An Acknowledgment

I want to start tonight by showing a video. I know it is longer than I normally show but I think you will enjoy it.

Show video

I don’t know if you remember but 2 weeks ago we started a series on what true repentance looked like.

Last week we said it is so much more than just saying sorry. And we started looking at one of the steps too true repentance. Anyone remember what it was?

Humility

We learned there is a difference between insecurity and humility. Humility brings us to Jesus where insecurity just brings us to self degrading and shame.

Well this evening we are going back to that passage in and we are going to look at the second step.

2 Chronicles 7:13–15 NLT

At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you. Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place.

What is the next step in true repentance?

Prayer

Me: I guess I should tell you why I showed you that video… It was the go and prepare part. The part where Mark was supposed to think about what He had done and how he could keep from doing it again.

I love that part because, this part of Mark’s punishment, was an important part of repentance. See it was in that moment that Mark had time to think about and acknowledge His own misconduct.

It was the time when He could acknowledge that he did deserve what was about to come his way. And a time of reflection of what led up to this moment.

We: We often think of God as our Heavenly Father, and much like Mark’s earthly father, God has shown us in 2 Chronicles that an important part of repentance is this acknowledgment of guilt, this time spent meditating on what we did wrong.

Now I know what some of you might be thinking. But Pastor it doesn’t say that. What it says is to humble ourselves and pray, not think about what we have done.

Which is a fair observation to which I would ask this question.

What are we supposed to pray about?

God: Truth is the word that we have translated prayer here is actually the Hebrew word...

mediate, arbitrate, i.e., help parties to come to an agreement, with a focus on using process of deciding or judging

mediate, arbitrate, i.e., help parties to come to an agreement, with a focus on using process of deciding or judging

Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

See God doesn’t just tell us to pray about anything. This is not the time to pray for just anything. This is the time for you to acknowledge a few things as you meditate on what you have done.

1st to acknowledge you have sinned

2nd to acknowledge what you deserve

3rd To remember Judgment has already been past onto Jesus

I know that when this was written Jesus hadn’t come yet and so they would have come with a sacrifice to atone for their sin. But we live in a time when the final sacrifice has already been made.

Jesus already took our whoopin’. In fact the sacrificing of animals was a show of obedience and faith but in reality it is the blood of Jesus Christ that truly covered their sins as well, but that is a different study.

What we really need to know today is when we go to the Father in the spirit of repentance, humbly we come, but we need to come meditating on these three things.

Truth be told perhaps a better name for the second step would be...

Acknowledgments

You: There may be times when you find yourself in a place where you need to repent. If so as we said, you need to remember to take the time to make some acknowledgments...

We: When we come to repent we need to

1st acknowledge we have sinned

2nd acknowledge what we deserve

3rd remember Judgment has already been past onto Jesus