Revival Now!

Dan Augsburger

Fairplain SDA church

5. Repentance is More Than Feeling Sorry

Last evening we talked about making things right, correct?

And before that we talked about what's to confess.

And we've covered a lot of territory, and we want to continue covering territory this evening.

This evening we're going to start a section called On Repentance.

In the little booklet, or when you first came, we entitled it Repentance is More Than Feeling Sorry.

So we're going to look at that in just a moment.

But before we do, I'd like to have a word of prayer.

Father in Heaven, I want to thank you that when we come into your presence together and we pray together, that we can ask that you send angels and keep Satan away, that we might learn.

Father, my heart is so warmed by the people that are coming out and learning and coming back to learn more.

This isn't easy information to digest or to accept.

But Lord, there are people here who want to be serious.

What that means Lord on a practical basis only you understand because our hearts are deceitful.

But Lord I ask that again this evening you would come into our midst and that you would do spiritual surgery on each 1 of our hearts.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I need it as much as they do.

And so here we are with our heads bowed before you, admitting how much we need you to bless us.

I'm the mouthpiece, but they need to hear from you through me, that's a sobering thing.

So please, apply the blood of Jesus liberally to Dan and to my friends here.

And send the Holy Spirit in great great measure Lord that we would have soft hearts and receptive minds and a willingness to receive and accept.

Lord it's easy to say it's true we've made mistakes It's true to admit it to each other.

But to really repent and make the resolve we're going to change, that's harder, and we want to learn about that.

We're going to learn about it over a couple of evenings, but please send help now.

Father, make my words clear, and make your word clear for Jesus' sake.

If you would, look in your Bibles at the book of Joel.

It says there, actually verse 13, but we'll start with verse 12.

Now therefore, says the Lord, turn to me with, what?

With all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, so rend your heart and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and he relents from doing harm.

Who knows if he will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God." It says there that we should rend our hearts and not just our garments.

When you read about this matter of transformation and of the repentance that doesn't need to be repented of.

It must be something that comes out of the heart.

It's easy to just say, I want to do it, but to truly ask God to come in and make an entire change is something much, much greater.

At line 531 in your booklets, it says, It is humiliating for us to acknowledge that we have done wrong, but This is often necessary.

This afternoon I've been reading some things I'm going to share with you.

It is humility and for us to acknowledge that we have done wrong, but this is often necessary.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Prayer will draw down from heaven great blessings when those who claim to believe the truth shall come down from their stilts of self-exaltation and afflict their souls even as Daniel afflicted his." In other words, when we get serious with God, God gets serious with us.

When you think of, or maybe I should say, the first sermon of the, well, I guess I would put it that way, but the first sermon of the New Testament.

What is the, what was the subject matter?

John the Baptist, in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

That was the first sermon of John the Baptist.

Now if you would turn to Matthew chapter 4, verse 17.

It says, from that time Jesus began to preach and say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Jesus took up the very same sermon in his ministry, the sermon regarding repentance.

It says, this is where Jesus is sending out the 12 starting in verse 7, it says, and he called the 12 to himself and began to send them out 2 by 2 and what?

God gave them supernatural power for their ministry and that's something that we can count on in our day.

Not taking staff, going on their journey, nothing except a staff, no bag, no bread, no copper, etc.

But to wear sandals and not to put on 2 tunics.

Told them a lifestyle to take, told them what to do.

The message of the disciples was as well, the message of repentance.

Then in the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, verse 38.

He makes a strong statement, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

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

And Peter said to them, repent." Once again, the message was the message of repentance.

And let every 1 of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Somehow, there was a need for repentance before the Holy Spirit could come.

Now Paul is talking I believe 17 verse 30 Says there Paul is actually speaking to the Athenians I believe at this point and he makes a statement Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained.

He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead.

So God now gives a command that all should repent.

This was the message that Paul was preaching there.

And he's speaking of his experience, starting in verse 17.

Actually, he's being spoken to by the Lord.

Verse 17, I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles to whom I now send you, to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith to me.

Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting of repentance." Paul once again was busy preaching the message of repentance, and telling them that this repentance apparently included a turn, a change, and included doing those works which are befitting of repentance?

You know, if a man is married and he does something and he tells his wife, I'm sorry, but he never changes.

And we can admit, we can admit, but unless we're prepared to change, It really doesn't mean a whole lot, does it?

Now, I'm not minimizing, I'm not minimizing at all that it's not easy to change, especially if we try and do it in our own strength.

But the first step is to admit that we are wrong and make the decision that we will change.

We find the message of repentance as well in the book of Revelation.

Look if you would at Revelation chapter 2.

4. Making Things Right

I am grateful that God takes us 1 step at a time.

And if we understand what God's doing behind all of this, it doesn't seem quite so overwhelming.

Jesus is unwilling, God is unwilling that Annie should perish.

And he says, come unto me all you that are burdened, heavy laden, I will give you rest.

And it's as we come to love God, that just as, you know, in being married to Rose, I love to do things that make her happy.

It's not legalistic, it's not a burden, it comes out of my love for Rose.

And I do things that I would have never thought of doing before.

And I think that when we talk about the honor of God, And we discover some of those things in the Bible.

You know, most of us, I don't know about you, but I can speak for myself, I would be a workaholic 7 days a week, early to late, if God did not force me to take a day of rest.

And those who are opposed to the Sabbath, they're shooting themselves in both feet, in my opinion.

And so it really comes out of the depth of the love relationship.

And so we discover things that honor God.

And it's like when you're married, you know, you do things, you look a certain way.

You know, I must admit I dress a little better now because of Rose and those kinds of things, because I know what's important to her.

Not that I was a sloppy dresser before, but you know, when you're married life changes.

And then I talked about how, you know, we can better understand God's concern about some things as a result of his passion for those that don't know him.

You know, I can't speak for you, but speaking for myself, I am way too complacent in life.

I can drive through entire city blocks and not think twice about people that are living there, who if they don't know Jesus, will be lost.

Now, if something were to happen to Rose, or to my kids, or something like that, it would deeply, deeply affect me, right?

And I would be saying, please, please pray for my girls.

And if I knew someone in the area, I'd say, would you please go?

And I'm going to, you know, whatever you need.

If you need gas money, I'll send you gas money.

And if they cared, they would take the time and they would go.

He's got all these children on planet Earth.

Every child, every human being alive is a child of God.

And though you and I don't feel the same sense of urgency, God does.

And he says I have children in Benton Harbor.

I have children in Berrien Springs and won't you please go and visit them for me.

And God says, you know, there's only so much time left, you only have so much money, and you know, if I sent money and I discover the person wasted it on themselves, And they never bothered to go see my kids even though they'd promised there might be a problem, went there.

I'd say, hold on, I thought you loved me.

And I think we have something so valuable that at some level our responsibility is almost criminal.

You know I someday I think people are going to say why didn't you tell me?

You know if we had a cure for cancer for example and we could magically bring some vaccination and We said we chose not to share it ever.

They say, what in the world are you doing?

And I think we need to value what we have as Christians in that way.

And I believe that when we understand the book of Revelation, the book of Daniel, there's a special significance to what we understand.

Now the Bible says that God doesn't do anything without letting the prophets know.

And it's sad how little is understood out there.

I was at a revival conference put on by a friend of mine, and a very well-known Evangelical Christian was 1 of the people speaking.

And the speaker got up, and some of you have heard of this man, Paul Washer.

He's a little bit like the David Asher of the evangelical world.

I mean, he says very strong things about marriage and families and everything else.

But he got up and he says, I'm willing to answer any question except the book of Revelation because no 1 can understand the book of Revelation.

I thought immediately, that's the 1 book that says, you know, the blessings that comes from studying it.

You know, if you start in the book of Daniel, that's the ABCs, and then you add the book of Revelation to that, what is impossible to understand becomes possible, and it lets you know what is going on, especially in Revelation 14, you know, Revelation 18, some of those chapters.

And so he has a sense of urgency and a sense of concern about how we use the resources that he's given us.

And then there's this matter of a relationship.

I have to tell you, marriage is a thousand times better than I ever dreamed possible.

And it's wonderful, absolutely wonderful.

And there's something, but if, you know, if I went home and I said, Rose, I don't choose to spend time with you.

I would rather spend time looking at pornography on the internet.

And so there are things that have to do with our relationship with God that God says that will not work.

But there are things that God knows get in the way of our having the close relationship with him.

And I believe that when we read the Bible, on the 1 hand it sounds like obedience, but actually I would like to suggest it's more about trust.

I tell people that actually this is like the great owner's manual of the universe, right?

At least of planet Earth for sure, but I think the universe perhaps as well.

And If we trust the builder, we'll take seriously what he's put in his owner's manual, right?

And 1 time I was asked to give a talk on health and I prayed.

I said, Lord, what is it that you want me to share?

And he gave me the shortest sermon I've ever given.

And it went something like as follows, you know, you are marvelously made, you're the crowning point of my creation.

If you were to take as good care of your bodies as you do your vehicles, you would enjoy much better health.

None of us, I doubt, have ever put oil down the gas tank.

We've never put gas in the crankcase, that kind of thing.

And we say that's not legalism, that just makes good sense.

And I would hope that we would get to the point we would take what this Bible says and believe that it makes the same practical ABC sense as anything else.

I believe that Satan works very, very hard to get us to distrust the manual, because he knows if we don't trust the manual and we do other things than what the manual teaches, he can get us into all kinds of trouble and all kinds of mischief.

So what I shared last night may seem a little overwhelming, but it wasn't meant that way at all.

It's all about, you know, being in love with a person, and wanting to honor that person.

3. What’s to Confess

But I first want to start with a bit of a story, after I have a word of prayer, about a pastor in Germany that saw a wonderful work of God in his church.

And I think it's instructive as we begin, but I want to kneel first.

Father in Heaven, here we are, before your face with a desire to learn more, expressing a desire to be revived and expressing a desire to be so filled with your love and so compelled by the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit that we would go out and seek those who don't know you, that we would, Father, try to make a difference for those who are less fortunate.

But we know that none of that happens because we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.

It only happens as a miracle of divine grace takes place in our hearts.

And Father, I'm asking that you would draw near this evening and you'd do for us what we can't do for ourselves and in too many cases don't even want it to be done.

We would know then for sure they would not waste their time, but I've been chosen.

But they still need to hear from you through me.

Please take me out of the picture, put your thoughts, your words in my mouth, and then take those words and change them to whatever is needed this evening.

Please forgive me and forgive my friends, Lord, of everything that would keep us from hearing your voice and from your hearing our voices.

Please, help us to be meek and humble, help us to have hearing that can hear and hearts that are willing to accept.

Because, Lord, there is no reason to come together to pray and to learn if we're not changed.

So I'm praying for success, Lord, but not my success and not this church's success.

Might you be lifted up, might you be honored, might you be worshipped, might you be obeyed, Lord.

There was a pastor in Germany in a little town called Hermannsburg.

And he writes in what I'm looking at about having gone to the funeral of 1 of his members.

He says, I was sitting next to or standing by the bedside of a sick laborer, not a man with a lot of money at all.

He had been sick for 3 weeks and by that time his sickness had taken all the money that that family had.

He wished only that once again they might gather together as a church family, at least some of the friends and family, to have a communion service together.

They had the communion service, and the pastor noticed that as they were singing together that there were some tears coming down the cheeks of this man who was so sick that was going to soon be laid to rest.

The pastor said, I said nothing, and we celebrated the Lord's death.

But his eyes continued to stream with joy.

Finally we came to an end, the neighbors left, they shook his hand, and then the pastor asked, as he was alone with the man and his wife and the children, why were you weeping?

Were you perhaps troubled by the thought of leaving your wife and children." The man looked at him with a reproachful look in his eyes as if he didn't quite understand why a pastor would be saying that.

He said, "'Does not Jesus stay with them?

Has not the Lord said that he is a father of the fatherless and a judge of the widow No They are well cared for I have prayed the Lord that he will be their guardian is it not so wife You are not troubled.

You are not afraid you believe in Jesus Surely she replied I believe in Jesus.

Because I'm thinking if it was so beautiful here, how beautiful it would be someday up in heaven.

Then he motioned to his wife, and he pointed to a little saucer, and she went and took a little plate in which there were just 6 small coins, all that remained of his store.

And he explained, he said, this is all that is left after the funeral expenses are paid for.

And we want to give it so that others can know about Jesus before they die.

We want to give all the rest that we have.

And what remains for you, asked the pastor.

Actually, it was the man that said those words.

So I took those 6 coins and laid them in the mission box as a great treasure.

He said, I must say that it was a struggle for me to later use them, as he requested, knowing this was all the money that this poor man had.

When this pastor came to his little town, it was not a very spiritual church.

And 1 time when his father had been pastor, they'd actually noticed a bottle of alcohol being passed down the aisles during or down the pews.

But when he finally came to the ministry of that church, he began to pray for the members.

In his younger days, he'd been athletic, he'd been strong, he had been very good as a student, but he had been lectured right out of his belief in God.

And then finally, listening to the Bible being read, he had returned again.

And it's interesting, this sometimes happens, instead of life being easy, suddenly he developed an illness where he had great difficulty and had a lot of pain, and that remained with him the rest of his life.

And because of that, he wasn't always able to sleep at night.

But instead of pining and complaining, he spent the time he could not sleep praying.

And so as a pastor, he began praying for his church.

And As a result of those prayers, there began a 17-year period of continuous revival.

When he came to the church, he had a bit of a...

Well, first of all, as I said, he was constantly praying for his members.

Secondly, he talked to the members and he asked them to do a couple of things for him.

First of all, he said, I am committed to knowing and only doing God's will.

He said, I promise you that whatever happens, I'll do my best to know what God's will is and to do that.

And he said, I beg that you would make the same commitment that in every area of your life, every day of the year, this is Dan's paraphrase, that you would promise to always want to know God's will in order to do it.

The second request was he said, I'm convinced that God can only bless a pure and clean church, And I'm asking that all of you would make a commitment to lead as clean and as pure lives as you possibly can.

And that is, he said, it won't always be easy.

And he was a living embodiment of a ministry that wasn't easy.

They said, I promise not to abandon you when the going gets tough, but you must promise not to abandon me either.

And so they began this participative ministry where they made a commitment to live in a certain way and he made a commitment to lead in a certain way and God truly began blessing.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

5. Repentance is More Than Feeling Sorry

44m

4. Making Things Right

43m

3. What’s to Confess

55m

2. How to Pursue Revival

31m

1. We Need Revival

31m

Lucifer and You

48m

All We Need We Have- Part 2

20m

All We Need We Have- Part 1

22m

Armageddon and Beyond

27m

The House With the Forgotten Book

26m

Cities of Refuge

50m

The Coming Sunday Law

41m

Sound Doctrine