Becoming Whole Week 9

Intro/Welcome

Anybody traveling for Thanksgiving/Christmas?

We are planning on taking a road trip up to Ohio near Christmas to visit family.

14 hours in the car with an 8 year old, 5 year old and 2 year old.

You ever been on a long road trip, or vacation?

It’s nice for a while, but you know that drive back for 10+hrs

that last two hours is difficult, you just want to get home.

Man, when you do finally...

walk in to your home

the feeling of relief, of familiar, of peace and safety

you have returned home.

Today we are talking about repentance

And repentance is simply this:

it is returning home again.

Series

We are in the middle of a series called: Becoming Whole: A Transformed Life

Last week we talked about the necessity of healing from our wounds

both big and small, both distant and everyday

We said you cannot become whole without healing

We said this was half of the redemptive pathway we are walking through.

[Image of Redemptive Pathway]

Today we hit the other half: The Repentant Pathway

Big idea:

You cannot become whole with out coming home.

repentance is returning home.

Bible/Welcome

We are going to start in 1 John 1:8-10, and end up in Psalm 51

You can go there in your Bibles

My Name is Justin, one of Pastors

Good to be with you, where ever we find you today.

Let me pray.

150 days of Prayer: Home, Health & Revival

Pray

bear fruit in keeping with repentance

Psalm 32:1–2 ESV

1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

1 John

Let’s look at 1 John to get oriented

1 John 1:5–10 ESV

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

From this text and others we said that repentance consists of:

[Image of Redemptive Pathway]

Confessing, Grieving, Forgiving and Cleansing.

What does this practically look like for us?

The Need for Repentance

Let’s start at the beginning.

Repentance is needed because sin is a completed

(repentance is necessary becuase sin has been carried out)

What is sin?

Romans 14:23 CSB and everything that is not from faith is sin.

Anything that does not proceed from a trusting relationship with God.

Anything outside of his design, demands, commands for human flourishing

all of us have sinful hearts

Sin is a condition and a decision.

What are the effects of sin?

sin always divides and (eventually) leads to death

Us from (1) God, (2) each other, (3) from ourselves and (4) the rest of creation

Leads to the death of

dreams, relationships, marriages, accomplishments and eventually self.

This is exactly what God said would happen.

[Slide]

Genesis 2:17 ESV

17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

in the day that you don’t trust in my goodness and provision it will lead to death.

This is what we see play out in Genesis 3

Adam & Eve trust Satan’s words rather than God’s words

They are enticed and choose to sin

This leads to the death of their perfect relationship with God.

God promises to make a way back home but he sends them out of the garden.

Jesus Story Book Bible: “You will have to leave the garden now,” God told his children, his eyes filling with tears. “This is no longer your true home, it’s not the place for you anymore”

We’ve all been born outside of the garden

in the condition of spiritual death

Sin is a condition and a decision

This is the same thing that happens when we sin.

it separates us from God and will lead to death.

Genesis 3 is not just about what happened, but about what happens every day.

Guilt & Shame

God actually gives us a way to know that we have sinned.

Emotions

specifically guilt.

Emotions are the cry of the soul, the indicator lights on the dashboard of our soul

The experience of guilt is a good thing in indicates that we have done something wrong, that there is now an obstacle between us and God and us and another person.

We don’t like the feeling of guilt

But it’s meant to draw us back to God

When we sin, there are only two directions that we can run.

Either towards God or away from God.

Which direction do you run? are you running?

Why do we run away from him?

becuase we fear him? we fear exposure?

We can’t handle seeing our sin before such a good and perfect being

And it’s what we’ve been doing since the beginning.

When Adam and Eve sin what happens? What do they do?

Genesis 3:7–8 ESV

7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

What do we do?

We run away

We try to hide

If we are confronted we deny

We blame shift

We can bear the shame of our sin.

We try to cover it ourselves.

But we can’t.

What is Repentance?

Repentance is an invitation back to God

It’s a call to come back home.

Even in Genesis 3 God has a plan

Jesus Story Book Bible: “Even though he knew he would suffer, God had a plan — a magnificent dream. One day, he would get his children back. One day, he would make the world their perfect home again. And one day, he would wipe away every tear from their eyes”

Just like in the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15, where the younger son has run off from home to live in sin. The father stands and the porch each day awaiting for his son to return.

And God is waiting for you.

God hasn’t gone anywhere

when we sin, we put obstacles in our path

between God and us.

Repentance is deciding to return home again.

Its a decision to stop running away from God and to run back to him.

Hell is the result of never turning back, never returning home.

There is nothing out there except darkness and loneliness

a place of weeping and gnashing of teach — Jesus says.

CS Lewis book Great Divorce is a great picture of how ultimately it is us that choose hell.

How do we repent?

Confession & Expression

Confession

Confession is the first step.

To confess sin is to acknowledge it.

It is to walk in the light

It is to say I did this and it was wrong.

This can be so difficult.

We are so afraid of being exposed, of feeling shame, of not being good enough.

It makes us feel weak, shameful, scared to be fully known

The enemy goes to great lengths to keep us from doing this

He whipsers to us that we will not be accepted, not loved

He tells us that we are the only ones struggling with this sin

He tells us to do it tomorrow, surely it can wait one more day

But it’s all lies

becuase he knows the power of confession.

But when we do, when we step into the light

a tremendous weight is lifted

We can be fully known and it is so liberating when it is met with mercy and grace

We have to tell the truth about ourselves

And the truth will set us free. (John 8:32)

Results of not confession

But when we don’t the sin continues to eat away at us.

Listen to David in Psalm 32

Psalm 32:3–4 ESV

3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

We were not meant to live under the weight of sin.

Confession means first confessing it to God (vertically) and confessing it to those whom we have sinned against.

Listen to David in Psalm 51

Psalm 51:3–4 ESV

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.

Confession is acknowledging the sin and to whom the sin was against.

Here ultimately it is against God

but also against the offended

Confession is not easy

you experience this in any real relationship

esp. with spouse or sig other.

to have to confess sin is difficult it’s hard,

but it’s the only way to true intimacy.

Repentance is not mere confession though

Grieving Sin

True Repentance comes from the heart and it grieves the sin.

This is the expression of sin, grieving its effects.

This is what Paul calls godly sorrow in 2 Cor 7:10

2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV

10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Godly grief is a deep remorse for sin

Worldly grief is more about grieving the consequences of sin.

it is about mere regret

True repentance is heartfelt, it comes from the center of who we are

it is a decision we can make because of our condition.

But true repentance brings life and restoration becuase it is about coming home to the Father.

We need to feel the weight of our sin.

How it grieves others

How it grieves God

Psalm 51:8 ESV

8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Psalm 51:17 ESV

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

It’s heartfelt sorrow

It’s difficult again

our culture (the world) knows nothing of true repetnance

sin is being written out of our vocabulary

But we need to grieve our sin, b/c it’s leads us to the Cross

We need to wrestle with this but not be identified with it.

Godly grieve always brings us to God

ultimately it brings us to the foot of the cross.

Forgiveness & Cleanliness

Repentance involves making an appeal to God for mercy and grace, based on his character

Listen again to David in Psalm 51

Psalm 51:1–2 ESV

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!

Psalm 51:7–12 ESV

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.

Listen to these pleas of David

The come from the heart

It is an utter desperation and dependence on God’s mercy and grace.

And mercy and grace come from the Cross

Repentance involves experiencing the forgiveness at the cross.

This is one of the most powerful experiences that we have

Experiencing God’s pardon of our sins

his love in the midst of our loathing

seeing his face in the midst of our folly

It is the experience of God’s mercy and grace towards us that is transformative

But to experience it we have to walk through the repentant pathway

we have to tell the truth about our sin

we need to grieve the effects of our sin

then we need to appeal to God and the sufficiency of the cross for all sin.

It’s not just knowing this, but experiencing it.

That Jesus Christ died for your sin

for that sin you just confessed

It deserved death, but got mercy

The Cross of Christ removes all obstacles between us and God

It was all paid for

All sin, past present and future.

Isaiah 57:14–15 ESV

14 And it shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.” 15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Experiencing this transforms us.

Cleanliness

And then we experience the washing away of our sins

1 John 1:9 ESV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is an amazing experience

To see and experience your sins washed away

To be renewed, restored, rejuvenated

This is repentance.

My life: early in my walk struggling with sin and lust as many men (and women) do. I just remember one time experiencing such sorrow and guilt and crying out to the Lord and hearing him say that his loved for me had not changed and could never be changed by anything I could do. That moment changed me.

The Result of Repentance

and the result is joy, worship, discipleship, and fellowship

Joy

all true repentance is joyful

It results in restoration with the father

We have come home.

Throw a party, Luke 15

Worship

out of our great gratitude and joy we praise the lord.

Psalm 51:14–15 ESV

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.

having experienced to love of God we now love God even more.

Discipleship

And it leads to discipleship.

Psalm 51:13 ESV

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

When we experience true repentance we can pass it along to others.

We can show them the way.

You can’t lead others where you haven’t gone yourself.

The multiplication of ministry

Fellowship

Ultimately it opens the door to reconciliation and restoration

Psalm 51:18–19 ESV

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.

It allows for fellowship, community.

We can go to those we have sinned against and confess and grieve and ask for their forgiveness.

It’s a beautiful picture it is so attractive

1 John 1:7 ESV

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

This is the redemptive community that we are meant to be.

When we can experience true healing and true repentance and continue to live in these rhythms

God can do great things.

Application

What do you need to repent of?

What have you been unwilling to repent of?

Will you walk in the light and experience the transformative power of God’s mercy and grace?

Will you come home?

Work this out with God, today

Work this out in your community groups.

Come home.

Let’s Pray