How to repent

1
How to repent

• A practical guide to repentance

2
What repentance means

• Repentance is an
• inner decision
• of the mind and will
• to turn away
• from sin
• resulting in an
• outward change
• in our behaviour

3
The importance of true repentance

• For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to
  direct, produce a repentance that leads and
  contributes to salvation and deliverance from
  evil, and it never brings regret but worldly
  grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic
  of the pagan world) is deadly breeding and
  ending in death. 2 Cor 710

4
So how do we repent?

• Do not be conformed to this world (this age),
  fashioned after and adapted to its external,
  superficial customs, but be transformed
  (changed) by the entire renewal of your mind
  by its new ideals and its new attitude, so that
  you may prove for yourselves what is the good
  and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the
  thing which is good and acceptable and perfect
  in His sight for you. Romans122

5
It starts in our mind

• Our birth culture and place of upbringing
  controls the way we think.How we think about God,
  our family, love, sex, money, job, church is
  controlled by the good and bad experiences of our
  lives.
• This old programming needs to be deleted and
  updated to Gods operating system.

6
Old thinking must go!

• Character is the automatic response to what we
  believe. What we believe is direct result of
  what we think.
• For repentance to work we need to honour God and
  others in our private thoughts.
• We need to avoid critical and negative thoughts.
• Therefore we need to renew our minds in the image
  of Christ.

7
Are you prepared to work?

• Therefore, prepare your minds for action be
  self-controlled set your hope fully on the grace
  to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
  1 Peter 113
• KJV says gird your loins that is get ready to
  work!

8
Use Gods Word to change

• The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the
  soul the testimony of the LORD is sure, making
  wise the simple. Psalm 197 KJV
• SOUL mind, will and emotions.

9
A journey of mental salvation

• We need a systematic conversion of our minds
  (thought life) based on the Word of God.
• Write down your attitudes and thoughts and ask
  God to systematically show you where they are not
  in accordance with His thoughts (Isaiah 556-9)

10
Gods thoughts!

• Seek the LORD while he may be found call on him
  while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way
  and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to
  the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to
  our God, for he will freely pardon. "For my
  thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
  ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens
  are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
  than your ways and my thoughts than your
  thoughts. Isaiah 556-9

11
The role of emotions

• Last week we talked about needing to hate our sin
  with a passion. Hate is a God given emotion.
• Our emotions also need to be under the Lordship
  of Jesus.
• To be able to repent successfully requires that
  we experience emotions related to our sin.
• The Holy Spirit needs to link agony to our sin
  such that we do not want to go there again.

12
The enemy is clever

• Satan understands this principle. Satan links
  emotional pleasure to sin. That is why
  intelligent people will continue in sinful
  lifestyles or doing things they know do them harm
  (e.g. getting drunk, unsafe sex, smoking,
  overeating )
• For us to be able to change we need to allow the
  Holy Spirit to link pain and agony to our sin in
  order to bring us to our senses.

13
Meditating on Gods Word

• But his delight and desire are in the law of the
  Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the
  instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually
  meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by
  night. Psalm 12
• Meditation was originally Gods idea.

14
Think on these things

• Consider what your sin does to God.
• Consider what your sin does to others.
• Consider what your sin does to you.
• See the consequences of your sin and how it robs
  you of abundant life..
• Imagine your life without the bondage of living
  with your sin.

15
Freedom!

• So if the Son liberates you makes you free
  men, then you are really and unquestionably
  free. John 836
• Jesus died so that we can be set free from the
  bondage and tyranny of sin. However, we are
  required to repent in order to receive the
  benefits of this sacrifice.

16
Holding repentance

• Charles Finney (born in 1792) is credited with
  over 500,000 conversions of which 87 are
  recorded as being permanent. Compare this to
  Billy Graham where recent statistics suggest a
  long term conversion rate as low as 3.
• The key to Finneys success is considered to be
  his teaching on repentance and the fear and
  awfulness of hell.

17
Believe and confess!

• For with the heart a person believes (adheres
  to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is
  justified (declared righteous, acceptable to
  God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares
  openly and speaks out freely his faith) and
  confirms his salvation.
• Romans 1010