When's the last time you repented? Part 3

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”  (Acts 3:19) 

In this episode

• Repentance in the Original  Hebrew and Greek languages
• Knowing If You Have Successfully Repented
• Repentance After Becoming a Christian
  
  
  

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

So bow your head and let's get going. Farther, we we thank you that we are never we are never far away from you, but a repentance word that can bring reconciliation totally with you at any time, any place. I thank you for I thank you, God, that we can have that certainty of a relationship with you and that you're willing to accept us back no matter how much goofing up we do. We thank you for your forgiveness. We thank you for your love. We thank you for being the hound of heaven and chasing us down. To this end, help us fall in love with you all over again this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. Alrighty. Uh I think the only one that's not here is Trey. He usually comes a few minutes late. Let me share.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

And get back. And share. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

You can now see. And this is uh uh if you if you have printed out or if you did the worksheet, this is right after we did the study on the seven different ways that repentance can affect our lives, and you were going to take the test. I hope you all do take the test, because any one of those seven ways that you did not get a good score on is hurting your excitement about living. So I hope you did that. Uh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go there. Here we go. So this is where Tim and then asked a question about hey, Lavon, can you get into more this the specifics about repentance? And so that's where I'm going today. And and the answer is Tim, yeah, this is all your fault, and we and we are playing on your dime, and hopefully you're taking good notes. Here we go. Opening up this area now, the pragmatic personal motivational implemental details, invigorating our rape patterns. I'm gonna read a little bit today, but I don't like reading, but uh because of the volume of stuff, uh like like when I I wanted to set up what Tim is asking, and before I get into handling it, I wanted to make certain that we all are on the same page of what we're after. So I I don't want to miss anything that I put on words, and so here we go. First, belief faith is required for repentance. Yeah, we all believe that. Repentance is the fruit of uh our faith. Yes, we all believe that. How do we have faith by believing what the Bible's being, the word of God says about Christ, our sinful predicament and our salvation? How do we know what is said by reading and allowing the Bible to speak to us? I just want to let me just hit the brakes here for a second. The Bible tells us things, but the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us. I want you to know that the Holy Spirit goes a step beyond the Bible. Did you hear that? Never does it contradict the Bible, but it brings the Bible in us in a way of conviction. You can be reading the Bible and not be convicted, but if you're reading the Bible, God with the Holy Spirit, there will be conviction. So that's what's different about Bible study than reading any other book in the world. And so the Holy Spirit is convicting us as to what is pleasing to God, what is not pleasing to God. So renewing our mind in the word and conforming to God's standard will bring the Holy Spirit conviction and repentance every and all the time. It sounds simple. Pray, meditate on the word, listen for the Holy Spirit to lead us. It is simple. The Holy Spirit guides and brings us to repentance. If we are saved, trusting his grace, repentance isn't just a one-time thing. Why? Because repentance needs to be ongoing every day. I'm repenting every day for something, sometimes several times, that I feel that I've got a wrong view, or I've taken a wrong attitude, or I've said the wrong thing, or I'm going the wrong direction. Repentance is ongoing because my sinning is ongoing. So if you're not repenting, you're not preserving your relationship with God. And your personal daily relationship is in jeopardy. That's when I need the spiritual reconciliation with God. And reconciliation is going to be a big topic today. I am struggling with sin at its core, repentance problem causing reconciliation consequences, which is the fruit of repentance. Do you believe in such a thing as a little white lie? You mean that it's possible or yeah, is there is there such a thing as a little white lie? Have you ever said that to yourself? I just thought it was a modest exaggeration.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

Yeah, yeah. No, I get now I get your question. Um no, biblically speaking, there isn't such a thing. Um but I think over time we invent layers and and identify, almost score it and say, okay, that's a 10. I better get to it work on repenting because it's I it was a 10 versus oh that was a two. I can get to it later, or even that's not as big of a deal, because then you start comparing and all that. But yeah, but in God's standard, holiness is perfection, and perfection is perfect.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Great, great answer. Great answer. You see, Satan doesn't want us to repent. So I'm fighting a battle against Satan when I'm teaching this whole thing on repentance. Satan doesn't want us to repent, he wants our relationship to be broken, he wants your joy to be muffled, he wants your excitement for living to be turned into blah. And one of the ways he does that is he has put in our heads things like, hey, I don't need to repent. I haven't robbed a bank. I'm not committing adultery, I'm not raping any woman, I'm not murdering anyone, I don't need to repent. So we begin to say and we look at ourselves as we listen to the filth coming out on TV news, and we say, Thank God I'm not like that. So we don't feel the need to repent. Oh, but we do. I was I was reading a study, I was doing a psychological study on the subject of repentance, and uh the one of the, and I don't remember his name, but one of the uh Christian psychiatrists said that he'd done a study and he said that the average Christian sins 361 times a day. Now he went into depth as to how he came up with that number, and whether it's 361 times or 10 times or 500 times, it makes a difference. The fact is that we sin all the time, therefore, we should pre be repenting all the time. Repenting is not a bad thing, it's a wonderful thing, it opens the door to wonderful stuff. Don't run from repentance, run to repentance. Can't wait for the next time today I repent because that moves me yet another step closer to God. Okay, those are my opening comments. Now we get that introduces that introduces doctrinal questions that you may have never thought through. So how all sins are equal? All sins are equal because of the legal consequence. So let's get into that. So take it here is the here is the verse that scares the heap of jibbies out of me every time, every every morning, every Friday morning, I have to go through this time and I have to say this prayer. There's James 2.10. For whosoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. So you may just exaggerate it a little bit, but you committed murder because you're guilty of all of it. You see, we tell ourselves it's a little thing, it's a little white lie. If you're a teacher, that means if you're a parent and you're teaching your children, listen to what I just read, James 2.10. For whosoever keeps the whole all yes, almost just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. This is there's this whole thing in James about if you're a teacher, you better be alert. So it's equal in condemnation. I want you to hear that. No matter what, how little you just think it's a little thing and you brush it off. That's exactly what Satan wants you to do. Satan wants to you to brush off little things because he bit by bit, piece by speed, he is as Jesus calls him a murderer. He's murdering your relationship with God. Don't fall for it, man. Don't fall for it. There's no such thing as a little thing. Repent, get beyond it, open the door for joy. So it's equal in condemnation. I want you to hear that, and it's equal in remedy. Every single sin requires the exact same costly, the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Don't matter what you think the size of your sin is, you are nailing Jesus on the cross. All of us have sinned, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us are causing the death of Jesus. So that's how sins are all equal. Let's talk a little bit how any any comment on that? Any any one of you? You want to say something, anybody, about the equality of sins? Have you fallen for the fact it's just a little thing and you brush it off? It's just a little word that you said to your wife, hey, that's no big deal. Have you found yourself falling for that temptation? Satan, that's one of his primary ways, saying, Hey, it's a little baby, you didn't kill anybody. Come on, get over it. Bit by bit, inch by inch, piece by piece, Satan wants to destroy your relationship with God, and he wants you to suffer with indignity, guilty, and shame in your life on planet Earth. Okay, let's go a little further. How sins are not equal, it's a degree of severity. So all sins are equal, yes. All sins are not equal. Also, yes, both are true. So the biblical explicitly teaches that God views some sins as significantly weightier and more destructive and deserving a greater discipline than others. This is true, so get it, get it, get it in your head. Jesus used the word greater, and did I put yeah, there it is. Uh John 19, 11. The one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. Ah, that shows that Jesus sees that there's a different inequality of the severity of our sins on the impact it's having in our life and other people's lives. God's law dictates different penalties. Did you know this? I got I know I went really deep into this, but I I it I've never studied it, so I've stickled the study in. And I keep saying all the time, thank you, Tim, for pushing me. The Old Testament Mosaic Law, God did not prescribe the same penalty for every transgression. Hey, by the way, how many, how many sins, how many transgressions does the Bible talk about? Anybody? You say, well, 10 because of the Ten Commandments, but those are blown in in my study this last several weeks. 603 different sins are identified in the Bible. 603. And they have different areas of severity in terms of the consequences. That's where sins are unequal. All sins cause Jesus to die in the cross. We're equal. All sins, though, are not equal because of the severity that they do, the consequences that our sin does. For instance, in the Old Testament, here's some examples. I've just put a few in for you. Stealing property requires a financial restitution. But premitted murder or practicing witchcraft, isn't that something? Practicing richcraft requires a death penalty. Joel Smith, why is richcraft requiring a death penalty?

SPEAKER_00 15:38

I mean, I I would not even be able to begin to understand that.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Joe Abraham, you want to comment on that?

SPEAKER_04 16:10

Yeah, no, I'm with Joel on that one. Like, because as far as I was concerned, all sin leads to death. Right?

SPEAKER_02 16:19

And then that's where they're equal.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

Right. But I fully agree with you that the Bible in many different places in the New Testament talks about that this one's bigger, this one's greater.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_04 16:34

Like I think um sexual morality, even in the old testament, was treated as kind of like way bigger um than other things. Because probably because of the level of defiance, or the level of what is that called? The the amount of lack of fear of God there has to be to make that possible is greater. Um and so it's a greater offense to God. It's a gr you know, a jealous God finds it that level of idolatry incomprehensible.

SPEAKER_06 17:11

So I think what you're saying though, in different words, is like the spiritual math is all the same. The earthly math is sometimes different in terms of penalty, or sometimes prescribed, sometimes not prescribed. Is that a different way to say the same thing?

SPEAKER_02 17:34

I think those are all points that need to be you need to be pondering these things. If you don't, if you're not clear on the things I'm talking about now, I can say you're not repenting enough. And if you're not repenting enough, then your relationship with God is diminished and you're paying a horrible price. You're not gonna have the hope-filled life, you're not gonna have the confidence of self-worth, you're not gonna feel the love of God. You want to get this kind of stuff that I'm getting into because I want you to repent more, and you repent more, you're gonna have a higher relationship with Jesus, more joy, more love in your life.

SPEAKER_07 18:22

Is your your first your first statement, John 19, 11? The one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. And then just prior to that, we said we all nail Christ to the cross because of our sin. How do we reconcile those two thoughts?

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Okay, very good. Okay. So so this the the sin is equal because they all cause the death of Christ, but the response to that sin, the severity is different in that the consequences are different. Here's another one I want to read right here. It's the third bonnet down right there. God also differentiated between intentional sins, defiant rebellion, and unintentional sins, errors made in ignorance. You have to read the whole thing on Leviticus 4, and you'll see that. So there is difference in how God deals with them, but all of them, all of them, 100% of them, cause Jesus to die in the cross.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Yeah, another one, another one that comes to mind is the whole area of false teaching, false prophet stuff, and leading people astray is another biggie on God's list where He's like, there's like double punishment or double consequence, or you know, the the consequence for that is significantly listed as significantly higher than the other yeah, on yeah, yeah, even it wasn't it in Proverbs also, even though there's you know there's X number of things are not likable, but there's one that's an abomination. Like, yeah, there is like a scale there somewhere. Outcome's still the same, like you're saying, Laman, but it it's almost like it's there to warn us.

SPEAKER_06 20:18

But back to Derek, Derek's question for a second. I think this is where I started my whole line of questioning is like we have this inherent sin nature in us, right? That's the baseline. We are all cruising in at sinfulness. And my question originally, which I think started a lot of this conversation, was do we have to specifically repent of a thing for it to be real or true? Because we repent, we're excuse me, we sin all the time and are unaware of the impact that it's having, um, either intentionally or unintentionally unaware. Um, and I think that that just underlying baseline status that we sit in, I guess it does separate us. I'm not saying it doesn't separate us, but how does how does that healthy relationship work if we're just walking in every day and saying, well, I'm a poor miserable sinner? Check, you know, the check off all the unknown sins, and then I want to get really specific in repenting for these things that I know has grieved the Holy Spirit. That feels like the right path, but I guess I'm just wondering, is it is it deep enough of an examination, or or how do you guys think about that, or am I just down a road?

SPEAKER_02 21:36

I'm gonna go deep. I'm gonna go there.

SPEAKER_05 21:39

I have a question that goes with that. Um, my understanding of the word repentance in scripture is that it's a military term and it's an about face, it's turning away from the sin. Um, so it's not just us acknowledging it, but it's also us turning away. But this week I spent spent some time on the phone with a guy who's struggling with. Sexual sin, and he he just he's he's addicted, he doesn't know how to get out, and um so how does God work with that then too? When somebody he knows that it's wrong, he just he has deep wounds in his heart from probably his childhood that have never been healed, and so he's acting out of those wounds, and um, and the reason I ask that is I well, so I lived in that space for a long time until God healed me. Uh, but there's a lot of people that are walking around broken that have never been healed from that. And um and so what what happens to them with all this? They they want to change, they just don't know how to change.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

We're gonna get into I think that's the go ahead, go ahead, Laman.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

I was just gonna say the differentiator is the words, some of the words you use, Carl, the wanting, the desiring, the pursuing, right? That's the part God loves. Um, and they're like you said, there's a journey for everybody depending on, especially with sexual sin, it it it's just a longer journey every time. Right? Um it's it's the people who don't desire or don't see anything wrong or feel they're entitled, blah blah blah blah blah. That's a different path than someone who's like pursuing you and like, dude, I how do I I can't like when I'm in it, I'm in it, and then I realize I was in it, and then I look back and go, how did I get in it? Right. That's a different, that's the heart God loves. And for that, He gives grace and blah blah you know, favor and all those kinds of things. This the journey still has to be there. There's still gonna be consequences, there's still gonna be pain, but there is another side if that person perseveres.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

So what you're talking about is exactly what I was hoping that we would be able to talk about today. I think I'm going to cover all of those concerns that you've just raised. So I if with your permission, I'm going to charge ahead and I put it together in a way that we'll be able to pick them off one at a time. And Tim, you're right. Not only do you not only can you not say current with your sin because you sin so much that you can't say current, so you can't confess and repent all the time to stay up to speed, you know, and that's exactly it. And uh and then there are also the fact you're sinning and don't even know you're sinning. So there's sometimes you're sinning and you know you goofed up, but there are other times. We even know how how screwed we got all of that stuff to go to, so we got to get to all of that. But we're at the heart of why why I told you last week that every 11 minutes somebody commits suicide. Why? Because of the impact of sin in their life. Four out of every five suicides are men, you guys, men commit suicide for we why because we feel shame, we feel failure, we feel disappointment in ourselves. All that Satan's having a heyday with you if you're not repenting. Anyhow, uh so right now let me just finish up. So I said that all sins are equal because they all have the same remedy that is uh uh Jesus on the cross. But then I was in this area right here, I'm saying how sins are not equal. And I said, first of all, Jesus talked about greater sins, and the then the second one, God's law dictates different penalties. Now, the third one, some sins cause greater internal damage. This is what uh uh Joe alluded to in the Old Testament. Let me just read it. The apostle Paul notes that certain sins are more devastating impact on the human soul and community. For example, 1 Corinthians 6 18, he singles out sexual misconduct, all other sins a person commits are outside of the body, but whosoever sins sexually sins against their own body. So when you lust for a woman, when you see a I remember one time, I actually remember where uh it was in Tokyo, and uh my flight was being delayed, trying to get back to the United States, and I was just sitting in in the lounge there because I didn't want to miss when they opened up the gate, and I found myself looking at pretty girls gone by, and I remember thinking that's lust. I was taking them one at a time. Well, she's I wonder what it'd be like, and I remember thinking, How that is a sin against my own body. I I don't know if I'm worse than you or the same as you, only you can answer that question. But I'm saying that until you learn the art of repentance and the timeliness of it and the beauty of it, and I I want to get there, so this is where I'm headed. There are degrees of judgment and accountability, and I put scriptures with them all so you can look at them and study them as deep as you'd like to. So one is this word of knowledge. Jesus explains that a servant who deliberately disobeys his master's uh oh, I I didn't I didn't do something right there. He didn't his master will receive a severe beating, but if he disobees, disobeys in ignorance, it's a light beating. A severe versus light beating, just in not being a good employee. Leadership. So you all this is everybody's talking about leadership. James 3:1 warns Christian teachers will be judged with greater strictness because of their influence over others. You want to be a leader? You want to influence other people? See what you're signing up for? You're signing up for greater strictness. Okay, so now that was enough on how bad it is. Let's make it good. How do we do it? And I come up with this thing that I call a reconciliation uh algorithm. Those are my terms, you can call it what you want. But here's what the Bible teaches: sin must be followed by confession. That's when Tim was saying, I don't think I thought of everything. I'm not confessing everything. Oh no, I missed a bunch of stuff. Oh no, how's that gonna affect my salvation? Sin must be followed by confession, leading to repentance. That's our subject that I've gone deep on, resolving in reconciliation. Hey Trey, I hear you're on. Are you are you there? I am okay. I'm going to read something and I want to play a game with you. I'm gonna read something. I want all of the rest of us to think about the word reconciliation, just enjoy that word. But you, when I get done reading this, I don't want you to look at your TV because I'm gonna be reading it. So uh I don't want you to look at your computer or whatever you're watching it on. And then at the end of it, I want you to tell me. I want you to tell me where I read this from. Are you ready? That's your your job. I'm gonna read something and you're gonna tell me where did Lavon find that? And I probably I'm gonna, yeah, I use the amplified version, so it'll be a little different, but I think you'll recognize it. So I want this to be fun for you. Here I go, I'm gonna read it, and everybody else listen to the joy of what is being said in this. For it pleased the Father for all the fullness of deity, the sum total of his essence, all his perfection, powers and attributes to dwell permanently in him, the son, through the intervention of the son to reconcile all things, you and I, all things to himself, making peace with believers through the blood of the cross. Through him I say, for the things on earth are things in heaven. And although you are were at one time estranged and alienated and hostile-minded towards him, participating in evil things, yet Christ has now, listen to the word, reconciled you to God in his physical body through death in order to present you, present you, hey, Father God says Tim. Present you before the Father, holy and blameless, beyond reproach, and he will do this if you continue in faith, well grounded and steadfast, continue in faith. Catch that, Tim. Continue in faith, well grounded and steadfast, not shifting away from confident hope. That is a result of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven. Okay, Trey, did you recognize that?

SPEAKER_03 32:35

I did.

unknown 32:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

Where in what book of the Bible was it?

SPEAKER_03 32:42

Um, so when you said it was first joy, I went to a different book, but after you read it, it's the front end of Colossians.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

You get it. I knew you would get it. Yeah, it's the most one of the most beautiful verses. Uh uh passages is Colossians 1, 1923. And I gave you the because I want you. This is the kind of thing you just snuggle up with and embrace. This is you now talked about the Mity. Now, one thing, Kim. I'll I'll I'm gonna jump ahead of myself, but I just want I want you to feel this because this passage is filled with feelings. I mean, wonderful feelings. I I want you to read first John chapter one, and I want you to circle the word all. You go through that whole chapter and all, and it says you confess this, and then right after it says then he will forgive all your sin. He doesn't say confess all your sin, he says he'll forgive all your sin. It says if you have the attitude of repentance in your life that you want to be perfect, if you're struggling to be perfect, if you're struggling to be like Jesus, that's all it takes, man. He'll finish it, he will do it. Trade, did I say anything wrong in that?

SPEAKER_05 34:09

So my dad is on this kick right now of um my dad's a strong believer, although right now I question that a little bit um because he thinks that if somebody is living in sin, meaning they're making choices um that don't reflect fruit, then he needs to shun them and basically shuts them out of his life. And I've challenged him on. I'm like, Father, Dad, if if if Jesus didn't die for all sins, for all men, for all can't all time, um, then what's the point of the cross? It it just doesn't make sense. And he's like, well, you know, uh I that person might have accepted Jesus, but they're not living that way, so I can't have them in my life. And he's literally shunned family members, um his sister, and some other people, um, because he views them as unrepentant. And it's really sad. I'm just uh like right now, I'm just sitting here like I'm sad for my dad because I've said to him, I'm said, Dad, you've you you skip portions of the Bible, and this is one of those portions. Um so yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:15

Oh, I'm yeah, I can go ahead. No, I was gonna say, I can I can I don't know what it is, but I my head jumps to the pop the passage that he's probably playing off of to validate this for himself, but it's like one piece of a larger puzzle, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:34

Corinthians. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's first Corinthians six, I think. He he just lives in that, and I'm like, Dad, you can't just take one piece of scripture. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

I mean, that we just Jeff just preached that in church, and it was, I mean, it's a tough passage to preach, and it actually has generated some thankfully so far, some really good conversations, um grabbing people's attention, which is good, but the whole point of that passage is reconciliation. That's what it the whole thing about it is this repentance to reconciliation. That's the whole point of kicking the people out of the church.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Yeah, you can't read that passage of scripture enough that I I uh read to pray. The Colossians 1, 19 to 23, just snuggle up with that. I I'd kind of like to get to the end of this today, and so I'm gonna push forward. And it and once you see the reconciliation algorithm, sin followed by confession, followed by repentance, produces reconciliation. That's the algorithm, that's how life works. I go through that several times a day. That's how I stay closed. Read that passage again. I wrote it out there for you and on the amplified because I think it gets into the feelings better than uh the uh international version does. Okay, now that produces that produces a subject of reconciliation. I simply refer to it as the great exchange, and I want to get into it now, and I'm gonna take them uh a few verses at a time. He made Christ, who knew no sin, to judicially be sin in our he took my sin, and all that in him we would become the righteousness of God, that is, we would be made acceptable to him, placed in the right relationship with him by his gracious lovingness. 2 Corinthians 5 21. Can it get any better than that? I mean, you are not gonna ever be perfect, Tim. You're never gonna repent of all the sins because you don't even know you're sinning at least 361 times a day. Did you repent 361 times a day? No, the Bible says if you love him and you are you've given yourself to Jesus and you're asking him that this is what's going on in heaven. Now I want to tell you what goes on in heaven. All the time, every time you blow it, the Bible tells us in Revelation that Satan goes to God, Father God, and says, Father God, did you see Tim? Did you see him do it? Did you hear what he just said? Did you watch his eyes? He lasted again. And Jesus steps forward and says, Father God, I died for Tim. And he goes over and picks up the book of life, and he says, Here is Tim's name. Again, the Bible says in First John, if you confess your sins, he will forgive all. All even the ones you haven't confessed, even the ones you haven't repented of, all of them. Read first John and circle the word all and get the idea that it is if you're uh doing the best you can and you're working forward, and you will never be perfect. So that brings us to the great exchange. Here are the four points of the great exchange. Reconciliation was accomplished by Christ on the cross. You don't accomplish it, he accomplished it. Did you hear that? You can never he did it, he reconciled you, he gave you his righteousness. Here's another uh oh, I I do want to go this way. So let me just let me what what I studied this week that just really was so wonderful. Is that when you look at this, um go back to uh how we were in the Garden of Eden, and I'm quoting now Genesis 3:8 and says, in the cool of the day, God is coming and walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. He was fellowshipping. That's a reconciled by the way. The Greek word reconciled means uh that you have restored harmony and peace. Harmony and peace. So when I use the word reconciled, that's what the Greek word is indicating. Harmony and peace with God, that you have harmony. Satan wants to do what? Mess you up. Oh, let me talk about that. You know, what's the difference between Derek? This is a Derek question. Derek, what's the difference between guilt and shame? Because Tim is struggling with shame. His question is that I don't want to walk around every day feeling shameful. I want to feel so what's the difference between guilty and shame? Get into that a little bit, Derek.

SPEAKER_07 41:14

At least my understanding is guilt acknowledges a wrong that we do that creates right directed action, and shame lives in that knowledge of the wrong things we do that creates an inaction and a separation from God.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

So guilt is legal, shame is emotional. Shame will continue unless you're reconciled, unless you're understanding what I'm talking about now. The great exchange, the great exchange, that's what this is all about. Is that if he if you have allowed yourself legally to have your legalities is sponged, the legal term for that is a sponge. Your record is a sponge. When Jesus opens up the document of your life, the only thing that Father God sees in Tim's life is the righteousness of Jesus. God gunnet, get excited about that. Don't let Satan take that out of your life. Satan wants you to stay guilty so he can introduce shame. He wants you to walk around like a coward. He wants you to walk like, oh my goodness, I hope nobody sees what I just did. Oh my goodness. He wants to destroy shame. Oh, that's uh I hope I'm not coming on too loud, but this is a big deal. I tell you what, man, we're we're so wonderful for you not to it to take shame. How much shame are you leaving in your life? Satan wants to fill it up with shame. You're a man, you're a loser. See, you did it again. See, you had those bad thoughts again. See, he can just keep you in the lost column for all the time. If you let him, if you let him. Esponged. You get the word esponge? That's a legal term. When Jesus on the cross said it is finished, he's saying, Derek's record has been esponged. That's what that word means. Esponged, total, gone. Paid in full, record erased. That's what it meant. It is finished, it is finished. All by the cross, a great exchange. I feel like uh Trey, do you wanna chime in on any of this?

SPEAKER_03 44:00

Uh no. I mean I think it's I think it's good. We're actually yeah, sorry, it's a lot of fresh my mind because I've been thinking about some of my own stuff and we're going through some stuff in an employment context that uh I just this is a subject that's constantly in front of me at the moment uh for myself and for a for a situation I'm involved in. So that yeah, it just it's interesting to watch the process and the the interplay between the guilt and the shame. Um the godly sorrow versus worldly sorrow, the outcome of what it produces, the uh just a it's a weighty, it's a weighty subject, and it's it is such a fantastic arrival, and the process is very easily aborted by our sort of desire to save face um and not kind of fully embrace it. And it's it's um a phrase that I use to hurt here. It's it's like taking an axe to the base of your own tree. It you're you think you're being so protective of yourself, but you're preventing yourself from the best possible outcome. And all of these interplays are very um it's just very dynamic, is what I'll say. So anyway, it's fresh on the mind and it's it's um yeah, it's really awesome sort of on the back end of itself. It's very tricky. I would say it's very tricky on the front end, it's very fragile, is a better way of saying it, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

On the page ahead of you. The great exchange. We've gotten to the first one. Reconciliation is accomplished, it's done. It's it's over, man. The blood was spilt, it's oh, it's done. Jesus says, I died for him, he's accepted it. Wow. Wow, wow. Let me go to the second step of the great exchange. Let me at least get there. Reconciliation was initiated by God. Let me read the scripture. That is that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting people's sins against them. Get it, Tim? Not counting people's sins against them, but canceling them. He has committed to us the message of reconciliation that is the restoration to favor with God. I there was a I forget the name of one of the founders of our country. Uh he was it John, I don't remember which one it was, but he said, the hound of heaven. Anyone remember who that the hound of heaven? He said, Jesus that why? Because Jesus' changement reconciliation was not initiated by you, it was initiated by Jesus. He is the hound of heaven, he is for you. He wants you to know I died for you, man. I died for you, man. That uh here we are, dirty, lousy sinners. He pursued us and gave to us his perfection.

SPEAKER_03 47:31

Francis Thompson, by the way. Pardon? Francis Thompson. I looked it up real fast. Oh, yeah, yeah. I knew the phrase, I just couldn't think of who it was that said it.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

Yeah, yeah, the hound of heaven. That's a great sermon.

SPEAKER_04 47:46

But what was in the context of that phrase Psalm 23, or no?

SPEAKER_03 47:51

Um probably. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 47:57

Because we love being called the Hounds plural.

SPEAKER_03 48:00

Yeah, the Hounds of Heaven, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

Yeah, that's and it doesn't know that he initiated reconciliation. We keep thinking we do it. No, no, he initiated it, he started it. First John 4 18 says he loves us. We we love him because he first loved us, he first loved us, he initiated. Quit putting it all on yourself. You're not a loser. Jesus said, I've already done it all. You can't everything you've done, I've already taken care of it. Relax, man. Relax, Tim. Fall asleep in my arms. You're perfect in the sight of God because you have accepted what Jesus has done for you. Okay, I'm gonna turn it off there. I I need to give some time to Jim. Is Jason still with us?

SPEAKER_04 49:03

Jason, more seconds, I think. I'm here.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

Either Jim or Jason, one of you, close us out, and I want you to talk as long as you want to.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

Uh sure. Can you say oh, I didn't realize I wasn't on camera. Sorry. Didn't want to show off my tan.

SPEAKER_03 49:24

Um jokes I want to make right there, but I'm going to refrain.

SPEAKER_00 49:30

Sorry. Keep keep it quiet, guys. Anyway, um, yeah, I think I don't know about key takeaways. I think you know, this is a recurring conversation we've had. I haven't been in this, I don't think we've met last week either, right? Um, but if if I were to kind of pick out a few of the things that we were talking about, right? It's it's repentance is not just a uh I think I mentioned this last time we met too. It's not a one-time effort, it's not a one-time occasion uh type of thing, right? Where we just come to Christ, say we're sorry, and move on. It's a it's a continual relational building experience, um where we continue to turn to God. I think Carl said it, right? It's it's the about face in multiple moments, right? When we find ourselves in that situation, it's the about face experience that we need to have. Um but I think what what we're looking for is renewed fellowship. Um, you know, if I I haven't read through the entire document yet, and I'm sure um Jim has, so he probably has more insights into this, but uh right, uh looking for renewed fellowship with God, restored joy. I think uh Levine started to talk about healthier relationships, right? Being able to have uh teachable moments for our families with our kids, right? Taking advantage of the experiences that we live through. Um and then what else? I think we touched on when you touched on the sexual sins and things like that, right? Being able to um experience freedom rather than shame. I think that's a big thing for us as well, as men, right? Especially as men, is is to continue to experience uh or not fall back into shame if if it's a continuous sin pattern of our lives, right? And being able to experience the repentance and take it to the take it to the cross. So yeah, I think that's it. Jim, anything from you?

SPEAKER_07 51:42

Well done, Jason. Thanks for staying.

SPEAKER_00 51:46

It's okay. Everyone's on vacation this week, so I gotta stick around. So I miss anything, Lavon.

SPEAKER_02 51:56

Well, uh that's not a uh I you missed a hundred thousand things, so did I.

SPEAKER_00 52:04

And that's why we come back next week.

SPEAKER_03 52:09

Yeah, that was somewhere between a teaser and we're both losers. So that's nice.

SPEAKER_00 52:16

Excellent. All right. Uh let me close out prayer. Father God, we just thank you for this morning, Lord. We thank you for once again just the opportunity for all of us to gather together to study your word, to study um together uh in a way that Lavon has put together. But we thank you for Levon and his leadership and his art for us and for you especially, Lord, to be able to seek these things out and um have the passion and the um the patience, honestly, to teach us in uh in this way, Lord. Lord, we um are so grateful for um your son, Lord, and how you sent him uh for our sins, Lord, and for us to be able to um uh understand that and love that and uh be appreciative of that, Lord, in all in all times, Lord. Help us to um be open with ourselves, with our families, with our children, Lord, in in ways that um they can only see your love through us, Lord. Lord, I thank you for each of these guys. I thank you for their them and their families and pray that you continue to watch over them. Be with us this day and through this weekend and until we meet again next week. In Jesus' name we pray.

SPEAKER_02 53:28

Amen. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 53:31

All right, good stuff.