First Things First Week 2- Repentance

``And see, renewing means a renovation, a complete overhaul, not just a rearrangement. Right? Rearranging is just moving things around. You think about your houses. Right? You can rearrange every room in your house, move furniture around and everything else, but nothing is changing. It's still the same structural house that it was. But a true renewing of the mind is a renovation. When you start knocking down walls, putting walls up, adding additions to the house, now you're changing the structure of it. That's what renewal is. [00:46:19] (34 seconds)  #RenewMindRenovation

It says, change your inner self, your old ways of thinking. We are to renew our mind. Notice it doesn't immediately say behavior modification. It says, change your mind. It all starts with there. It's about direction, about thinking differently before you act differently. It's about that mind renewal, renewing the mind. And why is that? Because God doesn't start with what you do, but he starts with how you think. And the reason that is is because behavior, the outward appearance is the fruit and your thinking is the root. I'm gonna say that again, behavior is the fruit but thinking is the root. [00:43:30] (38 seconds)  #ChangeMindFirst

Because what happens is soon if you stay on that traject that path and say, well, last time I tried it I got hurt or and this and that. What you're doing, you're slowly lowering your expectations. You're slowly shrinking your obedience and you're adjusting your faith. And it's not because God changed. Right? Because God doesn't change. He changes not. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So it's not because God changed, it's because your experience became louder than revelation. You allowed that experience, that past experience to become louder than the revelation of God's present voice in your life. [00:59:08] (36 seconds)  #RevelationOverExperience

See, God's not dismissing your history. He's not dismissing your history at all. What he's doing is refusing to be limited by it. He's so he's not dismissing it. He's refusing to be limited by it. He's not stuck in your history. He's not stuck in your past. He's not defined by your regrets, and he's not replaying what you wish you could undo. That's not him. The only person who's revisiting that is you. You're the one going back and bringing up the past, bringing up the old stuff. [01:00:22] (32 seconds)  #NotDefinedByYourPast

I wanna set the tone here and I wanna make it clear that repentance isn't something bad. Repentance isn't condemnation. It's not guilt. It's not, you know, not to make you feel bad. That's not what repentance is. Repentance is just alignment. Realigning ourselves back with God, back into his will, his perfect will for our lives. That's what it is, right? Because repentance isn't about God pointing a finger at you saying, well, look, you did the x y and z. That's not what it is. Repentance is him standing there with his arms wide open with the invitation for you saying, hey, I'm here. I never left you. The word says he'll never leave you or forsake you, so he has never left you. [00:37:07] (40 seconds)  #RepentanceIsAlignment

See notice God didn't Jesus didn't say here try harder. He didn't say you've forsaken your first love, try harder and do better. Or be more disciplined, or try to fix your image. He didn't say that. He says, repent. And why does he say that? It's because they didn't have an effort problem. The church didn't have an effort problem. It was an affection problem. They didn't stop serving. They didn't stop working. They didn't stop being faithful. What they did is they stopped loving. And so Jesus didn't correct their behavior immediately. He said, hey, repent. Come back to me, that first love. Because repentance isn't about shame. It's about direction, turning back toward him. [01:06:09] (47 seconds)  #ReturnToYourFirstLove

You're going back to God and and this is what repentance looks like. It says, God you're right. I'm done making excuses. I'm done trying to justify my actions, you know. I'm done making excuses. I'm done defending myself. I'm turning back to you. That's what true repentance is. Making a firm declaration that this is what I'm doing. That's pulling it up by the root. It's saying I'm going back to prayer before pressure. [00:48:19] (27 seconds)  #PrayerBeforePressure

And so what it does is it can move you forward in clarity and peace and power and not stepping back. See, repentance isn't a step backwards. It's a step forward into that renewing, into that refreshing, into that clarity and that power. It's God realigning you back into his walk in everything that he has prepared for you. Wouldn't you agree? [00:42:57] (22 seconds)  #RepentForwardNotBack