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Apr 30, 2023

The Spirit’s Role in Repentance

The Spirit’s Role in Repentance

Passage: Psalms

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: That’s the Spirit: Learning to keep in step with Him who indwells

Keywords: holy spirit, presence, renew, cast away

Readings & Scriptures

PREPARATION: Psalm 103:1-5
LEADER: Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!

PEOPLE: Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,

LEADER: who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

ALL: who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH/SCRIPTURE READING/CORPORATE PRAYER: Luke 15:1-10
LEADER: Luke 15:1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

CENTRAL TEXT: Psalm 51
Psa. 51:1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!

Psa. 51:3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Psa. 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Psa. 51:13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psa. 51:18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;

BENEDICTION: Revelation 3:19-20
LEADER: Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

ALL: Bless the Lord. Bless His Holy Name.

Related Scriptures

  • 1 Samuel 16
  • Mark 1:15
  • 2 Corinthians 7:5-12
  • 1 John 1:8-10

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. A personal question, to be sure. Answer at your own discretion: have you ever been abandoned by someone? Describe the story to the extent you feel comfortable
  2. Refresh your memory of the event that gave rise to this Psalm: 1 Samuel 10-12. If you were keeping track of iniquities, what would you include on the list?
  3. Pop-quiz: what do you remember from the sermon (or if you missed it from your  knowledge of Scripture) is the difference between regret and repentance?
  4. What do we lose if we do not travel to the depths of the sin by the leadership of the Spirit? And what do we lose if we remain there, instead of where the Spirit wants to lead us out?
  5. How does joy figure into the path of repentance? Does joy ever enter into your thinking of it, or following in it? Why or why not?
  6. How does Jesus assure us of the forgiveness both sought and found here in the Psalm?

ILLUSTRATIONS:

 

 

QUOTES: 

  • The Soul Toupee is that thing about ourselves we are most deeply embarrassed by and like to think we have cunningly concealed from the world, but which is, in fact, pitifully obvious to everybody who knows us. Tim Kreider
  • God is looking for the heart that knows how little it deserves, how much it owes.  Derek Kidner
  • My problem is not just the need of pardon for a particular wrong but deliverance from the predicament of myself.  J. L. Mays
  • As soon as I have wept for my sins, I begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness.  St Ambrose
  • Well, anyhow, it preserves us from the pride
    of thinking we invented sin ourselves
    by our originality, that famous modern power.
    In fact, we have it from the beginning
    of the world by the errors of being born,
    being young, being old, causing pain
    to ourselves, to others, to the world, to God
    by ignorance, by knowledge, by intention,
    by accident. Something is bad the matter
    here, informing us of itself, handing down
    its old instruction. We know it
    when we see it, don’t we? Innocence
    would never recognize it. We need it
    too, for without it we would not know
    forgiveness, goodness, gratitude,
    that fund of grace by which alone we live.
     “Original Sin,” Wendell Berry

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