Genuine Repentance

I have taken the time to paraphrase a sermon by Charles Stanley titled: Why do I keep failing when I try so hard. (True Repentance) This is one of the most amazingly insightful sermons I have ever heard on besetting sin and genuine repentance. 

Why do we keep failing when we try so hard? – Charles Stanley

Genuine repentance is a change of mind about my action.  You and I can agree that a thing is sin, that it is bad for us, that it is damaging, and the consequences we don’t want to suffer. We can agree with all of that without complete repentance.  There has to be a change of mind about my desire. And that’s why for most people brokenness is a vital part of genuine, complete repentance. That means the breaking of my will and the surrendering of my will to God. 

“Lord why do I keep failing when I try so hard?” Why is it that when you try to overcome sin in your life and God knows that you want to, you mean to, you promise to, and you just say “Lord I’ll do anything you want me to do” and you fast and you pray and beg and you plead and somehow it doesn’t work. Is God callous in His heart? Is it that God’s not listening to your prayer? Is God trying to punish you for wrongs in the past by not allowing you to have victory in the present? That’s not the way God is, that’s not His nature.

So if you and I are asking God to give us victory in some area of our life and we’re not having victory, first of all it is not God’s fault.  We can’t blame it on God; we certainly can’t blame it on someone else. Because nobody for the most part … for believers we sin because we choose to. But I’ve been asking for God to free me and I want victory… Why God? But the bottom line is when you and I sin it is because of a choice we make. 

Why do we make choices we know are acts of disobedience? We know we’re going to be miserable with ourselves after we’ve done it.  We know that our conscience is going to sting us.  We know that God’s going to be displeased.  One of the subtleties of sin is that sin always strikes against your own value of yourself.  I’ve committed this sin therefore I am: less than, not worthy, God’s not pleased,  so we turn all of this on ourselves and as a result Satan uses this on us in lots of ways.  He works on our faith, he works on our self-esteem,  he works on our value of ourselves, so what happens is we get defeated in more ways than we realize because God doesn’t come along and wipe us out overnight we think “I sin and nothing happens”  Oh yes it did. It was happening on the inside in a very subtle fashion.  God wants to give us victory. But sometimes we tell Him that we really and truly want victory and to do what’s right but when it demands more of me than I want to give then we turn aside, we sin against God and we go back to Him confessing and saying “Lord I don’t understand why I did this, I’m asking for you for forgiveness God, Why do I keep failing when I try so hard?”

I want to give you two reasons we keep failing when we are trying so hard:

1)      Incomplete repentance – You can feel sorry, you can feel guilty, feel shame, feel embarrassed with no real repentance.  Because repentance isn’t crying, it isn’t weeping, it isn’t feeling sorry, it isn’t being caught, it isn’t feeling guilty, and it isn’t feeling shame.  Genuine repentance is a change of thinking where we turn around and move in another direction because I genuinely agree with God and also I make a deliberate decision based on a change in my mind. 

Brokenness is the breaking of my will and surrendering of will to God.  Repentance works so deep within the human spirit, there is such a brokenness that goes on that repentance not only does not want on an emotional level but we lose our desire.  It is a deep working level.  We can confess and confess, it does not mean I have experienced genuine repentance.  Genuine repentance involves some sense of brokenness where my mind is so changed I absolutely do not want that in my life and something different is going to happen in a person’s life.  I honestly think that many people believe they have genuinely repented when the truth is they have not.

 

When God puts the pressure on us we’re willing to do anything in that moment “Oh yes Lord, anything you want me to do Lord.” Then when the pressure gets off what do we do? We start backing up on what we say “Well, Lord you understood what I meant by that” Then we get to rationalizing, when the truth is it wasn’t genuine repentance.  We were all upset and broken up in our spirit but the truth is we either got caught or the pressures on so bad or the consequences of that moment are so pressurizing we think anything,  then God lets the pressure off and we go right back.  You’ve got to surrender it emotionally.  Till you do it still has its attachments.   

2)    Number 2: an Inadequate view of our true identity in Christ – when you understand who you really are from God’s viewpoint, you are one of His children, you are complete in Him, every need that you have He has promised to provide. That Jesus Christ is your very life.  That you do not need anything that He will not provide right on time. When you understand that you are   inseparable in your relationship to Him.  You begin to understand that the sin is something foreign and your attitude begins to change.  It isn’t enough to repent, but repentance based on the understanding of who I am.  If I say “Lord I yield everything” but I’ve still got needs.  And Lord how are these needs going to be met? But if I understand who I am in Christ and who He is within me, and that He has given Himself to us to make us adequate and complete in every situation, I know that no matter what temptation comes along I do not have to yield, I am not under Satan’s power to yield, I must CHOOSE to sin against the will of God.  It is absolutely foreign to my identity as a follower of Jesus Christ. 

Understanding that true repentance is not just my physical surrender but my emotional surrender as well.  And understanding who I am and my completeness in Him, Satan will not be able to trip you up unless you begin to play around and to rationalize and begin to flirt with sin.  Christ has become your life, He is indwelling you.  What you were has been crucified, you’ve been buried in Him, you have risen with Him, and you and Jesus Christ are now inseparable.  If God is in Christ and Christ is in you than God is in you in all His fullness to meet every need. 

 

The bottom line of sin is “I want to get my needs met right now in my way.”

 

My needs have already been met in Christ and will be met in His time.  This is the wisdom of God and not God’s disfavor.  How is God ever going to teach us that He is sufficient to meet our needs unless He allows us to get in a position where we have a need we cannot meet ourselves and allow the pressure and tension and a season of temptation and have the need unmet until we learn that He is willing to meet my need.  I want to give a warning: God isn’t going to just meet every need just because you say “I believe all my needs are met in Jesus so I shouldn’t have needs anymore”

 

We are going to fail, but if we are moving in obedience towards him, and you’re in the process of learning, don’t worry about the failures.  Be willing for God to put you through whatever is necessary until you begin to experience the victory.  Confession of sin is no guarantee of victory.  Many people think that 1 John 1:9 is a guarantee of victory.  But it doesn’t guarantee victory, it only shows that you have acknowledged your need of God and the shed blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin.  Victory comes when you no longer have a genuine desire for that thing.  You are not free until you are emotionally free.  God is cleaning out all the stuff that’s been a part of your life all these years. He wants to clean you out totally, because now He is living inside of you.  He doesn’t want the leftover stuff that was a part of your old thinking still giving you problems.   When we understand that Jesus is our life there is a sense of fulfillment that we don’t need what God doesn’t want us to have and the struggle is over.  Am I saying you’ll come to a point in your life where you won’t be tempted again?  NO WAY. Satan will see to that.  But those areas where you feel defeated again and again.  Incomplete repentance and an inadequate view of who I am in Christ who has made me complete in Him so that all of my needs are met in His given timing.