Sermon Tone Analysis

*Repentance, Then Revival*

2 Chronicles 7:14

April 29, 2007

 

Early in January, I preached on today’s key verse, 2 Chronicles 7:14.

It was the second message in our prayer series.

Perhaps you remember it.

It related repentance to prayer.

Today I will relate repentance to revival.

Let’s look at our key verse right now: 2 Chronicles 7:14 : /“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.”

/

Hal Hopkins, an itinerant house painter, offered his services a low prices, Unfortunately, Hal had the nasty habit of thinning the paint with water to insure some margin of profit.

One day he was painting the steeple high atop a church.

He thinned down the paint even more than usual fro this job.

“After all,” he said to himself, “nobody can really see the steeple from way down there on the ground.”

So he started painting with a solution that barely covered the wood.

Just as he was finishing, the sky clouded over and a gale storm began to blow.

The rain and wind beat against the painter and washed the paint off the steeple.

Hopkins looked at the now-unpainted steeple, and cried out, “What will I do now?”

From the clouds, a deep voice replied, “Repaint and thin no more!”

\\ \\ John Piper says, “The cost of food in the kingdom is hunger for the bread of heaven, instead of the white bread of the world.

Do you want it?

Are you hungry?

Or are you satisfied with yourself and your television and your computer and your job and your family?”

A mother I heard of has a different way of asking the question [“How was your day?”.

As she tucks her children into bed each night … she asks them the question: “Where did you meet God today?”

And they tell her, one by one: a teacher helped me, there was a homeless person in the park, I saw a tree with lots of flowers in it.

She tells them where she met God, too.

Before the children drop off to sleep, the stuff of this day has become the substance of their prayer.

Brothers and sisters I submit to you that this is the way we need to feel about God.

Do you seek God with all your heart?

Do you want to be near him all the time?

Are you hungry for the bread of heaven?

Have you met God today?

\\ \\ If you want to be close to God, if you want God to draw near to you, and I trust you do, there is something you have to remember.

Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 57:15 and follow along as I read.

/“For this is what the high and lofty One says--he who lives forever, whose name is holy: \\ "I live in a high and holy place, \\ but also with him who is contrite \\ and lowly in spirit, \\ to revive the spirit of the lowly \\ and to revive the heart of the \\ contrite.”

\\ / \\ God tells us that he dwells high and exalted, but he will also dwell in the hearts of those who are humbled and contrite over their sin.

If you and I have a flippant attitude about sin, God will remain distant.

If you and I do not grieve over and confess our sin, God will remain distant.

If you and I make excuses for our sin and willfully engage in sinful acts, God will remain distant.

You will be like the painter who thinned his paint.

*/Why is repentance essential to a spiritual life, a revived life?

/*

Luke 3:7-8 says this: /“So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

\\ "Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father,' for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

/

/ /

What is Jesus saying about repentance?

 

*Firstly, repentance opens the way for relationship with God.

*Repentance has two sides—turning away from sins and turning toward God.

To be truly repentant, we must do both.

We can’t just say that we believe and then live any way we choose; neither can we simply live a morally correct life without a personal relationship with God, because that cannot bring forgiveness from sin.

Determine to rid your life of any sins God points out, and put your trust in him alone to guide you.

Then, and only then, can you have a relationship with God.

 

*Secondly, repentance demonstrates real faith.

*Confession of sins and a changed life are inseparable.

Faith without deeds is dead says James 2. Jesus’ harshest words were to the respectable religious leaders who lacked the desire for real change.

They wanted to be known as religious authorities, but they didn’t want to change their hearts and minds.

Thus their lives were unproductive.

Repentance must be tied to action, or it isn’t real.

Following Jesus means more than saying the right words; it means acting on what he says.

What did John the Baptist say in Matthew 3?/ \\ "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."// /

*Thirdly, repentance makes inward change a visible reality.

*When you wash dirty hands, the results are immediately visible.

But repentance happens inside with a cleansing that isn’t seen right away.

So John used a symbolic action that people could see: baptism.

The Jews used baptism to initiate converts, so John’s audience was familiar with the rite.

Here, baptism was used as a sign of repentance and forgiveness.

Repent means “to turn,” implying a change in behavior.

It is turning from sin and toward God – an inner washing.

My first question is this.

Have you repented of sin in your life?

But my second question is far more important.

Can others see the difference it makes in you?

A changed life with new and different behavior makes your repentance real and visible.

John 12:10-11 says: /“.But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus”.

/They could see the outward cleansing of Lazarus which followed the inner washing of repentance.

*Fourthly, repentance breaks our bondage to sin.

*The chief priests’ blindness and hardness of heart caused them to sink ever deeper into sin.

They rejected the Messiah and planned to kill him, and then plotted to murder Lazarus as well.

One sin leads to another.

From the Jewish leaders’ point of view, they could accuse Jesus of blasphemy because he claimed equality with God.

But Lazarus had done nothing of the kind.

They wanted Lazarus dead simply because he was a living witness to Jesus’ inner cleansing.

This is a warning to us to avoid sin.

Sin leads to more sin, and this downward spiral can be stopped only by repentance and the power of the Holy Spirit to change behavior

\\ You know God is not going to be near you as long as you harbor sin in your heart.

In the Psalms we read this prayer, /“If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened”/ (Ps.

66:18, NIV).

\\ \\ The truth that God revealed through Isaiah the Prophet is still true:  Isa.

59:1 /“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”/

\\ \\ Spiritual revival, personal spiritual renewal cannot take place in the absence of repentance.

Revival follows repentance.

God, says, /“I am holy.

I dwell in a high and exalted place, and I want to look down and see you lowly in spirit and contrite in your heart because of the sin you have committed against me.”

\\ / \\ And we’ve all done it.

We have all sinned against /the Lord.

/“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” the Bible says in Romans 3:23).

And that sin brings separation.

It brings judgment.

And this is not what God wants for any of his children.

He doesn’t want to be separated from you.

He does not want to condemn you.