I'll give the shortened version to this since
we've been here a while.
I'm just so grateful for everybody's participation.
Doesn't it make a huge difference when the
body gets involved in worship?
Amen.
We each have a part to play.
Last night we talked about how the glory
and majesty of King Jesus demands a response,
didn't we?
The glory of Christ demands a response.
We talked about worship.
I think we gave the Lord a response
this evening, didn't we?
Praise God.
I just hope we grow in that.
Tonight I want to talk about how the
glory and majesty of King Jesus demands another
response.
And we're going to talk about repentance.
Repentance.
Isaiah 6 is a good example that Megan
quoted.
Isaiah, this holy prophet of God, gets in
the presence of the Lord.
He sees the king high and lifted up,
and he has to respond.
He says, Woe is me from a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell among a
people of unclean lips.
That's a response, isn't it?
When we really get before a holy God,
we suddenly see ourself, our own heart in
a way that we've never seen it before.
And so you guys, I just want to
talk a little bit about this, about how
the kingdom of God, if we're going to
be messengers of the king, if we're going
to be messengers of God's kingdom, we must,
we must preach repentance.
We must apply repentance to our own heart.
Amen?
God, you guys, we cannot preach the gospel
accurately and biblically without preaching repentance.
And we're going to go through some verses
to really reveal that.
And I cannot emphasize enough, if somebody has
given you a concept of sharing the gospel
of Jesus Christ, which does not have repentance
involved in it, it is not the same
gospel that Jesus preached.
I love the message of repentance, don't you?
Can you say that, or do you go,
I don't know if I do or not.
Do you love the message of repentance?
There's a great little book over here.
Called by Basilia Schlink, and it's called, The
Repentance, The Joy-Filled Life.
I'm so grateful to the Lord Jesus Christ,
when He started about 20 years ago, got
a hold of my heart, started putting a
squeeze in my heart, and He started getting
me along.
Nobody was preaching to me, nobody was talking
to me, nobody got me in a Bible
study, but He started showing me a list
of all my favorite sins.
All the things that I drew my significance
from, all the things I trusted in, to
give me joy and pleasure and delight.
And He started to show me these things.
He said, David, will you let go of
these things?
Will you let me be the king of
your life?
For six weeks, I looked at that list,
and scratched one thing off after another, until
I got to the point where I said,
God, I don't care what I have, what
I don't have, I've got to have you
as king in my life.
At that moment, I was wonderfully and radically
saved.
And you guys, instantly, instantly delivered from some
addictive sin patterns and habits that I had
sowed in my life for years, for almost
a decade, I was delivered instantly from those
things.
Everything?
No.
But in such huge areas of my life
that I knew He was king, I knew
He was in control, and I knew He
could handle whatever else was going on in
my life in the days ahead.
Amen?
Have you had that kind of experience with
the Lord Jesus Christ?
Where He is king, where He subdues things
in your life.
Where He delivers you from things.
Where you know He's king, where He rules
and reigns, and you can stand up straight
and square your shoulders and look somebody in
the eye and say, I know that God
can set you free from that, because He
set me free from that.
You guys, that is a message of hope.
What are you going to share with the
lost and dying world?
Something your Sunday school teacher taught you?
Second-hand religion?
Half-baked leftovers?
Or something that's alive and real in your
life?
You don't know how many of you college
guys over the last several years have pulled
me aside and said, Tell me, brother.
Tell me.
Can you really be free from this?
You know what I'm talking about, you guys.
Ladies, whatever the issues are.
And it is wonderful.
It is wonderful.
When you can look people in the eye
and you can say with perfect confidence, Yes.
Boy, what hope that brings.
I remember when God did a special work
in my life about 12 years ago.
I was sitting in the parking lot of
Pratt's Grocery Store on the south side of
Oklahoma City.
And God got a hold of my heart.
I was so heart sick over the fact
that there was some stuff in my life
that was not right.
And I was there just weeping.
I said, God, make me a holy man
so I can go to others and tell
them that they too can be set apart
exclusively reserved for the delight and pleasure of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen?
The call to holiness, the call to repentance
is a call to be betrothed to the
Lamb of God, to be married to Jesus.
Ladies, don't you want a man that is
exclusively set aside, reserved, pure and set apart
for your love and your love only?
Men, isn't that what you want from a
woman?
Doesn't the Lord Jesus Christ deserve just as
much?
When you get before the King and you
see His love and oh, does He love
us, you guys?
He loves us passionately.
He loves us.
He's so...
You know, I just had such a sense
standing back there that God was brooding over
different ones of you and He is so
desiring your heart.
He wants to meet places that you didn't
even know need to be met.
He wants to touch you in such a
special way that we have stuff in our
life that we're places where we will not
say yes to Him yet and we can't
even get the thing that our heart is
longing for, the love and mercy and intimacy
of Jesus.
Does that make sense to you guys?
What we trust in is King.
Did you know that?
What we trust in is King.
When we trust in temporal pleasures, when we
trust in sensuality, all kinds of things, when
we trust in those things to derive some
pleasure or a sense of significance, some joy,
rather than trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that reveals that those things are King to
us and not the Lord.
What are we trusting in, you guys, this
evening?
The coming of the Kingdom of God demands
biblical repentance.
The message of repentance is a clarion call
to abandon our self-serving ways and relinquish
complete, absolute control of our lives to the
King Jesus.
Repentance is choosing to be ruled by the
sovereign authority of the Kingdom of God.
Repentance is a willingness of heart to submit
and obey our King in all things.
Repentance is a 180 degree turn, a changing
of loyalties from one king and kingdom to
another.
How can we invite people into the kingdom
without saying repent?
Turn from serving that king to serving this
king.
Do you see why it's necessary to preach
repentance?
But you know, if we haven't done it,
we don't have authority to preach it, do
we?
You can't lead somebody where you haven't been,
where you're not going.
Repentance is turning away from the kingdom of
darkness unto the kingdom of light.
Literally, the word repentance means a change of
mind.
You're going this direction, and you make a
180 degree turn to go this direction.
You're serving your own desires.
You're serving your own wants.
You're serving your own plans.
You're serving your own pleasures.
And then you hear the call of the
king.
It says, come, obey Me, serve Me, love
Me.
You belong to Me.
Be married to Me.
And that call awakens something in your heart.
It stirs a measure of faith, a measure
of hope, and you turn and say, yes,
Jesus, I will follow You and go this
way.
That's what repentance is.
It's a change of mind that leads to
a change of heart that ultimately, by God's
grace, leads to a change of action.
Do you guys, come on, in this room,
does the message of repentance bug you?
If you have a problem with the message
of repentance, you've got a serious problem with
the king.
Matthew 3, 1-12, there's a little episode
from the life of John the Baptist, you
know, that guy we were talking about last
night, that every time Christ shows up, all
he can say is, behold, the Lamb of
God who takes away the sins of the
world.
It's Jesus!
Oh, I like that, don't you?
Don't you want to be that kind of
person?
You guys, do you know what it is
to have a heartache for holiness?
To have a heartache for holiness?
When you get a glimpse of the King,
when you get a glimpse of the King
Jesus, do you ever have an experience where
your heart burned and ached, and you say,
oh God, make me a holy man.
Make me a holy woman.
God, I must be, I must be, I
must be conformed to the image of Your
Son.
God, set me free from these things that
are binding me and hold me back.
Have you ever had that?
That is normal Christianity, you guys.
If you don't have a heartache to be
conformed to the image of Christ, if something
doesn't break in you and cry out and
long, reach up to heaven to be changed,
you guys, that's not the way it's supposed
to be.
You want to read an awesome book about
this?
There's the testimony of David Brainerd, a wonderful
man of God, missionary that went to the
Indians of North America, sold out for Jesus,
so much more sold out than anybody that
I've ever met.
But this man's constantly had a heartache, a
longing to be conformed to the image of
Christ.
Read about it, it's right over there.
The diary of David Brainerd, wonderful stuff.
You guys, we have got to, this is
a clear, clear part of our Christian experience.
Is your heart hurting?
Is it longing to be conformed to the
image of Christ?
It's a good sign that repentance is at
work, that you're a man or woman that
knows how to walk out repentance.
So we see the majesty, the glory of
the King demands that there be a repentance.
It demands that there be a turning away
from anything having dominion over your life.
But you guys, repentance does not always involve
what we would call normal, sensual sins.
Did you know that?
Sometimes when we think, well, I've turned away
from sin.
You know all the bad junk.
All the drinking and drugging and immorality, all
the ugly stuff, the dark stuff that we
wouldn't like to admit to, but you guys,
repentance involves a lot more than just turning
away from the shameful things.
Did you know that?
Let's look at another passage here.
Let me read this.
Repentance is turning away from our old identity.
It is the willingness to allow the King
to redefine our present self-image and all
our future dreams.
Did you catch that?
Repentance is not just turning away from the
ugly stuff.
It's actually saying, God, I will turn to
You as King.
I will submit to You as King.
I am willing to let You rule and
reign in my life by Your grace, by
Your power, through faith in what Jesus did
on the cross.
I'm willing to totally let that happen in
every area of my life, not just the
shameful areas.
Isn't this what Paul was talking about in
Philippians 3?
Let's look at that passage just real quickly.
Philippians 3.
This is not a sin list that Paul
gives us when he's talking about turning away
from everything.
Rejoice in Christ and have no confidence in
the flesh.
Verse 4, chapter 3.
Though I also might have confidence in the
flesh, if anyone else think he may have
confidence in the flesh, I more so.
Circumcise the eighth day.
He's a good church kid is what he's
saying right here.
Of the stock of Israel, of the tribe
of Benjamin, concerning the law of Pharisee, very
religious.
Concerning zeal, persecuting the church.
Concerning righteousness, which is in the law, blameless.
Can any of us say that?
I don't think so.
But what things were gained to me, these
I have counted lost for Christ.
Yet indeed, I also count all things lost
for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things.
Not just the dirty, ugly things, you guys.
He surrenders all things and counts them as
rubbish that I may gain Christ.
He's just talking about a lot of things,
good things, religious things, that most people would
be proud to boast in.
He says, I count it all as rubbish.
Repentance is turning away from our old identity.
This is Paul's old identity, even though it
was very religious.
Repentance is turning away from our old identity
and a willingness to allow the King to
redefine our present self-image and all our
future dreams.
Mark 1, 14-22.
Let's read a story about Jesus.
Now, after John was put in prison, we're
talking about John the Baptist.
Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of
the kingdom of God.
Now, how does Jesus prepare the people to
receive this gospel of the kingdom?
That the King has come, that He's on
His way.
He wants access to His people again.
This is how He does it.
Saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom
of God is at hand.
Repent and believe in the gospel.
Jesus preached repentance.
And as He walked by the Sea of
Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, His brother,
casting a net into the sea, and they
were fishermen.
These men were fishermen.
This is what they did well.
This was the family business.
This is all they knew.
This is how they identified themselves.
Guys, don't you know what I'm talking about?
The things that we do are a lot
of times the things that we gain our
significance from.
This is what they took merit in.
This is what they trusted in.
To feel good about themselves.
This wasn't a bad thing.
This wasn't a sinful thing.
They were good, hard-working men.
They were fishermen.
But this repentance that prepares the way for
God's kingdom to come in their life would
also touch this good thing in their life.
And Jesus said to them, Come after Me
and I will make you become fishers of
men.
He'll do it, not us.
Come after Me.
Follow Me explicitly, without question, without reserve.
And I will make you become fishers of
men.
And immediately they left their nets and followed
Him.
Is that awesome or what, you guys?
The audacity of Jesus to barge into these
good, hard-working men's lives and walk right
up to them and say, Hey, I want
to change everything about you.
I know you're doing a good job at
this.
I know you gain your significance from these
acts, good acts.
But I'm wanting to change it.
I'll make you fishers of men.
Leave all this and follow Me.
They immediately dropped their nets and let Jesus,
in one fell swoop, radically redefine everything about
them.
That is repentance.
Is that wild or what, you guys?
Repentance isn't just turning for some ugly thing.
Repentance is turning away from anything that we
trust in.
What you're trusting in is what is king
in your life.
These hard-working men trusted in the fact
that they were hard-working men, diligent, responsible.
That's a good thing, isn't it?
Don't we need men that are...
The Scripture says that if a man does
not provide for his own household, he's worse
than an infidel.
Jesus isn't discouraging sloth or negligence or irresponsibility.
But He's saying, Hey, I'm going to be
king first and foremost in your life.
Let's read on.
These weren't the only two guys He picked
on.
Then Jesus said to them, Come after Me
and I will make you fishers of men.
And immediately they left their nets and followed
Him.
Read on.
When He had gone a little farther, just
a little farther down the road, when He
had gone a little farther from there, He
saw James the son of Zebedee and John
his brother who also were in a boat
mending nets.
And immediately He called them and they left
their father Zebedee in the boat with the
hired servants and went after Him.
These two fishermen have a whole family business
going.
Dad's there that no doubt has handed the
business down to them.
He's got some other servants working here.
They're working hard.
These two brothers, you know, it was probably
what?
Zebedee and son's fishing business right there on
the Sea of Galilee.
You know what I'm saying?
But Jesus again barges into their life.
He says, Follow Me.
Follow Me.
Leave everything and follow Me.
Let Me be king of your life.
Have you guys thought about repentance in this
way?
And immediately He called them and they left
their father Zebedee in the boat with their
hired servants and went after Him.
Am I encouraging to disregard or dishonor your
fathers?
By no means.
Anybody that knows me very well knows I'm
a huge advocate of the fifth commandment.
If you want a blessing in your life,
you better obey and honor your parents.
But you guys, there's only one king.
Let's read on.
In Matthew 9.
Jesus just had a habit of doing this.
To walking into people's life and saying, Hey,
follow Me!
And they left everything.
Matthew 9.
And Jesus went on from there.
He saw a man named Matthew sitting at
a tax office and He said to him,
Follow Me.
So he arose and followed Him.
Oh to God!
Lord!
I wish we were these kind of people
that could just do...
It just seems they do it so easily,
isn't it?
Doesn't it seem that way?
My!
Repentance is turning away from anything that you're
putting your trust in more than the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Number three.
Repentance is turning away from the esteem and
approval of men.
It is the willingness to be the king's
fool.
Repentance is finding our complete and absolute approval
in Christ.
Jesus is going deeper, isn't He?
First, the message of the kingdom just touches
their external life.
Their sin.
The ugly stuff.
Then Jesus even touches the good stuff.
That they serve as king.
Now Jesus reaches in a little farther and
wants to define repentance as the thing how
we even recognize ourselves as just being a
man or a woman.
Just how we view ourselves on a deeper
inner core level.
You'll see what I'm talking about right here.
At that time, in Matthew 18, 1-4,
at that time the disciples came to Jesus
saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven?
They're wanting to know how this kingdom works.
Who's the people that really make this kingdom
work?
Then Jesus called a little child to Him,
set Him in the midst of them, and
said, Assuredly, I say to you, unless you
repent and become as a little child, you
will by no means enter the kingdom of
heaven.
Therefore, whoever humbles himself as a little child
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Wow, Jesus, I thought I could be a
rough and tumble strong man as a fisherman
first.
Now you take that away from me.
Surely I can be a macho man in
the kingdom of God, can't I?
Can't I strut around and stick out my
chest in the kingdom and be a mighty
man of God?
He says, No, I don't need that.
I need a bunch of little children.
I want you to take the posture of
a servant and humble yourself.
Humble yourself.
Become little in your own sight.
Recognize that I'm everything, everything.
Do you see where this is going?
Do you see the deeper level?
Jesus is penetrating to a different place.
Guys, have you ever let Jesus go there?
Maybe you've let God redefine your values, your
morals.
Maybe you've let Jesus even redefine what you're
going to do with the rest of your
life.
But if you let Jesus redefine how you
carry yourself, how you present yourself, how you
walk, the approval that you want from other
people for them to think that you're something
special, something neat, have you come to the
place of repentance where you don't care if
people notice you, if they see you, if
they hear you?
Do you hear what I'm talking about, you
guys?
Every place of ministry that I have ever
understood or known comes after on the heels
of a place where you say, Jesus, I
don't care if anybody ever sees me.
I don't care if anybody ever hears me.
I am willing to be hidden in you,
Lord.
I will bow and get out of the
way.
I will be little.
That's the place where God can use you.
It's not your ability that he needs.
It's not your cuteness.
It's not your good looks.
It's not your education.
It's your availability.
He needs humble little children.
Have you ever went there?
Do you see how God is going deeper?
In Mark 10, verse 13, it says, Then
they brought young children to him, that he
might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those
who brought them.
You know, the disciples are clueless, aren't they?
They're always getting in the way.
Jesus wants to bless people, heal people, touch
people, and they're always trying to keep the
ones that Christ came to touch away from
Jesus.
He's always having to rebuke them, you know?
The church still does that, doesn't it?
But when Jesus saw it, he was greatly
displeased and said to them, Let the little
children come.
Stop it.
Let them come to me.
And do not forbid them, for such is
the kingdom of God.
Do not forbid them.
Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not
receive the kingdom of God as a little
child will by no means enter it.
My buddy Frank Kelsey, always preaching on this
message.
Some of you guys have heard this.
He always uses the illustration of, you know,
you ever been to McDonald's or Burger King?
They got the thing out there in the
playground.
It's got all the balls in it and
the nets.
It's got a little doorway about this high.
It says if you're any taller than this,
you can't get in here.
You ever seen that?
That's the kingdom of God.
No big kids allowed inside.
You gotta be little to get in, and
you gotta be little to play in God's
kingdom, to walk in God's kingdom.
Some of us are too big for God's
kingdom.
Too full of ourselves.
We got an itch to be heard.
Hey, I know all about it.
I know all about it.
Man, it seems like pride is the thing
that we have to repent of more than
anything, isn't it?
No one can serve two masters.
No one can serve two kings.
For either he will hate the one and
love the other, or else he will be
loyal to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
That's another word for money.
Hey, did you notice those words are in
red?
That's the words of God right there.
You can't have two masters.
You know what?
We serve a God who is the king
of a wonderful kingdom.
He is the prince of peace.
But you know if the prince isn't ruling
in our hearts, if he doesn't have absolute
control, should we really be confused why peace
isn't flowing richly in our life?
Therefore I say to you, do not worry
about your life, what you will eat or
what you will drink, nor about your body,
what you will put on.
Is not life more than food and the
body more than clothing?
Look at the birds.
Look at them.
Look at the birds of the air.
For they neither sow nor reap or gather
into barns, yet the heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
See?
Is that awesome you guys?
Which of you by worrying can add one
cubit of this statue?
See, what I'm not suggesting here, what Jesus
is, He is by no means suggesting that,
oh yeah, just throw everything away so I
can crush you, so I can make you
do without.
That is not what the Word of God
is saying here.
He's saying I want to be king.
You must only trust in Me.
Until you trust in Me absolutely, utterly, I
can't do in your life what I long
to do.
I can't deliver you in the way that
I want to.
Verse 28, So why do you worry about
clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow, neither toil nor spin.
And yet I say to you, that even
Solomon in his glory, what a rich man,
what a wise king, was not arrayed like
one of these.
Now if God so clothes the grass of
the field, which today is and tomorrow is
thrown into the oven, will He not much
more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Trust.
Trust the King.
Therefore, do not worry, saying, What shall we
eat?
Or what shall we drink?
Or what shall we wear?
For after all these things that Gentiles seek,
those who are far off from God, he's
talking about here, those who are strangers to
God, they're the ones that worry and fret.
They're the ones that trust in riches, not
the children of God.
For your Heavenly Father knows that you need
all these things.
He understands it.
He's not suggesting that He make you a
pauper for the sake of making it hard
for you.
But seek first the Kingdom of God and
His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you.
Awesome, isn't it?
One more verse.
I really like this.
Luke 19.
Now behold,
there was a man named Zacchaeus who was
the chief tax collector.
And he was rich.
This guy worked for the IRS, right?
They don't have any problems, do they?
And he sought to see who Jesus was,
but he could not because of the crowd,
for he was short of stature.
We got anybody short of stature here?
Any vertically challenged people?
How about spiritually speaking?
Short in stature.
So he ran ahead.
I like this about Zacchaeus.
He's needy.
He has to see Jesus.
And so he runs.
He runs.
So he ran ahead, climbed up into a
sycamore tree to see Him.
Zacchaeus didn't do this to get attention.
Some people climb on top of stuff so
everybody will see Him.
That's not Zacchaeus' motivation.
He climbs up into this tree so he
can see the King.
So he ran ahead and climbed up into
the sycamore tree to see Him, Jesus.
For he was going to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to that place, he
looked up and he saw and he said
to Him, Can you see the Lord with
the twinkle in His eyes?
I like that guy right there.
He's after me.
He's hungry for me.
Zacchaeus, make haste.
Come on down.
For today, I must stay at your house.
Oh, it doesn't get any better than that.
It doesn't get any better than that.
This man saw Jesus.
He recognized that He was King, that He
was holy.
Are you running after Him?
Are you trying to make the terms of
the agreement, write a contract with God?
Or do you say, God, I will run
after you.
I'll be your fool.
I'll be your little child.
I'll do whatever you want.
So he made haste and came down and
received Him joyfully.
You guys, there is no greater joy.
There is no greater joy.
You will know the embrace of God.
The embrace of God like no place else.
When you say, God, my hands are empty
and I just will allow you to do
whatever you want in my life.
I receive you joyfully.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
You know why some of you guys cannot
get your arms around the Lamb of God?
Because they are too full of other stuff.
Your stuff.
That you will not let go of.
Because you still want to be King in
some places.
And so he received Him joyfully.
Verse 7 But when they saw it, they
all complained, saying, He had gone to be
a guest with a man who is a
sinner.
Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord,
Look, Lord.
He didn't have to even be asked about
this.
He said, Look, Lord.
I give half of my goods to the
poor.
And if I have taken anything from anyone.
You guys, this is bearing fruit to meet
with repentance.
If I have taken anything from anyone by
false accusation, I restore it fourfold.
And Jesus said to him, Today, today, Zacchaeus,
salvation has come to this house because he
also is a son of Abraham.
He is an heir by faith.
Amen.
Don't you like that?
You think this is a hard word?
It's the only word, you guys.
There is no joy until you do this,
until you bow the knee to the King.
Come on, serious stuff.
Serious stuff.
We need to let God totally revamp our
lives, redefine us.
Are you willing to be God's fool?
Are you guys willing to be God's fool?
God, I'll let you make a fool of
me.
I will do anything you say.
I will say anything, anytime, anywhere.
I'll stand and lift my voice.
I will not be quiet.
I will not be still.
I will obey the King anytime, anywhere, about
everything and anything.
Have you ever, ever, ever come to that
place of absolute brokenness where you pour yourself
out like that?
Have you?
What's God putting His finger on tonight?
What's He saying?
You never, you never let go of that.
You love that more than me.
See, He wants to be our bridegroom, amen?
Our husband, He wants to marry us.
He's inviting us, drawing us.
Why?
He says why.
Why do you flirt with those things?
Why are you unfaithful to me?
Why do you love them more than you
love me?
We want the love.
We want the mercy.
We want the intimacy.
But we're in...