Repentance

1:10 are so far beyond ours. Teach us just to humble ourselves before you. Thank you for letting us come into your presence this morning. What an honor. God, I just believe your spirit has already started something so powerful, Lord. And I just don't want to dare take over in the flesh. God, please keep me from doing that. May your spirit lead this morning. Your Holy Spirit, God, we're stupid without you. We're just mindless, God. Our brains, our flesh, our sin, God. we're prone to wander Lord guard my lips yes God may I say nothing God make this a morning where nothing is contrary to your scriptures yes God God we want to please you please help us show us how to please you by the way we speak and the way we listen right now God may we simply obey by the way I speak the way they listen God may it all be obedience. May it all be an act of worship right now, Father, because you are so worthy.

2:18 You're the only one who is worthy. You're so good, Father. Praise you, Jesus. Praise you. Hallelujah. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You know, before Andy walked up at the end of worship, I just kept saying to God, I'm going, God, I'm so messed up right now. I'm so messed up. Those were the exact words. I'm so messed up. Then he walks up here and says the same thing. Like, you guys, I don't do this.

3:13 This isn't normal for me. I just want to do anything he tells me to do. Like anything. Even before I got here, I mean, even when I got off the plane, I was talking to Andy, like something was happening, and it's weird. I can't, those of you who've never heard me go, oh, is this how he starts all his talks? No, I don't. This is weird. When I got here this morning, I get over here to the seat and...

4:09 I could have sworn God said something to me. But you've got to understand, I don't come from a background where God says stuff to you. That's just not where I came from. In fact, we did everything to speak against that. and so whenever I, and there have been a few times where I felt like I've heard the word of the Lord, thank you, but I'm always very careful.

4:45 I'm always very careful, the Bible says, to test the spirits because Satan can whisper in your ear. You make up stuff in your own head, and so you test the spirits. You have to know this book, okay? bottom line you have to know this book otherwise you can't discern whether those voices are from god or not that's why we have to be students of this book in our church man every we expect every single person in our church to read through this book every year so we read the same passages every day this morning we're all reading through ezekiel you know verses you know chapters 28 to 30 like like we want to be people who know the word of god so when we feel like we heard something from the lord we can actually test it unlike the corinthians that were saying things like jesus is cursed you know they oh god just told me that jesus is cursed and paul's like you don't say that by the spirit of god you don't just say whatever and say god told you that and so i'm very careful very cautious and there only been a few times in my life where i i thought maybe maybe that was God. 99.9% of the time when I believe God's spoken to me, it's because it's from his word. I'm reading and go, oh my gosh, how come no one says this? You know, I never saw it. It is so clear. It's so obvious, simple obedience, man, that, that's what changes everything you know and I'm just going to say, here's what I felt like God said to me as I was walking up here to my seat.

6:29 Just three words. protect my sheep. Protect my sheep. These are my children, Francis. Protect them. protect them. protect them from nice people who attend church services that are going to try to talk you out of living your life for Jesus. Seriously. This is so my heart. I just want to be like a dad to you in some ways. You know, like you're my own kids and go, man, don't do it.

7:30 Don't go for it. You know, don't waste your life. Man, a lot of you guys know like 10 years ago, almost to the day, 10 years ago, I finished writing a book called Crazy Love. and the reason why I wrote that book was not for it to be a bestseller. I wrote this book because I just kept writing down these thoughts of mine, you know, growing up in the church and I would read the Bible and then I'd look around at my church and I'd be like, these are two totally different things. There's such a gap from what I'm reading in this book and what I'm seeing around me and it was driving me nuts and everyone else seemed happy. And whenever I bring something up, like, gosh, it doesn't seem like what Jesus actually said. You know, and then just the commitment level, the dying to yourself.

8:23 Whenever I brought something, I was just made to feel like I'm stupid, like I'm crazy. And I just felt so alone. And so I wrote the words thinking, you know what, if I feel this way, I bet you there's other people that feel the same way. And I could have sworn I'm reading this book and go, no, what I'm reading is obvious. I don't think I'm interpreting things in a very strange or obscure way. I'm just simply reading the Bible. And I'm going, how are people coming up with a different understanding of this? I just feel like my eight-year-old, my 10-year-old could figure this out. Like it seemed very obvious, very simple. And yet I'd look around, everyone just seemed like I was the crazy one. and I thought man I wonder how many people feel like this sitting in the church and reading the scriptures and going something is so off and I just wanted to encourage that small pocket of people that felt that way, that maybe just at times felt alone, and I just wanted to encourage them and go, no, I think we're right, and I think everyone else is crazy.

9:38 I really do. That's all I wanted to do was encourage a small group and tell them, no, I know what you've been thinking because I've thought that too, and we're right. Jesus is worth it and if we lose this life man we are going to gain so much and we're going to experience him and it's going to be so worth it don't listen to those voices and so when millions of people start buying the book and nodding their head you think oh man that's a maybe it's a blessing maybe not because I feel like what happened was a lot of people intellectually were going yeah yeah I agree I agree I agree but where was the repentance you know it didn't result in repentance. It didn't change. And I really feel like a lot of you have read the scriptures, and you know exactly what I'm talking about.

10:32 And you're here today because you feel a lot of those same things. And you actually did something like, I got to get out. I don't know. I'm just so messed up right now. I'm reading the scriptures. I'm seeing what Jesus called us to. and I just can't stay here. I can't stay in the status quo. It's not the location. There's just something of maybe a time where you just need to be fed and strengthened and have some people speak into your life and say, no, you're actually right. These feelings you've been feeling and these thoughts you've thought when you've read the scriptures, there's no other way to interpret it. It's a tough life. It's us just saying, you know what? We're giving it all up because he's so worth it. and agree with you. Man, I just... I do have like this father or shepherd's heart right now for you because. I don't want you to go back home and get lost and just kind of concede and go, well, I guess everyone else is telling me it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, so maybe I'll just get married, have kids, and play with them, you know, and try to get them to not swear and go to youth group.

11:57 And I just don't want you to give in to that. there's so much more. There's so much more of an adventure. You know, I was just thinking about my wife as I was sitting here. I was like, oh, I wish Lisa was here and we could just adopt you all and just go, no, don't, don't, don't. We'll be your parents. You know, we'll be your church. We'll be, you know, like there's just like this heart. And I feel like that's what God is saying. Like protect my children. Protect my sheep. treat them like your kids and as i was sitting there thinking god is this you i've been praying that you would speak to me i've been praying that you would lead me but i'm still got these doubts and the guy next to me i forgot your name brian taps me on the shoulder as i'm in prayer like why would you even interrupt me okay but and uh but he did Thank you.

12:57 and he says to me Francis you're home this is your family these are your children they speak your language they have your DNA and I just didn't even respond you know I just not because I was mad that you interrupted but you really shouldn't do that but town I just stood there with ugly face crying like Andy was saying and just going, God, are you kidding me? What are you saying? even before i got here i was kind of messed up already because there's this there's this passage that i've been meditating on in first corinthians and i've read this so many times i'm going god i want to live this i want to live it i want to i want to be it i want to experience it please And it's 1 Corinthians 2.

14:09 In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1, he says, When I came to you, brothers, when I came to you brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of god This has been on my mind so much.

15:06 I'm going, God, I don't know how to do this. Like, how do I come before a crowd in weakness and in fear and in much trembling? You guys, I've been doing this for the last 30 years I've been preaching. I can't even tell how many thousands of times I've gone in front of a crowd and just started speaking. It's like sleeping or eating. It's just, it's so natural.

15:43 And then I read this and I'm just like, okay, what does it mean to come with trembling? How do I come before a crowd in weakness, in fear, and in trembling? how do you get in front of a crowd when they actually flew you over there and they're all excited to have you there because some gift you have how do you then show up in weakness and fear in trembling shouldn't I come here with like a confidence man I got a message for you you know shouldn't I have something prepared that's just airtight like bring my best stuff and just throw it on there and jump on the plane and go okay I did my job but to come in weakness and fear and trembling I'm just going God what does that even look like what does it look like to preach humbly.

16:41 I've been wrestling with this. That's why even a few weeks ago, I don't know who follows my podcast, but I'm reading this stuff, and I'm going, I don't know how to record a video. I don't know how to record a podcast humbly. So I'm just going to stop. So my podcast just kind of cut off. I was like, where'd he go? I just, I'm not gonna do it. If I can't do it humbly, I don't wanna do it. And to get in front of a camera and look at the guy, hey, here's what you, you know, it's like, man, there's too much flesh, too much flesh. Like, I want to understand this because I don't want people's faith to rest in a speech or in a person or go, man, I follow that guy because the way he speaks and these words and everything else.

17:41 Then you build up this gathering and then suddenly you leave and then people leave. why because it was built upon a style of communication or something like that or a personality or was it about a demonstration of the spirit's power it's like god is there a way god like right now that i could just be emptied of everything francis and be filled with your spirit and just speak your words god Thank you. When I prayed about what passage, is there a verse that we're supposed to focus on for these next couple of days?

18:35 The verse that comes to mind is Isaiah 66, verse 2. Isaiah 66 2 where it says but this is the one to whom I will look he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word this is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. now i know a lot of you are here you have dreams of god doing something through you man you want to you want to go into some lost people group and just learn their language learn their culture get into their lives and tell them what jesus has done in your life and you want to see a church planted you want to see disciples made you want to see the scriptures translated You want to see individuals falling in love with God.

19:41 And you want to see those individuals in this unreached people group, just these individuals alone with God every morning in the Word, just worshiping Him and saying, God, you are so worth it, you are so worth it, you are so worth it. You have this desire to do something with your life that's actually eternal. man I think we're here for that same reason we all want to do something like that we all want to be that vessel and God says well here's the one I am going to look to the eyes of the Lord are roaming to and fro throughout the earth to see whose heart are completely his why he wants to give power to them and God says here's the one I'm going to look to Isaiah 66 too who's humble who's contrite in spirit?

20:40 who trembles at my word. who trembles at my word. That's why, I mean, do you even know his word? Do you even read his word? Were you up early this morning in his word? God says, here's the one I'm going to look to, the one who just trembles. He goes, whoa, that came from God. I just believe we're in a time right now where we don't need any more clever sermons. we just need more trembling are you only going to obey if I present the word just right or can I just read it and you go God said that Like, what do you need from me right now? I just read Isaiah 66 too.

21:37 That's from God. He says, I'm looking around. Who's lowly and contrite in spirit? Who trembles at my word? What more do you need than that? It's like, oh, God, then I want to humble myself before you. If your word says something, I want to do it. Another passage that came to me during worship. I don't know how far I'll get in this, but 2 Timothy 3. God pointed something out that I feel like I'm supposed to address this morning.

22:30 So I'm just going to go for it. 2 Timothy 3 verse 1 says, Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power avoid such people okay paul is writing to timothy here and he's not talking about the world he's talking about the church here he's not addressing atheists he says these people they have some sort of appearance of godliness but they deny its power these are not people that don't believe in godliness don't believe in god but much like the demons they believe there's a god but he says be careful of these people because they're not really lovers of god they're really lovers of pleasure and paul's saying you know in the end times it's going to get terrible the last days are going to come terrible times not because the world is going to be in sin the world has always been in sin the problem is how much that sin has crept into the church in the last days and people who attend these gatherings and call it church he says there's going to come a very very difficult time because people are going to be the first thing he says lovers of self

24:37 false wildzam ЖДЛ might not be tested for yourself but there's truth in it regardless the thought that came to my mind is all of your Facebook accounts. Okay? Now, the Bible says in the last days, people will be lovers of self. Now... we don't, for some reason, we think it's normal for everyone to make a page about themselves.

25:41 Okay? Well, of course, everyone does it. And we think it's right to put all the best pictures of ourselves, all the best things about ourselves, to get the approval of other people. It doesn't creep into the church. people can be lovers of themselves. Oh, I love that picture of me. I'm going to post it.

26:05 I love what I just accomplished. Let me tell everyone what I just did. I want you to just picture your Facebook page right now. and if I were to look at it right now would I say it brought glory to you or to God does it bring attention to Jesus or to you are you boasting about him or boasting in yourself you guys I believe there needs to be a time of repentance about this, seriously, of just looking and going, does this lift me up? Because I believe we've fallen into a trap. Everyone just saying, oh, of course, of course.

26:57 What am I going to do? Put ugly pictures of myself? Yeah. What am I going to do? Tell everyone how I messed up? Yeah. And how Jesus saved a wretch like you. You know? like could it be that we've become lovers of ourself and it's crept into the church and it's perfectly normal and expected that all of us make a page to ourselves and make ourselves look as good as we can I'm just saying test it with scripture okay think through scripture and what it teaches us I mean if we want to be the people that God looks to who does he look to? The one who's lowly and contrite in spirit and trembles at his word if God's going through Facebook right now and going who should I look to my eyes are roaming throughout Facebook to see whose heart is truly mine would he stop on your page?

28:07 or do we need a time of repentance? You know what, God? I draw a lot of attention to myself. Am I this? There's going to be terrible times in the last days because people will become lovers of self. lovers of money why do we love money? because we love ourselves it's like wow if I have money who else am I going to spend it on?

28:41 me it's the root of all of this why are we proud? they're lovers of money they're proud why? because we love ourselves all of this comes from the same thing why do we get abusive toward others? Why are we arrogant? Because we love ourselves. Why are we disobedient to parents? Because it's not about them. It's about me. I don't love them. I love me. Why do we rebel against authority? Because we love ourselves. And we think so highly of ourselves that we always think whatever. We just start believing everything that comes out of our own minds. You believe everything you think. Rather than going to the scriptures. Rather than going to the elders. Rather than going to leaders who love you and know the word of God. still become ungrateful.

29:41 be a grateful person man the bible says the spirit filled person is just thanking god continuously for everything in christ jesus he just wakes up going man god i can't believe i know you i can't believe i'm in your presence right now i can't believe you let me talk to you gosh i'm breathing i can't believe I'm here in Kona with people who are like, this is insane, Jesus.

30:11 And even through the trials, going, gosh, God, your word says to count it all joy when I'm surrounded by trials. Man, are you a grateful person just always thanking God? Or are you that person that's just always looking at the negative and saying what's wrong with everyone else? We're just going, God, life is good. Life is so good. I've been thanking God so much lately. Just everything, my upbringing. God, I'm so grateful. Even that my parents died at such a young age. You know, so I could grow up without parents and you would be my dad. That was such a good thing when everyone else had their nice, like you and I were connecting when everyone else was just having family time. Like, you and I were having this family time, and you and I got so close, and you got me thinking about how life can end at any second and to live for eternity.

31:15 Thank you. Thank you for all the trials. They were all good things. Thank you for every girl that broke up with me. You know, thank you for, you know, all the times I wept over this, this, this. Thank you, thank you, thank you. but he says in the church you're going to become ungrateful unholy Cross Beijing when that worship started, I mean, I was just in tears. The words, I don't know who wrote those songs, but I agree, it's the same. I'm like, oh my gosh. This first time I've noticed, I think I have the album too, and I never really, sometimes you know you just listen. Okay, you don't really think through the words. And every word this morning, I'm going, oh my gosh, this is so beautiful. This is so right. It's so simple. It's so good. Just simple obedience.

32:28 simple obedience. But the thought came to my mind was like, okay, we're all fired up here. There's so much passion for Jesus, which I love, but I got to ask, like, are there things hidden in your life to where, yes, outwardly, you're honoring with your lips, but think of what we're singing, simple obedience. that you can come here screaming, crying, emotional, but have you repented?

33:05 I know some of you come here addicted to pornography. I know some of you are here maybe as a little reprieve from a sexual relationship you're in. I know some of you are here and there's still so much anger towards people back home.

33:26 Some of you are here with some anger towards God, like he did something wrong to you or wronged you in some way. I'm sure there's people here that are addicted to alcohol or some sort of drug. and no one knows and you're here, you can fit in, you can blend in and everything else and what is it that keeps you from being honest about it? It's pride that's all it is, why else wouldn't you share it? It'll make you look bad and so you'll sing simple obedience, you know, but what's really going, do you think God cares how loud you sing, how much you cry, he wants us to change, and I've been in gatherings like this, where, and I'm not saying this to everyone, I just know, I know, man, you're not looking at someone who lived a perfect life, you're looking at someone who started in ministry and had to stand in front of his youth group and go I'm not who you think I am you're looking at a guy that had to step down out of youth ministry and wait tables because of the sin in his life that whenever I would hear a message like this, which was rare, but when someone would point that out and my eyes would see, they'd go, oh my gosh, do they know?

35:09 And every time someone says, hey, can I talk to you, your heart starts pounding like, oh shoot, do they know? Because there's this wall, this pride that you don't want them to know who you truly are. it's the most embarrassing, humiliating time in my life. I had no idea God was going to use that to set the course for the next 25 years. You know? Where I'm waiting tables, and God's saying, is that not enough for you? Is it not enough? Do you have to be Francis, the youth pastor, Francis, the youth speaker? Is it not enough to be a child of God waiting tables?

35:52 Where's the honor? What are you honored by? man, I'm not here trying to judge anyone. I'm trying to protect God's children from a life of deception and lack of peace and saying, man, I can think of no better thing to do to start off our time than by repenting. Because what's the point? What's the point? if that cup of yours is just full of all sorts of junk, why would we pour coffee in it? you know, I think this is what God wants us to do, is let's not waste any time. I know it's just to get emotional for a week or so and then have a, you know, altar call where I tell some story about some kid who confessed something and then you move.

36:54 But we're talking about the spirit of God here that needs no time, no warm-up, no special music, right? In fact, I don't even want to suggest what God might put on your heart right now. I just think it's time to humble ourselves. And, um... I'll, I'll, I'll. I'll even confess some things right now that I feel like God wants me to say that I really don't want to say.

37:57 But, you know, even yesterday... just at the beach, you know, with my daughter. noticing some women and the way they looked. There is lust in my heart. confessing it before God, saying, I don't want to be that guy. How long have I known you, and I'm still, my eyes are wandering, and now I'm going to go speak in front of a bunch of people?

38:48 I'm married, I've got seven kids, and I'm looking at someone else with lust? You say that's adultery. God, I don't want any of that. I don't want any of it. I want to be pure. I want to be right. man it's it's just a lifetime of just fighting everything in the flesh and I can tell you I've been faithful, at least physically, to my wife for 23 years, but that temptation, it's there.

39:37 I even remember my wife asking me when we first got married, she goes, Francis, will you just promise me you will never cheat on me? and I said honey I can't promise that in no way do I want to and I don't think I ever will but to promise that I almost am concerned I would let down my guard and just go yeah it's impossible it'll never happen rather than living each day going no it could happen so you better be on guard and never put yourself in that type of situation, you know?

40:21 And it was just a week ago that she brought that up again. And she goes, I still don't like that answer. She goes, I get it, but I still wish you would just promise. I go, I know it's getting a lot easier, you know, but I still, I just want to live every day knowing there's an enemy out there that's trying to take me down and to just confess and lay down my pride. And I'm sorry if that lets you down, that there's a spiritual leader up there.

40:55 I just think it's time to just not care about this stuff and just say, Lord, I want to be used by you.