A Community is Formed - 28 Day Joy Challenge – Day 19 – Purity 1075

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Today's painting, uh, Light in the Forest by Alexander Prokopenko, oil on canvas, which features a pathway through the woods leading to an unseen destination, comes to us from a Facebook friend who shared a post featuring this work of art that was shared on Passion for Art, uh, on the Passion for Art Facebook group, of which I am now a member. Lately I've been triggered by the number of sponsored posts in my feed, and I joined today in hopes that it will bring more beauty to my Facebook experience. Well, it's Thursday, and I share today's work of art because it highlights a pathway, and it is a tradition of mine to share photos of pathways on Thursday because Thursday just happens to be the day I originally went to and later served, taught, and led a Christian Recovery Ministry, Celebrate Freedom, at my former church. It was through those Thursday night meetings that I was able to find freedom from my addictions and was able to discover my freedom in Christ and my purpose for God's kingdom, which is to encourage others to follow the Lord, that a life of authentic Christian faith is the way to an abundant life filled with the fruit of the Spirit. And so I share these pathway paintings or photos as a visual reminder to myself and to you, and as an invitation to stay on or to get on the path of Christian discipleship. Believe me, this is the path that leads to life. It begins with faith in Christ and continues as you continually seek the Lord in his will for your— will and purpose for your life. This is a path of progressive victory and freedom, so it should come as no surprise that this path leads to changes. And even though I took a hiatus from doing quote-unquote recovery ministry since 2021, uh, to launch a community freedom ministry at my local church and to lead online national Freedom in Christ discipleship courses for Freedom in Christ Ministries, I have once again been called into recovery service this spring, as I was enlisted to lead a recovery growth group at Starpoint Church. But a lot has changed since the last time I taught through the Celebrate Recovery material at Celebrate Freedom in 2020. I have learned much more and experienced much more, and when I agreed to take on this opportunity to serve at my local church, I made it clear that I was going to do more than just recovery. I was going to encourage people to live by faith by incorporating this in discipleship principles alongside the recovery material. And early on, I understood we really were doing something new, as the preach it, teach it, then discuss it format that I was used to, uh, doing wouldn't really work for a quote-unquote growth group that implies a deeper relational aspect to it. Ironically, this was just what I wanted to do—heart-focused discipleship, where the group members all contribute to one another's healing and growth into spiritual maturity. But how do you do that? And if you did that, would it work? Well, I took the feedback that I got after our first meeting to be more like a growth group to heart and decided to forego the stand-and-deliver style of presenting the Celebrate Recovery material for a group presentation where all the members would share in presenting the material with the opportunity to speak freely as much or as little as they felt led. I also introduced doing some quieting and appreciation exercises and material to encourage people to add positive practices to their lives that would build, build joy and increase emotional resilience to counterbalance the quote-unquote giving up or quitting aspect of recovery. If we are encouraging people to remove things, behaviors, or thoughts from their life, we should give them something else to think about and do. So I introduced lists that proclaim the truth of who we are in Christ and encourage the development of a spiritual daily practice where they could walk and talk with God. Ironically, even though I tried to make things more like a growth group, Attendance was a little erratic, and a few people appear to have chosen to stop coming to the meetings. I hope that isn't the case, and I hope they come back, but I don't know why— I don't know why they stopped coming, and I won't ask or try to chase them down. In this regard, as challenging as it can be at times, I try to follow Jesus's example of letting people be free to walk away. I know from my own experience that this path must be freely chosen. That no amount of work on my part can make someone follow the Lord. Don't get me wrong, we have had a small and faithful following at Celebrate Freedom! thus far, but I wondered whether the people attending would keep coming when the lessons turned toward the taking of moral inventory of their lives. Spiritual encouragements are all well and good, but after the first few lessons, things begin to get real as the material guides you to not only trust God to help you, but to commit your life to him and to do the work of repentance, to examine the past, to recognize where you have come from so you can walk free into the future. So last night I wondered if the people would show up, and I wondered if they would keep showing up after we went through the— over the introductory lesson on doing a moral inventory of their lives. I was very pleased to see the regulars and a new member show up for the meeting. The sharing, worship, and lesson went really well. One of our members shared their powerful testimony of how their poor choices had medical consequences and they feared losing their lives, and how they went to the Lord and received healing and encouragement to surrender to God's will. It was a powerful night. But just as I think— just as I thought things were going well and was encouraging the group to do some quieting and appreciating practices for homework before breaking up into separate men's and women's discussion groups, one of the members got my attention indicating they had something to say. I have to be honest, although they started with positive comments, I anticipated a big but followed by an announcement that this group isn't for me, or I will no longer be returning, maybe because a previous one-time participant had done that via email. However, I was pleasantly surprised that the reason they wanted to speak was the exact opposite of opting out. They poured forth generous praise and thanks for the group and the encouragement that they had received by the people there. Were confessing that they were on the fence before last night and had been contemplating walking away because of their own fears—probably a product of spiritual warfare—but had come to the realization that our group gave them a tremendous opportunity and an environment in which they could grow and experience the life that God wanted for them. This confession led to other spontaneous praise and encouragements from other members. That proclaimed their intention to keep coming and to be an encouragement to one another. It was at this point that I realized that we didn't just have a meeting or even a growth group. Last night it was confirmed to me that we had a community, a heart-focused discipleship community. I have been blessed to be a part of a community that has decided to follow the Lord and to encourage one another along the way. I now feel confident that our little group will endure, and I know that as we continue to walk together by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, not only will the lives of the people in our group be transformed, but we will also become a beacon of hope for others to see and come alongside of as we go. I can't wait to see what happens over the next few months. I anticipate breakthroughs and growth., and I believe that this is just the beginning of another mighty work of the Lord at our church. Speaking of anticipating good things, that brings us to our current series where I am walking through the 28 Days to Joy Challenge because we are encouraging ourselves and others—you—to find peace in our lives by increasing our capacity for joy and by building our emotional resilience through simple practices of quieting and appreciation. The 28-Day Joy Challenge is based on Dr. Marcus Warner and Chris Coursey's latest book, The Four Habits of Joy-Filled People, and you can sign up to take it for free and purchase a variety of books from Warner and Coursey on the topic of joy by going to fourhabits.org. And the link for that is on our blog. So let's jump into Day 19, which will direct us to consider not one but 3 things we are looking forward to. And the 28 Days to Joy Challenge says, Day 19: Anticipating Joy. Welcome to Day 19 of the 28 Days to Joy Challenge. Today's encouragement: Practicing and growing your joy, even if it is new and challenging, is good for our brains. Joy helps us see our lives and the world around us in a new way. We are excited to go on the adventure with you today. Today's practice: Exercise 19. Today we practice looking for joy in the future. How this exercise will benefit you: Anticipating good things can revive hope in our lives and help us start dreaming again. Exercise steps: Think of 3 activities, interactions, or relationships you look forward to with joyful anticipation. It may be something you will do this week or further in the future. What about these opportunities is meaningful to you? Identify, identify what feels satisfying for each one of each one on your list, including how you feel as you expect each one. Have fun with this exercise. We pick up tomorrow with more joy practice. And that is all from our friends at 4habits.org. And, uh, let's see. Well, I went in cold to today's practice, so I feel very fortunate because of how the Lord has filled my life with great relationships and good things, uh, present and future to anticipate. Uh, depending on where you are coming from, I can imagine that contemplating 3 things that we are joyfully anticipating can be a real challenge. When you are in the midst of struggles or a season of trials, it may be difficult to anticipate anything good coming your way. But that is exactly the point of why we have to actually do these quieting and appreciating practices, um, to train our minds to see good things and to joyfully experience and anticipate them, instead of walking through life afraid of the next bad thing that is coming your way. Yes, we live in a broken world where we suffer, but that only increases our need to build our joy and emotional resilience through these practices. They ground us, prepare us, and increase our ability to return to joy even in the direst circumstance. So, let's practice. For me, I am anticipating something good tomorrow, next week, and in the months ahead. Tomorrow I joyfully anticipate, uh, being reunited with my life— wife Tammy Lynn. We are doing the one marriage, two household thing, and so each week I always have something to look forward to, being in her presence at her countryside home on the weekends. And as a bonus, it is my birthday this Sunday, in which I will get to celebrate an entire year of my life all the days of my 50th year on earth as being Tammy Lynn's husband. I don't know what we will do, but whatever it is, I anticipate that it will be good just because I will be with her. Next week, I joyously anticipate the next meeting of Celebrate, uh, the Celebrate Freedom growth group. It was quite a night last night, and I anticipate that we will continue to grow and enjoy the community that we have found. We have expanded our safe place into a community, and it feels wonderful to be a part of something so life-giving. In the autumn, I look forward to traveling to Indiana for Deeper Walk International's 35th anniversary conference with Tammy Lynn. Not only will we enjoy the pleasures of travel and one another's company, um, we will be given the opportunity to enjoy some great Christian teaching. Fellowship firsthand. I am currently in Deeper Walk's School of Prayer Ministry and have amazingly grown more in just a few months that I have been part of their co— of our cohort and have applied what they have taught me at Celebrate Freedom. I love autumn, I love to travel with my wife, and I love the community I have found with the people at Deeper Walk. So I joyously anticipate this October spiritual pilgrimage to Deeper Walk's headquarters. So what about you? What 3 things are you joyfully anticipating? Doesn't have to be some grand plan, just something good coming your way. So think about it, and if you got nothing, remember that God's mercies are new every morning. So look forward to that, and then plan on doing 2 things you can enjoy, and you'll be all set. It may not be easy to think of your life as joyful, But when you consider the everyday blessings you receive, you can realize that you actually have a wonderful life and that God will help you and guide you through it as you decide to follow him. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is 2 Corinthians 12:9, and the word of God says, each time he said, my grace is all you need, My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. Today's verse tells us that we don't have to do everything in our own strength, that we really can't. But in our weakness, God shows his strength in, in and through us when we trust in Christ and rely on God's power, strength, and wisdom to help us. The power of surrender is another Christian paradox. When I am weak, I am strong. What? Yeah, when, when we admit that our ways just don't work and we surrender to the Lord and decide to believe what he says about us and life and choose to do things his way, we receive his power. Through faith in Christ and the decision to surrender my life to him, I have accomplished things I would have never dreamed of doing. I have overcome things I never, never have thought possible and seen amazing things come to pass. So admit your weakness and come into relationship with the Lord through faith in Jesus, and let his wisdom and power work in your life. As always, we invite you to go to mtforchrist.org, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit as we begin chapter 10, The Holy Spirit Regenerating. And the first section of that chapter says, self-regeneration is impossible. Um, yeah, so do-it-yourselfers, I'm sorry. Uh, A.W. Pink's, uh, saying there's some things you just can't do by yourself. And we might need the Holy Spirit to help us. And, uh, I, I agree. I'm not sure what he writes, but, uh, if you're curious, you can find that resource at the end of today's blog post. And also at the end of today's blog post, you'll see encouragements to join our, our discipleship classes, uh, Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, which are all available on the M.t. Clark 247 podcast. And our YouTube channel. So we encourage you to do that. Um, I found those teachings— like I said, I, I, um, well, two things happened. Um, the recovery ministry I was leading in 2020 sort of went belly up as things— people just stopped coming. Um, and then I decided, you know, to get trained in Freedom in Christ, uh, Steps to Freedom in Christ, and to become a Community Freedom Ministry Associate. And I launched that, uh, the ministry that focused on these teachings. And these are the classes I did in 2021 when I, uh, when I led that in my local church. And that led to serving Freedom in Christ Ministries on a national level by doing the, uh, the Freedom in Christ course online. And, um, you know, this latest, this latest journey into recovery ministry again may have taken me off that path, but But, uh, it's good to be here, and, uh, you never know, you just go to the next thing. So I'm not sure where 2024 will take us, but for the rest of this year, we have Deeper Walk International's School of Prayer Ministry to keep me busy, and this, uh, this amazing growth group, uh, that we've, we've, we've been blessed to, uh, blessed to facilitate at Starpoint Church. So more things to look forward to. Anyway, something we might not be joyfully anticipating is our work life, and I gotta run out the door, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom and the job we have. Um, Lloyd, uh, Lord, we just, uh, ask for you to go before us today so we can joyfully anticipate getting through another work day to get one day closer to the the day I'll be reunited with my wife at our countryside home. Um, Lord, we thank you so much for everything you've done in our lives, and we thank you for anyone who's listening or reading this message. We pray for you to come alongside them and help them with their walk, Lord, because we all need it, and, um, we need your help and guidance through life, and we need your strength because we are weak and you are strong and you are wise. And we've come to discover that yours are the ways to life everlasting and wisdom. So we need your help. Guide us. We're asking you to go before us, to open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and to lead our paths in the things you would have us do. Because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, Lord, um, because of the life that you've given us. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.