So step one is if you're going in the wrong direction
you need to stop. Step two is you need to acknowledge your mistake.
And step three is that you need to repent. Now I want to take some time on this third
step because I think repentance is such an often misunderstood
concept. In fact many of you as soon as you heard me
say the word repentance, you automatically think you
know what I'm going to say and you already put
me into a category.
Sometimes we think repentance are just for those who
are committing gross sins and living in blatant rebellion
against God. My friends I want you to know something today.
Repentance is for all of us. In fact, for the child of God, repentance
should be a lifestyle.
I believe this is one of the great keys to living a victorious
Christian life. And I want to help you understand repentance
today in a way that perhaps may be new to many of
you. And I want to illustrate it by using a visual
aid. A little compass.
How many of you know how a compass works? A compass doesn't shout out to you and tell
you all the ways you shouldn't go.
Don't go there, don't do that, don't make that turn.
It's actually very quiet. It only tells you one direction, it only points
one direction.
It points north. And by knowing which direction is north, the
traveler is able to find his way.
But if that compass is going to be able to help you,
you have to constantly realign yourself with it.
That means constantly turning. Or constantly repenting.
And listen for a traveler in the wilderness, this is
not a trivial matter at all. It's actually a matter of life and death.
For hundreds of years, explorers have
conquered vast, seemingly impenetrable wildernesses.
With a simple, yet vital, instrument; a compass. She will rebuke a traveler often.
She will correct him a thousand times, but she is
no enemy. She is a faithful friend.
For without her, a wanderer would lose his way
every hour. Through small, constant, incremental adjustments,
the weary traveler corrects his course.
Even in the fiercest storm. The thickest forest or the darkest night.
Her uplifted hands will keep him true. If he will continue to heed her silent voice.
Through her instruction, the traveler is fixed and
focused on the singular motivation. His heart is set on his desired destination.
He's not tempted by the wrong path. And he's not struggling to escape it.
He moves toward his goal with his eyes on the prize.
And every dead end is automatically evaded. The word repent means to turn.
Now in this treacherous place, far from the raspy voice
of the inner city street preacher shouting turn or burn.
Here on a perilous journey through an unforgiving wilderness.
We will learn what it means to repent. Repentance is not only for rebels.
It is also the habit of the righteous. It is the continual turning of a soul.
Avoiding sin, not by focusing on it. But by perpetually recalibrating the heart
with eyes fixed on the prize.
Jesus Christ himself. The finger of the Holy Spirit is ever pointing
the child of God northward to Christ.
He is not an angry street preacher. He is a faithful friend who keeps us aligned
with the will of God.
If we will hear his voice and respond to his correction.
So turn today, turn now. Turn every hour if necessary.
Maybe only one degree or two is needed to realign
your course but turn just the same. Turn to Jesus.
For in heaven or on earth, there is no other way.
You know a compass is an amazing tool, but it only
works if you pay constant attention to it and allow
it to constantly correct you. You know I've used compasses in underwater
scuba diving navigation and this is actually much
more difficult than using a compass on land. Because when you're under the water and you
can only see a few feet in front of you, the only
thing you can rely on is that compass.
And you don't' have any land marks, mountains or
trees that you can set your sights on. And sometimes when you're underwater, you
feel like you've been moving in a straight line
and you become a little self confident.
And you accidentally forget about the compass. Now this is a good way to get completely lost
because without fail if you've forgotten to look at
the compass for a little while, when you remember to look
at it again you will discover that you are going in the
completely wrong direction.
The compass requires you to constantly turn. To adjust, to modify your course, to align
yourself with the right direction.
You know I've heard a lot of people preach about repentance
over the years and usually the preacher will emphasize a few
particular sins he feels are especially grievous. And he'll implore the people to turn away
from those sins. Turn or burn, the classic repentance message.
And often repentance is characterized as meaning a
complete one hundred and eighty degree turn into the
opposite direction. Now there's nothing necessarily wrong with
this or inaccurate but I think viewing repentance
this way could cause people to miss something very
important. In fact it might be missing the real point
altogether. For example a sinner could turn away from
sin and actually still be lost.
In fact there are many religions that teach morals and
abstinence from many different kinds of sins that
are even more strict than Christianity. But that in and of itself does not save anybody.
In fact the Bible teaches that nobody can be saved
by works, good or bad. So from the Christian perspective what you
turn away from is not what's most important.
It's what you turn to that makes the real difference.
Now you see if we only think of repentance as a one
hundred and eighty degree turn in the opposite direction.
Then we think that repentance is only for the rebellious
blatant sinner. And we fail to understand that sometimes even
for an obedient child of God a minor but crucial
fine tuning is necessary to keep our hearts calibrated
with the heart of God.
If I'm hiking through the wilderness and I look at my compass
and I realize I'm only two degrees off course, I don't turn
one hundred and eighty degrees and go in the other direction.
But I still need to turn, even only if it's a slight adjustment.
I need to align myself with the right direction. This is why I say repentance is the practice
of the righteous. We need to constantly turn our hearts back
to God. From darkness to light.
From the flesh to the spirit. From the temporal to the eternal.
From death unto life. And from this understanding, repentance takes
on a whole new meaning.
If I have lusted or lied. If I have bitterness in my heart or missed
God's will because of disobedience.
Yes I need to repent but I'm not just repenting and
turning away from those sins. I realize those sins are a symptom of a deeper
and more serious problem.
Which is that I'm moving in a direction that is contrary
to Christ. That means I need to refocus my heart.
I need to recalibrate myself so that my whole being
is once again aligned with Him.