Leading The Way

Guest (Male): Welcome to Leading the Way with long-time pastor and author of more than 50 books, Dr. Michael Youssef.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Hello friends. You are watching it on the news night after night: the rise of Islamization and Islam's taking places of leadership both in the United States and in Europe, Australia, and elsewhere. I sought to write a book to explain to you the unholy alliance between the left and the Islamization, how they invited the Islamic invasion. Get my new book, *An Unholy Alliance*. It's going to open your eyes and give you practical ways to make a difference for Christ.

Guest (Male): Dive into this content further in Dr. Youssef's book, *An Unholy Alliance*. This month, Dr. Youssef is offering to send a copy to those who support the ongoing ministry of Leading the Way with a gift of any amount. Learn more at ltw.org.

Repentance is not only a one-time experience. It is a lifestyle. Repentance is not mere remorse, but a genuine desire to change. Repentance is not just a regret—a lot of people regret bad things—but it is doing something about the sin.

Welcome to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Today, from the heart, repentance. How it is wildly different than "I'm sorry" repentance. Growing up, did your parents or teachers ever make you say, "I'm sorry"? But you only said it because you knew how much trouble you'd be in if you didn't. Well, as you'll hear today, sometimes we do that very same thing with God.

Please do help Dr. Michael Youssef and his leadership team be good stewards by telling them where and when you watch or listen to Leading the Way. You can do that when you connect with us online at ltw.org or call us up. Speak with a ministry representative at 866-626-4356. Right now, though, join me in listening to Dr. Michael Youssef as he continues his perspective-shifting audio series, *Hope and Forgiveness in Times of Judgment*.

Dr. Michael Youssef: I wonder how many of us know people who in times of trouble never miss church, never miss Sunday school, never miss prayer meeting. Every time the doors are open at church, they are there. And as soon as the trouble is over, they are hardly seen again. I wonder how many of us know people who more readily confess their sins, repent of their sins, and more readily surrender simply because they want God to answer their prayers and they want to get on God's right side. As soon as the trouble is over, the repentance rolls just like a cloud.

I have seen folks like that through the years of my ministry. I have seen people who act with their emotions, and as soon as the emotions are over, it's all over. In fact, I am told about the story of some of the old-fashioned confession meetings. Some of you might remember those, and some of you might not. I have been to one or two where people gather together and they confess really more the symptoms of the sin than the sin itself. They get caught in that emotionalism of confession.

In one of those meetings, one man got up and he said, "I have been smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. I am going to quit." Somebody else got up and he said, "Oh, I have been drinking too much, and I'm going to quit." And then a third man got up and he said, "Well, I have been carousing and not living a holy life, and I'm going to quit." Well, a little girl was caught up in all this emotionalism. She got up and stood on her chair so everybody could see her, and she said, "I haven't done anything, but I'm going to quit."

That tells you more about what I'm going to talk to you about today than anything else because God calls shallow repentance, temporary repentance, cheap repentance. Unfortunately, we have too much of that. Pastor David Wilkerson said, "There are too many people today who are having emotional experiences and call it revival." He goes on to say, "I think true revival will come through searing, piercing, and convicting preaching when people truly turn away from sin."

There are many people who somehow confuse repentance with manipulating God to give them what they want. There are many people who confuse genuine repentance with trying to bribe God to give them their wishes. There are a lot of people who confuse genuine repentance with trying to appease God in order to give them what they like. But here is the truth. Listen to me carefully, please. Repentance is not only an act, but it is an attitude. Repentance is not just in words, but in deed. Repentance is not just an outward thing; it is an inward action.

Repentance is not only a one-time experience; it is a lifestyle. Repentance is not mere remorse, but a genuine desire to change. Repentance is not just a regret—a lot of people regret bad things—but it is doing something about the sin. Today, there are people who think that repentance really means just thanking God that they aren't as bad as their neighbors. Someone said churches today are full of people who have been starched and ironed, but too few have been washed.

There are even some Christians who think that if you get a large gathering of people and they get together for public confession, but then go back to their homes living this half-hearted life for Christ, that God must act. But here is the problem in this culture in which we live. Because we have instant coffee and instant breakfast, we think that we can have instant prayers, instant revival, and instant answers to prayers. When God does not act the way we want him to act, we give up. We are gone.

There are yet other believers who live any which way they live, and then they say with Catherine the Great—they may not verbalize it like she did—"The good Lord will pardon; that's his trade." Today, we see what I call the tragedy of cheap repentance. Please hear me out. If you haven't already, please turn in your Bible to Hosea chapter 6, beginning at verse 4. Mark those in your Bible. Here's what God is saying: "What shall I do with you, Ephraim? What shall I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning cloud. Your repentance is like the dew that disappears early in the morning."

Obviously, Hosea was preaching, prophesying, calling people for repentance. Some people responded to his message. Some people got together and began to repent and turn to God. But you see the God who sees the hearts, the God who knows everything, he saw that this is temporary repentance. He sees this as cheap repentance. This is not the repentance that is going to change the heart for good and for God. This is not the kind of repentance that is going to produce fruit.

Far from being pleased with this type of superficial repentance, what God is bemoaning is that tragedy of cheap repentance. He's bemoaning the tragedy of temporal devotion. He's bemoaning the tragedy of lip service. He's bemoaning the tragedy of convenient loyalty. God is bemoaning the tragedy of this fleeting repentance that does not create permanent change in the lifestyle. God is troubled with that. He was troubled with that then, and he is troubled with that now.

When you look at verses 1, 2, and 3, you can't help but think there must have been a genuine repentance that is taking place. There's a revival in the land. People are turning to him. The nation is turning to God. But through God's eyes, it was not. They might have had these citywide revivals; they might have had the appearance of turning to God, but all of these did not result in permanent change in their heart and in their lifestyle for God. It did not result in ongoing victory over sin. It did not produce the fruit of the spirit. It did not produce a daily conformity to the image of the living God.

In fact, if you look closely at verse 3, it is really a Messianic prophecy. You can write that in your Bible if it doesn't have it in the margin. It is a Messianic prophecy about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Seven hundred years before it happened, the Prophet Hosea was privileged by God to look down to the future and see the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. You would ask why it is tacked in here. It is because the Prophet Hosea is saying that it is only through the power of the resurrected Jesus Christ will we be able to have the power to repent.

It is only through the power of the resurrected Christ can we have repentance as a lifestyle. It is only through the power of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ can we live a life of daily obedience for him. We are the ones who are living in those days that Hosea longed for, and yet we work and live and wake and go and come as if Jesus is still dead. How many of us, I wonder, really live with the power of the resurrected Christ? The Apostle Paul told the Ephesians that that is the very power that is working in you right now.

Here is the cry of God's heart: "Your love is like the morning cloud. It's like the dew that goes early in the morning." In the Middle East, when you wake up in the spring days, you don't get spring rain. But when you wake up in the spring day, there is a mist. Then there is a dew on the grass. Some mornings, when the sun begins to shine, it is the most exquisite view that you can imagine. It is the most spectacular view: the early morning cloud, early morning mist, and the glistening of the early morning dew. It is fantastic, beyond description.

But it is temporal. Morning clouds and early dew are too flighty to produce a harvest. Morning clouds and early dew are too shallow to withstand the heat of the sun. Morning clouds and early dew are too temporary to produce a permanent result. Here is what God is saying: "I know how to deal with the atheists. I know how to deal with the agnostics. I know how to judge the out-and-out sin. I know how to judge rebellion. I know how to deal with that."

God is saying, "My problem stems from those who claim to be believers, but their submission to him is only part-time." God's problem stems from those who claim to be believers, but their surrender to him is only on the outer perimeter of their life. God's problem stems from those who are into religion and into rituals, but have no intimate relationship with his Son on a daily basis. God's problem stems from those whose prayers are constant monologue and never wait for God to speak to them and bring them into conviction in order to deal with their sin.

I was reading today some statistics by George Barna that the so-called evangelical Christians do not live any differently from their pagan neighbors. The average Christian spends more time watching television in one evening than reading the word of God in a whole week. The average Christian genuinely believes that God is happy if they are happy. I read somewhere again that four out of 10 evangelicals don't even believe in biblical absolutes.

I want to make two points. There are two reasons why God's people give God trouble. The first reason is this: they rely on their feelings instead of the character of God. The second reason is this: they have mixed motives instead of a singly unified mindset in serving God. I wonder how many of you would know that relying on your feelings in your dealing with God really irritates God. Feeling has its place, value, and is absolutely necessary.

But feeling is not enough. Feeling is the wind to the sail of a ship. Too little of it, you aren't going anywhere. Too much of it creates a shipwreck. If there is too much wind, living too much in your feelings, you're in trouble. If you have no feelings at all, you're in trouble. Those who rely on their feelings are constantly either crashing down all the time, or they never get off the ground. They do nothing.

These people who operate only on their feelings are either more down than up or never do anything. In fact, somebody said that for those who live by their feelings, their companionship is like a pebble in the shoe. Have you ever had a nail in your shoe? That is what God is saying. People who are living by their feelings are like a pebble in God's shoe. They are irritating him. Secondly, God has trouble with those who have mixed motives.

It was only a few years ago that I really had a jolt when I saw people going into ministry for mixed motives. For some reason, in my naivety, I thought that everybody got into the ministry the way I did. Basically, I wanted nothing to do with it. I did not want it. I ran away as far as I could. I literally went to Tarshish. I have done everything possible in my life to get away from that call. I wanted nothing to do with the call to the ministry.

Literary, God grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and brought me in here and said, "Boy, you are going to preach." I was shocked to discover that mixed motives of people in ministry is very common. Many do not even know what the call is. That is precisely why we're in the trouble we're in. Then I said, "Why am I shocked?" The word of God shows me example after example of people who have divided hearts in serving God.

Gehazi, who was the servant of Elisha, ran after Naaman the Syrian and lied and got the gold after Elisha turned him down. Leprosy struck him and his family for the rest of their lives. Some of you remember Balaam. He knew that it was not the will of God to go out and curse God's people. But then every time the king of the Canaanites increased the amount of money, he would say, "Well, maybe I had better pray about this some more." He sees the money, and then he goes to pray. God had to get an ass to talk for Balaam to wake up.

People who have mixed motives are like the boy who told his mother one day at church service, "Mother, I'm going to be a preacher." She said, "Why do you want to do something like this?" He said, "Well, I have to go to church anyway, and I hate sitting still and being quiet. Might as well stand up and holler." He might turn out to be a preacher. But there are so many people in our culture surrounding us who want to identify with God's people some of the time.

There are many people who want to identify with Christ only if it's not going to cost them a change in their lifestyle. There are many people who want to serve God only if it is comfortable. There are many people who want to belong to church as long as it's not challenging them to repent of their sins. There are many people who are so divided in their minds, a double deal all day long, they don't even know who they are.

Mixed motive is like that lady who lost her purse in a big mall. A short time later, an honest boy found it and returned it to her. As she opened the purse, she looked through it and said, "That's funny. I had a $10 bill. Now I have 10 one-dollar bills." The boy quickly replied, "That's right, lady. The last time I found a lady's purse, she did not have change for a reward." Mixed motives. Isn't that what we do sometimes?

Everything we have comes from God. Every blessing. And we give God little crumbs of what he gives us and then pray and call out to God, "Give us a whole loaf, God." Give him the crumbs. Look at verse 6 of chapter 6. God said, "I desire steadfast love, not a sacrifice; knowledge of God rather than burnt offering." Do you know why God is saying this? Listen to me very carefully because there are people who use that as an excuse. "Oh, I love God, so I don't have to give anything." No, that is not what it meant here.

God is saying when I am constantly in a state of obedience to the Lord, he will get my sacrifice, but that way, I will give it with the right motive. God is saying that when I am in a constant state of intimacy and repentance and a broken and contrite heart before God, I will give a burnt offering, but this offering will be given for the right reason. Not to appease God, not to get God off my back, and not just to pacify God.

Cheap repentance does not please God. Temporary repentance does not honor God. Occasional repentance troubles God. I grew up in the life of bankers since I was a little boy. My older brothers were all bankers. Many of them would come home late because they had to balance the books every day. I often remember that. How many believers balance the book with God every single day? We pray for our country; we must and we will. We pray for a revival, and we should and we will.

But listen to a heart of a pastor who loves you. Until God's people themselves live in a state of repentance, until God's people come clean with God with their money, until God's people come repentant of self-sufficiency and thoroughly rely on God, until God's people give up gossip and backbiting and dishonest dealings, until God's people turn away from bitterness and resentment and unforgiveness, until God's people truly submit and surrender their will to his will, our prayers are going nowhere.

Scripture says if I incline a sin in my heart, if I rationalize it, if I explain it away, if I hide it, my prayer will not be answered. My God, deliver us from cheap repentance. There may be some people today for whom this message designed for believers is premature because they haven't gone to first base yet. They haven't turned to the Lord and sought him as Savior and Lord of their life. They haven't repented of their sin.

Now is the moment that you can turn your life over, to repent now and live the life of constant repentance before God. Let repentance be your lifestyle. To all of us who have known God and we have grown to take him for granted, we have grown to take his forgiveness for granted, we have grown to take his mercy and grace for granted: let this be a word from God for us today to turn repentance into an attitude instead of just an act, to turn it into a lifestyle instead of when we just need something from God.

Guest (Male): Today's practical biblical message sure was powerful, wasn't it? And if you'd like to be encouraged by more of Dr. Youssef's teachings, remember that you can watch or listen online for free at ltw.org. You can also subscribe to the Leading the Way podcast or download the app. That website again is ltw.org.

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