Awesome, awesome. Well, good morning again. Uh thank you guys so much for being here today and man, an incredible morning already in worship, and I'm excited about diving into the word uh together this morning. Um but before we jump in, uh just a couple of quick uh kind of opportunities that are coming up. Um one is uh school is just around the corner, and all the kids said boo, and all the parents said amen, hallelujah, right? Um and so uh with that we do a lot of different uh school kind of outreaches and we're feeding teachers and band camps and things like that coming up. And so if you are able to help either serve or volunteer at those things, or if you're able to provide food and help uh prepare some for those uh events, if you would again just tap that little tab tag in front of you or scan the little QR code and it will take you to all the information you can sign up for that, and that would be a huge blessing as we get ready for school to start back. Um well, if you're just joining us, uh we are uh coming to the end. We've got one more week after this on the story of David. This has been something that we've been kind of journeying through uh for all summer long, and we'll finish up next week. Um, but this week I just really believe is an important uh week for us. I think this is something that the Lord just really wants to use in the life of our church as we dig through one of the most core stories in David's life and how that applies to us. Um a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to have lunch with a few friends, and uh, one of the guys that was at the lunch, he's uh a worship pastor at another church, and um we knew each other more acquaintances than anything else, but we started just having this conversation, and uh the conversation turned to really sharing about some of the people that we knew that we had in common, friends and uh distant acquaintances that we both knew. And he began to share, and not out of a gossip way, but really more as a broken-hearted way. We started to share stories of pastors and leaders uh that over the years had burned out or had moral failures that had ended their ministry career. And I mean, I could tell you story after story after story of people that I went to school with and went to seminary with that are no longer in ministry because of something that has happened and occurred in their life. They've fallen and there has been no plan or desire for them to be restored. And it's a sad reality, but that's the world in which we live. Sadly, in the world in which we live, we love to build people up. We love to put them on platforms and pedestals, we love to make much of them, we love the celebrity type culture, but just as easily, oftentimes, we love to see people fall. And it's not something that necessarily we're rejoicing in, but it's something that, like, it's a spectacle that we cannot help turn our eyes away from. And we build them up, but then as quickly we can see them fall. And we could tell stories from the secular world. We could talk about Tiger Woods or Lance Armstrong or Britney Spears or Mike Tyson or Kevin Spacey or Martha Stewart. We could tell story after story of those. And it's not just that it's the secular world, it's the church world as well. Where it's you're done, you're canceled, you're out when you have made the mistake, when you've sinned, when you've gone against what the moral code is of conduct for our culture. Um in the church world, we've got Ravi Zacharias, Jimmy Swaggart, Bill Heibels, Mike Beckel. I mean, we could just name many, many more that maybe you wouldn't recognize their names, but they've fallen. And here's the reality of the situation. We've all fallen. Every one of us has fallen from one degree to the other. And this morning is not a message about if we fall. The message is really about what happens when we fall. And there will be degrees of that falling, there will be degrees that we maybe go that some are more catastrophic in our lives than others. But what do you do when you fall? What do you do when you royally screw it up? When you blow it, when you sin. What do you do? Well, we're gonna look at that this morning because David is a picture of what not to do, but then also what to do. And so this morning, the thing we're pushing towards is this idea that repentance restores what sin destroys. Repentance restores what sin destroys. And so let me pray for us as we dive into that idea. And so, Lord Jesus, I believe that this is one of the most important topics that we could talk on. And I just believe in the years of ministry that I've had in my own personal life and in the lives of so many people I've talked to and counseled, Lord, this idea is just so pivotal in our spiritual growth and development in our relationship with you. And Lord, I just know that the enemy wants to sow uh discord with this. He wants to try to convince us of uh other lies this morning and not get us to believe what we're talking about this morning. And so right now, Holy Spirit, would you come? Lord, would you open up the ears of everyone in this room this morning to be able to hear your voice? Lord, would you help us to have the courage and the boldness to be able to do whatever it is that you're calling us to do? For many of us, maybe, Lord, would you help us to be willing to step out of the darkness and walk into the light, to practice repentance and see the freedom that comes as a result. And so, Holy Spirit, would you come now and speak and move like only you can? And it's in your name we pray. Amen. So if you're just joining us, like I said, we've been in this series on David, and we have looked at all the you know big stories so far. We've seen David being chosen to be the next king of Israel to replace Saul. We see him uh defeating Goliath, this massive giant who's uh taking the Lord's name and insulting the Lord as he's uh insulting the troops of Israel. We've seen David being faithful in the wilderness. We've seen him come to the throne. And last or two weeks ago, we saw that David made a major error in his life. Um it was a time when the kings were supposed to be going out to war. It was when he was supposed to be out in battle leading the troops, but David doesn't find himself doing that. Instead, he's at home in his palace, um, taking it easy, feet propped up, and he's leading a life of leisure. And as a result, this is when the enemy begins to step in, when he gets comfortable and lets his guard down. And so he finds himself on the top of the roof of his palace overlooking the rest of the city. He sees this woman named Bathsheba who's bathing on his roof, on the roof uh next next to him or around his palace, and he has her come to him. He forcefully has an sexual relationship with him. She gets pregnant, he covers it up by killing her husband, and this whole thing is just a huge, huge mess. Well, the story continues this morning where David has had Uriah killed. Bathsheba has now had this baby. She's pregnant now for about nine months, so nine months has passed from the initial events that have taken place. And David is thinking, maybe to himself, that he's gotten away with this. He's covered it up. But yet, the Lord, in his kindness, is going to confront David. So if you have a Bible, you can turn to 2 Samuel chapter 12. It says this. So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him, There were two men, so he's going to tell him the story. The rich men had very large flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one small lamb that he had bought. He raised her, and she grew up with him and with his children. From his meager food she would eat, from his cup she would drink, and in his arms she would sleep. She was like a daughter to him. Now a traveller came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveller who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for his guest. Then it says, David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die. Because he had done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb. So the story is setting up here where David has now had nine months from the initial events that have transpired, and the Lord is now sending Nathan the prophet to confront David. Now, this is overwhelming when you think about it. David is the most powerful man in the nation. He's the king, and Nathan is this prophet that's going to come and confront the king. I mean, this could literally end his life. This could be it. He could have Nathan killed. He could have him sentenced to death. I mean, he's already killed one man. What would stop him in this situation? And so he tells them this story. It brings down the walls and the barriers. And he says, hey, there's the rich man and the poor man. They both have lambs. The rich man takes advantage of the poor man's lambs. It takes him in it, and it's stroking something in the emotions of David because David, remember, was a shepherd at one point. And so David is enraged, he's angered, he's frustrated, he's mad because of this injustice that has occurred. But what we're going to see here is that this was God's way of confronting David in his sin. It's that God's kindness is confronting our sin. And this is something that we don't like, right? That God's kindness confronts our sins. We don't oftentimes see that as kind because we don't like to be told that we're wrong. We don't want to admit that we're weak. I mean, that's what's been kind of brainwashed into us is that you don't admit that you're weak. You don't admit that you have done something wrong. Cover up, put on the best presentation that you possibly can. Never admit weakness. And so we're trained to defend our case, to plead our case, to make excuses, to prove ourselves to be right. But God, in his kindness, confronts sin. I believe that many of us would oftentimes rather have God overlook our sin than confront it. Because I think oftentimes we misunderstand the character and the nature of God. We don't understand who he is and what his heart is for. That we have a father in heaven, as Brandon talked about as we were, he was leading worship, that always does what is best for his children. That doesn't mean that he does what we want all the time, but it does mean that his ways are the best ways. And one of the best things that God can do, and one of the most kind and loving things that he can do, is confront us in our sin. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 7, the writer says this endure suffering as discipline. God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, which all receive, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us and we respected them. Shouldn't we submit even more to the father of our spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time, best based on what seemed good to them, but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share in his holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. And so what he's saying here is that it's a gift from the Lord. It's showing us that discipline and God confronting us in our sin is a sign and a symbol to show that God loves us. I I've got three kids. Many of you guys know them. They're running around the church like crazy kids all the time, right? Um, and I know this is gonna be hard to believe, but my kids aren't perfect. Um, they've got messed up, they're messed up. Like they've got my genes in them, and so they're gonna have some problems. And so, because of that, because I'm a loving father, I have to discipline them, right? Like we had something just happen the other day where I was like, okay, like because you did this, this is now going to happen. I was disciplining them, not because I'm trying to ruin their life, that might be what they think, not because I'm trying to crush their joy or their spirits, but I'm trying to train them in what is right so that they'll do what is right. My heart is for my kids. It's not against my kids, but it's for them. And I discipline them because I love them. And what the writer of Hebrews is saying here is that God in his kindness confronts our sin. He disciplines us. And if God doesn't discipline us, that's a more concerning thing. Because he confronts and disciplines his children because he loves them. And I love what it says. It says that we can share in his holiness, that he does this so that it will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness in our lives. And so David maybe thinks that he's gotten away with something, but God in his gracious love and mercy is going to confront him. Romans 2, 4 says that it's God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance. This is what God's goal is. God's kindness is that he's sending Nathan the prophet to David. And oftentimes that's what God does. Sometimes God directly speaks to us and gets us to acknowledge our sins, but oftentimes he uses the body, he uses other people in our lives as tools to help us experience his love and the confession and repentance piece of that. And so the story continues. It says in verse 5 David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die because he has done this thing and shown no pity. He must pay four lambs for that lamb. And Nathan replied to David, You are the man. David had no problem recognizing someone else's sin, but he didn't see himself in the story. He could see the plank or a speck in someone else's eye, but he could not see the speck that was in his eye. And I know that you probably can't relate to that at all. That might just be me. But don't we have the same tendencies? Where oftentimes we can look around us and we can see what's wrong with everybody else, but we have all of these blind spots in our own lives that maybe we overlook and miss. And in this moment, David thinks that he's overcome. He's trying to give this righteous judgment against this case that's been brought to him. And Nathan just says to say, you are that man. In an instant, God has confronted David in his sin, and he is saying, Hey, you are the guy. You've done this exact same thing. You, the wealthiest, most powerful man in the nation, have taken the wife of a poorer man and you have made her your own. Nathan calls David out. And I think this is so important for us to understand because often, like I said, oftentimes we want to look at everyone else's sin, compare ourselves to them instead of looking in the mirror. We can oftentimes, you know, use the mirror and we can kind of look at other people. We can look at somebody else and say, well, man, if he was just a better husband here, if she was just a better wife or parent, or if they didn't do this or say this, or go to those movies, or do this and go to those restaurants, whatever. Like we can be so quick to judge other people that oftentimes we miss turning the mirror on ourselves. And actually acknowledging what's going on in our life, the sins that are deeply bound and hold us in bondage. It's easy for us to compare ourselves to others and not to look ourselves in the mirror because we're afraid of what we might actually see. This is why I think that oftentimes we won't sit in silence with the Lord. This is why we want to have music playing or TVs constantly on or some type of thing that's going to take our minds away from the Lord actually dealing with the root issues of our hearts and our lives. Because we're afraid to look in the mirror. And God in his grace and his mercy comes with Nathan and He causes Nathan to say, You are that man. Then he continues, he says, This is what the Lord God of Israel says. So this is God speaking through Nathan to David, and he says, I anointed you king over Israel. I rescued you from Saul. I gave your master's house to you and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if it was not enough, I would have given you even more. What a powerful statement that is from the Lord. David, everything you needed. We're just saying it, everything you needed, I would have provided. If you had more needs and you needed something else, you could have come to me and asked, I have a history of giving you what you needed. And he said, Then why then have you despised the Lord's commands by doing what I consider evil? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife. You murdered him with the Amorites' sword. Now therefore, the sword will never leave your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife. This is what the Lord says. You acted in secret, but I will do this before all Israel in broad daylight. God is not mincing words here, right? He's saying at first, Man, I I've been abundantly generous to you. I've given you the kingdom, I've blessed you immensely, time and time again, and now you've rejected me and you've gone a different direction. You haven't trusted in the provision of the Lord, and as a result, there's going to be consequences for your sin. But what I love here is that the Lord doesn't start with the consequences, he starts with giving David a play-by-play of all the times that he's been faithful in the past. And this is really where repentance begins. Repentance starts with remembering. It starts with remembering who God is, what he has done for us, and what his character and nature is all about. The Lord is reminding David of all that he's done for David over the years. He's showing David all the blessings that he's been given over the course of his life. And here's what sin does: sin is not just us doing some bad things. It does include that, but typically underneath every sin is a lie that we believe about God. It's that we believe something that's not true about God, that God hadn't given David enough in this circumstance, so he took matters into his own hands. It said that he saw, that he wanted, and then he took. And this is the same play that the enemy's been playing in the lives of God's children since the very beginning, with Adam and Eve in the garden. What did he come to do? It wasn't that they just took the fruit off of the tree, but it's they believed the lie of the enemy that God was holding back on them. That he wasn't good, that he was somebody that wasn't going to, he wasn't going to give them the wisdom that they needed or desperately wanted. And they believed a lie which led to the sin. And so when it comes to repentance, we've got to come back to a place where we remember the faithfulness of God. And David, in this nine-month journey, I mean, he's been pushed away, uh, or he's not walking with the Lord in this nine months. He thinks that he's maybe gotten away from that, but he's not running towards the Lord, he's running away from the Lord, just as Adam and Eve did in the very beginning in the garden. And this is what sin does to us. And this is the way that we misunderstand the good news of the gospel time and time again. That when we sin, we think we have to distance ourselves from God. That when we sin, when we blow it, when we Make royally huge mistakes in our lives and we rebel against God. We think that we've got to distance ourselves from God, that He's not pleased with us, or that He's not going to accept us, or that He's not going to be there for us. And so we run and we hide. And that's what David has done in this moment. I love what Matt Chandler says. He says, to believe the gospel is to run to God when you blow it. Our instinct is, like I said, when we blow it, we run away from God. But that's a misunderstanding of the gospel message. The good news is that God makes the first step towards us. He did it with Adam and even he does it here with David. He sends Nathan to confront David in his sin, hoping that God that David repents, turns back towards him. And this is what we as followers of Jesus in the room this morning should do. When you blow it, when you mess up, when you look at something you're not supposed to look, when you say something you're not supposed to say, when you do something that's hateful or mean towards others, whatever it might be, the Lord is wanting you to come to him with it. Hear that. Because I don't think that this is our natural reaction and tendency. We want to handle it on our own. We want to back away, but the Lord is saying, no, bring me your sin. He's not shocked by it, he's not surprised by it. It's not that he just didn't know that David had done all of these things. He knows what you've done. And still he says, Come, bring me your sin, bring me your brokenness. But many of us don't do that because we believe the lie that our father is not good. My kids have broken my heart more times than I can count. And I know that it will continue because we're about to get into teenage years, and so I understand that. But never once have I not wanted them to come to me in the midst of that. Right? And that's the same God that's heart. If me, a sinful person, man, how much greater is God the Father in heaven with his children? And so David's confronted by Nathan. He tells them that, hey, there's going to be a lot of consequences that come from what's happened and transpired. But then listen to what happens in verse 13. David could have, in this moment, he could have said, Nathan, you're done. Off with your head. He could have made excuses. He could have pushed back. He could have rebelled against what had been said, but this is what he says. Verse 13, David responded to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. He had sinned against the Lord. He finally came clean. And it actually tells us, if you look at uh Psalm 32, David, in this hidden years of nine months of living in this cover-up, this is what he says is going on in his soul. In verse 3, it says, When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me, my strength was drained as the summer's heat. So, in some ways, this is David, you know, being outed here. He's having to come clean, but in some ways, this is a burden and a weight that has now been released from him because he's bringing his sin into the light. And this is what we understand is that confession is the doorway to mercy. Confession is the doorway to mercy. He's done hiding. There's no more mask, he's no longer managing his appearances, but instead he's stepping into the light, and his confession is the first step into freedom. When David remained quiet, it ate him alive. But when he stepped into the light, his soul began to have life again. David Gusick says, David was in the terrible place where he had too much sin in him to be happy in God, and too much of God in him to be happy in sin. His conscience was heavy, his heart was miserable, but what a gift from the Lord to confront him in his sin and for him to say, I have sinned against the Lord. David comes clean, and how does the Lord respond? Verse 13 again. David responded to Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord. Then Nathan replied to David, and the Lord has taken away your sin. You will not die. The Lord has taken away your sin. You will not die. This is grace in its truest sense. David deserved to die. I mean, like if we're just talking justice straight up, I don't care who he is. I mean, he has had an affair with another man's wife, and then he's had that man killed. I mean, David deserves to die. Any court here in America would sentence David to die or have life in prison because of what he has done. But David in his confession is met with mercy, and the Lord says, That I have taken away your sin. You will not die. David could not fix himself. What was done was done. The past had still plagued him, though. And David finally brings his sin to the Lord and he's met with forgiveness. We'll look at Psalm 51 in a second, which is David's complete confession. But David is met with grace and forgiveness, even though he didn't deserve it. Now listen, if you continued reading or actually write what we just read earlier, I mean, that doesn't take away the consequences of sin. Please hear that. Just because he's forgiven and the weight of his sin is lifted doesn't mean that there's not still consequences for that sin. I mean, his family line becomes a train wreck in a few chapters. It is dysfunctional with a capital D. But yet the Lord is still gracious and meets him in that. It says in verse 13, again, it says, Then Nathan replied to David, and the Lord has taken away your sin. You will not die. However, because you treated the Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son born to you will die. Was there consequences for a sin? Absolutely. I think we would all have a problem with a just God that didn't have consequences for injustices that happen in this world that we live in. But as I was reading that this morning, I just thought to myself, man, something seems wrong there, right? The king who had done what was wrong and evil in the sight of the Lord gets to live while his son dies. And there were a couple things that kind of came through my head. One, I think that oftentimes we see death as like these eternal end in punishment, but man, to be to be done with this world is to be present with the Lord. And I mean, for 3,000 or so years, I mean, this idea of David's child dying and being with the Lord has brought comfort to so many generations of people that have lost kids in young age. And so we can't see this tragedy in the kid's life as him going to be with the father as a sad thing. I mean, it is sad, but it's it's he's with the Lord. What's really sad is David and Bathsheba and the grief that they carry as a result. But here's the bigger picture as I was just praying through this this morning, is that we get this innocent baby dies and this guilty man lives. And I thought, man, what a picture of the gospel. Where an innocent man in Jesus dies so that a guilty man could live. Repentance restores what sin destroys. David in Psalm 51 says, Be gracious to me. And I can't, I'm not an actor. I wish I was, but like I wish I could read this with as much emotion as I feel like David maybe had when he said it. But he said, Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love, according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. Completely wash me, wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you alone I have sinned, and I have done what is evil in your sight, so that you are right when you pass sentence. You are blameless when you judge. Jump down to verse 10. God, create a clean heart in me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore the joy of your salvation to me and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit. You can hear the emotional weight of a broken man that has been called out by the Lord. But it's a heart that is broken towards the Lord, and when we have broken hearts of repentance towards the Lord, repentance will always restore what sin has destroyed. Just four quick things here, and then we'll kind of begin to wrap this up. One, confession is honest. I know my transgressions. It's honest. We don't use vague words. We are honest before the Lord. This is what I have done. Secondly, confession is God's word. Against you and you alone I have sinned. We have to understand that it's not just us doing wrong things or bad things to other people, and we need to apologize and make things right as best we can, but we have also sinned against a holy God. We've gone against his ways, and so we have to acknowledge and confess that to him. Confession asks for more relief, third. Confession asks for more relief, more than relief, it asks for renewal. Remember, he says, create a clean heart for me, God. It's not that he just wants relief from the pain of the sin that he's engaged in, but he wants to be renewed. He wants to not just be forgiven, but he wants to have a new heart that's developed within him for him to walk and obey the commands of God. And then fourth, confession doesn't just want pardon, it wants joy restored. It says, Restore the joy of your salvation to me. And then he continues in verse 16 and 17. You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it. You are not pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humble heart of God. You will not despise a broken and humble heart. Just think about that for a second. You've blown it. You've messed up. You're a sinner. You have, I mean, there are things in this room that maybe no one else would even know. Things that you've kept buried in the darkness for way too long, and it's eaten you up from the inside, and you've just kind of believed in your mind and in your heart that God is someone that wouldn't want you to have anything to do with you because of what you have done. And David tells us here that he does not despise a broken and humble heart. You come to God in repentance, you come with a broken heart. Man, God will always turn his ear towards you. Always. We have a Father in heaven that no matter how many times you've blown it, no matter how many times you said, Hey, I'm never going to do this again, and you still do it again, man. God does not reject a broken-hearted, humbled person. He doesn't. And we don't understand that in our human, finite minds. But man, God is a God in heaven that just wants you to bring your sin to him. And he says, Hey, I love you so much that I've given you my son. He came down to earth, lived the perfect, sinless life. He was the innocent man that gave his life on a cross so that you could have the abundant life that he alone offers, that you could be forgiven, that you could be made right with him, that you could be seen as the righteousness of God. This is what repentance looks like. 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the God that we're talking about this morning. The God that says you no longer have to run, you no longer have to make believe, you no longer have to wear the mask, but you can come just as you are, and you can be met with forgiveness and grace and mercy. And again, that doesn't erase all the consequences, but you are met with the mercy of God. I don't know if that means anything to you. That means a lot to me, though. Because I am a broken, broken vessel. And I have blown it more times than I would even care to admit. And there are, I think one thing I think we also have to just rightfully understand is that this is not just a one-time action. That our repentance and our confession is a continual process in the life of a believer. It's not something that you just do when you come to know the Lord and then you're done. But this is something that we're continually doing. We're continually practicing repentance, we're continually humbling ourselves before a righteous and holy God. We're continually coming with a broken, contrite heart, and he will not despise, he will not turn us away. And so in a second, we're going to celebrate communion together. And we do this every month, and I just think it's so God ordained to do it this morning together. Because communion is this great picture of the sacrifice that Jesus has made on our behalf. We take the bread, which represents his body that was broken for us, and we dip it into the juice, which represents his blood that was poured out for us, so that we could be made whole and right with God again. And so when you come to the table in a minute, I mean, I'm gonna just caution you to not just run to the table, but to really evaluate your heart. But on the table, there will also be a mirror. And the mirror is just a symbol to say, you are that man. You are that man, you are that woman, you are the one that has broken the commands and the laws of God. And you are someone that desperately needs the grace and the mercy of Jesus. The bad news is that you are much wickeder than you could possibly imagine. Congrats. But you are also more loved than you could ever dream possible. And that's the God we're coming to this morning. And so, Holy Spirit, Lord, we thank you that you are a God first and foremost, that is a God that does not turn away from a broken heart. Lord, your ear is inclined to the humble, your ear is inclined to those that are broken over their sin. And Lord, this morning, I just I just really feel deeply that there's people in this room who have believed the lie of the enemy that God is not a God that wants to deal with them. That they're too broken, they've blown it too much too often. Maybe God forgave them at one point, but man, they just continue to struggle with the same thing, and God would not want them to have, want to have anything to do with them now. Lord, in this moment, through your spirit, would you just impress on their hearts the truth of the gospel? Lord, for those of us in the room that maybe have just so much shame that we're carrying and we're so scared to bring something into the light, perhaps. Lord, this morning, would you give us the courage to do that? Would you help us to believe truly that confession is the doorway to mercy? That it frees our soul within us, that when we bring things into the light, things don't continue to grow and fester, but instead we can start to begin to walk in freedom. Lord, would you show some of us that maybe are so good at seeing and recognizing the shortcomings of others? But Lord, would you help us to look into the mirror this morning and recognize that we desperately need you? And so, Holy Spirit, would you just come? Would you move? Lord, would you help us to meditate and process that truth and that reality that you do not despise a broken heart, a broken and contrite heart, Lord. And Lord, let us bring that to you this morning. And so, Holy Spirit, would you come now and move like only you can? It's in your name we pray. Amen. Brandon's gonna lead us again, just maybe process at your seat for a moment. When you're ready, you can come to the table, take the bread, dip it into the juice, and maybe step off to the side and pray. If you want somebody to pray with you, we'd love to have that opportunity as well. But let's respond to the Lord now.