Lookmaxxing, Vanity, and Botox

I am so excited to dive into the Word of God. I've been sitting with this series and this message and and One of the things that I love is that every week every single week without fail I always get to meet somebody from our online family or somebody that has been familiar with Revere from out of town and out of State almost every week I get to meet someone from out of town out of state and it's so fun One of the things that I've also recognized and realized is that if you are from Southern, California We're a little weird. We're a little weird I mean we influence culture greatly think about the reality shows that have come out of Orange County whether it's Real Housewives of Orange County Whether it's the sitcom OC back in the day I mean, there's a lot of things that have happened here whether it's sports teams and it's not just Orange County Yeah, it's the greater Los Angeles area In fact, I know and believe that God is going to move yet again in a revival sense for what God is doing in this community I know that. Thank you, Chris. I appreciate that faith In fact, I'm doubling down on this and I want our people to know what God is doing So this week I did a revival field trip like all my dorky homeschool backgrounds came out this week. I did a revival field trip We got a bus we got snacks. We got sandwiches and I invited dr Renee a Brathwaite for the Dean of Theology from Vanguard to be our docent to be our tour and we got to visit all these sites where God historically moved in huge revival ways over the last 300 years and I was so excited and I knew that if God did it then that God is gonna do it again. So I want us to be people who are prepared I want us to be ready for that. So What I also realize is that anytime that there's a move of God, there's gonna be opposition There's gonna be warfare and there's gonna be little idols that pop up Well, if you're familiar with LA or OC or ie or SD Those are just all the counties that are in this general area You know that we are a vain people group. We care about glamour. We care about beauty. We just do it's our reputation Whether outside or inside of our culture people know that the glamour matters Hollywood has impacted us magazine movies and medias have all been part of what has influenced this culture So if you were to ask people from the outside if you can talk about Orange County or Southern, California You're gonna hear words like vain. You're gonna hear words like superficial. You're gonna hear words like there is an obsession with maxing Specifically looks maxing by a show of hands. How many people are familiar with looks maxing? Thank you tik-tok for teaching me all of this

Okay Okay so looks maxing is a trend that is specifically targeting young men and they're targeting men to Proffer an ideal version of what may a man should look like I mean, I'm talking about HTT head to toe what a man should look like these trends are encouraging young men and overmen Ultraman to overdose on testosterone To add steroids to their workout to take procedures even cosmetic Procedures to the next level and if you cannot perform or have could afford a cosmetic procedure You they actually can teach you with tutorials on how to take a hammer or mallet to your own face To crack your facial bones to give you higher cheekbones a thinner nose or a tighter jawline You think I'm lying don't Google it but you can Google it All right, Orange County. The truth is that we are a culture that idealizes the Western Ideology of beauty and we spend billions on it billions across the globe between fat diets between liposuction body modifications and alterations Hair extensions for women hair replacement for men. You know what I'm saying? There's a culture obsessed with perfection and often times oftentimes people come up to me as a church leader or as somebody that is in leadership and They're always wondering what my perspective is. Hey pastor Bianca. What's your perspective on cosmetic procedures? What's your cosmetic on augmentations? Hey, what's your view on Botox and ozempic and peptides as a pastor? What is your view on augmentation? What's your view on makeup? What's your view on on vanity and Almost always I reply with Why does my opinion matter the question? I'm gonna ask you is what does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? That's the only opinion that I care about disseminating to you So today we are kicking off a new series entitled What does the Bible say in this and over the next couple weeks? What I want to do as a teacher and a communicator of God's Word is I want to take Topics or issues that we are facing on the regular in our culture and I don't want to give you man's opinion or woman's view I want to give you what the Word of God says because without a proper foundation our faith will falter So using these various topics today, we're going light. We're clearly talking about vanity gurgel loins But over the next couple weeks, we're gonna be talking about repentance

forgiveness Restoration because what the world says looks really different different from what the Word of God says. What does the Bible say about issues that we're facing? Well, today I wanna lay a foundation. So if you brought your Bible, turn with me to Romans chapter 12. In Romans chapter 12, I wanna give us a prescription as a foundation for what we're gonna be discussing today. Again, I wanna use the Word of God as a grid over some of the issues that we're facing. Because the truth of the matter is, is that right now, never more in human history has our culture been more image-conscious. Fillers, filters, facelifts, photoshopping, editing, angles, enhancements, it's all in a touch of a finger. No longer are we comparing ourselves to ourselves. We're comparing ourselves to edited versions of other people. And if that ain't hard enough, you are now comparing yourselves to AI-generated images of what a man and a woman should look like. That is some trash. I mean, that is some trash. That is so hard to compare, to compete, to look at. So how should we live? This is what Paul the Apostle wrote to his friends in Rome. Rome is a cultural hub of philosophy and art and fashion and food, much like Southern California.

And this is what he tells them 2000 years ago. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters of Revere, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your what. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Now, I'm a church kid. I was raised in church. And what I have seen over the years is that the church usually has two different extremes. One side, when talking about beauty and vanity, one side is going to worship beauty. I mean, these are the people that are gonna say, your body's a temple, so starve it and shape it and modify it because this is bringing glory to God. There's no reason why you should look like that when these things are made accessible for us. And then you have the complete other side where it shames beauty. And you know those people who are quick to quote Proverbs 31, 30. Charm is deceitful, beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Therefore, wear a bun and ankle skirt and look bootsy. No, thank you. No, I really want us to be a people group who are studying the word of God

and making autonomous decisions on our conviction on what the word of God says, because we know that the word of God doesn't want to bring condemnation, wants to avoid obsession, and wants us to experience true freedom. For the one person, thank you, Sam, for the amen. I'm gonna get you guys to preach at me today, okay? The Bible doesn't teach that beauty is evil. The Bible definitely doesn't preach that people are, the Bible doesn't preach that beautiful people are evil either. Thank you, thank you. All stuttering, stuttering, thank you, Marley. Scripture actually acknowledges frequently the physical beauty of people in the Bible. Queen Esther, beautiful. Sarah was listed as beautiful. King David was listed as handsome. You know, like Rachel was listed as attractive. So we know that beauty in and of itself is not a sin. There is nothing wrong with looking good. The danger is needing looks to feel good. Cosmetic enhancements can change your appearance, but only Christ can change your identity. So the bigger question, oh, but now you're with me. You got scared because we said Botox and BBLs, oh no. Clutch of Pearls Church, we're gonna look at the word of God, okay?

The deeper question is what is your identity in? Is your identity in your looks or is your identity in the one who saved you? The answer to this question is rooted critically in a worldview. Okay, I'm about to teach for a second. Some of these concepts might feel a little overwhelming. I know we have our teens in the room. So I'm thinking right now as I was preparing this message, I thought of Brooklyn and I thought of Noah and I thought of Carter and I'm thinking about the next generation because if they get this concept now, if you understand this concept now, it will help guide you into your future, but it's not too late. I want us to understand and discuss a biblical worldview because how you see the world is how you determine the decisions that you make. Are you with me? So let me explain a biblical worldview. Get ready. A biblical worldview is God-centered, meaning you were created on a purpose, for a purpose, by God, for God. But then sin entered the world in Genesis chapter two and death came our way. And because of sin and death, we are told that we need a savior, Messiah. And this Messiah.

Sia would be the one that would come and right our wrongs would forgive us of our sins would redeem our pain and remove our mistakes And because that world worldview says that we need a Savior Scripture tells us that Jesus came in is that Savior and not only did he give us the free gift of salvation He promised that heaven was our home. Therefore earth this place that we dwell is nothing but temporary It's camping and who wants to camp when there's five-star hotels. Can I get a witness? All right. Yeah No, no camp is not my testimony. So earth is not my permanent home. Heaven is my home Therefore if heaven is my home God is my father who answers the questions that I have here on earth our father loves us and wants to spend eternity with you and me in wholeness and Completion with the Bible in Hebrew word is is Shalom and this word Shalom is the goodness of everything in harmony Therefore God laid out the standard of living and we obey it and we live by it That is a biblical worldview. Does that make sense? So what is the other view it is a non-biblical worldview? It is a secular worldview. So if a biblical worldview is rooted with God as our as the center then a secular worldview would have man at the center and If man is at the center, then there is no divine creator There is no one who designed us we came out of a primordial ooze out of a Big Bang or simply just existed and Because we just simply existed there is no morality. There is no divine and there is no truth Therefore if there is no truth, then who determines what is sin who determines what is wrong? Hmm. Well, if nothing is wrong, then we have no need for a Savior Stay with me if we have no need for a Savior then there is no need for Jesus or his atoning death There is no heaven There is no hell earth is our home and if earth is my home then my purpose in this earth in this life is to be Happy, but first Peter tells me that home is in heaven Therefore I'm called to be holy, but if heaven doesn't exist and there is no God I'm here to be happy So when I if I'm here to be happy and I have questions about how I live my life I'm gonna trust my feelings not my heavenly father to determine how I live Does that make sense? The problem is that your feeling and my feelings are different And you can sit here and say well, I'm gonna be led by my intuition. I'm gonna be led by a moral compass Well your moral compass and my moral compass might be very different

No we have an intrinsic good do we because Jeffrey Epstein says that you can torture children and has zero remorse and Jeffrey Dahmer ate people so Morality is determined on different levels as a follower of Jesus Christ. Our morality is determined by the Word of God So if that is the case What does the Bible say and how do we live our life? Now if the Bible is our worldview and where we understand how to make decisions What happens when the Bible doesn't explicitly talk about testosterone pellets or BBLs? I Want us we could laugh at that you guys got real tight-booted. Oh my goodness. Yes. I want us to think critically I want us to think analytically and I want us to gather Gems from the Bible biblical truths not to determine whether or not plastic surgery is wrong But to take a look at the issue behind the desire. I'm answering the bigger question Beauty or trying to be beautiful. That's not wrong. It becomes wrong when it's an idol in your life The issue isn't Botox in your forehead. It's the pride in your heart That's what God is going after. So what does the Bible say about beauty? What does the Bible say about beauty standards? Well, let's take this back to the very beginning in Genesis chapter 1 don't turn in Romans Well, if you flip your Bible quickly and you're familiar with Bible go ahead and turn there you could highlight you could underline But I'm gonna be giving several passages today. And so I want you just to be rooted in Romans 12 I'm gonna put the scriptures on the screen I want to take us back to the book of Genesis. This is the origin story in Genesis 1 27 It says this so God created mankind in his own image in the image of God he Created them male and female he created them So human beings are made in the image of God that means that beauty originated with God Creation itself is beautiful. I want you to think about the most beautiful flower flower God created that I want you to think about the most gorgeous sunrise or sunset God created that I want you to think about the most Majestic beach or a mountaintop covered with snow. I want you to think about all the unique snowflakes that exist in the world I want you to think about the little bumblebee that had hair all over. I want you to think about the Triceratops I want you to think about the sand that varies from

from beaches. God created all of that. God is creative. God is artistic. God is glorious. And the same God who created sunsets and peacocks. Guess what? He's not anti-beauty. He created it. The problem is not appreciating beauty. The problem is making beauty your identity. When beauty becomes vanity, that is when it becomes a problem. That's when it's a sin. When beauty and beauty enhancements are an idol, that is when we have a big problem. What is an idol? An idol is anything you need in order to feel enough. An idol is anything you need in order to feel like enough. You could be sitting here thinking, I came to church for this sermon. I haven't showered. Vanity doesn't matter to me. Guess what? There's other things in our lives. I pray that you did. I really pray because we were raising our hands in worship. Bless your neighbor. An idol is anything that we need. So you could be here and thinking, well, I don't wear makeup or I don't have plugs or whatever. But the truth is that there's things in our life, these idols that resurrect themselves, that pull us away from listening to the voice of God. Maybe cosmetics isn't your jam. Maybe you feel like you can't go out and hang out with your friends without alcohol consumption to feel normal. Maybe you want to sit here and feel judgmental about people who smoke weed and yet you have a prescription pain medication addiction. I just, I'm just raising the flag. What are the idols? What are the idols? And what does the Bible say about them? When your obsession, whether by body or by beauty becomes your obsession, guess what? That's an idol and that's a problem. If you start looking at your beauty and judging their beauty, guess what? That's a problem. When your beauty and your vanity becomes your little gee God, that's the problem. And so again, the Bible doesn't speak about looks maxing or nose jobs, but the Bible does speak about vanity. So let's take a look at what scripture says about vanity. Vanity is an old English word, but let's get real. Put in cosmetic surgery, put in self care, put in a lot of these words that we're very familiar with. And let's see what the Bible says. Don't turn there. It's a verse that many of us are familiar with. I'm going to put it on the screen. First Samuel 16, seven says, man looks at the outward appearance, but God, but the Lord looks at the heart. So a little bit of clarity. Vanity is not merely caring about your appearance, like what you look like. No, no, no. Vanity is obsession with your image. Vanity is addiction to approval. Vanity is insecurity masked as perfection. Vanity is needing validation in order for you to feel valuable. That is vanity.

And you could sit here and say, oh, that doesn't matter to me. That's not for me. Let's do a little evaluation. If your confidence crumbles, if nobody compliments you, you might have an issue. If you obsess over flaws that nobody else notices, you can have a vanity issue. If you spend more time developing and curating your image online than the do the character and comportment of your heart, that could be an issue. If your worth rises and falls based on the attention you get, it could be an issue of if appearance becomes the source of your power, whether it's women who are manipulating or men who are desiring, guess what? That's the problem. At its core, vanity is nothing more than a hunger to be admired more than to be holy. So with that, thank you for the one clap at the back, sister. I appreciate that. So who determines if vanity is your idol? A pastor can tell you you're vain. A best friend can tell you you're vain. A spouse can tell you that you're vain. But unless you believe it, nobody can tell you. Nobody can tell you anything. So what do we do if the Bible is silent on hair transplants and on Zempik? We need wisdom and we need honesty about where you're struggling. I'm going to walk us through a little bit at the end about what we can do on a spiritual level. But right now, let me just make it real practical. Let me pastor you for a second. If you are warring with yourself, if self is an idol, if you have removed God off of his throne and you have put yourself in the throne, guess what? How do you war against self? Serving. Serving. Because when you serve others, guess what? You think of yourself less. If you spent more time getting ready than you did spending time in the Word of God, we got our priorities jacked. What was the last time that you served? You spent more time getting ready to come here and you look cute and you have makeup on, praise God. But if it was only about you and for you and with you and by you, what about everyone else? This week, we had 50 people go down to Mexico and build a house in three days. I'm so proud of them. Yes, they served. This morning, there was 60, 70 people that are rolling up in this window of time to set up for church. And there's going to be a group of people that after you leave are going to tear down the church. They are selfless. They're thinking of their self less. They are warring with the idol of self. You need to break that idol of vanity, you need to break that idol of self. Hey, in two weeks we have Inside Revere, sign up, all right, you're welcome. Not only would you be contributing to this community, you're working on your character.

This isn't about me. If you are consumed with self or vanity, I don't bring judgment. Please hear me ever so clearly. My forehead moves, I can blink, and my lips are totally natural. I have no fillers in my face right now, okay? There's no judgment here. There's no judgment yet, somebody said yet. I don't come with judgment. Please hear me. I'm going to break this down in a second. I don't come with judgment. Because people will tell me, plastic surgery is wrong, it's of the devil, you need to preach against this OC vain culture. If somebody had cosmetic surgery because they had breast augmentation and lost their breasts after stage four cancer, would you tell them no? If somebody had cosmetic dentistry that was ruining their mouth and their ability to eat or even the facial structure of their face, would you judge them if they did it for medical purposes? If somebody got burned by a fire or had severe acne that was eating at their skin, would you judge them if they walked through any sort of skincare regimen? I don't know why people are doing what they're doing, but I'm going to educate you to go to God about this. My concern is that we are idolizing bodies and idolizing perfection, and it's coming not from need or not from medical procedures, but it's coming from deep insecurity. It's coming from vanity. It's coming from comparison. It's coming from obsession. It's coming from a fear of getting old, and I want to war against that messaging. The question is motive. Why am I doing this?

Am I stewarding the temple that God has given me, or am I living in slavery to what the world says I should look like? Am I trying to walk in confidence, or am I under compulsion to lose that 20 pounds? Is this wisdom and taking care of the body that God has given me in this one life to live, or is it vanity? Is it freedom, or am I a slave to insecurity? When I say I don't have judgment, I don't have any judgment. If you're new to this community, back in 2022, I walked through a deep season of trauma and betrayal. I don't want to get into details because they're not necessary for this, but I don't want to talk about the trauma more than I want to talk about the effects. When I go through betrayal, when I go through an accusation, I don't know why, but I've been like this ever since I was a kid. The first thing I do, if somebody has wronged me, the first thing that I say is, what did I do wrong? I immediately go to self-hatred. Somebody hates me more than me, and I've been working through that, and I praise God for godly counsel and his word and therapy to help me get through that. Back in 2022, I immediately started thinking, it's me. After years of fighting for my marriage, it began to show on my skin. I look haggard. I look tired. I look tore up from the floor up. I was all inflamed, and I was sad. You guys, that was funny. We can laugh at this moment. We can laugh. The fine lines were not fine anymore. The fine lines were deep because of the worry and the doubts and the questioning. My furrowed brow, whoa, whoa, furrowed brow, Jesus, and the stress of asking questions

and not getting answers was wearing on me deeply. My hair was falling out. I was exhausted, and deep in the soil of my heart, I began to believe the lie. That the issues that we had in our marriage were because I was ugly and old and fat and unattractive, so I did what any Orange County woman does in a crisis. I said, I'm going to fix my face because I walked by a mirror, and I said, oh, I look tired. I got bags under my eyes, and it's not like cute luggage, like Louis Vuitton luggage. It's busted, dark circles. This is horrible. I decided that I was going to go get a facial, so I made an appointment at a day spa. I was very excited. I walked into this spa, and it smelled like citrusy florals and money. You know rich people, like, wow, it's in the air, and it was well lit, and it was bright, and there was mirrors everywhere just to show you how ragged you truly look, and the girl behind the counter, she had big pillowy lips, and she had flawless skin without a pore. She clearly had never been stressed in her entire life because her dewy skin was just pulled top, and she said, welcome. I said, hello, fix my life. She pulled me into a room, and she said, a nurse will, you know, give you a consultation. I was there for a facial. A nurse comes in and takes a photo of me. my face and she puts it on this screen. Then she grabs a red pen and she begins marking up all the areas in my face that need improvement. At the end of that, it looked like Wolverine had ripped through my face and blood was everywhere because there was red marks all over that paper. I was like, I didn't realize I was that bad. I went in for a facial.

I walked out looking real different. See, lured by the promise of pretty and fueled by the insecurity of infidelity, I handed over my credit card and left with what I call divorce face. My forehead was frozen, my eyebrows didn't move. I had put Sculptra in my face and I decided that I was gonna be like every other Orange County woman and I put poison in my lips and it looked like I had an allergic reaction. I walked out like this. But the piece of resistance about this whole procedure is I got something called a lip flip. Yes, a lip flip is when they flip your lip to make it look pouty and full. I walked out, I will say, I was feeling myself, all right? I thought I looked good until I saw my twin sister and she said, dear God, what happened to you? You look like a duck. And I thought Jasmine was just a hater so I faced on my best friend and she said, ooh, girl, are you okay? And I knew it was bad when some of my friends said, hey, we can get that dissolved. I was like, okay, okay, let's get it dissolved. So four years later, there's nothing in my face and I'm not against it because I would really like to hide my RBF, that's my resting blessed face. I really like to hide that when I'm angry. So a little bit of Botox on my 11s,

hey, one day it might happen. But right now, I'm walking in my naturalness, my naturalness and I share with you, oh, please don't because then you're gonna judge me if I get Botox, all right? Don't clap. I share that with you because I quickly discovered that when you make a decision out of vanity or insecurity, you will realize that the scalpel is not your savior. You will realize that you could fix your nose and still hate yourself. Changing your body cannot heal a wounded identity. So let me give you a little bit of pastoral wisdom and pastoral love. Not every enhancement is sinful, but no enhancement can replace spiritual transformation. So if you need to do something, you work it with God, check with him, see what the word of God says, but just know it's not gonna take place of spiritual transformation because God cares more about your inner beauty than he does your external image. Do we spend more time at the gym than we do with God? That's a priorities issue. If we're spending more time getting ready in our get ready routine in the morning rather than spending time in worship, that's an issue. Men, if you care more about a clean car and your clothing and your hairline, then guess what? God's concerned maybe about your character. Women, if you are concerned about your Mac and your Mary Kay and your Charlotte Tilbury

more than what God is doing on the inside, God's not worried about your wrinkles, he's worried about the pride in your heart. We gotta get our priorities right. This is why 1 Peter 3 says this, it's on the screen. Peter says this, your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles or the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self. Somebody say inner self. Because we all know people who are beautiful on the outside and ugly on the inside. Peter is saying, that was some truth right there. I wasn't being ugly, I was just telling the truth, we all know that, but okay, okay. He says, rather, it should be that of an inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. Peter isn't bemoaning beautiful hairstyles or jewelry, he's correcting priorities. And so the emphasis here is don't let the external beauty outweigh the internal beauty. A beautiful face without a transformed spirit is still empty. So where are you investing your time? Where are you investing your money? We're going to wrap this up in a second, but I just wanna speak about this great fief. I believe, and this is my hot take, I'm gonna step away from the word of God for a second,

my hot take is that we're living in a culture that puts such an emphasis on the outside that we feel like we need to do all these additional auxiliary things so that we could feel like we're part of the inside. And you know who has trained us to feel like this? Social media. Social media has taught us to curate ourselves and to modify ourselves and to market ourselves and to change our faces with FaceTune, change our voices with Auto-Tune, to edit ourselves, to compare ourselves, but God never asked you to be. Come anyone else than the one that he created you to be. You are a unique individual, and God came to set us free from the tyranny of comparison. Don't look at him and her at them. Who did Jesus call you to be? Psalm 139, 14 says, I praise you. This is King David. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The prophet Jeremiah says that, while I was in the womb of my mother, you formed me, you fashioned me, you prepared me for greatness. Before the foundations of the earth, God had a plan for you and a purpose for you. Comparison makes you compete with people that you were never called to become. Stop trying to act like them, look like them,

talk like them, dress like them. Filters can edit a picture, but only Christ can heal your soul. So, church, when Paul says that we are his workmanship, that word is poema in Greek, we are his masterpiece. We are not mass produced, we are his masterpiece. The width of your hips and the curve of your lips, God created that and said that it was good. The texture of your hair and the color of your skin, God created that and he said it was good. The place where he placed the freckles in just the right place, he placed them there and said it was good. The color of your eyes and the way that you smile and you try to cover that laugh and that smile, guess what? He created you and said that it was good, far be it from us to try to change and modify and say what he said is good is not good. See, our bodies are tools for worship, not objects for worship. Your body matters, steward it, take care of it, honor it, work out, yes, but don't worship it. You're in Romans, let's read this again with a new filter and a new lens, not an Instagram filter, a biblical world, a biblical view. Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters of Revere

in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. You die to self, you live for Christ. Die to self, but you live for Christ, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Today, we're about to go into worship and I pray you don't leave, but you raising your hands or making a big scene or clapping on or off beat, guess what? You know what true worship is? Living a life, dead to self, alive in Christ. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The word of God will renew my mind and people will come and say, oh, Christianity is just trying to brainwash you. I don't know about you. Sometimes I need my brain to be washed from the filth that I have believed and I want my mind to be renewed. So then I'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. Healthy stewardship is yes, work out, yes, take care of your skin, yes, age well. To the glory of God, shower, wash your cracks, especially for our church, this is good. But the spiritual danger begins when appearance consumes your peace, when beauty becomes your God,

when aging becomes your fear and your terror and attention becomes your addiction. Said differently, take care of your body without becoming consumed by your body. Because beauty fades and fashion trends fade and shapes change and youth disappears, but a spirit transformed by Christ becomes more and more beautiful with time. Today I was crafting this message and I wanted, usually we praise the Lord and we get out of here. But we crafted time in service because I deeply feel as we start this series and we wanna have a biblical worldview to understand how we deal with issues of our day and age, that we just take a moment and confess where we have taken God off of the throne and we have placed ourself on the throne. Today in this moment, I want you to take yourself off the throne and lay yourself at the altar. God, I wanna surrender. I've gotten it wrong. I have made me more important than you. I've cared about their opinions more than I care about your opinion. I've been following the trends of the world rather than what the Bible says. And so this moment of response, I'm gonna pray over us and I want you to begin to ask God,

where have I tied my worth to my appearance? Have I been chasing beauty more than holiness? Am I hiding my insecurity behind a mask of perfection? Today, I'm calling you back to your identity being rooted in Christ, not in self-hatred, not in vanity, but in Jesus Christ. and freedom. So, I'm gonna invite us before we run out, your kids are fine, we're gonna stay in worship in a second, but right now, I'm gonna invite you, I'm gonna invite those watching online, will you do me a favor, will you bow your head, will you close your eyes, will you take a deep, big breath in through your nose, hold it for a second and slowly let it go. And if you feel comfortable in a posture of surrender, you could just extend your hands open in your lap or extend them in front of you. This is a posture to receive and it's a posture of letting go. God, I let go of how I've put myself above you, I let go of how I've hated myself, I let go of these things and what I receive in this moment is how you see me. We live in a culture, we live in a community that is telling us all the things that are wrong about us and ugly about us and yet we have a God that said, come to me, I wanna show you how I see you. So in this moment, I can invite you, talk to your God, I firmly believe that you will hear him.

So spirited living God, in this moment, in this space, today we have learned that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, that you don't hate beauty, you are the originator of beauty. But God, we have been looking at beauty trends and beauty standards that perhaps are not from you, we have found our identity in other things and so I speak Lord Romans 12 over us, that we are to be living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to you. Where we've gotten that wrong, speak to us now, in this space, before we worship you in truth, in Jesus' name. Lord, I've decided, no longer divided, only devoted to you, so here's my life.