Today’s church is so busy trying to be relevant that it’s leaving many of the teachings and truths of the Bible behind.
Leonard Revenhill said, “Before the Church arises to shake the world, some obscure truth of God arises to shake the church.”
The church needs to make a U-turn. It needs to turn from the way it’s going and turn back to God and to His word. Yet, while this is a known truth, it is ignored and abandoned.
But this is nothing new. The Lord said to Jeremiah, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it’” (Jeremiah 6:16).
So what sort of truth needs to shake up today’s church? How about the need to repent!
Seeing how key repentance was in people’s relationship with God, the importance of repentance cannot be over emphasized. What exactly is repentance? The simple answer is making an about face, or U-turn.
Wayne Grudem gave this definition of repentance.
“A heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ.”
And so repentance begins with our minds, acknowledging our sins, understanding that it’s against the Lord and Him alone we have sinned. It then moves from our heads down into our hearts where there’s an emotional heartfelt sorrow over our sinfulness. And finally it’s the decision on our part to forsake our sins and turn to God and His mercy.
The church and we as believers need to repent and go back to the truths found in God’s word that have brought life and revival to millions; rather than trying to reinvent ourselves trying to be relevant to today’s culture.
Let’s make that U-turn and get back to the basics. Relevancy comes from knowing the truth, not running from it.This Sunday in our “What We Believe” series, we’ll be looking at this topic in a message entitled, “Repentance: A One Word Sermon.”
