Turning On the Lights! Friday July 19, 2024 Let’s talk about repentance!
Good morning, Good morning my brothers and my sisters! It is Friday July 19, 2024 and we are back together and talking about a much neglected teaching of scripture – repentance.
From the prophets of old to Jesus the Christ and the writers of the epistles, we learn that that the cornerstone of our salvation is our willingness to deny our selfish natures, repent, and turn to God.
We discuss this and more on this rather fast-paced episode of Turning On the Lights!
may God bless you and we will see you in church!
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Friday, July 19, 2024. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Friday, July 19, 2024. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Friday, July 19, 2024
Good morning, good morning, my brothers and my sisters. We are back and better than ever. From the Church Town Church of God, you are looking live. If you’re looking on the live stream or on the YouTube channel or you’re looking live at the Church Town Church of God, there’s the sanctuary from the overflow room. There’s our little tech corner over there where we do the live streaming, all kinds of interesting things. Oh my goodness, what a week it has been. I know that I was not here on Sunday. We did not do Turning on the Lights on Tuesday. You know why? Good morning, Sandy. Because I was on a five-day motorcycle ride, 1,073 miles, 1,073.7 miles, I believe it was. And I’m telling you, it was a ride. I think they sung the national anthem on Sunday. There’s the flag still up there at the altar. I think the brass played the national anthem. It was a wonderful, wonderful service. I got to watch some of it. There’s the morning sun shining through the stained glass window of Jesus at Gethsemane. And we are making our way to the altar of the church. There it is. There’s the altar of the church right here. Oh, Lord Jesus, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here this morning. Wow, what a week, Lord. Thank you so much. Your creation, what you provided, the fellowship. I know it is always, and you can tell, we were in the great outdoors. Excuse me, for several days. And it was challenging. You know, you want to go to West Virginia and Virginia in the middle of July. It’s challenging. Now, we changed our roots up a little bit to try to get up in the mountains and tried to stay above 2,000 feet as much as possible under the canopy as much as possible. And that helped. We got up there upwards of 4,000 feet at times. And we got under the canopy, the Blue Ridge Parkway is just amazing. The Shenandoah Valley, the Shenandoah National Park. Down in southwestern Virginia at the Claw of the Dragon, the back of the dragon. Just fantastic stuff. Just amazing, just incredible. It’s very hard to describe how gorgeous it is. And then some of the roads, how technical they are on a motorcycle. I mean, we’re talking between 15 and 30 miles per hour on a lot of the roads. We just rode, man. We just rode and rode and rode and we had a great time. When I go on motorcycle rides, I like to ride. That makes, if you ride, you know what I’m talking about. Are you a person who hops, skips, and jumps from one destination to another? I’m going to get ice cream here and I’m going to get a stop at a place here and I’m going to stop and check this out here. Or do you like to ride? I like to ride. I’ll stay in the saddle for a long time. As a matter of fact, as the leader, I will stop and people will be going, “Man, I didn’t that and I never thought you were going to stop.” But I try to be cognizant, as they say, of the folks that I am leading. So we’re back. Here we are. I do want to say that this Sunday is a service of the ordinances. I hope that you will join us for the service of the ordinances. If you are far away and you will be watching, you may prepare your own elements for the service of the ordinances. What does that mean? Do you have a decent wash feet? Do you have bread and fruit of the vine for communion? Because that’s what we’re doing this Sunday. It’s going to be awesome and fantastic. I got to get the church all ready to go. You can tell that I’m not quite back. I did work on the service. I did do all the church stuff. I did do the bulletin. But my brain is still in the highlands of Virginia riding my motorcycle around. It’s good to be back though. It’s good to be back. And we will see how the weekend shapes up. I got to get the church ready for the service of the ordinances. I’ve got to get the property ready. It needs mode. Always needs mode. Although we haven’t had too much rain. We only got rained on twice on our ride. Nothing real major. So everything’s good. So there we are. We are back. We are in Ecclesiastes on Sunday. Right now we’re going to talk about repentance and the parable of repentance. Good morning, Mama D. Down close your way, Southern Virginia. We were down close your way, Southern Virginia. Could have taken the Blue Ridge Parkway. We did that before all the way through North Carolina. Just an amazing ride. Now you talk about you better have some you better have a full tank of gas. It’s like riding through Death Valley. I mean, there’s no services. There’s no anything. We had a rider with us with a small gas tank. We had to carry two and a half gallons of gas to get him through. But that’s what you got to do. Just gorgeous. You can just see riding the parkway right now. Oh my goodness. It’s so good. Repentance. How important is repentance? We sometimes hear all kinds of Christian things and Christian words and Christian sentiments. Sometimes we neglect the very fundamentals that of what Jesus teaches. The first word out of his mouth as he was anointed in his ministry and his formal public ministry had begun was repent. We hear it throughout the Old Testament the prophets call for repentance. And a lot of people do not like this. A lot of people do not like this term. A lot of people do not like this concept. What do I have to be repentant about? I’ve lived a good life. I’ve done the best I can. I’ve tried not to harm people. We’ve had my ups and my downs with, you know, but I what do I have to be repentant about? The beautiful day here, not a cloud in the sky. I’m going to get out mowing grass here pretty soon. Repentance is a concept that we soften ourselves on. Why? Because it demonstrates our vulnerability to our holy sovereign God. It demonstrates the fact that regardless of what you may think of yourself, you are not holy and I wrote about that two weeks ago in the Church Town Weekly. Regardless of what you may think about yourself, you are not able to dwell in the presence of a holy God. And regardless of you make what you may think of yourself, you are not able to make yourself able. That which is unholy cannot integrate with that that is holy. That which is unholy cannot make themselves or itself whatever holy. And now we’re talking about the concept of Yahweh, the only true holy one. Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God Almighty. It is by His uniqueness, His ability, if you will, the terms are so lacking when we’re speaking in human terms, His grace, His power that He covers us with righteousness, thus making us holy by His power that we may spiritually dwell with Him. I hope that that makes sense. Churches are teaching all kinds of things about human beings and God and a lot of churches are not teaching the very gulf that divides us. We were made unholy when we chose rebellion. And we read the curse of humankind and the curse of creation and we read the promise of redemption. But we know that until the age to come, when the Lord God Almighty takes those who have persevered until the end, those who have believed, those who have lived the life, those who have lived life submitted to the will of God and not their own, those who have lived a life covered by the righteousness of Christ will be made truly holy. Not just spiritually, but physically able as in the Garden of Eden to dwell in the presence of God. We’re not there yet. We’re in the in between time. We are covered by Christ’s righteousness. We are made holy, see the air quotes there, only by the power of God. He chooses to do that for those who will, say it with me, repent. Those who will recognize the divide that is between Yahweh and even his special creation, his image bearers, human beings. Repent, scripture says, repent, Jesus says, repent, the prophets say. Repent the writers of the epistles say. Repent. Do we teach that enough? Do we preach that enough as the cornerstone of turning around and living a life worthy of your calling as a son or a daughter of the most high? We do here, but I’m calling upon the church universal. Do we preach repentance? Do we say to all of those in the large mega churches, whatever, let’s not categorize wherever the case may be. Do we say to those who are coming in and bringing their children and bringing their money in, you are not worthy of being in the presence of a holy God, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand now, or are we afraid of chasing them away because of their kids, because of their money, because of their standing? Good morning, Jen. We compromise and I wrote about that as well. We tend to compromise little by little by little by little. We compromise. And one of the initial compromises is not preaching repentance. And so you say, well, repentance is for an individual who is really messed up. They’ve really done wrong. They have beaten. They have raped. They have desecrated themselves. They need repentance. They need to repent of all of that bad stuff. No, yes, but you do too. We all do. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All means all. And it is the absolute cornerstone of salvation. It is the first word out of Jesus’s mouth, repent, turn around. Repent means turn around, face God, turn around, face God, turn around. Recognize who he is and thus who you are. Recognize the gulf between you two, we two, us two, and lay yourself at the feet of Jesus and beg for mercy. Well, I’ll never do that. Then you will never be saved. I will never submit myself in my own, then you will never be saved. But my church tells me that I’m really awesome. And every week they tell me that with the power of God, I can be even awesomer, then you will never be saved. What are we saved from? We are saved from the fact that there is this gulf between Yahweh and his special creation. He is willing. He has made a way. Will we turn and walk that narrow path or will we say, and we will be too proud to turn and to submit and to walk that narrow path? What if people don’t like me? What if people don’t like the new me? What if people, what if this, what if that, what if my self image takes a hit? What if my pride takes a hit? What if my friends leave me? Do you not listen to any of the old hymns? Well, maybe if you’re not saved, you don’t listen to any of the old hymns, but you need to and you will after you are saved and you’ll realize that you are not alone by a long shot. Repent. About this time, this is Luke chapter 13. About this time, Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the temple. Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee? Jesus asked. Is that why they suffered? Not at all. And you will perish too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. And what about the 18 people who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Were they worst sinners in Jerusalem? No. And I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish too. Death comes for us all. Father time, as they say, father time is undefeated. Death will come for the wicked and for the righteous. Death will come for you and for me. And Jesus is saying, do you think that because this bad thing happened, this person was in a car crash, that they were a worse sinner than somebody who is repentance or repentant? No, but it’s going to happen. If you are in that car crash, my prayer is that you are a repentant soul who is covered by the blood of Jesus Christ and I will see you again. Here is Jesus in chapter 13 of Luke, well into his public ministry. Unless you repent and turn to God, you are lost. It doesn’t matter your station in life. It doesn’t matter what you think of yourself. It doesn’t matter what church you attend or how much you give. It doesn’t matter all the things that you think you are doing that are right and good and proper. It doesn’t matter if you think you are religious and you are trying to follow the teachings of Jesus. How about following this teaching of Jesus? When do we get to this teaching of Jesus? Repent and turn to God. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. It’s here. We hear it over and over and over and over and over again. Why? Because it is perhaps the most difficult thing for a prideful, selfish, self-centered human being to do. Repent. I am not worthy, Lord. I am not worthy at all. I pray. I beg for your mercy. I beg for your grace, Lord. I give you my life. I submit my will to yours. Those are not easy for the broken, prideful, arrogant, self-centered human being to do. But without it, you remain lost. Jesus, I’m not going to replace the words of Jesus here. Is that tiny little passage, the beginning of chapter 13 of Luke, is that taught? Is that preached? Do preachers stand in front of congregations of people that they love and tell them, “None of us are worthy. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Repent. Do they challenge individuals who are professing their Christianity, who are professing their love of Jesus? Do they challenge those individuals to look in the mirror and say, “Are you truly repentant? Are you, have you truly turned to God? Do you truly live a life according to God’s will, not yours?” We know that these verbs must be done as believers. We hear them time and time and time again in scripture. We know because we hear time and again, those who persevere, that’s a verb, those who persevere to the end will be saved. We know that you don’t just say, “Oh, that sounds really good. I’ll raise my hand and sign up for that.” Okay, great. Let’s go. No. Now, if you are truly repentant and you have been saved by the mercy of God, the grace of God, you live a life worthy of your calling as a son or a daughter of the most high God. And it begins with repentance. Then Jesus told this story. Right after talking about repentance, Jesus told this story, “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years and there hasn’t been a single fig. Cut it down. It’s just taking up space in the garden.’ The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year. I’ll give it special attention, plenty of fertilizer. If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.'” You’re saved. You may have even had a heartfelt sense of repentance at the time, but your life is bearing no fruit. Your life is barren of all fruit of the Spirit. You are not producing. Does God just say, “Fine, cut you off?” No, you still have that chance. Do you remember the day of that heartfelt repentance? Turn back to it and turn back to God. But be aware that if it is not heartfelt repentance, if it is emotional repentance, if it is in the moment sense of, “Oh my goodness,” and if there is no fruit of the Spirit, as a result, because you’ve not truly repented and submitted yourself to the Lord, you will be cut down. You will not live eternally with God in the age to come. The teachings are very clear. Jesus never teaches one without the other. And we at the Church Universal love to teach one without the other. Jesus is all that in a bag of chips. Jesus is his teachings are amazing. Jesus this and Jesus that. Jesus teaches, preaches repentance. And he teaches and preaches the fruit of the Spirit that comes with repentance. And he teaches and he preaches the result for the individual if they do not. There’s a lot of stuff that Jesus teaches and preaches about gathering the weeds and burning them, about cutting down, about tearing the roots, about weeping and gnashing of teeth. The teachings of Jesus are very clear and they’re made clear. He does not leave us guessing as to what our choices are and what the alternatives are. We know the truth. Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Give yourself over to the power of God. Be indwelled by the very Spirit of God, the very power that raised Christ from the dead. Be indwelled and go. Live that life worthy of your calling as a son or a daughter of the Most High. Stay in front of the mirror. Allow God to work in you and through you. Allow the fruit of the Spirit to be manifest through you. Be a verb Christian. That’s my message for today. As a Christian, do your verbs beginning with repentance. Think a lot about that because it doesn’t matter if you are a pastor or not. You get caught up in daily life and I’ve been in Ecclesiastes and the teacher in Ecclesiastes, presumably Solomon, talks about your living a life and you know God, yet it all seems so meaningless. It’s a very real thing and we can’t just sit back and say, “Well, no, it doesn’t really matter.” It does matter. When you are sensing, “Well, okay, I’ve been a Christian for 40 years. I’ve been submitted. I’ve been being a good Christian.” All those different things. “I’ve been a verb Christian, but man, my days, I just go to work and I come back and I go to work and I, what’s my calling, Lord?” You know what your calling is? To be a son or a daughter of the Most High God. Your calling is to be representative because the Spirit of God lives in you, to be that hands and feet and eyes of the Lord, where you’re at the supermarket, when you’re at work, when you’re with your children, when you’re with your grandchildren, when you’re living your seemingly mundane life. You’re still being a verb Christian and that is passing it on to others who may be believers, non-believers. It is passing it on from one generation to the next. You’re doing what the good Lord wants you to do, “But I want to be Billy Graham.” I don’t really want to be. I’d be terrified preaching in front of 100,000 people, maybe, I don’t know. But you know what I mean. “Well, that’s not much of a calling.” That is a tremendous calling. I’ll tell you, let’s take a little rabbit trail here because this irritates me. This is a lie straight from hell. And that is, and we saw it a little bit with that dude that gave that speech at the college, motherhood. Do you think there is a higher calling than motherhood? If you are a submitted daughter of the most high God, oh my goodness, you are responsible for an entire other generation of your family to be raised in a godly way. But we, we, culture, pooh-pooh’s that. Culture says for men to go around spreading their seed, making babies, no parenthood. Culture says, “Oh, you got pregnant? Oh my goodness, go have an abortion.” Culture says, “Spend six weeks or four weeks with your baby and go back to work and raising your children. Let somebody else raise them.” Oh my goodness. There is no higher calling. There’s my rabbit trail. So God bless you guys. We will see you on Sunday for a service of the ordinance. If you’re a church Tony and I’ll tell you what I need, everything’s going to be set up obviously, but every time we do feet washing, we do feet washing here at the altar and we do it for the benefit of those who may be checking in on the live stream. We do it for the benefit of those who may be sitting there wondering what is that all about? They can see it for themselves, but I do not have anybody to do that this Sunday and it is Friday. If you’re a church Tonian, I would need two women who are friends or two men who are friends or a married couple. If you are willing, send me a message to wash feet at the altar. To women who are friends, to men who are friends or a married couple, please to wash feet at the altar. Lord, we pray that your church is a repentant church. We pray that your church seeks you first and all that she does. We pray that your church is a verb church living and doing as you command living a life and existence as the bride of Christ. And we pray that for every individual who has professed faith in Jesus Christ, that every day they look in the mirror and say, yes, Lord, what does today bring Lord? And they recognize that even if it’s a great opportunity to share the gospel or if it’s just a regular day at work, they are the light of the world because your spirit is in them. Lord encourage your followers today. Encourage your church in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. God bless y’all and it’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming. So I’ll see you in church.
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