0:00:00 - 0:00:25 In Spanish, there are two forms, maybe there are more than two, but at least two of the forms of past tense uh are distinguished by whether uh what's being described happens all at once or whether it's a process that occurs over time and repentance can also be characterized in this way. So when we say 0:00:25 - 0:00:56 repentance, it can refer to an event and it can refer to a process. Now, lots of people already understand that. But I want to make a differentiation between what I think most people understand and what's a little more effective and correct. So the event of repentance is deciding to submit to God completely 0:00:55 - 0:01:26 without restraint, without uh no holds barred, no limits. And that's to everything you know right now about God and everything you could know in the future, the Brewster agrees the other kind of. Um or I guess the other thing we could be referring to in terms of repentance, the process, it differs from 0:01:26 - 0:01:49 the event because you only have to decide about the event once and almost no one has. So if you find yourself sinning or ever doing something, that's contrary to what Jesus would do in your place according to your present, sincere best understanding, then you have not yet made that decision. You may 0:01:48 - 0:02:10 have thought you have, but then you were exposed to situations, whether they were new and harder or maybe they were just recurrent that uh overcame you and you decided to do something other than what Jesus would do in your place. So you can try again and you can ask and he'll forgive you. Uh, he tells 0:02:09 - 0:02:35 us that we need to forgive everyone who asks us to forgive them. And it doesn't matter if they've done it 70 times, 70 times. And so he lives by his own law. And if you ask him to forgive you, it doesn't matter how many times you've done it. He will. That being said, every time you ask, you better be 0:02:35 - 0:02:52 more serious than you were the last time. You better know the answer to the question, what makes this time different because we're not supposed to go around practicing that kind of repentance every day. Ideally, it's something that only happens once in your life when you make your initial commitment 0:02:52 - 0:03:15 to follow God. But like I said, um, things happen and Jesus is merciful and so take advantage of that gift and ask him to forgive you and find out what you can change inside of you so that you decide to love him enough to actually do what you said you were gonna do the first time or the second time or 0:03:15 - 0:03:32 the third time or however many times it takes. Now, the second kind of repentance, this ongoing process is not the first kind. It's not meant to be an ongoing thing. Our commitment to God is not meant to be something we redecide every day. You're supposed to decide once and then be done. And the reason 0:03:32 - 0:03:55 for that is because every time you redecide that you start back at the beginning of where you began coming to know God is a process in that process portion of repentance. That's something that will never end as long as you live, learning more about God and putting into place everything. You know, that's 0:03:54 - 0:04:18 something that's never gonna end as long as you live. So, in that way, that kind of repentance that that keeps going. So, uh I'm gonna put this all into a really short version here. The first kind of repentance is to decide to always do your best at everything. And that's your definition of whatever 0:04:17 - 0:04:35 is best. It has to be your sincere definition. What your conscience actually tells you is the right thing. And that can go very differently than what other people expect and maybe than what you thought just not too long ago, but you need to be true to that conscience. So the first kind of repentance 0:04:34 - 0:04:59 is to decide to always do what's best. The second kind of repentance is to actually do what's best. All the time just to be totally clear on how these are different. When you actually do what's best all the time. You will find yourself learning what is best, better than you knew before. And it'll happen 0:04:58 - 0:05:23 all the time. It'll happen many times a day, every single day of your life. You'll find better ways of doing things, better ways of being across all situations. Repentance just means improvement. The first improvement, the gate in scriptural language is to decide to always do your best. Always be your 0:05:22 - 0:05:48 best all the time. No breaks, no excuses. The second kind of repentance is to always be as good as you can. And that includes learning more about what is better. And that's it. It's that simple. It's that simple. So if you do that, it won't be too long before you're an unrecognizably better person. And 0:05:48 - 0:06:15 that will only accelerate with time. So try it out and uh reap the rewards for doing so because everything in life just keeps getting better as you keep getting better. You'll be able to help people more than you can. Now you'll be able to withstand things that currently overcome you. I'm not just thinking 0:06:15 - 0:06:33 about things that people call sin, you know, hard times, hard things, difficult challenges, everything just keeps getting better, you'll get stronger and stronger, you get wiser and uh yeah, everything just goes up. So go up