1970s | The Devil Made Me Do It

The story you're about to see is true. People have got to know whether or not their president's a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me that you built a time machine out of a DeLorean? Senator, you can see the firemen assembled here, the police officers, FBI agents, and you can see the two towers, a huge explosion now, raining debris on all of us. Top three. It's official.

The government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history. I said, what you say? And the devil stopped following me, telling me how good I look.

The ref said, I'm not going for that. He said, because every time you do something wrong, you blame it on the devil. He said, you blamed it on the devil when you ran the car under the side of the church. She tells him, it was the devil. You wasn't there.

How do you know? He said, he grabbed that steering wheel out of my hand. The ref said, well, why didn't you step on the brake? She tells him, because when he grabbed the steering wheel, I tried to kick him. The ref said, how come the devil's always making you do something for yourself?

When's the devil going to do me a favor? She said, I asked him about that. He said he did already. The devil said, if it wasn't for him, you wouldn't even have a job. All right.

Rev and his wife having a conversation. You know, if you're familiar with Flip Wilson, the devil made me do it. Popular comedian in the 70s. We are in a series called Decades. Decades.

And we've been walking through the decades each week, and I'm going to take my watch off because it likes to Siri me a lot, and it'll talk to me if I don't do that. So I want us to take a minute and put our mindsets back in the 70s. Last week we talked about the 60s, the week before we were in the 50s, now we're taking that time machine to the 70s. And if you were in the 70s, here's what you would have thought, here's what you would have felt. Shag carpets and bowl cuts.

Did your mom put a bowl over your head and cut your hair? Then you probably lived in the 70s. I remember shag carpets, and I was born in 78, so 80s definitely carried that on too. And what's interesting about the 70s, if you lived in the 70s, you would have had one phone in your home. And that one phone would have been in the kitchen, and it would have had a rotary device on it.

My son and I were watching a movie the other day, it was an older movie, and it had a phone in the kitchen, and the person was talking on the rotary phone. And he said, what is that? I said, that's a phone, son, back in the day. And I gave him a whole explanation of what it used to be like. People love station wagons.

You know, it was like the Griswolds back then in the 70s, and families would do family trips. And what you would have found in the station wagon is this thing called an eight-track player. Eight-tracks were the thing. That's where you played your music, okay? And if you don't know what that is, some of you don't even know what CDs are, probably.

But it was sort of like what you do with a CD, except it was big and white and took up half of your center console. But kids, they had an incredible time. There's a lot of toy advancements in that day. And I don't know who come up with this marketing concept, but you can actually have a pet rock. I wish, I mean, they were selling pet rocks like crazy, and you could have a pet rock in your room.

The Nerf ball was developed. That was the first in-house ball that you could throw around the house and not get in trouble with your parents. And the video game, the very first video game ever released, or one of the first ever released, was a video game called Pong. Pong. Do you remember Pong?

Okay. Do you date that far back? Okay. Somebody's like, woo, I loved Pong. I played all day long.

And Atari would release that game system, and not long after that, 2600 would come out. And then the video game era would start taking its place. And Skylab, Skylab, USA's first space station was launched in space. Richard Nixon was elected the 37th president of the United States. Apollo 13.

Apollo 13. The shuttle launch would be deemed the most successful failure that we've ever had in the space program and voting age was lowered to 18, which was a big thing in that time. And TVs. We all love TV. TV is a center staple in many houses and at this point it was established forever and ever and ever that it would be a center focus in a home.

With information, with shows, with movies, entertainment, all kinds of things. Everybody had a television at this point. Absolutely everybody did. With shows like The Happy Days, you know, I dressed like Fonz the first week or attempted to. I'm not cool enough to be the Fonz.

But Mary Tyler Moore show was really popular. The Six Million Dollar Man, I thought that was the coolest show. By my time it was reruns, but this bionic guy that was running around. Somebody loved The Six Million Dollar Man. The bionic woman also, they introduced that.

The Dukes of Hazzard. That was a Saturday afternoon for me, you know, watching The Dukes of Hazzard and Roscoe Pete Goldtrain, you know. MASH. My parents loved MASH. You know, that was a real popular show in that time, especially centered around war.

When we were dealing with war at the time, it was a comedic way of trying to deal with all the things that we had going on. And then Jim Henson would enter on the scene. Just five years before then, he would have Sesame Street. But there would be this nighttime show, if you all remember, called The Muppet Show. The Muppet Show.

Hermit D. Frog hosting the show and Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear and everybody. And then sketch comedy got real big during this time. Sketch comedy was the thing with the introduction of SNL. The first cast of SNL came out in the 70s with Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Jane Curtis.

Just, you know, that's iconic, right? You go back. If you lived in that time, that was a big deal. And cartoons, cartoons were Saturday morning only, okay? You only watch, I remember my sister and I, even in the 80s, you know, you woke up real early so you did not miss a cartoon, right?

Because if you missed a cartoon, you couldn't watch it that week. So cartoons were really big. They were really coming into play. And soap operas during the day, daytime soaps were really big. And the girl of the decade, everybody wanted to look like, every woman wanted to look like her.

Every man wanted a woman that looked like her. Her name was Farrah Fawcett. Farrah Fawcett. She was the one. She was, she was who we were trying to look to and look for in that period of time.

Movies. Always, always movies. Movies is a big part of the culture, the pop culture. In that particular time, a lot of movies came out. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, if all of you remember that.

And everybody was afraid to go into water. If you remember... . . When they watched this movie, Jaws, put a fear in everybody's heart that there was a shark out there with a low budget, no special effects, kind of put that freak factor in film, and following that would be Halloween, which would be another low budget film that would put that kind of factor in there.

The Godfather, if you're a Godfather fan, that would launch Al Pacino and James Caan and all the gangstas that would be called gangstas from there on out from that day. And Sylvester Stallone would enter the scene with a written and directed movie called Rocky. Rocky was the best pitcher that year, and you would have known about Rocky. You would have been going and seeing Rocky that year. But more than anything, last but not least, of the movies, the movie that really changed everything was, and my wife's yelling for this because she's a big nut of this, is Star Wars.

Star Wars. Star Wars. The ideas and special effects were way out of this world from anything anybody had ever seen. For weeks, the theaters were lining up to see this movie, and if you were living during that time, if you were a part of that, some of you were a part of that, and if you weren't, you would have been going to see Star Wars when that came out. In the music scene, there was some very sad moments.

The Beatles break up. You know, that didn't last too long, did it? And Elvis dies. And you'd think it's the end of rock and roll, but it wasn't. It was just the start.

Michael Jackson goes solo. Everybody was ready for Michael Jackson. And this group called the Sugar Hill Gang releases Rapper's Delight, which could be called one of the first rap singles to hit the charts. And that would usher in the beginning of rap. Rock and roll, rock music.

Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin were still doing their thing from the 60s into the 70s. But music would start getting a little harder, a little heavier, a little wilder with Van Halen coming into the scene. If you're a Van Halen fan, that would have been ushering in that age. Queen also was a big band during that time. Pink Floyd, Southern Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Some of you are Lynyrd Skynyrd Allman Brothers fans. They would have been people that you would have listened to in that day. Bands that you would have listened to. And also, not only hard rock, but soft rock became really big during that time. Contemporary, soft rock like James Taylor.

You've got a friend, you know. The North Carolina boy, Chapel Hill, comes out. He actually had hair back then. Isn't that cool? If you see him today, he has none at all.

I feel your pain, brother. I'm fighting for mine, too. Billy Joel comes out with Piano Man. Elton John comes out with Rocket Man. And everybody, I guess, wanted to put man after everything on their music.

And the voice of the 70s, I would have to say, and my mother would agree, because she always talks about this voice as Karen Carpenter to Carpenters. And that's how we , the rest of them are necessary. It's all about job raisonnes. the нужно emers and countries worse than young. We have children and sons We have children who have to respond to them.

Thank you. We were really famous in the 70s. And with the release of Saturday Night Fever, all of you know, as you saw up here on stage, Matthew's really wearing the part, disco came in. Disco was super popular, took over rock and roll, started people packed clubs and skating rinks, listening to the Bee Gees, right? Yeah.

Donna Summers, ABBA, KC and the Sunshine Band, Village People, a whole genre of music came out of that. And also, reggae and Caribbean came in with the introduction of Bob Marley. And I wanted to give a special tribute to Jimmy Buffett. Jimmy Buffett, who put Caribbean music and country together and every kind of genre you could think of together. He passed away just a few months ago, so I had to put his picture over Bob Marley's today.

So if you're Bob Marley fans, I'm sorry. But every decade has its crisis, right? It seemed like music was good and pop culture was good. A lot of fun movies, a lot of fun things happening. And there's always good times, but there's always down times, too.

And there was crisis. In fact, CNN once described the 70s as careening from crisis to crisis. Vietnam War continued through a good portion of the 70s. It was an era of activism that continued from the 60s. In fact, the 60s and 70s at the beginning were not much different.

The good news is civil rights for African Americans made some major gains during that time. But women's rights became a main stage, came on the main stage. Also, LGBTQ push began during the early part of the 70s, piggybacking on the women's rights movement. The oil crisis of 1973 sent people to the gas stations lining up for miles and miles. Sometimes they would actually have flags outside the gas stations telling you whether it's red or green.

Red would say no gas, green would say there was gas. People were really concerned about the gas prices rising up from, you know, 15 cents a gallon to 30-something cents a gallon. Ooh, big jump, man. 40 cents a gallon, 50 cents a gallon. It's going up, right?

Can y'all relate? We can relate today. There's something about oil and gas that puts everybody in a panic, sends everything up in the air, right? And the economy was really, really hurting during that time. They were starting to go downhill.

And then there was an exposing of political corruption through the Watergate scandals where Richard Nixon would be the only president ever to resign from office. As you heard on the screen, the famous quote, I'm not a crook. But eventually he would succumb to what was going on and resign from office, which led President Gerald Ford in his 1975 State of the Union address say, the State of the Union is not good. It was a hard time. It was a hard time economically.

It was a hard time adjusting and navigating and trying to figure out all the things that they were experiencing that came from the 60s. As a result of the mistakes of it feels good, do it mindset of the 60s, the aftermath would play out in the 70s. As comedian Flip Wilson would say, he makes that statement, that statement that's funny to us as Rev and his wife are having the argument about whether the devil made it do it. That would embody, that statement, the devil made me do it, would embody the 70s. So now that we have this feel-good attitude in the 60s, we have to take the next step to say that we refuse to take responsibility for the things.

If we believe that it feels good, do it, philosophy or truth is relative and whatever I experience is truth, we have to take on the idea that what I did or the choices that I make, I carry no responsibility for. And we see that play out in the 1970s and it became a blame game. Their fault. The 60s fault. It was government's fault.

It was authority's fault. And what we saw as a result is divorce rates increase. Governor Ronald Reagan would sign into law the no-fault divorce as a result of everything that was going on. And he would say until his death that that was the worst decision that he ever made in his political career. STDs went up and pregnancies went up, which led to Roe v.

Wade legalizing abortion. They dealt with the repercussions with selfish decisions that pointed the blame to the decade that once was. They excused sin. They excused sin. They didn't accept responsibility ushering in a movement I want to talk about today.

And that's enablement. An enablement mentality set across the land. And enablement isn't good. And we want to talk about today. So what's going on?

Every decade has its problems. Every period has crisis, but there's always a way. Decades come and go, but the good news is our God is always, always the same. It always works. God is a firm foundation that we can always hold on to.

And it's not dated. It's not old. It's not old-timer religion, okay? Give me that old-time religion. Yeah, please give me that old-time religion because his old-time religion doesn't ever fade.

It works. And that's why we have this theme verse that we've been carrying, if you want to call it anchor verse or theme verse, throughout this series. It says, I, the Lord, do not change. So you, this is the why. Why?

So you, the descendants of Jesus. Jacob are not destroyed. This is good news. The reason God doesn't change, we can trust that His ways always work. In Jeremiah 6.

16 it says, This is what the Lord says, Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths. The ancient paths might seem dated. The ancient paths might not go along with our culture. It might seem weird.

It might be all sorts with what's going on in pop culture today. It might not make sense to a lot of people. But He says, Ask for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is and walk in it. And you will find what?

Rest in your soul. People need rest for their souls. We need rest for our souls. When we're going through crisis, we need rest. Every decade has that available to us.

There is a way. So we've been looking at three themes each week of the decade. Dilemmas, if we want to call them that. Three dilemmas that the decade faced. The mentalities of that decade.

And then we're going to look for the answer. We're going to do some application here, okay? So are you all ready? The first thing that we want to look at. Enablement creates victim mentality over victor mentality.

It was a victim mentality. It's authority's fault. It's a corrupt government. It's their fault. It's religion's fault.

Because they were too religious. They were too legalistic. It's the system's fault. It's a systemic problem, right? That's what it is.

We blamed our ancestors. We blamed the people that weren't even there to defend themselves because we wanted to point the finger at something. We blamed our bloodline. It's because I'm Italian, or it's because I'm Irish, or it's because I'm whatever. This is how I am, and I can't do anything about it.

It's this victim mentality, and if they can't blame anyone else, what do they do? They blame the devil. The devil made me do it. If I can't point the finger at anything else, I want to point it to the devil. We over-spiritualize, and we have a tendency sometimes as Christians to over-spiritualize things.

We blame the devil for everything. We put a spirit over every little mistake that we make. We blame the devil, and the devil's like, whoa, whoa, you're giving me too much credit, but I'll take it. I'll go for it, you know, and he likes that because he doesn't have to try. For many of us, he doesn't really have to try because we blame him.

That's why, and we ultimately, you know, if we can't blame anybody else, we certainly blame God. A victim mentality, a woe is me. I can't get out of this. It's always somebody else's fault. It's always a finger-pointing scenario.

It's never me. It's somebody else. It's something else. It's where I live. It's how I grew up.

It's my mom and my dad. It's whatever it might be. But Galatians 6-7 says, do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

God cannot be mocked. Whoever is. Whoever is. Whoever is. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction.

But whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. We reap what we sow. The decisions we make affect our futures. That's why Romans 8.37, it gives us hope.

It gives us hope. It says, In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. We can be conquerors, but we can't be conquerors because we're so focused on what everybody else has done. We're not willing to look at ourselves and take note. The second thing is enablement mentality builds silos instead of bridges.

Silos versus bridges. We don't want to connect with anybody. We don't want to be responsible for the decisions we make. Let's just be honest. It's better if I just go and do my own thing.

I try to fix it myself. Don't we see that all the time? Social media loves that. You could go on social media right now and pull up reels of how to be a better you by just believing in your divine self. I can figure it out on my own.

I can heal myself. I don't need anybody else's help because nobody else could do it anyway because they're all this and they're all that because we've already blamed everybody. So I'm going to do it on my own. I don't like to be criticized. Enablement, what it does is it avoids the problem.

Enablement, when you have an enablement mentality, you want to dodge the problem in the best way you can. And the mental health crisis rose in the 70s. There was so much going on mentally and nobody really wanted help. And you know it and I know it. When there's an issue, when things happen in our lives and when we're hurt or when we're dealing with things, the worst thing we can do is be alone.

The worst thing we can do is sit alone with our hurt, to sit alone with our problems, to sit alone with those things that we're dealing with and ruminate about them. Somebody hurts us, what do we do? We ruminate about why that person did what they did and we start inventing things that aren't true. And ultimately, we harm ourselves because we don't really want accountability. And we aren't built that way.

We aren't created that way. We're created relationally just like God's created relationally. The three in one, the Trinity, it's relational. And we are meant to be in relationships. That's why Proverbs 18.

1 says, A man who isolates himself seeks his own desires. He rages against all wise judgment. He doesn't want wise judgment. He doesn't want to be judged. And he doesn't want to be judged fairly.

He wants to be judged unfairly because he wants to know that he's right. And we want to know that we're right. And people get hurt. And what do they do automatically? In the church, people get hurt by the church.

What do they do? They leave the church. That's the worst thing you can do is leave a church. In fact, the best place you can be is around people who really love the Lord and care about you. Instead of addressing the problems, instead of addressing the issues, what do we do?

What do we do? We run away. We hide from the church. That's why... And Satan loves that.

He wants to keep you away from the church. He wants to keep you away from people who love the Lord and can help you and help you grow forward. He wants to keep you from that. That's why Hebrews says don't neglect meeting together, as some of you are in the habit of doing. Some of you are here today, you said, yeah, I got in that habit.

I've been there before. When you get in the habit, but encourage one another. You need encouragement. You need people around you that will encourage you the right way. And all the more, as we see the day drawing near, what day?

The day of the Lord's return. We need... The closer we get to the Lord coming back, the harder the world's gonna be. Guess what? We need each other.

And for the body does not consist of one member, but of many. It's a body. The church is a body. And we limp when we don't have those people around us. We need people around us.

You stumble easily and you go back into those sinful patterns. When God rescues you from sin and delivers you from the things, you know you can go back into that. And you can get worse even then when you started. So we need to be careful. We need to be intentional about surrounding ourselves with people, but not getting alone.

And then liberties versus right. Enablement says, you know, it's about my liberties and my rights. And we don't know the difference. There's a confusion between liberties and rights. I have a right to be happy rather than I have the right to pursue happiness.

I have a right to be happy. I should. I need that. We have all these first world problems. You know what entitlement is?

Entitlement is my privileges are actually rights. The privileges that I have, the privileges that I'm blessed with, to be able to live in this country and make something of myself is a privilege in itself. But we have this. We enforce this is a right that I have. I deserve to have a ketchup package in my bag when I go through the McDonald's.

And if it doesn't happen, I'm going in there. I'm throwing the bag down. Why don't you put ketchup in there? I asked for ketchup. Where's my napkin?

How dare you? You didn't even put a pickle on this burger. And my son wanted a pickle on this burger. This gas pump doesn't work and I'm in a hurry. I have a right to get my gas when I want it, self-serve, whatever.

Now I'm going to march into the gas. What is going on? You don't have enough gas tank. That's my right, right? I deserve 100K a year, although I have no experience and I'm just out of college.

And I need six months of vacation too. And on top of that six months of vacation, I don't want to come into an office. And I want to come and go like I want to because I deserve it. I went to college. I mean I grew up because they were already burning over a couple of people.

I was in college. And I– I got a degree and I'm smart. I didn't go to college and I'm smart and I haven't I don't have a degree and I still 100k a year. You know, that that's the starting off pay, by the way. I mean, that's kind of the culture we have.

And it started in the 70s and was still here today that I deserve. I deserve those who have the most have the most problems. We have more problems than any anywhere else. That's why that's why Jesus shared the story of the landowner who went out to hire the workers. He shared a parable, parable of the story, trying to communicate a truth.

Could be a real event. Maybe it wasn't a real event. We don't really know that. But Jesus says this, For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius or a denary, some versions say.

Let's just call it a hundred bucks. For the day and sent them into the vineyard. About nine in the morning, he went out and saw others standing around the marketplace. People weren't working and stuff. He says, you know, he's this generous guy.

He says, OK, I'm going to give you a job. And he gives them the job and they were doing nothing. He told them, you also go and work in the vineyard and I will pay you whatever is right. So they went. About 12 o'clock, he did the same thing.

He went out, found some more people, pulled them in. And about five o'clock, an hour after they got off work, he pulled in some people in the last minute. And at the end of the day, they came in. The workers who were hired, about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. A denary, a hundred bucks.

So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. You know, they got a denary. I should be getting a denary as well. How would you feel? That's what you would say, right?

You know, I've worked longer. I came in early. But each one of them also received a denarius. And when they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. They began to grumble.

These who you hired last worked only one hour, they said. And you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day. But he answered one of them, he says, Am I not being unfair to you, friend? Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Didn't you agree to this?

Isn't this what we talked about? See, what happened is they forgot what they deserved. We forget what we really deserve. Because God is so much better than fair. God is way better than fair.

In fact, Romans 6 says the wages of sin is death. That's what we deserve. We deserve death. Romans 3, 28 says all have sinned. That's what the Bible talks about.

We have all sinned and we've fallen short of the glory of God. You know what that means? That there is no hope for us outside. Outside of Jesus. That we all are dead to our sins.

We deserve nothing. We don't deserve anything. And God reigns on the just and the unjust. He blesses some and He doesn't bless others. He reigns on others and He doesn't reign on others.

And we ask Him, and we have the nerve to ask God, why is He not fair? And here's what He says in verse 14. Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give you this last worker as I give to you. And then He says this.

This is really powerful. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? Am I not allowed? That's what God said.

Am I not allowed to do what I own? I own everything. And that applies in so many different areas because we deserve, we deserve. I deserve because I come to church all my life and then somebody comes in and it gets saved or whatever. And they take your seat and they're sitting in your seat.

No, that's my seat. I've been coming here since the erection of this church and I want to sit right here. And then somebody takes your seat. No, I deserve this. I'm the biggest tither in the church.

I deserve this. You know, and we have those silly things going on in churches. Not our church, but churches. Okay. Just a little thing there.

Okay. I'm not talking about our church because we're a perfect church. You know, we don't have those problems. Amen. But God's like, you know, am I not fair?

Have I not given you eternal life? I'm asking you to go out and bring more into the church. But I think we get so caught up in us because we're enabled. And I'm an American. And I should be able to get my seat.

I should be able to come to church whenever I want to, by the way. And I should do, you know, I can live the way I want to. I can sin during the week and that's okay because I deserve this or I deserve that. But God's ways are not our ways. And we don't understand what God is up to.

We can't understand everything. We don't know everything. But we know his ancient ways. And his ancient ways stand true. So let's look at those ancient ways here in application.

First one is we need to accept personal responsibility. It's important for us to accept... That was really quiet, by the way. When I said that, everybody's like, no. Because, you know, the reason you made a bad grade wasn't because your teacher didn't like you.

Maybe you didn't study. If you don't study, you don't make a good grade. The reason you're pregnant is not because of your boyfriend. You chose to go into that room or put yourself in that situation or whatever. The reason I'm an addict...

Oh, you know, it's my mom. It's my dad. It's my dad. It was the environment. No, no, no.

You have to take personal responsibility. You rolled that joint for the first time, which led to something else. And then you eventually put that needle in your arm. We need to take, we need to be honest with ourselves. The easiest person to deceive is the person in the mirror.

That's the easiest person to deceive. We look at ourselves and we're willing to lie to ourselves, and it's easy to lie to ourselves. It's easy to convince ourselves that we're okay. But we need to be honest. Are we really okay?

That's why it says in James 4.10, Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up. We need to humble ourselves. Tell yourself the truth, even if the truth hurts you a little bit. You need to be honest with yourself.

Really? Is this my mom's fault? Is this authority's fault? Is this my boss's fault? Is this my teacher's fault?

Is this my boyfriend or girlfriend's fault? Is this my wife's fault? Is this my husband's fault? Is it really? Or is there something bigger?

And I'll tell you this, those who point the finger the most usually are the ones with the biggest problems. They're the ones that are willing, not willing to look at themselves. And you'll never get where you need to until you acknowledge where you actually are. Where am I really? Ask those questions.

Ask those questions. Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. We need to confess those things. Speak them out. Be honest with ourselves, right?

I love how Vernon Law, the famous baseball player said, Experience is a hard teacher because it gives you the test first and the lessons afterwards. So that's what experience is. You want experience? You got to learn from your mistakes. You got to look at yourself and say, I really messed up and I need to do better with it.

So learn a lesson from it and move on. So here's what we need to do. We need to, first of all, ask. Ask the question. Ask ourselves a question.

Answer honestly. Answer honestly. Don't just answer. Answer honestly. Put the really on it.

Do I really? Is this really? Is this really their problem? Is it really my mom and dad's problem? Is it really my boss's problem?

Is it really society's problem? Or is it something that I'm dealing with? And then when we know the answer to that, we need to act on it. We need to make some changes. I made the decision to do and act and react the way I did.

And that's where I am right now. Therefore, I'm calling it out and I'm confessing it and I'm forsaking it. I'm getting it out of the way and I'm moving on. That's why Proverbs 27 says the prudence see danger and take refuge. The prudence see danger.

They see themselves. They see this is something dangerous. It's the way I'm thinking. We take refuge and take refuge, which is correct the things that are in the way. But the simple, what do they do?

They keep going and pay the penalty. Keep doing the same things over and over again. If you find yourself in a cycle where you're over and over and over and over again, you're doing the same things, doing the same thing over and over again and seeing no change. Let me just come. Insanity, right?

Insanity. It's insanity. And you have this insanity thing going on. So why not just call it out for what it is? Be honest with yourself, even if it hurts you a little bit.

So not only do we need to be honest with ourselves and take ownership for those things, we need to practice godly accountability. Practice godly accountability because we all have a tendency to dodge the truth by discounting the truth teller. And the truth teller is usually us. That's who we discount, right? So we need other people that are truth tellers in our life.

They speak to our lives. And who we surround ourselves is so significantly important because the people you surround yourself determine the direction and quality of your life. The people you surround yourself with, you put around your circle, your circle of friends, your circle of people, are the people who determine the quality and direction of your life. And if I can look at the people that you hang out with, I can determine pretty quickly what you'll become. Who you hang out with, like Benjamin Franklin, I'm just paraphrasing what he said, you sleep with dogs, you get fleas.

You're walking around with fleas and you're like, oh, how did I get these fleas? And you're blaming, you know, whatever else. And he's like, well, you've made the choice to sleep with the dogs. Proverbs 13 says, whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. If I want to be wise, I want to put wise people around me.

But the companions of fools will suffer harm. Put fools around you, you're going to be foolish. You're going to do harmful things. But put wise people around you to help you and take you forward in your life and make you better. Proverbs 19 says it like this, listen to counsel.

Listen to advice and accept discipline. Don't run from discipline. Don't be afraid of discipline. When somebody says something, if a person really loves you, they're going to discipline you. They're going to talk to you about these things so that you may be wise the rest of your days.

That's why we have small groups. That's why we have people in church. We surround ourselves with God-fearing, God-believing people who help us grow closer to Christ and make the right decisions. And then finally, defeat entitlement with gratefulness. If you want to obliterate entitlement, if you're tired of entitlement, if you notice that you and everything you do, oh, yeah, I'm a very entitled person.

I'm just being honest with myself right now. You know how you can do that? Be grateful. Stop looking at things you don't have or where you've come or your past or all those things that have hurt you and start looking at the things that the privileges you have, the things that you've been given, the things that have been afforded to you, the things that you've been blessed. I want you to compare yourself to other people around the world, especially right now.

When you've got Israel and Palestine and innocent people on both sides fleeing for their lives, trying to figure out how to live day-to-day in war, and we haven't had a ground. Since the Civil War in this country, we are blessed and we are privileged and we complain about these first world issues instead of being grateful for what God has given us and how he's blessed us and and I want and I need not instead of that say I I get to serve God I get to give I get to be generous I get to do all these things I am grateful that's why I thirst Thessalonians says rejoice always pray continually give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus God's will for your life is to be thankful to be grateful to to in all circumstances not just some circumstances oh when things are going bad I'm not going to be grateful and I'm going to blame God no God says be grateful in all circumstances in James 1 17 says every good and perfect gift comes from above everything that you have that's good in your life that's heaven raining down on you that's that's that's little spots of heaven that's little glimpses of heaven that are placed on your life your kids your your job your the good times that you're having those are glimpses of heaven and every good and perfect gift comes from above coming down from the father of the heavenly lights who does not what change like shifting shadows because he he doesn't change and instead of saying I deserve that maybe we should say I deserve death I really do deserve death when I assess my life when I assess my life when I assess my life when I assess my life and I assess everything you know I'm not deep down inside ourselves we know we we deserve death that's why Romans says the wages of sin is death for but the gift of God it's a gift that's that's the privilege we have been given by God himself a gift you know what a gift suggests it doesn't mean you have to work for it it doesn't mean that that you even have a right to it you don't have a right to it a gift is something that's freely given to you because that person just loves you and wants to bless you wants to give you something good just out of and and this gift that's given to us we don't deserve it because when God looks on us he sees our sin but he saw his son and his son and his son and his son and his son was something good and something beautiful and an ultimate sacrifice that he placed on our behalf and see the children that he created and he intended to be with him him to be our God and we to be his people I deserve death but he gave me eternal life that's why Psalm 103 says does not God does not treat us as our sin deserves or repay us according to our iniquities for as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is the love of those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so far has he removed See, that's the good news of a God. A God that says, you know, I give you this free gift. I give you my son. I give you my son.

I don't deserve this, but he's given it to me. 1 Peter says, Praise to be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living world through what? Resurrection. We have a God that didn't die and stay dead.

We have a God that is alive today. He's given us eternal life. He set himself up beside the Father on the throne. Maybe that's you today. Maybe wherever you are.

Crisis, the decades, the things that are going on today. It seems like wars all around the world. Everybody's questioning whether it's the end times and what's going on. Would you consider Jesus? Would you consider that he is the rock?

Would you consider that he is the anchor? Would you consider that he is the lighthouse? That in the storms of life, when everything seems to be falling apart, we can always look to that lighthouse. So let me know you have to consider. Father, we thank you, God, for your word, for this message.

We thank you that you always prove to be the same every decade and there's always a way out. We thank you that you are unshakable and unstoppable. We thank you that we can always place our feet on the rock. I thank you for the joy. We thank you for the joy that you give us in the midst of trials and troubles.

I thank you for the promises that you fulfill every moment in life. We just thank you, Lord, to help us to stay true to the ancient ways so that we do not, we are not destroyed and we do not lose hope. You return to this meeting, so this is theảmary of the