The Turning | Ps. Petey Bingham

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

We are just so grateful for your presence here in this room today.

Um, God, I just pray that today I decrease, you increase, and God, that you give us divine insight and wisdom into your word.

And God, that today we leave here better and more equipped, Jesus, to take on the world in front of us.

It's in your son's holy and precious name.

We pray, amen and amen.

You can take your seats.

Unless you want a cartwheel in the back, you can do that too.

I'm always game for cartwheels.

Y'all, I want you to know, I am pumped to be here.

I just think that you guys are amazing, and I'm very jealous.

Let me tell you why.

Uh the Pittmans are probably my favorite people on planet Earth, so there's that.

Um, me and Pastor Keith, uh, we have done ministry together for a long time, and we have seen some things.

I could tell you, some things you can't talk about on Sunday morning, but I probably will end up telling you.

Anyway, um, but uh me and Pastor Keith have uh we've been in ministry together for like 15 years, you know, it's been a long time and uh have done some really cool things.

Uh Pastor Megan is like a spiritual mom to me, and um I really do um I don't consider them friends, I truly consider them family.

Uh fun fact, I was uh I was Caleb's um kids pastor for a while, Daniera's uh youth pastor for a while, so I've watched those jokers grow up and Caleb's like a GQ model now or something.

I don't know what's going on there.

Danira's like next president in 2024.

I don't know what's going on.

But uh anyway, I just need a little bit of Pittman anointing.

Anyway, but they're not here, so thanks, Pittmans, if you're watching.

Anyway, um, but also I just want to give a huge shout out to the team, um, to Eileen and uh Danira, obviously, and Lindsay and Hope and Nate and everybody that's involved here.

Um you guys got a special thing going here, you know.

I just want you to know it because uh it ain't like this everywhere.

And um, I am just and I'm just um I'm just so grateful um to be able to hang out with you guys today.

So anyway, with that, can we just jump in?

Yeah, you cool?

All right, let's do it.

So today, um uh as you know, you guys have been uh rolling through uh the book of Psalms, yeah.

And um, you know, I got some bad news.

I got bad the my bad news is this uh not every psalm is Psalm 23.

You know what I'm saying?

Uh not every psalm is the Lord is my shepherd.

Um unfortunately, a lot of those psalms, you read them and you're like, whoa, this is depressing, you know?

Um but it's okay because I'm gonna help you with one of those psalms today.

We're gonna focus on Psalm 51.

And if you don't know what Psalm 51 is, um, it is probably a look into the journal of David after the whole Bathsheba incident.

You know what I'm talking about, that thing?

Yeah, we'll talk about it in a second, but it gets weird.

Anyway, so um that is uh the context in large part of the book of Psalms, specifically that of 51.

In fact, uh you've probably heard um some certain scriptures from it before, things like create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me, cast me not away from your presence and take me your heart not your Holy Spirit from me, restore me the joy of your salvation, and behold me with a willing spirit.

Wow.

You probably read it out of context.

And I'm gonna show you why, and I'm gonna make it better.

Now, all that to say, I'm just gonna give you this caveat up front, okay?

I just need you guys to promise me, you don't have to say it out loud, but I just need you to promise me that you're gonna trust me and no one get up and leave when I tell you what I'm talking about, okay?

Promise?

Okay, all right.

So today we are gonna talk about repentance.

It's away, um yeah.

Well, okay, that visceral reaction that you feel, it's a real thing.

Okay, I get it, I understand.

All right.

Here's what I found out.

Um, you know, I I have quite literally devoted my life to all of this, and I'll tell you what I mean by that in a second.

But um, what I have found is that specifically in aspects of theology, doctrine, religion, those sorts of things, um, what can happen is if you have a shallow definition of something, um not only do you not understand it in its fullness, but it can be weaponized against you.

Okay, here's what I mean by that, right?

So let's say, like, if you have a shallow definition of honor, for example, right?

It's very easy to be manipulated to do things you would not otherwise do in the name of honoring someone else.

I know y'all had a series on church hurt, okay?

Thanks for the invite, Eileen.

I'm fine, everything's fine.

Anyway, so there's that, right?

Uh, if you have a shallow definition of sin, well then you're gonna scare yourself into salvation.

And fear, my friends, is a fickle foundation for your salvation.

I'm just saying, okay?

And so you gotta understand sin in its fullness to really grasp what in the world we're dealing with there, okay?

So repentance, right?

What it means to repent, is another one of those things that like it gets thrown around a lot.

And sometimes when you hear it because of just maybe things that have happened to you or people that you know, or tradition or some stuff, you hear it and you go, I wanna get up and go to the bathroom.

You know what I'm saying, right?

Anybody?

Just me.

Okay, cool, that's fine.

I'm preaching myself.

All right, so all that to say, this is my goal today.

My goal in Psalm 51 is uh not necessarily to teach you like a one-liner, you know, where you're gonna like walk away and write it in your journal and like remember for the rest of your life.

I'm not into that.

I simply my goal today is for you to have a deeper understanding at a very uh foundational, simple level to the beauty that is repentance.

Because when you really understand it, you'll see that not only is it something beautiful, but you actually do it more than you think you do.

Okay?

And I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna show you what all that means in a second.

Cool?

Is everybody okay?

Nobody wants to leave.

We're all right, I do a good job.

Okay, awesome.

All right.

So that being said, what we need to do is we need to start uh to really understand repentance.

Um, we need to understand why we need it, why it's uh a necessary part of life.

Okay, and so let's do this.

Uh let's go all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

Yes, all right.

So let me read you this uh little story.

You've probably heard it before.

I hope that you have, and uh, and then I'm gonna ask you some questions.

Okay, so Genesis 3, starting in verse 1.

Here's what she says.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, Did God actually say you should not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Quick reminder, the enemy's tactic is slander.

Yeah?

What is slander?

Slander is lies that uh ruin reputation.

Okay?

Keep that in mind.

And let me read you what the enemy says again.

Here's what the serpent says you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was uh delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, boomer.

And they sewed fig leaves together together and made themselves loincloths.

Alright, so here's my question for you, based upon what we just read.

I'm just gonna let you know this is a trick question.

Cool?

Okay, alright.

Did Adam and Eve know good from evil?

In other words, did Adam and Eve know right from wrong before they ate from the tree?

Yes, well done, my friend from Duval.

Let's go.

Alright, so uh the answer is yes, okay.

Oftentimes what happens is we think that when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or the knowledge of what's right and what's wrong, right?

When they did that, all of a sudden their eyes were opened to morality.

Okay?

But in reality, they actually knew right from wrong before they ate from the tree.

How do I know that?

Well, it's simple.

It's because God came to them, right?

There's a that's important.

God came to them and said, Eat from these trees, don't eat from this one.

In other words, this is what's right, this is what's wrong.

In other words, he was teaching them morality before they ate from the tree.

Okay?

Everybody with me so far?

All right, so what then happened when they ate from the tree?

Here's what happened, right?

Before the incident of the tree with the serpent and the nakedness, what happened was is now Adam and Eve were faced in God's direction as their source, yeah?

And that from then from him they would learn values, character, and uh right from wrong, light from dark, good from evil.

Yeah, right?

Their source of life, their source of what it meant to be human was what they were facing and who was actively teaching them.

When they ate from the tree, this is what they did.

They moved from the tree of life and now started to eat from the tree of good and evil, knowledge of good and evil.

In other words, they in that moment decided willingly, in their own uh volition, to turn away from God and make moral decisions on their own without the guidance of the source.

So, okay, so so so so so before the tree, we're facing this way, right?

This is it.

And then they turned, and now they're making decisions for themselves.

And that got them in some hot water.

Yeah, right?

Safe to say.

Okay, so in other words, for uh lack of for simplicity's sake, okay, um, let's say that this turn this way, let's call that sin.

By the way, sin's much more complicated than that.

I'm about to turn in my dissertation for my PhD in a few months, and it would take me four weeks to explain to you the complex nature that is sin, but it would be helpful.

But all that to be said, let's just for simplicity's turn, let's say this turn is called sin.

So what's the turn back called?

Whoo, well done.

We're repentance, yeah.

And so that is the beauty of what we're gonna talk about today.

It's not necessarily this turn, but this turn.

Because this turn, I'm not gonna work out today.

This turn is what we see David do in Psalm 51.

Huh?

Yeah?

Cool?

Questions?

Concerns?

Anybody needs the bathroom?

All right, cool.

All right, let's do this thing.

All right, so let's work our way through Psalm 51 and let's see the process by which David made said turn.

Okay?

Let's do it together.

So here's how we see David work through it.

So let's start in Psalm 51.

Well, I'll tell you what, let me tell you the story first, okay?

It's gonna be important for you to have this context.

So remember, Psalm 51 is probably a look into the journal of David after the whole Bathsheba incident.

Okay?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, let me do this in a way.

I see some children in the room, so I will use choice words, I promise, mom.

Okay, here we go.

So King David steps out onto like a balcony, a window of sorts, yeah?

And overlooks another building.

And the top level of said building, there's a bathtub filled with both water and his friend's wife.

Okay, uh, I won't take the time to teach you the birds and the bees.

We'll leave that to Pastor Keith, you know what I'm saying?

But let's just say she got pregnant, okay?

That's all we gotta do here, alright?

And um uh unfortunately, uh so so so okay, so let's put it in terms of this.

In that moment, right, which was just poor architectural design, by the way.

Anyway, but all that happens, and David, it's pretty clear that he has this adulterous affair with his friend's wife and is probably faced this way when he makes said decision, yeah?

Okay, well, uh unfortunately, the next step in David's journey is he doesn't decide to turn.

He walks a little more this way because he um to deal with said problem, he sends his friend to the front lines of battle and gets him killed.

Yeah, okay.

So that didn't work out too well, so we're deep in it, right?

But luckily for David, God sends his friend Nathan, a prophet of the Lord.

And Nathan comes along and basically has this conversation with David.

You messed this up, dude.

You totally this is not good, my man.

Things are going south, by the way.

Um, you everything's you've ruined everything, right?

And in that moment, we see that David is eventually going to make the turn.

And what's cool about Psalm 51 is it's gonna show us what it looked like.

Yeah, cool.

All right, so in Psalm 51, after his conversation with Nathan, this is what David says.

These are the first six verses of Psalm 51.

He says, Have mercy on me, O God.

According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you.

You only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.

So that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, you delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom and the secret heart.

In other words, here's what happens in that moment is David is now recognizing that he did wrong.

You have to understand that the process of turning starts with recognizing you need to turn in the first place.

It's that simple.

You know?

You recognize it.

And for David, what helped him recognize it through the prophet Nathan was the fact that he had hurt his friends.

In fact, he murdered his friends, but that's another story, right?

But he had hurt people around him and have grieved God.

And by grieve God, I mean just simply acted in ways that are outside of God's character.

Yeah?

And so it was that recognition that changed everything in a moment for David.

And let me show you how that came to be.

So when Nathan comes to David, this is the conversation that Nathan has with him, okay?

Which is awesome because he totally pulls it Jesus move and teaches him through a parable.

Okay?

Here's how he does it.

2 Samuel chapter 12.

2 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

This is Nathan with David.

And the Lord sent Nathan to David, he came to him and said to him, There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.

The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little lamb, which he had bought.

And the poor man brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children.

He used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.

In other words, they were in very close relationship with this lamb.

Now, there came a cra a traveler to the rich man, and he is unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare it for the guests who had come to him.

But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

In other words, this rich dude totally stole the poor guy's little lamb and cooked it for his friend.

It's horrible.

So check this out.

Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall not restore the and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.

Oh David, hypocrisy.

Anyway, so then Nathan said to David, this might be one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible, by the way, right?

Nathan said to David, You're the man! That's you! That's you, my dude! Gotcha! You know, that's you.

Thus says the Lord the God of Israel, I've anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the land of Saul, and this is how you treat me.

That's how it goes down.

So here's what happens, right?

All in this beautiful parable of a moment, David recognizes that he is faced the wrong direction, and he has made a horrible decision that has grieved God, hurt himself, and unfortunately hurt others as well.

Yeah?

Not too long ago, um, I have two little kids.

They're the coolest little kids in the whole world.

I wish they were supposed to be with me, but they had a crazy night.

And um, one is six, one is four.

Uh Quinn is my oldest.

She's the most beautiful little girl in all the land.

And then there's Nixon.

He's uh he is four and he's um something.

So anyway, they um so they get along quite a bit most of the time.

Um, but this one particular night, they were not, okay?

And so Nixon would like basically would not share a toy with Quinn.

So Quinn just stands up in just full anger, hot blooded, hot air balloon, about to feet about come off the ground.

It was terrifying, and just blurts out, like, yes, I'm done.

I mean, Joyce, I didn't think she was speaking English.

I don't know what was going on, and she was just yelling at him.

And so me, it wasn't my finest moment, okay?

I'm willing to admit it.

And I stood up and I got mad at Quinn.

And I said, Quinn, what why are you acting like that?

Do not be, we're not gonna treat Nixon like that.

I'm being much more uh subtle than I actually was.

But anyway, and so I was like, go to your room, time out, now, get out of here.

And so she pieces out, and Farah, my wife, um, who by the way is a mental health counselor, uh she says, Come here.

I said, Okay.

And I was like, Yes, ma'am.

And so I walk over and she sits with me and she says, I see what you tried to do there.

She's using her therapist tricks on me.

And here's what she said she goes, two things.

One, you used anger to fight her anger.

That was weird.

I was like, Yeah, you're right.

And two, what you just showed her was that being angry is bad.

And what you can't teach her that being angry is bad because she's just gonna stuff off her emotions, she's not gonna reveal anything to you ever again.

Like, help her manage her anger.

Don't tell her to not do it.

And I was like, gosh, okay, you're right.

So, in other words, unless Farah had told me that, I would have just gone life as usual.

I'd have been like, I'm mad at her, she's crazy, she went off on Nixon, whatever.

But it took Farah for me to recognize I had done something I shouldn't have done.

See what I'm doing here?

See how I'm going?

Because in my own volition, I didn't see it, but I needed her to show me.

Same way Nathan, or same way David needed Nathan, yeah?

First part of this process of repentance.

It's a beautiful thing.

You'll see why.

Okay, so what happens next?

Well, as we keep reading in Psalm 51, we see David do the second step of repentance, and that is to simply confess it, right?

So first you recognize it, gotta know that you're turned the wrong direction, and then you gotta say it out loud.

Okay?

All right, so here's what he does in Psalm 51 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones that you have broken rejoice, hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Here we go, here she comes.

Create in me a clean heart.

In Hebrew, clean heart is this.

It's uh it's Ta'ov, Ta'ov Lavav, which simply just means an ethically clean existence.

Yeah, that makes a lot more sense with all the context I gave you, right?

Yeah?

And so, in other words, it's saying, create in me a clean heart.

In other words, he's saying, I'm confessing I've done wrong.

Help me to make the turn.

I want to stop defining things for myself, and I want you to help me.

See what I'm saying?

It's beautiful, right?

All right, anyway, we'll create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.

See, it's coming to life a little bit.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach your transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness, O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise, for ye will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it.

You will not be pleased with a burnt offering, the sacrifice of God, or a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

In other words, what David does here is not only does he recognize he's faced the wrong way, but he confesses he's faced the wrong way.

There's something about just confessing it that makes it all the more real.

Right?

Interestingly, uh, this is what happens next in the conversation with Nathan.

And David.

Right?

After that whole parable incident, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.

See, he confessed it.

I have sinned against the Lord.

I'm faced this way.

He's speaking it out loud.

And Nathan said to David, The Lord has put away your sin and you shall not die.

If you remember, David just a second ago pronounced death on himself.

Right?

Because in this direction is nothing but pain and suffering and death and destruction.

You know what I'm saying?

And so it's funny because he was calling his own his own hecticness there.

See it?

Crazy?

And he says, Okay, hold on.

I'm gonna confess I'm probably faced the wrong way, and I want to look this way now.

I'm saying it out loud.

Uh that night with Quinn, after Pharaoh had that conversation with me, I went into Quinn's room and opened the door because remember I sent her to timeout, and um, and I opened the door and she's like cuddled in a blanket in the corner, like shaking.

I was like, oh my gosh, I'm a horrible human.

Anyway, um, and so I walk in and I could totally tell that she was expecting me to still be mad at her.

You know, it was horrible, it was a horrible moment for me.

Anyway, but I sat down next to her and I said, Quinn, I I just want you to know daddy daddy did really wrong.

And uh, and I you know, I'll never do that to you again.

Um, you know, it's it's it's okay to be mad.

I want you to know that.

Um, but what daddy did was get mad, and I shouldn't do that, and I'm very, very sorry.

And I like Quinn started crying.

Like it was a very emotional moment for her because I realized in that moment that like that was that moment of my confession to her totally revealed a brand new part of her own repentance.

You see?

And by that I mean what it did was it opened her eyes to the fact that, like, man, my dad doesn't always get it right either.

You know?

And it was a beautiful moment for us because uh, you know, it it really changed some dynamics and helped me as a parent, a parent better, and helped her as a kid see that I'm human too.

You see what I'm saying?

Right?

So in that moment I was faced that way.

But by recognizing through Farah, right, I needed Farah to tell me and recognizing it, then I confessed it directly to Quinn.

You see what I'm saying?

Okay.

So then what's the final step?

Well, the final step is.

Relatively obvious, right?

It is to actually make the turn, right?

And this is where repentance lives, right?

So Psalm 51, 18 through 19, this is where we see David.

He says, Do good in Zion in your good pleasure, build up the walls of Jerusalem.

Then will you delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings?

Then bulls will be offered at your altar.

In other words, there's a lot of context behind this, but essentially what David is doing is he's saying, Um, I recognize I'm faced the wrong way, I'm confessing out loud that I'm faced the wrong way, and now I'm gonna turn.

And now, me looking to you as my source of life and morality and righteousness, now not only is that gonna have a positive impact on me, but that's also gonna have a positive impact on the people around me.

You see what I'm saying?

It's going to absolutely revolutionize everything that's moving forward.

Think about this.

Nathan led David to repentance.

And look at what God did through through David.

Right?

Jesus came from the lineage of David.

Jesus came from the lineage of a man who had an adulterous relationship with his friend's life and had him killed.

Okay?

Let me put it this way: Jesus came from a lineage of a repentant man who had an adulterous relationship with his friend's wife and had him killed.

You see the difference?

Yeah?

That reveals that this turn isn't out of shame, it isn't out of condemnation, but this turn is to step into what it really means to be human.

Right?

And that is to be a beautiful, unique, individualized part of the body of Christ, and at the same time recognize the beautiful place that you hold within the collective.

Your repentant heart not only is going to lead you more towards what it means for you to be human, but also for the collective whole, right?

It you'll see your family change, you'll see your career change, you'll see all your church change, you'll see so many aspects of your life change.

Just when you simply say, That direction's a bad one, I'm gonna go that way.

You know?

How many of it, how many of y'all in this room have made good decisions your whole life?

Awesome.

Yeah, me neither.

Okay, and uh how many of you have actively been like, you know what, not doing that anymore?

Yeah, totally.

Guess what you did?

You repented, you just didn't call it that.

You see what I'm saying?

Right?

So repent literally means to change the way you think.

In the Greek, it's meant now.

It literally means to change the way you think.

It means making the active decision with God's grace to say, you know what, I am no longer going to be conform to the pattern of this world, but instead I'm gonna fix my eyes on this.

I'm gonna fix my eyes on the tree of life and not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Because I have found out that eating from that tree gets me in trouble and hurts people and grieves God.

But when I go that way, amazing things happen.

Now, don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean that life is easy, okay?

And it doesn't mean that you're always gonna get it right, at least on this side of the new heaven and new earth.

Being a Christian does not make your life easier.

But I tell you what it does is it brings awareness to the fact that you can make the turn and gives you the motivation, the drive to do so, right?

And helps you to realize where you should fix your eyes.

Because I'm just telling you, I could, if I had, you know, four more hours, I could tell you stories of what I thought was the right way to go, ended up just leading me down a path of death and destruction.

But once I made the decision, in my own volition to make that turn towards God as my source, everything changed for me.

Everything.

Many of you have probably experienced that as well.

It's it's a beautiful process.

Sometimes you do consciously, and other times you do unconsciously.

Check this out with Quinn.

Uh about two days later, um, Quinn, um, the same exact situation played out at our house, and Nixon stole for something from her, and Quinn stood up.

I watched her do it, y'all.

She stood up and was about, I mean, hot air balloon, about to take off.

And she stopped herself and she looked at me, and I could see it all flood back in, and she walked back over and she said, I'm very angry.

And I said, Thank you for telling me.

I'll help you fix it.

You know, two days after that, my her teacher comes to me, and her teacher says, Hey, uh, there were two kids in our class that got in this massive fight, and she broke them up and taught them about anger.

I was like, Yes, this is my finest parenting moment that behind when she pushed a boy down who tried to kiss her.

But that's a story for another day.

Anyway, um so but that's what I'm trying to say is all in that one act of repentance that Farab helped me see, yeah, that I had to confess and recognize myself and then confess out loud to Quinn and then truly make the turn myself.

You know what it did for her?

It helped her make the turn too.

That's way easier parenting.

Gosh, you know?

Oh, yeah, you can clap for Quinn.

She's a bass.

I love her.

I'll tell her you did.

Um, but yeah, I mean that's that's the beauty of everything that's that's you know playing out here because what repentance can do is a lot more deeper character change than anything that punishment can do.

Let me say that again, yeah?

What repentance can do is something much more deeper and long-lasting than punishment can do, you know?

And so uh that was a very important lesson for me in that moment, but then ultimately made me realize this is an important lesson that I learned, that David learned, uh, that Nathan helped him recognize, that Pharaoh helped me recognize, and now I see in Quinn every single day.

It's such a beautiful thing.

And so, all that I want you to see today, y'all, is that ultimately repentance is a beautiful characteristic of life, so long as you don't weaponize it against others or yourself.

Okay?

Remember, it is something that is necessary for life even if you're not a Christian.

But what being a Christian does is it gives you the thing to actually look at, right?

It gives you the thing to actually turn to.

Because unfortunately in our world, there's a lot of things to turn to, you know?

Like I can turn to, you know, inspirational speakers, or I can turn to TikTok influencers or whatever, you know, I don't know.

And there's a lot of different directions you can turn.

But what being a Christian does is it takes the same act of repentance that everybody else does, but now it gives you something to fix your eyes on and an example to live after.

And that very example, that very source is what it means to be human.

And man, the deeper that again, it doesn't make life easy, but gosh, it gives you hope.

And gosh, it makes some of the darkest days uh give it puts a lot of really good perspective on some of the darkest days of your life.

You know what I'm saying?

It's a beautiful process, and when you embrace it, you'll see it in such beautiful ways.

In fact, in the New Testament, uh, there's this moment where uh Peter is teaching a crowd after the Pentecost incident, and uh they're you know, he's basically helping them to see, like, hey, guess what, guys?

You killed Jesus.

Um, which, you know, if you need to repent from anything, it might be killing the king.

But anyway, um, but ultimately it was all a part of God's plan.

And so watch this.

Now that we have all this context, let me read you what Peter says to the crowd, and now you'll see it.

Okay?

So he says, and Acts 3, and now, brothers, you acted in ignorance, as also did your rulers.

But what God foretold by the mouth of all prophets that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

In other words, let me help you recognize what happened.

And then in verse 19, he says, Repent, therefore, confess, and turn back.

That your sins may also be blotted out.

You see it?

Recognize, confess it, turn.

It's not easy, you know?

And what makes it so beautiful to left, what makes it so beautiful is that they can turn and look at the very source of life that they have before them.

It's a beautiful thing, right?

It helps you to see really and truly what it means to be human, right?

Where would David be without repentance?

Where would uh I be without repentance?

Where would you be without repentance?

And so, all that to say, all that I want you to do today, again, my goal is to just help you understand it at a deeper level.

And I don't want you to be scared of it.

I want you to see it as something beautiful, not something to control you, not something to manipulate you, but something that will help you live life in its fullest, right?

Not only as a part of the whole, but the more that we do it together, the more that the whole begins to be the salt of the earth, you know, and we'll see situations around us begin to shift at the very least in perspective, because all of us have the ability to do the very thing everybody else is doing, but instead look at the same source who is the author of life, and who does have your best interests at heart, and who does know you from beginning to end and wants the best, not just for you, but for all of us together as the body.

Yeah, that's it.

That's it.

Uh maybe just take some time.

You know, think through are there any people, circumstances, situations, uh decisions you've made, decisions you're making, uh decisions you might make soon, where you really want to make that turn and look towards God.

You know, but really think in that way.

Because that, my friend, is repentance.

Remember, Jesus' driving message at the beginning of his ministry was this repent and be saved, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

In other words, your face this way.

Repent, confess it, turn back, be saved, walk in this direction, and now step into the glories that is the kingdom, what it means for you to truly be human.

Cool?

Awesome.

Let me pray for you, and then we'll go uh eat lunch.

God, we love you so much.

And uh, Jesus, we're just so grateful for your presence here today.

God, I'm thankful for everyone in this room.

And Jesus, I just pray uh that you just give us uh fresh download, fresh insight, Jesus, into your repentance.

God, what it means to have a repentant heart and the beauty that is in within it.

Um God, help us to see, uh, reveal within us, um, God, the very things that we we might need to repent of in beautiful ways here today.

And uh, God, give us the courage to do so.

God, uh, we just pray today that you do give us a clean heart.

God, help us point us in the right direction.

We pray today, God, that you are our source of everything, including right and wrong, in our sense of rowing.

God, we love you so much.

It's in your son's precious name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Love you guys so much.

You're all the best.

Thank you.

Thanks again for listening.

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