Unlocking Intimacy through Repentance
Notes
Transcript
PRAY
PRAY
Open to Psalm 51.
has a gritty story behind it.
It’s not pretty.
It’s not funny.
But it’s a story you need to know because
it offers you a stark warning, that even a great person who loves God can fall
and it offers you immense hope, that in spite of your greatest sins, you are never irredeemable.
Even the very best of us, who’ve never done drugs or swear, who’ve kept themselves pure and read the Bible…even you have much of which to repent .
Even the very best of us, who’ve never done drugs or swear, who’ve kept themselves pure and read the Bible…even you have much to repent of.
And even the “very worst” of us, who’ve dabbled in immorality and pornography, have committed significant sins, or who’ve viewed Christianity as a bore or a hassle. Even you, no matter how far down the rabbit hole of sin you go, the mercy of God reaches into the darkest and most horrifying depths of depravity and offers grace to all who repent.
David is an example of a believer who made a terrible mistake, repented of his sin, and renewed his intimate relationship with God.
If you want to be close to God, and all Christians do, you must repent of your sins.
Repentance is the key that unlocks intimacy with God.
The story behind is this
King David, hand picked by God as a young shepherd boy to be the spiritual and political leader of Israel, has expanded the reach of the nation and conquered many enemies. He amassed huge amounts of wealth and was loved in general by his people. The Bible describes him as a man after God’s own heart.
King David, chosen as a young man by God to be the spiritual and political leader of Israel, has expanded the reach of the nation and conquered many enemies.
David chose to stay home from an important war and noticed a woman while he was out on his porch. He calls his servants to go get her and steals another mans wife.
Bathsheba gets pregnant.
and David gets scared. He has to cover this up.
So he calls the woman’s husband Uriah back from the battle field and tries to send him to be with his wife, but he is a man of such high character that he refused to enjoy time with his wife while his comrades were risking their lives on the battle field.
So David gets him drunk assuming that he wouldn’t have such high standards
He was wrong.
David then writes Uriahs death sentence…that he is to be put on the front lines, and then when the battle is at its peak, the army is to pull away and leave Uriah so that he may be struck down and die.
He hands this letter to Uriah with the command to deliver it to the commander of his army.
The commander of Davids army, Joab sends a messenger back with the news that Uriah is dead...
and David immediately calls Bathsheba to be his wife.
and he dusts off his hands and thinks he’s so clever.
The prophet Nathan comes to him and tells him a story about a rich man (lots of flocks) and poor man (with only one sheep)
The rich man has a party and rather than take a lamb from his flock he took the poor man’s sheep to feed his guests.
David, the Shepherd King, furious with the rich man condemns him to death…only for Nathan to point his finger at him and declare
You are the man.
The blood drained from David’s fury and he melted to the floor saying
I have sinned against the Lord
David’s punishment?
Not his own death…but the death of his child.
So David writes this beautiful Song of desperate repentance.
Let’s look at together.
QUOTE IT!
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
To unlock intimacy with God, you must repent of your sins.
To repent, you need to do 4 things
See God’s holiness
Come to your senses about your own sin
Grow in Godly Sorrow
Believe in God’s forgiveness and draw Near to him
The first stop in repentance is to see the Holiness of God.
We must have a clear understanding that God cannot sin and cannot fellowship with sinners. He can not be close to sin.
He is holy! Set Apart.
So unique in his beauty and perfection
So glorious in his goodness and majesty
So awesome in his wrath and mercy
So steadfast in his love and faithfulness
The holiness of God is considered by some to be his highest all-encompassing attribute. For God is set apart from all of his creation.
Someone described God’s holiness like the rays of the sun. So glorious but also dangerous to anything that attempts to get close. Only the sun itself can stand the heat it gives off.
So how can we, humans who have been sinning from as far back as we can remember. Who’ve chosen to lie, lust, steal, cheat, gossip, and curse. Who’ve chosen to live in pride and independence from God.
How can we get close to God?
We look nothing like the perfection of Jesus Christ.
Ah.
Draw near to God…and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands and purify your hearts.
Draw near to God by repenting of your sin and believing in God’s grace.
When we see the holiness of God we must repent of our sin to be close to him.
When we see the holiness of God we must repent of our sin to be close to him.
What is repentance?
What is repentance?
Repentance is an action - turning from one thing to something else
you realize you’re going in the wrong direction, so you turn around and go the opposite way.
Repentance is admitting to the person that you’ve sinned against that what you did was wrong and choosing to stop doing it and doing something else.
Repentance is not just admitting to yourself that you made a mistake. It is communicating with the person that you’ve wronged that you are sorry.
If you’re anything like me, you don’t particularly love admitting that you were wrong.
It feels humiliating…like you’re weak. And we try to avoid the pain of repenting as much as possible.
Sometimes we’d rather live in the false sense of friendship and security than admit that we’ve broken someone’s trust.
But I assure you that with God, the only path to intimacy with God is to repent of your sin. Not only the first time when you become a Christian, but every single day.
Dear Lord, forgive me for my sins, come into my heart. Amen....DONE
No repentance is to be a lifestyle that we adopt.
Martin Luther, the famous reformer from Germany, put repentance in the very first of his 95 thesis “the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
The next step to repentance is acknowledging that you need it.
To help you with the problem, you have to admit that you have a problem.
You need to come to your senses.
Consider the story of the prodigal son
A boy basically tells his dad he wishes his dad would just die already by demanding his inheritance.
He promptly goes off into a far country and squanders his wealth on lavish living.
When his money and his friends are gone, he finds himself in one of the most humiliating job a jew could get: feeding pigs.
And he was so desperate and starving that he reaches down to eat the food of the pigs
and something clicks
He came to his senses.
He realized that he had to humble himself and beg his father forgiveness. And even if it meant becoming a slave to his father, would mean he would still be close to his dad.
So he threw down the slop and travelled all the way back to his father,
He practiced his speech, that he was no longer worthy to be called a son, but begged to be made a servant in his father’s house.
The Father, representing God in the story, had been watching and waiting for his son to return.
Rather than scolding or enslave him,
He runs through the town with his robe hiked up to his knees (two things a patriarch would never do)
in order to absorb the embarrassment of his son
not to scold or enslave him, but to forgive him and reinstate him immediately as a son.
and to hug him. and forgive him. and reinstate him immediately as a son.
What brought the Father and the son back into fellowship?
The repentance of the son.
Now we could dig deeper into the story and wonder if maybe we are not the prodigal son, but maybe we are his older brother who never dared to insult and embarrass his father like his younger brother.
But when the father becomes the prodigal-the extravagant spender- and throws a feast in honor of his boy, the older son becomes furious and jealous.
The father comes out to him imploring him to return to the party and the older son refuses.
Jesus’s point may seem odd
that the son thought to be lost in sin, through repentance shares intimacy with his father.
While the son thought to be the ‘good boy’ sees no need to repent, and ends up separated from his father.
We all sin. Sin is anything we say think or do that is contrary to the nature of God.
You see
We are all guilty.
There is none righteous.
God offers only one way to have the punishment for our sins removed: to repent of our sins.
So it sounds pretty easy. You sin, you say, sorry God, and you move on.
So if I say, God I’m sorry,
But remember what repentance looks like
To repent, you need to do 4 things
See God’s holiness
Come to your senses about your own sin
Grow in Godly Sorrow
Believe he will forgive you and Draw Near to God
Godly sorrow happens when you acknowledge how deeply your sin has offended God.
2 Cor 7:10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
2 Cor 7:10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Godly sorrow doesn’t have any ‘buts’ in it.
I’m sorry I did that, BUT....you really can be a jerk sometimes.
I’m sorry you feel bad, BUT…it wasn’t my fault.
Godly sorrow accepts full responsibility.
NOT: I’m sorry you’re offended. Or If I did anything that offended you, I’m sorry.
It looks like this, I’m sorry. I was wrong. I sinned against you. Will you please forgive me?
Godly sorrow accepts that there will be consequences.
When you say, I’m sorry God, but please don’t punish me. You’re not experiencing godly sorrow.
We don’t say, I’m sorry, but please don’t punish me.
Please be merciful in giving me the punishment I deserve.
: Have Mercy! Wash me, cleanse me, purge me, Blot out my sin and restore me.
Repentance is more about pursuing a renewed relationship than an introspective moaning.
Repentance is more about an attitude and action change than introspection.
Sometimes we’re tempted to think that we’re just terrible people. So so sinful. That we’re just the worst. Maybe we sit and mope as we condemn ourselves for being so awful.
But that’s not true repentance. That’s actually subtly pride. That you begin to self justify yourself because you acknowledge you’re so terrible instead of praising the extravagant God who forgives you for those sins.
We think if we sit and mope condemning ourselves for being so awful that we are truly repenting.
You wallow in your own self pity rather than believing that the God who created the universe with a Word couldn’t forgive you.
True repentance removes the guilt and replaces it with love. Stops grieving over the pain and consequences and grieves over the separation.
Do you see David’s drive to be close to God?
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
v10-12
David loves God and wants to be close to him.
_________________ CUT FOR TIME????_______________________
But he also wants to share that closeness with others. He wants to share the joy of intimacy with God with others.
Have you ever had someone try to tell you to do something that they weren’t doing themselves? The classic example is a parent or teacher saying, do as I say, not as I do. We don’t have a lot of patience for people who tell us what to do when we don’t respect them.
But I encourage you to be willing to hear about your own faults and sin from anyone. It takes great humility to listen to someone you have trouble respecting.
Look at what David says in 13
v13 - Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you.
Now wait just a minute.
You just got done using your God given authority and power as king to commit adultery, kill the husband, cover it up, and you are going to teach me something?
What right on God’s green earth do you have, DAVID, to tell me anything about sin? How can you possibly have something to say to me?
Ah, but what lessons is David teaching.
That God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
That no person is irredeemable. No one is too far from God’s mercy.
That all who repent of their sin, grieving the distance that sin has put between them and God, they are forgiven and enjoy renewed intimacy with God.
_________________ CUT FOR TIME????_______________________
know three things: What God is like, how you are different, and the plan God has to bring you close to him WANT to be close to God.
Understand the gravity of sin by seeing the glory of God.
Turn away from your sin and cling to Jesus, not good works or living a better life
Coming to your senses
Grow Godly Sorrow
Learn from others (that means other sinners)
For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Repentance unlocks the doors of your sin
Repentance unlocks the doors of your sin that keep blocking you from being and feeling close to God.
No one is beyond forgiveness
No one is above needing daily repentance
I’ve been to Cambodia twice and seen several memorials from something called the Khmer Rouge.
In 1975, a madman named Pol Pot
systematically tortured and murdered almost 1/3 of his country in four years.
It is the worst self inflicted genocide in recorded human history.
Among the few that did escape was a man named Christopher who survived by fleeing to a refugee camp in Thailand. There he heard and accepted the Gospel and eventually recieved training to be a pastor. Years later, he returned to his home country.
While Christopher was running Bible studies in 1996 a man came to the study as the payment of a debt to a friend. He continued to come and eventually wanted to accept Jesus as his personal savior.
He returned to his home country spreading the Gospel to everyone he heard.
“I have sinned.” He said, “My sin is too big. My brothers and sisters won’t forgive me.”
Pastor Christopher looked at him and said, “Yes, Jesus Christ can save you"
The man was baptized and began to smile and laugh for the first time in years. He recieved leadership training as a pastor and returned to his home village preaching the gospel of Jesus to his family and friends.
His younger sister was skeptical at first, but when she became a believer she realized, “Oh, Jesus is really good.'
That’s why he wants us to believe. After he accepted Christ into his life, he felt he didn’t have to worry anymore, because his life was for God.”
Soon however, the man was discovered to be one of the highest ranking officials of the Khmer Rouge: Comrade Duch. He was the chief of one of the most notorious prison camps, S21, a converted high school that methodically starved, tortured, and executed over 19,000 prisoners.
I walked the halls of S21...lined with thousands of mug shots of those murdered there.
In 2009, Pastor Christopher was called as a character witness for Duch. He was asked if it wasn’t out of opportunism that Duch converted to a Christian forgiving God rather than confront the Buddhist reincarnation cycle.
He answered that Duch had come on his own, repented, was baptized and then eagerly preached to others. He said he lost many close friends in S21, but he forgives and loves him. Until he met Christ, he didn’t know what love and forgiveness was all about. He says,
“When you are a true believer and understand God and his love. You understand forgiveness.
I speak from my heart, that I love [Duch] as my brother in Christ. He is part of my family, and we are bonded with God’s love.
God loves us. He died for us and forgave us and has mercy on us. Why not me too?”
In 2010, Duch was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison. No other Khmer Rouge leader has claimed responsibility or expressed remorse for their actions.
Repentance brings people together. Sin and hiding drive people apart.
Sin thrives in the darkness. So bring it into the light.
I don’t know where you’re at this morning...
Whether you feel like you have a laundry list of sins you need to confess every day,
Whether you feel like you have a laundry list of sins you need to confess every day, or maybe you can’t really think about
or maybe you can’t really come up with reasons why you would need to repent,
I encourage you to spend some time in .
Let the desperation of distance from God inspire you to get sin out of your life
to stop sinful habits
to get better friends who don’t keep dragging you into junk
And let inspire you to repent....daily. This wasn’t David’s only failure. He had some major ones later on in his rule. But he kept repenting.
REPENT
by seeing the glory of God
coming to your senses about your sin
having Godly sorrow over your separation from God
and believing he will forgive you and drawing close to him
Ladies, men, I have good news for you from . That our high priest Jesus holds his priesthood permanently...
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Questions from the booklet:
1. What is repentance?
2. What might the phrase “All of life is repentance” mean?
3. Which verse of was most helpful to you? How can you meditate on it this week?
4. How does wanting to be close to God affect your view of sin and repentance?
Discuss why a teenager should practice repentance and what that looks like in a relationship with God, parents, teachers, and siblings.