True Repentance
Series: MISSION MONTH
Speaker: Adrian Wong
Date: 19th May 2019
Passage: Jonah 3:1-10
00:00:00 --> 00:00:07 everyone. Israel Falau is a famous rugby player who was on a $4 million contract. He quoted
00:00:07 --> 00:00:15 a verse from the Bible on Twitter. I'll show it on the screen now. This is what Israel
00:00:15 --> 00:00:21 Falau actually said on Twitter, in addition to the meme and the Bible first. Those who
00:00:21 --> 00:00:27 are living in sin will end up in hell unless you repent. Jesus Christ loves you and is
00:00:27 --> 00:00:33 giving you a time to turn away from your sin and come to him. It's a warning message
00:00:33 --> 00:00:40 of impending danger and a call to repentance. This message angered a lot of people from the
00:00:40 --> 00:00:47 LGBTQI community, Rugby Australia, who is the governing body of rugby, and to the sponsors
00:00:47 --> 00:00:54 and Israel Falau's personal sponsors. Furthermore, it even angered some Christians. And just two
00:00:54 --> 00:01:00 days ago, we've heard that Rugby Australia has terminated his contract. So there are many
00:01:00 --> 00:01:06 questions that we would like to ask of this situation. Why is this post causing so much
00:01:06 --> 00:01:13 offence? What does it mean for me? Have a look at the list of sins up on the screen. I've
00:01:13 --> 00:01:21 struggled with at least one of them, even now. So what does God actually want from us? What
00:01:21 --> 00:01:27 does repentance really look like? What does it mean to be grieved by our sin and say sorry
00:01:27 --> 00:01:34 to God and to live for him? We also need to think about what does it mean to preach the message
00:01:34 --> 00:01:41 of repentance in this day and age, given there's so much opposition. Jonah 3 alludes to all these
00:01:41 --> 00:01:48 topics, and we need God's help to understand it. So let us pray so that we can do so. Dear God,
00:01:48 --> 00:01:54 as we come to the topic of repentance, and as we come to your word, help us to understand
00:01:54 --> 00:01:59 it so that we can repent, believe in your word, and know how to proclaim it for your sake. I
00:01:59 --> 00:02:07 pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So when we look at Nineveh's repentance, there are two parts
00:02:07 --> 00:02:14 to this reaction. The people's repentance, and how the king reacted to this repentance, and how he
00:02:14 --> 00:02:20 commanded the repentance to continue. So let us look at the first one, the repentance of Nineveh's
00:02:20 --> 00:02:26 people. For those who were not at church the last couple of weeks, I'll try to summarize what's
00:02:26 --> 00:02:33 been happening in the book of Jonah. In chapter one, God told Jonah to preach against Nineveh,
00:02:35 --> 00:02:41 and Jonah tried to run away as far as possible by boat, and God caused the storm to rise up.
00:02:41 --> 00:02:48 Jonah realized that he was in the wrong, so he told the sailors to throw him in the ocean,
00:02:49 --> 00:02:56 where God graciously rescued him by using a big fish. In chapter three, God called him to proclaim
00:02:56 --> 00:03:03 to Nineveh, and we can see the message that Jonah preached from verse four. So looking at verse four,
00:03:03 --> 00:03:10 we can see that Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city, proclaiming 40 more days,
00:03:10 --> 00:03:17 and Nineveh will be overthrown. And we can see how each person in Nineveh responded to this message.
00:03:18 --> 00:03:24 The Nineveh believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least,
00:03:25 --> 00:03:31 are put on sackcloth. So what does it mean for someone to put on sackcloth and fast?
00:03:31 --> 00:03:37 So sackcloth is something that's rough and plain. I can't find any sackcloth to illustrate this,
00:03:37 --> 00:03:44 so I'll use a modern, somewhat transcultural equivalent. And you know, 25 kilogram rice bag.
00:03:44 --> 00:03:50 Imagine putting that on me right now. That's not something that you'll wear every day. It's not
00:03:50 --> 00:03:55 very flashy, and it's actually not a fashion statement. So what does it mean in the Old Testament
00:03:55 --> 00:04:02 to put on sackcloth? In the Old Testament, it means it's a sign of mourning, or someone trying
00:04:02 --> 00:04:09 to lower themselves and debase themselves, or the fact that they want to repent. So the idea
00:04:09 --> 00:04:17 of fasting is similar, that they want to carry the idea of mourning and repentance. So the word
00:04:17 --> 00:04:24 repentance means turning away from sin. And we can see how the Nineveh repented in verses
00:04:24 --> 00:04:32 six to nine. For having had a look at how each of the people at Nineveh repented, let's look
00:04:32 --> 00:04:38 at what it means to repent together. The word corporate means the whole body. So the word
00:04:38 --> 00:04:44 corporate repentance means how a whole group of people repented together, usually done by
00:04:44 --> 00:04:51 the direction of a leader. So when you read Jonah chapter three, verses six to nine, you can
00:04:51 --> 00:05:00 see how the king directed all the people at Nineveh to repent. So the claim then is issued
00:05:00 --> 00:05:07 by a royal proclamation to get everyone to repent. The king, in effect, is trying to get everyone
00:05:07 --> 00:05:13 to repent together or corporately. So we might not be that familiar with the idea of corporately
00:05:13 --> 00:05:20 repenting. But we can see that in the Old Testament. We can see that most clearly in the book of Psalms.
00:05:20 --> 00:05:26 Psalms. But there's a whole category of Psalms called corporate laments, where the whole community
00:05:26 --> 00:05:32 of Israel is led by the leader to, you know, some lament. Although the king isn't a believer,
00:05:33 --> 00:05:39 we can see that in his speech where he tried to get the people to repent. He called the whole
00:05:39 --> 00:05:46 community to repent, to put on sackcloth and to fast. And in these verses, we can clearly
00:05:46 --> 00:05:52 see that these actions are meant to be an act of repentance and not just acts of mourning,
00:05:53 --> 00:05:58 but what the king says in chapter three, verse eight. In chapter three, verse eight, he says,
00:05:59 --> 00:06:05 let them give up their ways, their evil ways and violence. And that's a concrete expression
00:06:05 --> 00:06:11 of their repentance. And we can assume that everyone in Nineveh listened to the king because
00:06:11 --> 00:06:17 God relented from bringing his judgment to Nineveh. So that's a really amazing transformation.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:25 To understand how significant it is, we need to know what the Assyrians are like. The Assyrians
00:06:25 --> 00:06:31 for the capital at Nineveh were known for their violence. In fact, they became very successful
00:06:31 --> 00:06:38 by being violent and conquered everyone around them. So for the king to tell everyone to give
00:06:38 --> 00:06:43 up their violence, it's for them to give up their identity and for them to give up the
00:06:43 --> 00:06:50 ways that made them successful. So there's one question we need to ask. Did the Assyrians
00:06:50 --> 00:06:56 really repent? So if you look at the evidence from the book of Jonah and also the rest of the
00:06:56 --> 00:07:06 Old Testament, the answer is yes and no. The Nineveh of the generation repented once, but in
00:07:06 --> 00:07:13 the generation that followed, we saw that it didn't produce long-lasting ultimate repentance.
00:07:14 --> 00:07:20 We can find out from the Old Testament and even the book of Jonah. Firstly, we can see
00:07:20 --> 00:07:28 that it's just by the way that the king addressed God. In verse 9, the kings of Assyria said,
00:07:28 --> 00:07:36 God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.
00:07:37 --> 00:07:44 So you might wonder why I highlighted the word God. The word God used here is the word Elohim,
00:07:44 --> 00:07:51 the generic term for God. So where is the sailors in chapter 1 when they cried out to God? They
00:07:51 --> 00:07:59 said, they actually cried out to the Lord Yahweh, the personal name of God. And the king here just
00:07:59 --> 00:08:06 know God as a generic God that is powerful and not a God that he personally served and worshipped.
00:08:08 --> 00:08:15 Secondly, we will look at the motive that the king gave for repentance. Looking at the same verse,
00:08:15 --> 00:08:23 we can see that the king wanted to avoid disaster. The first line says, God may yet relent with
00:08:23 --> 00:08:30 compassion and turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish. He wanted the people
00:08:30 --> 00:08:37 to believe in God because he wanted to avoid disaster for his city. And it's not because
00:08:37 --> 00:08:43 he wanted to believe in a God that he wanted to serve and relate to. Thirdly, ultimately, we can see
00:08:43 --> 00:08:51 the Assyrians went back to their violent ways. So the book of Jonah was written between 786 and 746 BC.
00:08:53 --> 00:09:00 So the mere 30 to 70 years later, the Assyrians returned to the violent ways. And we can see
00:09:00 --> 00:09:06 that because they completely destroyed Israel. So it's conceivable that some of the people in
00:09:06 --> 00:09:15 the city would have seen how the Assyrians acted towards Israel. So the very fact that you can see the
00:09:15 --> 00:09:22 violence enacted by the Assyrians, you can see that the Ninevites didn't have a long-lasting repentance.
00:09:24 --> 00:09:31 So it leads to an important question. The Ninevites mourned, they fasted, and they gave up on the evil ways.
00:09:31 --> 00:09:40 If that's not real repentance, what is? And the important question for us is, how do we know that we have
00:09:40 --> 00:09:48 truly repented? So let's look at our repentance. Our working definition of what repentance is, is the
00:09:48 --> 00:09:56 turning away from sin. To understand the true nature of repentance, let's look at the book of Thessalonians
00:09:56 --> 00:10:06 from chapter 1, verses 8 to 10. We'll start from verse 8. They tell you how you have turned to God
00:10:06 --> 00:10:13 from idols to serve the living and true God. So from here we can see the act of repentance.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:23 It has the implicit meaning of turning away from sin towards something. So the people here, they've
00:10:23 --> 00:10:33 turned away from sin towards God. So let's look at what that means for us. When we sin, do we try to
00:10:33 --> 00:10:41 repent by trying to stop the act of sinning out of fear of going to hell? We can see that from the
00:10:41 --> 00:10:51 example of Nineveh, that that might not produce a long-lasting repentance. In contrast, the people of
00:10:51 --> 00:10:57 Thessalonica showed that the evidence of true repentance. We can see that they didn't only
00:10:57 --> 00:11:05 believe in the God of judgment, but the Lord who saved them and that they want to serve. I'll read
00:11:05 --> 00:11:11 verses 9 to 10 again and highlight a different bit. In verse 10, it says, they tell how you have
00:11:11 --> 00:11:19 turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son, whom he has
00:11:19 --> 00:11:26 raised from the dead, Jesus who rescued us from the coming wrath. Can you see how that's a
00:11:26 --> 00:11:32 completely different attitude to repentance? So I'll try to illustrate this point by using
00:11:32 --> 00:11:39 an example that younger people will get. And I sort of understood as well, since I'm not too old yet.
00:11:39 --> 00:11:47 I joined the Facebook group called Subtle Christian Traits. Yep, everyone laughs. It's good.
00:11:48 --> 00:11:55 This is where young people discuss various issues and share jokes that Christians will find funny.
00:11:55 --> 00:12:00 And since they didn't set an age barrier, they let me join, which is good. There's a recent set of
00:12:00 --> 00:12:10 posts that's asked, is it a sin to... So that's one random post. Is it a sin to read the Bible in Klingon?
00:12:11 --> 00:12:18 And some of these are pretty trivial or funny, but some of these are serious questions that people ask.
00:12:18 --> 00:12:26 Someone asked, is it a sin to have a tattoo? All of these are good and valid questions,
00:12:26 --> 00:12:33 but in light of repentance, it misses a point. Repentance isn't just about giving up sins.
00:12:33 --> 00:12:36 Repentance is about changing your entire life's direction.
00:12:38 --> 00:12:46 So to answer all these random posts, someone on that Subtle Christian Trait group posted something
00:12:46 --> 00:12:55 very helpful. They wanted us to ask the question instead, is it glorifying to God to do something?
00:12:55 --> 00:13:01 This is real repentance, not just the act of giving up on our sins, but to live for God.
00:13:03 --> 00:13:08 In other words, repentance and faith aren't two separate things, but they're two sides of the same coin.
00:13:10 --> 00:13:18 So let's apply this to ourselves. If there's a sin that we all need to corporately repent of together,
00:13:19 --> 00:13:24 it's probably greed. And greed might not mean the accumulation of wealth,
00:13:24 --> 00:13:32 for some of us, it might mean putting yourself first in pursuing material things and consumerism.
00:13:35 --> 00:13:36 It might take another form.
00:13:37 --> 00:13:45 So my struggle with greed is not in the form of being tempted to put my trust in the security that wealth brings.
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 I'll tell you why I struggle with this.
00:13:48 --> 00:13:53 So my parents gave up promising careers in Hong Kong to migrate to Australia.
00:13:54 --> 00:13:59 And with my dad in particular, he gave up a job as an engineer to work as a handyman.
00:14:00 --> 00:14:08 But five years after migrating in 1993, my mom was diagnosed with stomach cancer and was given a 4% chance to survive.
00:14:08 --> 00:14:14 And by God's praise, she's still alive, so you guys don't have to worry about me or her.
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 She's still growing strong today, so praise God for that.
00:14:18 --> 00:14:24 But what that meant for us as a family is, we've been on a single income since 1993, from that point onwards.
00:14:25 --> 00:14:29 As a result, I've always lived with sort of a siege mentality.
00:14:29 --> 00:14:32 I hated to be wasteful.
00:14:33 --> 00:14:36 And if you need an evidence of it, you can see it in the car that I drive.
00:14:36 --> 00:14:38 It's older than some of you.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:39 It's from the year 2000.
00:14:40 --> 00:14:44 So I find it hard to waste, and I wanted to be secure in my wealth.
00:14:46 --> 00:14:51 I had to work really hard to be generous and to give up my trust on material security.
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55 And God has changed me slowly, and he's still growing me in this area.
00:14:55 --> 00:14:59 And each of us would have a different struggle with greed.
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 And each of us would work through it differently.
00:15:04 --> 00:15:09 But in this mission month, as we've alluded to, let's use the pledge cards that we were given today
00:15:09 --> 00:15:14 and pray about it and bring our pledges back next week,
00:15:15 --> 00:15:17 not just as an act of generosity.
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 It's actually an act of serving God.
00:15:20 --> 00:15:23 Ask us, is it glorifying for us to use our money this way?
00:15:23 --> 00:15:23 Okay.
00:15:25 --> 00:15:30 So let's think about how we can actively use our money to serve our true and living God.
00:15:31 --> 00:15:34 So I'm only testing on the tip of the iceberg here.
00:15:35 --> 00:15:40 After this mission month, our church is going to go through a series called Wealth on Purpose.
00:15:41 --> 00:15:46 It will reinforce the idea of how we can proactively turn from serving ourselves
00:15:46 --> 00:15:51 towards serving God in our resources, our time, our talents, and our treasures.
00:15:51 --> 00:15:57 So having looked at what repentance looks like, let's look at the third point.
00:15:58 --> 00:15:59 How do we preach repentance?
00:16:02 --> 00:16:10 One of the most memorable quotes I've seen on Facebook about the Israel Folau saga goes something like this.
00:16:10 --> 00:16:16 People are now offended by a message that they think is not true,
00:16:17 --> 00:16:19 about a God that they think is not there,
00:16:20 --> 00:16:24 condemning you for a sin that you think you haven't committed,
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 sending you to hell, a place you don't think is real.
00:16:28 --> 00:16:32 So if you think about it,
00:16:34 --> 00:16:38 the Israel Folau tweet is basically a similar message that Jonah preached,
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 a warning about impending disaster.
00:16:42 --> 00:16:45 Given our current context of increasing opposition to the gospel,
00:16:46 --> 00:16:48 how do we share this gospel of repentance?
00:16:48 --> 00:16:56 Let's look at how the repentance of the Thessalonians helped them share the good news of Jesus.
00:16:57 --> 00:16:59 We will pick it up from verse 8.
00:17:01 --> 00:17:06 The Lord's message rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia.
00:17:07 --> 00:17:10 Your faith in God has become known everywhere.
00:17:11 --> 00:17:13 Therefore, we do not need to say anything about it,
00:17:13 --> 00:17:17 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us.
00:17:18 --> 00:17:24 They tell you how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
00:17:25 --> 00:17:31 So we can see here that repentance has been known everywhere
00:17:31 --> 00:17:33 because of how they lived.
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 So when a whole group of people repent and change the way they live
00:17:37 --> 00:17:42 from serving themselves or their idols and to serve the living and true God,
00:17:43 --> 00:17:45 it creates the context for gospel conversation.
00:17:47 --> 00:17:52 So this has two implications for us in the way that we do evangelism right now.
00:17:52 --> 00:17:58 So firstly, we need to have people know us personally and not just on social media.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:05 If we display true repentance in a personal context,
00:18:06 --> 00:18:08 it makes for effective sharing of the gospel.
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11 That's why in the Mission Month booklet,
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 please pick one up on the way out,
00:18:14 --> 00:18:15 or even now you want to,
00:18:15 --> 00:18:16 but on the way out is better,
00:18:16 --> 00:18:18 because otherwise it would be quite chaotic.
00:18:19 --> 00:18:20 But pick one up now,
00:18:20 --> 00:18:21 well, not later, sorry, I mean,
00:18:22 --> 00:18:23 but pick one up later.
00:18:24 --> 00:18:28 I've listed six ways how we can engage in frontline mission,
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 both in the way that we live and the way that we speak.
00:18:32 --> 00:18:37 It's by intent that through community groups
00:18:37 --> 00:18:40 that we'll work through these six areas as we pray together
00:18:40 --> 00:18:43 and encourage each other to keep doing this.
00:18:43 --> 00:18:46 So these are the six areas that we are trying to work through
00:18:46 --> 00:18:50 and show how this helps out the way that we share the gospel.
00:18:51 --> 00:18:52 The first two points,
00:18:53 --> 00:18:56 modelling godly character and making good work,
00:18:57 --> 00:19:00 shows the importance of those around us
00:19:00 --> 00:19:01 seeing the evidence of true repentance
00:19:01 --> 00:19:04 and an active life of following Jesus.
00:19:05 --> 00:19:06 The next three points,
00:19:07 --> 00:19:09 ministering grace and love,
00:19:09 --> 00:19:10 moulding culture,
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14 and being a mouthpiece for truth and justice,
00:19:15 --> 00:19:17 shows the importance of living for Jesus
00:19:17 --> 00:19:19 and its outward impact.
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 It is through deliberate actions in this area
00:19:22 --> 00:19:27 that people see the repentance of following Jesus,
00:19:27 --> 00:19:32 how that shows our practical love and concern for other people.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:34 So it's in this context
00:19:34 --> 00:19:37 that we can be a good messenger of the gospel
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39 and an effective messenger of the gospel.
00:19:41 --> 00:19:42 So secondly,
00:19:42 --> 00:19:43 to create these contexts,
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 we actually need to get people to know us.
00:19:48 --> 00:19:50 So I'd encourage you to get in the habit
00:19:50 --> 00:19:51 of hosting meals,
00:19:52 --> 00:19:53 social, sporting events,
00:19:53 --> 00:19:55 where a whole group of Christians
00:19:55 --> 00:19:58 can meet with a whole group of non-Christians
00:19:58 --> 00:20:02 so they can see Christians in a social occasion.
00:20:03 --> 00:20:04 So that's what's been recommended
00:20:04 --> 00:20:06 from Sam Chan's book
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 that I've been recommending since last year.
00:20:09 --> 00:20:09 In chapter two,
00:20:10 --> 00:20:11 he outlines some of the principles
00:20:11 --> 00:20:12 on how we can do that.
00:20:14 --> 00:20:15 And I want to show you
00:20:15 --> 00:20:17 how we've borrowed these principles
00:20:17 --> 00:20:18 and put it into action.
00:20:18 --> 00:20:21 On Friday morning,
00:20:21 --> 00:20:23 in our English class ESL,
00:20:24 --> 00:20:25 we've invested time
00:20:25 --> 00:20:26 so that the students can get to know us.
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 In the intermediate class,
00:20:30 --> 00:20:31 Andrew and I
00:20:31 --> 00:20:33 have been asking the students
00:20:33 --> 00:20:34 to prepare messages
00:20:34 --> 00:20:37 on how they can introduce themselves
00:20:37 --> 00:20:39 and how they feel about living in Australia.
00:20:41 --> 00:20:42 Through morning tea
00:20:42 --> 00:20:43 and through our lessons,
00:20:43 --> 00:20:45 we also illustrate things
00:20:45 --> 00:20:45 from our own life
00:20:45 --> 00:20:46 in our context
00:20:46 --> 00:20:48 so they get to know us
00:20:48 --> 00:20:49 and other teachers.
00:20:50 --> 00:20:51 For some of them,
00:20:51 --> 00:20:52 some of them for a term,
00:20:52 --> 00:20:54 some of them for more than a year,
00:20:55 --> 00:20:56 they slowly warm up to the Bible
00:20:56 --> 00:20:58 and they get more curious
00:20:58 --> 00:21:00 to learn more from it.
00:21:00 --> 00:21:01 So last week,
00:21:02 --> 00:21:03 I started
00:21:03 --> 00:21:05 the Investigating Christianity course
00:21:05 --> 00:21:08 and about two-thirds of the class
00:21:08 --> 00:21:09 stayed behind to study the Bible.
00:21:11 --> 00:21:12 That's just two days ago,
00:21:13 --> 00:21:14 we studied a passage from Romans 1
00:21:14 --> 00:21:17 and some of you
00:21:17 --> 00:21:18 might have seen it
00:21:18 --> 00:21:19 on my Facebook post.
00:21:20 --> 00:21:21 It's a message on sin and judgment.
00:21:22 --> 00:21:24 So it has great potential
00:21:24 --> 00:21:25 to offend people.
00:21:26 --> 00:21:27 But although the passage
00:21:27 --> 00:21:28 was so sober,
00:21:29 --> 00:21:30 the students were willing
00:21:30 --> 00:21:31 to engage with the Bible
00:21:31 --> 00:21:33 and were really willing
00:21:33 --> 00:21:34 to understand.
00:21:35 --> 00:21:36 And one of the reasons
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 is because they knew
00:21:38 --> 00:21:39 that this message
00:21:39 --> 00:21:40 was delivered
00:21:40 --> 00:21:41 in the context
00:21:41 --> 00:21:41 of a relationship.
00:21:41 --> 00:21:44 And I believe
00:21:44 --> 00:21:44 that all of us
00:21:44 --> 00:21:45 can do something similar
00:21:45 --> 00:21:47 in our own
00:21:47 --> 00:21:47 frontline context.
00:21:49 --> 00:21:51 As people get to know you
00:21:51 --> 00:21:52 and witness your repentance
00:21:52 --> 00:21:55 and see how you live out
00:21:55 --> 00:21:55 your life
00:21:55 --> 00:21:56 with concern
00:21:56 --> 00:21:57 for other people,
00:21:58 --> 00:21:59 you can invite people
00:21:59 --> 00:22:00 to church.
00:22:01 --> 00:22:02 So one of the things
00:22:02 --> 00:22:03 that I've made up
00:22:03 --> 00:22:04 and produced
00:22:04 --> 00:22:05 is this invite.
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08 It's got all the
00:22:08 --> 00:22:09 frontline,
00:22:09 --> 00:22:11 all the local mission activities
00:22:11 --> 00:22:12 that our church hosts
00:22:12 --> 00:22:13 as well as
00:22:13 --> 00:22:13 the Sunday service.
00:22:14 --> 00:22:15 So if you can,
00:22:16 --> 00:22:16 grab these.
00:22:17 --> 00:22:17 There are stacks of them
00:22:17 --> 00:22:18 on the Connect desk.
00:22:19 --> 00:22:20 Get in the habit
00:22:20 --> 00:22:21 of using them
00:22:21 --> 00:22:23 in your personal context.
00:22:24 --> 00:22:24 Hand them out.
00:22:24 --> 00:22:25 If you don't have any more,
00:22:25 --> 00:22:26 grab a whole heap more
00:22:26 --> 00:22:27 and keep doing it.
00:22:28 --> 00:22:29 And the thing is,
00:22:29 --> 00:22:31 people are actually
00:22:31 --> 00:22:31 quite willing
00:22:31 --> 00:22:32 to go to church.
00:22:33 --> 00:22:34 So a lot of people
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36 that haven't been to church,
00:22:36 --> 00:22:37 they assume that church
00:22:37 --> 00:22:39 is a club for Christians
00:22:39 --> 00:22:40 so you have to be a Christian
00:22:40 --> 00:22:41 to be here.
00:22:42 --> 00:22:43 But you know,
00:22:43 --> 00:22:44 we welcome everyone.
00:22:45 --> 00:22:45 So get in the habit
00:22:45 --> 00:22:46 of inviting people
00:22:46 --> 00:22:49 and use these
00:22:49 --> 00:22:52 in relational context
00:22:52 --> 00:22:52 so that people
00:22:52 --> 00:22:53 can get to know Jesus.
00:22:55 --> 00:22:56 So as we looked at
00:22:56 --> 00:22:57 repentance
00:22:57 --> 00:22:58 and how to preach repentance,
00:22:59 --> 00:23:00 Nick will lead us
00:23:00 --> 00:23:01 in a time of repentance
00:23:01 --> 00:23:01 together
00:23:01 --> 00:23:03 as we turn away
00:23:03 --> 00:23:04 from our idols
00:23:04 --> 00:23:05 to serve the living
00:23:05 --> 00:23:05 and true God,
00:23:06 --> 00:23:06 our Lord.