When the Smoke Clears: The Vision that Leads to Change

How to Bounce Back When Life has Knocked You Down: The Gospel for Everyday Living

HOOK- Repentance Requires Vulnerability

There’s a powerful scene in a novel written by the South African writer Alan Paton. The story centers on a young police lieutenant, husband, and father named Pieter. Pieter struggles with depression, he has what we would call “father issues,” and he’s on the verge of destroying his marriage with a younger woman. His wife and children are out of town so he goes to see his good friend, a man nicknamed Kappie. Among other things, the two friends share an interest in the hobby of stamp collecting.

Pieter shows up intending to humble himself, to repent, and to make a full confession of his struggles, his temptations. As Alan Paton writes, Peiter knows what he should say: “[Kappie], I am here to tell you of the deep misery of my life, and you must help me … before I am destroyed … you must tell me something in God’s name.” But he said none of those things. Instead, Pieter nonchalantly lies about why he really came: “Kappie, I’m sick of the empty house, and I’m wanting to see some stamps.” So they listen to music and look at stamps. Kappie knew that his friend had something deeper on his mind. So when Pieter started to leave Kappie said, “You can come every night if you wish.” But Pieter walks out and does not return. And Alan Paton writes, “Ah, if he could have told … And yet he could not tell.” Pieter wants repentance without risk, without cost, without vulnerability.

The reason so many of us struggle with repentance is because we refuse to be vulnerable—nothing goes out and nothing comes in; we are locked down from the inside

But, this is also an indication that we don’t spend much time in the presence of God—why, because it is impossible to linger in the presence of God and not melt away anger and frustration, shame and shortcomings to the point of repentance.

Big Idea: A clear vision of God's holiness always leads to repentance and transformation. Are you seeing God as He truly is, or is your view dangerously refracted?

Repentance Re-Framed

Defined: repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ—Grudem

Explanation of the four elements

Contrition is the emotional state of awareness that the current state of one’s life is in need of change

Confession is the admission of guilt and the alignment with God’s standard; it is to say what God says

Commitment is the intellectual assent and motivational fortitude to engender a new way of living or being

Change (Return or Turn) is the resultative action (behavior) that takes place in response to the previous three elements

Hebrew term Shuv (שׁוב)

It is the twelfth most frequently used verb in the OT, appearing just over 1050 times. It expresses the penitential and physical activity of humanity involved in genuine change

It signifies a turning around—turning away from present things and returning to a point of departure

Such a message would be repeated to Israel when they had lost their way

We see a corporate call to repentance in 2 Chronicles 7:14 14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn (shuv) from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land

Greek term Metanoia (μετάνοια)

This term aligns with the Greek cultural understanding of the human person, wherein everything rises and falls with your thinking

Louw and Nida define it this way: “to change one's way of life as the result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness - 'to repent, to change one's way, repentance.' ”

Repentance in Contemporary Language

One of the reasons the Gospel often falls on deaf ears or is marginally lived out even among those who been saved by it is because we don’t have a good grasp on the concepts that underly it.

And so, one of the things I said to myself that I would do this year is to constantly teach us about riches and the depths of biblical words—because our modern everyday conversations leave much to be desired, often lacking substance and depth of meaning

Repentance is one such term that speaks loudly

The concept of repentance is surely foreign to our present day because it’s more common not to acknowledge our mistakes or to offer any explanation—we instead explain them away as simple mishaps along the way—no big deal

We’ve trained ourselves to ‘keep on moving’ from one thing to the next giving very little thought to where we’ve been or we arrived in the first place

So, we don’t value nor do we practice things related to repentance because we don’t deem them necessary

We feel no contrition or sorrow because we’ve trained ourselves to feel nothing—everybody wants to be hard, calloused and emotionless

We refuse to confess, because in our minds, we’ve done no wrong or that God’s way is optional or too inconvenient

We often talk about turning over a new leaf and changing our ways, but we don’t plan to succeed, though we swear we really want to, because our concept of commitment is anemic

It becomes a nearly impossible task to produce a changed mind or behavioral change, because the truth required for such to take place gets crowded out and relegated to the margins by all your other cerebral downloads

And because we refuse to repent, we are missing out on God’s activity in the world

Lesslie Newbigin (Redirecting Our Attention)

In Mission in Christ's Way Lesslie Newbigin (d. 1996), long-time missionary to India, writes about the true meaning of repentance:

I remember once visiting a village in the Madras diocese. There was no road into the village; you reached it by crossing a river, and you could do this either on the south side of the village or on the north. The congregation had decided that I would come by the southern route, and they had prepared a welcome such as only an Indian village can prepare. There was music and fireworks and garlands and fruit and silumbum (the performance of a South Indian martial art done on ceremonial occasions) —everything you can imagine. Unfortunately I entered the village at the north end and found only a few goats and chickens. Crisis! I had to disappear while word was sent to the assembled congregation, and the entire village did a sort of U-turn so as to face the other way. Then I duly reappeared.

This is what metanoia means. Some translations give a misleading impression by translating it: "Turn away from your sins." That might make it look like a traditional call for moral reformation. That is not the entire point. When the Gospels call for repentance, The point is: "The reign of God has drawn near, but you can't see it because you are looking the wrong way. You are expecting the wrong thing. What you think is 'God' isn't God at all. You have to be, as Paul says, transformed by the renewing of your mind. You have to go through a mental revolution; otherwise the reign of God will be totally hidden from you."

Don’t let this be true of your life...you miss the reign of God because you refuse to repent

Repentance Un-Refracted (Isa 6:1-8)

Isaiah has a vision of the Lord

But let’s not miss what occasions the vision—the death of a king

King Uzziah was a good king—mostly

Uzziah ascended the throne at sixteen and reigned for fifty-two years

His military acumen and success was off-the-charts: His military achievements were substantial—he defeated the Philistines, Arabs, Menunites, and Ammonites, built an elite force exceeding 300,000 troops, and even developed siege weaponry capable of shooting arrows and hurling stones

Economically, he revitalized the nation through construction projects, agriculture, and ranching

However, Uzziah became too strong to the point where his success was rivaling God’s in the eyes of the people

He began to operate outside of his calling—entering into the temple, he decided that he would make like a priest and offer incense on the altar

Azriah, the priest then gather 80 other priests and confronted him, saying you don’t belong here—this is not what you are called to do

Get OUT, for you have acted corruptly, and before Uzziah could leave the temple, he was afflicted with leprosy for the rest of his days—one prideful act followed him to his grave

This indicates that he was not crediting God with his success but rather taking all the glory for himself

Even Isaiah, who is called of the Lord falls victim to this, and says I wasn’t seeing the Lord as I should have until King Uzziah died, which should speak to us to say that sometimes we can attribute too much to human effort and prowess in the family of God, creating a dangerous and fictitious eclipse of the true source of power

When this happens, God is obligated to act—to remove the counterfeit rival

But let me wade a bit deeper—I think we have become too lax in our corporate worship experiences

We’ve gotten to where we can take’em or leave’em and we don’t see them as a privilege

We allow other things to compete with the worship experience

God has become too cool and too casual—if you and God are that tight, I need you to enlighten me on how that happens

I grew up in an era where people would be outside smoking during worship—chatting it up at the coffee carafe and the like

This is a dangerous place to be because it says other interests have began to eclipse the attention that belongs to God alone

The contrition of repentance comes in Isaiah’s view of God as high and elevated, seated on His throne

He is given a glimpse of God’s glory and grandeur and basically says—it’s over for me (v.5)

This is the beginning of his confession, where acknowledges that his lips are full of sin as well as those around him

In God’s presence Isaiah sees all of his inadequacies and shortcomings, but that’s never where God wants to leave you—you know that by now

Then one of the Seraphs (literally burning one) took a hot coal from the altar and touched his lips and told him your evil has been cleansed by the fire and your sins have been forgiven

And so now the Sovereign Lord wants somebody to enlist to tell his people about their idolatrous ways

Isaiah says, I’ll go—there’s your commitment—not volunteerism, but sold out servanthood

And the rest of the book demonstrates the change in Isaiah’s life

Isaiah 26:3 “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You”

Isaiah 55:8–9 ““For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 54:17 “No weapon forged to be used against you will succeed; you will refute everyone who tries to accuse you. This is what the Lord will do for his servants— I will vindicate them,” says the Lord.”

Isa 40:28-31 “28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. 29 He gives strength to the aweary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, 31 Yet those who wait for the LORD Will again new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

But it all began with Isaiah’s repentance

Where are you right now—

Are you traveling away from God in defiance?

Are you stuck in between the path you have chosen and the one you know God has pre-planned

Wherever you are perhaps the encouragement you need is for me to tell you to return HOME (this is for the believer)

TOOK- Returning Home

In her book, Unbroken, author Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of Olympic runner and World War II POW survivor Louie Zamperini. As a young teenager living in Southern California, Louie was better-known for causing trouble. Thieving was his hobby, especially if the loot was food. Louie was often in trouble at school for brawling and cared nothing about getting good grades. His poor Italian immigrant parents worried about him and tried to reel him in. Aware of his inadequacies, Louie tried to make up for it by scrubbing the kitchen floor, overhauling the engine of his family's sedan, and giving away the goods he stole. Hillenbrand wrote, "Louie would give away anything, whether it was his or not." Louie's older brother Pete tried to reform him by getting Louie to run track, but even that seemed to fail.

One day Louie got angry about doing a chore and decided to run away. His parents pleaded with him to stay, but when he refused, they sent him off as lovingly as they knew how. Louie's mother made him a sandwich and his father held out his hand to give him two dollars, a great deal of money for their family at the time. Louie took the gifts and left. He and a friend hitchhiked to Los Angeles, and then jumped a train headed north.

Running away was not the adventure Louie hoped for. They barely escaped an oven-like boxcar in which they had been locked. They were caught and forced at gunpoint to leave the train—while it was moving. They had to walk for several days and "wound up sitting on the ground in a rail yard, filthy, bruised, sunburned, and wet, sharing a can of stolen beans." A train went past, and Louie could see passengers sitting comfortably inside. He recalled, "I saw … beautiful white tablecloths and crystal on the tables, and food, people laughing and enjoying themselves and eating. And [I was] sitting here shivering, eating a miserable can of beans."

Hillenbrand writes that Louie "remembered the money in his father's hand, the fear in his mother's eyes as she offered him a sandwich. He stood up and headed home."

And somebody needs to know, everything you’re struggling to get on your own, the Father has

You don’t have struggle unnecessarily—get up and Go HOME

And when you arrive, He’ll say:

Come on in where the table is spread, and the feast of the Lord is going on

Forgiveness is at the table

Peace is at the table

Joy is at the table

Get up and Go Home—the Father is waiting on you!