Speaker 1: So we're beginning a new series called written in red and the tagline is the revolutionary words
Speaker 2: Of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus really didn't come to this earth to make those that are happy with the status quo
Speaker 2: Comfortable.
Speaker 2: That's the whole series right there.
Speaker 1: You're done for the month.
Speaker 1: Check that box, go on home.
Speaker 2: Oh, you can stick around.
Speaker 1: So his goal was to change the world.
Speaker 1: He changed the world and his words led the way.
Speaker 1: In fact, one might say that words, change, worlds, words, change worlds.
Speaker 1: If you want to change the world that you're living in, change the words that are coming out of your mouth words come from the heart.
Speaker 1: It's out of a heart that the mouth speaks.
Speaker 2: The scripture teaches us.
Speaker 1: So the words that we say originate somewhere far deeper than just right here and words change worlds, and you might say, well, that's a bit of an extreme statement that, you know, is that, is that really true?
Speaker 1: And I would say that it is true.
Speaker 1: That words express what is within our hearts that are, is, is within us completely, uh, words express externally, what is believed and what it's understood internally, which is why they hurt so much whenever they're hurtful words and why they bless so much whenever they're positive and uplifting words.
Speaker 1: Because I know when Christie says, you know, when she says to me things that cut or hurt me is because somewhere I know that she, she thinks those things she that's coming from within her.
Speaker 1: And at the same time, when she says words that are uplifting and kind to me, they, they mean so much because she has, she has thought them, she has felt them.
Speaker 1: And now they're being externally expressed.
Speaker 1: And just to be clear, she never says anything that ever hurts me
Speaker 2: Ever,
Speaker 1: But words push those inner thoughts, those inner ideals, those inner ideas out into the, the atmosphere around us.
Speaker 1: And they begin to change things, words, start stuff.
Speaker 1: Think about the words we hold these truths to be self-evident.
Speaker 1: Now they're not the first words of the declaration of independence, but they're probably the most well-known words of the declaration of independence.
Speaker 1: And they're just words.
Speaker 1: But they started something, they started something.
Speaker 1: And the end result was it birthed a nation words, uttered shape lives and change the world.
Speaker 1: In fact, the, it was the playwright, Edward Bulwer-Lytton who wrote the pen is mightier than the sword.
Speaker 2: He wrote that in 1839,
Speaker 1: And by the night, by the 1840s, it had become common vernacular.
Speaker 1: In that time that's lightening speed in the word of, in, in things like words, becoming common vernacular, it was so impacting.
Speaker 1: It was so powerful.
Speaker 1: It meant so much.
Speaker 1: It conveyed so much that society and culture at, in general adopted it as normal patterns of speech.
Speaker 2: The only thing
Speaker 1: More powerful than words written or words said are words that are lived out.
Speaker 2: If
Speaker 1: A word is just said, or just written and has never lived out, that it may not change much, but, but when the word is spoken or the word is written, and then the word is believed, and now there's a deep conviction behind the words.
Speaker 1: And then that word becomes lived out in the life of a man or a woman.
Speaker 1: Then suddenly it has the ability to change everything, to change everything in their world, but also to change things in the world around them, words that are held on to, and then lived out with deep conviction are in fact world changing
Speaker 2: World changing.
Speaker 2: And
Speaker 1: That's why it's so powerful to read in John chapter one,
Speaker 2: John verse number one in the beginning was the word
Speaker 1: Word was in the beginning and the word was with God.
Speaker 1: And the word was
Speaker 2: God.
Speaker 2: So the word
Speaker 1: In the beginning, before everything was made before anything was made before the world was created and formed, the word was in the beginning.
Speaker 1: So you have any eternal God and you have an eternal being.
Speaker 1: And, and in the beginning of what can be known, the word was with God.
Speaker 1: And the word was, God, well, if the, if the word was with God and the word was God, then who was this word?
Speaker 1: How do we know?
Speaker 1: How do we identify this thing that the Bible is describing that John is writing and calling the word well, John continues.
Speaker 1: And in verse 14, he gives us kind of a hint of who this word is.
Speaker 1: Verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Speaker 1: And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth.
Speaker 1: So who was the big gotten of the father?
Speaker 1: Well, Jesus was the begotten of the father.
Speaker 1: Jesus was filled with grace and with truth, it wasn't just truth.
Speaker 1: Cause that would kill it.
Speaker 1: Wasn't just grace, because that would change nothing.
Speaker 1: It was grace and truth.
Speaker 1: Jesus personified that Jesus was the word of God made flesh.
Speaker 1: So when Jesus came to this earth, it was the word of God being made, flesh, being personified among us and in this world.
Speaker 1: So when Jesus was walking and on planet earth, it was the word of God walking on planet earth.
Speaker 1: It was the word of God being expressed externally, lived out by an individual.
Speaker 1: It was the word of God manifest
Speaker 2: Mungus.
Speaker 2: And that's why it's so important to hear the words of Jesus
Speaker 1: And recognize that if the word of God is uttering words of God while living out the word of God, then the word spoken
Speaker 2: Are important.
Speaker 2: It'd be enough just if he was the son of God, but he's the son of God and the word made flesh.
Speaker 2: Why is that?
Speaker 2: Because he's the prophesied son of God, he's the word made flesh.
Speaker 2: So in this series, we're talking about the words of Jesus
Speaker 1: In John six, he described his own words.
Speaker 1: As words are spirit and they are life.
Speaker 1: So the words of Jesus are important.
Speaker 1: Why are we calling it written and read is number one.
Speaker 1: If you have a red letter edition of the Bible, when you open up the new Testament and you see red letters as because that's indicating they're the words of Jesus
Speaker 2: Written and read, but also
Speaker 1: Is when Jesus lived out the word, he backed up the word with his own blood.
Speaker 1: You see his words indicated the father's plan.
Speaker 1: He expressed the father's plan through his teaching and everything he said, but his actions backed up his words.
Speaker 1: His actions backed up his words with the miraculous, but they also backed up his words with his death.
Speaker 1: As he hung up on the cross, the Jewish officials hated him.
Speaker 1: They hated him because his words were teaching something different than what they were teaching.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that he was out of alignment with the law that they professed to follow, but he was fulfilling the law that they professed to follow the law that they profess the follow gave them this standing that they had in society and in culture, the, the, the law that they profess to follow had brought them resources into their life as they had.
Speaker 1: And this is why I'm using professed to follow.
Speaker 1: As they had manipulated the law in order to serve their own purposes and, and be able to accomplish their own goals and their own aims.
Speaker 1: And so the law that they profess to follow, if it were fulfilled within their ability to rule as they were ruling.
Speaker 1: And so the Jewish, uh, courts, the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin, the, the chief priests, along with other priests within the system, they did not like what Jesus was saying, because it would, it would take away the, the authority and the power that they operated in, even as it fulfilled the law that they professed to follow.
Speaker 1: But then the Romans also were struggling with him because what do you do with this, this one who's causing unrest among those that you were trying to rule and trying to lead, and the fastest way to bring peace back to the situation, it would seem is just get rid of that guy.
Speaker 1: So the Jews condemned him and the Romans crucified him.
Speaker 1: And now the words of Jesus were backed up
Speaker 2: By his own blood written in red, written in red
Speaker 1: And our primary texts for the series of sound in Matthew chapter five, Matthew chapter five is the first chapter of the sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1: It goes from five chapter five to chapter seven.
Speaker 1: The sermon on the Mount is the longest sermon on record of Jesus.
Speaker 1: He, if you just read it through, it takes about 10 minutes to read through.
Speaker 1: And some of you are thinking right now, I wish pastor Michael was more like Jesus.
Speaker 1: And I'm saying I've never confessed to be Jesus.
Speaker 1: And, um, he can do better than me.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: We also know that the location, we know that at his location, the location is unknown.
Speaker 1: And when I said, we know I'd realized, I was about to say also unknown.
Speaker 1: The, the Catholic church did a whole bunch of research and, and their historians determined that they, they discovered where the Beata, where this lesson was taught.
Speaker 1: And so they built a church there it's called the church of the beatitudes.
Speaker 1: And that in fact may be where Jesus gave this sermon, but we don't know exactly.
Speaker 1: And I think the content of the sermon is far more important than the location in which the sermon was given.
Speaker 1: We know that contextually Jesus is giving this sermon as his, as his ministry has just really gotten started.
Speaker 1: He started off in the wilderness where he was tempted of the devil and he, and he overcame the temptations.
Speaker 1: And then he begins the process of calling all of his disciples to him, even as he begins, preaching his message of the kingdom of heaven
Speaker 2: Being at hand.
Speaker 1: And in Matthew chapter four, the Bible says that as he is getting this started, that people started hearing about him because he's teaching in synagogues and he's, he's walking among the towns from village to village and he's teaching.
Speaker 1: And, and as he's teaching, he's also beginning to do miracles people's lives.
Speaker 1: And so people are hearing about him because he's making a difference.
Speaker 1: He's making a difference intellectually because he bringing clarity to what they've been taught in the word from the, from the, um, from the profits of old and from the writings of the old, what we have now as the old Testament.
Speaker 1: And so he's bringing intellectual clarity and understanding and making a difference there.
Speaker 1: And then he's bringing a difference as he begins to heal people that are, uh, have all kinds of different diseases and all kinds of different problems and all kinds of different issues in their lives.
Speaker 1: And, and when you make a difference in people's lives, they begin to show up.
Speaker 1: When you make a difference to people's lives, they bring other people with them.
Speaker 1: And so, as it were, there were people who, who brought others to Jesus and said, Hey, can you do something about this?
Speaker 1: And he began to heal them.
Speaker 1: And, and he made a difference in their lives.
Speaker 1: His miracles drew people to him and his teaching increased their understanding about him.
Speaker 1: It's a, both an, it's not an either or the, the, the church of Jesus Christ needs the miracles of God working in the church today.
Speaker 1: And it needs the intellectual understanding of who we are and what we believe.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that we're to show ourselves approved Workman unto Christ, Jesus, that we're to know how to give an answer for the things that we believe.
Speaker 1: And so it's a, both, and it's not an either, or, and Jesus brought that very reality to life.
Speaker 1: As he's beginning his ministry and teaching in the synagogues and making a difference in people's lives.
Speaker 1: Then we hear Paul describing his own ministry, and he says, Hey, I didn't come to you just in the, uh, the, uh, excellency of man's wisdom.
Speaker 1: I didn't just come to you in that.
Speaker 1: It's not that Paul didn't come with intellectual understanding.
Speaker 1: In fact, Paul was one of the most intellectual writers of all time.
Speaker 1: He's incorrect.
Speaker 1: One of the, definitely the most intellectual writer that we have in scripture, specifically in the new Testament.
Speaker 1: And he writes incredibly in the end, he brings out deep, deep revelation and understanding, but Paul himself in first Corinthians says, Hey, I didn't just come to you with man's wisdom and an intellectual understanding.
Speaker 1: I came to you in power and demonstration of the Holy spirit.
Speaker 1: We, we need the Holy Spirit's power to be able to demonstrate the truth of what God has called us to and what he's revealed in his word.
Speaker 1: And Paul says, it's a both, and I'm bringing both to you at the same time.
Speaker 1: So in essence, uh, the words revealed the father's plan again, and his actions proved the authority of God in people's lives.
Speaker 1: And so here's something that you can write down that teaching gives us the how to while Holy spirit power gives us the ability to the word says, this is what's right, and this is what's wrong.
Speaker 1: The Holy spirit living in you and living in me, that's what gives us the ability to do what's right.
Speaker 1: When we really want to do what's
Speaker 2: Wrong, please don't say amen to that.
Speaker 2: Don't even blink at this moment.
Speaker 2: Breathe very shallowly.
Speaker 1: We've all been in that moment when we know what the right thing is.
Speaker 1: And yet we want to do what is the wrong thing.
Speaker 2: And
Speaker 1: It's the Holy spirit power.
Speaker 1: If we will allow him, he will allow us, he will empower us to do the right thing when we want to do the wrong thing, but it's also the Holy Spirit's power that allows us to walk into a room and understand that there's a conversation that needs to be had with this person, or this person is struggling with a situation, or we need to pray about a particular condition or situation in someone's life.
Speaker 1: It's the Holy spirit and the gifts of the Holy spirit, working in the lives of his believers that empower us to live beyond our own natural, understanding our own abilities.
Speaker 1: He can, and he will make a difference.
Speaker 1: And he did not stop making a difference with Jesus.
Speaker 1: And he did not stop making a difference with Paul, but he's making a difference in our world today through the church, through you and through me as believers in Jesus Christ empowered by the Holy spirit, he can, and he will make a difference.
Speaker 1: But as Jesus sees the crowd gathering around him, he begins to teach.
Speaker 2: And he's teaching
Speaker 1: What we now know as the be attitude
Speaker 2: Be at us, meaning blessed.
Speaker 2: So blessed are those.
Speaker 2: Each one of the beatitudes begins that way.
Speaker 2: And the first words he teaches
Speaker 1: Is what we're going to be looking at today.
Speaker 1: Matthew chapter five, verse number three, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1: Now the kingdom of heaven part,
Speaker 2: I like that blessed.
Speaker 2: I liked that, but I,
Speaker 1: I struggle with anything that comes with the word poor in the middle of it, because there's not much about poverty that I personally enjoy.
Speaker 1: And, and I know what poverty is.
Speaker 2: There
Speaker 1: Was a time in our life whenever Kristy and I made a whopping$800 a month
Speaker 2: With a family of four and two cats and a dog, which
Speaker 1: No idea why we own two cats and a dog making$800 a month.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: We were crazy.
Speaker 1: That's what our problem
Speaker 2: Was.
Speaker 1: But when the word poor is there, I don't know if I want that kind of blessing.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Definitely would have been a revolutionary word in the days of Jesus because he's preaching to people.
Speaker 1: Many of whom were probably poor on a level of poverty that you and I are able to truly understand, maybe in the third world, at this particular moment, they could come to that understanding, but it was a revolutionary because poverty was a sense of, uh, it was a statement of God's unhappiness while wealth of any kind was a statement of God's happiness with you.
Speaker 1: When your life, people who were wealthy at the time were thought to be people who were blessed of God in a particular way, God was happy with them.
Speaker 1: And so he poured out blessings upon them.
Speaker 1: Whereas if you were poor, that meant God was not as happy with you.
Speaker 1: And this was the mentality of the day.
Speaker 1: In fact, that is still the mentality of some people today.
Speaker 1: There are doctrines that are wrapped around the idea that material wealth is a sign of God's blessing.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to just tell you that ain't right.
Speaker 1: God does bless with material things at times, but bless, but wealth is gained by positive sowing and reaping.
Speaker 1: You reap what you sow.
Speaker 1: That's why there are people who do not believe in any God and much less Jesus Christ as Lord and savior who are vastly wealthy in this world.
Speaker 1: Because at somewhere along the line, that was a positive sowing and reaping.
Speaker 1: If it is only a sign of God's blessing, if you're financially wealthy than people who do not call on the name of Jesus as Lord and savior, God is blessing the fire out of them.
Speaker 1: That's less than number two today, but even the disciples were a little bit misunderstanding of this or struggled with this a little bit because you see them asking, well, Lord, if, if, if, if it, you said that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to go to heaven.
Speaker 1: And if that's true, who then can go to heaven because wealth indicated righteousness and Jesus said, no, that's not how that works.
Speaker 1: But then as history moves on, we see that shift and suddenly it becomes the poor that are the ones blessed of God.
Speaker 1: And that the rich are the ones who cannot be saved because, well, God likes poor people better.
Speaker 1: And rich people were involved in access and, and extreme things.
Speaker 1: And, and to some extent, that's true because when I was making$800 a month, um, we, weren't doing a lot of excess things.
Speaker 1: There wasn't a lot of opportunity for us to get in trouble doing flashy stuff.
Speaker 1: No people would people.
Speaker 1: I, I lusted after peoples and envied after people situation, when they said we went to Chili's twice this week, I was like, Whoa, if only we could do such a thing.
Speaker 1: I used to think Chili's was the nicest restaurant on the planet.
Speaker 1: It still is.
Speaker 1: If that's where you're at, it's still is
Speaker 2: Still is
Speaker 1: We moved into another area of doctrines.
Speaker 1: The poverty doctrine becomes the primary doctrine of the agent and whole theologies rested on that to the point where some were teaching that that people could not have wealth and people could not have strength and suddenly no one was supposed to own anything, anything.
Speaker 1: And it's, it's kind of ironic that the primary driver of that particular area of religion became the most wealthy church entity
Speaker 2: In the world kind of odd.
Speaker 2: But
Speaker 1: Matthew says Jesus was talking about poor in spirit.
Speaker 1: So let's define some things.
Speaker 1: I've got to move quickly and you've got to write fast.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: And listen faster.
Speaker 1: So here we go.
Speaker 1: The kingdom of heaven is not talking about heaven as an eternal home.
Speaker 1: It's a place where God rules a place where God rules and he's ruling right now, and he can rule in your life and your heart today.
Speaker 1: In fact, I taught more about this specific thing in the, uh, in the series kingdom come and January of 2020.
Speaker 1: So I encourage you if you weren't here for that, go back and listen to that.
Speaker 1: That will, they'll bring some revelation to that.
Speaker 1: Now we want God to rule in our lives.
Speaker 1: Then he said, blessed.
Speaker 1: What does blessed mean here?
Speaker 1: And being supremely blessed, happy, fortunate, well off.
Speaker 1: And I want every part of that in my life.
Speaker 1: But then he says poor in spirit.
Speaker 1: And that's the hinge point here.
Speaker 1: That's the thing that if we want this, we got to have that poor in spirit.
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: It means recognizing personal limitation, not inwardly self reliant.
Speaker 1: It means God, I cannot do this on my own.
Speaker 1: And if I was going to summarize this in one word, it would be the word repentance,
Speaker 2: Repentance.
Speaker 1: And that's our big idea today.
Speaker 1: The big idea as a life of repentance
Speaker 2: Places, God in control bringing great blessing, a life of her printed repentance,
Speaker 1: God and control bringing great
Speaker 2: Blessing.
Speaker 2: Repentance is not about looking at yourself terribly, but we're going to break that down.
Speaker 2: Thought number one is this.
Speaker 2: The first
Speaker 1: Work of the Holy spirit in your life is coming
Speaker 2: Eviction conviction.
Speaker 2: When we think
Speaker 1: Poverty, we all automatically go to the financial side of things, the fiscal side of things, but your financial situation in mind is not God's primary concern.
Speaker 1: It's our personal revelation.
Speaker 1: That is God's primary concern.
Speaker 1: Our personal revelation of who he is and who we are.
Speaker 1: Salvation requires that purpose, personal revelation.
Speaker 1: It requires us to recognize that he is the ultimate.
Speaker 1: Holy God.
Speaker 1: And we are unholy before him.
Speaker 1: When we stand in his presence, we are unholy the spirit of truth, which the Bible calls the Holy spirit in John chapter 14.
Speaker 1: Jesus says that the Holy spirit is the spirit of truth.
Speaker 1: He brings revelation to us.
Speaker 1: And I can remember as a kid, I grew up in the church.
Speaker 1: My dad was the pastor.
Speaker 1: I'd been around church my whole life.
Speaker 1: And I can still remember the moment that I realized I needed a savior and that I was not worthy.
Speaker 1: Even though I, I grew up sleeping.
Speaker 1: As many of you are today, it, while the preacher is preaching, I was sleeping.
Speaker 1: I'm thankful that you are so comfortable in church.
Speaker 1: Just keep your snoring
Speaker 2: Well minimum.
Speaker 2: But I grew up
Speaker 1: That way.
Speaker 1: I grew up under church pews trying to take them out.
Speaker 1: And, and this was, this was life, but I still had to come to an understanding that I needed a savior in my own life.
Speaker 2: I needed a savior.
Speaker 1: So the Holy spirit would bring that revelation to your life in mind, recognizing that we are in sync.
Speaker 2: Then this is called conviction.
Speaker 2: Conviction
Speaker 1: Is often misunderstood as condemnation.
Speaker 1: The two are not the same.
Speaker 1: Condemnation says you are wrong.
Speaker 1: Conviction says you've done wrong.
Speaker 1: And here's how to do right.
Speaker 1: Conviction is from God.
Speaker 1: And it corrects us.
Speaker 1: It helps us to walk in the right way.
Speaker 1: Condemnation kills us.
Speaker 1: It's from the world.
Speaker 1: And all it does is drive us down.
Speaker 1: It does not give us any hope, but we are serving the living hope in our life today.
Speaker 1: And so condemnation is not the same thing as conviction.
Speaker 1: The Holy spirit convicts our life.
Speaker 1: And if we listen to him, we, we can get right.
Speaker 1: What we've gotten wrong.
Speaker 1: Now, CS Lewis said something.
Speaker 1: He said, humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less, and I'm going to commit a sin right now, but it's not the unpardonable one.
Speaker 1: I'm going to disagree with
Speaker 2: It's Louis.
Speaker 2: And there was a gasp in the room.
Speaker 2: But
Speaker 1: The reason why I disagree with him slightly is because I think humility is thinking of yourself accurate.
Speaker 2: I don't know that it's thinking of yourself less.
Speaker 2: It's thinking of yourself accurately.
Speaker 2: And no matter where you are
Speaker 1: LAN on the social financial spectrum,
Speaker 2: Wherever you
Speaker 1: Are in the spectrum spiritually, the reality is conviction causes us to look at ourselves as we truly are before a Holy God.
Speaker 2: Understanding
Speaker 1: What we look like to him and
Speaker 2: A prideful
Speaker 1: Response to conviction is avoidance.
Speaker 2: While a humble
Speaker 1: Response to conviction is repentance, repentance.
Speaker 1: And I know folks who will, who will avoid whenever they feel conviction in their life, they will avoid the thing.
Speaker 1: That's bringing conviction.
Speaker 1: So I've seen it many times over the years to people they're, they're living for Christ.
Speaker 1: They're loving God.
Speaker 1: Everything's going well.
Speaker 1: They fall in love with one another they're for whatever reason in their life, they're not ready to get married, but they move in together anyway.
Speaker 1: And the response is they stopped going to church almost immediately.
Speaker 1: They stopped going to church because they know they're living together.
Speaker 1: And they know that if you're going to be living together, you need to be married unless you are selling Bitly, living together, which is highly unlikely and unusual.
Speaker 1: And I have no idea who I'm talking to right now.
Speaker 1: But, uh, but when it all comes down to it, they say, well, what it will do is to feel better about this situation.
Speaker 1: We just won't go to church and we won't be around believers until we're ready to get married.
Speaker 1: That doesn't change anything.
Speaker 1: Doesn't change anything at all.
Speaker 1: I've seen people almost break their own personal necks, trying to get away from me because I was the pastor of the church and they were doing something.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to see the pastor, see them doing.
Speaker 1: And here's the problem.
Speaker 1: I am not the Jesus police.
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 1: If you're doing something wrong, if it's illegal, I'll call the cops.
Speaker 1: If it's not illegal, then I'm just going to say, God bless you.
Speaker 1: And, and, and I'm going to move on with my day and pray for you.
Speaker 1: But, um, I can't sick Jesus on you and making sure that I don't see what you're doing.
Speaker 1: Ain't gonna do you any good whatsoever.
Speaker 1: That's your third sermon of the day.
Speaker 1: Halloween
Speaker 2: It's avoidance.
Speaker 2: True.
Speaker 1: A good response.
Speaker 1: A right response to conviction is repentance.
Speaker 1: Pride says, I'm going to invoid, whoever's telling me I'm doing wrong.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do what I want to do anyway.
Speaker 1: And repentance says, I'm going to get it right.
Speaker 1: That thing, which I've been getting wrong.
Speaker 1: And if you're in love with one another and living together, get married,
Speaker 2: Thought number two,
Speaker 1: And winning friends and influencing people, Tim, and that's what I'm doing, right?
Speaker 2: Thought number two,
Speaker 1: The first work of grace in your life is repentance.
Speaker 1: So the first work of the Holy spirit in your life is conviction.
Speaker 1: The first work of grace in your life is repentance.
Speaker 1: The command to repent is found throughout the new Testament, taught by our greatest leaders.
Speaker 1: Listen to the first words of these particular messages.
Speaker 1: John's message.
Speaker 1: First words from John's gospel.
Speaker 1: He said, uh, Matthew chapter three, his or John's message was repent of your sins.
Speaker 1: And turn to God for the kingdom of heaven is near the first words of Jesus.
Speaker 1: His messages from that time, Jesus began to preach it to say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Speaker 1: The first words of Peter's message.
Speaker 1: When they said, tell us what we need to do.
Speaker 1: Acts two 38.
Speaker 1: Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sin.
Speaker 1: And you shall receive the gift of the Holy spirit throughout Paul's messages and acts 17.
Speaker 1: It says, and now he, God commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him in no way.
Speaker 1: Do we see that anyone teaching?
Speaker 1: Hey, if you'd like to think about it, repentance might be a possible direction for your life.
Speaker 1: Now, everyone is commanding repent.
Speaker 1: It's a command.
Speaker 1: Every single time.
Speaker 1: It's not a suggested action.
Speaker 1: It is a commanded attitude and our life.
Speaker 1: And it's not a decision for a moment where we say, okay, I repeat it.
Speaker 2: And then that's it.
Speaker 2: It's,
Speaker 1: It's a complete change of mind.
Speaker 1: And behavior.
Speaker 1: Penn is to change the focus of your
Speaker 2: Life.
Speaker 2: It's a change.
Speaker 2: The focus of your life.
Speaker 2: You shift
Speaker 1: From focusing on your desires to focusing on his direction
Speaker 2: Where you're not saying
Speaker 1: It's all about me anymore.
Speaker 1: Now you're saying it's all about him.
Speaker 1: Our thoughts, our decisions, our attitudes, our actions filter through his will and through his word, it's us saying, I assess myself consistently.
Speaker 1: And if I don't align with his will and his word, I changed me versus trying to,
Speaker 2: To change him.
Speaker 2: I aligned me versus trying to get him to agree with him,
Speaker 1: My direction and this rubs against our human nature, rubs against everything that we enjoy, that we want.
Speaker 1: We want things to adjust to us, but Jesus teaches us that to gain anything from him.
Speaker 1: We must give him everything that is us.
Speaker 1: Jesus is not an add on
Speaker 2: To our life.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the end of our life and the beginning of a life in him
Speaker 1: And repentance brings us to that point.
Speaker 1: It's a death to self it's, carnal nature's ultimate surrender.
Speaker 1: And I would say it this way.
Speaker 1: And you might write this down a life without repentance is one of prideful arrogance
Speaker 2: Before God prideful arrogance before God.
Speaker 1: And if there's ever a being that you do not want to be prideful arrogant before
Speaker 2: It is the almighty God, the almighty God, but that brings us to thought number three.
Speaker 1: So the first work of grace in your life has, is repentance.
Speaker 1: The first work of the Holy spirit in your life has conviction and a repentant life offers blessing that is accessible only God in
Speaker 2: Control, only with God in control.
Speaker 2: So
Speaker 1: By giving up ourselves, we're not losing everything.
Speaker 1: We're gaining everything.
Speaker 1: We're gaining everything through Christ.
Speaker 1: Jesus.
Speaker 1: What is the word blessed mean?
Speaker 1: It means supremely blessed.
Speaker 1: It means fortunate.
Speaker 1: It means
Speaker 2: Happy.
Speaker 2: It means well off that
Speaker 1: Kind of life is not accessible just by worldly means alone.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what area of life that you're from or that you come from or that you've risen to.
Speaker 1: The fact is we all got stuff in our life.
Speaker 1: And sometimes we sit where we're at and we look at someone else's situation and we think we don't usually say, but we think what if I had what they have, then my life would be easy too.
Speaker 1: And I would be happy too.
Speaker 1: And, and I would be satisfied too.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be dealing with my stuff.
Speaker 1: And, and it may be true.
Speaker 1: You may not be dealing with your stuff, but you have no clue what stuff they are dealing with.
Speaker 1: And you'll be dealing with stuff either way.
Speaker 2: Stuff happens to everybody.
Speaker 2: Lord bless them right now.
Speaker 2: It's the fact it happens to every single life.
Speaker 2: Everyone has issues.
Speaker 1: Then the repentance shifts the focus of life.
Speaker 1: It's accepting God's authority
Speaker 2: And giving him control in your life.
Speaker 1: It's not a downtrodden thing.
Speaker 1: It's not him beating you down.
Speaker 1: It's really about him lifting you
Speaker 2: Up because instead of
Speaker 1: Dealing with the issues that you're dealing with anyway, without him, we get to deal with the issues with him and the Holy spirit empowerment that we talked about just a few moments ago, suddenly becomes the reality in our life.
Speaker 1: And it's not the every once in awhile, we get a bump.
Speaker 1: It's that every day we live in the power of the Holy spirit, him operating in our life,
Speaker 2: The Archbishop of Canterbury
Speaker 1: From 1942 to 1944, his name was William temple.
Speaker 1: And he said this, he said to repent is to adopt God's viewpoint
Speaker 2: In place of your own.
Speaker 1: In itself, far from being sorrowful is the most joyful thing in the world.
Speaker 1: Because when you have done it, you've adopted the viewpoint of truth
Speaker 2: Self, and you are in fellowship with God.
Speaker 2: So here's the bottom line.
Speaker 2: This
Speaker 1: Life is available to anyone willing to see themselves accurately.
Speaker 1: When I see myself accurately, I am humble and repentant before God.
Speaker 1: When I see myself accurately, I am more humble before my wife.
Speaker 1: I'm more humble with my children.
Speaker 1: When I see myself accurately, I am seriously
Speaker 3: Just a better person.
Speaker 3: And so are you when we admit our mistakes, when we admit our faults and we accept God's grace, it's intimidating.
Speaker 3: It is intimidating because when you think about yourself accurately in comparison to God, not in comparison to other people around, because I can look at you and tell I'm a better person.
Speaker 3: I am joking.
Speaker 3: If you did not know, but think about it.
Speaker 3: You can look around you and you can find people on this planet.
Speaker 3: Well, at least I'm not them.
Speaker 3: You remember back in the beginning of the sermon, when I said there were people who were professing to live up to the law, you find them over and over in the new Testament saying the Pharisees, say, Lord, thank you that I'm not like that.
Speaker 3: Pitiful, sad to see over there, that person over there who doesn't really know you, isn't really following you.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 3: That I'm so much better than them.
Speaker 3: And you think I'm joking about that.
Speaker 3: That was a literal prayer recorded.
Speaker 3: We don't always stand on the street corner and pray that, but sometimes in our own minds, we think that that, Hey, I'm doing pretty good today.
Speaker 3: Flip anybody off like that guy did over there.
Speaker 3: I didn't say that rude thing like that person over there.
Speaker 3: I didn't, I didn't fail the way they did, but, but I forget that.
Speaker 3: I said that rude thing the other day.
Speaker 3: And, and I failed in this way.
Speaker 3: Not that way, but my own way.
Speaker 3: And, and I did that rude thing.
Speaker 3: At some point I might be better than somebody on this planet know, put myself up against Hitler.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm doing pretty well, but I'm not.
Speaker 3: He doesn't call it.
Speaker 3: Tell me to put myself up against anybody on this planet.
Speaker 3: He calls me to put myself up against him.
Speaker 3: And when that happens, it's humbling.
Speaker 3: And it's intimidating because completely Holy one is looking at me and I am looking at him and I see myself accurately.
Speaker 3: And so some people come to him with sorrowful tears.
Speaker 3: I've been there.
Speaker 3: Some people come to him with a gram acknowledgement.
Speaker 3: I've been there.
Speaker 3: And some people call come to him with a deep sense of shame and remorse.
Speaker 3: And I've been there, but no ma'am or how you come to him.
Speaker 3: And no matter how I come to him, God responds to repentance the same way every day, single time, God, God always responds with love.
Speaker 3: Love is God's only response to repentance.
Speaker 3: Mercy fills the gap between where my ability ended and perfection that needed to be achieved.
Speaker 3: Mercy fills that gap.
Speaker 3: And you might say, well, how's that possible?
Speaker 3: How can that possibly be?
Speaker 3: I failed so many times if I had a dollar for every time I told God, God, if you'll help me through, I will never sin.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 3: I would have made a lot more than I$800.
Speaker 3: I was talking to you about, because we say to God all the time, I've said to God, many times, God, I'm never going to do that again.
Speaker 3: Only to fail again.
Speaker 3: I'm never going to say that again.
Speaker 3: And then I say that again.
Speaker 3: I'm never going to think that again.
Speaker 3: And then the fault is there again.
Speaker 3: And you might think, well, how in the world can God possibly save me?
Speaker 3: How can he continue to forgive me each?
Speaker 3: And every time laminations gives us the key and limitations is not a book that's known for happiness, but it gives us some really good news limitations.
Speaker 3: Three says the steadfast love of the Lord, never ceases.
Speaker 3: God's love is God's only response to repentance.
Speaker 3: The steadfast love of the Lord.
Speaker 3: Never ceases.
Speaker 3: It never stops.
Speaker 3: His mercies never come to an end.
Speaker 3: Can you say thank the Lord for that.
Speaker 3: They are new every morning.
Speaker 3: Great is your faithfulness.
Speaker 3: So every day I get up every day you get up all of God's grace and all of God's love is available to you.
Speaker 3: Again, available to me again, we're not perfect, but we serve one who is willing to fill the gap with mercy.
Speaker 3: Mercy that comes forth from his great and unending love.
Speaker 3: And that is who said to you, and to me, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 3: Would you bow your heads with me right now?
Speaker 3: I don't know where you're at in your spiritual walk.
Speaker 3: And if you're here today, if you're online in person onsite, it doesn't matter if you're here today and you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, then you need to know he's reaching for you.
Speaker 3: And as John preached repent as Jesus preached repent as Peter preached repent, as Paul re preach repent, Micah Sutton is preaching.
Speaker 3: Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand today, align your life with him, walk away from your own way and allow his mercy to fill the gap in your life and the best way.
Speaker 3: And only way I know how to do that is by coming to him and saying, I'm sorry for what I've done.
Speaker 3: And I'm going to do everything I can
Speaker 1: To do it right, but I need your help.
Speaker 1: And so today, if you've never made Jesus Christ your Lord and your savior, then I want to give you that opportunity right now.
Speaker 1: So in this room online, on-site, let's all pray together.
Speaker 1: Make Jesus Christ, the Lord and savior of our lives.
Speaker 1: Let's repent before him.
Speaker 1: We're going to repent.
Speaker 1: We're going to accept.
Speaker 1: And then we're going to thank him for what he's done.
Speaker 1: So let's pray, Lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: I love you.
Speaker 3: I believe that's you lived, that's your died and that's you Rose again for me and still today, I accept you as my Lord and my savior.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry for anything I've done.
Speaker 3: That is displeased you in a sin in my life.
Speaker 3: I repent of it right now.
Speaker 3: And from this day forward, I accept you as my Lord and my savior.
Speaker 3: I am your child and you are my God.
Speaker 3: I thank you in Jesus name.
Speaker 3: And let
Speaker 1: Everybody say, Hey man,
Speaker 3: Hey man, let's it
Speaker 1: God for what he's done in this place.
Speaker 1: In this moment together, praise the name of the Lord and let's stand to our feet.
Speaker 1: We're going to close this service and worship.
Speaker 1: If you prayed that prayer for the first time or the first time in a long time, then I ask you to text, save for the number that's on your screen.
Speaker 1: Prayer partners on site come forward and we're, if you need prayer for anything in your life, come forward as we sing this song and let us pray with you today.