Thank you, brother. Appreciate the good singing tonight. We're close. Close to home, hallelujah. It's interesting, isn't it? To think about. I was thinking this morning, just in my lifetime, short lifetime, how we've seen things change. And then you think about, and it seems like it's been a long time. right but then you think about the last few years of your life as you get older one man told me, man it just seems like time flies by and it does but even that when you think about one day in our life is nothing compared to eternity and we think you know we waste we waste so much time doing very little for the cause of Christ And then one day you can't do what you want to do for Christ. And, uh, it's hard. I mean, it's difficult. Life's difficult. It's hard to have that balance. Right. And I think, you know, some people call it work-life balance. But the fact is, everything, the Bible tells us we do everything to glorify God. Everything we do should glorify God. Whether it's church, home, restaurant, work, ball field, whatever it is, we should glorify God in everything we do. And I want to preach out of Hebrews chapter 9. This evening, I want to pay special attention to a phrase in verse 14, but if we can, I'd like to read from chapter nine, verse one on down through first number 14. So if you'll find your place tonight. You know, we talk about repentance and we think only about repentance from sin, right? And it's amazing to me because I've grown up in a Baptist church, many of you have as well, and it's like we focus on certain things. But we don't focus on the whole thing. The Bible said we're to preach the whole counsel of God, right? And so sometimes we'll focus on, we talk about repentance, in our mind automatically we're talking about sin. But I want you to notice in chapter 9 again the writer and there's some question who wrote the book of Hebrews. I personally think it's probably Paul. If you look at his writing it seems to go along with that but he's writing this letter to the Hebrews. Now again what we look at this and if you in my Bible at the top of chapter 9 it says the Levitical priesthood abolished. And then on the other page it says sacrifices of the law inferior to Christ. And that's a lot what chapter 9 is talking about. It said then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. So go back to the Old Testament and remember that now he's talking or writing to what should be New Testament Christians that are under grace and they're still mingling the law with grace. And so he says here that the first covenant, the old covenant, had ordinances of divine service in a worldly sanctuary, right? Well, then he goes on to say, For there was a tabernacle made the first, wherein was the candlestick, the table, showbread, which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant. and over it the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, notice this accomplishing the service of God, but into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. verse 8 says the Holy Ghost this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscious so he's saying look he's laying out the Old Testament he said you remember that in the old covenant there was here's how things were laid out the sacrifices and and the service done was done but here it says that the service that could not make him that did the service perfect right so he's laying out the fact that basically what they were doing and they ended up just getting to the place where they were going through the motions and it became ritual and ceremony right And I thought, how often do we do much the same thing? We come to church, no prayer, no preparation. We walk in, we come in, and the choir stands here. Brother Eddie leads in a song, and you sing it. We don't really pay attention to the words we're singing a lot of times. And we sing a second song, and I make some announcements. The choir sings. We're going, OK, good. Well, you know what comes next. Brother Eddie comes and says, hey, we sing a verse, and we're going to shake hands. And if we're not careful, we go through this whole ritual of having church. And we criticize the Catholics and say, well, all they do is this and stand up and sit down. But let's be honest, many times we do the same thing. And it's not only in church service. Many of us read our Bibles that way. Many of us pray that way. Many of us go knocking on doors that way, run a bus route. Whatever it is, it's not really spirit-led. It's just going through the motions. And so we repent of sin, but we never repent of dead works. So the Bible goes on and says, which stood only in verse 10 in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. But, but Christ, I like that, but Christ being come. a high priest of good things to come by greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us for if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh pay attention to verse 13 he said if Those things sanctify to the purifying of the flesh. Verse 14 said, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God. Notice this purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. So the biblical demand for repentance is really in here. We see in verse 13, 14, it's two separate events. One, in verse 13, it says that we're sanctified to the purifying of the flesh. But then in verse 14, it says that we're purged our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. So really, the biblical demand for repentance is in two separate distinct areas, and that is sin and dead works. We always preach about the repentance from sin but listen a lot of times with what we're doing for God not just in church but in our daily life we're not really spirit led doing it we're just going through the motions of doing it and according to the Bible we ought to repent of those dead works So the book of Hebrews contrasts the effectiveness here of the shedding of blood under the old covenant and the blood of the blood of bulls and goats symbolizing the purifying of the flesh. In other words, it didn't clean the inside man. It really was, it was symbolic of what Christ would come and do. but it was purifying the flesh and then it was the external and produced external results I mean if you didn't do it like the Bible said or like the law said to do it exactly I don't want to say it was a show but it was an external obedience to show that you believe what God was saying Well, then we understand the new covenant is an inner working that should produce an external result. And so the fact is the blood of Christ affects the inner man. Right? Your flesh is not saved yet. Your inner man is saved. Your soul is saved. One day your flesh will be saved but now the inner man is saved and so the blood of Christ affects the inner man. You can't go through the motions of serving God without being saved. Remember this? When Jesus was preaching, they said, Lord, Lord, have we not done this and this and this in your name? And he said, depart from me, I never knew you. So it's not the external work that makes a man write the sign of God. It's the internal thing that took place which should produce external works. And so the blood of Christ affects the inner man. It is the conscience that is purged, right? It's the inner man. So why is this scripture dealing with dead works? Well, repentance from dead works and sin is foundational. That's why really, listen, even religion teaches you you need to confess sin. You take, well, go in this box and tell this guy all your sins and it makes you feel better. But the fact is, it does nothing for the inner man. When you come to know Christ, your inner man is saved. And because of that love, it should produce a living work in you that is manifested to a lost and dying world. And I'm convinced, Brother Matt, the problem we have today in our churches, not just this. And again, I'm not critical. I'm laying it foundational across what we're doing. We're just going through the motions and we're not being led by the Spirit of God. And so therefore, it's just dead works. Man, I love to hear the choir sing, but choir, how much more spiritual would it be if it was spirit filled? Right? I'm not critical, but we're made out of the same stuff, right? And we're going, well, we're singing the right songs. And listen, I've been a Baptist my whole life, and if you dress right, sing the right songs, carry the right Bible, you know, worship the right way, hallelujah, you're right with God. But if it's ritualistic, there's no difference. So to have a true form of worship, you've got to spend time with Him. You've got to know Him. It's got to be an outward manifestation of an inward worship of God. And so He's dealing with this manifestation of works and no doubt they're going, look, we're doing it just like the Bible said to do it so we're right with God. And He's saying, yeah, but the problem is the inner man. You've got to get the inner man right. And so when someone commits sin we'll say all they ought to repent of sin and get right God. But how many of us sit here this evening our routine and I like routine but I know this with my routine if I'm not careful I've got it down pat man and I can get up in the morning I'm like I need to read my Bible I need to pray I need to go to the gym I need I've got my my podcast I listen to I've got my my journal I do I can I can tell you what I'm supposed to do every morning. I got my personal development book, praise God. I got to read 10 pages in that. I mean, it's there. But if I'm not careful, what happens is I just go through the motions and I'm all excited because I checked them off the list. Let me ask you this, in your life, what are you checking off? Made it to Sunday night service. Yeah, but here's the thing, if you don't get anything out of it, What good is it doing you? If you didn't come prepared before you got here so God could speak to your heart, what good is it? It's just dead works. I'm afraid a lot of what we're doing is just dead works, right? We're not led by the Spirit. We're not thinking about God. We're not, you know, well, I'm gonna go knock on some doors. Here, would you like to come to church? You ever said, God, before I go up to this door, if this guy's lost, give me the words to say to him? Man, we talking about repent and we want to see everybody living right. But a lot of what we're doing in living rights, dead works because the inner man is not, is not cleansed. So here I'm just got two points tonight. Shouldn't take long. Hang with me. So two things, the title message is repent from what? Right. Because a lot of times we in our mind we're like well I'm not doing all these wicked things why do I need to repent? Right? I'm not out there committing adultery I'm not out there you know fornicating I'm not out there stealing I'm not what do I need to repent? So we sit in our churches and we feel good about just going through the motions of our works And we do not have a vibrant relationship with Christ because we will not repent of all the things. So, so notice here, the first thing, uh, we need to repent of dead works. What's that mean? Well, what is that? Well, uh, one part of it is to gain merit with God. See, we we've put, here's the thing we we've, we've done, but Shane, we have put in these kids head. that if they do certain things and don't do certain things, they're going to earn points with God. We just have. And you know what we do? We'll have kids sometimes, you know, we've had some girls' homes and boys' homes and they'll get up here and they'll stand up there like robots and quote scripture and we're going, oh, look at them. Right? Some of them love Jesus, no doubt in my mind. Some of them don't. It's no different church. But we get impressed because of the outward, right? And sometimes the outward is nothing but dead works. And so we put in these kids' minds sometimes, well, you know, if you get up and you learn some Bible verses, you've got to learn the scripture, quote some Bible verses, and if you come to Sunday school and bring your Bible and, you know, if you dress right and don't listen to bad music, God is going to be so pleased with you. He's going to love you so much. You're not going to earn His love. See, so we're pushing them already to say we ought to tell them it's the right thing to do. But teach them it's out of a manifestation of love for Him what He's done for them because He loved them first, right? So then they become adults and they've gone through the ringer of got to get up, go to Sunday school. Sunday school ought to be a time to learn. And let's be honest, even adults, you come in here and you, instead of, and brother Jimmy, I'm guessing you got a curriculum. I'm guessing you kind of know the direction he's going to teach on, but if he don't have an outline up there and you don't, you're like, what's, I don't know. I mean, how many of you study ahead before you ever get here? I mean, Sunday mornings, I've been preaching through Romans all year and you'll get here and be like, I didn't know he was going to be in Romans chapter three. Right? The preparation. I mean, let's be honest. Some come dragging in on two wheels. You know? Choir, I appreciate you coming in early. But like I've told you, how many times do we stand out here and talk about stuff that doesn't matter, and then all of a sudden we go flying in there and go, well, we've sang this song for years, I know it. But you've not sang it like you should sing it for years. You with me? All these are dead works and we've let them go for generations in our churches and you know hey listen if somebody sings and they could they know exactly whoo hallelujah and we go oh she's spirit-filled Worship can be dead works. Prayer can be dead works. Tithing can be dead works. You say, well, I'm not going to do any of those things until they're not dead works. You're missing a point. You can get on the altar tonight and make sure they're not dead works. Sometimes we act like it's a seven-year process. Well, I've got to, you know. Hey, listen, church. You can worship God and work for God at the same time. Amen. So we do it to gain merit with God. I want God to love me more and think more of me. Luke 6, verse 46, he said, Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built on a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose, and the stream beat vehemently upon the rock, and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. that he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that without foundation built a house upon the earth against which the streams did beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruin of the house was great you said well y'all thought you just told us that we were not supposed to work unless well you're missing a point he said remember what Jesus said he said we're to worship him and when we worship him we're to worship him in spirit and in truth right So he's saying, see what we like to do is we like to take little portions and say, look, I'm doing this. But if you're not, if you, if you don't have a clear understanding of who he really is, right. Cause here's what we've done in our churches. We've gone, well, you know, we preach that Romans road salvation and people come and say a prayer and they get saved and they get baptized and they get discipled. And now we've, we've enlisted them in the ranks of the workers. But they've never learned to have a relationship with Christ. But Shane, it's always a burden to them and not a blessing. part of those dead works we do it to gain merit with God then there's things that are not spirit-led right so anything that's not that is not prompted by the Holy Spirit well here's what we do right we're human we've got we're we're dealing with the spirit and the flesh at all times so the flesh will say well you know you need to go do this and so our prayer becomes something like this brother Chad well I don't really see anything sinful with it Right? I don't necessarily see anything where it would hurt. So I'm gonna pray about it. But a prayer goes something like this. Now God, I've examined this. I've sought counsel. I believe this is what you want. So unless you show me a sign, I'm going to go forward with it. And so we'll go outside and go. And sometimes even if he does, you know what we do? Lord, I know you showed me what I asked for. But I need to see it twice. Right? You know, hey, we'll go back. Now you know you showed Gideon. He put out a fleece and you did one time, you know, the fleece had the dew on it and the ground didn't, and the other time the ground had it and the fleece didn't. Now that's what I'm gonna need. I don't know that I would necessarily pattern my spiritual life totally after Gideon. I think there's something to be said about trusting God. But see what I'm saying? We wanna do things because, and here's the other thing, Brother Jimmy, They will say, well, God gives you common sense. Okay? So you're saying that common sense is more important than faith. Right? Better be careful with that philosophy because sometimes the common sense that God gives us is contrary to what God wants us to do. Right? There's nothing wrong. Listen, obviously, I'm fairly certain that common sense would tell you not to stick a screwdriver in the light socket. And you'll never convince me and say, well, I prayed about it and God told me to do it. Right? If you want to, go ahead. And then when you're laying on the ground with your hair fried, I'm going to say, see, common sense should have told you not to do that. A lot of times we, prime example, in our giving, you know what we'll do? Well common sense tell you I've got a mortgage payment and two, three car payments and I've got these bills and these and common sense would tell you that God's okay with me not giving this portion but because I got these bills to pay. Then when I get these bills paid off then I'll start giving more that's what common sense tells you. The problem is you hadn't prayed not a lick about it and God may be telling you well instead of giving your 10 percent you give 20 percent and then I'll provide the funds to pay this stuff off. That's not common sense friend that's faith. Are you saying are you telling me to give more? I'm not the Holy Spirit. I'm not telling you what to do. You give what God tells you to give. Right? What I'm saying is a lot of times things that are not Spirit-led are simply dead works. Right? We're just doing them. Well, prime example, I'll tell you this. When we first started at the church, Brother Russell, we did a lot of things that we just did them because that's the way Baptists did them. Right? I mean, according to the Baptist handbook, if I'm wrong, Brother Jerry, Brother Paul, y'all are preachers, kids. If I'm wrong, tell me. Baptist handbook, you have to go visiting every Tuesday night at 7 o'clock. Right? Saturday morning, 10 o'clock. That's in the Baptist handbook and it's in the book of Hezekiah in the Bible, chapter 14, verse 10. If you don't do it, you're not a good independent Baptist and don't love Jesus. Right? You just did things. Well, there's some merit to that, right? I know this. When I started pastoring, we did a lot of things like we did at my home church because that's what I knew. And so people would come up and say, you know, it'd be a good idea to preach. It'd be a good idea if we had this ministry and this ministry. And I was like, you know, it probably would. The problem is the people that had the great idea didn't really want to do the ministry. They just thought the church ought to do the ministry. And so I figured this we can't be involved in everything. We've got to figure out what God wants us to do and we've got to do that thing. And it's not that those other things are bad. It's just there's a lot of churches in this county and maybe some of them could do that. Right. We don't have a burden for doing that kind of work. It's just like, well, that's what Baptist folk do. That bus ministry can be like that if you're not careful. That Spanish ministry can be like that if you're not careful. Children's ministry can be like that if you're not careful, right? So we're to be filled and led by the Spirit. Anything that isn't is dead works. And then anything done in the energy of the flesh. Now I'm going to pick on them because I think it makes a good point and I'm not critical, okay? So when I say this, don't get all tore up, right? Prime example, our musicians. You've got to have a level of talent to play an instrument, right? And again, before I say it, I'm not saying they're not spirit-led, so you musicians don't get all tore up. I think you are. But they could probably get up here, never pray, read the music, play the stuff, and you and I'd never know it. Right? They could. Miss Susan could come in here, and she's talented enough to come in here and play and not be right with God, and you and I'd never know it. Well, there's a lot. I can get up here and preach. I've done 22 years, three to four sermons a week, and you multiply four times 52, that's 200. Multiply that by 22, that's 4,000 and something. I've preached over 4,000 sermons. I could probably get up here and do it in the flesh, and most of you never know it. Right? So there's a lot of stuff we can do in the flesh, and it's just dead works. Right? I mean, you expect me to pray, spend time with God before I preach. Let me ask you something, Sunday school teachers, do you? Well, preach is not that important. I'm doing the 4 and 5 year old or the 6 and 7 year old and they won't know a difference, but God will. See, everything we do, it ought to be Spirit led. Children's ministry, what's going to happen? Listen, we're ramping it up. Like Brother Alderman says, we're getting ready to turn her up a couple notches around here, right? Well, we better be prayed up. Media guys, prayed up. Bus workers, prayed up, right? We can do it with talent, but there'll be no eternal impact and there'll be no eternal fruit if we do it in the flesh, right? Church, people come in here, I told you this. Brother Simpson told me, he said, man, y'all got a good church. He said, I know what you said, but he said, I'm telling you. You can put up a front, but eventually the cracks will show. Those are dead works. And man, Christians, we've gotten by on them for years, right? Just going through the motions, not doing anything. And you know what? Here's something else. Ready for this? We'll think it's okay. We won't stand up for God, but we'll, you know, just as long as I keep my nose clean and don't rock the boat too much. Right? Well, God's okay with that. Dead works. Right? Dead works. Dead works. Just hang low, right? We're just going through the motions. We need to repent of those things. You want a vibrant walk with God? You've got to repent of dead works. So number one is repentance from dead works. Number two is repentance from sin. I want you to turn back to Acts chapter 3, if you can, verse number 19. The Bible said, repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord I know I know the book of Acts is a an unusual book we gotta be careful taking all of our theology and doctrine out of it but I think that I think when you look from Genesis to Revelation I mean at the book revelation repent right the principle is down through all through the Bible repent right well there has to be a time where you and I You have to repent as a sinner, but then you and I, let's be honest, we can get cold and indifferent on God. We've got to repent as saints too. Well, what does repentance from sin look like? Well, let me give you these four things real quick. I won't expound on it because it won't be anything new to you. But first thing we must do, we must perceive sin. In other words, what sin is. We live in a day, you talk to people, they don't know what sin is. I mean, there's no way that anybody, I still can't believe that there are people that say they believe the Bible that's okay with all this transvestite child mutilation service. I don't understand it. I don't, I still can't understand how in the world you can look at this Bible and think that two men getting married and two women getting married is okay. I still can't believe, I can't understand how you can read this Bible and think it's okay for a man and woman to live together who aren't married. I don't care if you're 20 years old or 120 years old. I don't understand how all of a sudden what the Bible calls fornication has become okay. And we're like, well, we're in a different time. But God hasn't changed. Right? I don't understand when the Bible says that we're not to let any corrupt communications proceed out of our mouth. I don't understand why today it's okay for that, right? I mean, we can look at all the heinous sin and we're okay with it. But when you read that book and you cannot look at it and say, well, you know, gossip's wrong. Envy is wrong. Jealousy is wrong. I'm telling you folks, we're in such a day where it's like, well, I know what the Bible says, but I don't think it's wrong for me. Right. That's, that's why we live. I'm the exception. It's okay. It's wrong for you and it's wrong for you. It's wrong for you. But, but for me, right. I'd rather focus on this stuff I'm not doing. Well we got to we got to perceive what sin is. Sin is disobeying the word of God. Amen. What sin is. Listen to this. I've got to perceive what my sin is. It doesn't do me good to know what your sin is. I got to know what mine is. The biggest problem you got is the person you look at in the mirror. The biggest problem I got is the guy I look at in the mirror. If I go around trying to fix all your sin, you know what happens? I'm ignoring mine. If everybody in this church would look in the mirror and say, God, I can't fix Brother Shane. I can't fix the pastor. And I can't fix Brother Noah. But God, if you'll deal with my heart about it, I'll work on fixing me. I wonder what church would be if you had a church full of people that quit worrying about everybody else and their business and just got in their own business and said God deal with me. That's what repentance is. Brother Ken I can't make you repent but I sure can repent. See I got to perceive what sin is and I got to perceive what my sin is not yours what mine and it's easy to talk about the stinking Democrats and the liberals and all but listen folks I can't fix them. I can fix me. It's about, and it's by the word and the spirit of God. You say, well, God hadn't convicted me of that. Well, let me ask you this. Has he put it in black and white in your Bible? Well, I don't know, but I don't feel like it's wrong. Well, if the spirit, listen, I'm going to say it again. I've said the spirit of God will never contradict the word of God. Never. You say, well, I know the Bible says this, but I don't feel like God. Listen, I made a deal with God. You ain't made a deal with God, he's not gonna change for you what he's put in his word. So we must perceive sin, we must perceive who it is against. Now listen to this, all sin's against God. It's not just I sinned against you, I sinned against God. So minor sin as well as major sin. Doesn't matter how big or small, we've sinned against God. Then, the two areas we have to focus on, first of all, is performed sin. In other words, things that we do against God and his word. Things we do against others. Right? That's the, I performed it. I committed it, right? Some people say commission and omission. Well, same thing. You've performed the act of sin, right? It's evident. But then there's the private sin, the omission, things we leave out. Well, there's a lot of things that the Bible tells us to do that we don't do, right? Be filled with the Spirit. Well, is that a command or is that a suggestion? What's the command? If you're sitting here tonight, you're not filled with the Spirit of God, right? If the Spirit of God's not controlling you, you're committing sin. So am I. If I have ought against my brother, I'm committing sin. If I've not forgiven you, brother, I don't think he's done anything, but if I have, right? It's sin, and we're sent back going, uh-uh. And you know, here's what amazes me. We'll argue about whether I have to forgive somebody or not. Whether if they have not, and it's amazing. It's amazing. Well, if they've not confessed it to you, I've heard preachers, well, if they haven't confessed it to you, then you're under no obligation to forgive them. if they've not come and tried to make it right with you you're under no obligation so you're telling me that you spent hours researching trying to figure out how you can have hatred towards somebody and not forgive them when really if you just said you know what God as much as I have sinned against you and let you down, and you've forgiven me. I don't know that I can do it in my flesh, but if you'll give me the power to do it, I sure would like to forgive Brother Jake, because I sure would like us to be right with each other, and I sure would like to be right with you. I wonder what would happen if a bunch of Christians started doing that, instead of going, well, you know, technically, it would be interesting. It'd be a nice little experiment. See what God could do in a church full of people that just... I mention it, you're just not going to be offended. It's not going to be offended. You're not going to offend me. Right? But we'd rather... Technically, I read this commentary. I don't care about your commentary. If you ever read after this preacher, probably not. I'm probably not going to. I know you want to get deep in the weeds with stuff. But I'd just really like that kiss method. Keep it simple. Yes, I wasn't going to use that S word, but since you did, it makes life a whole lot better. It's just like, all right, Lord, you want me to forgive Brother Johnny for that? Okay. A preacher, that's just so unrealistic. And now, but see, you wonder why we have so much bitterness, right? Why we have so much anger? It's just cause it's that private sin. Hey, we know how to act at church. Well, some do. Some do, right? You don't hide it well. I love Jesus. No, you don't. If I've offended you, you have. If I've sinned, Lord, forgive me. You have though. I'm just saying there's a freedom in this thing of repentance. I want my labor for Christ. I want my worship of Christ. I want everything to do. I want it to be right. Right? I want there to be a joy in serving God. I want there to be a joy in reading my Bible. Joy in praying. Listen, I don't want to come to church. I want to enjoy it. I'm just... I just see the way... I can stand at the door, Brother Tim, and I watch people come in. And some of them I'm like, What is wrong with you? What is wrong? You're not going to hell. You get to come to church. You know, you get to be around some people that probably love you, even as messed up as you are, and you still are miserable. I'm like, what's wrong with you? Right? But a lot of that comes from that dead works. It's how I've been taught we got to do it. I want to enjoy. The Bible said Jesus came to give us life and give it more abundantly. It's okay to enjoy it. It's okay to have some fun. It's okay to not constantly be under this. But a lot of it, I believe this, is because we won't repent. Everything, Brother John, about our happiness and joy revolves around other people. Now I'm going to let you in on a secret. You ready for this? This is going to be life-changing. Here's a couple things, and if you'll listen to me, it'll help you. This is something God has shown me and probably just me. OK, this is going to be Brother Russell. Everybody don't like you. Everybody's not going to like you. Hey, everybody don't like me. The Holy Spirit gave me that. Jesus said it. They hated him, they're going to hate you. Everybody's not going to treat you right. Everybody's not going to ooh and ah over you. What you going to do with it? I'm just going to treat them the way they treat me. That's not biblical. And so we get caught in this mire and mush of all this stuff and it's like nothing's my fault. Least I came to church. I mean, we got, Brother Gabe, we got a lot of the least I's. Yeah. Oh yeah. Least I came to church. OK. But there are people going, you know what? Buddhists go to church. That's right. Mormons go to church. Yes, sir. Right? There's a lot of folks. Satanists go to church. You're right. I mean, you're not, just because you showed up. Listen, there's demons here tonight. You're right. Right? That's right. They're here. So that doesn't make you a Christian because you came to church. It doesn't make you right with God because it doesn't mean your works aren't dead. Right? A lot of what goes on here is what happens in the private time. Right? So, if you want something fresh on how to work for God and live for God, I'll tell you where it starts. Repentance. We hate that word, because it means we have to say, I'm... Remember Arthur Fonzarelli? I'm... He wouldn't... A lot of Baptists that way. Wrong. Just wrong. Right? But there's a liberty. The freedom. when you just repent, repent from your dead works. Lord, I've just been going through the motions. I've been like those Jews and I was saved by the grace of God, but I'm still trying to earn merit with you by my sacrifices and my ovations and I'm doing all, but it doesn't mean anything to me, right? Lord, I commit sin, I omit. I make excuses. I just need to get it right. There's a liberty. So what? Repentance from what? Well, dead works. You don't hear that preached often, do you? Sin means to turn away from. And it will liberate you. It will liberate you. Let's stand together. Bow our heads tonight. Altars open. Amen. Don't ever be ashamed to get things right with God. Never. A lot of us preachers would do well to do that. I don't want, listen. I promise you in 22 years there's been times I've mounted this pulpit and I've not made the preparation. I don't say that boldly. I was wrong. But I don't ever want to do it again. I don't want to teach Sunday school. I don't want to sing a song. I don't want to, I don't want to leave. I don't want to do anything. in my flesh. But it takes a little bit of humility to let God put his finger on your heart and say, here's where you have sinned. These are your dead works. Let's fix it. I like fixing stuff, don't you? Listen, I don't care whose fault it is, just fix it, right? But he did this, so? Has anybody in here not ever made a mistake? When somebody makes a mistake, help them fix it. Help them fix it. Amen. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the message. I thank you for the sweet Holy Spirit of God. The way he stirs our hearts, convicts us when it needed, comforts where needed, and Lord, leads us. And I pray tonight, God, I believe you spoke to our hearts. Just pray that we would do all things to honor you. Glorify the name of Christ. Thank you for every decision. Every confession, Lord, that's between you and the individual, but I just thank you for working on our hearts tonight. For what you'll do, the restoration you provide. May we not let the devil rob us of that important thing, the restoration that you provide. I love you. Thank you for this church. Use it for your glory in Jesus name we pray. Amen.