Welcome and Journal Introduction

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Hello and welcome to Walk the Walk . Thank you for joining me again . We are still working in our journals and if you haven't received your journal yet , you can now go on Amazon . They are published . It's Jesus Help Me , do Better by Tina Perry . I don't think I used my name on this one , but if you go onto Amazon , you can do Tina Perry books or Jesus Helped Me Do Better by Tina Perry .

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It should pull it up , but this week we're going to talk about repentance and we're on page 20 . If you do have your journal and if you don't , you can always catch up . This is not about you know once we do it , it's done . If you don't , you can always catch up . This is not about you know once we do it , it's done and you can't go back . You can obviously go back and listen to the podcast and answer the questions on your own time .

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The question is repentance is more than just feeling bad for your mistakes . It's about making a change . Can you think of a time when you truly turned away from something and moved toward God , and how did that impact

Understanding True Repentance

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you ? First of all , let's take a look at what true repentance is . It's where you recognize your behavior or mistake or sin as being offensive to God , kind of like a betrayal . You feel remorse , genuine sorrow , and you are grieving , hurting God . And then you return . Return to how it was before , that behavior , sin and staying there permanently . It's not temporary , it's permanent , it's a lifestyle , it's a daily surrender , an invitation for God to shape you from the inside out . And you know , you've seen people that claim that they oh , I'm so remorseful and the only thing you're seeing are tears , forced tears , fake tears , but they don't really feel true repentance .

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In 2 Corinthians 7.10 , paul says godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret , but worldly sorrow brings

Godly vs. Worldly Sorrow

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death . And I had to look that up because I thought , hmm , you know what does that mean ? Well , I want you to think about a person in the Bible , judas Iscariot . You know he did not repent and he did try to fix his mistake . For those coins that he gained , he ended up taking his own life . He did not show sorrow , repentance , he got caught and I don't know if embarrassed I don't think embarrassed is a strong enough word but he did get caught and that's what worldly sorrow will do it leads to death .

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So a person who feels worldly sorrow feels badly because of the effects of their sin . Not that you hate the sin , but because you get caught . You've lost something . You're embarrassed or ashamed , but you don't really want to change . There's consequences that you hate . You lose a relationship , you lose a career , a job , your reputation all because you don't care about how God feels .

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Now godly sorrow is listen , I've sinned against God , I broke his heart , sinned against God . I broke his heart . Please change me . Even if I don't get caught , I would still want to change . That's godly godly sorrow where you know nobody ever knows about the sin , but you come to realize how badly it hurts God . I don't want to feel better , I want to be better .

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A worldly sorrow changes your actions only temporarily . You get caught and some people go right back into that same sin . Although godly sorrow changes you , it changes your actions . You say I broke God's heart and I'm going to try never to do it again . Having a true connection with God is very important . That's what we talked about last week was that connection that we need with God , and if you don't feel that connection , you will have a hard time feeling godly sorrow . You know , if you don't care , if you don't care about God , you don't care what he thinks , you don't care about breaking his heart . You're always going to be stuck in worldly sorrow , and usually worldly sorrow is because you've gotten caught and otherwise you'd keep going for as long as you possibly can until you do get caught . If you ever , like I said , godly sorrow

Freedom Through True Repentance

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changes you . You just hate the sin . True repentance will bring you closer to God , you know . Letting him know how much you love him , letting him know how sorry you are . Now listen , you can speak words that are not true . You can tell God all you want if you don't really feel it . He knows your heart . So be very careful about trying to pull off godly sorrow when you don't feel that way , because he knows your heart .

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In 2 Corinthians 3 , 17 , it says where the spirit of the Lord is , there is freedom . Freedom I mean freedom from your own actions , freedom from your own sins , freedom from your behaviors that you detest , that others detest , that God detests . Having that freedom is so freeing I guess that's kind of a redundant saying . Having true repentance can actually do behavior modifications . For example , if you are somebody who has a law , is very proud or prideful , it will will make you humble . If you are somebody who tends to be selfish , it'll make you generous . Somebody who is bitter can make them forgiving , and somebody who is dishonest can become truthful . These are all the maybe I can say it consequences of godly sorrow . Those are the positive consequences of just saying you know what ? Now I can live free . If I was a selfish kind of person . Hopefully now I become generous because I'm trying to be like God .

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I'm tired of breaking his heart , I'm tired of doing these things that I know . You know again , if you don't have that relationship with him or that connection with him , none of this is going to matter , none of it . The only thing that will matter is when you get caught and how you are sorry , but generally go back into it again . But how is your relationship with God ? What is it like ? Do you talk to him ? Do you ask him ? Do you want him to get you on the path that you need to be ? I think you wouldn't be listening to this if you didn't .

Prayer for Genuine Repentance

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That's what we all want . It's hard , it's not easy . We're still tempted , we'll still want to do the worldly things , but the one thing that's going to stop you is that connection you have with God and knowing look , this is not what he wants for me , and not letting yourself get involved .

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But if you've found yourself now involved in something that you're thinking I can't , I can't do that to God . I want you I don't know if you've already done it , but I want you to sit down and think about actions that you do , and are they hurtful to God ? If you're in the middle of an affair ? If you're in the middle of pornography ? If you're in the middle of an affair , if you're in the middle of pornography , if you're in the middle of drug use or alcohol use , if you're in the middle of damaging your own body , if you're in the middle of constantly lying to cover up , if these are things , some of the things that you might be dealing with , and if you truly feel sorry about them , it's time to go to God and say I am sorry for breaking your heart . I'm repenting of this sin , I'm going to turn around and I'm going the other way and I'm not coming back this way again . That's the freedom . That's the freedom . I'm not coming back this way again . Is that what you want ? Not to go back to that same sin . And if it is , you know what you have to do . Let's pray .

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Father , thank you for opening my eyes to the truth about repentance . I don't want to be trapped . We don't want to be trapped in worldly sorrow . We love you , lord . Teach us to hate our own sin . Teach us to run to you . Have your Holy Spirit work within us , nudge us when we need it , keep us close and thank you that no failure is too great for your grace . Remind us that repentance is not shame but freedom . I surrender my heart to you . I want my heart to be clean . Cleanse me , lord , from the inside out . Forgive me of my sins . Forgive me , help me to turn and run the other way , because I know I'm breaking your heart heart and I'm so sorry . I want my heart to be a reflection of yours and I thank you again for all that you're doing and I ask that you continue to bless us and continue to give us the blessings from those who don't want to ask for them In Jesus' name . I pray amen . Want to ask for them

Next Week's Topic Preview

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In Jesus name . I pray Amen . Well , next week's podcast is going to be from page . Let me take a look .

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24 . Jesus invites you to live with meaning and be part of something bigger . What do you think your purpose is , and how might following him give you a clearer direction ? How might following him give you a clearer direction ? I don't want you to think of that as what's my job purpose or you know , my hobbies or things that I do that please me . I want you to think of your purpose on this earth and I'll give you a little hint . We all have the same purpose in God's eyes and we'll talk about that next week . So think about what is it that God wants me to do for him , and that's what we all have , that same purpose . What is it I can do for you , god ? Not for me , not for my income , not for my family , but for you , and we're going to talk about that next week . Thank you for joining me this week . I hope you'll be back next week and until then , you have a blessed week .