Why Do We Need Another Book on Sexuality?

Repentance is a hard thing to talk about. We can pride ourselves a little bit in our ability to articulate what the Bible teaches about repentance, but the real issue is, what does repentance look like in my life?

And guys who come to Harvest USA struggle with that. They’re struggling with their repentance, and they feel like when they go to church, “Am I the only guy that has to repent around here?” What’s repentance look like in your life? Are we modeling repentance?

And this is a real dilemma for people who come to Harvest, and it’s a real dilemma in my own life. I mean, I struggle with repentance. I struggle with resistant repentance. I struggle with handing things over to God and trusting him with my life, with my plans, with my agenda. You know, he has a bigger agenda, and it’s hard for me to hand that over to him.

And part of that resistance has to do with my inability to trust a loving God, my inability to take in his grace for me, because my behavior fills me with shame, and I have a hard time accepting that God would love somebody like me.

And I experience this all the time with men who I minister to one-on-one. I feel like I’m spoon-feeding them the gospel, and I just sense this resistance, like, “Hmm, I don’t want it, I don’t want it.” And it’s just really, you know, shame that you feel about, “I’m not worthy.”

What I believe is that faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin. And like I said, if I look at my repentance, I don’t get that encouraged looking at it. It doesn’t look that good. But when I look at my faith, it’s the same thing. Jesus said if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell this mountain to jump in the ocean. And when I read that verse, it means to me that I don’t have very big faith. And so my faith isn’t all that great. And it’s the same thing looking at my repentance. My repentance isn’t all that great.

But the truth of the matter is, it’s not my faith and repentance that saves me. It’s the object of my faith that saves me. It’s the direction. Who am I repenting toward? I’m turning away from me. Who am I turning toward? I’m turning towards Christ. He’s the one who saves me. He’s the one with the grace and mercy and power and forgiveness that’s able to save me, not the quality of my faith and repentance. It’s not what I bring to the table, it’s what Jesus brings to the table. That’s what saves me.

What I want to encourage you with is the reality that faith and repentance is a gift from God. The Bible clearly teaches that, okay? And if you look at your faith and your repentance and you’re discouraged with it, and you’re going, “Oh my goodness,” you can ask God for faith and repentance:

“Lord, give me true faith. Lord, help me see you for who you really are. Help me to turn from resisting you and just submit to you. Help me to come to grips with the fact that you are the King of kings and Lord of lords. You’re the one who’s in control of everything. You’re the one who loves me with an everlasting love. You are the Creator. You are God indeed. And I need to obey you, I need to submit to you, I need to trust you with all my heart. Help me with that, Lord. Help me with that.”

And I believe he’ll help you with that. He will help you with that prayer.