Habits of a Healthy Heart
Part 1: Habit of Self-Examination
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
I wanna ask you a question this morning is, when you lie, who do you think you lie to the most? When you lie, who do you think you lie to the most? We're gonna start this new year off, we're gonna get a little ridiculous, honest, if you're new here, welcome. We get after it, it's 2025. But when you lie, actually let's do this. I don't normally do a raise of hands, but I kinda wanna do this one. Raise your hands if you lie or if you have ever lied. Look around, if anybody's got their hand not up, they're lying, okay? We lie, it happens, we lie. And when you lie, who do you lie to the most? Oh, we got some people jumping in this morning. Have you ever lied to your boss? Ever lied to your boss? You look outside, the sun is shining, you go, oh yeah. I'm definitely coming down with something. Hey, hey boss, yeah, I'm just not gonna make it in today. I'm sorry, just under the weather. And you're gonna be out in the great weather is really what's going on, right? Have you ever lied to your kids? Boy, I do, I'll be honest. They ask to do something and you sit there and you go, oh, let me think about it, we'll see. There ain't no chance, we ain't doing that. There's no way, there's no way, we are not going to do it. I'm just stalling. Have you ever lied to your parents, kids? You ever lied to your parents? It wasn't me, mom, it wasn't me, dad, I promise. It wasn't me. Have you ever lied to your friends? You get that phone call, hey, you know what? I'd love to help you move, I really would. But you know, I just got a lot going on that day. Lots of things to do, lots of things to do, sorry. You ever lied on social media? Life's great, everything's going great. Post something that isn't really true. My life's so blessed, hashtag blessed, hashtag living the best life. But life isn't good, life sucks. You're in the dumps, maybe you're even depressed. Anyone ever done that? It's interesting to look at the lies that we tell, right?
And when you think about who do you lie to the most, as you said, you lie to yourself the most. You, you lie to yourself. And we tell ourselves all of these lies, right? We tell ourselves all the time, I'll do it tomorrow, when you know you won't. You tell yourself, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm fine, when you really aren't fine at all, right? You're not even a smidgen fine, you're just not fine at all. You tell yourselves, I don't care what they will think when you 100% care what they will think. We tell ourselves, it's really not that big of a deal, right? Not that big of a deal when it's really a big deal. Studies show that when you lie, you lie to yourself the absolute most. And it says in Jeremiah 17:9, it says, "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things. And desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" The unredeemed heart has the capacity not only to lie to others, but to lie to ourselves. It's one of the major reasons why New Year's resolutions fail. We were talking about these this morning at our team huddle before church, talking about the failure of New Year's resolutions. And the problem with these New Year's resolutions is we have all the great intentions, right? We have all this great intention to focus on changing something in our lives. We want to get more organized, right? We're tired of being behind on things and procrastinating. We want to get up earlier in the morning, right? We wanna get up, seize the day, and kick things off just right, get that workout in maybe before the morning, before the kids get up. You wanna stop looking at things that you shouldn't look at. Maybe you wanna start eating better, you wanna save more money, or maybe you wanna start being more kind to your spouse, or your family, your friends, your neighbors. But whatever it is, the problem is with that New Year's resolution, as good as it may be, the reason that it will fail is it's focused on external behaviors. But where are behaviors actually born? Behaviors are born in our hearts. And if you wanna change your life, you change your habits, but if you wanna change your habits, you have to let God change your heart.
And this year, we're starting on the outside, where most people think to start. But I think for God, he wants us to start on the inside. And we're gonna ask God to change our hearts into who he wants us to be. We're beginning a new series this morning called Habits of a Healthy Heart. And we're gonna go through five different habits over the next five weeks, focusing in on different ways that we can have more of a heart that is a healthy heart. And today, we're gonna focus on the habit of self-examination, to give a truly honest, sincere look at our own lives, and then to give God permission to work in our lives. The next part is gonna be the habit of simplicity. Almost all of us, if we're honest, are looking for more and more and more and more and really, it's less is what we need more of in our lives. The habit of solitude, slowing our lives to be quiet before God. This is a hard one. To slow our lives down and to genuinely seek after God and his word, to have his voice speak into our hearts and to direct our steps. We're gonna talk about the habit of sorrow. You may think, God, pastor, I don't wanna be sorrowful. I think when we think of sorrow, we think of earthly sorrow. But when we study scripture, we see that there is actually something as godly sorrow, that we let God bring to us and transform us and actually this godly sorrow leads us into a place of salvation. And then we're gonna talk about the habit of slowing. Where in a world is so, so, so fast paced, we have a hustle culture, a get after it, go get it, take what's yours kind of a world that actually God preaches against that. The Bible says that the opposite that is really where true freedom and joy and fulfillment is actually truly found to where we would slow ourselves down to give God a true Sabbath of rest, which is truly how we honor God with our lives.
But today as we launch into the new year, I wanna talk about the habit of self-examination. It says this in Psalm 139, David writes this, he prayed this prayer, he says, "Search me." Someone say, "Search me." There we go, we're waking up, come on. "Search me," he said, "Search me God and know my heart." 'Cause we know the heart is actually deceitful, deceitful above all things. He said, "Test me and know my anxious thoughts." Anybody have anxious thoughts in their life? God see that there is no offensive way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting. Well, I'd love to do right now if we can, if we could just take a pause. And I want us very prayerfully, quietly, but still, still verbally out loud, we're gonna read this scripture together. Maybe say it as a prayer to God right now. As you start 2025, you begin this new year, let's pray this prayer together. It says, "Search me God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." Search me God, know my heart, test me, see if there is offensive way in me.
This was a prayer that David prayed. And you may ask why did David pray this prayer? Well, if you looked at David's life and you saw as a whole, you would have discovered over time that David began as he journeyed through life to understand, and I hope that you'll understand today, that he had this propensity to lie to himself. And he was the master at it. I think so much like just we are ourselves, a master of self-deception. And he started to discover later in life, especially what happened after 2 Samuel 11. It says, "In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israel army to fight the Amorites. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem." Normally in this season and the flow of life in the Israelites at this time, that when a kingdom was at battle, the king, whenever the season was, we don't really truly know, would go out and join the army in battle. Now he necessarily wouldn't go and battle himself, but he would at least go out, walk among the soldiers, give them the hurrah speech, send them out, encourage his under commanders. But he would be present out in the battlefield area. But David this time decides not to. We don't truly really know why he decided to stay home, but we can kind of read into this a little bit. David might have thought to himself, man, you know what? I've been at war a lot in my life. I fought. I woke up a little sore this morning. Not really feeling it. You know, I am kind of like a war hero. I mean, I did take down Goliath and everybody kind of knows that. I've earned my time out on the battlefield. I've done the chants and I've marched forward and I know all the battle cries. I've written some myself. I know all this stuff that is, but I probably deserve a break. I've been going hard. You know, maybe a little time off might be good for me as a leader, as a king, you know, really some me time so I can be my best so that when I do go out in the battlefield, I can truly be present. Really, I mean, really that's what my men need. I need a break. And so maybe at some point he thought, oh man, it's gonna be a good sunset tonight. Maybe I'll take dinner, I'll go up on the roof, watch the sunset, relax, have a drink.
So he goes up and he finds himself up there relaxing and he looks over and he sees a woman taking a bath on the roof next door. And the Hebrew word here actually is raah. And so Dave is up there having a nice dinner, maybe a drink, enjoying himself. He looks over, he sees a very beautiful woman taking a bath and he goes raah. The word raah means to look at and to continue to stare. David looked over and he continued to stare and he saw this woman and he raah'd at her and he probably thought to himself, I'm not really doing anything bad. This isn't really hurting anybody. I'm just relaxing. And he began to deceive himself again. And then he thought, you know what? Yeah, we could really take this relaxation to the next level, might be some companionship. So he sent one of his people to go bring her over and invite her to the palace and she comes over and they go out on the balcony and they're hanging out and he's probably like, I want to maybe get to know her and tell her about the kingdom and what's her life like, what's my life like as a king? Like she wanna know that stuff, right? So they start talking and maybe he brushes up against her and says, hey, you look a little tense. You could use a back rub, right? One thing leads to another and they find themselves in bed with each other. And David sins. Shortly after that, he finds out that she's pregnant.
David goes, okay, what am I gonna do here? And so he comes up with this brilliant plan. Bathsheba's husband is actually a warrior, a soldier, Uriah. So he thinks, oh, I'll bring Uriah home. He'll get to spend some time with his wife and one thing will lead to another. He's home from a battlefield and maybe he'll begin to think that the child is his. So he brings Uriah home from battle. But the problem was that Uriah was a very standup guy. And he said, if my men who are on the battlefield cannot be home with their family and their wives, neither will I and he actually does not stay at the house. He stays with the soldiers. And so David realizing, okay, this isn't going where I needed it to go. He goes, well, you know what, let's just send Uriah back and maybe he'll end up on the front lines. Oh no, oops. And Uriah goes back to war, front lines, and he loses his life.
And so David, step by step by step, rations. Step by step, rationalized his sin. And the whole time he's thinking, it's not that big of a deal. It's just one soldier, just one look, one back rub, one night. But what he actually did was he abused his power. He violated an innocent woman in Bathsheba. He committed the sin of adultery. He wrecked an entire family. He essentially murdered Uriah. And then when the baby was born, there were consequences. The baby ended up getting sick and died. Step by step by step, sin by sin by sin by sin. To the point that he couldn't even recognize his own sin because the heart is deceitful above all things and we are the master of self-deception. Psychologists call this a cognitive bias. Scripture actually calls it flattering yourself or deceiving yourself, having the deluded heart. Psalm 36:2 says, “In their own eyes, they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their own sin.” This is why it is utterly important to adopt a habit of self-examination.
Looking at the research and all of this, our self-deception tends to manifest itself in five different major ways. You might see yourself in some of these categories. The first would be addiction to distraction. Because we're doing something wrong, we find ourselves unintentionally distracting ourselves by anything that keeps us from facing the truth about ourselves. This might be an addiction to pornography. Maybe it's social media. Maybe it's addiction to news. Maybe it's talking bad about other people. Maybe it's alcohol. Or maybe it's some form of any drug. Any addiction possible that can distract us from facing the truth about ourselves. The second would be manic cheeriness, is what I'm gonna call it. You are absolutely depressed. You're sad. You're not happy. There's no joy in your life. And yet you're always smiling. You're always cheerful. You're always the one making jokes. You're going around telling everybody, life's great. Everything's wonderful. Some might call this the Lego syndrome. Everything is awesome. Yeah? You have to have kids if you get that reference. But it's this lie that we tell ourselves that everything is fine, but the reality is we're depressed, we're discouraged, and maybe even to the point that we're thinking about taking our own life. And yet you don't show it. You don't let anybody in. You're trying to deceive yourself. Third would be judgmentalism. Everybody else is the problem. There's something deep down inside of us that we know is wrong, but we love to point out the faults in everybody else. To the point that we look for things in other people to judge them. We look for the little tiniest scripture says, the speck in their eye, and yet we got a giant log just hanging out of our own. But we're deceiving ourselves because we don't wanna be vulnerable about our own lives and be truthful about ourselves, so we judge others for the very thing that we dislike in ourselves. What about defensiveness? We're offended if anybody makes any indication or even a suggestion that we might have something wrong in our lives. We're never vulnerable. We might be probably most likely, yes, you're doing something unwise. You're probably doing something sinful. But any suggestion in that, you are 1000% against them. You deflect, they have the problem. It's not our fault. It's everybody else's. We're the victim. We're completely against any suggestion to change. The final one would be cynicism. We surrender to being cynical. Everything in life is just bad. Everything's horrible. Everyone else is the problem. Everything is wrong. But we're deceiving ourselves 'cause we don't wanna look at the truth about us.
This was a horrible, horrible thing that David did. He deceived himself and his life fell apart. What happened when he said, "I'm not doing anything wrong. Everything's okay. I can get away with this. I mean, I'm the king. I make the rules. It's not that big of a deal. Everybody dies at some point." Sin by sin by sin, he found himself in a very, very, very dangerous place. And then the Lord sent David a prophet by the name of Nathan. And Nathan comes and he sits down with David, has a little conversation. He says, "Hey, King David, let me tell you a story. Let me tell you a story." And it goes like this, the story of two guys. First guy is rich beyond rich. I mean, he makes the rich look poor. He is loaded beyond all loaded. He has thousands of sheep and cattle and cows and acres upon acres of land. I mean, he has everything that his heart desires and dreams and then some. And then there's a really, really, really, really poor guy. And all that this poor guy has is one little sheep. And the poor guy finds himself with his sheep at the rich guy's house. I know maybe their neighbors are hanging out. Maybe the rich guy had pity on the poor guy, begging on the streets that, "Hey, come to my house, I'll take care of dinner." And so the rich guy invites the poor guy over for dinner and they sit down and the rich guy realizes he has to prepare a dinner meal. And so he goes out to slaughter a lamb for supper. And he has the pick. Any of his thousands upon thousands of thousands of animals he can pick to slaughter. But he sees the poor guy's lamb and he picks that one and he slaughters it, he prepares it, he cooks it. And he feeds the poor guy his own lamb. David immediately says, "That is the most horrible thing I have ever heard." That rich guy needs to go to jail and he probably should be killed because he even thought about doing that. And Nathan turns to him and says in Hebrew, ata-ish He says, "David, you are the man." Man. You are the man. You, David, are the one who did this. You are the one judging this man and his actions. And yet you are guilty of the exact same thing. You're the one that's been defensive. You're the one that's pushed back. You're the one that's made excuses. You're the one that rationalized your actions. You are the one that has done the very same thing. The habit of self-examination. It's a tough one. It's not easy to do. Search me, God. Search my heart. Show me if there is any offensive way in me. Any sinful thing. Anything in my life that I don't see, God. Show me how you want me to change. I'd ask you right now to stop for a moment and let God search you.
What problem are you denying? What sin are you rationalizing? What issue are you hiding? Welcome to church early 2025. We're gonna get after it this year. If I haven't stepped on your toes by now, I probably will. And I'm stepping on my own toes just to let you know. All right? But where does God wanna work in your life this year? Maybe it's a secret addiction. Maybe you're addicted to porn. Maybe it's alcohol. Maybe drugs. Maybe it's the way that you lose your temper over and over and over again. You say, but pastor, if they wouldn't act like that, I wouldn't have to respond like that. Maybe you're flirting with an affair. Maybe you're in a full blown affair. Maybe you're addicted to overeating. You make jokes about it and you think, ha ha, that's just who I am. Oh man, buffet Bob. That's just who I am. Maybe you're addicted to overspending. And you pretend, ah, it's not that big of a problem. I'll end up selling most of them and I'll make some profit. Like it's not that big of a deal. Maybe you're numbing yourself consistently. Maybe it's with a drug. Maybe it's just turning the TV on and just staring for hours on end. Maybe it's scrolling mindlessly on social media all day long. You say, I don't need help. I'm okay. It's not that big of a problem. But you really do. See, asking for help is never a sign of weakness. Asking for help is actually a moment of wisdom. Maybe you're here at church. Maybe you don't know why. It's the first of the year. You're here, but your mind's not there. You're not there. You're here, but your mind's not here. Your heart's far from God. Search me, God. Know my heart. See if there is any offensive way in me.
As we close up this morning, I wanna share three different warning signs. These are maybe three different ways you can watch out for maybe some things that you have in your life. The first of which is, watch for what others have tried to tell you. If someone has tried to tell you you have something going on that's maybe a big problem, maybe a small problem, I always thought of a good rule would be if I have two or more people who I know love me and care for me and truly want the best for me. If two people come to me and say, hey, Chris, you got a problem here, I need to take pause and have some self-examination. Maybe it's someone telling you that you work too much. Maybe someone telling you you're not present. You're spending too much time with video games. Or maybe someone who loves you tells you you have a drink every single night. And you say you can stop at any time, but you don't seem to be able to go without. Maybe there's somebody who tells you that you're dressing immodestly. And you say, well, you know, it's just the style, it's just how everybody's dressing, it's just the look right now. But people are telling you who love you that it's an issue. Or maybe you can never say no because you have a problem with people pleasing. But when you ask God to search your heart, look for what others who care for you and truly love you in life have tried to say to you. Second one is watch out for what you rationalize. Watch out for whatever you try to explain away when someone questions you about something. Ah, it's not that big of a deal. I can handle this, I got this, I got this. I'm not hurting anybody, it's not that big of a deal. Watch for when you're rationalizing. 'Cause reality, it's gonna sneak up on you, that's the truth. Watch out for when you say, you know, I wouldn't have to do this if they didn't have to do that. Watch out for when you're most defensive. Whenever you push back and you say, I don't have a problem, maybe you get a little angry. You say, leave me alone, get out of my business. I've heard it said from someone much wiser than myself that the more convinced that you don't have a problem, the more likely it is that you actually do.
I had to learn this one, the school of hard knocks last year. It was, I don't know, I don't know, but probably about 16 months ago, we welcomed our fourth child, Aliyah, into our family. And I've always been known as someone who's a really hard worker. And I've always had a strong work ethic. It began to become more of an identity than I realized in my life. And it was about that time when I became dad number four and I didn't slow down. I kept driving at a thousand percent, pushing forward, working harder, busy with the family, busy with the newborn and the kids and just constantly go, go, go, go, go, and not realizing and thinking, oh, how much harder could it be to go from three kids to four kids? It's not that big of a deal. It was a really big of a deal. It was actually harder for me to go from three to four than it was to go from two to three, which people say that two to three is worse than anything else. And so for me, it was, I wasn't going to slow down. I was still driving at a thousand percent, even though everything in my life seemed to be harder and harder and harder to just get done. Even this most simplest task in life just took exponentially more time. And it was around February that I started to get a little bit of a cold. And I thought, no big deal, I'll be fine. I'll push through, I'll take some extra vitamins. It's fine, I can drink some tea, whatever. It's no big deal. I kept pushing myself and pushing myself and pushing myself and I'd find myself on Mondays sleeping in until almost noon. I'd push myself so hard for the week to prepare for church, through the family and everything, and then through the weekend that I couldn't even get out of bed on Monday mornings. And that cold kept getting worse and worse and worse. I would be okay after I would sleep in so late on Mondays. I would recover by Tuesday, Wednesday I was good, Thursday I'd start to feel it again. I'd push myself Friday, Saturday, Sunday and I'd be back to where I was. And the cold got worse and worse and worse and it went right into my lungs. And I would call what most over-achievers would say they have and it's called walking pneumonia. It's what normal people have that actually will put them into the hospital. But I thought to myself, I'm gonna be okay. I'm fine, I got this. I'd find myself on my phone looking up, try to find the next home remedy. I wasn't gonna go to the doctor, I wasn't gonna waste my time. I had it figured out. So vitamin after vitamin after regular drugs after, I don't know how many trips to Walmart to try to clear themself out of Sudafed and Mucenex and all this stuff, I was gonna be okay. It's gonna be no problem.
And it got so bad my wife said, "You're going to the doctor's." I said, "Okay." Well, mama says something, you do something, right? So I go to the doctor begrudgingly, sit down, they start taking my vitals. My blood pressure is in stroke zone. The doctor is so freaked out about my blood pressure in that moment, she doesn't even give me any drugs or anything. She literally tells me, "You have to leave right now "and go to the ER. "You're going to stroke." And I'm sitting there drinking my coffee going, "I'm fine, no problem." Do I go to the ER? No. I go home, tell myself it's gonna be okay, no problem, be all right. Two weeks later, it's still not all right. I find myself back at the doctor's office, literally drinking my coffee, waiting, and almost falling asleep in the lobby, waiting to be seen. I dragged myself back in there. And what I told myself was, "Ah, just a momentary lapse "in high blood pressure was just as high, if not worse." And the fear that the doctor showed in his eyes looking at me scared the living daylights out of me. And I found myself in a moment of crossroads to say, "I need to change my life. "Something has to change. "I have to stop lying to myself "that everything was gonna be okay. "Hi, I'm Chris, I have a problem." And so I talked to my wife. I actually got some antibiotics that time. Went home and started resting. Let things slide. Still felt guilty about them 'cause things weren't getting done. But I had to take care of myself before anything else. Because if I wouldn't have taken care of myself, there's no chance that I could have been able to continue to be there for my church, for my family, for my kids. And so, start taking the proper medicine. I get on blood pressure medication. Start getting better, my blood pressure comes back down. I start exercising more. I make different changes in my routine. I start eating better. I start exercising. I picked up boxing, super therapeutic, to punch something. It's amazing. Not thinking about you guys when I do it. Don't worry, don't worry. But all of these changes, I got back to having correct nutrition and vitamins and sleep. And I wanna tell you this today, not to say have pity on me or, "Hey, way to go, Chris, you figured out." I still haven't figured it all out. I'm still working on it. I'm still trying to lose weight. I'm still trying to get healthier so I know I can be around longer for my family and for my wife. I'm still trying to figure out all this stuff. What I want to share with you guys is this.
There comes a time when you have to make a decision. And I hope and pray that none of you ever have to get to that point in your life. I'm so thankful I didn't have a stroke. I'm so thankful I didn't collapse. I'm so thankful I didn't end up in the hospital. I am so thankful to God. But that is directly where I was heading with my life. But we come to ourselves and we have to watch out for what other people are telling you. Because I had people in my life that loved me, that told me, "You have to slow down. "You're going too fast. "You're doing too much." And I said, and rationalize it away, "It's not that big of a deal. "I got this handled. "It's gonna be okay." Even to the point where I was getting cynical of people and you just don't understand, this is what God has called me to. You just don't love God as much as I do. You just aren't as committed to the calling that Jesus has on your life. That is not my problem. That is your problem. But it was a problem. And one of the best things that I did even in that was I began to meet with a counselor or my spiritual director, my therapist, whatever you want to call them. And he graciously sat down with me and started talking through life. And he turned to me at one point and said, "Chris, you got a problem and I think you know it." And I said, "Yes, I do." And I even had opportunity to go out on a date with my wife, which was amazing last week. And we sat down and we started talking about 2024 and she turned to me and she goes, "You know what? "When you started meeting with that counselor, "you completely changed." It broke my heart that I was so focused in that moment, rationalizing my choice step by step by step that I couldn't even see it myself.
Search me, God. Know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me. Lead me in the way everlasting. So the reality is you cannot change what you won't confront. And one of my greatest things that I love about this scripture is the last part. You got to go through some hard stuff first, right? But that last part that says, lead me in the way everlasting is like a breath of fresh air. Yes, we believe that all those who call on Jesus for salvation will have eternal life in heaven. But I think what the Psalmist David here writes in this prayer is that he wants a little bit of heaven on this side right now. We just came through a season of Christmas and Jesus coming and Emmanuel, God with us. And I love one of the names that they call Jesus. Did you guys pick up on that? The Prince of Peace. God wants to be a prince of peace. God wants to give you peace in your life. But it takes letting God to search you, to know your heart, to know your anxious thoughts. What is God showing you right now that you don't want to face? Maybe you're afraid of what it is. Hey, here's the best news. God already knows and he's not afraid of it. God already knows what you are facing because he's active in your life. He's right there with you. So you shouldn't be afraid to let God know. You should be afraid of what that will cost you in the long run. So what are you gonna do? I'd encourage you run to him. I walked out of that doctor's office, got in my car and I almost started to begin to cry and I said, I am so sorry, God. I am so sorry that I have let myself get to this point in my life. Forgive me. I had asked for forgiveness. I was being so selfish. I was holding on to everything thinking I had it all figured out, but I did not. I was so far from it.
I love what David writes in Psalm 51. This is his other prayer. I think it's so good. “Create in me a pure heart, oh God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.” David sinned big time, big time. And yet he is known as a man after God's own heart. If there's hope for David to earn that title after what he did, there ain't nothing what you have gone through or what you have done. God wants to give you a new heart. He wants to free you. He wants to give you life. He wants to give you joy. He wants to give you peace. He wants to give you everlasting life. Don't resist it. He loves you. So week one, habit self-examination. To give God permission to show us what we need to hear so that we can do what we need to do. This is our prayer. I'd love to close this out this morning. Let's all pray together. Psalm 139, we get that back up on the screen. Let's pray this together. Search me God, know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
Jesus, we thank you for today. God, we thank you for who you are. God, the fact that you deeply love us more than we could even ask or imagine. And God, you have a desire for the very best for us. But God, we know that sin gets in that way. And we know that our own choices, as good as they may be in our mind, in our plan, may be just the best thing that we could ever think of, God. It pales in comparison to what you desire and what you want for our lives. And so God, I pray as we start 2025, Jesus, that you would search our hearts. You would take a deep look inside of us and you would begin to stir within us and reveal to us what needs to change and what you want to do in the year 2025 in our life. And God, I pray that it would begin right now in this moment. That your Holy Spirit would begin to nudge us to share with us some of the things that we need to change as we give a thought to self-examination. God, may we honor you with our lives. May we give you full access to our whole heart. God, not holding back this section over here, God, you can have full reign everywhere else, but this over here, this is mine. No, I pray that we would just hand it all over to God right now, offering it up, giving it wholeheartedly over to you. God, I pray that you would transform our lives, you would change our life, you would change our habits, you would change our hearts, and you would transform us, God, into who you desire for us to be. Jesus, we're thankful for who you are. We thank you for your power, God, to transform us 'cause we know we can't do this on our own. There's no way we could figure all this out. God, thank you that you can and you will and you are. Jesus, we love you, we praise you. Everybody said? Amen.