Are Struggling Christians Demonic Plants in God’s Garden - Purity 1257

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 sunrise on the horizon over the eastern stretch of Waite Road comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene while out walking back on the morning of November 24th, 2023. Even though that day was what man has declared as Black Friday, God had different ideas. Well, it's Thursday, and I remembered my tradition of sharing pathway photos on Thursdays, and I'm glad I did, because somehow I didn't share this one sooner. Anyway, the reason I share pathway photos on Thursdays is because that was the day of the week that I originally took my first steps into recovery and the freedom that the Lord had for me. It's been a pretty fantastic journey since that first Thursday back in March of 2015, and although I can't say that it was easy, I can say emphatically that it was worth it because my life now is filled with peace, love, joy, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness— working on that one— patience, ditto, and self-control. Uh, the fruit of the Spirit. When you get— when When you walk in the Spirit, you experience the fruit of the Spirit. The decision to surrender my sin and myself to the Lord's will for my life was a good one, and it had— and it has been one that has— that continued to make— that is, and has been one that I have continued to make, continued to make ever since then. Our victories come one day at a time, and when you string enough of them together, you realize realize that you have been set free. I've been reflecting on how the Lord has helped me and how we have walked together to see all this come about, and I am somewhat flabbergasted and disappointed, uh, when I see others locked in bondages of the flesh, heart, and mind, and how they seem to not get it. Surrender to the Lord's will for your life. Renew your mind with the Word of God. Seek the Lord in his righteousness. Turn from your ways and follow his ways. Know who you are in Christ and live according to it. Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Anything? Hello, Bueller? The thing about leading a recovery ministry— Celebrate Freedom Growth Group, Wednesday nights, Starpoint Church, be there— uh, is that you often run into brothers and sisters in Christ— that in Christ is in quotes because you wonder— who are locked in vicious cycles of sin confess and who seem to be waiting to be magically transformed in an instant by God, and who seem to be passive participants in their walk of faith. The matter-of-factness of how some can repeatedly confess the same failures over and over again and who seem to lack any real guilt, shame, or heart conviction about the continual sin they perpetrate not only frustrates me but makes me seriously wonder, um, about whether or not this person is in the quote-unquote state of grace at all. Their deer-in-the-headlights, sinner-saved-by-grace confessions make me wonder if this is one of Satan's tares among the wheat, because although they come to church and may even serve in the church, their resignation to sins from the quote-unquote "sins that send you to hell" list—see 1 Corinthians 6:9-10—make me shudder to think that one day Jesus may declare to them that even though they were regular church attendees and may have done some good works there, He never knew them. A study of the Word of God and passages like 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 made me very concerned about the authenticity of my faith and led me to surrender to the Lord's will for my life and to go into recovery to ask for his help to be set free. While my path, uh, to the place of freedom and victory where I am now was not perfect and has come in stages, tackling one stronghold or foothold at a time, there was always progress, even if it was one painstaking step after another, or one day at a time after one day at a time. When I see someone continue to make the same old ho-hum confession and report no progress, I fear for their soul and wonder if they are in the Kingdom at all, and begin to expect that this person suspect that this person is a demonic plant in God's garden, meant to distract, disappoint, and frustrate the Lord's disciples in some sinister scheme to rob us of our hope and joy. And frankly, ultimately, that might turn out to be the case. I don't know. I don't know that to be the case. And regardless, as a Christian who's dedicated his life to encouraging others to follow the Lord, to find their freedom, I have to accept the fact that I can't save anyone and I can't change anyone. Only the Lord does that. And I have to remember that the measure of someone's victory or freedom isn't up to me either. Repentance is something that is granted to us by the Lord and is dependent on the individual's decisions and relationship with God. I was reminded of this principle, uh, concerning personal responsibility recently in my reading of Dr. Neil Anderson's Discipleship Counseling. Where he writes the following: Christians will never experience wholeness or victory or mental, emotional, and spiritual health until they assume their own responsibility. No one can be healthy for someone else. Good health is not contagious, only sickness is. Nobody can eat right, get enough rest, or exercise for another person. The same truth holds for spiritual maturity and victory in Christ. No one can practice Christian disciplines for another person. Some people ask for help with their attitude, begging, "Fix me." If you love them, you would help them understand that you cannot. Only God can change who they are. If any lasting change is going to take place in their lives, it will be directly related to what they have chosen to believe and do. That quote was from Dr. Dale Anderson's Discipleship Counseling. Great book, I recommend it highly. So while I will pray for, encourage, and give lots of pep talks and advice to those who claim to want to be set free, I realize that I can't do the work they need to do for them, most of which is to— is the work of surrendering their lives to God, following Jesus, and knowing, believing, and living according to who they are in Christ. I realize that ultimately it will be their relationship with the Lord, not me, that will make the difference in their life. So if you have broken people in your life, don't try to fix them because you can't. Encourage them to follow the Lord and love them the best you can, but understand that not everyone will be walking with us on the path of Christian discipleship, and not everyone will realize the abundant life that God wants them to live. But as for us, let us give thanks for the freedom we have, and let's not be frustrated and distressed over someone else's failures to the point that we lose the peace and joy that we have been blessed to receive. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on communication Gossip and lying. And today's verse is James 1:19 from the New Living Translation. The word of God says, "Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry." Today's verse is the first of 5 passages of scripture that fall under the 5th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on communication, gossip, and lying. And that fifth point is be quick to listen, slow to speak. Today's verse is preaching to the choir this morning, as I was severely tempted recently to go storming into someone's problems with tough love and to angrily make demands and ultimatums to try to compel them to be, quote unquote, smart, or do the right thing and do what is right. Um, then I saw the Then I saw the temptation for what it was. It was either my pride that wanted to wield control over someone else's life, or the whispering of the enemy who was looking to cause division and strife in my relationships. And I wisely decided to surrender everyone and everything to you, Lord. I was blessed by remembering benevolent detachment, letting go and surrendering them to God, or to Satan, according to 1 Corinthians 5:5, knowing that my efforts would likely prove to be futile and would only accomplish stealing my peace and joy. Sometimes we have to let things fall apart or let someone feel the weight of the consequences of their poor decisions and consciously choose to be slow to speak Quick to listen and slow to get angry. Instead of being quick to be angry and quick and speak angrily, I was quick to listen to the Holy Spirit and let go and let God with the things that aren't my problem. Uh, someone failing to do what they should is not my problem. Granted, we will have to limit and put up boundaries to keep people's problems from spilling into our lives, but if we do that, we can allow people to fall without dragging us down. But we have to make them aware that if they refuse to be quick to listen to us and heed our advice, our help to them will be limited or removed. If we want to live in freedom, we have to— we may have to cut some people loose and let them fend for themselves. Paul refers to dropping weights as we move forward to follow the Lord, and as— and we should realize that our difficult relationships may be the heavy things we have to be free of. So, he— today's advice: be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to be angry. But let the ones who make you angry know that you are not going to give them the power to cause you harm or to steal your peace, and that they may find themselves on their own. Ouch, that's fire. Anyway, as always, we, we, as always, we invite all to go to mt4christ.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 According to My Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Allford. which is a collection of devotional journals from 1940 and '41. This devotion basically offered— directs people to read a chapter of scripture from the New Testament every day, and today it would be Matthew 17. So read Matthew 17, and Alford comments on verse 27 from Matthew 17, which says, nevertheless, lest We offend them. Go to the sea, cast in a hook. And Alford writes, in this verse, the Lord practices his own teaching on offending and takes every step to avoid offense. Some of the most severe language the Lord ever used in his teaching was in connection with the offending of little ones. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. From Matthew 18:6, from the new— from the King James Version. The, uh, Alford continues to write, the Apostle Paul similarly teaches this important truth, and indeed more. He lived it. He says that even if it were merely in the eating of meat that he made his brother to offend, he would cease to eat altogether. Note the solemn words in 1 Corinthians 8:12: When you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. And Alford concludes with this following prayer: Oh, that I might have the wisdom to live a life without offense and yet not compromise your holy word. In Jesus' name we'll pray. Amen. And, uh, yeah, that's, uh, some difficult, uh, uh, some difficult passages there. You know, we shouldn't offend the little ones. We shouldn't lead people into sin. We shouldn't, you know, we shouldn't do things that are going to mess other people up. So we have to, you know, be loving and look out for the weaker brother who might not have the theological understanding that some things are are permissible and not harmful for our walk, but that would, you know, basically lead them to sin. Examples of this from 1 Corinthians was the eating of meat, but one example from contemporary times could be drinking alcohol. While drinking alcohol is not a sin, drunkenness is, and that's a fine line. So you could— you can have a glass of wine or beer at dinner, but you know, when, when it moves into drunkenness, it becomes sin. So some people might be able to, you know, do that with no problem, you know, basically where they don't get intoxicated, whereas other people, if they have that one beer, it's going to lead to another and another and another, and it'll— and that's, that's when they'll fall into sin. The first beer is not a sin, it's the one that makes drunk that makes sense. And for me, uh, somebody who has a history of recovery, uh, I can tell you that it's a slippery slope, and, uh, it's one that I don't walk on. Uh, I don't play those games. I think I could actually do it, but you know what, I'm not gonna, you know, I know my limitations. And quite frankly, I don't really need to test, test the spirits, right, by drinking spirits. Um, I don't need it, you know. That's a liberty I don't need to try to take because I'd rather, I'd rather, you know, go without than, you know, risk falling into drunkenness and sin and throwing away my recovery, you know, throwing away my freedom. I've been set free from it. Why would I put myself back in the place where I was once in bondage? So for me, I choose freedom and I choose joy And I choose to be filled with the Holy Spirit rather than, you know, filled with wine. That's me, and that's my walk. I won't condemn anyone, but, you know, when we turn to a substance, any substance, to receive peace or comfort, we have to wonder if we're dependent upon that more than we are on God. We have no peace. Are we going to God at all? Are we just going to the things of this world? If so, that could be considered idolatry and, you know, show who we really worship. The people that I've been talking about, you know, indicate that, you know, they may keep making the same confession of the sin that they keep going to. I'm deeply troubled by it because I see no heart conviction. I don't see any, any, you know, I don't see any shame. I don't see any disgust with themselves. I, you know, not that you you know, there's no condemnation. But where's the conviction? Um, you know, pray to the Holy Spirit to get some, because I, I can't give it to you. But there should be some real, you know, some real, um, woe over the fact that we're locked in a sin cycle like that. And it's not this, you know, and, and the, in the picture in the Bible that, uh, we look at when we see repentance and confession is Judas and Peter. Judas you know, felt real sorry and then hung himself. You know, that's the world's sorrow. Whereas Peter felt sorrow and repented and became a spokesperson for the church. You know, there's a big difference here. You know, we confess our sin and commit ourselves to God and renounce it. We'll find the freedom. And we have to decide. It's not magically given to us. We are We have free will, and if we use that free will to pray for strength from the Lord to not fall into sin, he'll answer our prayers and give us strength. If we, you know, we have to be smart and wise and, you know, not run to the things that, you know, we have to look at our sin, see how we fall into it, what are the conditions that lead to it, and try to change things. And, you know, and throughout it, we rely on God. We form a deep relationship with him of love and trust and, and, you know, prayer and asking for help. And, and God will be faithful in that. And, and then we use our brother, you know, the body of Christ, our brethren, uh, you know, help me to be accountable in this. Help me. I want to set a goal where I, you know, don't sin for a week, and then maybe we can do 2 weeks, and then a month, then a year, and then, wow, I've been set free for a year. I don't have a sin problem. I have a victory, you know, parade going on here now. So that's the parade I'm on, and we take it down all new avenues. My confession is, you know, freedom from drugs and alcohol, freedom from sexual addiction, and freedom from food addiction. It's been a progressive walk, and the Lord's been faithful, and I'm not done. There's other things, you know, impulse buying for one. So there's always something to work on and things we can do to become more and more free and more and more like Jesus. So we encourage the path of Christian discipleship because we know it's possible and we're loving life. And, you know, to say I walk in the Spirit and experience the fruit of the Spirit is a bold statement, but It's a true statement. Not that I'm without frustrations or, you know, struggles of my own in terms of my mood sometimes, but we reflect on the Lord and man, there's joy there. There's peace every day. We start with gratitude every day. So, you know, do a spiritual practice of getting in the Word and praying and, you know, being intentional about the way you live and the Lord will bless it. And he'll walk with you. So let's, let's walk into work today as it's Thursday. Um, you know, we have our responsibilities, you know. Oh, why can't I just stay home and pray and read my Bible? Uh, because I have physical needs, and the responsible thing is to, uh, to work, to, to have money to provide for my home and family and all that. And so that's what we do. We do what's right and God blesses it. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do for us. We thank you for opening our eyes to the truth, and we thank you for your word to guide us in the way we should go. We thank you for your Holy Spirit to convict us in our hearts of what needs to change and to, and to lead us day by day. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message that they'd be blessed and that they— you come alongside them and their prayer requests, their walk of faith, because we all need your help, Lord. And when we surrender to you, you catch us in your arms and you lead us in the way we should go. So Lord, as we go forward today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see. Lead us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, and we desperately need your help with that. And so that's our prayer for today. And Lord, we love you, we thank you, we praise you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.