Afterwards
Foundation Statement: It’s not the missing it
that God can’t deal with; it’s the unrepentant heart that he can’t deal with
I.
People act like, when
somebody misses it, that’s the biggest thing, but it’s not the biggest thing;
It’s what you do after you miss it that is the biggest thing; will you repent?
It’s not just what you do, it’s what you do afterwards that will play a big part
in your future, your prosperity, and how much you are used of God going forward
A. Revelation 2:1-5-They’re
doing some good stuff and yet their future is on the line here and whether or
not they will repent is the big issue
1.
1-He’s
talking to the church of Ephesus; one of the biggest churches in that day and
they are doing some good things; 2-their working, laboring, patiently enduring,
bearing up for his name’s sake, not quitting and growing weary and have gotten
rid of false apostles and liars and yet he tells them if they don’t change and
repent they are going to lose his presence and his anointing
2.
5-They’re
going to lose something EXCEPT THEY REPENT; they don’t have to lose it, they
can repent
a. It’s possible for
judgment to be coming, but you miss it because you changed
B. Revelation 2:18-22
1.
19-There
were some good things they were doing, but they are being corrected about this &
they need to repent & they need 2 change
a. Your good works aren’t
going to exempt you from judgment and destruction if when God corrects you, you
don’t repent and change
1)
Just
because you are doing some good things in the Lord doesn’t exempt you from
repenting and changing when He corrects you
2)
You
can’t just ignore the correction of the Lord & say well we are doing a
bunch of good stuff so maybe we don’t have to do that one
b. 20-They’re allowing her
to prophesy and teach and she’s fornicating and eating stuff sacrificed to
idols and this is not good
1)
21-She
knows that what she is doing isn’t right; she has light and God gave her time
to repent, but she wouldn’t & because she wouldn’t she’s going to get
judged and she didn’t have to be
2.
Who
determines whether or not you get judged or not, whether you perish or not,
whether you experience destruction or not? Except THEY repent --- They are in control
a. When God gives you light
and corrects you if you don’t want judgment, if you don’t want to perish what
do you have to do? You have to repent and change
b. If YOU will repent when
God corrects you & gives you light, you can miss judgment and destruction
and instead prosper and have victory
c. 22-Judgement is barreling
towards them and it can be avoided if they’ll repent
1)
God
is saying what He’s going to do, but he’s giving them the last say; “I’m going
to do this, but if they repent, I’m won’t.”
3.
God
will give you time to repent,
a. There is a window of time
where folks are allowed and that means that they are continuing to do their
evil stuff and yet they are not being judged and God knows it and they are not
going to get away with it forever, but He gives people time to repent
b. There comes a time when
He knows that you won’t repent and when that times comes judgment will be next
1)
There
will come a time if you don’t repent that there will be destruction no matter
who it is and this is why sometimes bad things happen to good people because
good people won’t repent
2)
God’s
merciful, but it’s not just forever & if you don’t judge yourself you will
be judged-1Cor11:31
C. If you won’t repent it
can get to the a point that all that remains is judgment and destruction and
that’s never the perfect will of God for anybody---2 Peter 3:9-It’s God’s will
than none perish, but all repent
1.
Revelation
9:20-21-The world is coming down around their ears and their biggest problem is
not the destruction, their biggest problem is a refusal to repent
a. Sometimes people’s lives
are crumbling around them because they didn’t do what God said and walk in the
light he gave them and their answer, their way out is to repent/change
2.
Revelation
16:7-11-This is why God is not in control of everything because He is not in
control of whether or not a person repents and you can see no matter what God
does some people won’t repent
a. God’s their help &
their answer & the only one who can fix this and there’s still time, but
they won’t repent & they are not going to repent
D. Matt21:28-32-Seeing
you’re wrong and not repenting is the most serious thing a Christian can do and
it’s the thing that grieves God the most
1.
32-Their
problem is after they saw that they were wrong, they didn’t repent; it wasn’t
just that they didn’t believe, it was after they saw the truth they wouldn’t
repent and believe
2.
This becomes an issue of the
highest order: You see that you are wrong, but you won’t repent (you won’t
acknowledge it is wrong and do everything in your power to change)
a. This WILL bring
destruction, peril into your life; this will disqualify you and keep you from
being used of God; this is the place where there is no remedy for you and the
destruction that’s coming will not be avoided if you don’t repent
E. The biggest thing going
on here is not them missing it; the biggest thing going on here is their
refusal to repent
1.
A
Christian can sin and be judged even though grace has already provided complete
forgiveness and cleansing and the reason is because people don’t repent; it’s
not just messing up, but rather it’s a refusal, to repent and that’s what will
get you judged and destroyed
2.
The blood can take care
of your sin, but it’s powerless against an unrepentant heart-Proverbs 29:1
II.
It’s amazing how far
people can go in evil and yet when they repent how merciful God will be to them
in receiving
A. 1 Kings 16:30-33,
21:25-29-Ahab messed up big time, but he missed judgment because he repented
1.
27-Word
came from the man of God that judgment was coming and when he got light he
repented
2.
27-A
lot of us would have said he’s too evil, he needs to go to hell, and never have
forgiven him
3.
29-The
evil came in his son’s days because he was worse than Ahab was
B. 2 Chronicles 33:1-13
1.
4-He
built altars in the house of the Lord to false gods; 6-He burnt babies alive;
9-He made the people do worse than the heathen; He shed innocent blood very
much until he filled Jerusalem from one end to the other; he’s killing innocent
people right and left-2 Kings 21:16
2.
12-He
repented and the Lord put him back in his kingdom and restored him
C. Not minimizing these evil
things because innocence suffered and it’s awful and it’s bad, but never
underestimate the mercy of God
1.
It’s
not just what you did; what you did might be evil and it might be awful if you
will humble yourself and fall on your knees and repent God will hear you and
receive your prayer and forgive you and restore you and spare you from judgment
that was looming over your head
III.
Isaiah 30:15-It’s not their
trusting in oppression and perverseness that is getting them destroyed; it’s
their refusal to repent
A. 1-11-They are missing it
and God is giving them light and they do see, but they don’t want to see
B. 12-They don’t esteem the
light, they don’t value this word, and to them this correction is not that big
of deal
1.
Despise-Reject,
Refuse, To slight, to neglect as unworthy of regard, To care little for, regard lightly, make small account
C. 13-Therefore-This is
destruction is coming because you didn’t esteem the light and you wouldn’t
repent
1.
Destruction
doesn’t have to come to them and they have the say, but it is-2 Peter 3:9
2.
15-Their
salvation, their victory is FIRST in returning; it’s in esteeming the light
that God gave them and making the changes they need to make and if they would
do that they wouldn’t perish or be destroyed
a. Sometimes people can’t
get their victory because they won’t change; they won’t esteem the light and
make the changes they need to make and in that state you pray all the prayers
you want, make all the confessions you want, have all the counseling sessions you
want, but until you change you won’t win
3.
You
could despise a word from God and trust in oppression and perverseness, but
repent when God comes to correct you and if you did you wouldn’t perish you’d
prosper and advance
D. 18-An unrepentant heart
leaves God is a stalled state
1.
At
this moment in this verse God is not moving, he’s not working in their lives,
he’s not doing what he wants to do in their lives, he is waiting
2.
God
doesn’t bless rebellion; and you cloud yourselves with illusions of his grace
and mercy, but you’re not just going to ignore what he says and what he wants
you to do and live a blessed life
3.
Every
act of disobedience that He corrects and you don’t change cost you
IV.
You got people losing
their place, their grace, their assignments and anointing because afterward
they wouldn’t repent
A. 1 Samuel 15-The big issue
with Saul is what he WOULDN’T do after he sinned
1.
3-God
gives Saul light and he knows what is good and what is right to do
a. Course correction-Usually
when you defeat an enemy you spare the king and keep the spoils
1)
When
you marched back in with the opposing king captured and all the spoil of the
enemy taken there would be a great celebration and the victorious king and his
army would be acknowledged, seen, celebrated by the people (This time if they
win they are going to come back with nothing)
2)
Wanting
to be seen and noticed is a manifestation of pride and Saul has a pride problem
and that is directly connected to his refusal to repent when he gets corrected
b. 9-He doesn’t walk in the
light he has and this is sin because he knows to do good and doesn’t do it
2.
8-9-He
doesn’t esteem the light the Lord gave Him; He regarded this direction as a
light thing
a. The reason so many are so slow to repent and change is
because they don’t honor or value what God says to them; to them what He said
means little or nothing; it’s no big deal
b. All this stuff they are sparing and keeping is more valuable
and important to him than this word God spoke to him; he values this spoil,
more than he values the word from the Lord
3.
12-HE
set up a trophy for HIS victory (He wants to be seen and noticed and
celebrated)
a. Why is Saul up early in
the morning building this trophy? Because this is most important to him
4.
13-He
missed it and he knows he missed it and he could have repented right now
a. He’s lying and covering,
he’s not confessing-Pride pretends; He’s pretending like he did a good thing
b. Pride doesn’t want to
deal with reality and the reality is he didn’t do what God said
c. You can see pride here
too b/c he doesn’t need to broadcast that he did what God said even if he had
done exactly what God said
5.
14-This
was his second opportunity to repent and he covered instead of confessed
a. 15-He’s blaming, he’s
covering, he’s not confessing
1)
When
it came to the sparing which is won’t God said don’t do it was “They” but when
it came to the destroying which was what God said to do that was “We”
2)
He
says “They spared them” because in his heart he knows it was wrong
b. 15-The rest we have
destroyed; God didn’t say the rest, he said all – You can tell what God
said to him, meant nothing to him
6.
16-He
must be getting worked up because Samuel had to tell him to calm down
a. Your attitude when you
receive correction is a reflection of your level of maturity
b. There’s some defiance in
this “Say on” response
7.
17-Apparenlty
he’s not small in his own sight anymore – PRIDE
8.
19-God
is giving him time and another opportunity to repent – This is the mercy
of God
a. It’s time to repent, to
own it, to humble yourself and to be a man and not try to justify it and cover
it
b. He did evil in the sight
of the Lord --- He didn’t walk in the light that he had (and now it’s time to
repent, but he won’t)
9.
20-21-He’s
defiant and blaming an defensive and trying to justify his wrong behavior, he’s
covering
a. This is covering and
hiding and justifying and blaming; this is pride not humility
10.
22-The
Lord wants you to do what he says; not disobey him and then try to cover it
with “religious” works
11.
23-The
rebellion was bad enough, but he added stubbornness to it (pushing, pressing,
arrogance, presumption, to be insolent)
a. 23-Stuborness-Push,
Insolent, Arrogance, Presumption
1)
Never push back on the
correction of the Lord
2)
Some
when they get corrected they get brash and arrogant and push back and Saul did
this
3)
It
wasn’t just the rebellion that got him in trouble, it was the stubbornness
added to it
b. It’s not the disobedience
that is the big thing here; it’s that he won’t repent
1)
This
was not the plan of God for his life; The problem was not just that he took the
spoil and spared the king, the problem was he would not repent; he’s covering
and can’t prosper
12.
23-He
despised the Word from the Lord; not just the first word of direction, but the
second word of correction and he lost his place
a. He lost his place, his
grace, his assignment; He’s not going to be used of God in that way anymore
b. He didn’t esteem the
light
13.
24-He
didn’t want to repent, until it cost him something (until he got caught)
a. It wasn’t important
enough to him, until HE was going to lose something; He’s ready to repent after
he knows he’s going to lose his kingdom, but he wasn’t ready before; He was
sorry he lost his kingdom, but he never truly repented; He wasn’t ready to
change his heart, he just didn’t want to lose his Kingdom
b. 30-He still wants to be
acknowledge and recognized in front of the people
14.
He
sees and knows he’s wrong, but he doesn’t want to see and when he did see he didn’t
repent
B. Acts 5:1-Becaue of their
pride, after they sinned, they wouldn’t repent
1.
A
powerful move of God is happening where people are liquidating their things and
giving it to the Kingdom and people who are doing it are being recognized and
talked about and in their pride Ananias and Sapphira want to be seen
2.
There
was time for them to repent & when Peter starts talking to them like this
it’s time to do it-3,8,9
a. 3-Peter asked Ananias a
question, but he didn’t answer; The both stood there tight lipped,
stiff-necked, hard hearted
3.
They
didn’t perish because they lied, they perished because they wouldn’t repent and
it was not the will of God for their lives-1 Peter 3:9 --- Did they have to perish?
a. They wanted to be seen
for doing something good and how embarrassing it would be for them to be seen
for doing something bad