Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast : Ep 28
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, I’m Lee Whitman and today’s podcast is on The Power of Repentance
Today’s verse is Matthew 3:2 “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
I think I still might have a Soul Spirit Hurt from the topic of repentance. As a child growing up in a Hell fire and Brimstone church, repentance always felt like a gun being placed at your head. It seemed that repentance was preached to make you feel so guilty for what you had done that you would come running to the front of the church to beg for forgiveness. As a child growing up under that kind of preaching, I went down to the alter often just to make sure that I was caught up on my repentance. Repentance in my church was based on fear and guilt. It often felt like condemnation for sin, instead of an invitation to make a change.
Yet repentance is not a scary and negative thing. Repentance is not based on fear and guilt. It is in fact the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ and when rightly understood, it is something we will gladly embrace.
We see repentance all through the Bible. The word repent or repentance is used over 50 times in the Old Testament. It is very clearly seen as the heart of the New Testament Gospel.
John the Baptist came preaching a message of repentance, Matthew 3:1-2 says “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
In Jesus’ first sermon we see repentance at the heart of His message. “From that time Jesus began to preach saying, “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:7
The Apostle Peter preached a message of repentance in Acts 2:38, “Then Peter said to them, “Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”
We see repentance before Jesus started His ministry, then during His ministry and then after Jesus ministry here on earth as the new church began. It is at the heart of the Gospel. God’s currency is repentance.
So what is biblical repentance? Many people think of repentance as the feeling of regret or remorse we get over our sin. It can include those things, but it does not begin nor end with the feelings of regret or remorse. Repentance begins with a change of mind.
The Greek word for repentance is Metanoia which means to have a change of mind, or a change of thinking. But it is even more than a change of mind, for a change of mind without change in behavior is deception. You have to be deceived to know the truth and not let that truth be lived out in your behavior. True repentance is having a change of mind which causes a change in behavior.
Several years ago I took a few golf lessons that caused me to repent of my golf swing. During those lessons I discovered that my golf swing was wrong causing me to slice my shots. Thus I had a change of mind on how I needed to swing my golf club. I repented of my golf swing. My change of mind led to a change in the way I swung the golf club. My repentance started with a change in the way I thought about my golf swing but it was combined with a change in the way I physically swung the golf club. True repentance begins with a change in the way we think, but must include a change in behavior.
We embrace repentance in almost every aspect of RTF ministry. You might say that repentance is at the heart of RTF. We start by repenting for the sins of our families that have come down through our blood lines. Lev. 26:40-42 says, “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—
42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land.
God has given us the power to repent for the sin that has come down on us from our ancestors, and because repentance is so powerful, the generational iniquity from our ancestors sins is cut off from us, and from the lives of our descendants. We are not taking responsibility for our ancestor’s sin like we caused it to happen. But we are repenting, having a change of thought, on behalf of our ancestors and the sin they passed on to us. God honors our repentance and removes the iniquity from our blood line.
The power of repentance in most evident in RTF ministry when we deal with Ungodly Beliefs. Every Ungodly Belief is a lie that we are believing. These are beliefs we hold that do not line up with God’s nature, His character, or His Word. When we believe these lies we are making an agreement with the kingdom of darkness that in essence is saying, “Satan, I agree with you. God, I don’t agree with you.” We would never do that intentionally but by agreeing with an Ungodly belief, that is exactly what we are doing. This is a place where the power of repentance is most clearly seen. When we recognize a lie that doesn’t agree with God’s nature, His Character or His Word we have the opportunity to repent, to have a change of thinking, and come into agreement with Him. We first have to break the agreement we have made with the kingdom of darkness before we try to receive God’s truth. Then as we receive God’s truth, the power of repentance is experienced because our thinking and believing are changed. Then as this new Godly Belief is lived out, our lives are being transformed by the renewing of our minds. That is the power of repentance.
The power of repentance is clearly seen in Romans 12:2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God warns us that thinking like the world is harmful for us as new creations in Christ. Growing up in this world, we can’t help but pick up beliefs that are conformed to the thinking of this world. That is why repenting of those beliefs is a vital part of our new walk in Christ. Once we repent of our beliefs learned in this world, our minds are changed, which should lead to change in behavior.
Listen to this next statement. The greatest temptation we face is not against sinful behavior. The greatest temptation we face is against believing lies. It is the lie that leads us into sinful behavior. As our minds are transformed, as we repent from conformity to the world, our behavior will automatically be transformed.
Does repentance always include regret and sorrow over our sin? I would say yes, but it doesn’t stop there. When we recognize that we are believing something that is in agreement with the kingdom of darkness and is opposed to the Kingdom of God, I hope it would cause us to feel regret and sorrow over turning our back on God and His ways. But regret and sorrow are just the beginning. Repentance must be allowed to bear the fruit of changed behavior in order to be real repentance.
The bible is written in two basic languages. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and carries a Hebrew mindset. The New Testament was written in Greek and carries a Greek mindset.
The concept of Repentance when looked at from the Hebrew mindset has a little different focus. The Greeks were focused on the mind and your thinking, while the Hebrews focused more on behavior and how you lived. In the Hebrew way of thinking repentance is a change in direction. The Hebrew picture of repentance is of going in one direction and then turning completely around and going in the opposite directions.
I think repentance gets a bad press, so to speak, because we mistakenly believe that when we repent God is taking something away from us. God never asks us to turn away from something without giving us something better in return. With God repentance is turning away from sin and turning towards God and all of His blessings. It is difficult to repent if we hold the ungodly belief that God is trying to take something away from us. It is much easier to turn away from something when we understand that our loving Heavenly Father has something better for us.
In 2018 I had a heart attack while we were on a ministry trip to California. When we got home, I went to a cardiologist in Nashville. When I explained to him my lifestyle of eating clean and healthy and that I exercised five days a week, he took a deeper look into my family history. When he discovered that my grandfather and my father had high cholesterol that caused them heart problems, he told me that I had inherited this heart attack. He didn’t need to explain any more because at RTF we understand how the Generational Curses can be passed down from generation to generation.
He said, “If you want to lessen your chances of having another heart attack, I recommend that you give up eating meat and go on a 100% plant based diet.” He explained how meat contributed to higher cholesterol levels and that I could get all the protein I needed on a plant based diet. I repented of eating meat after that. I had a change of mind that caused a change in my behavior.
People have asked me if it was hard to give up eating meat. Actually it was not difficult at all because I turned away from eating meat because I believe God was offering me something better. God was saying through my doctor that by giving up meat I would have a better chance of enjoying my wife and kids and grandkids for years to come. He showed me that I have many years of fruitful ministry ahead. He showed me that by eating right and staying healthy I will be able to help take the message of Restoring the Foundations to the World. God’s repentance is turning away from something so God can give you something better.
What is a practical application of repentance. The scripture says in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Romans 6:6 says, “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Christ, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died is freed from sin.” Repentance says that the old sinful me is dead to sin, and I am only alive in Christ Jesus. When sin comes knocking at my door, I can choose to not open the door and receive sin because I am no longer alive to sin. As I am renewed to this truth that I am dead to sin and only alive to Christ, I can say no to sin because it is no longer telling me the truth. What a powerful way to live. But it starts with repentance, a change in the way we think, followed by a change in the way we live.
There is great power in repentance. Embrace repentance as a gift from God to set us free to live the Christian life. If your background is like mine that made repentance a bad thing, then repent of your view of repentance. Allow God to bring the God given gift of repentance into your life and experience the freedom that repentance brings.
