2. I would like to draw our attention to Step 4 of the 12- step program: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

3. Do you know why a fearless inventory is necessary? I. Being honest with ourselves does not come easily or naturally.

4. 1.We dont want to say, I was wrong. 2.Weve been told shame and guilt are always bad. 3.We qualify and explain and blame.

5. Heres what every single person who does that eventually discovers... II. Getting away WITH ensures that you will never recover FROM.

6. Why do we do this? Its insane. III. The best explanation came from the lips of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.

7. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. 1. Theres a difference between dishonest and deceitful.

8. Recovery begins with a fearless moral inventory. IV. Solution: a fearless moral inventory of yourself... a heart-to-heart with yourself.

9. 1. Telling ourselves the truth is liberating. 2. Telling ourselves the truth can be terrifying.

10. V. Lets take inventory/Christians. So, allow me to poke around a bit. 1. Some of you are racists and youve never owned that... and that goes both ways. Dont like white/black/ Latino.

11. 2. Some of you dont like rich people and youve never owned up to why. 3. Some of you adopted your parents or grandparents view of poor people. Youve never felt compassion for people God feels compassionate about.

12. 4. You dont like gay people and you hide behind your Christianity. Jesus doesnt like it when you use him as an excuse not to like someone he died for.

13. 5. Some of you have never felt the full impact of appropriate shame. Youve done things you should be ashamed of. And it is so painful, youve drugged it, excused it, martinied it, sexed it away. So youve never experienced forgiveness and you compensate.

14. Conclusion: Recovery begins with a fearless moral inventory.