Overflow

Warmup: What’s the sin behind the sin? On index cards.

Lying, Cheating, Cussing, etc.

Confess how we shrink the cross
Pretending: “I’m not that bad.”
Performing: “I’m impressive.”
Pull our affections away from false saviors and fake sources of righteousness

What is repentance?
“I’m sorry I hurt you. I shouldn’t have said that. Will you forgive me?”
Or is this just scratching the surface?  We often repent of the surface sins and not the sins beneath the sins.  I’ll tell you I’m sorry for lying, but I won’t tell you that I’m sorry for hating you and thinking you’re not trustworthy.  Beneath every fin is a scary shark.

False Repentance
Remorse – Matt. 27.3-5
“I can’t believe I did that.”
We don’t believe how deep our sin really goes.
Lenient towards yourself, but harsh and resentful toward others.
Feel really sorry. Beat yourself up for stuff.
Resolution
“I will do better next time.”
We think we have the power to change.
Do something to make up for it.

True Repentance
Oriented toward God, Ps 51.4
Not self ‘make me feel better’
Motivated by godly sorrow, 2 Cor 7:10
See chart…
Heart, not external, Ps 51.10
Tell yourself the sin behind the sin
Lie – It’s really about control
Looks to Jesus, Acts 3.19-20
Leads to honesty
Leads to restoration

Lifestyle of Faith & Repentance – Like breathing
Breathe in – repent, Breathe out – faith, Breath in – repent, Breath out – faith, Breath in…

Small Groups: Practicing Repentance

We often make excuses for our sin to avoid the hard work of repentance. Below is a list of some common excuses—and (in parentheses) the inner thoughts they reveal. Take a minute to look over the list and then use the questions below to help each other practice genuine repentance.

» I was just being honest. (Can’t you handle the truth?)
» I’m just saying what I feel. (There’s nothing sinful about my feelings.)
» I was only kidding. (Didn’t you get the joke?)
» I misunderstood you. (You’re not as crazy as I thought you were!)
» You misunderstood me. (I’m not as bad as you think.)
» That’s just who I am. (I’m a sinner, so that excuses my behavior.)
» I made a mistake. (Don’t we all?)
» I didn’t mean to do it. (I didn’t mean to get caught.)
» I’m having a bad day. (I deserve better.)

Which of the excuses listed above can you identify with?

What is a recent example (or a typical situation) when you used one of these excuses instead of truly being broken and repentant over your sin? Write them down.

As a group, role-play what true repentance would look like in these cases, using the steps below.

Step 1: Acknowledge that you have sinned against God.

Step 2: Confess forms of false repentance and selfish regret (remorse,
resolution, etc.).

Step 3: Discern and repent of the underlying heart motivations that drive you to this sin.

Step 4: Receive God’s forgiveness by faith.

Step 5: Rely upon God’s power to turn away from sin.

Repeat this process, working through as many responses as time allows: identify excuses, share examples, and practice true repentance.

The law: 10 Commandments, Exodus 20

There are three ways to respond to God’s Word and Law:

JUGGLING

• Jugglers keep doing the commands… 2 keep in God’s favor
• How do you respond to failure?
• Jugglers respond to failure by trying harder
• Jugglers respond to failure by reducing the standard to rules you can keep
• Reading the Bible — “i’m gonna get up at 5 tomorrow…”
• Sexual purity — “don’t have sex before marriage…”
• How do you respond to success?
• Feel like God is more happy, when you’ve had a good day.
• Everything is right in the world.
• Problem: YOU’RE FORGETTING GOD’S HOLINESS
• Galatians 3:10

SKYDIVING

• Skydivers don’t really worry about following any commands. They have left “works” behind and are free to live however they want because they are no longer “under law.”
• How do you respond to failure?
• Skydivers respond to failure by blowing it off. I’ve got a grace-parachute.
• I can do this now because I want to experience it and anyway, God will forgive me.
• How do you respond to success?
• You take all the credit for the good things you do and rarely think to praise God or ask for his help.
• You don’t pray.
• Problem: YOU’RE FORGETTING MAN’S SINFULNESS
• Romans 6:15

BELIEVING THE GOSPEL

• Both JUGGLING and SKYDIVING are fundamentally self-centered. They are not concerned with delight in God or in his law, but with self: “I keep the rules.” or “I break the rules.”
• Matthew 5:17-19 – 1 Corinthians 5:21
• So, every command in Scripture, points us to the bottom line of the chart and the top line.
• The law drives us to the gospel and the gospel frees us to obey the law.
• Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do your will.”

LARGE GROUP EXAMPLE:

Every Scripture passage asserts a moral imperative, either explicitly or implicitly. For instance, a verse may tell you not to lie. You can respond to this imperative in three different ways.

JUGGLING: You can try your very best not to lie. This is what it means to live
under the law. You will inevitably discover that you cannot not lie, even when you lower your standards about what that means.

SKYDIVING: You can admit from the start that you cannot obey this command and simply dismiss it as a biblical ideal you are not actually expected to obey. This is what it means to abuse God’s grace and give in to sin.

BELIEVING THE GOSPEL:
1. God says, “Do not lie.” (Top line of the Cross Chart: God’s holiness)
2. I cannot obey this command because I am a sinner. (Bottom line of the Chart: my sinfulness)
3. Jesus did obey this perfectly. (I can point to countless examples in his earthly life as recorded in the Gospels.) Jesus did what I should do (but can’t) as my substitute so that God can accept me (2 Cor. 5:17).
4. Because Jesus obeyed the law perfectly and now lives in me, and because I am accepted by God, I am now free to obey this command by his grace and power at work in me.

Applying this grid to your study of the Bible will help you believe the gospel and obey the law without falling into legalism or license. This empowers you to experience the reality that the gospel changes everything.

Spiritual Sleep Mode: When I’m not using my computer, it goes to sleep. You have to move the mouse to wake it up. That’s how it is with our spiritual lives… we will fall back to sleep spiritually if we are not constantly, daily growing in our Christian life.

What does this growth look like?

- Wake up early and spend time in prayer and Bible reading every day?
- Share my life with my neighbors, serving them and getting to know them?

2 Peter 1:3-8

Faith, Virtue, Knowledge, Self-control, Steadfastness, Godliness, Brotherly affection, Love

How are you doing with these things?

Why is it so difficult to grow spiritually? What are the obstacles?
Laziness, Apathy, Other things are more important to me, Weakness
Peter identifies something surprisingly different: Forgetfulness

2 Peter 1:9 – Open our eyes and remember our salvation!
We were created to be God’s friends, but sin has separated us (divorced us).
Salvation is forgiveness of sin, but it also has a positive aspect.  We are forgiven (negative aspect) and we are declared and made new (positive aspect).

Passive Righteous
Romans 3:20-22 – Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
God doesn’t merely give us a clean up job.  He demolished our old lives and has given us a completely undeserved new life–a life through faith in Jesus.
We are declared righteous in God’s sight because of Jesus’ perfect record given to our account.
Adoption
Romans 8:15-16 – Princess Hat–When Laurie is feeling down and out, she puts on her plastic princess hat to remind her that she is the child of a king by grace through faith in Jesus.  This gives her the confidence she needs to persevere.

Repent of Performing to impress God with your good works.  Admit that you need your house demolished and replaced with Jesus’ house.
Repent of Pretending you’re not that bad and believe you are identified as a son or daughter of the King.

You may think you don’t know how to think about the gospel during the day, but the truth is, you think about the gospel all the time.

We are all looking for righteousness and identity (acceptance, approval, security, and significance)… because we were created to find them in God. So every time you think, “I wish I was in that group, or I wish I was better at sports because…” you’re thinking about the gospel. But it’s a false gospel.

I think about food all the time.  Sometimes, I look to food to meet an emotional need… to bring me comfort.  This is a trash can, I’m embarrassed to say, filled with candy bar wrappers from today.  I believed the false gospel of candy bars today by eating these instead of believing that I am secure in Christ.  I looked for comfort from this food instead of looking for comfort in my position as a son of the King.  What are your candy bars?

Quick Review of the Gospel Grid:

Growing awareness of sin and God’s holiness
Leads us to shrink the cross
Romans 1 says the “gospel is the power of God for salvation for those who believe.”
Yet we often shrink the cross because of our indwelling sin

How do we shrink the cross? We put on blinders.
Pretending & Performing

Read Luke 18:9-14.

Pretending: minimizes our sin by making ourselves out to be something we are not.
Growing in an awareness of our sin is tough. It means admitting to ourselves and others that we are not as good as we think we are. And as we grow in awareness of sin, it can become a huge burden.

Appearance Pretending: makeup, a wig, loose or dark clothing, etc.

Spiritual Pretending takes different forms:
Dishonesty (I’m not that bad)
Comparison (I’m not as bad as those people)
Excuse making (I’m not really that way or I wasn’t myself that day.)
False righteousness (Here are all the good things I’ve done.)

How was the Pharisee pretending? How are you pretending?

Performing: minimizes God’s holiness by reducing his standard to one we can keep.
Growing in an awareness of God’s holiness is tough too. It means coming face to face with God’s righteous commands and the perfection of his character. It means realizing how dramatically short we fall of his standards. It means reflecting on his holy displeasure toward sin. This too can become a burden leading to despair.

“What does the Pharisee count on to give him a sense of acceptance, credibility or validity?
I matter because of __________.” What about you?

This question reveals something (besides Jesus) that you lean on for righteousness.

Do you see how pretending and performing only serve to shrink the cross?

Here’s a good test to see your tendency toward pretending and performing:
Ask, “As God thinks of you right now, what is the look on his face?”
Angry, disappointed, indifferent?
If you imagined God as anything but overjoyed with you, you have fallen into a performance mindset. The gospel truth is: In Christ, God is deeply satisfied with you. Based on Jesus’ work, God has adopted you as one of his children. Rom. 8:1
But we live with this performance mentality, that if we just did a little better as Christians God would approve of us more. It’s a lie that will shrink the cross in your life and it will rob you of the joy that we are meant to have in God’s holiness and grace.

Sources of False Righteousness:

JOB RIGHTEOUSNESS: I’m a hard worker, so God will reward me.

FAMILY RIGHTEOUSNESS: Because I come from a good family I’m more
godly than others who don’t.

THEOLOGICAL RIGHTEOUSNESS: I have good theology. God prefers me over those who have bad theology.

INTELLECTUAL RIGHTEOUSNESS: I am more studious, more articulate, and more culturally wise than others, which makes me superior.

SCHEDULE RIGHTEOUSNESS: I am self-disciplined and rigorous in my time management, which makes me more mature than others.

FLEXIBILITY RIGHTEOUSNESS: In a world that’s busy, I’m flexible and
relaxed. I always make time for others. Shame on those who don’t!

MERCY RIGHTEOUSNESS: I care about the poor and disadvantaged the way everyone else should.

LEGALISTIC RIGHTEOUSNESS: I don’t drink, smoke, or chew, or date girls who do. I’m not perfect but I’m pretty darn close.

FINANCIAL RIGHTEOUSNESS: I manage money wisely and stay out of debt. I’m not like those materialistic Christians who can’t control their spending.

POLITICAL RIGHTEOUSNESS: If you really love God, you’ll vote for my
candidate.

TOLERANCE RIGHTEOUSNESS: I am open-minded and charitable toward those who don’t agree with me. I’m a lot like Jesus that way!