Latest / HBCWestminster / 11.6.22 Romans 1:23-32 Pastor Danny Gardner

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11.6.22 Romans 1:23-32 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Romans chapter 1 and beginning in verse 23, if you would stand in honor of God's word as I read our text. Verse 23 through verse 32. And the word of God says, They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
• 0:27
  and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. The men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men, receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
• 0:57
  They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.
• 1:28
  Gracious Heavenly Father, if you see in us any wrong encouraged, any evil desire cherished, any delight that is not your delight, any habit which grieves your spirit, any harboring of sin in our hearts, then grant to us the kiss of forgiveness. Teach our feet to walk in the way of your commandments. In Jesus' name, amen.
• 1:58
  Amen. Thank you, church. We discussed last Lord's Day the stunning diagnosis of the fallen human condition. We said that we are ungodly, unrighteous, and unrighteous. Those were the three words that were used to describe mankind. Sin, we said, not only exists but has to be dealt with. We said that sin is the disease and the righteous wrath of God is the cure. This morning we conclude chapter one.
• 2:24
  One pastor that I enjoy listening to spent 11 Sundays on these verses, 11 Sundays. And although there is much more we could say about this text, we're going to hit it in one Sunday. We're going to cover the main points because we don't want to miss the forest for the trees. I think it's possible maybe to slow down so much to go so deep that you actually forget where we started. And so I want us to take in kind of...
• 2:48
  the overarching picture, the 30,000 foot view of what the Apostle Paul is describing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Three times the text this morning uses that word exchanged. Maybe you noticed that. They exchanged this for this. They exchanged this for this. And one more time, they exchanged this for this. Three times it says exchanged. And then three times the text says that as a result of that exchanging, God gave them up or gave them over.
• 3:18
  When I was a youth pastor many years ago, there was a game our youth group used to play called Bigger or Better. It began by breaking our high school students into teams. Then we would send them out into the neighborhoods around the church with nothing but a paperclip. That team started with one paperclip. Their instructions were to knock on our neighbors' doors and ask them to trade their paperclip for something either bigger or better.
• 3:44
  The teams would return to the church after an hour or two with all manner of things, right? We've got a paperclip. Would you trade me for anything even bigger than this or better than this? Those teams would come back with things like hats or sunglasses, clothing items, dining wear, bicycles, couches, washers and dryers, sometimes refrigerators, lawnmowers. One team came back with a go-kart.
• 4:10
  A vote was then taken. Whatever team brought back the best item was declared the winner. Now this lasted a couple of seasons. It was really fun until the game was banned by the church because of the pain it was to get rid of all of the stuff that our kids brought back, right? This busted old lawnmower. We don't want to keep getting rid of this stuff, so they banned it. But what if you were to play that game backward? What if instead of starting with something small and worthless and asking for something bigger or better, you started with something valuable?
• 4:40
  and asked to trade for something smaller or worse. This morning's text says that humanity has done exactly that. We were given the revelation of the glory of God and yet exchanged it for something dark, diseased, and worthless. We were given, the text says, what is incorruptible, permanent, and we traded it for something that would not last. We started with a Ferrari and we ended up with a paperclip. Do you see what he's saying?
• 5:11
  We look first at the exchanges this morning. We're just going to stack these on top of each other. Three bad trades that we made in verses 23, 25, and 26. And then we're going to look at God's response in giving us exactly what we demanded by giving us over or giving us up. That phrase is used multiple times in the New Testament. It's used in 1 Corinthians 13, giving over, giving one's body to be burned.
• 5:40
  It's used again in Galatians 2.20, and this is one you've probably memorized. Galatians 2.20 when it says that Christ gave himself up to death. That same phrase, giving over, is finally used of rebellious angels in 2 Peter 2 and verse 4. Rebellious angels being given over or being delivered into the pits of darkness. A giving up, a giving over, literally the word is an abandonment. Abandoned.
• 6:09
  because of what was either requested or in our case deserved and so let's go through the text this morning beginning in verse 23 you're going to notice bad trade number one here it is the immortal for the mortal right we exchanged what was permanent for something temporary and notice verse 23 we exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things
• 6:39
  We said last Sunday that God is not hiding. He is being revealed all the time. He is being revealed. He has uncovered for us the truth in a way that is unavoidable and unmistakable to the point that we said mankind is without excuse. We said this phrase to make it easy to remember. You knew it and you didn't do it and so what?
• 6:59
  You blew it, right? You knew it, you didn't do it, and so you blew it. And the unfortunate truth is that we can trace our rebellion all the way back to our source, to the very first humans, to Adam and Eve, who were able to see God's face and who walked with God without fear or shame and who nevertheless exchanged immortality, eternal life, for mortality, death.
• 7:31
  Remember back with me to Genesis chapter 3. Do you guys remember that exchange? Vengefully angry at having been expelled from heaven. Lucifer, the chief of the angels, launches an assault on the Lord's crowning achievement. The creatures, Adam and Eve, that bear his very image. And we notice that his attack was two-pronged. He attacked the word of God, right? Did he really say this? He attacked the wisdom of God.
• 8:01
  You will not surely die. But we read that's exactly what happened. The man and woman ate the fruit. The results were immediate. They had to that point enjoyed a perfectly harmonious relationship free of guilt. And now they were scrambling over each other, trying to cover their nakedness, to cover their shame, cowering in the corner, hiding in the bushes, trying not to be discovered.
• 8:31
  The immortality that they had enjoyed and that their offspring, you and I, would have enjoyed was stripped from them. They would from that day be born dead spiritually, and they would, we would from that day eventually die physically. We exchanged life for death. That is a pretty bad trade, amen? But it didn't stop there. There was another bad trade. Bad trade number two, we exchanged the truth.
• 8:59
  Look at verse 25. Because, it says, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Verse 18 said that mankind suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. And by suppressing the truth, we were made susceptible to untruth. When you suppress the truth, you open your heart up to what? To lies.
• 9:29
  Turn with me, if you would, a decent left turn here to the prophet Isaiah. And I'll give you a minute to find it. Isaiah chapter 44. Isaiah 44. There's a section of scripture I want us to read together. Isaiah 44. The prophet Isaiah considered the substance of the pagan gods whom the Israelites were serving rather than worshiping their creator. So the Israelites had turned their back on their creator, on the God of the Bible, and began serving.
• 9:59
  idols and he in this text in a mocking rebuke of their false gods pointed out that the idols to whom the people were devoting themselves were nothing but a lie isaiah 44 in verse 9 says all who fashion idols are nothing the things they delight in do not profit their witnesses neither see nor know that they may be put to shame who fashions a god
• 10:25
  or cast an idol that is profitable for nothing. Do you see what he's saying? I would think this would be rhetorical. Like, who carves an image and then worships the image that they themselves carved? How can that be your God if you're the one who made it? Do you see what he's asking? This seems silly, and yet that's exactly what they were doing. Behold, he says in verse 11, all his companions shall be put to shame. The craftsmen are only human.
• 10:53
  Let them all assemble. Let them stand forth. They shall be terrified. When God shows up, their gods will be put to shame. They'll be terrified. They shall be put to shame together. The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with a strong arm. He becomes hungry. His strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line. He marks it with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass.
• 11:21
  He shapes it into the figure of a man with the beauty of a man to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, chooses a cypress tree or an oak, lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for man. Listen, listen to what he says. He takes a part of it. He chops it up and makes firewood, right? He takes a part of that tree and he warms himself. He kindles fire and bakes bread. He uses a portion of the tree to cook on.
• 11:51
  And then he takes the rest of the tree and does what? He makes a god. He makes a god and he worships it. He makes an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns over the fire. The other half he eats meat. He roasts and is satisfied and he warms himself and says, Aha, I'm warm. I've seen the fire. And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol. He falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, Deliver me, for you are my god. They know not.
• 12:16
  nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes so that they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, half of it I burn in the fire. What you and I are reading right now and just saying, this is ridiculous. They can't see how ridiculous it is. Half of it I burn in the fire. I bake bread on its coals.
• 12:40
  I roasted meat and have eaten. Shall I make the rest into an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood? Now here's the key, verse 20. He feeds on ashes. A deluded heart has led him astray. He cannot deliver himself or say, here's the key, is there not a what? A lie in my right hand. He's holding his idol that he himself made and he says, am I not worshiping and serving a lie?
• 13:11
  The prophet Jeremiah, a century and a half later, pointed out the same problem. The same problem. Jeremiah 13. I will scatter you like chaff driven by the wind from the desert. This is your lot. The portion I have measured out to you, declares the Lord, because you have forgotten in me and trusted in lies. When we forget God, we forget the truth.
• 13:37
  Those are the only two options. There is God and truth on one side, and there is anything else that we worship and lies on the other side. Do you see what all these prophets are stringing together? The same message. When you turn your back on the living God, you turn your back on the truth. And when you turn your back on the truth, you open your heart up to lies. God and the truth are inextricably linked or tied together. They are a package.
• 14:07
  deal. Now, this is why Jesus said in John chapter 14 and verse 6, I am the way and what? The truth. I am the truth. I am the life. I am the truth. There is no other truth apart from me, and yet we traded the truth for a lie. That's a pretty bad trade, but unfortunately, it didn't end there. Bad trade number three, and we go back now to Romans in chapter one.
• 14:36
  Bad trade number three, we traded the natural for the unnatural. The natural for the unnatural, and we pick up in verse 26. We'll pick up at the beginning. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. We'll talk about that in just a moment. For their women exchanged natural relations. There's that word natural. For those that are contrary to nature, we traded the natural for the unnatural.
• 15:01
  The men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men, receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. Now, this text is clearly speaking of sexual perversion. There's no other way to read this. And specifically, this mentions homosexuality. Now, both Old and New Testaments prohibit any sexual relations, any.
• 15:25
  outside of the marriage of one man and one woman. In fact, Hebrews chapter 13 says to keep the marriage bed pure. Even heterosexual relationships are governed by marriage. And it does so in the strongest terms. There may not be a clearer biblical truth under such scrutiny today as this one, enduring such strong opposition from our culture.
• 15:52
  Do a simple internet search. Ask this question. Does the Bible prohibit homosexuality? You know what's interesting? You will get millions of results. I did it this week. Does the Bible prohibit homosexuality? I had just read this, and I'm like, yes. Yes, there it is. I got two million results. Almost none of them said yes. Almost none of them.
• 16:16
  I mean, I had to scroll page after page after page after page before I finally came one that said, yes, praise God for the Billy Graham Foundation, right? That was the one. I finally found one. I was like, Billy Graham, still going strong. He's in heaven now, right? But man, what a legacy he has left. Praise God, one. I mean, I went through dozens before it finally said, you know, going, well, you got to really see the nuance of the passage and whatever. That's not what he was prohibiting. And you're like, well, wait.
• 16:46
  Listen to the Bible for yourself. Leviticus chapter 18, you shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. I mean, there it is. Leviticus 20 and verse 13, if a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood is upon them. He says, execute them and don't feel bad about it. It's their fault. They chose this. The argument you get back is, well, yeah, but.
• 17:19
  the old testament right because leviticus you're like are we supposed to agree with everything leviticus says because leviticus also said don't eat pork and don't eat shrimp and yet christians eat bacon wrapped prawns right we do i mean that's a good place for an amen i mean that it's good bacon wrapped shrimp i mean it says that in leviticus too are we not supposed to do that either that is true that it says that but then
• 17:50
  The Lord clarified those dietary laws. He made them obsolete when he said that all food is clean in Acts chapter 10. In Acts chapter 10, he went back. The New Testament went back and said, yes, that was true then. No bacon-wrapped shrimp, right, for the Israelites coming out of the Exodus. And yet, in the New Testament, he says, but that's not true anymore. That's not relevant anymore. I've made it obsolete. And yet, nowhere in the New Testament does the Lord do that with sexual deviation.
• 18:18
  He never does that. In fact, the New Testament, which we'll come to, speaks pretty clearly against homosexuality. In Genesis chapter 19 and verse 4, another one, this is Sodom and Gomorrah, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man surrounded the house. You guys remember Lot's house? God had sent messengers, angels down to warn Lot to get his family out. The men of Sodom see these angels, right? And they called to Lot.
• 18:47
  Where are the men who came to you tonight? They're banging down his door. Bring them out to us that we may know them. They're talking about homosexuality, sexual deviation. And you say, wait, weren't the men of Sodom just guilty of inhospitality? That is the argument that is used. It wasn't homosexuality. It was inhospitality. And that's why they incurred the Lord's judgment. Now, honestly, church, if the men of Sodom had had their way with the Lord's messengers, then yes.
• 19:18
  that would have been pretty inhospitable, right? Okay, well, that's not what he was talking about. That's not what they were condemned for. So pernicious was their desire, so vile and disgusting was their lust after Lot's visitors that the city of Sodom lent its name to the sin for which they became known. Sodom, throughout the Old and New Testaments, became a byword for everything that is morally perverse in Scripture. And sodomy became, throughout history, even today,
• 19:49
  a synonym for sexual deviation. Church, we know this already, but let me state what is obvious. There is not one instance, not one time where the Lord in his word condones anything other than sexual intercourse between a husband and a wife favorably. He never does it anywhere. There's never one example of it, sexual deviation, which is not openly condemned in the scriptures. To speak any other way of it,
• 20:20
  is to speak contrary to the mind and word of God. The issue cannot be softened. The penalties we find in God's word are severe. Now allow me to take a moment, and it's important that we do this here too. It would be easy just to close in prayer at that point, leaving people who maybe struggle with this exact sin feeling condemned and without hope. That is also not where the Bible leaves it. This does not mean
• 20:49
  church that homosexuals and their ilk are outside the means of god's forgiveness and grace forgiveness is offered grace is offered freely the same way that it is to people who struggle with other sins and not homosexuality first john chapter one and what a promise this is one of the best verses in the bible if you haven't memorized this then memorize it it is one of the best promises in scripture if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us
• 21:16
  It'd be very easy to say, yeah, I don't struggle with that sin. Those people are bad. You're like, well, wait. Just because you don't struggle with that sin doesn't mean what? You don't struggle with sin. We don't get to sit up here on our little tower and look down at people. Do you see what he's saying? The truth is not in you. If you claim to be without sin, I'm sinless, I'm perfect. If you pretend and put on your smiley face and go to church and pretend like you're not debauched just like the rest of us. Do you see what he's saying? The truth is not in you. And then he says this.
• 21:46
  But if we confess our sins, if we agree with God, if we ask for forgiveness, if we admit that we were wrong and say, yes, Lord, you were right. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. All means all. All of it does not matter. It does not matter what sin you've committed. The grace of God is bigger than your sin. That's the truth. Look at this one. This one's good too.
• 22:17
  1 Corinthians 6 and verse 9, or do you not know, he says, that the righteous, the unrighteous, the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality. Now listen, it flat says it. I'm not going to go into the Greek on this. The Greek is extremely explicit.
• 22:45
  There's not just a word that you translate this word homosexuality. That's not how it describes it. It describes the act. There is nothing vague in the text there. The New Testament translators, I think, to soften it a little bit in case your kids are reading. That's how graphic it is. Men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Man, that's...
• 23:14
  It's rough. That's the end of verse 10. Look at verse 11. Look at verse 11. And such were, were some of you. That church at Corinth was filled with those people, right? Idolaters and slanderers and adulterers, the immoral. Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Can I get a witness? That is good news.
• 23:45
  Such were some of you. Listen, church, this is great news for all of the adulterers, the thieves, the greedy, the drunks, the gossips, and the cheats, because the reality is that's all of us. Who isn't included somewhere in that list? You might not be struggling personally with homosexuality, but you struggle with something, and you need the same forgiveness. Those are the trades. And now it says, how does God respond?
• 24:14
  Those are the trades we made. Those are the trades we demanded. What is God's response to these exchanges? Three times the text says, therefore, or for this reason, or because of this, God gave them up. What we see is that when man is determined to sin,
• 24:31
  When man is determined to reject his creator, when man is determined to go his own way, God in his grace and love allows him to do so. If we willfully demand that God vanishes, guess what he does? He says, okay. God, get out of my way. He'll say, okay. If we willfully demand an eternity apart from God, the Lord,
• 25:04
  graciously obliges in the end church every single person will spend eternity where he or she has chosen to be god will never force heaven on anyone c.s lewis has said it this way the the lost enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded and are therefore self-enslaved
• 25:30
  We wanted to be free from God, unshackled from his glory and grace. And so God set us free, free to live in darkness and squalor, free to suffer, free to lose. And notice three things that we demanded that God abandoned us to. You're going to notice first, the first one, he gave us up to impurity. Look at verse 24. Therefore, it says, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity. That word for impurity is unclean or
• 25:59
  decaying it's used of the contents of a grave a rotting corpse the same word was also used in galatians chapter 5 the apostle paul contrasts the fruits of the spirit right love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control he contrasts those fruits of the spirit with the works of the flesh which he calls sexual immorality impurity
• 26:23
  A decaying, rotting corpse and sensuality and so on. It's the opposite of dignity. Dignity would elevate mankind's status and position. It creates a perpetual downward slide into degradation to the point that the value of human life is eventually even denied. This is why the author uses the term the dishonoring of themselves in verse 24.
• 26:49
  It is dishonorable practice in verse 26 that impure behavior produces nothing good. And so God says, fine, if you want to decay, you can decay. The second thing that God gave us up to is immorality. God gave us up to immorality. Notice verse 26, for this reason, it says God gave them up to dishonorable passions.
• 27:16
  Mankind demanded the freedom to degrade our own bodies, to revel in that which God forbade, and so God abandoned us to it. That ultimate expression of degeneracy is the denial of the natural order, a denial of creation, a denial of complementary design. And again, we won't go too graphic there, but you're adults. You figure that out.
• 27:44
  even a denial of biology itself, are the earmarks of a warped and twisted and godless society. Gave them up to immorality. Notice, finally, God gave us up to irrationality. Irrationality, verse 28. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up, here's the key, to a debased mind.
• 28:12
  To do what not to be done. And then he goes through this whole litany, this whole list. Unrighteous and evil and covetous and malice. Envy and murder and strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. He gave us over to things that don't even make sense. Because the godless mind is a depraved mind. A mind which is debased, which will not stand the test. That word was...
• 28:42
  Commonly used metals which were tried and found wanting. Metals which would eventually be discarded by the refiners. They were impure metals, were therefore worthless and useless. One pastor has said it this way, the mind that finds God worthless becomes worthless itself. Listen to how Job worded it in Job 21. Depart from us. We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. What is the Almighty? He says.
• 29:13
  that we should serve him regardless of their natural intelligence and educations. In their denial of their creator, they are fools, the fools of Proverbs who lack even the beginning of wisdom because they lack fear of God. And so after all of that, the Holy Spirit here inspires in verse 32 a concluding indictment. You can almost hear the author saying, woe to the nation, woe to the people, woe to the culture who rejects their creator.
• 29:40
  In this final statement of chapter 1, Paul reiterates some key themes. You notice first that mankind is in a position to understand God's truth. He says, though they know God's righteous decree. Through all of this church, through all of these bad trades, we still know what's going on. We still, in our hearts, know the truth. Second, mankind, he says, understands that there must be a divine punishment of sin.
• 30:09
  Not only do we know the truth, we actually know that the things we're committing deserve death. He continues in verse 32. We know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die. We nevertheless continue to do them. This is what he says, the third point. He's warning us that to approve of sin carries the same weight of punishment as the committing of the sin itself. They know the decree.
• 30:39
  that those who practice such things deserve to die, and yet he says in verse 32 that they not only do them themselves, but give approval to those who practice them. We're reminded that we must not applaud anything for which Christ came to die. We cannot celebrate sin. We can't take pride in it. We can't accept it. We can't approve of it. We can't.
• 31:07
  We can't applaud anything for which Christ came to die. We must not take pleasure in anything for which Christ came to die. We must not, by our silent approval, unwittingly lead others into practicing anything for which Christ came to die. In fact, Jude verse 22 says this, have mercy on those who doubt, save others by snatching them out of the fire, to others show mercy with fear. And then it says, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. We should have such a repulsion, such a revulsion of sin.
• 31:38
  Then he says, we hate even the clothing that was being worn. Church, we made some bad trades. They were anything but bigger and better. The Lord blessed us with immortality, with truth, with a natural order which would bless us and bring him glory, but we traded those for death, lies, and punishment. But the good news this morning, and here is the key, and make sure you hear this, those were not the only exchanges made.
• 32:08
  The Lord, after we ate all of these exchanges, the Lord offered us another exchange, a better one, a brilliant one. He offered us all of those things back, immortality and truth and the natural order, which would bring him glory and bring us joy. There was a far greater exchange made that offered real redemption to every man and woman who by faith was willing to receive it, an exchange which turned out to be bigger and better. And I'm going to invite Carla to come back up.
• 32:39
  We're going to take communion together, and we are going to celebrate that exchange, that exchange. And so if you would, reach there and grab the elements that you got on the way in. If you didn't grab elements on the way in, just raise your hand. There's Darlene right over here. Thank you, Nancy. Raise your hand, and they'll be brought to you, the DeLorenzos down here. You receive two cups stacked together. The bread is on the bottom, the juice on the top. And listen to this trade. From 2 Corinthians 5,
• 33:14
  I'll begin in verse 20. It says, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Now here is the great exchange. For our sake, God made Jesus to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus came to the cross, scorning its shame.
• 33:47
  Became obedient to the point of death on that cross and offers by faith, by belief, that's all you have to do, by belief, to trade back everything that was lost. Eternal life rather than this temporal, meaningless life. Truth rather than lies. The natural order by design rather than exchanging for an unnatural order which brings only shame and death.
• 34:19
  Why don't you take a few moments before we take the elements, before I even pray, why don't you take a few moments of confession, maybe just of gratitude for the Lord making that trade back to us.