Wes: 00:00

The lesson title today is the heroic penitence and their fulfillment of Jesus' great commission.

Music: 00:07

If my people which are called by my name, if my people which are called by my name. If my people which are called by my holy name will humble themselves and seek my face.

Wes: 00:28

We're gonna look to the word of God and several scriptures to build an understanding here of what we're talking about. We're gonna start with Luke chapter five verse 32.

Esther: 00:43

I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Wes: 00:49

This is a somewhat difficult scripture to understand. The King James, Someone misses the the nuance, I think, of what the Lord is saying here. Why wouldn't he want to call the righteous if they're trying to live right? But what it is is it it should say self righteous. The sinners should say God fearing or God seeking sinners.

Wes: 01:22

There's two archetypes in the Bible, and the next verse we go to is gonna give a pictorial of that. But what it is is people can be perfectionists. They can strive to the max to understand, be great scholars, and and yet not deal with their inherent brokenness. Every man and woman is broken in some way or another. My dear mother was my father and I called her a saint, but there were occasions when she wasn't so saintly.

Wes: 02:05

The thing is that that people can strive to to do the right thing, but we can never meet the mark on our own power. We have to go to God. And people that recognize their own sin and are seeking God for help and correction of that, these are this is the material that God can work with. One prophet talked about God is the potter. We are the clay, and he he has to mold us and make us, and he's got to make us into a new image which is likened to him.

Wes: 02:43

And the only material the the the the people that are self righteous are not moldable material. They are perfectionists. They think they know it all. They What happens with those people? And I I I know there's in the church, there's those type and I've pastored those type.

Wes: 03:04

And they are harder to reach. Those so called self righteous ones are more judgmental. They're more arrogant and self righteous. But the sinners that that know they need God and are hungry for the word, and these are the ones that pastor can work with. And and Jesus is the great pastor, and he wants to work with each one of us.

Wes: 03:32

But there has to be a recognition that we are broken. We need him. We gotta return to him for the for the help to to be all that we can be. He has a vision for us. There's two visions that are created over our life.

Wes: 03:49

The enemy of our soul has a vision of destruction and how to destroy us with the weaknesses that we have. And God has a vision of of greatness. Doesn't matter what your race is, doesn't matter where you were born, or doesn't doesn't matter the education that you have or doesn't even matter the bad things that you've done or things that people have done to you. The book of Philippians tells us we have to forget that which is past and move on to the prize of the high calling in Jesus Christ. But in the process, we work on those things that are weak in us.

Wes: 04:34

The Bible says, in in our weakness, He is made strong. Okay. Now we're gonna turn turn to Luke eighteen nine through 14 and and Jesus has given us a picture of these two archetypes.

Esther: 04:52

And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves.

Wes: 04:57

Did they what did they do?

Esther: 04:59

They trusted in themselves.

Wes: 05:00

Okay. They trusted in themselves.

Esther: 05:02

That they were righteous and

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That they were righteous.

Esther: 05:05

And despised others.

Wes: 05:07

And they despised others.

Esther: 05:10

Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee

Wes: 05:24

Hold on. He prayed what? He prayed he was praying to himself. He was self agitating.

Esther: 05:31

God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess.

Wes: 05:47

Wow. This guy was he was awesome, wasn't he? In his own he was great in his own mind. Mhmm. And this is the perfectionist here.

Wes: 05:55

This is the self righteous here. He's arrogant. He's mean. He's hateful. And yet he's claiming to be high in the kingdom of God, but he isn't even near the kingdom of God.

Esther: 06:08

And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes onto heaven, but smoked upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.

Wes: 06:27

He did what?

Esther: 06:28

He went down to his house.

Wes: 06:30

He went down to his house. Justified. Justified. His his ultimate house is gonna be paradise in heaven. He's gonna make it to heaven with that kind of a lifestyle.

Wes: 06:42

The other one is gonna be lost forever. So we see these two, these archetypes play out through the whole Bible, and we're gonna be in this workbook series, we're gonna be delving into the lives of of different men and women and and see how this this simple attitude it's really about selfishness, but it comes down to two words. We're either into perfection or we're interconnection.

Esther: 07:13

Rather than the other, for everyone that exalted himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Wes: 07:24

If we try to exalt ourself by the education that we have, by position that we have, maybe we're a gifted singer. But watch out because if people exalt you, you better get down on your knees and humble yourself before God or the enemy is gonna chew you up like baby fat. People that have extreme gift talents have to be on guard especially and they need to have the covering of other saints of God to for protection.

Esther: 07:59

Yes. Amen.

Wes: 08:00

If you're out in the front with worship and you're a gifted singer or musician, make sure you're under a strong pastoral leadership and and a covering with people that are praying for you, and and you better humble yourself. Amen. You better humble yourself. Hallelujah. We have to seek a continual return to him.

Wes: 08:24

This this is the title of our ministry, Return to Christ. Let's go to the next scripture which is Jesus' Great Commission. Luke chapter 24 verse forty six and forty seven.

Esther: 08:42

And said unto them, thus it is written and thus it is behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

Wes: 09:04

The Great Commission is a summation of his ministry that he wanted to give every man and woman an avenue to return back to God. If you're listening to me and you you're you're wondering what can I do to get out of this mess that I'm in and maybe maybe you're into addictions, maybe you're into sexual deviance or whatever? It doesn't matter. All sin is sin. Doesn't matter what kind of sin that you're in.

Wes: 09:37

You need to be purified. You need to be cleansed. That that sin has to be purged out of you and and the way it is done is through repentance. In Hebrew, it's the the journey of Teshuah. And he said that he wants this preached to every nation, every tribe, every kindred so that everyone has the opportunity.

Wes: 10:03

Maybe if you haven't returned to Christ, this is your opportunity to begin that journey with him and reconnect with him and read his words and and begin striving to obey and have a prayer life with him. Our final verse here is in Revelation twelve and eleven.

Esther: 10:28

And they overcame by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives unto the death.

Wes: 10:39

The ones that are are gonna really impact the kingdom of God and and pierce through the darkness and sin that exists in in this world are gonna be the heroic penitents. This is the name that describes these people that are on the journey of repentance. They're in teshuvah. They're dealing with their sins. They're taking their sins before Christ.

Wes: 11:07

And as you do and God helps you with those things, I might give the example of the apostle Paul. Three times he prayed for something that was really troubling him and couldn't shake it. The Lord said, I'm not gonna remove that because my grace is sufficient for that sin. And whatever your sin is, the grace of God is greater than your sin. Amen.

Wes: 11:38

Yes. His world was made through grace and mercy. From the foundation of the world, He he laid a plan of grace and mercy to reach each human being starting with Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, all the way down to us. You're hearing my voice and he he wants you to become one of those great ones that has overcome the sin and he says that the the main ingredient is the blood, the blood of the lamb. We can do nothing without the blood.

Wes: 12:18

The blood is the substance that cleanses us. It says the word of their testimony as you overcome something. Ever as I overcome came alcohol, I have a testimony that can reach out to all of those people that are addicted to alcohol, that the grace of God, the mercy of God can reach down and touch you. It can cleanse you. It can give you power to overcome sin.

Wes: 12:54

And not only you, but your testimony reaches out to other folks that can gain power looking at your testimony. Well, wow. He he overcame this thing and look at he's serving God and he's happy and he God has straightened his life around. And one poet said, we're not an island. We're we have connections with a whole lot of folks.

Wes: 13:24

And as we turn to Christ and as He transforms us, that that the resurrection of Christ, the Bible's just we just said He He overcame death, hell, and the grave. That that's the resurrection power. And we can have that resurrection power in us. It can transform us. It can take a cocaine addict, heroin addict, and make them into a great wonderful servant of God.

Wes: 13:56

So folks, there's hope. There's hope waiting for you. All you have to do is reach out. In Jesus' name, God bless you.