Transcribed by Beluga AI.
What a full service. What a full service. I’m thankful that I’m in a church where I think like three levels of ages, younger to a little bit older to a little bit older. We all have testimonies, which is so wonderful. So wonderful. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God.
I’m just going to read one verse and we’ll call it a day. Acts 26:20, the one that David read. Let’s read it together. It’s an important verse. I hope you underline it. Put it to memory.
It is not a small feat that Stephanie quoted verses by memory at our age. That is a mini miracle. So praise God for that miracle. We all witness together.
And let’s put this one to memory as well. Acts 26:20. This is a verse my pastor gave to me recently. This is Paul preaching, and he says,
20 but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. (Acts 26:20, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, as we wrap up this service, we want to understand what full repentance, genuine repentance looks like. So, Lord, we pray that you would reveal it to us in this time. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
On the topic of blessing and cursing, I was listening to a podcast, and in the podcast, they had a little clip of a different YouTube video. And I’m not going to mention the name, but it’s. It was. It was on the Jubilee channel, and back in 2020, actually, Jubilee found my name somehow. Jubilee, they asked if that YouTube channel, if I would talk. I think the debate was progressive Christians versus conservative Christians. I’m assuming they think I’m a conservative Christian. I prayed about it a little bit, and I just knew this is not right for me now to go on a show like that. Had I gone, maybe it would have gone viral, maybe it would have filled this place. Who knows?
But I know my heart. And when you’re pushed into a debate and your buttons are being pressed, like what comes out in that moment?
In this clip, there was a famous psychologist who doesn’t call himself a Christian but quotes from the Bible, writes books about biblical stories. He is surrounded with 20 atheists. And it was just not a good look. Just not a good look. Somebody who acts as if he has all the answers, and he does many speeches, writes many books.
He is world famous and coming with his knowledge and his degrees, and these no-name young, young atheists just shredded him to pieces, and he lost his cool.
And I just saw, wow, this man looks really small. He acts as if he’s a big person, but he’s so small.
And it reminded me I don’t want to hold grudges. I don’t want to be that kind of person who is easily triggered and be this small on camera for all the world to see. What a shame that would be.
I want to overcome all my small-heartedness, lay aside all grudges, and think of a chance that he had to win these 20 atheists for Christ, had he shown a different heart of God.
In this verse about repentance, there are three steps. First, you repent. And a lot of times it just stops there. We just repent, and we just feel bad, and we ask for forgiveness, but we haven’t even looked to the Lord. We haven’t even turned to the Lord. We don’t even turn our gaze to him. We’re just feeling so bad that we sinned. And like Judas, it’s just remorse. It hasn’t amounted to repentance at all.
And how many times do I repent? I ask for forgiveness, but I haven’t really connected with the Lord. It’s just me and feeling terrible that I’ve sinned and I’ve messed up, and that’s just not repentance.
The second step is turning to God. And that is the most important part of prayer: that connection, that encounter. Asking somebody, looking him in the eye, face to face, turning to him.
Because this word for turning is you’re going the wrong way. Now do a 180 turn. And we’re not just turning and improving our actions and our behavior. This is a turning away from our waywardness, from our departure from the Lord.
And now we’re turning back to the Lord, going back to the Father’s house. And now there’s a connection. And that connection is so important. That’s when you understand the Father’s love, you understand the forgiveness of the Savior, you understand the weight of your sin and how it grieves you.
And then the final stage is when repentance is complete, when you stop doing it. Like I can repent for pornography, but my repentance is not complete until I can show to the world, to myself, to the Lord, I don’t do it.
We can say, oh, I feel so guilty, I keep on worrying. I know Scripture says do not worry. And I repent and I repent and I repent. I shouldn’t worry. I should trust you. But until the worrying stops, you haven’t repented.
And how can we prove through our works that we’ve changed? Actually, we can’t.
As David said, we can’t manufacture this. That’s just religiosity. That’s just gritting your teeth and trying harder, and you will fail again. But if you turn to the Lord and you meet him and he changes you and he sets you free, he delivers you from that bondage, then your life proves that repentance has happened.
I was reading about the Joseph story, and in Joseph’s story, you see the Gospel. You see Joseph, a righteous man sold into slavery because his brothers hated him. His father favored him. It was just a strange, dysfunctional family.
And you see a righteous Joseph just continuing to have favor with the Lord and just being promoted. Wherever he is, everything is going well for him.
And you have Jacob just heartbroken. As I’m reading this, it’s like, as a father, I’m just a little bothered by Jacob. I was asking the Lord, why am I so bothered? Because shouldn’t he? Well, okay, it’s sad that you lost a son, but what about your other sons? What about your wife? Why are you, like, falling apart? Just get it together, Jacob. Just. Just move on.
You got to do what’s right for the rest of the family. And I think what the Lord showed to me is this is the Father’s heart. This is the Father’s heart.
When I sin, the part I underestimate is how much it grieves the Father. Whenever I sin, it breaks his heart. It’s as if he’s dying. If you think about losing the person you love the most in life, you’ll feel like, I feel like dying. I have no reason to live.
And God feels this way every time one of his children depart in sin and leave him.
I don’t understand Jacob’s heart because I still have much more to learn about the Father’s heart. His heart grieves every time one of his children sin, and he is heartbroken. He is dying. And I just think, what’s the big deal? I sinned. Forgiveness, no big deal.
But if you study the Joseph story, the forgiveness that he showed to his brothers was costly. And we know this is the life of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, it was costly.
It’s not like, oh, just get over it. Yeah, I forgive you. Not a big deal. No, it’s. Our sins are a big deal. It cost Jesus his life. It broke the father’s heart.
And so for Joseph to forgive his brothers, he had to test them. They had to confess. Even though they didn’t know that Joseph could understand what they’re saying. The brothers, they think they’re being judged because of what they did for Joseph 13 years earlier. So they’re being reminded of that. They’re repenting of that.
And then, when the threat of losing another son, Benjamin, the brothers finally understood the father’s heart. It killed my father. When we lied to him and we sold our brother to slavery, it killed him. And I don’t want to break my father’s heart again.
And they say, let me take the place, please. Benjamin must go back to the father. And Joseph had to test his brothers. He could have just forgiven them in the moment, but he needed for them to understand what they did. They needed to confess with their mouth.
And forgiveness is costly. This is the gospel message. Our sins cost the Father losing His Son. The Father grieves every time He thinks about what happened to His Son.
And every time one of us, His children, are leaving the Father’s house in waywardness, because that’s what sin is. you’re leaving the Father, you’re leaving the Father’s house. He is dying all over again.
So I hope before we sin casually and just assume forgiveness, of course He will forgive. I hope we can remember the Joseph story. It is the gospel story embodied.
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, we repent of our sins, but we know it doesn’t stop there. We turn to you, Lord. We turn to you, Lord. We make eye contact with you, Lord. This is not self centered remorse. We turn to you, Lord. We make eye contact with you, Lord. We’re so sorry to you, Lord. Even if it was a sin to another person, we know that sin is always before you. It is always. you’re the one who is grieving. you’re the one who’s heartbroken. you’re the one who’s dying, Father. And so we do a 180 degree turn.
Every time we repent, we turn back to you. We turn to you. Please meet us, Lord. Please forgive us, Lord. We don’t want to sin lightly. We don’t want to grieve you and break your heart every time so casually. Help us to understand what sin does to you. When I read Jacob’s story, I don’t understand your heart and I just say, why don’t you get over it? But Lord, you’re not like that. you’re so loving.
Your love for me is so, so infinite that a sin breaks you in ways that I just can’t understand because my love is nowhere near your love for me. Help me to understand how I grieve you all the time, and I just think it’s just my issue and I assume you will forgive.
I don’t understand the costliness of forgiveness. I don’t understand what I put you through in the seasons of sinning. I don’t understand. I missed it, Lord. Forgive me, Lord. I don’t want to grieve you. I don’t want to cause you to die in your heart emotionally, be heartbroken by just casually sinning, assuming you will forgive.
Lord, may all of us prove through our lives that repentance is complete through the deeds, through a changed life. We bring all of our sins to you. We pray we turn to you. We pray that we can prove over time that repentance is indeed complete through a changed life.
Thank you for Your Body that was broken and Your Blood shed. We plead the Blood of Jesus over all of our brokenness.
You pray that you make us whole so that we can walk in the newness of life.
Thank you. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
