A New Direction - Made New (Week 4)

Good morning, church.

How are we doing?

Man, it's a great day to be in the house of the Lord, isn't it?

It's a great day to be in the house of the Lord, isn't it?

Come on.

I love it.

There's nothing like being planted in the house and flourishing in relationships and walking with God.

And I tell you, I just showed up this morning with a really with an expectation that God was going to do something amazing.

And, you know, you could feel like his presence.

The Bible says he inhabits the praise of his people.

Y'all brought your praise.

And of course, God's going to do his part.

Amen.

We're going to continue in this series.

I hope you guys have been enjoying the series.

I know I have.

It's been transformational for me.

And today we're going to talk about a new redew direction.

I said a new rejection in the first time I did it.

So a new direction.

We're going to talk about repentance.

And that's something that really, you know, over the last year we've talked a lot about.

Oftentimes, you know, it's the R-word in church, like no one wants to hear repent.

Like it's, you know, a negative thing.

But we know repentance is an agreement with God.

Repentance is something that brings us back and puts us in a line with God.

And Jesus came preaching, he said, repent and believe the gospel.

And that really is the gospel.

There is no gospel without repentance.

There is no gospel without believing.

The good news is repentance and believing.

And that's why Jesus said, I mean, imagine that being your first message: repent and believe the gospel.

And, you know, he taught repentance as, you know, foundational for everyone.

Repentance is not one, like, you don't live a life of sin and then repent once and then come to Christ and then never repent again.

I don't know if you know or not, but if you followed me around uh and you were like, I'm gonna follow Mike's steps everywhere he goes, you would have to repent often.

Well, yeah, because we'd probably get in trouble.

But uh not only that, but you every time I made a turn, you would have to turn with me.

And every time you turn to follow me, you're repenting.

Does that make sense?

You could go your own way, right?

But you're called to follow me.

So if I turn left and you go straight, hey, all of a sudden we're not in agreement.

How do you get back in agreement?

Bang, you repent and you're doing it, and that's basically what Jesus is saying.

He's saying, follow me, and to do that, you're gonna have to live a life of repentance.

It's not about a one-time stop.

And I feel like I've been in church for now a lot of years.

I've, you know, led in the church for most of those years.

And I've we hear a lot sometimes, especially in sort of, you know, we're kind of Bapticosal around here.

We're like part Baptist, part Pentecostal.

And it's like we talk a lot about faith and how you got to put your trust in God.

We talk a lot about repent, we talk a lot about Jesus' half of the gospel that is belief.

Like you got to believe, you gotta trust, you got it right.

But oftentimes in church, we've shied away from the other half of the gospel.

And I don't want a half gospel, I want a full gospel.

And so today we get a chance to talk about it, but I have to be honest with you.

Repentance is not something that comes easy to me.

I don't know about you, but like, it's not something we'd like to do.

Is anybody in a relationship in here?

Okay.

It's saying sorry is not something that just comes natural to you.

Admitting, hey, we're not in agreement is not something that comes natural to you.

Right?

And I don't know.

I mean, you you you you can't you you kind of parlay that into the fact that we're supposed to be Christians, and then we believe the lie that Christians have it all together, and so then all of a sudden I'm performing instead of following.

Right?

And as long as I'm performing, then I'm gonna live like fake it till I make it, as opposed to uh, you know what?

I am sorry.

I am wrong.

I need to get back in agreement.

And so if you kind of pull that back into thinking about your own life relationships and think about how stinking hard it is to do that, whether it's because, A, we're Christians and we're supposed to have it all together, or just our stinking pride, right?

Then, man, it is hard to get back into relationship with the people we love and we can actually see, and we actually sleep in the bed beside and all those things.

How much more is it with Jesus?

How much more is it, even though he looks at us with eyes of mercy, how much, how much uh harder is it maybe to come and just say, God, I was I was wrong.

I want to get in agreement with you.

And Jesus literally came and taught, we have this definition that repentance, and here's what I want you guys to understand it's an urgent, foundational command.

Now I could probably spend the next 30 minutes talking about urgency, meaning as soon as you know you're wrong, it's time to repent.

However, I'll wait hours, days, weeks, months sometimes.

Why do I do that?

I know y'all don't do it.

Y'all are quick to repent.

But I do it.

And then it's foundational, meaning there is no Christianity without repentance.

And it's a command.

Last week we talked about lordship.

Lordship means you're not in charge of your life.

Absolute surrender and full obedience to the Lordship of Jesus.

That means if He can't command us to repent and you're sitting on your repentance, then you're not obeying Jesus.

So, man, it's it's a tough one.

It's a foundational command to turn away from sin and change our heart and direction toward God, get in alignment with God.

And so this morning, that's what we're going to talk about.

I guess we are already talking about it, aren't we?

I want to learn how to be the lead repenter.

But it's hard.

Husbands, men in the room in particular, we're not very good at this.

God has called us to lead, and we can lead in a lot of areas, but we're not very good at lead repenting.

Can I just keep it real this morning?

We want to be strong, we want to be this, we want to be that.

Jesus told us to be meek.

Meekness is controlled strength.

Meekness is strength under control.

Repenting is bringing that into alignment with God.

Right?

As pastors, as leaders, maybe you're leading a group or maybe you're a servant leading in some area.

You need to be the lead repenter.

You know, oftentimes, even at home, we ask our kids, man, like, humble yourself and say you're sorry.

But have they seen that modeled at all?

Guys, do you do they see you telling your wife you're sorry?

You understand what I'm saying?

Like, we want it quick from our kids.

And just do it because I said, Don't do it.

You know, it's like my I was kind of raised like, hey, do what I say, don't do what I do.

I mean, my mama told me that all the time.

And, you know, she's still right, but she ain't all the way right.

As leaders, we need to be the lead repenter, right?

As Christians, we need to be the one leading the way.

I was wrong.

I'm sorry.

Let's make it right.

Jesus, I need you.

Truthfully, I need this message every day.

And that's one reason I love that we're being confronted with this series made new.

Because it's easy sometimes in our minds to graduate from the basics.

Foundations like salvation, lordship, repentance, baptism, they're not something we graduate from.

They're something we grow in.

Are you with me?

And if God is gonna do what he's gonna do in your life, in your family, in your school, in your workplace, it's gonna, let me tell you how God's gonna move.

When there is alignment, when there is agreement, when there are people walking this godly lifestyle out of repentance.

How's gonna, like, you need a miracle in your family?

Let's start with repentance.

Jesus said, repent and believe the gospel.

And today we get to see, like, so if you're tempted maybe to like say, hey, I've I'm I'm gonna kind of check out today because I've done that repentance thing, because, you know, we have a diverse group of people here.

I love it.

I love it that we're multi-ethnic.

I love that we're multi-generational.

I love that, man, there's people that have been serving God for one week, and there's been serving people that have been serving God 60 plus years, Rick Warnick.

And Tanya, yeah, but yeah.

I was gonna say, she's only been, she's only 30, Rick.

She can't serve God for 60.

Don't be pointing her out.

All right.

We've been serving God a long time.

And you can easily check out, like, oh, this repentant.

Let me tell you, we need it every day.

I need it every day in my life.

I'm not really good at this.

I need to be confronted with Jesus' words.

I need to be confronted with truth.

How does God change the human heart?

We've been talking a little bit about it.

We encounter truth.

And then we get in line with that truth.

We follow, we step in line with that, we bring alignment to the word of God, we repent.

And then you know what?

After you repent, you don't have it all together, right?

All this changed is your heart.

Then you got to walk by faith.

And that's why Jesus said, repent and believe the gospel.

Well, I want to look at Peter today, and just from the scriptures, I'm gonna bring you through three fires in Peter's life.

In rapid speed.

Three fires.

Uh, and the first fire is really the fire, uh, maybe you you know about this one.

Uh, this is the fire where uh Jesus, where Peter denies Jesus.

And so uh he says in Luke 22, I'm kind of all over the place here, so I'll try to get back to where I'm supposed to be.

Uh Luke 22.

He says, Simon Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you.

Now, first of all, I want you to just internalize this.

We got to contextualize it.

Obviously, it has to do with with Peter, and this was a very specific moment, but honestly, can I tell you today that the enemy is real?

And he's looking to sift you like wheat.

Play around if you want to.

But the enemy's looking to sift you.

I don't know about you, but sifting doesn't sound like a good thing.

He says, look at this.

These are Jesus' words, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

Check this out.

And when you have turned again.

Do you see it there?

Meaning, our lives are not only about being born again, but about being turned again.

There's a one-day experience where we repent, believe the gospel, we are born again, we're new creations in Christ.

But we should live turn-again lives.

Okay, it's my time to turn again.

Right?

These are Jesus' words.

And it says, When you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.

Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

Yeah, right.

Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny him three times.

You know what?

I'm not much that much different than Peter.

In my heart of hearts, I want to follow Jesus to death.

But yet I have a hard time just dying to lust or dying to pride.

I got baptized and I said, Jesus, I want to follow you with all my life.

And then I tripped over the door on the way out.

Thank God for his grace.

Thank God for his goodness.

Peter loves Jesus, that's not his problem.

How many know in this room we a lot of us love Jesus?

That's not our problem.

The problem is that he trusted in himself too much.

Minutes earlier, he's with the knucklehead disciples, kind of like we hang out sometimes, me and Will and the ENC guys.

And you know, all of a sudden it's easy to start to kind of start bantering.

They started bantering and they're like, man, who's the greatest in the kingdom?

Like all of a sudden it was all internal focus, like somehow I could trust.

Let me tell you, without the blood of Jesus, there ain't nobody great.

And so he's, you know, saying this, uh, who's the greatest?

And now he's saying, I'm ready to follow you anywhere.

See, the people who most need repentance often don't look rebellious.

The people who most need repentance don't look rebellious.

They look like Peter.

And they're confident, and they're carrying this attitude like, I got this.

I'm good.

I'm strong enough.

I'm the greatest in the kingdom.

We might not say that, but we live like it sometimes.

Or you look down on others and say, Well, I would never do that.

Oh, really?

Or we excuse ourselves.

Let me tell you, this is a classic.

It's sin.

Everyone knows it's sin.

And you say, Oh, that's just how I'm wired.

We look a lot like Peter sometimes, right?

We love Jesus.

Just a little overconfident.

And look what Jesus says.

He doesn't say, Peter, you need to try harder.

Okay, if you want to die, go ahead, prove it.

He doesn't say any of that.

He says, I've prayed for you.

Jesus knows.

Jesus knows, doesn't he?

And he says, and when you've turned again, meaning, there is here, you want a prophecy?

Let me give you all a prophecy this morning.

Everybody loves to be encouraged through prophecy.

You're going to need to turn again.

You're probably not going to make it to lunch.

That's basically what Jesus said.

He said, look, Satan's going to sift you like wheat, dude.

I pray for you.

But when you turn again, I got something for you to do.

Jesus sees the fall coming.

It's crazy that on the good news, here's the crazy thing.

The good news is that on the other side of our failure, when we repent, when there's alignment, it's crazy.

This is crazy.

As soon as there's alignment, there's an assignment.

Look what he said.

What he said.

He said, I'm going to pray for you, and when you turn again, strengthen your brothers.

Now, how can he tell the weak one?

How can he tell the weak one that it's going to fail to strengthen his brothers?

It's because when we repent and we live a lifestyle of repentance, it's when we're the strongest.

And you know what?

How you're going to strengthen your brothers is not by being strong, but it's by showing weakness.

And by telling your story and by talking about the grace of God, how it showed up in your marriage and your life.

And you know what strengthens your brothers?

Grit doesn't necessarily strengthen them.

A good talking to doesn't strengthen them.

A spanking doesn't strengthen them.

What's strengthened them is meekness.

What strengthens them is your humility.

See, we don't need a bunch of Christians pretending we got it all together.

We need a bunch of Christians that are living a life of repentance, walking by grace and mercy.

And let me tell you, there is nothing stronger than the grace and mercy of God.

And when we're talking about strengthening our brothers and sisters, we're talking about living a real authentic life.

Are you with me?

So this first fire is where he fell.

He says, look at this.

The first fire, Luke 22.

Says they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest, and Peter was following at a distance.

And then they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together.

Peter sat among them.

See, Peter was following at a distance.

He didn't run like the others did.

He stayed close enough to watch and far enough to be safe.

Some of us know about that distance from God, right?

We know God is calling us to lead a group.

God is calling us to step in deeper.

God is calling us, but you know what?

We're going to stay safe.

We're going to stay in the kiddie pool.

We're going to follow Jesus, but we're going to follow him at a safe distance because I don't know if I want to give him my whole life.

I'm not sure what he will do if he calls me.

I don't know about you, but I came to Christ and, you know, for three, four, five years, I was coaching.

You know, I thought I was going to be the, you know, the next Vince Lombardi or whatever.

My parents did.

And I could have kept God at a distance.

But when you decide, you know what, I'm going to take off the floaties, the Christian floaties, and I'm going to swim out into the deep, you never know what God will do with you.

If you just look at a picture of my life, I had to leave behind all my friends and everything I'd ever dreamed of.

My mom literally says, at seven years old, I was like, she would find scraps of paper where I was drawing up football plays and all the stuff.

I left behind a childhood dream because at some point we stopped being children and start being men.

Right?

And you never know where that'll lead you.

I came from a tiny village in the mountain of Virginia, and he sent me all over the world.

I didn't know I would go to Sierra Leone, West Africa.

I didn't know I would go to the Manila Philippines.

I didn't know I'd go to Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

I didn't know.

Like, I had no idea.

When you take the floaties off, you have no idea where God's going to bring you.

Are you with me this morning?

But man, we've got to say, I'm not content kind of splashing around in the shallow water.

I want to follow Jesus.

He stayed close enough to watch, far enough to be safe.

And so then he's like, guess what?

Then it starts to fall apart one step at a time.

That's often what happens to our life.

When we're trying to manage our lives, we got it for a little while, and then all of a sudden things start to, the wheels start to fly off.

Right?

That's basically what happened.

And so, time after time after time again, they're like, Peter, what's up, dude?

Like, I thought you were following Jesus.

Why are you out here with us?

He goes, I don't know that, dude.

Right?

If you look at Luke 22, it says, Peter said, Man, I don't know what you're talking about.

Three times that happened.

It said, Man, I don't know what you're talking about.

And then the rooster crowed.

And here's what changes everything.

Here's what changes everything.

I love this.

When the root, right as the rooster crowed, Luke 22, verse 61.

Luke 22:61

You would think in the lowest moment, when he had denied him three times, and the rooster crowed, and Jesus was right again.

You would think at that moment he would be, Jesus would be like, I told you so.

That's what I would say.

I would say, dude, are you that dumb?

I told you so.

Right?

That's not what happens.

Look what it says in 2261.

It says, and the Lord, give it, turned and looked at Peter.

He didn't turn and look with disdain.

He turned and looked with eyes of mercy.

And wherever you're at, and whatever you're going through, and no matter how far away from God you feel like you are right now, God, Jesus turns in the midst of us denying him, and he looks at us with eyes of mercy and grace.

He's looking at you in your situation.

In a situation you can't think you can.

I mean, you're trying to manage it, you're trying to figure it out, you're trying to claw your way out of it, you're trying to do everything you can.

And I can tell you, God turns and he looks at you.

Jesus looks at you with eyes of grace and it changes everything.

It changes everything.

It said, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered and saying, Lord, how has he said it to you?

He said, Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.

See, the gospel is this.

In the midst of our lowest moment, Jesus turns and looks at us.

And repentance is how we answer the Jesus who turned towards us first.

Repentance is how we answer the Jesus who turned towards us first.

2 Corinthians 7, Paul said it this way: Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.

See, he kind of says there's two types of sorrow.

There's two types of being sorry.

There is a worldly sorrow and there is a godly sorrow.

And let me tell you, we're a lot better at the worldly version than we are at the godly version.

Like, oftentimes, you know, when you think about it, worldly grief or sorrow says, I can't believe I did that.

Where godly grief or sorrow is different, godly grief literally says, I can't believe I did that against him.

Worldly grief is sorry we got caught.

Anybody ever been sorrow they got caught?

Yeah, yeah, you I'm busted.

Whatever it is, right?

Godly grief is a broken heart because you've offended a holy God.

How many know that will change you?

That's different.

When you realize not only am I stepping out of bounds, and you don't realize, you know, like, oh, oh, my we we rationalize, don't we?

We're like, well, I'm not hurting anybody with my sin.

Well, first of all, that's a lie.

Sin always, you know, sin always goes further than you than you think it wants to take you.

It always impacts greater people, right?

It reverberates your sinful lifestyle, it affects everything.

But more than that, just even relationally, sin actually separates you from the living God.

Sin breaks relationship.

Remember the example of following me?

Well, like, man, if I'm walking back here in the kids' ministry and you're out in the parking lot, we're not in relationship anymore.

We're in proximity, but we're not in relationship.

And so, man, I gotta understand it is godly grief that produces a repentance that leads to salvation, that leads to alignment with God.

And let me tell you, godly repentance leaves no regret.

So there's this second fire that Peter is on.

So, you know, he has this moment where there's this denial.

And the crazy thing is, is the one Peter denied actually just a few hours later went to the cross and died for him.

And so after that, you know, Peter went back to fishing.

I knew I liked Peter.

He went back to fishing, and then he's out fishing.

But like most of us, when we're fishing without Jesus, we're not catching anything.

Take the analogy as far as you wanted to go.

When you're living life without Jesus, you're probably not walking in the most fruitful life that you could live in, right?

And it says, when they got it, I love this because they weren't catching anything.

And so uh Peter goes back to fishing, and a few of the other disciples, you know, at daybreak, there was a man on the shore, and he tells them to throw the net on the right side of the boat, and the net fills with so many fish that they can't haul it in.

How many know when we obey Jesus, our life becomes more fruitful?

Peter's been there before because about three years before he had the same encounter where they were fishing all night, and and he first encountered Jesus, and he said, Let your net down on the other side, and then they caught so many fish, the nets were breaking, and that's where Jesus called Peter to end into following him and into ministry.

So Peter's like three years later, he's like, Wait a minute.

I've seen this play out before.

Some of us have been following Jesus long enough to know that if we are aware of the moment, we know it's Jesus calling us back to him.

You're like, oh, I've seen this movie before.

Check this out.

I love this scene.

It said, Oh, it's happened again.

And John says, That's the Lord.

And Peter jumps into the water and swims to shore.

Like I said, uh, godly sorrow runs to Jesus.

Worldly sorrow runs away from him.

In this case, godly sorrow swam to Jesus.

I don't know if you've seen that clip in Forrest Gump or not, but Forrest is out shrimping on the shrimp boat, and he finds out news of his mama.

Mama was sick.

He didn't wait for anything, right?

He's like, I gotta go, and then bam, jumps into the water.

I feel like that's a moment that Peter had.

He's like, shoot, that's Jesus again, and just jump, you know, jumps in the water.

Some of us need to jump in the water with our clothes on today and swim to Jesus because godly sorrow runs to Jesus.

Worldly sorrow runs from them.

It says when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire in place.

Now I knew Jesus wasn't going to use a gas grill.

We knew that, didn't we?

It's charcoal all the way, right?

I guess some of us use pellets.

I don't know if Jesus used pellets or not.

Anyway, he saw a charcoal fire in place and fish laid out.

The last time Peter had stood by a charcoal file, he was denying Jesus.

And now he's standing by Jesus' charcoal fire.

And what I love is Jesus didn't say, okay, explain yourself, like what happened, bro?

Let's go back.

He didn't, he didn't, you know, say instead, he cooked him a meal.

He had breakfast with him and he spoke to him with love and mercy.

See, when God is restoring you, he's not telling you to do something that's impossible.

He's just saying, just come back to me.

He's saying, look, since when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than all of these?

He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

He said to him, feed my lambs.

Remember what is on the other side of alignment?

Assignment.

You see it happening here.

As soon as there is alignment, as soon as there is agreement, there's an alignment, okay, Jesus.

It's not like, okay, now go take a class.

Get down and give me 50 push-ups.

Uh let's just see if you're going to live a life of fruitfulness.

A lot of us sometimes we're so aware of our sin or like maybe our weakness that we don't think we can impact anybody's life.

But right on the other side of alignment is assignment.

He's saying, as soon as he says one time, Jesus, I love you, he goes, I know, feed my sheep.

The question is, today, if we're repenting and there is alignment in our lives, are we following the assignment?

And we'll see that in the third fire as we close.

So three times he says, feed my lambs.

He said to him a second time, he said, Jesus, do you love me?

He said, Yes, you know I love you.

He said to him, Tend my sheep.

He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter was grieved because he had said to him a third time, Do you love me?

And he said to him, Lord, check out his attitude change.

Remember back when he thought he was great and he was going to go follow him to prison and he thought he knew he had everything together?

Now he says, Lord, you know everything.

You already know.

You know that I love you.

And Jesus said to him again, feed my sheep.

Peter denied Jesus three times.

And Jesus asked him three times.

He isn't really rubbing Peter's nose in it.

He just wanted him to say, I love you, as many times as he denied him.

And then that restoration comes.

And the second fire, God restores Peter.

When he looks at you with eyes of mercy and grace, know this.

God, I love this.

God gladly receives repentant sinners.

There's not steps you have to take, there's not measures you have to take.

This morning, if God is calling you into repentance, he gladly receives them.

And then we see the third fire, 50 days later, it's the day of Pentecost.

And on the day of Pentecost, Peter's in the room.

It says, when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

And suddenly there came from heaven a sound of a mighty rushing wind and filled the entire house and they were sitting.

And divided tongues of fire, third fire, sat on Peter and rested on each one of them, not just Peter.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

The next scene, church, is Peter who could not stand up to a teenager by fire, stood up to an angry crowd and preached the gospel, and 3,000 received Christ that day.

See, it's not only that God looks to restore you alignment, he wants to empower you with his Holy Spirit and give you an assignment.

Unless you think it's about standing up in 3,000 getting saved because there's some super anointed preacher, if you follow the story out in Acts, after 3,000 are saved, it said what the Acts Church did.

They met in house to house.

They stayed true to the to the the uh the doctrine, you know, apostles' teaching.

They stood on the word.

They were meeting house to house.

See, when repentance is lived out, repentance looks like discipleship.

And discipleship is not just standing up and 3,000 people getting saved.

It's actually a coffee across someone at the table on your job.

It's actually inviting someone to the table and sitting around and helping them follow Jesus.

What did Jesus tell Peter to do?

He said, strengthen your brothers.

What is God calling us to do as we repent and follow Him?

As we get in agreement and alignment with Him, He's given each one of us a clear assignment.

He says, Not only do I want you to be disciples that follow me, I want you to be disciples that make disciples.

And so we see very clearly today that God is calling us back to Him.

And if you say, Hey, I want to make a disciple, we have that tool out in the lobby, the one-to-one book.

There's people that God has placed on your heart.

If you are walking in agreement with Him and there is alignment, then let's get busy doing the assignment.

Let's take that one-to-one book and let's sit down with someone with coffee and let's help them follow Jesus.

And it's not pretending you have it all together.

I've already said, it's telling them how you failed this week and how God's mercy came and rescued you.

Amen.

This morning there's some of you came in and you've never come into agreement with God.

I'm gonna pray in a minute, and all you gotta do is say, God, I've been out of, you told me to follow you down the hallway, and I've been out in the parking lot.

I want to align my heart with yours.

I want to agree with God.

It is an urgent, foundational command.

And then others of you stop playing church.

Come back to God, say you're sorry.

And finally, the last group is hey, Jesus, we're in alignment.

I just hadn't been doing the assignment.

And I know you gave me this one person that's hurting, this neighbor, this coworker, this classmate, this teammate, this coaching buddy, this this, this that.

This week I'm gonna have a conversation.

I'm gonna get busy not only about alignment, I'm gonna get busy about the assignment.

Will you stand with me?

Jesus, we love you.

Can you just tell him out of your own mouth wherever you're at?

If it's the first time, or if it's the 50th thousandth time, just say, Jesus, I love you.

I want my life in every area, in every aspect to be in alignment with you.

I want to follow you.

I don't even know what it means.

There's somebody here that's following for the first time.

You know you've been sort of managing your sin, and you now you know, man, I just need to repent and get in alignment with God.

Can I tell you that Jesus' eyes of mercy are on you?

This is a word for somebody.

Listen clearly.

His eyes of mercy and grace are on you.

And as soon as you get in alignment, he's also gonna give you an assignment.

Father, thank you.

Jesus, you left the 99 to go to the one.

There's one here today that just says, you know what?

I've been faking the punk.

Just tell him out of your own heart right now, God, I give my heart to you.

I turn from my sin.

I receive what you did on the cross.

I believe.

Jesus, you died for me on the third day you rose again.

I put my trust and confidence in you.

I repent for the very first time.

Church, the rest of us, our repentance may be more about the assignment than the alignment.

Jesus, help us to help others follow you.

You're calling us to be a church of lead repenters.

Help us to get busy being disciples that make disciples.

We love you today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

God is good.

If you need prayer, our ministry team will be down front, but I've kept you too long, so I'm gonna have to let you go.

If you want to stay for the second service, it might even be better, but that's all right.

Father, thank you.

Bless us as we go today.

Give us a great week in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You're dismissed.