Unless You Repent - Life of Christ Part 43

You know, when we read the papers today or we listen to the news, we hear about all these natural disasters, Hurricane Hugo, that Amtrak bridge collapsing down in Tampa, the earthquake in Los Angeles, Mount St. Helens, the flood last year in the Midwest. And these are things that we talk about at work, we chit-chat about, we read and we listen to on the news.

There are tragedies in the news. Some people even try to interpret them. For example, USA Today reported that a large number of Americans believe that the Midwest flood was actually God's judgment for sin on those people. And I've had people ask me about that, say, Lon, do you really believe that those floods was God judging those people for sin? And I've said, huh, I don't know. I mean, how am I supposed to know? One thing I will say, and that is if God decided to punish sin in America with a flood, it seems to me he would have flooded San Francisco, not the Midwest.

I mean, I don't know. But anyway, the point is that in our passage for this morning, there are two tragedies in the news, so to speak, that Jesus draws on to try to make a spiritual point with great power to the lives of the people in the crowd that are following him. And we want to look at this and not only look at his point for their lives, but he also has that very same point for our lives 20 centuries later. So let's look, and then we'll ask the really important question, which is, so what? Right. Okay, so let's look.

First one. Now, there were some present at that time in the crowd who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood pilot had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said, do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? Jesus said, I tell you, no.

But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Now, we don't know anything about this event. The Bible doesn't record this event of Pilate mingling their blood with the sacrifices.

There's no historical record anywhere of this. We do know from historical records that Pontius Pilate was a very cruel and vicious man with his enemies. And so the assumption here is that we had some Galileans who were enemies of Pilate who had come to Jerusalem to sacrifice in the temple. And while they were there in the middle of doing their sacrifices, Pilate sent troops in, killed them, and their blood then mingled with the blood of the animals that they were in the process of sacrificing to God right there in the temple.

Now, the crowd has an interpretation of this. Their interpretation is, look, if a person ought to be safe anywhere, they ought to be safe in the temple, right? And so if God let this happen to them in the temple while they were sacrificing, these must have been really bad, awful people. Jesus said, I'm sorry, that's the wrong interpretation. He says, these Galileans were not extraordinary sinners of any kind.

They weren't any worse than you ordinary people right here in the crowd. And unless you repent, you're going to perish too. Then Jesus goes on to draw on a second tragedy in the news. Look at verse 4. He says, or those 18 workmen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them.

Siloam is like a suburb of Jerusalem. Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem because this happened to them? I tell you, Jesus said, no.

But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Now, again, we don't know a thing about this historical event. All that we know is from the way Jesus talks about it, apparently it was a well-known happening.

Today in America, if you said Nancy and Tanya, you wouldn't have to say anything else. Everybody knows what's going on. And so I guess back in these days, if you'd have said the tower of Siloam, everybody would have said, oh yeah, sure, we know what you're talking about. But we don't know exactly what happened. Now, the only glimpse that we get of what may have gone on here is that we learn from the writer Josephus, he was a Jewish historian, we learn that Pontius Pilate around this time had decided to build an aqueduct system in Jerusalem to bring water to town. Siloam was near one of the pools that he was using and it's very possible this tower was one of the towers as part of that aqueduct system. To finance his system, he took money from the temple, Pilate did, to pay for the project. And that infuriated the Jews.

They said this was sacred money, you have no right using this money to build a water work system. And so the interpretation here that they put on this is that the reason this tower fell on these 18 people is because they were really bad for having worked on such a sacrilegious project. Jesus said, I'm sorry. That's not the right interpretation. They weren't any worse than anybody else living in Jerusalem. They're no worse than any of you people in the crowd.

And if you don't repent, something just like that's going to happen to you, you're going to perish. They say, well, you know, Lon, I got a little bit of a problem with the way Jesus is talking to these people. I mean, he sounds so harsh. He sounds so sharp with them. I mean, these are really strong terms he's using here.

You're right. And we need to understand a little bit of what's below the surface here, folks, in order to make sense out of why Jesus says what he says to the crowd. When I was a teenager, I was in drama troupe at my high school. We did plays, you know, and so I'll never forget when I was about 16 years old, we were practicing for a play one day after school, and I wasn't on stage at the moment. So I was sitting out in the audience watching the actors who were on stage, and there was a girl sitting next to me, a fellow student, and she turned to me, and we got to talking, and she eventually said to me, by the way, as a Jew, are you going to heaven or hell?

Do you know? And I said, well, no, frankly, I never even really thought about it. She said, well, you know, Christianity teaches unless you have a personal faith in Jesus Christ, you're not going to heaven, and you're Jewish, and have you really thought about this issue? And she challenged me to go ask my rabbi about what was going on for Jewish people. So I did. We had a class, it was like a little confirmation type class, and about eight or ten of us in there, and I raised my hand the next time. I said, rabbi, rabbi, I got a question.

Go ahead. Do Jews go to heaven or hell? He said, what? I said, do Jews go to heaven or hell?

I got this girl in school who's telling me that unless you trust Jesus Christ as your Messiah, you're going to go to hell, and I need to know so I can tell her, do Jews go to heaven or do they go to hell? Well, he kind of caught his breath for a minute, and he said, all Jews go to heaven. And I said, oh, really? He said, yeah. I said, you mean you could do anything you want to do?

I mean, you could, you know, rob people or cheat people or never show up at synagogue again, and you could still go to heaven? And he said, absolutely. I said, well, how does this work?

I mean, explain this to me. And he said, we're Abraham's children, we're the chosen people, and as such, we are all going to heaven. He said to me, hell is a Gentile problem. I said, well, that's cool.

I can get into that. In fact, I never showed up at synagogue again after that because I think I'm going to heaven anyway. This is boring.

Why show up for this thing? And I went through my high school years and into college convinced that regardless of what I did, regardless of how immoral I might be, I was on my way to heaven because I was Abraham's child and I was one of the chosen people. Now you know, that kind of teaching in modern day Judaism has roots all the way back into the time of Christ. In fact, the Mishnah, which is an official interpretation of the Old Testament that was codified and put together as a bunch of rabbinic commentary at the time of Jesus actually says that.

Listen to what it says. It says, and I'm quoting, all Israelites have a portion in the life to come. All Israelites have a portion in the life to come and there's only six exceptions. You want to know who they were? You don't want to know who they were. All right, you want to know? I'll tell you. If not, we'll go on. Six of them.

Ready? Here they are. And you probably never heard of most of them. One of them was Doeg the Edomite.

You say, you're right. Who was he? Well, he killed a bunch of priests in the time of David. Another one was a fellow named Balaam.

Remember, he was going to curse the nation of Israel. A third guy was a fellow named Gehazi. He was the servant of Elisha who you remember went and kind of sold him out for money. A fourth one was a fellow named Ahithophel. He was a priest who betrayed King David. The fifth one was a king whose name was Jeroboam. He took the northern kingdom and took them completely away from God. And the last one was a fellow named Ahad.

He was married to a gal named Jezebel. Okay, that's it. Six of them. Every other Jew that's ever lived is going to heaven. Now think about this for a second, folks. If in all of Jewish history there's only six people who've ever pushed the envelope so far that they're going to miss heaven, doesn't that make the average Jew pretty safe?

Wouldn't you say? And so the rabbi who told me that when I was a teenager was actually working on 2,000 years of rabbinic tradition coming right out of the time of Jesus Christ. You have to understand that that lies under what Jesus is talking about with these people. It was kind of like a theological good old boy system that they had put together the rabbis had. It was kind of like a theological I'm okay, you're okay as long as we're Jewish. And what this did is it effectively nullified the whole issue of personal sin. It nullified the whole issue of personal repentance before God. People said I'm Jewish, I don't have to deal with that.

That's a Gentile problem, but it's not a problem for me, so don't even talk to me about that. Do you understand now why Jesus was reacting the way he was to these people? They were saying well the reason those Galileans got killed is because they were Galileans and all Galileans need to get killed because they are Gentiles and they got to deal with that. And the reason those 18 workmen got killed is because they were really bad awful and that's why the tower fell on them, but the rest of us are safe. And Jesus said uh-huh, wait a minute.

No, no, no, you got it wrong. You're not safe. You're not safe from the issues of personal sin before a holy God and the need to personally repent before a holy God. You Jewish people need to come to grips with those things just like all the Gentiles do.

Just because you're Abraham's children doesn't make one bit of difference. Do you understand now why he says to them unless you repent, you will also perish. He's trying to tear the props out from under this little self-contained Jewish theology that the rabbis had put together. Does that help him make sense now what he's doing? Now to drive the point home, Jesus tells a little parable, a little story.

Look at verse 6. He said a man had a fig tree and he planted it in his vineyard and he went to look for fruit on it but he didn't find any. So he said to the man, the gardener who had been taking care of the vineyard, for three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and I haven't found any figs at all.

Cut it down. Why should it use up the soil? A man took a fig tree and he didn't plant it out on the hillside but he put it right in a garden where the soil was tilled and cultivated and fertilized where he even had a gardener to work on it where the conditions were ideal for the thing to grow. And then he came back year one, year two, year three, no figs, finally said this is ridiculous. All this plant's doing is taking up space, using up fertilizer, taking up carbon dioxide, cut it down. Now the problem, friends, was not with the owner, the problem wasn't with the soil, the problem wasn't with the gardener, the problem was with the fig tree. You ready for this?

The fig tree was a lemon. What do you think? Okay, I agree. But I thought it was cute.

C-. Anyway, in response he says cut this thing down. If it hadn't had fruit for the first three years, it's not going to have fruit after three more years, get rid of this thing, let's get a fig tree in here who can actually do something. And was he correct in his judgment?

Yes, he was. If a fig tree doesn't bear fruit, what good is it? You cut it down and throw it away. Now who's the fig tree in this whole story? Well, it's the nation of Israel.

That's the whole point. It's the nation of Israel who was a self-righteous group of people that God kept looking for them for fruit but he didn't get any. In fact, he even said, Jesus said, Matthew chapter 15, these people, talking about the Jewish nation, honor me with their lips. They'll come to the temple, they'll make their sacrifices, they'll stand and pray on the street corners, but their heart is what?

Far from me. Their heart was as hard as the marble on the floor of the temple. And Jesus said, I keep looking for fruit from these guys and I don't get any. Who's the owner in the parable? Well, it's God and God who had sent prophet after prophet after prophet to till the soil of the nation of Israel and try to turn their hearts to God in a real and living way and hadn't succeeded. Was God now right in saying, look, we need to deal with this. Was God right in judging Israel for their refusal to bear fruit for him and to soften their hearts towards him? Yes, he was right. Of course he was. But there's one more player here.

Look at verse eight. But the gardener came and said, sir, leave it alone for one more year. Did he argue with the owner's point that if it doesn't bear fruit, it ought to be cut down? No, he said, that's fair. But I'm not asking you for what's fair. And I'm not asking you for justice. I'm asking you for mercy.

I want mercy. Give me one more year with this tree. And let me dig around it. Let me loosen the soil. Let me fertilize it. Let me give it every possible opportunity to avoid destruction. And if it bears fruit next year, great, we won't cut it down.

And if it doesn't, then I agree with your judgment. We'll cut it down. Who was the gardener? I believe it was Jesus Christ himself. Jesus Christ, whose whole earthly ministry was merely an extension of God's mercy to the nation of Israel. And folks, with every teaching Jesus gave during those three years of earthly ministry, he dug around Israel's roots. And with every miracle Jesus did during those three years of earthly ministry, he fertilized Israel's soil. And with his resurrection and the preaching of the early church, he gave Israel every chance possible to avoid destruction. Did they do it?

Did the tree bear fruit? Well, there were a few Israelite individuals who accepted Christ as Savior, who humbled themselves before God, who let God soften their heart and who bore fruit for him. But as a nation, as a people, did they turn to Christ and humble themselves before God?

Absolutely not. And so 40 years later, General Titus and the 10th Legion of Rome marched into town. They sacked Jerusalem. They massacred the population. They burned the temple to the ground.

And they began the process that separated Israel from her land for 1900 years. God asked these people to repent. God gave them extra time in his mercy to repent.

And they didn't do it. And because they didn't do it, the judgment of God came. Now, what I want you to notice in this parable before we go on is that you've got the two sides of God that are in juxtaposition, that are in dynamic tension, that give us so much problem, the mercy of God and the justice of God, the graciousness of God and the holiness of God in dynamic tension. And God is the God of the second chance. He is the God of the third chance. He is the God of the fourth chance. That's his mercy. But folks, God is also the God of the final chance.

That's his justice. And you can't take either one of those to the exclusion of the other and still have an accurate picture of God. They're both part of God.

You and I need to understand that. If we go too far one direction or the other, we'll distort God. Yes, he's a God of mercy, but he's a God of justice. Did he give Israel his mercy? You bet he did.

What nation has ever had Jesus Christ and his miracles and his teaching and his presence and his resurrection on earth for them and them alone but the nation of Israel? Was that mercy? You bet. When they didn't respond, was there justice?

Yes, there was. And that's where Jesus leaves it with an invitation to these people. Unless you repent, you're going to perish too. Now that's the end of the passage, but it leads us, of course, to ask the question, so what?

That's right. What does this mean for us? I mean, we're 20th century later.

We're not Israel. You know, I was talking to my friend not too long ago about some of the greatest movies of all time. What would you say? I mean, you know, if I said to you, what was some of the greatest movies of all time?

What would you say? Citizen Kane. What? Have you ever heard of that? You never heard of Citizen Kane? Orson Welles? Probably considered to be the greatest movie of all time.

It's on television, usually Channel 20. Watch it. Okay. How about Gone with the Wind?

So I've heard of that. Okay, good. Ben Hur.

That was a great one. Levin Academy Awards. How about The Sound of Music?

Okay. Well, we were going through our list of some of the greatest movies of all time, and I gave him one of my choices, and it was Rocky III. Rocky III. Don't you like Rocky III? I love Rocky III. Rocky III is one of the greatest movies of all time, in my personal opinion. You know, that's the one with Mr. T in it, you know, Clubber Lang.

It's a great movie. You say, Lon, what are we talking about? Listen, you know what Jesus said here? Jesus said, unless you repent.

Didn't he say that? I mean, folks, those are the three words that you and I have to deal with out of what Jesus said this morning. Unless you repent. But we have to define what repent means, because how can we do it if we don't know what it means?

Rocky III is one of the greatest examples of repentance anywhere on the movie screen. Say what? No, listen. Follow with me. Just give me a chance before you get upset. Give me a chance. Now listen. What do you have to do to repent? There are three component parts.

Rocky did them all. Listen. Number one, you have to admit that you're going in the wrong direction.

That's where it starts. You've got to admit that the way you're going is harmful to you and that you're going to self-destruct. Was that hard for Rocky to do?

Absolutely not. Clubber Lang beat his brains in. It's pretty easy for him to say, my boxing career is going in the wrong direction, that God demolished him. Number two, you've got to confront the problem with courage. You've got to confront it with courage.

You've got to take a hard inventory of where you are and be brutal with yourself. And Rocky had to do that. He had to look at his work ethic, his boxing style, his love of the ritz and the glitz and the ego that was involved, his commitment level, his dedication level. And he had to be willing to face that and declare it to be a problem and to humble himself enough to accept help from somebody outside of himself like Apollo Creed who he beat in Rocky II.

You remember that? And the man had to come along and offer him help and he had to be humble enough and take it. He had to take a fearless inventory of where he stood. Third and finally, he had to be willing to take the necessary steps to make a change. To take the necessary steps to make a change.

He had to forget about the ritzy gym with all the women and all the music and all the lights and all the PR and go to a sleazy little gym and do hard work and do training and change his mental attitude and change his boxing style and give himself a level of dedication that he hadn't had for years. I mean, we're talking Eye of the Tiger stuff here, folks. This is repentance.

Right on the movie screen, these are the three elements. One, you've got to admit you're going in the wrong direction. Two, you've got to confront the problem with honesty and courage.

And number three, you've got to be willing to take the steps that it takes to change. Now, let's bring that into talking about our lives because Jesus said that every one of us here this morning is a candidate for repentance. I don't care whether you're Christian or not, you're a candidate for repentance. And to talk to you about it, I want us to kind of use three bumper stickers, okay? Because there's different levels of repentance. The first level of repentance is symbolized by this bumper sticker.

Ready? If you're headed in the wrong direction, God permits what? U-turns. I love this bumper sticker. I have one downstairs on my desk. I don't have one on my car because as I've told you, I'm such a terrible driver that I don't put any Christian stuff on my car because I would be a bad, bad influence for the kingdom of God in Washington, D.C.

But I do have it on my desk. I love this bumper sticker. If you're headed in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns. As a matter of fact, I hit a car the other day. It was parked.

This is true. Honest truth, it was parked. And I totaled it. I totaled it. I bent the frame and I totaled this guy's car and it was a parked car. He said, what did you do to your car? Well, I can ride that big old brown wagon. Have you ever seen that old tank I got?

All it needs is a turret on the top, machine gun wells on the side. I didn't do anything. I didn't even move the dirt in the front.

This is the honest truth. I don't even have a dent on the bumper and I totaled this guy's car. Now, can you imagine he shows up and I got Jesus loves you all on my bumper?

Just doesn't work with me. But anyway, let's go back to our bumper sticker. Our bumper sticker is, if you're headed in the wrong direction, God permits U-turns. Now, this is for the first level. This is level one of repentance, which I call salvation repentance. This is the first kind of repentance anybody ever does. And what this means is that if you're here and you've never embraced Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and your personal Savior, then you're a candidate for level one, which is salvation repentance. And folks, we need to be very careful we don't do what the Jewish people back in Jesus's day did and somehow say, well, repentance is for everybody else, but it's not for me. You know, we need to be careful we don't say, well, I was born in America. I've been going to church all my life.

My mother was a Christian. I have a fine upstanding job out in the community. I'm a respected business person. I have a good reputation out there. I've been baptized.

I'm no worse than anybody else is. Repent, I don't need to repent. Repentance is an issue long for murderers and rapists and bank robbers and lawyers, but not everyday people like me. I don't need to repent. But Jesus didn't say that, did he? Jesus said, unless you repent.

That's what he said, not bank robbers and lawyers, but you. And to repent for salvation means just to go through these three simple little steps. Number one, you got to admit that you're going in the wrong direction. Whereas once you would have said, I don't need God in my life. When you're ready to repent, you begin saying, well, maybe I was wrong about that. Where once you would have said, well, I can handle my life fine all by myself, thank you. When you're ready to repent, you say, well, maybe I was wrong about that.

Where once you might have said, listen, if there is a heaven, I can work my way there by being a good person. When you're ready to repent, you start saying, well, maybe I was wrong about that. I'm self-destructing. Things aren't going well. I'm headed in the wrong direction. Step two, we need to be willing to confront the problem with courage and honesty. We need to be willing to say to ourselves, look, you did not set out to screw up your life. This is the best you can do. And if somebody took you back and gave you the chance to start all over again, buddy, you wouldn't do any better. This is the best you can do. You need outside help.

Can't you see that? This is the best you can do and it's not good enough. Step three, we need to take steps to correct the problem. And what are the steps you need to take for salvation repentance?

There's only one. You need to open your life up personally and say, Jesus Christ, I need you to take me. I'm like that old violin that Jan sang about all beaten and battered up and sold cheap to this world. I need you to take this old battered violin and put the master's hand on it and make it into something different. I need Jesus Christ to take over my life. And friend, Jesus Christ wants to do that. He wants to take your old violin and make it something new.

He wants to take your life and make it worth living, but he can't do it unless you're willing to repent, to say you're going in the wrong direction, be honest about it and turn to him for the solution. And if you're here and you've never trusted Christ in that kind of real and personal way, I'm going to invite you in a little while to do it. I hope you'll think about it. Now there's another level of repentance that goes beyond this because you could be sitting here and saying, gosh, I'm a Christian, Lon.

I've already done this. Repentance isn't for me. Well, wait a minute. There's another bumper sticker I want to share with you. Second bumper sticker says Christians aren't perfect, just what? Forgiven, right? Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven.

You say, well, what does that mean? It means no matter whether you're a Christian or you're not, you're not going to get it all right. You're not going to have a perfect day ever. And so repentance is something not just for people who don't know Christ, it's something for Christians because if you don't have a perfect day, how are you going to fix that? How are you going to keep the blessing of God operating on your life when you went out and did a bunch of things today and thought a bunch of things today and said a bunch of things today that were completely out of step with the will of God for your life? How are you going to keep the blessing of God on your life as a Christian? The answer is repentance.

That's how you do it. That's how you bring the forgiveness of God. Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. That's how we bring the forgiveness of God to bear on our lives so the blessing of God can stay on our lives. Remember now, we're not repenting for heaven anymore. That was done when we accepted Christ. We're repenting now to keep our relationship with Christ open and available so the blessing of God can operate on our life.

And how does it work? Well, what are the three little steps? Number one, we've got to admit that we're going in the wrong direction. We've got to read the word of God and as we read the word of God, as we pray, as God deals with our conscience and says this is the way I want you to go, these are the things that I want you to do and we look at it that we get up and say, eh, not going in that direction, eh, not doing it that way, I'm out of step with God. It's going to cost me the blessing of God if I don't do something about it. Step two, we have to be willing to confront those areas of our life, not shift responsibility, not shift blame, not find excuses as Christians, but with honesty, brutal honesty really, confront sin in our lives and call it what it is.

Friends, true repentance demands that we deal with sin thoroughly, that we come clean with sin. You can't have a relationship with Almighty God or anybody else unless you and that other person are willing to both accept responsibility. If you start ducking it, you can't build a good relationship. I deal with that with my kids.

I'll come in the room and something will be wrong and I'll start telling them something's wrong and they'll start saying to me, well, it's not my fault. I didn't do it. You never told me anything was wrong with that. I didn't do anything wrong. He did it. It was his fault.

He was the one who started it. He didn't do it to me and besides, you know, what do I do? And I just feel like going, just strangling them.

I get so upset with them and I keep trying to tell them, now look guys, I would not get angry with you if you would just respond properly and what I need you to say is five simple words and here they are. Dad, you're right. I'm wrong. It's all I need you to say. Five words. Dad, you're right. I'm wrong.

You say those five words, we can fix this real quick, but when you start shifting responsibility and finding excuses and justifying your actions and refusing to take the responsibility that belongs to you, we can't have a relationship. You know what? The same thing's true between you and me and God.

It's true. God doesn't want to get angry. God doesn't want to get upset, but God demands that for us to have relationship, we've got to accept responsibility and if you go and go, father, you're right.

I'm wrong. You can save a whole lot of time in terms of repentance. That's all God needs to hear. Third and finally, we have to admit that we're going in the wrong direction. We've got to deal with it honestly.

And third and finally, we've got to take the steps to correct it. What are they as a Christian? Well, number one, confession. The Bible says that he who covers his sin will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes it will find mercy. And you know, I have so many people who say, Lon, repentance is depressing. When you talk about stuff like this, I leave here depressed.

Why? I don't think repentance is depressing. Maybe the world and the media have turned repentance into a dirty word, but repentance is a great word.

You know why? Because every time a person repents, they get the mercy of God. Every time a person repents, they get the forgiveness of God. Every time the person repents, they get the acceptance of God. Repentance is a great word. Not a bad word.

It's a great word. You hear what it says? We confess our sin, we find mercy. Step number two in making it right is not only do we confess, but we make restitution if that's possible. True repentance always wants to go back and fix what it broke. If you've got real repentance in your heart and you broke something, you're going to want to go fix it.

Why? Because it's easy to do that? No, but because that's the way the blessing of God comes back on your life. If you lied on your taxes, true repentance files an amended 1040. If you hurt somebody's feelings, true repentance goes back and asks for forgiveness. If you cheated somebody in a deal, true repentance goes back and gives them back what you took. If you stole from somebody, true repentance goes and returns that stolen property. True repentance goes back and tries to fix whatever it broke, if it's possible. Third and finally, true repentance, in terms of taking steps to fix it, tells God, God, the only chance I've got to not do this more is your help and your strength.

I need your help and strength to change the way I'm living, to change the way I'm talking, to change the way I'm thinking. Will you still get it right 100% of the time? Absolutely not. You know what's neat about it? You can repent 50 times a day if you need to, if your heart's right.

And that's the beauty of it. Do Christians need to repent? You bet we do, at least once a day.

If you're having a really bad day, a lot more, a lot more. Repentance isn't just for non-Christians, it's for all of us. My third bumper sticker I'll close with. It says this, some folks who plan to repent at the 11th hour die at 1030.

Have you seen that one? Some people who plan to repent at the 11th hour die at 1030. Why is that important?

It's important because folks, we need to get off our duff if God's speaking to us and do something. Remember what I said to you? God is the God of the second chance, the third chance, the fourth chance, but he's also the God of the what?

Final chance. That's right. And that's real.

And you know what? I have had some cases in my life where God has been speaking to me as a Christian, speaking to me, speaking to me, speaking to me about getting something right and I put it off and put it off and push God right to the edge of the envelope and some cases beyond the edge of the envelope. And I have never done anything but regret doing that. You don't want to do that with God. Will God step in and make sure you deal with it? If he has to, but that is not the way you want to deal with things.

Trust me, I know I've been there. That is not the way you want to deal with things. If God's speaking to your heart about some area of your life that he needs you to repent with, my advice to you is repent. Don't push God to the final chance because you don't know when it'll be and neither do I.

Don't walk that close to the edge. Does everyone here this morning need to repent? I believe we do. I do.

Don't you? If you're a non-Christian, I believe that you need to embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Admit that you need outside help to run this thing called life and let him come in and take that old violin and make it something that plays to the glory of God. And if you're here and you're a Christian, do you need to repent?

Absolutely. Unless you're absolutely perfect and there's not a thing you ever do that violates God's law or offends him and I don't think that's the case in your life. Then friends, there's some things in our lives God wants us to deal with and as he makes us sensitive to them this morning, I hope you'll do that.

Let's bow our heads and let's pray. I want to give you just a moment of silence to ask God, God is there something in my life that you want me to deal with? You want me to repent? Some person that I've offended, some thing I've said or done, speak to me God. Now with our heads bowed and our eyes closed this morning, if you're a Christian and you're here but you know God has been speaking to you about something or some things in your life that are really out of step with him, you know it, he knows it. And God wants you to repent of these things, not because he's angry with you, not because he hates you, but because these things are destroying your life and God loves you. If you're prepared this morning to raise your hand and say, God, I'm going to admit I'm wrong. I'm going to call sin what it really is in my life and I'm going to turn to you in confession for help to live differently. If you're prepared to do that with no one looking around, I'd like you to raise your hand and say, God, that's me. Thank you.

Lots of hands. Anybody else? Anyone else? Come on now. Come on. Anyone else?

Thank you. And if you're here and you've never trusted Christ in a real and personal way and you've been trying to live life by yourself and man, you're self-destructing. I wonder if you're ready this morning to say, I need outside help. I got to be honest and stop kidding myself. I need Jesus Christ and I'm willing to open my heart and take him this morning.

Let him have this old violin. If that's you, I wonder if you'd raise your hand so I could pray for you. Anyone like to do that? Thank you. God bless you. Thank you.

Anyone else? Thank you. Heavenly Father, thank you for using the word of God in our lives this morning. Thank you for showing us real truth. And Father, I want to pray for the many Christians who raised their hands saying that there were areas of their life that they know they need to get right with you.

And maybe for others who didn't raise their hands but definitely feel that way. And I pray, Lord Jesus, that you would honor what they've done, that you would let them know, Lord, that you love them, that you've forgiven them. And the only reason you want these things out of their life is because these things will harm them.

They're destructive. And Father, I pray that you would take these repenting attitudes and that you would use them as a way to restore the rich and full blessing of God and the relationship with God that these people have to its fullest. Lord, I want to pray for the people who raised their hands saying that they want to trust you as their Savior, that they're tired of trying to do it themselves, and that they know they need a change. And I pray that you would enter their hearts this morning, come as that master violinist and take the violin of their lives, Lord, as you did mine 20-some years ago, and begin to retune it and play it for your glory. Give them the assurance in their heart that you indeed have come into their lives. And Lord, help them begin growing in you that they might become a contributing member of the kingdom of God and know the joy of serving Christ. We thank you for bringing them here this morning.

Thank you for making their heart tender. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.