https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Repentance.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: II Corinthians 7:8-11<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. In any pursuit, people develop jargon<\/p>\n A. The jargon speeds up communication with people in the same group but can be\nconfusing to outsiders because they don’t know the definition of words\n B. Christianity is no different. We sometimes forget what it is like for someone who\nhasn’t been exposed to the Word of God. \n C. More confusing is that the world will impose its own definition that misses the\ntrue meaning\n
II. What is repentance?<\/p>\n
A. Repentance begins with regret for the things done in the past<\/p>\n
1. Sorrow is not repentance, but an attitude that leads one to repentance.<\/p>\n 2. At times we realize on our own that we have done wrong, but most often\nwe find out because someone took the time to point out our faults, as Paul\ndid with the Corinthians.\n a. Being told that we are wrong, even when we know it, is never fun –\nHebrews 12:9-11\n b. Too often, to cover our embarrassment, we turn on the one\nrebuking us. – Amos 5:10\n (1) In our own shame, we don’t see that those delivering the\nrebuke are doing so out of love and concern for us. –\nRevelation 3:19\n (2) God doesn’t enjoy rebuking the sinner, but He wants us to\nrepent – Lamentations 3:30-40\n
c. Instead, we need to appreciate those who chasten us – Proverbs 9:8-9<\/p>\n
B. But sorrow is useless if it doesn’t cause an improvement.<\/p>\n
1. Some sorrow, not over their wrongs but over the fact they were caught.<\/p>\n
2. The word “repentance” means to change direction – Acts 26:20<\/p>\n 3. Acts 14:15 – We should turn from this useless world towards the living\nGod.\n 4. A godly sorrow produces a change that leads to salvation and that is not\nsomething useless or to be regretted – II Corinthians 7:10\n 5. If we stay in our sins, we would die because the wages of sin is death –\nRomans 6:23\n C. If you truly realize that changing your life toward the better is important, then you\nwill make every effort to make sure the change is correctly implemented.\n 1. It is too easy to think you are doing right if you are not checking – I\nCorinthians 10:12\n
2. Earnestness or carefulness – II Corinthians 7:11<\/p>\n
3. Titus 3:8 – Careful to maintain good works<\/p>\n
4. Proverbs 14:16 – A wise man is careful and turns from evil<\/p>\n
D. There is even some disgust with ourselves for falling for the trap of sin<\/p>\n
1. Ephraims’ disgust with the sins of their youth – Jeremiah 31:18-19<\/p>\n 2. Indignation, as the king showed when he was forced to send Daniel into\nthe lions’ den. He was displeased with himself – he was indignate – Daniel\n6:14\n
E. If we truly realize that we were wrong, then we will work to clear our misdeeds.<\/p>\n 1. Repentance is useless if we don’t take it personally, as a matter of honor,\nto fix our mistakes.\n
2. Show by our good works – Acts 26:20<\/p>\n
3. Ephesians 4:17-24 – A change in life<\/p>\n
4. I Peter 1:14-16 – Be holy like God.<\/p>\n
5. I Peter 4:2-4 – We are no longer living as the world.<\/p>\n
6. I Peter 2:11-12 – A change that those in the world notice.<\/p>\n
7. Zaccheus showed that zeal to change – Luke 19:8-9<\/p>\n
8. Isaiah 55:7 – Let a man show his repentance in what he then does.<\/p>\n
F. There is fear of the consequences if we do not make some change.<\/p>\n
1. God is impartial, so we ought to conduct ourselves with fear – I Peter 1:17<\/p>\n
2. We don’t want to come short as Esau did – Hebrews 12:15-17<\/p>\n
G. There is a strong desire, a zeal, to do the best that we can.<\/p>\n
1. Revelation 3:19 – Be zealous and repent<\/p>\n
2. Titus 2:14 – Zealous for good works<\/p>\n H. With the decision to change our lives, there is a change in our attitude about\nourselves.\n 1. Sure, I did wrong, but I found out before it is too late and I’m going to do\nsomething about it!\n
2. Our sorrow is replaced with dedication and joy.<\/p>\nIII. The Corinthians did not stay in their sorrow, they changed their lives for the better and in\ntheir eagerness to please God, they cleared themselves of the wrong they had done.\n
A. They showed the world that they were now innocent.<\/p>\n B. Repentance is not some invisible change in thought, it shows itself in all that we\ndo; both in correcting our past wrongs and living righteously in the future.\n C. If we are going to live righteously, we must first prepare ourselves by removing\nthe wickedness from our lives – Jeremiah 4:1-3\n 1. To attempt to do righteousness without first removing wickedness is like a\nfarmer trying to plant a crop without first removing the weeds and\nbreaking up the ground.\nIV. Will you change your lives this day? Repent of your past wrongs, do the works suitable\nfor repentance, and live righteously before our God.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: II Corinthians 7:8-11 I. In any pursuit, people develop jargon A. The jargon speeds up communication with people in the same group but can be confusing to outsiders because they don’t know the definition of words B. Christianity is no different. We sometimes forget what it is like for someone who hasn’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-59791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-repentance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26596,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/defining-repentance\/","url_meta":{"origin":59791,"position":0},"title":"Defining Repentance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Brewer","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87615,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/fit-to-repent\/","url_meta":{"origin":59791,"position":1},"title":"Fit to Repent","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Download Audio Fit for the Master's Use (Series)","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14745,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-covenant-like-davids\/","url_meta":{"origin":59791,"position":2},"title":"A Covenant Like David’s","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Cantrell Finding Our Purpose from the Past","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7328,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-god-sent-a-prophet-like-jeremiah-to-the-united-states\/","url_meta":{"origin":59791,"position":3},"title":"What If God Sent a Prophet Like Jeremiah to the United States?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Warfel","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84001,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-ever-happened-to-preaching-repentance\/","url_meta":{"origin":59791,"position":4},"title":"What Ever Happened to Preaching Repentance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"The chief problem in America today is not getting people saved. It is getting people to realize they are lost\" [Charlie Hainline]. So many churches and preachers seem convinced that their mission is first to make people feel good about themselves. They rarely, if ever, teach\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40759,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-people-find-no-place-for-repentance\/","url_meta":{"origin":59791,"position":5},"title":"When People Find No Place for Repentance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton If grace so freely covers all sin without repentance, why was Paul so concerned that he warned night and day with tears about people in the church teaching false doctrine? I have a hard time reading Paul's warnings to Timothy and come away with the modern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}