3 R's Series

“3 R’s”

Travis Wofford

11/13/2007

Repent

We must be willing to repent in order for God to move in our lives. God wants us to live a repentant life.

2 Peter 3:8-10 But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. 9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.

God does not want to see anyone miss heaven. He is waiting on us. John the Baptist preached the gospel of repentance. He tells us that the way we live proves if we have repented. It is just not saying it with our mouths.

Matt. 3:8 Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.

Receive

The most powerful event in our lives is when we receive Jesus into our lives as Lord and Savoir.

Rom. 10:8-10

“The message is very close at hand;

it is on your lips and in your heart.”

And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: 9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

We have to believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths. The second most important thing is the power of the Holy Spirit that comes on us when we are saved.

Act 2:38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

God has given us gifts.

1 Peter 4:10-11 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.

Whatever gifts you have you need to use to advance the kingdom. Paul had to remind Timothy to “fan the flame”.

2 Tim. 1:5-7 I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Restore

We have talked about repentances. We have talked about receiving. I want to wrap up with this.

We need to have restoration with God. We also need to restore our relationships with each other. God will always receive us back.

Luke 15:11-31 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’