The sermon text this morning is Acts 11, verses 1 through 18. Now the apostles and the brethren who were through Audjadea heard that the Gentiles also had received the Word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, saying, you went to uncircumcised men and ate with them. But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence, saying, I was in the city of Japa, praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. And coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky, and it came right down to me, and when I had fixed my gaze on it and was observing it, I saw the war-footed animals of the earth and the wild beast and the crawling creatures and the birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, get up, Peter, kill, and eat, but I said, by no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth. But a voice from heaven answered a second time, what God has cleansed no longer consider unholy. This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into the sky, and behold, at that moment, three men appeared at the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from Caesarea. The Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. These six brethren also went with me, and we entered the man's house, and it reported to us how he had seen the angels standing in his house, and saying, send to Japa and have Simon, who is all called Peter, brought here, and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household. And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as he did upon us at the beginning, and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he used to say, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if God gave to them the same gift as he gave to us, also, after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is I, that I could stand in God's way, and when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, well, well then, God has granted to the Gentiles, also the repentance that leads to life. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Please forbid me. Please forbid it, Father, that any of us would stand in your way this morning and pray that for myself, do not allow me to be a stumbling block to any. I look to you, Father, as the one who can alone grant repentance that leads to life. And I know that in an assembly of this size, that there is a mixture of those who already know Christ, of those who have come skeptical, who do not know Him, but are wondering. And there are those who have been dragged here. They may be young, they may be older. And Father, I thank you that, as we pray now together, we lift our hearts to you who know the story of every heart in this room. Father, you are our maker. And I pray that you would have great mercy upon every soul assembled here this morning. With a tickular urgency, I pray, Father, that you would grant, that you would bestow, that you would give this morning the new heart, the circumcised heart, circumcised by the spirit of your Son, this morning, to those who are not yet set apart for Jesus. And would you do that saving work in our midst for His glory and your pleasure, we pray in Jesus' name? Well, my thesis over the last several messages, if you remember, as we've been dealing with S10 and its significance in the book of Acts, as being the place where you see the gospel break through into the outer rims, if you will, of the plan for Jesus' church that he announces in Acts 1-8 of reaching to the remotest parts of the earth with the gospel, is that I have been arguing that one of the things, one of the dominant things we see in this chapter, this story of Cornelius' conversion, is that the church is learning the gospel even as the church is carrying the gospel to the unbelieving, non-Christian, Gentile world in the book of Acts. Now that's an important thing to see because if you assume as the church that your mission in life is to be an expert that moves you towards amateurs, you are going to be a very different kind of witness for Jesus Christ than the one he wants you to be because we don't go into other people's lives from a position of strength or superior knowledge. The best teachers, now if you're a teacher, you've had any experience with this, let me give you a thesis here and see what you think of this. I would contend that the best teachers are always the best learners, always. If you're not a learner, you have nothing to share with anyone else. And so it's not surprising to me that Jesus would descend his people out into the world with the gospel in such a way that in the process of tearing the message of the kingdom, they would be learning about his kingdom even as they do so. And that's what I think is exactly going on in Acts 10 as I've argued, that it's a great case in point of this principle. Cornelius's conversion, that story of Peter's intersection with Cornelius, is a story of gospel learning that happens on both sides, right? I mean we saw that there's a learning that is done by the Christian side of that encounter. The Christian side of that encounter, Peter, he learns, and ultimately the church in Jerusalem learns what God had said would be the case in Isaiah 49.6. But he said would be the case about his son and his reign, and that is that his reign would be inclusive. It would not be limited to Israel and Judah. In Isaiah 49.6 the Father says of his servant, the son, it is too small thing for you to simply redeem Judah and Israel. But I will make you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. And Peter discovers that firsthand, doesn't he, in Acts 10, as he sees this Roman come into the kingdom. It's an awesome display of God's power, and that's a lesson we've been thinking about that doesn't just seem right for Peter, but it's the one that we need as well, right? We too need to be reminded that so great is the work of Jesus Christ that there is no category of person whatsoever, who we must ever assume is an untouchable, with a kingdom of God. Because God has commanded what God has cleansed no longer consider unholy. There is no definition of a person, whether by disability, ethnicity, whatever it is, that we can look at and say, this person is off limits to the grace of God. The church needed to learn that in Peter's day and the church needs to learn it today. Non-Christians also had things to learn from this change, and Cornelius kind of personifies the non-Christian. And the big lesson that we saw non-Christians learning from this exchange in Acts 10 is the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. Sounds like it's different from what the church learned, the church learned about the inclusivity, if you will, of the breadth of the gospel, and the non-Christian has to learn that there is no other way to God but Jesus Christ. Cornelius was a very pious man, more pious than I would say most people in this room. But Cornelius had to learn something that we need to be reminded of as well, and that is that there is no piety, there is no holiness, there is no spiritual resume adequate to get anyone into heaven, except Jesus Christ's resume. He is the only way, and then today the greatness of Jesus Christ and his gospel continues to be unfolded when Peter goes back to Jerusalem and gets in trouble. Now he gets in trouble, and it's important to see why he gets in trouble. Now what happens, it looks like there is going to be a flash of controversy at the beginning of chapter 11, because you think that when Peter comes back with the news that the Gentiles have received Christ, that the Holy Spirit has fallen upon them just like he did on Pentecost upon the Jewish believers, you would think that that would be an occasion for joy, right? You would be wrong, and God uses the reaction of a certain segment of the church in Jerusalem to remind the church and us how amazing conversion really is, and what the basis for unity in the church actually is, and what the definition of a Christian is and is not. See, because Peter comes back, and immediately there is a group of people who get in his face. Now it's very important to see that this isn't happening inside the church. This is happening from within the circle of people who identify themselves as followers of Jesus Christ. This is happening within the circle of people who have had the benefit of the apostles teaching, many of whom were there on Pentecost. These are not strangers to the gospel. These are people from the flagship church, and Peter comes back with this news, and they've been waiting for him, because the news has come ahead of Peter, and those who are circumcised, do you notice that? Those who are circumcised, now everybody in the church in Jerusalem who was Jewish was circumcised. So that's clearly not the best translation. What it says literally is those of the circumcision, which means that there's a group of people within the church in Jerusalem who are convinced that you still have to be circumcised in order to hold Christian identity. Now this is a very important question that needs to be analyzed properly. One of the things about Bible is if you come to the Bible expecting not to be surprised, well you're in for surprise. And I think one of the most striking things about the Bible is this circumcision thing. It's everywhere. It's just not a deal in our culture. Can we say that? I mean circumcision is just, we just don't, it's not like it's a dirty thing. We just don't talk about it, it doesn't matter to us, but it matters a lot in the world of the Bible, doesn't it? I mean all the passion, all the passion in the book of Galatians is about circumcision. Is it necessary? Is it necessary? And there is a controversy that is just about to explode in the church in Jerusalem here until Peter explains and goes through his whole account of what actually happened and how God was the one who engineered the gospel's penetration of the Gentile world. The circumcision is one of those subjects in the Bible about, it's of enormous importance and it's also of equally enormous danger because it's so subject to misunderstanding. Thankfully, thankfully, Peter is able to explain the situation in such a way that this potential conflict came back down from a boil to maybe a simmer. We cannot go away totally in the church in Jerusalem and we'll see that in spades when we get to chapter 15. But for now, it seems to be brought back down and what is driving that? Why would somebody think that circumcision needed to be applied to Gentiles in order for them to be accepted? And I would assert that the only reason somebody would think that is because they misunderstood what the Old Testament taught very clearly about the meaning of circumcision. What it's meaning was and what it's meaning wasn't. It's very important to see that Paul really has the key in your reflection quotes if you turn to the front of your bulletin. Circumcision will utterly baffle you in the position that it has in the Bible unless you see the lesson that Paul does such a good job of summarizing in Romans 2, 20, and 29. He says, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew who is one inwardly. And circumcision is that which is of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter. In other words, not by the law. And his praise is not from men but from God. What Paul is telling us there is something that the people in Jerusalem who were opposing Peter needed to be reminded. And that was that circumcision in the Old Testament was an external act to be sure but it had internal spiritual significance. It was not sufficient by itself as an act to affirm someone's spiritual identity. It called forth a spiritual identity. It described and depicted in its external tensions an internal transformation. So circumcision as Paul was saying it was never enough to be externally circumcised was not enough because to be a true Jew had to be circumcised on the inside, not on the outside. So women notice this as well that from the very beginning in the Old Testament circumcision is not only a male concept. As soon as the Bible begins to teach us as it does in the other quotes on the reflection page that circumcision is about the heart it applies to everybody. Spiritual identity, true spiritual identity goes deep down to the roots of somebody's life, down to the very roots of their life in their heart. It is never measured in God's eyes by what you do externally only. It's measured at the heart level. The main thing is not the external, it's the internal. Now here's the problem in Jerusalem. These folks who were opposing Peter were saying, listen, if we're going to accept you you have to conform to our external sign. And you see what's at stake there? What's at stake there is not just unity in the church. So if they don't get this right, this is a big problem. You need to feel the weight of this. If they don't get this right, if the church in Jerusalem that is entirely Jewish doesn't understand, doesn't get this right and assumes that now Christian identity must include circumcision. In other words, that all the Gentiles who are going to come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, that they now have to be marked by the Jewish law. That's going to have huge implications for global missions, isn't it? It's going to have huge implications for an understanding of what the gospel is. It's going to place emphasis upon the externals and downplay the heart. It's going to make something that is not the main thing, the main thing. This is very crucial. Now, the reason that I emphasize this is because we often have confusion about what a Christian is, too. It's difficult to overstate the importance of what this presents to us. Because what's really at issue here is not just how the church is going to get along, not just how Jews and Gentiles are going to get along with each other, but really fundamentally what is a Christian? Is that a question that's important to you? It ought to be, what is a Christian? Is it somebody who just goes through some external acts like showing up to church, or even just praying, or giving money, or serving? Is that what makes a Christian? If I asked you, what makes a Christian? Would you say somebody who reads their Bible, somebody who does the outward external things at Christians, somebody who's been baptized, does that make a Christian? No. Paul is telling you in Romans 228 and 29 that what makes a true Jew is what makes a true Christian, a circumcision of the heart by the Spirit. Now, that creates a crisis for everybody in this room. You know why? Because if membership, if true membership in the people of God is determined mainly by external things like circumcision, like baptism, then notice who's in the driver's seat? Who's in the driver's seat? Us, right? Because we do the circumcising. We do the baptising. We submit a circumcision. We submit to baptism. We're in the driver's seat. We can define where the boundaries are very easily. We control the process. But as soon as we take Paul's lesson in Romans 228 to heart, as soon as we look carefully at Deuteronomy 36, which says that the Lord Himself will circumcise your heart to love Him. With all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. As soon as we see that it is not something that we can do, that true spiritual identity, which as matter of the heart, is not something that we can accomplish by the power of our own will, then we've been ejected from the driver's seat, Heavenly. The thing about me that I am least able to change is my heart. I've tried. How about you? I'm powerless to change my own heart and so are you. And yet, I just told you that true spiritual identity, true membership in the people of God is a function not of externals, but of the heart. And if you're here on Sunday morning, I'm seeing this because you're pursuing membership in the people of God. So where does that leave you? In order for anyone to become a Christian, God Himself. God Himself, the only one with power to create, has to give you a heart transplant. You cannot transplant your own heart. Look at Ezekiel 36, 26 through 27 on the reflection quotes. This is God's promise. God never misdiagnoses anything. That's the promise I begin with. So when He says, I'm going to have to give you a new heart, I trust Him that that's what you need. Moreover, I, this is the Lord speaking, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinance. You see what conversion looks like according to God in Ezekiel 36. It looks like a heart transplant that God gives. And that only He can give. Fortunately, the potential controversy in Acts 11 is diffused by this understanding that people have. Once Peter explains what has happened and what God has done, notice how in verse 18, the group responds and says, and Luke records. And when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God. Now why did they glorify God? These Gentiles were on circumcised. They glorified God saying, well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. What ultimately diffuses the potential controversy is their recognition that God has given to the Gentiles the same gift that He had given to the Jewish leavers on Pentecost. And that means that He has done the same heart work on them, the Ezekiel 36 heart work that He did on the Jews in Acts chapter 2. They recognize then because of the gift of the Spirit that God has done a work of heart transformation on the Gentiles. Now all that seems on its surface to be fine. And I know you can read that text just as clearly as I can, but it raises a vital question, which is what in the world does it mean that God has granted repentance? I thought repentance was what God commended. What do you mean God grants repentance? Is that question intrigued you? They don't say, they're very careful, they don't say, well, they've repented. The emphasis is on what God has done and God hasn't just received their repentance. God granted their repentance. That's what they're saying. And this isn't just Peter saying this. Notice this is the group of people who are saying this. This isn't just one man's opinion. This is the collective verdict. And so here's the question. Is repentance a command or a gift? What's the answer? Yes. That's the answer. Let me show you what I mean. Repentance is a command from God and our duty to Him. Jeremiah 4.4. You're not going to have time to look it up now, but listen to the command. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the four skins of your heart. That's a command from God. Deuteronomy 10, 16. So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer. Command issued to Israel. Acts 2.38. Pentecost. Peter said to them, repent. And each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's a command. Acts 3.19. Therefore, repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Now, none of that is controversial. You all, everyone in this room believes that repentance, if it's anything, is a command from God. That's not controversial, but it takes no special effort to leave that. And I'm assuming, if you're here, you want to go farther. You want to go farther? Repentance, my friends, if you're going to be faithful to what the Bible says, is not just a command, it is a gift of God. Deuteronomy 30, verse 6, moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul so that you may live. Then there's the Ezekiel 36 passage. How about Acts 531? Peter's sermon. He is the one speaking of Jesus. He is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as a prince and a savor to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. See, it's not just in Acts 11-18. This has been the way Peter has preached from the beginning. He's made it clear that repentance is a gift that Jesus was raised from the dead and seated at the Father's right hand in order to be the king who grants liberation down to the level of the heart change that is necessary in order to receive the gospel. Acts 326, for you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you. How? By turning you and repentance biblically is about turning, so this is a repentance text, by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. Now wait a second. The way most of you came in this room in terms of the way you understand repentance is it's not God turning me, it's me turning toward God. That's the majority report on repentance. That is an unbiblical assumption about what repentance is. It's incomplete, my friends. Repentance is a gift from God. We do not have the power to turn our own hearts in the direction of God. Now, those of you who aren't friendly to Calvinistic theology are not very happy right now, and I understand that, and I'm sorry about that, but your issue not with me, it's with the Bible. The text says very clearly that God granted them repentance. What will you do with that? It didn't just say it in Acts 11-18. It said it in Deuteronomy 30-6. It said it in Ezekiel 36-26-27. It said it in Acts 3-26, and it said it in Acts 5-31, just to give you something. What are you going to do with that? What is the right application of this recognition that God is the one who grants repentance? I'll tell you what the first application is that you shouldn't do, and that is to pit. The dimensions of the Bible that teach that repentance is a command against the dimensions of the Bible that teach very clearly that repentance is a gift. Don't pit those against each other and say, well, I have to choose one or the other, or the command doesn't matter, and the gift does, or the gift doesn't matter, and the command does. That's an unbiblical way of reading the Bible. What we have to do is we have to see that both are true, and in God's mind they are not in conflict. God does not contradict himself. We must live and act as though both are true, and that is not a contradiction. Let me show you what I mean. First, let me talk to the Christians in this room. What application does this have to you? It's a Christian. That's a pretty important question for me, since I'm a Christian. And so as I thought about this text, I thought, okay, what relevance does this have to my life? I mean, is this a text that's really just for unbelievers? For non-Christians? And the answer is no. Very clearly, because everybody in Jerusalem started worshipping when they realized this truth. That's the inside of the church. So how is it that recognizing that this gift of repentance is just that? It's a gift from God. It's roots. It is a gift from God. Yes, repentance is a command, but you can't. You won't unless and until God enables you to repent. That's what the Bible teaches. Now what in the world application does that have to Christian? Well, I think the first thing is, very often, we look deeper in order to celebrate more deeply, which brings me to Gecko's. Now, have you seen a Gecko before? Yes, she had. Now Gecko's are amazing, right? Noah? Gecko's are amazing, because they walk up walls and up glass aquarium sides, and you know what? They don't have any suction cups. How do they do that? They don't secrete any kind of spider stuff. How do they do that? Well, some of my friends at Berkeley just recently published a study. I tell you how to do it. Geckos have four feet, and on each one of these feet, there are 500,000 minute hairs on each one of the feet. There are 500,000 minute hairs on each Gecko's foot. That means two million hairs per Gecko. Each one of those two million hairs on the bottom of their feet breaks out into hundreds more minute hairs. They're so tiny that they are able to find, and almost at the molecular level, come in contact through cracks and imperfections and surfaces that we could never see. And so what happens is those hairs reach in all the nooks and crannies that the human eye could never see in surfaces, and it creates this massive amount of contact between the Gecko's body and the atoms of whatever surface it's climbing on, and the weak atomic forces are adequate to keep the Gecko suspended. Now, I think that's absolutely incredible, and it required somebody from Berkeley to figure it out. Now, I can have a very adequate appreciation for Geckos without knowing it. I can marvel at God's design and His goodness in creating Geckos. I can celebrate His wisdom, the extravagance of His provision for baby Geckos, enabling Mama Gecko climb up walls that I would fall off of in order to capture insects to feed the babies. I can marvel at that without knowing about those 500,000 hairs on each foot, but friends, I'll tell you what that knowledge of what a Gecko actually is makes my worship for the creator of the Gecko to blow in proportions way beyond what it was before I read that article. And so my question to you, Christian, is do you realize what salvation means, how deep the grace of God has reached into your life, it is magnificent that He has said His Son into the world to live and to die as the substitute for His people. But my friends, it is even more magnificent that the application of all that benefit from Jesus Christ's achievement is given to us not as a billboard for us to look upon, but down to the level of a change of heart, the grace of God continuing, plunging into the very heart of who we are to change our nature so that we might live in Jesus Christ. That is worthy of worship. And if you live your Christian life, think that it is you who made the decision and that it was your reasoning and your power and your good logical connections, you dishonor God, face what God's word says, His gift is so much bigger than you realize. He is worthy of more thanks than you have given to Him. It is incredible. Grace is not upon, it is an ocean, it is glorious. And it is so easy to forget. We can manage, we can live our Christian life on the energy of forgetting this and fall into the trap of thinking that we manage God's grace. Instead of falling out on our face before Him saying, you mean the reason I have come to believe in Jesus Christ is because you rescued me not just from my sin, but from the deadness of my heart that was unable to respond to the beauty of Jesus Christ. I thank you for that. How about non-Christians? I know I have frustrated you by now. And you think, as I probably would have, that when I was in your place, then I have been speaking out of both sides of my mouth. How can repentance be a gift in a command? Nobody talks that way. You notice how God does? God doesn't talk like us. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not like our thoughts. He is God. So here is the lesson that I am longing for you to grasp as a non-Christian. What I want you to see from God's word, those texts that we have looked at, is that God must grant what He commands. Let me say that again. God must grant what He commands. You've read the same text that I've read this morning. And with me, you've seen that the plainest way to understand them is that God must grant to us what He commands of us. And you say, well, now wait a second. Repenting is what I do. And I agree. But I say to you that you won't because you can't, unless and until God grants it to you to be able to do. You won't because you can't, unless and until God grants it to you. So where does that leave you? Well, I'll tell you where it shouldn't leave you. There's no use arguing about it. If you can, then do it. Right now. Don't waste another second. If you can repent, then I plead with you. I beg with you to embrace the repentance that leads to life this morning, right now before you leave this room. Come, grab me when I'm back at the door. I will pray with you. Grab Darren. He'll pray with you. Do it right now. Let's not argue about it. If you can, do it. But if you can't, if you can't, if you know your heart this morning is numb. And you know, you know your own powerlessness. You know that you are unable to persuade yourself of the depth and danger of your own sin. On the one hand, and you're unable to persuade yourself or to feel the urgency of the beauty of Jesus Christ. He's a two-dimensional comic book figure to you, and yet you have listened to the singing in this worship service, and you have heard love lifted up to Jesus Christ in this room, and you have seen joy on people's faces that you don't see at football games. You wonder what in the world is going on? How come my heart can't get there? And you know the powerlessness of your heart that you not only can't persuade yourself of the danger of your sin, but even the beauty of Jesus Christ cannot move your heart. Well there, there's something I don't want you to do, and that is I don't want you to despair. Because there is so much hope for you. There's so much objective reason for you to hope this morning, not because of you, and not because of this church, but because of God and his character. What I encourage you to do, if you're not Christian, whose heart is in that condition, what I encourage you to do is something very simple. To take your trouble and carry it to God in prayer. I encourage you to take what you know to be true about your own heart, your numbness, your indifference, your inability to see anything except two lines in perpendicular relationship to each other. You're the cross, and it's just background. It has no meaning for you. I encourage you to carry your trouble to God in prayer. Tell him, tell him about your powerlessness, tell him about your inability to see upon the cross anything of significance to your life. Tell him about your desire for a transplant of a new heart. Tell him, carry to him your desire for a new life with the in you. Tell him that you desire new eyes to see what other people apparently see when they look at the cross, to see your sin judged fully and finally on the cross. To see your sin paid for in full on the cross, to see your part in one on the cross, to see your life delivered from bondage and slavery to sin, to see in Jesus Christ not only a savior but a beautiful king who will guard you until the end of your days. Tell God you want to see that. But you're powerless to do that yourself. So many people don't do that. And unless you see what these texts have been showing us, there's no reason that you would. I find it incredibly liberating and I hope you as well as wanting to realize that the thing, the command that is pressed upon us with such urgency to repent and believe ultimately cannot be of my own making but must be given by God because the hardest thing to do is to repent and believe. If I was left to myself to do that from the roots of my life, I would despair. But when I learn that the God of the Bible is the God who doesn't merely command repentance but grants it, then hope dawns for anyone. It dawns not just for those who have the insider's advantage of growing up a church but it dawns for any category of person no matter how far away. If God is the one who grants repentance if the issue is the heart level change and no rule keeping on the outside and no group can ever give that to me but God alone is the giver, then I will never be imprisoned by external requirements of identity. But I will go to my God and say give me the new life, set me free, ask Him, my friend, I pray you'll do this, ask Him to allow you to see His heart publicly displayed on the cross, the heart of unflinching commitment to righteousness and titanic love in the same place. If you ask Him for these things, if you ask Him for these things, I'm very confident of His response. I have never known a single instance since I have a pastor of God not answering that prayer for anyone I've dealt with. Many of you are in this room right now and you've heard me tell you this in my office and everyone I've told this to in my office, God has granted this prayer. Not immediately but definitely. Now some of you are going to hear this advice, you're going to say I need to do that and you're going to walk out of this room and you're going to turn the TV on this afternoon and you're not going to remember I even told you to do this until next Thursday. Others of you will go home, frightened, encouraged, trembling, I encourage you to keep the TV off, seek God, read these texts, that's why we put them in the bulletin so you'll have them as resources come and grab one of us so we can help you with this. Now what's ultimately at issue in all of this is the glory of God. It's not the glory of John Calvin. It's the glory of God and God doesn't need it. He hasn't asked for it but I want to ask you something. Does he have your permission to reserve all glory for salvation to himself? Or does he have to share that glory with you? God says my glory I will not give to another. Is that a place of happiness for you? That is the only place I assure you where true freedom is found. So go to him today and pray. Father, now we ask that you would validate your identity as the one soul, exclusive, monopoly, wielding, granter of repentance. Father, magnify yourself in setting hearts free now to turn, to be changed down to their very roots, to take us way beyond the surface and the externals down to the heart of our identity in our lives. Lord, liberate us there. You who made the gecko, take us down to that minute level. And from there, the deepest place of who we are, cause new life to break forth that would honor Jesus Christ. Make new creations today for his honor and glory. Father, we pray in Jesus name.