, and here's the teaching part, let all the godly pray to you and confess their sins while there's still time, so that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment. Talking about the judgment of God, talking about natural consequences, and also talking about self-judgment, self-hatred. Many of you may be struggling with this right now. God doesn't want that for you.

And then David sings to God, For you are my hiding place. You protect me from trouble. You surround me. Look at this. God's not surrounding him with guilt and shame and oppression. He's surrounding him with songs of victory. Once he confesses, all that heavy-handed thing he was feeling is gone. He's feeling victory. And like an adrenaline rush. And I think the next verses are David speaking to the crowd. And then the singer or cantor who ended up singing Psalm 32 over the centuries. It says, I will instruct you. I will teach you in the way you should go. I will now counsel you with my loving eye upon you.

And here's his advice. It comes in the form of a proverb. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle, or they will not come to you. Do not be like a mule. Turn to somebody next to you and say, don't be like a mule. Don't be like a mule. Some of you did that with more enthusiasm than others. And perhaps used synonyms for mule, I'm not sure. But what does this verse even mean?

Okay picture a mule just think about this for a minute a mule only moves the right direction because of the bit and bridle right? I mean let's say there's a mule and he really wants to go left because there's something there's clover or something that he really wants to eat but the rider really wants to go right because there's a great new maybe a barn with hay that this mule would love to eat and so he pulls the mule right, and the mule goes, okay, ouch, all right.

But boy, he'd really still like to go left again because there's still some more stuff over, and that stuff looks better than the old stuff. So he starts to go left again, and wow, ouch, the bit and bridle pull him right. But he's still, I really want to go over there, and finally gets a hard pull right. And he's like, okay, and he decides to go the right way for at least as long as this trip. Why? Well, he's sorry for the pain, but his heart hasn't really been changed. He doesn't understand. He's not, I understand now, Master. I get it. Now I'm on the right track. He just doesn't want the pain.

David's like, don't get stuck in this childish mode where the only reason you behave is because you fear the pain, and you need to be constantly reminded of the way to go by some dominating authority. God doesn't want you to stay like that. Although sometimes I listen to how some pastors preach, and it seems like they want their congregation to stay like that because they enjoy pulling the reins.

David's saying you can be internally motivated by the joy of the Lord and the connection with God, and the way you understand the heart of God is by revealing your own heart to him. The pain of concealing, the power of revealing, and finally, the pleasure of healing. Pleasure. So often when we turn from something that maybe gives us a buzz we think that sobriety means no more fun but in fact what you're trading is some sort of superficial reward system that you've gotten trapped in that loop for real joy.

Verse 10 many sorrows come to the wicked but unfailing love surrounds those who trust in the Lord. You can be surrounded by this cloud of grace and love. Verse 11, so rejoice. Look at the verb here that's repeated. Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him. Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure. And now circle back to the first two verses. Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty.

What word was repeated there four times? Joy. Cleaning house is hard, but there really is joy at the end of it. This is like the Marie Kondo treatment for your soul. And don't take my word for it. Every week in this series, we're hearing from people right here at TLC who found this to be true, often from our own recovery groups. Watch this.

I'm a homeschool mom. I have two kids, one that's almost 13 and almost nine. I had been saved when I was nine and really relied on God when I was young, but I kind of did my own thing, you know, once I became a young adult and, you know, turning 40, I just reflected and realized that I wasn't the woman of God that I thought I would grow into. I wasn't the mom that I wanted to be. I couldn't be present with my children. I, um, I couldn't stay sober, even putting my kids to bed. You know, I couldn't get through that unless I went and smoked some pot to calm down or mellow out. I was missing my life. I was missing snuggle time and story time, and I had a bad relationship with my husband and my friends, and I said, Jesus, please break me free from all of this.

It didn't happen right away, but he did that for me. I started going to counseling and realizing that I had to quit smoking pot and quit drinking. And instead of running to all those things that I was finding comfort in, I needed to be running to Jesus. And I remembered that there was a recovery group here at TLC. And I emailed out and I said, is this group still happening? Do you guys still doing the recovery group? And they were. And I came to the meeting. And when I walked through the door, it was really great. It was like seeing good friends that I had never met. I just felt at home. I felt loved. I felt a kindness that I hadn't experienced in a long time.

It wasn't about what I could do for myself. It wasn't the work that I was going to put in. Not that it's not work, but it was what can you give up to God and surrender to God and let Him do the work. Let Him do the weeding. Let Him heal you. Let Him give you peace. At that time, it was kind of hard for me to understand. Everybody talked to joy, joy, joy. And I don't know if I ever really experienced joy for almost as long as I can remember. I don't know if joy was ever in my life. And until I really surrendered and I started to work the steps and I started to give things to God.

When I pan out and I really think about the healing that really, really changed me was honestly step four. And it's also one of the hardest steps. It's hard because you have to really dig down deep and let it all out. Things that had happened in my childhood that I had held onto that hurt me and that caused a lot of pain. And it's not doing anything to the other person. It's just eating you inside, you know? And essentially, it's because you've got to give it up to God. That's the only way that it's going to get healed. I started to feel joy. And I started to understand, like, what that meant, what that really felt like. It wasn't just this word that Christians threw around, you know? And I just, I felt loved. I felt complete. I felt whole again.

This was the life that I kind of dreamed about. You know, I get to be a woman of God. I get to be a mom. I get to enjoy bedtime stories, and I get to be sober and present with them. I get to be a good wife. I get to be a good friend. I've forgiven people that I never thought I would ever forgive. You got to put in the work and give it up to God, and then he puts in the work. That's the thing. And it's not an equal thing. I mean, you put in a little bit of work, and he gives you so much for it. It's like a trade. I give him the ugly thing, and he gives me the beautiful thing. He gives me the peace and the joy and the comfort. Isn't that beautiful? Let's thank Christine for her blessing.

So how about we do what we've been talking about right now? I'd love for each of us to turn to the person next to you and confess your deepest sin right now. Just kidding. Relax. We're not going to do that. But I would love to give you just a little bit of forward momentum on this. What we're going to do is, in a minute, we're going to pray. And I'm going to give you official permission to keep your eyes open.

Here's what this is all about. Flip your bulletin notes over to the last page. And you see at the top where it says prayer. And if you're watching us online, by the way, you can access those at tlc.org/notes. And if you see there, it says prayer, and I want the prayer time today to be a time for you to pray through these prompts silently. Those three phases as I guide you through this. So this will be a time of silent prayer for you to just start the housecleaning process between you and the Lord. All right? Let's pray, and then we're going to end the service with communion.

First, number one, talk to God right now honestly about your struggles. Where do you need to change? What resentment or fear or hurt or sin or regret do you want to bring to him in prayer right now? And I would say this is a time of specifically naming at least one thing before God. Just take a moment to do that in silence.

And now second would you thank God that he loves you completely no matter what you just told him. There's nothing that can shock him or surprise him or alienate God. Just thank him for that infinite, unconditional love. Thank him for Jesus Christ who paid your debt on the cross so you can be forgiven of everything. You know, we're going to celebrate communion in a minute, which is also called the Eucharist traditionally. Eucharist simply means thanks. That's what it means. So can you say thank you, Jesus?

And now third, ask God to help you find one trustworthy friend or maybe that's a counselor or a pastor to whom you can reveal your heart. And pray that you can be that friend for one other person. Go ahead and pray that silently too. Lord, we want to thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you for your love. And help us as a community of faith to have a deserved reputation that we are people of total honesty, not defensiveness, not self-justification, but total honesty, and also of total grace to others, no matter what they reveal about themselves, because that's how you are to us. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.