REPENT!
Notes
Transcript
God has radically changed my life from the inside out! I was a low-down lying, stealing, drug-addicted sinner, so full of anger and rage that I, at a moment’s notice, would lash out at anyone! I had no hope – I was lost – I was blind, and I was miserable, but God said repent! Turn from your wicked ways and I will forgive you. I will restore you. I will give you peace that surpasses all understanding! I will make you a blood-bought son of the living God in the blink of an eye. All you have to do is truly repent.
In
And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life.
God told Adam “cursed is the ground for thy sake! God is saying “I am doing this for your sake Adam”. Before Adam sinned, his work and life were pleasurable; he found pleasure in things of the earth, which is below heaven.
So when we experience pain in work and pain in our sin, that very pain is saying Repent, look to God for your pain relief, look to God for your pleasure and way of life.
Church there is a promise tied to the pain of sin. That promise says that when you are living in sin that leads to nothing but pain and heartache, God promises when you repent, you will be forgiven.
And, once you are forgiven, you will have God’s help turning from your wicked ways…And once your turn from your wicked ways, you start living for God. And I am here to tell you that living for God is peaceful and that peace is referred to as REST and it is all there for the taking…after you repent!
John the Baptist told us to Repent… the end is near, but I’m telling you Repent…the end is here!
The Old Testament and the New Testament both have words for repent. Both have a different meaning, but together we get the true meaning of the word. The Hebrew word from the Old Testament means to Turn Around. Make a 180° turn from your sins.
The Greek word from the New Testament means to change the mind about how you have been living.
So you must change your mind about the way you are living and then do something about it. If you change your mind and come to the realization that you are not living right, but you do not make that 180° turn from your sins, then you have just had another thought.
Why do we need to Repent?
Why do we need to Repent?
Repentance is needed because sin exists. Sin is a willful act against God’s known laws or commandments. So you know before you act, it is a sin; you know during the act, it is a sin, and you know after the act, it is a sin.
People in this day and age are trying to redefine what sin is, but God is the same today, yesterday and forevermore. There is nothing new under the sun, so if it was a sin in the past, it is a sin today, and it is going to be a sin in the future too, no matter what anyone says!
The only word that matters on this subject is God’s Word, so if the Bible calls it a sin you can take it to the bank, It Is A Sin.
When you are living in sin, you are separated from God! God is holy and He cannot be in the presence of sin. That is why Jesus Christ died on the cross, because the blood shed on Calvary made it possible for you to Repent from your sin and become perfect, and once you are perfect, you are then eligible to enter the Kingdom of God!
Now people get concerned when someone uses the word Perfect, Christ was the perfect sacrifice. A perfect man who is also God, but He had no sin and He became sin so that y ou could repent of your sin and then be considered perfect because of the price Jesus paid for us on that cross. So perfection Himself took on our massive amount of imperfections so that we could then sacrifice ourselves and let Jesus be lord of our lives so that we can then, by God’s grace, be perfect without sin.
When we repent, we are going from death to life. I am sure you have heard the term “born again”. When we are born the first time, we are a product of our mother and father. We are a representation of those two people’s lives. Our traits, our mannerisms, our temperaments are all representations of our mothers and fathers, and their mother and father before them.
In that same way when we repent and ask forgiveness for our sins and ask the Holy Spirit of the living God to come into our hearts and for Jesus to be Lord of our lives, we become born again. Just like the first birth we are now a representation of our Father…we are now a product of grace…we are now on a new path.
Just like before, the more we grow, the more we show signs of who we are most like…between our mother and father. Now the more we grow in Christ we show traits of who He is. The more time we spend with our new Father, the more we become a representation of Him. We are to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to Re/Present Jesus at all times.
But first things first.
We have to #1 Recognize that we are a sinner. So God made it a lot easier on us in this day and time, because He put a conscience in us.
Jeremiah 31:32-34 32not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration.
“Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
Also Romans 3:23 says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So if you have never recognized that you are a sinner in need of repentance, now you know.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
I want to add that repentance is not a one-time thing. We must repent anytime we sin or disobey God. Yes, sin is always disobeying God, but disobedience does not always involve a sin. If God calls you to witness to your next door neighbor and you do not do it, then you need to repent and then, if you still have the chance, go witness to them,
So #1, we must recognize we are a sinner, and #2 we must have remorse. Now remorse is not being sorry we got caught; remorse is Godly sorrow.
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.
10For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
This Scripture talks about this very thing. When we are truly sorry that we have wronged God, we will repent and then as a result of seeking God, change our lives.
A perfect example of worldly grief is Judas after he betrayed Jesus. He knew he sinned and he had remorse, but he would not repent and just like the verse said, “worldly sorry produces death”. Judas hung himself. This also, to me, shows that life is not worth living without God,
On the flip side, Peter is a perfect example of Godly grief and sorrow. Peter denied Jesus three times and on the third time he cursed. Peter then went out and wept bitterly, but unlike Judas, Peter’s grief led to true repentance and recommitment to the Lord, resulting in spiritual restoration. Peter went on to be a solid rock for the Lord.
So, #1 Recognize you are a sinner; #2 Have Godly sorrow that leads to salvation, and #3 Make a decision to change. You must go through the process of fixing it between you and God, which is truly feeling sorry and asking his forgiveness. Then you must change what you have been doing that got you to that point.
Isaiah 30:15 says your deliverance is in your repentance.
Acts 3:19-21 19Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out,
that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah.
Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning.
God is saying repent with true sorrow and once you do, then I can help, then I will help, then I can deliver you, then I can wipe out your sins, then you will have seasons of refreshment, because then you will be living in the presence of the Lord.
Whether you are repenting for the first time or the last time, you are only able to get the best aspects of God after you repent.
You cannot receive grace until you repent.
You want and need mercy…Repent.
You want and need forgiveness…Repent.
You want and need joy…Repent.
You want and need favor…Repent.
You want and need blessings…Repent.
Transformation, Rejuvenation, Representation, Repent.
Love, compassion, kindness, peace, understanding, deliverance, and a personal relationship with the King of Kings…Repent.
All of this is waiting for you after you Repent. We have to repent to get delivered. God can’t begin to develop us until we’re delivered from sin, bondage, depression, anxiety, shame…once the trash from our sinful life, our sinful nature, is gone and we have been delivered, God then starts to develop us for His will. Our destiny lies within His will. You will never know your destiny in life until you are living for God and in order to live for God, you have to first Repent!
A lot of the time we expect God to bless us and hear our prayers and fix our lives without tending to our spiritual condition. God won’t fix our physical condition until our spiritual condition is right. Repent spiritually and then you will see the effects physically. Once we seek out Christ in our spiritual lives and do what we are supposed to do. then and only then will we start to see Him working, changing, blessing us in our physical/seen lives/condition.
You might be saying, well if this sin is so bad why don’t I feel bad? Well, if you are lost and have never given your life to Jesus, it is because you have yet to experience the goodness of God in your life. However, if you have been born again, then I would say it is because the sin desensitizes us.
It is like those guys or gals you see who walk across a bed of glowing hot coals. They did not start out prancing across them like you see them doing. They had to build up calluses to desensitize their feet. It’s the same way with the Spirit God gives us when we get saved!
You either start feeding the spirit and become more and more sensitive to evil, depending on the Spirit to guide your life…OR you ignore the Spirit until your heart has calluses and you are numb to the sin that should be burning you. That callus is the difference between whether or not you repent…that callus determines how long it takes you to repent…but for the Christian that callus should not be there at all.
Repentance is kind of like taking a trip. You need to be going North, but you are on the interstate going South…the wrong way.
You recognize you are going the wrong way, and you feel bad about going the wrong way, but you continue to pass exits, which is refusing to repent.
Once you realize you are going the wrong way and you make a decision to do something about it, you take the exit off ramp, called Confession Off Ramp.
You haven’t solved the problem yet, but you have acted. Getting off doesn’t solve the problem, because North is still over there. But there is a connect between South where you got off and North where you need to get back on. We will call it Grace Overpass. The Bible says that Grace is greater than our sin.
On the other side of Grace Overpass, you have an on ramp and it’s called Restoration On Ramp. And now, you are headed in the right direction, but depending on how long you’ve been going the wrong way, it may take a while to get fully back on the right road…But I’ve got good news for you!
Have you ever been on a long trip somewhere? It always seems to take less time to get home than it did going there. Same mileage, same route, but it feels different because you’re going home. God says Come Home.
In James, Chapter 1, verses 14 &15, Scripture is telling us that our desires, once conceived, give birth to sin…and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. This is so simple, yet so profound at the same time.
Once an evil desire is conceived (which conceived in this context means to form or devise a plan); so once you plan on it, it then starts giving birth to sin.
So you’re thinking about it… and it is growing until you finally do it…and then you have given life to the sin you have been thinking about.
Now in this moment your sin is still a child…it is not fully grown. Also, the problem is that sin is fun for a season. So that infant sin is growing during the season of “it’s fun”.
During that fun season there is a lot of things happening that is leading you into the dark season, or as the Bible says, “full grown sin that gives birth to death”.
So, we started with a desire…
We did not give it to God…
So it then grew to the conception of a thought and a plan…
Which then led to sin in an infant state…meaning
You still are not completely consumed by it yet…
But, you still haven’t given it to God…
Because sin is fun for a season.
Now, during that fun season, you are compromising this and that until next thing you know…the sin owns you and it is calling the shots and God is not even on your radar.
But I have good news. Just like you had a choice to Repent when it was just a desire, God loves you enough to still let you repent when that sin is full grown!
It does not matter if you are Repenting for the first time or the 101st time, our Lord Jesus Christ said, “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents”.
Don’t delay, turn to Christ in repentance and faith today!
The Bible says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved! And, I am a living testimony that that is true!
