Come on, one more time. Sing it out to Him one more time.
Praise You, and we thank You for the freedom that comes at the name of Jesus.
Communion on your way in, raise your hand and we'll get you one. If you're streaming live at home or whatnot, just go ahead and grab something and share communion with us right there.
In which He was betrayed, He took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it. And He said, "Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you."
Let us... And God, we thank You this morning for by Jesus' stripes, we are healed. We thank You this morning for the freedom that comes in You and through You.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's...
As we continue to worship this morning, just lift your hands there, declaring your trust in God.
If you've been struggling in your worship, you've been struggling in your belief, you've been struggling in continuing...
So let's lift our voice together all around this sanctuary and every home that has become a sanctuary this morning, declaring, "I trust in God."
One more time, sing it one more time, declare it. This is a prayer this morning, a prayer of declaration in Jesus' name.
Come on, church, give God a hand of praise this morning. Go ahead and turn to someone this morning, tell them, "Keep trusting."
Come on, look at somebody this morning, tell them, "Keep trusting, keep trusting." We got to keep trusting in Jesus. Sometimes it takes a little longer.
You can't keep trusting in Jesus. It's kind of like when you're building that Lego. I haven't opened the box yet, but a bunch of the stuff that are going to be in bag one and two are probably not even going to be visible to...
And put piece after piece. It's trusting that the finished...
We're trusting Him that as we read His word and obey His word, the finished product...
With God, start over, get right with God right now. We're finishing a set. We have a bunch of Legos. We have like boxes that are ready to get built.
And we were building the other day and something didn't line up right, and I had to go back and start about 30 steps before we put something sideways.
Church, in our vision, our why, the reason we do this, we say it this way: we exist to get people to a place where they will acknowledge, trust, and lean on God daily.
We exist to get people to a place where they will acknowledge, trust, and lean on God daily. Every single one of us needs God every single day.
And get congregating. Some of you are streaming online today because somebody is sick or something was going on, and you stayed home and you connected to be able to be here together with us and having service.
But there's power when we collectively gather.
But we need to remember that we can talk to Him at home, in our cars, in our workplace, continually connected to God, acknowledging God, trusting God, and leaning on Him daily.
Come on, church, can you give another hand of praise this morning?
I'm going to jump into this message this morning, and it's a message that's been heavy on my heart, and it's a subject that is heavy for all believers.
And we've been in a series that's titled "Links," and today is, if you want to call it the conclusion or the end of this series, although it's not an exhaustive list, and we're going to hit other things throughout the year that are links that keep us connected to God.
But we've been talking about God being our anchor. God is the anchor that you and I must tie ourselves to. An anchor holds something securely in place, right? That's what the job of an anchor is, to hold us securely in place.
And there's a lot of different anchors in this world and a lot of different sizes and a lot of different shapes. And a lot of us at times anchor ourselves or tie ourselves to the wrong anchor.
We find our identity in our career, or we find our identity in what we do for a living, or in our role as a parent, or a spouse, or a caregiver. We're tied to these different things.
But the only anchor that will hold us securely in place, regardless of the storm or the season of calm, is God.
And we've been talking about these different links in this chain, if you would, because an anchor's only good if you're tied to it, isn't it?
I mean, I told you that story when we first started this series. I was on a boat one time, and we tossed the anchor, and the captain had forgotten that he had done some work and hadn't tied it to the boat.
So the anchor went, and nothing was tied to the boat. So we had to chase after it. Because if the anchor hits the ground and it's not tied to the boat, you'll continue to drift.
And so some of these links on this chain, and again, this is not an exhaustive list. This is not all the things in the chain, but we've talked about Sabbath.
Remember the Sabbath is what the commandment says in Exodus chapter 20. Remember the Sabbath. Keep it holy. What is Sabbath? It is intentionally setting aside one day a week where you cease to do whatever is your work.
Whatever it is that you do for a living. And you cease to do that, and you honor God. You spend time with God. You worship God. You refill. You refresh.
And that looks different for different people. I have three kids, and I tell my kids, your job is school.
So on Fridays, we have a conversation after school. How much homework do you have this week? And when are you going to get it done? And which day of the weekend are you Sabbathing?
Which means that one of those days of the weekend, you're not touching schoolwork. If they learn that now, they're going to very easily be able to remember the Sabbath when they're older.
And Sabbath, I don't even know why I'm going to go so detailed in this this morning, but I feel to do that now.
Sabbath requires trust, and it requires faith. It's trusting that God is going to give you the strength, the ability, and all of the things needed to do in six days what you thought was going to take you seven.
And some of us, the reason we're so unproductive in our workplace is because of the fact that we're not Sabbathing or resting.
And your mind is fatigued, your body is fatigued, and you look at the screen or whatever it is you're supposed to be doing, and it doesn't make any sense, and you can't figure it out.
And I guarantee you, if you begin to honor God with the Sabbath, it'll close that link, and you will be able to do what God has called you to do.
We talked about fasting. Jesus didn't say if you fast. Jesus' expectation was when you fast.
I don't like fasting. I don't enjoy fasting. If anything, I like eating. And I like eating good food, things that taste good, things that's got some sazon, some flavor, you know what I'm talking about.
But what is fasting? It is intentionally setting aside a time period where you are going to go without this food, this specific item, or this meal, or an entire day, two, three, whatever it is that God puts on your heart.
And you give up. You give up of that physically in order to connect with God spiritually and hear His voice.
We talked about obedience. Why is it obedience? Because many times it's something we don't want to do.
It's easy for me to eat a good smoked brisket that's put in front of me. It doesn't require obedience. It doesn't require obedience.
Put some Brussels sprouts, I'm going to have to obey, right? You get the picture.
It's obedience because it's things that at times God is asking us to do that goes against culture, that goes against society, that goes against what's acceptable, but we obey God.
We talked about forgiveness. We talked about that one last week. I know at 3W Church we ain't got no toes, but we were stepping on some last week.
We went through the taxes, nationally. Why? Because it's a tough thing for us to forgive.
Let's be honest and let's be real. How many of you here, when you mess up, want to be forgiven? You did something? Some of you don't. Okay, cool.
We all want it. I mess up, I want to be forgiven quickly. Man, Frankie, I'm sorry, man. I walked by, I didn't say hi, I didn't see you, man. I'm sorry. You forgive me?
Yeah, we want the forgiveness. But then somebody does something to us, and it's like, hmm, how long do I stay upset?
One of my girls asked me this week, can you ever forgive too quickly?
And I looked at her and I said, absolutely not. You need to forgive immediately. Let go of it. Don't let it get roots. Don't let it get bitter.
Because she said, sometimes I feel like I forgave too quickly. Like, should I be mad longer? I was like, no, mama, you keep that. Forgive quickly.
Today, I want to talk about... I want to talk about a topic that we've all done, but sometimes forget to continue to do as Christians, and it's the topic of repentance.
See, repentance is a link in the chain that keeps us tied to God. Repentance is a link in the chain that keeps us tied to God.
And some of you are like, well, what do you mean by repent? I came to Jesus and I repented. Yeah, but here's the reality. The reality is that sin creates a break in this chain, and sin separates us from God, and all of us sin.
Sin creates a break in the chain. It opens a link and separates us from God. We see it through all of scripture, right? Adam and Eve, they're in the garden. They eat of the fruit. They sinned against what God said. They felt shame.
They saw their nakedness, and they went to hide from God. We see Jesus, who committed no sin. The book of Hebrews tells us He's our high priest, perfect in every way.
He was tempted in every way. What does the verse say? Yet without sin. So let's talk a few minutes about that.
Temptation in and of itself is not sin. The enemy has lied to us, and we have believed, well, if I got tempted, that means I'm in sin. Might as well indulge and do it.
Let's look at it in a practical way, right? Have you ever been on a diet, trying to lose some weight, and then you see something that's really good, and it was like, man, I'm just looking at those donuts, and I'm gaining weight by looking at them.
Ever said something like that? That's not true, though, is it?
Man, I can look at that Krispy Kreme donut. I can look at that Krispy Kreme donut. But unless I grab it and eat it, I don't gain weight from it.
When we were in the fast, I would make dinner for my kids, and sometimes I'd finish cooking for them, and I'd get the plate, and I'd go, oh, that'll get me through to tomorrow, that smell.
I wasn't eating it, right? I wasn't ingesting it.
And the enemy has gotten us to think that if we were tempted, we already messed up. But Jesus was tempted and did not enter into sin.
So what does that mean? Well, we got to begin to learn how to avoid temptations and remove certain things or people from around us that cause us to be tempted and then fall into it.
You know, one of the things I really like, I like warm cornbread with butter.
And to the breakfast yesterday, we had the men's breakfast and women's breakfast yesterday, somebody took a tray of cornbread, and nobody ate it. So it stayed on my counter.
And yesterday, I was looking at that cornbread. We brought it to church today. I think it all got eaten in first service. Not by me.
I did get rid of the temptation from my house.
Some of us, we're falling into continual sin because we're not getting rid of the temptation that's around us.
We start to think I'm strong enough to face it. Then I could have. I didn't eat the cornbread yesterday, but if it was there today, I might've had one or two or three, maybe four.
If you've never tried it, man, even if you dip it in a little café con leche. Good stuff.
Sin separates us from God. And I need us to remember this. We all sin, and we all need to repent.
This is Romans chapter three, verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
As a matter of fact, just nudge your neighbor. Nudge him. Come on, come on, come on. Nudge your neighbor and say, "Hey, you sin."
And you tell him, "You do?" Matter of fact, look at me. Pastor, you sin? We all sin.
And we've got to repent. And I want us to be reminded of something this morning.
Our sin is ultimately against God. Our sin is against God.
What do I mean by this? And go ahead and leave that point up there for a moment.
If I were to do something to Heidel, I said something harshly or whatever, and I hurt him, I committed a sin against him.
And I may go to him realizing, "Hey, man, Heidel, I'm sorry, man. Please forgive me." He says, "Pastor, it's all good. We're square."
But I, as I did it to my brother, I did it to God.
And if I don't go repent to God, I'm still in sin.
See, we got to understand that when we repent, it's not just I went and I said, "I'm sorry" to the person I hurt. I need to get right with God because ultimately when we sin, we're getting separated from God.
Watch, look at scripture, right? Joseph, Potiphar's house, the wife of Potiphar tries to seduce him. What is Joseph's response?
"This would be sin against my God." If I indulge with you, I hurt Him.
When David did all that he did, we know David, right? Fought Goliath, great warrior, amazing king of Israel. Wrote most of the Psalms, worshiper.
The Bible says he's a man after God's own heart. But what were some of the things that David did?
Lustfully looked at Bathsheba, a married woman, while he was married, took the extra step and had her brought over to the house, had relations with her and got her pregnant, found out she's pregnant and said, "Cover up, begin."
Calls Uriah, who by the way was one of his 30 mighty men. Says, "Uriah, man, I called you back from the battlefield. You got some time off. Come, go be with your wife."
And he's like, "No, no, no, no, no. I'm supposed to be out in war."
So then he manipulates the situation, gets him drunk. And Uriah, even drunk, stands in integrity, says, "My men are in the fields. I will sleep outside."
So then David writes his death sentence and gives it to Uriah to take to the leader of the army. David murdered him.
He didn't do it, but he gave the instructions on how to do it. And then David gets confronted in 2 Samuel by the prophet Nathan.
You've heard the story, perhaps. Maybe you haven't heard it. Maybe you haven't heard it. Maybe you haven't heard it.
I'll just say it real quickly. The prophet comes to him and says, "David, there's a guy in your kingdom that had all of the lambs he wanted. He had all these lambs.
And there was another guy in your kingdom that had one little itty bitty lamb. And the guy that had them all took the one of the man and slaughtered it and took it for his own."
And David gets indignant. "Where is this? He's going to have to pay," right? He gets mad.
And the prophet looks and says, "That man is you."
See, David thought nobody's going to know. But God knew.
And do you know what David says at that moment? "I have sinned against You, God."
He sinned with Bathsheba against Uriah. And he did things to them which were wrong.
And by the way, it doesn't excuse from not repenting or apologizing to a person that we hurt, right?
Like, if I hurt you, go to the person and make it right. But we've got to remember that we did it to God, and we have to repent before Him.
I don't know if you have multiple kids. I got three of them. And sometimes they get at it with each other.
Anybody here have multiple kids and they fight with each other? Any of you are a sibling and you used to fight with your sibling, whatever the case was?
And sometimes our kids don't have to tell us that they're mad at each other. Like, you can just tell.
Like, we're watching something on the TV, maybe on the couch. My wife and I are there. And one of the kids comes, and you're just like, "Are you going to fight with your sister?"
"Yes." "Well, what happened?" And they start telling us about it or whatever.
And we'll tell them, "Hey, you know what? You got to go talk to your sister. You need to apologize."
And then they'll make it right with each other. And you know what we do with them afterwards?
And you can ask them. Pick any of my three kids and ask them. We pull them to the side and say, "Okay, you made it right with your sister, but have you prayed and asked God for forgiveness for what you did to your sister?"
And what happens is that many of us, we do what it says in Matthew chapter five, "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
What does it mean to be poor in spirit? It means to recognize your sinfulness, your need of a savior, and repent.
And so we repent and we receive salvation, but that doesn't make us perfect. We still sin, and we need to repent for those sins.
And you know what I have found? Because I've done it. You pastor, yeah, I've done it.
I've gone days at times where I've done something I shouldn't have, I thought something I shouldn't have, I said something I shouldn't have, whatever the case might be, and I've made it right, but I haven't looked and said, "God, I hurt You. Forgive me."
And there's so many in the body of Christ that they come and repent, but they don't live a continual life of making it right with God.
I think of Peter. Peter was a disciple walking hand in hand with Jesus, used by Jesus, used to heal people.
He's the one that prophetically speaks, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Most High God."
Jesus says, "You didn't come up with this, but God put this, you know, that's who Peter is."
And then what does Peter do? He denies Jesus. Not once, not twice, but three times.
One of the times the Bible says he was so trying to show he wasn't with Jesus that he starts to curse.
And then the rooster crows, and he realizes, "I messed up." And he runs, he flees.
After the resurrection, he's out there fishing again, and Jesus comes and allows for Peter and him to have a one-on-one moment where three times He asks him, "Do you love me?"
And what is that? Showing us it's Peter repenting.
You know what it means to repent? It's a change of mind.
Repentance is a change of the mindset. As you're growing your walk with God and you understand these things grieve God and hurt God, it's not just saying, "I'm sorry."
It's actually my next point there. Repentance is more than saying, "I'm sorry."
Again, going back with relationships and with family or whatever, you can repent or say, "I'm sorry."
"Hey, I'm sorry." And I don't know if you've ever said this to your kid or if your parent has said it to you or whatever the case might be.
"Hey, you keep saying, 'I'm sorry' for the same thing. You've got to change your behavior."
Because with repentance is really that there is a change of the mind, a change of the mindset.
It's an understanding. This doesn't please God. So not only do I say, "I'm sorry," and I get right with you, but I'm going to change the behavior.
There is a reversal, a shift, a change.
Look at 2 Chronicles 7:14. Most Christians have heard this verse at one point in time and another.
It says this, "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from that, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land."
What was the first thing it actually said there? "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves."
Church, repentance requires humility. Repentance requires humility.
Have any of you ever realized you're wrong, but you're too proud to admit it?
God looks and says, "If they will humble themselves." It requires humility to be able to repent and say, "I was wrong."
But then the verse continues to say, "And turn from their wicked ways."
Church, we can't repent and continue doing the same thing. That's not true repentance.
And there's a lot of us, we're doing stuff we're not supposed to be doing.
I was like, "Oh yeah, I messed up. I'm going to repent."
But you don't change the behavior. You don't change the cause.
The other day I was with somebody, we were talking, and we were at field day, and I was talking to a guy that I'm friends with or whatnot.
And he pulls out his phone, and he's got a flip phone. Not one of these new flip phones that makes a big screen.
He's got your flip phone where if I got to text you and your name is Fred, I got to do 333-999. You know what I'm saying?
You got to hit the button. Some of you don't know what I'm talking about.
You ain't never seen a flip phone where if you got to text something, there's an ABC on the number two, right? D-E-F on three. H-I-J, right?
Yeah.
Anyways, so this guy starts showing one of the kids, "Look, this is how you have to text with this phone."
They're like, "Forget it. I'd never text. Why do you have that phone? Can you not afford a phone?"
He's like, "No." He's like, "Is that an old phone?"
He's like, "No, it's actually a new phone. I got it just a year ago."
"Why do you have that?" He says, "You see, I realized that there were certain things that were consuming my time that were on my phone, some of the social media.
Or sometimes I'd see, and I was on the social media, and I saw a picture that I probably shouldn't be looking at that made me think something I shouldn't be thinking.
So I made the choice that I want to be closer to God. So I got rid of that phone, and I got a flip phone to handle internet."
See, that person has decided I'm going to change. There was a change in the mindset.
And so they are doing what Jesus said. If your hand causes you to sin, chop it off. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
And Jesus wasn't promoting mutilation. He was saying, if there's something that you're not doing, if there's something around you that is the temptation, get rid of the cornbread.
And there's some of us that we're in repeated, continual sin to a point where we don't even repent about it.
And then we ask and say, "But God, I'm praying about this, and it hasn't happened."
"God, my finances in shambles, and I'm a tither, and there's promise to the tither. Or I'm a giver. I sow offering above my tithe, and I still have these issues going on.
Or why don't I see this in my family? Or why do I have this going on? God, I'm obeying You in most things."
And the question is, well, when's the last time you truly repented for the stuff you've done?
Because as Christians, we're actually continually supposed to be repenting.
This hit me hard as I was praying, and I was preparing through this, right?
When Jesus, this talks about those that lost the first love. You remember when you gave your life to Jesus?
Come on. Does anybody here remember when they gave their life to Jesus? The joy, the freedom, the weights that lifted off.
Why? There was an acknowledgement of the need of a savior. There was repentance and an exchange for salvation.
But you didn't stop sinning. I didn't stop sinning. But many times we stop repenting.
We stopped humbling, going before God. And here's the next one. Acknowledging our wrong.
Repentance requires acknowledging our wrong. It requires acknowledging that I did something I shouldn't have done.
It requires humility and acknowledgement. I done messed up.
And after we admit it, after we humbly acknowledge and redo it, we've got to then turn from our sin.
Church, we cannot continue doing the things that we did before we got saved.
We cannot continue to go back to the things that hurt God. We've got to have a change in the renewal of our mind.
And then we start changing the things around us to prevent the temptation. Temptations come.
But what do I do? Do I think I'm just strong enough to overcome it?
No, no, no, I'm not. I'm weak. I need You. I need to spend time with You. I need to get right with You. I need to repent.
I need to have people around me that do the same thing and are telling me and reminding me to have spent time with God and to repent.
I want you to go to Psalm 51. We're going to read Psalm 51.
We're going to read Psalm 51. We're going to read Psalm 51.
We're going to read Psalm 51 this morning.
In Psalm chapter 51, it's actually, if your Bible has little titles, it's called a prayer of repentance.
Let me tell you what Psalm 51 is. It's the Psalm that David writes when he's confronted by Nathan about his affair and subsequent murder.
When the prophet looks at him and says, "You are that man." And he says, "Against You, God, have I sinned."
He writes this prayer of repentance. Watch. Look at it. You're going to see all these things that we've talked about.
Number one, verse number one, Psalm 51, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions."
What is David doing? Acknowledging that what he had done was wrong and saying, "God, have mercy on me. Forgive me."
He says in verse number two, "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin."
Again, David is acknowledging to God, "I am dirty and need Your mercy. I need Your cleansing."
It's there in verse three, "For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight."
He's realizing and recognizing what I did was against You.
"I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight that You may be found just when You speak and blameless when You judge."
He's asking, "Forgive me."
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom."
"Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones You have broken may rejoice."
"Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."
"Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me."
Look at verse 12. "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me by Your generous spirit."
Restore that joy. Some of us, we've lost the joy of our salvation because we are willfully continuing to do what hurts God and not repenting.
"Restore the joy of salvation."
I love verse 13. "Then I will teach transgressors Your ways and sinners shall be converted to You."
David says, "I messed up in front of everybody, and I'm going to tell everybody, get right with God. Don't do this. Look at what I have done. Change your ways."
He used even, he acknowledged it to a point where then in his cleansing, he's able to tell everyone else, "Repent."
As a matter of fact, it's a message you see throughout all of scripture, and it's a message that you see Jesus say.
John the Baptist would say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Jesus in Matthew chapter four, I believe it's verse 17, He says that He starts going and from there forth preaching, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
It is us. We've got to not only repent but tell others to repent.
And that's what David says. "Restore the joy of Your salvation. Uphold me by Your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways and sinners shall be converted to You."
"Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed."
He's recognizing, he's acknowledging Uriah is dead because of what I said to do.
"Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness."
"O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth Your praise."
"For You do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings."
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, You will not despise."
What is it that God is looking? What is true, genuine repentance?
You realize, I realize this hurt God, and there is a grief. I hurt You, God. Forgive me, God. Remove this from me.
"Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of the righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then they shall offer bulls on the altar."
Guys, we talked about forgiveness last week. There's a verse that says, if you're on your way to give your offering and remember that somebody's got something against you, go make it right. Then come give.
And many of us, we're trying, we're trying to do certain things.
But what we need to remember is that we daily repent for the things we've done.
It was part of what Jesus taught us to pray. "Forgive us our debts."
We talk a lot about that. I said it last week, as we forgive, and we spoke about the importance of forgiving other people because as we forgive, God forgives us.
But daily, we need to pray, "God, forgive me."
But church, it's not just forgive me. It's we need to make the decision to remove the things around us that tempt us to fall.
And some of us, we're falling day after day after day, and we're thinking the lie of the enemy as truth, that we're never going to change, that when God restores and forgives when we call on Him.
But we've got to make the choice to get rid of the things around us that cause us to fall.
"But pastor, it's hard. I like that."
Yeah, I like the cornbread too. And the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that JJ made.
But my scale reminded me this morning, "You had one too many yesterday."
Okay. I'm purposely trying to get you to get the point.
When we get on our spiritual scale every day, and we spend time with God, what went and took place yesterday, worship seats are coming to the altar, that we need to say, "God, I shouldn't have done that. God, that didn't please You. God, forgive me."
And then what are you going to do to make it right?
And I've had this conversation many a times with people because we talk about things like, it's evident.
There's many things that are sinful that are just evident.
And I remember having a conversation with a guy one time, and now I've had this conversation numerous times where they're living with someone who's not their wife.
They're living together. And I asked the question, "So are you married? When's your wedding?"
"No, we're not married."
He's like, "Cool. You got choices. Go to court and get right, get married, or move out."
Because if you continue living together, as much as you make the choice, "No, we're going to sleep in separate rooms."
Yeah. And then all of a sudden Miami becomes 40 degrees that night.
And the temptation to cuddle...
Our issue is workaholism. And we're always on that email, get a phone that you can't check your email.
Truly disconnect and give God the Sabbath.
What is it that is causing us to sin?
Church, last two points, and we're going to have a time of repentance. Here it is.
When we repent, our connection to God is restored.
When we repent, that connection to God is restored.
David wrote, "Restore to me the joy of salvation."
And so to close, here's what I want to say.
Let us do it again. God, here I am. I did it again. I know this hurts You. God, forgive me.
Lord, show me what to change so that I don't do this again. God, I want to have that mind shift, that change.
So as I invite you to stand to your feet, we're going to begin to worship.
And wherever, even if you're at home, watching this service right now, this is what I want us to do.
As we begin to worship, let go of your spouse, if you're holding their hand, your kid, whatever, you and God, because they're not going to be with you when you stand before God in heaven one day.
You know, with 1 John, it's going to come up on the screen, 1 John 1:8 and 9.
1 John 1:8 and 9. This is what it says there.
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
There's another verse in Psalms that says, "As far as the East is from the West, so has God put your transgressions from you."
So this morning, as we begin to worship, can we have a time where we begin to confess to God the things that hurt Him, where we begin to repent.
"God, this morning I had this thought about this person, and I shouldn't have been thinking that way because You told me to love my neighbor as myself. God, I repent. God, I repent for whatever it is."
Just begin right there where...
The joy of salvation.
And as we begin to worship, the altar is open. If you want to find a spot in the sanctuary to kneel, to just you cry out to God...
Agitation.
I forgot, I forgot to tell you this, so I apologize.
So it's Super Bowl Sunday, and we do something on Super Bowl Sunday, and it's that we actually announced the winner of our men's fantasy football league.
And so if you weren't aware, we have a fantasy football league for our men every year, and this year we got a new champion.
And so I know he's going to wear the belt proudly because he actually likes wrestling, so I'm not going to be surprised if he shows up every Sunday with this belt around the shoulder.
But if Javi can come up to the altar real quick... Drum roll, drum roll.
Not every Sunday, okay?
All right, so Javi this year was our winner of our fantasy football league, and this is our yearly trophy or belt, if you would.
It's got all of the past winners on it, so there is Javier Sanchez, 2024 football champion from our fantasy football league.
So congratulations! I heard that he gave at halftime his players a phenomenal speech. I'm waiting for the video.
But against Paul's team, congratulations, Javi, and you are the champion, man. Congrats around.
on Feb 09, 2025
