Read Luke
3:87-18
I
repented. I accepted Jesus as Lord and
Savior. I have decided to follow
Jesus—no turning back, no turning back.
So why do we
always have to talk about repentance during Advent?
Have I not
already repented?
We have
turned away from the ways of the world and accepted the way of the Lord. This whole turning away thing is repentance
plain and simple, and yes we have accomplished this. Then again, life gets in the way.
The world is
constantly tugging at us. The old self
wants his old job back. The world is
pulling at us to do things its way as if it were using gravity itself to bring
us back to old ways.
There are a
variety of studies that indicate that our tendency is to walk in circles. Your legs don’t even have to be of
significantly different sizes. Absent a
compass or GPS or other significant landmark, we have a tendency to walk in
circles.
Dead
reckoning is hard. Staying the course is
tough stuff.
While we are out calling to
the lost and disconnected to come home, the world is beckoning us
with the same words. Something always
seems to be pulling us off course.
There is
always something tugging at us to pull us off course.
We might
say, “Well, I would never go back to the way I was. I will never turn away from following Jesus.”
We might not
make a 180 degree turn around back to our old ways, but what if we just veered
a little?
A degree of
variance at a hundred yards is only a few feet and just short of a hundred feet
after a mile. That’s noticeable, but not
too bad. If I was going from Burns Flat,
Oklahoma to Dallas, Texas and was off by only a degree, I would miss the target
by about 5 miles. Of course, Dallas is
still so big, you might not know.
If I was
flying coast to coast and was off by a degree, I would miss my target by about
40 miles. If I am in an airplane, I
would like to be closer than 40 miles from my runway.
Staying the
course is just plain tough.
For land
navigation and even orienteering, I often teach individuals and teams to veer a
little one way or the other.
Either plan
to miss your target a little to the left or to the right so when you get in the
target area, you will know that it is to your right or left.
If I veer a
little to my left, I know when I have gone the distance required, my target
should be to my right.
All of this
sounds interesting but what does it have to do with repentance?
Try as we
may, we do get off course. The longer we
go before making a correction, the farther from the intended path we are.
Sometimes,
we need to make a very deliberate effort to get back on course. We may not be 180 degrees out of whack, but
we need to get back to this course that we know as following Jesus.
Businesses,
programs, and projects often have to re-baseline if they continue long enough. Modifications, changes, setbacks, rebounds,
restarts, and the memorandum of the day often leave people wondering, “Now what
is it that we are trying to accomplish?”
It is a
healthy thing to set aside a deliberate time for repentance. We need to turn away from the world, even if
the world has only taken us off course a degree or two or ten. We sing, I
have decided to follow Jesus; perhaps making sure we are on the right path
is not a bad thing.
The
Pharisees were certain that they were doing exactly what God wanted them to be
doing. Many Jews felt that because
Abraham was their father, they were automatically on the right track. They did not realize how far off course they
had come. They were specialists on rules
and procedures, manners and mannerisms, times and timing. They were doing everything right but hardly
doing the right things.
They had
missed the mark by a long shot and it would hurt a whole bunch to repent. We don’t get to see what happened in this
encounter with the Pharisees, but the people were eager to know what they
should do.
John
admonished the Pharisees to produce fruit worthy of repentance and the people
wanted to know what that meant.
What do we
need to do?
There was no
complicated formula. There was no book
of doctrine. There were no procedures or
hoops through which to jump.
It was
simple stuff. If you are well off and
somebody else is hurting, then help them.
If your job
gives you the ability to gouge people on fees or prices, don’t do it. Take what is fair for yourself and no more.
If you have
authority and can compel others to comply with what you want, don’t abuse your
authority, and surely don’t use your authority to extort others.
What was the
result?
People were
wondering if John might be the long promised Messiah. Are you kidding me? What had he said or done
to garner such esteem?
He is
preaching a baptism of repentance and when people asked what they need to do,
he says, “Do what you already know to do.
Play fair. Be honest. Help those who are hurting.”
These are
not profound revelations! Do the right
things.
Remember,
these people were not worshiping Baal or some other man-made god. They were trying to play by the rules. Sometimes the rule makers had made the rules
tougher than they needed to be, but the people were trying to live good lives.
John said
turn away from the things that you know not to do. He was nowhere near the revolutionary
thinking of Jesus—this whole love your enemy stuff.
John was
just saying do the right things.
Two or three
times a year, we need a little John the Baptist counsel in our lives. Let’s check ourselves against the
baseline. Are we on the right path?
Have you
ever made a budget? For those who have
budgeted all of their lives, this may sound strange. Many people have never made a budget. Many more have made a budget and then put it
in a drawer and never looked at it again, hoping it would take care of itself.
Others may
obsess over their budget and check it every 10 minutes. Netiher obsessing nor ignoring makes a budget
functional, but what the family does with its finances must be checked
periodically against the budget to make sure the plan is on track.
When that
monthly or quarterly audit reveals that we are spending too much on dining out,
then corrective action needs to be taken.
Could be time to buy another case of Ramen. We get back on course. Likewise, if at the end of the month there is
always a couple thousand extra just sitting in the checking account, that money
needs to be told where to go—savings, college fund, gifts beyond the tithe. Corrections need to be made.
We have set
upon a course to follow Jesus. Are we
staying the course? Are we on track?
We need to
honestly look at our own lives and see if we need to make any course
corrections. Where to start? Is there a model for this audit?
How about we
consider the things that we confessed the most.
We are not pagans. We are not
starting from ground zero, so it’s not like we are talking orgies and axe
murders or other ill advised but alliterative deeds.
During the
past several months what have I been confessing to God. If there is a pattern, then maybe we need to repent until we produce the
fruit—the change that God desires.
Maybe you
have a case of Foam Finger. What? You know those big foam fingers that everyone
takes to the football games that say we’re #1.
Sometimes we wear them home thinking that we are first in
everything. Sometimes, we take them to
work or school or just keep them in our cars in case we need to point them at
someone in judgment.
Have we been
judgmental?
Maybe we
just need to talk less in class and study more.
Maybe we
need to set aside our fear and live fully for Christ.
Maybe we
need to get serious about retiring from the gossip world.
Maybe we
husbands need to get serious about loving our wives unconditionally.
Maybe the wives
need to get serious about respecting their husbands unconditionally.
Maybe we
have some course corrections to make. I
doubt that any are real 180 degree turn arounds, but most of us have some
adjusting to do.
But unlike
the people two millennia ago, we are not looking to avoid wrath. Punishment and wrath are not our motivating
factors.
We want to
hold true to the course out of love for our Master. We want to follow Jesus as closely as
possible because we want to respond to his great love that he showed us with
love of our own.
Where might
we be off course the most?
Sharing the
gospel.
Well if it
comes up in conversation, then I will share Jesus.
We will
bring up the game between OU and Clemson, but we will wait until the time is
right to share the gospel.
We will
barge into the conversation shouting he Cowboys are headed to the Sugar Bowl,
but not be nearly as bold with the gospel.
We don’t want
to infringe on anyone’s personal space with gospel unless we know that they are
ready, but bringing Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton into the conversation
doesn’t come with the same safeguards.
If you find
yourself saying, I’m not ashamed of the gospel, but…
If the word but
shows up anywhere in the sentence:
repent. Stop whatever you are
doing and repent.
We talk
about political correctness and how we don’t play that game. If you hesitate to share the gospel, then you
play that game.
But…
Do we really
want to follow Jesus or just be within a degree or two of the path he has set?
This
repentance stuff upsets comfort zones, and it is supposed to . If we are comfortable with the standards of
the world, then we are likely off the course set by Jesus by a degree or two or
ten.
The question
is comfort or Christ? Which comes first
in our lives: Comfort or Christ?
But…
Comfort or
Christ?
If he says
that next Sunday we are wearing sackcloth and covering ourselves with ashes,
then he might be preaching to an empty sanctuary, and he can vacuum up his own
ashes.
There will
be no sackcloth and ashes Sunday on the schedule for the rest of the year, but
if you want to really follow Jesus, consider the things that you have confessed
over the past months, and see if something needs to be done.
Then
consider those things that we have not been ready to confess
because we don’t feel ready to produce fruit worthy of repentance. We don’t seem ready to fix these things.
At the end
of Psalm 39, David concluded by asking God to
look away from him so he could enjoy life again. David had some things that he was not ready
to confess. He knew that his sin was
messing up his life but he wasn’t ready to deal with it.
This is
pre-Bathsheba. This is still a man after
God’s own heart; yet he has issues that he isn’t ready to put before God.
We are
people who are supposed to be free from shame and guilt and sin and death; yet,
some things may still be keeping us off course.
We may have
some areas in our lives where we don’t seem ready to trust God.
Do you know
why airplanes that fly cross country don’t miss their runways by 40 miles? They have computers that make hundreds if not
thousands of corrections a second. The
flight computer is always recomputing.
We would go
crazy if we tried to do this. But we do
need some time to just stop and make sure that we are on course.
Don’t stop
for too long. We are running a race of
faith, but do take time at least twice a year—Advent and Lent work just fine—to
see if we need to produce fruit worthy of repentance.
We need to
take time to make real changes in our lives.
This is fruit worth of repentance.
Amen.
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