Manifesto of Fruitfulness | The Fruit of Repentance

2 Corinthians 7, verse 8 through 16. Paul writes this, "Even if I cause you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it, I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while. Yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you, what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourself, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourself to be innocent in this matter. So even though I wrote to you, it was neither on account of the one who did the wrong nor on account of the injured party, but rather that before God, you could see yourselves how devoted to us you are. By all this, we are encouraged. In addition to our own encouragement, we are especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. I boasted to him about you and you have not embarrassed me. But just as everything we said to you was true, so are boasting about you to Titus has proved to be true as well. And his affection for you is all the greater when he remembers that you were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling. I am glad I can have complete confidence in you. This is the word of the Lord. Well, a very good evening to you. Last weekend, I was in Scotland. I was in Glasgow in the morning and then Edinburgh at night. I was there for Alters Scotland. Now, if you're not familiar with what the Alters conference is, that's a conference our church runs every year in January and we have about 2,500 people from New York and those who fly in from around the world to learn about how to build a church that seeks God by studying your lives. And it's really a remarkable thing because in the kindness of God, he has built a praying church here in the middle of New York. And it encourages people because our church is a large church. We own no buildings. We have no permanent facilities. And other churches that have buildings and are sort of looking at us going, hang on, they're in a super transient city. They don't own anything. They're moving this stuff every week. And yet in the middle of all of that, they believe Jesus is so worthy. They have built a church that is seeking His presence. So, in partnership with my very dear friends, Tommy and Donna McNeil, who were pastors in the Hebrides, they launched last week, Alters Scotland. And it was phenomenal.

We had 150 churches from across Scotland coming together for an encounter with Jesus to learn how to build praying churches. And again, they're modeling that based on your faithfulness and what you're doing in your church. So I just want to say, it is a joy to lead a church that loves Jesus, that is seeking God with all of their might. And when people come in New York for selfish ambition to build their own kingdoms, it is a sign and a wonder to everybody that people like yourselves would put Jesus first and seek His kingdom first. So, it was wonderful. But I will say this, it's good to be back. Good to be back here in the New York. I'm continuing tonight. By the way, hello to everybody in the balconies. It feels like the balconies grew by 200 people since I was here two weeks ago. Hello, people in the balconies. It's great to have you. Good to see you tonight. We are in a series on the fruitful Christian life. And I've loved this series because it's such a freeing and powerful message for the Christian heart. You were born to live a life of staggering fruitfulness. In fact, Jesus said, you didn't choose me. I chose you. And I called you to bear fruit. You are destined to live a fruitful life. And not just a mildly fruitful life, not just where you struggle a little bit and have a season of fruitfulness every now and then. You've been ordained to bear much fruit. That's a remarkable vision of life. And so we've been trying to lean into the vision, say yes to the vision that Jesus offers. And then the last few weeks we've been talking about the different kinds of fruit. What exactly happens when you abide in Jesus' love? What does he produce through you that goes on to bless the world? And tonight I wanna talk about the fruit I know you've been waiting the longest for. And you know what, that is the fruit of repentance. Yes, that's right, the fruit of repentance. The importance and need to get right with God. Now, I'm not sure what comes into your mind when you hear the word repentance.

My guess is it's something like this. How many of you, how many of you in your minds, when you think of the word repent or repentance, have an image of somebody calling their city to repent like this. The other side of that side, by the way, is like, it's the next slide. Kind of a wake up Satan's brainwashed cattle. And I was like, I thought I'd have seen it all, never seen that. (congregation laughing) I think a lot of us, when we think about repentance, have a negative association with the word and the idea, because it's been presented in a format that seems so disconnected from how we actually follow Jesus in our everyday lives. No one's walking around, I think you don't wake up every day and there's someone holding a sign out in the front of your house that says, "You must read your Bible before you leave." We don't do massive signs by default in our everyday life. And so you can have a concept that is important. Jesus spoke about repentance, but the presentation of it is dissonant to our experience of living it out and it can sort of throw us off. And so I want you to know I unpack the beauty of what repentance is so you get a vision of it and so you see it as good news. I came across this in on repentance

that I think is a beautiful articulation. It says this repentance remains one of the most profoundly misunderstood, culturally resistant and yet utterly transformational concepts. Ready? In human history. In modern secularized culture, it's frequently reduced to a psychological state of guilt, a begrudging admission of fault or an emotional reflex triggered by the fear of consequences. However, the biblical and historical witness reveals repentance to be something far more substantive. A categorical reorientation of the human self. Do you understand what a meta statement that is? A categorical reorientation of the human self. It operates simultaneously as a theological mechanism for human salvation, a sociological instrument for communal harmony and a psychological anchor for individual wholeness. Far from being a mere emotional response, true repentance involves a fundamental shift in trajectory, a movement away from spiritual exile and back towards covenant belonging. What a claim, one of the most revolutionary forces in human history. It has sociological implications, psychological implications, communal implications. You need to understand and have a beautiful relationship with a vision of repentance. Now, not only are there cultural categories that make it fuzzy and unclear in our mind,

I think there's resistance when it comes to repentance. Part of the reason is because we work so hard to create a version of ourselves that others find acceptable and pleasing. We have a projected self that we say to other people, "I don't want you to know everything about me. "I don't want you to know my secrets, my shame. "I don't want you to know my past. "I don't want you to know my struggles. "I just want you to know I'm available "and I'm winning, baby. "We present an image of the world "where we want to be liked." And so the concept of getting behind the veneer we've created and being honest with our struggles can feel like a threat rather than a gift. I also think we can fear repentance because sometimes when people do confess their sins in public, the church handles it poorly. And so what is supposed to be a safe space for confession of sin and healing that comes a weaponized space where things are used against you? And if that's ever happened to you, I just want to say, I'm sorry, that is not how repentance is supposed to be used. But I think more than that, we have an enemy who wants to separate us from God and leave us in our guilt and shame. Satan's got a three-pronged strategy,

kill, steal, destroy. He has two primary tools, guilt and condemnation, and he has one fundamental role that he plays to make this happen. He's called the accuser of the brethren. And his ultimate goal is not to accuse you from outside, it's to internalize his voice of accusation so that you start to believe and think about yourself the way he thinks about you. And if he can keep you in that state where he feels like what you've done is too bad, too much, too far, God's disappointed in you and God could never forgive you, he's got you right where he wants you. So there will always be resistance around repentance. So to deal with this resistance, to overcome the objections, sermon on this. Folks, I'm going for a five-parter tonight. Okay, I've got five things I want to say. I know you can handle it. Here's what we're going to talk about. What repentance is, biddlically, quick survey of the old and your testament. Why we need the gift of repentance, true versus false repentance, so you can understand it. The process of repentance, how to actually get good at repenting to find life, and then the freedom and joy you experience on the other side of it, which is ultimately what God intends for you. So let's jump in. Point number one, what is repentance? Repentance has, there's a little bit more than this, but four main ideas in the Old and New Testament. I think that are important to understand, to give you a holistic picture of what repentance is. The first word that's used for repent is the word "shove." It's used over a thousand times, and it means to turn around to return or to restore in the ancient Near East. It was used to describe a traveler going back home, an army retreating from a battle or a river reversing its course. It's fundamentally about the direction you are going in your life. It's not fundamentally about feelings. It's about direction. It's about reversing the narrative of

exile, where sea, where we're cast away from God, and reorienting our hearts to turn to the Lord. Malachi 3.7 has a beautiful picture of this. The word is used twice here. It says, "Return to me, and I will return to you." What a vision of reconciliation. You turn to God, God turns to you, and you come home in covenant belonging. The second word that's about direction, the direction of your life. The second word in the calm that is used deals more with the emotional and responsive dimension of repentance. It has the idea of breathing heavily or of sighing deeply, and it is the, again, it's on the emotional register more than the intellectual. It's about a relational response to distance, and so in the Old Testament it's about the direction that you're heading towards God or away from God, and it's about having that sense of sorrow or heavy-heartedness because of what sin has done. The New Testament has two main words. Metamalomia, this absolutely means to feel regret or remorse. This is the word that's used when Judas Iscariot feels remorse for betraying Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, and he's grieved in his spirit. So it says there's an emotional component of it. And then the last word, Metamalomia, in ancient Greek, in ancient Greek, which may be a language, but in ancient Greek it was used to literally mean afterthought or hindsight. It's the idea of a profound, almost like a paradigm shift in your thoughts. And then the biblical writers incorporated that word to make it about the transformation of the heart, not just about life in general, about Christ and his salvation. So just to recap quickly, it's about the direction of your life. It's about the heaviness of heart for your sin. It's about feeling deeply the brokenness of what a severed relationship is. And it's about turning our minds in response to what we have learned. So I want to give you a working definition of repentance. It's biblical repentance is a grace enabled turning from sin towards God that involves a changed understanding, honest sorrow, renewed allegiance, and an embodied change in all of life. It is a holistic, directional, emotional, motivational, insightful understanding of our relationship with God and sin that leads to restoration, our relationship with him. Got it? Better than a sign. Number two, why do we need repentance? Firstly, because it is so central in the Bible, the Bible is fundamentally a book about how to get right with God. And it's fundamentally a book about what God has done to make us right with himself. So the whole thing, the whole Bible is like, where are you turning? You understand this? If you read Steinbeck and East of Eden, the direction of exile is east and now the whole narrative is about a God who invites us back.

And so in Genesis, repentance is about God's faithfulness trust. The prophets will call people back in repentance again and again and again. Come back to God. Come back to God. Come back to God. Does anybody remember the opening words of Jesus, ministry in the gospel of Mike? It's not a trick question here. I'm in a sermon on repentance. It's repent. Thank you, Keith, and that's right. Jesus opening words in the gospel like a repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Change the direction of your life, change your paradigm of what life is about, walk in a new direction. It's a central theme. It's the teaching of the apostles, all the way through the book of Acts. Pentecost, the gentle inclusion of what's required of the Gentiles. Paul's understanding the message he's preaching in Rome at the end of the book of Acts. The epistles are filled with the idea of repentance. And Jesus, at the end of the book of Revelation, Revelation two and three, is turning to the churches. And he says again and again and again, repent, repent, repent. Be diligent, be earnest, repent. And even says this, those I love, I discipline, repent. By the way, I was walking in last night, I was walking through the city, I was praying. My prayer walk ended at Van Leuen ice cream. Your prayer works in them whenever they want, but that honeycomb is unbelievable. And I was reflecting, I was walking through Times Square, I live in Midtown, I was walking through Times Square 'cause that's my closest location. And I was thinking about how in the book of Revelation, Jesus critiques the churches

for the giving into the idolatry of the cities they live in. And he says to him who overcomes, overcoming the spirit of the city in which they live, he gives the staggering rewards. And I was just thinking as I was walking in what way is New York winning? Is the culture of New York winning in my heart, winning in my affections, winning my life vision? And I wonder what Jesus would offer if I overcame by the grace of Jesus, the spirit of New York and lived in the spirit of the kingdom of heaven. It's a beautiful vision in the Bible of repentance. I think another reason why we need repentance, not just because it's central in the Bible, but because our culture has no consistent or working models to offer us really about how to deal with our sin and brokenness. There's not a consistent model. Here's why, we are the first society, I think genuinely, Western society, that has shifted morality from external norms that people are required to live up to, to subjective internal norms that we come up with based on how we're feeling. And so as a result of that, none of us can truly agree on an objective standard of what is right or what is wrong. I'll give you an example of this. How many of you have seen those videos

where someone comes up to someone and says, hey, I'm gonna read you a quote. And it's a quote obviously from someone they believe that they should hate culturally, like, I don't know, like a president or someone from another religion. And I'll say, I wanna read you this quote, what are you thinking? They're like, they're disgusting. I hate that. And they go, your leader said that 20 years ago, have you seen any of those gotcha videos? The most alarming thing is how subjective people's morality is over the course of time. And so what do we do when no one can agree on what's right and wrong? We internalize our feelings and we say, I guess there's no objective right and wrong, there's just my subjective experience. So instead of trying to figure out how we can conform our lives to external norms, we go to people to tell us, help us make sense of our internal subjective feelings. And the result of that is, you know what is, here's what it's called, ready? Moral chaos is what it's called. All you're left with when you get rid of objective norms is power structures that oppress each other. You do not have a subjective standard of what is right or wrong right is whoever has power in any given moment for the masses.

So our society is not flourishing with subjective internal values. I also think our society has lost the idea of mercy. We've turned canceling people into a form of entertainment. We are guilty of failure porn. We are watching and objectifying the moral failures of other people like it's a form of entertainment. The church is no better than the world on this. And so you know what that makes us do? It makes us terrified of acknowledging wrong. If someone acknowledges wrong, people aren't like, "Hey, I understand, "let's have mercy on you because you've had a hard time." You know, they're like, "Kill our enemies. "They're weak and exposed, attack." And so that's why there's so many culture clashes in our society and there's so much division. And I think our culture, I think in general, I certainly am. We're sick of patronizing corporate, hollow apologies that mean nothing, that change nothing, that damage our world. And so someone, a PR group will get together with the CEO who's done tremendous damage, or some leader, and they'll come along and they'll come up with a little bit of spin. But really behind the scenes, they're just reassuring shareholders. This will blow over in a couple of months.

We'll get our earnings back on track. Don't worry about it. They say things like, "I'll do the work. "Thank you for making me aware." "I'll try harder. "Nothing's gonna change." It's corporate, hollow, PR, gobbledygook. It does not transform our society. I think so many people, when they trot out, it just feels like empty promises. Now, if I sound cynical, it's because I am, okay? And when a society has nothing higher in its value system that share, hold a value and not the common good, it will damage people. We need repentance because our world's got nothing to offer, but I'm not here just to critique the world. We need repentance because of the sin and brokenness inside the church. Now in the passage we had tonight for the teaching text, Paul is addressing the Corinthians. How many of you guys have read first and second Corinthians lately? Such a great book, but really disappointed by that show of hands, but I love you so much. Phenomenal section of the New Testament doesn't take that long. It's about the same length as sense and sensibility, I think, just for a reference point. So the Corinthian church, which is a New Testament church, was a disaster. Paul opens one Corinthians in one Corinthians 3 by saying, "You are so worldly in how you categorize people in human categories that I can't even call you spiritual. You're just like acting like everybody else." And some people are like, "Well, I follow Paul and I was like, 'Well, I follow Peter or I follow the super spiritual ones, I follow Jesus.'" And he's like, "No, you don't, you follow yourselves, you're immature." The Corinthians lived in a pretty raunchy city, pretty, pretty promiscuous by culture. And they had someone in their church who was like, "Hey, you know what?

Love is love. I'm going to do me. I've fallen in love with my stepmom and we're in a consensual, sexual relationship. I just, this is my truth, and I want to bring this into the church community." And the Corinthians is like, "Great man, you do you." And Paul's like, "Don't do you. No." They said, "Even the Corinthians outside in the city are like, 'What are you guys doing inside the church?'" We don't even do stuff like that because it disrespects our social order. There were also elitists. Paul wasn't a great public speaker, great writer, but not a great public speaker. And so other preachers would come along and they're like, "We've got podcasts. We love more than you, Paul. And I've got this ministry I give to online that I'm tracking with. And I love how he thinks about the end times. I don't like your end time as katology. And so I'm going to go with them and not you. I don't submit to your authority anymore." And he's like, "What are you talking about? These people are using you for money. They don't know you, care about you." And then worse than that, the church services were terrible. Imagine walking in here tonight and you came a little early for the prayer time. But people were drunk because they had gotten there early and they were throwing up because they had this massive feast and they were sick. And you try to get in and they're like, "What am I even doing here?" Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, "When you come together, your gatherings do more harm than good." He's like, "We're going to stop your gatherings for a minute here because you're so lost

your point. Are you with me?" This is a church in the Bible. And so repentance is a theme through the Bible because we are broken people that need ways to be right with God when we foreshort of his standards and his glory. The church needs to get repentance back in our midst. Sometimes churches have celebrity-style reputation protection where they're just doing reputational damage and they're doing PR when they sin, or public humiliation is entertainment, or this I see this the most. When someone needs to be corrected in church, they just say, "Who are you to tell me?" And they just go to another church, like you're completely autonomous. God, I don't want to freak you out right now, okay? But I regularly hang out with pastors from all the church, your other church. I go hang out with pastors from your other church. I hang out with pastors in this city all the time. And you know what we talk about the most? You. We're in the people business. We talk about people. We talk about what we sense God doing. We talk about common temptations that are happening. We talk about what people are wrestling with. So the myth that Protestants absolutely know and knows what's going on and you're a spiritually autonomous person. You can go wherever you want. If someone is really problematic in a church, you know what? If we do it our breakfast, share their name with every other church as a warning so that they don't avoid accountability. You know what that's called? Christianity.

Have you read Acts 20? When Paul says, "Be on your guard from among your own midst, savage wolves will arrive up, trying to distort followers after themselves, not sparing the flock," listen, you can't get There is spiritual authority. So, my simple point is, pastors need accountability, Christians need accountability because we have sin and brokenness and we've got to find ways to repent in the midst of it all. Now, this point, you're like, this feels like a sign. It feels like you're holding up a sign, not holding up a sign, holding up my heart. Let's keep going. (congregation murmuring) If there is a lot of sin, if there is a lot of confusion, if there is a lot of distortion, how can you tell if someone means it or they're faking it? How can you tell the difference between true and false repentant? Well, when the Corinthians, the Corinthians are a case study in true repentance. Look at what Paul says, 2 Corinthians 7, 10. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads. I don't want to rush past this verse. This is an unbelievable verse of hope. Godly sorrow brings repentance

that leads to salvation and leads no regret. Does anybody want to be saved? Does anybody want to walk through life with no regret? The way through that is through Godly sorrow and repentance. But worldly sorrow brings death. It will kill you. Now, false repentance, this that brings death, has a few key traits. I don't want to show you what the first one is. False repentance is consequence focused. It's all about what has happened. It's not about formation. It's not about love. It's not relational. It's all about, oh, dang it, I've been caught. It's consequence focused. It focuses on a loss of reputation, loss of pleasure, loss of control, loss of goals, loss of life, momentum. The whole focus is I can't anymore because this has happened. False repentance also produces self justification or self condemnation. Whenever you're caught, you probably have an instinct. The instinct is this. Well, what about them? Have you ever had that instinct? What about them? Have you ever got a speeding ticket? And you're like, I was only doing 80. What about all the people going faster than me?

It's like, this is not a conversation about the interstate system in America. This is a conversation about you speeding. So we often measure and get defensive based on other people's sins versus our own sins. We justify what we do based on others' behavior. Or, and I don't know if you've ever experienced this, I sure have, you just feel completely self condemned. It's like, I suck, man, I can't do this. Like, it doesn't matter how hard I try. I'm just never gonna be able to be a good Christian. Like, I've tried to fight this again and again and again. What is the point of trying? But the emphasis is still on you and the consequences. Here's some ways I think I've seen false repentance. He's like some little conversation or tells or thought tells that it's false repentance because it's about defensiveness. How about this one? Minimization. It was only a joke, it was only a joke. What about comparison? Other people have done way worse than me? Displacement. Like other people told me to do it. Like my manager made me do it. Someone at church made me do it. It wasn't me. Diffusion. Everybody else is doing this, man.

The whole team did this. Everyone of my companies doing this. Euphemisms, like you're lowering it by the language you use. Here's my classic, ah, it's not looking good mate. It's not looking good mate. Rather than using specific language to describe exactly what's gone wrong, it's generalized into lighter language. It's less serious. What about when you defend your own intent? I didn't mean it that way. Why are you taking it that way? That is a sign of false repentance. Or what about counter accusations? What about what they did? Now, I never want to embarrass my adult children, both of whom I hear tonight. I never want to. I will. I don't want to. I will. No. When my kids were young, whenever they got caught doing something wrong, the only thing they would say is what about Nate? Or what about Hailey? What about Hailey? What about you, mate? What about Hailey? And they would just counter accuse one another

in a giant circle of accusation. And don't want that. Next, reputational defense. This is a classic. You know, I'm really good, really good, in these other areas of my life. Discharging guilt because of general goodness in other areas. Spiritual dismissing. You know, Christians should just extend Christians should extend grace. Or premature closure, I already apologize why you still upset about this. These are just all signs of a worldly, self-focused, defensive repentance. And I don't think this is what God has in mind. Spurgeon says this, "Do not sit down and try to pump up repentance from the dry well of your corrupt nature." And so I think a lot of people do this, they try and just motivate themselves, or they try and be good, or they try and do the work, or they try and care, but it just wears off because it's coming from an internal place of brokenness. True repentance, very different, and has very different fruit. See what the Corinthians did in verse 11 here. This to me is incredible. Paul notes, and I want you to look

at how expressive, dynamic, and nuanced he describes their repentance. Verse 11, 2 Corinthians 7 verse 11. See what this godly sorry has produced in you? Well, what's it produced? So here's what he says. What earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourself, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. That is a diligent, whole-hearted response. So I want you to note this. True repentance is not self-focused, it's God-focused. Now, when something goes wrong in your life, when you sin, or someone sins against you, is your immediate action to discharge blame, or to simply say, God, this is, I'm sorry. This I've sinned against you. I think there's no clear example in the Old Testament than Saul versus David. Now, I want you to just tune in for a second here, and I want you to ask, who do you think committed the worst sins? The King Saul offers a sacrifice early because his troops are discouraged and start to flee because Samuel's late for the sacrifice. So he's like, hey, man, the leader's got a lead, the prophet's not here, I'm gonna lead. Next one, God tells him to totally destroy a city

that has been in violent rebellion against it, like a city that's the equivalent of the SS. And then Saul comes up with his own interpretation of what that means, and he disobeys God. He's trying to do God a favor by reinterpreting God's commands. Okay, so failure to fully obey and doing a sacrifice out of time. Here's David. Utilizes his power to prey on a woman, gets her pregnant, kills her husband, marries her, covers it up using his power as a king. Did you get it? Murder, adultery, sacrifice, partial obedience. I don't know about you. This to me feels pretty serious. This is serious, but I want you to notice. It's not in the extent of the sins they committed. It's in the attitude of their heart towards their sin. Saul is defensive. What do you want me to do? I'm a leader, the people are scuttling. He has no reverence for God in his leadership. He's reinterpreting the commands of God through his own personal dictates as king. He's not repentant, he's defensive. But when David is confronted for the murder and adultery, by the way, these are capital crimes under Jewish law. He's acknowledging a death sentence under the old covenant.

Look at his response in Psalm 51. I want you to know how God oriented this is, how humble this is, how it's such a reflection of his inner life, not just his circumstances. Look at what he says, have mercy on me, God. According to your unfailing love. According to your great compassion, blot out my transgression. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Now he's not dismissing the violence he's done to Bathsheba or the death of her husband. He's acknowledging as a king, my primary responsibility is to implement your will and your rule to the people. And now I'm acknowledging as a leader that I have failed before you to do that in a way that is pleasing to you. And so here's his response. So you are right in your verdict of my guilt. And you are justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth from the time my mother conceived me. You desired faithfulness in the womb. You taught me wisdom in that secret place. Let my let my heart hear joy and gladness, but the bones you crushed rejoice Hide your face from my sins, blot out my iniquity

Creating me a pure heart. Oh God when you are steadfast spirit within me. Don't cast me from your presence His primary concern is that the result of his sin will mean the result It will mean that he has lost the presence of God from his life. This is a God focused repentance Restoring me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me What a different self justification versus humility Inward contrition grief it offending God a desire for his presence What's so remarkable about this passage scholars tell us this that David is asking for a kind of mercy That he's never read about before. He's just taking a bet on the nature of God And he's actually reaching through faith out of the old covenant into the new covenant asking for mercy on a capital crime that was not available in his day and He's so repentant. You know what happens? He gets it This is unbelievable. This is such a Godwood orientation of his life And this is so important because quite often when I sin and I need to repent my primary thought is Reputational damage my primary thought is often how embarrassing it is to sin I had to repent to one of our staff members Recently was like in I was embarrassed And I got too angry and I felt God saved me. That's not godly anger. You're in the flesh So I had to sit down and say hey can we meet I'm in the flesh I was like what a bizarre confederate. I'm like sorry. I got in the flesh on anger It's embarrassed. I Wasn't thinking gosh. What a poor leader. I've been Here's someone on staff who's hoping that this godly character Reputation or see how God oriented David's heart is that's the nature of true repentance Every week as you know, I do a little visio divina So you get something beautiful in front of you and you let it heal your spirit by looking at it and paying attention Here's this week's visio divina. This is from Susapey de Rebera It's called the penitent Saint Peter now

He's got the age of Peter wrong here as Peter was like probably in his early 20s, but It's art. It's not scripture What I love about this picture The hands in the eyes One hand oh inward pointing That's in me. I denied Jesus denied him My will's not as good as I thought it was My faithfulness is not as strong as I thought it was all it took was for a teenage girl sitting by a fire With no cultural power a servant girl to go aren't you with him and he's like, what are you even talking about? I don't even know him and in a moment his courage dissolves He's aware internally. That's what's in him. It's a surprise to him Lord if everybody denies it listen. I know some of these other clowns are not gonna follow you. I Got you Even if I have to die for you and Jesus like love your heart you deny me three times tonight Inwardly knows I don't have it and then he's appealing. Come on. God, please Lifting up his hand looking for mercy next slide We zoom in. I love The seriousness of his face like come on. He realized next slide zoom in all the way in life of death His eyes are transfixed. I need mercy Jesus, what can you do about this? And it's met by at all a God wood augmentation that cares about Reconciding the relationship enjoying fellowship No defensiveness and acknowledgement of the verdict of guilt that transforms his life. I Love this scotch a half a minute in his commentary on 2nd Corinthians says this being sorrowful as God intended is feeling the deep grief That comes from knowing that our attitudes and actions have harmed our relationship. We've got here. It is Godly sorrow feels bad because it's missing out on God

And that's the point. It is a personal connection and personal relationship now some of you like man You said so much. I wish you could just put this into a chart I could pull my phone out and screen capture and meditate on it later. So okay, okay. I hear that Here's like a true versus false repentance Little scheme here that you can sort of process through false repentance worldly, sorry secular ambition true repentance godly sorry there's two slides, the motivation on this. So the primary motivation, false repentance, fear of punishment, loss of status, loss of wealth, or the pain of exposure. Godly repentance, grief over offending, a holy loving God, recognizing the abuse of his grace. The target of our sorrow, by the way, this is basically a mashup of a bunch of Puritan thought, and Charles Spurgeon's, a sermon from Charles Spurgeon's book, All of Grace, okay? The consequences of the sin getting caught, the disruption of personal plans. So it's sorry for self, versus the sin itself, encompassing hidden heart, sins, pride, lust, and the inner motives. Next, response to exposure, defensiveness, blame shifting, justification, minimization, or anger at the accuser, as opposed to eagerness to clear oneself through honest, undefended confession. And this term that's used evangelical humiliation, which is just like that willingness to come before the people of God and be honest with our sin. Interpersonal action, next slide. Apology designed to quickly close the issue,

suppress consequences, and restore normal status, as opposed to willingness to make costly, prolonged, restitution, accepting discipline without demanding immediate trust. Attitude towards sin, listen, temporary avoidance, until the threat of consequence passes, maintaining a secret affection for the sin, as opposed to universal, implacable, lifelong hatred, and war against the sin in all of its forms, as zeal for holiness. Theological posture relies on self-effort, penance, or superficial ritual to restore personal glory and appease the conscience. It's primarily performative in the short term. Or resting entirely on Christ's cross for mercy, intermixed with faith, judicial sorrow, and to prevent despair. The result is, hardens the heart, worldly sorrow, hardens the heart, leads to resentment, produces spiritual death, and sustains self-love. As opposed to a soft heart, producing, this is a Puritan phase, I love this, a lamb-like spirit. You know, it's visible behavioral change that leads to salvation. Don't get caught up in the shallow version of the world's repentance. It does nothing and leads to death. But Godly repentance will lead to salvation and give you the gift of living a life without regret.

Now, you may at this point be thinking how many more points do you have? And the answer is two. You may also be thinking, how do I repent then? If it matters, if there's true and false repentance, how do I do it, okay? Let's just walk through this. Number one, repentance normally starts through a loving confrontation. Sometimes this is directly from the Holy Spirit himself. It's not somebody else saying anything to you, it's just like God's coming after your heart. Now, I remember this so clearly. Before I was a Christian, I sinned and mainly enjoyed it. Like I mainly enjoyed sin. It jacked me up and sin profound ways, but for the most part, the experience of sin was pretty good. If sin was awful, people wouldn't do it, okay? So the front end of sin can be quite good. And then I became a Christian and all of a sudden, it was like I had an internal umpire who was like, don't do that anymore. I was like, what is, what is? This is not pressure, this is not coercion. This is not religious psychological dynamics. This is not like groupthink. This was just like, oh my gosh, there's nobody here,

but me and God and he's in me saying stuff to me. It was so crazy. And I remember the first major decision I made as a Christian. I was dating this girl, wonderful girl, wonderful girl. The relationship was like pretty good. We weren't doing anything that would get us kicked out of the church, but we would not be candidates for leadership in the church. And I felt the Holy Spirit say, you got to break up with her. And I was like, I just want to shout to the Lord. Like I just want to worship. I want to just, and I remember just worship. This is when shout to the Lord just came out and I know it's making a comeback, but the first time that hit, it hit hard. I was just like, I want to shout to the Lord. I just focused on it. I don't want your worship. I want you to break up with that girl. It was so heavy. I remember one day gone, okay, I fasted for three days and I said, okay, this is an obedience test. I get it. I remember going over to the girl's house and everything I'm about to say is the most cringe breakup in history to not judge me for a long time ago. It's not you, it's me. And I remember her mum who was a little bit like genuinely kind but a bit of a tiger mum,

and I remember her mum coming out of the house, "How dare you break my daughter's heart." I'm crying. I'm driving away on my motorbike. I am absolutely miserable. But then the joy of obedience. I think this is what's best for her and me. Now, because this is a Christian story, she's married a pastor, loves Jesus, serving God in Australia, hallelujah. I got Christi Tyson out of the deal, winning. My obedience brings blessing. My simple point, that season in my life was an awareness of an internal confrontation with the Holy Spirit. Do not despise, particularly if you're a new Christian, these small obedience tests. For whatever reason, I just had this sense, if I don't obey, this voice is going to go quiet, and I don't want to be stuck with my own thoughts again. So I want this voice to stay loud even if it's a challenging voice. So maybe it could be God saying, "Don't talk to that person at work, or don't do that with your money anymore, or don't treat that person like that." Or it could be anything. The voice gets louder the more you obey. But quite often, it's not that easy. Quite often it requires confrontation from other people. When you read about how Paul dealt with the Corinthians, he's trying to rebuke them for all that crazy stuff I mentioned earlier. His language is so beautiful. He talks about a painful visit. He's talking about writing a letter with tears. He says to them, "You're the letter. We're written on each other's hearts. This is not someone who's trying to use his power to coerce people. This is someone using his power to serve people." So when we confront one another in community, which we must do, it must always be done with the vision of restoring the person, not judging the person, and it should always be done gently. He will say this to the Galatians, "Brothers and sisters, if someone's caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person." What's that word? Restore them gently. Here's what Scott Hoffman says again, "Confronting sin and calling God's people to repentance are the primary instruments of sanctification in the life of a Christian." In our pluralistic, therapeutic, and privatistic culture, this kind of intervention is uncomfortable and increasingly uncommon. Paul's argument makes clear, however, that such a prophetic stance is an essential aspect of the gospel and that the courage to take such a stance is a fundamental expression of Christian love and leadership. Paul is a mediator of the Spirit, not a salesman. He is the proclaimer of the gospel, not a motivational speaker. God's word, not self-help

tips, is the tool of his trait. If you'd love someone, you would challenge them lovingly. Can you imagine going to a small group? Sometimes groups do this where they put one person in the middle. They cut like a hot sea there and they're like, "Let's go around the room and encourage this person." In Pentecostal churches, it's like, "Let's prophesy over and order." We're basically doing the same stuff with different language, okay? Now, I want you to imagine saying, "Hey, guys, we're going to switch it up tonight. We're going to do challenge night." And so who wants to go first in the middle? We're all going to point out your blind spot so you can become more holy. Who's up? Can you imagine being in a room is actually, I really experience you quite prideful. And I just want you to know, I find you inconsiderate. Can you imagine, you just be like, "What is happening?" But, but, but, but. That's kind of what the church does. It's our way of loving one another. It's through confrontation. Next, when you're confronted, you should honestly examine what's said. This can be hard, again, that the need to defend this office is unbelievable. But true repentance requires seeing things as God sees them. 17th century, Puritan Minister Thomas Watson wrote a book called The Doctrine of Repentance, and he said, "An honest investigation of whether or not there are sins in our lives requires these steps." Let's pull them up real quick. "Sight of sin, am I looking at what has been said from the eyes of the world, the eyes of the self, from the eyes of God?" Next, "If there is sin, am I sorry for it? Is this sorry for my sin?" Next, "Am I willing to confess it? Just name it." I'm amazed at the divine power that is kind of unleashed when someone says, "I was wrong. There's no excuse." makes a verdict, it's just words to say I now pronounce you husband and wife, but those words can create a lifetime. And there's something powerful about making a declaration, I'm sorry, I was wrong, there's no excuses, and I'm just asking for your forgiveness. Confess it. Have a sense of shame around it, not ungodly shame, but a healthy shame. This is not the kind of person I want to be. Then having a hatred for sin, not secretly cherishing it, nourishing it in your heart. I know it's really hard, so this is little secret sin I have that I go to for comfort, under stress, or when I'm lonely or when I feel rejected. So you're going to hate that thing. That's like saying it's just a little bit of cancer, you know. There's no such thing as I just feed the cancer. This will kill you. And then ultimately turning from sin. Now I thought about this, I'm like maybe that's too confusing on too many points.

I literally wrote a prayer, okay. Take a screenshot of this. Next slide. This is just a starting point. We got it. Yeah, get that screenshot real quick. Just if you don't know how, genuinely, like if you're on your own in your room, say tomorrow, you just absolutely fail to live up to what Jesus has called you to do. And you're like, I suck. He just spoke on repentance. And Sunday, Sunday, I'm about, I love you, Jesus, worthy is the Lamb. And Monday, I'm like, I'm also sinning and that was yesterday. Oh my gosh, I can't even be a Christian for a day. And you're so beat down in your room and you want to get on TikTok or Instagram and just numb out and look at a bunch of reels or whatever, just pull this out. Pull this out. God, I come to you honestly with humility and with an open heart. This is just those six points turned into a play. Please remove blind spots. Give me a clear side of my sin as you see it. Not as the culture around it does. Help me confront the honest reality of my choices without filters, rationalizations or excuses. Let me actually feel the weight of how my actions hurt you and others. Give me a genuine, deep rooted, rooted, sorry for sin. I want to be transparent with you and fully confess my sin to you. I'm calling out my ungodly habits, choices, sin and rebellion with zero defensiveness. I have humbled my ego and I give you a right and appropriate. I humbled my ego and give me a right. I wrote this in a text message and texted it to our slide people. The typos are all me. Change my desires from the inside out so I develop a real hatred for sin. Make the behaviors that drag me down, look entirely unappealing so I stop running back to them. Give me the supernatural energy and godly willpower to actively turn away from sin. Help me change my direction. Set hard boundaries. Walk out of life to all that pleases you. Bless us other than brings me joy. Amen. What I want to do is repentance will disrupt that cycle. It will break that pattern that we get trapped in where this happens all the time. Next, then this stuff does come up. You've got to look at it through the lens of the gospel. Jesus did not come to condemn you for your sin. He came to die for your sin, pay the price for your sin, behold the lamb of God taking away the sin of the world and taking away your sin. So don't get into, I'm going to try harder. Don't get into a shame cycle or a purity cycle in your heart. Don't just get revving in self rejection or guilt or shame and condemnation. Look at the mercy of God. The Bible says that God is rich in mercy. You ever, ever been shopping on your own with your own bank account and then been shopping

with like your rich uncle and it gives you a little wink and he's like, "This one's on me." Do you know the confidence when you shop on your own account where you're looking at everything and thinking, "I could never have thought that in my life. I don't belong in this store. I am an imposter. Everybody in this store knows I am broke even though I'm smiling." Like you internally know you broke. But if you go on someone else's account and you're like, "I'd like one of those please and may I try three of those on?" Because you've got total confidence in the provision of another. You're not coming to God based on your performance. You're coming to God based on his mercy. He's rich in mercy. I love this from Dane Aortland. Perhaps you've difficulty receiving the rich mercy of God in Christ. Not because of what others have done to you because of what you've done to torpedo your own life. Maybe through one big stupid decision or maybe through 10,000 little ones. You've squandered his mercy and you know it. To you I say, He pours out more mercy. God is rich in mercy. That's the whole point. Whether we have been sinned against or have sinned ourselves into misery, the Bible says God is not tight-fisted with mercy, but open-handed, not frugal, but lavish, not poor, but rich. You've got to view your sin through the lens of the gospel and the richness of the mercy of God. Now, I need to skip a few bits and get to number five, the freedom and joy of repentance. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. Repentance is a gift. It is a gift. It is not a threat to you. It's a gift. Again, I think sometimes we spend so much time building an image.

We just ache to be seen for who we really are and been shown mercy. Repentance is the way for the relief of authenticity before God. Sometimes we cannot repent because we're trying to do the damage management. Well, what will those other people think? What will my leaders think? What will my parents think? What will my boss thinks if he finds out? And therefore, because the damage of repenting may be too great, I think I'll just struggle in silence and shame. Do not do that. God can bring restoration in ways you cannot manage yourself if you were just bring things into the light. And then again, this is just that, the whole thing is shame management. Do not get into a shame management strategy. Here's what that looks like. Do dumb stuff, feel bad, try and serve at church, try and do more at church, try and be really good in my corgary, show up and then sin and disappear. And you know, I'm amazed at how ineffective trying to cover up our shame is. Shame cannot be covered. It must be dealt with by the grace of Jesus. Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together when they found out they were naked and they tried to hide. Have you ever studied fig leaves in human skin?

Anybody? I mean, what are you doing when you studied Genesis 3? What are they doing with the fig leaves? Do you know what happened when fig leaves come into the light and touch human skin? They burn it. It's uncomfortable. The plant produces a toxin that poison human skins. I simply wanna say, you may think you're covering it. Everybody sees you're exposed and you will find no joy in covering your shame. It will poison you. He's gotta just come to the mercy of God and let him cover you. (congregation talking) Acts 3, 19 says this, repent then and turn to God. Why, listen to this, that your sins may be wiped out and that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. You know the beauty of just being refreshed? Ah, so refreshing. That's what repentance leads to, refreshment from the presence of the Lord. Repentance is a gift not a threat. Repentance will result in your restoration but refusing to repent will result in your destruction. Now maybe you're sitting here and for the most part you've been chugging along but you've got this little nagging thing in your heart and this little nagging thing says this, who says, man, why believe Paul?

Why believe you? Why can't I just do me? How do I even trust the church? I wanna know something about first and second Corinthians that is an absolute distinctive of this passage. Here's what it is, nowhere else in the Bible does Paul reference the judgment seat of God more than these passages. Why, 'cause he wants the Corinthians to know you're not gonna die and give an account to me for your life. You're gonna die and give an account to God. And Paul out of love is trying to get you into the mercy of God, not the judgment of God for your sins. And so Paul appeals to the judgment seat of Christ, the day of judgment, standing before Jesus, the explosion of Moses. He's one thing to say to the Corinthians, out of love for you, I want you to get mercy and not judgment when you meet Christ. You know this, you will die. All of us will die. And when you die, you are gonna get a one on one with Jesus about your life. And that will either be the joy of seeing the one who loves you and who saved you and forgave you and has prepared a place for you in his family. That's not my opinion. That's not even what Paul says.

That's what Christ says about himself. The Father has entrusted judgment to me. And I want you to mean the man of mercy, not the judge of your sins. It's your choice. Don't do a peter. Sorry, sorry, do a peter, don't do a Judas, got it? Don't do it when you fail, Judas just spiral, grieved, tries to repent, tries to give the money back. It's too late, commit suicide. Peter denies Jesus three times. Goes back to fishing like this whole thing was a crazy summer dream. And Jesus comes and finds him and is like, listen man, I am not giving up on you. My mercy can meet you here when you've denied me and God backed your old way of life. And it calls him back, and it calls him away from the fish to become a shepherd. Do not take your sin into your own hands. Put it into the hands of Jesus and watch him show you mercy. Now, I'm almost done here, I'm almost done. I just wanna say this, sometimes we don't repent 'cause we don't know what to do after we repent. It's like, that sounds great. I know how to wallow in self-loathing and shame and function, but I actually don't know how to walk in spiritual authority and get my life back. And you just feel stuck. Here's what I wanna say to you,

tonight is an invitation out of being stuck into a journey of mercy. Look at what One Peter Five says. This is one of the most beautiful verses in the whole Bible. And I just don't know why I've never heard a sermon on it. Listen to what it says. And the God of all grace, the God of what? The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ. After you've suffered a little while, listen, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. Do you see those four stages? God himself, not a human institution, God himself, who is a God of all grace, will himself restore you, he will strengthen you, he will make you firm, and he will make you steadfast. If you keep repenting and returning to him by year from now, your greatest point of shame may be your greatest testimony because of the mercy of God. But you gotta get out of the mud of self loathing and hiding and the fig leaves and managing your shame. You gotta get out of that into the pathway that Jesus has for you. Who do it himself? This may surprise you, you are surrounded by people. There are literally people sitting all around you who have done unimaginable things, but who've been saved by the mercy of Jesus.

And they've got out of the mud, and they've got into the mercy, and they're being made into brand new people. And if it can happen for them, it can happen for you. New York is a beautiful place to repent. I can't think of a more beautiful place to repent than New York City. Talk about counter-cultural. Talk about never saw that coming. I went to New York to run away from God, and when I got there, I found him. What a beautiful story. Listen, Proverbs 28, 13, whoever conceals their sins does not prosper. But the one who confesses and renounces them finds what? You wanna prosper, get into the mercy of God. You wanna struggle, you wanna deal with guilt, shame, you wanna be on your own, you wanna just keep doing your own thing. I'm amazed at the mercy of God. I've been a Christian for a long time now, and I just wanna, if nothing else, just tell you that God's been merciful to me. And I just constantly amaze that he never runs out of mercy. Then you every morning, that they'll be new tomorrow, you need mercy tomorrow, the mercy will be, it'll meet you. Struggling with that relationship, mercy will meet you. Struggling for meaning, mercy will meet you.

And so I just wonder tonight, does anybody want the mercy of Jesus? Do you want mercy? Do you need mercy? The man of mercy is here. Feeling like this is the end. And then you look up and there's a man drawing in the sand. And then he says to the woman, "Who are those who condemn you?" She's like, "There's none." He says, "I do not condemn you either." But she's guilty, yeah, but I specialize in mercy, not condemnation. Go and leave, you're like, "Can you imagine that?" Getting caught up in a sin and then looking around and thinking, "This is the end of my life." Like there's no way out from here. And then looking on the horizon and seeing Jesus saying, "There's a way out for you." Follow me out of this. Follow me out of this. There is a way of life for you. I am amazed at the mercy of Jesus. And I know he wants to show mercy tonight. You never believe this. It's been a powerful day in church, friends. The altar's been filled with people, finding mercy. People have carried things in shame and secret for years, heavy burdens of guilt and condemnation, walking away free, restored on a journey of mercy, because that's what Jesus came to do. So can we stand to our feet? I want to create some space for us to respond tonight.

My prayer team to come forward if they could. If you don't have words to ask for mercy, here's a classic. Ready? Here's a bar. Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me. This is what David cried out in his sin. Have mercy on me. And you don't have to come to the front. There's no power in coming to the front. And if you need mercy, you can just say in your heart where you are, have mercy on me. Maybe you just want to put your hand up like Peter did, which is like, God, my heart needs to change. And I'm looking at you to change me. Have mercy on me. Maybe you want to bring things into the light. The Bible says confess your sins to one another that you may be healed. There is healing that brings things into the light. We don't get bonus points for people coming forward. We just know that sometimes there's power in marking a moment in your story where you say it's going to end tonight, the shame, the guilt, the condemnation. It's going to end tonight. I'm going to mark this moment as the beginning of my journey of mercy. When I was 17 years old, I walked down the front of an island, a church, and I said, I want a life of mercy.

I've never been the same against. I just felt Jesus calling me and inviting me. So if you sense Jesus drawing your heart tonight, if you sense the conviction of the Spirit, if you sense that need for mercy, why don't you come, bring things into the light, get the fig leaves off. And all these people want to do, you know what they want to do for you? They just want to bless you. They want to pray over you. If you can't find the words, just come forward. Just put your hands out, and that'll be enough. And they'll just pray for you, mercy for you. The Lord knows your heart. So friends, Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take off the yoke of shame, take off the yoke of guilt, and put on the yoke of gentle mercy in the heart of the Savior tonight. Friends, why don't you come, let's respond to Jesus.