Speaker 1: 0:02

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.

Speaker 1: 0:32

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.

Speaker 1: 0:54

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 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.

Speaker 1: 2:15

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

Speaker 1: 3:16

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.

Speaker 1: 3:57

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.

Speaker 1: 4:30

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 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.

Speaker 1: 6:11

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.

Speaker 1: 7:40

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. 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.

Speaker 1: 8:35

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.

Speaker 1: 9:59

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

Speaker 1: 11:33

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.