The Call for Repentance
If you have your Bible, open it to Jeremiah Chapter 3. The pastor’s family was invited to Easter dinner at the Wilson home. Mrs. Wilson was widely known for her amazing contributions to church potlucks. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. As usual, it was a feast for the eyes. When the pastor’s youngest son, Peter, received his plate he started eating straight away. 'Peter, wait until we say grace,’ insisted his embarrassed father. 'I don’t have to,’ the five-year-old replied. ‘Of course, you do, Peter,’ his mother insisted rather forcefully. ‘We always say a prayer before eating at our house.’ ‘That’s at our house,’ Peter explained, ‘but this is Mrs. Wilson’s house, and she knows how to cook.’
Today, we are going to look at something that is crucial for ourselves, our church, and our nation. The Call for Repentance. Before we dive into the scriptures, I want to define what repentance is. Repentance is reviewing one's actions and feeling contrition or regret for past wrongs, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better. In modern times, it is seen as involving a commitment to personal change and the resolve to live a more responsible and humane life. In other words, being sorry for one's misdeeds.
It can also involve sorrow over a specific sin or series of sins that an individual feels guilty about, or conviction that they have committed. I want y`all to keep that in mind for later. Let us look at Jeremiah Chapter 3 starting in verse 10.
READ JEREMIAH 3:10-11
To give you a little background knowledge of what is happening here, the nation of Israel is currently split into two different kingdoms. They were split into Judah and Israel with Judah being the Southern Kingdom and Israel being the Northern Kingdom. We will not take time to read it, but in Jeremiah Chapter 2 and the first part of Jeremiah Chapter 3, Israel completely walks away from God and becomes like the world and becomes worthless. They become this nation full of lawlessness, evil, and sin. Verses 6 to 9 in chapter 3 show us that the Southern Kingdom of Judah saw what Israel had become and instead of drawing closer to the Lord, they decided to follow in the footsteps of Israel. They became just like them and according to verse 12, Judah ended up becoming worse than Israel. This is where we are at in Chapter 3... two nations that have completely distanced themselves from God and have chased after the world. Look back at verse 10.
READ JEREMIAH 3:10
Judah did not return to God. Instead, they acted like they did. The nation of Judah did not have true repentance from the heart but instead, they performed empty actions and said worthless words.
Listen folks, repentance is more than asking God for forgiveness. You were forgiven at Mt. Calvary on that cross. Repentance is asking for forgiveness and then turning from that sinful action and not doing it again. Judah asked for forgiveness, but they went straight back to the action that they were doing beforehand. There was no heart in it. Like the nation of Israel, we are called to true repentance. A repentance in which we turn from our sin and instead turn to Christ. The beginning of Chapter 4 shows us what true repentance looks like. Let us start with verse 1.
READ JEREMIAH 4:1-4
Here, Jeremiah lays out 6 things we must do to be in true repentance.
1. Remove the Distance
Look at verse 1.
READ JEREMIAH 4:1
God speaks to Jeremiah to tell the people of Israel about true repentance and the first thing Jeremiah says is to return to God. That was true back then, and that is still true today. True repentance requires you to run back to God. We will not take time to read it, but in Luke 15 we see the parable of the Prodigal Son. To summarize the parable, a man had two sons. The younger son approached the father and said that he wanted his inheritance right then instead of waiting until the father passes away and getting it the right way.
The father gives him his inheritance and the son leaves the family and leaves the town and goes on this long journey far away. He then wastes his inheritance by partying and blowing the money and when the dust settled, he was broke, homeless, and hungry. He was desperate to the point that he ate the food that was meant for pigs. In the middle of his sin, shame, and regret, he decided to return home to his father to be one of the workers so he would at least have food and a place to sleep. He begins to walk home and as soon as the father got a glimpse of him, the father ran to the son with open arms and welcomed him back home into the family.
The son realized how bad he was and how bad his life was, and he knew that to fix everything, he had to return home to his father. That is what Jeremiah is talking about here in the first part of verse 1. Listen folks, I do not know what you are dealing with today. I do not know what battles or struggles you are facing, but I can guarantee you one thing... if you want things to get right, you must return to the Father. You must return to God. If the son had stayed where he was, he would have been miserable the rest of his life. He would have spent the rest of his life here on Earth hungry, sad, and scrambling around trying to make it day to day, but when he returned to his father he found fulfillment, shelter, peace, and joy.
If you do not get anything else from my sermon today, I want you to get this... you will remain miserable as long as you try to make it through this life attempting to figure things out yourself, but when you give things and give your life back to God, you will find peace. True repentance starts with you returning home to the Father.
2. Remove the Idols
Look at verse 1.
READ JEREMIAH 4:1
Here, Jeremiah says we must first return to God and then we must remove the things in our life that are keeping us from God. Idols. Genesis 35:1-4 says this:
“God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” So, Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” So, they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.”
Jacob commanded his family to do this to prepare for entering the presence of God. In Genesis 35, Jacob is married to Rachel, and it is believed that Rachel brought the false gods from her father's house with her and Jacob. So, there was false idols in Jacob`s household and Jacob knew that before they could enter the presence of the Lord, the idols had to go.
Today, if we want to enter the presence of God, we must remove the idols from our lives. An idol can be described as an image, or anything used as an object of worship in place of the true God. Despite what many believe and what is portrayed in movies, you do not have to get on your knees and bow down to something for it to be called worship. It starts with your mind. Whatever you think the most about or whatever your mind is constantly fixated on is an idol and if the answer is not God. Addictions can be considered an idol. Cell Phones can be considered an idol. Family can be considered an idol. True repentance requires you to remove these idols from your life. Repentance turns you to Christ and you cannot turn to Christ if you are focused on worldly things. Matthew 6:19-24 says this:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Those words are from Jesus Himself. You are either a servant to God or a servant to the devil. You cannot serve two masters.
You cannot have these idols and serve and love God. You must choose one or the other. Repentance requires us to turn from our sin and our idols and turn to God.
3. Remove the Fear
Look at verse 1.
READ JEREMIAH 4:1
We must stand strong. Jeremiah says to remove the desolate things from your life AND do not waver. Remove the idols and stand strong in your decision to do so. James 1:13-15 says this:
“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
When you truly repent and turn back to God and remove the idols, you can always expect the devil to come and attack you. The devil wants us to stay in our sinful lifestyles that separate us from God and one of his tactics is temptation. Most movies and tv shows depict the devil as this big red figure with horns and a pitchfork or they maybe even depict him as this evil looking snake, but that is not how the devil appears to us. He comes to us as the thing that we want most. If your idol is a cell phone, that is how he will attack you. If your idol is family, that is how he will attack you. If your idol is work, that is how he will attack you. He is going to attack you by using what you love the most against you. Jeremiah tells us to remove those idols and stand strong in that decision.
When the devil comes to battle and tries to use those idols that you removed against you, we must stand strong and turn to God in that time. Repentance requires us to not waver and turn back to the things that once separated us from God. Ephesians 6:10-11 says this:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”
The devil is going to come to battle. Not if, but when. Remove the idols, put on the Armor of God, and stand firm in the Lord when the war begins to wage. True repentance requires us to not waver. Repentance requires both. The removal of idols and standing firm in the decision to turn to God.
4. Remove the Bad Decisions
Look at verse 2.
READ JEREMIAH 4:2
Salvation leads to changed living. Repentance should change you. Jeremiah challenges us to live in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. All 3 of those are characteristics of God. God is truthful. God is just. God is righteous. Jeremiah is telling us to live like God. Ephesians 5:1-2 says this:
“Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Here, Paul echoes what we see in Jeremiah Chapter 4.
Both Paul and Jeremiah challenge us to live like God. See, true repentance not only turns us to God, but should inspire us to live like God also. Repentance creates this longing for God. A longing for God`s presence. A longing for God`s direction. A longing for God`s peace. True repentance requires us to live like God.
“Be imitators of God, as beloved Children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us...”
Living like God also requires us to love like God. That means to love those who persecute us. Love those who hate us. Love those who mock us. Love those who wrong us and hurt us. Love those who are hurting and love those who do not look like us. The love of God is a love for all no matter what race, gender, or age they are. Christ loved all so, we should also love all. True repentance should drive us to be more like Christ.
5. Remove the Hardness
Look at verse 3.
READ JEREMIAH 4:3
Here, Jeremiah is telling the Israelites to break up their unhealthy habits and clear their hearts of weeds so that they may be prepared for the seed of righteousness. Fallow ground can be described as ground or soil which has been left unplanted or unattended for a long period of time. Break up that area of your life and that part of you that you know you need to deal with. That part of you that is holding you back in your relationship with God. It could be the idols we mentioned earlier.
It could be family, fear, or something else. Habits that we do that we know we should not. Break up your unhealthy habits and clear your hearts of weeds. Listen to this quote by Jane Milliman about weeds:
“Weeds compete with grass and garden plants for space, light, water, and soil nutrients. Not only do they look bad and have the ability to take over quickly, they are also the perfect hosts for disease and insects. Before you know it, one weed can turn into many little thieves robbing your plants of their health.”
She was speaking about Earthly weeds that you will find in your garden or your yard, but the same can be said for spiritual weeds as well. Like weeds in a garden, bad habits fight for control. Weeds fight for control in gardens and if not plucked and removed, they will take over while everything else dies. Spiritual weeds fight for control in your mind and in your heart and if they are not plucked or removed, they will take over your life while the light in you dies out. Earthly weeds and Spiritual weeds fight hard for control and both of those require us to fight hard if we want them removed. Hosea 10:12-13 says this:
“Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the Lord,
that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
You have plowed iniquity;
you have reaped injustice;
you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your own way
and in the multitude of your warriors”
Hosea is saying the same thing to Israel and Judah that Jeremiah is Chapter 4. Hosea tells them to break up their hard hearts and pluck the weeds and seek God with everything they have. Folks we need to be doing the same thing today. We spend so much of our time focused on Earthly things that these weeds grow in us, and our hearts begin to become hardened. We need to shift our focus from worldly things to Heavenly things. Revival is happening across the nation right now because people are coming together, and they are all shifting their focus to God and seeking Him with everything they have. Proverbs 8:17 says:
“I love those who love Me, and those who seek me diligently find Me.”
That is what we must do. Diligently seek the Lord. True Repentance requires us to pluck the weeds, break the hardened heart, and seek God with everything we have.
6. Remove the Walls
Look at verse 4.
READ JEREMIAH 4:4
The last step in repentance mentioned by Jeremiah here is to tear down the walls we have surrounding our hearts. Walls that keep others, including God, out. Walls that we think are meant and built to help protect us and protect our feelings. We are instructed here to tear down those walls. As Ronald Reagan said,
“Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall.”
Hosea 8:14 says this:
“For Israel has forgotten his Maker
and built palaces,
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
so I will send a fire upon his cities,
and it shall devour her strongholds.”
Israel and Judah built these walls and fortresses because they thought they would protect them from their enemies. They knew the living God and were God`s chosen people and they knew of the miracles He had done for them in the past and they depended on these man-made walls anyway. Instead of looking to God for protection, they looked to their own creations. How often do we build up walls in our lives for protection instead of just looking to God? When we build up these walls, we begin to rely on our own ability rather than relying on God. Listen folks, God is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the creator of the universe and everything in it. I believe He knows what He is doing. How can we love God with all our heart when we have these walls built up so high that you cannot even see over them much less love outside of them? You cannot love with all your heart with the walls built up. You cannot have a true repentance and change of heart if you have walls built up. These walls keep you from God. Walls are meant to keep people out. Notice how everything mentioned in these 4 verses here about repentance all have to do with removing things that keep you from God.
Distance
Idols
Fear
Unhealthy Living
Hard Hearts
Weeds
Walls
Jeremiah`s key parts to true repentance is to remove anything that keeps you from God. The walls you have built up are keeping you from God. Yes, even the walls you have built up to protect you from other people. We read earlier in Jeremiah 3:10 where they did not give their whole heart to God. You cannot give your whole heart to God with your walls still up. True Repentance requires us to tear down the walls.
2 Chronicles 7:12-14 says this:
“Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
We are called to do 3 things here:
Humble Ourselves
Pray & Seek God
Repent
If we want this land, The United States, to be healed, we must repent and purposely seek out God.
If we want a true and real revival, we must repent and purposely seek out God. Maybe today you realize that you do not know God at all, and you have not repented. Let today be the day you do so. Maybe today you realize that you have never truly repented with your whole heart. The altar is open.
Let us Pray.
