Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #245 Repentance: A Key to Revival (from the 2026 Revival Roundtable)

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#245 Repentance: A Key to Revival (from the 2026 Revival Roundtable) · The OneCry Podcast

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I'm telling you, until they see us repentant on an ongoing situation in real life, they
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don't want what we have.
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Welcome to the OneCry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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The goal, accelerating the movement of God who's sharing revival truth, stories, and
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reports.
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Hello, and welcome back to the OneCry Podcast.
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My name is Ben Dishner, I'm the Global Ministries Director for OneCry, and I also have the privilege
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of producing the podcast.
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For the next few weeks, we're going to be focusing on our recent revival roundtable.
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Each year, in conjunction with the Collegiate Day of Prayer, OneCry and other like-minded
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ministries join together to have a discussion and a presentation about God's activity in
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history and God's activity today, and then how we can join Him in that activity.
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What things we can do to help promote a move of God.
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So what we're going to discuss today, actually, we're going to be sharing with you a message
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by our friend Kyle Lance Martin, who brought a message of repentance, biblical repentance,
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and the necessity of biblical repentance for a move of God and revival to continue.
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So if you haven't subscribed to the podcast, make sure you subscribe today and share this
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message with a friend.
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And let's listen to Kyle Lance Martin and his message on repentance.
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You know, every time I prayed for this time, the Lord kept saying, because I hear college
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ministries and college ministries, and people are going to be doing interactive engagements
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with college students, but the Lord, every time I kept asking Him, He said, this message
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is not for the college students, meaning outside for Collegiate Day of Prayer, it's for this
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group today.
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And I hope you hear my heart in that.
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I love that you're doing ministry out there, but the Lord wants us to minister to your
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heart in here.
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And Gil, you launched it off this morning.
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You came up here, you read a word, and then you just literally got off the stage.
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And I felt like you deposited a seed in here that needed to be released here today.
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And I'm really thankful for it.
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And you know, last night we go to this Great Awakening, George Whitefield.
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What most people don't know in my life is I pursued schooling after Dallas, I went on
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to Gordon-Conwell, and part of my schooling was to study George Whitefield's life.
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And so all last night, I'm just like, you've got to be kidding me.
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I came to Virginia to watch a movie.
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I live in Dallas, and everything just came back up.
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And Whitefield really has one message, and it's repent.
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And I hope you hear my heart.
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I love the church.
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I'm for the church.
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But if you want to see a shift in the next generation, it's got to come through repentance.
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I have a quote, and it came from Bill, and it came from Bob Bakke.
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Relationships do lead to revival, but I want to just say something.
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Repentance will keep the fire of revival going.
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We're going to be chasing and chasing and chasing the revival, the revival, but until
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that message of repentance is dropped, it will not stick.
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And the message of repentance will not stick if you don't have a first repentance.
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Now, hang on here for a second, okay?
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There's two types of repentance.
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Just hang on here.
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The first one, just so we're all on the same page, is that when repentance is real for
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the first time, you are justified before the Lord.
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You are now believing in the death, burial, and resurrection.
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You have a repentant heart.
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Now, all of a sudden, the Lord sees you as a child of God.
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But what happens is, it's like once we've done that one time, by the way, when we walked
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into last night, the movie, there was a young man named Michael, he was watching and collecting
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all of our tickets.
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Michael, he was watching all of us come by, and this young man, Michael, we started engaging
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him with the gospel.
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And he's watching all of us, and next thing you know, Caleb and I, we get this opportunity
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just to deliver a message of repentance, and this guy's like, I've never done that before.
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You know, there's no better way to go into a great awakening than to see a guy outside
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the movie say yes to Jesus.
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And so just put down the name Michael, will you?
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Will you write down Michael?
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Michael, the movie theater man.
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This guy is a young man, but here's the deal.
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He grew up in the church.
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And I'm telling you, until they see us repentant on an ongoing situation in real life, they
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don't want what we have.
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So I just want to just release this heart posture, and this is my heart posture.
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I am for you, I want this to press in, I want us to go deeper, but it's not going to come
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anywhere else except through repentance.
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Relationships lead to revival.
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That's why I love this.
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I was trying to describe to Caleb, but just, this is a watchman group.
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This is an encouraging group.
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This is like, keep going.
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I love seeing Glenn.
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He just, he encourages me, one word, okay, yes, keep going.
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You find somebody else, keep going.
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You see Drew, keep going.
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Like this is the mentality.
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But the only way we can keep walking this out is if we're real with each other and repentance
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is on our heart.
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We can talk about programs all we want, but guess what?
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We're going to be talking about another program next year.
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And then another program, and another program.
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The only reason that we are collectively unified is because we are repentant hearts.
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And that's what sticks.
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And that's my heart.
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You know, in Acts 26, 19 through 20, Paul, he's got an opportunity to deliver a message.
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And he says, therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
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God dropped a word for this man.
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And he says, instead I preached to those in Damascus first, to those in Jerusalem and
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all the region of Judea and Gentiles, that they should, what?
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Repent and turn to God.
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And do works worthy of repentance.
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This was Paul's message.
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There really wasn't anything else.
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Once you repent, and I'll just do the visual first for us.
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Once you repent, and you turn from all this stuff, and you're actually turning to God,
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when you're doing works worthy of repentance, you know what that means?
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It means you actually look different.
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It means you're actually doing works worthy of repentance.
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It means there's fruit from your repentance.
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I've gone to more repentance gatherings that have never seen fruit from those things.
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I hope you hear my heart.
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I'm not here to judge.
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I'm not here to point.
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I just, I want us to be real.
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Like, let's just call it out.
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And so there is a process, and that's actually a refining process.
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It's this process that Paul releases before the kings, and he just says, repent, turn
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to God, do works worthy of repentance.
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You want to know what it looks like to follow Jesus?
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Just do this right here.
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The do works worthy of repentance, you know what that means?
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It means you're following Jesus, Josh.
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It means that you are now walking with Jesus.
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It does mean you're sharing the gospel.
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It does mean you're tithing and doing all of these things because you're free.
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Repentance is not a doom and gloom.
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It's freedom.
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And I wish people would stop having this image of a guy on the side of the street that just
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says repent, because it feels like every time you say that, you're just pointing a finger
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at somebody.
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Really, it means repent so you can experience freedom in the Lord.
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I have repented more in the last two, three years than ever in my life, and I have more
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of the joy of the Lord than ever, ever.
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I had a guy come up to me at Starbucks, Caleb, you were there, Caleb and I were standing
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up there, and he goes, you guys, you know, they just, you know, we were staring at somebody
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and they just stare at you and you think you know each other, and you know, I just stare
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at Gil because I like Gil.
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I still want to talk about the tortoise story sometime with you, Gil.
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You know, here's the deal, but when Christ is inside of you, it should be attractive.
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And in Starbucks, this guy came up to us, he was a missionary overseas, and all he said
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was is, he just said, are you guys believers?
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That's all I needed to hear, that somebody saw Christ in me just how I walked.
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But I don't walk like that unless there's a repentant spirit in my heart.
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And repentance means you don't have to be defensive, by the way.
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It means you should welcome any and all to speak into your life.
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I know there's guardrails, I understand that, but let me just say this, when Paul began
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this process, when repentance, when there was this process with Paul, can I just say,
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it did go to the Jew first.
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And this might be a little bit of a strange word, but in order to understand repentance,
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remember, this is for us here, this is just for us in this room.
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In order to understand repentance, I think you need to understand how Jews understand
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repentance.
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I know, it's a little weird twist, so hang in here with me.
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But in order to understand the message of repentance, so this word, the Jews would call
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repentance teshuvah.
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I really want to encourage you guys to write notes.
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I'm going to give you tons of scripture.
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Like our cross point, cross point guys, you guys are exposing, we're going to go through
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the word a lot here.
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And the word teshuvah, right, it just means to return, it's as close as you can get to
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describing teshuvah.
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You know, from the time of Moses, please understand this, the Israelites, they were able to come
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to the Lord through what?
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The tent of the meeting.
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This was how the Israelites began to show us, as Gentiles, how are we going to come
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before the Lord.
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So I think in order to understand repentance, you have to understand the first 39 books
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of the Bible.
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I get weary and tired of evangelicals, non-denominationals, AGs, Baptist Methodists, however you want
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to label it.
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It's like we don't think the Old Testament has any relevancy.
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It does.
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When you embrace the first 39 books, the Pentateuch, the Torah, the Tanakh, when you understand
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the word, I'm telling you, everything points to Christ.
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It's not irrelevant.
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He comes to fulfill all of this.
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And so when I'm talking about the tent of the meeting, you're like, oh, that's a great
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tent.
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That's what the Israelites did.
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Man, this is an incredible picture where they began to come, they would repent before the
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Lord with their sins at this place.
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And as one could discover the words of Moses, the tent of the meeting, that's where the
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Ark of the Covenant was and all the other holy items and where the offerings were provided.
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But then you see outside the tabernacle was where the fire for the offerings were located.
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Another name would be the altar of fire, the altar of burnt offering.
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I want us to understand this.
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When you begin to understand this from an Old Testament perspective, everything will
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start making sense with repentance.
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Please don't discredit anything of this.
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All of this is pointing to Yeshua.
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By the way, if you're in any country, I travel often.
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If you want to know how real Jesus is, just walk into any environment.
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I don't even care if you're in a Walmart, a Target, or a government place and just say
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one word, Jesus.
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And watch.
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What did you say?
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What did you say?
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My kids are all in public schools and, you know, if they walk into a hallway and they
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say, Jesus, I promise you, it doesn't go well sometimes.
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The name of Jesus is real and relevant and everything from the Old Testament is going
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to be pointing to this.
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Now, as I was studying, all of this came to me in Leviticus 6, verse 7.
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Now watch the Word of God, what it says here up on the scripture.
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It says, in this way, the priest, because of the burnt offering, right?
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Because of the sacrifice, the priest will make atonement on his behalf before the Lord.
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And he will be given for anything he may have done to incur guilt.
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And so what this would mean is that an Israelite would have to return to the Lord, his or her
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sin was atoned through what?
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The burnt offering.
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Okay?
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I mean, it's pretty self-explanatory, but what I love is that they did this for 40 years
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in the wilderness.
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This was how a Jewish person would get their sins atoned for.
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We're not going to get into all the offerings, but I do want you to understand something
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in Leviticus 6, 12 through 17.
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The fire on the altar, it shall be what?
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Kept burning.
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The fire must never go out.
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Every morning, the priest would burn wood on the fire.
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He used to arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat portions from the fellowship
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offerings on it.
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Fire must be kept going on the altar, how often?
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Continually.
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And it must not go out.
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So this fire, just as you see this imagery that's taking place, and then in Deuteronomy
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4, just so you know where the fire comes from, Deuteronomy 4, 24, it says, for the Lord is
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your God, is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
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The fire is from God.
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Everybody with me?
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And so over time, what would happen is, is the Israelites, they transitioned from the
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tent of the meeting, right?
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To a physical temple by King Solomon.
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David couldn't build it, but his son could.
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And this fire was once again established at the place of worshiping the Lord.
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Second Chronicles 7, 1, it says, as soon as Solomon finished praying, and I always love
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how it always ties and intertwines with prayer, fire descended from heaven.
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I still think that'd be the most incredible sight.
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And consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
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You see, the heart behind the fire is for individuals.
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The heart behind the fire is for individuals to come before His holy presence and have
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a repentant heart to experience freedom from sin.
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Bringing an animal, giving it to the priest, they're done carrying the weight.
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That's the imagery, you guys.
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They're done carrying the weight of paying for this thing, giving up the animal, and
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they, guess what?
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They can walk away free.
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The tabernacle, first of all, is the tent of the meeting, then you had Solomon's temple,
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and then you had a second temple, right?
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The temple of Zerubbabel, I do believe there's going to be a third temple with time.
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But it says, as many of you might be aware, right now the Jews have no altar of fire.
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I was just in Israel in December, probably one of the more interesting times I've ever
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been.
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The government actually funded for a team of us to come.
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Government of Israel funded us for us to come to Israel.
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And we got to actually interact with the Knesset.
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We interacted with Ambassador Mike Huckabee, lots of incredible meetings, but the best
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part was we were in the West Bank in Judea and Samaria.
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And right before Christmas, we're ministering to Muslims the gospel every day.
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And do you know why the Jews are okay with us doing that?
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Because when Muslims turn to Christ, they stop blowing up the Jews.
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I'm actually 100% serious.
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But don't you dare bring the gospel to us, to the Jewish people.
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And so what do the Jewish people do if they have no fire to present their offering?
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That's the transition for us.
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We're going to skip a lot of that, Caleb.
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We're going to just go John the Baptist, he knew the pattern.
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John the Baptist knew what was coming.
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In fact, John the Baptist was a strategic transition.
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And it's actually interesting.
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Do you guys know that John the Baptist was the last Old Testament prophet?
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It's something that we don't typically think of, but in Luke 16, 16, look what the Word
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of God says.
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In Luke 16, verse 16, it says, the law and the prophets were until John.
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Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone is strongly urged
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to enter in it.
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When was the last time you talked like that?
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Forced into it.
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John the Baptist was a forerunner.
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And yet Paul said to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 1.27, but God chose the wise.
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God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
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God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
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George Whitefield, did he not talk about this?
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I mean, this is Whitefield's life.
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God used some crazy man that looked funny.
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He took the wig off, did he not?
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He just took it off.
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I'm done with this.
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I'm done playing games.
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The reality is, is that the church, us, some of us need to stop playing games.
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Stop playing the church mentality because it's comfortable and normal.
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Just strip it off and be honest with who you are in Christ.
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I'm not after you.
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I'm not coming after you.
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I'm just telling you guys there's so much more freedom when you can walk in repentant
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heart.
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And I'm telling you guys, that's when lives begin to experience depth and transformation
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in a community.
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And it's real.
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And that's what the next gen is looking for.
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We need to start modeling that.
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We need to start modeling that.
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To the Evans and the Charlies, to my daughter Maya, I have two in college right now, and
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I think there's an understanding that John the Baptist, as he's going into the wilderness,
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you guys realize that's where his messages were.
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Isn't that interesting?
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If you're going to call people to repent, why would you go to a wilderness?
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People came to him because of the message.
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You don't have to be worried about people coming to you if the message is of the Lord.
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You don't have to promote it.
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You can stay as hidden as long as you need to.
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The Lord will advance the message through you when he needs to.
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Amen?
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Matthew 3.2, this is John's message.
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He says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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This word repent, matineo, just means to change one, an attitude and an outlook, right?
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To change one's mind or purpose.
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It's a change of attitude and outlook which may result in sorrow for one's sins.
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Now some of us are old school here.
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I've ran with some of you guys for a long time.
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I remember the old days being at the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove and I remember
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being on the stage with Richard Owen Roberts.
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And Richard Owen Roberts is a feisty, fireball man of God.
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And I just started to tap into him.
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And I think it would be appropriate to understand how Richard Owen Roberts portrays repentance.
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I want to go to the next slide here.
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It's just changed everything about who I am and how I do this.
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Genuine repentance involves the whole person.
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Now watch this, three things, okay?
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Let's go to the next slide.
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I love what Owen Roberts says.
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First of all, repentance is a change of mind.
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It's an intellect.
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A change of mind.
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You know there's two sets that you have to deal with.
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The mind of flesh and the mind of the spirit.
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So this is the reality.
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It comes from Romans 8, 5 through 8.
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But there has to be a change of mind.
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I think that's pretty self-explanatory in the repentance.
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I'm changing my mind.
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I'm walking away from this flesh in my mind.
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First of all, you have to make a decision in your mind, am I done with this?
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Like you have to actually make that.
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Now the second thing is that Owen Roberts says is, but at some point there has to be
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a change of affections and emotion.
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I think this is so real.
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Here's what he says.
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Let me just say this.
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There's a change of affections.
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It's a mandatory part of repentance.
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Unrepentant people love themselves, their families, their friends, their money, their
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positions, their power, their sins, their pleasures.
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Unrepentant people love God.
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Unrepentant people, I'm just telling you, yeah, I can't go do that.
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I got to spend more time with my family.
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Hang on here.
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I got to be careful about this.
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But I have four kids and a wife.
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But if I ever elevate my family, hang in here with me to the point where I'm making my decision
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based on them, not what God's called me to, that's disobedience.
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And I just want to just say to this group right here, if we're not careful, we do that
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with time, because you say, well, I want to be a good husband.
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I want to be a good father.
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I want to be a good grandfather, whatever the case is.
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And so we just almost elevate our family up to obedience with the Lord.
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I'm not saying don't be a good husband.
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I hope you hear my heart in that.
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But there is a point that some point you have to just say, man, my affections are more towards
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this than really what God wants.
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And we want to know why we haven't seen a move of God, because I think our affections
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and our emotions are tied to those things, and we don't want to give them up.
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I'm talking about Notre Dame football.
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No, I'm with you, Byron.
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I'm like, they're talking my language.
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I grew up 30 minutes from, 35 minutes from the Notre Dame Stadium.
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I grew up sneaking into every men's basketball game my senior year in high school.
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I'm not proud of that.
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I've had to repent, kind of.
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No, but here's what I'm saying.
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If, if any of that ever elevates to the point where it's impacting your decisions, I'm telling
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you, you probably need to let it go.
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And it's really, really, really hard.
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I love being with my family.
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Realistically, I'm processing, if I'm supposed to be working with the Zambian government
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right now, the Zambian government and calling their country to repent, and you want to know
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what's holding me back.
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We're talking about calling a country to repent.
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And I'm afraid.
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I might miss my son's track meets.
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I might miss my daughter's dance.
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Like, you might be like, well, Kyle, that's just because you're a caring dad.
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Yeah, but the reality is, I'm weighing that to what I know God's calling me to.
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I hope you hear my heart in this.
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Like, this is a tension that all of us have to understand.
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Is it at what point are our affections tied to the flesh?
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Or really, what are we doing, what God's asking us to do, amen?
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And it's real.
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It's tension.
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That's why Paul says, make sure you evaluate this.
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That repentance is that you have a change of mind and have a change of affections.
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I was at a ranch just this last weekend with probably one of the wealthiest men I've ever
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been around in my life.
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He doesn't know Jesus.
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And I watched the wrestle in him, physically, just like processing, should I give everything
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up?
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And then all of a sudden, I'm beginning to understand this.
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I'm not just calling him out.
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I think that's just a real tension.
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There's a change of mind and there's a change of affection.
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And you go to the very third thing that Richard and Robert says, at some point, you have to
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have a change of will.
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And you're like, okay, what does that mean?
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Okay, now listen to this, okay?
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Christ likened the relationship between a man and a woman in marriage to the relationship
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between himself and the bride, his church.
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Marriage requires more than a change of mind.
23:24
It demands more than a change of affections.
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It requires an act of will.
23:30
The ceremonial question the man must answer is, is will you have this woman to be thy
23:34
wife?
23:35
And an honest answer to this question demands a mighty act of will.
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The vow before anybody, you have to be ready and serious, is that I will.
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I will walk this out with my wife for the rest of my life, M-U, M-U, is that even a,
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are you willing, willing to walk away from everything?
23:55
Because a repentant heart says, I will.
23:59
A repentant heart says, I'm not going back to the way I used to do this.
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If you want to see a move of God, just repent.
24:06
In your own life, I promise you, you sit long enough with the Lord, the Spirit will start
24:09
revealing things.
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It might be from 15 years ago, one thing.
24:13
It might be from yesterday, whatever the context is, I will turn from my sins.
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I will submit to the Lord Jesus.
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I will comply with all the demands of my King.
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I will love Him with all of my heart, my strength, and my mind.
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I think for me, John the Baptist, he releases this word of repentance because the Kingdom
24:31
of God can come right now.
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How many of us want to experience the fullness of God in our life?
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Like right now?
24:37
You know what it takes?
24:39
A repentant heart, which really means it takes humility.
24:45
And I think for me, he's just modeling what Jesus is going to do in Matthew 4, 17 and
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on.
24:50
Matthew 4, 17, these are the, this is what Jesus talks about.
24:54
From that time, from then on, Jesus began to preach, repent because the Kingdom of Heaven
24:58
has come near.
24:59
If I could just say one thing, if you just needed a little encouragement about what maybe
25:03
your ministry could look like this next year, can I just add the word repent?
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What if every aspect that you did in your ministry, public or in college or at home
25:14
or from the church, can I just say probably the message of the end times is repent?
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And we want to know why He hasn't come back.
25:22
I think there's a part of it besides the nations haven't heard.
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I think that we have to get the bride ready, which means it comes through repentance.
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And I think what I've heard many, many times, I remember the Malawi government and they
25:35
just said to me one time, they said, well, what do we need to repent of?
25:38
I said, I don't know.
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That's up to the Lord.
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The Holy Spirit will bring about conviction in our own lives if you're open to it.
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I hope you hear my heart.
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Mark 6, 12, Jesus sent out the disciples.
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And what did they proclaim?
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That they should repent.
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John the Baptist does this.
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Jesus does this.
25:58
The disciples do this.
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Paul does this.
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I just want you to be honest and say, do I communicate this in my own life to my family?
26:06
Do I communicate this to my own church?
26:09
Do I communicate this to the ministry?
26:11
Do I communicate this to college students?
26:13
Because when you begin to model this, one of the reasons I think discipleship, I remember
26:16
my mentor, Robert Coleman, Coleman used to always say, the reason that we haven't seen
26:20
effective fill in the blank is because we haven't ever handed the baton soon enough.
26:26
And one of those areas is in modeling repentance.
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One of those areas could be in modeling discipleship, whatever, fill in the blank.
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And I want to make sure that my kids know what repentance is, just my family, and maybe
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it can spill over.
26:40
And in Matthew 3, 3, it says, for this is he who has spoken through the prophet Isaiah,
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who said, a voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord.
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Make his paths straight.
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How do you make the path straight?
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Repent.
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We're at Slim Chickens.
26:55
You guys know that restaurant outside here?
26:57
I love Slim Chickens.
27:00
Caleb and I were eating there yesterday for lunch, and we just asked the manager there
27:04
if we could pray for her.
27:05
She said, you know, pray for me that I just wouldn't get distracted anymore from, like,
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things of the Lord.
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And she just said, there's things that just pull me.
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They just pull me this way, and they pull me this way.
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That's what sin does.
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It pulls you from the path.
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But what happens is when you repent, you can actually start walking the straight and narrow
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again.
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But a lot of times, we don't even know we're off the straight and narrow because we're
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so far over here with our own sin and our own flesh.
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It sounds, it's so simple, you guys, and it is.
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Oh, man, Lord.
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In Matthew 3, 5, it says, in Jerusalem and all Judea and the region about the Jordan,
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they were going out to John the Baptist.
27:48
And I just say, we're afraid to preach the message of repentance, but dare I say, it'll
27:51
draw people to Christ when we preach that message.
27:56
Like it's time to start calling out realness of, like, guys, we need to, I don't know how
28:00
else to say this.
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I'm just going to keep saying it, repent.
28:05
I walked into Dallas into a restaurant one day, and the guy came up to me, he goes, aren't
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you the repentant guy?
28:10
And you know what my response was?
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What do you need to repent from?
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It's not about me.
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It's a realness of what he's asking of us.
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I was just a symbol of what the Spirit was already speaking to him about.
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The Lord is already working in his heart.
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Okay, so here's what I want to do.
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Caleb, go all the way to, I think Josh, I think Josh, you prayed this even.
28:43
I'm talking about the fire and the wind.
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I don't know where we're at across the board.
28:47
We probably have AGs here.
28:48
We probably have a lot of Baptists here.
28:51
But I just want to loosely reference the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.
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You have to, because what happens is, is that in the Old Testament, this altar of burnt
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offering, this fire, guess what?
29:03
It points to what Jesus is going to offer.
29:08
Did you catch that?
29:09
It's so simple.
29:10
And so what you're going to see here is that in Matthew 3 verse 11, I baptize you with
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the water, this is John the Baptist saying, with repentance, but he who is coming after
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me is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry.
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He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
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He'll baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.
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Okay, now let's just address, I'm going to address the baptism of the Holy Spirit in
29:30
30 seconds.
29:31
And I'm going to cover all of my bases.
29:36
Baptism of the Holy Spirit, okay?
29:37
I believe it's at least three things.
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It's transformation from above and within.
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I believe that when it happens, there's demonstration of the Spirit.
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And I believe once baptism of the Holy Spirit takes place, there's an empowerment to witness.
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I actually think it's all of those.
29:55
And so if you're AG or if you're extreme Pentecostal, I got you covered.
30:00
If you're just straight-laced conservative, I got, this is covered.
30:03
This covers it all.
30:05
I'm not concerned about when the baptism of the Holy Spirit happens.
30:08
I'm concerned, is it real in your life?
30:12
And so if Jesus is coming and he's preaching a message of repentance, you should start
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seeing this in your life.
30:20
You should actually start seeing demonstration of the Holy Spirit moving.
30:26
But you can't if you're always clogged.
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If you're clogged because there's just one sin, and I'm telling you, you don't have to
30:34
have a hundred sins.
30:35
You could have one sin that is wrecking you right now.
30:38
And it consumes your mind, but you never tell anybody.
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You know that you have to let this thing go.
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Just let it go.
30:45
And so when Jesus comes, this is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
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I think we're okay.
30:49
Is this safe here?
30:50
Is this good?
30:51
This is a simple illustration.
30:52
But man, this starts changing your life.
30:54
But that's not what I want to talk about.
30:56
That's an aspect of what it is.
30:57
I want to talk about the baptism of the fire.
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It says, he's coming with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and of fire.
31:05
Now there's a couple ways to look at the baptism of the fire.
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First of all, okay, let's go to there, Caleb.
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First of all, the baptism of fire, it can be.
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Now here's what I want to make sure you understand.
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There's various views on this, okay?
31:15
I'm not here to be too dogmatic about it.
31:18
But first of all, the baptism of fire, it could have been fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.
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A lot of people would say, well, it came on Pentecost.
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Okay, let's go to the next illustration if you can though, Caleb, if you don't mind.
31:28
And then the next one would be baptism of fire.
31:30
It could be a form of judgment.
31:32
I'm giving you multiple illustrations here, okay?
31:35
Could it came at Pentecost?
31:36
It also could come, some would say it already happened, and then it's going to happen.
31:40
The coming and when he returns.
31:43
Some would say that.
31:44
I'm just giving you a big picture here.
31:45
It's a form of judgment.
31:46
Now go to the next one, okay?
31:47
Baptism of fire will take place in the future day of the Lord.
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These are all little illustrations, and I actually think they all start building on
31:53
each other.
31:54
Jesus is coming with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.
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Okay, here we go.
31:59
Keep going.
32:00
And the last one here is I actually believe it's also a form of refinement and purification.
32:05
All of these illustrations, I actually think they could be all of them.
32:11
Think baptism of fire could be a description of all of them.
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I'm not hung up about when.
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I'm hung up is that does it actually impact your life?
32:20
Okay, it's the expression.
32:23
Okay, this is what we're after here.
32:25
So in all of this, okay, I actually believe, this is kind of fun, that people have a lot
32:31
of theological takes on this, but Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to each one of us.
32:36
So ultimately the Spirit comes to reprove in some aspect.
32:39
The word reprove is a legal word.
32:41
It means to bring to light, to expose, and to refute, to convict, and to convince.
32:46
So he's coming through the Holy Spirit, right, as a baptism, but he's also coming the baptism
32:50
of fire.
32:51
I'm not here to bring confusion.
32:52
I'm going to bring clarity on this, okay?
32:54
Remember the initial point of the baptism of the Spirit and fire, it has to come to
32:58
all of us.
32:59
And I'm just going to release it now.
33:01
You don't have to speak in tongues to have this evident.
33:04
Okay?
33:06
You can have multiple gifts that God has given you, okay, that's evidence of baptism of the
33:11
Holy Spirit and fire.
33:12
I don't speak in tongues, but I ask for it all the time.
33:18
I come into cities, and these older ladies, I don't know why they're always older ladies,
33:22
and they come up and they say, young man, have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit?
33:26
I ought to go, I don't know, you tell me.
33:29
What's the evidence?
33:31
What they're looking for is one thing many times.
33:33
And so because of that, we check this whole thing out.
33:36
Stop.
33:37
That's just bad theology.
33:38
And so all of a sudden, we don't think the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire can happen
33:42
to us.
33:43
Yes, it can.
33:44
All of us.
33:47
But we've let these labels of denominations get in the way.
33:52
And so we don't think that this text is relevant anymore.
33:55
It's so relevant.
33:56
That's why we need to repent.
34:06
Once you believe in the death, burial, and resurrection, you have the Holy Spirit inside
34:09
of you.
34:10
And the baptism of the Spirit, He never leaves us.
34:17
There's no leaking.
34:19
He doesn't just leave after a day.
34:22
If He does, we're all in trouble.
34:25
The fire is here for one reason.
34:31
It's here to burn away the chaff that's inside of us.
34:38
So why is repentance so important?
34:40
Because you and I, in 1 Corinthians 3.16, it says, we are God's temple and the Spirit
34:45
dwells inside of us.
34:48
And so if you want the fire to continue to burn, can I just propose repentance will feed
34:55
that fire.
34:57
The chaff will burn away inside of your life.
35:00
And when the chaff burns away, guess what?
35:03
The Holy Spirit begins to manifest Himself more in your life.
35:07
The fire will begin to burn more bright than ever before.
35:10
Does that make sense?
35:12
So just like the Old Testament altar of fire, and that you have to come and you have to
35:16
bring an offering, you have to bring something for it to be sacrificed.
35:19
Guess what?
35:20
That fire that's inside of us, we're saying ultimately to Jesus, Jesus, I know that you
35:23
died, but guess what?
35:24
I have to keep repenting.
35:25
Why?
35:26
Because I'm not perfect.
35:27
And I'm here to bet probably nobody else is.
35:30
Therefore, we have stuff that we have to give to the Lord so that we can continue to walk
35:34
in this cleansing.
35:38
Because the fire inside of us, and as weird as it sounds, you're feeding the fire with
35:43
your own sin because you're confessing and repenting.
35:47
And when I began to understand that I was okay admitting my faults before the Lord,
35:53
I was okay confessing at a table saying, man, I had pride today.
35:57
Hey, you know, somebody came up to me and they said something about a meeting.
36:01
You can keep playing or start playing whenever, thanks.
36:08
And I actually said something that was not true, but I didn't know it wasn't true.
36:12
But that night I was just, man, I was a mess.
36:14
I was praying.
36:15
I was like, God, what I said to her, I know is true, but why does it feel weird?
36:18
So I asked the Lord, he said, because you were wrong.
36:23
Part of confessing and repenting is asking the Lord, is there an area of my life that
36:26
I am wrong?
36:27
But you got to understand, I'm not, this isn't condemnation, this isn't judgment, it's freedom.
36:32
And so the next morning, here's what happened.
36:35
I went to my employee and I said, hey, last night in front of everybody, I said this,
36:39
I was wrong.
36:43
You guys, when you begin to understand that sin is against God, it should bother you.
36:48
Like it should grieve you.
36:50
This isn't just an apology.
36:52
It actually should cause you to tears.
36:55
Like I want to walk in righteousness.
36:56
I want to walk in holiness.
36:57
I want to get to that place.
37:01
And so I just said, I confess of my sin and I repent.
37:05
And you know what happened?
37:06
She smiled.
37:08
Not like you're wrong and I got you, but it was like all of us could just, there's no
37:13
more tension.
37:16
I think there's division in the church because we have unrepentant people.
37:21
And a lot of it has to come from the leadership.
37:26
Some of us have actually hurt our people in our own ministry, but because we're leaders,
37:31
we don't want to admit it.
37:32
Can I just say, please ask the Lord.
37:37
You know, there's a list, nobody wants to see a list of sins, but I'm going to put them
37:40
up here.
37:41
I think this is something Richard Owen Roberts would do.
37:46
I just think maybe just, could you just, would you mind playing?
37:52
I just think, listen, I'm not here to fabricate anything.
37:55
I just want you to start asking the Lord.
37:56
Is there anything on the screen that's, this is me right now.
38:01
Is there any anger or rage or malice or blasphemy?
38:05
The whole filthy language.
38:06
I don't know why Christian thinks it's cool, but it's not.
38:09
Lying, fornication.
38:12
We had 15 pastors in DFW in the last almost year and a half now, they've gotten kicked
38:17
out of their churches, 15 in Dallas, Fort Worth alone because of hidden sin.
38:25
And you know what happens when I'm out on the streets?
38:29
It kills my witness.
38:32
I've actually had a lady tell me, are you tied to this church?
38:35
Because if you are, I don't want anything to do with it.
38:38
And there's nothing I could do.
38:39
I just walked away.
38:40
You know, maybe there's a passion, a sexual lust that you just never shared, but you look
38:46
on the Instagram, you look on Facebook, but you're not like, I know it's not that bad.
38:49
Yes, it's sin.
38:52
There's an evil desire.
38:53
The list continues to go.
38:54
Don't worry.
38:55
There's more.
38:56
Covetousness.
38:58
There's this division in mind and in judgment, unrighteous, sexually immoral, adulterers,
39:02
homosexuality, stealing, greed, drunkenness, slanderers.
39:05
And it continues to go on, swindlers, sensuality, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife,
39:11
jealousy.
39:12
I don't know why.
39:13
Jealousy in the older, honestly, jealousy is real in the church.
39:17
I don't know why rivalries are real, but they are.
39:23
John's going to talk about unity, because in Waco, you're seeing true unity in Waco.
39:29
And I believe that that's because this stuff just goes away.
39:35
There's dissensions and divisions, and here we go, we've got more, envy, orgies and depraved
39:41
and murder and deceitfulness and gossip and haters of God and insolent and haughty and
39:45
boastful.
39:46
I just, it just keeps going.
39:52
Sometimes the church has just got to slow down and say, God, is there anything in this
39:55
area in my life?
39:58
Because when this stuff is gone, you can run as fast and hard as you want to share the
40:03
good news.
40:05
You have nothing to hide.
40:06
You'll come to the unbelievers.
40:07
You'll come to the lost.
40:08
You'll go to the unreached, because you have nothing to hide.
40:12
I'm telling you guys, when you walk with a pure heart, this purity that we're after,
40:16
we've got to model it for the next generation.
40:19
Man, here we go, disobedient to parents and inventors of evil, lack of understanding and
40:24
foolishness, faithless, untrustworthy, heartless, ruthless, lovers of self, lovers of money.
40:29
And I'm in this, I'm in this, I'm in this ranch in the middle of my meeting.
40:35
It was almost like, Drew, when we were at the church at Highland, and that guy just
40:39
stood up in the middle of the commons, collegiate commons.
40:42
In the middle of this, there's like 50 of us.
40:44
This lady just says, excuse me, I have to repent and ask for forgiveness.
40:51
And so the whole group, this little intimate crowd, just watches this lady repent.
40:55
And again, you know what happened?
40:57
Josh, it shifted the whole atmosphere.
41:04
There's something about coming to the table, and it's coming to the altar, saying I'm giving
41:10
up this, because I don't want to carry it anymore.
41:15
Nobody wants a spotlight to expose the darkness, but I promise you, if you ask the Holy Spirit,
41:19
He might reveal something.
41:21
It's easy to stand here, but I like it over here, because then I don't.
41:28
You see the list.
41:29
Keep going if you don't mind.
41:30
I'm not going to read them.
41:32
But there's more, and it's not exhaustive.
41:36
But there's more.
41:39
Keep going if you don't mind.
41:43
This is real, by the way.
41:46
Mediums in the church are real, by the way.
41:49
This is not just in the lost.
41:52
It's in the church.
41:53
If you don't believe me, go hang out in Nashville, North Carolina.
41:57
If you don't believe me, go into Santa Fe, New Mexico.
42:00
If you don't believe me, go to Sedona, Arizona.
42:02
They're there, in the church.
42:06
There's more.
42:10
I want to offer you guys something.
42:12
In Acts 3.19, I know this is talking to Israel, but just please here understand this, and
42:16
this is how I'm closing.
42:17
And I just would love for you to take some time before the Lord.
42:21
I think the reason I got emotional about just this message for each one of you is because
42:27
I long for all of us to experience a newfound freedom.
42:32
And it doesn't matter how old you are.
42:34
I think all of us would love to experience a new level of purity and holiness in Jesus.
42:40
And I keep coming back to the Israelites.
42:42
They're carrying this heavy weight.
42:44
They give it to the priest.
42:45
The priest then burns it.
42:46
But Jesus is all of a sudden saying, now all you have to do is just come and give it to
42:49
me, and then I'll just take care of it.
42:52
I'll just burn it off.
42:54
And in Acts 3, it says this, Acts 3.19, right, amen, it says, therefore repent therefore
42:58
and turn back that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from
43:04
the presence of the Lord.
43:07
That's what we're after.
43:09
And some of you have taken five years to repent from one sin.
43:14
Some of you have just chosen to not go there because you're afraid of the ramifications.
43:21
And I want to encourage you, the Lord is so patient.
43:24
He is so kind.
43:25
And here's how it closes in Romans 2 verse 4, it says, or do you presume on the riches
43:31
of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to
43:35
lead you to repentance?
43:37
Do you know what this text is really about?
43:38
Do you know that this text is really about His patience with the Israelites?
43:43
And that they constantly, they just kept going back to the old way of doing things.
43:46
They kept going back to the old way of doing things, and God just says, I'm going to keep
43:49
being patient with my people.
43:51
He's doing the same thing with us.
43:53
It's His kindness that, what, would draw us unto Him.
43:58
So Gil, can you come on up for a second, please?
44:01
I'd love for you just to pray over this group here, and just, would you just lead them into
44:05
a time of prayer?
44:06
A time of response.
44:07
I don't know, the Lord, I just kept asking the Lord, and the Lord just said, you know,
44:10
you dropped the word of this.
44:13
And I want to just say thanks for listening.
44:16
I really believe that the way the Holy Spirit works is that He's God.
44:23
Let Him be God in this time right now.
44:25
Let Him speak to you in this time.
44:29
And I promise you, freedom's coming.
44:35
What an amazing message of really turning our hearts over to the Lord, asking Him to
44:41
search us, asking Him to show us what He desires to do in our lives, so that we can draw closer
44:48
to Him, so we can hear from Him, but also we can be vessels for Him to use.
44:55
So let me encourage you today.
44:56
Take this message and put it into practice in your life, and share it with others.
45:03
Encourage others to seek God wholeheartedly.
45:07
Repentance is one of the primary things that we share through OneCry.
45:11
And so God has, in His loving kindness, given us an opportunity to draw near to Him through
45:20
repentance.
45:21
Thank the Lord for His convicting power and His presence in our lives.
45:26
So if you haven't subscribed to the OneCry podcast, make sure you do that, and make sure
45:31
you share it with others.
45:32
We would love to hear from you and to hear maybe even your story of how God called you
45:39
to repentance in your own life.
45:41
Share that with us at info at onecry.com.
45:45
You can also go to our website, www.onecry.com, and find many resources for revival and spiritual
45:52
awakening.
45:54
God bless you, and we look forward to seeing you again next week.