This piece of creative genius has officially surpassed the Newsboys song “They Don’t Serve Breakfast in Hell” as my favorite Christian song about breakfast…

Something to think about… Click on the link below to view a video introducing the sermon series “Back Seat Jesus.”

Back Seat Jesus_Promo from Cross Point Church on Vimeo.

You can get the audio and video for these sermons on the church website:

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For godly sorrow produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow produces death. –2 Corinthians 7.10

Tonight my pastor preached a very practical yet profoundly convicting sermon from 2 Corinthians 7.8-10. As he preached, I saw in my mind so many instances in my own life in which I have struggled with sin and the ideas of confession, sorrow, and repentance. True repentance is nearly unheard of in our society today. Even Christians, who claim to believe in the depravity of man’s soul, generally go about life believing they are good people. We are quick to admit our general state of sinfulness, but very slow to confess and repent of particular sins.

Dr. Bowyer shared with us the writing of Thomas Watson, who wrote about Six Ingredients of Repentance:

1. Sight of Sin—First of all, we must be aware of our sin. In the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15, Jesus said that the son, while sitting in the pig pen “came to his senses.” He became aware of the sin in his life and where it had brought him. Before we can do anything about the sins in our lives, we must be aware of what they specifically are.

2. Sorrow for Sin—“Sorrow for sin makes Christ precious to us.” We must be saddened by the sin in our lives. It is for that sin that Christ chose to give up heaven to come to earth to die our death in our place. Recognizing the cost He paid to make forgiveness possible should make our Savior precious to us, and should make our sin sicken us.

3. Confession of Sin—We must admit that the wrong we do is sin. Too often we talk about misjudgments, poor decisions, and regrettable mistakes. We talk even more about the sins we are so quick to see that others commit against us. What we discuss very little is the idea that we sin. We sin against one another and we sin against a holy and loving God. Admitting we are wrong is hard for people who are so full of self-love and pride, but it is a necessary step of true repentance. After all, how can you really be sorry if there is nothing specific for which you are sorry?

4. Shame for Sin—When we realize our sin, we are generally ashamed, but often for the wrong reason. Our pride is shamed because we don’t want anyone to find out about the wrong we have committed because we fear what they may think of us. True shame over sin should be shame in the sight of God. We should be ashamed that we have failed our Father, not that people may find out.This shame should lead us to rid ourselves of the sin, not to try to hide it.

5. Hatred for Sin—When we truly understand the impact and effect of sin. When we see how it impacts those around us, when we meditate on the cross of Christ, when we see the pain caused by even the “smallest” of our sins, we should develop a hate for any behavior or attitude that separates us from Jesus and from one another. A dear friend taught me several years ago the very painful yet rewarding practice of praying for God to not only point out my sins to me, but also show me the effects of my sin on my relationship with Him and with those around me. That is a prayer He has never failed to answer. Seeing the impact of my sin on those I love most and on my relationship with the Lord always causes a hatred for that sin to grow in me. Instead of it being something I love and want to cling to, it becomes something I desire to strip from my life as soon as possible.

6. Turning from Sin—Once you have developed a hate for the thing that causes such pain and separation, the only rational thing left to do is to separate yourself from that sin. Turning from your sin and running to the cross of Christ is the only option you have left.

This is an overview of true repentance. In the next series of posts, I will discuss some of the things that repentance is not and where Christians tend to fall short in our dealings with sin in our lives.

I used to have this problem, and I think a lot of people still have this problem—we believe that there is one will of God for our lives and if we make the wrong choice we have skewed the space/time continuum like in “Back to the Future.” In an attempt to never make the “wrong” choice, we become paralyzed and end up doing nothing, which, in the long run, is just as sinful and disobedient.

On the other hand, we become so convinced that God is going to do something that we sit back and do nothing to contribute to the realization of a “God-spoken” plan. Sometimes we need to be reminded that God’s will for us is clearly revealed in the Bible, and His written revelation trumps any feeling or guidance we may have on an issue. We also need to be reminded that sometimes, “disaction” is disobedience.

This is an interesting read…

http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2009/01/stunned-stymied-and-sidelined-by.html

God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down. -C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

Lewis wrote these words while processing through the death of his wife, Joy. This quote is such a stark reminder of the infinite knowledge our God possesses of His creation. It reminds me of the conversations had by God with Satan and with Job before and during the trials placed upon the life of Job. God didn’t suggest Job as a target for Satan and then hope that Job wouldn’t fail Him. There are no unknowns or calculated risks with an omniscient God. The trials and the journeys He leads us through in this life are not ways in which we prove ourselves to Him– He knew us intimately before time began. The joys and the pains and tests and the trials of this life are the ways in which God proves Himself to us. We are the ones that are doubtful and fallen and questioning and in need of being conformed to the image of Christ. We are the ones who learn in the trials. We learn where our loyalties lie. We learn of the impurities that need to be burned from our lives so that we may better reflect the image of God.

The thing that will never cease to amaze me about myself, about people in general, is that we always seem to think that we are pulling the wool over the eyes of God concerning our sin and idolatry. We place things ahead of the glory of God, and think that He doesn’t know. Lewis points out so eloquently that God knows us so well He even knows the temples we set up in our hearts to other gods. And He knows exactly what it will take to bring those temples crashing down until we are once again standing face-to-face with the God of the universe.

So I wonder, what are my card houses of worship? What are the temples I have so carefully crafted in my own life that God needs to topple? What are the created things that I worship that have taken the place of unadulterated worship of the Creator? My fear is that my deceitful, untrustworthy heart will cling to them until the Father has to tear them down Himself. My prayer is that i will tear down the strong holds in my life (because that’s what temples of cards really are– strongholds of sin) before discipline is required.