“Repent and believe in the gospel.” This is how the King of the universe began his ministry. Given Jesus’ credentials, we should probably take notice.

In his inaugural address, Jesus tells us how to become a follower: repent and believe the gospel. There may be no greater barrier to believing the gospel than idolatry, which I say is the sin beneath all other sins. In a nutshell, idolatry is removing God as the object of worship, replacing him with a God-substitute. And we do it all the time. We worship idols when we elevate good things to the status of best things.

So if idolatry is the primary barrier to believing the gospel (initially and continually), then it follows that repenting of idolatry is the key to deepening our gospel belief.

In repentance, we must do three things in relation to sin:

• See it.
• Own it.
• Turn from it.

To see our sin in specific is to understand that it is grievous to God and hostile to his law (see Romans 8:7). This means that we see our sin as not just wrong in general, but in a specific and definite sense. A repentant person takes responsibility not just for the lawbreaking, but acknowledges that he or she is the lawbreaker. Finally, repenting means we turn from our sin. If idolatry is turning our backs on God while turning our whole selves to sin, then repentance is turning our backs on our idols while turning our whole selves to God.

How do you know if you are repenting deeply? One sign of true repentance is that we begin to see and know that we are bigger sinners than we thought. In other words, the bad news is actually worse than we thought.

But true repentance, the turning from sin, means seeing and knowing that the good news is better than we thought. Though in repentance we see that we are bigger sinners than we thought, through faith in the gospel, we see that he is a bigger savior than we thought.

The way to deal with sin and idolatry is to repent of them and believe the gospel. In his first letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul praises the church for how they “turned from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). May this be said of us and of our churches as we repent and believe the gospel.

**Darrin Patrick is the founding and lead pastor of The Journey, a multi-site church in the metropolitan St. Louis area. He is also vice-president of the Acts 29 church planting network, and the author of Church Planter: The Man, The Message, and the Mission.

march 2nd was an incredible day; my first day in my new home and at my new church. we arrived in st. louis at midnight, after the 15 hr drive, and then awoke at 6:30 to lead worship for the first time. we hit the ground running! acts 29 was holding a midwest regional quarterly that morning and it was fantastic. hundreds of men from all over the region came to learn about prayer and worship, and pray and worship we did!

there is nothing more satisfying to me than hearing a room of hundreds men singing at the top of their lungs to their Creator and King Jesus – this is a rare thing, my friends! terry virgo then brought the heat, teaching on prayer and how we ought to be a people not only laboring in prayer, but simply abiding in Christ through prayer. it’s a precious gift that we often overlook and take for granted. i was challenged and ultimately encouraged at the end of the day when we put the teaching into practice and our 2 song set turned into an 8 song set as pastors and church planters just kept coming forward for prayer. what a first day on the job!

this among a plethora of other things are what has drawn me here. there is a severity and weightiness in regard to the journey’s view of Christ and sin and repentance, which has attributed to this absolute abandon to the supremacy of Christ and the gospel and the amazingly unfathomable grace He extends through the cross. because of that they are constantly, consistently and actively pursuing ways to reach the city and the world with the gospel. here are a few ways how, and a few reasons why i already love this place:

the karis house is their counseling center that is free to cheap for people who need Christ-centered counseling. staffed with multiple gifted, professional counselors, it’s the journey’s way of saying, “we’re in a sick, messed up world and we are sick, messed up people because of sin. Christ is the answer, so let’s attack these problems together in a way that He would, and grow into holistic people.”

the luminary is their arts center that is designed to reach out to the artists in the area by offering studio space to paint or sculpt or whatever, as well as a gallery to show in, and a music venue that bands can come play… it’s a tangible way to say that God cares about art and artists and we do too!

then there is mission saint louis, which has overwhelmed me to tears more than once. this ministry goes into the rough parts of saint louis and is just trying to incarnationally bring the redemptive gospel to people who in no way could ever pay them back, many will never step foot in our church, and yet are hearing about Jesus and coming to salvation in Him because of the ministry. it’s really putting hands and feet to the gospel and taking it to the people who need it so badly. this just so much resonates with me and i have a huge respect for josh wilson, the leader of the ministry.

all this just keeps bringing back to my mind that God is a God of redemption and wants to use His people to bring that redemption to His created people, who He loves and gave Himself up for. He is faithful even when we’re faithless and He is a good God who isn’t afraid to identify Himself as such.

when i was praying through this move, my friend and mentor neil mcclendon told me,

“most people have an idea of how hard things can be but they never have a concept of how good it could be. it’s as if life being good means we’ve somehow sold out. exodus 33 shows how moses wanted to see God’s glory and God told him that wasn’t possible but He did say that he would cause His goodness to pass in front of moses and that He would announce his name, “THE LORD.” make sure you don’t miss God in the Goodness that comes across your life. when it passes you should listen for the Lord to announce Himself. He is not afraid to to define Himself in terms of goodness so you shouldn’t be afraid to experience it either.”

those words rocked my world and have proven to be so evidently true as i made the leap of faith to move here. i just want to encourage you to know and strive to know God is as good as His word says He is. when you don’t feel it, it’s no less true. when life is tough and you’re suffering and experiencing loss, it’s no less true. allow God to show His goodness to you and know Him as good.

grace and peace,
stephen miller

follow me on twitter – @_stephen_miller