In this devotional sermon, M.t. Clark uses a scenic photo of a winding forest path as a metaphor for the Christian journey, urging listeners to stay on the path of discipleship despite temptations like anger, bitterness, and addiction. He shares two recent relapse case studies: one involving a person whose marriage pressures led to secret drinking, missed meetings, and a relapse driven by the conflict between family commitment and the desire for freedom; the second involving a person who, after a betrayal, initially forgave but later entertained thoughts of revenge, resulting in relapse and family harm. Clark emphasizes that true freedom comes from God, not from substances or self‑indulgence, and that forgiveness must be heartfelt and ongoing. He cites 1 Corinthians 1:10‑17 to stress unity among believers and warns against “personality cults” where followers elevate a charismatic leader over Christ, referencing John Ferrer’s blog. The sermon also promotes various resources—counseling references (John G. Kruis), A.W. Pink’s anthology, the Celebrate Freedom discipleship course, podcasts, and the Bondage Breaker study—inviting listeners to engage with the church’s online platforms. The message concludes with a prayer for those struggling with relapse, for listeners’ spiritual growth, and for the Lord’s guidance in living a life of freedom, peace, and obedience to Christ.
Chapters
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 winding asphalt pathway cutting through a sunbathed late autumn forest comes to us from Fred Dimmick, who shared this scene that he captured while visiting Caney Creek near Murphy, North Carolina on Monday. Well, it's Thursday and I share Fred's photo of a highway pathway because of its scenic beauty and and as a visual reminder to myself and you to get on or to stay on the path of Christian discipleship, because I know how difficult that can be, especially when we forget who we are in Christ and we let anger and temptation consume us. Recently, I've encountered a few fellow travelers on the road to recovery who unfortunately have taken a detour into relapse, and the underlying causes seem to be very similar, if not the same. Anger, or the bitterness of unforgiveness. In one case, the person involved had made the decision to go into recovery because of difficulties in their marriage. Their secret drinking was increasingly a problem, and eventually it led to an ultimatum: stop drinking or get divorced. This person chose their marriage and family and started on the shaky road to recovery. They struggled initially, but soon they had days and weeks of success and recently had reached the milestone of a full month of sobriety. But apparently last week, due to a busy schedule, they missed checking into their normal meetings. But all seemed well and they would resume their normal meetings next week. The good news is that they did go back to their meetings, but the bad news is that even though they made it through last weekend and report it was a good weekend, when Monday came, calling the stress of the world and the spiritual forces of darkness rushed in to drive them into despair and into relapse. And they currently are, are currently struggling with the question of do they want their marriage and family, or do they want to be quote unquote free to drink? After a month of success, they are right back to square one, asking the questions that should have been resolved from day one. But let's give them some grace. Recovery is not easy. Changing the way you have lived for so long is not easy. Having the rules change later in life doesn't seem fair. And let's be honest, this compelled or coerced entrance into recovery is not the best way to find success. From day one, I have encouraged this person to choose recovery for themselves, and ideally as an expression of their faith, a natural outflowing of your decision to live for God and follow Jesus. Because if we only choose to sober up because of someone else, because of the negative relational consequences of our drinking has caused, we will end up resenting the very person we made the decision to go into recovery for. I can't drink anymore because of them, or can I just have a few drinks? Can I be free to do what I want? No, you can't. We can choose what we want, But we are subject to those choices. Choose to sin, choose to suffer, as the old adage goes. And drunkenness, let's face it, read the Bible, is a sin. Also, the fact that the past clearly demonstrates that no, you can't just have a few drinks. More often than not, you get drunk and you do things that cause problems. Also, the fact that you continually go back to the bottle shows that you are a slave to it. That's not freedom, that's bondage. Real freedom is being able to choose to become the person God created you to be, a person who solves problems and loves others, not a person who causes problems and drives people away. So standing up for your selfish right to get drunk and making the people you love suffer through it is not the life God wants you to have. He wants you to be free. Another relapse that happened recently was driven by unforgiveness and bitterness. This person was in recovery and had a betrayal befall them, leading them to relapse and to be placed in a rehab for a month. While in rehab, they listened to good counsel and made the decision to forgive the person who, who had betrayed them and resolved to stay in the relationship. They went home and everything was good again for a time. But then I saw this person share a social media post whose content highlighted the desire to seek revenge. It was a movie clip from Ben Affleck, from a Ben Affleck movie where he enlists a friend's help to not ask questions and to just agree to go with him to go, quote unquote, go hurt some people. I knew that was a bad sign. And sure, sure enough, less than a week later they relapsed and have broken relationship with the person they had, quote unquote, forgiven in an angry outburst that had collateral— that has caused collateral damage to their children. With forgiveness, we need to forgive from the heart and take people off of our hook and put them on God's hook and not seek revenge. Forgiving from the heart means never bringing up the person's past offenses and using them against them again. Also, forgiving from the heart is a conscious decision that we— that will need to be made and recommitted to as, as some of sin's consequences are delayed. We have to deal with this, with some fallout from the past as we go into the future. So we have to choose to forgive and keep on forgiving in some cases. This person didn't continue in forgiveness. Instead, they entertained thoughts about revenge and it led to relapse. In both cases, the magic elixir of alcohol that was supposed to soothe their hurt and calm their souls drove them into hurting themselves and others. Instead of putting out the fires of anger, It was like they threw gasoline on the smoldering anger and bitterness that was just below the surface, despite their outward facade that told the world everything was just fine. So what do you do? Well, you go back to God, always. You ask for forgiveness and resolve to follow Jesus in the pathways of peace. Instead of isolating in your anger, you study his word to renew your mind and and you talk to him in prayer to receive wisdom, strength, and healing. You start walking and talking with God and follow Jesus' example. You forgive from the heart and you embrace the truth that addiction to anything is not freedom, and that you believed a whole pack of lies to think that drunkenness, gluttony, or sexual immorality or good things. Oh yeah, I got all those. Um, God will lead you out of the darkness, but you have to choose to follow him freely and to adapt his righteous, forgiving, and loving ways more and more each day. When you repent and start living as the Christian you claim to be, um, the Lord blesses your path. And even though it may be difficult and frustrating at times, the consequences of walking in his ways will lead to good. Romans 8:28 says, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. God has called you to his purpose, to live a simple, good, righteous life that represents his kingdom, to be more and more like Jesus. And when we walk toward that purpose, God works all things together for good. To who? To those who love God. So love him and follow him out of the darkness of anger and the bitterness of unforgiveness, and find peace that comes from living with and for God. Today's Bible verses come from us— come to us from The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on: The Church or Communion of the Saints. And today's verses are 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 from the English Standard Version. The Word of God says, I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers, What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. I did baptize also the household of Stephanas, But beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Today's verses fall under the fourth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on the church, or communion of the saints. That fourth point is: Keep the unity of believers. Don't follow men but Christ. Today's verses highlight the fact that division can happen even in the quote-unquote Church of Acts, and that we are not to follow men but we are to follow God. Christians are supposed to display the fruit of the Spirit, peace. But when we put our allegiances into a person or a system that causes division rather than, uh, rather than in God and the truth of his word, that should result in peace and love. We know we have gone astray. As the Lord would have it, crossexamines.org's John Ferrer shares a blog post this week that talks about personality cults, where even biblically based Christian gatherings can be subverted to the following of the quote-unquote the head man, a narcissistic charismatic leader that rules their flock with a lone wolf approach to decision-making, inflicting vindictive punishments on those who don't follow their edicts, showing us the dangers of putting a pastor or minister as the lord of your life rather than following Jesus. I'm sharing the link to Ferrer's article on the blog today if you want to check it out and to examine whether or not you may be in a cult of personality. So as today's passage says, let there be no divisions among you. And seek to be united in the same mind and the same judgment that makes Jesus the one and only Lord of your life. 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 their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Arthur Pink Anthology, as we are sharing, uh, the sixth track, uh, from that collection. Called Christian Fools, and today is part 3 of that. If you want parts 2 and 1, you have to go back a couple days, as yesterday we interrupted our normal broadcast to provide a teaching on discipleship in the kingdom of God. So we, we just spontaneously agreed, you know, started to share that as those lessons will be shared Wednesday nights at our growth group at Celebrate Freedom growth group at Star Point Church. I decided to share them on the blog and on YouTube and on the podcast. I had a heart to do that for a long time and it, it's come to a head. So we're gonna, we're gonna develop the remaining 6 lessons from our Celebrate Freedom discipleship course and roll them out each Wednesday for the next 6 weeks. So if I wasn't busy enough, we got that. But I really wanted to do it and and, um, I hope it blesses some people out there. I was very blessed today, um, to, uh, well, yesterday, to receive word that somebody wants the notes from the, the, the Bondage Breaker study that we did back in 2021. Um, so they emailed me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com and asked for them, and I sent them out this morning. I'm very blessed by the people who are subscribing to the YouTube channel, so we appreciate every increasing number and those requests, just because I want the message of Freedom in Christ to go out there and to empower Christians in their walk and to experience freedom where they're not claiming their freedom to drink or to, you know, eat what they want or to, you know, have whatever sexual relationships they want, but instead they agree with God's Word and realize that drunkenness is sin, gluttony is a sin, and sexual immorality is not to be seen anywhere in the church. The only approved sexual use is between a man and a woman in a covenant relationship, meaning a marriage under God. Otherwise, whether it be masturbation, straight sex, gay sex, or some other perversion, they're not approved. By God's Word. And when your life is a mess because of those things, it's because you're not following God. So, and I get that, believe me, it's difficult to change and live according to a Christian worldview and according to God's Word. But when you do it, you know, all things are worked together for good because your love for the Lord is shown. Because as Jesus said, those who love me will follow my commandments. And So we obey and we benefit from it. But, uh, when we choose our own rights over it, our own selfish desires, that's when there's a problem. You make the Lord of your life yourself or some other person, and, uh, there's— problems will result because we're only supposed to follow God and Christ's example. Um, as always, we encourage a lifestyle of Christian discipleship because we were set free and we live in that freedom continually. And yes, we have to forgive people continually, but that's it. That's, that's part of the, that's part of the walk. That's what Jesus did for us. He continues to forgive us, and so we forgive the people in our lives. And, and, you know, we set decent boundaries if we can't maintain peaceful relationships. So anyway, we do invite you to check out the, the discipleship teachings we have on our blog and our podcast and our YouTube channel for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. We have the Bonhoeffer study as well, and we also have begun the Celebrate Freedom discipleship course. And like I said, that'll be 6 additional lessons to the one we put out yesterday. Anyway, we do have a day job, so we go about this rather quickly. And we should pray about it. Uh, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for, you know, the goodness that we've experienced by following you. And Lord, we pray for our brothers who, who've been struggling with, uh, relapse, uh, recently. And we just pray for your Holy Spirit to guide them in the way they should go. We also pray for anyone listening or reading today's message, that they'd be blessed. Uh, we pray for them Uh, Lord, that you would bless them and come alongside their prayer request and guide them in the way they should go. And as always, we ask you to go before us today, Lord, because we need your help. We want you to open our eyes to the things we need to see and move our path into the things we need to do to best represent you in your kingdom. That's all we want to do, is represent you and show other people the way to freedom and peace with God. Through faith in Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
