Sermon Tone Analysis

VIDEO

 

 *2nd service */This is exciting day… our service in Mount Vernon begins tonight….

So for you watching this in Mount Vernon… We are glad you are joining us and I hope you are having a good time at the fairgrounds./

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Today we are continuing our series called “Life according to Jesus” our intent is to learn how to stay connected to Jesus by obeying his commandments and today’s topic you might have guessed is repentance…

 

You know… as we try to wrap our minds and hearts around this idea of staying connected to Jesus we need to be willing to examine our own lives and ask God to reveal to us the places where we have disconnected from Christ, those places in our lives where we are trying to exist on our own instead of being entirely dependent upon Jesus Christ.

In John 15 the Bible tells us that *THOSE WHO ARE DISCONNECTED* from Jesus are like branches that are cut off of a vine.

When we disconnect from Jesus our spiritual life withers and instead of being healthy and vibrant… our spiritual life becomes dry and brittle.

*Instead of being spiritually alive in Christ we become religious… *

 

The end result of disconnecting from Jesus is spiritually we die and as John 15 tells us… those who are cut off from the vine, those who are disconnected from Jesus are gathered up like dead branches and thrown into the fire….

*So… It seems to me that learning how to stay connected to Jesus is important…*

 

The Bible tells us that we stay connected to Jesus by keeping His commandments…

 

*John 15:10 (ESV) \\ *10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

So to stay connected to Jesus we need know and obey his commandments… We need to “Live Life According to Jesus”

 

*NOW BY NO MEANS IS THE BIBLE OR AM I TRYING TO SAY THAT WE ARE SAVED BY WORKS…*

 

*Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV) \\ * 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The Bible is very clear that we are saved by grace through faith and not by works… but it is also clear that Grace is given so that we may do the good works that Christ has prepared for us to do…

 

Before we jump in into our first commandment from Jesus this morning I want to take a minute to define grace… if we are saved by God’s grace then we should understand clearly what that means…

 

*I believe there is some confusion in the church over this term grace*… We have many definitions for grace… it can mean to be polite, it can mean to pray, it can mean to cut someone a break… how many times have we heard “just give him some grace” Grace can mean to have charm or to say thanks…

 

*You see in our English language grace can mean a lot of things…*

 

But what does it mean from a Biblical sense remembering that the Bible was translated into English from Greek and Hebrew which is not an easy thing to do…

 

Grace from a Biblical sense… the Grace that is talked about in Eph 2:8-9… has a very specific meaning…

 

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary that kind of grace means *: *unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification… The Dictionary does a pretty good job of defining Grace… but let me break it down a little bit more…  

 

*There are three distinct parts to Biblical Grace that were manifest through Christ:*

1.    First Grace is Gods undeserved Mercy or Favor towards mankind that allowed Him to send His son to be the sacrificed for our sin… It was grace that motivated God to atone for our sin through the death burial and resurrection of Jesus… that’s GRACE \\ \\

2.    Second Grace is what allows God to forgive our sin… Because of Christ sacrifice that paid the penalty of our sin it is grace that allows God to forgive us… \\ \\

3.    Third Grace is the conduit in which God gives us the ability to obey Him… that is His divine assistance… Grace is therefore the power by which we can obey his commandments…

 

*We receive this gift of grace by putting our faith in Jesus… *

 

So it is only by God’s Grace that we are saved and it is only by God’s Grace that we can stay connected to him, and it’s only by God’s grace that we can have the ability to keep His commands… GRACE!!!!

 

The reason that I’m making such a big deal about Grace before we talk about repentance this morning is because most Bible teachers today and most Christians understand grace as God’ mercy and forgiveness but they leave off the third part which is just as important…

 

*Grace is God’s conduit in which He gives us the ability to obey Him… *

You cannot leave that part off.

If you do, it cheapens the meaning of grace, and I believe many Christian live sinful lives because they have misunderstood grace…

 

*Let me give you two quick examples before we move on to repentance…*

 

How many of you have heard this quote from the Bible… “My (meaning God’s) grace is sufficient for you”

 

*That verse has been misused so many times to excuse sin… *

 

For instance Let’s say Scott comes and confesses that he is struggling with a sin issue in his life, maybe he says “hey Joe I can’t seem to get my thought life under control and it’s affecting my eyes, so every time I see an attractive gal my mind begins to wander…”  and Joe replies “that’s ok everybody struggles, God’ grace is sufficient for you…”

 

What does Joe mean when he says that?

He means “God will forgive you!” It’s OK

 

*But what does the Bible really say about grace in this verse…*

 

*2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV) \\ *9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

First of all that verse is not talking about dealing with sin at all and when it is talking about grace it is talking about grace in the sense of God’s power strengthening us in our weakness so that we can stand up to the *antichristian pressures of this world….*

So if you were going to use this verse to counsel on sin… you would us it in the sense of God’ power in your life to overcome sin…

 

*So let’s go back to our scenario…  *

Scott tells Joe that he can’t seem to get his thought life under control and it’s affecting his eyes, so every time he see an attractive gal his mind begins to wander…  So Joe, being a Godly guy and Scotts accountability partner should reply “Everybody struggles with sin, it is part of our human nature, God will forgive you if you confess your sin… His mercy never ends, but your part in dealing with this Scott depends on you choosing not to give in to temptation… God has already given you everything it takes to stand up against this… but you have to choose to make the right choices… remember His word says “God’ grace is sufficient for you…”

 

*Do you see the difference in the meaning of Grace there… *

 

Another passage that get’s used in the same manner is Romans 5:20 it says “But where sin increased, God’s grace increased even more” but Paul in this passage is actually referring to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross that over came the power of sin…

and it is the beginning of exhortation on Grace that teaches us that grace is more than just forgiveness and mercy, it also is the power over sin…

Let me read it to you…

*Romans 5:20-21 (ESV) \\ *20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

*Romans 6:14 (ESV) \\ *14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Grace is the power of God given to man to have victory over sin… One definition of sin is being disobedient to God… So it is Grace that gives us the Power to obey Jesus’ commands….

*All that to say,* today as we begin to learn together what it means to abide in Christ by obeying his commands… by no means am I talking about a works based religion… What we are talking about is living a truly grace filled life that chooses to be obedient to Christ and is dependent upon the power of the Holy Spirit to do so… We are talking about a life that abides completely in Jesus!!!

 

*So this morning we are going to look at the very first commandment of Jesus “REPENT” *

 

When you first hear the word repent what do you think of?

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One of the images that pops into my mind is an incident from my child hood…  I remember going to a mariners game at the King Dome in Seattle I think I was in the 3rd or 4th grade And as we were walking into the game there was a scary looking guy with a sign the said repent or burn and he was yelling through a bullhorn Repent Ye Sinners for the Kingdom of God is at Hand….

That guy freaked me out….

*The word repent doesn’t have a warm and fuzzy feel to it but Jesus began his ministry by preaching repentance… *

 

*Matthew 4:17 (ESV) \\ *17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

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*Luke 5:32 (ESV) \\ *32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

So that guy at the King Dome was preaching the word but I’m not sure that it was very effective… On the contrary I think all he was accomplishing was to reinforce the world’s view that Christians are weird… most of us already do a pretty good job of that… we don’t need help from guys with bullhorns… anyway…

So Jesus started His ministry by preaching repentance and in Acts the Church began its ministry by……….. *Preaching Repentance*

*Acts 2:38-41 (ESV) \\ *38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Repentance is fundamental to the Christian faith… It is a commandment of Jesus… and was a primary element in the preaching of the early church… and it really doesn’t look like the granny from the Beverly Hill Billy’s…

*SO TODAY WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO DO IS UNPACK WHAT IT MEANS TO REPENT…*

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In the Old Testament the Hebrew word that is translated repent literally means to turn around and retrace your steps in order to get back to where you started… It is used over 600 times in the Old Testament and from a Biblical sense it was a call for Gods people to turn back to their covenant dependence on God…

The story of the prodigal son in the New Testament is a story of this type of repentance… We know the story… the son becomes disgruntled at home, he asks his dad for his inheritance, runs off to some foreign land where he parties away all his dad’s money, and ends up broke, homeless, and hungry… He finds a job feeding pigs… an insult to any good Jew… and he is so hungry that he wants to eat pig food… He comes to his senses and turns around and goes back to his father to beg for forgiveness and ask to be a servant in his father’s house… because he knows his father feeds his servants well… The boy’s dad loved him and had been waiting for him to come home… His father accepts his son back into the family… throws him a party… and says no son of mine is a servant you are part of the family…  That is a picture of this type of repentance…

In the New Testament there are primarily two Greek words that are translated repent… one means to be sorry or sorrowful… and is translated into the English words sorrow, remorse, and repentful… The other is a Greek word that means to change your think or your intellect in such a way that it changes your actions.

So when we say something like I caught him steeling and he showed no signs of repentance… it means the guy wasn’t sorry for what he did, there was no remorse…

*But when Jesus says Repent for the Kingdom of God is near “He was saying to change your thinking in such a way that it lines up with Kingdom priorities…”*

This type of repentance is mentioned at least 50 times in the New Testament… and is the type of repentance Jesus was talking about when he commanded his Church to repent…

*So let me give you my working definition of repentance…*

*/Repentance is /*/a change in one’s mind or thinking that causes us to respond to the situation in a Christ like manner… and ultimately allows us to return to a right relationship with Jesus…/

This idea of repentance goes way beyond the simple idea of asking for forgiveness that we usually tie it to…

Repentance is about changing the way we view life, the world and our purpose in life.

Repentance is about changing the way we think so that our thinking lines up with God’s thinking… When how we think changes our actions will follow…

*Romans 12:2 (ESV) \\ *2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

\\ *So why do we need to REPENT?* \\ \\ Because only when we begin to live a life of repentance will we begin see our actions begin to line up with the will of God

*So if we are command to repent and repentance is necessary if we want to stay connected to Jesus… then how do we repent…*

There are three things we need to do when it comes to repentance

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*1.

WE NEED TO CHANGE OUR THINKING… *

*Proverbs 14:12 (ESV) \\ *12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

*Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV) \\ *8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The way we change our thinking is by intellectually deciding that God is right about everything!

It doesn’t matter if we understand it completely or agree with it… We must decide that God and His word are always right…

The Bible says that there is a way that seems right but ends in death…

Just because it feels right does not make it right… we must rely on God’s word for truth not our feelings or our own thoughts…

We must decide to make our feelings and thoughts line up with the word of God… part of changing our thinking is have faith that God really has our best interest at heart even when we can’t understand it…

When it comes to repenting of sin you must agree with God that what you are doing is sinful, and that it’s wrong.

You must start to think of sin in the same way that God thinks of sin…

No more excuses, no more trying to explain it away, No more blaming it on your parents or genetics… You must begin to see your sin as God does… It was our sin the nailed God’s only begotten son to the cross…So how do you think God views your sin? God hates sin… So our thinking must line up with Gods thinking…

Repentance requires that you simply say, “Okay, God, You’re right, and I’m wrong…

The second thing repentance requires is that we