So many people in the church have never learned about daily repentance, and this has had devastating consequences on their personal evangelism.
Part of the consequences of an easy-believism mentality is that many people who have come to know the Lord in American churches have never learned how to keep an ongoing relationship with the Lord and other believers. All saved people–if they are actually converted–have come to a place in their lives where they “repented of their sins and trusted in Christ,” but perhaps have never been taught that repentance doesn’t stop after that first event, but rather should continue each day until they die.
When someone sins against the Lord, they should never act like it never happened, but rather they should return to the Lord and ask for His forgiveness in order to properly restore the relationship. Of course, we know that God will forgive us of our sin, but that doesn’t mean that we can cut corners on our relationship with the Lord.
So many people treat God like they treat their mothers. A Mom tells their middle schooler to do something, they show a terrible attitude, so their mother sends them to their room. The child never thinks about what he did, he just spend two hours in his room sulking while playing Xbox, finally to emerge out of his hole after a couple hours wondering what’s for dinner, never realizing or thinking about the fact that he dishonored his mother and never reconciled with her.
Every sin against the God of the universe is an act of treason. Every time we sin we are choosing a thing God created over God Himself. We are worshipping the creation rather than the Creator. We are perverting a wonderful gift God gave and telling Him that we aren’t thankful. There is no such thing as an innocent or small sin.
And therefore, it follows that there is no such thing as a sin that isn’t worth asking God for forgiveness for.
David, the man after God’s own heart, models for us what repentance looks like in Psalm 51. But what is truly amazing about this psalm is that David understands the link between a lack of repentance and a lack of evangelism.
He says it so clearly in Psalm 51:12-15:
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will [l]be converted to You. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. 15 O Lord, [m]open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise.
Notice how David is clear about the fact that the he has never lost his salvation, but he has lost the joy of it. The guilt of his sin weighed heavy on him and impeded him from sharing the truth about his Creator. The link is so clear. If God forgives him, if God cleans his heart, then he will be able to teach transgressors God’s ways. That’s why in verses 1-11 he begs God for forgiveness. He pleads with God for purification. Because he knows that without
I think that some people never share the Gospel because they have never learned the importance of daily repentance. This comes out in conversations all the time.
There are some men who have never asked their wives for forgiveness. They have never learned to state the sin they committed, look in their wives’ eyes, admit the sin, and ask their wives if they would forgive them. Of course they don’t evangelize; they have no idea how to properly repent when they sin against someone. Even when we make a half-attempt at reconciliation, when we “apologize” or we say “we’re sorry,” we fall short of the mark. We say sorry when someone gets cancer or we step on someone’s toe by mistake, we certainly don’t say sorry when we scream at someone or blow up at our kids. Instead, we should think about all the ways we sinned against them, approach them in humility, and ask them for forgiveness.
It’s the same thing with God. When we choose sin over Him, we need to ask for His forgiveness. We cannot cut corners, because when we do we are telling the God of the universe that we don’t need Him or want a relationship with Him.
And here’s what will happen: each time we take sin seriously and repent, we know that God will forgive us and this daily act of repentance will propel us towards evangelism. This will be a daily reminder about the incredible Gospel we believe and it will be much harder to hoard it to ourselves, because it will be fresh on our minds each and every day, really each moment of the day since we sin multiple times a day.
You want to grow in your evangelism? Well then, the first step isn’t taking an evangelism training class, nor watching YouTube videos, nor memorizing the Romans road, but rather it is by getting on your knees daily and asking Jesus for a clean heart. Taking your sin seriously and repenting of it will give you a clear conscience that will propel you to sing to others the wonderful and forgiving God that you love.
The next time you sin, don’t ignore it or sugar coat it, beg God for forgiveness, ask the person you sinned against for forgiveness, and then go about your day telling all souls around you about the God who forgives wicked sinners like me.
