Here’s an alternate conclusion to this past Sunday’s sermon:

Let me end with a question you might be asking yourself. You might be saying something like, “All this sounds really nice Joey. I understand my sin. I even agree that I need to turn away from my sin and turn to Christ. But here’s the problem: I don’t want to. I feel the need to repent, but don’t really want to act on it.”

Well to answer that question, that though, allow me to quote CS Lewis once again:

“The great thing is to prevent [your patient] from doing anything…The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able to ever act, and in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.”

“Do not be deceived, Wormwood, our cause is never in greater danger than when a human being, no longer desiring, but still intending to do our Enemy’s will, looks out on a world from which every trace of him has vanished, asks why he has been forsaken, but still obeys.”

Yes, sometimes we need to act out of a sense of duty, but it’s not a duty trying to earn God’s grace with empty actions; it’s a duty seeking to delight in God’s grace through earnest worship.

Realize there’s something glorious about the person who goes on loving and serving God when every feeling of joy has gone. We can do this because we realize that ultimate joy is not simply a feeling, but a Person. And true repentance leads us to true joy, to God himself.