uh... if you would take a driver was turned in jeremiah chapter ten we're gonna jump straight into the message tonight talking about direction or correction uh... and my wife will take me for pronouncing a better this time but direction or correction uh... if you're anything like me so much of the time you'll ask yourself why is it so difficult to know the right thing to do why is it always a struggle to know what we ought to do what we are not to do And so much of our life is weighing the balance between something that is right and something that is also right. Obviously, if our decision is between good and bad, hopefully we can make the decision to go towards the good. But once in a while, we'll struggle with the question of two choices between something that is good and something else that is also good. And we've got to make those decisions wisely. uh... if you talk to any high school junior senior one big question you'll find that is prevalent in their lives is what should i do with my future and and certainly that question does not stop with juniors and seniors in high school that extends too many young adults most that i work with and also extends into people in their middle age. They're questioning the things that they've done in their life. They're wondering if they've done things wrong or done things well. And they're trying to make a good decision, a wise decision about their futures. And so they'll ask questions about where they should work. They'll ask questions about where they should live, where they should raise their kids, in what school they should bring their children up, in what church they should raise their family. There are many prevailing questions that people deal with every single day So, why is it so hard to know when I'm doing the right thing? And that's the question that I want to try to help answer this evening. So we're going to look at Jeremiah chapter 10, verses 23 and 24. And I hope you've turned there already. Verse 23 says, Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Verse 24, O Lord, correct me, but with judgment, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. See, if we're going to understand why it's so difficult to understand what is right and what is wrong, we've got to first look at the problem. We've got to first look at the problem. You see, we operate on a moral compass that has no true north. And let me explain what I mean by that. Brother Colby, if you would help me over here. We're going to take a look at this bullseye. And I've printed off this bullseye. I want to show you. If you're looking at your screen, whether your TV, maybe it's on your phone, maybe it's on your computer, I think you'll be able to see that this bullseye looks pretty centered. And drop a comment, if you're watching on Facebook, drop a comment below and tell me whether or not you think the camera is perfectly centered on this bullseye. And then we're going to have some fun here in a second and find out whether or not it is. If you've ever wondered why the video booth, the sound guys, don't get the Bible verses up on the screen quickly enough, it's because they're playing with the cameras. Just look up there sometime and you may see them hunched over a computer and they're zooming in, checking people's text messages over their shoulders. I don't know. But I have heard stories of being able to read Bible verses from the camera on somebody's Bible in their lap. So we'll find out how good the zoom is here in just a second. But I hope you dropped a comment below. Let's take a look here. If we think that we are totally on target, And we look at a zoomed out view, maybe our world view, and this would apply to many different areas. If you think about just the political commentary that's going on right now, and I'm not going to get political tonight, but there are totally different sides of the issue. And the truth is, if you look at both sides of the issue, you'll find truth. It's very hard to lie. The best lies that are told are lies that have some truth in them. And so, just likewise, as we look at what is true north in this particular situation, you'll see that just because we are close does not mean we are perfectly off. So, Brother Colby, let's zoom in here slowly. Let's find out how close we are to being right on target. Here we go. Uh-oh. Looks like we're just a little bit off. And that's how far we can zoom in. Can you see how far that is? Do you realize? Let me see if I can get my finger in here. Look at that. That is my finger. Right there. That is a huge magnification. Okay. But you can see, we were just a little bit off. Now, the difference between the camera and where this bullseye is located is probably about 15 or 20 yards. So it's not very far at all. But imagine if you were trying to Hit a target maybe with a bow and arrow or with a gun or something and you were coming from a great distance if you're just a slight Difference off just a slight radius off-center. You're gonna realize you're gonna be way off on your goal now likewise as Christians And as humans, really, we operate on a moral compass that has no true north. Pilots abide by a 1 in 60 rule. That means for every degree off that they find themselves, if they travel 60 miles, they will be one mile away from their destination. So for one degree, now there's 360 degrees in a circle, if you are one degree off, which does not seem like a great distance if I'm walking from here to the back of the room, but when we traverse a lifetime, we'll realize that one degree off makes a humongous difference to our final destination. And pilots realize that. We don't have to be off in left field to miss our mark. We can still be very close on target and be totally off base. Some things don't turn out the way we expect it to, in spite of our best predictions. If you disagree with me, I would implore you to think back about some of the people that you've dated in the past. Explain to me why those people were a good idea. And of course, I'm joking. I hope you don't have very many people that you're ashamed of dating. But the truth is that many of us have situations, decisions that we've made in our past, reasons to think back and probably not be too happy about some of the things that we've decided. And so you and I have to realize about ourselves, first of all, the problem is we don't know what's best for us. We are the problem. We cannot know, humanly, what is actually correct. And so that brings me to my second point. First of all, look at the problem. Secondly, look at our predisposition. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter 21. We'll look at one verse. We always assume we are right. Think about that. We always assume we are right. Look at Proverbs 21 here. Every way of man is right in his own eyes. but the Lord pondereth the hearts." You see, I look at myself through my eyes, and I feel pretty good about myself. You look at yourself through your own eyes, and you're going to feel pretty good about yourself, because the Bible says here clearly, every way of a man is right in his own eyes. But the Lord is above looking at us through our eyes. He sees us the way that He ought, through an eternal perspective. Have you ever noticed that we usually fail to practice the kind of behavior we expect from other people? Think about that. We always expect people to live to a higher standard than what we expect from ourselves. I'll give you an example. When was the last time that you were unfair to someone because you were tired that day? Hey, you were unfair to that person. Man, it was a long day. You don't understand how many hours of work I put in. You don't realize the baby kept me up all night last night. I'm operating on an hour and a half of sleep here. I haven't drank my morning coffee yet. When was the last time you were unfair to someone? for any reason. Okay, how about this? When was the last time you were maybe a little shady with your finances? And I hope that doesn't apply to any of you. But maybe you were shady with your finances because money was a little bit tight that month. Or because you felt like it would be a good opportunity. Maybe you thought that it would be a good option or something that jumped into your pathway that you thought you'd take advantage of and it turned out to be a little bit shady. Hey, we realize excuses make a big difference in our life. How about this one? When was the last time you had a promise that you didn't keep because you've been so busy? Because you didn't have as much time available to you as you thought you would when you originally made that promise. How about this one? When was the last time you were unpleasant towards someone because they're just so irritating? Oh my goodness. If you could have been there to hear how rude they were to me, you would realize I was right. But you see, we hold ourselves to a different standard than what we hold other people. You see, if somebody had been unpleasant to you, you would have been the first to say, hey, that was wrong. Can you believe that? Many of us will go to social media just to complain about it. When was the last time that you were upset because someone was rude to you? Because someone was unfair to you? Because someone made you a promise they didn't keep? You see, we hold other people to standards greater than what we hold ourselves to. We always give ourselves passes to be wrong. And that's because as humans we are capable of endless self-deception. You see, you and I are capable of lying to ourselves, and lying to ourselves, and lying to ourselves, and constantly giving ourselves an out, giving ourselves excuses that we would never allow anyone else to do. But somehow, you and I, towards ourselves, feel pretty good about ourselves. And when other people do wrong, we are the first to jump against them. You see, the general thought is that if I behave badly, I have an excuse for why I behave that way. But if I behave well, well, it's just because I'm a great person. And as human nature, that is how we think about ourselves. We are happy to give an excuse when we're at fault and happy to take credit for when we do well. And that is humanly how we see ourselves. So first of all, we have the problem. We're the problem. We have a predisposition. We see ourselves as right even when we're totally wrong. And thirdly here, I want you to look at the prescription. We must trust someone who sees more clearly than we do. John chapter 16. I want to read verse 13 here. John chapter 16, verse 13. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not come to speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come." You see, the Holy Spirit is here to guide us in all truth. Because we are inclined to be unfair towards ourselves and against other people, that's what makes the Bible so important. You see, every other religion asks people to live by as good of a standard as they can possibly live. You say the general thought is to live just as good as you can, be as good to every man as you can, live as kindly as you can, be kind to everyone around you. And you'll hear this kind of terminology, but when you compare it with the Bible, the Bible asks us to live by a standard that we cannot attain, that we cannot possibly live to because the standard is far above what you could ask from me or what you could ask for yourself, and likewise for me. I could never live by the standard that the Bible asked me to live by, and yet God commands us to do so. We represent a standard, the Bible represents a standard far above what we can live up to. We don't have the capacity to lead ourselves, so we've got to get God's mind on the decisions that we make. That's the prescription. We have to get God's mind involved. We've got to find out, in order to do away with our predisposition, to do away with the problem that is us, we have to get the prescription. And the prescription is to get God involved in the decisions we make. Jeremiah chapter 10, verse 24, we read it earlier, says, Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. O Lord, correct me, but with judgment, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. So let's review. First of all, we have a problem. The problem is us. Secondly, the predisposition is that we always think we are right, even when we are wrong. And thirdly, our prescription is to understand that God is always right. And so the answer, therefore, is to go to God to find the true north. You see, when we abide by a moral compass that is not quite on center, you and I will wind up in very different places because you're twisted one direction and I'm twisted another. And when we find a third guy, he's twisted a different direction altogether. And so together, we cannot come to the same location. That's why there's controversy. That's why there's problems. That's why there's adversity between different people. And that's why we have to have God. You see, God holds to a standard that is beyond what you and I could hold ourselves to or each other to. So our preponderance, big word there, our preponderance is to trust our own judgment. In reality, we can only trust God's judgment. So how do we get God to guide us? And that's our sermon. So all of this has been introduction. We've been doing great. Now we're getting to the actual sermon. How do we get God to guide us? He guides us through two distinct processes. Can you guess what they are? It's the name of the sermon. Direction and correction. Direction and correction. Let's talk about them here. First of all, let's discuss direction. Directions happen, or getting direction from God happens when we follow Proverbs chapter 3. Turn there with me if you would. Proverbs chapter 3. We'll look at a couple verses here. You know it probably by heart. Some of you will be able to say it with me from home. Here we go. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart And lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil. So a couple points here about direction. First of all, it starts with trust. Trust in the Lord. Know that God knows better. than us. And if you've been following in the sermon you understand that well. God knows better than us. He knows better than me for any decision that I could possibly make in my life. He knows better than me for any situation or a change that I could make for my family, for the people around me. God knows better than me about every single situation that I could ever handle. And so it is in my best interest not to go by what I think, but what God thinks. That's trusting God. know that He has your best interest at heart. Secondly, on direction here, lean not. Lean not unto thine own understanding. You see, it's easy for us to think that we've got it under control. In verse 7 here in Proverbs chapter 3 says that it's pride. Lean not, be not wise in thine own eyes. Pride comes in. It creeps into our lives and it gives me the feeling I'm doing pretty good. I feel pretty good about how my behavior has been. I think I know pretty well about situations and I think that I know a lot of things about certain decisions that need to be made and I turn into my own worst enemy. Be not wise in thine own eyes. So don't just pray when you're going to God and asking for direction. Don't just pray and ask God to bless something you've already decided. Man, you first off got to trust that God knows what's best for you. And then secondly, you've got to lean away from your understanding. Lean not to thine own understanding. What does that mean? It means instead of leaning into it as we do, we tend to just rely on our own thought processes, our own deductions, and our own ability to put two and two together in order to help us get through situations. Instead, we've got to lean away from that. and focus on what God knows. We've got to lean into God and say, God, I need you to help me in this. Well, you might be able to handle that just fine, but we're leaning into God. We're leaning away from our understanding and leaning towards God. It's like taking your leg out and try to support yourself. Well, God's the support. I'm taking my ability to support myself on my own understanding away, and I'm instead leaning on God to direct me the path that I ought to go. Thirdly here, we've got to acknowledge him. Now this works the same way for your marriage. I was thinking just as I was putting the sermon together about Brother Kenny. Brother Kenny is up in Anchorage, Alaska starting a church there in Anchorage and we're sure excited for him. I've been following him on Facebook, some of the updates that he's been making. He's probably not watching this sermon, but if you think through with me, As he talked recently in the service that he preached on a Sunday night, he talked about how God had directed him to Anchorage and the decisions that he made and the prayer that he went through and how he got God's direction. Can you imagine what a terrible situation it would be if Brother Kenny had showed up at home one evening and he said, Lydia, Miss Lydia to me, Miss Lydia, we are moving to Anchorage. What? Can you imagine her response? What do you mean we're moving to Anchorage? Huh? Think about my family. Think about the kids. And how are we going to do all this? Yeah, pack the bags. We're leaving tomorrow. We're going to Anchorage. Tomorrow, can you imagine the response he would have gotten if he had just decided on a whim this is what they're doing? Of course, he didn't do that. We know that Brother Kenny prayed about it. He talked to his wife about it. They prayed together. And certainly God has led them there. But imagine if he had made a poor decision and didn't acknowledge his wife in the decision that was being made. Man, I believe with my whole heart, and when I spoke with Brother Kenny, he made known to me that he and his wife talked at length, they prayed together, they made it a real decision between them as a family about what they would be doing. uh... and god has led them to a version were so excited for them but can you imagine how terrible would be uh... from a wife's perspective for your husband to just come home and tell you this is what we're doing deal with it uh... and man sometimes with god is christians that's what we're guilty of we go to god we say hey god This is the way it's going to go. Deal with it. And we don't acknowledge him in the decisions that we're making. Hey, God has given us wisdom. God has given us sometimes abilities to make decisions about the situations we're in. And that's how God has guided us and directed us and brought us to where we are. But man, we've got to take a step back and we've got to acknowledge God. We've got to give God opportunity to work on our heart. We've got to give God the chance to guide us. And it starts by looking for his guidance. God promises wisdom. to all who ask Him for wisdom. And the best synergy that I can give you, the synergy of these three things together, praying for all of these things, trust, lean not, and acknowledge. Man, if you can embody this type of prayer as you go to God about the decisions that you're trying to make, you will be amazed at how God speaks to you and helps you make the decisions that you're trying to make. I'm reminded of a way that Christ prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. I can't speak tonight. The Garden of Gethsemane. I finally said it. And the way that he prayed, do you remember? He was praying and he's praying with such passion that he's sweating drops of blood and he's praying, God, I'm not excited about the cross. In fact, I don't want the cross. And if there's anything that could change the course of history without me having to go to the cross. Can we do that? Can we do anything except me going to the cross? But how does he end that prayer? Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt. You see, Christ, he goes to God. He's trusting him. He knows that God knows what's best. He's modeling for us how to pray. He's not leaning towards his own understanding. His own understanding is to stay away from that thing that causes pain. His own understanding is to lean away, to lean towards his own understanding and to run, to get out of there before he gets caught. But he chooses to trust the Lord and he acknowledges Him and what he wants for his life and trusts that God knows what's best. And if we could do these three things in our prayer life, we will realize the way that God will direct us. Tell him what you're thinking, but trust his guidance. Man, speak openly with God. God wants that relationship with us. You know, relationship cannot be one-sided. Man, if my wife tried to talk to me when I got home from work, and I just grunted at her, can you imagine what a terrible relationship that would be? And maybe I'm guilty of that. You'll have to ask her later. Maybe I do just grunt. I'm not sure. But can you imagine what a terrible relationship that would be if she was trying to speak to me, Hey babe, how did your day go? Did you work with anybody? Was there anything that maybe I could help you with or anything you want to talk about? Food. Sleep. You know, I don't know. Man, that would be terrible. And yet with God, sometimes we just say, okay God, speak to us. All right, well, he didn't speak to me, so I'm gonna do what I want. And man, we just, we don't acknowledge him. And so much of life can be handled if we would just remember these three things and just trust God, lean away from our own understanding and acknowledge him. Give God the space to guide us. Man, go to God about a decision you're trying to make and say, God, man, this is what I'm thinking. and maybe it's not right. I don't know what is right. You promised wisdom if we ask, and I'm here asking for wisdom. Would you guide me? I just don't know the decision that I'm supposed to make. I don't know how to make the right choice in this matter, and man, I'm struggling with a particular situation at work or a coworker that I can't get along with, or maybe my relationship with my wife or my children is just, maybe it's on the rocks, and God, I don't know how to fix it. I don't know what to do about it. I don't know how to change it. Lord, can you just help me, teach me what I need to know? You will be amazed at how God will come through and help somebody who asks in meekness. Just like he said at the end of Proverbs, I've got it written down here, Proverbs 3, verse 7, be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. That's the first type, direction. If we want to find out what we should do, the first way that God guides us is direction. What's the second way? Correction. And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that this is not the preferred method. This is not the easy way of getting guidance from God. We get it through direction, which comes before we make the decision, and we get guidance through correction, which usually comes after the decision has already been made. Correction is what happens when we don't follow direction. Correction is what the prodigal son experienced when he went his own direction. You see, when your life seems to fall apart around you, and this is not always the case, but a lot of times, when your life seems to fall apart around you, when you feel like something is just not not taking shape the way you expected it to. Things are going in a very negative direction very quickly. Things are sliding down the slope and picking up speed. A lot of times this has something to do with a direction that God has tried to give you and maybe you've ignored. Correction happens when we follow our own direction and God has to get our attention. You see, correction is God's way of bringing you back to Him. Proverbs 16 verse 6, an interesting verse here, says, "...by mercy and truth iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil." You see, God is the sum total of mercy and truth, and you cannot separate God from mercy and truth because these are two of the things that God uses in our lives. God is a merciful God, and certainly if you're a Christian who's been saved and you've been offered forgiveness, you know God is a merciful God. He's forgiven you of all that you are guilty of. But God is also a truthful God. And so even through his mercy, God is honest. God knows when something has been done right and when something has been done wrong. And we cannot separate these two parts of God's character. So even though God is a merciful God, God will still bring judgment on us for behaving incorrectly, for ignoring his guidance. You know, I'm reminded of a story, and this is a story from the school a couple years ago, and I'm going to try not to give too much context to the story because I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus. If you know who this is, You can tag them in the comments. That doesn't bother me at all. I'm not going to say who it was, but if you know, go ahead and take a shot at it in the comments. There's two young people, and I was teaching a class in our school. Mrs. Wooster, this is the first time that you'll hear this story. And these two young people It was an interesting day. I started off the day at a 7.40 a.m. staff meeting for the school teachers. And in this staff meeting, Mrs. Wooster reminded all of us as teachers to make sure that we were supporting the rulebook. And this was a good reminder to me. I have a tendency to walk into class and just teach and ignore everything that's going on as long as it's not a problem. I just go with it and it was a great reminder to me to be watching for haircuts and all of the different rules, you know, dress standards and making sure people are following the rules. And one of the things that she brought up specifically was that drinks are not allowed in class. And man, that just rang a bell in my head and I went, man, I got to make sure that I am clear on that in class today. And so I went to class later in the day thinking, I'm going to be a good staff member. I'm going to be the right teacher. I'm going to follow my leader's direction. And I'm going to make sure that I uphold the rule book today. And I'm not always as good at that as I should be. When I got to class, it was a quiz day. And so we prepared for the quiz. I handed out the quiz. Everybody's got their heads down. They're writing furiously to beat the clock. And as I'm perusing around the room, watching people take their quizzes, I realized that two young people, teenagers i'm narrowing down the list for you uh... were in possession of drinks from dutch brothers uh... and these dutch brother drinks were uh... very brazenly dutch brothers they were still in the cops they saw the straws you know back when straws were a thing uh... and so a little joke for you at home uh... but uh... They had these Dutch Brothers drinks with them in class, and they were kind of hidden, you know, away from the teacher like they knew they weren't supposed to have them. You know how it is. And they knew that they shouldn't have them, but yet they did. And they were down kind of by their leg, hidden under the chair a little bit, by their backpack, where you couldn't really see them unless you looked for them. But in my walking through the room, I came across them. And so I asked these two young people, quietly from where we were in our seats, as I was walking back to my position there at the front, the podium, I said, I just kind of turned around and I whispered, hey, turn your quiz upside down, walk your drinks out to the front. And I turned to walk back to the front. And immediately, middle of this quiz, these two young people start talking loudly. all but uh... our brother cameron uh... i i was what what if we just uh... uh... let not take him back to our lockers but what if we just put him on the that the cabinet over here and i was like they now it's a public situation we're taking a quiz okay where the group of you know twenty five students in this room uh... all their quizzes have been interrupted by these two young people asking wildly not to take the drinks back to the lockers as i just asked them to but instead to put them on the counter in the court And I said, no, I asked you to take them to your lockers, go take them to your lockers. And again, they stop and they're louder this time. But for the camera, you've never made a big deal about this before and we always have them in class and no other teachers care. And they started going off about how important it was for them to keep their drinks in class. And I looked at them and I said, I said to take your drinks to your locker. And as soon as you get back, I have two demerits for you, so go now. Thankfully, that fixed the situation. As they walked back into the room, I had two demerits ready for them, and they went back to their seats, demerits in hand. Now, I bring up this story to say this, funny story, and if you knew who it was, maybe you already know in the comments, but if you knew who these two people were, it's a fun story. We since have discussed this story at length and have had some fun remembering it together. You see, when a kid obeys, or a student obeys, maybe your own children obey, your reaction is very pleasant. You see, what started as an easy situation, an easy situation of, hey, take care of this issue, we're good. turned into get these situations taken care of and now there's a punishment for your rebellion. And so something will escalate based on our reaction to the correction. My reaction to their response is to respond in like kind. And likewise, God, when we respond to his guidance immediately, God may come to us, say, hey, this isn't right in your life. If our reaction is, oh God, thank you for telling me. I'll take care of that immediately. I want to make sure that this is not an issue between us. I'm so sorry for dealing, you know, thank you for coming to me about it and I'm going to take care of this situation. We're going to find a God who, man, He's happy to talk to us. He's happy to speak with us. He wants to deepen our relationship with us. But man, when we turn our backs on Him and say, hey, that's not right. It's never been an issue before and I've been doing this for years and this has never been a problem before. we'll find a God who starts to put up walls, who starts to provide correction, who starts to really just put the pressure on us in our life and cause situations to not work out the way that we would have them to. So to sum up, we're almost done, we're doing great on time this evening. We make bad decisions if we decide based on our own understanding. We looked at the problem, the problem is us. We have no true compass in our lives. We do not know which way is right, even when we think we do. And even when we're close, we'll find out we're still pretty far away. We know that there is not only a problem, but we know that there's a, I've forgotten my second point. There's a, think of another P word here. I know the prescription is the last one. Predisposition. We tend to think that we are always right about a situation. And finally, number three, we know there's a prescription. The prescription is to get guidance from God. We know that there are two ways to get guidance from God. We have direction. which we respond to, hopefully well, the first time. So it ends there, or we have correction. Correction happens when we do not respond well to direction and are instead forced to deal with the correction when it comes, the consequence of the matter. So when correction comes, when guidance comes from God, when God comes to you and helps you understand you've either been wrong about a situation or how to fix a situation in the future. Can I give you three points just real quickly here tonight that'll help you for when direction and correction comes in your life? First of all, be thankful that God wants you back. Let me say that again. Be thankful that God wants you back. I'm reminded of the prodigal son, and you're very familiar with the story, so I'm not going to take the time to tell it, but can you imagine if God didn't want the prodigal son back? Obviously, we understand that the father in that story is God, and the prodigal son is us, and so when we do things wrong, we get away from God, and then we come back. You remember that the father was standing on his front porch. He was ready. He was excited. He met the son who came back, the son who had done him so wrong, the son who had stolen from him, and then wasted his living. And yet he met him. He sees him coming from a great distance and he runs to meet him. God loves us. And God wants us back. So even if we've done wrong, even if we've gone down a path that God would never have chosen for us, even if we've been rebellious, we've turned away from God, can I remind you, God loves you. So can you be thankful when correction comes, that God loves you and he wants you back. Secondly, can I say, be receptive to what he is teaching you. One of the best ways that we can respond to correction or direction is to see what God is trying to teach us through it. You see, you and I are not complete vessels. You and I are not operating with a full deck. We are not ready to make every decision for ourselves. And so be so, so thankful when God takes the opportunity to move slowly and to teach you what He wants you to learn. There's nothing worse than being in a class, whether it's high school or college, even elementary school, when the teacher is talking too quickly, when you don't understand everything, and the test has nothing to do with what they taught you. And likewise, it would be a terrible way to live life with a God who didn't care enough to teach you what you needed to know for what's coming in the future. God loves you that much. God wants to teach you what you need to know. But we have to be receptive to it. And lastly tonight, pray that God will help you understand His direction the first time. Pray that God will help you understand His direction the first time. Man, if we could just be receptive to what God wants to teach us, Our lives would work so much more smoothly. Sure, we're still going to have problems. Sure, this is not going to cover every issue. You're not going to live a perfect life just because you've always responded to God's direction as best you can, but... it's going to keep you out of that correction side it's gonna keep you in the guidance side of god it's going to keep you in that merciful side so god never has to find you he never has to correct you he never has to bring you back and you're going to be able to decide direction or correction it's your choice direction or correction let's pray together we're done tonight father we love you lord i know that in my life i i've not always I've not always followed your direction when you've given it to me. And Lord, I've been receptive of some of your correction many times. But Lord, as I live my life, and I hope it is the prayer of all that are watching here tonight, I pray that you would help me to receive your direction the first time. Help me to know that you love me. Help me to know that I can trust you with the decisions that are going on in my life. Help me not to lean on my own understanding, but instead, God, help me to realize that you're the prescription, that your guidance is the answer to the problem that I've been searching for. and that you, God, alone, can give me the wisdom that I need in order to live my life the way that I ought to. And Father, I pray that in the lives of those listening that you would do a work, that you'd help them, Lord, many of them that are struggling with situations beyond their control. They're dealing with things that maybe they've put themselves in a bad situation. Maybe the situation that they're in has nothing to do with their own decisions. And yet, God, I pray that you'd give them wisdom in how to deal with it. I pray that if there's something that you're trying to teach them, that you would make that very evident, that you would make it very clear. And Lord, that our spirit would be one of acceptance, that it would be one that would desire to learn and to grow from what you're trying to teach us. Father, thank you for meeting with us tonight. Thank you for your word, and I pray that you'd speak to our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. Boy, thank you for joining us tonight. I hope this has been a help to you. Direction or correction? And certainly I hope that we as Christians will learn in our own lives to always choose direction. Man, thank you for joining us tonight. With that, we're gonna end the live stream. We sure appreciate you, and God bless you.