 Title: Thank God for your forgiveness

(Repentance)
 INTRO:
 There are many ways by which we say “Thank
God for Your forgiveness.”
 ? if you are doubtful if you are forgiven…
 ! excitement because you are sure that you
are forgiven.
 There is one way by which we can be sure
that God has forgiven us – REPENTANCE.
 We are going to talk about repentance. What
repentance is and what repentance is not.
And to be forgiven we have to repent, there is
no other way.
 It is important that we recognize our sins,
must hate sin, renounce it and ask the Lord
for forgiveness.
 We cannot keep on loving and living for God
yet continually sinning. WE’VE GOT TO
REPENT!!!
 I. *Repentance is understanding that sin is
sin!! That sin was the very thing that:
 Separated us from God
 Had Jesus go through the cross
 -----Jesus did not just DIE for our sins. He
suffered and endured great pain, he took our
punishment, he was wounded and crushed
because of our sins, he was painfully abused,
condemned to death without fair trial – all of
these he had to “embrace” just to take away
our sins and take away our guilt (Isaiah 5 3).
 This gives us a picture that sin should never
be taken lightly because our Jesus took it
really seriously that it costs him his very life! If
Jesus endured these horrible things for us and
if God spared His only Son for our sins,
consider for a moment how God may feel
every time we take for granted what Jesus did
on the cross by continually sinning, by living
in sin. When we sin, we fail and disobey God.
 DO not call sin some other name, i.e.
mistake, weakness, etc. If you don’t call sin a
sin, you will not change it, you will not deal
with it.
1. Destructive Habits – lying, laziness (Bisaya: tapulan),
gluttony (matakaw), mataray, pala-away
2. Destructive Attitudes – jealousy, envy, criticism,
inferiority, superiority
3. Rebellion – controlling, manipulative, criticizing your
leader, not believing & trusting in your leader/pastor,
complaining (mareklamo)
 Ex: move to SM – our church still trusted us,
our people are running with us… even while we are
here, they are so happy that we are helping other
churches.
 Our church understands that we exist for the
nations of the world.
4. Sexual Sins – pornography, masturbation,
homosexuality, lesbianism, adultery, etc
5. Addictions – smoking, drinking, computer, etc
 We need to come face to face with sin and see sin as
God sees it, according to His Word--detestable, and
the very thing that was crucified on the cross. This is
the only way that genuine repentance can take place
and repentance is the only way we can receive God's
forgiveness.
 II. What Repentance is
 Repentance is good. There’s so much dignity in it.
 ZHA’s TESTI: Sinners in the hands of an angry God
 LV’s TESTI: I used to be uncomfortable with this
word. It terrifies me. One time my leader texted me
“are you repenting?” and that created a discomfort
in my heart, but immediately the Lord reminded me
on what was taught us. That repentance is good.
That the text simply means “are you changing?”,
“are you walking the opposite way?”.
 2. Repentance is WALKING THE OPPOSITE
WAY, HEADING TOWARDS THE OPPOSITE
DIRECTION. It’s a 180 deg turn from our sins,
from our past. ILLUS: walking and turning
around
 Real repentance is to feel and understand God's
heart. He is not mad!!! He is eager to forgive you
and set you free!!!
 REMORSE VS REPENTANCE: Remorse = feeling
sad because you were caught (nabuking) or
afraid of the consequence
 Repentance = feeling sad AT THE
SAME TIME wanting to change
 It’s not just a remorse because you feel the guilt, the
heaviness, the negative consequences, the lack of
favor... But it is when you get to understand that
God hates sin and is so displeased with sin and His
heart is crushed because of sin. And your heart
begins to feel how he feels, you feel the sorrow of
God. It's like when you hurt someone you love, your
parents for example, you feel a certain pain and you
want to change not just simply because you know
what you did is bad and there might be negative
consequences like grounded ka or allowance cut off
but more importantly because you feel for your
parents, you feel for the person you hurt or
offended... and since you feel for the person
it should draw you nearer not away from the
person..
 Thus, whenever we come face to face with our sins, whenever God
exposes sins in our lives, it is not meant to overwhelm us, not
meant to make us look down on ourselves, nor to shy away from
people and most esp., it is NEVER meant to draw us away from
God. But realization of sin should draw us nearer to God, to the
cross... it should lead us to repentance. We need to address each sin,
name and acknowledge each, take responsibility by confessing,
speaking it to God so that we can be forgiven and we can be set free
because there is power in speaking in out, there is power in
confession. When you name it, God frees you and when God sets
you free, you do not return to it. Accepting your responsibility for
your sin requires nailing it at the cross – that makes us standing face
to face w/Him, looking eyes to eyes which will make God see the
genuine repentance in your eyes and makes you also see the love,
forgiveness and acceptance in God’s eyes.
 The NEED for REPENTANCE
 We will see the need for repentance by
looking at David’s story in 2 Samuel 11
 *David was a man after God’s own heart but
God doesn’t play favorites and He doesn’t
cover up anyone’s sin so they will not be
embarrassed. On the contrary, the HS brings
us conviction and motivates us to repent.
 King David was staying in His palace when
they were SUPPOSED to go to war.
 There’s already something wrong here. When
God asks us to go and we choose to stay, that
is sin right there.
 He then committed sin of adultery, then
hypocrisy, then murder.
 If you don’t repent, you can’t cut it off, it leads
to another and to another and to another…
and release curse into your life even after you
stop and the curse remains.
 EFFECT of UNCONFESSED sin:
1. Sin affects finances. 2 Samuel 12:8
 -The Lord could not give david everything He
had prepared for him because of sin. Sin
prevented the blessings of God from being
poured out in David’s life.
2. Sin opens the door to a spirit of violence. 2
Samuel 12:10
 -David got afraid when Batsheba got
pregnant so he called Uriah and made
schemes to cover up for his sin but when he
can’t, he had Uriah killed.
 -if sin is unconfessed/unrepented, it takes
you farther and farther (David did not plan
that in the first place)
 -after the murder, David saw violence
increased in his own house. His son,
Absalom killed his broher Ammon who
raped his sister Tamar. Absalom also
rebelled against David, tried to overpower
David.
3. Sin gives rise to public shame. V11
 - Absalom took David’s wives and laid
on them at broad daylight right at the
same terrace where David sinned with
Bathsheba.
 -David tried to hide his sin but the
Lord expose it (Numbers 32:23)
4. Sin opens the door to curse. V11a
 -sin has CONSEQUENCES. TAKE THAT INTO
CONSIDERATION. When you are at the edge,
step BACK!
 -after David heared the Words of the prophet, he
had to confess his sin (v13).
 -His repentance was genuine, accompanied by
tears, grieving, and a desire to renounce
everything he had done.
 -The FRUIT of his repentance was obvious
because he never AGAIN committed such a sin.
He completely turned from it because he was so
broken over having offended the Lord. His
prayer was a hearfelt lament Ps 51:7
 Sin brings a spirit of death to a family. V13-14
 -his son died.
 In Psalm 32, David understood the
consequences of unconfessed sin:
 Physically-when I kept silent my bones
wasted away
 Emotionally-through my groaning all day
long for your hand is heavy upon me
 Financially-my vitality was turned into the
drought of summer.
 And led David to repent.
 Conclusion:
 We need to BE FORGIVEN and
FEEL FORGIVEN. If you are not
sure, you have not come to the
cross and met him face to face. In
Romans, there is therefore no
condemnation in Christ Jesus
 We need to be SET FREE not just
forgiven. Our old nature has to die. We
need to be crucified but we have to
give it willingly because we love the
Lord more than sin and we want to be
RIGHT w/God , walk in His power, walk
in His love, walk in His forgiveness,
walk in a relationship that is real,
walking in the newness of life,
completell forgiven, completely holy…
 Ministry:
 Picture the Lord on the cross…
Stand before him face to face,
eyes to eyes… Look into the
Lord’s eyes…
 Prayer… You need to speak it out,
“Lord, forgive me for___”….
 MINISTRY TIME:
 The blood of Jesus forgives us and
gives us the power to walk the
opposite way.
 Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean
heart, Oh God, and renew a right
spirit within me. Cast me not
away from Your presence. Renew
a right spirit within me…