Sermon

The Gift of Repentance!

Cross Kingdom Sermon of the Week

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  1. Thank you for the mic fix.

  2. Yeah, and we just asked that you would bless him, Lord,

  3. everything that's on your heart this morning to communicate. Would

  4. you open our minds and hearts to receive your word? Lord,

  5. Would you give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation

  6. that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened this morning? Lord,

  7. bring us closer to you. Thank you, and show us

  8. Lord what you want to say. Speak to us in

  9. Jesus' name.

  10. Amen, Amen, Justin is still part of the prayer. I

  11. was going to pray over you all. Thanks Justin. Anyway,

  12. I'm just teasing. That was funny.

  13. Oh my gosh.

  14. Okay, Hi, I'm Kim. If you don't know me, stop

  15. being so serious. Okay, yeah, mom, jokes. Okay, I'm actually

  16. gonna pray again. Wow, it's like, okay, that's okay, that's

  17. actually I need to stop joking because actually I think

  18. this is going to get pretty serious. So okay, let's

  19. go in, right, Father, Thank you so much. I'm gonna

  20. pray the same similar thing I pray in first service,

  21. because why not. It's so good just to remember that

  22. we are so privileged to be here today. We are

  23. so privileged to get to meet together without fear. We

  24. are so privileged to get to hold in our hands

  25. your word that costs so much to get into our hands.

  26. We honor you, Jesus for your sacrifice, for your resurrection life.

  27. We honor you, Lord, for your word that is truth.

  28. Thank you that it is alive. May our hearts come

  29. to life as we hear it today, and let this

  30. be all you. God, put me on like a coat.

  31. Speak through my mouth, use my thoughts, make my thoughts

  32. your thoughts. Make my eyes your eyes, or make your

  33. eyes my eyes.

  34. You know what I mean. Lord, Yeah, just do it. Father.

  35. Thank you Jesus for everything you're doing already. I just

  36. know you're already moving and working. Thank you Father, Thank

  37. you Lord. Wow, already so interesting in here. It's one

  38. thing being in there, and then it's interesting being up here.

  39. And like you can feel, you can feel there's a pool,

  40. like y'all want more, like y'all are serious, like y'are

  41. like I'm done with the milk, I'm ready for the meat. Yeah,

  42. I can feel it. It's kind of a good and

  43. scary feeling. And while I say scary, I'm gonna say

  44. again that this is a scary spot to stand in

  45. because in all vulnerability, I really love speaking to large

  46. crowds of people, Like my flesh really loves it. And

  47. the bigger the crowd, the better, and the more people

  48. looking at me, My.

  49. Flesh loves that. So yeah, go for it.

  50. So this is a place that I'm trying to learn

  51. to be very humble about and to not rely on

  52. my own self because I have gifts that I can

  53. just stand up here and in my own self, I

  54. can use my gifts even if I'm not living it,

  55. even if I'm not walking it. I can say all

  56. the things and you'll think I do. So I can

  57. tell y'all that right now today, standing here, I do

  58. it with here and trembling and knowing that the things

  59. that I have to say are the same things that

  60. God is dealing with my heart about that I've been

  61. weeping before him about that I have spent hours and

  62. hours studying and humbling myself before Him, and I am

  63. far from having arrived. And so I just want y'all

  64. to know, for service already heard me say this, but

  65. I am just kim Okay. Any good that there is

  66. in me is because He has put it there, and

  67. I do not want to say a word apart from

  68. him right now, not word. I want to live and

  69. move and have my being in him, even though I

  70. could do it apart from him for a little bit,

  71. it's not true freedom. It may feel good for a while,

  72. but it's not true freedom. It's not what Jesus came

  73. to give us. So there's a lot of things to say.

  74. There's so many scriptures. The thing, last time I was

  75. up here did this too. I really like reading chunks

  76. of scripture, so I'm going to start with that. And

  77. I can't even really make sense of these notes. But

  78. I'm trusting that he has written his word on my heart.

  79. I'm trusting him right now to have me say the

  80. things that need to be said. So I know that's

  81. a big setup, but you know, a big explanatory thing.

  82. This right here is what we really care about now.

  83. What can stream excess. This is a life. This is

  84. the word of life. This is a living word. It's powerful,

  85. sharper than any two edged sword. And today you're going

  86. to and I'm going to be cut by it deeply.

  87. I hope, I hope and pray deeply, cut in the

  88. most beautiful and freeing way. So I'm going to spend

  89. more time reading these words than I am saying my

  90. own words.

  91. Is that? Okay with y'all.

  92. So we're gonna go to Ephesians. I'm reading the New

  93. Living Translation, and I'm gonna go to Ephesians four. Open

  94. it up in your app, open up your Bible, share

  95. a Bible, whatever you need to do, or you can

  96. listen to it. But here's why I want you to

  97. look at it. Because when something i'm saying sticks out

  98. to you and like ooh, I feel that, I want

  99. you to underline it, highlight it, whatever you need to do,

  100. and then just keep moving and come back to it

  101. later and pray about it. Okay, I'm going to read, Oh,

  102. my glasses, thank you. I'm not used to wearing them,

  103. but I knew up here I would need them so

  104. and also it makes all y'all blurry and makes I

  105. can see the words really well, so it's almost like

  106. I can't see y'all's faces, which might be a good

  107. thing on this occasion. Okay, So I'm going to read

  108. here we go, get ready, Okay, I'm going to do

  109. four through five nineteen twenty. So it's a lot, it's

  110. a lot. Oh, sorry, So get ready, here we go,

  111. new living translation. Thank you Lord for your word. It

  112. is truth, it is alive. Lord, Let it sink into

  113. our hearts. Speak to each of us on individually exactly

  114. what you're wanting to say. Unveil the things in our

  115. hearts where this word is touching. Help it to be

  116. exposed to the light. Thank you Jesus. Therefore a prisoner,

  117. I a prisoner for serving the Lord. Beg you to

  118. lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have

  119. been called by God. Always be humble and gentle, patient

  120. with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because

  121. of your love. Make every effort to keep yourself united

  122. in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there

  123. is one body and one spirit, just as you have

  124. been called to one glorious hope for the future. There

  125. is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God

  126. and Father, who is over all and in all, in

  127. living through all. However, He has given each one to

  128. each one of us a special gift through the generosity

  129. of Christ. That is why the scriptures say when he

  130. ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives

  131. and gave gifts to his people notice that it says

  132. he ascended. This clearly means that Christ also descended to

  133. our lowly world. And the same one who descended is

  134. the one who us send it higher than all the heavens,

  135. so that He might fill the entire universe with himself. Now,

  136. these are the gifts Christ gave to the Church. The apostles,

  137. the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their

  138. responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work

  139. and build up the Church, the body of Christ. This

  140. will continue until we all come to such unity in

  141. our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will

  142. be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full

  143. and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer

  144. be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown

  145. about by every win of new teaching. We will not

  146. be influenced when people try to trick us lies so

  147. clever they sound like the truth.

  148. Instead, we will speak the truth and love.

  149. Growing in every way more and more Like Christ, who

  150. is the head of his body, the Church. He makes

  151. the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does

  152. its own special work, it helps the other parts grow

  153. so that the whole body is healthy and growing and

  154. full of love with the Lord's authority. I say this,

  155. live no longer as the gentiles do, for they are

  156. hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness. They wander

  157. far from the life God gives because they have closed

  158. their minds and hardened their hearts against Him. They have

  159. no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and

  160. eagerly practice every kind of impurity. But that isn't what

  161. you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus

  162. and have learned the truth that comes from Him, throw

  163. off your old sinful nature in your former way of life,

  164. which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the

  165. Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature,

  166. created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.

  167. So stop telling lies.

  168. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are

  169. all parts of the same body. And don't sin by

  170. letting anger control you. Don't let the sun go down

  171. while you are still angry, for anger gives the foothold

  172. to the devil. If you are a thief, quit stealing ooh. Instead,

  173. use your hands for good hard work, and then give

  174. generous to others in need. Don't use foul or abusive language.

  175. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that

  176. your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them,

  177. and do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit. By

  178. the way you live, Remember He has identified you as

  179. his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the

  180. day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger,

  181. harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of

  182. evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving

  183. one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

  184. Imitate God. Therefore, sorry, it's cutting out. Imitate God. Therefore

  185. in everything you do, because you are His dear children,

  186. live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.

  187. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us,

  188. a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual, immorality,

  189. and purity or greed among you. Such sins have no

  190. place among God's people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes,

  191. these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness

  192. to God. You can be sure that no immoral and

  193. pure or greedy person will inherit the kingdom of Christ

  194. and of God, for a greedy person is an idolatry

  195. worshiping the things of this world. Don't be fooled by

  196. those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger

  197. of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don't

  198. participate in the things these people do, for once you

  199. are full of darkness, but now you have light from

  200. the Lord. So live as people of light, for this

  201. light within you produces only what is good and right

  202. and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no

  203. part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness. Instead,

  204. expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the

  205. things that ungodly people do in secret, but their evil

  206. intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them,

  207. for the light makes everything visible. This is why it

  208. is said, Awake, oh sleeper, rise from the dead, and

  209. Christ will give you light. So be careful how you live.

  210. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise.

  211. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

  212. Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you

  213. to do. Don't be drunk with wine, because that will

  214. ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

  215. singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and

  216. making music to the Lord and your hearts, and give

  217. thanks for everything to God the Father in the name

  218. of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's just sit in that

  219. for just a second. Those words do cut me. They

  220. expose things in my heart that I don't want to admit.

  221. I have been really praying.

  222. About the Church, the body. I've been in Ephesians for

  223. months now. I really highly recommend it. But the Lord

  224. has just put in my heart to have such a

  225. desire to see unity in the Body of Christ. And

  226. when I come in today, I went outside to check

  227. on my class and I see everybody and y'are all worshiping,

  228. hugging each other, praying. I'm just like, this is his heart,

  229. and yet there's so much division. If we want to

  230. see unity in the body, we have got to get

  231. real about the crud that's in our hearts.

  232. We have got to allow the Lord to.

  233. Expose those dark places inside of us so that we

  234. can walk in the light as He is in the light.

  235. Jesus paid to high a price. He's running run and

  236. running after us, Run and run, and running, and we

  237. didn't do anything to deserve it?

  238. Are we running? Run and running? Running after him?

  239. This morning, when they were singing that song, I saw

  240. or I heard whatever something It switched around when it

  241. was saying, there's no shadow, you won't light up, there's

  242. no mountain.

  243. You won't climb up.

  244. I heard me singing, Lord, there's no shadow. I won't

  245. light up, there's no mountain, I won't climb up. Running

  246. after you? Yeah, So many of us so are dealing

  247. with secret things in our hearts, So we don't run

  248. after him fully like you can have that part of me,

  249. but you can't have that part. I'll let you in

  250. this area of my life, but you can't have the

  251. whole thing. And some of us are so blinded. And

  252. I stand here as one who is dealing with this

  253. in my own life, and more than it even being

  254. a certain sin that you're dealing with. Perhaps it's our ways.

  255. Perhaps it's our ways of pride. Perhaps it's our ways

  256. of judgment. Perhaps it's our ways, our habits of bitterness

  257. and anger. Perhaps it's our ways that we need to surrender,

  258. that we need to turn from, that we need to

  259. repent of. I have never gotten up and given a

  260. message like this before Jesus helped me. I'm the one

  261. that talks about God's love. I'm the one that talks

  262. about this great grace that we've been given, which we have,

  263. But Lord, help us to lead a life worthy of

  264. a call to which you have called us. Do we

  265. understand what we have been given? We are chosen, we

  266. are adopted. We've been given the blood of the Son

  267. of God. We've been given power. The same power that

  268. raised Christ Jesus from the dead dwells in us. Jesus

  269. literally is making intercession for us. The Holy Spirit groans

  270. on our behalf. Sin no longer has control over us,

  271. and yet some of us still think that it does.

  272. Do y'all know that we have been given everything that

  273. pertains the life and godliness.

  274. In order to live a life worthy of.

  275. A call which he has called us, go to first

  276. Shawn Jesus, first Shawn one. I'm gonna read down through

  277. two six. This is a message we heard from Jesus,

  278. and now declare to you. God is light and there

  279. is no darkness in him at all. So we are

  280. lying if we say we have fellowship with God, but

  281. go on living in spiritual darkness, we are not practicing

  282. the truth. But if we are living in the light

  283. as God is in the light, then we have fellowship

  284. with these each other, and the blood of Jesus his

  285. son cleanses us from all sin.

  286. That sounds a light like unity.

  287. If we claim we have no sin, we are only

  288. fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if

  289. we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and

  290. just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from

  291. all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we

  292. are calling God a liar and showing that his word

  293. has no place in our hearts. My dear children, I

  294. am writing this to you so that you will not sin.

  295. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who

  296. pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ,

  297. the one who is truly righteous. He himself is a

  298. sacrifice that atones for our sin, and not only our sins,

  299. but the sin of the whole world. And we can

  300. be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments.

  301. I don't think very many of us like that I've

  302. ignored it. I confess that I've ignored parts of Scripture

  303. I'm ashamed of that, and that's okay, that's wrong. If

  304. someone claims I know God, it doesn't obey God's commandments,

  305. that person is a liar and not living in the truth.

  306. But those who obey God's words truly, truly show how

  307. completely they love him. That is how we know we

  308. are living in Him. Those who say they live in

  309. God should live their lives as Jesus did. And how

  310. can God ask such a thing of us? Because his

  311. very spirit, the same spirit that's in his son, is

  312. in us. We are believers. There are I think is it?

  313. Three letters in Revelation to the churches, and in each

  314. one it says it kind of says like, here's how

  315. you've done good, here's how you need to do better.

  316. And also to the one who overcomes, and he talks

  317. about a reward.

  318. In this life.

  319. The biggest thing we're going to have to overcome is

  320. this right here, this this, this is what keeps us

  321. from being in unity. Thank you Lord. James five sixteen

  322. says Confessor sends one to another that you will be forgiven.

  323. That's unity. When you're seeing all the revivals and stuff,

  324. it all starts from a place where some people decided

  325. they're going to be humble, where they were going to unite,

  326. where they were going to bear with one another's burdens,

  327. bear with one another's faults, get over themselves, and unite

  328. for the sake of Jesus. When you see unity, you're

  329. seeing a group of people that have decided, I'll do

  330. whatever it takes. I'll lay down this flesh, I won't

  331. demand my own rights and way, y'all.

  332. The world is literally the opposite of that.

  333. And there's some stuff that sounds real close to gospel

  334. that's talking about it right now, and it's not the gospel.

  335. And I have fallen pray to that myself. It's real

  336. easy to.

  337. Make it all about us, and we will never ever

  338. see unity if we're always so worried about our feelings,

  339. our safety. I'm preaching of myself right now. I want

  340. to caveat it. Nope, I'm not going to. Just kidding,

  341. what time is it?

  342. One Corinthians seven eight.

  343. I'm not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you,

  344. though I was sorry at first, for I know it

  345. was painful to you for a little while. Now I'm

  346. glad I sent it, not because it hurts you, but

  347. because the pain cause you to repent and change your ways.

  348. It was a kind of sorrow God wants his people

  349. to have, so you were not harmed by us in

  350. any way. For the kind of sorrow God wants us

  351. to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation.

  352. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow,

  353. which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. Just see what

  354. this godly sorrow produced in you. Such earnestness, such concern

  355. to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to

  356. see me, such zeal, and such readiness to punish wrong.

  357. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make

  358. things right. That's unity. I really believe it is time

  359. for us to repent. And Justin said something this morning,

  360. and I've even taught this, like repent is to turn,

  361. which it is. But the word I think he said

  362. the Greek. I don't know where he is anyway, he's

  363. out there, but there's a word that actually means is

  364. it to burn. Justin you literally burn, you burn your bridge.

  365. I mean that's not what he said, but that's like

  366. you burn that thing, and the thing is like nothing

  367. can separate us from the love of God. Now angels,

  368. not demons, not principalities, not powers, not spiritual wickedness in

  369. heavenly places. Not our fears for today, are worries about tomorrow,

  370. not persecution. Nothing, nothing in all creation could separate you

  371. from the love of God. But there are things in

  372. your heart that separate you from loving Him. And if

  373. you can't love him, you cannot love us. What is it?

  374. What is it in you? What is it that's hidden?

  375. Is it a way? Is it a way that you are?

  376. Is it a habit? It doesn't have to be like

  377. these What would be like the Big Seven or whatever?

  378. Like bitterness? How many of you are holding on to bitterness?

  379. How many of you are holding people captive in your

  380. heart and punishing them in your mind? How many of

  381. you and your imaginations are doing things is that no

  382. one else knows about? God knows you are hiding nothing

  383. from him. There is nothing hidden from his sight. There's

  384. a reason it's so healing for us to confess our

  385. sins one to another. It helps us to know that

  386. we are not alone. Jesus suffered in every way as us,

  387. yet he did not sin. Just knowing that he suffered,

  388. is that not comforting that he suffered with the temptations

  389. we suffer.

  390. So when we hear from our.

  391. Brother and sisters what's happening in our lives, what we're

  392. dealing with, what we're struggling with, we know that we're

  393. not alone. Some of you have put up a wall

  394. and you've walled yourself in away from the rest of

  395. the Body of Christ. But let me tell you, when

  396. it talks about the body coming together in unity, there

  397. is a part that every single person in this room plays.

  398. But you've gotta let go of having it your way

  399. all the time, because it's not gonna be It's gonna

  400. be his way. You gotta lay down your rights. Jesus

  401. never told us it would feel good. That's why he

  402. sent us the comforter. You need the comforter. Your feelings

  403. are gonna get hurt. You're gonna plan something, and in

  404. the church, somebody's gonna say, well, we're doing.

  405. It this direction. Well I planned all day. Get over it.

  406. I'm sorry. I love y'all.

  407. And there is definitely like a place for us to

  408. come and reconcile and talk about it, and let's do that, please,

  409. But let's look at the higher calling here.

  410. Let's look at what he wants.

  411. What is the thing, What is the thing in you

  412. that is keeping you hidden from him? You're hiding from him,

  413. You're hiding from people. You don't want people to ask

  414. you questions. You don't want people to see you. You

  415. don't want them to touch on that certain topic.

  416. What is it?

  417. What is it for you? I want you to think

  418. about it. Can I have a musician? Oh, it's amazing Wayne,

  419. Thank you Wayne.

  420. It is amazing shirt. What is it that?

  421. Like?

  422. If we did this in first service too?

  423. So I really like thought about having like a mic

  424. and letting people come up. And I don't know, do

  425. we have time for that? Do we have time? Do

  426. you have extra minutes? There's a couple of things I

  427. want to do.

  428. There's a mic. I use that one. Oh I had this?

  429. Well they need the mic? You got the four mic? Okay.

  430. I'm sorry, sorry, Wayne, Okay.

  431. My name is Kim, and I want to confess y'all

  432. that I have struggled.

  433. With being really judgmental, even if some of y'all and I'm.

  434. Sorry, I'm sorry.

  435. I've also struggled with.

  436. I just really I want to get passes and I'm

  437. definitely a better place, but just caring so much about

  438. what people think.

  439. I mean. He's kind of helping me get over that today,

  440. But thank you for listening.

  441. For more messages and other resources, please subscribe to this

  442. podcast or go to our website at www dot Cross

  443. Kingdom dot org