Don’t Believe the Lie - I Can Do All Things # 6 - Purity 1361

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning! Today's photo of a view of lush green mountains from the vantage point of what I will call Lookout Road Extension comes to us from yours truly as I captured this somewhat underwhelming scene under overcast skies on Saturday afternoon as my wife and I boldly hiked uphill for a mile to see it before racing back to our cabin to avoid hiking home in darkness. Well, it's Wednesday, and I hiked the 3 miles to get to that quaint lookout point in the Merck Forest Farmland Center, and if nothing else, today's photo can visually represent our arrival at another hump day. Although with the holiday weekend and an unexpected shift in my normally programmed work schedule, this Wednesday proves to be a little bit different. A coworker needed Saturday off, and as I was faced with back-to-back Saturdays, uh, later this month because I was normally scheduled to work during Memorial Day weekend, I jumped at the chance to make a switch for both our benefits. So I work this Saturday, and as a trade-off, I have off today, which actually works out because my generator is scheduled for maintenance Thanks for the 24 hours notice, fellas. And I will use the time off at home today to develop a plan of attack for the spiritual formation of my new life coaching clients. While my initial consultation with my clients introduced them to the basics of life on the path of Christian discipleship with a guideline for daily spiritual practice, and even provided them with a plan to exercise their bodies for an overall holistic approach to mental, physical, and spiritual wellness, I feel convicted to provide them with some fundamental teachings on the Christian faith from Derek Prince that they may not have received at church on Sunday. In my walk of faith, I've read and studied the Bible and various Christian authors extensively and have listened or watched hundreds of— hundreds if not thousands of hours of Christian content to know what I believe and why I believe it. And now, as a Christian life coach, I want to save my clients time by giving them resources that are worth their time, money, and attention. Of course, the Holy Spirit will have to illuminate the truth to their hearts and minds to cause them to be transformed, but I truly care about the growth— about the— their growth, the growth and prospering of my clients, and will do my best to provide them with a spiritual core or foundation from which they can grow into the men that God created them to be, and that will prayerfully inspire them with meaning and purpose. Uh, the power of our faith comes from the application of biblical wisdom to our lives and a personal relationship with God through his word and the Holy Spirit. And I inter— and I intend to encourage my clients to trust and follow the Lord into a whole new way of life. I was just reading the Get Used to Different student guide from the team at The Chosen this morning, and even though it is aimed at young adults new to the faith, it addresses some of the basic questions we all need to answer if we are going to be disciples of Jesus. At the, at the end of the first week of study, this devotional asks the questions about following— asks the questions about following Jesus. It states, to follow Jesus, we have to do things his way. That's the thing about following. We are no longer leading. Duh. So what do— what would it look like to follow God and focus on him instead of yourself? How would it change the way you feel about the hard things in your life? What would change, like actually change, if you truly grasped how much God loves you? These are the questions I'll be putting to my clients. I will be giving them solid Christian teachings that will help with the application of biblical truth, but following the Lord with the way you live your life is not an academic study. They probably know, quote-unquote know, mentally or intellectually much of what I will point them towards, but I intend to challenge them to make God their focus, to adopt his point of view and strategies for dealing with the hard things in life, and to receive, return, and share the love he has for them. To do that, we must know and relate to God personally. And in addition to our relationship with God, we benefit from knowing what we believe and why we believe it. But we must also reject the things that are false. And that brings us to the conclusion of our current miniseries on I Can Do All Things, where where we are sharing from the last chapter of Neil Anderson's Who I Am in Christ, a devotional where the good doctor is advising us to today to don't believe the lie. And Neil Anderson writes, the biggest obstacle I encounter in helping people find their freedom in Christ are the lies people believe. Satan is the father of lies. Jesus is the truth. The Holy Spirit is first and foremost the Spirit of Truth , and He will lead us into all truth . When I share my faith, people sometimes say, "I just can't believe that," and I respond, "Of course you can. If I believe it, you can. Can you believe it?" Belief is a choice. One of the most common lies I encounter is, "I can't do that. I'm not good enough." I don't have the ability. I always expose it for what it is: a lie from the pit. The truth is, I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13. Here is a little poetic encouragement. Neil Anderson shares the following poem, and I'll do the best— do my best not to mess it up. He writes: Someone said that it couldn't be done, but he with a chuckle replied that maybe it could— couldn't, but he would be one who wouldn't say so till he tried. So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin on his face. If he worried, he hid it. He started to sing as he tackled the thing that couldn't be done. And he did it. Somebody scoffed, "Oh, you'll never do that. At least no one ever has done it." But he took off his coat and he took off his hat, and the first thing he knew, he'd begun it. With the lift of his chin and a bit of a grin, without any doubt or quit it, he started to sing as he tackled the thing that couldn't be done and he did it. There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done. There are thousands to prophesy failure. There are thousands to point out to you one by one the dangers that wait to assail you. But just buckle in with a bit of a grin, just take off your coat and go to it. Just start to sing as you tackle the thing that cannot be done. And you'll do it. And Neil Anderson writes, I started this chapter by asking, if God wants it done, can it be done? And if God asks you to, can you do it? The answer is absolutely. And if God gives you grace, can you be content with his will in any situation? Yes, because he is there with you and you are in him, you can say, I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13. And Neil Anderson ends this chapter with a, with a prayer, and we're sharing that today. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for revealing my true identity in Christ. Thank you for showing me from your word how you are meeting my needs of acceptance, security, and significance in Christ. I feel like I need to say, Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief. Teach me to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. I want to be a child of God who lives by faith. I renounce the lies of Satan that say I can't, and I announce the truth that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I pray for the renewing of my mind so that I can prove that the will of God is good acceptable and perfect for me. I love you with all my heart, soul, and strength. You are the Lord of the universe and the Lord of my life, now and forever. In Jesus' precious name I pray. Amen. Belief is a— and this is me— belief is a choice. So seek the Lord, read his word, pray for him to help you, but then make the decision to believe God. And follow him. As our, uh, as the Chosen devotional asked, what would change, like actually change, if you truly grasped how much God loves you? Everything. Everything would change. So choose to believe God and follow him to see what your new everything looks like or includes. Yeah, that's what I wrote. Anyway, uh, we move along to the Bible verse of today. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on depression, and today's verse is Proverbs 28:13, which says, "He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy." Today's verse falls under the first point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on depression. And the first point is: Concealing sin often leads to depression. If you confess your sins and turn from them, you will find mercy. Today's verse comes from the wisdom section of the Bible, and oh, how wise we would be if we could grasp and apply this truth to our lives. He who covers sins will not prosper. Oh, come on, I can get away with it. Oh no, you can't. God knows all and sees all. We don't get away with any of our sins, even if we seem to avoid immediate negative consequences. Sin defiles us and either makes us suffer pretty quickly or causes us to think we are fine, which predisposes us to sin again and quite likely will cause us to sin in bigger ways or to become entang— entangled in sin's habitual patterns. We cover our sins, we will not prosper. But if we confess and forsake our sins, God is merciful to us. We can have peace with God through Jesus and experience an abundant life of mercy and grace when we forsake our sin. So treat the word of God as if it is true, because it is, and allow its wisdom to guide you to know God's mercy, peace, and love. As always, we invite you 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 Alford. And in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of the New Testament every morning and evening. And today's chapter is Romans 4, and, um, from Romans 4, he shares a portion of Romans 4:10, which says, "Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised." And Stephen Alford writes, "It is when one sees such phrases as this one that some of the hidden wonders of this marvelous book are revealed. Paul is propounding the doctrine of the sovereignty of God's grace." and he shows clearly that by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9. To prove his point, he refers back to Abraham, the man who was reckoned for righteousness. He shows that God reckoned the blessing of righteousness to Abraham before he was circumcised. Now circumcision was the work of the law. The operation of circumcision had to be done by man. Thus, if righteousness was imputed to Abraham because of his circumcision, the righteousness would be of works and not of grace. Herein shines the fact that this wondrous book is inspired, for though Abraham lived centuries before, Yet God ruled it that he should be blessed apart from works, thus confirming the teaching of the New Testament. And, and Alford ends his devotional by praying, from beginning to end, how marvelous is your word. Amen. Yeah, and, uh, you know, that's going all the way back to the Old Testament, showing that basically Abraham was redeemed before that circumcision was an outward, an outward expression of the inward change of faith and being redeemed. So he's chosen by God to be his people, and, you know, he became the patriarch, the father of our faith. For, and how did that begin? He heard God's voice and he followed him, and God made a covenant with Abraham. And he said, okay, you're our people and you're going to show people that you're our people by being circumcised. And so it wasn't a matter if you don't get— you know, it was an outward sign that he was chosen, that he was different. And how different can you be? That's pretty different. But yeah, and it's not— it's great news though, because it really shows us that You know, we've always been saved by faith. That's the wisdom that's drawn out in the New Testament epistles, that basically it's always been by faith that we've been saved, never by the law. That it's the faith, the faith in God, the lawmaker, not the law itself, not in our ability to, you know, the ability to fulfill the law perfectly. We couldn't. That's why Jesus had to come. He, he came and he fulfilled the law perfectly. And when we put our faith in him, we're saved. And, you know, prior to that, faith in God, faith in the coming Messiah is what people in the Old Testament believed, that one day God would send a savior. And so those Old Testament saints, they, they believed God would be faithful to send his Messiah into the world, and he did. And, you know, they'll tell you that the verses in 1 Peter or 2 Peter tell you about how Jesus descended into hell and set the captives free. So hell was a little different back then. It was sort of an Abraham's bosom zone of decent, you know, happiness in the afterlife and the place of torment. And gee, where is that highlighted? That's highlighted in one of the parables of Jesus about Lazarus the rich— the rich man and Lazarus the beggar, right? The rich man ended up in a place of torment. Lazarus ended up in a place of, you know, a blessing with Abraham's bosom. And the rich man was begging Lazarus to give him water and to go and tell his brothers about the afterlife. And they couldn't. He couldn't do it. There was a separation. So from that parable, we can, we can draw that any paranormal activity is not your lost, long-lost loved ones. It sort of indicates that any paranormal activity would not be from God. It would be, you know, a deception from the enemy to cause us to believe something that's not true. So we've got to be careful with any paranormal stuff. You know, the spiritists have séances, and generally everyone they contact say, "Oh, you don't have to believe in Jesus." That's great. Who would tell you that? Probably demons that want you to go to hell. So So yeah, we have to be careful with what we believe. So we deny, we don't believe the lie, we believe the truth. Jesus is the truth. And if it goes against what Jesus says, it's a spirit of antichrist. So we want to find the peace, peace with God and peace forevermore, the eternal life that Jesus gives us through faith. So That's good news. Anyway, yeah, I was very happy that my two potential life coaching clients became life coaching clients in the last 24 hours as they submitted their, their, their contracts, uh, basically, um, to be my clients. And now I'm pushing in, and, you know, I feel really convicted to to give them some fundamentals of our faith, some stuff I learned a long time ago from Derrick Prince, one of his books, Rules of Engagement, is what I'll probably share in part. With this, you know, with life coaching, I am gonna— the fact that these men have come to me indicates to me that they want the spiritual aspect of it. They don't want just me encouraging them how to clean up their house or whatever. The fact that I'm a Christian teacher and a follower of Jesus Christ indicates to me that they want something of a spiritual nature in our dealings. I will, of course, you know, take it under advisement and, you know, will seek to only serve them in whatever capacity they decide. But we sort of laid the groundwork for a spiritual thing, and now that it's official, I want to be able to give them something else other than the spiritual action plan that I've already given them. Of course, the spiritual action plan is actually plenty for you to do. It's basically to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit with daily spiritual practices, reading the Bible, and really it's enough, but I'm gonna supplement it because one of the, one of my clients said, "Hey, is there any homework?" Like, well, you know, if you're looking for more, I got plenty. And the Kingdom of God, you know, there's so much to learn about Christianity, it's, it's not even funny. But what would be helpful, you know, what would be helpful for a life in the Spirit that's what I'm going to point to. I'm not going to necessarily point to church history, unless it's something I can use to show these people how to live. If it's something I benefited from, I will certainly point to them. But knowing times, dates, and seasons of the church history or archaic points of doctrine or theology, that don't have a lot to do with your daily life. I'm not sure if I'm going to focus on that. You can go to seminary for that stuff. For me, I want to give you the power of your faith. Like, how do I live as a Christian? That's what I want to give you, and I want to point you in that direction of, you know, how do you live this thing, the Christian life? Because that's been my journey since I since I said the prayer that made me a born-again Christian in 2010. How do I be a real Christian? And, uh, surprise, surprise, it's following Jesus and following his example with how he lived. So, um, it's, it's not too complicated, but, you know, there are certainly questions and doubts and, you know, aspects of the, of this thing that are not clear. And depending on which steeple you sit under, you can be led astray. You know, one such steeple would teach you that prayer is going to church. The end. You know, the best form of prayer is going to church. Heard that before. And while you can pray at church, going into the building, the church building, and sitting It's not necessarily prayer, and I think all of us can recognize that, you know. Prayer life is a conversation with God. It can be done silently while standing, sitting, laying down, walking. It can be done out loud. It's done in the spiritual realm. If there's no spiritual aspect to your prayers, you might as well not pray. It's a relational conversation between you and the Lord where you talk and you listen to what God has to say. And that's just one aspect of it, you know. And some people go, well, teach me how to pray as in make my dreams come true. We have to realize that God has a will that will be done, and it might not include our personal happiness in it, which is a hard truth. I'm gonna give it to you straight. It's not all been peace and joy. You know, the Bible tells you that Christians will be persecuted and that there is suffering and trials to go through. That's the reality of life and the reality of our Christian faith. So I'm gonna do my best to prepare people to live as a Christian. And I'm excited about the opportunity, really happy about it, although it's, you know, big responsibility. I don't want to waste anyone's time, and I don't want to cause anyone pain, but I want people to know the truth and to discover the meaning and purpose of their lives that's found in Jesus Christ. Anyway, that's it for today. I do have the day off, but I do have things to do. I, I gotta prepare things for my clients, and I'll probably do things around the house too. 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've done for us. We thank you for showing us how to follow you and and for leading us to know about you and know who you are and experience your love and presence. Lord, we pray for anyone listening today or reading today's message, that they'd be blessed and that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith. Because Lord, we all need your help, and I, I too am asking for it today. So open my eyes to the things you want me to see, lead me in the way I should go, and and, um, help me, because all I want to do is represent you in your kingdom. And, um, yeah, that's all I, all I want to do. Lord, we, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.