Welcome to the Jesus Image podcast.

Well tonight, Michael shared, I'm going to share about repentance.

And as I do, I want to lay a little bit of groundwork personally.

I get really excited when I talk about repentance.

It actually fills me with joy when the Lord put this on my heart that I would get to talk about repentance tonight.

Because I think a lot of times, and I don't think here very much, but I think a lot of times and I don't think here very much but I think a lot of times broadly in Christian circles repentance is not understood for the

gift that it is. It's one of the greatest gifts and privileges as followers of Jesus we could ever get.

And I don't want to give away the punchline, so I'm going to contain myself right now.

But when I was 19, I did not understand the privilege of repentance.

When I was 19, repentance looked like getting gripped with endless sad feelings, and it was

being sad all the time, and it was like there was no hope on the other side.

Don't hear what I don't say tonight.

There is remorse over sin.

There is sorrow over sin.

Sin is costly.

It's wages as death.

So that's not what I'm saying, but I never saw the full scope of the gift of repentance. I only saw like, oh man, repentance growing up in church.

I always saw like, man, what a bummer. I got to just say all the bad stuff I did.

Oh, man, I just got to go tell God I stink and he's great, man.

This sounds so fun.

I didn't understand why repentance was a bedrock of the Christian life.

I didn't understand that it was a gift that God had given his people to come back

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