Choose Repentance Over Guilt

Ezekiel 33:11-12

Intro: Over the past weeks we have looked at a number of choices that we, asbelievers, need to make in our lives in order to please God. We have seen how weneed to choose to have right attitudes, to live with a real purpose, to be productive, and to try to live by faith. This morning, I want us to see that anotherimportant choice for us is to choose repentance over guilt!

I. Preliminary Considerations

A. Definition Of Repentance

1.Repentance is not an emotion, but is an attitude that leads to a specificaction. Repentance is changing your mind about your sin and about God. It means turning from your sin and toward God.

2.It is an attitude that chooses to confront failure rather than to ignoreit.

3.It is not just a one-time action concerning our salvation...it is anattitude that confronts and deals with failure in every area of our lives.

4.It isn't very popular today, because it requires us to honestly confrontsin.

B. The Problem With Guilt

1.Guilt is an emotion that can have devastating effects upon us.

2.It affects us physically, emotionallyand mentally.

a. Note the example of David

Psalm 32:3-4, “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the

drought of summer.”

b.Many psychiatrists and psychologists recognize that awareness ofwrongdoing often produces prolonged feelings of remorse, depression and self-condemnation.

c.The Bible agrees with the psychologists that guilt can lead to depression. Turn to Genesis 4:6-7. Here we see Cain after he brought an unacceptable offering to God and had it rejected. We can assume that Cain knew it had to be a blood sacrifice and he disobeyed the command. This disobedience brought guilt which produced depression. This depression moved him to murder his brother. 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

3. Failure to repent means you carry guilt over your sin and suffer the consequences of it.

4.Guilt changes or often breaks our relationship with others.

5.For the believer it will cause you to avoid God out of fear of punishment.Genesis 3:10, “And he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

II. Choosing An Attitude Of Repentance

A. Identify Areas Of Failure

(where we fail to meet God's standards)

Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Ask God to help you discover those areas where you have failed because you may have deceived yourself into thinking everything is hunky-dory. We are all experts at rationalizing our failures and sin, so we need to go to God and ask Him to reveal them to us. These areas may be:

1. your relationship with God

Do you have sin in your life that is unconfessed and of which you have not repented? If so, like David you are miserable emotionally, spiritually and maybe even physically. Confess you sin to God and then turn away from it.

2. your relationship with your parents or brothers and sisters

3. your relationship with your husband or

4. your relationship with your children
Maybe you need to apologize to your family about the way you have treated them in the past and then don’t do it anymore.

5. your relationship with others

If there is anything anyone has against you that you have never made right, do it now. Make it right and then never do it again.

First, you need to identify your failures if you are going to choose repentance over guilt, but then you must:

B. Acknowledge Your Failures To God

1.Whether your guilt involves others or not, it certainly involves God.

2.All sin is against God.

Psalm 51:4, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest.”

3.You must humble yourself before God and acknowledge your sin and your need for forgiveness. If you will do that. He will forgive you and cleanse you. Turn to 1 John 1:9. If you confess, or acknowledge, your sin to God, He will forgive you, but you must:

C. Accept His Forgiveness

1.The greatest truth in the verse we just read is that God always isfaithful.

2.His forgiveness is unconditional. There is nothing you have to do to be forgiven except to confess your sin to God.

3.The devil will try to convince you that God could never forgive you forwhat you have done, but God said just the opposite! Turn to Psalm 32:1-2. Confession of sin brings forgiveness and forgiveness brings freedom, and true joy.

4.For the believer, there is no record kept of the debt that God erases! Go to Psalm 103:12. God does not hold onto the memory of your sin once it is forgiven. He truly forgives and forgets.

D. Make Restitution Where Necessary

1.If youhave wronged another person, it is necessary for us to seek thatperson's forgiveness even after God has forgiven you. Turn to Matthew 5:23-24. Do you see what that verse is telling you to do? It is saying that God does not want your worship until you have made things right with those you have offended.

2.That isn't easy, but it is always best for us.

It is very difficult to go to someone and

admit what you did to them.

3.Perhaps monetary restitution is in order. Turn to Luke 19:1-10. Wow! Talk about repentance! Zacchaeus showed by his actions that he was a changed man. He turned away from his sin of stealing from the people and returned what he had taken. We need to be like Zacchaeus who realized thathe had cheated many and sought to make things right with them. If there is someone you have done wring, make it right. If you cheated on your taxes before you were saved, make it right.

E. Choosing To ActuallyTurn Away From Sin

1.It is possible to do all of the other things we have talked about and still really not repent.

2.Repentance involves a turning away from evil.

3.It is a change of thinking that results in a change of direction in your life.

4.Turn to Psalm 51. This Psalm is called “The Great Penitent Psalm” because David confronts his sin and confesses it to God in it. When David asked for God's forgiveness he also asked that God do something else for him. Look at v. 10. David realized that if he was going to truly change his behavior, he was going to have to have a change of heart and spirit.

Conclusion: This morning the challenge for us is that we choose repentance over guilt. God has ananswer for dealing with sin. It is confession, repentance and forgiveness.

If you have not yet been saved, you need to come to God in humility confessing your sin, asking God to forgive your sin because of what Jesus Christ did for you and trusting that God will indeed forgive you for Jesus’ sake. Then, once you are saved, by the power of the Holy Spirit Who has come to dwell in you, turn away from that sin. If you have a problem lying, start telling the truth. If you are a thief, steal no more. If you are having sex with someone who is not your spouse, stay chaste until you are married. If you will ask Him, He will forgive you.

Christian, one of the most miserable feelings you can have is to be a blood-bought child of the king who has known, unconfessed sin in your life. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all ungodliness.”

Don’t live in guilt any longer. REPENT!

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