“Faith Moments” Appreciated and Shared Purity 1428

Welcome to the MT4Christ247 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of the sun setting over the partially frozen waters of the Skodak Creek and the salt-encrusted surface of State Route 9J comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene back on January 8th, 2021. Well, it's Thursday and I'm sharing this pathway of a sideways view of an asphalt pathway as a reminder to all my friends to look around and to appreciate where you are right now on your journey through life. And as always, as a visual reminder and encouragement to get on or to stay on the path of Christian discipleship. Last night I had the privilege of leading the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church and was reminded of how God will arrange the events of our lives to speak to us. With the— with 2024's second half, I've returned to the role of leading and distributing the evening's lesson as a group presentation. Just like a table read in show business, our lesson is passed out to all the attendees, and together we share the information and encourage— and the encouragement of the lesson as a group effort. We pass out the parts randomly, but even though there's no planning done on our part, we have seen the Lord working behind the scenes in these loathgroup-style presentations to show us that with a sovereign God controlling all things, there are no coincidences. During last night's quote-unquote table read, we saw the Lord speak to one of our newest members as they read the Sanity lesson section on integrity. They had to stop and ask, did you give me this on purpose? The lesson stated, remember, a half-truth is a whole lie, and a lie is a result of weakness and fear. True truth fears nothing, nothing but concealment. The truth often hurts, but it's the lie that leaves the scars. A man or woman of integrity and encourage— and courage is not afraid to tell the truth, and that courage comes from a power greater than ourselves, Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. The lesson then shared Ephesians 4:25, which tells us Stop lying to each other. Tell the truth. Well, we are parts of each other, and when we lie to each other, we are hurting ourselves. This person was highly convicted by the lesson because dishonesty and living in the shadows played a large role in why they had joined our support group. Only minutes before we began the lesson, this person shared about their current relational difficulties that were a product of their sharing half-truths and hiding their destructive habits, uh, habit from their loved ones. And now the words of the lesson and the word of God were telling them to be a person of integrity as they were instructing us to do the same. Now that's God. Uh, that's how he moves. He puts signposts along your pathway to tell you, tell you which way to go. And when you turn to follow him, the directions to a righteous life become clearer and clearer. Of course, we commented on this and had to point out that this was really happening. This was a sign of God's presence in this person's life. It didn't have to— I didn't have to speak in detail about this because Scott Salvador, who joined our ministry team last year, confirm that these— this little coincidence has happened in our group time and time again. Scott has not only led in our group, he, like myself, has also learned and grown, uh, um, since we've started the group. And as he has increasingly walked in the Spirit, Scott's seen the, the Lord move in his life. Just before this interaction, Scott bore witness to how the Lord removed roadblocks and opened doors in the process of buying his first home. How God made a way when there was no way. So Scott can recognize God's handiwork. And when we both saw it happening in this new member's life, we both had to confirm that this was the Lord moving things again. You know, somewhere in last night's meeting, I encouraged everyone to appreciate one another's presence at the group. Because the C in the ABCs of Celebrate Freedom is about connections with God, of course, but also with one another. And here we were appreciating one another's presence to share how the Lord was active in our lives. Scott's house closing story and this new person's conviction with the lesson are good faith moments, but they are made— that they much greater in purpose and meaning when we share them with one another. Uh, we are not only giving God credit where credit is due, like we should— when we share these experiences, we are also encouraging one another. God moved in their life, maybe he will move in mine. And beyond the encouragement, we are drawing closer to one another relationally through our shared experiences. One of the things— let's say, I think that's where we go. Yeah. One of the things I try to tell every attendee of our Celebrate Freedom meetings is, I'm happy to see you because I am. It's a— it's, it's good to have a ministry that people show up to. But more than that, I'm happy to get to know them and to be able to see how God will work in their lives. This is rare in life, having faithful friends to walk through life with. And so I try to encourage people to keep coming because the only thing we can know for sure when it comes to our relationships on earth is that they will end. But yeah, I did Celebrate Freedom for 5 years at my old church and had some thrilling moments of seeing God move through those meetings and met some people that I deeply cared for and still do. But time moved on, and at the end of 2020, Celebrate Freedom dwindled to the point that I started a community freedom ministry instead called Community Freedom. Um, that name didn't really sing, but that's what I wanted to stress— community and freedom. Um, and one of the— and the director of the AV team sort of dubbed my ministry that. And thus we did 2021 as Community Freedom. And although that started strong, it dwindled down to a few faithful participants, one of which was my wife, Tammy Lynn, who came from an hour away and who had agreed to marry me on January 1st, 2022. You know, time moves and God moves it, and we should really appreciate where we are now. Because believe me when I tell you, uh, we have no idea where God will take you when you start walking and talking with him. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on the forgiveness of sins, or God's forgiveness. And today's portions of scripture is Psalm 103 Verses 8 through 12, and the word of the Lord says, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are higher above the— are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Now, today's verses fall under the 7th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on the forgiveness of sin, and that 7th point is: How great is God's forgiveness? Um, you know, today's verses remind us that we had it coming, uh, as in God's wrath. Here David acknowledges that we really should have been punished for our iniquities, but he is rejoicing because God, in his great love and mercy, has, uh, for us, has forgiven us and removed our transgressions as far as the east is from the west. That's good news. And for us, God made his mercy even clearer as he has revealed to us the truth of Jesus Christ. God's mercy and love weren't clear enough, and he sent Jesus to show us the way to be forgiven and free. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.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, uh, well, from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford.. And in Alford's devotional, um, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is 1 Thessalonians 5, and from that chapter he shares a portion of verse 8, which says, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. And Stephen Alford writes, faith, love, and hope are the three principles that govern the Christian church as a whole. The church locally, and the individual believer's life. In this verse, these principles are seen working in the realm of spiritual warfare. The other two realms in which they work are the walk of the Christian and the work of the Christian. The breastplate— this portion of the armor of God, Ephesians 6:14— protects the seat of those vitals in the spiritual life: faith, and love. Faith is the living link between God and the believer. Love is the dynamic governing power in his life. The breastplate protects these in battle. The helmet— this protects the head, Ephesians 6:17, which is the seat of the mind and thoughts. Hope— where there is no hope, there is no experience of salvation. And Stephen Alford ends by praying, help me to daily don this armor, Lord, as well as teach others to do the same. Amen. You know, we have to put on the spiritual armor, uh, protects our faith, love, and hope according to, uh, Stephen Alford. And, uh, I've never— I don't think I've ever heard that before, um, the armor protecting those three things. You know, we've heard about the shield of faith from Ephesians But we didn't realize the breastplate, you know, covered our faith, which is in our hearts, right? Makes sense. And, uh, our love is there too. And apparently our hope is in our head. Uh, we think it, and thus we believe it, right? We hope for good things. That's our— the battlefield of the mind. So yeah, I agree with Stephen Alford's stuff. As you can see, I sort of come at these things, you know, pretty, pretty new each morning. Uh, I don't do a lot of preparation, and, uh, luckily Stephen Alford's Hasn't Led Me Astray, uh, in his devotional. It's more or less spot on with the Christian doctrine. So, uh, we thank him. And, um, anyway, um, we move along with the question: Have you fully surrendered to God? You know, living a life of faith is not just about going to a weekly church service. It's about experiencing the fruit of the Spirit in your life. And the way you find it is to walk in the Spirit. And to do that, we need to surrender to God and follow his will for our lives, and as well as sanctification and good works, right? He wants to make us good, good people or holy people, and he wants us to go do good things. And, uh, one of the good things, as I've mentioned, uh, that the Lord has led me to do is lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church. Uh, which meets on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM, and there's room for you to come. Um, you just need to register by going to Starpoint Church's website and going to support groups and finding Celebrate Freedom and registering. Or you could just show up and register after. Um, we'll, we'll be there in the K-3 classroom, uh, every Wednesday until the end of the year, and and quite possibly beyond. Um, beyond that, we encourage a lifestyle of freedom in Christ by, you know, by, by leading a Freedom in Christ group. Um, we offer the class coming this fall, um, very soon on September 3rd for men. It's online, uh, 6:30 PM Eastern time. You can sign up. Our— my class is filling up. I haven't check it, but I think I have like 8 or 9 guys in it currently. Um, look, and we're looking forward to it. Um, just the ladies, so you know, there's also women's groups available, um, for you to join. But, and you just have to go to ficm.org to find those courses, uh, to sign up today. Um, anyway, um, today, you know, we asked the question, are you empty for Christ? If so, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, you know, seek him and you will find him. Pray for the Lord to reveal himself and he will show you the way. Um, if you're watching this or hearing this message, I would say he's definitely leading you to follow him, um, because it's not exactly— it's not exactly a highly rated show on YouTube anyway. Um, but we do appreciate any, any and all subscribers or listeners to our, our program, and, uh, we invite you to check out our many playlists that include our teachings on Freedom in Christ, Bondage Breaker, uh, Victor Over the Darkness, Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, and, uh, it's the Celebrate Freedom Discipleship course. They're all available on YouTube. Just go to our, our page, M.t. Clark 247, and you will find, uh, everything under playlist. And we try to share as many Christian resources there to encourage you in your walk. So that's it for today. Uh, we have to go to work, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much, uh, for where you moved our lives and the people you put in and out of it, um, all along the way. Lord, we really appreciate what you've done for us, and, um, we want to continue. So we're asking for your help today, for you to lead us And while you're at it, we're praying for anyone who's listening, reading, or watching today's message, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith. Uh, because we all need your help in this thing, Lord. But we gotta follow your way because we've been taught the wrong way. And, uh, we know that you're there to encourage us, uh, when we decide to follow you. So Lord, we're, we're praying for your help today. Uh, open our eyes to the things you want us to see. Lead us in the way we should go. Uh, because if we just want to represent you in your kingdom, and we definitely need help with that. Well, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.