THE INVITATION OF REPENTANCE | LIVE WITH EMY MOORE

I'm so hyped that you're here. Yeah, I'm so ecstatic. I mean, this is just a full circle for me. So, I just feel like little David out in the field and I'm like, "Okay, Lord, we're just going to do your thing." Yeah, we were talking about Passion 2026 coming up, but your life kind of got encountered at Passion 2022. Tell us about that and and what happened there. Yeah.

So, I came to Christ when I was 17 years old and didn't really have a lot of direction of where to get connected. And I didn't have community. I've had a relationship with the Lord that was just strictly prayerful and present-based. And I had some friends that invited me to Passion 2022 when I was 19 years old. And I was like, do I want to slide across the country with a whole bunch of strangers? Yeah. Like that sounds lit. You're from Cali. I'm from California. I'm from California. Any Californians here? Any any of us? Yes. Cali, come on. 510. I'm from the Bay. You from the country? Yes. I'm from Fresno. Like if you know where that's at is someone would Me and Shima and Michael had a nice time in Fresno a couple years ago. It was lovely. Yeah. But just kind of gone up and down. And uh my friends who invited me, they lived in Texas and we were going to road trip all the way to Atlanta. And I was like, man, okay, I'm just going to take a leap of faith. I believe the Lord has something for me here. And again, didn't read my Bible. didn't even know who Maverick City was, which was OD. And uh we ended up coming to Passion. It was so funny because uh in Passion uh 2022, every social media Christian influencer was promoting it as you're going to meet your future spouse here. And I'm like, "Oh yeah." Like I'm 19 years old and I'm like, "Hey, the pond is looking real small and the fish looking small with it." And so I was like, "You know what, God? I'm looking for your presence, but if my man happen to be there, okay, you know, but that was every girl's expectation. You got 60,000 people in the building. So, you know, and they're all young adults just looking for love. But, um, I end up going I remember even like Shazaming some of the worship songs because I'd even know them. And, uh, even somebody asked me a day is was like, "What was that encounter being in an atmosphere like that? Not being in atmospheres like that once before, not reading your Bible. Like, did it confuse you? Did it kind of throw you off? Were you not used to it? Or were you just basking in his presence?" And I was just completely overwhelmed by the spirit of God. And when I was just in a posture to open my heart and to just receive him, nothing else got in the way. No distraction, no nothing. Um, and so yeah, that was just kind of a spark to me then reading my Bible. Like after passion is when I read my Bible, got plugged into community, started serving at my church. I served in high school ministry for four years. I just finished in June. And um at Passion, can I share this? Come on. Uh at Passion is actually where I met my fianceé, Malik. God is faithful. Amen. Prophet I'm a I'm a standin force of the propaganda that you could possibly find your spouse. But don't let that be your plain initiative. Okay y'all, I just happen to get so lucky. So uh Malik and I met there. Uh he I liked him at first. He did not like me. He thought I was childish. And so be it. But it was because I just came to the faith. He's two years older than me and just came out of Bible college. And it didn't work out right then and there. But I walked away from the conversation just so geeked by him because I was like, "Lord, this man of God is man of Goding." And I told uh the Lord, I said, "Lord, please give me him or someone better." And then life casually went on as it did. And the Lord, I didn't realize in the three years of us not talking again, was preparing me to be his wife. And I'd even know it. And so, yeah, now we're getting married in two weeks. So, miracles happened in Jesus name. So, just a testimony. Amazing. And now we're here at Passion. And now you're here at Passion, which is crazy how how God ties all of that together. uh have a lot of people here who love your podcast, love following you on TikTok, love uh we were talking earlier about Pick It Up and Preach. Yeah. And all of that. No, I mean I saw that. I was like, can she she can't Wait, we we'll skip it uh because we have a lot to get into. But we have been in this collection this summer in the city talking about first love out of Revelation chapter 2. I'll read it for us. If you want to uh follow along, it says this. This is Jesus writing to the churches. After he's ascended, John has this vision on the island of Patmos. And here's what he hears Jesus say. He says to the angel of the church of Ephesus, write these things, says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. I I know your works, your labor, your patience, that you cannot bear those who are evil, and you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars, and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for my name's sake, and have not become weary. Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Uh repentance is really the the word in that that we want to focus on tonight. Uh night one, Britney and Megan talked about remembering and how important it is to remember uh our first love and kind of define love for us. And then two weeks ago, Preston, Perry, and Dan were talking about uh who this Jesus is that we're returning to. Who is this Jesus of our first love? Who is he really? But I want to focus tonight on this word repentance because our conversation is that this is the kind of love, this first love that that doesn't just affirm us, but it invites us to change. Yeah. And that's what the Bible calls repentance. That was our opening uh video, just reading those verses. What what is repentance?

Repentance uh you could say is an invitation to be more like Jesus. And that's really the goal of everyone who would call themselves a believer, everyone who would say, "Yeah, I've put my faith in Jesus." But if you could just start us off there, kind of laying a groundwork, what what is repentance? What what's that mean to you? What do you think that the text says it is? And just give us a foundation for Yeah, repentance is essential to the Christian lifestyle. It is a necessity to being a Christian. If you claim yourself to be a Christian, if you claim yourself to be a follower of God, repentance flows from that. And I think a lot of people love the claim, the status, and the the lane of Christianity. But repentance could be often misunderstood or frowned upon. But repentance is is simply just a shift of focus. It's a change of mind. The Greek word is this word called metaanoa which means meta to change. Neoya means to think, to understand, to perceive. It's to change your understanding. It's to change your shift in your focus. And I think a lot of times people think repentance is just simply actionbased. But it starts in the mind, which often times is our battlefield, right? A lot of the places where we carry uh whether if it's sinful inclinations, whether if it's the way we think about ourselves or others or how we perceive things to be good or bad, it just sulks in the mind. And repentance ultimately starts in the mind. We think it could start through action, it could start through our works, whatever it may be, but it starts here. It starts here. And even just in my own life, I've noticed that the moments where I've truly repented and I've turned back turned back towards the Lord, it hasn't been a, oh, I have to repent for the sake of me getting a seat in heaven. I'm repenting because I love you and I see you as worthy. When I made a decision in my mind that God is good and I believe in what he says and I trust that he is love. I trust that he is for me and not against me. When I put my faith in him, repentance becomes easy because I believe in all of what he has claimed himself to be. Yeah. And even when me, you and my fiance met up for coffee, what was it, two weeks ago, you said something so profound. In order for you to repent, there has to be an active participation of faith. I have to have faith in repentance because if I don't have faith in repentance, there's a part of me crying out that's saying, "I don't believe that God is good enough for me to change my way." So you have to have some sort of belief on the inside of you that what God says is actually really good. It takes faith to do anything. It actually takes faith to even be an atheist because you have to believe that there's something better or worse or more profound or more intentional than what culture, what other doctrines are saying. Anything takes faith. Anything requires a belief system. And so repentance starts with a belief which what starts in the mind, right? And my definition of uh repentance, I'm a huge visionary person. I just love to teach and I understand things very well with with visuals. Repentance is simply this. It starts in the mind. It starts with the knowledge of God. Uh, second Timothy or yes, second Timothy, excuse me, second Peter uh, chapter 1 talks about the knowledge of God is what brings us to his divine power. And so when the knowledge of God, God awakens my spirit, it's o my spirit is quite literally open for his conviction. I'm open to hear his word. And faith comes from hearing the word of God. So the more I reveal myself to the the more I postrate myself to the word of God, I make myself known to the knowledge of God, the more I am more susceptible and open to receive it. So this is what people think repentance may be. It starts in the head, then it stops in the head. It don't stop in the head. It starts in the head and then it continues. So it starts in the head and then it drops down to the heart. I even uh it's so funny. I got this bracelet from Amazon the other day and I read it in the green room and it and it's Proverbs uh what is it 4 4:23 and it says guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. Right? So when that conviction hits your mind and the knowledge of God is revealed to you, the next part is for it to drop to your heart for that conviction and that compassion to reside with you. Meditate on the goodness of God. Meditate that he loves you. Meditate that the repentance um is not an invitation to condemnation. And it's an invitation to restoration. And a lot of people just keep whatever it may be that God's trying to teach you, convict you of in their heads. Um, but it drops down to your heart. And then sometimes people just keep it there. But the next part is to go and what? Make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and the holy spirit. Teaching them the things that Jesus has taught and teaching them to obey it. So, it's not just repentance that falls to my head that I receive through knowledge. It convicts my heart so so much and stirs up an empathy and a love and a compassion inside of me to where it drives out of my hands and I love others through it and I be a living example. And so, this is why faith without works is dead because you could have the head knowledge and the heart knowledge, but if it doesn't flow out of your hands, it's in vain. You're no better than any lukewarm Christian that has an inward faith, but on the external, you're just you're just bland. M and so it repentance encourages us to not just have an inward conviction but to have an outward one that not only changes the inside of us but has the intentionality and has the potential the the high potential of transforming others. Repentance was designed to be transformative. Come on. It's not made to be bypassed. It's not made to just be something that's normal or regular. It is every single day transformative. It's necessary. It's daily. And I would argue to say that it is probably one of the most pivotal essentials to the Christian lifestyle. And if you're missing that puzzle to the peace, you're not going to understand returning to your first love. You're not going to understand seeing God as glorious. You're not going to see him high as every other name because you have nothing to return to except for yourself. So it's posturing yourself of wow I believe in a god that he is good that he is sovereign that he is holy and I believe in him so much that my way is not the way and I got to look at him. Hebrews uh 12 talks about keeping my eyes on the prize Jesus throwing off any single hindrance you don't see I I used to run track anybody else like love watching track in the Olympics and stuff. I'm not claiming I was good at it. I just I'm just saying that I did it so I understand it. You know, track runners run in tight clothes for a reason. And it's because when you run a race, you can't have a whole bunch of baggy clothes because it's going to slow down your speed and your endurance. And also, it's really intentional as to why a race is usually straight the majority of the time. So, your eyes could be focused on one thing. I notice that if I run and if I look left to right, I somehow end up stumbling in their lane. But if I keep my eyes on the prize which is Jesus and I press towards the mark, I will surely be a victor and stand in righteousness next to God because I have not stopped looking at him. So what repentance is is it's man I stumbled into this lane cuz I look to the left and right just a little bit. But who's my prize? My prize is Jesus. He has literally shed his blood on a cross and I can't lose that. So repentance is literally just snapping yourself out of that direction and being like, "Wait, wait, wait. This person to my left or my right is not my prize. My prize is Jesus and he set before me and I will press towards the mark." And so repentance is just shifting your focus. That was a really long explanation, but I hope it blessed somebody. It was a really good explanation. Okay. Hallelujah. Uh I asked one question, y'all. And sorry, I'm very descriptive. My fiance hated. He's like, "Be you wants to eat." Well, I was thinking about this and Yeah. So, I love that it's repentance is transformative, which Paul talks about be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That's where it starts. And it's such a faith thing that Yeah. What we were talking about is you can't repent. To repent is an act of faith. And you can't unless you believe that God is who he says he is, that he is a savior, that he is uh full of grace, full of mercy. And two, you won't repent unless you actually believe his way is better. uh for you. When did repentance become personal, real to you in your walk uh with Jesus?

Man, to be honest, I realized the difference when I realized the difference between deliverance and discipline. H I there were a lot of areas where I wanted shift and I wanted change and I expected God to shift that in an instant overnight and I didn't want to put my hands to the plow and deal aggressively with my sin and ring it out. And there were areas uh one there's a few areas whether if it was all the worldly things I used to do whether if it was cursing, partying, smoking, the friends I was hanging out with a lot of areas where I wanted transformation. And you know, you say that prayer thinking that God is just going to change your life and do the work for you overnight. Hey God, can you just uh take this friend out of my life like tomorrow, please? That would be so great for me. Uh but then he doesn't do it because uh the Lord wants you to be in participation with him. Um I I think that's as to why God has put us on this earth is to be in equal participation with him. It's like he he guides us, we follow, we actively participate with his will. And I think God has actively designed himself to be that way and us to to just be alongside him like that. And so there would be a lot of prayers. I'd be like, "Hey God, can you just do this for me because I would really like freedom in this area?" And the Lord began to just show me what endurance looks like and self-discipline. And even broke down the word disciple. The word discipline is in the word disciple. And even understanding and magnifying the importance of the cross on my life. When I saw when I began to see the reality of Jesus being pinned up on a cross for my iniquities, my shame, my sin, I should have been up there. If he's going to die for me, I have to die for him. Yeah. And I had to look at these areas where I was wanting deliverance and the Lord was just urging urging me to be disciplined. And this he was like, "This is what repentance is. It's putting your hands to the plow. is turning away from your sin and pursuing me. And I I think uh there wasn't like a specific sin I was struggling with that altered me to feel that way. It was more so the tension between I just want you to take it away. I don't want to deal with it. Like I don't I I don't want to do all that. Like I'm tired and I'm worn out. And he's like but I will give you rest. Just shift your eyes and everything else will be figured out. And so once I kind of made that difference between discipline and deliverance that hey God there are you are a deliverer. There are areas where you have delivered me like the Lord delivered me from smoking overnight. That's that was something that happened to me. He healed me from my addiction overnight but God did not heal me from this dang attitude overnight. Let me tell you that. So I had to really be disciplined and put my hands to the plow you know and then really repent and if I got mad at somebody like hey I got to keep my eyes on the prize which is Jesus. But it's that's that's sharpening. I believe like Jesus is the greatest teacher and he is he just disciples people so well. Like that's why he had such great disciples because he was just sharpening and teaching and bringing them alongside him. And so yeah, that's basically my in that I think that's can be hard for a generation to hear and in the culture that we're in because while repentance is an act of faith, repentance is also a confession that I have done something wrong and we're talking about returning to our first love. But love demands repentance here. Uh can you even speak to that? Why does love demand repentance? And how is it loving? I think some people could hear that and be like, "But but God made me this way or I was born this way." How can how can a loving God ask me not to be who I am or to change? Right? I think that's that could be a triggering question for some people in the room because I think some people especially that last part of why would God want to take away anything that he had created me to be. Right. I think people don't understand the difference between God's original design and then what the world has molded you to be subconsciously and you don't even notice it. Yeah. Like there has been areas in my life that I have been cried out to I've cried out to God. Why am I like this? Why do I feel so alone and orphaned in spirit and fatherless and burdened and left behind and alone? And it wasn't because God made me that way. It was because subliminal subconscious circumstances that happened to me that I didn't even realize whether if it was my environment, people around me that shaped me into who I was. And I just can't blame God on that. God had made me to be beautifully and wonderfully made. And so I have to go to scripture of what being beautiful and wonderfully made in his image is. And we see that in Genesis that man was made in the likeness of God. So who I actually am is the likeness of God. So if I look at God's character and I see that he doesn't curse, that he's slow to anger, that he is gracious and compassionate, I should be operating in those same characteristics and attributes because I'm made in his image. But in the midst of that, daddy issues want to come out of me. abandonment issues, doubt, fear, not because of who God created me to be, but because of the circumstance of what the world tried to make me. Come on. And so, I have to come out of agreement with that by becoming more aware of who he is. I think people use this Bible as a doctrine for self-help more than and self-discovery more than God discovery because the Bible is more about God discovery more than self-discovery. People will read the Bible of I need to learn how to get free from this. I promise you, just learn who God is. This is not a self-sufficient text. It's a God-sufficient text. You'll never be satisfied from self. Why do you think like the angels like when uh Isaiah was appointed as a prophet in Isaiah 6, it says that there were these heavenly angels that were flying two six wings. One of them was used for flying. The other was used for covering their eyes. The other one was for covering their feet. and they're singing out holy, holy, holy. The angels were not worshiping themselves. They were even thinking about themselves. They covered their eyes and their feet and they're literally flying around the throne of glory, giving God all the praise and honor. When we go to heaven, we're not going to be granted a seat there because of self-sufficiency or because of how far we made it on our own. It's do we know Jesus and do we know who he is? And I'm going to be very honest, the past like year, I've gotten so sick in spirit of like hearing self-sufficient sermons. Like I've been sitting in the middle of of like congregations just like this. And I'm sitting in the audience that I would just be like, man, I don't think I learned anything about Jesus today. I just learned about what he could do for me. And I don't actually know who he is. Like what are the streets that he walked? What did he wear? Like who is he? Who was his who was his mother and who was his brother? Who did he walk with? Why did he walk with them the way that he did? What did he mean to these people? It's it's a self-sufficiency gospel that I believe that American Christianity is falling so customizable to. And it's I kid you not, it's going to wear us and burn us out in spirit, y'all. And it's going to make us poor disciples. to be disciples of all nations. We're teaching what Jesus taught us, what he taugh t taught the original disciples, not a self- glorifying message. It's literally the gospel. It literally Jesus came and he testified what the kingdom of heaven would look like. He was like, "And this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. This is what the kingdom is like, and this is when I would return, and this is what it would be." But we're on pullpits talking about us. Like I just feel I just feel God almost like burdened in a sense by the body and by the bride of like I think people think um spiritual adultery us as a bride happens with us casting up idols but like you know the idol could be ourselves. It's just pride. We should never make this platform a pulpit for ourselves. It's always the exaltation towards Christ, Christ and Christ alone. And the moment we miss that, we're not true disciples. And so I say all that to say is um when it comes to who are you? How do I move in repentance? Why is it love? Why does God call this loving? Because it points it back to himself. I know a lot of people don't like that in the room. And I know a lot of people in the room are probably thinking, does that make God egotistical? If God is so loving, he's loving by by showing us he's love, we pour out love just to go back onto him. Isn't Isn't that egotistical? I mean, here's the thing. Say I was a doctor, right? And you were sick and I had the only thing that you needed. I would be selfish for not sharing it, right? And the right response of that would be thanksgiving. And so God is so good that he does not withdraw his glory from us. So God is not egotistical because he wants praise. God receives all the glory because he has revealed his glory because he's empathetic upon his people. And when he's empathetic upon his people and he's compassionate upon you and I and he shares his glory, our response should be thanksgiving. It's not a demand from, oh, I'm a God that just needs gloating and self-affirmation. That's not the God that we serve. He wants just a thankful bride. Yeah. And uh I I think when we talk about repentance and turning back to him, he's not pleased just with, oh, I'm getting all the glory just for the sake of getting all the glory. It's that I have the answer that these people need and they received it well and I boast in that because they received me and they saw me and they boast in me and they have gladness in me. And Jesus even says for those who feel like their life is hard right now. I want to encourage you that Jesus says I have come to give you life to the fullest. Your survival was not endgame. Your goal on here on earth is not just to survive. It's to live to the fullest. How profound. God wants you to live to the fullest here on earth. And you live fullest here on earth by accepting his glory and not just desiring him, but delighting in him by beholding him and proclaiming him. It's not necessarily just, oh, I'm basking in you for the sake of my myself. No, I'm I'm basking you in the sake of myself. I'm preaching it onto everybody in every corner and crevice of the earth because your glory will be made known. And that's what's fulfilling. That's what's satisfying. You gave me exactly what I need. And I'm going to proclaim that to the rooftops. And I delight and I stand in joy with you because this is what perfect harmony and what a marriage and a covenantal relationship with the Lord was always supposed to be. Me and you together forever. And when we delight in that, you stay in the intimacy of God. Condemnation is out the damn window. That's for sure. So repentance is love. It is. My God. Um, it is love, but it's also not a suggestion. It's a command. It's a command that comes with a warning. And if you don't repent, I will remove your lampstand. Why in God warning us, how can that sober us without shaming us?

That's such a good question. So scriptural theological context, Jesus is speaking to the church of Ephesus. It's one of the seven churches that John uh begins to address during this time because these are the most influential churches known as of right now. And when we look in Revelation chapter 1, uh Jesus begins to break down what the seven lampstands are and then what the seven stars are. So the seven stars are the seven angels that are addressing each church. And then the seven lampstands are the seven churches that the Lord is addressing. And so when we when we see Jesus addressing the church of Ephesus, he's addressing them with again the warning of, hey, you need to come back to your first love. The rebuke was in the works. He was like, yeah, you driving out false teachers, false prophets. You're you're exalting me. Hi, the worship is great. It's banging. Like love it. But I'm going to rebuke you for one thing. They got rebuked for their lack of love. And when I look at what Jesus came and told the disciples, the greatest command above all things is to love the Lord your God. Yeah. And second is to love your neighbor. And so if we miss that love, uh, like how you said, it's a warning to take away that lampstand. So when we go back to Revelation chapter 1, um it says that Jesus was wa the vision that John had Jesus was walking with seven stars in his hands and he was walking the word says amongst the seven lamps. So these are seven influential churches. So when it says that he's walking amongst them, it's simultaneously implying that his presence is among these churches. So whenever he takes away the lampstand, he's basically saying, I'm taking away my endorsement to your high influential church. I'm taking away my endorsement and my presence behind what you are proclaiming without love. And so these churches, great ones like these, were hit with a really big dilemma. If we don't come back to the Lord, if we don't repent, he's going to take away the very place of which he's supposed to receive glory. We look at the sermon on the mount and when Jesus talks about uh uh being the light and that you do not put a light under a basket or under a bowl, you put it on a hill for everybody to see. Church was never supposed to be something that blended into society. It was supposed to be something that rised above and shined light upon the entirety of the world. God's bride was meant to shine on darkness. And so when Jesus says that I'm going to take away your lampstand, he's basically saying, you might as well just hide yourself under a freaking bowl. You might as well just hide yourself. But Christianity was never meant to be just hidden. It was meant to be proclaimed. It was meant to be transformative. It was meant to reach the lost. It was meant to reach the broken, the the people in the back who feel like that God has given up on them. is meant to reach those people. But if you lose your first love, the the warning isn't, "Hey, I'm just taking away your influence or your Tik Tok followers." No, I'm taking away the very place I gave you residence for me to be glorified. You're losing my entrusted responsibility. Um, I've been reading a lot because I understand I'm a leader here in this generation and I've been reading a lot in 1 Peter chapter 5 where it talks about shepherds and um I understand that this is not my flock. This is God's flock. Yeah. And he gets to do whatever the heck he wants with it. I'm just a te caretaker. Yeah. So I am at a higher at a higher judgment. I am at a at a higher responsibility. And if I don't steward that right, God's going to take that away from me. And I don't want that because this is what he wants for me. This is what he he he made us all to do is to just be light to be a light. And and the light isn't even a source from us. The light is him. We're just supporting. Like even talks about how we are the body of Christ and he's the head. Like you see my body right now. Everybody has a body in this room. Thank God. But the body resides under the head because the body supports the head up, right? Amen. The only time the the the head supports the body is if you're doing a head stand for some reason. That's the but guess what? All all the blood flow go to your head and then you can knock out dead. So that won't really work. But our bodies are quite literally uh organized for our bodies to be submitted to the head. So in the same way we're supposed to be submitted as the lampstand under the light. The the the light stand is exalt the light is exalted by the lampstand stand just like how the head is exalted by the body. But guess what? If the head was just by itself it's like okay cool but like what's pushing it up you know and the body itself, it's just a dead body. It gets thrown away. So, it's it's it's divine uh it's divine unity. It's it's divine uh cohesiveness. They work together. They're supposed to be together. It's meant to be together. And so, when Jesus says that, "Hey, repent. Come back to your first love." He's saying, "Let your light shine." And that light is me. That light is me. Like even I feel like I just feel this in the Holy Spirit. I have to be obedient. Like there's some people who used to have a zeal about sharing the gospel and all of a sudden stopped. You used to tell everybody about Jesus and all of a sudden there's just this apathy. I feel the Lord saying, "You're a light. Tell people about me. Don't hide yourself under a bull. Just be a light." Yeah. I felt that in my spirit. I had to be obedient. I'm sorry. Repentance. Uh yeah, like you're saying, it's an invitation to be who God wants us to be. Yeah. Um for the person in here who feels stuck, stuck in a cycle, sin, shame, try harder, repeat, what does real repentance look like?

Yeah. It's a balance of grace and discipline, which is hard to balance because sometimes people lean one way or the other. It's I'm going to pursue so much self-righteousness to where it could kind of stumble into this false belief that your works is what got you through. But then there's this other flip side of the coin of God forgives. God forgives. God forgives. you're actively using a license for iniquity. So the question is is on our church we have these two crazy ends of the spectrum. How do we marry them together and find something cohesive? And I think the balance of that is correcting your vision which is keeping your eyes on Jesus and again understanding his character and how he responds to you repenting. I think understanding God's response gives us a better application um of how we should approach ourselves to him if that makes sense. Because a lot of people will approach themselves to the throne of grace or to God with condemnation and with shame and with guilt with this I I would say untaught uncultivated place of I don't know what God's grace is. M so if we understood God's grace and if we understood God's mercy for what it actually is, not based off of self-docrine, but based off of what he actually claims himself to be, I'm able to move uh correctly in repentance because it's not just a work for me. It's it's I'm this is taking a step of faith by me looking at you, seeing you as worthy, but also trusting that I've been forgiven, that you blot out my transgressions, that it's thrown away and it's been forgotten about. And um I want to talk about like the difference between repent repentance and regret and remorse because I think people think they're repenting by being regretful and being remorseful of oh I repented because I feel bad. It's like no it don't work like that. Like you get out of your cycles and chains and iniquities is by actually changing, right? And so uh the washing of the word uh by renewing yourself in the word day and night is ultimately going to push you in that repentance. The word of God itself will convict you if you just open up the dang Bible and read it. I promise you, you don't need a fancy prophet or someone on social media to convict you. It's the Holy Spirit that has the authority to convict. And I think when we put the authority of judgment in man's hands and instead of God's, it opens the door for for errored conviction um for fear of man and also religiosity. And it can go into like this performance-based works or it could almost go into like this apathy of like I'm just going to let this remorse stay here and not let it go anywhere else, but I feel bad, but I'm not going to do anything about it. And we have to be a church that actively moves in change. And I just want to encourage people in here who are like, well, what if I don't change? What if I feel like I'm not changing? I've been stuck in the same place over and over and over again and I can't seem to make it out. What the heck is going on? I just can't see it through. It is commanded for us to change. Like it's in our nature to change all the time. Like even our world operates in change. Like Jesus even testifies that like the birds and the trees even testify his goodness. Like you literally see him in nature. Nature has seasons. We're constantly changing. We're called to change. And I think we're when people think, "Oh, well, I can't change and I can't do that." I honestly think it's unbelief. I think it's honestly just disbelief we stored up in our hearts of I've been so in been been so incarcerated by my sin, by my fear, by doubt, by shame that that has blotted out my vision to actually change. But what makes you change is seeing how Jesus has transformed. to see how God has restored. When we make ourselves aware of the knowledge of God, of how he has changed people who were quite literally unchangeable to man, was changeable and possible for God. Like Paul, for an example, was killing Christians. Those same Christians he's he killed was greeting him when he entered heaven. That's crazy to think about. Even when we think of other people in the Bible where it's like, man, like even David when he fell, God picked him right back up. He's literally crying out to God and he was like, "Blot out my transgressions. I hate what I did. Change me. Give me a new heart." And yet God did it. But it was because of what? David's awareness and willingness to know and understand God and his sovereignty. So we changed by understanding Jesus. And I think people think they change by hyperfocusing on just changing them for just changing them. You change you by just focusing your imagery and your mind on Christ. And that's why that's why Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, "First seek the kingdom of God and everything else shall be given onto you." Because if you just look at me, everything will transform in the process. So the question is, do I actually know more about how I'm supposed to change or do I know more about who God is and how he pulls me out of that change just through knowing him and having an intimate relationship with him? And so I think it's just growing more intimacy with the Lord is what pulls you out. and uh being disciplined about that. And someone asked me, they're like, "Emmy, how do you know um you know you're operating out of uh religion?" And I was like, "When it when it feels so hard, like when you just and I'm not even just talking about like a discipline, but when it just feels like work. It just feels like work. Like when when you have have to ask yourself, is this religion?" It most of the time is like every time where I'm like, man, I'm like really wearing myself out. I feel like I I can't just like receive. I have to do all these things. God's like, "Take a step back and just read the passage and just receive it for a moment." Yeah. You don't have to be here like pray without seizing. He was like, "Emy, you talk to me throughout the entirety of the day." He was like, "You don't just get you're not less of a daughter because you spent five minutes less today or you didn't get as deep of a res revelation as you wanted." And I think uh religio religiosity prospers when we exalt ex expectations and uh when we take ourselves out of those expectations, we give God more space to move of where we're actually supposed to be. Yeah. Because repentance, what you're saying there is repentance is surrender. Yes. And I even think about Jesus goes to the cross. We were talking about this how crazy it is that the two responses because on Thursday night a at the last supper uh you have two disciples who betrayed Jesus later that evening. Well, we always think about Judas, but there's Peter as well. Both of them betrayed Jesus, but their responses are different. Yes. And I like how you said there's a difference between repentance and just remorse or regret where what you see Peter do or what you see Judas do rather after he has betrayed Jesus. It says in the text if you go there it says he felt remorseful. Yes. Didn't say he repented. It said he felt remorseful. And from the remorse what did he do? He goes back to them and he says hey I know I betrayed Jesus for this bag of money. Can I give it back to you? He tries to reverse his sin, but you can't reverse your sin. What's done is done. What Jesus has to do now is he he has to redeem it. But Judas doesn't give him that chance. He's just trying to reverse it. And then when they say, "We're not doing anything with that. We're still going to kill Jesus. He tries to pay for his sin." And Judas goes and kills himself trying to pay for it, but he didn't have what it takes to pay for it. Yes. Jesus had to pay for it. Versus when you look at Peter, Peter has betrayed Jesus. He's seen the risen Christ now after, but he's still working in that shame that you're talking about. He goes back to what he was doing before he met Jesus, which was fishing. And while he's there, Jesus comes to him. John 21 sees him on the shore and he's like, "Hey, uh, why don't you come?" He realizes, "Oh, that that's Jesus calling me." And so, he runs to Jesus, which is exactly what you're saying. And that's what I think repentance is. He runs. Last time he could walk on the water. This time, he trudges through the water. It may not be as easy, but he's going to get back to Jesus. Yeah. That's good. And he as he gets back, all that happens, all the work that happens is on Jesus. Yeah. Jesus is the one cooking breakfast. Jesus is the one who redeems him. Jesus is the one who calls him back into ministry. Jesus is the one who sends him out. Hey, feed my sheep. Jesus is the one who corrects him when he has something going on with uh he has some beef with John. They're always beefing Peter and John. And uh Jesus has to correct that for a minute. Uh but all of the work is happening on Jesus end. And I think that's what we need to understand about repentance. Yeah. It's not me graveling. A lot of times when we're doing that, me and uh Britney and Kenny were talking about this last night. We're graveling in our sin. We're we're making our sin bigger than it needs to be. Yes. What needs to happen is I need to be amazed at my savior. I need to say you you you would do this for me after all I've done that I can still come back. Can you just speak on that real quick? I know we're over time and we'll wrap up after this, but

Okay. No, what's so funny about the Peter and Judas thing, the gag is is that they committed literally the same exact sin. And I would actually argue that what Peter did was kind of worse because Peter denied Jesus publicly, but Judas did it in secret. And so when when Peter literally proclaimed No, cuz I missed that. When he when he proclaimed his his disbelief in Jesus, he literally did it publicly amongst people, amongst brethren. But Judas did it secretly in his heart. And I think sometimes a lot of people don't see that remorse and regretfulness and a lack of repentance happens a

lot secretly. And I think a lot of the places where we need to ring out that remorse and ring out those places that are deep in the trenches and where we actually need repentance, it's stored up in the depths of our hearts. And we need to pull that out, ring it out, turn it into repentance and give it to the Lord. Come on.

Um, as to what you're saying of seeing the Lord as uh worthy, I I see him as so wonderful, so beautiful. Um, like what great of a savior you are that you have blotted out my transgressions. Just think of the prodigal son. Yes. Such a prodigal God. Yeah.

When I think of the prodigal son, it's such a message that like church just talks about all the time, but it's a message that is intended for the believer to come back to Jesus's feet. In the context of it, you can read about it in Luke chapter 15, but I'm going to paraphrase it for the sake of time. But uh when you're reading about the prodigal son, it says that uh the son had asked for his inheritance early from his father and he went out into the world and he spent it all. And whenever he spent it all, he was left in a pig's pen. And while he was eating the same food from the pig's pen, it said that he came to his senses and remembered that if he were to even just be a servant in his father's house, he would get better treatment from where he was at in the pig's pen. And so he gets up in his right mind and he starts to walk back to his father's house. And his father is waiting on the porch. and he didn't know when he was going to come back, but he was actively anticipating his return each and every single day. And so that father sees his son and the moment he catches a glimpse of him, he gets up and he runs out to him. He holds up his garment and he sprints to him and his son is saying, "Let me just be a servant. Let me just be a slave onto you. Surely I'll be fed. I was just in a pigspin." And the father quite literally doesn't even acknowledge anything that he just did. He'd even acknowledge, hey, the fact that you just went and blew all this money. He said, hey, go get him a robe. My son has returned.

And I want to give theological context to this because it means so much in historical context because we could read the story and it sounds like, oh, like a son just came back to his dad. How fatherly, how loving. This is this is Hebrew culture that we're talking about. So whenever a son asked for an inheritance early from his father, it was almost as equivalent as saying, "I wish that you were dead." Yeah. This was highly disrespectful. And usually the family was shamed if something like that happened within. So the son taking the inheritance and going off wasn't necessarily him taking something prematurely and blowing it. It's actively disrespecting his father. He disrespected his dad actively and knew it. and he went off spent it all. But yet his father was so good that he sat on a porch and wait for his return. And get this, his son was in the pig's pen at the bottom of the pit when he came to his senses. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to understand that God is the rock. And when he hit his senses, he came alive and he said, "Surely I will come back to my father and he will take me back as a servant." No. No. The father did not want him as a servant. He wanted him as a son. And so he comes back and the father holds up his garments and he runs out to them. And in Hebrew culture, these men, these men, the fathers of the house would wear these long skirts. And it was considered shameful if they were to pull up their skirts. And in order for this father to run, he had to pull up his skirt. And he bore the shame. He he himself encountered shame himself so his son wouldn't bear it alone. and he ran out to him and he held him and he said, "Go get him the finest sandals and the finest robe because my son has returned to me."

So those who are in the room who are looking to just return to God and I've betrayed God. I've disrespected him. I've been like Peter. I've denied him. I've completely blotted him out and put him to the side. I've been deep in my iniquity. I've been deepened in my transgression. I've been incarcerated by fear. I've been incarcerated by my mindset. The mind has been a battlefield. Let me encourage you that you have a God who's waiting on a porch for you. And if you just get up and out of yourself and run out of that pigs pen, you're going to see a loving God. Not a condemning God, but a loving God who wants to clothe you in righteousness. Even after Adam and Eve had sinned in the garden, they made themselves fig leaves to cover themselves. But yet in their sin, God made them animal skins, clothe them with something better. God wants you to clothe you with something better. You're not made to be clothed in shame. You're made to be clothed in righteousness. But it's not righteousness of yourself. It's righteousness of Jesus. Jesus Christ quite literally came down the son of man to atone for your sins, to die a death that you and I should have died for. I should have been on that damn cross. There's so many things I have done. I literally just cried. I should have been on that cross, but he took my place so he can meet me on that porch and say that is my daughter. Yes. And I don't have to earn that. It's already mine. Yeah. I don't have to earn protection. I don't have to earn fearlessness. I don't have to earn righteousness. It's inherited. Which is what Romans 8 preaches. Because I am his daughter. I've been adopted. It is sunship. I cry out and say, "Aba." And I believe everybody in the room is called to be a son or a daughter. It is up to you to receive the invitation. The kingdom of heaven is like a wedding banquet. An invitation that is sent out onto all people, but many are called, but few are chosen because only few want to sit in the chair and eat the feast of the lamb. So my question to you is, do you want to ring out your sin today? Do you want to ring yourself out? And do you want to sit at the table the in the glory of the Most High because all it takes is your yes and your surrender. It's actually a lot more simpler than you think it is. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. It's trading your your trying for trusting. Yeah. That's all it is.

I'm I'm going to let you speak to your generation, a couple thousand young adults here in Atlanta, but I love this Charles Spurgeon. He says, "Sin and hell are married." Sin and hell are married. My sin married me to hell. Except repentance declares the divorce. Sin and hell are married except repentance declares the divorce. Repentance is the invitation tonight. Emmy, I'm going to just let you speak to to your generation and pray us out and we're going go back into a time of worship.

Yeah, absolutely. I just want to encourage everybody to just postrate themselves before the Lord. However that may be for you. I just feel the spirit of the Lord here with us. Lord, we just thank you and praise you, God. We give you full adoration and glory. Yes, God. God, we even just give you accessibility to show us who you really are in this moment. That you're a high and most glorified. That you're seated on a heavenly throne with a smile on your face. You're a joyful and a loving God. May your love consume this room, Lord. May your love touch every single heart in this room, Lord, every person who feels as if they've been incarcerated by fear and shame and guilt. Let your love, let your smile, let your joy conquer it all, Lord. Lord, we push towards the mark. We see you as the eye to our prize. You are our prize, Lord. Nothing else, Lord. where we throw off right now anything that is hindering us from seeing the glory of you. Fix our eyes on the crucifixion. Fix our eyes on Jesus. Fix our eyes on the cross. Give us a fresh revelation of the cross. God, give us a fresh encounter of you. Lord, we need you, Lord. We are a needy people. I thank you, Lord, that our brokenness is what qualifies us to need a savior. That Lord, our brokenness is what keeps me in salvation. Father, that when I am broken, it keeps me needy of your presence. It keeps me needy of your glory. It keeps me needy of your hands and your heart and seeing your face. And I thank you that no matter how high I may go or the lowest I may go, even if I make my bed in hell, like how David said, you will come and find me. You will be a God who sits on a porch and will chase after me. And Lord, I just want to begin to cry out on the behalf of my generation. A generation that feels orphaned in spirit. A generation that feels fatherless. A generation. A generation. A generation that has felt like their father has left them. Generation Z. a generation that has been a statistic of children with fathers not in the household with broken families. We cry out to you, Lord, that we're orphaned in spirit, that we need your presence. And Lord, we come on the threshing floor and we ask for you to bring your fork and separate what is the chaff and the grain. that right now, Lord, you begin to just show your fatherly love. That every orphaned man and woman in here, that tonight, this very night, Lord, that there is an adoption that is taking place. I hear the Lord say, "You are mine. You are mine. You are mine. You are my son. You are my daughter. You are mine. And nothing, no demon, no angel, no circumstance, no trial, no tribulation can tear us from the love of the father. So Lord, let us be like the prodigal son who comes to our senses and runs back to our father, not coming in the form of just a servant, but as a son and a daughter. And Lord, may this imagery of you chasing after us and running after us become so real to us as you pick up your garment, as you bear shame for us, as you clothe us in righteousness, Father, not because of our own efforts, but because of what you have already done, because how you sent your one and only son on a cross to die the death that I should have died to, Lord. And right now, I just create an atmosphere to repent. And I cry out in Psalms 51, a psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Basheba. We cry out, "Have mercy on me, oh God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion. Blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. against you. You only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb. You taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hissup and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bone bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast from me your presence or take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressions your ways so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed. Oh God, you are God my savior and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, oh Lord, is a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. You, God, will not despise. So God, we give you our broken hearts right now, Lord. and to every person who is in the room and needs a fresh surrender. Lord, I just pray over those people now in this room, Father, that we exalt and lift up those prayers, that we lift up your children right now, Father. Every single person in the room that just needs that that extra support, that needs uh that that that resubmission right now, Father, that you give them gladness and joy and confidence that you have been reconciled back into their hearts. that it is not too late, that they are not too far gone, that they do not have to stay in the pig's pen, that they are adopted, that they are a son, and that they are a daughter. And to everybody in the room who thought that they would never be a son or a daughter, and never knew that they could encounter glory like this. I didn't know how the Lord was going to do this, but I'm just going to be obedient and flow with the spirit. If the Lord is calling you home and you want to be a son or a daughter and you receive the invitation, you receive the invitation because you're in this room. The invitation is to all of you. The gospel is for everybody. Jesus is for everyone. If you're a son or a daughter in this room and you want the Lord to be your savior, I would just encourage you right now to raise your hand and give your life to him. If that's you, raise your hand. Every eye closed, every head bow. I just want to pray over everybody who has raised their hand right now has decided that I want to give my life to the Lord and he is my dad. He is my father. He's the king of kings and the lord of lords. I'm just going to pray over everybody in the room. Uh and those who aren't raising those hands, if you could just please join me in intercession because this is a very big deal. Amen.

So Lord, I just pray over every single hand risen in this room. Father, every person who has not known your name and did not know that you were a father, that they did not know that they were a son or a daughter who has been called and chosen. Father, God, I stamp the identification of adoption ship today that has gone through that your sons and daughters have been adopted through you, oh Jesus, God, that Lord, they dwell with you, Father. They are beside you, that you walk alongside them, Father. that Lord I just even pray that the Holy Spirit is imparted on the inside of them in Jesus mighty name. Father I decree and declare that they receive a fresh revelation that they are heard, loved and seen by God and as they give him everything and surrender to him in this moment that God they shall receive your glory and your goodness and your forgiveness that all their transgressions have been blotted away and their sin is no longer accounted for because you have taken account for it, Jesus. So Lord, we boast in it. We look to you as our greatest savior. We look to you as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And I just pray I just pray a fresh zeal over each and every single person who has raised their hand, accepted the Lord in their lives. Thank you, Jesus.

And to those who have raised their hand, we're just going to say a declaration. I'm I'm I'm just doing this with y'all. I'm just doing this with the Lord. So, let's just all declare this together. Jesus, I love you. I accept you. You are worthy. Thank you, Jesus, for going on that cross and paying the debts of my sin. I trust in you. I believe in you. Thank you for welcoming home. Thank you for welcoming me home. I surrender to you the entirety of my life. I give you all of my sin and transgressions. I trust that you have blotted them out. [Music] I am your child and you love me and I shall dwell with you forever. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Equip me to make disciples of all nations and encourage me to see your face each and every single day. Burn a fire on the inside of me to always seek you and never let it burn out. We love you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We give you the glory in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. [Applause]