No Revival Without Repentance, Part 1

This week we learn about the second revival practice, which I call an ongoing repentance for relationship. If you're saying, “John, what in the world does that mean?” That's exactly what we're going to learn in our time together.

Ongoing means this is a way of life. Repentance, what does repentance mean? Well, repentance very simply is when you turn from your sin in order to turn back to God. And repentance happens at the moment of your salvation. If you're here today at any of our locations and you're not sure that you've been made right with God, you can repent today and ask Jesus to forgive your sins. That's why He died on the cross. We receive salvation, not by our good works, but by Jesus' work on the cross. And the way we receive that is by repenting, admitting, “God, I'm a sinner. And God, I turn to You, Jesus, I believe in Your work on the cross.”

Now, if you're here as a Christian, and you know, I know there's a time in life when I repented and believed. Here's the thing. You're going to learn today how repentance is something that you now do continually. Not to maintain your salvation, but in relationship with God. Just like a husband and a wife, one might wrong the other. And that doesn't mean they're immediately divorced. But there is strain in the relationship until there's an apology and a repentance and then the relationship is restored. And in the same way, God loves you unconditionally. After you've placed your faith in Jesus, your sins are forgiven. But if you wanna know the joy of walking with the Lord, the power of God at work in your life, you need to learn how to be repenting for relationship. “God, I love You more than the sins I've committed today or this last week or recently.” We're talking about relationship as a way of life.

When Adam and Eve, the first humans, sinned, they immediately hid in the garden. And there's something about shame that is irrefutable. Even if a person says, “I'm an atheist, I don't believe in God,” they will still experience shame because it is just a reality of our supernatural makeup. When you know you've wronged God or you know you've wronged another person, what can you do with your shame? What can you do with your regrets? What can you do with your failures?

Now, first and foremost, you come to Jesus for salvation. But if you're anything like me, after you received the free gift of salvation and all your sins have been paid for, past, present, and future, you still mess up and you still have to figure out, “What am I gonna do with my shame? What am I gonna do with my regret?” If you could leave here today knowing how to resolve your mistakes, would you wanna know how to?

Well, last week we looked at the revival story of young David, the shepherd, who took down Goliath, the ultimate fighting champion. And he did so because he was willing to urgently do everything he could do while depending on God. David was then blessed by God. It didn't mean his life was easy. He went through extreme struggle. King Saul, who was far from God at that time and really under judgment, King Saul sent soldiers to try to kill David. He runs for his life for a season. But eventually, God gives the throne to David and it begins a season of prosperity and freedom for the Jewish people, for the nation of Israel, for David himself.

And when David is at the peak of his success, he has a failure. Just like you, just like me, a time when he chose sin. In fact, he chose sin repeatedly. And the consequences of that sin multiplied. It was costing him. It was costing his family. It was even costing the kingdom, and the nation were starting to divide. And a prophet comes to David and says, “You've got to repent of your sin. Yes, God still loves you, but you're out of His blessing because you're living in sin.”

And David finally breaks down and repents. And when he does, he writes one of my favorite chapters of the Bible, Psalm 51. It's a chapter for whenever you've messed up and you say, “God, how do I make things right with You?” Go to Psalm 51 and just read it out loud as a prayer to God.

Here's David's Psalm of repentance. He says, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love. According to Your great compassion, God, blot out my transgressions or my sins. Wash away all my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. God, I know my transgressions, my errors, my evils.

My sin is always before me. Against You, God, and You alone have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.” So God, You are right in Your verdict that I'm guilty. You're justified when You judge. And then David just pleads with God, “Would You cleanse me that I will be clean? Would You wash me? That where I'm stained, I would be whiter than snow. Would You let me hear joy and gladness again? Let the bones that You have crushed under the consequences of my sin, let them rejoice again. God, hide Your face from my sins and blot out my iniquity.”

So what can you do with your shame, your regrets, your mistakes? Here's the answer. Bring your shame and regret to God. Bring it to God in repentance. Only God can wash you spiritually. Only God can restore you in the supernatural realm. There are certain things that only God can lift you up from. Return to God with your mistakes.

And here's the thing I want you to get today. Once you become a Christian, it doesn't mean you never do this again. It actually means you do this more and more and more as you get more attuned to God. And you realize throughout the day, “Oh, I was putting my trust in that. Oh, I lusted over that. Oh, I was greedy for that. Oh, I was looking to that person in a way that I should only be looking to You.” And you return to Him over and over again. And it creates a lifestyle not of shame and of guilt, but of freedom and joy.

You see, repentance in God's heart is not about shaming you. It's actually about absolving or erasing your shame and guilt so that you can be in joyful, unhindered relationship with God. Last week, we learned that revival is all about relationship. This week, we learned that revival begins with repentance.

You can study revivals in Scripture, Old and New Testament. You can study revivals throughout history, including the four great awakenings here in the United States. Every single revival has this in common. People at times weeping in repentance of their sin. And the revival doesn't stop there, it starts there. There may be weeping for a moment when you really realize, “Wow, God, I have not been prioritizing You in my life,” but joy comes in the morning after you confess that. There's never lasting revival without repentance. You see a group of people and everyone's worshiping passionately and they say revival's here, but there's not a spirit of repentance. It's not gonna last.

What is repentance? “God, I turn from my sin. I turn from anything I've been loving more than You and I choose You.” 1 John 1 verse 9 says this, Christians, followers of Jesus, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us.” From just some of your mistakes? No, from “all of your unrighteousness.” Every way you've fallen short. Do you wanna be forgiven? Do you wanna be cleansed? Would you like to be spotless in God's eyes?

Well, first and foremost, repent for your salvation. Now, after you've been saved, you initiate what I call ongoing repentance. And why is it ongoing repentance? It's for relationship. So this ongoing repentance, every day, at least every week, you should be, as a Christian, repenting to God of some things in your life that weren't the way He wanted you to do them. And the reason you're doing that is not to punish yourself. It's not to make yourself feel small. You're doing that because you want nothing between you and God in your practical dynamic relationship. When you start to repent as a way of life, it leads to a revived love for God. And this can become a theme in your life story.

At your memorial service, when people describe your life, would they say she was just a person who loved God so much? This can become a theme in your life story.

Well, I wanna share with you today three truths about this kind of repentance that leads to revival. Because I don't know about you, but when I hear the word repentance, I think of shame and guilt, and I kinda don't wanna think about repentance. Maybe you feel that way too.

So here's three things, we'll unpack these. First, you need to understand biblically when we talk about repentance, this is not about your perfection. This is about your relationship with God. When you view repentance through a lens of “am I perfect” or “am I falling short,” then it becomes very discouraging. But when you view repentance through a lens of “I want to be in right relationship with God at all times,” then it becomes a joyful thing.

Repentance, when it's done God's way, results in joy, not in shame. Now there will be shame for a moment when you really stare at your sin and confess it to God, but shame will be something you pass through to a destination of joy. Godly repentance doesn't end in shame. It might begin in shame, but it doesn't end there.

And then third, repentance, God's way, is about, “Now, God, I wanna go out and obey You.” The false idea of repentance is just, “I just need to avoid sin. I just need to avoid sin.” And can I just tell you, if all you try to do is avoid sin, you'll get really discouraged. But if instead you say, “God, I want to obey You in my life. I want to go and do what You tell me to do,” you'll find that as a result, you are avoiding a lot more sin. It's more of a positive mentality than a negative one.

Okay, first of these, repentance is about relationship, not perfection. In Hosea chapter 10, prophet Hosea says to the people of God, “Break up your fallow ground.” What in the world does that mean? Break up your fallow ground. It's time to seek the Lord again. Stop seeking wealth and pleasure and all these other things that God may reign His righteousness and His blessing upon you.

What is fallow ground? Well, let me give you a visual, a traffic obstacle that's very common here in Indiana. When we moved here, the first time this happened, Mel texted me. She said, “John, I have no idea what to do. There's a giant tractor taking up the entire road.” I said, “I guess just pull off to the side.” These combine tractors. Now this combine, if you look at the front, has a tiller implement on it. What does the tiller do?

This is the first task after the winter. After months of dark, short winter days like we're enduring right now, including gluts of snow and icy rain, the soil gets packed down, thick as concrete in some places. And the weight of the snow compacting it followed by the blazing sun of spring bakes that soil into a dried plaster, almost like a stucco on top. So when you see a farm field like this in the winter, what's happening, the soil is in the process of freezing and then even after it thaws out, it stays very crusty on the top. And if a farmer were to drop seeds on top of that soil, which is what fallow ground is, hard soil, the seeds, what would they do? They would bounce right off the top. It'd be like trying to plant seeds on a concrete sidewalk. There would be no crops to harvest because the seeds cannot get down into the soil.

And so these massive tractors dig their metal blades about two and a half feet deep in the soil. And then with great force, the tractors drive forward, pushing or pulling these tiller implements. And what are they doing? They're turning the soil over. They're breaking up the soil. In dry times, you'll see clouds of dust following these tiller tractors. The hard soil gets broken up. And then what happens? The tender soil beneath, the softer soil beneath gets pulled up to the top and exposed. And now the ground is ready to receive the seeds.

The soil in God's word is our heart. Your heart has a tendency, and mine does as well, to get hardened. Just like the farm fields, our natural tendency is to get consumed with the cares of this world. The busyness of our modern American lives, the nonstop distractions on our screens, the deceitfulness of riches — these bake our hearts like the sun, hardening them. And even though we don't intend it, our hearts get hard and you could hear the very best sermon or read the very best chapter of Scripture and it's just going to bounce right off until you break up the soil. How? Through repentance. This is why there's no lasting revival without repentance. Your heart has to get broken up. Your heart has to get tenderized. If you've ever tenderized meat, you know it's a fairly violent process.

Your heart has to become softened so that the truth of God can take root in you again. In our American lives, we're so afraid of any pain. There's no lasting revival without repentance and repentance does include some painful soul searching and self-evaluation. But here's the thing, there's no growth in life without pain. Look at IU football and what they're doing right now. I guarantee you when those guys train, their muscles burn and they have pain. You want greatness in your life? You gotta choose pain at times. And if you wanna grow spiritually, there's times where you gotta say, “Lord, if I'm honest, I've become apathetic. My heart has become hard. God, I invite You to break up my heart.” That's a risky prayer. I prayed that prayer all summer long and there were moments where I said, “God, I don't wanna keep praying this prayer. This hurts.” But what followed has been a season of joy and passion and power and revival that have been totally worth it.

2 Corinthians 7 says this, “The sorrow that is according to the will of God.” Did you hear that? There is sorrow in your life that is according to the will of God. It's sorrow that would lead you to repent. Because when you repent, then you get through the bad. And then you look back on a life of no regrets. And of course, repentance is also what leads us to salvation. “On the other hand, the sorrow of the world just produces death.” One way of interpreting this verse would be this: there will be sorrow and regret in your life either way. Whether you're a Christian or not, whether you're repenting or not, you're gonna do things you regret. You're gonna have shame. You're gonna have sorrow. What are you gonna do with them? It's your choice. If you will allow your sorrow to move you to repentance, it will lead to a life of no regrets. And of course, repentance leads to salvation. On the other hand, if in your sorrow you refuse God, in your shame you refuse God, then according to this passage, it leads to death.

Psalm 30 verse 5 says this, “God's anger lasts only a moment.” When you do the wrong thing and you know you're choosing sin, God has a right to be angry. And He is for a moment, but “His favor lasts a lifetime.” Jesus on the cross absorbed all the anger, all the consequences of our sins so that you don't have to live under that. Repent for your salvation, but then repent daily to clean up your relationship with God. “Weeping may last for a night.” And I experienced that. There will be some moments where you've got to choose, do I really want God to break up my heart? And can I just tell you, as someone who went through it, it's worth it. “There may be weeping for the night, but rejoicing follows in the morning.” God's heart is to be in loving relationship with you. He invites you to break up the heart and soil of your life, and your heart, because joyful relationship follows.

And that's the second thing. Repentance ends in joy, not in shame. If you just associate — maybe as you began this message, when you hear the word repentance, you just thought of shame and guilt and self-condemnation. No, no, repentance is all about God — you admitting what's wrong, receiving what Christ did on the cross, and then Him washing those things away. Repentance might lead through shame, but shame is not the destination. If you will let God break up the hard soil of your heart, sorrow will not be your destination.

Well, what happens if Christians who are saved by grace choose to say, “Hey, my sins are forgiven. My place in heaven is secure. I'm not gonna repent as a lifestyle. It's too dirty. It's too self-condemning. I don't ever wanna repent.” Well, when repentance is not part of your daily life, here's what will happen. You will stop experiencing God's power in your life. This is not because God stopped loving you. It's because the joy and the life of a dynamic relationship with God have gotten blocked by what? By your own sin. They've gotten clogged.

Here's a great visual of it. If you've ever used a bathroom sink and you turn the water on and it's just not going down the drain fast enough, this is what's happening underneath the sink. Sink has that little curve there and it fills up with debris, all sorts of gross stuff, hair and slimy stuff.

And at first, as the debris builds up, the water can still pass through. But eventually enough debris adds up and the water can no longer pass through. Sin does the same thing in your dynamic relationship with God.

I don't personally believe that you can lose your salvation. Some Christians do. I don't believe when sin clogs up like that, that you lose your salvation, but you do lose your joy. You do lose the ability to hear God's whisper. You do lose the ability to sense His presence. You do lose His dynamic power in your life.

Sometimes the sin blockage is an obvious thing and you know exactly what it is. You know it's lust or you know it's greed or you know it's unforgiveness or you know it's lying and dishonesty. Other times the sin is more subtle. Sins of idolatry. What's idolatry? It's when we worship any other thing. Now there are good things in your life that God gave you to enjoy, but you're not to worship them. For example, your spouse, your kids, your grandkids. If you're not careful, you can love them so much that you start to worship them and you actually look to them and value them more than you love God. Now there's nothing wrong with loving them, but there is something wrong with worshiping them. And that's a sin that can clog up our relationship with God.

Unconfessed sin of any kind blocks our ability to have a flow between us and God of His love, His direction, His voice. It's like cholesterol in an artery. It's like hair and gunk in a drain. And as a result, then what happens, your love for God's word starts to grow cold. Why? Because your heart is getting hard and the passages are bouncing off. So why read it? And as your heart grows cold and your love for His word grows cold, it often leads to a cycle of more sin and less God because you start to miss out on the joyful relationship you used to have with God and you start to fill it other ways.

And before we know it, God feels very far away and distant. And we still believe all the things about God and we know He loves us unconditionally, but we don't feel the things anymore. And the reason is not that God has changed or gone away, but the relationship is strained by unconfessed things. Whenever a Christian drifts away from God, they just stop attending church. They stop reading their Bible. They stop really living their faith. They become apathetic and cold hearted. It always begins with unconfessed sin of some kind. And then that strains the personal relationship. Unconfessed sin is the first step in growing cold and apathetic.

Now the flip side of that is when you confess your sin, it's like clearing out the drain. Saying, “God, here's the things I know about that are clogging the drain. There's even other stuff I'm not aware of. I wanna confess it all to You. I wanna love You more than my desires, more than these other things. I choose You.” And what did we learn in 1 John 1, verse 9? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

In your own life, learn to run to Jesus when you sin. This is the irony. Adam and Eve, when they sinned, they ran away from Him. And there's still part of our old fallen nature that when we sin, we wanna run away from God. Through Jesus, you can run to God. Guess what? Before you were born, He already knew every sin you'd ever commit. And Jesus has already paid for it. He's not surprised when you sin. We're more surprised when we sin than He is. He's waiting for you to return through the work of Jesus on the cross.

And so if you've ever heard this phrase, church, “Keep short accounts.” It means when you sin, don't go days or weeks or months, run right back to God. This will keep the flow of His peace, His joy, His power, unhindered and unblocked in your life. You see, repentance is not about shaming yourself. It's about continually telling God, “God, when I did that, I was choosing to love that or love myself or worship that person or worship that pleasure or worship those resources. I confess that. I worship You again. I love You more than that distraction or that sin.”

Does God still love you when you've sinned and you don't repent? Of course He does. Jeremiah 31 verse 3 says that “God has loved you with an everlasting love.” Romans 8 verse 39 says that “nothing” — and God lists out everything you can think of — “will ever be able to separate you from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus.”

So God does not stop loving you when you don't confess your sin. Those are powerful promises. But can I give you my spiritual opinion after studying revival for the last year in scripture and in history? I believe in American Christianity today, in the American church today, many believers misunderstand these promises that nothing will separate you from the love of God. And they take it as, “Well, then I never need to repent or confess anything again.” Quite the opposite. The more you love God and understand His love, the quicker you will be to repent. Not because you have to and not because you might lose your salvation, but because you want to reconcile the relationship with the God that you love.

Ongoing repentance as a lifestyle is a hallmark of a mature Christian. You might have an inverted idea of this. You might think, “Man, if I was having to repent all the time, that would mean I'm a bad Christian.” Nope, it actually means you're very sensitive. You're sensitive to the word of God and the spirit of God and your heart is not hardened.

I mean, I've been obsessive about following Jesus for about 20 years now and I have a very obsessive personality. And I've spent the last eight months on this revival stuff. I mean, every day it consumes me. And can I tell you, there's not a day that goes by, as I've allowed God to break up my heart, that I don't realize at some moment, “Oh, I was putting my trust in that person. I was looking to those resources.” And here's what happens. When I return to the Father, it creates emotional intimacy with God because I know He loves me anyway. And I'm reminded that, yeah, I do fall really short. Thank You, Jesus, that You did this work on the cross. And you realize repentance becomes a gateway to emotional intimacy with God. It's not about shame.

You say, “John, what's your scriptural support for this statement?” Well, how about this? Jesus said, here's how to pray every day, the Lord's Prayer. “Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who've sinned against us.” So Jesus, not me, Jesus assumes you're gonna sin more than once every day of your life. Sorry to break it to you.

John, the disciple who Jesus loved, the disciple who was leaned up against Jesus' chest at the Last Supper, who was in the inner three of Jesus' inner circle. John, who probably loved Jesus more than any of the other disciples, and I would guess more than you or me, he's the one who wrote in 1 John 1, “If anyone claims that they're without sin, they're lying.” He's writing from personal experience. Again, if it was all about us, that'd be pretty depressing, wouldn't it? But our salvation doesn't depend on us. It just depends on us being humble enough to say, “God, I need a perfect Savior to forgive this sinful servant.”

David lived this out. Psalm 51 verse 12, the Psalm of repentance that we started with. David says to God, “Would You restore to me the joy of my salvation? God, I've been living in sin. I've looked to every other thing that could fulfill me and it has been empty and it has been soul crushing and I'm repenting. Would You cleanse me and God restore my spiritual vigor?” And then what is the result of that? Repentance restores joy and then makes me willing to obey You. Repentance leads to obedience.

I asked earlier, what would the summary of your life be at your memorial service? They say, “She was this,” or “he was that,” or “he was always this,” or “she was always that.” Could you imagine God Himself summarizing your life? And according to God, the summary is, “He was a man after My own heart. She was a woman after My own heart.”

David, the sinner, who sinned in some pretty spectacular ways and wrote the chapter on confessing sin in Scripture. How does God describe David in Acts chapter 13? God testifies concerning David the sinner. He really sinned and messed up and — let's all define him by that for eternity? No, no, that's not how God defines David. God's aware of David's sin, but what was the pattern of David's life? What was the trajectory? What was the theme of David's life? It wasn't sin. It was that he loved God, and God says of David, “I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after My own heart.” This is the heart of revival, to love the Lord your God with all your heart. “God, help me love You more.

Make me a man or a woman of God that, God, it would be true of me. At the end of my life, she was a woman after God's own heart. He was a man after God's own heart.” And what does that mean? It means that you will do everything God wants you to do. It doesn't say perfectly, but consistently. None of us will do it perfectly. You gotta let that go. But you do get to decide if you're gonna do it consistently. David's life trajectory was of consistent obedience, motivated not out of self-righteous perfectionism, but out of love for God.

And that's the third truth about repentance that leads to revival. Repentance is about going out to obey God. I break up the soil of my heart and I invite you to break it up through confession, through repentance. That's gonna require time. You're gonna have to sit down and reflect, “God, where have I not been living out Your word?” Some you'll know right away. Others, the Spirit will reveal to you over time. “God, break up my heart, make it tender again. And then as Your word, the seeds of Your word, get back into my heart, I will go and obey whatever You show me to do.”

If you just try to not sin, you will drive yourself bonkers. You've got to replace the sin in your life with doing what is good, doing what is right. Make it your heart motive to serve and obey God as a way of life. And as you get busy doing the right things, sin will gradually become less and less appealing and eventually repulsive.

If God had to choose between a self-centered rule-keeping perfectionist or an eager but flawed servant who messes up but is very loving, which would God choose? Well, we don't have to wonder, because the Pharisees were exactly that — self-centered, rule-keeping, knew every verse of the Bible. It was all about their righteousness, their perfection. And He didn't invite any of them to be His disciples. He loved them, but their hearts were hard. Who did He invite? Peter, who messed up all the time, but had this heart of love for God. He wasn't perfect, but he was faithful. God chooses the eager, loving servant who isn't perfect. The story, Luke 15, of the prodigal son who messes up — the Father loves.

I wanna tell you a story of Peter's spectacular failure. When Jesus was being crucified, Peter denied Jesus three times. Now it's one thing to have the most spectacular sin of your life. It's even worse if Jesus tells you, “Hey, here's how you're gonna sin in the next 12 hours.” And you say, “No, no, I'd never do that.” And then you do. And Peter is swearing like a sailor, telling people he has nothing to do with Jesus.

And then after Jesus is crucified, Peter is broken. He has so much shame, so much regret. The disciples, most of them were fishermen, and they go back to fishing. One day they have their nets out and they're not catching anything. And a silhouette on the shore yells out over the water, “Cast your nets on the other side.” They do. And immediately the nets fill up with fish and they remember, “Oh, the last time that happened — oh my goodness, it's Jesus.” And they rush to the shore and Peter loves Jesus so much he can't get to Him fast enough.

And then what follows is a painful moment of repentance. Jesus doesn't say, “Hey, Peter, no big deal. Don't worry about it. Not a problem that you denied Me.” He doesn't say that. Jesus has already died for Peter's sins. But Jesus looks Peter in the eyes and He says, “Peter, do you actually love Me more than all these people who you wanted their approval?” Peter says, “Lord, You know I do.” Jesus says, “Then go feed My sheep. Obey Me. If you love Me, obey Me. Go out and do My work.” Then Jesus asks him a second time. Peter, with tears in his eyes, “God, Jesus, You know I love You. You're Lord.” Then Jesus asks him a third time — in their culture, to do anything three times was very symbolic, very thorough, very meaningful. And what it meant was this: hint of Peter, you don't love Me as much as you think you love Me. And Peter, in tears, says, “Jesus, You know everything.” Essentially, You know I'm flawed, You know I'm imperfect, but You know I do love You. And then what does Jesus say? “Go feed My sheep.”

What did Peter then do? He went and built the New Testament church. Repentance leads to obedience. God did not bring revival through any of the Pharisees who were self-perfect.

[35:04] God brought revival through an imperfect disciple who with his whole heart was honest about his many failures. And to emphasize that contrast, this moment where Jesus is waiting on the seashore — that entire story I told — Jesus is standing there next to a fire, He's already cooked a fish breakfast, the guys are trying to catch fish, and Jesus has that whole conversation. Jesus doesn't berate Peter for not being perfect, but He essentially goes back to the heart: “Do you love Me?” Now that question from God, “Do you really love Me more than your mistakes?” — that is the crux of repentance.

What if your greatest sin struggle became your greatest opportunity to experience the relational, unconditional love of God? Because instead of distancing yourself from God, you started to bring it to Him every day, every mistake, and you bring it to Him over and over again. Do you realize every failure is an opportunity for you to choose God again? And what does Satan, the enemy of your soul, want? He wants that when you fail, you run away from God. What does God want? That when you fail, you run to Him and you just be honest about your shortcoming and you receive His grace and you live in unbroken relationship with Him.

In my life, I've learned this. Because my imperfections are so many, I get to make this choice for God over and over again. We run to God with our mistakes because His unconditional love is bigger than our failures. If you don't believe that His unconditional love is bigger than your failures, you won't run to Him. You also run to Him with your failures because the joy of a restored relationship is more powerful than the guilt and shame of the alternative, which is to hide and isolate. And once you're in broken relationship with God, you're gonna want to be away from His people because they're gonna remind you of what you're missing out on.

Well, what happens after Peter repents for relationship? That repentance was all about relationship. Before Peter became the spokesperson for God's revival in the book of Acts, I would argue the most significant revival in human history, it started the New Testament church. Peter's final recorded interaction with Jesus is one of repentance for reconciliation and restored relationship, ongoing repentance. When it's part of your daily habit, you're making sure there's nothing between you and God. What does that lead to?

These benefits, I won't unpack them, but if you'll start to live this way, you're gonna have a revived love for God. You're gonna have joyful friendship with God. You're gonna start to overcome evil in your own life and be used by God to overcome evil in the world. You're gonna start helping others spiritually and you're gonna experience God's power.

I'll close with this story of one of my three kids. I'm gonna keep the child anonymous. It involves a cell phone and texting, which will not surprise our parents of other teenagers in this room. And the way the story goes is that one day I got home and this child of mine was on their phone texting and Mel, my wife, was asking them to do chores and they're just totally ignoring her, completely ignoring. So then I say, “Hey, are you gonna put your phone down and listen to your mom or not?” And this child of mine said, “Would you just shut up?” Yeah, right, that was my response too. I thought, you know, maybe in some families, but not here.

And here's the thing, I actually have a very tender relationship with that child of mine. We love each other deeply and it's very out of character for that kind of disrespect from that child toward me. And this might sound wimpy, but it really hurt me deeply because we're so close emotionally. It hurt me. It wouldn't hurt me if a stranger said it, but it hurt me because we love and trust each other so much.

Now, did I still love that child of mine after those harsh words? Yes. Does your Father in heaven still love you after you sin? Yes. However, was my relationship practically in that moment, was it strained? Yes. It was strained.

It was strained and it was choked, and thankfully it didn't end there. About 15 minutes later, that child of mine found me and in the most tender way looked into my eyes and said, “Dad, I'm sorry. I was in the middle of something important. My brain was just trying to finish the thought. What I was trying to say is just give me a second, but that's no excuse. I love you and I shouldn't have told you to shut up.” In that moment, what happened? Our relationship practically was restored. My love never faltered, but our relationship was restored.

This is the kind of intimacy that God wants with you every day. His love for you doesn't change, but your sin, it does strain the relationship. I would have still died to protect that child. I would have still provided for that child, but the relationship was strained and it needed to be reconciled. This is what you're gonna learn this week in your 40 days devotional, learning how to daily live in ongoing reconciliation with God so that He's your closest friend. And so that the joy and the love and the power that you've been missing out on, surge back into your life.

This is not a picture of me or one of my kids. It's just a random picture from the internet. But I just want you to see that as a visual. Because then that child of mine, we went on a walk and we talked about their day, and we connected. And my heart toward them wasn't, “Well, you've fallen short, get away from me.” It was, “Let's make this right and be as close as possible.” This is the heart of the Father toward you.