Covenant Connections:
A Covenant’s Renewed ~ The Essential Ingredient of Repentance
Scripture Text: Hosea 14.1-9
INTRODUCTION
Years ago, we were traveling to spend Christmas with family. On-this-particular-occasion, …we decided to do the book-on-tape-thing. We got a murder-mystery-novel.
It’s amazing how engrossing those things are! Driving-along the old-familiar-highway, ...we were able to ‘check-out’ and get-lost in the story... And it was great!... Suspense and plot-twists… and just-when you thought-you-figured-out who-dunnit, …your theory was exploded!
Well, about-the-time that the detective finally-figured-it-out, …we realized that we were 30 miles south of where we needed to get-off the interstate! We’d missed our turn …and it’s not-just that we’d missed our turn, …but we didn’t even-know-it for a half-hour!
TRANSITION
Andy Stanley ~ the son of the famous pastor, Charles Stanley ~ …Andy-Stanley calls-himself “directionally-challenged”. Now, I don’t know if I fall into that category, …but there are times when I definitely get turned-around.
Anyway… Andy Stanley says there are three things that we should know about people-who-get-lost: First: we don’t get lost on purpose! It just happens. There may be contributing factors: …the kids arguing in the back seat, …the GPS malfunctioning, …our own, internal compass out-of-kilter, …whatever! …but we don’t get lost on purpose!
The second thing we should know about people-who-get-lost is that we never know exactly when it happens… As-though, at one-instant you know exactly where-you-are, …and the next instant, you’re-clueless! One minute, you’re driving home – …and the next moment – or thirty-minutes-later – you’re on some-gravel-road in the middle of a cow-pasture! If you could know the exact minute that you transition from knowing to lost-ness, …don’t you think we’d immediately stop and re-evaluate?... look at a map?... ask for help?
But, because we don’t immediately-recognize when we’re lost, …we end-up getting more-lost, …more-turned-around, …more-confused. The state of ‘being-lost’ usually dawns-on us ~ …like-when it dawns on us that we can’t button our pants anymore ~ …and we wonder, “When did I put on those extra pounds!?!” “Was it last night, when I had that late-night bowl-of-ice-cream? “Or-was-it, over the last three weeks when I developed the habit of having a late-night bowl-of-ice-cream!?!”
We usually-don’t-realize the precise-moment that we’ve crossed the line from knowing-exactly-where-we-are, …to the point of having-no-idea how we ended up in this-strange place!
The third thing that we should know about the experience of being lost is this… (and it may be the most profound of the three): The road I’m on always determines where I end up. In Andy Stanley’s words, “The path I take determines my ultimate destination… I always end up where the road I’ve chosen takes me.”
Maybe Andy just-states-the-obvious. But I think he’s on-to-something. We’ve all been lost, before. Even those of us who stubbornly insist that we know exactly where-we’re-at!
But, it’s a state-and-a-condition that we don’t necessarily want; …it usually just-happens ~ …and then we’ve gotta deal-with-it.
Although there’s a difference between being geographically-lost, …versus being spiritually-lost, …there’s enough-similarities that it explains why the Bible uses word-pictures of traveling to describe life. In-fact, the Hebrew word that gets translated-into English as, “repentance” ~ …it literally means, “turn around”. Change directions. Stop going in the direction you’re headed!... Doesn’t it sound geographical; …but it is a fundamentally spiritual experience.
And this is exactly what Hosea communicated to his friends and neighbors: …”You’ve gotta repent; …”You’re headed in the wrong direction; …”Don’t you see that the road you’re on leads to nothing but heart-ache and destruction!?!” So, he says, “Return… to the Lord your God… Bring your confessions and return to the Lord.”
For those of us who’ve been around the church for any-length-of-time, …we’ve heard the words “repent” and “repentance” tossed-around quite-a-bit. But, what’s it all about, …and why is it so-important?
Well… that’s what I wanna explore this morning. Repentance may be a lost art. It may be a forgotten ingredient. But, you cannot read the Scripture without hearing it emphasized over-and-over again, as an essential ingredient to a healthy-and-right relationship with the Lord.
And-so, let’s-start with the “Head”…
BODY
I. Head
Hosea says:
“Return… to the Lord your God… Bring your confessions and return to the Lord.”
What’s involved in repentance?... Well… from the point-of-view of the head, Confession is a vital-part of turning to the Lord. Confession is an essential ingredient to repentance.
Of all the different-parts-of-repentance, …this-is-the-one that may make you most-uncomfortable! Confession means that we come to terms with how we’ve messed up. It means that we come clean. It means that we speak honestly about who we are, …what we’ve done, …how we’ve gone wrong. And-frankly… we don’t like to do that. For-some-reason, we’ve got the idea that our pride and self-esteem have to be guarded at-all-costs! And so, lots-of-people will defend themselves, …and excuse their behavior, …and deflect blame to-others, with all vigor.
But, if we can ever-manage coming-to-terms with the-fact-that our value, …our esteem, …our identity doesn’t have-to-be propped-up on the shaky-stilts of self-righteousness ~ …if we’d just-realize that it’s o.k. to be honest-with-ourselves, …then we’ll come to the threshold of repentance.
Scripture clearly-teaches us to confess our sins. That-means, we acknowledge where we’ve strayed from God’s plan and His will. It-means that we admit those –things we’ve loved more-than we’ve loved Him. To confess means to give-voice to what we’ve said-and-done ~ …whether those things were-done in secret or in public.
It may be an attitude or an action, …a behavior or a habit ~ …but we can’t sweep-it under-the-rug, …we can’t ignore it and act as though it never-happened. We have-to-acknowledge it, …admit it, …confess it.
Scripture says that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. So, …we are to confess our sins to God. But we’re also to confess our sins to one another. Scripture tells us to-do-that, too!
Confession. The thought-of-confessing may make us uncomfortable, …but it’s a vital-part of changing-directions and getting-on the right-road with God.
II. Heart
The second side of repentance has-to-do-with the heart. We’re probably most-familiar with this part ~ …but the “heart” is the center of our emotions; …and when it comes to repentance, …in-our-heart, we feel guilt and shame and sadness over the sins we’ve done.
I don’t know about you, …but I’ve grown-up thinking that repentance happens when a person is emotionally broken over their sin. That-repentance ~ …in-order-for-it to be real ~ …I grew-up thinking-that repentance must-have tears and crying and intense-emotions… After-all, …that’s how it happened for me, …and I’m guessing it did for many of you, too.
But, here’s the thing: Scripture puts much-more-emphasis on the head, when it comes to repentance ~ …it emphasizes confession, acknowledgment, admission… Repentance happens when we ‘come-clean’ before God.
To-be-sure, the heart plays a part. There will probably be emotions involved ~ …especially when you realize how you’ve broken God’s heart, …how you’ve hurt others that you care-about, …how you’ve been selfish ~ …some-emotions are bound to get stirred up. But, the emotions aren’t the main-thing. Tears and wailing never changed anybody’s heart-and-life. Change, repentance, turning to the Lord happens through a decision, …a choice, …a desire. The heart comes along for the ride!
After-all, …repentance is all-about changing-directions. It’s about getting off-the-road you’ve been-on, …and getting-on the road God wants you on. And what road does God want you on?
The road of love!
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind… And love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10.27)
This is the path God wants us on. So we need to repent of the other paths we’ve bee-bopped-down ~ …the roads of loving self more-than God; …or loving some-habit, …or way-of-life, …or some thing ~ …whatever-it-is that’s become-more-important or more-desired than God: …that is what we must repent of!
PAUSE 2
III. Hands
Repentance involves the head: in-terms-of awareness and acknowledgment of sin.
It also involves the heart: in-terms-of feeling-sorry for our waywardness, …feeling sorry for loving other-things more-than God.
But, there’s another-dimension to repentance. It has to-do-with the hands. Now… I could’ve called this section “Feet”, as-well: …but it’s all-about, where do I go from here?... Once I’ve repented, …after-feeling-sorry for my sins, …and after I’ve confessed my-sins, …then what?
For repentance to be genuine, there’s gotta be follow-up. Your feet have to turn-around on the path and start-heading in a new direction; …your hands have to drop the things your heart used-to-cling-to; …your body needs to go in a different-direction.
Don’t ya-love-it when someone comes up to you and flippantly apologizes ~ …and you can tell they have no intention of changing their ways!?!
That is not genuine-repentance! They may be sorry that they got caught, …or sorry that they have to apologize, …but they’re not sorry enough to change!
Repentance requires a change of direction! If you’ve been selfish, …be generous. If you’ve been hateful or vengeful, …be compassionate and offer forgiveness. They young man who is tangled up in a crowd of partiers ~ ...probably needs-to-distance himself from those friendships because of the destructive influence that they’ll have on his heart. The young lady, who’s in a relationship with an unbeliever, …may have to break-it-off because she doesn’t want to join her heart to someone who’ll lead her away from God. The youngster who has a habit of lying to cover-up mistakes and to get-out-of punishment, …will need to change his ways so that the words he speaks are truthful and full of integrity. The middle-aged couple who has struggled with stewardship-issues will need to take a step of faith. The person who sees someone in need, but who used to think mostly of their own wants, …will give-away his coat, or his shoes.
These are concrete actions that demonstrate a turned-around-life. Jesus said, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Repentance must-be-accompanied by concrete, real-life actions. A change-of-heart must-be-followed by changes in choices, behavior, relationships.
PAUSE 3
CONCLUSION
All-this-talk about repentance stems-from two very-deep-realities: 1) we are made for a loving relationship with God; and 2) because of sin, we are far from it!
Repentance is the turning-point, when our relationship with God is restored to solid-footing and we can move-forward in a loving-relationship with the Lord. However, sometimes when we come up against the angst of this broken-relationship – and the Bible calls this-experience: ‘conviction’ – …but sometimes when we come up against this, …instead of realizing the deep-longing in our heart for covenant with God, …we end-up-focusing on some more-immediate (and easy) fix associated with an appetite! One person has said:
“When I’m trying to make a decision, I always listen to my gut. It usually tells me to eat chocolate!”
But, that is not the solution for your condition!
When it comes to our heart-and-soul ~ …when you find yourself confused, …lost, …saddened by the twists-and-turns in life, …convicted (or burdened by) for your choices, …or attitudes, …or actions ~ …do you look for some-sort-of-immediate-relief… like chocolate!?!
Or, do you realize that what’s comin’-into-play is something much-deeper, …something arising from the depths-of-your-soul, …a longing? In-fact, …that’s what it is: …a longing for release from the mistakes and rebellions you’ve made, …a deep-desire for a fresh-start, …a thirst for a relationship-made-new with the Lord.
When your heart is in turmoil and you’re weighed-down with the sense that you’ve made a mess-of-things, …appetites will step-up and offer lots of easy, cheap “solutions”: …eat some chocolate, …or some ice-cream, …better-yet, …get some chocolate ice-cream!; …watch a movie, …go target-practice, …call a friend, …surf the internet, …dive into the arms-of-some-somebody. There are a million-and-one options to ease the unrest and the turmoil of your heart, …but immediate and easy options are not-really solutions! All that these-things-do is numb the pain, …distract you from the uneasiness of your heart, …give you a sugar-rush when you’re down-and-out.
But-when your heart is in turmoil and you’re burdened by the sense-that something’s wrong, …when you know that you’ve been wandering-down forbidden-roads, …and-that something’s not-right, …that life is a great-big-mess ~ …the real need, …the real longing that’s bubbling-to-the-surface is the desire to be forgiven and to-start (or re-start) a loving-relationship with your Heavenly Father. And repentance is the key-step in making that relationship right.
Is repentance a forgotten ingredient? Have you tried to get-on good-terms with God ~ …without this-step?
It’s not possible. Repentance is critical ~ …It’s vital to a right-relationship with God because sin leads us away-from-God. We need to change-directions. We need to turn-around. We need to have a change-of-heart ~ …the kind of change that comes through repentance!
So… the question is not whether you want-to-have a relationship with God ~ …that is what we’re made for! It’s in our DNA, …woven into the fabric of our heart-and-soul.
And… the question is not whether you’ve done things to distance-yourself from God ~ …we’ve all said, “No!” to God, …and done-things our own-way, rather than His, …and we’ve all chosen-to-do what was right in our-own-eyes, …instead of choosing what’s right in God’s eyes… …the question isn’t whether you’ve sinned, because we all have.
And… the question isn’t whether you feel guilty, or not. ‘Feelings’ are deceptive and not-always accurate. We have all-strayed from God, …and loved something more than Him, …and we’ve selfishly said, “I’m doin’ it my way!”
And-since-we-have… The question becomes, “Won’t you turn-around!?!” It-is, what-it-is; …now, what-are-you gonna-do!?!...
Remember one of the rules of getting-lost? ~ …“The road you’re on always determines where you’ll end up!” You don’t wanna press-on down-the-road of selfishness, …or stubbornness, …or hard-headedness, …or rebellion, …or pride. You don’t-wanna-go-down that-road. You wanna take an exit. You wanna change directions. You wanna get on another highway ~ …the highway that leads to God. And right-now is a great-time to take-an-exit: To get-off the old road, and get on a new road! Won’t-ya-do-that?
