WORD OF LIFE CHURCH INTERNATIONAL: MAP | BARLEY HARVEST| DAY 4 | UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERY OF REPENTANCE

OPENING PRAYERS

Praise the Lord word of life. I welcome you to the morning altar of prayer this amazing day. Lift your voice where you are and give Jesus praise. Say to the Lord how great thou art. Thank you Lord for this ah amazing day. You have given unto us by your grace. It is all about grace. We are thankful unto you and we bless your name oh God. Jesus we worship you. We adore you. We celebrate your name. Receive our thanks in Jesus name. And we say amen and amen.

Well the barley harvest blessing that is what we are talking about and today is day four.

Ruth chapter one verse twenty-two, “So, Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with which returned out of the country of Moab and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of Barley Harvest”.

I strongly believe that Christianity should go back to the foundation. We need to return to the foundation of what is Christianity for us to enjoy UNDERSTANDING returned.

There is no Christianity without salvation. I like what the Bible is saying here … Naomi Returned ...

And I also like what the Bible says … out of the country of Moab …

We are in Acts chapter two verse forty-one, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day thou were they were added unto them about 3000 souls

Verse 47, “Praising God and having favour with all the people and the Lord added to the church such as should be saved”.

Only those who are saved part of the Church. The question I'm asking today is, are you saved? I'm not asking you, “are you going to church?” But “are you saved?” Because to be saved, it means to come out of a system.

And the system is called the world. And here, that system is Moab.

And to return to the house of Bread, that is salvation in a very simple way.

That is why I am asking you the question, “Are you saved?”

Well … But pastor, “how do I know that I am saved or I am not saved?.”

Well, let's go back again to the book of Acts because that is the foundation of the Church.

We are in Acts 2 verse thirty-seven.

Now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?

That is a very important statement. You cannot be saved if you are not pricked in your heart.

Somebody might ask me the question, what does it mean to be pricked in the heart?

To be pricked in the heart, is

- From the amplified version … they were cut to the hearts with remorse and anxiety that is to be pricked in the heart.

- When you read the verse CEV, the contemporary English version, it says they were very upset.

- ERV says they felt very sorry.

- GNT says, they were deeply troubled.

- The NCV says they felt guilty.

- The N I R RV says … It had a deep effect on them.

- TPT Version says, When they heard this they were crushed and realized what they had done to Jesus.

All the above shows clearly that Salvation starts with the cutting of the hearts. That is where salvation starts.

And Peter told them verse thirty eight.

“Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy spirit”.

I underline … Repent ... That is the beginning of salvation.

Salvation starts from the heart. The heart must be pricked first. The heart must feel sorry. The heart must be upset for offending God.

if your heart has never been pricked at any point in time and you are still coming to Church, I am very much sorry to tell you that you are not saved. Which lead me to tell you this morning something also that is very important.

In Acts chapter chapter three verse nineteen, Peter says,

“Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord”.

I underline … Repent and be converted. That is where salvation starts from.

Watch this.

Repentance and conversion are two vital words as far as salvation is concerned.

In a very simple way imagine. I just want to give you a picture of somebody who was walking and going toward a wrong direction. When that individual changes his mind, and decides to no longer go to that direction and decides to go to the right direction, that change of mind is what is called repentance, while the change of direction is conversion. Are we together?

For conversion to take place, there must be a U-turn. That is what we call conversion.

That is why for example when we go to first Thessalonians chapter one verse nine, Paul says, “For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turned to God from idols.

You see? That is conversion … You turn your back to idols and then you turn your face to God. That is repentance and conversion.

Particularly today, I want you to understand repentance.

And Peter makes it very clear from the Scripture we have read above that if you don't repent there will be no remission of sins. It means in another word that you are not saved.

For you to be saved, you must repent. But the question is what is repentance?

Truth 1 | Repentance means hating sin enough to turn from it.

When we picture conversion as a U-turn, you cannot turn from something you don't hate. Remember. In Hebrews chapter one verse nine, the Bible talks about Jesus saying, “You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity...”

So, you can't say you have repented till you hate sin.

Repentance comes together with a deep hatred of sin the way

David put it in the Psalms, “I hate them with a perfect hatred”.

Receive the grace to hate sin in Jesus name.

Truth 2 | Repentance is the decision to want freedom instead of bondage.

It means that you must come to a place where like Paul in Romans chapter seven, you say, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

You can't repent if you still want bondage. Repentance comes with freedom. You reach a place where you just say to yourself, I am tired of that alcohol thing. I am tired of sleeping with men and women all over. I just want that freedom. I am tired of it. That is repentance.

Truth 3 | Repentance is turning from sin which always results in changed behaviour.

You can't say you repent if your behaviour has not changed.

Which simply mean in another word that repentance is not saying you are sorry and continuing willfully in a sin. You can't say you are sorry and you still do the same thing. If it is so, you have not repented. And eventually you might not be saved.

So repentance does include the emotion of being sorry but goes much further. It means to be sorry for sin to hate it and to forsake it because it displeases God.

So the foundation of repentance is not just to feel sorry. it's not just to say, “oh well I've done something wrong”. it is to come to a place of consciousness that I am displeasing God and what I am doing is hurting God. So, because it is hurting God, I have to repent. I have to drop it.

So if there is no consciousness of how my action is affecting my relationship with God, obviously, I am not saved and I have not repented.

Look at the prodigal son. When he came back to his father, he said, “I have sinned against heaven and against you”.

So, you come to a place where you say to yourself, “this life of hating others. This life of stealing. This life of sleeping all over. This life of lying. This kind of life is hurting God so much. So, I don't want it.

So, it means in another word that you treasure your relationship with God so much that you stop anything that can interfere with that relationship with God. That is repentance.

Truth 4 | Remorsefulness is showing sorrow for the past, but it does not want to change the future. But repentance is also sorrow for the past but it makes a change in heart so that the future will be different that is repentance.

When somebody is remorseful, he is just sorry for the past. But when you repent, you don't only feel sorry, but you also change.

If there is no change, there was no repentance.

Pharaoh for example was always saying Please ! I am sorry, but was not taking step toward change.

That is why there are people who only come to Church or they come to the pastor when they are in trouble, but in reality, they don't need anything. In fact, what they want is God to deliver them from the current situation, but they don't want any relationship with God. No.

Truth 5 | The purpose of repentance is to restore the relationship with God that has been broken because of sin.

It is written in ...

Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Sin separates you from God. Repentance reconciles you with God.

I can't come before God and have a dirty cloth. If I treasure my relationship with God more than I treasure the sin that I am committing everyday, what will I do? I will have to remove that dirty cloth because it is interfering with my relationship with God

So the purpose of repentance is not to say, “I am sorry”. It is to restore your relationship with God that has been broken because of your sin. The prodigal son came and say to his father, “I am sorry. I want to restore my relationship with my father”. That is true repentance. Not that blah blah blah people talk while shedding crocodile tears. Such people are not crying because their heart is pricked. No.

The Bible says in Proverbs twenty-eight verse thirteen, “He that covereth his sin shall not prosper. But whoso confesseth and forsaken them shall have mercy”.

You see? There must be a confession and a forsaking. Forsaking means … I don't want it anymore because it is affecting negatively my relationship with God.

And when you really repent and forsake, it will show with the change of behaviour.

That is what Paul the apostle in second Corinthians chapter seven verse nine to ten.

“Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death”.

Here, Paul talks about worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. The first does not bring change, while the second leads to change.

I want to close with my message today by showing to you something very crucial in the book of Ruth.

The question I'm asking is this … What do I deal with to ensure that my repentance is genuine?

Ruth 1:20 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

Ruth 1:21 I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?

I want to underline in the declaration of Naomi in verse 20 and verse 21 those small words me and I.

FACT 1 | You will know that you have repented genuinely when what the sin that was sweet to you becomes bitter to you.

Naomi means sweetness, delight, pleasant. And Mara means bitter.

Me refers to the ego. To be sure that your repentance is genuine, your ego must die.

Me refers to the flesh. Me must die. When you read Naomi crying here, it is her flesh that is crying. It is her ego that is crying.

Today we have we are in a very dangerous generation where it is all about I, me, my and myself. That is our generation.

True repentance must bring a change from Naomi to Mara. That thing that has always been sweet to you must stop being sweet to you. If it happens, then, you can be sure that you have repented.

You and I know the things our flesh delights with. We know the things that are sweet to our flesh: sex, pornography, beer, pubs, night parties etc.

If those things among others are still sweet to you, that is Naomi. The meaning of it is that until they become bitter to you, you have not yet repented.

That is why Paul says something very interesting in Philippians 3:7-8, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ”.

That is a sign that this man is saved.

True repentance comes together with a shift of taste. When the taste shifts from Naomi to Mara, then, I can say that I have repented. Remember Jesus.

It is written about him in Hebrew chapter number one verse nine, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows”.

When sin becomes bitter to you, then that's a very good sign that you have indeed repented. When the bottle of alcohol is in front of you, but you look at it as nothing, then you have repented.

When a naked woman is in front of you and yet you say, I don't need it, then you have repented.

That is what the Bible says concerning Moses...

Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;

Hebrews 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

Hebrews 11:26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Listen to me. When your hatred for sin is too strong that you can't even touch it. When sin stops being pleasurable to you, you can be sure that you are converted and you are repented and you are saved.

Look at Moses. He departed from Egypt because he did not want that kind of life. Though there were so many privileges because he could have been this day the next Pharaoh of Egypt.

Fact 2 | You can know that you have repented when the I dies.

In the declaration of Naomi, we find out … I left comes before the Lord.

She says, I left in abundance.

The first thing I said about Naomi was me. Now it is about I.

You will know that you have repented really and genuinely and seriously if the I has died. I and abundance in Naomi’s statement shows very clearly that if you are full of I, if you are selfish, self-centered, self dependent etc, you are not saved.

We see in Naomi’s delcaration a change. It is no longer I, but the Lord.

You can't tell me you are a Christian and you just do things according to you. You can't tell me you are a Christian, when you don't consult God, you do things as you want, you want to go where you want to go, you want to do what you to do, nobody should tell you anything. If such is your case, you are not saved.

Some people are too much preoccupied about themselves that their complaints are always … People don't love me ... People don't like me ... In this church everybody is against me ...

In their lives, it's about me, me, me, me, I, me, I, me, I, me.

That is why my question is … Are you saved? Are you born again? Have you repented? Are you converted? Those are the questions.

Remember the story of this rich man in Luke chapter twelve.

Luke 12:17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

Luke 12:18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

Luke 12:19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

Do you see? I? Me?

I have counted. They are mentioned nine times.

Paul was a man who had the proof of genuine conversion. In Galatians chapter two, verse twenty, he says, “I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I but Christ...”

You see? Not I but Christ. That is a sign that you are really saved.

If you reach a place where it is not I but Christ, then you are saved. Then you are born again. Then the barley harvest blessing is your portion.

Lift your voice where you are and pray. Pray with me and say Lord I'm coming before you again today morning and I'm sorry for what I have done oh Lord it has afflicted you. It has broken your heart. It has broken even my relationship with you.