1 | Walking Dead – A Guide to Confession and Repentance

To help us confess, our early Church fathers created a list that's become known as the Seven Deadly : , Gluttony, , , Wrath, and . This list is the most basic kinds of sins, the root sins from which all other human evils grow. Though it's challenging and a bit scary, we must bravely explore our own sinfulness, recognizing and naming that traps and enslaves us. Only then can we truly repent and find the freedom Jesus' death bought us.

Use this handout to guide your confession. Prayerfully repent of your sin and believe the Good News: that Jesus died to rescue us from Death.

Pride What it is: Pride is thinking that we know better than God. The antidote is : we must remember that God is God and we are not.

Gluttony What it is: Gluttony is looking for eternal fulfillment in anything that's not God. The antidote is : we must learn to moderate our so they don't control us.

Envy What it is: Envy grows from comparing ourselves to others because we've placed our self-worth in something other than God. The antidote is : we must choose to extend grace and love to those with whom we compare ourselves.

Greed What it is: Greed is desiring more money and stuff than we need. The antidote is Generosity: when we give generously, our stuff cannot control us.

Wrath What it is: Wrath is an inappropriate response to injustice. The antidote is Gentleness: a gentle person controls their emotions, not the other way around.

Sloth What it is: Sloth is refusing to meet the demands Love makes of us. The antidote is : we choose to act not out of our emotions, but out of what we know to be right and true.

Lust What it is: Lust reduces people to objects of our . The lustful person ignores the relational aspect of our sexual nature. The antidote is : Not merely , but conscious choice to engage in healthy, God- honoring relationships with all those in our lives.

2 | Walking Dead – A Guide to Confession and Repentance

A Responsive Reading of Confession and Repentance for Good Friday Adapeted from Isaiah 53 (New Living Translation)

Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the LORD's presence like a tender green shoot Like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,

There was nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected-- a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried It was our sorrows that weighed him down.

Forgive us, Lord, for our Pride. We think we know better than God, that our way is better than God's.

Forgive us, Lord, for our Gluttony. We look for eternal fulfillment from temporary things. We worship creation instead of the creator.

Forgive us, Lord, for our Envy. Instead of listening to who you've told us we are, we compare ourselves to other people.

Forgive us, Lord, for our Greed. Instead of gratefully receiving good gifts from you, we desire more. We consume more than we need.

Forgive us, Lord, for our Wrath. We do not measure our . We take it out on the wrong persons. We seek to revenge ourselves rather than waiting for your .

Forgive us, Lord, for our Sloth. We shrink back from the demands your love makes on us.

Forgive us, Lord, for our Lust. We reduce people created in your image to objects for our pleasure. We do not steward your gift of sexuality well.

And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!

But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own.

Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all. He bore the sins of many and interceded for us rebels.