The Top 5 Rewards of Repentance

What I'm going to talk to you about tonight is the theme of repentance. What we're doing is we're identifying certain principles that help spark revival, because a revival is a spiritual awakening. And there are some things where we know God brings the revival, the fire, but we also know that we participate.

We plow the soil and He brings the rain. So the top five rewards of repentance. The top five rewards of repentance.

What's interesting about the message is the five rewards are right at the end and it's going to take me a minute to get there, because it's so important to talk about this topic, especially right now in the culture we're living. A proper definition of repentance is so important. Jesus and John the Baptist both began their ministry by proclaiming, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And we are going to open up again baptisms tonight. What a wonderful way to show genuine repentance, that God is doing something in your heart. And for those even watching, you've got 30 minutes to get here.

If God puts that on your heart, get the car keys, drive here, show God you're serious, and get baptized. But it's interesting, isn't it? Jesus began His ministry. John the Baptist began their ministry proclaiming, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And then He actually sent out the disciples to go and preach repentance. Now in the culture today, in many churches today, how many of you remember something called the emergent church movement? The emergent church movement. Well, you don't hear about it much anymore.

That's because with most liberal movements, they will fall apart. When you drift from God's Word, you don't have the authority and the power to stand on anything. And they actually became very popular when we planted the church, and I talked to some of the pastors, and it drove me crazy.

Because they would suggest that repentance is really about self-improvement. They would actually say we need to get rid of the pulpit and put a couch on the stage and have a conversation and not preach. Well, good for you.

That's a social club. You can go do that at the coffee shop. It's not about self-improvement.

It's not a call to fulfill our natural potential. Now, when we repent, we do improve, and our God-given potential becomes more apparent. But repentance is not about self-improvement.

It's about renouncing sin and turning from it. That's a biblical definition. Repentance, as I've told you many times before, is a change of mind that leads to a change of action.

So genuine repentance. Here's where people get confused. It's not crying about something.

It's not being sorry about something, because I can be sorry that I got caught. A.W. Tozer was famous for saying when they would have altar calls, he would say, don't come up here and cry about it. Go home and live it out.

I might have to tweet that one tomorrow. What do they call them now? I don't know what they call them. But you know what I'm saying.

We have to, it's not just sorry. And although repentance, when you repent, you're sorry. But genuine repentance is backed by action.

So when I repent of something in my marriage, I change my words. I change my habits. I change my love for the family.

There's an outflowing that happens because I genuinely repented. But in the church, many people get sorry, if I guess I could say that, sorrow over their sin, but they're not repentant. You know, I remember dealing with a lot of people that were going through, especially back in Lancaster, for some reason, we saw a lot of marriages kind of falling apart.

And talking to the men, a lot of times they were, they had pretty high careers, you know. And they kept saying, they're crying and they're like, oh my goodness, you know, she's going to take me to the cleaners. She's going to get half my income.

She's going to, I'm like, wait, hold on. What, that's not repentance. You're sorry because your income is being affected.

So we have to be clear on this. Even young adults knowing this and teenagers, just because you cry and oh God, I'm so sorry. That's just sorrow over sin or sorrow because you got caught.

Sorrow over the consequences, but not repentance. So you can look up the word in the Hebrew and the Greek. It's always a changing of mind followed by a changing of actions.

If you want to get into a very interesting waters, I think it's Ezekiel, probably, don't quote me on that. I just now thought of it. But it's talking about watchmen, right? And he said, if you warn the wicked and they turn from their wickedness, they will live.

So they have to make a change of heart and their mind and also a change of action. Repentance changes the mind, also changes the action, but it's brokenness, it's genuine sorrow over sin and it's humility. Those mark somebody who's genuinely repented.

How do you know when somebody genuinely repents, you see the fruit? It's not fake fruit, so it takes a little time. You know, you don't just, man, they repented yesterday, they're at church today and okay, well, give it some time. They might just be trying to win back their loved one.

Or I mean, a friend of mine, I remember, was coming here and praying for his marriage and as soon as that didn't work out, we never saw him again. So why are you pursuing God? I mean, why aren't you pursuing God? Because the pursuit should be no matter what happens, I'm going to keep holding on to you. The enemy thought he took everything from Job, but Job's everything was God.

That's what you have to get deep down inside of you. Don't clap, I just saw it on Instagram 20 minutes ago and I emailed it to myself for tomorrow's message. There's some good stuff out there.

Surprised I remembered it. But isn't that true? Very true. That's why we say here often, it's not about perfection, but direction.

What direction is the person going? And of course, at this point in the message, I want to clarify, because it might confuse some people, there is, I believe, two different types of, even though the Bible doesn't say two different types of repentance, you see that there's repentance, what they call repentance unto salvation. So a sinner sees the error of their way, they realize that they are lost without Christ, that they are on a highway to hell and they need to change their mind about how they view God and sin and their relationship with Him. And so they repent, they change their mind, which leads to a change of action.

And it's not just action out of your own will and self-control, it's actually now the Holy Spirit fills you, the Holy Spirit comes and resides in a believer and the power of the Spirit because of that, that incredible work of God known as born again, now they can walk in the Spirit, the flesh is still alive and well, so it wants to pull us back, but they've genuinely repented, they have the Holy Spirit residing in them, now they're saved. So the repentance led to salvation. That's why Peter, we're going to get into in Acts, as we go in the book of Acts, where he said, repent and times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord.

But as believers, how many of you know we still have to repent? Not to be saved, but to be sanctified. And what happens if you hold on to that sin and you don't want to repent of it, pride, it will often build. And like a cancer is sore or sore, it can fester, it can grow.

Because if I'm supposed to repent of pride and I don't, it doesn't just stay static. It actually will begin to grow. And then maybe something else will happen and I won't humble myself or yourself.

And so this pride and this unrepentant heart and this kind of rebellious spirit kind of rises up. Anybody relate? Even in the heart of a Christian, a rebellious spirit can rise up when we don't repent. It's part of the sanctification process.

Sanctification is you're growing in the Lord. I hope you're a little bit different than you were a couple years ago. I hope, go back five years.

And I talked to people and men too, and they used to cuss, now they don't. They used to get angry, now they're growing in the Lord. And if you're not, Paul would call that a babe in the faith.

A Christian who has not grown. They're drinking milk 15 years later when they should be eating meat. They're not growing spiritually and it's often because they don't repent.

They don't want to repent of carnality, of compromise, and they just stay there. Because if you don't repent, you're not going to grow. Repentance, I guess I should tell you now, I was going to tell you in a little bit, but I've been starting my messages with this.

How is repentance a principle of revival? And each night I'm asking, how is prayer a principle? How is perseverance a principle? How is faith a principle? How is seeking God a principle? Well, how is repentance a principle of revival? Well, it along with prayer is the first step toward revival. But repentance also cleans the line of communication so that the rivers of living water can flow freely. Repentance cleans those lines of communication with God.

Have you ever experienced that and then your prayer life is back on track? Now you want to pray? Now you want to get in the Word? But unrepentant hearts will keep us away from prayer, keep us away from the Word. And we have to clean those areas of communication with God. I think I mentioned this at a men's conference.

I might have even to you a couple years ago. But one of the things that was kind of fun to do when I worked in heavy equipment, underground construction mainly, bringing in all kinds of... by the Harley dealership, RE-MAX, all those I brought in all the power with Southern California Edison and Transformers and basically put in the conduit before the power was in. But a lot of times, let's say we have a 4-inch or 5-inch ductile, you know what that is, a big plastic heavy pipe.

And it would go 100 yards to the building. But if it's set for a while and they didn't cap it off, a lot of things would go inside that pipe. Mice, dirt, mud from rain.

And so they tried to pull their line through it, but they'd actually run something through first to make sure it was clear. And it wasn't going. So we would have to come up with a big cat generator.

That wasn't really a generator. It was an air compressor. Anybody have air compressors at home? Well, they don't compare to one on the back of a trailer.

These things are powerful. And so we would get a big nozzle. We put it on the end of that pipe.

And you could hear just... And boom! And all the stuff goes flying. Like 40 feet in the air. All the dust, all the mud, all the mice.

Because when you have that much air pressure, you turn it like a car motor to get that pressure going. And it cleans the line. And what a great image for us.

Because stuff can build up in our hearts, can't it? The mud, the decay, the crust, the little mice. Go in there and build that nest. You can't use it for what it was designed to be used for.

And that's why clearing those lines of communication with God are so important. And I really prayed most of the day today on, Lord, help me weep before I whip. Because it's an important topic.

And we never want to beat people up with repentance. Especially our kids and others. You just need to repent, you need to repent, and we're beating them up.

We can encourage repentance, but it must come from a... Jesus preaching repentance was so wonderful, wasn't it? In the Gospels. I mean, until He got to the Pharisees. But why? Because they would not repent.

You stiff-necked people. Always resisting the Holy Spirit. And He would call them out.

But to the general population, the woman caught in the act of adultery. Go and sin no more. Go and preach repentance to the cities.

It was incredible. How many of you have heard of John Rice? If you're part of the fundamental Baptist movement in the early 1900s, you would. He said, I think we have the quote, there is no way you can please God, no way you can have sweet communion with Him to get your prayers answered if you are in rebellion against the known will of God.

And I sat on that for a few days before adding it. But I think he's right. Absolutely right.

October 22, 1924. How long ago was that? There's a new study that came out. It finds that the majority of practicing Christians admit to viewing porn.

Many comfortable with the habit. That's what the headlines said. I've got to read this.

Comfortable with the habit. If you're comfortable in sin, you're not saved. Hold on, let me flesh this out a minute.

Let's first talk about the word comfortable. It means enjoying contentment. I'm free from stress or tension.

If you can sin, especially deep sin, and you're content, and it's not stressful or convicting, and there's a tension between the flesh and the spirit, you're not saved. Because a fruit of salvation is, doesn't mean you don't fall, but when you fall, there's a conviction. When you know, you feel that battle inside, waging war.

But if you don't feel that and you're comfortable, and somebody might say, well, Shane, what about if you're quenching and grieving the spirit? You're a believer, but you're quenching in the spirit. You'll still be convicted. You won't be comfortable, you'll be miserable.

Miserable. Caught in sin. It's been said if your religion has not changed your life, change your religion.

And that's why you'll often hear me say, do you truly know Jesus? Do you have a relationship with Him because you repented? Or do you only know about Him? Religion. Did you know repentance is what tilts that scale? Repentance. Because of so many people know about Him, Joe Rogan knows about Him.

He just interviewed Trump. Better not say that word, it triggers people. Justin Peters? Getting close? You guys follow these people? Tucker Carlson? A lot of these celebrities, I mean, they know about Jesus.

Many people you talk to? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But have they repented? Because repentance is what opens up the line of communication. I repent of my sin because I can't embrace the sacrifice of the cross until I acknowledge it.

And how do I acknowledge it? By saying I need it. I repent of my way and I choose the way, the truth, the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ.

The Gospel, when rightly understood and received, sets the heart against all sin. If you want a good commentary, Matthew Henry, he was actually in the 1600s. In the 1600s, George Whitefield, whenever he preached, would only bring Matthew Henry commentary in the Bible.

It's a very good commentary. And he's right, isn't he? The Gospel, when you understand it and you receive it, it sets the heart against sin because the Gospel is the good news that you can be set free from sin. So you believe the Gospel, now you're set free from sin and now it's my enemy.

So those who embrace sin, we see this in the political arena, don't we? It's like people just don't understand what God's heart is on so many different issues. So a disobedient life should raise concerns. A disobedient life should raise concerns.

And I'm not going to go into detail because I've many times before, but there is a difference between a Christian struggling and a person disobedient, rejecting God, and they're going to mock Him. The Bible refers to them differently as well. This person is dead in their sin and trespasses, rejecting God.

This person is quenching and grieving the Spirit because they're caught in sin. Big difference. When Mark 6.12 records that they went out and preached that people should repent, Jesus was saying that people need to turn from sin and turn to God.

1 John 2.15 If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It's hard to cling to the cross when your hands are full with the world. Isn't it true? It's hard to cling to the cross when my hands are full of the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Do you love the world? Now, you theologians out there, you know that that doesn't mean having things and things like that. What it means is the world has a mindset.

The Greek word I believe they use is cosmos. So, if you love the world's mindset, you don't love the Father. Because they're complete opposite.

They're complete opposite. Do you ever look at Christians and you say, how can you believe that? Number one, are they really a Christian? Has their heart really been changed? Possibly, or they could be grieving the Holy Spirit. They could just be influenced by the Word of God.

But to suggest that everyone, from the Old Testament prophets, to Jesus, to the apostles, to the early church fathers and the reformers, to present day scholars and theologians misunderstood the real meaning of repentance is the height of arrogance and deception. The reason I'm saying that is a lot of churches think that repentance, it's actually an outdated word, and they use, instead of repentance, they use words like just love. God is love.

God loves us no matter how we are. God loves us no matter how you're born. And there's a little bit of truth in everything I just said, correct? But you gotta show the full picture.

God loves us just as we are. True. But He also says, I love you so much that you need to turn from who you are.

Just because you were born a certain way, that doesn't mean that God accepts certain lifestyles. We have to turn from those things that we know to be wrong. Repentance is a true gift from God that affects everything in our lives.

And again, this is where I picked up just a few minutes ago. Repentance is a principle of revival. It, along with prayer, is the first step toward revival.

Like what Pastor Abram read last night, this story of New Hebrides revival with Duncan Campbell and the two blind sisters. I know the story very well. They were praying for revival.

And it's actually, if you go real deep, one of the sisters even had a dream or a vision that a man named Duncan Campbell would come to the island, and then God redirected him from a conference. He was speaking at a conference, and he knew he had to just leave the conference. Got on a boat.

Ended up in New Hebrides. And God brought revival. Because they followed the promptings.

But it was prayer and repentance. Because it's hard to pray if you're in sin. And the young man stood up in that prayer meeting and said, God, give me clean hands and a pure heart.

Why are we here just saying this? Are my hands clean? Is my heart dirty, Lord? Begin in me and the fire of God came upon that man. And that fire spreads. That fire of the Holy Spirit spreads.

You can be certain. You can be certain that at the forefront of every significant recovery from backsliding, that the doctrine of repentance has been among the precious truths that God has quickened and used. Did you catch that? At the forefront of every significant recovery from backsliding.

Any time a prodigal son comes home. Any time the nation is awakened with the first great awakening, second great awakening, New York prayer meeting. There was actually a revival you can read about within the Civil War.

Any time God quickens a church, brings a season of revival, always repentance is a precious truth that He resurrects. Because you've got to get your hearts clean and your minds clean and your hands clean before God. It's one thing to pray, but it's another thing to repent and pray.

That brings the power of God into our hearts and into our lives. And you can go back and you can look at different sermons. The sermons that sparked the greatest revivals, when those that were genuine, those sermons were focused on repentance, calling a nation back to God.

Calling that nation. What all the pulpits should be saying tomorrow morning is repent, nation, and turn back to God. It's not okay for moms to say, I have reproductive rights and I can kill a child.

And to dress up as a woman and dance in front of kids and say you can become a man if you're a woman and you can have a baby. No, you can't. This is ridiculous.

We've lost our mind. We need to repent from it. We need to repent and turn back to God.

This is perversion. It's debauchery. I can get deep in biblical terms.

It is God mocking. And you must call people to repentance. That's the only hope.

Oh, we might lose some of our audience. Yeah, you might. But you'll gain the audience of God's ear.

You'll gain His heart. Can you imagine? You turn on Joel Osteen, Steva Furnick, Andy Stanley, T.D. Jakes. Man, there's repent.

The nation has drifted. Repent and turn back to God. We've got the blood of innocent children on our hands.

We have mocked God's definition of marriage. We have trampled on the sacred text of Scripture. Turn back to God, America.

I pray for that, but I have my doubts. The basic fact that revival is related to righteousness. The way to a revived church is still the way of repentance and true holiness.

See, many people focus on holiness with the wrong attitude. From attire, to what I watch, to I fast twice a week, and I'm so holy. But then, no, you're actually a stench in the nostrils of God.

That's proud and arrogant. I don't want to know how holy you are by your lips. I want to see how holy you are by your fruit.

What follows? What follows? Because as you cry out to God and as you humble yourself and as you pray, holiness is a byproduct of that. What is holy is holy and set apart for God's glory. He uses those precious truths of holiness and repentance.

When God opens the heavens through a spiritual awakening, it's always because Christians repented and spent time praying. They paid the price. Wait a minute, Christians have to repent? I don't remember what it was, but I think I apologized to my wife a couple of days ago.

What was that? Tell me later. Don't tell me now. And other people, correct? It's that posture of repentance.

It's that humility. Sorry, I've been told, I don't know if he's here, probably I was kind of quick out the door last night, and I didn't have a chance to talk to him as much. I apologized when I saw him tonight just to make sure there's that tenderness, that humility that you want to have.

Sometimes we don't have it, and the flesh gets the best of you. Doesn't it? Anytime you're hungry, angry, lonely, and tired, watch out. Those are opportune times.

Can you repeat that again? Hungry? They call it hangry. I made sure that wasn't happening. I grabbed a little gummy bear.

Hungry, angry, lonely, tired, opportune times for the enemy to strike. Humble yourself before God. Maybe some of you are listening, different states, or you'll hear this later, if you're holding on to negativity and I know depression is a hard thing, negativity, depression, you're dead spiritually, I would encourage you to actually repent of that and say, God, this is not a right attitude.

I feel it. I can't do anything about it. I'm trying.

And you acknowledge it. You repent. You repent of it.

Again, not for salvation, but for sanctification. Anytime God moves in a powerful and profound way, somebody paid the price. Somebody gave up their pride and said, I'm sorry, I apologize.

How can I work on it? How can I make it better? And then you follow through. There's a price maybe that God wants us to pay. And it's difficult sometimes, isn't it? Many of you have been asking, so I think I'll tell you, but I was invited to a thing with Trump and 150 pastors in North Carolina.

It was just a few days ago and they had another one they invited me to on Monday. But this rend the heavens is the priority. Nothing's going to come in to that place.

There's always a cost to seeking God. There might be time for that later. I don't know.

I'm not a photo op guy and things like that anyway. I don't know really the point of it other than it'd be cool. But there's a price that you might have to pay for your family.

You might have to pray to God about changing your job if it's affecting your family. Maybe different hours. I don't know.

Pray that God, I need You to change something in this because it's not heading in a good direction. Prayer is the outflow of inner change. And I want to put up Tozer's quote again.

I wish I could put this up every night if I could. Why does God manifest His presence to some and let multitudes of others struggle? Of course, the will of God is the same for all. He has no favorites within His household.

The difference lies not with God, but with us. I can tell you right now, Shane Eidelman is not one of His favorites. He's no respecter of persons at all.

He'll slap me just as quick as anybody else. If He's not a respecter of people, what's He a respecter of? Principles. No respecter of people.

I'm a respecter of principles, what they do for me. The principle of repentance is life-altering. We must confess.

If your fire has faded during rent in the heavens, and many people who aren't coming, it's because their fire has faded, it'd be like asking you to go do a root canal tomorrow. If you don't have, hey, let's go and no thanks. I have no desire to do that.

So there's not a desire anymore. If that fire has faded, ask God to reignite that fire. Repentance is not outdated.

It's a very relevant word from the heart of God. Psalm 66, if I regard iniquity, in other words, if I keep iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So has God ever convicted you to do something? Like make that right with that person? Or change that habit? Or, I mean, we could sit here for a while and go over different examples.

Or an addiction. And if we hold that iniquity in our heart, like hold on to it, it blocks that line of communication. Jesus compared those who did not repent with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying they'd be more tolerable for them in the day of judgment than for those who did not repent.

Why? Because Jesus is saying, the Messiah is here. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent.

They had the knowledge of Jesus, yet they did not repent. So I'm going to leave you with these top five rewards of repentance. I told you it would take a while to get here, but it'll be worth it.

Number one, the top five rewards, joy. Anybody need some joy tonight? Joy. Now, I'm not naive.

I've heard every story under the sun. I've seen a lot of different situations. Sometimes, we don't experience joy, and there's nothing we need to repent of.

We've repented ten times over. We struggle maybe with depression. We've lost our joy.

So I'm not minimizing that. But nine times out of ten, when you repent, especially when you're an unbeliever, and you are converted, your sins are blotted out, so the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. But even as a believer, when we repent, doesn't it feel better? Or is it just me? I don't know.

You get that out. You repent. You apologize.

You work on that. Take it to the Lord. Lord, help me.

And there's this joy that follows. I think it's because the fruit of the Spirit is joy. Right? Love, peace, long-suffering, joy.

So if the fruit of the Spirit is joy, and I'm suppressing the Spirit by sin, quenching and grieving, instead of joy coming out, what comes out? You don't want to know. The flesh is like... Anybody know what a cesspool is? Yeah, you know what a cesspool is? Okay. Well, look it up later.

I won't tell you. But that's what Washington, D.C. Okay. So, that is what the flesh is.

It's a filth. It comes out. And we have to repent of that often.

And when D.L. Moody first said that, I've quoted it a lot, but I'll remind us tonight again, that we are leaky vessels. We have to sit underneath the fountain of living water every day. I immediately knew what he was talking about.

We are leaky. The Holy Spirit... I mean, I wish we could just stay full all the time, but there is a battle for your... I don't think you lose your salvation, but there's a battle for your testimony. There's a battle for you being... The enemy does not want you full of the Spirit.

The worst thing in the world for the devil and his minions and the demonic realm is a Spirit-filled Christian because they have to bow their knee to the Jesus Christ in you. Because now you can speak with authority to the demonic realm. That's why they would cast them out or that darkness and you would pray and you would have more strength.

Greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world. So imagine battlegrounds. The armies have been drawn and the line of the sand and these armies are coming together and when you're not Spirit-filled, you are an easy target.

You can go down easy. The enemy can keep you down. And if we were to take a survey, in the majority, millions and millions and millions of Christians, I would say a large percentage of them are not Spirit-filled.

They're not doing battle. They don't have the full armor of God on. Their armor has fallen off and they're sitting on the couch watching Netflix.

They're disengaged. When have they led anybody to the Lord? They stopped anybody and just prayed for them. Because the Holy Spirit in you wants to do the things for God.

And so if the enemy can take us out, kill our testimony, become a grumbler and complainer. I don't know about you, but I don't pray well when I'm grumbling and complaining. And it's an epidemic right now.

It's an epidemic. I've never seen it more. And I don't blame people, correct? I mean, there's a lot to grumble and complain about.

Trust me. I can go on a rant for a while. But pulling ourselves back into that thankfulness.

And then there's peace, number two. Peace. Philippians, in context, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.

And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and minds through Christ Jesus. Now, although this verse doesn't... Oh, I kind of messed up there. I put a six.

Should have went four, six, or seven. But it doesn't say repentance leads to peace necessarily, but we know that when we're in a right relationship with God, peace follows without a shadow of a doubt. And then another reward of repentance, there is restoration and renewal.

How many of you need restoration in a relationship? Or restoration with God? Or renewal with God? When the prodigal son was hungry, he ate with the pigs, but when he was starving, when he was desperate, he repented. And he ran home to the father who embraced him with open arms. Once he repented, can you... I don't know.

I don't want to speculate, but he could have been eaten with the pigs until he died. An old man eating with the pigs. Oh, I don't want to move back.

I'll have to work in the field. My dad was a drill sergeant. I'm a victim.

Look what God's done to me. That victim mentality will keep you stuck many times. I'm not saying I don't have compassion for that because we all have been through something, but don't let it keep you from seeking more of God.

Repentance can restore that relationship with God. There's a renewed fervency. We see it here all the time.

The people, they repent in the prayer room or up front, and I see them again. They're like, Shane, guess what? What? I love the Bible now. I'm making time for God.

I don't watch YouTube as much or social media. And man, my fellowship's renewed. And there's that smile on their face.

There's that joy in their eyes because they repented and they cleaned that line of communication and restoration followed and renewal, spiritual renewal, always precedes repentance. And then anybody need direction tonight determining God's will? Isaiah 59-2 reveals, your sins have separated you from God. And it's actually hid His face from you so that He's not going to hear you.

I just heard this a while ago. I've been praying for God for a year and He won't show me. He seems distant.

I don't know what to do. Now, I can only speculate, and it could not be true, but could it be that sin, unrepentant sin, is blocking that line of communication? It says here, Isaiah. It's like if you read all of chapter 59, God wants to hear.

That's what's unbelievable. God wants to hear. Is not My hand short that I cannot save you? I can.

Is My ear not heavy that I cannot hear you? I can hear. I want to. But, your sin has separated you from Me.

And because of that, I cannot hear, I cannot answer until you fix the line of communication through repentance. And then for some, not all of you, but the final thing is repentance can lead to salvation and forgiveness of sin. A person will never become a believer in Jesus Christ and have a right relationship with God until they repent.

Now, it might look different. I mean, you'll say this little prayer. I don't want to get into the weeds on that, but how a person repents.

Sometimes it's just a crying at the altar, right? Or in your house. You didn't even say a prayer. But what repented? Your heart.

Your heart broke. Tears followed. The right kind of tears.

But it's clear. Confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. I truly believe that many Christians, they're not quite there yet.

They're a Christian in name only, but they haven't experienced the deep work of salvation because they've never repented. Think about it. Like you, were you raised in a Christian home? And I know what to listen for now.

Well, my parents were Christians. I was raised in a Christian home. I was brought to church at six months old.

I've known there's a God ever since I was little. We went on Wednesdays and Sundays. But have you repented? Tell me about your conversion experience.

And watch the gymnastics. Well, I've known God since I was a baby. Okay, but was there a time in your life where you said, Jesus, I'm a sinner.

Save me. Be careful. Because many draw near to Christ with their words, but their hearts are far from Him.

It's something we should take serious, isn't it? Paul actually said, examine yourselves. Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you? Examine yourselves. Lasting hope and joy are byproducts of a right relationship with God.

Beginning with repentance. The truth about repentance will set you free. I'm going to actually end on this screen right here.

I've got two other screens, but I'm not going to put those up because I'm saving those for tomorrow. But some listening here, maybe you're here now, maybe you'll hear this later. This is a proper response when you hear what the Word of God says about this topic.

From 2 Kings, now it happened when the king heard the words of the book of the law that he tore his clothes and repented. I think it was Josiah actually, and he brought renewal and revival back into the kingdom of Israel. The proper response when you hear the message of repentance is not to put up your defenses.

Anybody do that? I'm going to tell you a little secret. One of the reasons I like preaching more than talking to individuals is because if I said this to 300 people, how many of them would fight me on it? They're not open. They're not open to it.

The proper response if God is calling you to repentance, whether salvation or to repent as a Christian on something that's in your life that you need to deal with. Don't let pride keep you from the fullness of the Spirit. And consider even getting baptized tonight.

Actually, we should break it down sometimes, but it's not just an outward, right? We're expressing outwardly what God's done in our heart. But the Bible, it actually represents death, burial, and resurrection. Down with the old.

Up with the new. And it represents as they come out of the water. That's why it's an immersion, not little sprinkles.

Not as a baby. It's a believer's baptism being down, dead, burial, and then resurrected. It's an incredible symbol of what Christ has done in our heart.

And let us know. We'll be in the prayer room if you need to be baptized, even if you've been a Christian for a while and you want to make that decision, let us know. Or if you're coming to know the Lord for the first time.

That's been happening a lot lately at the services. The Bible is clear. Crystal clear.

Actually, let's go ahead and put up those two slides. I think it's important just for you to see this, even though I think it's against Sunday morning or Sunday night. Zephaniah.

Zephaniah. Don't worry, I'm going somewhere. Who's Zephaniah? He was a prophet.

The northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians. And the southern kingdom of Judah aligned with the Assyrians. And God was not happy because their influence had taken His people captive into sin.

The great day of the Lord is near. It is near. It comes quickly.

The noise of the day. It's bitter. The mighty men will even cry.

Cry out. The day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble, a day of distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of a trumpet and the alarm against the fortified cities. He's basically saying no matter how fortified your cities are, when God's judgment comes, it's going to be like a bulldozer knocking down that wall, coming in and judging the people against the high towers.

I will bring distress upon all men and they will walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord. Why does he use such strong language? Because in the Bible, strong language encourages a strong response. Do you want to know? I'm going to give you, I'm going to open up a little bit here.

Do you know, Abraham called me John the Baptist last night. That's good. But why is that? Why do I use the jarring in your face? Because it's a strong message of the gospel.

It's a strong call to holiness. It's a strong call to seek God with all your heart. And sometimes, you've got to hit you with the right punch, and I've got to wake you up and wake you up out of that slumber.

The strong message of the Bible, it requires a strong response. Thank God it's not singing lullabies and bedtime stories. It's telling you the truth that the day of judgment of God will come upon them and they are not prepared.

But then God says, so gather yourselves together, you, oh, desirable nation. Come now and decree to God before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, before the Lord's anger comes upon you. Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth.

Seek righteousness, seek humility, and it may be that you'll be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. Incredible. That's why I don't know why people get so bent out of shape.

Yeah, that's hard to hear, but God says, hey, here's the solution. Here's the solution. It's called the cross.

It's called repentance. I don't want to do that. Really? Really? He's not asking you to go walk across the United States with those shoes on.

Pride. Pride. Pride.

You want to be God. You want to control your life. You are the master of your own destiny even though you don't even own your own heartbeat.

Bow your knee to Jesus Christ. Bow your knee to the one true and living God. It says, seek the Lord while He may be found.

Right now, He can still be found. Three times in the book of Hebrews, as I told you before, it says when you hear His voice, harden not your heart. How do you hear His voice? What in the world do you think we're doing here? We're telling you what the Word of God says.

You hear the voice of God. Humble yourself and repent and believe. Or Christian, stop walking around in pride and arrogance.

It's a stench in the nostrils of God. It bothers me too. Humble yourself.

It's sad. Isn't it sad to see a cocky Christian? That might be a good sermon title. Man, dude, relax.

Relax. You're critical and you're angry and you're arrogant and you're uppity and you just think you have all the answers. Where's the gentleness and the meekness? I haven't mastered that, but I want to.

I want to. I sometimes get things about my own life. And I remember it was on Avenue L. It was a little church over there by Vons and I was always sitting in the back.

I'm like, there's no way I'm going forward. I got together. Right? I'm shamed and big, strong, bench pressing, drinking beer, beating people up on the weekends.

No way. You know how that will look? And then month after month, you know God. So for me, it might not be free, but for me, it was pride.

Pride. How is that going to look? If you're worried about something in the Christian faith, how it's going to look to others and not pleasing God, you might be quenching and grieving the Spirit. Jesus even said, woe be to you when all men speak well of you.

Whoever pleases man is not pleasing God.