Summary
The sermon "The Call to Repentance" emphasizes the importance of repentance in our lives as Christians. It starts by reminding us that God's kindness leads us towards repentance, and that we need to hold on to the image of God's goodness in our hearts. The sermon also discusses the story of the prodigal son, where the father's goodness is what brings the son back to him. It highlights that repentance is not just about feeling sorry for our sins, but about turning back to God and changing our hearts and minds. The sermon encourages us to remember that God is a good God who wants us to come back to him, and that his goodness is what brings us back to repentance.
Link to the service video.
Sermon transcription
Good morning brothers and sisters.
I hope you are awake and ready to receive the word of God.
The sun is shining. The temperature is somewhat better than last week.
It was a bit cold, but I'm looking forward to warmer temperature.
So, and the sun really helped, right? when you wake up and the sun is slowly coming it feels good.
So today brothers and sisters I will be talking about repentance and this is a heavy topic
and it's if you don't give your full attention it will be very difficult to come through.
So therefore I would like you to concentrate well because there will be a lot of verses we're going to read and I try in my preparation to shorten this but it's just so difficult to actually lift out some of the fundamental part that built onto the story of repentance.
So therefore it is going to be a lot of verses but stay tuned and if you need if you need the verses or you cannot take the note or whatever you can ask brother Yan he can share you or ask me I can share you the file as well right so don't worry when when you probably when you take picture or or you taking notes and it's actually too fast or you probably didn't get a chance to do so.
Now, are you ready?
Now, brothers and sisters, I would like to ask you first about a question to you.
Do you have someone in your life that you mark as a good person, a good person to you?
a kind person to you.
Somebody that have done something that has been helping you or somebody that has done something that progress you or help you to overcome challenges or give you advice that you never thought of before and you overcome challenges or he open ways somebody that you can recall in your heart.
You don't need to mention them that the person is a good person.
Do you have that person?
Yeah. Hold it in your heart.
Right. So, because I'm going to ask you about this.
Now, why do I ask this?
Because the image of that person, right? And every time I may mention that person's name, you actually got the feeling again of that goodness of that person towards you.
So when you remember that person, what do you feel?
You feel how his goodness is touching you, right?
If you feel how he had his advice or her advice or something that he's done is actually touching you, right?
It's the feeling that comes into you when that name or your mind start to remember.
And that image is an important one because you need to hold on to that image to hold on to that goodness to remind you all the time.
Now when I ask you then what is God's image for you?
Is God a person that has been so good to you?
Or is God the image of a person that always chasing after you or an image that probably waiting to remind you on something that you have done wrong.
And that image is an important image that we have to have in our hearts sisters because that is the easiest way to remember who God is.
Okay. Now, who amongst you remember the story of the prodigal son?
Prodigal son story, right? Luke 15.
If you really would like to look further or read a bit further in Luke 15.
Now let me ask you again story about the story if you still remember this story.
So this is the prodigal son.
He is asking to his father give me the inheritance that is due to me.
His father is not yet right.
The inheritance is usually something you ask or it is given to you when the parents has already been gone.
And this prodigal son is asking and the father the good father he is he gave it to him.
And what happened to the prodical son?
What happened to the prodical son?
He basically used all the money he received or all the resources he received to do something that is not according to what God wants him to do or his father wants him to do.
And he became broke and what happened in the end?
So he was so hungry and he need to apply for a job that is to feed the pig.
And at that time and he was so hungry he want to eat the food from the pig.
And what remind him what actually turning him back to his father?
Do you remember what caused him to go back and the father is good?
You remember he said there are so many servant to my father and his father is so good that the servant has more than enough to eat.
The goodness of God, the goodness of the father is the one that remind him and call him back.
So his image, the story I start the preaching with his image of his father is a good image on which he said my father is a good person.
My father give more than enough to the server.
I will go back to my father.
I am not worthy to be called his son anymore.
Just make me your servant.
Father, just make me your servant.
Right? That's what called him back.
It's not that something else.
He only remember that his father is a good father.
Did he remember that his father will punish him or all other things?
He just remember my father is a good father.
Even if all the things that I have done wrong, I will not be worthy to be called his son.
But I just want to become his servant.
At least I will be saved.
At least I will have something to eat.
So what called him back?
is the goodness of God, the goodness of the father.
Now this is why I said it is important for us to know and remember who god is for us and for those of the person that you have kept in your heart who has done something good for you.
It is always good to remember that because when you meet that person you will see and know how he made he has made you feel.
And now brothers and sisters will you what would you do to a person that have done good to you?
The least you should not do is to betray that person.
Even if you don't do something good back, at least you will not disappoint that person.
Now, so today I would like you to hold this picture of God, the good God that he is in your mind before we go fast to all these verses because only then you will know that when God call you to repentance, it is his goodness that call you to repentance.
Now, it's not in my file, brother.
So, if you could help me to project Romans chapter 2, verse 4.
Romans chapter 2 verse4.
Before I start, brothers and sisters, this is just an intro and you were just saying, whoa, the intro is already very long.
So, it's up here on the screen.
Follow me as I read.
Or do you show contempt for the riches, riches of his kindness, tolerance, and patient, not realizing that God's kindness, God's kindness leads you towards repentance.
God's kindness leads you towards repentance and remember that as a basis brothers and sisters God's kindness leads you towards repentance and let's read from Matthew chapter 4 verse1 17 this is the opening verse that pastor Angel has read to us Matthew chapter 4 verse 17 from that time on Jesus began to preach, repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
And I will pair that with second Peter 3:9.
It says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness.
Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
So brothers and sisters in Matthew chapter 4, this is a situation where John was previously preceding Jesus was baptizing people and asking people to repent from their sins and come back to God.
Now at that time then after Jesus has been baptized by John and then not long after that John was put in prison right and then this is the beginning of Jesus start preaching and because it is the beginning Jesus begin to preach and I think it's important when the start of something that is an important part see hear the first word that Jesus said repent.
That means when he starts something with that word, it should be an important one and it should be a turning point.
Now repent for the kingdom of of heaven has come near.
Now I would like to go and concentrate on this word repent.
What does that mean and why do we need repentance and how do we do this repentance in our daily activities or in our daily life?
Yeah.
And from this point onward I will go fast.
Okay.
So what does repentance means brothers and sisters?
Repentance in the Old Testament in the Hebrew is basically means to turn back to turn back to God.
So turning back to God and in the New Testament it's written in Greek it's a it is it is written as metaninoia metaninoia which is actually means literally if the wordto word translation is a change of mind and heart chains of mind and heart.
So what does this really means?
This is basically a call for us to come back to God.
It is a call for us to change our hearts and our mind from the world to where we are today or where we were before to God to focus back to God.
Now the question is why do we need repentance in the first place?
Why do we need to turn back to God?
Why do we need repentance?
Okay.
Now, there are some few truth that I would like to lay the basis on because unless you understand this brothers and sisters, repentance doesn't mean much to you.
Yeah.
So this truth is something you got to understand and you got to really know that this is the truth and the basis of why we are here today.
Yeah.
So the first truth that you need to know and I am sure that you are with me here that we know that God exists that God works in us.
If this is not satisfied that you don't believe in God, the word repentance doesn't mean anything because who are you going to turn back to?
Because there should be a point of reference and that reference is there is a God a mighty powerful and good God.
That's the basis of everything.
In Genesis 1 verse one it said in the beginning God created heavens and the earth.
So he is the beginning and he is also the end.
Okay.
So this is the first fundamental truth that we got to hold on to.
Now the second fundamental truth so that repentance will make sense is that for us to know that there is an eternal life.
There is life after our life today and there is an eternal punishment.
Right?
So there are the two extreme eternal life and eternal punishment.
If you don't believe if we don't believe on this one there's no point of repentance.
Right?
And then I'm coming to my point and why do we need repentance?
Because we know that there is eternal life which we all wanting to go and we will be going there and there is an eternal punishment awaiting for those who are not following and really accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
This is the second fundamental truth.
The third one, we are sinners.
So who among us here never do any sin?
And it's not only the generational um sins that come down from Adam and Eve, brothers and sisters.
But also in our daily life we fall many times.
So if we know that we are sinners and there is a wages of sin and that is eternal death.
So for the wages of sins is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Right?
So if we continue to live in sins will lead to death or eternal punishment.
But if we turn back from sins, we turn back from sins to God, we are heading towards eternal life.
That's the third truth.
Now the fourth truth is that those who believe in Jesus will have eternal life.
Right?
So then you know that there is a God who exists and there is a the eternal punishment.
There is an eternal life and we and we oursself is prone to sins and therefore we need someone to help us and take us for us to go back to eternal life and this is that through Jesus in John 3:16 you know all this for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Now, for those of you who like numbers and those of you who likes equations and um I try to link it to how how does this look like um in general.
So those of you who are engineers or those of you who knows mathematics and uh those who hates mathematics, if you would like to solve an equation, yeah, you need what we call a boundary conditions.
So what does boundary conditions means?
That it needs to be satisfied, right?
And this is then if you do not if you don't know how to solve it, you basically try to put the input and see if it at the end will be satisfied.
This is this is called iteration.
Now brothers and sisters and there will be time where in our life that we sin right and what does sins mean?
So once you know these four um four fundamental truth then we go back to our life.
So this is then all the frame right?
So this is now the frame.
Now let's look back to our life.
Let's look back to our life.
What does what does sin mean?
In a very simple words, sins is disobedience to God.
Anything that God wants us to do, we didn't do, we sin against God.
Okay?
Then that is then the origin of this.
Adam, Adam and Eve's was given the instruction not to eat from the fruit.
What did they do?
They disobey God and they eat it anyway and their sins right now in our context today.
So then we we we should when we are in heaven, we should go and ask Adam and Eve, why did you eat that fruit?
Right?
Imagine if they didn't eat it.
Maybe we are still in uh in paradise today.
It will be a different situation, right?
So well now brothers and sisters, sins is disobedience to God.
So how did sin start?
Because if we know where it starts, then we know how to prevent it.
And if it does happen, that is when repentance come.
Now in Mark 7 21-23 actually brothers and sisters sins started from within.
Sin started from our hearts and our mind.
In Mark 7:21-23 it says for it is from within out of a person's heart.
So it start in our hearts that evil thought and then it comes to our mind.
Um that evil thought comes at this sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
All these evils come from inside and defile a person.
So watch out what you see and watch out what you hear and watch out anything that might influence your heart and your mind because there where it starts.
Okay.
And in James 1:13-15 he said when tempted no one should say God is tempting me for God cannot be tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyone.
But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own dear own evil desire and entice.
Then the desire has conceived.
It gives birth to sin and sin when it fully grown give birth to death.
You see how it how it started?
is from your mind, from your heart and then is fully grown and it brings sins.
It manifested in sin.
Now, so here brothers and sisters, it's coming from the inside and therefore be very careful what you put inside.
So now you might be questioning what is mind and what is a heart and it's a it's a definition that I think we should know what is the mind and our heart.
The mind is definitely our logical thinking right and heart is something related to our feeling.
So there is a table that um that that I think would give us what the definition of mind and heart.
The mind think the heart desire.
The mind understand that's our logical thinking.
The heart will then love or resist.
And then when the mind knows what is right, the heart is the one that choose to do right or to do wrong.
Now the mind can agree intellectually but the heart eventually decide the direction of life.
And so when the mind and the heart are working together and align on something that is not according to what God God is asking us to do and we entertain and act on it then only then sins occur.
Okay.
Now once the sins is actually disobedience to God is actually there.
Now it's already mentioned in the beginning brothers and sisters sins lead to death.
So we need a way to go back out of that sinful life.
And that the way to go back is basically by repenting realizing that we sins and we need to go back to God.
Okay.
So therefore we have been given the freedom from sinful life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Okay.
And in actu chapter 10 verse 43 it says all the prophet testify about him that everyone who believes in him receive forgiveness of sins through his name.
So everyone who believe if you don't how would you go back and ask for forgiveness if you don't believe the person you have in your heart was a good person will you go back to that person you will not only when you know that he is a good person that you will come back right now John 3:16 I've read this man a few um a few minutes ago to you.
This is to show how much God love us and his sacrifice through our Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate call, ultimate um way to show how good God has been for us.
and lets that goodness call us back because whoever believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Now in John 14:E6 Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth and life.
No one comes to the father except through me.
Now it's all come together, right?
So we make mistakes.
We disobedience to God and therefore if we are not coming back and ask for forgiveness we are doomed to eternal punishment.
But God has opened a way for us then to come back and being freed from the sins that we have done before.
Now the question would be brothers and sisters.
So once you receive Jesus as our Lord and your Savior and you have realized it and you know it and you have experienced it.
Now once you have that you are saved.
Now in your journey of life in your journey of life there will still time that you fail.
You fail him.
You failed him.
I failed him.
Everybody fail me.
No one is holy.
Now what happened then?
We have turned to God and he he has free us and he saved us.
And when we sin, what happened then?
Now, so this is then an important question that each and everyone has to understand.
Now in our life we will make mistakes even after we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
But the intention is for us to get closer to him and understand him so that we will not be sinning anymore but we do sins.
So what does that mean brothers and sisters?
So to answer that we need to go through um quite a long verses because I tried to uh make um a way to explain it but I thought let the verse the verses of the Bible explain it itself.
Okay.
So read with me in Romans 6 1 verse uh 214.
So after your salvation you do have mistakes, you do make mistake and I do make mistakes.
But what happened then?
This is what Paul is saying.
What shall we say then?
Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
So when we have received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are forgiven.
Are we going to do the sins that we did before again?
By no means.
We are those who have died to sin.
How can we live in it any longer?
Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
We were therefore buried with him through baptism in into death in order that just as Christ was risen from the dead through the glory of the father, we too may live a new life.
For if we have been united with him in in a death like this, we will certainly also be united with him in resurrection like his.
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with.
That we should no longer be slave to sins.
Because anyone who has died has been set free from sins.
And as I continue now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again.
That no longer has mastery over him.
the death he died um he died to sin once for all but the life he lives he lives to God in the same way count yourself death to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore do not let sin reign in you in in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desire.
Do not offer any part of yourself to sins as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
For sin shall no longer be our master, your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Now, brothers and sisters, our sinful life.
So go back if I go back and bring you back to the fundamental truth that I mentioned earlier right.
So those who do not believe in God and those who don't believe about eternal life when they are sinning they don't even realize that they are sinning they keep on doing it because they do not know that it is actually sin what they do they become slave to the sins.
Now as you already receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior when you sin you are reminded you're no longer slave of the sins.
You are no longer doing you are no longer submitting yourself any longer to sins and therefore you are realizing that you have sinned and God has opened the way for us then to come back to him and repent.
Only when you realize you are no longer slave to sin, only that you know God is so good that will give you the forgiveness of sin that you will turn back to him.
Now brothers and sisters, these are the situation that you need to remember that when you turn back to God that he is good and will forgive us.
If you are having an image of God that will punish you every time you sin, then you will be afraid to come back to God.
Now our God has given this assurance to us that when we come back to him and confess and repent, what does repent means?
That you would like in your heart not to do it again.
Right?
So repentance is an action after the forgiveness of sins to bring us back to God.
First John 1:9 it said, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
This should be the image we know and we have in our hearts about God.
Right?
So when we come back and we confess, he will be forgiving us.
In Acts 3:19, it says, "Repent then turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out that times of refreshing may come from the Lord."
In 1 John 1:7 it says, "But if you walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son purifies us from all sins."
Now literally what happened brothers and sisters when you are receiving the uh Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have a place to come back you f.
Now the problem brothers and sisters failure is not being um down but fail to come back to God.
So if you sin actually you are getting further from God and by confessing and repenting you are coming back to God.
So what happen if on sinning and you are not confessing you are drifting further and further and further away from God.
And that's why it is a call for us.
It's a reminder for us to repent as soon as we know and realize that we have sinned.
And it's also for us to know and understand that if we are in a situation where the sins is lingering around, we know that God is faithful and will be helping us.
I think this image we have to always remember because otherwise very difficult for us to come back to God.
Now let me remind again brothers and sisters.
Now as you know the story, now you know why the call to repentance is so important.
is basically God wants us to come back to him and close to him and living a life in the light and living the life according to what he wants us to do so that he can guide us and therefore repentance is in a way to all the time remember that God is with us.
Amen.
So when repentance is actually preached and that is the first thing that God is preaching about when Jesus was preaching the first preaching he was saying is about repentance.
Come back to God.
Come back to me.
Right?
And so brothers and sisters and if I pray for someone to come back to God and if you are praying for someone that has been maybe he was probably active before or he was probably um really in fire of God for whatever reason it is something happened things are not um coming together again and this person is drifting away from God.
You probably know a person or family members or somebody that you know is somewhat now drifting away from God.
And so what should we pray about this person?
And I would then read again in Romans 2 chapter 4.
That will always be my prayer.
And let the goodness of God lead that person to repentance.
And I pray, Lord, may you continue to to show your goodness to this person.
And when that person realize that he has been so blessed that God has been so good to them only then that person will come back and so like the prodigal son's story right so he has been experiencing and he has been seeing his father was so good to him his father was so good to the server That goodness, that image of his father is the one that bring him back.
Amen.
And so let's pray for those who have been drifting away from God.
Or if you are feeling today that for some reason that you think like it's been it feels that I'm not so close anymore to God.
Maybe there's something there that we need to confess and we would like to remember again that God has been so good to us.
So brothers and sisters done of course there are definition of what is goodness of God means the fact that we are here today brothers and sisters being able to hear his message is the goodness of him that remind us again to always have this in mind that this has been the goodness of God has been the one that keep us as we are today.
Amen.
And it's important for us to hold that picture in us because the goodness of God should be the one that pull you back.
Until you understand this, brothers and sisters, repentance doesn't mean much to you.
Until you actually know how much God has been so good to you, until you understand how much God have have done for you, his goodness for you, it will be very difficult for you to actually worship him.
And so maybe another fundamental question, why do you come to church today?
Why do you come here today?
I hope that your heart has been overflowing with thanksgiving and knowing that he is a good God.
And it's always good to be with the good people, right?
So when you have good friends, it's always nice to be around good people and surround yourself with good people.
And I hope that is the one that bring you back to church.
And therefore we need to be good to each other.
Right?
So so that uh when people newcomers come they know that this is a community a good bonds of people who are good to others.
Right?
So they will they will enjoy the company of good people.
And so, brothers and sisters, this call to repentance is a reminder how good God has been in our life.
Sure, there are challenges in our life.
Sure, there there are problems that we face in our life.
Sure, there are failures that we sometimes regret.
There are sins that we realize it or we don't that we have done that cross the line.
And brothers and sisters, this is a reminder of us to us again that repentance, the call to repentance is a way that God would like to get closer to us.
Is the way that God would like to be with us.
And then as a closing brothers and sisters, what was the reaction of the father to the prodical son?
It's always amazed me, always amazed me the reaction of the father.
When he saw the son coming, what did he do?
He run towards him.
When you realize you sinned, God grunts to you.
When he you confess, he hug and the father was saying he didn't even the that the the son have not f he said I have sinned against heaven and you make me your hired servant.
He didn't finish that.
And the father said to the the other servant, "Take the cow.
We make party."
Does this son deserve a party?
This is the good father we have.
This is our father.
And you need to have that image in your heart.
Brothers and sisters, you have to have that image firm in your heart.
When we sins, we come back to God.
When we sin, we go back to him.
When we sin, we confess and we repent that he will forgive our sins.
and he said come back and enjoy the presence of your father.
Amen.
So this is important and therefore brothers and sisters as we go through there are many verses that we have read through I hope you see the point of why God is calling us to repentance is a reminder to us that he is a good God and want us to come back to him.
want us to always be with him and enjoy his presence.
Amen.
Amen.
Hallelujah.