Always Say “Yes” to God - Purity 1470

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Uh, today's photo of my canine pal Harley looking over the freshly harvested farmlands off of Waite Road as the sun shines over a fog-shrouded landscape comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene yesterday morning in Easton, New York. In the brightness of that misty morning light, we might have passed on through to the other side and were on the highway to heaven, or so it seemed. Um, well, it's Monday, and although I wasn't delivered to the heavenly realms yesterday to see Jesus face to face, I had enough holy joy right here on earth to make waiting for the— that blessed day not seem so bad. Uh, yesterday I was blessed with the company of my friends, the Sincatis, for another Bible study, and afterwards was delighted to discover that my niece Grace and nephew Noah were saving us seats at, um, Starpoint Church's 11:30 AM service, which was a blessing because I was running a little late. Uh, Pastor Roscoe's Lily message on dealing with anxiety by going to God in prayer and thankfulness And remembering the Lord's faithfulness in the past to— in the past, wait, yeah, remembering the Lord's faithfulness in the past to process present-day problems based on Philippians 4:6-9 was a word that helped up my gratitude game by presenting me with the option of not just thanking the Lord for the general or big blessings in my life, but by being specific and giving thanks, for the small or immediate things in my life by focusing on the day before. I love how God uses the body of Christ to encourage one another and to share ways to be closer to him. And Roscoe's advice to be thankful for yesterday to launch each new day was advice that I found helpful and put into practice today. Uh, after church, I was then blessed by the fellowship of my brother-in-law Law's growth group, uh, gathering where we reflected on Roscoe's message and encouraged and prayed for one another. So all in all, it was a day filled with Christian fellowship and joy that only comes from saying yes to following Jesus. Uh, today's In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotional inspired me to think about how we are blessed when we say yes to God, so I am sharing it on the blog to encourage us to always answer in the affirmative to the Lord. And Dr. Charles Stanley writes, saying yes to God. Our greatest blessings often flow from choosing to follow the Lord in small, simple ways. God's simple requests are often stepping stones to life's greatest blessings. When Peter said yes to Jesus's too small request, his whole mission changed from fisherman to fisher of men. An unproductive and backbreaking night's work no doubt left Peter weary. Luke 5:5. Yet he willingly accepted Jesus on board and pushed his boat out from shore so the Lord's word would carry to the crowd. After delivering his message, the Lord told Peter to head out to deeper water, even though the timing was wrong. Despite the unlikely hour for success, Peter obeyed. Was blessed with not one but two loads of fish. Often God's blessings result from our compliance with seemingly insignificant requests. If we refuse his promptings to perform minor actions, what reasons— reason have we given him to trust us with more important responsibility? Had Peter refused to lend Jesus's boat or risk a midday fishing expedition, he, he'd have missed the blessing of a big catch and perhaps even the opportunity to be an apostle. Over the next few years, Peter personally witnessed miracles more spectacular than any he saw that first day. Honoring Jesus's first request eventually led to the disciples' sermon at Pentecost and the salvation of 3,000 souls.

That was all from Dr. Charles Stanley.

And this devotional hits home on many levels for me. The first message I ever preached was based on Luke 5:1-11 because I could relate to Peter's words in verse 8. When Peter realized he was sitting in the boat with the Messiah, he said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Peter didn't think he was worthy, but Jesus chose him and told him, Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men. Peter had said yes to Jesus twice before this question. As Stanley's message points out, his affirmative responses resulted in two blessings. One, having a front row seat to hear Jesus's teaching, and two, receiving two boatloads of fish, a miraculous catch that confirmed Peter's suspicions that he was in the presence of holiness. But Peter's third yes made all the difference— to follow Jesus. And even though Peter would later fail by denying Jesus three times, the resurrected Christ restored him by asking Peter if he loved him 3 times in John 21. Saying yes to Jesus always leads to blessings, and even if we fail, we can be restored by saying yes to following him again. So say yes to Jesus today, tomorrow, and always, because he gives life and restoration to all who humble themselves and agree.

To follow his lead.

Today's Bible verses come from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses, folks, uh, come from the section on forgiving others. Today's verses are Luke 15:20-24, where the word of God says, and he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate.

Today's verses fall under the seventh point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on forgiving others. And the seventh point says, the father of the prodigal son forgave him and accepted him as completely as if he had not sinned. This father represents God. Thus, Jesus reveals how God treats repentant sinners. And today's, you know, today's Bible verses give us all, all give us all cause to celebrate. If we turn and repent from our sins and ask Jesus to be Lord and Savior, we, like the prodigal son, are welcomed into God's royal family, not as hired servants but as sons and daughters of God. Our repentance and faith in Jesus make us children of God. Christ tells the story of the prodigal son to show us that God is love and forgiveness can be received when we simply turn from our sin and come back home.

That's amazing grace.

As always, we encourage everyone to go to mt4christ.com, 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 According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Allford.. And in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is 2 Peter 2, and from that chapter he shares, uh, verse 20, which says, for if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. And Stephen Alford writes, The whole of this chapter is very much like many of the parentheses of Hebrews. Here Peter describes the character and practices of a false prophet, but the most striking verse is the one quoted above. Though obviously not born again, it is possible for such a man to escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge— intellectual knowledge, not experiential knowledge—

of the Lord Jesus, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Just as salt preserves them in the midst of corruption, so the knowledge of Christ preserves a man from the pollution of the world.

But if not born again, the end of such a person is worse than for the ignorant sinner. And Alfred ends by praying, Lord, help me bring those with intellectual knowledge into relational experience. Amen.

And, uh, yeah, we have to have that experiential knowledge.

Mental assent isn't necessarily going to do it. It may put you in, you know, into a nominal faith or cultural Christianity, but the life-giving faith that we put in is a faith where we commit ourselves to following Jesus and doing things his way. Um, where we make him our Lord as well as our Savior. And, um, you know, that's why we always ask the question, um, have you fully surrendered to God? Because if you have, you're not just a nominal Christian, you're a disciple of Jesus Christ, where you try to learn, uh, what you should do according to Jesus's teaching and the word of God, and you try to follow, and you and, you know, you know the love of the Lord. Um, it's not just a bunch of actions and rules and, you know, belief systems. It's a relationship with the living God. And, you know, there's— it's a love relationship where we receive God's love, feel his forgiveness, and, um, you know, accept it and, uh, accept our calling to, to be his sons and daughters and be disciples and to make other disciples in the earth. And, um, you know, not only does it set us personally free, but it gives us, you know, the motivation to help other people. And it usually gives us a call to ministry. And, uh, you know, it can be a simple ministry. For me, I was blessed to be, um, called to be the leader of the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, which meets on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM at Starpoint Church.

We invite anyone in the Upstate New York region that can get to Clifton Park on a Wednesday night to join us for Christian Recovery and Discipleship, where we teach walking in the Spirit and overcoming those hurts, habits, and hangups. Um, but if you're not in the Capital District, we also encourage you to find or increase your freedom in Christ by, uh, checking out one of our teachings on YouTube. Um, we have playlists for The Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, Freedom in Christ, and our very own Celebrate Freedom Discipleship course.

We invite you to check those out because we found the, the teachings to be transformative, and thus we, we took, you know, we, we try to— tried our best to present the material so you can help others, and we made it available on YouTube. So invite you to check those things out.

And, uh, as always, we always ask the question, uh, are you empty for Christ?

And, uh, what that means is the whole idea is that we make ourselves available for the Lord's work to be done in us. We ask the Holy Spirit to continually infill us, to empower us for ministry, and to help other people, and to be transformed personally, um, to, to repent even more, um, to be more and more like Jesus and the people he created us to be, you know, God created us to be. So we invite you to get on the path of Christian discipleship to, to do that, um, because we, we've discovered that it was the path less traveled that makes all the difference, um, And the fruit that grows— peace, joy, love, and kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, and patience and self-control— come along with that.

So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom.

Lord, we thank you, uh, so much for the things you've done and the things that— the good things that happen when we say yes to you. Um, you've given us a hope and a future, a family and purpose that we didn't have before. And most of all, we've received your love and your forgiveness, Lord, and the new life that leads to you. Lord, we thank you for that. And Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that they know you personally and surrender to your will for their lives that's good and holy. We pray for you to help them, guide them, and come along their prayer requests, Lord. And, uh, lead them in the way they should go.

While you're at it, Lord, you can lead us in the way we should go today as we, uh, go back to work, um, on a Monday morning.

So we need your help. You show us the way to go. Help us to see the things we need to today and to do the things you'd have us do, Lord, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, and, um, we need your help with that. So, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.