God has put a word in my heart and I want to share it with you!
In the last message I said that each one of us has two appointments and neither of them can be written down on our agenda, because we do not know what day they’ll take place.
One is the day of our death and the other is the day of our judgment!
We all have to prepare ourselves, because after death we have this second appointment.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10
Today I want to tell you how to get ready for these appointments, death and the Judgment.
Today’s message: The power of repentance.
Today I want to share with you the transformative power of true repentance.
Whether you are a Christian who loves the Lord Jesus, someone who is still unsure of their salvation or if you’re sure you want to be saved and live with the Lord one day, this word is for you!
True repentance can transform our lives! No matter what you have lived through up to this day, no matter what your past has been like, no matter the sins you have committed, or the vices holding you back, no matter the kind of life you lived or are still living today!
If you truly repent, God will bless your present and change your future.
The very first step to entering the Kingdom of God is repentance!
Years ago I was walking towards death. Even though I was young I had no hope of having a good future; I lived a life of sins that displeased God, with many vices that were destroying me.
Because the wages of sin is death, I was on the path to an early physical death as well as eternal death.
But one day I had an encounter with Jesus. A friend of mine preached about Jesus to me and told me about the Cross of Christ. After hearing this, the first thing that happened in my life was the repentance of my mistakes and sins.
I confessed my sins, I repent each of them and so I was born again to a new life.
Repentance changed the course of my life. It brought me peace, health, salvation, a beautiful family and today God has used my life to bless others and because of my repentance today I am serving God as a missionary and pastor here in Ireland.
How good and how great is God’s mercy! How I love this Jesus and I want to live for Him every day!
Repentance is the solution to everything in a Christian life!
Let’s look at some examples in God’s word about the power of Repentance.
- Repentance produce deliverance. If you are a reader of the Bible, you have read that the people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, although God sets them free multiple times, He chooses them and blesses them, they always abandon the Lord. They often turned to other gods and because of that they suffered, they were persecuted by enemies, they lived under oppression and during these times of suffering they would remember the God they abandoned and they would cry out to the Lord and repent of their evil ways, and God always changed their luck, He would free them and bless them once more. Repentance produced deliverance to the people of Israel.
- Repentance produce physical healing – Isaiah 38: 1-5 . One of the kings of Israel, named Hezekiah once received terrible news through prophet Isaiah. God sent the prophet to the King and told him: Put your house in order because you are going to die; you will not recover” Isaiah 38:1
He received a death report , however, Hezekiah repents, cries, humbles himself and God heals him and grants him another 15 years of life. Repentance produce healing
- Repentance saved a city from destruction – Jonah 1-4 . A city called Nineveh was to be destroyed by God for their wickedness. Prophet Jonah is sent by God to warn the city that it was about to be destroyed, but on hearing this the people humbled themselves. They repented of their sins and what happened? God changed his mind and did not destroy the city. (Repentance produce God’s protection)
- Repentance transform people – Acts 9. The apostle Paul, before being an apostle, was a persecutor of the Church of Christ, but one day he had an encounter with the Lord Jesus, had a deep repentance and was transformed from a persecutor into a disciple of Jesus. (Repentance transform you into a great Jesus’ disciple)
Repentance can change your future. Repentance can change the destiny of your life.
Repentance can save a marriage; repentance restores relationships and produces healing and deliverance.
The most important thing is that repentance guarantees your entry into the kingdom of Heaven !
Did you know that true repentance makes your heart sure of your salvation!
Do you know what John the Baptist’s first sermon was?
“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying,“ Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! ””Matthew 3: 1-2
Do you know what Jesus’ first sermon was?
“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say,“ Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. ””
Matthew 4:17
Do you know what the apostles’ first preaching was after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?
“Then Peter said to them,“ Repent, and let every one of you be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ”Acts 2:38
Repent – it was John the Baptist’s message, it was Jesus’ message, it was the Apostles’ message, and This is the message the church needs to hear today: Repent!
Do you know what is the only way out of this pandemic we are experiencing?
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. II Chronicles 7:14
We are living difficult days due to this pandemic. How will our land be healed? Through repentance!
If my people humble themselves, if my people pray and turn from their evil ways, I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land!
I believe in the word of God, I believe that if we, the church, humble ourselves, convert from our evil ways, repent from our sins, the cure will come to this earth!
Do you believe this? Do you believe in the word of God?
We all want better times, and the apostle Peter teaches us how this time will come:
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, then times of refreshing may come from the Lord,” Acts 3:19
If you want better, refreshing time, we need to first have a time of repentance.
Every renewal that God makes in our lives is accompanied by repentance.
There is no restoration without repentance and there is no salvation without repentance.
What is Repentance? (Do you know what repentance is ? )
Most people, I’m afraid, think it’s a matter of feelings, of tears, of feeling bad for what you have done.
But that may not be repentance, it may be simply “regret”. A lot of people have feelings of regret about how they have lived.
I’d be surprised if there is even one person listening to me right now who doesn’t regret any life decision.
Feelings of regret are about what you have done to yourself. What you have done to your own life and decisions.
Then, there are other people who have profound feelings of what we call “remorse”. And “remorse” is what you feel in regards to your actions to others. But that’s not repentance!
Repentance has this unique feature in that: It is what you feel when you have done to something towards God.
That’s quite different from regret and remorse.
Suddenly you realise it’s GOD you have hurt the most.
Just like when prodigal Son realises it wasn’t just his father he had hurt!
““The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’” Luke 15:21
When you have true repentance you realise that it is God’s law you’ve broken, it’s God’s love you have refused, it’s God’s anger you have provoked, it’s God’s judgment you deserve.
And It’s God’s mercy you need !
Regret and remorse do not necessarily lead to repentance.
I want to tell you that repentance involves 3 things.
Repentance in the New Testament passes through 3 simple stages: Thought, Word and Deed.
I’m also going to show you that repentance is always towards a particular sin.
You can’t repent from general sins. You can only repent from this, and that and the other. This named repentance involves 3 steps.
First of all, it involves “Changing your mind about particular things” and “adopting thinking God’s way of thinking about them”.
When you do this you come to 2 conclusions:
- God is much better person than I thought He was.
- I’m a much worse person than I thought I was.
Usually it’s the other way around.
When an unbeliever thinks about God they usually think God is unfair and that they know real fairness, and that they are better than God.
Have you noticed that?
The number of people who say:
Why would God do this?
Why would God ever allow that to happen?
Why should God….. ?
They are saying: I know better than God and if I were running the universe I could do a better than He is doing right now.
That’s what they are saying.
They are saying: He is making mistakes which I would never make. He’s treating people in a way I would never. I’m, therefore, a better person than He is.
When you repent , your thoughts are re-assorted and you catch your glimpse of “His Holiness and His purity”, and then you begin to realise how mucky, you really are, and you have much lower vision of yourself.
In fact, the higher your view and revelation of God is, the lower the view of yourself will be.
Repentance is a change of mind set!
The Greek word for repentance is “Metanoia”; that means to have a different way of thinking.
Meta: change – Noia: Mind
To rethink the way you have been living is to change your mind set; it happens when you start thinking in God’s way.
The interesting thing is the closer you get to God the more clearly you see your sins and the more repent.
The more you understand how good He is the more you realise how bad you are.
The second step is the word of repentance, and that means to first confess your sins.
There is no confession of general sins in the New Testament, there are only confession of “sins plural”
Forgiveness of sin demands repentance and the basic need of mankind is repentance.
God created man and gave him free will and the freedom we have makes us responsible for our mistakes and our sins.
We are all the results of our choices. And we are responsible for our choices.
Nobody goes to hell because of God! It is our choices that can take us away from God or into the kingdom of heaven.
When a thief goes to prison, who can be held responsible for him being in prison? It was his choice to commit the crime!
God has given us freedom of choice and we are responsible for our choices!
Marx, one of the leaders of capitalism said: Our destiny is in the economic system!
Freud (father of psychoanalysis) said: Our destiny is in our repressed instincts.
Darwin (naturalist who formed the theory of evolution) said: Our destiny is in the genetics that we inherit.
Jesus (creator and Lord of heaven and earth) said: Our destiny can be changed through Repentance!
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1: 9 NIV
If we confess our sins, not our sin! It means we must name them one by one just as you name your blessings.
Then, He is faithful and just to forgive each of our sins and His blood purifies and makes us clean. (What a beautiful promise!)
After confession (with words), comes the hard part of repentance which is our deeds.
Repentance begins with “Thoughts”, then it comes out in “Words” but it must lastly show up in our “Deeds”.
The third step of repentance is our deeds.
The prodigal son came to his senses, repented and not only stayed in words and thoughts, but returned to his father’s house.
In Luke 19 we have the story of Zacchaeus, a wealthy Jew, chief of publicans who worked for the Romans, collected taxes and stole tax money.
This man has an encounter with Jesus, Jesus has lunch at his house, preaches the word to him and Zacchaeus repents of his sins.
“But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord,“ Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. ” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.”
Luke 19: 8-9 NIV
Zacchaeus said: “I have been defrauding people, and I’m going to every one I have defrauded and pay them back with interest four fold”
When Jesus saw his repentance said: today salvation has come to this house!
Repentance is putting the past right. Of course you can’t put all sins right. But there are some the Lord will show you can be corrected.
I had some sins in my life that God told me needed fixing up. He showed me I needed to talk to that person, pay back that money, and I did!
Repentance is a change of mind set, a change in our way of thinking. I used to lived to please myself, to do my will and from now on I will live to please Jesus, my saviour! This is a decision, not an emotion.
It is impossible to repent without changing your will.
The Hebrew word for repentance is to turn the other way. If you are walking this way, which is the wrong way, you must turn 180 degrees and you say, God I am here, tell me what to do.
Many Christians have never changed their minds, never surrendered to the lordship of the Lord Jesus.
Repentance is not emotion! Repentance is a decision. Repentance happens in the will of man.
When you repent you want to live to glorify Jesus.
True repentance can transform your life!
No matter what you have lived up to this day, no matter what your past has been like, no matter your sins, the vices holding you back, no matter the kind of life you have lived in the past or are still living today ! If you truly repent, God will bless your present and change your future.
I want to invite you into deep repentance. True repentance begins with confession but it ends with a change in attitude.
Repentance leads you to abandon your sin, to abandon addictions, to stop speaking badly of people, to stop stealing from God.
True repentance has fruits! We need to do it like Zacchaeus! For then there will be salvation in your home and family.
May the Lord bless and help you to go into a deep repentance!