Message - Repentance - 8-31-08 PM

Clear Eyes . . . Full Hearts . . . Can’t Lose

Ezekiel 18:21-32

FBC Winona – Sunday, August 31st - PM

“Friday Night Lights”

·      Based on Odessa Permian High School Football

·      Set in a fictional town called Dillon

·      Deals with the lives of Coach Taylor, players and supporters of a very successful high school football program

·      Community is centered around the success or failure of the high school football team

Deals with all of the potential distractions that could make someone lose focus of the goal

·      Teen love problems

·      Family issues

·      Potential wrongdoing by the school, coaches, players or staff

·      Individual relationship issues among players

·      One relationship not in unity can affect the entire team

The Dillon Panthers have a sign in the locker room

CLEAR EYES . . . FULL HEARTS . . . CAN’T LOSE

·      Clear eyes – focused on vision that is clear of distractions, focused on doing the job they’ve been asked to do as well as they can, eyes to look away from their own personal agendas

·      Full hearts – full of the right motivation, full of the right spirit, not focused on self, prepared

·      Can’t lose – if focus, motivation and effort are in line with the main goal – the team is successful

Tonight we are going to apply these same principles to the Christian life

·      Sometimes we let distractions get in the way of our Christian walk

·      Sometimes we let relationships go sour and don’t do what we need to do to fix them

·      Sometimes we let “life” get in the way of our right focus

·      Sometimes we have let sin get its grip in our life and we need to deal with it

The mistake we often make is letting relationships fester, situations continue to go unresolved, allow ourselves to continue in sinful ways and attitudes.

We often deal with these things in ways like this:

·      We let situations continue to have unresolved conflict

·      We allow sin to continue to reign in our hearts

·      We feel that we are so far gone that God doesn’t want to mess with us any longer

·      We just turn and run away from the situations and hope they will go away

Ezekiel understands the concept of clear eyes and full hearts

Ezekiel understands that there is one word that leads to proper resolution of this - REPENTANCE

Ezekiel 18:20-23, 30-32

20"The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. 21"But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22"All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him; because of his righteousness which he has practiced, he will live. 23"Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked," declares the Lord GOD, "rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?

Skip to verse 30

            30"Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct," declares the Lord GOD. "Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you. 31"Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? 32"For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies," declares the Lord GOD. "Therefore, repent and live."

The scripture is clear

·      v. 20 – the person who sins will die – not die for someone else’s sin but his own

·      (Romans 6:23 – for the wages of sin is death)

·      HOWEVER, if a wicked man turns from his sin, he will surely live – he shall not die!

·      God takes no pleasure in anyone who dies (meaning death apart from God), but desires that we would repent and live

Ezekiel describes two types of men in need of repentance

·      The wicked man – one who doesn’t live for God because he does not know God. He may have some knowledge of God but does not know Him. His opportunity is to turn from his life as a sinner and turn to God and live, live forever.

·      The disobedient believer – one who knows the Lord but has lost his focus or found himself in a middle of a relationship in discord, in the middle of a sinful situation, or with tension in his life. Here are some of the possibilities of situations we believers may find ourselves in – in need of repentance:

Let some distraction put our focus off of God

Failed to give God our full attention

Allowed ourselves to set priorities higher than God and His service

Let some of our morals or ethics take a backslide

Found ourselves in an adulterous relationship or looked lustfully at someone

Been in situations where we are less than honest

Allowed our integrity to be compromised

Let a relationship go sour

Developed bitterness or hostility toward a person or group

Has seen our attitude become negative or sour

Have found ourselves always in disagreement with the group

Has failed to lead our family according to God’s standards

Have not pursued a daily walking, talking, living, breathing relationship with God

HAVE I MISSED ANYONE???

Repentance is . . .

·      More than being sorry for what you’ve done – involves making a situation right

·      Turning away from sin and back to God

·      Putting selfish desires away and striving for holiness

·      A true gift from God – a second chance

·      Not merely turning from what you’ve done but what you are

·      Honored by God (Ezekiel 18:21, 23, 24, 27, 31, 32)

The key to revival at FBC is for each individual member to be living a life focused on the Master, free from distractions

CLEAR EYES . . . FULL HEARTS . . .CAN’T LOSE

1)      First of all, do you have a real heart relationship with Jesus?

2)      If you do, are your eyes clear from distractions or do you need to deal with some things I listed earlier?

3)      Is your heart full with the daily infilling of the Holy Spirit to guide your life?

Come to Jesus meeting tonight.  . .

·      This sermon is not intended to beat you down and make you give up on your relationship with God because as the passage earlier says – God does not have any pleasure in your death but in your life

·      God loves you and desires an intimate personal relationship with you

·      God wants to throw His arms around you and say “I forgive you”

·      God never turns his back on His children so that they cannot reach Him

·      God is glorified in your repentance – you will be praising God