Genuine Repentence

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Good morning, CCW.

Good morning.

We're so glad you're here.

And uh I just want to this morning welcome you and say we have a very special guest this morning that is going to be sharing the word of God for us.

And uh I met Alan Harris and his family.

Oh, it's been about 20 years ago.

And uh one of the things that I love about Alan, okay, his family was on the road constantly and has a call of an evangelist that God placed on him.

He was nine years old, he came to Christ.

I remember hearing this story and gave his first sermon, I think they said about 12 years old, and started into the gospel ministry at a very early age.

And so I have always telling the serve team this morning, there's only a few people in the time that I've been in ministry that I have met or come across that have had that gift of an evangelist, where they go all year long, booking meetings and going from church to church, and you have to have such an immense amount of faith, not knowing a lot of times where God is going to pull resources and funds and just staying in that faith for over 42 years, he and his family have.

Me and Heather had the opportunity to help in uh discipling up his boys and youth ministry, and so that was a fun uh period of time.

But not only does Alan have the gift of an evangelist, and you're gonna hear that this morning.

Alan and his family travel the road, and as a trio, they were nominated for diamond awards and uh ran with groups within the Gaithers and just really hit the pinnacle of that uh circle of living.

So we have a real treat this morning.

I want to ask you, church, if you would put your hands together and welcome Alan Harris.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Amen, amen, amen.

Good morning.

Boys, good to see you in the house of the Lord today.

I've already been blessed by this praise team and God using the gifts of so many people to make all of this happen.

I hear this is a gospel preaching church around here.

Is that right?

Well, if I could share the gospel with you in about three minutes and 28 seconds, it probably sounds something like this.

All the saliva inside of me just goes.

I'm not supposed to confess all that on stage, am I?

I'm just supposed to keep going.

But I'll tell you what, it is a great, great privilege to be here at this place, this house of miracles, amen.

I've been hearing all the stories and what God has done in these 11 years.

And uh, man, I'm telling you what.

I've been excited about that.

I've been so happy for what God has done in your life, the lives of so many others.

And uh He's not done, amen.

He's just beginning.

So I'm very, very thankful.

My lovely wife Angie is with me today.

I'd like for her to stand back there.

This is my wife in the back, Angie.

August 4th, we celebrated 39 years of marriage.

I'm a very, very blessed man.

That's right.

You might remember that.

Uh I married her when she was 10, by the way.

I see what a lot of you are thinking.

You might remember uh uh uh we were on Jerry Springer talking about that.

I'm trying to get some of you to smile.

You just decided uh it's gonna take a while.

I'll tell you something that makes you smile.

And that's the fact that he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And he's still a whosoever will may come God.

Just a few years ago, a young lady, I believe she was 19 years old, when she pinned this song.

And uh it just became a juggernaut in Christian radio and uh and Christian love.

I stole it.

Amen.

And put it on one of my recordings.

Now, if you've heard of this on the radio, you know it, you believe it, it can be a sing-along today, okay?

Go ahead.

Are you past the point of weary?

Is your burden weighing heavy?

Is it all too much to carry?

Let me tell you about my Jesus.

Do you feel that empty feeling?

Cause shame's done all its dealing, and you're desperate for some feeling.

Let me tell you about my Jesus.

He makes a way where there ain't no wave, rises up from an empty grave, ain't no sinner that he can't save.

Let me tell you about my Jesus.

His blood is strong and his grace is free.

And the good news is I know the deed.

Let me tell you about my teeth.

Let my Jesus take time.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah, amen, amen.

Who can wipe away the tears of broken dreams and wasted years?

Until the past that disappears.

Oh, let me tell you about my Jesus, and all the wrong terms that you would unknown you could.

Who can work it all for your good?

Let me tell you about my teeth.

Well there ain't no way of the rise is up from an empty grave.

Ain't no standard.

Let me tell you about my teaser.

It's all strong and spray spree.

And the good news is I know the tea.

What is done for me?

Let me tell you about my teaser.

Who would take my cross to Calvary?

Pay the price for all my guilty.

Who would care that much about me?

Let me tell you about my Jesus.

Hey, no single cat tape.

Let me tell you about my teeth.

Oh my goodness gracious.

Let me see if I can slide this back up here now.

Well, I go to Planet Fitness, I ought to be able to finish that.

Not very far, but I can, hey.

Oh my goodness.

Our table is set up out in the foyer.

I hope that you go by there on your way out.

If the music uh has been a blessing to you, we do have several uh recordings back there.

A lot of them on CD.

If your vehicle is still old enough to play them, amen.

For those of you that uh have the newer vehicles that don't play the CDs, uh, we've got flash drives, amen.

You still got a USB port.

So we'll take those flash drives and stick it in there, turn on your radio, the playlist comes up.

You can still listen to our music when you go down the road.

And uh we're working on getting things online where you can download it into your devices.

Hopefully by the end of the year, first of the next year, we will have that all uh set up.

We're revamping our uh our website and the social media.

In fact, I hear they've got some people here that are pretty good at that.

So I may have to find a few leads for myself and our own ministry because that is where we really need a boost.

And uh I would appreciate uh anybody that could help us there.

I'm gonna draw your attention first of all today to Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

I'm gonna share something with you this morning that to tell you the truth, um I don't normally devote a whole message to.

But I believe it's it's really, really important.

I don't know how many of you have experienced this, but in all the years God has given me in the ministry, I've experienced it quite a bit.

I mean people hear a gospel message, like the first two songs that I sang.

Uh if you didn't get the gospel out of those two songs, it's because you did not listen.

Amen.

You're not listening.

Uh but the same people hear songs like that, they hear a good solid gospel preaching message.

And uh it becomes time for a response, and some may say a prayer, and another guy says a prayer, um, they both seem sincere.

Um guy goes on and uh he's back next Sunday.

Uh he goes out and he gets a Bible.

He figures he might need that to understand what God's saying.

Uh he uh finds fellowship with God's people.

He he grows.

Maybe God uh eventually uh has him in some ministry using his gifts, and and he he meets somebody else in in the faith, so they won't be unequally yoked, and things just start happening in a different way for him.

Some are called the ministry, uh, some uh just for the rest of their life.

They're they're a lifer in the faith.

And yet that other person who heard the same thing, same message, same preparation, same prayer, you know, you never see him again.

Anybody here but me experience some of that?

Amen.

What what's the difference?

What happened?

Today, I'm gonna try to explain to you what that what that difference is.

There's a missing ingredient, I believe, in the way that we present the gospel and the way folks respond to the gospel, and it has its history here in the in the early church, and uh, I'm gonna go have you go into a lot of scriptures today, but I do want you to go to Acts chapter 2, and uh we'll read a few verses here that'll kind of be our uh our launch pad.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

In Acts chapter 2, we'll pick it up in verse 37.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Then Peter said unto them, Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now you have an outline.

I know they hand it out to you, some of the fill in the blank, and I hope that you'll get that ready.

We're gonna uh fill in those blanks, but there's also some space in the back for you to write some things.

I'm also gonna give you a few quotes today.

We're gonna throw it up on the screen.

I might be going through it too fast for you to write down, but you're welcome to get your phone out and take a picture of it so you can review it uh later.

I think those things would be helpful to you.

I want to preach a message this morning entitled Genuine Repentance.

Genuine repentance.

I know that you've been in a series about uh unity and community, and I'm sure uh you've probably been in Acts quite a bit.

Uh that model of the early church, how all that came into being.

So there's a lot of things going on in the book of Acts, but one thing we do know for sure was that in response to the desperation of his people, God moved mightily by his spirit through his word.

And the result of that were lives were being changed.

And I want to focus for a moment on what it looks like when God moves in that way.

And it can be expressed in those two simple words, genuine repentance.

In verse 34, when the Bible says they heard this, that is a very important word.

I don't want you to miss it.

I don't want familiarity to be contempt and you miss something very important.

It means to understand, to comprehend, and here's the uh the one really for your notes, to hear with attention.

To hear with attention.

When they heard that, for the first time, this large congregation through the Spirit, they're hearing the gospel, they're hearing the word of God through the uh through the through the lens of the gospel.

Now, now what is the gospel?

That should be fairly easy uh for this church to uh to understand, but it is the it is the starting point, it's our message.

That's why I use those first two songs to go through that kind of thing.

What's the gospel?

You see, the gospel is that great redemptive message of God that you and I have sinned against a holy God because he created us for fellowship and relationship with himself.

But you and I sinned against God, there is a problem.

I'm not gonna go through the whole Romans road and a bunch of verses for you, but there's a couple that we can throw up on the on the screen there out of chapter 5 when it says, as by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin, so then the death spread to all men and women.

Because all have sinned.

We know the story of in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, the sin uh that started by the fall, and how they were separated from that garden, and how it came, you know, things that were not a problem became a problem.

The roses had thorns.

Uh they were working by the sweat of their brow, even went through great pains to bear the children, and so on and so forth.

Things changed.

Things changed.

But the good news is that God loved us so much that he didn't leave us separate from him.

Amen.

John 3.16 is still true.

God sent his son, Jesus, to the world to die on a cross and rise again from the dead.

He who knew no sin became sin so that you and I might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Isn't that a blessing?

Amen.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Why did he do that?

So that you and I could be forgiven of our sin and have a relationship with God restored that we lost because of sin.

Again, in Romans 5 and verse 19.

The scripture shares this with us.

For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.

We just talked about that, so also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous.

The second Adam Jesus.

This is simple, but this is the gospel.

Amen.

You following me?

Shake your head.

Okay.

That's the starting spot.

They heard this.

That's the message of the gospel.

We've sinned against the holy God, that God loved us and made a way for us.

For us to be forgiven of our sins.

And the scripture says, when they heard that, they were cut.

King James Version calls it pricked.

Many other versions you may hold in your hand tonight say pierced.

I think I might like that word best of all.

The word pierced there's in the passive voice.

Think of this.

Meaning they didn't pierce their own heart.

The Holy Spirit of God took the word of God and He pierced their hearts.

It's a word that means, think of this, to be stabbed.

I mean, it's sudden, it's unexpected.

They didn't go there expecting this to happen.

Maybe they weren't looking for this to happen, but they heard the gospel.

And the Spirit of the living God pierced their hearts, and they knew they were guilty before God and they needed to be forgiven.

So as we read the text, what happened then?

They looked at the apostles and they said, What do we do?

What do we do?

They've never experienced that before.

And ladies and gentlemen, God's still doing it that way.

Amen.

That piercing, that cutting.

Maybe you didn't come to church expecting that to happen to you, but as you listen to the word of God and the gospel goes out, and you see all these people singing, and you see the smiles on the faces, and you see real worship, and you're wondering what in the world is going on.

These people got something I don't have.

That's because they were cut.

They were pierced.

They were stabbed by the Holy Spirit of God.

The same Holy Spirit of God that wants to do the same thing for you.

Did you hear the last song?

Amen.

Why is that important?

Aren't you oversimplifying it, Brother Alan?

Here's how important this is.

It's all just information without the piercing.

I want you to get that.

I don't care what we do, how hard we try, how convincing we make it, no man comes to God except the Holy Spirit draw him.

And that's why we have so many people, as I said at the beginning of the message, some are lifers, and some you don't see them again.

It's because of the piercing.

You can go through the motions, you can do everything somebody wants you to do, and it seems spiritual, and it seems godly, and it seems like it'd work, but there wasn't any piercing.

Holy Spirit didn't do it.

And you got a bunch of false conversions.

And I'm telling you, they populate our churches more than you might think, dear friend.

They have learned the terminology, they know the lingo, but deep down in their hearts, there's been a missing link.

And that's why it's like this all the time.

The word repent is an interesting word.

If you take it literally, it means to change the mind.

It's a compound word that comes from the root word of the mind, to change the mind.

Think of this: it's regret and sorrow accompanied by a true change of heart toward God.

To put it simply, repentance is our response to the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God.

When the Holy Spirit of God takes the word of God, convicts our heart, our response should be repentance.

There's different definitions I've read through the years.

I like Charles Haddon Spurgeon from long ago.

He put it this way: repentance is a discovery of the evil of sin, a mourning that we have committed it, a resolution to forsake it.

It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character.

Get this now, which makes the man love what he once hated and hate what he once loved.

Repentance.

It's not a word you hear much of in the contemporary church of today.

And I'm not talking about style, I'm just saying where we are in our history.

You don't hear it much.

Maybe that's why there's so little movement of God in a lot of our churches because of that.

But here's one thing we do understand from Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

When God moved, there's genuine repentance.

There's a change that takes place on the inside in response to the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God, response to hearing the word of God.

I am convicted, I'm pierced, I'm cut.

My response is to repent.

Now, listen to me.

I know a lot of this is informational, just trying to explain and define some things.

But this is real critical for you to get.

When I first started putting this together, I thought, Lord, this is like a Sunday school lesson.

I don't know why you want me to preach this.

He said, Well, you get started and I'll finish it and it'll be good.

So, repentance has two identifying marks.

It's there in your outline.

Number one is confession.

That's where genuine repentance starts.

It's in confession.

Romans 10, and verses 9 and 10, I'm sure, are very familiar verses to you.

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart, God hath raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

And then it goes on to talk about confession being with a mouth, confession is made into salvation, and you believe with your heart and all of those things.

So to confess means, think about this: to agree with God about my sin.

When under the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God, I'm repenting, the first step is, God, you are right, I am wrong.

Please get that.

It's not about justifying it, it's not about explaining it, it's not about covering it up.

Step one in repentance is confession.

Simply coming clean before God and saying out loud, yes, out loud, God, you are right, I am wrong.

You have shown me in your word.

I see it clearly.

That's what happens at the point of salvation.

Clyde Crantfold.

I'm gonna put a couple quotes up from him because I believe his study of this has been excellent for us.

He says, confession is simply coming clean with God and ourselves about our sin.

It is dragging that sin out into the light and getting real, not only about our sin, but also about ourselves.

I want you to think about that for a moment.

The word confess in the Bible is a Greek word that is a compound word.

It's made up of two words that mean this.

Homo legio.

The first word, homo, means the same.

The second word, legio, means to say or to speak.

So you put them together, the word confess means to say the same thing.

To say the same thing.

I'm gonna say the same thing about my sin that God says about it.

And when they heard the gospel, when they understood that they had sinned against God, they said, What do we do to be forgiven?

Peter said, Repent, which begins with out loud confession.

God, you're right.

I am wrong.

I say it out loud.

Now let me be careful here as we go through this, and I as people try to think through this, I want you to note this.

I want to be clear about it.

Repentance is not a work, it is an attitude.

Please hear me.

Repentance is not a work, it is an attitude.

We know the salvation is by grace through faith, not of works lest any man should boast.

Amen?

We're not talking about sinless perfection here.

We're talking about the attitude in which you come to God.

Amen.

It's not about the trappings, it's not about the wording of the prayer, it's not about having your head bowed, it's not, it's not about all the stuff signing the car.

It's great if you do all that stuff, but all of its information without the piercing.

That's what you got to keep in mind.

However, a lot of people think that that's all repentance is.

Confession.

There are entire denominations that are built upon confessing and declaring certain things.

They're very popular even here in your area.

But there is clearly a second aspect of repentance.

Not just confession, but there is also turning.

Turning.

I want you to get that in your mind and in your heart today.

Confession by itself is not repentance, it's confession and turning.

Turning, surrendering to a new way of living in Christ.

Because confession without turning is not repentance, it's simply regret.

And that's what's happening in a lot of our churches, because they don't spend any time in this.

1 John 2, 19 talks about us, you know, they're not of us, or they would have stayed with us.

But because they're not with us, they're gone.

Why is that?

Because of what I'm talking about right here.

There was no turning.

So confession.

God, you're right, I'm wrong.

Turning, a yielding of control of my life to the Holy Spirit.

I'm now turning from my sin to a new way of living in Christ.

I'm understanding I cannot do that on my own, but I'm turning from my sin to have that relationship with Christ.

Again, Clyde Cranford, I want to throw another quote up here.

Real repentance is a permanent turning with ongoing results.

Maybe want to take a picture of that.

It is a turning not only from what we've done, but who we are.

Siding with God not only against our sin, but against ourselves.

God, you're right.

I'm wrong.

I'm leaving my side, getting on your side.

I'm not only turning against my sin, I'm turning against myself.

The things I desire, the things that I'm currently yielding myself to.

We understand the class?

Amen.

This is important.

And when you don't get that right, a lot of churches have it backwards.

That's why they're not hearing, they're not pierced, there's no repentance.

But a lot of them leave in saying, Ah, I had a great time.

I enjoyed the donuts.

Priest team was great.

You know, your smoke machine looks works a lot better than that last church I went to.

Met up pastor, I never heard that joke before.

Now, full disclosure, I'm for all this stuff.

In fact, the church that we attend down in southern Alabama, they do all that stuff.

The point I'm making is if that's all they get out of it, we failed.

We have failed.

Hopefully, everybody standing up there is hoping somebody's gonna be pierced by it.

Amen?

Not that there's gonna just clap about the talent.

Amen.

See, this must be foundational in our presentation of the gospel, the receiving of the gospel, the promotion of the gospel.

When God moves, there's genuine repentance.

There's change that takes place on the inside in response to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, in response to hearing the word of God.

I'm convicted, I'm pricked, I'm pierced.

My response is to repent.

Okay.

Repentance is clearly required to be saved.

Again, not a work, but the attitude in which you come to Christ.

What must we do?

Peter says, repent for the forgiveness of sins.

That should really not be a surprise that he said that.

Go with me to Luke.

Luke 24.

You know, this is just about before the dissension.

These words are in red, some of the last stuff that Jesus said to them.

What's he saying to them?

Look at verse 46.

Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.

And the third day, uh, the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

And you're witnesses of these things.

Are you hearing me, ladies and gentlemen?

He's this is the last thing he's telling them.

This is what I want you to do.

Preach repentance for the remission of sin.

This is what I have trained you to do.

I want you to do.

Later on, he says, if they won't receive it, you just shake the dust off your feet and go find somebody else because I am changing my message.

Don't miss this.

This is where a lot of people get mixed up when they talk about salvation.

And it's in your notes.

You cannot turn to Jesus without turning from sin.

I know that's not popular in a lot of churches.

You cannot turn to Jesus without turning from sin.

I think a lot of people want when they when they come to Christ, they want to get saved.

They kind of they kind of have the mentality of the old rascal flats song that went to radio with a country song played backwards.

You remember that?

Got your dog back, got your car back, got your wife back, got your health back.

Man, maybe if I maybe if I come to Jesus, maybe if I say that prayer, people are always on me.

Maybe I'll get out.

Maybe God will help me in my situation.

God's fully capable of helping you in your situation, but ladies and gentlemen, that is not why you come to Christ.

It's not a lottery.

Anybody out there?

Salvation is not just some fire insurance, so I won't have to go to hell when I die.

Salvation is about Jesus becoming the Lord and Savior of my life.

I'm turning from my sin to Jesus Christ in faith.

I'm embracing Him.

I'm agreeing with God in out loud confession, and I'm turning to Jesus Christ.

Now, does that mean I'm perfect?

No, that's not what that means.

Does that mean I'll never have to deal with sin again?

Come on.

That's not what that means.

But what it does mean at the moment of salvation, I understand, yes, God, you are right.

I am wrong.

I agree with God.

I confess my sin out loud, and by faith I embrace who Jesus is.

I turn for my sin, I shall receive the forgiveness and deliverance of God.

That's what happens when you get saved.

Amen.

I'm not chasing rabbits here.

This is clearly in context.

And when the Matthew 121, when the angel made the announcement, what did he say?

He said, You're going to call his name Jesus.

Because he is going to deliver.

He is going to deliver.

Save the people from their sins.

See, that's deliverance.

Not just I'm coming to forgive the sin.

I'm coming to deliver you from it.

There's a difference.

Amen.

A lot of people think about salvation as, well, you know, uh, everybody messes up.

I've messed up, but God forgives.

Oh, God forgives.

And we celebrate our brokenness to the point where there's no place for repentance in our life.

That's just the way it's supposed to be.

And God understands.

I'm just a good old boy, never meaning no harm.

No wonder they never come back.

No wonder they don't get on track because they started wrong.

Amen?

I'm just trying to preach the truth today, ladies and gentlemen.

And I'm I'm everyone in the sound of my voice, I want you, I'm not trying to try to get people to doubt their salvation, but how many times in the scriptures does it say examine yourself, examine yourself, examine yourself?

That's a healthy thing to do.

God is not doing that so that we'll be a nervous wreck.

He's just putting some checkpoints in there so that we will be confident in our faith and in our relationship with him.

I'm hoping that a lot of this this morning is encouraging.

Your heart encouraging, that's what I did.

Amen.

Hallelujah, I got it right.

I don't care how long you've been saved.

I want to, ladies and gentlemen, you ought to be excited about the day God saved your soul.

And you're repenting.

So it leads me to a very important question.

I've got a few more things to say before we close here.

But, friend, and in the sound of my voice, have you ever repented of your sins and received God's forgiveness and deliverance from sin?

It's a simple question.

Don't try to complicate it.

And again, I am not talking about saying a prayer.

I'm not talking about signing a card.

I am talking about being pierced, being stabbed, being cut by the truth of God's word and the Holy Spirit of a living God.

That's what I'm talking about.

I was in a church in Texas.

I was about to go on a mission trip, and I told that church that we want some Acts chapter 2 stuff to go on.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

You pray for us.

You pray for us.

I was covering passages like these.

And I said, I want it to be genuine.

I took that that particular uh passage I was teaching.

Wouldn't you know when all the traveling, the the very first stop we I'm not gonna tell you why because we're online, some people don't like it.

We're over there, so I won't tell you where we're.

But I I can tell you that it was a a college town.

And all these kids were out there, and I wasn't preaching that night.

One of the team members was.

And he was preaching the gospel.

This is right after I told him, You pray that that piercing, that that what happened here is gonna happen over there.

Before he even got done with his message, about three college girls stood up and said, What do we do?

What do we do?

And pretty soon they all started standing, what do we do?

What do we do?

I just looked at it, I said, What's it been?

Three days, four days?

Don't tell me that God didn't answer prayer, friend.

He knows what he's after, he knows what works.

And I'm just saying, has that ever happened in your life?

I know there are a lot of people in the churches of America get this now, who think because they're going to church, because they've done some good things, because they read the Bible a little bit and they prayed some, that they have all of their bases covered.

Listen, the word of God says we repent of our sin, we embrace the gospel, that's how we're saved.

Repentance is required to be saved.

You come to Him with that kind of attitude, or you don't come.

Being pricked by the Spirit of God.

I remember being in Frederick, Oklahoma.

There was a fellow there by the name of uh Ray Watson, 79 years old.

Great guy.

He was uh wanting to know if we needed any help setting up.

Are we hungry?

Anything.

I mean, anything.

He was always a he was there for every service.

He dressed the part, he spoke the part.

I mean, you you would have thought that guy was been a Christian for years.

Well, he uh he was real close, head to heart.

You're missing it by 18 inches.

And I was standing one night during the service singing, and I just sang the old hymn, very simply, Blessed Assurance.

Jesus in mind.

Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.

And I looked over that way.

And Ray was just weeping.

He pulled off his glasses, he couldn't control it.

I thought, well, I don't know what's going on.

He came to my table after the service.

He said, Brother Alan, I've been in church for decades.

I've done everything.

I've done everything that you've talked about.

But when you sang that song tonight, I knew that was the one thing I did not have.

And before the week was up, his wife, who had been coming with him, realized that she didn't have a real she was it was a counterfeit.

It was a false confession.

And before the end of the week, we were able to baptize both of them in that church, and their family came and filled about three pews.

They could not believe it.

Folks, I wish I could tell you story after story after story of people who just about trusted their resume over Jesus.

79 years old, you're getting up to where you might not come back to the gospel.

But there's a God in heaven who still saves those who repent.

Amen.

I've talked to many people about this subject, and some of them talked to me, maybe even at the gym, and said, Well, you know, preacher, uh, I'm afraid I might have to quit drinking if I come to Christ.

I'm thinking, who told you that?

I said, that is absolutely not true.

All you need to do, sir, is to change fountains.

Because I guarantee, I guarantee you, his fountain is better than your fountain.

I don't care what you're drinking, I don't care what you're smoking.

I listen, friend, it's not better than God's fountain.

There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood.

They lose all their guilty stage.

You know, when I go to the my table, some folks want to buy our products, and we, you know, uh I don't have the right change.

Can you make change?

You know, and sometimes they just want change.

So they won't get a product, they just want change.

They'll give you twenty, I'll give you ten, a couple fives, we're even, you know, it's a change.

Here's how God makes change.

You give me all your sin, I'll give you all my righteousness.

Call it even.

His fountain is better than my fountain.

I believe Isaiah had something to say about that.

Let's see, what did he say?

I think it's in my notes here.

Oh yeah.

Sixty-one three.

To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

That's a good deal.

His fountain is better than your fountain.

The last page of the Bible, Revelation 22, 17, says, And the Spirit says, Come, the bride says, Come, and let he that heareth come, and he that is hungry come, let he that thirst come and take the water of life freely.

I want to tell you, friend, his fountain is better than yours.

And the gospel is the door.

We're sinners.

He loves sinners.

He came to die for sinners, he took our place.

He rose again the third day triumphant over death, hell, and the grave.

He's coming back for all who believe.

That is the gospel.

The door is open.

But I will tell you I'll tell you what turns the knob to that door and brings it to you.

It's genuine repentance.

That's what does it.

Not an acknowledgement of facts.

I'm believing Jesus, who says, Yeah.

But have you opened a door?

He says, I'm knocking, I'm knocking.

Any man open that door, I'll come in and sup with him.

And he with me.

I don't know why God would give me a message like this.

As I said, I don't usually spend a whole sermon on it.

But I just believe in my heart that there's some folks that need to take another look at that fountain.

Amen.

Some of you have been at the fountain of career.

At the fountain of money, at the fountain of reputation.

At the fountain of all this, pull up myself up my bootstraps and I'll figure it out.

His fountain is better than your fountain.

Are you hearing me this morning?

There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved.

And they heard that.

And they heard that with attention.

And they said, Why do we do that?

And Peter said, It's time.

Repent for the remission of sin.

Out loud confession.

Turning, embracing, following.

That's another oddity in today's church.

There's so many people that think that that's an add-on.

You come to Jesus, but you don't have to follow him.

That's just an extra.

Like you order on your car, but you know, it doesn't.

You get the right thing.

You come in repentance.

You confess, you turn.

What does John one say about that?

Not everybody received him, but those that did.

He gave power to become the sons of God.

That's what needs to happen here.

Now I might be preaching to the choir.

Maybe everybody here had a born-again experience.

That could be true.

But I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, I've just met too many people in churches that are like Ray Watson.

Too many people who are believing a lie, trying to fit in, even though in their heart of hearts it's at night, they don't know if they died today, they go to heaven.

And I'm just trying to tell you today, ladies and gentlemen, you don't have to fight that fight anymore.

There's a God in heaven that wants to release you from that.

What do I do with it, preacher?

You need to repent.

Today we're going to have an invitation.

This is an opportunity.

If you've never done it the way I talked about it today, to do it, you need to do it today.

The Bible says now's the accepted time.

Now is the day of salvation.

I would like for us to stand at this time.

Everybody standing, nobody leaving unless it's absolutely necessary.

I just wonder if there's anybody in the sound of my voice.

I've been clear, I've covered it.

You know what I'm talking about.

It's hard to misunderstand what I'm talking about.

But with every head bowed, every eye closed, I just wonder if there's anybody in the sound of my voice that maybe has never done this before.

You've been pricked.

You've been pierced.

And you've been cut.

And you're just saying, What do I do?

Preacher, if that's real, what do I do?

Well, let's answer the first question.

Are you ready?

Are you ready to respond to the gospel?

Maybe you never have, maybe you kept putting it off.

Maybe you had excuses.

Maybe you appointed hypocrites.

I don't know.

But here's here's the deal.

Are you ready to now?

I wonder how many in the sound of my voice would say, Preacher, I want that today.

I don't think I've ever done that like you talked about today, but that's really what I need in my life.

I just feel like it's time.

Would you indicate that by lifted hand right now?

Across this room.

Preacher, I I think I'm ready.

I think I'm ready.

I think it's time.

I've been putting it off.

You know, it all doesn't have to happen at an altar.

We certainly give an invitation, we give an altar call.

But it can happen where you're sitting, it can happen in your home.

But the important thing is that it happened.

That it happened.

So we're gonna take a moment.

We invite you to come to an altar of prayer.

We're excited you joined us for today's message.

Our heart is to connect with others in our community, to grow with one another, and build a bigger kingdom.

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Take a moment and text CCW Connect to 94,000.

Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.

We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.