What is... Repentance?

Hey, good morning. This is Truth in Love. We're so thankful that you are joining us, watching the video. We appreciate your support and we hope that you're encouraged. We hope that Jesus is glorified and exalted.

We want you to see Him. We want you to hear Him. We want you to come to Him. We want all this to be pointing to Christ. We want to know His Word and we want to do it together. So we're thankful that you spend time with us.

You're supporting what we do and helping us reach our community. Truth in Love, of course, comes from Ephesians chapter four, verse 15. Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ.

So we want to speak truth and we want to do it in love, as scripture commands us to do. I'm again with Daniel Self, and we are going to do a series, what is. We want to answer questions. We want to help make scripture more clear, more understandable so that we know what God requires of us.

And if you have any questions, please feel free to jot down a question. Say hello. Let us know that you're watching. If we can pray for you, we'd love to be able to do that. We'll pray at the end. All you have to do is type me.

You don't have to say what it is. Just let us know that we can pray for you. Love to be able to do that, but chime in, join in on the conversation. If you have a question for us, please shoot us a question.

If you have a comment, let us know what you're thinking. That would be fantastic as well. This morning, in part of the next installment of the what is series, we're going to be answering the question, what is repentance?

And before we get into that, I feel like I really need to give a shout out to someone. Daniel has agreed as part of the what is series to go through the table of contents of this book, answering some of the questions.

And I want to tell you where it comes from. And I want to tell you a little bit about it to give him a shout out, to give him credit. And if you would like a copy of it, I'm sure we could get you a copy of it as well.

But if you can see it, the notebook here, the title of it is called multiply. And that's, there's two things coming out of this book. I may have to start wearing headphones because I'm getting feedback.

So I apologize if anybody hears anything. Two things coming out of this book. And the first one is multiply. What does that mean? And then the content, where does the content come from? Well, if you go to Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20, Jesus says this, he says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth.

That's our starting point. We can't go anywhere without hearing that and letting that register. Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. He says, go, therefore, based on that, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, the Holy spirit.

So we're going after nations, we're going after peoples, we're going after nations, baptizing them. Then he says, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. Lo, I'm with you to the end of the age.

Jesus told us to teach them all that he commanded. So the point here is discipleship and multiply. And that's how Christianity is grown. Christ shared it with someone else and they shared it with someone else.

Someone shared it with you. Someone shared it with me. So the aim and the goal is to multiply. If you've been discipled, you should disciple somebody else. You should share the gospel with somebody else.

And then what are we to be sharing with them? But what Jesus has commanded us, that was his command to teach his commands. And Tommy Hullock, a pastor whose videos, whose sermons are on this ministry page, if you catch pastor Tommy's sermons, he has put together this notebook and it is about multiplying, you being discipled, and then you using this to disciple others.

And the content comes from the commands of Christ. Just being obedient to Matthew chapter 28, teaching to observe all that he's commanded. Number one is repentance. Morning, mom, dad. If you see the comments, that's my mom and dad.

They're joining us this morning. So number one is repentance. And that's where we're going to start. And I wanted to give Tommy a shout out. So Daniel, just briefly, what is a very simple definition of repentance?

Oh, goodness, a simple one. Yeah, we'll start with. Very simply, repentance is just is turning away from something in. In the context of Christianity and the Bible, in the context in which we're speaking about it today, a little bit more in depth, is it is turning away from sin and turning towards God.

It has two aspects to it, turning away from something, something bad, something evil, sin and turning towards something good and better, which is God through Christ Jesus, who's paid the penalty for sin.

So that is that is a simple definition of repentance. OK. The problem we have is that what we're going to talk about to our nature, to our core is offensive. I mean, the gospel message is offensive. We don't have to grab somebody by the throat.

We don't have to insult them. We don't have to yell and scream. The gospel message itself, I mean, if you're if you're speaking it clearly, it's offensive. And this information this morning is offensive.

And the reason that I wanted to get Daniel to give us just a brief definition of what repentance is, is because it begs the question. You're saying that we have to turn from something. So what is that something that we have to turn from?

And of course, now is when it gets really offensive. The scripture teaches us that we must turn from sin. And so the question is, what is sin? And Daniel, you want to give a definition? You want to read the catechism?

Sure. I don't I don't have that one open, but it's all right. The catechism, both the Westminster and the London Baptist catechism, both define sin like this. They ask, what is sin? Sin is any want or lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.

In other words, it's if we don't measure up to the standard of God, it is sin. If we find something that is in the law of God that we break, that is sin. And the reason why this is so important is because sin is or not the law that we have broken is based upon the nature of who God is.

It's more than just a breaking of some simple rules. It's an affront to God's character, to his nature, in his cosmic rebellion or cosmic treason, as O .C. Sproul used to say, against our creator. It is battling against the one who has given us life and breath.

So that is a sin. Right. And so it's it's much broader than just, you know, thinking about our legal system. If you can go online, you can go look at, you know, lawyers books, look at court cases. You can see our policies online.

You can see our laws. You can go look in books and see our laws online or in books and open up the pages, read them. And, you know, if you break them, you go to court. They determine whether you're paying the fine, whatever it is.

It's just it's just kind of black and white. It's we come up with rules. You keep the rules or you break the rules. If you break them, there's consequences. A judge, a jury who, you know, is just kind of an objective bystander makes a judgment call.

And, you know, that's that's what it is. That's our view. That's our vision of kind of what law and lawbreaking is. But as you were saying, Daniel, in God's economy, it goes much deeper than that. As you mentioned, you were talking about cosmic treason.

I mean, with with the law and the law that we have in Scripture, God's commands, those commands have an author. And that author is God. And when we when we transgress or when we sin against that law, we are we are attacking the character and nature of that cosmic deity, our God, the God of Scripture.

And so we we're saying you are not trustworthy. You you're your character is is evil. So when when I break your law, I'm saying your character is evil. It's not worthy of my acceptance, of my approval, of my keeping.

And it's a personal attack against the author of that law. And so therefore, it's more than just a black and white go to court and innocent or guilty, go to jail, get released, get up, get out on bail.

I mean, this is a personal attack. Any other thoughts on sin? Yeah, one of the reasons why it's considered cosmic treason, if you think back to the Garden of Eden, when we first sinned, the thing that God told us to do was do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

That was that was our thing. Don't eat from that tree. When Satan tempted us, he didn't tempt us by saying, he said, did God really say that? Did does basically what he's is, does God have the authority to tell you what is good and what is not?

Or is that a determination that you can make for yourself? And in our first and in all sense, since then, what we do is we look at God, we look at his world that he's created us in. We take the breath in our lungs and the power of our brains, the blood circulating in our bodies.

And we use that to say, no, even though you've given me life, you have no authority over me. I have the right to determine what is right, what is wrong. So the reason why it's called cosmic treason is that you are actually trying to usurp or take away God's right to be God.

It's the essence of humanism, what our culture and society is doing today in the laws that they're enacting. It's a lot more than just an affront against God's law and our moral sensibilities. It is them saying that they have the right to determine what is good and what is evil.

They're trying to take the place of God in his world. And that is the sin that we need to repent of. It takes all different forms, but that's the crux of the matter, the big issue, the core, why it's so heinous.

Even when we consider little things, they're just vile and wicked. It does bring that idea of little white lies or little sins into perspective because of whom they are against. Pastor Tommy, he brings out a good point in his workbook here.

He quotes Romans chapter 14, verse 23, and it says, whatever is not from faith is sin. And then Hebrews 11, six, and without faith, it is impossible to please him. So sinning speaks to unbelief. We are not believing in the trustworthiness of God.

We're not believing in who he is. We're not believing in his character, nature. We're not trusting in him. But when we have faith, like I said, sin is more than just the black and white breaking of the law.

Sin is a disbelief in the work of Christ. It's a disbelief in God. It's not trusting in him. And so it takes on that wider form, that wider understanding that Daniel was talking about. So yes, that's offensive to our nature, but it is the most important information that we need to hear.

If we don't know our sickness, our issue, our problem, we're not going to know how to appropriate the core or the cure. We won't know what to do about it. We won't know that there's a need to do anything about it.

And so understanding that we have sin and what sin is, is so important. And then this information, this knowledge, along with scripture teaches us that it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance.

And I think both ideas help lead us to this repentance. The fact that we begin to understand the depths of sin, the core of sin, and how offensive it is to God because of who he is, and then learning what he has done for us.

And as the Holy Spirit begins to awaken our hearts and open our eyes, we can't help but desire to do what repentance calls us to do. And so let's continue to jump in. And now we can talk a little bit more about repentance.

Now we know what sin is. We need to know what repentance is and what repentance is not so that we can come to God and we can deal with this issue. So have you got a definition for us for repentance? Yeah.

Go back to the catechism again, it gives a really good definition. Both the Baptist and the Westminster say, I believe identically the same thing. It says, repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ doth with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of an endeavor after new obedience.

So what that is saying is that repentance is a gift from God. It's a saving grace where a sinner sees the heinousness of their sin and turns away from it, looking away from it and looking towards God.

And not just looking away from their sin and towards God, but actually with full purpose of never going back to that sin again and to live in a new obedience or living according to God's law. Now it doesn't mean that we'll always do that, but it means that that is our full purpose and that we're relying on God and in Christ and his power in order to do it.

Paul talks a lot about this in Romans seven, where he talks about the flesh warring against the spirit and he runs through it and he gets just all sorts of torn up. Has a priest on this a few weeks ago and called it a holy anxiety where he was just, he felt like, what am I going to do with this sin that's trapped in my body?

What am I going to do? And he came to the end and realized, what a wretched man am I? Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thank God for Jesus Christ. So it's turning away from his sin, trusting in God through Christ for the forgiveness of that sin, and then seeking to live in a way that conforms to God's law.

It's a complete change of heart, mind, and character as a gift from God and salvation. Okay. Now here's something I'd like for you to do because sometimes it can be confusing. If you look at the original language and you look at the word repentance, you're going to see the definition that says change of mind.

So we can misunderstand that and misappropriate that. We need to understand that on how the author meant it, how the audience understood it. And so explain how that relates to the definition that you just gave, where the word itself in Greek means to change your mind.

How does that relate to this definition that you gave us? The definition in the Greek, it means to change your mind. The thing to remember that you're not changing your mind, truly it really, if there is no actual change in your behavior and in your makeup, you can say that you've changed your mind all you want on something, but if your actions do not follow, then there's no real substantive change in your mind.

That's what is meant by the change of mind. It doesn't mean that you get scared of the consequences, but you still have the same affection for that sin. It doesn't mean that you see that maybe it's going to cause something bad to happen in your life.

Oh, I don't want that bad thing to happen. It means a holistic change, a change of mind, behavior, even the will that will cause you, even if you find yourself moving in the wrong direction, that you will then again, turn from wherever you've gone and turn back to Christ.

There's a Puritan fellow, Thomas Watson. He wrote a little bitty book. It's real small, super tiny called the Doctrine of Repentance. It's absolutely wonderful. Banner of Truth Trust puts it out, part of their Puritan paperback series.

It's just wonderful about repentance. He's got a chapter in there. It's about three pages long. Second chapter, it talks about fake repentance. He gives three instances of it. One would be that you're scared of the consequences.

Basically, what he's talking about is that you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You realize that what you're doing is wrong. You know that a change needs to be made. You undergo this time of conviction.

When the time of conviction ends, I'm glad that's over. That must have been repentance because now my time of conviction is over. There's been no change of heart. There's been no change in the trajectory of your life.

You just are done experiencing that conviction. That is not true repentance. He also talks about being resolved against sin. In today's world, that'd be like saying, I'm not going to do it. I've got my accountability partner over there.

We're going to get through this all together. He likens this to a shipwreck mentality of repentance. You get in a situation, you'd say just about anything because the storm is raging around you. If I get out of this, I will stop doing this, that, or the other thing.

But then when smooth waters come back, it's almost like you breathe a sigh of relief and just go back to sin as normal. That is not repentance. That is an emotional high that leads to no real change in your life.

He also talks about leaving sin, thinking I've done so much, so my work must be over. There's a lot of reasons why we can leave sin behind and not have actually repented and turned away from it and hate the sin and love God.

It may be a simple matter of opportunity. You don't have the opportunity to steal anything. Therefore, oh, I've repented of thievery. No, you still have thievery in your heart. You just don't have anything that you want to steal at the moment.

Or maybe it's better for you to tell the truth at the moment, but you're still a liar. I mean, politicians get this one all the time. It's expedient for me to tell the truth at the moment, so I'm not going to lie.

But the second it becomes expedient to lie, go red, blue, that's not repentance. Maybe you have a change of interest. No, I'm not an alcoholic anymore. I don't drink anymore. I don't do those things, but I'm now addicted to cocaine.

You're not repenting of alcoholism. You've just simply moved on to a different substance. That's not repentance. You quit cheating on your wife because you don't want to get a divorce. Once again, you're not hating the sin itself.

You're just seeing the consequences of it, and you're not wanting those consequences. So true repentance matters. It's just as much a turning to God in all things as it is a turning away from sin. You can turn away from different sins in a bunch of different ways that don't lead you to turn to Christ.

You can turn for different reasons that make sense or are expedient at a certain time, but if you're not turning to Christ, true biblical repentance does not happen because what we're doing really is undoing the idolatry of the fall where we saw God and said, we want to be able to determine what is right and what is wrong.

Repentance is saying, no, I have to subject myself to the law of God. I need to live in a manner that is consistent with the goodness and holiness of the character of God. Without both of those aspects, real true biblical repentance hasn't taken place.

I forget what your original question was, but I hope I covered it somewhere in there. Well, let's wrap it all together. We started out with putting together just the original definition, because when you look up the definition, it's just that real simple definition change of mind.

But as you stated, there is substance to that definition. And there's a result of that change of mind. There's actions. And therefore, if you don't see those actions, then the change of mind really didn't happen.

And that's what you led into. How do you know the difference? Was my repentance real or was it fake? As Thomas Watson was talking about, was it imaginary? Was it a farce? Was it something to... Was it convenient?

Convenient. Yeah. Convenient or just something to... And I can't think of the word. Something to make me feel good about the situation that I'm in or that I did something. I did what I was supposed to.

I appeased God. Whatever it was, how to know the difference. And you spoke to the way we can see that it wasn't true biblical repentance. We didn't go in the direction that God has called us to and how to recognize and see that.

We know the importance of repentance because from Christ himself, when his first message recorded in Matthew 4, 17 and Mark 1, 15 repentance was a part of his first message, his first sermon. When he was preaching, he began his ministry and started to give information to people.

His first message to them was the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's here. It's near. Repent and believe the gospel. So that concept, repentance is so important. That's how Jesus begins his ministry. It was the whole of John the Baptist's ministry, the baptism of repentance, because the kingdom was coming, the Messiah was coming, the one greater than he was coming.

So therefore, they had to turn. They had to lower the mountains, raise the valleys, clear the path, make their paths straight. They had to get everything cleared out to make room for the savior. And that was the concept there with John the Baptist and repentance.

And with the Pharisees, Sadducees, with the Jews coming from Jerusalem, they had to turn from that system that they were in, that system of works, that self-righteousness, so that they could receive the free gift of grace that was going to be offered in Jesus Christ.

And so we see scripture speak to the difference difference in the type of repentance from 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10. The Bible speaks to this, that it's a real issue and it's a dangerous issue. So I would recommend that you would listen to what Daniel was saying again, or look into that topic deeper yourself of what is fake repentance?

How can I be fooling myself? Because this is a dangerous issue and we don't want to mess around or play with it, where we call it fake repentance. This is kind of what 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10 says, godly sorrow brings about repentance leading to salvation, but worldly sorrow brings death.

And that should just bring the weight of reality down upon our shoulders because this death is an eternal death. It is separation, eternal separation from God. The consequence is hell, is judgment. And we have an opportunity now to respond to this, where those that have preceded us have not, or they did, but it's over.

Those of us who are now in the present have an opportunity to respond to this message. And the weight of 2 Corinthians 7, 10 should really, we should really feel it on our shoulders, not just for ourselves, but for our families and our friends and our neighbors, because worldly sorrow, which is what we want to produce.

We just want to avoid consequence. We want to repent so that we can get something out of it. I'm going to withhold this from you unless you say you're sorry. Okay, I'm sorry. And so you get what you want.

So we're afraid of consequences. We're afraid of not getting what we want. All those other things that Daniel was talking about that are fake repentances or worldly sorrow, going down that path is a dangerous path to follow because it leads to death.

And there's a repentance that leads to life and salvation. And it's godly sorrow, 2 Corinthians tells us, godly sorrow that leads or that brings repentance and leads to salvation. And we want to make sure that we are repenting in such a way that we are obeying scripture and it's leading us to Christ.

And as Daniel was talking a second ago, I was jotting down something that made me think about this, how to know if we're truly repenting. I think we can know or have an idea if we are truly repenting.

If once we've turned from our sin and we've turned towards Christ, the question is, are we resting in Christ? I wrote down, if you are not resting in Christ, you did not repent. Because if you're going back to any type of sin, you're trying to find your security, your hope, your satisfaction, your pleasure in whatever it may be.

And Daniel gave us a list of things like substance abuse or lying or whatever it may be. If you're going back to find your pleasure and satisfaction, your rest in any of those things, there was not true repentance there.

We can know that we have truly repented when the result is I'm resting in Christ because I'm no longer resting in my sins that gave me pleasure before. Anything to add to that? I was just thinking, there's two spots in the book of Romans that speak to what the true end of repentance is.

When true godly repentance has actually happened, what does it look like in the life of the person who's repented? Romans 5, 1 says, therefore, having been justified by faith, because that's what repentance is.

It's turning away from your sin and turning in faith to Christ. The one who's been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom we also obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exalt in the hope of the glory of God.

It's something that we, like you're saying, we rest in, we stand in it, and that is our hope for the future. That we know that if we fall into sin again, our hope is in faith in Christ where we stand.

That sin is wrong. I'm going to turn from it and trust in Christ. Further in chapter 8, verse 1, it says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

The law of God is not something that weighs down and burdens us. It does point to our sin. It does convict us of our sin, but when we truly repent of it and turn towards God, the law of God becomes to us something good because there is no more sting of death and condemnation with that law because in Christ we have that forgiveness.

Christ has taken upon himself the penalty of sin and breaking of the law and then given that to those who find themselves repentant so that the law of God then shows us the goodness of God and shows us what we are turning to, which is the goodness of God.

So godly repentance leads to peace and no condemnation. It is a wonderful salvation that we find in Christ. It's not worrisome or burdensome. There is still conviction of sin, but like Jesus said, his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

He's in the business of taking the weight of sin off of us by taking it upon himself and going to the cross for it, raising up from the grave the third day. So the law after conversion, after true repentance, the law no longer is a burden, but it becomes a delight.

Right, because I forget exactly where, but it talks about, I think it's Romans 7 maybe, the sting of or the power of the law or of sin is in seeing the law and then attacking you, basically, is what it's saying.

After you have salvation, sin no longer has that power of condemnation and death over you. So that way, when we look at the law, our flesh still wars against us, but we have that salvation in Christ and it's a source of knowing our God better.

It points to his adequacy and our need of a savior and that is not a burdensome thing because we know in our savior, we have no condemnation and we have found peace with God, whereas the law didn't provide that.

Right. Well, unless you have anything else to add, I feel like it was pretty clear. I think we've covered what repentance is and what repentance is not and the fact that we are called to repentance from scripture.

Maybe we could touch on the fact that it is a work of Christ. It is a work of God in us as well. Some people view repentance as a work, something that we have to do. People preach that Christianity is not work-based.

It's a free gift, but then we command people to repent. Therefore, we would be accused of saying that we're adding works back to Christianity, to salvation, but repentance is not a work. It is a response.

Do you have anything? No. I was just looking. Okay. I was trying to read your cue, but I thought you may have had something there. But yeah, repentance is not a work. It's a response. When the Holy Spirit awakens us, regenerates us, works in our hearts, we can then respond to changing our mind, to calling out to God.

I think if you watch Wretched with Todd Freel, he gives the examples of if you're having a heart attack, it's not the call that saved you. It's the ambulance. It's the doctors that save you once they get there.

He gives another example, and I can't recall what it is right now, but it's not repentance. Repentance is not what saves you. It's not a work, but it's a result of what the Holy Spirit has done in your heart.

I may have something now. Okay. Titus 3, starting in verse 3, for we also, once we're foolish, ourselves disobedient, deceived, enslaved in various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

But when the kindness of God, our Savior, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not on the basis of deeds, which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit, who poured on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that being justified by grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The repentance that we experience, that we do, is a result of that washing of regeneration and the renewal by the Holy Spirit. It's God working in us, and the very first thing we do when we see the wonder and the glory of God and his goodness, is that we turn from our sin and repent of it.

Yeah. So I hope that was clear. I hope you guys were edified. We hope you were encouraged. If you were encouraged by what you're hearing, we ask that you would share the video. We desire to exalt Christ, to glorify God, and we love our communities.

So if it helped you at all, and you want to support us and join us in reaching our community, would you mind sharing the video? If you have any questions, anything that we said was confusing, if you have any questions about what we said, about repentance, about sin, send us a message.

Leave it in the comments. We'll see it in the notifications. We'd love to have a further conversation and help answer your questions, especially if we were unclear about anything that we said. So we pray that we were encouraging to you and that we were glorifying to God.

If you are unsure, if you felt like you were a Christian, or if you are not a Christian, know that you're an unbeliever if you're not in Christ. Daniel, would you take just a moment to share the gospel with folks who may be watching our video?

Sure. Like we've been talking about today, sin is something that we all have as a part of us. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned in the garden, and from there, we've all inherited a sin nature. One that we, as sinners, kind of enjoy.

We enjoy our sin, but the problem with that is that sin separates us from God. It separates us from God eternally and in this world. It causes all sorts of grief and trouble, and there's judgment to come for it.

But the thing is that Christ looked at the world and had compassion on us. God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross to take the sins of people who would look to him. He took those sins and put it on himself.

He then hung there on the tree and died paying for those sins. He was taken down off of the cross and put into the grave for three days. At the time that he rose from the grave, those sins were paid for, and it's like he kicked the grave in the teeth.

The power of death has no hold over us if we are in Christ Jesus. Because what happened was, if we trust in Christ, he took our sins, put them on himself, took those to death for us in our place, went to the grave, so that way death is no longer a scary thing for us.

Because as our bodies die, we have the hope of resurrection in Christ. And right now, Jesus is sitting on the throne in heaven, ruling over the world, directing all things to that very end, where he will return one day to raise up his saints, to glorify their bodies, and we live with him forever.

That's the good news of Jesus Christ, that he came to deal with the sin that was absolutely wrecking us and our entire world, that was leading us to damnation and hell, was leading us away from the good blessings of our creator.

And so Jesus came to do those things for us. That's why we preach repentance and faith in God. We turn away from the things that cause death and despair. We turn to the Christ who created us and gives us life now and eternally.

Amen. Amen. And just as Jesus says and opened up his ministry, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's here. Christ is on his throne. Therefore repent and believe that good news. We want you to know Christ and we want you to love him, see him as precious.

And we want you to be our brother or sister and be a part of his kingdom. We want to see you saved and us live in eternity in his kingdom forever, his glorious kingdom. So if we can pray for you, if you watch the video later, if we can pray for you, if you pray and you come to Christ, you repent of your sins and you trust in him, let us know that you have come to Christ, that you've repented of your sins and put your faith in him.

And let us help you get connected to a good Bible, believing, teaching, discipleship making church and any other way that we make and help you. We would be glad to do that. Just let us know. And if we can pray for you, just type it in the notification or the comments and we'll see it as a notification and we can pray for you whenever we see it.

But we'd be glad to pray for you and help you in any that we are able to. So thank you for watching. Let me go ahead and pray for us and we'll wrap things up. Father, we thank you so much for the time that you allowed us to spend together to exalt Christ and to understand your word.

Thank you for the Holy Spirit that you sent to work in us, the gift and the working of repentance in our hearts to turn away from sin, to know our need to turn from sin, to see the ugliness of sin and what it really is.

And Father, we are truly sorry how we blaspheme your name and defame your character by our sin. And we pray that you would change us, that we may be a representation, a true representation, a true image of who you designed us to be, to show the world who you are, to be showing yourself off through us.

And Father, as I've been learning in other studies through church and all this week, looking at Corinthians, looking at 2 Corinthians, Father, we are thankful for our weaknesses. That's really hard to say because it's difficult to be weak.