Courage: Repentance

Courage:

Standing Alone

Taking Risks

Obey No Matter What

Where do sermons come from? Personal prayer time, reading, studying.

Courage is a fun to talk about until it’s us.

Repentance takes deep courage.

Repentance - “Godly sorrow wrought in the heart of a sinful person by the word and Spirit of God, whereby, from a sense of his sin, as offensive to God, and defiling and endangering to his own soul, and from an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, he, with grief and hatred of all his known sins, turns from them to God, as his Saviour and Lord”

- Richard Watson “A Biblical and Theological Dictionary”

READ (2 KINGS 22:1-2; 8-13)

Josiah - One of the last good kings of Judah.

Repentance is deliberate.

According to Chronicles, Josiah began seeking the Lord at age 16, and four years later he instituted reforms that ridded Judah of idolatry. Messes created by his grandfather Mannasah.

Repaired the temple.

Removed idols

Renewed Convenant between God and Judah.

Centralized worship at the Temple of Jerusalem.

Restored Passover

Purified the land of cult worship and Canaanite influence.

Returned the Ark of the Covenant to the temple.

Destroyed page shrines and fertility cults in the Samaria and Bethel.

Executed pagan priests on their own altars.

Unhealthy relationships. The deeper you are in one, the harder it is to have mental clarity. But, there must come a point when you must call it what it is. Unhealthy.

Nothing in life will change if we remain friendly with sin. Sin is sin.

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good.” - (Romans 12:9)

If I do a mental checklist of what allow into my life, I can easily detect sin.

There comes a point when we begin to decide how we feel about it.

When sin breaks your heart, make a decision.

Don’t just be sorry. Walk toward righteousness.

2. Repentance is possible for anyone from any background.

Josiah came from a line of kings who were evil before the Lord.

Manasseh, his grandfather rebuilt the high places of altars that worship Baal, even though his father Hezekiah had destroyed them before.

He made an Asherah, as King Ahab had done and bowed and worshiped all the stars in the sky and served them.

He built altars in the Lord’s temple.

He sacrificed one of his sons in fire.

“But they did not listen; Manasseh caused them to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.” - (2 Kings 21:9)

Amon, his father was also evil and walked in line with all that his grandfather had done.

“He abandoned the Lord God of his ancestors and did not walk in the ways of the Lord.” (2 Kings 21:22)

Josiah was different. He had the spirit of God in him that was also in his great-grandfather, Hezekiah.

He chose God’s plan and worked to bring the nation back. This is courage.

You don’t get to choose your family.

Do not fall victim to the excuse that you are your family and nothing can change.

We can’t hide behind our good family or bad for that matter.

God gives all people the space to repent and be made new.

3. Repentance is possible for individuals and nations.

While Josiah was pricked to the heart himself, he also felt responsible for the entire nation.

READ (2 KINGS 23:1-3)

Josiah led all the people to turn toward God.

He was willing to humble himself in the eyes of the people.

He destroyed everything that stood against God.

Conversion is not changing from one set of principles to another. You who have been raised with Christianity are in the greatest danger of being zealous for orthodox principles without being transformed by them into the image of God. Others think that they are converted because they have reformed their lifestyle. However, reformation is not renovation. The outside of the platter may be washed while the inside remains filthy. A person may turn from profaneness to morality and therefore believe that he is converted, yet his heart is still unrenewed.

You have not heard me, I hope, speak a word against reformation. You have not heard me speak a word against being good. No, both are right in their place. However, you may have this kind of conversion and yet never be truly converted at all.

What is conversion then? In order to be truly converted, a man must become a new creature and be converted from his own righteousness to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Conviction will always precede spiritual conversion. You may be convicted without being converted, but you cannot be converted without being convicted.

True conversion means turning not only from sin but also from depending on self-made righteousness. Those who trust in their own righteousness for conversion hide behind their own good works. This is the reason that self-righteous people are so angry with gospel preachers, because the gospel does not spare those who will not submit to the righteousness of Jesus Christ! - George Whitfield on Repentance and Conversion. - 1714-1770

Do we know the reality of who we are apart from the Lord Jesus Christ?

How sinful, broken, and confused.

Jesus entered us in this state and offers salvation. To love and believe anything else apart from the goodness of God is unclear and purposeless.

The courage to repent opens the door to life for me and life for all!