As Each One Has Received a Gift - Purity 1405

Good morning, welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast, or 24/7 podcast, with me, M.t. Clark. And, uh, this is today's photo. Um, good morning. Uh, to see today's photo, you can go to mtforchrist.com, follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch me on YouTube. And, um, good morning. Today's photo of the sun breaking through the branches of a gargantuan tree comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene back on February 22nd earlier this year when I was vacationing in Orlando during a spontaneous visit to Eola Lake Park just before our return flight to Philadelphia. Um, well, it's Friday and thank God, and I would have liked to say that our trip to Eola State Park was just before our return flight home, but due to difficulties in getting to our connecting flight, we ended up driving from Philly, uh, to get back to the upstate New York in the wee hours of the morning. Things don't always go according to plan, and I share today's photo of this mammoth tree because I got trees on the brain. Because I have a huge felled tree in my backyard that we are fixing to fix today. Although we will see what Mirabén can do as Scott Salvador, yes, the 2-time defending reigning mullet champion of the United States of America, is coming down, is coming down to help me with a big, to make a big problem smaller. As I mowed my lawn yesterday, at least the parts of it that weren't covered by each felled tree, I realized just how big the tree is and just how fortunate I am that things fell the way they did. In a previous vlog, I had admitted that I was lucky that it didn't fall toward my house, but in my mind, I wasn't fully convinced that the tree would have hit anything. And may have fallen short of crushing my car, my house, and myself, who was at home seated at desk, at my desk when the wind roared in and I heard the loud crack of the tree splitting in two and falling to the ground. But yesterday, after I examined the scene more closely, I realized that it would have definitely hit my car and house, and it could have caused damage to my property and possibly to myself. Lucky to be alive? No, I'm blessed to live under the protection of the Lord is more like it. In examining that split tree, with one side falling to my neighbor's property without even hitting the fence that divides our land, and with the other half falling uphill out of harm's way, in both instances, I imagined the hand of God or a team of his mighty angels causing those big trees to fall just so as to leave his beloved Saint, me, and his vehicle and home unscathed. Um, God is so good, and I really don't want to hear about luck or coincidence or forensic trajectory evidence that would explain away his blessing. Uh, instead, I will rejoice. I will rejoice and be glad. I mean, seriously, be Do things tend to fall uphill or downhill in your experience? You know, I know the skeptics would look at my quote-unquote miracle and scoff, uh, that this miracle was going to cost me time and money to clean up. But I realized that not only will it cost me a whole lot less time and money than the things, uh, than if things had gone the other way, but this time of trial has also caused me to draw closer to God as this calamity and my desire to press into my faith are occurring at the same time. Due to the situation with the tree, I'm, I'm asking questions I wouldn't ask normally. I'm receiving help that I wouldn't know I could get. I'm in awe over the frailty of life and the bigness of God, and I'm further convinced of our need to seek God's will in all the areas of our lives and taking care of our responsibilities as good stewards. To what God has given us. I utilized openbible.info this morning to look for verses on stewardship and am sharing the link, uh, to their 100 verses about stewardship on the blog this morning. And although I can't say I can't share them all, I will share the following ones that stood out to me. Uh, the first one was Genesis 2:15, uh, from the New King James. It says, then the Lord God took took man, took the man, and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. We were created to have dominion over the earth and to work to keep what God has given us. And there was Colossians 3:23, which says, and whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men. Everything we do should be seen as an extension of our relationship with God. It, it wasn't listed, but Paul goes on to say in verses 24 and 25, Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. Not only are we to do things heartily for the Lord, but we can expect rewards for our word— our work, sorry. And conversely, we can expect recompense or payback if we do wrong. God's truth and consequences. And then there was, um, 1 Timothy 6, uh, 6 through 8, which says, now godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. We should be content with what we have because all of it is a gift from God., and by implication, we should take care of the things we have received and use our gifts for good. As Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:10-11, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let them speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. We have received much in life, but importantly— but more, most importantly, we have received grace through our faith in Jesus Christ. So we should tell others about it and use what gifts we have received to bless others, to give God glory. This passage goes on to tell us that our lives will not always be a rose garden, as Peter tells us that we shouldn't think it's strange when we fall into fiery trials, verse 12, but we should rejoice in our calamities because we have God on our side and we are more like Jesus if we're suffering well. So let's get through this last day of the work week with patience, peace, and joy, and take on all that is required of us, because we know God has given us all we need for life and godliness. Yes, he has gifted us with many blessings. As we move through the day, let's take care of business in a way that will remind others and ourselves of who we are in Christ, and that will give God the glory as good stewards of his mercy, grace, and love. Today's Bible verses, um, come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John D. Pruitt. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on false prophets and teachers, and today's verses are, uh, Galatians 3:1-9. And the word of God says, oh foolish Galatians, who, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly betrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law? Or by hearing with faith, just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And by Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So that those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Today's verses fall under the 9th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on false prophets and teachers. And that 9th point is: don't be like the Galatian Christians who were easily led away from the purity of the gospel by false teachers, the Judaizers. Uh, today's verses are the chastisement of the Lord coming through the Apostle Paul, uh, to the churches in Galatia and to us today to remind us that we were never saved because of our works, and we are fools to believe that we could ever be saved by our performance. False teachers and prophets will always add requirements beyond faith in Christ alone for salvation. If you are told that there is something that you must do to be saved, to be saved, that is beyond faith in Christ alone, you're getting bad or misguided advice that comes from someone who doesn't truly understand grace or is a false teacher seeking to lead you to serve them rather than God's kingdom. What must I do to be saved? Well, Romans 10:10-13 tells us, for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Put your faith in Jesus and you shall be saved. The Word says it, and I believe it. I also believe that we are to follow Jesus once we believe, But I'll advise you to go to school with the Holy Spirit, and, uh, by reading the Bible and allowing the Word and the Spirit to guide you in the way you should go. As always, we encourage you to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ for their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word, Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. And today, uh, the passage is based on Galatians 2, and from Galatians 2 he shares a portion of verse 2, which says, I went up by revelation. And Stephen Alford writes, here is a definite instance of guidance by revelation. Revelation is moreover the work of the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Revelation. And it is only when one is entirely controlled by him that one can have a revelation. And he continues to write, I went up. Paul was— Stephen Alford continues to write, I went up. Paul was obedient to the revelation just as he was to the heavenly vision on the Damascus Road. That which was so practical in life of the apostle ought to be just as practical today. Oh, that I might know definite great guidance, not only in matters of great moments, but in ordinary things as well. And Alfred ends by praying, reveal your will to me, Lord, day by day. Amen. Amen. And, um, yeah, revelation. The Holy Spirit will speak to you. He'll speak to you when you read the word. He'll speak to you when you pray, um, you know, he'll lead you and guide you in the way you should go. And sometimes he convicts you of what you need to do that you haven't been doing, about being a good steward to what you've been entrusted with, to doing God's will, to being sanctified. He'll lead you into all truth. He won't condemn you, uh, he won't lead you astray, he won't lead you into the sins of the flesh. He'll lead into the fruit of the Spirit, which are joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, love, uh, patience, and, and self-control. Um, that's what grows when we follow the revelation of the, of the Lord. Um, so that's what we encourage here. How do you get the revelation of the Lord? Well, you start by fully surrendering to God. I fully surrender to God as much as I can be Yeah, um, but you know, I know I'm not perfect, and in many ways I need, need to change. Um, and the good news is there's joy in that journey, um, and growing. You know, uh, A.W. Tozer, Saint Wolf, he said, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. But I say what we do with what God's word says about us is the most important thing about us. Um, yeah, it's like thinking about it's one thing, doing something about it's another. And we encourage a lifestyle of Christian discipleship, uh, because we've been led to do that and it's had amazing changes, you know, led to many good things in my life. Um, better health, better faith, a better life, a better outlook on life in general. You know, and freedom from addictions and negative mind states. So that's why we're— we do what we do, is to encourage people to find what we found, um, the abundant life that is talked about in the Bible. And so what's next? Well, for me, uh, we, we start, uh, the Celebrate, uh, Freedom support group at Starpoint Church next Wednesday. At 6:30 PM. Uh, the mullet champion Scott Salvador is part of the Celebrate Freedom team. So if you want to see the, you know, the mullet champ, uh, preach and teach from the word of God to encourage you to change your life, you can see it. Because he let me know that as Allah directed— I give the gratitude, uh, to my dean, uh, to our team, uh, at Celebrate Freedom to, uh, to grow. And Scott's grown exponentially since coming, coming into the ministry. And, uh, he'll be teaching week 1 on denial, and probably he indicated maybe the first few weeks before he passes the hat to one of the other team members. So I'm looking forward to it. And if you're in the Capital District and want to find a Christian support group that'll help you change and grow in who you are in Christ, and, you know, possibly get set free from You know, those, those hurts, habits, and hang-ups. Come to Celebrate Freedom. Um, yeah, so that's Wednesday next week, and every Wednesday until the end of the year, um, we'll be teaching and meeting. So we invite you, uh, to join us. Um, and that last thing I just clicked past was, uh, something to look forward to in the fall. There are Freedom in Christ discipleship courses available from Freedom in Christ Ministries, and you can go there by— go there, go to ficm.org and look for their courses, and you'll find all kinds of different discipleship classes that are available online for men and women. And one of the Freedom in Christ classes online for men is Tuesday nights at 6:30 Eastern Time. And that's the one that I'll facilitate. So if you wanted to, uh, join me on Tuesday nights from the— in the fall, uh, to get set free in Christ, to learn about your faith and to help up, you know, uh, to get set free, to, you know, resolve those personal spiritual conflicts, uh, you can join me by joining that class, uh, and we'll see you in September. Anyway, um, are you empty for Christ too? You know, are you fully surrendered for God? You know, if so, keep on walking and talking with God. Um, God's given us a plan for each of our lives, and we have to walk it out to find out what that is. So we stay in communication with him. We, you know, we're open to the possibilities of what He'll bring to us. So, uh, one of the ways we get there, um, to find the possibilities is we pray. So let's do that. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Thank you for the freedom you've given me through your Son, my Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we just thank you so much for all you've done for us, and we just pray for you to go with us today. And we pray for the people who might be listening or reading, today's message or watching on YouTube, uh, that you come alongside them, their prayer requests, their walk of faith, because we all need your help, Lord. And all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, and we need your help in that. So, Lord, we just pray for you to go before us, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, lead us in the way we should go. So, Lord, we pray all these things. Um, and in the mighty name of Jesus, amen. And have a great day as I try to stop the recording in a timely fashion. God bless.