Why a Weekend on Repentance? part 2

 I am setting the men's retreat weekend for Saturday, June 13th at Restoration Farm. This is a part 2 to the Why a Weekend on Repentance? I hope to answer what repentance is and why we need to focus on it.

To understand why we need repentance I believe we need to have a proper definition of Repentance to begin with.

2 Corinthians 7: 9-11 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry (filled with sorrow), but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly godly has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourself, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

W.E. Vine defines it as:
a. change of mind
b. involves both a turning from sin and a turning to God

Let's think of repentance as simply a change of mind which causes us to "turn from sin and turn to God." Which is preceded by sorrow and followed by a changed life.

Two types of  sorrow:
Worldly and godly

Worldly sorrow produces a selfish sorrow. It is one that is generated by "getting caught" or having been "made to look bad." In worldly sorrow one is more concerned about self.

Godly sorrow produces a sorrow directed at God. It is generated by conviction by the Holy Spirit. One is sorry because their actions are sins against a Holy God.

One is sorry because of the price God had to pay to have one's sin covered.

How many of us can actually say we have had a sorrowful repentance? I can honestly say I have but I am getting hints from the Holy Spirit that this weekend us just as much for me as any man that shows up.

Let me ask a few questions:
Can you look at your life and see signs that you have really had a "change of heart and mind?"
Can you honestly say you have made a decision to turn from sin and turn to God?

If you have not yet obeyed the gospel...you have not repented.
If ou have become slack in your service...you are in need of repentance.

During this weekend we will review the above and then seek the Holy Spirit to convict us of the sin we have to repent of. We will be moved by the kindness and love of God to repent. We will then leave refreshed, reconciled and restored ready to guide men back home to realizing real repentance.

Note: W.E. Vine, was an English Biblical scholar, theologian, and writer, most famous for Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words