Excuses We Make to Avoid Change

Title of today's sermon is Excuses We Make to Avoid Change. Excuses We Make to Avoid Change. I've done some research on this one. Human nature is a tricky thing. Like a diamond that has multi-fascets to it. Our human nature has multiple ways to get out of truly examining ourselves and making changes in life that we need to make to truly become a converted Christian. Satan is definitely our enemy, but sometimes, you know what? We are our own worst enemy. Getting in our way of progress of this Christian walk towards the kingdom of God. We stop ourselves. A common challenge people face is blaming outside factors or other things for their problems. Instead of looking at how they might contribute. It's not that other people or outside factors don't happen. They do. The problem is we put 100% of the blame there. And we don't look at our own contributions of how we can make things better. While it's a natural instinct, this holds us back. Affecting personal growth, it affects relationships. And specifically for the sermon today, it affects our ability to change. At the beginning of the sermon, I want to examine some commonly observed reasons why. Many of us resist self-examination or what some call self-reflection. And this is based on some really solid research. One major factor of why we don't change is something that doctors call cognitive bias.

What is cognitive bias? These are mental shortcuts that our brain uses to make a quick decision. These shortcuts can often be based on assumptions. And here's where it gets dicey. They're based on assumptions, not facts, not reality. And as a result, they can seriously distort how we see our situation, including our part in them. In an article published by Mays.co, a research company, titled, 11 Types of Cognitive Biases to Avoid in User Research, we're not going to go through all 11, I'm just reading a little tiny quote from this article. Quote, Cognitive biases are effectively your brain's mental shortcuts to process information faster and to increase the efficiency of decision-making. So just stepping out of the quote, it's not always a bad thing to have preformed decisions or preformed ideas. You know what kind of coffee you want in the morning, so you don't have to sit there and deliberate on a hundred different types of coffee. You just go to the counter and order the one you want and move on and get to work on time. So having a bias is not always a bad thing. It's a shortcut to make a quick decision. But here's where it gets tricky. Back into the quote. While the mind uses these effects to try to increase efficiency, cognitive biases are comprised of assumptions, making them unreliable or warped. End quote. I love that phrase, warped, because that's what we're going to talk about today, is our warped mind. We're going to go through seven cognitive biases that get in the way of spiritual growth. We're just going to go through them one by one, and we're going to go through them rather quickly. So you can either take notes or watch this again online, because I'm not going to go very slow on these. Okay. Cognitive bias number one is called, and you've probably all heard of this, it's called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is when we tend to notice and believe the things that support what we already think and ignore anything that challenges those beliefs, even though the evidence is there. When it comes to personal problems, it can lead us to blame others while ignoring how we may have contributed to those problems. We focus on the evidence that makes us feel like the victim. We tune out anything that might suggest that we played a part. This keeps us stuck in the same mindset, and it really makes it hard to change and grow. An example at work, confirmation bias, someone feels their boss is unfair. So they only notice and they only look for negative feedback from the boss. They ignore the times when the boss offered help or encouragement. They don't consider how their own missed deadlines and attitudes might have been part of the issue. It's just a bad boss. In a relationship, a person feels like their husband or wife never listens. And they fixate on moments of disagreement. She said or he said this, which is true.

They don't see how their own communication might have contributed, nor do they consider when their spouse took care of them. She was so grumpy. Yeah, but she made your eggs anyway. Dude! Confirmation bias. How this can affect your Christian walk. Thinking the church or the ministry is unfair, really common. Rules that are clearly in the Bible are told to you, but they're just mean people when they say it. Can you see that you might need to change? That's uncomfortable, isn't it? Even talking about that's uncomfortable. This is an uncomfortable topic. Really, really important. The second cognitive bias that's really common in the way human beings think is called the self-serving bias. Remember, this is multifaceted. Oh, we've got a lot of excuses for why we don't need to change. The self-serving bias is another common mental habit that gets in the way of personal growth. This is when we give ourselves credit for successes. I worked hard. I'm talented. But blame outside forces when things go wrong. Okay? All of these are similar, but they're different in a subtle way. It wasn't my fault. They messed it up. Or, ah, I just had bad luck today. Giving yourself credit when you succeed. Blaming some outside force when you don't. It's the way we protect our self-esteem. We feel good about ourselves. It's natural. But it can also stop us from taking personal responsibility when needed, so we never change. When we always blame others or outside forces for our failures, we miss the chance to reflect on our own role and learn from our mistakes. You can't fix other people. You can only fix yourself.

That keeps us stuck from making any real growth. An example? Go to school or work. Sometimes you get a promotion, and you say, I earned it because I'm great at what I do. But if they don't get it, they don't get the promotion, then they say, Oh, my boss just played favorites. Well, which is it?

Instead of thinking about what you could have done to improve, you're on a sports team or a project. A person wins the project and says, it was all me, not your team. But if you lose, you blame the ref, the weather, your teammates, not your own performance.

How can it affect your spiritual life? Always taking credit for growth and successes. Always patting yourself on the back spiritually, but always blaming the church or your brethren for shortcomings in your own life. And the next one we're going to go through is very similar to that, the self-serving bias, but with a slight twist to it. So we twist the self-serving bias. And the third one is called the fundamental attribution error. This one, these are all tricky. The fundamental attribution error, very similar to the self-serving bias. The fundamental attribution error is another mental shortcut that makes it easy to miss our own problems. It happens when we blame other people's behavior on their character. Oh, this one is very judgy, right? Their problems are a character flaw, like calling them lazy or rude or just not a good Christian. But we explain our own behavior based on the situation outside us that we're in, like saying we were just tired or have just busy. This is a double standard that can create a blind spot. We have ourselves, you know, the benefit, we give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. We don't do the same for other people, which makes it harder to see how our own choices or habits are actually part of the issue. For example, like being late. I always used to be late. I used to be late to everything. When I was a deacon, I was known as the late deacon.

You're late to a meeting and you think, wow, traffic was awful. I've literally done this before. Traffic was awful. But I left late. I should have planned for bad traffic. Can you see? Can you look at yourself and do that? But when a coworker is late, oh, they're always so disorganized. Horrible people. Or you snap at someone in a relationship. You snap. You lose your cool. And you excuse it by saying, yeah, I've just had a rough day. It's an external thing. It's not my character. But when they do the same thing to you, you think, oh, what a mean person on the inside.

That person is so moody. You can't even get along with them. It's a bias. You're being unfair in your own mind. It's a war going on inside your head and my head. And that's what this Passover season is all about. It's identifying our flaws, our biases, the way we trick ourselves.

When you perceive that everyone else has a character flaw, or something when something goes wrong, but you are a sweet little angel that gets into bad situations, you have very little chance of growing spiritually. The fourth, cognitive bias. Cognitive bias. Let's break that down. What does that mean? Cognitive means thinking. Bias means you've made a decision already before checking the facts. So you're thinking assumptions, you could say. That's what a cognitive bias is. It's a thinking assumption. This one is called the bias blind spot. The biased blind spot.

Do you have this? It's another mental trap. And it's a sneaky one. The biased blind spot is so sneaky. It's a tendency to see how other people are influenced by biases. You can see it so clearly. Oh, they made a decision without checking the facts. And you're correct. You can see it. And you know you're correct. Because here are the facts. Here's the decision they made. Here's the assertion they made about the facts.

And they were wrong. And you can see they are wrong. But there's a blind spot. Thinking that you think clearly and objectively. In other words, we believe we're being fair and logical even when we're not. Politicians who go to extreme left or extreme right tend to fall in this trap. Those Democrats, those Republicans. Okay? This is the biased blind spot. When we don't realize that we are just as prone to biased thinking as anyone else, we're less likely to question our own views.

So we're so confident that we're right. Makes it easy to blame others and ignore our own part in the problem. So here's an example. You get into an argument with someone. You think the other person is being emotional and irrational. But you never stop to wonder if your own emotions and assumptions might be affecting your judgment, too. I remember I was a teenager. I was getting into a squabble with some older boys at a teen retreat. A biblical teen retreat of where we should have been behaving ourselves.

And they got mad at me. They were both twice as big as me. So in other words, just one of them could have whooped me. They were kind enough not to beat me up. They simply, fully clothed, threw me into the shower and turned it on. I was livid! I ran into the commercial kitchen, grabbed a huge gallon of freshly squeezed orange juice, and ran out the kitchen. And my mother said, That's what they called me back then. They stopped me in my tracks.

And I realized I had a blind spot. I could see their irrational behavior, but I couldn't see my own. I couldn't see that I was out of control. Can you see that? Yes, other people have biases. This is a sneaky one. But so do you! And you can't... Here's the rub. You can't fix their biases. But you can fix your own. I believe this is a nasty and tricky attribute of human nature. It's one of the reasons we are in smaller groups in the Church of God instead of one cohesive group.

I know that's a sensitive thing to talk about. But we're talking about something uncomfortable today. And we're being humble and honest about it. How about you spiritually? Can you see that you may be as biased as other people? And by the way, don't worry.

I'll explain how you can be sure that you're not being biased, that you're being rational and logical. There is a way. We will explore that a little bit in this sermon and a lot in the next sermon that I'm going to give. But on your own, can you see that you might have as many biases as somebody else? That is so important. Okay, the fifth cognitive bias is called the Dunning-Kruger effect. Dunning, D-U-N-N-I-N-G dash Kruger, K-R-U-G-E-R effect. The Dunning-Kruger effect is a bias where people who aren't very skilled at something often think they're doing better than they actually are.

Now, this doesn't affect all of us. It only affects some of us. You don't have all of these biases, but you do most likely, in fact almost guaranteed, have some of them. The Dunning-Kruger effect. They don't realize what they don't know. So they can't or won't see their own mistakes. And they can't take criticism. Because of this, they may not recognize their lack of skill is causing the problem. Instead, they just blame outside factors.

Common denominator. Blame somebody else. Truly believing that they did just fine. At work, for example, someone gives a weak presentation but thinks they did great. When the team gives negative feedback, they feel unfairly criticized that they were just prejudiced against him or her instead of seeing what they could do to improve.

In a group project, a person contributes very little but still believes that they carried the team. Literally did hardly anything. Just their presence shined and inspired the team. If the project doesn't go well, it was everybody else's fault without realizing they didn't do anything. Or they didn't do it well. I have seen this one so many times in my life. People who never take a suggestion because they're sure they are the expert.

You know what King Solomon calls them in Proverbs? Fools. This one is the fool. There's a balance. There's a balance between being a quitter and being someone who never improves at anything. And right in the middle of those two extremes is a person who never gives up but is honest about his or her own mistakes. That's the person who can grow and change. That's the person that Jesus Christ is looking for.

The sixth cognitive bias is fear-based. And this is a common one. And it's called loss aversion. Loss aversion. I'm afraid to lose something. It's the idea that losing something feels worse than gaining something feels good. It's worse to lose something than it is to gain something, so I'm not going to risk it. In terms of self-growth, admitting we're wrong or at fault feels like a personal loss. Like, I did something wrong. I have to lose that part of me. That part of me needs to go away. That's the days when love and bread. We throw out the old bread. Paul said, become a new lump. The lump of bread is us. The days when love and bread, we're throwing out, not sin, but the sinful us. It's not just sin that goes out. It's our old habits, our old thoughts, our old actions, our old words. All of it. In the trash. That's loss. And this fear that losing something is worse than gaining something will hit the ego and your confidence and your reputation if you let it. Because it's the kind of loss that feels so uncomfortable, people often avoid it. Even if taking personal responsibility, and they know that taking personal responsibility could actually lead to growth or stronger relationships with other people, and they would be happier, they won't take the risk. When you're at work, someone makes a mistake. But they won't admit it, because they're afraid it will make them look weak or incompetent. So they never say a word, even though they know it was them. Even though owning up to it could actually build trust. Oh, I did that. Please let me help fix it. Oh, we can count on that guy. We can count on that lady. Whenever they make a mistake, they own it. And they fix it. No. This person hides. In relationships, it's devastating. A person avoids saying, I was wrong. Because it feels like losing power or pride. Even though an apology would be healing, the apology, even if you do lose power and pride, good. It's a relationship, not a power play. Your relationship will get stronger. Don't fear the loss. Love the gain more. Admitting fault is only a short-term loss. In most cases, and usually, especially with God, it is always a gain. The net is a profit. You are the winner when you admit fault. It makes you feel loss, so you're afraid to do it. But when you have faith, belief trusts loyalty. Because you admit you truly made a mistake with God. You win with God. We're not going to go there, but jot down 1 John chapter 1 verse 9. It's one of my favorite scriptures. I keep it in my memory banks. 1 John 1 verse 9. God is faithful to forgive when we confess our sins. You will win. The final bias, and I wanted to go through these quickly, because I want to get to the solution. But the final bias that I want to talk about, and there are many, many more than these. These are simply the most common that all of us share in common most of the time. This one is called the optimism bias. This is the living by serendipity person. This is the person who doesn't plan or do pretty much anything unless they feel like doing it. Optimism bias is when people believe bad things, listen to this, bad things are less likely to happen to them than to other people. Really? While being hopeful isn't a bad thing, it can sometimes make us ignore problems that we are a part of and we can solve. We can be living so much better, a better life, if we would just not have the optimism bias. And you know why we ignore our part in the problem? Because we assume, oh, everything will work out in the end. This kind of thinking can lead to brushing off responsibility in the moment, since we believe future success will somehow make up for our current mistakes. So our current mistakes are no big deal.

One of the greatest examples of this is finances. Someone overspends and avoids budgeting, sitting down and making a budget, thinking, it'll be fine. I'll get a raise soon. I'll get a better job. Instead of just facing the issue now, plan for emergencies, for things to go wrong. Start a savings account. Don't spend as much as you make.

Yeah, all that. What about health issues? A person keeps putting off healthy habits. Why? Because they believe nothing bad will happen to me. Even if the signs of trouble are already showing. Make a change. Take the loss. Okay, yes. But you might say, yeah, but Romans 8.28. What Paul said, and we know that all things work together for good. To those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Yes! I 100% believe that. That is not an optimistic statement. That is a realistic statement. Because that means really bad things are going to happen to you, and it's going to work for your good.

That's not optimism, brethren. It doesn't mean that everything that happens to you will be good. Nor does it release you from personal responsibility in any way.

You can't just throw your hands up and say, I don't care, and live your life by serendipity. Believe me, if I had a favorite bias, this would be mine. I would love to live by serendipity. I don't. I can't. I'm a husband, a father, and life comes at you hard and fast, doesn't it?

Take responsibility. You can't just live carelessly and expect God to bless you. So here's a review of the seven tricks that we play on ourselves that we just discussed that hamper our spiritual life, our work, our relationships. Seven common biases that make us avoid blaming ourselves. Confirmation bias. We focus on the info that supports what we already believe, and we ignore everything that challenges what we believe. Self-serving bias. We take credit for the good and blame others for bad luck. Or bad luck for the bad. The fundamental attribution error. We blame others' behavior on their personality, their character. Very judgey, the fundamental attribution error. But we blame our own problems on our situation, not our character. No solution there, brethren.

The bias blind spot. We think others are biased, but we assume we're thinking clearly and objectively. Just listen to any politician. The Dunning-Kruger effect. The less we know, the more we overestimate our skill. And we don't see our own mistakes and our own need to learn and grow. Loss aversion. Admitting fault makes us feel lost to our ego, so we avoid and protect it. We protect our self-image at all costs. Or the optimism bias. We assume that things are going to work out, so there's no urgency to fix our problems or our own role in them. Why do we take these shortcuts in our mind? Why do we do it? Why do we derail our own spiritual growth? There is one principle discussed by the Apostle Paul that answers all seven of those cognitive biases. Romans chapter 8 and verse 7. Please turn there with me. Please read this with your own eyes. Romans chapter 8 and verse 7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. The net Bible puts it clearly. Let's read Romans 8 verse 7 from the net version. Because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. Good translation of what that meant. Why do we fall for these common biases so easily? Because we don't want to do it God's way. We fall for them because we want to.

So we get very creative on how we excuse our own bad behavior, all the while judging some outside force for every bad thing that happens in our lives. You know I've learned to do the exact opposite when I get pulled over. Not that I get pulled over by the police. When I get pulled over by the police, it blows them away that I don't use any cognitive bias when talking to them. Police officer, I was looking for the address, rolled right through a stop sign, didn't see it. Woo! Police officer stops me, pulls me over, rolled the window down. You know why I stopped you? I was like, I have no idea. And on a clock, I didn't say that to him. He said, you ran through that stoplight back there. I looked in the rearview mirror, saw the stop sign. I looked at him, I said, wow, you got me. He laughed. He probably hadn't heard that from somebody. He hears excuses and rationalizations and all kinds of reasons why he shouldn't get a ticket. And I put my hand out the door and said, yep, give me the ticket. I did it. Gave me the warning. I was slightly over the speed limit going to Corpus Christi. State trooper pulled me over.

She said, you were going over the speed limit. I disagreed with her on how much over the speed limit I was going. But I was like, okay, you got me. You know what she came back with? A warning. Because I didn't argue that I had broken the rule. And I deserved the consequence. Don't use cognitive bias in your life. Don't allow it. Do you know why we allow it? Because we want to. We don't want to do it God's way. We don't want to follow the rules. All the while judging some outside force for every bad thing that happens in our life. You want to get off that crazy ride? Here's how you do it. Here's how you jump off crazy human nature.

It's an overarching principle in the Proverbs that addresses the seven cognitive biases that we discussed. Proverbs chapter 28 and verse 13. Proverbs 28 verse 13. I'll read this from the English Standard version. I rarely read Proverbs in the King James. Rarely. Proverbs is so poetic and King James is so not. Poetic. I love the King James. Don't get me wrong. I just don't read Hebrew poetry in the King James. Proverbs 28, 13. Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper. What do all of these cognitive biases have in common? You're concealing your own problems, your own faults, your own transgressions. You're concealing them. And when you do that, you will not prosper. You will stay where you're at.

But, it says, he who confesses and forsakes them... For sakes what? Confesses what? Your mistakes... Will obtain mercy. It is a promise, hard and fast. Repent. The solution to most of our problems in life is to face them honestly, with a great deal of humility, and commit to making a change. That's what the Gospel is all about. Notice what Jesus said in Matthew 4, verse 17.

I think Sam might have read this in the sermonette. Or he read one similar to it in Matthew 4, verse 17. From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, repent! For the kingdom of God is at hand. You have to do something to be in the kingdom of God. This was Jesus' opening remarks in preaching the Gospel. First thing he said when he preached the Gospel, very first word was this word in the Greek, metaneu.

And Thayer's definition is to change one's mind for the better, heartily to amend. You know what heartily amend means? It means to make a change with all your effort. But that's not all. To heartily amend with abhorrence of one's past sins. With emotion, both thinking and feeling. To change your mind and to change your actions with abhorrence of your past. So the concept of repentance means both to be sorry and to change. And that's what we're going to talk about for the rest of the sermon. What is true repentance? What is the solution to cognitive bias that keeps us where we're at?

Who needs to have a repentant heart, and why does God require it of us? There are two kinds of sorrow. One is of the flesh, and it's selfish, and it leads to death. And the other is sincere, and it's honest, and it leads to eternal life. Paul talks about this, this godly sorrow versus worldly sorrow, in 2 Corinthians.

Let's go there. I'm going to read it from the NLT version. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verses 9 through 13. He says in verse 9, Now I am glad I sent it, talking about a letter that made them sad. I'm glad I sent it. Not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. Okay, I said something harsh, but you took it.

You didn't use any cognitive bias. You said, you know what? Give me the ticket. I ran the stop sign. And you obtained mercy, and you changed, and you grew. Because it caused you to repent and change your ways. And it was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have. So you were not harmed by us in any way. Verse 10, For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow. Paul's saying, I don't regret sending you that letter, because it helped you get back on track. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.

The sorrow that doesn't cause you to change your mind or change your ways. What is that kind of sorrow? Verse 11, Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you. Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves. Such indignation. You were literally angry with yourself. Like, how could I do that? Ever been there? I know I have. Such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such ready to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right. Godly sorrow, you pull out all stops. You make sure you make things right. That's what the days of unleavened bread and Passover remind us of.

To pull out all stops. To throw out all the leavening. That leavening isn't just sin. That leavening is the sinful me. Godly sorrow lights a fire inside us. It makes us want to change. It makes us need to change. I bring this up because I don't want you to hear the entire sermon and think that God wants to punish you.

Godly sorrow is not about punishing yourself. It's about change. Some people tend to think that way. The purpose of true repentance is to turn your heart away from sin and towards God. That kind of sorrow leads to life. God, He's not vindictive, but He is wise and He's very kind, very loving, very merciful. He knows that repentance is the only way for us to come back to Him. So He says, Okay, it's uncomfortable, but walk through the repentance and you'll be where you need to be.

A carnal sorrow, we've all experienced it. This sorrow is the opposite of repentance. It causes us to ignore our own faults and place the blame outside of ourselves. We especially blame God. We don't even realize it sometimes that we're blaming God. Human or carnal sorrow leads to death because it makes us stubborn to change, resistant to growing, staying in our current state, and never pleasing God. This kind of sorrow we commonly call self-pity or feeling sorry for yourself, as we discussed today in the cognitive biases. Self-pity is dishonest. It's based on assumption, not fact. It places all, not some, but all of the blame, all of your pain, all of your problems, on something or somebody else. Self-pity causes us to want to punish other people for our trials. Really, it makes us an intolerable human being. The problem with that is that God is not trying to punish us with repentance. He wants to forgive us. He wants to help us to change. And we need to be willing to let him do it. Wallowing and self-pity or blaming other people for our problems prevent us from being forgiven, and it shackles us to never change. You know, I made this sermon, and I researched this sermon, and you know what I did? I prayed that I wouldn't just preach this sermon, but that I would live it.

Because we all need to do this. Self-pity is often combined with anger, which leads to this bitterness, this deep-rooted anger that doesn't go away. You wake up with it, and you go to sleep with it. That only leads to death. There are many, many great examples of self-pity. We'll just go through one. We've gone through before. I love this example because, I mean, his story is out there for all to see, which makes me pity the man. It's Job. He's one of the best examples. Job 3, verse 9. Job 3, verse 9. Listen to the blame, the self-pity. Listen to the sorrow that doesn't lead to repentance. And let's not have this sorrow. Job 3, verse 9. May the stars of its morning be dark. May it look for light and have none. May the morning have no light, in other words. Boo-hoo. And not see the dawning of the day. By the way, I would be in self-pity way before Job was. Alright. He went through horrendous trials. And he finally falls into self-pity. So, kudos to Job. I would have been in self-pity after the first trial. I stub my toe. I go into self-pity. Okay, so I'm not picking on Job. Job is a great example of not repenting, and then later going, Oh! I need to repent! And he did it! And he succeeded. That's why I love Job. It doesn't end badly. It ends well. I always like the movie where the hero rides off in the sunset with the girl. Okay, gotta have a happy ending. Job 3, verse 10. Because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb! In other words, why was I born?

Nor hide sorrow from my eyes. Oh, he's sorry, but not for what he did or refused to do. Job 3, verse 11. Why did I not die at birth? Now, this guy's in it, isn't he? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?

Why did the knees receive me? Why did the breast that I should nurse?

For now, I would have lain still and been quiet. I would have been asleep. Then I would have been at rest.

I'm not quite that bad when I stubbed my toe, but I'm close.

He went through a lot to get to this point. With kings and counselors of the earth, who built ruins for themselves, or with princes who have gold, who have filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not hidden like the stillborn child, like infants who never saw light? There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. There's no repentance there. There's no... Wow, I sure am a goober. I really need to change. There's none of that. It's oh, woe is me. Job pitied himself. He was afflicted. He was in pain.

But he didn't turn to God. Whoops! That's the key. Repentance means to turn. Turn away from your sins and turn to God. Oh, he pleaded with God. Sure, he talked to God. He reasoned with God.

But he didn't repent. That's your solution. That's the point of the sermon today. At the end of the book, he did repent. And I pity Job. And I am appreciative that Job went through what he did and shared this story. His story is written down for all of us to read. I'm so thankful that our story is not written down for all to read.

So that's why I say, poor Job.

Because we all do what Job did. So who needs to repent? The Apostle Paul was in Athens in front of the idol of the unknown God in Acts 17. And in Acts 17, verse 30, is where we're going to pick it up.

Acts 17, verse 30, he said, Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked. But now, when is now? Now is when Jesus Christ died. And the way back to God was made available.

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked. But now, God commands all men everywhere to repent. Because he will appoint a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. That's Jesus Christ. He has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

So who needs to repent?

Not to get too personal, but you do.

In case you missed that.

Psalm 14, let's go there, verse 2. Again, Hebrew poetry, so I'm going to read it from the New Living Translation. Psalm 14, verses 2 and 3. Why? Why do all men need to repent?

Psalm 14, verse 2. The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race. He looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no. All have turned away. All have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one.

And God's not going to punish us for that. I mean, he will if we don't repent, but he doesn't want to. He just wants us to repent. Repentance is not punishment. And it's not a loss, it's a net gain. It's a net gain. So who needs to repent? We all do. But repentance isn't just a one-time act. If you've kept Passover more than a few times, you probably realize the answer is no. Repentance is not a one-time act. Repentance is this ongoing Christian battle.

If something that you're going to face until you have a spiritual body, you are completely in a spiritual mind, you're going to have to repent. Until then, we have a war, and that war is in our mind, and we have to win it in order to be the children of God. And God's going to help us win it. So don't worry about that. Don't let that make you nervous.

So why do we punish ourselves? What do I mean by that?

We punish ourselves by not repenting, by not moving towards God. It's uncomfortable. I get that because I do it.

But it's so much better than staying where we're at. Don't live in a pool of self-pity and never change. Jesus Christ paid the righteous requirements of the law so that we can live according to the Spirit, so that we can change. So in summary, it is completely normal for people to struggle with seeing themselves as the source of their own problems. You know, it's not about being stubborn or difficult. It's just about being a human being. It's hard to see yourself. We're born with it. Our minds from birth feel uncomfortable, especially when it comes to admitting fault, facing tough truths, or stepping into the unknown. And Christianity has a lot of stepping into the unknown. Going from where we are to where we need to be, and we've never been there before.

A lot of this comes down to how we see ourselves. We all want to believe that we're good and capable and doing our best, and anything that threatens that image can really be unsettling. Until God's Spirit starts to work in you. And you see and appreciate what you're going to become, not revel in what you are.

Despite that, our brains play tricks on us through these mental shortcuts called biases, making it easier to blame other people and ignore our part in things. And let's be honest, change can be a little scary. Facing uncertainty and risk can feel not just scary, but overwhelming. Right?

We're also shaped by the world around us to make it even harder. Sometimes society tells us to stay strong, never admit weakness, makes it even harder to pause and reflect honestly on ourselves. There's great value in doing it. Here's the good news. Just recognizing that these patterns exist is a powerful first step. When you become more aware of what's going on inside you, things like self-examination, which if you look it up, it's called self-reflection, and asking other people for honest feedback, we actually open the door to real growth.

It helps us shift our mindset instead of seeing mistakes as failures. Oh, I failed again! I'm such a failure! Nae nae! We start to see them as chances to learn and improve. It's just a growth opportunity. Being willing to look inward isn't easy, but it is one of the most important and rewarding things we can do. It leads to better relationships, stronger confidence, and a more meaningful life. And yes, to top it all off, your internal struggle will lead to an eternal life. Everyone's journey is different, but it all starts with a little honesty and a lot of self-examination. So this Passover in Days of Unleavened Bread, don't coast through it. Don't coast through the Days of Unleavened Bread. Engage yourself in the mission to become a child of God, to grow in the stature and the fullness of Christ. Look inward. See a fault or two. Repent. Push forward in your journey to a much better life.