Repentance: The Freedom of a 'Real Life'

REFLECTION QUOTES

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

~G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English writer and journalist

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

~Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor

“The truth does not change according to your ability to stomach it.”

~Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964), American writer

“A hard heart is a receptacle for Satan. As God has two places he dwells in, heaven and a humble heart, so the devil has two places he dwells in, hell and a hard heart. It is not falling into water that drowns, but lying in it. It is not falling into sin that damns, but lying in it without repentance….”

~Thomas Watson (c. 1620-1686), English preacher

“When the Christian faith is not only felt, but thought, it has practical results which may be inconvenient.”

~T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), British writer in “The Idea of a Christian Society”

“Though repentance be a deep sorrow for sin…, yet the very nature of it necessarily implies delight. Repentance of sin is a sorrow arising from the sight of God’s excellency and mercy…. ‘Tis impossible that anyone should see anything that appears to him excellent and not behold it with pleasure, and it’s impossible to be affected with the mercy and love of God, and his willingness to be merciful to us and love us, and not be affected with pleasure at the thoughts of [it]; but this is the very affection that begets true repentance.”

~Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), American preacher and theologian

“Repentance requires greater intimacy with God than with our sin.”

~Rosaria Butterfield (1962-present), author and speaker

SERMON PASSAGE

Ephesians 2:1-10 (NASB)

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.