 started. Let's pray. J. Heavenly Father, we come to you under the name of Jesus. We thank you for this day. We thank you for the class we are about to have. We thank you that you have set us apart. We thank you that you have made us righteous and you are helping us to be holy each and every day. You help us to sanctify us through your word. We thank you for your word that cleanses us. We thank you for your blood that cleanses us. God, as we are learning more about the holiness, help us to live a life that reflects you Lord, so that when people look at you, they will know that you are God and they can see that, see your love and your wisdom and your guidance through us Jesus. I give all my classmates into your hands. Give us a good connection throughout the sessions. Let nothing be a distraction. We give you all the glory and all the honor and all the praise in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Yes, we will begin. So we kind of started looking at repentance last week. We looked at the Greek word for that. So we kind of looked at what repentance means as far as the Bible teaching is concerned regarding that particular word. We also saw how it applies to believers and how important it is for us to first repent because from there, God is able to lead us into greater areas of holiness. So that's like the beginning point of salvation. It's also the beginning point of growth into the things of God. So we just kind of had an introduction on repentance. Today we will look maybe in greater detail at the process of repentance. What exactly is involved in this whole act of repentance? How do we display repentance on a daily basis as believers in our Christian walk? So we look at different aspects of that and the last session was based on the first six chapters of your repentance section. So today we'll try to get through the other six chapters. And if you've gone through the notes you would have observed that when I say chapters, I'm not really looking at thinking about levy chapters. Some of the chapters in fact are like maybe about half a page or so. It's just maybe we could say there are six different thoughts on repentance. So we covered the first six. Today we will be looking at the other six aspects of repentance. Most of them to do with the process of repentance. How do believers actually demonstrate repentance on a daily basis? So that's basically what we would be looking at today. So before we get into the subject as such, we are kind of halfway through the course already. So we had an introduction to holiness and we looked at the importance of holiness in our own lives. And then we kind of moved into repentance to see the important role that repentance plays in living a holy life on a daily basis. So those two make up the first large chunk of this topic. So next session onwards, we would be looking at the overcoming life because a person who's living in spiritual failure can never really be holy. So it's all about overcoming the world, the flesh, overcoming the evil one and learning how to live in victory on a daily basis. Because it says in Revelation that those who are able to overcome and live in victory, they are the ones who will be given white comments to bear and walk along with him. So because we also have the scripture which says that without holiness you cannot even see God. So it's all very vital for our eternal future. So we will be looking in the rest of our sessions at different aspects of the overcoming life, how to overcome sin and temptation in the world and live in victory. So we are kind of at the halfway mark right now after almost finishing off the first section. So the next main section will be the overcoming victorious life. So at this point, we will have a midterm assessment. So sometime during this week, I will try to post it and I really hope that you're able to hear me better now. As far as I can see here, the volume seems to be on full. So I, I'm assuming it should be clear. Okay, that's really good. I can't hear now. For no fact. All right. Yeah. So yes, I'll know sometime during this week, definitely before Saturday, by the end of this week, I will post the midterm assessment. So you will find that in your Google Classroom. And like I had said, it is basically multiple choice questions. So you just need to tick the correct answer and there will be 50 of them. And you know, you can look at your notes, you can go back to the videos. As long as you don't consult each other, in finding out the answers, anything else is all right, because you are allowed to consult your Bible, you are allowed to look at your notes, you are allowed to go through the videos, because this assessment is more like a revision. And it's just kind of to help you assess how well you have grasped what has been taught so far. So you don't have to like, you know, finish it at one go. You can come back to the questions again and again, and do it at your own pace. But of course, the one condition, you know, which is there is that once you click on an answer, you will not have a second time to reattempt that. So once you answer, you answer. So you cannot change your answer after having chosen one particular, you know, option. So the same thing would also be put on the e-platform for those who would be, you know, attempting it online through the e-platform. So my hope is that by Saturday, by the end of this week, the whole thing will be up. And, you know, you will be able to do that. There'll be more than enough time to do it, because I'm not very particular when you do it, as long as it gets done before the semester closes, because of course, once the semester closes, you know, no one is allowed to submit after that. So I'll just kind of maybe keep the time limit as maybe two weeks or three weeks or something. And, you know, you can try working on the multiple choice questions during that time period. All right. So let's get back to repentance and we'll begin with the chapter which talks about what leads a person to repentance. We see there are some main things which help us and cause us, you know, motivate us to repent. And I have noticed that usually it is the love of God, the goodness of God, which brings us to repentance. I have noticed that again and again in my life. A fear of punishment does make us, you know, repent, because I mean, we don't want to be punished by the Lord. We don't want to lose our own blessings. And all of that does act as a motivating factor. But I've noticed that it tends to be very temporary. You know, you may be scared of the punishment called for a few days and then the fear of that goes away. And then, you know, you get back to your normal, you know, compromising attitude. It's the same with even, you know, being worried about losing the blessings of God. That may, you know, drive you to observe, you know, the laws of the Lord very sincerely for a while. But then after you have received the answer to your prayer, you know, there's a tendency to again go back to a state of substandard Christian living. So all of that is there. So I've noticed that more than, you know, the fear of punishment or a desire to get blessings, it is the goodness of God, his love, his compassion, which more than anything else makes us repent. When we sin, we are convicted on the inside by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit reminds us of how loving he has been towards us and how patient he has been with us, you know, over the years. And he says, even now, in spite of what you have done, you know, you can still come back to me and I'm still willing to build your life. So do you want to waste your life or do you want to come back? And, you know, that really draws us back. So I have noticed that more than anything else, it's his love, it's his compassion. It's this sheer goodness that he has towards me that makes me want to repent. It makes me want to live for him. It makes me want to honor him because he is so kind and good. So I think one of the chief factors which leads a person to repentance is the goodness of God. And, you know, Romans chapter 2 verse 4 touches upon that, in fact. So if we could have someone read out, Romans chapter 2 verse 4. Romans chapter 2 verse 4. Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? Yeah. So here, you know, in the NIV it says, do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness? So when the Lord is being kind and compassionate and is willing again and again to give us a second chance, we are not meant to treat him with contempt and say, okay, heal anyway, forgive again next time. So no harm in sinning once more. And then, you know, the next day you say to yourself, yeah, you know, once again, I can sin because he will forgive anyway. That is basically showing contempt for his kindness. Rather than being touched by it and rather than being melted by his love, you know, we, if we develop that, that kind of casual business like attitude, you know, of saying, I can always come back to him, heal anyway, accept me. There's no love in that. There's only contempt towards him and what he is so, you know, freely offering to us. So in Romans, Paul says, when God is, you know, giving you the riches of his kindness, don't treat that with contempt. Rather realize that he's waiting, hoping that you will still give a chance to him to build your life, because that's all it's about, right? I mean, if you can just come to him and submit to him, then he can make you Christlike. He can help you to fulfill all the purposes that he has planned for your life. And he can give you the reward which he longs to give you. So he already has an eternal reward with your name on it. And he wants you to step into the fullness of it, not miss out on even one aspect of this amazing reward that he has. And so all that he does, everything he does is aimed at that, you know, to help you to change yourself, to help you to become more like him, to be able to, to be able to, you know, in a very, very satisfactory manner, accomplish all the things that he has planned out for your life, all this so that on that day he can very proudly say, you know, to the Father, look, I have brought this person before you and I'm presenting them blameless, and they have done nothing but glorify you on the earth, you know. So he just wants to take that, he wants to have the joy of presenting you in that way before the Father. So it's all intended for our good. And so God's kindness is intended to lead us to repentance is what it says in Romans chapter two verse four. One lovely example that we see, you know, in the Gospels of how God's compassion and kindness brought a person to repentance, that would be the story of Zacchaeus. Now we have many parables in the New Testament, but this is no parable. This is a real historical event of an actual person who lived in those times. And this is his story. And it's a very wrong impression in Christian circles regarding Zacchaeus, just because of that one verse, you know, a Luke 19 verse seven, where it says, where the people, you know, they mutter and they say he has gone to be the guest of a sinner. And so just because that word sinner is used over there, people have all these horrific pictures in their mind of Zacchaeus being this really terrible, unpleasant character who went around, you know, oppressing people and stealing from them and all of that. But if you look at the actual wording over here, you know, in the story, you know, when Zacchaeus makes his statement of repentance, he says, you know, if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. He's not saying that he was a person who was always going around being evil and being crooked. He says, if at all by mistake, I have done something crooked, if at all by mistake, you know, I have deprived someone of what is actually theirs and I took more from them than the amount of taxes I was supposed to take. If such a thing has happened, you know, I'm willing to pay back four times. And he also says that, you know, he will be giving away half of his possessions to the poor. So I don't think this was an evil man at all. He's a man who I think loved the things of God, which is why he was eager to meet Jesus, which is why he takes the effort of actually climbing on a tree just to be able to catch a glimpse of him. And so he's deeply and so he's deeply honored when, you know, Jesus says that I will come and, you know, stay at your house today. And in verse six, Luke 19 verse six, it says, so he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. Now, the Greek word used over there is the word rejoicing. He rejoiced that Jesus was willing to come to his house and, you know, be his personal guest. So it was so while people looked down on him and mocked him and labelled him a sinner, Jesus on the other hand, you know, recognized who he was and the eagerness that he had inside his heart for godly things. And so Jesus did not treat him the way the other people treated him. So this misconception regarding Zacchus basically developed over the centuries because earlier people were not very familiar with, you know, the culture of the Jewish people and the background of those times. Gradually, even as archaeological findings increased, gradually as people's knowledge of those times and the way people lived at that time, and even as they went through all this, you know, secular writings that were written in those days and they got to kind of understand the culture of the people of those times, they realized that this term sinner was reserved for people who are not observing the Jewish rituals, you know, all these rituals which the Pharisees and Sadducees had introduced, you know, purification rituals, rituals to show how godly you are, you know, I mean, you know, if you're wearing those things which they attached to their hair with Bible verses, you know, if you attached a lot of them to your hair, it means that you're more godly. So this term sinner was given to people who are not really observing all of those Jewish rituals. The term sinner was also given especially to tax collectors because you see, they are partnering with the Romans in imposing taxes upon their own people, and so that was something which a lot of people felt very upset about. They were like, look at these people, they are our fellow Jews, they are fellow Israelites, but they have chosen to partner with the Romans and now they are taking taxes from us, their own people. So they definitely must be labeled as sinners. Okay, so the term sinner was mainly used for people who were not living according to all the Jewish rituals which, you know, the leaders had imposed and sinners were also the people who were directly partnering with the Romans in different capacities. So which is why Jesus never bothered with these, you know, labels. He freely moved around with all categories of people and so he began to be known as the friend of sinners, you know, because he never encouraged or supported the sinful things that any of them were doing, but he knew also why they had been labeled in that way. So he did not discriminate against them in the way the leadership of that day was discriminating against them. So Zacchus, I believe personally, was in no way more sinful than other people. He obviously would have had his own sinful attitudes. And so when Jesus comes to his house to be his guest, he is so touched by this by this act of love that, you know, that Jesus is showing him exclusively. And so he says, you know, if you were to look at Luke chapter 19 verses 7 and 8, the people are muttering and saying he has gone to be the guest of a sinner. On the other hand, if you know, Zacchus, he stands up and he says to the Lord, look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. If Zacchus had been a crook, if he had been cheating people all along, then this would be empty words, just an empty statement, the way our politicians make empty statements, you know, because after giving away half of his possessions to the poor, he obviously would not have enough wealth left over to give back to the people that he has cheated to give them back four times the amount. It's just, I mean, the maths doesn't work out. So this is not a man who has been going around cheating people, but now out of his great wealth, he's willing to give away half of it to the poor. And with other half which is left, he intends to run his household and look after his family. And in that half which is now left, if at all he has cheated anyone, then he is willing to restore that four times to them. So when he speaks up in this way, Jesus responds by saying, today salvation has come to this house because this man too is the son of Abraham. So what exactly is it that Zacchus has done over here that has made Jesus so happy? Why does Jesus say today's salvation has come to this house? What is this act of repentance which Zacchus is supposed to have performed that impressed Jesus so much? To get a clearer understanding of this, of what Zacchus has just now done, you know, we kind of need to contrast him with a rich young ruler of Mark chapter 10. And then we kind of begin to understand the greatness, the vastness of what Zacchus did. And the reason that we're getting into so much detail, I know, into all of this is because we learn a very important lesson on repentance through this. Okay, so we are leading up to that. So just so that we can understand Zacchus repentance better, let's take a very brief look at this rich young ruler who's mentioned in Mark chapter 10. If we can have someone read out Mark 10, 18 to 23, Mark 10, 18 to 23, please. Okay, fine. Yeah, I mean, it's like a rather lengthy thing. Let's leave that. 18 and 19 basically is where Jesus tells him, you know, these are the things that you would need to do, you know, to please the Lord. And so he says, these are the commandments, you should not murder, you should not commit adultery and all of that. And this man, very confidently in verse 20, Mark 10, verse 20, he says, Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy. And then you have Jesus' response. Jesus looked at him and loved him. Here was a man who genuinely cared about the things of God. So when Jesus looks at him, he loves him in the same way he felt love towards Zacchus. He feels love towards this man. And he says, there's still one thing you lack. And he says, go sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. So the key over here, the key phrase over here is that you will have treasure in heaven. Zacchus was so honored by Jesus coming to his home and showing him love that he realized, you know, if I'm going to follow Jesus and if I'm going to get the kingdom because Jesus kept preaching everywhere, right, that the kingdom has come, the kingdom is near and so repent. So he realizes that he can be part of the heavenly kingdom if he becomes a follower of Jesus. And so he, without even Jesus asking, he begins to show Christ likeness. He says, I'm a very wealthy man, so I am willing to give away half of my wealth to the poor because this Zacchus dependence is not at all on this wealth. You see, he is more interested in heavenly treasures. Jesus is going around preaching the kingdom of God and that fascinates him. He wants to be part of that kingdom. So in his eyes, the wealth is not very important. And so without even Jesus having to prompt him on his own, he gets up and he announces and says, look, Lord, you know, I want to give away half of my wealth because he is longing for the spiritual treasures which are going to become his when he becomes when he and his family become followers of Jesus Christ. Now, over here in this case, Jesus observes that this rich young ruler doesn't quite have that same attitude. He loves the things of God. He has made an effort to live a godly life, but he values the things of the world more than the things of God. That is still there and Jesus sees this lack in him. And so he says, you know, sell everything that you have, everything that you have, give it away, give it to the poor and I will make sure that you have a great treasure in heaven. So which means, you know, that this person would have to start now depending on God to provide for his needs, to provide for his family, and he's not willing to take a step like that. His attitude is probably, can God be trusted to that extent? It's nice to honor God. It's nice to obey him. But my goodness, having to completely trust God to that extent and rejoice over heavenly riches to that extent, that is not something this man was willing to do. And so it says, you know, when Jesus says those words to him in verse 22, Mark chapter 10 verse 22, it says, at this the man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. And immediately after this, Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, it says over here, this is what he says, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. They have tasted the wealth and the power and the influence and the status of this life of what this world has to offer. And it is so overwhelming that they love it more than spiritual things. So true repentance would involve having to, you know, give up these things to pursue God. Because when we say, you know, I choose to submit to you Jesus and accept you as my master and Lord, he will start cutting off all those things which are causing spiritual lack in your life. Because that's what happened over here with the rich young ruler. Jesus looked into his heart or his sincerity, loved him and saw that he's still lacking in one very, very important thing. He values the things of the world more than the things of God. And so Jesus attacks that point, you know, that point of weakness. And he says, you know, there's a way to mend this. If you can get rid of this worldly wealth, which is like, you know, dragging you down, I will make sure, you know, that I'll rebuild a new life for you. Because later on, if you look at the same passage, you know, Jesus assures his disciples, you know, those who have given up so much for me, I will take care of them both in this world and in the next, you know, I will give them many houses and mothers and fathers and all of that, you know, so it goes on to say all of those things in that passage. So Jesus is not attempting to destroy the person's life, but he's willing to build them a new one, a new one in which the priorities would be right and where God can make that person very rich spiritually. And as far as the things of the earth are concerned, God will sustain, take care, provide, because like it says in Matthew chapter six, he knows exactly how to take care of his own. Okay, so they don't have to be like starving or living in lack, except maybe for a temporary season during which time God would want to teach them, you know, some, some lessons. So we see that Zach's repentance is the recognition that the things of this world are not of as much value as eternal things. So Zach's longing was for the kingdom of God, that he and his entire household must be secure in God's eternal kingdom, where they would be members of that, you know, that kingdom. And so that longing made him take the things of the earth very, very lightly, and he was willing to just give it away. And in case he has done any wrong, he's more than willing to, you know, reimbursed four times because now these things don't really matter so much. The king of the kingdom has come to his house to dine with him. You know, the very king, the king of kings of this kingdom has come to his home to dine with him. And compared to that, compared to having his presence, compared to having his approval, what do other things even matter? So Zach has had this amazing attitude of repentance. Now you and I, do we carry that kind of attitude? Or are we still very, very attached to the things of the world? What comes first for us, you know, at the bottom of our hearts, deep down in our hearts, what comes first? The things of God or the things of the world? If we still have a longing and an attachment towards worldly things, you know, it's never, ever a good thing to hide these things from God, because God anyway knows what's going on at the bottom of our hearts. It's better to just simply, frankly, go to him and say, Lord, this is where I am at. Right now I can see that I'm more like the rich young ruler than Zach is. But Lord, I really don't want to lose out on your kingdom. I really don't want to lose out on your presence and pleasing you. So Lord, you helped me to start getting rid of this horrible, horrible attitude of mine. And if you just go to him and humble yourself before him and admit the rot that is there in your heart and say, Lord, because that's what repentance is all about. Right? You frankly admit that this is where I am at right now. And I know that this is disgusting. And I really want to change. I'm not able to do it on my own. You help me, Lord, do it by your power, by your strength, by your, you know, enabling of your Holy Spirit. The Lord will do that for us, because we are never meant to live out this Christian life on our own. It is impossible to live the Christian life in our human strength. It is always meant to be lived out in the power of the Holy Spirit. So it's not something that we can do on our own. So it is so good when we see this kind of, you know, wrong attitudes in our heart to just go to him very frankly and say, Lord, I'm shocked. I look at myself and I realize that I still love the things of the world more than I love the things of God. So Lord, I really want those pressures of mine to be in heaven, not here, you know, where they are so temporary. I want my priorities to be pleasing you rather than just pleasing myself, pleasing my ambition, you know, pleasing the people around me. So, you know, your, so repentance is all about starting to get your priorities right. That is, that is in fact one of the most fundamental first few, first few steps that you take, you know, in your walk of repentance. And so Zacius caught that he, I think maybe the man had always been eager for godly things. So he, when Jesus walked into his home, that was like the last, you know, the last bit of spark that he needed to just, you know, propel him into the kingdom of God. And so that happens for Zacius. And we see other, you know, scriptures also which convey the very same message. Matthew chapter 13 versus 45 and 46. If someone could read out for us, please, Matthew 13, 45 and 46. Matthew chapter 13 was 45 and 46. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Okay, so this merchant who was, you know, a purchaser of pearls, he was a trader in pearls, he's looking for the finest quality pearls available. And he comes across one which is so amazingly valuable that he is willing to sell everything that he has just to be able to acquire it. So you see, he valued that pearl that much. So Jesus is saying, the kingdom of heaven is like that. How many of you really value the kingdom to an extent where you are willing to sacrifice everything for that, to get into that kingdom, to be a part of it, you know, to gain citizenship in that? How many of you long for the kingdom of heaven to that extent? You know, it's basically the question which Jesus is posing, you know, when he gives, when he uses this particular, you know, comparison, when he compares the kingdom of heaven to a merchant who sold everything just to be able to get that one pearl, because to him that pearl was that valuable. So it's like Jesus is saying, is my kingdom that valuable to you? And if we do not have that attitude, it would really help to honestly go to him, humble ourselves before him, before him and say, Lord, I repent of this wrong attitude that I have, where the things of the world are more important to me. I don't want to be like this. Please help me. Please change me. And then you choose to start changing your priorities. And even as God leads you to know, give up certain things to cut down your the amount of time that you spend on certain things, you choose to be willing. You choose to follow whatever he's telling you to do. And as you do it, then, you know, your spiritual riches will start increasing in your, you know, heavenly bank account. And in the meantime, you hear on this earth, will start becoming more holy, and you'll start becoming more like Christ. So the people of the world, you know, when they look at us, they probably think that we are so foolish. Why are we giving up on so many things? Why are we making so many sacrifices? They just don't get it. They think just for the sake of being spiritual, why are these people giving up these things? They don't understand that we are doing this because we have, we are preparing ourselves for an amazing kingdom, an eternal kingdom for immensely great riches. They think there's giving up everything to just be poppers. But no, we are actually giving up everything because we have caught hold of this pearl of, you know, which is beyond all value. And to get that pearl, to have access to that pearl, we are willing to give up everything else. So, so the world doesn't get why we are doing this. But we are wise people who are doing this because we have caught hold of something that is just too valuable to let go of. It would be heights of foolishness to let go of this amazing kingdom of heaven, to let go of this God who is so compassionate, so loving, so humble. I mean, even though he's all mighty, he is so humble to give up someone like that, what foolishness that would be, you know, so which is why, you know, we give up the other things so that we can hold on to him so that we can, you know, please him and honor him. And we see the same thing even about, you know, Moses as well. If someone could read out Hebrews chapter 11, verses 25 to 27, Hebrews 11, 25 to 27, please. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 25 to 27, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward, by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who's invisible. Yeah, so it talks about Moses and says, rather than enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin, the very temporary pleasures of sin, rather than enjoying that, he chose to be mistreated with the people of God. And it says he chose disgrace, you know, he preferred to suffer disgrace for the sake of the kingdom of God, because he was looking ahead to his reward. It says in Hebrews 11, 26, he was looking ahead to his reward. And it says in verse 27, he continued to persevere because his eyes were set upon the invisible. His eyes were set upon the Lord. He cannot see the Lord physically, but he knows that the Lord is there. And if he holds on to the Lord, the Lord will lead him into an eternal kingdom, you know, and he will always be there in the presence of God. So knowing that he was willing to, you know, sacrifice everything else. So, you know, this is one major learning in this whole thing, subject of repentance. We have to come stage by stage to a place where God is everything for us. The kingdom of God is everything for us. And all these other things are no longer as valuable. So if the Lord says to give up something, we will be more than willing to do that because we are pursuing something which is of amazing value. So in all our acts of repentance, the different things that, you know, we would be giving up on a daily basis. If we are doing it all with this goal, that we are reaching out to something that is of absolute value, that is something that is eternal. And so for the sake of that, we undergo this process of repentance. And it's the love of God, which kind of, you know, gives us the motivation and the encouragement to pursue. Because we see how loving he is. We see the great promises that he is making to us. And we choose to trust him. We choose to believe him. And out of our faith, you know, out of this childlike faith which we have started to place in him, we are willing to give up other things because we know he'll take care. We know that he will provide. We know that he will reward. So he becomes the focus, you know, he becomes the central focus. There's another thing that can lead us to repentance. And that is the works and the miracles of God, which lead us to repentance. If we can have someone read out Matthew chapter 11, verses 20 and 21. Matthew 11, 20 and 21. When he began to rebuild the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. O to you, for as in O to you, Veseda, for if the mighty works which you are done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and asses. You know, it's what the Lord says over here. He says, the miracles which I have done for you people, if I had done it back then in those days, entire Tyre and Sidon would have repented right then and there, because they would have seen that I am indeed divine. They would have seen that I am indeed God and that what I'm speaking is the truth and they would have repented. But here you are after seeing all that you are seeing with your own eyes. You're still refusing to place your trust in me. You're refusing to submit to me. On the other hand, when we look at Peter, Peter, when he saw the miracle that was taking place in front of his eyes, his immediate response was that would be in your Luke chapter 5, verses 6 to 11. Luke chapter 5 verses 6 to 11, where they catch such a huge number of fish. After having fished the entire night and not caught anything, so Peter very well knew that there were no fish over there earlier. Okay, they all very, very well know because they've been doing that the entire night. They very, very well know that there were no fish in the water earlier. Now, suddenly, there are so many fish over there that the nets are breaking. And so when Peter sees this miracle, his immediate response is repentance. Unlike this hard-hearted people, you know, in Matthew chapter 11, Peter, when he sees a miracle, he immediately realizes that he is standing in the presence of divinity. He's standing in the presence of a very holy God. And so his immediate responses in Luke chapter 5, verse 8, he says, you know, he falls down at Jesus' feet and he says, go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man. He is terrified. He's scared. How can something as unclean as me even be in the presence of such holiness? And so he says, Lord, please, if you don't go away, you know, I'll probably perish right here and die because of the sinful person that I am. And then look at Jesus' response to this act of repentance. It's so beautiful. In Luke chapter 5, verse 10, Jesus says to Simon, don't be afraid. From now on, you will fish for people. So Jesus, you know, is saying, if you can just admit who you are, how pathetic you are, you know, how sinful you are on the inside, openly, frankly, humble yourself and admit the realities about the depths of the evil in your heart, if you can just be frank about it and confess it before me, then I can start working on you to purify you from all of that unrighteousness. You know, that's what it says in 1 John chapter 1, verse 9. So he, we need to take that first step of admitting all the dirt there is. Very frankly, when we do that and we cry out to him and say, Lord, you have to help me. I cannot get rid of this on my own. Then that gives the opening to the Lord to begin his work of transformation. So Jesus says, you don't need to be afraid of me because I will train you up. I will change and transform you so that you will start doing something amazing. You'll start fishing for people and bringing them into the kingdom of God. So forget about you being worried about whether you'll get destroyed by the wrath of God. I will bring you into the kingdom. Not only will you come into the kingdom, you in fact will be empowered to bring a lot of other people, thousands of others into my kingdom. That's the kind of work of transformation that I will do in your life. And when these people, these fishermen hear about this, this is their response to what he is offering in verse 11, Luke 5, 11. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. So this, you know, in the 40 minutes or so that we have spent, we look at again and again that this idea of leaving everything because now they have found something of great value. So first step, very, very first step to repentance. Look at ourselves. We need to examine ourselves and ask ourselves in what areas are we still valuing the things of the world more than the things of God. And those things have to be left behind. We need to get rid of those wrong attitudes with the help of the Holy Spirit. So the first step would be to admit that we are in that sinful place, that we have those wrong attitudes and to reach out to him and say, Lord, you help me. And then God says to us, don't be afraid. I am going to rebuild you into a new person and give you a new purpose. So the Lord will do that. And so in gratitude, we choose to continue leaving everything that is holding us down. We continue to walk in him. And that is basically what discipleship is all about. So yeah. And a third thing that leads people to repentance is godly sorrow. So maybe we can look at the scripture which talks about godly sorrow. Second Corinthians chapter 7 versus 9 and 10. If we could have someone read out, please. Second Corinthians 7, 9 and 10. Second Corinthians 7, 9 and 10. Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you are made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death. So yes, thank you so much. So here it says in second Corinthians chapter 7 verse 9, your sorrow led you to repentance. Godly sorrow always leads to repentance. And in verse 10 we see that godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. So when there is godly sorrow, that leads to genuine repentance and it will lead to the salvation of your soul. So the details of that we look at when we get back from our break. But these are really vital lessons that we can learn. There are some absolutely beautiful lessons that we can learn from the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. If we can have godly sorrow in our hearts, that can change our lives. On the other hand, we need to guard ourselves from worldly sorrow because that will just lead to nothing but despair and destruction. That's from the devil. So let's look at the difference between those two things when we get back from our break. So if we can all log back in at 11 o'clock please. All right, thank you.