The Prepper Broadcasting Network - 2024.08.14 - Reliance - Renew Your Minds

Episode Date: August 18, 2024

God bless the Menking Family! 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 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. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another,

having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given us. Let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who

persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink.

For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that you never fail, Jesus. Thank you for your mercy, your grace, your word. Thank you that you never fail, Jesus. Thank you for your mercy, your grace, your glory. Thank you for all of your provision. Thank you for salvation. Thank you for the good and perfect gifts you have provided to us. We bless you, Lord, and pray that you would redeem this time, that you would use this broadcast, Lord, for your glory.

Holy Spirit, quicken our minds and our hearts. Renew our minds, Lord. Let us be mature in you as we see the kind of behavior that you call us to, the kind of attitude, the kind of mindset that you call us to. You are worthy of it, Lord. And we know that your power is efficacious and working in us for transformation and for good. Let us live up, Lord, to your standard only through your power and not through our own. We love you, Jesus. We bless you. We praise you in your name. Amen. This didactic and instructional chapter in Romans 12 has so many different widely quoted scripture verses, so much encouragement, so much in the way of practical discipleship.

much in the way of practical discipleship. And it would behoove us to go through this type of scripture frequently and to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us through it so that we could understand what step we need to focus on next. Because in certain cases, it may be that we need to go through a season of a transformation of the renewing of our mind. When we are saved, we are put in a position where we are finally able to reason properly in many ways. Because if we are in Christ and we have been created in his image, then we have properly understood the foundational component of reality that everything else is built on. This doesn't mean that we can't approximate truth or have a logical appropriateness to reasoning outside of Christ, or that that's related to intelligence or other attributes. But if there is, we've spoken about this several times, if there is a fundamental and foundational

misapprehension of the nature of reality, then there are going to be consequences to that in terms of everything that is downstream, whether it is our thoughts, our decisions, our actions, our beliefs. And this isn't to say that people within the body of Christ can't get things wrong, People within the body of Christ can't get things wrong. But if you are outside that scope, then I pray that you would receive the gospel and that you would repent and that you would call on Jesus and place your faith in him as God and that you would accept the atonement and the work of the sacrifice of the cross that is completely sufficient and absolutely able to cleanse you of all your sins and to bring you into right relationship with God. But let's understand about this renewing of the mind. If God exists, if Jesus is God, if he is our savior and we believe those things, then we are in a position to learn and to grow,

and that is a position that is not commensurate with someone who does not believe those foundational things. And again, if you're not in that camp, then assume that it's true. You would clearly understand that they're in different worldviews. If one is correct and the other is not about the core fundamental truths, then the one that is correct has a better chance of apprehending things properly. And for Christians living in the world that is suffused with sin and challenge, it requires a continual transformation and a continual renewal of our mind, simply because we are not going to encounter the same things today that we encountered yesterday. We will be presented with new situations, new narratives, new perspectives,

and we have to be ready to continually grow. We cannot afford to ossify in our faith. It is perfectly appropriate, and I would argue necessary, for us to ask important questions, for us to directly take on the things that we encounter, for us to challenge ourselves. And we don't have to push that too far. We just have to accept the nature of the challenges that the world presents us. We certainly don't have to go around seeking challenges out. Challenges exist and they will come. And when we encounter these

on even a daily basis, an hourly basis, it is an opportunity for the renewing of our mind and it should be viewed as such. And in any event, the appropriate manner of going about it is to reconstitute our dependence on God, to understand with an attitude of humility that everything is made for him and by him, and that to him and through him are all things, and that he is working to transform us, and that eventually the entire world will be transformed, and there will be a new creation. So just as there will be a new creation, that procedure, that process, that development should be beginning with us in our own hearts and minds and continuing on that trajectory. And how does this apply? Well, whether we're talking about your relationship with your family,

your understanding of the Word of God, your apprehension of the world around you, what's going on in your career, of the world around you, what's going on in your career. God is involved with everything and wants to be involved with every aspect of our lives. And so it should create this sense of proper, peaceful dependence when we recognize what is right about the world, that we are dependent on God. It's God's power that sustains his creation in existence from moment to moment. And there are many things about the creation that we fail to understand completely or that remain invented narratives concocted to potentially describe things. But I want to encourage you that it is okay for us to look at our awareness

of things around us and to appreciate that what we think, whether it's taught in textbooks, you know, this is particularly about the world around us, whether it's history, science, any of these different subjects. the world, clear reasoning is incredibly important. And yet, there are many different things that have been established and that are now assumed to be generally true, and are certainly presented as such and taught as such, that may not in fact be the case. And this doesn't mean that all of those approaches to worldview of the physical cosmos are necessarily wrong, but it means that we should not be afraid to ask questions and to provide scrutiny, even if that ends up running afoul of a particular worldview or a particular approach, and whether you want to ask questions about the validity of the Big Bang or creationism or evolutionism or anything else like that, I would encourage you to do so for the purpose of renewing your mind, not for the purpose of taking other people to task, especially as it pertains to the body of Christ. It doesn't mean that people should be above reproach or that no correction or guidance or participation in conversations is necessary. In fact, the conversations need to happen. But we need to behave in such a way that comports with the Word of God. And if that is not guiding our steps in these conversations with other people

about the science, about morality, about politics, about family affairs, about anything that comes up in the course of our lives, then we are doing ourselves a disservice and you could argue by extension being disobedient to the word of God. So here in Romans 12, when we are taught to bless those who persecute you, to be of the same mind toward one another, to not be wise in our own opinion, we are to be humble and loving and caring. in this day and age, it's a constant complaint that that kind of approach has been lost. But I do want to encourage everyone because when I encounter people in the real world, as opposed to seeing narratives that take place online. I find that people in the real world are completely unlike the conversations that are happening online with all of the vitriol. And it doesn't mean that there aren't negative emotions or bad behaviors in the real world, but it's completely different. The internet has presented this mask over reality that if we entertain and incorporate it into our own approaches too much,

can really lead to significant spoiling and tremendous over-the-top cynicism. Now, being skeptical or wary of certain things and not being naive is, of course, important. But to have cynicism or fatalism is to reject many of the promises that are outlaid for us in the Bible. And so when we see here this guidance about behaving like a Christian, repay no one evil for evil, and to understand what our place is to be a representative and what God's place is to be a judge and a meter out of justice, then we must understand that when God is giving us this guidance, that it is for the best. It is part of God's perfect will.

And if we step outside of that, then we are exposing ourselves to challenges that are unnecessary. then we are exposing ourselves to challenges that are unnecessary. And maybe from time to time we need to learn those lessons the hard way, so to speak. But if we don't have to, if we can get that through the Holy Spirit and through the transformation of our minds by reading the Word of God, by staying in prayer, by diligently directing our attention to seeking the kingdom of God, then we can move up all these learning curves faster. And again, not for our own sake, not for our own self-aggrandizement, not so that we can puff ourselves up, but rather so that we can get to a place where we can serve

the Lord more effectively, where we can learn and grow and serve others more effectively so that we then understand that we have a particular place, a particular role to play, and that can change from different times and different seasons. But in all of those different cases, we are not to be conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of our mind. And what does that do as verse 2 in Romans 12 states? It proves what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It is a showing forth of the supernatural power of God to transform lives. And it should be an internal witness of the activity of the Holy Spirit. Now, down in verse 10, how are we to treat fellow Christians? Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love,

in honor, giving preference to one another. Now, I suppose you could interpret this as saying, okay, well, we should favor Christians in all things. If we're ever deciding in any circumstance between a Christian and a nonbeliever, we should always choose the Christian. And that may be true in certain cases. When we give preference to one another, I think we can also take this in the plain sense of caring more for the other person's well-being than our own, of making sure that other people are taken care of before ourselves. And this is leadership. It is beneficence and benevolence, and it is something that is demonstrated to the fullest

extent in Jesus, in his atonement, in the cross. He was kindly affectionate. He loved the world, and he laid down his life, paying the ultimate price for our sakes to give us an incommensurable good of an eternity with him and the establishment of the right relationship with God for us to be brought into that kind of fellowship and into the family of God and to be called friends of God and children of God. friends of God, and children of God. And if Jesus gave us this preference, if he preferred to focus on our well-being rather than his own, then we must do the same thing. And this requires a continual renewing of our mind because the world is self-focused. The world is self-directed. And when we look around

and we see empathy and love and kindness, certainly we see that more so in the real world than we do online where all sorts of different narratives are perpetrated, many of them completely made up out of whole cloth in order to put people into an emotional state where they're more easy to manipulate, we have to notice what is good. We are to abhor what is evil and to cling to what is good. And we can see that readily in our environment if we understand what to look for. And if you don't see it in your environment, then you have to create it. You have to be that example to others. to others. Culture in human society is extremely contagious. And we even talk to our children who are rather young about the impact that their behavior has on those around them, particularly

to our oldest, to let her know that what she does is going to set the tone for her siblings, and that she has the ability to steer that in a positive direction or in a negative direction, and that even if ultimately the parents are in charge, the activities of the children have an influence, an important influence. And according to the Bible, we are intended to give preference for one another. And this is a tendency that is certainly not hardwired into us when we are born. We need to be continually and regularly transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we can say that the Lord has supernaturally given us the ability to put away our old self and to pick up a newness of life that will move us forward, that will show forth to others, that will set a good

example so that we can honestly say that we are pursuing a state of affairs where we are not lagging in diligence, where we are fervent in spirit, where we are serving the Lord, when we are rejoicing in hope, when we are patient in tribulation, when we are continuing steadfastly in prayer, when we are distributing to the needs of the saints, when we are given to hospitality. Brothers and sisters, as we say so often on this program, if even those verses of scripture, let alone all of the other glorious gifts suffused with supernatural power that's contained in the books of the Bible. If just these components, setting this standard, showing us what the way is, and giving us

a direct understanding that these things are not capable of being manufactured or accomplished by our own strength, that it requires humility, that it requires submission to the Word of God, and it requires the supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit that we have to be receptive to, along with all of the correction that comes along with it, with all of the humbling that comes along with it, with all the repentance that comes along with it. But wouldn't our homes and our families and our churches and our workplaces and our communities and our towns and our cities and our states and our countries and our world and the entire creation be a better place if we even all just took a handful of steps forward towards not lagging in diligence, being fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation,

continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality, I pray that the Holy Spirit would lift up one of those things, at least one for you today, and that you would ask the Holy Spirit what you can do to move forward in that area. What can you do to take a step further in your walk with God? What can you do to grow in this respect? And that you would be transformed by the renewing of your mind so you can focus your mind and your intention on improving in these areas. Even if you don't know exactly what that looks like, I pray that the Holy Spirit would grab hold of your heart,

and that you would say to the Lord, Lord, help me to be more fervent in spirit. Or Lord, help me to not lag in diligence. God, help me to continue steadfastly in prayer. Lord, show me what it means to be patient in tribulation. God, bless me with rejoicing in hope. Lord, help me find an opportunity to be hospitable and to be given to hospitality. Lord, help me to serve you. All of these things, glorious, good, worthy of our attention, are things that we should be focused on. There is so much to lead us astray, and the

world has this inevitable gravitational force that wants us to be conformed to it. But we can refuse that. By the grace of God, we can say, I am going to follow the Lord and obey the Lord rather than following the world and obeying it. And we'll need God's help. We'll need God's help all the time, every single day, supernaturally to move us in that direction. So let us remain humble while we're doing this, but let us all take important steps forward for the sake of the glory of God and of his kingdom and for the sake of our families, ourselves, and those around us. If just these pieces of scripture, these phrases, these ideas, these portions, there is so much richness and importance and glory in them.

If we would just dig in and ask the Lord to help us in these matters. Do you not think that the God of all creation who created you and loves you enough to give his own son to pay the price for your sins, if you ask him for one of these good things that he has told you that he wants to see in your life, that he will not help you in this. If you are a parent, if you have regularly told your child, I want you to share more, I want you to be kinder, and they came to you and said, how can I be kind? How can I share better? Can you help me? Will you then turn a blind eye to that request that is humble and obedient and desiring what your will is. God help us if we would turn our children away from something like that. And God is a good father, a perfect father. He will help you in this.

He will give you the Holy Spirit. So earnestly desire it. Seek him and you will find him. Lord, thank you for this time. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the opportunity that we have to be discipled by you and through your Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, help us to latch on to these different characteristics, these important dynamics. Help us to see who we need to be. Help

us to understand that we can only do that through your supernatural power and your transformation. Lord, help our minds to be renewed. Renew our minds today, Lord, that we would serve you, that we would glorify you, and that we would be able to focus and to cling to what is good rather than getting sucked into all sorts of different narratives that are intended to destroy and to disrupt and to distract us. Lord, let us focus on you. Let us walk with you. Let us move forward with you. Jesus, help us. Let us walk with you. Let us move forward with you. Jesus, help us.

Help us in particular to be affectionate to one another with brotherly love and to give preference to one another, to look after each other's needs rather than preferring ourself and focusing on our needs. Lord, you are above all and your name, Jesus, is above all names. are above all, and your name, Jesus, is above all names. Let your name be glorified in our hearts, through the renewing of our minds, and all throughout this generation. We love you, and we bless you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.