Two words almost have disappeared from the modern vocabulary of the modern
world (including many Christians) – sin and repentance, Kerry Skinner warned
in a recent presentation to a Louisiana Baptist group.
They are deemed too negative by many, noted Skinner, an author and worker with
the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board. Skinner spoke in a small-group
seminar at the recent Louisiana Baptist Great Commission Prayer Conference in
Lafayette.
Two words almost have disappeared from the modern vocabulary of the modern
world (including many Christians) – sin and repentance, Kerry Skinner warned
in a recent presentation to a Louisiana Baptist group.
They are deemed too negative by many, noted Skinner, an author and worker with
the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board. Skinner spoke in a small-group
seminar at the recent Louisiana Baptist Great Commission Prayer Conference in
Lafayette.
“Sin” is a negative term, Skinner acknowledged during the seminar,
one of several presented during the two-day gathering highlighted in last weeks
Louisiana Baptist Message.
However, contrary to popular belief, “repentance” most certainly
is not, he emphasized.
Indeed, repentance holds the key to all the joy, peace and fruit of the Christian
life – as well as the key to enabling prayer warriors, Skinner said.
“If youre going to be prayer warrior, you can forget it if youre
not acceptable to God as a person. … For some reason, Gods people think
they can live anyway they want to and then be in the prayer ministry at church
and God will listen to everything they have to say. Thats not so.
“Unless the heart is prepared, you can just cancel the prayer ministry,”
Skinner warned. “The prayer is not acceptable if the pray-er is not acceptable
to God.”
Likewise, God is the only place persons can find the cure and peace they seek
from lifes struggles and problems, Skinner added. Unfortunately, many
people – including many modern Christians – have forgotten that or
fail to act on it, he said.
The world teaches people not to turn to God but to others –
and to other things – for relief and
peace, Skinner noted. And the world can offer some relief and
some peace, he acknowledged. For instance, it. can teach persons to handle anger
and manage stress and such.
But it cannot effect a cure if a person is dealing with the
problem of sin, as is most often the case, Skinner continued.
Jesus alone can do that, he noted. That is why he came to earth,
Skinner emphasized.
“Jesus didnt die on the cross to teach Christians
how to live with their sin. He didnt die on the cross to teach Christians
how to manage their sin. …
“But if youre not careful as a Christian, youll
find ways – instead of repenting of your sin – to learn to manage
it.”
Too many times, Christians try to name a sin problem something
else in order to avoid dealing with it, Skinner maintained.
“I call it relief versus cure, …” he said. “The
world is looking for relief from problems. … People want relief when they
are miserable. … But you have to understand, relief is not a cure. …
“And the best one human being can do for another human
being is good, but its not what Christ can do. And if youre not
careful, youll get used to the worlds … type of thinking and miss
out on what God can do.”
If persons are not careful, they begin turning to relationships
and places and activities and accomplishments to find peace in life, Skinner
warned. They forget that Jesus promised a peace unlike the world for his followers.
“The fruit of the spirit has nothing to do with other
people,” he pointed out. “Thats between you and God. … People
cant bring peace. They can bring a measure of it, … but its not
the kind Jesus can bring.”
However, many people insist that if they could just get the
right people around them – the right husband, the right wife, the right
parents, the right friends – they would be better persons, Skinner noted.
They forget the real problem comes from within, from the heart,
as Jesus said in Mark 7:20, he said.
The problem is sin – and the key is to understand what
sin is and to find its cure, Skinner said. “If you try to avoid your sin
or ignore it, its like taking a pain shot (and doing nothing to treat
the injury or cause of the pain). It will keep you comfortably sick. Thats
all it will do. It will keep you comfortably separated from God. …
“Theres only one cure (for sin) – and thats
repentance.”
Unfortunately, many of Gods people do not know how to
repent of sin, Skinner added. “Repentance is rare. Confession of sin is
common, but repentance is rare. You see, when a person repents, they are changed.
When they just confess, they feel better. They get a little relief. It doesnt
mean theyre changed.”
Skinner outlined a five-step process for repentance.Moving
through the steps may take a long time – or it may not. For some persons,
working through the process takes years and years as they hold onto bitterness
and sin, Skinner acknowledged.
But it also can be as simple as two words – “God,
help,” he added. “You can say that with all your heart and mind –
and you will walk through these five steps as God reads your heart. … You
can take as long as you want – but repentance doesnt take long. Rebellion
does. You can rebel for 30 years. But repentance doesnt take long if you
really want to change.”
Steps to repentance include:
Admitting to God that one is wrong
Unfortunately, human nature prefers not to acknowledge this,
Skinner admitted. Human nature prefers to blame someone else or to say, “Yes,
Im wrong, but …” Persons do that with others – and with God
as well, Skinner pointed out.
At the same time, admitting one is wrong is not enough, Skinner
said. He likened the situation to someone traveling in the wrong direction to
reach their desired destination. Once they discover that, they could admit they
were going the wrong way and still keep going that way or even stop and simply
be happy they are not traveling in the wrong direction any longer.
Neither is repentance, Skinner said.
“A lot of Christians think that repentance is just stopping
their sin. Its not. You dont just stop wrong actions and say, Well,
Im never going to do it again.
“You not only have to stop. You have to get turned around
and going the right direction. Repentance … means to turn from the direction
youre going in and begin going in the opposite direction. … Repentance
frees you to do the right thing.”
Admitting to God one is sorry
Skinner warned it is easy for persons to say they are sorry
and not mean it. That will not work with God, he said.
Indeed, the Bible says it is a “godly sorrow” that
leads to repentance, Skinner noted. Worldly sorrow apologizes and keeps on committing
the same offense.
Godly sorrow comes from God – when he sees in a persons
heart that he or she not only is sorry but willing to change, Skinner said.
“If he knows you have no intention of changing, he will not grant you godly
sorrow. Thats why a lot of Christians never have their lives changed because
they have no intention of changing.
“If you have no intention of changing, dont think
God is going to give you a godly sorrow over your sin,” Skinner stressed.
“But if you want to change, let me tell you, God can set you free quickly.”
Asking God for forgiveness
Many Christians get hung up at this point, Skinner said. They
want forgiveness but do not want to change – they simply want to get rid
of the guilt feelings, he said.
Often, they also will ask for forgiveness and then try to change
on their own – and inevitably fail, Skinner said.
“The Christian life is a human impossibility to live.
… And if youre not careful, once you ask God to forgive you of your
sin, youll take it in your own hands to try to act right instead of be
right.”
Asking God to cleanse one
Cleansing means taking the offenses off ones account,
setting the relationship right again, wiping away the debt, Skinner noted. It
is an important step, but it still is not the final one in repentance, he said.
Asking God to empower one
Even after sin is cleansed, persons must deal with what their
past character has produced, Skinner noted.
A lot of people do not repent because they know they will have
to deal with their past, he suggested. But he also reminded persons that God
will give persons all they need to do that. Indeed, it already is available,
Skinner said. “Everything that pertains to life and godliness, God can
handle.”
Indeed, once sin is cleansed, Christians are empowered by Gods
Holy Spirit, Skinner noted. The fruits of the Spirit are given to them –
for always.
The only way for Christians not to know those fruits –
the joy and peace of the life of faith – is to lose fellowship with God,
to suppose once again that lifes problems can be handled in the ways of
the world, to turn somewhere other than God for answers, Skinner concluded.
“The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart,”
he warned. “If you or I are sinful, theres no human remedy. …
“(The key is) to get more consistent in life in turning
to God for needs in your life,” Skinner concluded.
(Editors Note: The following article was written by LBM Associate Editor
C. Lacy Thomp-son from a small-group presentation at the recent Louisiana Baptist
Great Commission Prayer Conference. The Baptist Message will present periodic
articles based on material presented at the conference in upcoming issues.)