Our heart is deceitful, and desperately wicked above all things - and yet we follow it.

We inflict more pain and sorrow on ourselves through the sins we commit than anyone else in our lives can do - and we continue on in our wicked ways.

BE YE CHANGED! This is Jesus' call to us! "Be ye perfect, even as I am perfect," He says to us. This is not superficial eyewash, as C.S. Lewis points out - rather, it is the only way to truly find life, peace, and meaning.

Follow our wicked hearts, and we will find death eternal, and pain and suffering on the way there.

Follow Him and find life everlasting, and so much more than we could imagine.

Run to Jesus and find shelter! He is the Friend who sticks closer than a brother.

"To him who knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."

Live rightly, and have peace with the Lord. Live for your own intentions, and deal with eternal turmoil.

In the darkness, lean on Him. He is the only unmovable object, even when everything around us is completely dark.

Comparing characteristics of the Blessed Man who prospers, and the Ungodly Man who is blown away like the chaff.

The Israelites refused to hearken to the voice of the Lord, and it cost them 70 years in captivity. Will we listen to the Lord, and walk in the ways we are called to walk, or will we live our lives in spiritual and mental captivity?

Will we seek the Lord? Or will we turn to our own ways and be destroyed by the weight of who He is?

Man wasn't made to walk this life alone. When we do, we open ourselves up to a world of struggling and pain. When we follow Him, we dwell safely, and are quiet from the fear of evil.

Why do the wicked prevail? Why are there hard times? Habakkuk asks these questions and more in his short book. The Lord answers, and His answers are powerful.

He gives us the feet of a deer to walk upon high places, where we could otherwise never walk. His Grace is sufficient!

THERE IS A BETTER WAY! Than the ways we have been trying to walk on our own our whole lives.

In Him is fullness of Joy. We don't have to make our own way, or manufacture our own future, because He has done it for us. All we have to do is live in this moment, in the gift He has given us, as He would live—and we will be alright.

Jesus invites the weary to lay down the burden of their sin in order to receive true rest and true life in Him.

Weariness is the human experience of looking at our lives in an honest and sober way and realizing that they are not what we want them to be, and not what we hoped they would be.

What do we do then when we are this weary, and burdened?

We need rest.

What makes Jesus' invitation to rest in Him so good? It is for the desperate! The weary, the tired.

God's presence is the only thing that can satisfy us, the only effective remedy for the perpetual restlessness of our souls.

Human behavior modification is not what we should target to change–where is our heart pointing?

Jesus offers us a better way: He calls for us to take off the heavy yoke of religion and performance, and put on His incredibly easy yoke of humility and discipleship.

Come to Jesus! Be honest with Him! We have nothing to offer Him, nothing figured out, and we are not good. We need Him to teach us how to walk in step with Him, and to transform our lives.

Thank you Will Campbell and Citizens of Heaven Church for this message, the points I covered and read off were from his sermon from December 31, 2023—I'll link it here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/citizens-of-heaven-church/id1528418605?i=1000640561389