Metanoia

What is metanoia? Why do we have to renew our mind? In this episode I give advice straight from the Bible on why we must change our mindset to persevere in our race!

Transcript

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Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of Running Our Race. Today I'm gonna be talking to y'all about Metanoim. Now, before I get into what it is, I wanna read y'all a verse that my pastor touched on on Sunday. And it's 1 Timothy 4 16. And it says, be conscientious about how you live and what you teach. Persevere in this because by doing so, you will save both yourself and those who listen to you. Now, as someone who recently started doing a podcast, I realized that I need to be really careful about what I say and what I'm teaching. I felt the weight of it when especially when I when I read this Bible verse um on the screen, and then I immediately went to my notes app and I put it down. But I also like that it touched on persevering. In the last episode or the one before that, I talked about how I didn't feel sufficient enough to start this podcast. But if God puts something in our heart and we know that we're supposed to do something, we should always act on it. Along the way, God will go correcting us. Now, uh, what is methenoia? Comes from G3340. It means compunction for guilt, including reformation, by implication, reversal of another's decision or repentance. I'm gonna touch on in the next verse, which is Hebrews 6, 4 to 6. It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the coming age, and who have fallen away to be brought back to repentance. To their loss, they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Now, as I said before, repentance is methanoia. In today's episode being called Methanoia, I wanted to touch on the fact that as young people, we often have this mentality of we can repent it tomorrow for the sins that we did today, or today we can sin, we can go, we can go out, we can go party, we can do all these things that the Bible says not to do, and on Sunday we can go get right with it. And the fact is we can't do that. We're not supposed to do that. In these next few verses, y'all are gonna see that God is very clear, we're not supposed to do that. And in Hebrews 6 1, uh, which is just a few verses on top of what I just read, it says, Therefore, let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death and a faith in God. Now in Hebrews 6 6, in that last verse it says that we are crucifying the Son of God all over again instead of griping him to public disgrace when we don't basically move forward in maturity, when we conform to the patterns of this world. Conforming to the patterns of this world is actually touched on in the Bible in Romans 12.2. It says, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but treat it transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Now, if we're locked in with God, if we fully repent and we turn our lives around for God for real, those things that so easily entangled us before, they won't. And that's another verse. But I know that Paul also touches on this in Romans 7. I believe in Romans 6. The verse I put in here talks about with the mind, and that's Romans 7 23. And it says, But I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. And the fact is that we're facing a battle within our mind. With that first verse that I touched on in 1 Timothy, my pastor said it's but a battle between our minds, our mindsets. Sometimes our way of thinking is skewed by the way our lifestyles are and touching on something that happened when I was in the military. I remember telling someone that the devil was throwing art to their brain because they came and told me something that was basically something I thought our Christianity and they're trying to attack my perception of believing. They looked at me like that was crazy. They're like, man, they're definitely throwing a part of me. And they were like, The devil doesn't even exist, and this and that. And I just changed them. I was like, man, I believe it whatever we want. It's made me think about this because my faith as a elementary student sometimes feels more than what I have sometimes as an adult. And when I was studying for this episode, um, I was really looking at verses that focus on the attack that is on the mind. With that, I'm gonna bring down to Ephesians 4.17 to 24. So I tell you this, and I insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in their futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and you were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Sometimes we go back to that futility of our thinking, that our understanding is darkened and we're separated from the life of God because we choose to think how the world is, because we choose to agree with the world instead of being firm in who God called us to be and how he told us to think. And yet sometimes we are so easily entangled in that, or we go back to that really just means that we didn't have a true metanoia, we didn't have a true repentance of our old selves, and we didn't change, we didn't keep persevering in the teachings that were given to us, we didn't move to maturity, we are stuck in elementary teachings. Now, lastly, because I feel like more young people watch this than maybe older people. I came across this person on Instagram, and it's Titus 2, 6 to 8, and it says similarly encourage the young men in the Spanish version, it says hoveness, which can be young people, uh, to be self-controlled in everything. Set them an example by doing what is good. In your teachings, show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. A lot of times, unfortunately, we give off bad examples of what we were meant to be called. Now I know that us as humans, we are not perfect, but unfortunately, the reason Christians have such a bad rap is because of Christians. If we don't want people to think that about Christians, we have to persevere fully, we have to change our minds and renew them. It's about focusing so much on God that sinning seems foreign to you. That negative thoughts, when they come in, you already know that they're coming in and that they're not of you, and you stop them before they make it all the way in. I truly believe that God has so much, especially for this in this next generation, and unfortunately, social media and trends in general are corrupting our minds, and it's what our minds are all around instead of what God truly wants from us. Part of that is having self-control, part of that is being serious and showing integrity, being an example in everything. It's not just about being a part-time Christian, persevering isn't just about just running when we feel like running, it's about running when we don't feel like it. When you think about people in a marathon, they keep going. Maybe sometimes they have to walk, but they keep going because they have to get to the finish line. We have to keep persevering through everything, and we have to be a good example to other people. And with that, I'm gonna end this episode. I really pray that this episode reaches those who it needs to reach, and I really pray that it inspires y'all to keep persevering, just like every other episode before. Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe. And I'll catch y'all on the next one.