Zach Peters' Podcast
A place for sermons, reflections, and general pondering on life and stuff.
Zach Peters' Podcast
Repentance and the Kingdom of Heaven
Repentance is not just asking for forgiveness but a transformative journey toward righteousness and grace. In our exploration, we discuss how the lessons children naturally teach us about human imperfections, the divine invitation to embrace repentance, and the complexities surrounding the concept of the Kingdom of Heaven.
• The lessons children teach us about forgiveness
• Spiritual connections between our mistakes and repentance
• Jesus’ pivotal message on repentance in Matthew 4
• The significance of Galilee as a backdrop for Jesus' ministry
• The essence of true repentance—mind and action
• Understanding sin as a barrier from God
• Historical context of the Kingdom of Heaven for Jewish people
• The concept of the Kingdom being “right now, but not yet.”
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Glad you're here. Let's go ahead and jump into this thing. What I appreciate and love about kids and there's many things I love about kids, many things I don't love about kids but one of the things I love about kids is that if you watch them and observe them, if you're around them, they teach you stuff we're supposed to be teaching our kids, but the reality is, as we watch them, they reveal things to us about human nature that maybe we just didn't have figured out whenever we were a kid. And so now you get perspective and you see things a different way. And one of the things which is relevant for what we're gonna be talking about today that I see and it'll make you pull your hair out is a child's ability to do something wrong. Right, they'll do something wrong, they'll do something silly. They will recognize because we tell them it's wrong or because they're old enough to understand it was wrong, and they will apologize like I'm sorry, I'm sorry mommy, I'm sorry daddy. And then, five minutes minutes later, what do they do? The exact same thing. They do the exact same thing and it oh just they haven't quite grasped the concept of forgiveness and repentance and apologizing. And they'll apologize and they're right back to it and it's frustrating. But the reality is, as I was thinking about this, don't I do the same thing? I do the same thing. Spiritually speaking. I do the same thing with God. God, I'm sorry for doing that, goodness gracious, I'm sorry, god. And then, god, I'm sorry. So you know, and I am sure, if you're honest with yourself, that you perhaps do the same thing, and you don't just do it to God, you also do it to people that you love, you do that to other family members, all right, and so what we have is just misunderstanding this thing about repentance. That maybe we don't quite comprehend.
Speaker 1:But it's interesting because repentance, which is what we get to see in our children all the time, is an intimate part of what it means to be a Christian right. It's intimately connected to the gospel, it's intimately connected to scripture. Repentance is. It's intimately connected to the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, which is a term that you've probably heard of before in songs in church, in scripture. When you've read it, you probably know what it means, but sort of like a dream. When you're trying to think about what happened in my dream, it sort of starts fading away and so you really don't know what it means, and so it's there. And so it's those two things, repentance and the kingdom of heaven, that we're going to talk about today in Matthew, chapter 4. So, are you ready for the word of God this morning? Okay, that should have been the most excited yes, the most visceral yes that you have ever given. You should have terrified your neighbor with that yes and that response. I'll let you pass this time, right, I'll let it pass this time. That should have been so exciting it scared me, right. So exciting that we had to change some diapers Not mine, but the kids. Okay.
Speaker 1:Matthew, chapter 4, verses 12 through 17. Now, when he heard that John had been arrested this is Jesus he withdrew into Galilee and, leaving Nazareth, he went to live in Capernaum by the sea, the territory of Zebulun and Nephthilii, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled the land of Zebulun and the land of Nephthilii, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, galilee of the Gentiles. The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and the shadow of death on them, a light has dawned In verse 17, which is going to be our main focus for today. From that time, jesus began to preach, saying Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What we have here in this scripture is the launching of Jesus' ministry. This is him stepping into a new phase. This is a transition for Matthew. We've had his miraculous birth story. We've had John the Baptist been preaching about him. We've had John the Baptist baptizing Jesus and the Holy Spirit showing up. We've had Jesus walking into the wilderness and being tempted by Satan and overcoming that temptation. And now John the Baptist has been arrested. Eventually he will be killed. And it says that Jesus withdrew to Galilee. He withdrew to Galilee.
Speaker 1:Two things before we get to the main point of what we're talking about today. Two small notes of interest here. First of all, when it says he withdrew, that's not a retreat. Not a retreat right. John the Baptist was his cousin. He had spent time with John the Baptist throughout his life. This was a very close thing. And now, john the Baptist was his cousin. He had spent time with John the Baptist throughout his life. This was a very close thing. And now John the Baptist has been arrested, and so maybe our natural inclination for myself would be I got to get out of here. Okay, that's not what. That's not what withdrawing is here, because you don't withdraw closer to the location of the people who arrested John the Baptist, because he ends up going from where he was to somewhere that was actually closer to the people that arrested John the Baptist, because he ends up going from where he was to somewhere that was actually closer to the people that arrested John the Baptist. So I just want to get that in your minds, because the first time I read that I think, well, okay, that makes sense. He doesn't want to get caught up in this thing with John the Baptist, so he withdraws, he retreats. That's not it. He actually gets closer to the situation. So that's not what has happened here.
Speaker 1:Secondly, galilee this place that he goes to, galilee, of course, is full of Jewish people, jewish communities, jewish towns, jewish people, but it's also greatly influenced by Gentile people, non-jewish people, because they surrounded Galilee basically on three sides. Okay, so like the north, east and west, there are non-Jewish populations that influence Galilee and Galilee. Jewans don't like that. Jewish people don't like non-Jewish people. It's just a thing that happens, and so I think it's very interesting that when Jesus shows up, he shows up in a place like that.
Speaker 1:He doesn't show up at the centerpiece of Judaism. He doesn't show up in Jerusalem. He doesn't show up at the centerpiece of Judaism. He doesn't show up in Jerusalem. He doesn't show up at the temple. He doesn't show up and rub elbows with all of the religious leaders in the upper echelon of Jewish society. He shows up on the outside, he shows up for the outsiders, he shows up on the exterior of this place, for the exterior people. Right, and I for one am thankful that he doesn't work like I work, because when I think of a king, when I think of a savior, I think he should probably get down to business and get to the important places first. But that's not what Jesus did. He's in Galilee, a place in particular.
Speaker 1:He spent some time in Nazareth, which famously is said in several places that it was a place good for nothing. The saying was literally does anything good ever come from Nazareth? And that's where he's from, that's where he's ministering, and that's just encouraging to me, because I've been in some exterior places in my life, I've had some exterior seasons in my life and I'm thankful that Jesus showed up for those times for me and so maybe for your life. This is a bit of an encouragement If you're having a season, or if you've had a season where you feel like you're on the outside. You feel like you're sort of pushed from what's important. You are on the exterior, you're on the outskirts of what's important. Jesus showed up for you, just like he showed up in Galilee Amen. And that brings us to verse 17, which I'll read again.
Speaker 1:From that time Jesus began to preach, saying repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That phrase, that phrase from that time on Jesus began, marks this turning point in Matthew's narrative, like we've already talked about. That phrase indicates that the preparation for Jesus's messianic ministry they're completed. Everything has been fulfilled that needed to be fulfilled and he's now launching into this process. He's had this prophetic and miraculous sort of birth story and he's had the prophetic John the Baptist proclaim the way for him to show up. He's had this experience with his baptism and the Holy Spirit coming down and anointing him and God saying from heaven above this is my son, in whom I'm well pleased. He's had his experience in the wilderness, where he showed that he had the authority over the dictation of Satan. And now John the Baptist has been in prison and now it's time for Jesus to start doing what he came to do and start telling this new story about how God was going to break into human history and make a way for his people to launch the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1:It says, which is interchangeable with the kingdom of God. That's what we're talking about today Repentance into the kingdom of heaven. That was Jesus's message. That was John the Baptist's message, as we will read in a second. That was what the disciples preached Repentance, because the kingdom of God is here.
Speaker 1:And to understand what this really means, we've got to ask some very basic questions about what is repentance and what's the kingdom of God. Repentance, from a Christian perspective, is a change of attitude and action from sin towards obedience to God. Right, so it's not just your mind is changing, but your mind and your thoughts are changing behavior, so that you're leaving behind the stuff that doesn't belong in your life that's sin and you're holding on to obedience to God. And that means a lot of different things, but it simply just means you're trying your best to please Jesus with your life. That's what repentance is Right. And the beautiful thing about repentance is that God grants repentance as soon as you repent. Ok, even whenever you make mistakes, even when you mess up, sometimes you have repented and you are trying to do your best.
Speaker 1:The Greek word for repentance, where we get this word from it's a verb that means to radically change one's thinking, to radically change one's thinking. So repentance refers to an event which an individual entails, this divinely provided new understanding, this sort of new lens to understand their own behavior and their own lifestyle, and then they feel compelled, based on that information, to change their life and to enter into a new relationship with God. Right, this is new head and new heart knowledge. This is brand new information that redefines how you see yourself, how you see the world. It's like seeing a mirror for the first time, seeing your reflection for the first time. If you can just imagine for a minute that you lived in a world without reflections and then you are magically granted a reflection somewhere, you might look in that mirror and you will be granted new information about yourself. That's what my hair looks like, that's what I'm wearing, that's what my face looks like.
Speaker 1:I got to change some stuff based on this new information. It's like if I walked into a house and Dave walked into a house. Dave, right here, dave, wave your hand. We all know Dave. Dave has years and years of experience in the construction industry. Right, you were a trim carpenter, a finishing carpenter, for quite a while. So if he walks into a house and I walk into a house, we're going to see the trim differently. I might think it looks fine, I might know that's good. Dave might have to pull me aside and show me some stuff and say, no, that's not right, that's new information and based on that new information, it should inspire me to want to fix the trim that I'm seeing.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's what we're talking about, that's what repentance is, but that's just a part of it. The Hebrew part of repentance right, that was the Greek. Now we're talking about the Hebrew part of this because Jesus was speaking Aramaic, which is a form of Hebrew, but the whole book was written in Greek. So you've got to combine these two things. The Hebrew word closest to repent, or repentance, is translated into English as return to, return to, so that whenever this word is used in Hebrew in the Old Testament, what repentance means is to turn around and go the opposite direction of where you were going To do 180. So whenever we're talking spiritually here, whenever you say God, I am sorry, what you're saying is I am now. I'm not just going to keep doing that, I'm going to make an attempt to go the opposite direction. Of course there's grace involved in that. You're not always going to get it right, but that's the gist of what that word means, right?
Speaker 1:It's not just knowledge, it is action. It's not just this new information, it's not just Dave telling me the trim is wrong. It's me fixing the trim based on that information. It's not saying, yeah, I did something dumb. It's saying I did something dumb and now I'm not going to try to do that again. You're walking this way, which is wrong, and now I've made a decision, I'm going to walk this way. And in spiritual, christian terms, you're walking away from God. And then you're saying I don't need to walk away from God anymore, I've got to turn and walk towards God Again. There might be some distractions along the way and you might need a refresher course in repentance every now and then, but that's what we're talking about. They're slightly connected, slightly different, it's Greek and Hebrew but when we repent, it first comes from a knowledge, from the Holy Spirit, from a sermon, from a song, some sort of spiritual inspiration that something isn't right. Right, dave showed me the trim wasn't right, and so now I've got to take action based on that information. I'm going to turn around, I'm going to go a different way and I think, going back to our example about the little kids, it is so frustrating to watch them learn this, but it's even more frustrating for me to recognize that I still do this as a 35 year old. I still do this. I do this to God, I do this to Tara, I will apologize for something, I will repent of something, and then I'm doing the same thing again. It's difficult, but there's grace for that moment.
Speaker 1:This word repentance, repentance in some way shape or form. It's used over 50 times in the New Testament. It's not just another word. It's used by John, it's used by Jesus, it's used by John, it's used by Jesus, it's used by Peter, it's used by Paul, it's used by everybody in between. So to get a grasp of what this word means in its fullness, let's read a few snippets of scripture here that talk about repentance.
Speaker 1:Matthew, chapter 11. Jesus began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. Jesus was doing all this great stuff in these cities and I'm sure they accepted his miracles. I'm sure they accepted his good works, but they did not repent of their ways. It's like they took the bread without saying thank you. Basically, and because they did not repent, it kept them from the actual full work of Jesus. Because Jesus didn't just come to perform some miracles, he came to bring you into the kingdom of heaven. So there's repentance in this process and there's this acceptance of repentance and the role that it plays in our availability to the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1:Mark, chapter 1. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Repentance and the gospel are intimately connected. You cannot separate them. You cannot separate them. You cannot and the gospel are intimately connected. You cannot separate them, cannot separate them. You cannot have the gospel without some sort of part recognizing that I am doing things the wrong way and so I've got to say sorry, to align myself with the way Jesus wants to do things. Mark, chapter 6. So they went out and proclaimed that people, the people should repent. So not just John the Baptist was preaching this, jesus was preaching this. And then, when Jesus sent the disciples, they were preaching this repentance. So it's central to the message that Jesus wanted to get across.
Speaker 1:Luke, chapter 13,. No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. That's pretty straightforward Repent or perish. Repent or perish. Admit that you are wrong or keep living in your sin and end up somewhere where you don't want to be. Luke, chapter 17. And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying I repent, you must forgive him. That's a tough one. We've been talking about us repenting. What happens when other people repent towards us, and to be on the opposite end of someone continually making the same mistake directed towards us and us being commanded by Jesus to forgive them, that's a tough one. It's a tough one. Now, what that isn't saying is that you've got to let them dictate your life and be a part of your life, but you've got to forgive them. You've got to absolve them and try your best to move on in the most healthy way possible for you and for them.
Speaker 1:Acts 17, verse 30. The times of ignorance, god overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. In other words, god is in the business and has been in the business of trying to draw us into a place where we recognize that we cannot do things on our own. We can't. We're going to miss the point. We don't have the tools necessary to fix our problems. We've got to repent and hold on to his tools and his salvation and his grace and his mercy, and if we don't, we're going to miss this entry into something beautiful called the kingdom of God. So we got to repent. Right, and the beautiful thing if you call yourself a Christian and you've been living a Christian life, chances are at some point in your life you have repented, and that's great news. Good job, keep up the good work. But we still got to ask ourselves the question. It's healthy to ask questions why do we need repentance in the first place? What exactly are we repenting of? Right, and you could man, you could build. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1:Books have been written about the why part, why repentance? Okay, I ain't got time to break all that down right now in this moment, but if you ever, and if anyone ever, spent the time examining their life, just sitting down and thinking about their life, their feelings, their experiences, why they do certain things right, at some point out of that thought process, even if you just do it for a little bit, there will probably be a feeling at some point in there that something is not quite right. There was something quite not connecting the way you really wanted to connect. There's something slightly missing. And those feelings of the not quite right, the separation, the disquieting feeling that you get when you're alone and you're thinking, those feelings have inspired people over the eons of time that people have been around to come up with all sorts of religions, all sorts of moralities, ideologies, philosophies that attempt in some way to correct the wrong in their life or at least in some cases to create a set of standards and regulations and laws or virtue signaling that's a popular word right now that make you feel better about yourself. That sort of smothers, the feeling right. Morality by itself, without Jesus, is just some sort of smoke screen to make you feel better about the stuff that you feel bad about in your life. Right?
Speaker 1:So what exactly is wrong? What's wrong with us? We can all look out there and see out in the external of who we are, all the mess that's going on. We can see the brokenness, we can see the pain. We can see the brokenness, we can see the pain. We can see the injustice, the hate, the violence, the broken family structures, the various perversions that exist, and all of that is true and all that applies to sin. That's because of sin.
Speaker 1:But ultimately it boils down to is what specifically is wrong with me, not what's wrong with my dad. What's wrong with my dad? My friend, this person, my coworker? What is wrong with me? What's going on?
Speaker 1:Why did I say that you ever walked away from a conversation feeling guilty because you don't know why you said what you said? Why did I think that that was a dark thought, that was a mean thought, that was a perverse thought? Why did I think I don't want to think that that's wrong? Why can't I have any self control? Why am I caught in this bad habit? Why am I caught in this? Why am I making poor choices? Well, why this, why that? Why all of this stuff that we deal with on a regular basis, right? Why am I perfect? And then that's pride, and then that's actually a problem. So you're not perfect. That's an Albie joke for those on the inside of the family, right, but it never really works. Your own tools, your own tools, your own attempts to fix that little bit of something inside you that's a little off. Never going to work. Not going to work on its own at all.
Speaker 1:So what exactly is wrong?
Speaker 1:What's wrong? It's called sin, sin. And again, we could do a thousand sermons on sin, but sin is just that stuff that doesn't belong with god. It's that stuff that leads us away from god. It leads us away from his presence, leads us away from his will. It's anything that god wouldn't do, that you do do. Okay, sin, sin, not a Sin, not a fun thing.
Speaker 1:Now there's a solution for sin. His name is Jesus. Praise God. And we need to repent to Jesus for our sin, because that sin is the reason for your pain, it's the reason for your failures, it's the reason why you don't feel settled, it's the reason why you feel disconnected, sometimes even on your best days. That sin is that problem, and sin is that thing that separates you from the presence of God, which you desperately need in your life. And it's the thing that you need to get rid of in order to be in the kingdom of God. And let me tell you something you want to be in the kingdom of God, you want to be in the kingdom of heaven. I know it's some sort of religious term, it's sort of ethereal and it's hard to sort of put in front of you and it's not really tangible. But I promise you you want to be in the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:What's a kingdom? Well, textbook answer it's a politically organized community, territory or group of people that are led by a monarch, a king or a queen. Okay, very broad, very common sense. You know this, you understand it. A king or queen leads a people in a place, and that's a kingdom. That's a kingdom. What we don't necessarily comprehend sometimes, when we're talking about monarchy, because we're so far removed from real monarchy, is that, unlike republics, unlike democratic societies, what the king says is what the kingdom is. So, if you've got a bad king and the king's doing bad things, that's the kind of kingdom you're going to have. If you've got a good king, you're going to have a good kingdom.
Speaker 1:And what we believe as Christians is that we have a good king, a matter of fact, not just a good king, a perfectly good king and you want to be a part of his kingdom. Okay, that's all that means as Christians, we believe that. As Christians, we hang our hat on that, and in order for you to enjoy this, all you got to do is say God, I am sorry for my sin. I repent and guess what? You are now a part of that kingdom and that's great news. It's simplicity, it's not complex. Now, I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not saying it's easy to repent and to get rid of stuff that doesn't belong. It's a process sometimes. But that's the gospel Repent, enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now we know that, we understand that.
Speaker 1:I can preach about that, because for 2,000 years people have been studying the words of Jesus. There's been theologians and pastors and preachers. For 2,000 years have been talking about forgiveness and repentance in the kingdom of heaven. So we get that Jesus was talking about this to Jewish people. They didn't have. All of this time is to sort of look at what Jesus was saying to this particular people group and what they thought about the kingdom of God, to sort of grant us sort of an awareness of what this really means, the significance of it. So if we look at what the Jewish people believed about the kingdom of God, number one, they were believing for this for a long time.
Speaker 1:Through a series of events that they mainly caused themselves, the Jewish people were now in a place where they were not really a group of people, they weren't really a nation anymore. They were just sort of a culture. And so when they think of the kingdom of God, they're thinking of several things that maybe we don't think of. First and foremost, they do believe that the kingdom of God involves transformation, transformation of the self, new head, new heart, the transformation of the laws in society. They believe that was part of the kingdom of God, that things would be just and righteous, and God must transform nature itself. All the pain and suffering that nature can cause droughts, famines, floods, fires all of that also would have to be transformed. That was part of the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1:But more importantly, for all of this, they believed all of this specifically for themselves. They believed that, yes, god cared about all the world, but God cared more about the Jewish people and that his mission was just for the Jewish people. And so when they thought about the kingdom, they were thinking about all of those things which are actually pretty accurate, but they were applying it strictly just to themselves and sort of in a socioeconomic, political, military sense, they thought any king or savior that showed up, which Jesus proclaimed that he was, would conquer and lead. In a political sense, they would get rid of Rome and Rome would be replaced with a new Jerusalem and Jewish people exalted as an example of God to all the world. And 95% of their expectations about the kingdom were actually pretty spot on Transformation, especially salvation, especially judgment and righteousness and blessings, and all those things are included in the kingdom. They just got confused in timing and application. Timing and application Because Jesus didn't just come for them.
Speaker 1:Jesus didn't just come to conquer a human empire. He came for something more. He came to conquer all of sin and death, which is what needed to happen to begin with. And so there is this cornerstone that we believe in, that Jesus did this thing not just for a political sense, not just in a practical sense, but in a spiritual sense. He reset the world. Death and sin have been defeated, and so what was launched from that process was the kingdom of God. So when Jesus is preaching the kingdom of God, he's talking about transformation. He is he's talking about something new. He's talking about transformation for your head and for your heart. He's talking about a transformed society. But it all stems from the fact that he has defeated sin and death and that process has started.
Speaker 1:And now the expectation is that, just through repentance simple thing is repentance you now have access to the kingdom of God, and you need the kingdom of God. We need it if you want peace in your life, if you want security in your life. It matters that you have the kingdom of God because, right, we just had an election, and for that election, a lot of good things happen for a lot of people if you're of a particular political persuasion. If you're on the other side, though, well, you're panicking, you're freaked out, and so at some point in your life, living in America, you've had elections go the opposite way you wanted them to go. You don't stand on a politician, though you don't stand on a political system. You don't stand on that stuff. You stand on the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, which you have access to Jesus' grace and mercy. So you need the kingdom of God above all else. Listen, I've been through some stuff. I needed the kingdom of God in my life to get through it. I couldn't do it on my own. So you need the kingdom of God, need it, and it's here right now, available to you.
Speaker 1:But but, pastor Zach, if Jesus is king, if the kingdom is here, why am I still messing up? Why do bad things still happen? Why are there still problems and troubles? And again, this is one of those topics that many, many, many books have been written on, and there are lots of good answers. No one perfect answer. I don't have time to go through a bunch of theological processes and statements, but that's not what we're doing right now. I just want you to understand and remember one phrase. There's this phrase that says the kingdom of God is right now, but not yet. Everyone say right now, that's pretty good, timing was a little off, but it's okay. Dave, you should have led them in the rhythm section there. Timing is right now, but not yet. Say not yet. Okay, right now, not yet. Well, that's a bunch of nonsense, doesn't it? It sounds like nonsense, but here's the reality.
Speaker 1:If you're a Christian and I'm a Christian, hopefully right, I'm up here preaching about Christ. I'm a Christian, so I can testify to the fact that I have experienced the kingdom of God. I've experienced his blessings, I've experienced his mercy, I've experienced his goodness, I've experienced his provision, I've experienced him carrying me through problems, I've experienced seasons of goodness and wonderfulness, I've experienced this Holy Spirit. I've experienced these things right. So the kingdom of God is clearly here for me. But I also have this awareness that the job is not finished yet. Right. There's a reason why Jesus teaches us in the Lord's prayer where he says Lord, your will be done on earth as it's done in heaven, because it's still in and you're part of the process. It's right now, you can live in it, you can appreciate it, you can reap the benefits of the kingdom of heaven. But it's also not finished yet. There's still work to do and we're part of that work and that's good news to me. I like being involved right.
Speaker 1:One day, we know and we believe, one way or another, jesus will return again and it will be permanent. The kingdom will be solidified perfectly and the new heaven, new earth, great stuff, great news, amazing things. But we are living in the right now not yet moment of this process. Right, and we need it. We got to believe in it. We got to hold on to it and we need it. We got to believe in it. We got to hold on to it and, just like with the little kids, we got to work on it. Got to work on it. We got to hold on to the fact that we're going to repent and yet we're also like kids, sometimes five minutes later going to walk back into that same mistake, and you've got to understand grace and mercy. It's right there for you.
Speaker 1:I don't care what you did five minutes ago, I don't care what you did 10 years ago, five years ago, whenever you repent and what a beautiful thing. What a beautiful thing Because I don't know about you, I'm not perfect, I'm not, I don't know about you, but there are even times and seasons in my life now where I just recognize and know I've not been living up to what you've done for me, lord, and that means I've got to repent. I've got to repent and that repentance means I'm going to make every effort not to return back to what I'm walking away from, to turn 180 degrees, to have access to the kingdom of heaven, which gives you peace, hope, joy, all the good things that you have in your life, that you want in your life. Security, eternal security, not just security that a job can provide, but security that can't be taken away. Repentance that's the doorway. Repent Now.
Speaker 1:I would dare say the vast majority of you in here, just because I know most of you. You've had your moments of repentance throughout your life. You are connected to God. You're not perfect, but you're connected, you're growing, you've got grace, you've got mercy, you are in the kingdom of God Fantastic. Don't forget the significance of that. Don't take a day and don't recognize the fact that you have the opportunity to be in the kingdom of heaven, even though you don't really deserve it. That's great news. You've got this gift. Don't forget it. There's nothing. There's nothing. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Whenever I was a kid, there was nothing I hated worse than forgetting a Christmas gift. Right, we've all been there. You open up all these gifts and it's real exciting and you're playing with this. You're playing with that for a couple of days, a couple of weeks, and then these great gifts some of them sort of fall to the wayside over time and I always found that very wasteful on my part because I knew that it cost something for someone to give that to me. It cost something Time, effort, money. Someone had to wrap it, someone had to hide it so I could find it and open it, look at it and then wrap it back so they didn't see it. It's a joke. You can laugh later, but like it was a joke, it was a joke, you get it right, but it's a gift. It's a gift and I didn't want to lose appreciation for what that gift meant.
Speaker 1:Don't lose appreciation for grace. Don't lose appreciation for mercy. Don't lose appreciation for what we have available to us right now, because it is something that is beyond anything that we can ever. I love my children, but grace is more important. I love Tara, but grace is more important. Right, that's how important it is to us, and I want to wake up every day appreciating repentance and appreciating the fact that I've got the opportunity to be in something I don't deserve to be in Now.
Speaker 1:Maybe maybe there are others of you in here, or maybe you know people in your life associated with you and your sphere of influence that at the moment, have not had this season or this moment of repentance. Okay, that's okay. That's okay, we'll get there. It's easy. We might think that it's hard to admit that we need help. We might think it's hard to admit that we got it wrong or that I messed this up, or I've been thinking about this the wrong way, or I've let this into my life. It doesn't belong in my life. But now I don't want to do, I'm slightly embarrassed and I really, really don't want to admit I'm wrong, because who does? But if you can just get over that little bit of pride and repent. Guess what? Just like that, just like that, you are in the kingdom of heaven, which I think is simply a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:We have a sin problem. We do. All of us were born that way. All of us were launched into our life with a sin problem and I used to think, well, maybe we don't do that, maybe we sort of just pick it up from culture or whatever. Now I have kids and I know immediately that, yeah, we are born with sin, right? Little Adeline, little Benjamin, little Ivy reaches up and yanks my lip as hard as she can and I scream ow, please don't do that. And what she do immediately after that, right, that's, it's funny, it's sweet, it's cute.
Speaker 1:It's still a little bit of that sin nature already at work. Already at work, we all need repentance. No one's above it, no one's above it. We all got to have it. We all do wrong things, we all have the wrong mindset sometime. We need repentance, and not just initial repentance that launches you into this relationship with God. But every once in a while we got to ask ourselves, just like the Lord's Prayer once again, we're forgiving my sins, I forgive those who sin against me. It's a daily process, amen. It's an opportunity. Let's close our eyes and bow our heads and I'm going to get you guys to repeat a prayer with me, if that's okay.
Speaker 1:But before we get to that moment, examine your heart and your mind for a moment. Are there some stuff that doesn't belong in your life? Are there some things that you've said to some people that you need to ask forgiveness of? Is there some mess that you need to correct? Is there some thought patterns and habits and processes that need to be adjusted?
Speaker 1:It starts with repentance.
Speaker 1:Big and small things. Big and small things. Right, it doesn't have to be something major. It can be something as small as an unkind word to a co-worker, to a family member, but we need repentance. And if that's you today whether you're going to repent for the first time or the first time in a long time or this is just sort of a refresher course to get you set on the right way we're going to pray and you're just simply going to repeat after me.
Speaker 1:And even if you don't need repentance which I guarantee you we all do if you could just repeat after me together and mean it in your heart, can we do that, heavenly Father. We're going to repeat after me. We're going to repeat after me, heavenly Father. We're going to repeat after me. We're going to repeat after me. Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace. I am a sinner, I need help. I repent, I turn from my wicked ways and I follow you In Jesus' name. I pray Amen. Hey, simplest prayer you'll ever pray. And you are now, if you meant it, in the kingdom of heaven afresh and anew. If you've been in the kingdom of heaven, you've just sort of washed off your feet a little bit getting ready for the day. Right? That's great news. All right, I love you guys. Fantastic, let's clean this up and go get some food, all right?