The Need For Church Revival: Repent

Last time we were encouraged to remember our past. During time we briefly connected with our past and looked at five characteristics of our church in her early days.

In Revelation 2:5 Jesus tells the church at Ephesus to “Remember therefore from where you have fallen.” And so we made it personal as we asked ourselves: Do we remember when we used to have:

An excitement about being at church to worship God and to be with other believers?

An enthusiasm for ministering the Gospel to our community?

An enduring spirit when it came to challenges and conflicts with other believers?

An enormous heart for giving financially and giving of our time?

An earnest application of the Bible in our lives?

If we’ve drifted in one or more of the areas in which the Word of God commands us to be obedient, it means we have sinned. Sin always results in one of two responses: “cover up” or “fess up”.

As we looked to our past we may have discovered some things in our past that we would have rather left forgotten…we may unearth some things that were done wrong and situations where people were offended. Will we continue to cover up or will we fess up?

If there is something that we need to confess it means that our church is in need of repentance. With this in mind, today we are going to look at: The Cause for Repentance, The Conditions for Repentance, The Call to Repentance, The Components of Repentance, and The Carrying Out of Repentance (with Altar call).

The Cause for Repentance

Confession will do us no good if we go back to doing the same thing over and over again. It’s like the child who lies to his parents in the morning and when confronted says, “I’m sorry” and then that evening he lies again.

I’ve counseled married couples and the Spirit of God has brought them to the point of where one or both in the marriage realize they said or did something that offended their spouse. When they confess and repent of it, there is a feeling of relief and freedom when forgiveness is granted. The marriage has weathered a storm and has been strengthened.

The same can be said of a church. When a church is willing to repent of past sins, it presents an opportunity for God to do something new and exciting in the church. When a church recognizes that they have sinned against God, and others, and then go through the process of humbling themselves and repenting of their sin, then the blessings that God has been withholding will be released; the windows of heaven that were once shut will be opened and God’s grace will be poured out in an extraordinary measure.

The Conditions for Repentance

In the book of Joshua, chapter six, we find the account of the conquest of the city of Jericho. God tells Joshua that He has given Jericho into his hand. The people follow God’s instructions and He miraculously gives the city into their hands by causing the walls to come crashing down.

Not long after this God commands the sons of Israel to go in and destroy the wicked Canaanites who worshipped idol gods and burned their children in honor of their gods (Lev. 18:21); they practiced sodomy, bestiality, and all sorts of other despicable sins (Lev. 18:23, 24, 20:3).

God tells the sons of Israel to destroy the wicked and perverse Canaanites, BUT they were to leave the Canaanite’s “stuff” alone; everything except for the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron which were to be “set apart” to the Lord---eventually to be melted down to go into the treasury of the LORD.

Joshua chapter 7 opens with the little but menacing word, “but.” This word contrasts chapter seven with chapter six. Chapter six ends with victory but seven begins with a description of a problem.

The problem is clearly stated in the words, “The sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban.” The word “unfaithfully” represents a Hebrew word that means, “to act underhandedly.” It means, “to break faith” and was used of a person who was unfaithful to his or her spouse.

Please note that Joshua was unaware of the sin. And so as the sons of Israel’s fearless leader, he says to himself, “We have conquered Jericho by the mighty hand of the LORD, let’s move on to Ai.” (vs. 2) But this time the army of Israel was slaughtered.

It was obvious that something had changed between the fall of the walls of Jericho and the attempted conquest of Ai. The answer can be found in chapter seven, verse one, “The anger of the LORD burned against the sons of Israel.” Unlike the supernatural victory at Jericho, the conquest of Ai went sour. Thirty-six men were killed and 2964 men were chased away like yelping dogs.