Sermon Central
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Repentance - The Second Step To Happiness Series
Contributed by Tom Shepard on Jan 18, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: This is the second "be" attitude - Repentance. 1. Repentance involves a U-TURN. 2. Repentance involves a CONFESSION. 3. Repentance involves depending on the GOODNESS OF GOD.
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Repentance - The Second Step To Happiness by Tom Shepard
Matthew 5:4-5:4
Repentance - The Second Step To Happiness
Today we are looking at the “BE” attitudes. They are found in chapter five of Matthew. Follow along with me as I read.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:3-12 (NKJV)
As you look at this passage of scripture you will notice that “Blessed” is used nine times. Blessed is another word for happy. When a person is blessed – they are happy. If you were with us last week we looked at the first step to happiness – Humility. Today we are going to look at the second “blessed” – the second step to happiness – Repentance.
We are going to focus in on verse four. Follow along with me as I read it again.
“Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4 (NKJV)
If we substitute the word happy for the word blessed this verse would read: “Happy are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.” This doesn’t sound quite right to us – does it? How can someone be happy when they are in mourning? How can someone be happy when they are crying? How can there be happiness when there is sadness? Folks, here is the key:
Happiness depends on what you are CRYING OVER.
Happiness depends on what you are crying about.
If I am crying about the sin in my life – I should be happy. Why? Because that means I am taking the sin in my life – serious – that I am concerned about it. If I laugh about the sin in my life that means I am not taking it serious enough. If I ignore the sin in my life – that means I don’t want to deal with it. But if I cry about it that means I have looked at it – and I see the seriousness of the situation. If I cry about it that means that I realize how much it affects me, my relationship with God, my relationship with others and I need to do something about it. I need to repent. Repentance is the second step to happiness.
Do you remember what the first step to happiness is? The first step to happiness is humility. Humility is realizing that you can’t fix everything. Humility is realizing that you don’t have all the answers. Humility was realizing that you need God in our life. Humility is putting God in charge. It is becoming totally dependant on God. Humility is realizing that God is God and I am not.
Repentance is realizing that I have a problem in my life that I can’t fix. Repentance is realizing that I have a problem in my life that God is not pleased with. Repentance is realizing that I have done some things – that I am doing some things – that are hurting my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Repentance is weeping and mourning over the sin in my life. No wonder the scripture says:
"Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them!” Matthew 5:4 (GNB)
Folks let me say right up front – if there is sin in your life – and you’re not concerned about it – you should be! If you are a Christian and you have sinned and you feel guilty about it – GOOD! If you don’t feel guilty about it – be concerned! It is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sinfulness. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to make us feel guilty when we have done something wrong. When we feel guilty because we have done something wrong – good! That means the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us and He is doing His job and we are sensitive enough to listen.
When we sin – we ought to feel sorry about it. When we sin – we ought to feel guilty. When we sin we ought to feel sorrow – we ought to mourn over our sin. We ought to repent. We ought to come to God and ask for forgiveness.
