Rick McKinley had two keys points in his sermon this past weekend that I wanted to make mention of (and give my useless opinion to).

First he talked about openness and honesty in the community of christianity. The need to be honest with each other and stand with each other in repentance and grace. And I know this is something I've talked about before here. Being truthful and honest about our shortcomings and sins with other believers is hard. The idea that we'll be judged and looked at differently is always at the back of our minds. Our fear at sharing our sins holds to keeping a lot of things to ourselves and holding onto things keeps us trapped to freedom from our sins and I think without confession among believers, true repentance isn't fully reached. I've had great, honest conversations with my close friends over beer and cigars just talking about our spiritual struggles and sins. No judgement, just honesty and grace among brothers. I believe having a place and people we can be honest and share ourselves with is essential for followers of Christ.

The other thing was repentance. I don't much to say on this. I feel like I spend a lot of time repenting for the same thing. I feel like I spend most my time repenting. I don't want my love for myself to be more then my love for God and I don't want my needs to over power what God wants for me. I need to spend more time in repentance.

http://www.imagodeicommunity.com/sunday/teaching-and-sermon-archive/jonah-part-3/