Easy As Sunday Morning Purity 1425

Welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. Uh, to see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Uh, good morning. Today's photo of sunrise pouring through a row of pines and over the green grass of a local golf course comes to us from M.t. Clark, who shared the scene on social media yesterday wishing all his friends a happy Sunday. Well, it's Monday, and on this first day of the work week, I hope that you had a happy Sunday, but it's my prayer that you spent some of your time yesterday worshiping the Lord. I was in a rush, uh, during the morning commute to church yesterday because I had to grab a few clothing items from my dresser in my countryside home at the last minute because I go on vacation Friday night and want to be sure to have what I need, uh, for two nights in a tent in the Adirondacks. But even though I started, uh, a little later on my trek into church, uh, than I would have liked to, I wasn't annoyed. I was happy to be going to church. And as I was trying to get to church on time, my thoughts turned to the possibility of what it would be like to not have God and the community of my local church in my life. Uh, it was difficult to imagine life without church on Sunday because my faith encompasses more than just the couple of hours of a Sunday church service. So I had to reach back into the darkness of my past to remember what it was like during the few years of my life where there was no church at all. And surmise that if I didn't go to church on Sunday, I would probably sleep in and watch TV. That might not sound so tragic a fate, and it might— may even sound like a good way to spend your time. But I've spent too much time in the presence of the Lord to ever want to stop seeking him, and shudder to think of the spiritual darkness I would have to slink back into to contemplate living a secular or normal life again. You see, I've come out of the darkness of a lifestyle of sin and even a few years in a false religion, and I have witnessed enough evidence of God's kingdom and the demonic forces of darkness to ever want to go back to a life without God again. Uh, so as I hurried to get to church, it was a— it was easy to rejoice in the fact that I was going to church and that I was fully accepted as a child of God. As I drove past multitudes of people who were engaged in other activities and who were more likely, more than likely, irreligious or didn't know God like I know God, I felt simultaneously sorry and sad for them and extremely happy for me. I know how rare the revelation and knowledge of God that I have received and experienced are, and as I thought about it, I became more determined to work to share this good news with others and to work for God in whatever capacity he would call me to, to expand his kingdom. Uh, I also became very enthusiastic to praise the Lord at church. As I drew closer to church, I became more excited. And at one intersection, I had the idea that they really should blast that stadium music, uh, outside of the church as we go in. You know the kind of music I'm talking about, right? The kind that gets you fired up for a ballgame where it's largely instrumental and accentuated with vocal cries of "Hey!" or "Yeah!" That would be awesome. But then as I pulled into my well-attended enthusiastic church, I realized that even among believers, the joy I was experiencing was a little bit more than that was common. I was ready to jump up and down and scream hallelujah, and everybody else is there just for church. But I didn't have any time to be disappointed because it was only a couple of minutes before our worship team came out and encouraged us to get up and sing. So I got up and I sang, and even though there seemed to be less people in attendance than normal— our lead pastor was away, maybe that's why— Really, guys, I got up to praise like it was standing room only. My church is popular, but not exactly charismatic. So the masses around me weren't, quote unquote, fully engaged to worship. But my enthusiasm to praise the Lord was not daunted. I just closed my eyes and to ignore the lukewarm responses around me and praise the Lord with the love for him that I was feeling. Um, when you get in touch with your love for the Lord, uh, it's easy to go to church, it's easy to follow Jesus, and it's easy to sing. It's easy as Sunday morning. God's amazing grace has set me free from the ideas that I had to work— had to work to be accepted. And our history together has taught me just how good he is and how good it is to live with him. Uh, I can't imagine not worshiping him on Sunday, and I don't want to ever imagine going back to a world system that doesn't know about grace. Um, you know, David Jeremiah— as it turns out, David Jeremiah's Turning Point, uh, daily devotional today reminds us that we don't have to work so hard as Christians. It reminds us that it's not by our works that we are accepted by God. But by faith. This is always a good thing to remember in our performance-based world system, so I am sharing it on the blog today. And, uh, from Turning Point Devotional for today, um, there David Jeremiah shares Ephesians 2:8-9, which says, for 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. And then David Jeremiah writes, Martin Luther is viewed as the father of the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century in Europe. As a monk, he lived a life of despair, fearing his penance, fasting, pilgrimages, and discipline would never gain him the favor with God for which he longed. And he was right. It was not until he discovered Romans 1:17 uh, which says that the just shall live by faith, not by works, that he found peace with God. The doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Christ can be a stumbling block for works-oriented people. Everything we gain in life is by hard work and self-discipline, or so the modern mantra tells us. But the Bible has a different message. Only by trusting in the finished work of Christ can we be justified in God's sight. Good works are important, to be sure, but we are saved for good works, not by good works, according to Ephesians 2:10. And, uh, he finishes by saying, don't try to gain God's favor by working for him. Instead, receive his favor, grace, by believing in him through his son. And he ends his message by sharing a quote from William Bernal, who writes, "We must come to good works by faith and not to faith by good works." Amen. Uh, remember that we don't have to work to be accepted by God by doing good works like going to church. We are accepted because of our faith in Jesus, not over anything that we will do. No, instead, rest in knowing that your sins are forgiven and that God loves you just the way you are, you know, when you put your faith in Christ. Let his love for your— for you pour over and through you to move you to rejoice and to do good things out of the love he has given. Today's Bible verse comes to us from Uh, well, the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John D. Crewe. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on forgiveness of sins, God's forgiveness. And today's verse is Psalm 32:5, which says, I acknowledge my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah. Today's verse falls under the fourth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on forgiveness of sins, or God's forgiveness. And that fourth point is God readily forgave David when he repented and confessed his sin. You know, today's verse provides us with a model to seek the Lord's forgiveness. Number one, you know, acknowledge your sin. Admit to yourself that you are not living the way that you are supposed to according to God's word. Two, don't, you know, don't try to cover it up. Be honest. We are only as sick as our secrets, so get healthy by not having any. Confess your sins to the Lord. You know, don't just know in your mind or heart you did wrong. Talk to God and confess that you have sinned against him and commit yourself to following him. Then finally, receive your— God's forgiveness. You know, thank God for the forgiveness that you have through your faith in Christ and receive it By letting go of any guilt and shame, rejoice that your sin is forgiven, that God loves you, and that you can begin to walk in the newness of life again. We are not perfect, and while we can make progress to become more and more like the people God created us to be, we may stumble and mess up from time to time. So remember this verse and this process so you can be real with God. Receive his love and help, and move forward with the joy of the Lord. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights and, uh, insights and messages 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 F. Alford. And in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is 1 Thessalonians 2, and from that chapter, uh, he shares a portion of verse 10 which says, "You are witnesses." And then Stephen Alford writes, Paul's life was such that he could boldly say, "You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe." verse 10. How much like his Lord, the Lord Jesus could say, which of you convicts me of sin, John 8:46. He uses three words to describe the character of his behavior when at Thessalonica. Holy, this was in relation to God. He says, be holy for I am holy, 1 Peter 1:16. Righteous, this was in relation to his own life. He leads me in the paths of righteousness. Psalm 23:3. And then unblameable. This was in relation to the outside world, other believers, et cetera. He was blameless. He finally offered praise. Lord, let my life be a testimony of holiness, righteousness, and blamelessness. And yeah, let our lives be a testimony of holiness, righteousness, and blamelessness. That's really the pathway of peace. If you want to experience the fruit of the Spirit, we have to walk in the Spirit, and we start living according to what God says is right. And so we— being holy is being set apart by God to worship God, to do his work, to do good works in his name. Righteous is, you know, taking care of your sin issues. And, uh, unblameable is not to do— not to sin against your neighbor. Um, you know, so there's a nice 3-step pattern here by Stephen Alford, drawn from 1 Thessalonians 2, um, that we can all enjoy and emulate. And when we do that, uh, we'll be fully surrendering to God. And so we answer the question: have you fully surrendered to God? Um, you know, it's one thing about to think about our faith and to believe. It's another thing to take what God's word says and to do something with it. And there's two things we do with God's word. We apply it to ourselves and our hearts and our minds to remind us who we are in Christ, work on our personal issues. And then we take that and walk confidently out in the world to share the good news of Jesus Christ, to do good works in his name, to live differently according to what Jesus would have us do. Use him as our example, you know. And Jesus lived a pretty good life, um, good works, big time. Anyway, um, and when you do that, you'll be called into good works. It just sort of happens that way. Um, the good work I've been called into is— one of them is the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, where we encourage people to walk in the Spirit and get past their hurts, habits, and hang-ups. It's a Christian recovery and discipleship group. It's not just recovery, it's discipleship too. We try to teach you how to live a Christian life because when you give something up, you have to replace it with something to, you know, fill the void. And we want to give you, you know, we give you lessons to try to encourage you and the community to try to encourage you to grow in the newness of life that God's given you, to live that abundant life, to live differently., from how you did before when you were, you know, hurting and locked in a habit or hung up on something. Um, of course, that's for people who are local to the Capital District in New York State. Um, but for those who aren't local, um, there's good news for you too. There, uh, Freedom in Christ Ministries provides online discipleship courses this fall, and you can register now by going to ficm.org. And one of the classes, the men's class on Tuesday nights, is hosted by me. So if you'd like to sign up, I would say we're about halfway full, so there's room for you. And I would love to, to, to encourage you to, as you go through the Freedom in Christ course, to grow in your faith. As you may, may or may not know, we, we provide these teachings online through our YouTube channel as well. So if you didn't want to sit in on our class, We provide the Freedom in Christ course through a podcast, and we also provide Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, also works from Dr. Neil Anderson of Freedom in Christ Ministries. So if you want more encouragement, you can find it. People do, apparently. They've been, you know, checking it out. Some actually, I think, actually listen to them. So I'm encouraged. Anyway, we encourage you, to, you know, ask the question. Are you— well, are you— I, I'll ask the question: are you empty for Christ too? Are you fully surrendered for God? And if so, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, you know, ask him to reveal himself and to help you to grow into your faith and to live it by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, where we do many things like pray. Today is the Deis 7 or 8? Day 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Today is day 8 of the 21-day prayer challenge that we began last week that Pastor Vlad Savchuk is, uh, leading. Um, and, uh, we took a day off yesterday to worship the Lord. Aha, still prayed, got you there. But we did take a break from our fast as we feasted instead. But today we're, we're doing our modified fast again. We're back back to, uh, fasting and praying until that Friday vacation begins on, you know, 4:00 Thursday— 4:30 Friday night. We'll be in prayer and fasting to draw closer to the Lord, and I would encourage everyone to do the same. You can go to pastorvlad.org to join the 21-day challenge, and that's all I'll say about that. Um, and but I will say, let's pray. Right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for all that you've done for us, Lord, the joy you've set before us through our salvation, the freedom you've given us, and this purpose for life, to live, uh, to live for you. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message or watching it on YouTube, that you come alongside them and their prayer request and encourage them in their life of faith, um, because we all need your help. And that includes me as we go into work today, our secular day job. We're going to need your help, Lord. You know us, uh, open our eyes to the things you, um, uh, want us to see. Lead us in the way we should go. Set things up for us, Lord. We need your help. Um, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and, uh, we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.