This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park, Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar driving directions and more audio recordings. I'm Scott Bucket. I'm the senior pastor here at Christ Kingdom Church. If you're our guest here this morning, you just want to say a special welcome to you. Glad to have you here with us. If you have a bulletin and hope you did, and if not, I think there's still some more back at the welcome table, but pull that out. There's a sermon outline in there that will be a helpful tool. And the scripture text is printed on the back of that as well, and it will be on the screen likewise. Well, we finished up a series last week, and so we're kind of in between a series here right now. And I'll have to be honest with you, I struggled longer than I have any other time I prepared for a sermon, trying to figure out what God wanted me to preach on this week. You can ask Joe, who emailed me Tuesday, got any idea yet? No. He emailed me Wednesday. How about now? No. He emailed me. Well, I'm not sure he called me on Thursday because he's like thinking. Joe's only second week on staff officially here. Joe's probably thinking this is not a good sign. I try to tell him that usually by Thursday, I certainly am moving on in a direction. It took me to Thursday to figure out. Here, and it was one of these things, I still wasn't sure whether or not this was the topic God wanted me to preach on, but as I got going in it, I was absolutely convinced that it was the topic that he wanted us to talk about this Sunday. I'm not sure if it was spiritual warfare, playing a part of it, whether it was just ignorance and not lack of focus for me this week or some combination of the both. But we're going to look at, and I'm going to ask you, I'm going to challenge you to check your pulse here this morning. Not for your physical heart, but for your spiritual heart. And I'm going to really hit us all hard because I needed it, and my guess is you might need it as well, too, because there is something incredibly wrong with the human heart. And it's not a mere flaw. It's not a mere disability. It's not a slight problem in which to overcome, but it is a very inherent, very deep, completely saturating problem. The Bible says that each of us has. And before I read the scripture text associated with it, let me just give you some statistics about it. Did you know that 94% of university professors think they are better at their jobs than their colleagues? 25% of college students believe they are in the top 1% in terms of their ability to get along with others. 70% of college students think they are above average in leadership ability. Only 2% think they are below average. 85% of medical students think it is improper for politicians to accept gifts from lobbyists. However, only 46% think it's improper for physicians to accept gifts from drug companies. The Princeton University research team asked people to estimate how susceptible they and the average person were to a long list of judgemental biases. The majority of people claimed to be less biased than the majority of people. A 2001 study of medical residents found that 84% thought that their colleagues were influenced by gifts from pharmaceutical companies, but only 16% thought that they were similarly influenced. What's the problem? We are just picking on college students and medical students. That's just the statistics that came quickest to me as I looked around. What's the problem? Sorry? Can't hear you. Okay, that certainly can be part of it. We're going to have the splinter smile says, I need a log in your own. But go a little deeper. What is the problem? Self deception? I like self deception. Self deception is the problem and a huge part of it. Look at our scripture text. Just a couple verses here from Jeremiah. The prophet of God, inspired by his Holy Spirit, says this in verse 9 and 10. The heart is deceitful and above all things. And beyond cure, who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind to reward a man according to his conduct according to what his deeds deserve. The problem is the human heart. And unless you are without a human heart this morning, then you are part of the problem. I'm part of the problem. All of us are the problem. This is a pretty powerful text here, if you think about, even though just a couple verses here, there is so much that said here that we can begin to unpack it here. But what I want us to look at here is look at an unpackage. What does that mean? What does it mean that we each have a deceitful heart? And if that is the very core of who we are, the very heart of our will, the heart of our emotions and passions, the things that we desire most, the things that identify who we are, if that is messed up, if that is distorted at the very core, then we have a serious problem. And it's a problem that we cannot detect because it is self-deception. It is a deceitful heart. Well, I'm going to ask you to check your pulse here this morning because doctors and physicians and even trainers and people like that know that the beginning place, if you want to check a problem with the physical human heart, is you check with the pulse. I bet you haven't had a single physical where the doctor hasn't put on the stethoscope and stuck it up to your chest or your back, ask you to breathe, but has listened to your heart. I bet you haven't had that done where you had to proceed or whatever else if they didn't come in, check your blood pressure and check your pulse. And I'm going to ask you to do that here this morning to look deeper to check your pulse here this morning. You know that there is actually an organization called the Arbinger Institute, which has been set up, and let me read you what the purpose of this institution is. And this is not a Christian institution. It's actually a business one. The Arbinger Institute is a worldwide management training consulting firm and scholarly consortium that works to apply the sweeping implications of self-deception. And if you read that first part of the sentence and told me it was a business book, I would have said, you know, poor marketing strategies. I would have said, you know, something like an employment challenge is hiring the right people, finding the right CEOs and corporate leaders and self-deception, and its solution to all aspects of organizational community and family life. Arbinger has worked with leaders from such organizations as Microsoft, Nike, IBM, Harley Davidson, FedEx, Nestle, Cornell University, and the US Navy to list a few. It's a book that got pointed out to me by several people. In fact, Debbie Houghton, who's not here was one of the first ones here in our church leadership and self-deception, getting out of the box. I'd recommend to highly, it's not a Christian book, but it's one that's very insightful. I'm still actually working my way through it. But got this whole thought, this whole process of me thinking about this here, going a little bit deeper. They define, and again, this is the whole organization, this is their sole purpose, is to explore that. They define self-deception as this. Self-deception is not knowing and resisting the possibility that one has a problem. Let me define that again. You may want to write it down. Self-deception is not knowing and resisting the possibility that one has a problem. As we look, as we check our pulse here this morning, we think about what that means and what that looks like. Let me suggest two things, which are the very two things you do if you're going to literally check your pulse. The first one is, you need to get an accurate reading. That's number one in your outline. You need to get an accurate reading. You probably have had somebody or done it yourself, checked it on your wrist, and you might also check it where. On your neck, those are the two ideal spots to do that. But you're also told not to use your thumb. Why not use your thumb? It has its own pulse that can get in the way that you could mistakenly make it harder to read that. There is definitely a technique, at least two good locations, things that you shouldn't do, but there is a technique and a process in doing that to get an accurate reading. I want to encourage you to do that here this morning, because if you're not careful, you're going to still be part of the problem. Because without seeing the real problem, all the solutions you come up with on your own will never address the real issue that needs to be solved. That is part of the problem, and why the Arbinger Institute, for example, even exists. Because when you are trying to fix what you think are problems with you in your business world, or problems in your family, or problems in your life, if you're not aware of the things that have eluded you, the things that we call self deception or blind spots. If you're not aware of those, every solution that you come up with will address all kinds of issues, but it won't address that problem. And if that problem is at the heart of all that you are, and all that you do as a person, and the Bible says it is, the heart is deceitful above all things, and says you can't know it only God can, then you will never come to a solution that deals with the heart of the matter, deals with the real issue on your own. If you're not careful to use the technique and use certain tools that God has given us to do that. And I want to talk about a couple of tools under this topic of getting the accurate reading. First one, here's a tool that you may use to some degree or another. Hopefully you use it a lot. It's called Self-Observation. One of the tools, you'd write that down if you're a note taker, because you got to remember that self-observation is a real key one. Some of you may have heard of the historical obstetrician Ignat's civil vice, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, who was an obstetrician in Vienna's general hospital back in the 1800s. Anyway, he was there, and he was noticing that in his particular hospital, the one there in Vienna, their mortality rate from mothers that were giving birth had risen very, very high. He was even higher than many other hospitals, and he thought, well, we're an educational research hospital. Why are our statistics? Why do one out of ten, ten percent of all women who come into our hospital to give birth die on the labor and delivery table, or just days afterward? You can understand how that would be very troubling if you're a doctor and you're a hospital, and you're supposed to be one of the best in the world, and your mortality rate is higher. Even people living at the time would actually choose to rather have a baby on the streets and wait days later to come in and have to get checked by a doctor. That was a better idea, or to go to a different hospital altogether. So this, as you can imagine, would trouble him as a doctor and obstetrician during this time. And as he would begin to investigate and begin to look into things, at one point he actually took a four-month stint where he went off to do some research at other hospitals and find out what other hospitals were doing. Well, when he came back, there was something an interesting finding. If you don't already know the story, he came back and found that the mortality rate during the four months that he had left had dropped. And that was kind of disturbing, because you're thinking, alright, as I'm looking for the problem, I leave for four months, and the problem gets better. And he was trying to figure out what was going on. He was in charge of much in the hospital, delivered many of the babies and worked with many of the women. It was a research, it was a medical hospital that was trying to train students. They even had cadavers that they would work on as a way to practice and gear up for it, and then it hit him. Wait a minute. I spend more time with the cadavers in our hospital than anybody else, as well as I deliver more babies in the hospital than anybody else. And he began to think, is there a connection? Is there a connection with my physical involvement with cadavers? Something's happening that's infecting my time with healthy pregnant women. And something called germ theory came out. He began to realize there must be something that I can't see microcosmic that I'm getting contaminated with when I'm working with the cadavers doing investigating, teaching other students that I'm bringing with me over into it. He speculated as he began to look at that, as he began to take techniques like using lime and chlorox and other ingredients that they had to clean out that they mortality rate drop from one in ten to one in a hundred in a very short time. From ten percent to one percent, it became clear to him that's exactly what it was. And germ theory, this whole idea of microcosmic things that you can't see begin to be introduced. Now he struggled with that. He wondered how many people, innocently, have I killed along the way? But I want you to think even more now how many lives have been saved since the mid-1800s because of our understanding of germ theory. Self-observation was absolutely essential and critical here for him. It unleashed him to have insights that he would never have gotten on his own for himself. That he discovered about himself. The implications were devastating as it could be for a doctor who is sworn to help preserve life. But he became absolutely instrumental and significant for changing the world in its view and understanding of medicine. Think about it for a second. Professional athletes, how much they use self-observation. Watching themselves on video. I remember hearing about guys like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, some of the best quarterbacks who actually watch every opponent they're going to play. They watch every single game on video that their opponent has already played, that they're about to play. They want to know exactly how a quarterback in a safety and a linebacker is going to react in a certain past play. They watch films of themselves to see how they perform or they following proper technique. There's a reason why Manning and Brady are the two best quarterbacks in the NFL. Self-observation is a huge part of it. Think about successful businesses, how much money they spend to ask people to come and observe them, to come and to help them get a better, clear picture about what's going on in their company and in their business. Lauren, every now and then get to be a part of a little fun mystery dinner thing. We actually got a part of a group that we get paid to go, basically pays for our meal, to go eat somewhere and take notes of it. Because somebody in it wants to have an observation, wants to be able to take a look at what's going on in their company or their restaurant. Self-observation is absolutely critical to have. But let me tell you this, it's not enough just self-observation. I remember actually back when I was at University of Presbyterian Church on staff there, we and some of the people here, like Erbanax and others, we were part of this in Jan. We put out a worship city. It was the first one we ever did call waiting in the whisper and it was a lot of fun to do it. But let me tell you, too, it was painful. It wasn't for Jan because her tracks were recorded perfectly from the very first time on. You should give her a hard time about that. But people like me had lots of problems. I take the first time I heard myself digitally recorded through earphones in a sound-boost setting. Oh man, it was like murder. To be able to hear that, that quality, and the self-observation from it was so important for me to have to get a proper view of where I needed to grow as a musician, where I needed to work on. But it was absolutely essential in that process, but it wasn't, and it's not enough. Self-observation is never enough by itself. It's helpful. It begins to set the environment to get an accurate reading of yourself, like checking your pulse, but it's not enough because you need the second tool. That's trusted others observation. Trusted others observation. You need self-observation, absolutely. But you need others in your life who are trusted to give you that as well, too. You see, initial self-observation, in my opinion, roughly, can get you about 5% of the way there, best-case scenario, I think. And from my own experience in my own life, 5% of the way there. But you'll need others to get the other 95%. Because you got to realize that, yes, watching yourself on video, yes, listening to yourself. You know, maybe like, if you've written a paper, kids going back and rewriting what you wrote, you can kind of think about, you can see your weaknesses and stuff. That helps. But it is nothing compared to what trusted others will tell you about the reality and the truth of who you are, and your abilities, and your weaknesses, and your strengths. Nothing comes close to that. You'll need others to get there, and you'll need to think about that. You'll need other people that know you well, and you'll need people that are trusted. And if you were to make a list on one column on that piece of paper that you have, or somewhere, and write down all the people that know me well, and hopefully you got at least three or four people you could put down there. And if you were to write down on a separate column, people that I fully trust, I pray to God that there is at least one name as on both lists. My guest says you will find some names that appear on one list and not the other. People that you really trust that don't know you, or people that know you pretty well, that you don't trust or whatever the case is there. But hopefully you have at least one person that's on both knows you well, and that you can trust, because that is the kind of person. That's the person you want to target to ask you to give you insights and to invite to come into your life, to help you build to understand some of that. Someone who cares about you, more than they care about pleasing you. I mean, think about it for a second. Who are or who is the Simon Cowell in your life? Who is it that this will tell you straight out? That was wrong what you did. And won't put up with a rationalization. Yeah, yeah, well, you should see what they did be. That was just wrong. What were you thinking? Well, does somebody do that for you? If you're married, does your spouse do that to you? My guest says if you're married, your spouse has tried. The question is that you shut them down over the years so they don't anymore. Or do you still invite them? Do you have a good friend that does that? If you're not married, or even if you are married, you have a good friend that will do that. Or if you shut them down over the years too, they're still like, well, I think someone who's going to bring up that with her or with him. Because I've been there before and see what's going to happen. It's not going to be pretty. So just forget it. Hopefully you have somebody that is like that for you. I'm going to back in 1995. Some embarrassing story to even share with you. But I was graduating from RTS Seminary. I was already preparing to do what I thought God was calling me to do then. And that was the plan of church, like what I'm doing now. And I thought I was ready then, which I wasn't. And part of the process was a very, very severe assessment process. When I say severe, I had an application that fell out that was 27 pages tight, single spaced. For me that's a lot. And not only that, talking about myself, sharing my story, talking about my different experiences and skills. Laura had one that was pretty much the same in its length to talk about that. And not only that, but I had a list, names of people that I've known for years. People who are in a role of pastor over my life. People who are in some kind of role of authority in my life. People that were just close friends that I've known for years. And the assessments center went off and sent them evaluations. And one of the evaluations, I'm not sure they still do it this way, but they did in 1995, was that we had a list of just competencies for somebody that is thinking about planning a church. It's my preaching, leadership ability, communication skills, things that you would just expect that every preaching needs to have. And I would go through and write myself in all these areas. And those people, Laura and others that knew me well, would also, with the very exact same questions, rate me as well. The problem is it wasn't until I got to the assessment week. I didn't have any time ahead of time. Then I sat down with an actual consultant person that's working there with you to compare your observations of yourself along with those others. And at the time, I can't remember the scale of was like one to ten or what exactly about. I'll say it was like one to ten. At the time, I'm like a scale of one to ten, ten being best one being weakest. I thought, even though I wasn't preaching regularly, that was my main job at University Presbyterian. I was more the worship leader, but I preached some. I thought I was like, probably seven, eight preaching skill. Nobody else thought I was a seven or eight preaching skill. And I didn't even realize that until that point. I mean, everybody else was like, five maybe. I thought five maybe. And they can't see that I'm a seven or eight. And it was just this whole idea of it was embarrassing to think on it. Because here I am. Laura is actually with me. She probably wasn't surprised by it. But you know, you're there with the counselor. And it's just like, you feel like you got idiot written across your face is that, you know, I thought certainly I was a seven or eightish. And everybody else was thinking maybe around five basically when you kind of averaged out everybody's views on it. And I thought, man, I totally missed that. And looking at this, totally had a view of my skill and ability that was completely different than people who loved me and cared about me thought. And all these people knew I was trying to be a church planner. Nobody was out there to get me. These were people that I've known for years. I trusted. But it was a trusted others observation that was extremely helpful and it helped me to finally look and go, wow, I need to be as much better student in learning how to preach. And I'm still a student in trying to do that even here today. But that was a beginning process of awareness of doing that. To get an accurate reading of yourself, you have to have trusted others in doing that. And it's going to be a painful experience like even I experienced at the time with that. And it probably will be for you too. But it's one that I would not change for anything. I'm so glad I had. Proverbs 25 says this, God says, the purpose of a man's heart are deep waters. But a man of understanding draws them out. Are you a man or a woman of understanding? That even though the purpose of your heart are deep waters, you probably think they're shallow. That you can kind of easily see where your motives are. I kind of think that way, usually about myself. But if I'm honest, I go. One of my motives ever been 100% pure. It's an easy answer. Never. Your motives have never been 100% pure about anything. We worship Jesus because His Word. And we don't worship you because yours never are. And you don't worship me because mine never are. But in looking at that, we are commanded and encouraged by God to draw those things out, to go looking for those kinds of truths, to find an accurate reading. What I want you to do right now, and Ted's going to help me with this, everybody's going to get a bracelet. Ted's going to hand out here. And this is one of these little cheap little yellow bracelets. Thanks Andy, Andy's covering this side. I want everybody to take one. And I want everybody, it's got a little adhesive tape on there that will kind of, you know, as you wrap it, will kind of stick to it. I want you to make it before you start. I want to make it big enough that they can slip on and off your wrist easily. Make the loop big enough so you can slide it on, slide it off easily. If you can't slide it on and off, then you have messed up. And we'll get you another one. But make it big enough that you can slide it on and off because you're going to use this. Everybody, we should have plenty for everybody to have one. Kids, you two, everybody's got a yellow thing. Again, it's got a little adhesive thing. You just peel off and it should stick. Make sure it slides on and off your wrist. Don't be self deceived. Measure it before you stick it. Test it. Is anybody, raise your hand if you don't have a yellow bracelet you need one. Beckett is your slide off? Oh, nice. Very nice. Okay. Oval needs one in the back. Here's what this is. It looks like a normal yellow bracelet. Yellow is the color and construction and road signs and things like that to say caution. And I want you to be reminded that you need to, thank you. I will put mine on afterwards when we put it right here. I want you to be reminded that you need trusted others observation. And here's what I want to challenge you to do. The reason why I wanted to be able to come on off, I want you to wear today. And I want you to think who is it that I can trust that knows me very well and I can trust that I could invite to share truth with me. And even specifically come and say, hey, you know, maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's a good friend and say, look, you know, I've been thinking about this. I've been realizing that, you know, I need help. I want to grow in my life. I want to grow in my relationship with God. And one of the things that's standing in the way is probably self deception on my part. I pastor talked about it this morning and just, would you help me? And you're going to take that bracelet off or challenge you to. And say, this was a reminder. And this gives me, this is my permission for you to tell me truthful, honest things that I need to hear as my friend. And you hand it to him. Say, you put that on. That is my visual permission that I'm inviting you to do that, that I'm welcoming you to do that, that I want to listen. And I challenge you to hand that off to somebody. Let them put it on physically. So they're like, you really want me to share with you something honest, a blind spot that I see that I haven't shared with you already. Or maybe a blind spot that I think you know, that I don't think you know the depths of it. Invite somebody to do that. That's just a dumb tool. You don't have to have that. I hope you'll use this idea the rest of your life anyway with the without it. But let it help you get started. And if it does help you, great. But let me tell you this, even self observation and trusted others observation is not enough. You need the second element of it. You need to compare it to the standard. You know, when you check your pulse and accurate readings, it's very, very important. But you know what? And you know, most of you heard this. You know, you have to find out what is your standard resting heart rate. If you don't know when you're at perfect rest and the best time to do that, by the way, is when you wake up in the morning before you get out of bed, you know, have a watch with a thing and put your fingers right on it. Find out I've just been resting all night long. Find out what your standing heart resting rate is. But it gives you a benchmark. It gives you an idea of knowing here is when my heart has no no effort. And it's very helpful for you to know that when you're doing something, like when I work with a trainer and things like that, they're saying, all right, make sure you stay in about this range for maximum out, you know, burn, burning, developing cardio and whatever else. But it's based on your resting heart rate. You've got to have a standard. You've got to know. And you know, and by the way, if you're a professional athlete, if you're going to still train and improve, you better know what yours is. Because if you take the average, which is 60 to 80 at rest, you're going to under train. You better know the, hey, mine's really around 45 or 50 or whatever it is. And therefore I have a different benchmark. You know, or if you're, you know, have some kind of heart condition, yours might be extra high, but you better take that into account. It's important to know and it's important to compare it to the standard. I remember one time Laura was sick and at home and she was in bed and we were like, man, this was probably years ago now. And I remember talking to the doctor on the phone. She's like, gosh, she's really sick. She's, you know, probably dehydrated. I think it was a stomach bug or something like that. It's like, I don't know what to do, you know, because when mom goes down in the family, it's very bad. Very bad, especially for husband and dad and trying to do everything else. So I was just like, on the doctors to check her pulse. I'm like, check her pulse. And Matt, why would I want to check her pulse? That's our doctor. Well, see she's alive. That's good. Good answer. You know, I think Don could have given me that answer as well too there, but is there something with dehydration and pulse? Does your heart beat faster if you're dehydrated? It usually does. And her pulse was over 100, which told me, my goodness, she's dehydrated. She's been laying in bed all day and her pulse is over 100. And she's in pretty good shape. Man, we started pumping the fluids. She started getting better. But you got it. You had to know what the heart should have been. You had to know where it should have been beating, what the range was. Because then all of a sudden you're like, going, man, over 100 and you're laying down, you're sick and bed. You are dehydrated. It tells you things you need to know. Things you need to act on with that. Blaise Pascal, as most of you know, famous mathematician, philosopher, he said this. He says, the heart has its reasons that reason does not know. The heart has its reasons that reason does not know, that you're not going to figure out on your own. Fraberv's 21-2 says this, all a man's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart. I mean, every single one of you, because I'm with you and as part of the human race, we have our ways. And every single one of us thinks our ways are right. We just do. And we have our reasons. And our reasons are good. But God says here very plainly that, yes, everyone has their ways. And yes, you think they're right. But God weighs the heart. God is using a scale and a perspective of your heart. The human have the availability to look at because of self-deception, because of not understanding, because of not seeing. I remember one time hearing a story about some lost splunkers. And at the time, our youth group, when I was growing up, was really kind of into splunking. We had some caves that we knew about, and one of our youth leaders was into it. So we all got into it. And so to hear stories about it was really pretty amazing. And I remember hearing about one group that went into a cave, because you always want to hear the really amazing stories, good or bad. I remember hearing one time about a group that had not made it out of the cave. And I was like, you know, if you're a splunker, you're like, now tell me what happened here? I need to know. What went wrong, so the same thing doesn't happen to me. And I remember hearing about this group, reading about the story that when they went into this very large cave, they had been told ahead of time that you're going to come through the tunnel and you're going to come into a main cavern. Although it's large, and although it's very dark, depending on your light that you bring with you, it is circular. So you're going to come into this large cavernous area, the kind of main area, and it's this huge big circle. And they said, so it's pretty easy to find your way out once you get in. Well, this group had thought, hey, that's not too bad, we come through the narrow entrance and the trail in the cave. And once we get to this big cavern, you know, we can pretty much be carefree about it all because we know it's a big circle. It's documented and everything else. So this group goes in there and does that. The only thing is there are way too, you know, a haphazard of the whole thing. They're not paying attention to the amount of time they have with their batteries on their flashlights. And soon, those batteries begin to run dead. The flashlights begin to go out. And they begin thinking, hey, we only got a few more lights here. We need to start looking for our way out. So they go across and say, look, if we just find an outer wall, we'll be fine. So as they looked around, they finally found the outer wall. And they begin saying, let's just keep our hand on it. So we keep our hand on it, right? We'll eventually find the opening that we came in to be able to get out because there was only one way out. So they would do that. But then it was a big cave. So they were walking what seemed like, you know, hours. I think, what is the deal? Is it really this big? Last flashlight runs out. Somebody had a book of matches. They would light a match. All right. Once we light the match, keep your hands on the wall. Let's run as quickly as we can to the match. Burns out. Out. It was out. They were found days later. The whole group had died of dehydration. They put this story together because they found a match, you know, then 50 yards later, another match. They found the group that had not made it out because they were not aware that there was also an inner wall to the cavern. Yes, there was an outer wall, but there was a whole intersection. And the cavern was so big and even this inner rounded wall section was so large that they were totally deceived. And then the darkness and their panic had no understanding of their sense of direction. That they were walking around in circles. If they made it to the outer wall of the cavern, they would have easily found their way out in less than an hour and been safe. They were self deceived. They thought they had a standard that was not the standard. They knew it was out there, but they put their hand on something that was not it. And they followed it and they trusted it. And there's a way that seems right to a man, but the word says leads to death. What is the standard that you're measuring your life on that you're looking at with this? The scriptures tell us that God is the one that sets the standard. He's the one that holds the standard. It begins and ends all with him because he's the creator of all. Hebrews 412 says this says for the word of God is living an active sharper than a double-edged sword. And it penetrates even to the dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. God's word does that. Nothing else. God says the hardest to see full above all else. Who can know it? Not you, but he can. What exposes it is his word. Without God's word and the Holy Spirit, your 5% of self-observation is 5% of zero. Kids help me here. What's 5% of zero? Thank you. Nothing. Your 95% of other trusted observation is 95% of zero. What's 95% of zero? Good. You guys are getting fast on that. Self-observation is a little bit helpful. But again, you can't do it. You don't have the eyes to see what you need to see. Others trusted observation is huge. 95% of the game. But without the understanding that comes from God and his word, what you learn from the 5%, what you learn from the 95% will not touch the reality of the human heart because at its core, it's a heart that's designed to worship, a living God. At its core, it's a heart that is designed to live and thrive on the very word and promises of God. Doing things God's way, setting yourself to make judgments about what does God want in my life. I want you to think about this honestly as we try to make this make sense and be applicable here today. When you set up your budget, your personal budget, your family budget, if you're married, where does God enter into the picture? Where do the truths of Scripture enter into the picture? Or is it just, well, we got this much coming in, this is what we need to spin or what we think we need and that's it, or do you take into account when Matthew 6, 31 and 33 says, do not worry saying, what shall we eat, what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the pagans run after these things. But your Heavenly Father knows that you need them but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you. God says, you know what, put me primary when you come down to setting your budget because you know what, if your heart is set on me, your clothes, your food, I'm going to take care of that but you take me out of the equation and you're going to miss it. You're going to have your hand rubbing against the wrong wall and then you're going to be mad at God and you're like, how come it's not working? Think about your calendar, your Palm Pilot, your daytime or whatever you do used to manage your time. We're just God entering on that. Where do you invite Him to come and say, God, here's what I think I need to do. But like Jesus and the Garden of Guest and the Night before He's betrayed and crucified for our sins, God not my will but you will be done. When is it that you just deny that? When is it that you just say, well, I was planning on doing this. You know what, I got that email, I got that phone call and there's a friend in need. I think God maybe really want me to do this instead and you change it on your calendar or you change your to do list. Where is it in your relationships? Whether you're just with friends, whether you're dating somebody, whether you're married? I'm still amazed at how many people run through relationships without any guidance from God in His Word or who live immoral relationships with people without any regard for God in His Word and are just amazed and surprised or just think it's old fashioned that God might really have something to say about how you handle human relationships since He made you and He made by the way the person that you have relationships with and He has a plan and design. But where does God enter in in that relationship? Where does His Word come and speak truth into your life? Where does His standard begin to be the tool like a mirror that's held up to you? You know that says, look, take an honest look about truth and the reality who you are. Look where your impure unhealthy relationship is leading and where it's getting you. Be honest about it. Look where you're managing your own finances and trusting yourself rather than God's. Look where that's getting you. Take a look, an honest look. Look at your time management, the choices you're making, what you're choosing to spend your time on in the day and look at the results you're getting because your system is working perfectly to get the results you're currently getting. And you're burned out, you're busy, you're tired, you're exhausted. That's not God's plan for you. But that's what you're getting. Where is God, His mirror of His Word, reflecting that to you? Listen to a few other texts from Scripture that will tell you something about your heart if you want to listen to it. Jesus said in a certain amount, you have heard that it was said did not commit adultery, but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. That's a whole different level of looking at things from the heart level. Proverbs 35 and 6, most of you know it probably, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and you'll make your path straight. Take your understanding in your reason and put it at the feet of the cross of Jesus and submit it to His will. Sometimes reasoning and God's will fit pretty well, sometimes they don't. But you're going to miss the miracle of the lifetime, your lifetime. If you don't trust God with it, you're not going to see a red sea part because you know what, you're never going to come up to the red sea. Because you think, then we ought to go around this baby. God said no, take the red sea route. No boat, don't worry about it. Trust me. God will take you around that you often don't expect or don't want to go. Second to May 3, 16, and seven things say, all scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching and rebuke. When's the last time that God's word you've read something and you have felt the loving rebuke of God on your life. I mean, do you kind of skip over those sections of the Bible? They get kind of painful and get kind of in your face. Or do you welcome them as a loving rebuke from somebody that loves you and cares for you more than anybody else? And receive it because it's there to rebuke you, to correct you, to train you in righteousness. James 1-22 says, do not merely listen to the word of God and so deceive yourself, but do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says, it's like a man who looks at his face in the mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does. You're like, God give wisdom. You're like, God expose the self deception, the deceitfulness of your heart. He's going to set you free with it. Getting an accurate reading is extremely important, but unless you compare it to the standard, not a standard, but the standard. The God of the Bible, his trusted word, the life of Jesus Christ, the part of his Holy Spirit, and by the way, the Bible says he's the one that guides you into all truth. That's his role. So if you're not praying, you're not asking his spirit to guide you, you're missing out on one of the key tools God wants to do that with your life. If you are not measuring up against the standard, then you're missing out on it. Let me conclude with this. One of my favorite movies should be yours too. Next slide. I love that scene, don't you? I've used this before. Red pill, blue pill. I love Morpheus' quote on that. You take the blue pill and the story ends. By the way, we'll end right now for this sermon. It's been an uncomfortable topic, but you take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe, and that's your choice. Throw away that yellow arm band. It's kind of a stupid idea in the first place, right? Or you take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. You take the red pill, you trust God, you buy into this reality that your heart's deceitful and that you need help, and observation is great, but you're going to bring in others. That you're going to align yourself and measure with God's Word, and you're going to see how deep His love goes. You're going to see how deep and satisfying His truth goes, but it's your choice, what we choose. Let's pray. God, as we come here this morning, as we acknowledge, and I pray that we do, the deceitfulness of our own heart, and even the professional business world recognizes it. God, would you give us by the grace of your spirit, the honesty and the ability by faith to trust that our hearts are deceitful, that we need you, the only one that sees it and understands it and has a cure for it, that we would come and trust, and the righteous of Jesus Christ, that He and He alone had the perfect heart, and He and He alone died in our place so that we could be forgiven. And God, wherever the case is here, with whatever understanding of our own deceitfulness that we already see this morning, we help us come and run to find forgiveness, to find mercy and grace. And God, for the parts that we don't know yet, we lead us by faith to trust friends, to come and look at your Word deeply and let it honestly reflect our hearts. God, would you come by your spirit here and set us free from the heart that is intimately and deeply deceitful in itself and let us trust in the righteous of Jesus Christ in his heart and our place. So God, come and do work in it, let your spirit during this communion time even direct us and guide us, maybe specific action steps we need to take. Maybe some of us don't know who to take a yellow arm band to, but you're going to tell us, and I pray that you would guide us and lead us that, that you provide friends like that. God, I pray that you would give us time to journal to take time to reflect on our lives, set down some of the busyness to be self-observant. God, that you make your Word a priority in our lives, we set aside time to read it, to meditate on it, that we pray and ask your spirit to guide us. So God, during this time in response, we make it clear what you're calling us to do and give us the faith to respond, and I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.