REPENT

In this episode, we discuss the Charlie Kirk Memorial, reflecting on its significance and the impact of Kirk's legacy. They explore themes of forgiveness, repentance, and the importance of living out one's faith in a challenging world. The conversation emphasizes the need for accountability within the church and the call for believers to boldly proclaim biblical truth. In addition, we encourage listeners to make a spiritual U-turn towards God and to live for Christ with conviction.

Takeaways:

• Repentance is a crucial aspect of turning back to God.
• Forgiveness is essential, even in the face of tragedy.
• Living out faith requires boldness and accountability.
• The church must focus on teaching biblical truth.
• Believers are called to action: 'Here I am, send me.'
• The American church needs to move away from fluff.
• True love involves speaking truth, even when uncomfortable.
• Spiritual growth requires constant engagement with the Word.

Transcript

Vernon Phillips (00:00.818)

All right, welcome back to unapologetic faith. I am one of your hosts pastor Vern And I'm Laurie. So she's still kind of getting used to this because this is something that I'm not forcing her to do it Okay, I think I'm forcing you a little bit maybe just a little. It's just a little bit out of her comfort zone. We're going to get there. We're going to get there. So obviously, much like a lot of the podcasts or lot of the people you probably follow, today they're probably going to showcase the Charlie Kirk Memorial. Obviously, if you are a believer or if you're Christian, you should have tuned into that because it was just a great display of faith.

I think in this country for sure. You know, there's a lot of people that got up. There's a lot of people that spoke. But when we start talking about the Charlie Kirk Memorial, we watched the whole entire thing. Five hours, five hours, five about five hours. So we watched the whole entire thing. You know, sitting in the living room and, know, with our kids and kind of in and out the girls, you know, they were they were a little bit more tuned in tuned in, then the boys, the boys, you know, kind of doing their little thing. at one point, though, is come on, share this accent came running in. And I think you asked him, you know who that is? And now he pointed to the TV, he saw a picture and he says, that's Charlie Kirk. That's Charlie Kirk. So our five year old, even our five year old knows who Charlie Kirk was. But obviously, so today, you know, there's gonna be a lot of podcasts dropping a lot of people talking about the Charlie Kirk Memorial. So we're going to talk a little bit about that just because when you look at it, it really was a nationally televised church service. I mean, that's really what it was. Worldwide. Worldwide. So I don't know if you kind of tracked it at all or looked, but I believe that that stadium holds somewhere around like 80,000 to 90,000 people. And they said there was like another 100,000 in the parking lot.

Vernon Phillips (02:15.981)

So I mean that right there, you've got a couple hundred thousand. If you were tracking any of the places that were live streaming it, you know, there were several of them that were getting, you know, a hundred thousand views, 200,000 views. mean, I know that Fox News live streamed it and there said 200,000. The Turning Point YouTube channel was somewhere around 300,000. And then look at this one right here. So if you take a look at this this picture right here, you're going to see that Charlie Kirk's YouTube was at 580,000 people were tuning in. So just in that we're talking, you know, a million people. So across the, across the world, were millions of people tuning in to remember Charlie Kirk. Not only that, but they heard the gospel over and over. So

If anybody ever wondered or if anybody ever questioned like, what in the world could, you know, good could come out of this. And we're talking about Charlie's death, you know, and just the way that he was, he was assassinated, that he was martyred. That right there, that millions of people heard the gospel, right? And we know the gospel to be, you know, to know that Christ came and lived a sinless life. He died on the cross. His blood was spilled and covered our sin debt. He rose again, right? And then he ascended back to the Father. But he did all of that so that we wouldn't have to face our rightful judgment of eternity in hell. And all we're to do is to confess Him as Lord and Savior, to repent of our sinful life, to turn and to follow Him. So that is what we are called to do. But in order to do that, I we have to repent, right? We have to we have to turn away from our old selves, from who we were. When you think about all of this stuff going on, mean, this literally is a turning point in the nation, in the world. I mean, obviously, Charlie Kirk's whole foundation is Turning Point USA, right? Trying to get the younger generation to kind of turn from evil and seek biblical truth.

Vernon Phillips (04:42.576)

And out of all of this, I this is what we're seeing. We're seeing a turn taking place right now. We are seeing, you know, a repentance moment if people are willing to accept that and to allow their lives to be changed. but even that's under attack. We see that just in the last week, you know, from the last time we talked, I mean, just all the people that are just have taken social media and just said some, just some a lot of untruth. You they spoke a lot of hateful things.

And they've shared bits and pieces of what Charlie said, taking a lot of context just to continue to spread that hatred and that division because that's not what he did. If you didn't watch any of it, go back and watch when Erica Kirk gets up and she speaks. And she does an awesome job. And I want you to key on the fact that she talks about the forgiveness that we received, right, from Christ. But she also talks about that Christ, you know, spoke and he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And then she went in to say that she forgives that young man. She didn't have to do that. No, nobody was expecting her to. She did because she knew that Charlie would. Yeah. And that Jesus did. I mean, he could forgive the people who crucified him, that she could forgive the young man of murdering her husband. Yes. For those of us who are believers who believe in Christ's death, shed blood and resurrected life, right? We are forgiven. So in turn, we are to forgive. And we talked about this a little bit last week, but think about how awesome that would be that if this young man's life was turned around and he gave his life to Christ think about just the testimony that would be. And I know a lot of people have shared the passage of Stephen and I know that Ali Bastaki shared it the other day where she said, hey, I've been seeing a lot of people talking about, you know, the passage of Stephen. And she's like, and she was going right through that and she was talking about how Paul, was Saul at that time, was there and that, you know, they all cheered and they all, you know, because he was proclaiming

Vernon Phillips (07:06.571)

Stephen was proclaiming the gospel, right? And they all cheered him and- At his stoning. At his stoning, at a death, right? At him being martyred for his faith. But then you fast forward and you see that out of that, Saul then becomes Paul, right? He has that conversion. He has that moment where Christ confronts him and he turns his life over to him, right? He turns, he repents.

And that's the big thing right now. I think we're in this place where, you know, there's a lot of people that are turning. But with that turning, there's that repentance that needs to take place. I think the point that Ali Bostek was trying to make was there's a lot of people cheering in his death, but that God can change anybody. And that even if just one of those people celebrating come to know God, they potentially could become, you know, a great evangelist in sharing the gospel and the hope that they have and the change that takes place there. Yeah. And, you know, I shared a Hebrew word last week and we're going to share Hebrew word this week. I think it's very fitting for kind of where we're at as a culture, as a nation, as just a global event, really. And the Hebrew word is shu, which means to turn back. So it says our English Bible often speaks of repentance which we usually define as regret or being sorry. But the Hebrew word that is translated as repentance comes from the word shuv, which means to turn or more accurately to turn back. Repentance is more than a feeling of guilt or regret. It's making a course correction in your life. It's deciding to turn away from where you are currently headed and turn back toward God.

Imagine you're in a car headed toward a specific destination when you make a wrong turn. Your GPS says it's redirecting and then it asks you to make a U-turn. That is repentance. It's making a spiritual U-turn. On a spiritual level, repentance is when a person changes the course of his or her life. As theologian Abraham Herschel puts it, a change in a man's conduct begins about a change in God's judgment. When we repent, away from the darkness and turn toward the light, God promises to take control of the wheel and direct us toward his light. Do we need to repent to turn back today? Do you need to take a moment now and turn around and face God? So I think that's kind of where we're at as a nation, right? We're in this place where so many people are thinking, okay,

Where are we headed? Right? Not only is this as a country, as a people, but also as an individual, right? Where am I headed? Am I heading the right direction? Do I need to turn back? Do I need to make that turn? Do I need to make a course correction in my life? And there's a lot of people that are asking themselves that question. And it's really important, though, that you understand that if you make that decision to make that turn, that also comes with repentance, right?

You have to turn from whatever you're heading into. If you're giving in to the pleasures of the flesh and you're continuing to do these things over and over, right? But now you're feeling that call, right? You're feeling God pull on you and you want to make that turn. Yes, make that turn, but then you also have to repent from the lifestyle that you've been living. You can't make that turn, but then continue to do the same things you've always done. Because yes, salvation is a gift and we received forgiveness through Christ's death on the cross, but it requires us to repent. It requires us to be honest with ourselves and honest with a holy sovereign God and say, I am a sinner, I have fallen short and that I repent. And I am asking forgiveness for my sins and I'm going to turn my life around. I'm no longer going to be my old self and I'm now going to be the new self. And I think that you know, sometimes I get lost in translation when we start talking about the gospel and the forgiveness of Christ and what that means. I think that's why the world hates Christians because, you know, we're to tell people the good news. And part of that is the repentance. Yeah. And people don't like to be told that they're living against the will of God or that anything in their life is wrong. And I think that's why people didn't like Charlie Kirk because he was very clear about the Bible's position on marriage and genders, things like that. you know, people didn't want to hear it. You know, they wanted to be their own gods. Yeah. And he lived it out. If you watched the memorial, it was very evident with the amount of people that tuned in, with the amount of people that came, the people that spoke, right, they spoke to who he was, his character, the way he carried himself, the way that he represented himself and his faith. But you have to ask yourself the question is, you know, he lived that faith out each and every day and he would invite people to come up and debate him, right? And he would point out biblical truth, right? He spoke out about those things that we talked about. I he spoke out about, you know, the importance of marriage and biblical marriage and what that looks like. he spoke out about, you know, the sanctity of life and that God only designed two genders.

Those are biblical truths that he spoke out about. But you have to ask yourself your question, like, why are a lot of other Christians not willing to do that? Because so many people have been saying, well, he spewed hate, he hated other people. That's not true. Because if he hated other people, he would not speak out against those things. He would not try to lovingly say, hey, okay, but here's what the Bible says. this is because how much do you hate somebody to not...trying to speak that truth in your life. Well, it's like the word hate has been redefined. maybe I should say the word love has been redefined where we think that in order to love somebody, you have to affirm all their life choices. And that's not true. I read an example lately, like with your children as parents, we can't affirm all of our kids choices. Like if your child wants to do something dangerous or stupid, something that can hurt them. Like we can't affirm it.

We have to be parents and point them in the way they should go. And when they do something wrong, you correct them, right? You get down on the level and you say, hey, look, this is why I told you not to do this. But it's loving to discipline and disciple our children. Yeah. It's because, hey, look, you can't run into the road because if you run into the road, you're going to get hit by a car and you're going to die. Right? You have those conversations because you love your child.

Vernon Phillips (14:25.977)

It's the same as the conversations you have with those who are lost, who are unbelievers, who are lost in their sin and who have been held captive by the devil and the untruths that he spews and the rhetoric that's been pushed is that's why we come out, that's why we say these things. It's not because we hate somebody, it's because we love them so much that if we want to see you...have the freedom that we have in Christ. Because we know that in order to know Christ and have salvation that there is the repentance, there is the turning.

If you come to Jesus, you have to give up the sins. Like you can't hold on to your sins and hold on to Jesus. I don't know. So. Yeah, it doesn't work that way. can't, you can't unzip the old self and put it on a coat hanger and hang it in the closet and say, okay, I'm going to put this away. But then every once in while, go back over there and take it out and put it back on. Right. I mean, when we've been, you know, when our sin debt has been paid, right? And we are now covered in Christ's righteousness, why do we want to cover that up with the oath? What do we want to go back and try to muddy ourselves up? And that's the struggle. It's not saying that you're not going to struggle. It's not like you're not going to be tempted and you're not going to fall and make bad decisions sometimes. Right? But it means that you have that relationship with Christ where you have that conviction to go back and be repentant and say,

Yeah, that was wrong. I think as we grow in our love for Jesus, our hatred towards our sin grows too. you know, having, hearing about and loving people's souls means that you love them enough to tell them the truth. Yeah. And the truth is that we all have a sin problem that we need Jesus. Yeah, it's making that decision to say, lovingly say, hey, I love you so much. want to point this out because if you continue to do this, like the end result is death, right? And it's eternity in hell. But I love you so much that I'm willing to speak this truth and it's going to be uncomfortable and you're not going to like it. But I ask that question again, how much do you have to hate somebody not to speak truth into their life?

I mean, that's a valid question. To just continue to go on day in and day out and to know that there's people around you that need to hear the word of God, need to hear biblical truth, and we don't share it. How much at that point do you have to not like somebody to not be willing to share the love and the hope that they have in Christ?

So we got some scripture we're gonna share with you today, but the first one, we're gonna be in Romans.

Vernon Phillips (17:47.145)

I beat you. beat me. Alright, so you got it. Romans 3.23? Yep. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

That's across the board, right? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's not one person that has ever existed, aside from Christ, right? That has not sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Everybody has. Somebody talked about this at the memorial today. Remember who was? They talked about missing the mark that sinned. target practice, like the bullseye. And if you miss the mark, that's like...a sin distance or something like that? don't remember who it was, but that's the thing is that we've all sinned and we've all fallen short. That's why Christ had to die, was because every single one of us have sinned and we all fall short that the i didn't run in six twenty three tells us for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So we know that the wages of sin is death. We know that we've all fallen short of the glory of God. We've all sinned, we've all fallen short, but says for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's the gift we have. We have that free gift of eternal life in Christ, when we are in Christ.

Vernon Phillips (19:23.535)

When we know Christ is Lord and Savior. And when we think about that, you know, like, well, how does that happen? How do we, how do we come to know Christ? I mean, I mean, if the Romans 10 13 tells us, says that for anyone who calls upon the name of Lord will be saved. So there's so many people right now that are, that are calling upon the Lord, that are calling upon his name and they're, and they're asking this question. There has to be more to life than what I've been living.

There has to be more than just what I see. And there is, right? There is. And when we feel that call, when we feel God pulling us and pursuing us, that's when we turn, right? That's when we make that turn. That's when we make that course correction. That's when we make that U-turn. And then we fall and we seek Him. And we call upon His name.

We acknowledge Christ as Lord and Savior. We acknowledge that the wages of sin is death, but that Christ gives us eternal life through his death to a blood and resurrected life.

And that's just such an awesome thing.

And then we also want to share Ephesians chapter 2.

Vernon Phillips (20:52.291)

You gonna beat me? I don't know. Got it. Alright, Ephesians chapter 2.

Vernon Phillips (21:00.494)

me to read it? Yeah, verses one through 10. I love this. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins and which you once walked following the course of this world, following the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

That is such a great passage though, isn't it? It's just such a clear description of who we are, where we were, and but God. There's nothing else but God. That's probably one of the profound, impactful verses where it just says, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Vernon Phillips (22:58.444)

but God, even when we were dead in our trust, even when we were just neck deep in sin, just in our complete and utter depravity. And we've all been there. And we've all been there. Every single one of us has been there, but God. It also reminds us that it's always been God. There's nothing that we can do. We can't ever be good enough. We can't ever work hard enough. We can't ever pay enough money.

There's nothing that we can do. It's all but God. That's how much God loves us. He is willing to send his one and only son at our place. When we come to that knowledge, when we understand that, it's such a profound thing that it wakes us up. It wakes us up out of our slumber of our death and we're now alive in Him. And that gives us the opportunity to live out our lives and to be that example. And we keep talking about that, but that's what Charlie did. He lived out that example. When we look at Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, this is one of my favorite verses. It says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

In the life I live now in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself to me.

This is such an awesome verse and it's one of my favorite verses because it just reminds me that it's no longer my life. And the way I live my life is no longer for me, it's for Christ. Because my old self is dead and gone, right? It says, I've been crucified with Christ. That old me is gone and dead. It's gone, right? So I shouldn't be going back to the closet, pulling out that old self and trying to put it on.

Vernon Phillips (25:06.55)

gone instead. I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So if you profess to be a believer, if you profess that you believe in Christ as Lord and Savior, then that's how you should be living. You should be proclaiming that. should be boldly making that claim. Because it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself to me. That's how we're to live. That's how we're to be believers in today's society. Right? And I say believers because I feel like the term Christian is kind of hijacked. I feel like that's just something that you kind of apply to yourself. Like, well, okay, I'm Christian. Well, do you even know what that means? Right? So for me, it's believer. Like I believe fully in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and his death, blood, or resurrected life. I believe that he was both fully God and fully man. That he lived a sinless life and that he died in place of my sin. That's what I believe. And because I believe that, this should be how I'm living my life.

So it brings us to Isaiah 6, 8. I'll let you grab that one. Because this came up several times in the memorial, right? Isaiah 6, 8. And even Erica referred to it and referenced it. And she even said, ooh, that's a bold claim, right? That's a bold ask. You ready? Yep.

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here I am, send me.

Vernon Phillips (27:11.039)

Yeah, here I am. Send me and who was this? This was Isaiah. So when we start talking about like how we're to live, how would it be? It's like. We need to be living our lives for Christ because. He died for us, he gave himself up for us and we should be saying here I am. Send me. Right now, every believer around the world.

right in light of recent events should be boldly going before the Lord and saying, here I am, send me. And every, every pastor, every person that goes to church, right, they should be proclaiming this every week, right? They should be pushing biblical truth and challenging their people in the church and saying, are you living your life according to what Christ has called us to do. Right? Are they getting into biblical truths? Are they really diving into those challenging questions? Are they challenging their people? Because if not, then you might want to find a different church. Right? If it's all sunshine and rainbows and pats on the back and you're a good person, continue to what you're doing. Like if you're not diving into scripture. Well, it's not preparing you for real life. We're to put on the armor of God.

We are in a war. are in a spiritual war right now. And it is good versus evil. And if you are not being prepared for that, then you are not in the right place. Because it should be about diving into the word of God and allowing the word of God to speak into your life. And allowing the word of God and reading it and applying it to your life just as it says. And there's so many churches right now that are doing that, right?

Even just today, and I reshared on my social media, that, sorry, rather, even during the memorial service, and I shared on my social media that Pastor Mark Driscoll made a comment, he said that there are more politicians right now that have a clear understanding of the gospel than half of the American pulpits.

Vernon Phillips (29:39.06)

And I share it because I fully believe he's right. Because the American church has drifted away from God. there has been no persecution, because there has been no ask of them, right? They've had to sacrifice nothing. And they haven't been challenged to sacrifice anything or to get uncomfortable. And we look around the world, there's so many people that come to know Christ as Lord and Savior and it costs them everything. costs them their almost their, some of them cost them their very lives. It costs them their friends, their family, their livelihood. Where they say, if you follow Christ, you're dead to us.

And we've been very fortunate here in America, I think we've done a terrible job preparing believers to stand for their faith, to live a life that you're willing to go out boldly proclaim biblical truth and you're not afraid of what could happen. And we saw that in the memorial with Charlie and just the life he lived. And I know that there's so many people that have spun so many things and they said so many, you know, he spewed hate and this and that, but the gospel is foolishness to those who are parishioners. We can't expect lost people to understand.

Vernon Phillips (31:08.848)

As we do. can't expect lost people to act any other way than lost people. But if you don't go out and proclaim truth and live out your life and share the gospel, the truth that you know, then how are lost people ever supposed to know Christ?

But I just feel like the church needs to do a better job. We need to get away from the attractional model of church, right? The old bait and switch, hey, come in, because we've got all the lights and we've got the smoke machines and we've got lasers and we've got... Look, and I'm not trying to downgrade anybody's church, but at what point is, do we want to draw people in because they want to hear the word of God or we want to draw them in because...

It's an awesome party. like, you know, the next it's a concert. It's like, you know, hypno techno or whatever, and everybody's having a good time. But we want them to come in because they crave the word of God. They want to hear the word of God. They want it to resonate in their lives. They want to change who they are. They want to challenge them and require them to grow, stretch them and make them uncomfortable. I'm really encouraged by what I'm hearing about Gen Z that they're just really hungry for truth and I don't think they care as much about the fluffy stuff. They just, they're hungry for truth and they're seeking truth. And if you've been on social media at all this last week, so many people are going to church for the first time or going back to church in years and years. It's super encouraging. But along with that is getting in your Bible too. Sunday's just one day a week, You have to get in the word. You have to be invested in the word of God. You have to be.

It's a life to you. You have to be growing, maturing, and you have to allow it to search your heart, to draw out things that you're continuing to hold on to. And that's going to be constant. Like you're never going to get to the place where you're like, I've reached this level. Like I'm good. Because every day we mess up. Every day we say the wrong thing. Every day, you know, we respond in a way that we shouldn't. Right. But every day we should be seeking to do better, to be better, to be more Christ-like. We should be living our lives for Christ each and every day.

We should be living for Christ because just like I share on social media and I'll continue to share it, live for Christ or die a coward. It's no longer time for the American church to be filled with cowards. It's time for them to be filled with people who are seeking Christ, that are willing to live boldly and not come because they want to hear the latest cool thing, where they want to be entertained.

You come because you want to have that fellowship with other believers. You want to be refreshed and renewed and restored. Yes, you want to be encouraged sometimes, but you also need to be challenged. Sometimes we need to be knocked down. Sometimes we need to kind of set back on our place and say, hey, you could be doing a bit better job than you're mean. Accountability. Accountability. I mean, you know. We can't do that watching at service at home. Like we have to.We to be less fluff and more solid biblical teaching.

Vernon Phillips (34:43.74)

It's just the way it is. you're diving into things and you're trying to make correlations between the latest secular songs or movies and that's the whole focus of your sermon and what you're doing, how are we instilling the ability for believers to live a bold life if we're not giving them the word? The reason that the American church is the way it is is because we've got believers who have been Christians, right, for 30 plus years, and they're still at the infant stage in their relationship with Christ. Because they have not been disabled, they have not been pressured, have not been somebody coming alongside them and teaching them how to read the Word of God and how to be a bold believer in today's world.

Vernon Phillips (35:40.592)

This is where we're at. And I think pastors don't want to step on anybody's toes or don't want anybody to leave their church. So they are very.

Vernon Phillips (35:53.02)

Fluffy, I don't know, that's the word. Affirming of all the things, sometimes sinful things too. Progressive. Well, scripture is very clear that if you are an elder, if you're a teacher, if you are a pastor, if you are a shepherd, you are held to a higher accountability. You are held to a higher standard. And if you are not teaching the Word of God, if you are not teaching biblical truth, if you are not challenging your people you better get right. Because that's not the side that I want to be on. That's not the side that we need people on.

We need people to be living for Christ and being equipped to live for Christ.

Vernon Phillips (36:46.319)

So that's all I got this time. You guys anything else you want to share?

Vernon Phillips (36:55.899)

So remember, for Christ or die college.