Rapid Repentance

Did you do your homework last week? Assignment This Week:

Read Psalms 9, Psalms 139, and Psalms 81, daily for the next few weeks. I want these scriptures cemented into your minds and your hearts.

Meditate on them.

Ask the Lord questions about these scriptures.

Create a list of all the benefits given to the person who dwells in The Secret Place.

Talk about these scriptures and the sermons with your small group. Small Group Plug!!!!

(Bye the way, great job for those that listened. We had 6 more signups for small groups this past week!)

PRAY:

We will be challenged as we draw close to you.

That we will be willing to say Yes to the challenges.

We will be confronted with some ideas that we may not agree with> Bring us to scripture and Holy Spirit speak to our hearts about what you are doing.

Spirit if something causes our hearts to struggle I pray that rather than simply being disagreeable help us to search you for wisdom. Help us to have the courage to ask You if You are trying to grow us.

In this series we will be confronted by the enemy. I pray that the doubt, fear, or lies of the enemy brings to our thoughts will be trampled in The Secret Place under the shadow of the Almighty.

A Mosaic of Scripture

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8–9

1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.

Psalms 139:1–4

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you. Psalms 139:17–18.

8 Hear me, my people, and I will warn you— if you would only listen to me, Israel! 10…… Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. Psalms 81:8, 10(b)

14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;

Psalms 91:14–15

What do we see in this mosaic of scripture?

God’s thoughts and ways are higher soooooooooooooooo much higher than ours.

God’s knowledge and thoughts are precious to those who abide under His shadow.

God searches us and He completely knows everything about us.

He knows our thoughts.

He even knows our words before we even speak them.

Even though He knows all of our thoughts, which can be scary to contemplate. The good news is He still chooses to love us.

He promises us a few things.

If we choose to hear Him…….He will warn us.

If we open up to Him………….He will fill us.

If we choose to love Him……..He will rescue us.

If we call on Him……………….He will answer.

As I was reading through and meditating on this mosaic of scriptures a song started playing in my mind: (BE BOLD SING THE SONG)..... This Is Our God by Phil Wickham:

This is our God, this is who He is / He loves us / This is our God, this is what He does / He saves us / He bore the cross, beat the grave / Let Heaven and Earth proclaim / This is our God, King Jesus".

As I sang this song My heart had so much gratitude for who our God is!

My heart overflowed with gratitude!

WHY?

If you all knew all of my thoughts…………You would call me a fraud!

If I knew all of your thoughts…………..What would I think about you?

Example: Anyone been part of a survey where you enter a word or phrase on your phone and it links to the screen and you see everyone’s responses? Just imagine if all of our darkest deepest thoughts were put on put on the screen, with your name associated with it, for all to see. Here is the truth………God sees all of these thoughts……………..and He still loves you.

The following is a list of amazing truths that the enemy militantly attempts to tell us are lies. But these are bedrock truths we can stand on:

Our God knows all of our thoughts.

Our God knows all the things we have done.

Our God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

Our God’s ways are higher than our ways.

Our God promises us that if we call upon His name…… He will answer us.

Church,..................... isn’t that amazing news today?

We serve an amazing God who loves us despite all of our failures!!!!

HE LOVES YOU!!!

HE IS SOOO GOOD!!!!

Let’s Stand for the Reading of the Word:

19 Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” 2 Timothy 2:19

Pastor: This is the word of the Lord.

Congregation: Thanks be to God!

Before you are seated, fistbump your neighbor and say, “Depart from Iniquity!”

We spent a lot of time this morning setting the stage and emphasizing the point that God’s thoughts are higher than ours. His ways are higher than ours. And He knows everything about us.

With that as the backdrop, we are going to spend the rest of our time digging into the call to action found in 2 Timothy 2:19; “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

What is iniquity?

Using my Bible software I looked into the root of this word. I looked into the intended use and meaning of this word so we can understand what Paul is writing to Timothy.

The use of this word is in the singular. Because of that it focuses more on the phenomenon of transgression rather than the multiple specific acts of sin. It shows sin as something that disrupts relationships between communities and God. It comes from the Greek Word. πίπτω (piptō). vb. to fall. This term often refers to the beginning of sin(s) in a general sense. It often refers to the sin of Adam (“fall into sin” for the origination of evil).

David J. Sigrist, “Sin,” in Lexham Theological Wordbook, ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

The departing from iniquities or repentance that Paul is talking to Timothy in this passage is going deeper than repenting from general sin, like stealing, cheating, cursing, getting drunk or high, sexual sin, or not tithing. Per Bob Sorge in the book The Secrets of The Secret Place, “Those are obvious…….you know if you’re being disobedient. Such matters are already crystal clear to us.”

Paul is going deeper with Timothy and He is going deeper with us. This scripture is calling out iniquities. When Adam committed the “original sin” he did not understand at the time why he did what he did. He did not understand at the time that his flesh was weak and why it was weak. Per Bob Sorge, “Iniquities are our hidden faults that we often don’t even realize we have. They are the hidden roots of sin inside of us; pride, rebellion, unbelief, envy, selfishness, ambition, and covetousness.”

These deeply rooted iniquities manifest themselves into our individual “acts of sin”. The Secret Place helps us to go after the deeply rooted iniquities.

One of The Secrets of the Secret Place is Rapid Repentance

Per Bob Sorge, “In the secret place, my spirit makes diligent search. It reaches and searches to perceive what God is thinking about in regards to my life. Because I long to please Him and know His will more deeply, I search to identify if there’s anything He wants me to change. I want to be sure I’m holding nothing that could hinder our relationship.

At its core iniquity hinders our intimacy and relationship with Father. That is why Paul was encouraging and reminding Timothy to “depart from iniquity.” It would be wise of us to accept Paul’s council on this topic as well.

One of the practices of The Secret Place is to ask God to search us for anything that is hidden that needs to be revealed. To shine the light into the darkness!

What does this Secret Process look like? How do we put this into practice in The Secret Place?

We Test Ourselves

We Ask Father To Search Us And Disclose To Us!

Whatever He Discloses…………..We Rapidly Repent It!

Test Ourselves:

Paul and other authors of the Bible tell us that we should examine ourselves:

28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 1 Corinthians 11:28

40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40

5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.

2 Corinthians 13:5

Here is A Secret Of The Secret Place........................Set aside the time and do this practice!

Many people don’t regularly set aside time in The Secret Place to assess their current spiritual inventory.

This is a practice we are called to do often to help us run the race of faith.

In order to self-test it takes discipline, wisdom, honesty, and ………………..intentional time set aside to complete this task.

Remember last week I made some points about training. I stated that many of us need to get trained in The Secrets of The Secret Place (including myself). Through many conversations with many people my experience tells me that many of us when we are in The Secret Place we are not examining ourselves and taking action on it!

When it comes to departing from iniquity, the challenge that self-testing presents, is that we have blind spots in regards to the root source of our sinful actions.

We can’t always peer into our inner self and see the root issue(s) of our entanglement.

There is another incredible Secret of The Secret Place…………….. we have help to do this hard work!

Ask Father To Search Us And Disclose To Us!

Father knows everything we have done.

He knows us better than we know ourselves.

23 Search me God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalms 139:23–24

Here are some nuggets from Bob Sorge in the book The Secrets of The Secret Place:

Most of us don’t even see the hidden inequities of our hearts. God knows we can’t repent of something we don’t see, so he helps us by showing us our iniquities. We don’t go looking for them in our own understanding.

When I’m in the word, He shows me things I need to deal with.

As you meditate in the word, in The Secret Place, God uses the fire of circumstances and the fire of his word to reveal your hidden faults to you.

Another Secret of The Secret Place is to SPECIFICALLY ask, “Father, show me the exact scripture of my iniquity.”

Example: Testimony From My Journal:

February 17, 2025

I woke up this morning feeling heavy. Like the Lord's favor has slightly moved away from me. I feel like His voice has silenced a bit. I feel this way when I take back control rather than being a good servant (when my opinions take center stage instead of His opinions).

As I got ready for my Secret Place time I thought about this feeling. It feels real. I didn’t just wake up on the wrong side of the bed. I feel spiritually hungry. Something has changed. What is it that is inside of me that has crept in or is a bad habit of my flesh that has risen up that I am unaware of? Immediately Spirit gives me an idea in my mind…..Pride!

I entered my Secret Place time immediately repenting this. Confessing to Jesus that I feel something has shifted. I asked Spirit to disclose it to me. What has changed? I then remembered a practice called Rapid Repentance from the book The Secrets of the Secret Place. In this practice you ask Spirit to reveal, through the use of scripture, anything you need to repent of that is hidden. Ask for the scripture, be quiet and listen, then go to the scripture Spirit reveals, repent what is disclosed immediately (without contemplating if it is accurate or not…..just do it).

I asked Spirit. I listened for two seconds. Spirit immediately says, “James 4:6”. Not knowing what this verse says I turned to James 4:6.

“But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”” ‭‭James‬ 4:6

Wow!!! This really works!!! I have done this practice three times now and every time Spirit showed me something in scripture that I should repent. Before I entered The Secret Place I was pondering and the word Pride came up. I then engage with Spirit and Spirit confirms.

I then ask, “Spirit will you show me how PRIDE is showing up in my life? How is it MANIFESTING in ways that are hidden to me?”

He showed me three ways the iniquity of Pride was being manifested in my life. (For the sake of time I am going to share one of them with you).

I AM GOOD

“I AM GOOD”. I am absolutely boasting in the Lord right now. I am telling everyone what Father is doing to me in this season. I have had so much fun testifying to His goodness, faithfulness, mercy, provision, defending, and incredible teaching. However, I have to be honest. I have had thoughts like “I am good” or “I don’t need my Secret Place time today”. Both of these thoughts I have made decisions from and acted upon them. For example, Spirit has told me to create a daily, monthly, and annual rhythm of my life document. Something to help me stay focused on what He is teaching me that will help me to stay close to Him and away from sin. I have jotted down ideas but I have not yet completed it. Why? The idea of “I am good” has entered my heart and has impacted the sense of urgency of obeying Spirits teaching with immediacy. A humble servant acts with immediacy. A prideful servant questions and delays.

I followed the practice of Rapid Repentance from The Secrets Of The Secret Place, and quickly repented. Immediately, I felt Father’s peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding, come upon me. I could feel the communion of intimacy return again.

Father, I am so grateful that when I repent you immediately make your nearness known. You are always near. It is I that draws away. I am full of gratitude that you don’t make us go through lots of different things to feel your nearness again. You are a good Father that immediately makes your presence known, quickly!

Whatever He Discloses - Rapidly Repent It!

Another Secret of The Secret Place is to Rapidly Repent:

I can’t say it better than Bob Sorge so I am just going to quote him on this topic. It is simple & quick.

When He reveals to us, we repent immediately and completely, no need to obsess on introspection, just respond, respond quickly when the Holy Spirit reveals the iniquity of your heart.

As I was working on this portion of the sermon Spirit nudged me with this thought: “Who can we look to in the Bible as an example of repentance? Who should we model after?”

King David.

David isn’t remembered for repenting once—but for living a pattern of repentance. Despite serious failures, David is called “a man after God’s own heart”.

How many times did David repent in the Bible?

In 1 & 2 Samuel there are 5 major narrative confessions.

There are 7 direct confessions in the book of Psalms.

There are dozens of pleas of forgiveness across the Psalms.

God’s heart is for His servants to quickly repent.

News Flash: Father knows we are going to fail and sin. He knows it! There is no surprise in that fact!

Father’s heart is that you don’t hide!

Father’s heart is that you quickly repent and come back to Him!

David was an adulterer and committed premeditated murder.

If David can be known as a man “after God’s own heart”................SO CAN YOU!

(WORSHIP TEAM COME UP)

Bob Sorge wrote, “Become a good repenter! It’s how we keep moving forward with God. Learn a secret from David. One reason he found such favor with God, in spite of all his miserable failures, was because he was such a thorough repenter. God loved that about David!”

Let’s receive Paul’s encouragement to Timothy and take it to heart.:

ASK HIM FOR HELP

GO AFTER THE INIQUITIES

RAPIDLY REPENT

In 2 Timothy Chapter 2 there is a story about the different vessels or items in a Rich Man’s House. The gold and silver vessels are symbolized by those that repent often. These items are used by the Master for noble purposes. These are contrasted with less honorable items made from wood and clay that are used for less honorable purposes, which symbolize those that rarely repent.

In a great house there is a need for gold goblets for toasting and there is a need for garbage bins to take out the garbage. The choice is yours what you become!

As the worship is happening we are going to pass out the communion elements. Please hold them until the very end and we will take them together.

Lead Congregation in Communion (After Worship is Done):

Today we gather to worship our Lord and to remember that He went to the cross to remove all iniquities of the world! Today, together, we fulfill His command to take these elements so we remember!

The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 1 Co 11:23–26.

Did you do your homework last week? Assignment This Week:

Read Psalms 9, Psalms 139, and Psalms 81, daily for the next few weeks. I want these scriptures cemented into your minds and your hearts.

Meditate on them.

Ask the Lord questions about these scriptures.

Create a list of all the benefits given to the person who dwells in The Secret Place.

Talk about these scriptures and the sermons with your small group.