Which Thief are You?

Faith and Repentance.

Pray. The slightest comprehension of Your love.

Prelude: Testimony.

Luke 23:39-43 “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.””

There are words we should learn in the Bible. Mighty words Propitiation, Justification, Sacntification. Learning and studying these words will change your life, they will add grace and mercy to your soul.

Two of these words are Faith and Repentance.

Repentance:

What Repentance is Not:

A flipant sorry.

Anger over getting caught.

A shifting of blame

Notice, the first thief, Save yourself and Us.

KRCC. Nobodys Guilty.

What Repentance Is

It is an Utter breaking of the heart.

It is the acceptance of responcability with out excuse.

Faith:

“but this man has done nothing wrong.”

This theif was caught, condemmend and crucified in Jerusalem.

For the Last week he would have know of this man Jesus in the city causing an uproar. even in prison he would have heard that this man whom they were shouting hosana, and of the triumphant entry, This king of the jews.

But is that enough to get saved by? just cause you heard this name,

think on the words this thief used.

Innocent- implying no wrong or at the least a really good dude.

Remember me when you come into you Kingdom. that implies he thought this Jesus to be a king.

But you need to know He is God. how would he know that? knowing Jesus’ name even the demons know His name and shudder.

Such a bold statement. We will come back to that later.

What God Loves.

What I love about this book is the sheer depth, and width and highth. when you begin to plumb Scripture, something happens. A joy seems to flood through you. It seems a lot like the voice of God whispering in the “still small voice”

Have you ever read something in here and found it so profound that it left you in utter awe of that bit of wisdom?

Ps 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Which thief are you? Are you the get me out of this circumstance, or are you the Luke 23:40-41 “But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.””

Where does my faith Come From?

When I read and study the Bible I have a couple of unwritten rules.

When something does Not make sense, Stop. Most times i feel that is God trying to speak to me.

To me, When I get to this question,( where does my faith come from) I get completly stalled,

Why you/why me? did you do something to gain your salvation.

Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

So again this question, why you. Why not the guy beside you. Did God see in you some kind of greatness? maybe you liked kittens, and that made God go all gooie and he just thought you were so darn cute.

we know thing as believers.

David said that our heart is infinitly wicked. in the NT we learn that all of our works is like filthy rags.

So why if before we are saved and there is nothing we can do Why would God choose us?

Let me take you to the beach and one of the neatest pieces of scripture. God is weird, he gave me this scripture long a go but I couldn’t put the pieces together till much later. it is so wierd but Every time He does this it makes literally marvel at His ways and His word.

Matt 16:13-17 “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”