“DIVING INTO REPENTANCE”

Isaiah 35:10; Revelation 2-3


Buchenwald
1. a couple of summers ago we took a family vacation to Europe. While in Germany we visited a concentration camp. Buchenwald was a work camp where Jews, gypsies, homosexuals & Jehovah Witnesses were worked & starved to death.

2. we walked through the building that housed the gas ovens where the dead were cremated. We saw an examination room with a porcelain table where gold was extracted from the teeth of the dead before they were burned. We went down into a room adjacent to the gas ovens where dead bodies were kept before a lift carried them up to the ovens.

3. 50+ years after Buchenwald was liberated by Allied forces the place still reeks of evil. I carefully chose this little black rock to bring home with me as a reminder of that evil time in history.

4. a few years before he died Pope John Paul II on behalf of the Catholic Church confessed the church’s complicity in the holocaust and asked the Jewish people for forgiveness. Over 50 years later. His was an act of confession & repentance long over due.

Repentance is a biblical truth
1. repentance is a serious & liberating biblical truth. Our Christ-following lives fill up with thoughts words deeds & attitudes that displease God & depersonalize others.

2. the God-honoring thing to do is to confess our wrongs, ask for forgiveness, and seek to change our behavior. Confession followed by repentance followed by cleansing followed by a powerful freedom to follow Christ.

3. our church theme this month is repentance. It’s time to examine our individual & collective lives for signs of sin – where have we failed to love God & love each other?

4. I want for each one of you to work through Ten Steps for Spiritual Cleansing. Copies can be found on the back table and here. This is a simple tool to help you get in touch with your sin & make things right with God & those you have sinned against. I want ALL of us to do this – kids, youth, adults.

5. next Sunday night is our Solemn Assembly. A scary name which simply means we are going to come together as a church in confession & repentance. Here’s what you can expect – think in terms of 2 hours:
* a time of worship that centers on God
* a time for us as a church to identify our corporate sins, confess them to God, and ask for his forgiveness
* a time of open sharing if you have something that is appropriate to share with the church
* a time for private prayer & confession
* a time to covenant together to walk into the future to love serve obey follow & worship God
* prayer teams will be available to pray with people, men & women’s teams

6. the Ten Steps are meant to prepare us for the Solemn Assembly. Start your repentance now!

The stuff of repentance
1. in Isaiah 30:15 God calls the people of Israel to repent through the prophet Isaiah. They had dished God in favor of Egypt. They had filled up their disobedient, rebellious lives with idols.
2. in Revelation 2-3 Jesus addresses the 7 churches of Asia Minor in the 1st century. Jesus calls 5 of 7 churches to repentance:
* 2:5 – Ephesus
* 2:16 – Pergamum
* 2:21-22 – Thyatria
* 3:3 – Sardis
* 3:19 – Laodicea

3. whether the people of Israel or 5 churches in the New Testament, repentance happens, is needed, is expected. For all of us.

Sovereign Lord vs. sovereign self
1. 30:15 – this is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says. This is the basis for all repentance. He is the starting place for all repentance.

Sovereign Lord
1. there’s none greater than this Sovereign Lord. This is a title of supreme authority.

2. but, according to Eugene Peterson, the sovereign self has replaced the Sovereign Lord in much of our post modern society. Both secular & religious culture seems to support the sovereign self. We become the authority for our lives.

3. we forge our own spirituality according to our needs wants & feelings. We decide our own morality. We elevate experience as the new authoritative text for life.

4. the sovereign self needs to die. Needs to be put to bed. And confession & repentance are the means.

the Holy One of Israel.
1. God’s #1 attribute listed in Scripture is love (no) mercy (no) goodness (no) holiness (yes). We are drawn to God’s love & stopped by his holiness.

2. how does CS Lewis describe Aslan to Lucy in The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe? He’s not safe but he’s good! Which means he’s holy but also love.

3. confession & repentance both have to do with God’s holiness & love. Holiness in that we fall short of being the people we want to be, others want us to be & God wants us to be:
* we fall short in our thoughts – lust envy hatred
* words – gossip slander anger sexual innuendo
* deeds – padded expense account, shaving of work hours, cheating on that biology exam
* things done
* things left undone – ignoring the needs of our children, the check that doesn’t get written to support God’s kingdom work or help the poor
We fall short, all of us, all the time.

4. confession & repentance also have to do with love. God forgives, cleanses, forgets & wipes the slate clean. We receive what we don’t deserve.

the starting place
1. as you go through the Ten Steps there are 2 things to look for in your life:
* where you are disobedient to God?
* what have you substituted for God?

2. I think most of us can quickly identity the areas of our lives where we are no longer obedient to God. That may not be as true of the God-substitutes in our lives. Our idols. The things we look to for comfort peace rest security help before we look to God.

3. books – a relationship – money – house – business – career – food – drink – drugs – sex – working out – family – education – things – and the list goes on….

4. in what things do you no longer obey God? What are you substituting for God in your life? This is the stuff of confession & repentance

the way back – repentance
1. the essence of repentance involves 3 changes.

2. when we repent our mind changes – we agree with God when he calls our sin sin. This is confession. We quit arguing with God. We throw away our excuses. We own & name our sin.

3. when we repent our heart changes – we return to our first love. We love Jesus with our everything. We want to please him, serve him, obey him & follow him. Our heart fills up with Jesus. This love leads to greater obedience.

4. when we repent our will and actions change – with God’s help we seek to change our behavior habits lifestyle values desires. We dethrone our idols. We tear down the strongholds that corral us. We stay away from temptation. We redirect our wills.

5. repentance affects our mind heart & will. Repentance is for individuals – families – marriages – churches – denominations – businesses – cities – nations.

6. Kelly Slater is a world champion surfer who recently made a comeback & won his 7th championship. Slater grew up in a troubled family. His dad was an alcoholic. His parents divorced when he was 11. As he grew older surfing became his escape from his personal & family problems.
7. in 2002 a close friend in Sydney, Australia challenged Slater to lead his family’s emotional recovery – not be victimized by it. The words were penetrating. Slater, with his friends help, began to take steps that led him to deal with his behavioral & emotional dysfunctions. 3 years later he is leading his family in their emotional recovery.

8. Slater recognized the things in his life that needed changing. He took ownership over them & quit playing the victim. He took steps to begin examining his life & identifying what needed to change. And he began to change. Slater is a picture of repentance in action (secular way).

CAC fire
1. this past week I was in Cannon Beach for our district pastor’s renewal conference. The speaker was Brian Buhler from North Point Alliance Church in Vancouver, B.C.

2. Brian has a family from Iran who recently started attending his church. Maria (the wife) is a chemist who had an experience that brought her to Christ. She had a vision of a pregnant woman with a light in her belly shining around her baby. God told her that the DNA of the baby was different from that of its mother.

3. a few weeks later a friend brought her to North Shore Alliance Church. When she walked in the door she started crying & told her friend “he’s here,” meaning the baby with the different DNA. She cried for 1 ½ hours, all during the service. God has found Maria.

4. after Maria & her family started coming to North Shore she had another vision. Brian was in a fire & Jesus was with Brian. But Brian wasn’t looking at Jesus – he was looking at the fire.
5. since our fire last June I’ve had numerous people tell me that they believe God wants to cleanse our church. That the physical fire is a metaphor for the cleansing that God wants to do in our lives.

6. I’m praying that God would bring into the light what might be hidden in the darkness. In our lives as individuals. In our life as a congregation.

7. I’m back to confession & repentance. The Ten Steps. What is God saying to us? Where is he calling us to repentance? This is a golden moment in the life of our church – we dare not miss it!

8. now is the time to clear away the debris our of lives so God’s life can freely flow in & through ours!




Here are the Ten Steps for Spiritual Cleansing.