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Amen. Exodus chapter 32. So sort of an amazing story here in the Bible every time I read this story. It's kind of shocking but this is the story of, of course, Moses has been up in the mount receiving the law from God and if you read through the Bible, Moses has been up there for several chapters in the Bible. He's up there for 40 days and 40 nights and ever since chapter 25, God has been giving the law to Moses. And when he is gone for 40 days and 40 nights, which, you know, in the context of things, it doesn't seem like long enough to where something like this should happen but the people, they don't know where he went and they just kind of give up, turn their backs on Moses and really turn their backs on God and they create this molten calf and they start to worship this molten calf and start this big party and there's all kinds of bad mischief going on. But the surprising thing about it is that Moses' brother Aaron is involved in this sin in helping, you know, he was kind of put in charge and he was kind of enabling the people to do what they did here. Look down at verse number 21. So we're in the Mind Viruses sermon series this morning and I want to read you this story or the conclusion of this story before I tell you what the context of this morning's sermon is. The Mind Viruses sermon series, we're talking about, in this sermon series, we're talking about ways of thinking that will ruin you, ways of thinking that will ruin your Christian life, ways of thinking that will ruin your general life. They'll damage your family, damage you personally, and this morning we're going to look at a very specific case and quite frankly, I'm using Exodus 32 here as my example text but with the topic that we're going to talk about this morning, there's simply too many examples in the Bible. There's so many examples in the Bible of this mind virus, of this way of thinking that I just had to choose one, all right, I just had to choose one because it is a very common problem that people have. Even people in the Bible demonstrate this problem. Look down at verse number 21 to get some context here of Exodus 32. And Moses, so Moses has now come down from the mount, he has seen the golden calf, he's destroyed the golden calf, he's broken the tablets that God gave him, he's going to have to go get new ones. In verse 21 it says, Moses said unto Aaron, what did this people, what did this people unto thee, that thou has brought so great a sin upon them? Moses is like, what could they have possibly done to you to where you would have done something like this for them? And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord wax hot, thou knowest the people that they are set on mischief. Verse 23, so first of all there's a point there that we're going to come back to in verse 22. It says, for they said unto me, make us gods which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what is become of him. And I said unto them, whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me, then I cast it into the fire and then out came this calf. So there's some partial truth in here and then there's some things that are not true here. So basically Moses, you have three things that happens here. Moses comes down from the mountain, he accuses Aaron of leading these people into this terrible sin. And then Aaron, he denies responsibility by blaming the people. He blames the people. They're full of mischief. You know how mischievous these people are and Moses does know how mischievous these people are. But he diverts blame off of himself onto the people. And then in verse number three, or not verse number three, but item number three, he simply makes an excuse where the calf came from, which is just not true. You know, it literally says at the beginning of Exodus 32 that they threw all the things into the fire and it was Aaron that took a graving tool and made the calf himself. Aaron made the calf. And instead he says it just came out, like I threw all this stuff in the fire and out came this calf. You know, I don't know how it happened. You know, it seems like a stupid excuse, but you know, excuses are stupid is basically what we're going to get at this morning. So Moses accuses Aaron, Aaron denies responsibility, and then he throws out this incredible excuse. And it's an incredible example of an excuse. But it just kind of shows you, not to give away the entire sermon, it just goes to show you how when you have an excuse to make, you've kind of convinced yourself that it's a pretty good excuse, even though it sounds completely ridiculous to the people who are on the receiving end of the excuse. So the title of the sermon this morning in the mind virus that we're going to be attacking this morning from the Bible is this mind virus, this way of thinking that says it's not my fault. That's what we're going to talk about this morning. The promise, the problem statement, and like I said, there's too many cases in the Bible to, I'm going to show you many cases in the Bible of this this morning, but there's simply too many cases in the Bible. I mean, almost every Bible character who's in the Bible for a significant amount of detail in the Bible has done this. That shows you how common of a problem this is. When there's something, a mistake that is made, something that comes forth and you try to do what Aaron did. You try to divert responsibility. You try to make excuse. You know, you're accused of something and you try to get away from that thing. The problem statement is this. The problem statement is this of this thinking it's not my fault. The problem statement is most of the time it is your fault. This is the problem statement. If people are looking in your direction, 99% of the time it is your fault, at least partially. We're going to talk about that as well. Look, and that's another thing you need to realize here, literally, if it is your fault and you do what Aaron did, you are literally blaming something, someone else for something that you did because if somebody did believe you, that it wasn't your fault and it was your fault, they're going to go looking for someone else. They're going to go looking for someone else to pin the blame on, but look, most of the time, as with Aaron, people know it's your fault. Moses had no doubt in his mind that this was Aaron's fault and I'm going to show you how he could have known that for sure. So really what I want to do this morning to start off the sermon, just an introduction to crush this mind virus of, you know, it's not my fault and to get rid of that thinking in our heads, I want to give you three points on excuses and why excuses are bad and excuses are damaging and excuses will help ruin you in your Christian life especially. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 31, turn to Jeremiah chapter 31, I'm going to give you three points on excuses just as an introduction and then we'll talk about, you know, how you can just completely get rid of this it's not my fault attitude or it's not my fault way of thinking. Look at Jeremiah chapter 31 or actually it's the verse of the week, but I'm going to read you a couple more verses to kind of give some context on this. I'm going to give you three points first of all this morning on excuses. The first of all, the first point is this, excuses stop progress. Excuses stop improvement in your life. So excuses really they only hurt you in the sense that they stop you from getting better at things that you need to get better at. Look at Jeremiah chapter 31 and look at verse number 29 as an example of this. This is kind of a strange couple of verses in the Bible but it is super important, super valuable, it teaches a really hard and important truth in the Bible. Look at Jeremiah chapter 31 and look at verse number 29. This is spoken by God in the context of him coming to judge a nation, him coming to judge a group of people that are doing bad things, that are doing things wrong. Look at verse 29, it says in those days shall they say no more, meaning they have been saying this, but they're not going to be able to say this any longer. This is so valuable for parents in the church this morning or anyone hearing this. It says the fathers have eaten a sour grape and the children's teeth are set on edge. So that's what they used to say and God is saying they are no longer going to be able to say that anymore and I'll explain it in just a second, but look at verse number 30, it says pretty soon this is what's going to happen, instead of being able to say the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge, let me just kind of give you the context or kind of simplify that for you. The parents did something and the children are saying that they can blame the parents for what happened, that's not going to work anymore is what God is saying. But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge, meaning what you do, you will pay the consequences for. So God here is saying, no, no, no, there's not going to be this generation of people that are going to be able to say my parents did this and that's why I'm this way. Instead he's saying, no, no, no, everyone is going to bear the responsibility for what they do. God is trying to set things straight here, he is trying to tell this group of people that he is about to judge, you're not going to be able to blame anybody else anymore because you shouldn't have been blaming people in the first place, everyone is going to die for his own iniquity. This is so interesting because the irony here is this, as a parent the irony is this, Children that blame their parents are products of parents that made excuses for their children. That is what this verse is teaching us, specifically parents to children. And look, one of the worst, I mean you think about the statement in the Bible, I've talked about this before, the sins of Jeroboam. You see this throughout the Old Testament, you see this throughout the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom of Israel more specifically, you see it for generations. You see this sins of Jeroboam, this statement being used over and over and over again that they are going to be judged for the sins of Jeroboam and the sins of Jeroboam. What is the nation of Israel? Is the northern kingdom of Israel being judged for what Jeroboam did 300 years or 250 years earlier? No. They are being judged because they are doing the sins of Jeroboam. Okay, they learned it from him, but they are dying for their own iniquity which happened to be the same as the sins that Jeroboam committed. But they are judged for what they did. They just happen to be doing the sins of Jeroboam. So look, excuses, excuses and especially in the context of children and parents, see excuses, what they do is they stop improvement, they cover shame. It is someone trying to cover shame that is making excuses. They cover improvement. Instead of saying, oh yeah, I'm not going to make an excuse, I'm going to take responsibility for that, you know, that excuse stops me from feeling shame, from taking responsibility and then thus correcting the problem. What God is saying in Jeremiah chapter 31 is, hey, generation of people that I'm about to judge, I'm not coming to look for your father. I'm coming to look for you. And this is the damage that can be done for a parent that makes excuses for their children because eventually, see this is the truth. In Jeremiah 31 verse 29 and verse number 30, that's just true. Someone is going to teach that generation that. Someone is going to teach this younger generation in this church that they are going to die for their own iniquity. They are going to pay for their own sins. They're going to, not pay for their own sins, but they are going to suffer the consequences for their actions. That is something that is going to happen and if you've raised people to just, where you just make excuses for them from the time that they're zero to 20 years old, someone else is going to teach them that hard lesson in this world. But instead, a parent should be, you know, it's easy to make excuses for your kids because it's hard to say, yeah, they're not acting right because I need to fix that. They're not acting right because I need to take care of this. I'm clearly not taking care of this problem. That's a hard thing to do. It's easier to just make excuses for our children from the time that they're very young to the time they're teenagers. I knew a guy in high school whose parents made excuses for him and everything that he did. This guy had a terrible temper. He couldn't get along with anybody. Terrible temper to the point where we're all like, he's going to kill somebody someday. He would just go crazy. And of course, people didn't like him and he had all kinds of social problems because of this temper. But it was always his parents, I remember, that it was never his fault and nothing he could ever do. And look, even when I was in my mid-20s, I don't know where this guy is now, but when I was in my mid-20s and I was well out, this was an extremely messed up adult, even at that point. I can't even begin to think where he is at today. But he was taught from the time he was a very young child to never own anything. And eventually someone is going to teach kids as they become adults that every man will die for his own iniquity. Maybe that's the justice system. Maybe that's the prison system. Whatever it is, they are going to learn that they are responsible for their own actions. And the problem is that they could do a lot of destruction to other people around them before they learn that hard lesson. So it's better to teach them right away. So look, kids that make excuses come from parents that make excuses for them. That is what Jeremiah chapter 31 is talking about and it equals very messed up individuals because excuses stop improvement. They stop progress. Go to Luke chapter 14. So the first one is making excuses, it only hurts you. It only hurts your children. If you're making excuses for yourself, you're stopping your own progress. If you're making excuses for your children, you're literally teaching them that there's a reality that doesn't exist in the world. And someone else is going to teach them that harsh reality. Look at Luke chapter 14. Look at Luke chapter 14. Here's the second point on excuses. We're talking about how to get rid of this mind virus, it's not my fault. The main thing people will do as we saw Aaron do is they make excuses for what they did. But here's the second thing about excuses. Excuses tarnish your future. Excuses hurt you not only at that moment but into the future. Look at verse number 16 of Luke chapter 14. We see a bunch of people making excuses in this story. Look at this, it says, then he said unto him, a certain man made a great supper and bade many, meaning he invited many people. He sent a servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, come, for all things are now ready. And they with all, all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them, I pray thee have thee excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and showed his Lord these many things. So basically this guy invites, of course this is a good salvation analogy here where, you know, this is a free supper. They don't have to pay to come to this supper, and God wants everyone to be saved. It is God's will that all men be saved, but many people, you're going to hear this out so many today. What are you going to hear? You're going to hear excuses. You're going to hear, I married a wife. You're going to hear, I'm playing video games. You're going to hear, I'm cooking something, you know, whatever on the stove. You're going to hear all these excuses on why people don't want to come to this free supper that you are offering, and, you know, the excuses are going to be there, guaranteed. But look at verse 21. So that servant came and showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, I mean, he's mad. He's like, can you imagine, I've spent all this money, I gave all this sacrifice to make this big meal, and nobody wants to come, and they give all these lame excuses? It says, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou commanded, and yet there is room. So we're not going to run out of room in heaven, okay? Look at verse 23. And the Lord said unto the servant, go out into the high wages and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. So did the master of the house believe the excuses? Did he say, oh, I understand, he, no, he's like, no, they're not coming to this supper, they're not coming to any suppers I'm going to have in the future, I'm sure, when you just look at the situation in this story, but excuses are generally universally rejected is what you have to understand from the people that are receiving excuses. And you know, the problem is this. When it comes to blaming someone or someone looking for blame on something that has gone wrong, a mistake that has been made, someone did it. And most of the time, everyone knows who that someone is. So these excuses were universally rejected by this master who threw this wedding and it damaged those people in the future. Turn to Proverbs 22, because it just makes them a liar. It just makes them look, the master of the house knew that, you know, they just didn't want to come for whatever reason, and they were too busy, they cared more about what they, it would have been more honest if they just would have said, like, you know what, I just don't want to go because I'm busy with something better that I have to, at least that would have been honest. At least that would have been straightforward and honest. But look, excuses just make you a liar, and they damage your name going forward in the future. Look at Proverbs 22 and verse number one, Proverbs 22, look at verse number one. The Bible says a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold. Nothing damages your name like making excuses. Like doing what Aaron did, dodging responsibility, because everyone knows that the excuse is not true, and everyone knows whose fault it really is. In most cases. I'm not saying there's never a situation that wasn't your fault, but most of the time everyone already knows. Moses knew for sure that Aaron was to blame here, and we'll talk about that in just a minute, but if it is your fault, everyone knows this. This is what you need to accept. And that's why you're feeling the pressure to make excuses in the first place. Turn to Genesis chapter four. Here's the third point why excuses are so damaging. The third point is this, look at Genesis chapter four. So Genesis chapter four starts out with the story of Cain killing Abel, and of course Cain is sent off, and God says no one is supposed to execute judgment on Cain, but then we see Cain's lineage come forth towards the end of Genesis chapter four, and we see Cain's, I think it's his great, if you look at the verses, I think it's his great, great grandson, maybe it's great, great, great grandson Lamech, and it says in verse number 23, and it says in Lamech said unto his wives, Ada and Zilla, hear my voice you wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. So here Cain's great, great, great grandson killed somebody in Genesis chapter 23, Genesis chapter four in verse number 23. The third point about excuses is this, excuses are justification, and look what he says in verse number 24, it says if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. He makes excuses, he literally says, I mean it shows you by the way that excuse making is kind of a passed on trait, you can literally train the next generation as Jeremiah chapter 31 showed us, we can train the next generation to not take responsibility. But they're still going to be held responsible for their actions. But we see that, but the point is this, is that excuses are justification, excuses are the opposite of repentance. Literally they're saying I'm justified in doing this, he's saying I'm justified in doing this because God protected Cain, so he's going to protect me even more. He's justifying what he's done instead of taking responsibility for what he's done. So excuses are extremely damaging to you, that's just the introduction to the sermon this morning, and really what I want to point out this morning is you say okay pastor I believe you, I won't make any excuses. Look this is one thing that you will see, people that are successful in anything, they very rarely if ever will make excuses. They will take responsibility for the actions, the things that they do in their lives. So really what I want to, the point I want to make this morning is I want to teach you from the Bible, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 12, how to make a mistake. You say what do you mean, like look you're not going to go through this life and you will find that the great men in the Bible, it is the reason that they were great in the Bible was not because they made few mistakes, it was that they knew how to make a mistake. So excuses out the window, excuses will damage your future, excuses will stop your improvement and excuses will be taken as justification for sin to those around you. Excuses are extremely damaging, you say okay I don't want to make excuses. So this is how you make a mistake and this is really the main point I want to make this morning. We'll get on at 2 Samuel chapter number 12 and verse number 1. So this is after David has committed adultery and murder. David has taken Uriah's wife, not only has he committed adultery with another man's wife, but he literally killed the man to cover up for this terrible sin. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 12 and verse number 1. So the Lord sends a prophet to David to confront him about this terrible sin, we're looking at how to make a mistake this morning, look at verse number 1, it says the Lord sent Nathan unto David and he came to him and said unto him, there were two men in one city, so this is Nathan talking to David, and the two men, one was rich and the other poor, the rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb which was brought and nourished up, which he had bought and nourished up and he grew up together with him and his children and did eat in his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and it was to him as a daughter. So this ewe lamb of this poor man was like a pet, alright? And there came a traveler unto the rich man and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him, but he took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him. So in the meantime you have this poor man that has this pet lamb and then you have this rich man who has many flocks and herds and he gets a visitor and he steals the other man's lamb and kills it and it's just infuriating. Look at verse number five. It's an infuriating story, but then when you think about it with people, it's even worse. The Bible says, and David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that had done this thing shall surely die. So David's like way over the top on judgment, first of all. It's like the man stole somebody's lamb. You're not supposed to kill somebody for that anyway. Even in the Levitical law, he would have to pay back sixfold or whatever. I think the sheep get a poorer deal or whatever in the Old Testament. But he should have to pay him back more than what he took from him. But David's like, just kill him. Just kill this guy, because what a terrible thing. And as you're reading the story, you probably agree it's a terrible story. He shall restore the lamb fourfold, I guess it's four, because he did this thing and because he had no pity. And Nathan said unto David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul, and I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. God is saying, I gave you all these things, and he's like, if you needed something else, why didn't you just ask me? I would have given you anything. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and has taken his wife to be thy wife, and has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now, therefore, now here we see the consequences. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me, and has taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them to thy neighbor. And he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of the sun. This, of course, is fulfilled when Absalom takes the kingdom from David. Look at verse 12, for thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. So you have to understand here, and I understand that up in the next verse, you know, we're going to talk about the next verse in just a minute. But the point is up to this point. David has committed this terrible sin, and he has not taken responsibility for it. And here, God sends the man of God, and he pronounces this terrible judgment on David and on his kingdom. So the first point is this, that you should identify your faults, you identify your mistakes. We're talking about how to make a mistake. The first trick to how to make a mistake is identify your mistakes as early as possible. Because David had, at this point, not identified his mistake yet, or not come out and admitted responsibility for his mistake. God literally had to send a prophet to him to show him what he did, what he already knew in his heart, of course. But David had not taken responsibility for this at this point, and we just see these consequences just put upon him. Like, I mean, the sword will never depart from your house. That is not a small thing. You know, he's going to take the kingdom from your hand, at least temporarily. That is not a small thing. He's going to take, you know, your family from you. This terrible thing is going to happen to these wives that he had. I mean, it's a horrible thing that what many other people paid for as well, not just David. So, the first trick to how to make a mistake is identify your mistakes as soon as possible. And the second one is this, look at verse number 13. When you do identify those mistakes, accept full responsibility for those mistakes. Look at verse number 13. It says, and David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin, and thou shalt not die. This right here is what David was good at. And many people are confused on why God had such an affinity towards David. But notice what happens here. David doesn't give excuse. David doesn't say, I threw these things into the fire, and out came this molten calf. David, once he is confronted, yes, he has to be confronted, he could have been earlier for sure. But once he was confronted, he accepts full responsibility. He simply says, I have sinned. There's no but here. There's no but, well, you know, I was bored. And no, there was no excuse. He just says, I have sinned against the Lord. And then God tells him, what does God do right after this? This is so important here in this verse. The Lord hath put away thy sin, and what? Thou shalt not die. The law would have required that David was killed here. God showed David mercy. And he showed him mercy right away. Why? Because he accepted full responsibility. So we look at how to make mistakes. Folks, you are going to make mistakes in this life, in this Christian life. You are going to make mistakes. The earlier and more completely you own it, the more mercy you will receive. That is what we need to take away. And look, folks, even people taking full responsibility is really what David was, he excelled at this in his life, taking full responsibility. But we need to understand this because even people that are under our authority, this is how Moses knew that it was Aaron's fault. Because those people that were doing those things, that mischievous people, as Aaron said, they were under his authority. What they did was his responsibility. All Moses had to know was that the people were doing mischief to know that Aaron was responsible. And look, people miss this today. People miss this today about, you know, men miss this today. This is why the structure of the family is so important today. This is why the biblical structure of a family with the father, the husband, as the leader of his home needs to be taught today. And people reject it today, and feminists hate it today, but it needs to be taught because it is the responsibility of the father and the husband for anything that goes wrong beneath him, as it was Aaron's responsibility to lead the people while Moses was gone. So look, you know what that means? That means you're like, oh yeah, I'm in charge. Yeah, but that means you're responsible. That means that you must accept responsibility. So when you have men today that will check out of a marriage, how is that possible? How is that a possible conclusion of someone that is in charge of something, that is leading a structured organization of a family, a household, a wife, children? How could a father check out today? How is that right? You know what? There must be an excuse there that's not valid. Think about this. This wouldn't work anywhere else in any other kind of organization. This wouldn't work in the army. If you had a platoon leader that led a platoon of soldiers into a really bad situation, and they were in a really bad situation, he's like, I got to go. You all stay here. This is not looking good at all. Stay. See you later. It doesn't work in that situation. It wouldn't work in the Navy. It wouldn't work as a captain, you know, as captaining a ship. It wouldn't work if a ship gets in trouble and the captain of the ship is saying, hold the wheel. I'm getting in the lifeboat. This is where the whole idea of the captain goes down with the ship comes from. Because guess what? If the captain has to go down with the ship, the captain is pretty motivated to do everything possible to stop the ship from sinking. It has to work that way. But he is responsible. So you meet, you know, I've met men before. I've met men before who have been divorced or going through divorce, and they're just trying to, they're on this tear, they're on this campaign to convince everyone that, you know, the wife or the ex-wife is wicked and evil. OK, I don't know the situation, but guess what? I don't really need to know the situation. Because she's not doing the right thing. Why can't you lead her is my question. This is why it is so important for a young man or a man who is not married to be able to convince. This is why it's so important that it is free will at first. This is why it's so important that when, you know, two people start courting or start dating or whatever you want to call it, that the young lady is not under the authority of that young man at that point. It's so important. Because she has to, by her own free will, decide to follow that young man. That's him proving that he can lead someone. Because if you can't even convince someone to follow you, what chance do you have at leading a wife? What chance do you have at leading a household? It's, I mean, God's plan is perfect. We just need to follow it. But the point is this. Responsible being in charge means you are fully responsible. Means you accept full responsibility. Means you do go down with the ship. Means you fight till the last moment for that group, whatever you are in charge of. And in the Bible, what we're talking about here is the structure of the family. Aaron should have, you know, fought, you know, I'm sure Aaron, if you ever think about like why Aaron did that, I don't think Aaron was a really bad person. I don't think Aaron was against Moses. You know what I think? I think he feared the people. I think he just got intimidated by the people. And what did he do? He shirked his responsibility. He gave up his leadership. He was intimidated into doing the wrong thing. Yeah, they were mischievous people. Big deal, but you're still responsible. Not saying that your children and your wife that you are leading are always gonna do the right thing but no, they need to be led in the right direction is what the Bible is showing us here. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 13. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter number 13. So look, you need to identify your mistakes. We're talking about how to make a mistake this morning. You're gonna make mistakes. You wanna make them in the right way. You identify your mistakes as early as possible and once you identify those mistakes, you accept full responsibility for those mistakes. You wonder why, you wonder why God liked David so much. It had nothing to do with how, you know, good he was at not making mistakes. David made some mistakes that, I mean, I am sure the vast majority of us will never make in our lives. The vast majority of Christians hopefully will not make these massive mistakes that David made. Yet God, I mean, God granted mercy for generations for David's sake. You're like, why is that? Look at 1 Samuel chapter 13 and verse number 14. The Bible says, now this is God talking to Saul and he describes David this way. The book of Acts also describes David this way but look at this, it says, but now thy kingdom shall not continue, talking to Saul. The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart. The Lord hath commanded him to be a captain over his people because thou hast not kept watch with the Lord commanded thee. That which the Lord hath commanded thee. David is described in the Old Testament and the New Testament as someone that is after God's own heart and the thing that David was good at and the reason God granted David so much mercy is because when he made a mistake, he owned the whole thing. He didn't blame other people, he just owned it. His heart, look, his flesh took him away in cases and in scenarios in ways that I hope never happens to any of us but his heart was always seeking the Lord and you see that with this story with Nathan. He just, this is God's affinity towards David. It's legendary, literally, in the Bible. God, you'll see generations down the road that for David's sake, God granted mercy to this king but it really had nothing to do with how good he was because he made a lot of mistakes. He was just good at making mistakes. He was good at getting things right. He knew how to make a mistake and look, you're gonna make mistakes, you should know how to make mistakes. Look, how you make a mistake is a great testimony of your character. As Proverbs 22 talks about. And look, accepting full responsibility for things, it hurts. Saying, you know, somebody comes to you with a mistake that you've made or you realize early, even before people come to you, that you've made a mistake and you just own the whole thing, look, that stinks. That is a hard thing to do but look, the person, it's by design that it's hard because the person that does that right and accepts full responsibility as David did for their mistakes is the person that is motivated to not make that same mistake twice. Is the person that is the opposite of the person that makes excuses to cover up the shame. Accepting full responsibility, you will feel the full force of that shame upon yourself and that is a motivation to not do that thing again. So look, folks, this is not my fault. It is a mind virus. It is a mind virus and it will ruin, look, it will ruin your Christian life if you have this mind virus. It will ruin your relationships in your life. It will ruin your children. It will ruin your marriage. It will ruin every single relationship that you have in this life. It will ruin your name. I don't know why people don't care more about their name but the Bible says that you should care about your name because most of the time, it is your fault if people are looking in your direction. So maybe you were just raised to the point where like I just try to get out of everything that ever happens but maybe you should just kind of set a switch for yourself where people are looking at me, maybe I should do an evaluation, a real honest evaluation like is this my fault? And then just own it. Own it early and own it completely. I know sometimes you can even go overboard. Maybe if there's a situation where there are multiple people involved, own it completely yourself. And you know what that's an example of? Maybe multiple people made a mistake and you come and you just take full responsibility, you throw yourself down and you take full responsibility for it. You know what you want? You want people to go to you, well, there was other people too just like no, I'm fully responsible. Take full responsibility and have them move you from the back to the front. Have them move you from the back to the front. Instead of trying to get out of it, maybe taking partial responsibility, sitting at the head table and having them to move you to the back. Take full responsibility up front even if there is other people involved. And then have them move you from the front to the back. But just completely own it 100%. And guess what folks? Here's the thing. What is anyone gonna do to you at that point? When you make a mistake, I made a mistake years, 20 years ago I can still remember at work. And I told my wife over the weekend, I'm fired. For sure. I'm fired. I can still remember the walk I went on with my wife. I was so stressed out. I sent out all the emails. I made all the phone calls. I made all the voicemails saying I did this. I'm already running the stuff to fix it. I simply like missed a line and a piece of code that cost a project like two weeks. We were under so much pressure and so much stress. I'm like, I'm canned, I'm fired for sure. My wife will tell you that. She's like, I'm fired, I'm just gonna get a new job. And I just, I completely threw myself under the bus. I went to the morning meeting Monday morning and I got everything running again. I messed it up, why? Because I'm an idiot and I didn't check this thing like I should have checked it and it was wrong and it simulated everything wrong and the whole thing's messed up. And you know what people did? What are they gonna do? There's nothing anyone could say. Like, well, okay, I guess I didn't get fired. I could have, but I didn't. But there's nothing anybody can do to that point. Back yourself over and nobody else can run you over. You're already a pancake. So get rid of this mentality that it's not my fault because like a lot of times it is. Own it early and own it completely. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.