Repentence - Finding The Right Tool for Righteousness

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Yes, pray with me.

Oh, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In that divine dance of intimacy, love, and power that you're in right now, we just want to say, teach us a few steps this morning.

Let us clap our hands and get underneath.

The joy of the Lord is our strength.

Father, we don't need a spiritual pep talk this morning.

We need the Word of God to become living and active among us, cutting us to bone and marrow and joint, piercing our souls and letting us know there's a different way to live.

Lord, we confess we've got fickle finances and fragile relationships and cares and concerns and worries, and we're worried about many things.

But right now, by the power of your Holy Spirit, give us a supernatural ability to be present, to hear your voice, settle our spirits, and join with you.

So this morning we pray together the words of the psalmist about our weeks and our lives and everything that we bring to this moment.

Lord, you have seen all of this.

Do not be silent, do not be far from us.

Awake and arise.

Contend for us.

Vindicate us in your righteousness, our Lord and our God.

And all God's people said, Amen.

Well, good morning, Grand Parkway.

Uh yeah, good to be with you guys.

I'm Chris.

I show up every once in a while.

It's weird and it's awesome.

Um, and I love you guys, and I'm excited to be with you this morning.

If you have your Bibles, we'll be in Matthew uh chapter four, uh verse 17.

Matthew chapter 4, verse 17.

Matthew 4:17

We'll just read one verse.

What I'm trying to do is compliment the series that you're in and the message that came before.

Leo did a great job last week, right?

Bringing the word.

He did like all of Paul's sermon.

Like Paul was definitely long-winded.

Jesus has got a one-sentence sermon, eight words, praise be to God, right?

Um, I'm coaching some young communicators, and I always talk about them about, hey, when you're uh preaching God's word and it's your primary source, but also try to bring in outside voices that help exegute the culture and your people and that give you, you know, incredible theological rebarb throughout history to make the claims that you're making.

And I just want to thank Leo for bringing in the voices during his sermon of little Bow Wow, Jerry Springer, and Trolls 2.

So that was just amazing.

Uh just that was incredible.

Uh seriously, it was delightful.

Um, but talking about being uh steeped in the word, not just dipping in it.

So this morning we're gonna steep in the message of Jesus.

And it's almost as if in this section, Jesus is giving us his bottom line statement to all of his sermons that he's gonna preach.

Matthew chapter 14, starting in verse 17.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

Holy Spirit, would you give us eyes to see and ears to hear?

Jesus, would you go before us in this text and make a way?

And together we say the words that ravage your heart.

Speak, Lord, your servants are listening.

From that time on, Jesus began to preach.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.

I'll say the word of the Lord, if you'll say thanks be to God.

The word of the Lord.

Now, I got mentored by an African-American preaching professor, Dr.

Robert Smith Jr., and he would be in the back shaking his head right now.

Chris, you need to read the whole preaching pericope in the scripture.

I get that.

I know the rules, so then I get to break the rules.

But as I was going, our microchurches that I help coordinate in Franklin, Tennessee, we read through books of the Bible together daily.

Uh, and then when we come together, sometimes I'll I'll preach on what we've read before.

As I'm going through the book of Matthew, and I know we're going to be landing on this chapter, um, I'm looking at that verse.

I can't get past it.

I can't get past it, right?

It's this red letter.

From that time on, Jesus is giving us the secret DNA of his preaching message.

Repent.

The kingdom of heaven has come near.

Or if you see it in the other gospels, it's repent.

The kingdom of God is near.

And what is Jesus saying?

He's saying, I'm here, I'm a part of the kingdom.

God's rule and his reign is breaking up and breaking in and breaking through, and you have a chance to change.

It gets it got me so excited, just I couldn't move past it.

Now, I know it's February, right?

January's over.

How many of you this year made New Year's resolutions?

Listen, you guys are lying right now.

You all made them, but it's February, so you've broken them and you're afraid to admit it in front of everybody.

Hey, look, it's okay.

It happens.

Um, every every year I love the beginning of a new year because it's a chance to change.

I don't know about you.

I love Thanksgiving, I love the holidays, and I wake up somewhere in January and miraculously the dryer shrunk all the clothes.

I can't wait for the kids to go back to school.

I feel like a sloth rolling around going, oh my gosh, how do I get here every year?

But one of the things that I've started doing is I go back and every day part of my spiritual discipline is to read God's Word, pray, and then a journal.

Writing really helps me concentrate and listen and focus, but it also helps me track my own life.

So I'll spend probably about five or six hours rereading through my entire year, highlighting recurring things, praises, celebrations.

But what I'm also doing while I'm dusting for God's fingerprints, I'm asking myself, what's longing and crying out for a chance to change in your life?

Where are there subtle habits or behaviors or attitudes or repetitive patterns that you want to go?

That's not living the way God's designed me to live.

Where are some of maybe the unhealthy attachments?

Where are some of the places where, yeah, that was a good thing, but then it became a God thing, which is a bad thing, which is called idolatry.

So I go through that, and that's not out of guilt and shame, that's out of pure joy and knowing I have a safe and secure attachment to God my Father through the blood of Jesus Christ.

That I am loved as is, and because I have the power of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing and a positive things to come, he's leading me into all truth, the truth about who God is and the truth about who he's calling me to be.

So as I was going through that, one of the practices we've done in our family for the past four or five years is after we go through that, we celebrate our highs and our lows from the year, and then we just say, Hey, ask the Holy Spirit for a word that maybe you want to try to live into intentionally this year.

And so we've tried to help our kids practice hearing the voice of God.

You know, one of my times my my daughter said, filthy rich.

I'm like, no, that's not from the Lord.

Okay, but thank you.

I appreciate that.

This is great.

But you just try and go, hey, what's a word that, man, if I can spend some time?

Um uh hers this hers this year was secure.

Uh, mother's was was healthy, uh, one of my sons was intentional.

Um, and so we we kind of pick out those things.

But if you're listening to this and you're a little bit jaded and cynical around New Year's resolutions or words or all the pep that goes into in the month of January, I'm gonna change my life, you know what's coming.

February.

And I know this because it used to be me about eight years ago, I was so tired and cynical and just surviving life.

Like, I mean, you talk about tornadoes, windstorms, sandstorms, you name it coming from all directions.

If I woke up in the morning, I would call that victory in Jesus.

And I come bouncing into the church and the ministry that I'm leading, and all these young 20-somethings are like, what's your New Year's resolution?

All right, here's my word for the year.

Oh my gosh, I'm gonna do this, this, this, this.

And I could barely open my eyes.

And they said, Did you make a New Year's resolution?

I said, Yeah, it's not to make a New Year's resolution.

So, two things on that, by the way.

One, joke's on me, not making a New Year's resolution is a New Year's resolution.

Well, there's no absolute truth.

Uh, that's an absolute truth, right?

The other revealing thing was uh I enjoy humor.

I think it's a gift, I think it's how I survived my childhood, and I can use it for God's glory, especially in teaching.

The shadow side of that is sarcasm.

And sarcasm is how I hate hope and hide from my chance to change.

And research will tell you I got a guy in my neighborhood who writes books in the business world named John A.

Cuff.

He wrote a book called Finish, Why People Can't Finish Any of Their Goals.

And statistically speaking, in the beginning, he said 92% of people who make New Year's resolutions will fail.

That's an 8% success rate.

Right?

So you can understand sometimes your reluctance, right, to come in, commit your life to the Lord, try to figure out something new.

What we all know is this most people want to change, they just don't want to do the hard work of actually changing.

Me included sometimes.

I'm gonna ask you a question this morning.

If Jesus Christ was in this room right now, offering you a chance to change, would you take it?

Let's make the illustration even a little bit more literal and imaginative at the same time.

I want you to picture Jesus Christ, King of the universe, right now, washing your feet, kneeling before you to wash your feet the way that he did his disciples.

And most of you are just like Peter, no Jesus, get up, stand up, stand up, you're embarrassing me.

And if you look down and you lock eyes with Jesus Christ, and you see that gaze of affection and power and authority, and he looks at you and says, What do you want to change?

What would you tell me?

What's the first thing that pops in your mind?

If he offered you a chance to change anything in your life, what would you ask for?

Can I ask you a second and more difficult question?

If absolutely nothing changes in your life in 2024, what needs to change in you?

Because when I think about that, a lot of times I'm like, fix her, solve that, fix that, please help her mature, please do this, please do this, please do this, then I would be okay.

But if nothing changes, financial status, relationship status, nothing changes about your kids, kids, nothing changes about your parents, nothing changes about that diagnosis.

Nothing changes out here.

What needs to change in here?

Jesus is offering us a chance to change.

The word is going to become flesh and dwell among us, and I believe that is around the definition of what repent, metanoia is.

Change the way that you're thinking about God, change the way that you're thinking about yourself, and change the way that you think about others, and it could change everything.

Jesus is offering us a chance to change.

The question is, will we take it?

Uh fun, quippy story about a businessman, middle-aged, really successful in the early 1900s.

He wakes up to his morning coffee and opens up the newspaper and begins to read.

And when he gets to the obituaries, he's kind of shocked because he sees his own name.

And he's shocked because he's alive and breathing and drinking his coffee, reading the fact that he died.

And he goes on to read it, and it said, called him the merchant of death, who became rich by creating more creative ways to kill people.

And this guy owned a business, owned about 344 patents, some of which were dynamite and nitroglycerin.

And he made a lot of money in the construction business.

That was his intention, right?

That we would be able to move earth and dirt and all that stuff, something more stable, uh, so less people would die.

But the flip side that maybe he didn't see coming was that the real money was in weaponizing that stuff.

And that the place where his company made a lot of money is when war broke out and people bought all of his explosives to kill other people.

And so he decided in that moment, this is my chance to change how people remember me.

Repent, if you will.

And he decided to set up a system and awards that actually helped and funded and rewarded people who work towards peace in literature and arts and medicine and science.

You know him as Alfred Nobel.

The Nobel Peace Prize.

What would happen if you just reread last year and wondered what would the legacy be and how would people remember me?

And is there anything that's longing for a chance to change?

If so, hear the good news this morning, church.

Repent.

The kingdom of God is near.

Repent.

When Jesus gets near, it becomes crystal clear how he sees us and where he sees us going.

I want to give you guys some like spiritual FOMO.

I don't want to miss out on any opportunity, any whisper, any call, any inclination of God calling me to be who He has created me to be.

But here's our problem.

Let's be honest.

We don't like the word repent.

It's like going to the doctor when you're a kid and they say, you need a shot.

And what do you say?

Thank you so much.

I am delighted to live in the 20th century where I will not die of a preventable disease.

Thank you.

No, what do you say?

It's gonna hurt.

And then the doctors they lie to you.

What do they tell you?

You just feel a pinch.

Relax.

That is not humanly possible.

So you flex, and this pinch feels like fire and wasps things.

And then you try not to cry, and when you try not to cry, you cry even more.

I feel like as Christians, when we say repent, we're like, ugh.

I wonder sometimes where this got and fell out of practice and why we don't use it as much.

I I think we like the word repent when it's talking about our past, but we don't like to do it in our present.

I think we like the word repent when we want to blame and shame those people out there that act though that way, and we could weaponize it.

We don't like it when it's a for a family discussion in the house of God.

I think we like the word repent when it applies to our salvation, but I don't think we like it when it's a required course in our sanctification.

And even if we're okay with the word repent, right?

A lot of us are quietly constipated with the consequences of it.

What does it actually mean?

Okay, I'm a Christian and I'm doing my best to walk with Jesus.

It's not perfect, but do I repent?

Was that just when I came to Christ?

But now that I'm in Christ, what does it have for me?

What about this, right?

When if you grew up like I do, repent, for the kingdom of God is near.

You need to admit it and quit it.

You ever hear that?

So there's my question that we have, but never articulated hey, if I committed the same sin twice, did that mean I truly didn't repent?

Why didn't that happen?

And here's the real kicker.

I hear this a lot.

How come I've repented of this sin, but the desire for it has not gone away?

And so instead of leaning into those questions, we lean back from them and we become shy and shameful Christians who, when we're talking about the kingdom of God, we're licking the pictures in the cookbook rather than tasting and seeing that the Lord is truly good.

Repent, retreat.

Kingdom of God is near, no, he's in a galaxy far, far away.

Chance to change, no thanks.

I'd rather stay the same and complain that nothing changes.

And that persuasive spirit of discipline, of disappointment, and bitterness and individual preferences continues to suffocate and asphyate our church's missional expression of bringing the kingdom of God for people who are far away.

Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.

Now, this guy says it a little bit better than me, but here's a quote from Gary Charles.

He talks about why, as churches, we put the word repent in the transfer portal and are hoping somebody else picks it up.

Sadly, repent limps around most churches today handicapped by misuse and overuse.

In churches of the past, the cry of repent evokes scary images of wild-eyed preachers like me thumping their Bibles, harassing any sinner in sight.

Today, mainline congregations are happy to donate repent to denominations that love its harsh, severe sound, using it as a theological dagger.

An ominous threat.

Change your way before the heavenly storm brewing ahead showers judgment upon you.

Now here's what we know.

This is a place that preaches the Bible clearly, with love and compassion and kindness, but clearly.

Here's what we know.

There is such a thing as divine judgment.

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John even says it this way: if any person says they're without sin, they deceive themselves, they're a liar, and the truth is not in them.

Denial's destination is always disaster.

We know this, right?

We're okay with that.

But I feel like it's kept us away because it's been misused, overused, and weaponized.

This is also another quote that I'll just gets straight to my heart from Brendan Manning.

He says this for us as Christians.

Repentance is not what we do in order to be forgiven.

Repentance is what we do because we have been forgiven.

Does that flip it for you?

It's not bad news, it's good news.

It's not condemnation, it's invitation, right?

It doesn't have to be this theological dagger that we're shiving everybody with.

It can be an exegetical pry bar to get us away from the sin that so easily entangles us so we can step up, step in, and step out in our full and final authority as sons and daughters of the king.

And the gates of hell will not stand against us.

That's repentance.

It's a call to life.

Not trying to put you in the casket with shame and guilt and fear.

I tell you a story of uh private inadequacy that led to public humiliation that I'm so much the better for.

Does that sound good?

As a storyteller, I'm supposed to remind you, I promise this is going somewhere.

Okay.

So a couple years ago, again, reflecting, and I realized this, this was my repentance.

Hey, Chris, you're great at praying with people, you're emotionally intelligent, you do soul care great.

You have no concrete skills in the real world.

You're a useless human being when there's actually real problems to be fixed.

I can counsel you in your decision-making process, but when it comes to fixing stuff, I've just outsourced that.

I've become a specialist my whole life, right?

I was reading the book and I just decided, you know what, I want to try to start fixing things.

Let's let's do that.

And so I started small, and I mean it took me like five hours and tons of YouTube videos, but I started fixing things.

Confidence started getting built, man.

I got like a snapping riding mower from like 1974.

There was a hand-me-down from a neighbor, and it broke.

And I spent six months taking that thing apart and trying to fix it.

And man, when it got running, I ran in the house, scared my wife half to death.

She's like, What's wrong with that?

I fixed it.

Good job, good job.

Well, it started catching on, and now my wife actually is looking for me to fix things.

So one day, uh we're coming in from groceries out in the driveway, and we have this big wooden awning over the side door to our house where we use as our main entrance.

I think it's a craftsman thing, it's probably like 300 pounds of wood and just beautiful.

Awesome.

And she says, Hey Chris, does that look crooked to you?

Nah, your shoes are crooked, woman.

She's like, No, I think it's sloping a little bit.

I'm like, ah, don't worry about it.

She looks me in the eye and she says, Hey, do you think you can do something about it?

Now, invite you into my brain.

When my wife looks at me and asks me to do something, there's a song that plays in my head by Bonnie Wright.

I need a hero.

I'm holding out for a hero until the end of the night.

He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast and he's gotta be fresh from the.

You know, you're like, yeah.

So I got this bar off look in my eyes, and she's like, Chris, Chris, Chris, do you think you can do something about that?

I look her straight in the eyes and lie to her.

Yes, I can.

Yes, I can.

So I go get out the ladder, I get up there, two things become evident really, really quick.

That thing is freaking heavy.

I'm trying to push it, like legitimately, I'm trying to push it up so I can stick some gum behind it and go, we're done.

It's great.

I did it.

The other thing is, I don't know how to fix it.

I don't understand the mechanics of weight distribution, like all that engineering stuff boggles my mind.

And I realize it's too heavy for me to move on my own and too hard for me to fix on my own.

So, about a couple weeks later, we're doing equipping with our microchurch leaders.

We have 25 of them.

They all come to our house, we feed them, we equip them, we pray for them, we figure out how the best way to be missionaries in a relational context, it's awesome.

One of our key values is serving people.

So we get done, I'm like, guys, I got a service project for us.

Like, what is it?

I said, step outside.

So we get out there, and I'm like, my wife's asked me to fix this.

I have no clue how to do it.

I need your help.

Now, I got Mike Grumbles, he's a new leader, just getting to know him.

But here's what I can tell about him real quick.

We are polar opposites.

And I like those dudes.

He's linear, he's logical, he's like, way burgess, there's a plan, it's A to Z.

Everybody follows it.

Here we go, right?

Love him.

Here's what I also realized.

In a vacuum of leadership, he's gonna fill it.

So I create such a vacuum.

Doesn't need to get this down, I really don't know how to do it.

He's like, Chris, have you thought about this, this, this?

No, bro, I haven't.

So he takes that bait like a bass on a banjo minnow.

He takes, next thing I know, he's got two ladders up.

He's got his buddy over with him, he's taking on the light fixture, all this stuff, or whatever.

And there at about this time, he's he's starting to ask me questions.

Yeah, there he is.

There he is taking down the light picture.

They're starting to ask me questions.

And it starts hitting me like dodgeballs to the head.

I'm like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

So it's it's becoming real apparent that I did not forecast the size of this project.

But at one point, the wives start to come out.

I think there's the next picture that's coming up.

That's them trying to take it down.

Maybe there's more.

Yeah, we will finally get it done, I promise.

The wives come out and then it turns into a three-ring circus.

It's one thing to get made fun of by your bros when the wives come out and think that stuff is funny.

New song in my head, take this job and then shove it.

I ain't working here no more.

Right before we get it down, Mike grumbles from the ladder while everyone's laughing and making fun of me.

He says, Hey Chris, do you have a pry bar?

And I get so excited, it's my redemption moment, right?

I run around to my shed, to the island of misfit toys, and I grab my pry bar and I'm like, here you go, Mike! And everyone starts laughing at me.

Now, if you're listening to the podcast like I do, I'm holding up a very tiny pry bar.

In fact, the one that I had was about half this size, but I could not bring it on the plane because it was a weapon.

And when I thought I was gonna be the hero, I was gonna be the zero, and then it really got bad.

My ego went into the tent for concussion protocol.

And those those men, especially some of those women, they still need to repent.

I haven't heard it yet.

But they didn't realize my secret strategy.

And my secret strategy is this I've realized in my life I do not possess all the tools I need for maintenance of my life.

Next Wednesday, we come for equipping, and Mike Grumbles comes in, and guess what he has for me?

A real pry bar.

So, my secret strategy in my church is to make you fools give me all the tools I can't afford to buy.

I'm really praying to do a chainsaw and a power washer right now.

I mean, it's mounted in my shed.

Like, oh my gosh, I have a pry bar.

Now, let's put that right here, man.

That might just need to be there.

Like, you guys used to have rocks by your pulpit.

Let's keep that.

Why do I tell you that big elaborate story?

Uh, one, I just want you to see that I'm human.

I don't have it all figured out.

But two, isn't that our experience with repentance?

You know why that uh awning was knocked loose?

The year we decided to start a microchurch out of our house, a tree fell and hit our house.

I don't know how you interpret that, right?

Is God judgment or is that spiritual warfare?

What's the deal?

Um, but we called the insurance company, got it cut down, went through the roof, got all that stuff fixed up, and everything was fine.

So about six or seven months later, and Audrey knows something got crooked.

And then when I get up to take a look at it, I realize two things.

That's too heavy for me to move on my own and too hard for me to fix on my own.

Hey, I know what life feels like.

And plenty of me in this room, something's happened.

Whether it was your own choice or your own consequences, or just out of nowhere, wham, something shakes you to your very foundations.

But guess what?

You're a survivor.

You fix things, you move on.

You go, okay, what do we need to do in order to get to the next step?

But here's the sneaky part.

Six or seven or maybe eight months later, you notice something in your soul is crooked.

Something's off.

And finally, when you have the courage to actually confront it, you realize two things.

That's too heavy for me to lift on my own.

And I can't fix it by myself either.

This is what it means to repent in the context of community.

This is why I'm passionate about men and women getting together and confessing their sins one to another, they might be healed.

And one of the things I love about getting in a group sometimes is I'm gonna come up with an issue.

I don't have the right tool for righteousness or repentance here.

And another man's gonna be able to go, bro, I know what you feel like.

Here's what I walk through, here's how I address that.

Thank you.

Hey, by the way, this is not a bad tool.

It's incredible.

I mean, for taking out nails, putting up cord around, you know, tucking carpet back in, that's the right tool.

But when it comes to a big, heavy demo project, it's not gonna work.

And here's what I know.

I was never shown how to do this.

I never had repentance modeled for me.

It was something you did once when you came down front of church and became a Christian, and after that, get your act together or hush up.

I didn't know that real Christians really struggle with sin.

I didn't know that we could actually not hide it and let it fester and come out 8,000 different ways sideways, but actually repent because the kingdom of God is near.

I didn't realize that you could actually talk to other people about this and find freedom and power and flourishing together.

Hey, look, here's the deal.

At seven years old, I went on my bottom bunk and I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ.

Here's a definition of repentance by J.I.

Packer that I love.

Repentance means turning from as much of your as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God.

And as our knowledge grows in these three areas, so does our repactus of repentance.

Seven years old, as much as I knew about God, as much as I knew about myself, as much as I knew about my sin, gave it to him.

Boom, transferred from kingdom of darkness to kingdom of life, signed, sealed, and delivered.

Identity changed for all eternity.

But you know what happened after that?

I grew up.

My faith grew, but so did my capacity for sin and self-deception and sabotaging people.

And here's what I knew: if that stuff went left unchecked, it was gonna fall and hurt somebody.

Especially the people that I loved.

I don't know about you, I want a childlike faith, but I want to be a childish Christian.

Pitching temper tantrums every time everything doesn't go my way.

I want to get off the milk and onto the meat.

I want to stop dealing with recurring issues, even if they are my issues, I still need to mature in them.

I want to be courageously curious and relentless about why this particular thing shut me down, push me to anger or apathy, neither of which are who I am.

I want to learn how does Chris remain Chris in the midst of difficult situations?

How does Chris step up and lead and love and serve those around him?

How does God look at me and say, I trust you with more responsibility in my kingdom?

Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.

This is nothing new for the church, by the way.

That we we like repentance for people who are the outside in order to come in, but once we're in, we really don't talk about it.

Quick historical note, by the way.

Most grace revivals that we've witnessed in human history are predicated by two things.

God's people praying for revival.

And then you know what happens?

God's people repent.

Because the spirit drops, it's near, and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm not acting like who you created me to be.

There's so much more you have for me.

I'm sorry.

I want to change.

And that becomes so infectious that people are drawn to it.

Uh, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was leading the church in a discipleship uh during the Nazi regime.

This was a hero.

It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, may still be left to their loneliness.

The religious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.

So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship.

We dare not be sinners.

Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among all the righteous.

So we remain alone in our sin.

Right where the devil wants you.

Living in lies and hypocrisy.

The fact is that we are all sinners.

But thanks be to God.

Christ came to call not the righteous, but the sinners.

Here's some scripture roll call just to remind you who you are.

This saying is trustworthy and true and deserving of full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of who I am the foremost.

But God shows his love for us that we were, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Just so I tell you, there'll be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

By the way, there's no such person.

And the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

The Lord is not slow to fulfilling his promises as some count slowness.

He is patient towards you, not wishing that any of you should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Do the things that you did at first.

If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Hey church, let's get away from this notion that mature Christians don't need to repent.

I would say the more mature you are in Christ, the more you need the tools of repentance.

Redeemed Christians are repenting Christians.

The kingdom of God is near, so let's repent.

It's your chance to change.

Maybe we need to repent of our use of repentance, our misuse and disuse of it.

Maybe just this morning, by the Spirit of God, you've heard repentance, not as condemnation, but invitation.

Not as a weapon, but a tool.

And not as a hiss.

Stay away until you get your act together.

But a loving cry that says, Come home.

Come home.

We see this in scripture, right?

It's the Pharisee and the tax collector, the publican.

A simple prayer.

God have mercy on me, a sinner.

And that man went home justified.

The prodigal coming home.

Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your doesn't even get his repentance out.

And he's tackled by a loving, weeping, caring, running Father.

Puts his robe of righteousness over him, a ring of authority on his fingers, and shoes saying, You are my son and you are part of this household.

Jesus is offering every single one of you in this room right now a chance to change.

The question is, will you take it?

Amen.

Amen.

So we're gonna put some questions on the screen.

And if that helps you process the voice of the Lord, go for it.

If not, and you're already there, just tune all that stuff out and you start listening and responding to what the Lord is revealing to you.

We want to be a place where we preach the Bible clearly and give your soul some space to respond.

So come, Lord Jesus, come.

Move and minister by the power of your Holy Spirit.

Just a second, I'll ask you to stand and I'll speak a prayer blessing over us and we'll be dismissed.

But just don't miss it's coming.

Hang on.

We'll have pastors down front.

There's people you trust, and the Lord stirring something in you.

Don't miss your chance to change.

Oh, it's so good when the people of God realize who they are in God's eyes and refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way for becoming exactly who their Heavenly Father thinks they are.

You stand with me.

If you're comfortable, you can put your hands out in a posture of receiving.

If not, you can take this crowbar and use it to the best of your ability.

Church, may you repent, for the kingdom of God has come near in his power, his presence, his peace, and his provision.

And may we hear repent as invitation, not condemnation.

May we hear repent as a tool and not a weapon.

And may we hear repent as a loving cry to come home.

Not a hiss to stay away.

May we all embrace the divine opportunity and our chance to change.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Go on, grace and peace to love and serve the Lord.