And We’re Up! Independence and Experiencing Freedom Purity 774

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a woman paddling— well, paddleboarding underneath an ethereal sky towards a blazing sun comes to us from a friend who shared this photo from their maiden voyage and initial attempts at this sport back on June 20th. With effort, they succeeded and happily announced, "And we're up!" to celebrate their victory and freedom to explore the nearby waterways in a brand new way. Today in America, we celebrate our nation's Independence Day. It is my prayer that my friends celebrate their freedom today in a way that will give them peace and joy. It is also my prayer that we all express our thanks to our country's forefathers and ancestors who fought for and created our country, and the God that blessed their endeavors to establish a country in which we can freely live and worship the Lord. On July 4th, 1776, in our nation's Declaration of Independence, the forefathers of our country appealed to claim the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that we are endowed with by our Creator God. In the Declaration, they listed the offenses of the tyrannical rule of the King of England declare their intentions to throw off the bonds of despotism and alter their former systems of government. At summation of the Declaration, the forefathers appealed to the Supreme Judge of the world— again, that's God— to rectify their intentions to govern themselves with a, quote unquote, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence. With our Declaration, the forefathers stood on the truths regarding freedom that were self-evident, that God created, and made an appeal to the Lord to provide the freedom that they sought, relying on His protection. History tells the story of how their efforts were blessed with success. However, although the forefathers invoked the truth of the or— of the order that God created and made an appeal to receive His divine providence on July 4, 1776, The seeds of discord detailed in the Declaration had happened years before its signing, and the fighting of what became known as the American Revolutionary War had already begun with the Battle of Lexington in Ap— in April of 1775, and wouldn't conclude completely until 1783, when Britain accepted American independence in the Treaty of Paris. God's providential hand can be seen throughout this period of American history But America wasn't instantly blessed with freedom. Freedom isn't free. Men and women had to suffer, fight, and die in the process. Men had to resist the injustices and take action. So today, we should be very grateful for our nation's founding fathers and citizenry who paid the cost in order that we can be free. And of course, as Christians, we should also be thankful for God for establishing his created order in which it is very evident that all men were created equal in his image, as the word says, and that his word supports the fact of our unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Sharing a link to an article, uh, by desiring.god.org's John Bloom on that topic today. Of course, as Americans, we are free, but unless we are able to exercise our freedom, we wouldn't really be free. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution, for instance, gives us the freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and the right to petition the government. If the government stopped me from sharing my blog or podcast and silenced my voice that wishes to encourage faith in Jesus Christ and living free in Him, I would be able to say that my American freedom was in name only. Meaning I was free in theory but not in practice. Likewise, I, I can challenge Christians to make sure that they are exercising their rights to life everlasting, liberty in Christ, and the pursuit of joy, the happiness that is not based on circumstances and goes beyond all understanding. If you don't have joy and peace, which could be said to be freedom from fear, anxiety, and depression, Or if you don't have freedom from the sins of the flesh, I would say that your claim to life in Christ and Christian freedom is in name only. You are not experiencing or exercising your freedom in Christ. So today of all days, I would encourage my friends to make a declaration to throw off the oppressive governments of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and to declare yourself to be independent of them. By paradoxically declaring your freedom by declaring your dependence on God. That's okay. The forefathers did the same thing in our nation's Declaration of Independence. They recognized His truth and relied on His divine providence for their success in experiencing their freedom. And like a Revolutionary War hero, we can follow their example by declaring the injustices of a life of selfishness and sin and the tyrannical rule that we have allowed ourselves to live under by appealing to the supreme judge of the world to help us. But just like a Minuteman who risked everything to experience freedom, we too, as Christians, must be willing to do more than just declare ourselves independent from our problems that steal our freedom. We must wage war on them, and with the Lord's help, defeat them. Through Jesus Christ, God has given us the victory. Through Christ, God has given us freedom. But to be truly free, we have to experience it. And to experience it, we must fight the battles of spiritual warfare and strive to live under the government of God's kingdom rather than the tyrannical rule of the world, the flesh, and the devil. So fight the good fight of faith and keep walking and talking with God. And one day, maybe today, you can, like my friend on her paddleboard, announce, "And we're up!" when you experience rising above the things that kept you from living free in Christ. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Joel 2:13, and it says, "Don't tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead." Return to the LORD, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love; he is eager to relent and not punish. Today's Bible verse speaks of the heart work that is inherent in turning from the things that grieve us and is required for knowing the LORD's compassion and mercy. Not for nothing, but choosing to accept Jesus as LORD and choosing to return to the LORD with our initial salvation or after a fall into sin can be some heartbreaking work. The real hurt in this heartbreaking work of repentance, though, is to our pride mostly, but it can also be pain born from the fact that we may have known better but still chose to rebel against the Lord and go our own way. Coming to the realization that our sin is something that is wicked serious also seriously wicked, and is something that we simply cannot pay back, is a heartbreaking loss of our belief of our self-sufficiency or relative goodness. When we learn sin is sin and we are as lost as the most despicable rebellious criminal, our pride is destroyed as we realize that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. The fact of our cosmic treason against the Lord is deserving of punishment and is irredeemable can cause us to lose hope and grieve. But the Lord calls us to repentance, forgiveness, and a life everlasting through Jesus Christ. Today's verse assures us of God's unfailing love and that the Lord is not out to punish us, but we must receive His mercy and compassion through faith in Christ alone. When we realize God's love by accepting Jesus as Lord, our grief turns into joy. But today's verse can also apply to those of us who should know better, who have Jesus as Lord, but have unwittingly or very determinably fallen into sin again. Here the Lord is telling us not to beat up— beat ourselves up, but to tear our hearts, change our minds, to put our hearts into following Him. God's mercy and compassion His compassion and love are infinite, so if we stumble, we just need to return to the Lord and we will receive it again. But to stop the sin-confess merry-go-round of shame, we need to tear our hearts and return to the Lord with all our heart, all our minds, and all our strength to experience the freedom that comes from following Him. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my Brothers and sisters in Christ with a Walk, today we continue sharing from Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness. Today we're in chapter 5, and the topic is Jesus on the Attack: Exorcism. So if that doesn't interest you, I'm not sure what would. So if you want to know, know about Jesus and his attacks on the enemy, you know, go to M.t. Clark christ.org, and you can read what Clinton Arnold shared in his book about that topic. As always, um, we encourage a life of freedom in Christ, and that's a life that we have to choose, uh, to follow, to— and choose to fight for. Um, the heartbreaking work that we do is to change from the world system and what we thought were the ways we should live our lives that were established by our families and societies, and instead choose the good rules, uh, the good government of the Lord. That leads us into righteousness and peace and joy. So we encourage you to declare your independence from the enemy, the world, the flesh, and the devil, all of it, and declare yourself dependent on God. He'll guide you from the darkness to the light and into a life that's filled with peace and joy. So if you're, you know, I was deeply, you know, I was somewhat motivated to write today's message because I saw a post on Reddit today from somebody who was claiming, you know, it's a Christian mod or group that they do on Reddit for prayer, and this person was praying for mental health, and they were lamenting about how they're not what they used to be and how things have changed over time and how they're struggling and how they were praying and calling out to God to help them. And, you know, I sensed a deep desperation for help and a calling on the Lord, but I did not sense a seeking of the Lord. You know, you can pray to the LORD. I guess that is seeking the LORD. But are you pursuing your life in Christ? Are you pursuing your freedom in Christ? Do you know who you are in Christ? You know, the remedy to the depression, anxiety, and fear, and obsessive-compulsive stuff is to focus on the LORD and to focus on who we are, what the LORD says about us. You know, we don't lack for anything. When we have life eternal in Christ, really the things of this mat— this world sort of fall into place, you know. And, and, you know, we agree with the truth, and that's not just the truth of the, of the Word, it's the truth of the world. The truth like we're gonna have to work, that's, that's from the Word too, by the way. From Genesis. The fact that we are going to have to work to support ourselves. The fact that we are going to have to, you know, the Scriptures are replete in the instructions to be thankful and to rejoice. How do we do that? You know, do we just put on a happy face? No, we stand on who we are in Christ. What do we have to be so happy about? The fact that we are free and that we do not have to fear death. Have you experienced the joy of your salvation? No? Then you have to pursue it. You know, it is there for the taking. Christ has given us the victory, He has given us the freedom. But if we are going to sit around and whine and be complacent instead of, you know, pursuing the LORD and His righteousness, turning from our sins, turning from the world's nonsense and distractions, and focusing on Him. You know, if we're not pursuing the Lord, we really have nothing to complain about. And if we're just looking in the mirror and crying, we're missing a lot in life. You know, "Why does it have to be this way? Why do people not like me?" You know, because the world's desperately wicked and broken by sin. The Lord likes you. The Lord loves you. The Lord's got some good things to say about you. You should consider the sources. You gonna listen to the world that's full of temporary beings that are desperately wicked and broken by sin, or you gonna listen to a holy God who tells you you're good and that has invited you into his kingdom to— and not just to receive blessing, but to give blessing by finding your purpose in Christ by sharing his love. So Christians who sit and boo-hoo, I will pray for. But brother, pick up a book, pursue the Lord, you know, look, open your eyes to the goodness of this world and, and the goodness that is in this life of brokenness. You know, the fact that you're not suffering— go to the nursing home, go to the hospital, and, and do some comparative analysis of your life of suffering versus others. And repent. Even if we're in excruciating pain, we have the Lord God Almighty and we have the promise of life everlasting that's free of pain. So put it in perspective, you know. And as much, you know, I, you know, and, you know, I've often been accused of, you know,— well, I don't know accused of, but I often feel condemned that I have had an experience that other people haven't had, and if they only had my experience, you know, they could too believe and follow the Lord. Well, the Lord didn't necessarily just throw it at my feet. You know, he gave me salvation, but after that, oh Lord, there was a little, you know, there's a lot of following. And a lot of learning, a lot of questioning. Did you do that? You know, um, I don't know. You know, I can't give you my salvation experience. I can't give you the experiences I've had since in my walk, but I can invite you to go find yours. I can invite you to go seek yours out, because I can assure you that they're there. They're waiting. They may have already happened and you forgot about them, and and you need to remind yourself, or you need to educate yourself by the Word instead of just sentimental, you know, paraphrases from the Word. You need to perhaps read the Word instead of listening to a pastor dish it out week by week. Usually you get a couple verses and that's about it. You know, even if you're at a church that, you know, that reads the Word and, you know, you know, really digs into it. What are you doing? You know, you need to take personal responsibility for your mental health and your spiritual health by turning to God. Return, you know, stop, stop, you know, grieving in your heart. Instead, tear your heart and follow the Lord. You know, you can feel sorry, you can feel sad, or you can repent and turn to the Lord. So, so how's that for some nice talk on this lovely day? But really, if you want your freedom, it's there for the taking. The Lord's provided it. If you don't know the Lord Jesus and you're listening to this, guess what? I think he's calling you to know him. He's calling you to a life of discipleship, and the life— and that's not just, you know, reading the Bible and everything else. There's going to be other things just to represent somebody who believes Jesus Christ has a purpose and a mission in this world, to love your family and forgive people. These are all parts of the— parts of the whole that is your Christian life. So I encourage you to walk in it, and if you don't know how to do that, I provide teachings because it took a lot, a lot of years, a lot of pain to learn this stuff. And luckily people like Dr. Neil Anderson sort of, you know, put it all together in a book. I can't— not everything, but certainly enough to help you experience your freedom. So we invite you to check out our teachings on mtforchrist.org. M.t. Clark 24/7 Podcast and our YouTube channel for Victory Over the Darkness, the Freedom in Christ course, and The Bondage Breaker. You know, these books can transform your life if you believe, if you practice, and if you follow these things. It's all conditional. The unconditional love of God pours out on everybody, but it's sort of conditional on the fact that you make Jesus your Lord and Savior and follow him. So we encourage you in that walk and to build your, you know, if you're in it, congratulate yourself and keep going. If you're not, keep seeking, keep seeking the Lord for yourself, you know. Stop following men and start following the Lord because you'll find him, and men might help you along the way We don't blindly follow somebody as our spiritual leader because our spiritual leader is the Holy Spirit, and he's going to lead us all over the place in terms of his word and our purpose in him. So I can stop sermonizing, I guess, and we'll pray for this day. I hope everyone has a happy July 4th. I'll be marching in a parade today to celebrate my freedom and to honor my father-in-law's mission to support our troops who have dedicated a part of their life to uphold our freedom through military service. So that's a good thing. And I'm gonna love the freedom that I have in Christ. So I recommend you do the same on this July 4th. Um, let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for this another day in the kingdom. Thank you for the freedom that was so hard fought, um, by myself through repentance and by your Son, our Savior, who died on the cross, who really brought us the spiritual life and just invites us to know our freedom more and to know you more through your word and through practicing our faith. Lord, we pray for everyone listening today to be encouraged, not to be condemned, to turn their hearts, to tear their hearts and to follow you, Lord, knowing that, you know, the only, the only loss is our pride and the victory is won. The freedom is experienced. The joy, the peace, the love, the goodness, the faithfulness, the kindness, the gentleness, the patience and self-control all come from following you. Lord, we just thank you for for what you've done in our lives. And we pray for everyone listening today that they'd have a happy July 4th, and where they can love one another and, uh, you know, rejoice over the freedom that's been won in this country and that's been won on the cross. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.