Repentance as Reinvention

Happy Sabbath! It's great to see everybody here, and thank you to Mr. Cook for giving the sermonette. Really appreciate you and your wife being with us, and thank you very much for the beautiful, special music. It's great to be inspired by these words. You know, music touches us in a way. It's a little bit different than words, so thank you. Well, last week we talked about confession as a tool in our spiritual toolbox and the importance of confession, and in that discussion, we touched on the subject of repentance. Today I'd like to dive into specifically the topic of repentance. Repentance is listed in Hebrews chapter 6 as one of the elementary or foundational doctrines of the church. Repentance is throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, something that's very important. We see in Matthew 3, John the Baptist came preaching. Repentance, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, he said. We understand that Jesus Christ in Matthew 4 said, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand as well. And all the way through Scripture, in the book of Revelation, it ends with repentance as a message to the churches of Ephesus and Pergamos and Thyatira and Sardis and Laodicea. And finally, we understand at the very end of the book of Revelation that right before Jesus Christ returns, we're told that mankind would not repent. So right from the beginning, all the way through Scripture, repentance is something that is foundational to our Christian walk. What is repentance? What are the characteristics of repentance? What are some examples of repentance in Scripture? And most significantly, are we following a process of self-examination that leads to regular heartfelt repentance? These are the types of questions that we want to ask and answer today with really the intention of understanding how to better examine ourselves and whether we are in a repentant state.

And that repentant state, of course, is what allows us to have that connection with our Heavenly Father and to be in His kingdom. As we heard, it is His good pleasure to give us His kingdom. The title of today's message is, Repentance as Reinvention. Repentance as Reinvention. And we're going to see that really repentance is that tool that allows us to become something different than what we were before. Let's start by turning to Matthew 3 and reading John the Baptist's message on repentance in Matthew 3 verses 1 and 2. Very simple message. We often skip over it, not realizing its import, but it says here in Matthew 3 verses 1 and 2, that in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness Judea and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The Greek word here for repentance is the Greek word, meteo, and it's generally translated as to change one's mind or to be sorry for something. To change one's mind or to be sorry for something. But what's ended up happening is that when this verse, which was originally written in Greek, and I've given you the Greek word, when this verse was translated into Latin, as in the early centuries of the Catholic Church, this word was translated as penance. Penance. And this word, penance, has come to have a different meaning than really what repentance is about. The word penance came to have a connotation of performing some action so as to remove guilt. So you had to do penance. And if you did enough penance, you could remove the guilt of your action. And so if the Catholic Church for many years discussed penance and the need for people to do something to remove their guilt, there's a very famous story of the German King Henry IV. He was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the 1000s, about a thousand years ago. And there's a very famous story of how he decided to do penance before Pope Gregory VII. And so he went from his location all the way to Italy. And he went on his knees before the castle door in the snow for three days dressed as a penitent asking forgiveness of the Pope. And so he did penance. And because of his penance, the Pope forgave him. And then he was able to continue on in his responsibilities. But when we talk about repentance, we're not talking about doing something to remove guilt. We'll understand that as we go through. The word repentance in Greek comes from these two words, meta, which means after or beyond.

And the second Greek word is noeo, which means to perceive or to think. And so when you put these things together, it means to think afterwards or to change afterwards or to perceive afterwards.

And of the second word, noeo, helps word study says it means to quote, to apply mental effort needed to reach bottom line conclusions. So it gets it really brings it down to something very, very specific to apply mental effort needed to reach bottom line confusion.

Excuse me, conclusions. The combinations of these two words mean then to think beyond or to think afterwards, to consider our actions afterwards with an implication to change.

The Expositor's Bible Commentary, speaking of Matthew 3 verse 2, and the word repentance, has this to say, and I think this is a very interesting quote, says, what is meant is not merely an intellectual change of mind or mere grief and certainly less than doing penance. But a radical transformation of the entire person, a fundamental turnaround involving mind and action, and including overtones of grief, which result in fruit in keeping with repentance.

So what they talked about was a radical transformation and fundamental turnaround.

Those are pretty amazing things, if you imagine. It's like somebody meets you, and then 20 years later they see you again, and they don't even know who you are. You're just fundamentally transformed. You are radically transformed such that you look the same, presumably. Maybe you look like Tim Petworth, you look like Amy Ollie, you look like Justin, you look like...but when they talk to you, they're like, wow, you're just a different person.

The way that you speak, the way you carry yourself, the way you react to things, just everything about you is just radically transformed. That's what this word means. So when John the Baptist says, repent for the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven is at hand, he says radically transform, fundamentally turn around, and become a completely different person than the way you were before. That's what repentance is about. Let's look in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17. Let's see Paul actually describe this idea of reinvention, this idea of reinvention, of becoming something completely different, someone completely different, than the person that we were before. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. Familiar Scripture, but if we think about this in terms of this radical transformation, we get a better idea of what he's saying. It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. So whatever we were before, we are a new creation, someone different, someone different in the way that we speak to one another, in how we react to things, how we react and how we comport ourselves. Let's see how he expands on this in Ephesians 4 verse 21.

Because he actually goes into some more detail here in terms of what it means to be a new creation.

Ephesians 4 verse 21 to 24. It says here that if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, and that is Jesus Christ, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

Now sometimes the body will reflect the change in mind, right? If we have some sort of an addiction, maybe we have an addiction to smoking, and our teeth have a certain look because of that, and we quit smoking and we improve our health, well then, you know, our appearance can change. There can be a lot of things. We might lose weight or we might gain weight depending on the circumstance. We might have more vibrancy in our face and so forth. So there can be a physical sort of outward reflection of that inward change, but what Paul is talking about fundamentally is a renewing in the spirit of our mind. Our mind is renewed, and that's really what he's describing, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness, in righteousness and in true holiness. This is what repentance is about.

Now, how do we do this? This is something a lot of people have tried to do. Many people try to be good people. Benjamin Franklin famously said about a very orderly way in which he was going to make changes in his life, and he was going to be different in many ways. Do we seek, you know, seek to write a bunch of lists of action items and post-it notes? Do we deploy a bunch of incentives and disincentives for ourselves? Do we ask our friends to wake us up in the morning? What is it that we do to try to be able to do this? And this is a lot of times where we can go wrong in this process, because what we do is we take the weight of this change onto ourselves, and then when we mess up, then we start beating ourselves up for it, and then that can often send us down in a vicious spiral.

Now, God describes very clearly that repentance, this kind of repentance that we're talking about, it is a gift from God. It is a gift from God. And we can see this in 2 Timothy 2, verse 24 to 25. Turn over there to 2 Timothy 2, verse 24 to 25, because if this repentance was about our willpower, if this repentance was about our capacity for change, our ability to overcome some kind of addiction on our own strength, well then we wouldn't need God, would we?

You know, God just kind of gave us the instructions, and then we just followed step one, step two, step three, and then while at 20 years later, nobody can recognize us. But that's not what God is looking for. What we see in 2 Timothy 2, verses 24 and 25, is that this process is as powerful as the end result.

2 Timothy 2, verse 24 to 25. It says, A servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient. And then it says in verse 25, In humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth. So that they may know the truth. God has to grant us repentance.

We receive a calling, and that's, I believe, why we're here today in services, because we have received a calling. We respond to that calling through a desire to change. We ask for God to help us change. We ask for this gift. We are baptized as a symbol of the death of that old person, and we come out of the water as a new creation, a new son of God, a new daughter of God.

And then we receive the laying on of hands, which then gives us God's power to be within us, His very presence within us. And then we seek to change then, over a period of time, until such time as this life has ended or as Jesus Christ returns. True godly repentance is a gift from God, and it's something that is not generated on our own power. And we don't have to turn there, but you can make note. Romans 2, verse 4 says that the goodness of God leads us to repentance. God's goodness leads us to repentance. It is a gift of having our mind open to the things that must be done and the strength through God's Holy Spirit working within us to continually reveal to us.

And we talked about that last week. I thought that was a good discussion in sermon chat about God revealing those things to us that we need to understand about ourselves. It's about understanding the next step of reinvention. What is the next step in this process for us such that we move from that old creation to that new creation? And it is through this process, it is through the struggle, it is just as much through this process that God's will is achieved in our lives as it is through the actual end result.

And that's what we have to recognize when we stumble and we fall down because God's people through time, what we see is we see two steps forward and one step back. We look at King David, we look at Abraham, we look at Jacob, we can look at all these figures, these people that we see described in Scripture, these are fallible human beings who made mistakes. In some cases spectacular mistakes that I'm sure they are terribly embarrassed for that we read about as examples for us. And so we will make mistakes, but it is through the process, it is through the process of learning from those mistakes and coming back from those mistakes and understanding how to work through those mistakes that we begin to understand this reinvention.

So repentance is foundational, repentance is radical, repentance is powerful, and repentance is a gift from God. So if we understand what repentance is a little bit, or we're beginning to understand that by looking at some of these scriptures, let's talk about what some of the characteristics of repentance are. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 7 because there's a very interesting list here, and there's lots of different interpretations of the various things that are described here.

I'm going to do my best to describe some of these characteristics that are listed in this verse, and I think it would be a nice discussion after church. 2 Corinthians 7 verses 8 through 11. Let's start with verse 8. Again, we're thinking about characteristics here. It says, "...for even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it.

For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while." So this is a little cryptic. What exactly is he describing it here? So let's get a little context to the story. So the letter that he's referring to here in verse 8 is probably not the first letter to the Corinthians.

It's probably another letter that we don't have record of. This is some sort of letter that was probably written between the first and second letters to the Corinthians. If we think about what was happening, essentially what occurred was that Paul had visited the Corinthian church, and things weren't going well.

So he decided to make a quick visit to the church. You can just make a note. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 1 makes reference to this quick visit. This quick visit did not go well. So the Corinthian church was having problems. He had a quick visit. The visit did not go well. In fact, things actually got worse after that.

Paul, instead of going back, decided to write this letter, and he sent it by Titus. He sent this letter to them by Titus. It was a strong rebuke. It was a very corrective letter, telling them the things that they needed to change, telling them the things that were going on in the congregation that were not good. It was a very strongly worded letter. He was worried as to how the Corinthians were going to respond to this letter, this strong rebuke, given that his visit had not gone well. He thought maybe they would be angry, maybe they would just completely reject it. But when Titus came back, he had good news that the Corinthian church had actually received his letter in the spirit it was given and were going to be making changes. So this is what he describes here. He says, then, for even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it. In other words, he wanted to get them to realize their error. He doesn't regret the fact that they were sorry, although he did regret it because he was taking this chance. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. But now, verse 9, he says, for even if I made you sorry, now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. So Paul was writing to them now in this likely third letter, saying how happy he was that that letter had provoked a repentance, that they were sorry for what they had done and that that sorrow had led to repentance.

It says, for you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. And so they weren't sorry because they'd been caught. They weren't sorry because this made them look bad. They were sorry because they realized they had done wrong. And that sorrow had led to something that was positive, and Paul was pleased about that.

And now we come to verse 11, where we see characteristics that he describes of this repentance. For observe this very thing, that you sorrow in a godly manner.

And then now there's a little colon in my Bible, so he's now going to give a list of seven things. He says here, what diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication, and there's a exclamation point after that. In all things, you proved yourselves to be clear in this manner.

So let's unpack this a little bit because there's a lot here. Let's unpack and understand these characteristics of this godly sorrow that led to repentance on the part of the congregation in Corinth. The Matthew Henry commentary calls this list, evidences of repentance. I think it's an interesting way that he describes this. These are evidences of repentance. The first one that is described here is diligence. It produced diligence. Now the New Living Translation translates this what seriousness, or Phillips translates this as earnestness or earnestly. That is, there was great carefulness about the situation to avoid sin in the future and to please God. So what this did was it created a sense of seriousness, of earnestness, of diligence, to pay attention, to be careful, to be aware, to be sensitive. That's what this sorrow produced. And when we are in a state of repentance and godly repentance and sorrow, we have a certain seriousness, a certain sobriety about what is around us and what's going on. We're paying attention closely to things, and that's what is being described. There's a seriousness. There's a diligence to pay attention and be careful.

The second thing that's described here is what he says is a clearing of yourselves.

The Phillips translates this as concerned. The NIV, the new international version, translates this as eager and eagerness to put away the accursed thing. They wanted to clear themselves. Whatever was causing the issue, they wanted to clear themselves of that thing. They wanted to get rid of it and have a new start. Whatever was causing the problem, they wanted to remove it from themselves so that it wasn't a cause of a problem anymore. They wanted to clear themselves of that. The next thing that's described in here is indignation.

Indignation. Indignation at the sin. They were indignant at the sin. Now, Merriam-Websters translates indignation as anger aroused by something unjust, unworthy, or mean. So we're indignant. Sometimes, you know, like, how dare that person do that? They should know better, right? We become angry at the injustice of a situation. And so it produced in them an indignation at the sin, at Satan, at what was happening around them, at the scandal of the situation. They realized the unjust nature of what was occurring within their congregation, and they were indignant at it. They were angry at it. They didn't want it to happen anymore. There was a passion that went with that. And so they had an indignation at the injustice and the unjust nature of the situation that had occurred. The next thing that's described here is fear. What fear? The NIV, if you have that translation, it translates that word as alarm. There was a fear or alarm at their own behavior and its effects. When we realize the effects of sin in our lives, it can cause us to fear for us, for what it's doing to us, for what the effects could be in our lives. And so there's an alarm. There's a fear. It's a tension there that says, this is something that's going on and it's got to stop. It's a recognition that God's power is here to save and to help and that it has to be paid attention to. Otherwise, it's going to have a grip on us. The next thing that is described here is vehement desire. A vehement desire or a longing for. It's a vehement desire or a longing for to be reconciled to God after realizing the error. We have a vehement desire to be one with God, to be right with God, to put this thing behind us. We want to just move forward and know that God is going to forgive us and that we are going to be able to grow from this. The next thing that's described here is zeal.

Zeal. Zeal to do the right thing. Zeal to move forward, to not be entrapped by it.

Phillips describes this word as stirred up your keenness for the faith. That's how he translates this word zeal. Stirred up your keenness for the faith. You want to do the right thing. You know the right thing now and you want to do it. Finally, he uses the term vindication. Vindication to make things right, to repay, to make restitution. Now again, there's overlaps in these things, but I think it's interesting that Paul, you can almost imagine him sitting at his desk writing this or maybe he is dictating it to somebody who is writing it. He's thinking about what repentance means for these people and he's thinking about the characteristics and the reports he's heard from Titus. He's just being inspired to share these characteristics of what sorrow produces in godly repentance. As we think about things that we need to repent of, I hope we can think about diligence and about being clear and about indignation and being vehemently desired to be right with God and having a passion and a zeal and a desire to make things right, to have vindication or to be vindicated, to make things right. This is a very powerful list and it's one I think that each of us would do well to pray through as we're working through our own process of self-examination. But it says something here interesting at the very end. It says, in all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this manner. They prove themselves. There was a set of actions. There was a set of characteristics. There were a set of things that they'd done. They actually proved themselves to be clear in this manner. You know, it says that we are to look at the fruits of people's lives. And so there needs to be fruits of repentance. There has to be some fruit that comes from this. It can't just be words. It has to be proved.

Before we leave this point, I want to examine one more passage that I think is helpful as we think about the characteristics of repentance. And that's in Joel 2 verses 12 to 13.

In Joel 2, verses 12 to 13, Joel contrasts a common way that people showed their repentance in Old Testament times with a way that God looks for repentance and thinks about repentance.

In Joel 2, verse 12 to 13, Joel writes, Now therefore says the Lord, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and he relents from doing harm.

God is looking for us to rend our heart and not our garments.

Tearing one's clothes at that time was a common way to show grief at something that had occurred, and was a way that people expressed their repentance. We won't take the time to turn there, but in Genesis 37 verse 34, Jacob tore his clothes when he heard that his son Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. In 1 Kings 21, we read about how Ahab was confronted with his sin, and he repented of that. And he expressed his physical repentance by tearing his clothes, fasting, and wearing sackcloth. And that was how he shared an outward sign of his repentance. And God honored this tearing of clothes and these actions. But Joel says that really he would like us to have that same sort of action really in our hearts, that we would rend our hearts in the same way, and have those same sort of passionate zeal towards turning back to him and changing our behavior.

You can also jot down Psalm 34 verse 18. This is a great reading tonight or tomorrow. Psalm 34 verse 18 and Psalm 51 verse 17. We won't turn there, but Psalm 34, 18 and Psalm 51, 17. Because those also show some very good examples of characteristics of repentance and things that people, the way that God describes repentance. Let's go to the third point, the third and final point here, on some examples of repentance. Let's go to Acts 8 verse 9 to 13.

Acts 8 verse 9 to 13. Let's look at an example of the story of Simon the sorcerer in the book of Acts. This is an example of a man who had an opportunity to repent and did not. So we're going to look at an example of anti-repentance or non-repentance first in Acts 8 verses 9 to 13.

Acts 8 verses 9 to 13. Let's get a little context here. In Acts 8 verse 9, we're introduced to Simon the sorcerer, a man who had astonished a lot of people, very well known in the area. And Simon, who had practiced sorcery, comes to understand that there is this church and he sees great miracles being worked. And so he wants to be a part of it. And we see there that there was a certain man called Simon, Acts 8 verse 9. And in verse 12 it says, but when they believed Philip, as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. And then Simon himself also believed. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and was amazed, seeing the miracles and the signs which were done. So Simon was baptized, likely had the laying on of hands. And then he sees these miracles and he wants this power too. He wants to be able to lay his hands on people and for them to receive this power. And so he asks of that in verse 18. Now when Simon saw through the laying on of the apostles hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money. And in verse 20, Peter said to him, your money perish with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. Now at this point, Simon had a choice to make. Simon could have said, I am so sorry. I am not even worthy to be here talking to you right now. Please forgive me. I am going to go and I'm going to really examine myself of how I even got in this position thinking that I should have this power or want this power or offer money for this power. He could have responded like Ahab. He could have responded like some of the examples we've seen. But instead, his response is shared in verse 24. Then Simon answered and said, pray to the Lord for me that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me. So basically, all he said was, I just don't want to be punished. So please don't punish me. And the implication here was that really he did not have godly repentance. He was just looking to avoid the consequences of what he had said to Peter. And he had seen the miracles. He had seen what happened.

You can go back and look in Acts chapter 5. We have the story of lying to the Holy Spirit. The stories were clear that he knew he was in trouble, and all he wanted to do was get out of trouble. So this is not an example of repentance, of godly repentance. We see also the example of Cain in Genesis 4. You can look at that. What did Cain say when God gave him his punishment? He said, my punishment is more than I can bear. Basically, it was about how do I deal with the punishment aspect of it. Another example of a lack of repentance is Esau. Esau sold his birthright. We won't take the time to go through the story, but let's go over in Hebrews 12 verse 14, and let's see how his sorrow or lack of repentance was described in Scripture. Hebrews 12 verse 14. I wanted to go through at least a few examples of what I call non-repentance, because we don't want to fall into those traps of just being interested in getting out of the consequences of our behavior, but really understanding deeply what it means to be sorrowful towards repentance. Hebrews 12 verse 14. It says, "...pursue peace with all men in holiness, without which no one will see the Lord, looking diligently lest any one fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up caused to trouble." Verse 16. "...lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterwards, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears." He could not find that place of repentance. Either he was doing it on his own, he wasn't asking for God's help, he was focused on the wrong thing, he was focused on avoiding the consequences of his actions, whatever it might be. So now let's look at an example where someone really did repent, and let's look in Luke 5 verse 27 to see this. Luke 5 verse 27 to 32. This is the example of Levi. He's called Levi in the book of Luke. He's Matthew.

We understand he's the same individual who wrote the book of Matthew. So we're going to see his example here in Luke 5 verse 27. It says, after these things, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. Now Matthew, as a tax collector, had a meaningful position in society. It was a despised position, but it was nonetheless a meaningful position. He was in a position to receive taxes, which meant he had a position of power. And a lot of times, these people use that power to take bribes and to enrich themselves. And so very likely, he had enriched himself over the years through taking these bribes. And when it says that he rose up and followed him, what it means is that he repudiated what he was doing as being a tax collector and all the things associated with that corrupt way of life. And he followed Jesus Christ. In verse 28, after it describes him following him, we see in verse 29, then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house. So he obviously had enough money to do that because of his prior way of living. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with him. Now you can imagine, if you've recently started attending and you talk to your friends about the church, this is what he did. He had a calling from Jesus Christ, he followed him, and then he told all his friends. And he invited those same friends to this feast and probably said, you've got to meet this guy. He's amazing. Come to dinner with me and meet this man. I think you'll be amazed and you'll see why I've made the decision that I've made. And so he calls him there. And of course, the religious authorities are upset about this.

It says in verse 30, but they're scribes. And the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered and said to them, Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Levi knew he was a sinner. He knew he had to repent.

And he wanted to share a feast. He wanted to have dinner and invite his friends and confess his faith in Jesus Christ before all of his friends. I mean, this would be a cause for rejoicing. That this man had turned away from a corrupt way of life and was now on a path towards the kingdom of God and was so excited about it that he was going to invite all his friends to hear about it. And the Pharisees missed the whole thing. All they were interested in was the fact that he was having dinner with a bunch of corrupt people who took bribes when they collected taxes. This is the message that he concludes with. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And that needs to say something about us. We're sinners. He's called us as sinners to repentance. When we show true repentance, when we rend our heart, we acknowledge our error, and we turn back to God, he welcomes us as true sons and daughters. Now, in this sermon, we've looked at repentance, its definition, its characteristics. We've looked at examples of non-repentance. We've seen an example here where Levi repented of his behavior and was so excited that he threw a feast. But I want to conclude with a scripture I think that is something that we should really think about as we leave this message. It's in Ephesians 2, verse 2. Ephesians 2, verse 2. Just to conclude this discussion here for today and get us to a point where we can have hopefully a good discussion about it afterwards. And as you're turning there, I'd like to share a personal story with you.

When I was coming to the end of my senior year in high school, I was asked to speak at my high school graduating ceremony at graduation. And when you're 18, you can never figure out what you're supposed to say. What am I supposed to say to my classmates? I had this idea, but I wanted to go back to the class that graduated 10 years before us. So I wanted to just see what was it like for them? They're just 10 years ahead. And of course, when you're 18, you look at somebody who's 28, they're really old, right? So you want to get the collective wisdom of a 28-year-old and see what they've learned. And so I interviewed, I found some people who had graduated from my same high school 10 years before, and I interviewed them about what was going on, and I asked them about their friends and people they graduated with and were they still in touch and so forth. And what I found was actually pretty disturbing. I found that in one case, one of the people who had graduated 10 years before had committed suicide. There were already divorces among that group. There were people who were struggling with mental health issues. There were people who had a hard time keeping a job. I was really surprised. It wasn't actually very encouraging. And I thought about what I was going to do, you know, in terms of my plan to share this. But I went ahead and I gave my speech and I talked about, you know, basically the fact that we need to be aware that these things could happen to us and that we have to be diligent to go forward and avoid these types of things. What I didn't realize then was that these things we actually do to ourselves. I was thinking, hey, if I just tell everybody about this, then that won't happen to us. But in actual fact, my class is no different than the class that graduated 10 years before me and probably no different than the class that graduated 10 years after me. We were just a microcosm, as we are, of our society.

And so in my 18-year-old brain, it's like, oh, avoid this and everything will be fine. But in actual fact, it's who we are as people. We actually have these things within us, every single one of us. None of us are different. You know, nobody's better than the other person. Jesus said, nobody's good. And so Ephesians 2, verse 2 to 3, I think, should remind us that no matter who we are, we need repentance. And without repentance, we're going to end up really a mess. Just like I realized now that actually all of us were a mess. Back then, I thought, oh, they're a mess and we're going to avoid doing that. Let's look at Ephesians 2, verse 2 to 3. In which you once walked according to the chorus of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit of who now works and the sons of disobedience. It says here that that is not the case. In verse 1, it says, and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses. He made alive who were dead in trespasses. And in verse 3, it says, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of all and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Once we acknowledge the fact that on our own, our very nature is going to lead us right into trouble, once we acknowledge that and realize that, we can come to a point where repentance can happen. If we walk around thinking, well, what's the next thing I need to repent of? Hmm, I'll put that on my list. Okay. No, that's not how we should be thinking about repentance. The fact is our very nature is corrupt. Our very nature is corrupt. Once we acknowledge this, we can, through the power of God's Holy Spirit, begin to be transformed into a new creation, into the image of Jesus Christ. Let's examine ourselves. Let's think about repentance. Let's consider repentance and how Godly repentance works daily in our Christian walk. And let's use repentance to draw closer to God.