Repent and Believe Podcast w/ Cynthia Smalls

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today as I discuss: Our Heavenly Father has put out a call for His children to be holy! "13 Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:14-16).

Today, we are looking at 8 reasons why obedience to God is important. The #1 reason is that Jesus calls us to obey. In Jesus Christ, we find the perfect model of obedience. As His disciples, we follow His example as well as His commands. Our motivation for obedience is love! Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments: (John 14:15) Amen!

Obedience Definition in the Bible:

👉 The general concept of obedience both in the Old and New Testament relates to hearing or hearkening (which is to listen; to attend or give heed to what is uttered; to hear with attention, obedience, or compliance) to a higher authority. Unlike harken, which is 'to listen, hear, regard."

👉 One of the Greek terms for obedience in the Bible conveys the idea of positioning oneself under someone by submitting to their authority and command.

👉 Another Greek word for obey in the New Testament means "to trust."

👉 According to Holman's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, a succinct definition of biblical obedience is "to hear God's Word and act accordingly."

👉 Eerdman's Bible Dictionary states, "True 'hearing,' or obedience, involves the physical hearing that inspires the hearer, and a belief or trust that in turn motivates the hearer to act in accordance with the speaker's desires."

👉 Thus, biblical obedience to God means to hear, trust, submit and surrender to God and His Word.

Amen! Live clean & holy lives beloved!

🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today as I discuss: JESUS SEES AND KNOWS IT ALL!! You ain't getting away with anything my friend! There is no such thing as "secret sin" in the eyes of God! Jesus knows all about those practicing sins you "claim" are so "hard" to give up, even though He abolished sin's power and control over you at the cross - you disobediently remain in them! So why is it that people who profess Jesus as Lord, continue to stay in willful, blatant, practicing sin? It just may be that he/she has not been truly born-again. 1 John 3:9 tells us, "No one who is born of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, because God’s seed [His principle of life, the essence of His righteous character] remains [permanently] in him [who is born again—who is reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose]; and he [who is born again] cannot habitually [live a life characterized by] sin, because he is born of God and longs to please Him." AND THAT'S JUST THE FACTS FOLKS! When you love God, the way Jesus told us to in Matthew 22:37, you have no desire, AT ALL, to willfully sin against Him!

God is not our "buddy," "the Man upstairs," or "the Big Guy in the sky!" He is no One to play with! He is God and He has standards. He is to be obeyed, reverenced, and to be feared! We ought not to become "too familiar" with Him that we lose respect for who He is! Thereby, taking His grace as a license to sin! Heed to what Jesus said in Luke 12:2-4, "The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is 👉secret will be made known to all. 3 Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear! 4 “Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. 5 But I’ll tell you whom to fear. 👉Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into . Yes, he’s the one to fear." AMEN! 🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today as I discuss: Jesus told us quite clearly in His Word, who will be going to ! SALVATION COMES THROUGH REPENTANCE! JESUS SAID TO REPENT OR PERISH! GOD IN HEAVEN CALLS FOR US TO TURN FROM OUR WICKED & UNRIGHTEOUS WAYS AND TURN TO HIM! We are called to be holy and, "...Live sensible, upright, and godly lives [lives with a purpose that reflect spiritual maturity] in this present age, 13 awaiting and confidently expecting the [fulfillment of our] blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus" (Titus 2:12b-13) AMP.

Jesus told His disciples in Luke 24:47 before He ascended back to Heaven, "That repentance [necessary] for forgiveness of sins would be preached in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem."

Jesus sacrificed His life on our behalf so that we would not be condemned, found guilty by God and face His Wrath! Final sentencing will be at the Great White Throne Judgment! The Lord Jesus Christ has been appointed Judge by God; for all authority has been given unto Him! HE IS LORD OF ALL! AND we will stand before Him on Judgment Day for the deeds we have done in the body, be it good or bad. In Acts 17:30, God commands all men everywhere to repent! We must not reject the call of Jesus! He gave a parable in Luke 14 about a Dinner. People were making excuses about how they were too busy to come at the Master's invitation. They all had something more important to do, and this angered the Master. Jesus said in verse in 24, "For I tell you, not one of those who were invited [and declined] will taste my dinner.’” Amen! TURN FROM SIN AND BE HOLY!

🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today as I discuss: We cannot be out here living any kind of way and still say we have fellowship with the Father and and His Son! We cannot grieve the Holy Spirit because we are disobedient as we wallow in willful blatant sin! Listen: You are either in the kingdom of darkness or the Kingdom of God's dear Son! Once we have sincerely repented of our sins, we live a life of holiness and righteousness in Christ! We don't buck up against the Holy Spirit's guidance and direction because we want to have our sin and eternal life simultaneously! Not happening folks! No having "your cake and eating too" over here!

Do you not know that Christ Jesus paid a dear price for your soul, so that God's wrath will not be upon you!? Therefore, our lives should be reflective of the gratitude that we have for our salvation! This is not the hour nor the day to be playing both sides of Glory! Either you are for Christ or you are not! Jesus tells us in Scripture, that we must consider the cost when we come and follow Him! We are not to put our hand to the plow and then keep looking back, in longing, to that sinful life we've left behind!

No! We move forward as we look ahead to the approaching Day of His soon return! We set our minds on things above and not on our flesh, not on this world, and not on those things that will keep us from inheriting the Kingdom of God! 'Cuz don't forget, we will all give an account for the life we live - whether good or bad! Amen, be holy!

🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today as I discuss: Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its taste (purpose), how can it be made salty? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and walked on by people [when the walkways are wet and slippery]. 14 “You are the light of [Christ to] the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden" (Matthew 5) AMP. Amen!

As believers and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are called to be “salt and light” in a decaying and darkened world around us, proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ to those who have clothed themselves in the bad news (study John 3:18b-19) of this dying world. When Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth," He meant that all of His disciples were to serve as preservatives, stopping the moral decay in our sin infected world!

In Matthew 5:14, Jesus tells His disciples, "You are the light of the world." As "salt," we are to counteract the power of sin! As "light," we are to illuminate or make visible! Our lives are to be an on-going witness to the reality of Christ's presence in our lives. When we worship God with pure hearts, when we love others as ourselves, and when we do good without growing weary, we are lights shining in a dark sin infested world that need to be told about the Light of the world! We are to be that beacon! We are God's lights! Now go preach the Gospel to the whole world! Amen!

🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today as I discuss: How we cannot fix our sin problem; neither does compounding the issue with yet ANOTHER sin, trying to undo the 1st sin, so that we can be made right with God! By doing this, only makes the problem worse, because instead of trying to fix it, we end up back in more sin. It's like back to square one!

BELOVED, we needed a Savior! BIG TIME! Someone that we can trust and believe in to make atonement for our sins, pay our sin debt in full, and restore us back to a right relationship with God! So, no matter what we could have done to make this right with God, it would've still not been good enough. In the New Testament, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to earth to reunite us with God through the ultimate sacrifice: His own life.

Christ’s death for our sins is the most basic fact of the Gospel. The first and most important fact of the Gospel Paul preached, was that “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3). With that being said, we can't pay for our sins, no matter how good we think we are. So in today's lesson, we are going to see that two wrongs do not make a right. If we are in willful sin, and we see clearly in the Word of God that we must repent and come out of it, our solution should not be to compound the issue with more sin (aka, coming up with some "bright idea") so that now we can be made right with God! There is only one Person that can make us right with God, and that is His Son, Jesus Christ! The Bible tells us that there is not one single righteous person that ever lived, except for Jesus. He willingly laid down His life for mankind so that we are not condemned and face eternal destruction in the Lake of Fire. We are going to be looking at the Gospel in light of Jesus dying for our sins. We are also going to quickly go over Scriptures that talks about divorce, remarriage and adultery, because it was this topic I had with a sister in Christ this weekend that inspired today's podcast. Amen!

🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 WE GOT SOME SERIOUS SOBERING ETERNAL BUSINESS TO DISCUSS TODAY about what Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven." THAT ALONE SHOULD WAKE ALL OF US UP! Our good righteous works in Jesus' name does not guarantee us entrance into the Kingdom, Jesus just said so! So, then WHAT IS THE WILL OF THE FATHER and are we doing it? 1 John 3:23 tells us explicitly that it is the will of the Father that we BELIEVE in Christ. Notice we are commanded to believe in Christ:

"This is His commandment, that we believe [with personal faith and confident trust] in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and [that we unselfishly] love and seek the best for one another, just as He commanded us" 1 John 3:23 (AMP). We live by what we believe. What do you believe about Jesus? Because in Him is a lifestyle of holiness, righteousness and godly living; producing fruits of repentance. We live by faith in the Son of God, who laid down His life for us. We do not just have a mental assent about who Jesus was and what He did for us. Because if you believe that Jesus died for your sins, was buried and rose on the 3rd day, you will live differently, not in sin... but in righteousness, pleasing the Father! So let me ask you:

Do you BELIEVE Jesus Christ is who the Bible says He is, and are you trusting Him as your Savior and Lord? Do you BELIEVE that Jesus is God in human form (John 1:1, 14)? Do you BELIEVE that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins (1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21), for which you deserve eternal separation from God (Romans 6:23)? Do you BELIEVE that the sacrifice of Jesus, God incarnate, is the only adequate payment for your sins (1 John 2:2; John 14:6; Acts 4:12)? For your eternal destination is riding on what you BELIEVE about the Son of God! Amen!

🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me in today's exhortation as I discuss: Those sins that will keep us out of the Kingdom of God. "For those who are living according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh [which gratify the body], but 👉🏾those who are living according to the Spirit, [set their minds on] the things of the Spirit [His will and purpose]" (Romans 8:5) AMP.

I'm discussing this because some in the Body of Christ act like they don't know what sin is, thereby facing eternal consequences for their willful deliberate blatant rebelliousness against the God THEY say is saving them🤦🏾‍♀️!! The Bible tells us, "Do not be deceived, the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God" - and this includes deceived "Christians" who believe that Jesus will authorize their sin(s)! Listen: the price we pay for sin is DEATH (eternal separation from God and from Jesus in the Lake of Fire, for all of eternity) folks! That is why we must turn from our wickedness, turn from riotous living, turn from sexual immorality, turn from worldly lust and passions, turn from rebellion against God... And turn to the only One that can save us - the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and God! You are now free, child of God, to be holy - now don't return back to being a slave to sin! We have been set free to live clean, holy and righteous lives! Christ Jesus has set us free! If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed!

Jesus makes it clear in John 8:12 when He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Amen!

🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today as I discuss: What God Do You Serve? What Christ Do You Follow? There's a great deception amongst the brethren: that they can stay in their willful, blatant, unrepented and unconfessed sin, and STILL believe they have fellowship with God and with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ..."doing mighty good works in His name!" They believe they will enter God's Kingdom! They are greatly deceived! The Word of God says in Psalm 7:12, "If a man does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has strung and bent His [mighty] bow and made it ready."

Many who profess Christ Jesus as Lord, does not obey Christ Jesus as Lord! It is evident by their fruits (their behavior/lifestyle)! They "say" they serve Jesus, but they don't follow and obey His commands, essentially, ignoring His teachings and instructions!They want you to co-sign their sin and not bring correction to them that is based on the Word of God! They rather believe that the "Lord has told them" to stay in their sin and that they have "prayed on it" and therefore they are good to go with God! They believe they are in a good place with God and they're not! They are deceived! I've said it many times on the podcast, Jesus will never NEVER authorize sin! FOR IF SO, HE DIED FOR OUR SINS FOR NOTHING! You must not be deceived! For many self-professing followers are going to be shell shocked on Judgment Day, because they truly believe their good works quote, unquote in the Lord, is going to gain them entrance! It's no wonder Jesus is going to say to them: "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:23). What a terrifying day that will be 😬! Amen!

🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

👏🏾 400th Episode! Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today as I discuss: John 8:24: "I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” When Jesus states in this verse that one must believe "I am he," it's yet another instance where He does, in fact, tell others that He is God.

Jesus expressly acknowledged that he is God, and said that he expects all believers to recognize that he is God. Thomas called Jesus "My Lord and my God." Jesus acknowledged it as true, and commended Thomas for perceiving it, saying, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:28-29).

Jesus said many things about Himself that could only be said about one WHO IS GOD. So today, we are going to look at a ton of Scripture that shows the attributes of Jesus' deity, namely:

👉🏾AUTHORITY: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matthew 28:18).

👉🏾AUTHORITY TO JUDGE MANKIND: Jesus has authority to judge all men. "The Father... has entrusted all judgment to the Son" (John 5:22, see also verse 27).

👉🏾SOURCE OF SALVATION AND ETERNAL LIFE: "My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life" (John 6:40).

👉🏾AUTHORITY TO FORGIVE SIN: According to Jewish teaching only God could forgive sins. Jesus shocked the "teachers of the law" by declaring that "the Son of Man (his name for Himself) has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Mark 2:10; see also Luke 7:48-49).

👉🏾CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN: Jesus told the Jewish religious leaders, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world" (John 8:23).

👉🏾BROUGHT THE KINGDOM OF GOD TO EARTH: Jesus' entire preaching was about the Kingdom of God. He began His preaching by declaring, "The time is fulfilled; and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15).

👉🏾LIVES ETERNALLY: Jesus' words declare that He lives eternally and has no beginning or ending in time. They confirm His statement in John's vision in the Book of Revelation that He is, "the First and the Last," and lives forever (Revelation 1:17-18).

👉🏾INSTITUTED A NEW COVENANT: Jeremiah 31:31 had announced that God would institute a new covenant in which He would write His laws on men's hearts. At the Last Supper, Jesus declared that the wine "is the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20). Hebrews chapters 8 and 9, after referring to Jeremiah's prophecy, confirm that "Christ is the mediator of a new covenant" (Hebrews 9:15).

👉🏾WILL COME AGAIN IN GLORY: Jesus told the High Priest, "In the future you will see the Son of Man [his name for himself] sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matthew 26:64). Amen!

🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!