Repentance I Pastor Garrett Morlan

[SPEAKER_00]: High Praise Podcasts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, this is Pastor Josh.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll leave Pastor here at High Praise and I want to thank you for downloading today's podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that this message is going to encourage and bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to open up your heart and receive with the Lord as for you today.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what I want to do tonight

[SPEAKER_01]: I will be honest, knowing that I was preaching New Year's Eve, I felt confident enough when I was writing this message.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, you know, I feel like I'm going to be speaking to probably some people who could handle maybe just a little extra weight in the message.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because if you're here at New Year's Eve in the year of our Lord 2025, you probably have at least some love of God and some interest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because like I said, you could be doing a million other things tonight.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what I want to do is I really want to talk about one word, it's already on the screen that word is repentance.

[SPEAKER_01]: Something that was heavy on my heart, and maybe it's just because it was kind of recurring theme in 2025 of different things.

[SPEAKER_01]: Issues or things we walked through with people or just kind of something that by the time the fall came around I was like, I feel like there's just this one real growing issue and it's that we have Completely misconstrued what repentance means and so what I want to do We're going to talk about what it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about what it's not and then we'll talk a little bit more about what it is So y'all y'all ready y'all good cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so here we go You

[SPEAKER_01]: Most of you have probably heard this word if you've been in church or if you've read your Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, you can't get very far into the New Testament.

[SPEAKER_01]: So hopefully you'll have read the Gospels.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you've not, and you're struggled by a reading, go to read the Gospels and read the Gospels.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you will learn quickly that this word repentance or repent shows up.

[SPEAKER_01]: very early.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, when John the Baptist comes on the scene, he's kind of, for some reasons, most famous for using this word, but what does he say?

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, repent for the kingdom of heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to yell at you.

[SPEAKER_01]: For the kingdom is at

[SPEAKER_01]: hand.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, John, Jesus' cousin really kind of starts using this word to kind of like break the ice that the Messiah is coming and he uses this word repent.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then in Matthew, I think I've got it back there.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Matthew 417, Jesus is baptized by John.

[SPEAKER_01]: He immediately goes into the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's tempted.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has his belt with Satan.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then immediately in Matthew 417, it says, from that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[SPEAKER_01]: So one thing I've got to do, and I'll do this frequently is kind of talk about some of the misconceptions, because sometimes in some of you probably already guilty of this, sometimes we hear this word, or we even see, you know, we see, even maybe that scripture, I'm like, yeah, I did that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we have this idea that repentance was just the initial response to the gospel.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what I want to walk you through tonight is that repentance is not just a one-time thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Repentance is a spiritual practice of the believer.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is something that, and I think, I think we think that we think we're doing this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that you think that I think that you're not thinking in your right, because, and if you get a job, if you fall along with one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because what is happening is I see at least maybe a generation that is selling themselves a little bit short on actually repenting and getting into the life that Jesus wants them for.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then we stay in this place of constant frustration with God, with church, our spiritual lives, whatever it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of it is going to boil down to this one.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, we think we are doing the right thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And to be honest, some of us, you're just not.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a nice way.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know how to put it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Jesus starts his ministry, repent for the kingdom of heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's here, repent for the kingdom of heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: This word repent, especially in the Hebrew, literally means to turn around.

[SPEAKER_01]: So when Jesus comes unto the public scene, when He's walking the streets, and He is talking to the sick and poor in rich in all these people, He is shouting, turn around, turn around, the kingdom of heaven is here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now that makes a little less sense to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: If some strange person started just shouting, you hate turn around, he's not saying turn around and doesn't give me your attention, or hate turn around, I'm talking to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying turn around, you're going the wrong way.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are literally going the wrong way.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, we talk about this in youth quite a bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: So someone tell me, and why teach what does sin mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: What does the word sin mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: To miss, to sin meets, to miss the mark.

[SPEAKER_01]: sin the word sin and repentance go really well together because of sin to sin means I'm missing the mark right the mark being Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Repentance in a way means to make an adjustment.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if I'm if I'm in sin and I'm missing the mark and I'm aiming for the sound booth but I'm hitting that wall repentance means maybe making adjustments so that I can hit the mark.

[SPEAKER_01]: You understand what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's complicated, but it's not complicated.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because to some degree, we get these things so mixed up where we think, and I'll get to that end of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to get ahead of myself really quick, and we'll be out here way too early.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't want that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's my time.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have the mic.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just kidding.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just kidding.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in all seriousness,

[SPEAKER_01]: I think if there's one area where Christians need to genuinely, I want you to take kind of an inventory of your life here as I'm preaching tonight.

[SPEAKER_01]: What you can't do, let's just lay down some ground rules.

[SPEAKER_01]: What you can't do is it's whole time, be like, I wish my mother-in-law was here.

[SPEAKER_01]: She needs to hear this.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's in sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wish my kid was here, and hopefully they are here if you have children, but anyway, what you cannot do is you cannot be looking at the room,

[SPEAKER_01]: James, you listening, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you long heard people, you all listening?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going any further.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everything that gets talked about here tonight, you are going to apply and think about your life and your life only.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if in a couple days you would have sent to somebody that as a little petty text, you can send it to them and sure it'll be uploaded on something.

[SPEAKER_01]: But for the next four hours, you have to apply this to your life, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to take an inventory of how do you respond to conviction?

[SPEAKER_01]: How do you respond to your own sin?

[SPEAKER_01]: How are you responding to the leading of the spirit?

[SPEAKER_01]: All of this is going to have to do with this one word repentance.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because repentance is not just this thing where we come and we say, for one it's not confession, those things are different.

[SPEAKER_01]: But repentance is not this Christian idea of whaling and apologizing and crying and doing all these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is literally means to take action.

[SPEAKER_01]: This word is a verb.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are one of the verb is.

[SPEAKER_01]: This word is a verb.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as much as we want to turn it into a noun or a one-time kind of verb, it is not.

[SPEAKER_01]: So real quick, before we talk anymore about what it is, I want to just explain a few things.

[SPEAKER_01]: that it is not, because these are the things that I think might be tripping us up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you are spiritually frustrated.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you might be even on the brink of quitting this whole thing, because you do nothing but apologize to God, and repentance is not an apology.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is one mistake I noticed a lot even over the year the past year is that we get, we sin or we're living in sin or it gets revealed that we're living in sin or I'm not, I'm not even talking about it, it has to be some grandiose like giant major sin monster.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if your response to you looking into the mirror into you looking into Jesus, and it is simply just, sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: My kids do this, it drives me insane.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Becca, I've been having this conversation with Jackson and Millie constantly.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll bring correction, we'll tell him, hey, stop doing that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they're like, oh, sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, quit running in the church.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, sorry, Dad.

[SPEAKER_01]: As I, what, or they'll stop for you ever done that you ever corrected something?

[SPEAKER_01]: And like, it stays that way for like five minutes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then immediately comes back and he corrected again.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, no, you're not sorry, you're not sorry, you're sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not something, you know, no, sorry dudes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna make you sorry, like, the word sorry has literally become like a curse word in my house because my, my children just think like, as long as they say sorry, nothing changes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm trying to instill this into them now that like, hey, when we bring correction to something, you don't get to just say sorry and keep going.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to change behavior.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to change the way you're behaving.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to make active strides to not do this again.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to, you need to set it like, and obviously I'm not saying this to my six-year-old, but we as Christians, you need to be setting up the parameters necessary to keep you from doing this again.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it means when Jesus is saying, hey, turn around, he's saying you're going the wrong way, come this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not saying, hey, just keep doing what you're doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: But just hear me as you're doing it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that's what my kids do, that's what my little children do.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'll hear me bring correction, they'll hear us say something.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm not the amount of times I've told them to quit running in this church.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're about to put up signs.

[SPEAKER_01]: The amount of times that I've told them to quit running in this church and they yell back, sorry, as they run off is enough to make you just,

[SPEAKER_01]: So for one, it's not an apology.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not an apology.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think some of us, we get maybe have this habit of we get in bed at night, and we're like, hi, God, I'm so sorry for all my sins, please forgive me.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's that like, hail merit, for a bit, I'm so sorry, we'll never do it again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or we read something, or maybe we, maybe we are convicted by something, or maybe we are having a conversation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe you are in church or something, God, I'm so sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here may I'm not saying that that is wrong, so please don't misconstruer.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not condemning you apologizing to God, but I am saying, if that's all you are doing, then you are in an abusive relationship and you are not the victim.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because abusive people, abusive people do horrible things, and never change behavior, but they keep getting away with it because their master's at apologizing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you, if that is your relationship with God, let me be the one to wave the flag in your face right now and so you've got to stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've got to stop for your own sake you've got to stop because of the extent of your holiness, of your righteousness is simply saying, well, God, I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, please excuse me, to my next one.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is also, of course, my chalice.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is also not regret.

[SPEAKER_01]: Need one of these in youth?

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll just use water bottles over there.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have this budget.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just kidding.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go to second Corinthians, chapter 7, 9 through 10.

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_01]: Second Corinthians, chapter 7, 9 through 10.

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul makes a really interesting comment about repentance.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says,

[SPEAKER_01]: There it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting.

[SPEAKER_01]: For you felt a godly grief, now we're going to talk about this a little bit more soon.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a huge difference.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to pay attention when he ever uses words like God, the grief, and Godly sorrow.

[SPEAKER_01]: For you felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us, for godly grief, produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now most of the time, we like to use the word conviction and really conviction in Godly sorrow can kind of the same thing here.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not an apology, but also repentance is not regret because all the kids are out of here.

[SPEAKER_01]: One thing that I think keeps us in the cycles, especially if you're in the room and you do something like an addiction or a habit that you can't break.

[SPEAKER_01]: If your response to falling into that ungodly habit or that ungodly addiction is to just, man, I should not have done that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we walk around with sorrow, and we walk around with regret, and we walk around apologizing to God and just, you're really only joining into the shame that the enemy is feeding you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And until there's action that follows it, you're probably gonna stay where you're at.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm here, we have got to come out of this place where we come to God with regret and apologies in earth and worldly sorrow.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, and we can cry and we can weep and we say, Pastor, that guy pray for me, prophesied me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need to come up for teams.

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel so guilty and we have all of these emotions, but we have no action to bring us out of those emotions.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, I mean, we have these temporary momentary emotions, but what we don't do is we don't set ourselves up for success when we don't have those emotions.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the moment those emotions are gone, it's like, oh, I don't need it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need accountability.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can still have that apple on my phone.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just prayed at the altar and the pastor prayed over me.

[SPEAKER_01]: He touched my head.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's all over.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got one of these from the guy with the mic.

[SPEAKER_01]: We start to immediately justify when those emotions are gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right now when those emotions are present, we're just, what was that?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the spirits.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just stop it.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll explain that later.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's through be also.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or should I go back and read the script as you were good?

[SPEAKER_01]: Pass or Casey is trying to scare me.

[SPEAKER_01]: We reject that.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what Paul's trying to teach us?

[SPEAKER_01]: What Paul's trying to teach us is that Godly Sorrow is a good thing, but he's watch what he says.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, for you felt a Godly grief so that you suffer no loss for Godly grief, produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

[SPEAKER_01]: Satan is totally fine with you grieving your sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is of no threat to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: You feeling guilty for your sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: You feeling bad about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You feeling down on yourself about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You recognizing that it's wrong is not a big deal.

[SPEAKER_01]: You get what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: This is not the epitome of the quote.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a Christian so I feel bad for these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: I guess that's just the spirit of God at work in my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that might be a quarter of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because here's where I want, and I'm going to talk about this more next week in youth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's where we've got to get, and I mean, like we have got to get to this place.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because in the year 2025, with where technologies at, with where how easily accessible pornography and AI and the landscape that is the church and Christians are about to have to walk through the next few years.

[SPEAKER_01]: and our need for discernment and self-control and accountability and things that actually make our flesh uncomfortable and make us like actually have to like, maybe reject some of the things the world has to offer.

[SPEAKER_01]: I say this in youth quite often.

[SPEAKER_01]: If a student comes to me, you guys have heard me say this.

[SPEAKER_01]: If a student comes to me and I've instructed the youth leaders to do the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: If a student comes for prayer, I have a lust problem, I have a pornography problem, I have a sex thing problem, and we say, okay, we will pray, we'll believe we'll do all these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: But here are the next steps.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you willing to delete Snapchat?

[SPEAKER_01]: No.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well then this right.

[SPEAKER_01]: You really kind of limited what we can do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, can we put a parental control on your phone?

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you really want to overcome these things?

[SPEAKER_01]: I had a student do this once, because I had that conversation with that particular student more than one time.

[SPEAKER_01]: I said, until you get serious about setting up safeguards for yourself outside of this moment, we're going to keep having these moments.

[SPEAKER_01]: He went to his mom that night, and said, mom, I'm dealing with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need you to restrict my internet access.

[SPEAKER_01]: That, to me, is repentance, because he is saying not only to his mom, but to himself, saying, like, I'm going to turn around from this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to quit doing this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to quit living this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is, you know, those ex-heas, if you don't you're about to.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Luke, 1988, there's this awesome story.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a beautiful story.

[SPEAKER_01]: I won't read the whole thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Zacchaeus is one of the more famous stories about repentance.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we've talked about repentance is not what.

[SPEAKER_01]: Repentant is not in apology, it's not regret, and it's not just the change of belief.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this might bother you, and that's okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why we're gonna read about Zacchaeus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus comes through the town, Zacchaeus has described to us as being short in rich.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's a tax collector.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is a short, rich tax collector.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was not raised in church, I did not know the song, so those of you that are like, please sing the song, I need you to sing the song right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was a wee little man, that's all I know.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I heard Pastor Joshua just say, so you can all muddle it under your breath together.

[SPEAKER_01]: The moment I brought his name up y'all, we have to sing the song.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was in a sick and more tree.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Jesus is walking through the town, Zach, he is being the wee little man.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why, why anyway, I can't chase that right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: That key is climbed to the tree and Jesus calls him out he says that key is come down from the tree I'm staying at your house Jesus invites himself over

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I'm coming to your house tonight.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, we don't know the details of the conversation that have at this dinner table.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what we do know, we find in Luke, 1988.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, in Zach, I can't talk.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Zach, he has stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I have defrauded any one of anything, I will restore it for fold.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is what repentance looks like.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus goes on to say, and salvation has come to this household.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is not died on the cross, but He says, repentance has taken place and salvation is coming to this house.

[SPEAKER_01]: What we don't read and please, if you don't like what I would say, you can email Castle, and he'll deal with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: What he's not in here, so it's Castle at High Praise Dutch Church, I think.

[SPEAKER_01]: You let him know.

[SPEAKER_01]: You need to repent or confess anything,

[SPEAKER_01]: What we don't see at this conversation with this corrupt tax collector, who is obviously stealing money from his own people, like we always talk about Matthew being, you know, kind of like, this guy is probably even more messed up than Matthew is.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what doesn't happen at this dinner table is that he is just not just say, I like you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I like what you stand for.

[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate what you're doing in the community.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be blessed.

[SPEAKER_01]: What we don't see is that Kia Stroke, a checkman, like, I have plenty of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here you go, Jesus, I'm gonna support you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bless my house as you go.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't see, we don't see that Kia's just saying, hmm, maybe I'm okay with just call it, maybe you are the Messiah.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't just acknowledge that there's some belief change.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, you won't find that anywhere in the gospels.

[SPEAKER_01]: Most of you probably know the story of the rich young ruler.

[SPEAKER_01]: This rich young ruler comes to Jesus, kind of very similar, says, hey, Jesus, I've kept all the commandments since birth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Probably not true.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he believes it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I've kept all the commandments since birth.

[SPEAKER_01]: What else do I have to give to the poor?

[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus just simply says to him, he says, yeah, go still everything you have.

[SPEAKER_01]: You got a great track record.

[SPEAKER_01]: You got a, you're righteousness, cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now let's put some, let's put some weight here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's put some action behind all this talk.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, and this is why the story of Zacchaeus is so important.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think every believer needs to understand why Jesus is cold in here, guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why Zacchaeus is such an important story.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, I think it's John makes this rule.

[SPEAKER_01]: I might be John, I don't know who knows.

[SPEAKER_01]: No one knows, ascribed it, wrote in one of the gospels.

[SPEAKER_01]: that there was not enough parchment to record all the teachings and miracles of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: So as we read the gospels, everything that's in there really stood out to these guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, really stood out to these guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: So when I read about Zacchaeus, this had to be something special.

[SPEAKER_01]: This had to be something maybe unlike everyone else, because the multitudes came and sat and listened in eight and received.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't see Jesus saying, and now salvation has come to all of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says it to the tax collector, who stands up, doesn't, doesn't repeat some prayer like Jesus, what I have to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says on his own free will, says to Jesus, I'm gonna make everything right.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna make this right.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what that means for you, 2025 Christian?

[SPEAKER_01]: That means the exact same thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: That means when you send your responsibilities a Christian is not to just apologize for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just to feel regret for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is to make it right.

[SPEAKER_01]: That means if you are gossiping, that means go make it right.

[SPEAKER_01]: That means if you're stealing, that means go make it right.

[SPEAKER_01]: That means if you have a workwife or a work husband, that means go make it right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not just feel bad about it when you kiss your spouse at night.

[SPEAKER_01]: If there's not change that follows this stuff, if there's not something that's within you that says, what do I have to do now to make sure it doesn't happen later?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the me that's right now knows the truth, but I know myself enough that the me later, the me at work, the me when I'm alone, the me when I'm lonely is gonna do something dumb.

[SPEAKER_01]: I say this jokingly to Becca sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like the late night gear at once to stay up.

[SPEAKER_01]: The morning gear at hates that guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: They do not get along.

[SPEAKER_01]: You understand?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not a morning person, but at night, I'm like, I'm not tired, like the kids are in bed this and my time.

[SPEAKER_01]: When the alarm goes off, I'm like, I hate that guy who made that decision.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I have to do things at night to make sure the morning version of me who's a kind of a different version of me, because I'm not a morning person.

[SPEAKER_01]: does not yell at the kids before they go to school.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now that's a really hard way to put this.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if you know you struggle with certain things, men, women, if you struggle with something like pornography, and this, if it has a hold on you, you will never, ever, ever feel bad enough for it that it's just going to, it's not just going to disappear.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to, this was a point I was going to hit later, but we're already here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Repentance is, we're just gonna make this transition right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Repentance is your responsibility.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is your job.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is another thing, I'm gonna tell her younger, I mean the younger people over here, I'm gonna talk to them.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of the greatest weaknesses of my generation, Gen Z, whatever you wanna call them.

[SPEAKER_01]: is that we are sitting around waiting for God to make something so uncontrollably and so unjust, we can't even contain it anymore that now I don't even have to try to be holy.

[SPEAKER_01]: We want such an encounter, we want such an experience, we want such a word, we want such a move, we want such a revival that man, I don't even struggle with sitting anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: and we sit around waiting for that moment to happen and with our apologies in our regret and all of our and are just changing of beliefs thinking that that's going to get us to that point.

[SPEAKER_01]: What a horrible, horrible way to live for the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: If we come to church, and this is where the whole consumeristic idea of Christianity really bothers me is because I think sometimes we come to church with this mentality of like I'm coming to get fed and I'm going to be so full I'm not going to sin for a week the word is going to hit the worship songs and the butterflies and the gold dust is going to fall and I mean I'm just going to be in revival my whole house is going to be in revival and I'm not going to have to do a single thing about it the spirit of God right that's the fog machines guys

[SPEAKER_01]: The Spirit of God is going to be in my household so strong.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to have to wake up and God's just going to do it all for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we want nothing to do with our own responsibility to get things right.

[SPEAKER_01]: We would rather just convince ourselves that one day God's going to do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, you do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You do it, you get off your butt and do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're not hear me, I say this with all the love in my heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you can't do nothing more than weep and cry and confess and ask for prayer, but you won't actually make the changes necessary.

[SPEAKER_01]: Dude, go play a different game.

[SPEAKER_01]: and do not take it with you into this new year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because sin, and I think some of us get discouraged when you hear this, because you'll hear it preach here in this house of like, sin has no hold on you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what sin has no, sin can't control you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And man, we sit hembers like, well, I can't stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have this, how, how much torment do you guys go through when you're in church sometimes?

[SPEAKER_01]: When we shout and jump and praise them like sins defeated, death held in the grave, Jesus reigns, sin has no head and yours, like I'm being funny, but also like, that sounds horrible.

[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds horrible, and it's not because God's done something for me or Pastor Joshua or Pastor Casey or Keith or Kyle or someone that he's not done for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I promise you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not taking anything away from the Lord when I say this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I promise you every victory that's happened in my life and Becca's life and our marriage in ministry has not happened because the Spirit of God was just like, oh, it's done.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ever gonna deal with that again.

[SPEAKER_01]: It took work, it took accountability, it took some things that weren't fun, but we come on the other side of it because of his grace, we come on the other side of it because of his goodness, we come on the other side of it because of the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just, I can, I hate this idea that maybe there are Christians who come to church every week thinking that maybe one day Jesus is going to die on the cross for them, and we might not think that way, but that's kind of how we think sometimes, like, well, they're free, but I'm not, they've got it, but I don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: I live in bondage, and they're always talking about how they're no-one, no-one's in bondage, and everyone's healed, and everyone's filthy rich, but I'm not.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, come out, but come out and understand that there is work on your side of this.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is your response ability.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: I trimmed my message a little bit, but I don't care.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go to look 15.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I have anything better to do, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Luke 15, the famous story of the practical son, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I won't read the whole thing, but in Luke 15, we have, I mean, one of probably the most quotable one of those beautiful parables, it is personally my favorite parable.

[SPEAKER_01]: The picture it puts is just beautiful.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what happens in the story of the practical son,

[SPEAKER_01]: is the younger son comes to Dad, who's a wealthy landowner, comes to Dad and says, hey, father, I don't want to live here anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, I really don't want to think to do with you anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: How about you give me my inheritance now, because I'm, here's what I can't do, Dad.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't sit around wait for you to die, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that sounds awful.

[SPEAKER_01]: So how about you give me what is owed to me at your death, because I'd wish you would be honest what he's saying is, hey, I wish you would just die right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I can't kill you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So just give me what happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want the reward of you dying.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this request is beyond just rude.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's horrible.

[SPEAKER_01]: Says give to me what would happen if you died right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the dance says, okay, go, go, go, go, go do your thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: The word practical means wasteful, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So we talk about the the practical son where really we're saying the wasteful son.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he goes out, scripture tells us the parable tells us that he squanders the inheritance, you know, on all the things, prostitutes and food and whatever I'll see you do in that time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as he's basically starving, it says the scripture teaches us that he remembers how well his father treats his servants.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I'll just go back home and just be as servant because at least then I'll eat better than the pigs.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he starts, he starts what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Now here's, again, we've talked about this a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't just the change in belief for the prodigal son.

[SPEAKER_01]: He had to then walk home.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't just the revelation of, hey, my dad offers a better life than this.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's now have the journey home.

[SPEAKER_01]: And on this journey home, he starts writing this story of like, I'm gonna say, Dad, I've done this and I've wronged you and he's getting his apology ready.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's getting his emotions ready.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in this parable, the father sees his son, probably because he's been watching, to see when his son would come home.

[SPEAKER_01]: Seize his son from afar runs out meets him there, probably borderline tackles him.

[SPEAKER_01]: puts the road back on his back, puts the ring on his finger, it has no interest in listening to the apology or the speech, the younger son had written.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, kill the fat and calf, or throw in a party, my son's come home.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's typically when we stop reading.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's beautiful.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need that to happen for other people.

[SPEAKER_01]: And hear me, if you're in the room,

[SPEAKER_01]: and you've got practical family, you've got practical sons and daughters, you have some of you probably, you might have practical parents or a practical whoever understand that what drew the sun back was his remembrance of the goodness.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a whole nother message, but I want to make that point.

[SPEAKER_01]: He remembered the goodness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the point I want to make to you,

[SPEAKER_01]: happens in verse 25.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do we have 25 through 30?

[SPEAKER_01]: You guys are awesome.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says now, his older son was out in the field and he came in June near to the house.

[SPEAKER_01]: He heard music in dancing, so older sons out working.

[SPEAKER_01]: He called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he said to him, your brother has come home, your father has killed the fatten calf because he has received him back safe and sound.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was angry and refused to go in.

[SPEAKER_01]: His father came out and treated him, but he answered his father, look, these many years I have served you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you never give me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when the son of yours come who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatten calf for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I learn more and I have learned more.

[SPEAKER_01]: thinking and reflecting on the older son's position than the younger son's.

[SPEAKER_01]: The beautiful story what happens with the younger son.

[SPEAKER_01]: The older son is far more common than the younger son, far more common.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because in here, me under your part, I don't know, I wouldn't be mad if anyone started coming to church.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, well, let's talk about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just a little bit longer, and you'll see why this is such a problem.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the book of Revelation, it's in chapter 2, the writer of Revelation makes this comment.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking to the church in Ephesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says to, he says in his writing, he says, I know your works, says I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I've tested those who called themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake and you have not grown weary, all good things.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, therefore from where you have fallen, repent, do the works you did at first,

[SPEAKER_01]: And if not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.

[SPEAKER_01]: Losing your love is worthy of your repentance.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is what John just said,

[SPEAKER_01]: to the church in Ephesus is exactly what happened to the oldest son.

[SPEAKER_01]: The oldest son gets so busy working and does everything right by the book, but the love that he had that he once had completely leaves from him.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is, it's there's one thing that I think, maybe like the American church, like the big church, maybe we need to reflect on, maybe we do some repenting of, is have we abandoned the love we had at first?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not just talking about the love we had at first for the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that might be applicable to your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe some of you have been working in the field for so long.

[SPEAKER_01]: You quit, your love for God left you a long time ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you serve and you come to church out of habit and not out of love.

[SPEAKER_01]: The oldest son did not work the fields every day out of love for his father.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it was at one point, but this reveals what's actually within the oldest son's heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because a moment of celebration in this moment of the son, his brother has come home in this moment that should be nothing but joy, and praise in all these things, his cup gets bumped.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you see this venom in this bitterness and probably the amount of times he's worked and he's taken care of things for his dad and he's never done anything wrong, never got any recognition.

[SPEAKER_01]: The church, I fear the church is full of people who do the same thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the entire time they're in their sanctuary is across the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: We sit and think I've never been recognized.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why why don't I even do this anymore?

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't even, they could do this without me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this, this, thought, and this bitterness and this anger creeps in at the lowest level.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it removes the love of which we are supposed to have.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is why John says this to Ephesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I know your work.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, oh, your toil, your patient, endurance, how you cannot bear against those who do evil.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've tested, you've done all these great things.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I know you're doing good.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, but I have this against you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have abandoned the love you had at first.

[SPEAKER_01]: I told you the beginning, you had to do it, I wanted you to do it, you and you only.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have the love you had at first?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have the love for God you had at first or had it just become, this is all just routine and habit and I do it because blessed God is what you're supposed to do and I'm going to get my crown in heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have the love for God you had at first and do you have the love for people that you had at first?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because if you've not, if those things have a band in you, the same goes for us that it goes for the for Ephesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And your lack of repenting might be the fruit that this love has left you.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're Christianity, if you're faith because day by day and week by week and year by year and you don't look differently at differently talk differently.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have a much, much bigger problem.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have not acted like Zekiyus.

[SPEAKER_01]: You said, that sounds really good.

[SPEAKER_01]: I agree with that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I agree with what the church stands for.

[SPEAKER_01]: Plus God, they're doing good in the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: I agree with what they're doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I agree that message was great.

[SPEAKER_01]: I agree with those songs.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not your agrients.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not you being an agreement with the church.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, that should be a part of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: understand.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not, it's not just, it's not just this mental acknowledgement of like, yeah, I think that's all good.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, if you guys come up, I don't know who's coming up, but you know, y'all are great at this.

[SPEAKER_01]: What I'm, I shouldn't use the word fearful, but what I worry about, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know what

[SPEAKER_01]: What I worry so deeply about sometimes being in ministry is watching people think and watching people believe and watching people apologize and watching people regret.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then going on living the exact same way outside of maybe just some emotional moments.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe outside of just some moments that conviction is present.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then we could, I could go two more hours just talking about what John says there to the church at Ephesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because you're, if you're a void of love for God or you're void of love for people, regardless of who they are, what they look like, then there is a deep, deep problem.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because like, what I think happened in Ephesus, who Timothy was pastoring in John and Paul, all these people were like leading.

[SPEAKER_01]: what I really think happened in Ephesus is that, they just got caught doing it going through the motions.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think they just got caught up doing the things they were supposed to do and things happened and the world was far more against to them and there were way worse things going on.

[SPEAKER_01]: It became really easy for them to start and villainizing.

[SPEAKER_01]: It became really easy for them to start turning against the very people in the very world they were called to do ministry with.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this was enough for God to say to this church, repent, go back to the love you had at first.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go back to the works you were doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think back to before this bitterness came in, think back.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what I wanted to do this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to end the year, y'all stand up.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I can have maybe just some youth leaders, some prayer teams, pastures, leaders, this is what I want to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Again, repentance is not.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a lot of things and you've heard me say that, but it's not just us praying for you tonight.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just going to be some happen in a moment kind of thing, but what it needs to be, maybe what maybe needs to happen in this moment is just recognizing, maybe just confessing, maybe just coming to the forefront of what's really going on in your life, and admitting that maybe you are more like that older son.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe you've not done what Zeki has done, or maybe your sin just causes you to grieve and feel bad about yourself.

[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe you need to initiate some real accountability.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is not a weapon form to get you that can prosper.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing in Satan's hands.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're bound, it is by your choice.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a reason Jesus came onto the scene and said, hey guys, turn around, the kingdom of heaven is here now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everything you're looking at, everything you're thinking about, everything you're hoping for, everything going on with Rome, everything going on in the streets, everything going on with the taxes, turn around and look at me.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying turn around and look at me, because now it's all different.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's all different.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come to me, it's why he says, come to me, if you're weary.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come to me, if you're tired.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come to me, but turn around.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not just, hey, come listen to me, just get in the grants with me, come give to my cause.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go into 2026.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's leave 2025.

[SPEAKER_01]: Facing the right direction.

[SPEAKER_01]: We do that, and we just go into 2026, facing the right direction.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love what the writer Hebrew says.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, we fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer, and the perfector of our faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: So as we run this race, our eyes have got to be in the right direction.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's action that might need to follow this evening, but let's at least get our eyes on the right spot.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for downloading this podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We trust that this message has blessed and encouraged and identified you.

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[SPEAKER_00]: God bless you and have a great week.