Familiar Patterns and Recovery System Failures – Self Deception Series 34 Purity 1123

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 a short wooden pathway, a dock, a jetty, uh, to rippled water, uh, blue waters reflecting the splendor of a blue sky with a cumulus cloud bank on the horizon comes to us from Dave Bond Photography, who shared this tranquil scene from a visit to Cowell, South Australia Saturday on social media. Well, it's Thursday, and I share this pathway photo to encourage us all to keep walking and talking with God on the path of Christian discipleship, because I know all too well how our inconsistent progress can cause us to want to take a long walk off a short pier. Last night, after an awesome meeting of the Celebrate Freedom growth group at Starpoint Church, I inexplicably indulged in some sweet treats and I have come to realize that my coast— post-ministry celebratory eating is an old pattern that reared its ugly head once again and has caused me to make the decision to go old school with my food addiction. As I have already reached out to a brother in Christ, letting them know that I am enlisting their help with accountability on this issue, hopeful that the shame of accountability will scare me straight and produce some fruit of repentance and victory. Last night at the group, there was a lot of discussion about examining our experiences, experiences, in order to learn what the underlying issues are so that we can address, heal, and cure the root cause behind our hurts, habits, and hangups. Although experience can be valuable to us, unevaluated experiences can prove to be worthless, and if we are just gaining more experience in the same struggles we have always suffered from. Part of my job as a field technician for a communication company requires that I go into people's basements, and experience has taught me that you have to be careful in those low places because they can have all kinds of hazards. The most common hazard to a field tech who is 6 feet tall is low ceilings and other hazards above, like pipes and beams, that can really give you a headache when you walk into them. Although I have a fair amount of experience with hitting my head in basements, occasionally I'll forget to be careful and end up ringing my bell, sometimes more than once, hitting the same hazard repeatedly if I am in a hurry. One time I was frustrated trying to fix a problem from the outside to the inside of a customer's home through trial and error., near the end of the day and made several trips in and out of the basement. The basement's ceiling was high enough to not to be a problem, but in one section of this basement, a pipe made the high bridge a low bridge. And because of my haste in trying to figure it out and get her done, I walked into the same pipe 3 or 4 times. As I said, I got lots of experience in basements. With which I am— have painfully learned the lesson to look up and stay low, and if possible, wear a helmet, because I have also learned on a few occasions I had— that I had my helmet on and made up for get— it made up for forgetting lessons 1 and 2. So I know what to do. I just have to remember how to do it and do it all the time. Similarly, in examining my post-ministry binge, full disclosure, of 3 bags of Cracker Jack from the church's kitchen, no less. I realized that in the past I would occasionally hit the drive-through of McDonald's or Taco Bell after Celebrate Freedom Nights in Hudson. So I have to remember to not fall into this pattern again. I also realized that I should just confess my slip-ups as soon as possible. And while you might think the morning after is pretty good, I realize it is not good enough, especially when you have the— an opportunity to fess up sooner. Uh, after my binge of Cracker Jacks on the drive home, I saw my wife, uh, for our evening Bible study via Facebook Messenger. I could have confessed my slip-up to her then, um, but I didn't. And because I didn't, the flesh drove me to have another mini binge at home just before bed as I raided my daughter's Rice Krispie Treats, Reese's Fast Break Mini Chocolate Bar, 3 berry-flavored Lindt chocolates, and a Nature Valley cinnamon almond butter biscuit, all of which most likely would have been avoided if I had confessed the Cracker Jack attack to Tammy Lynn. And so this morning during my morning workout, I was convicted and played with the ideas of just giving myself grace and not telling anyone. But I try to practice brutal honesty with myself and to be totally transparent and have learned that when I report my slip-ups, I'm less likely to make them again. This is great. I have become aware, uh, this is great, but I have become aware of how this has developed into a periodic vicious cycle of cheat days and weekends and occasional weeknight mini-binges. You know, oh, it's okay. No, it's not okay. So in looking at my experience even more, I've realized that I've made some big-time blunders in how I have approached my food addiction and attempting and attempted to reach my health goals. Number 1, I made my wife my accountability partner. Tammy Lynn is sweet, kind, and loving. But we should never make our significant other our accountability partner. It makes for a recipe for disaster, as our affections for one another will allow for grace, and the relationship dynamic can be one of secrets, lies, and enabling, as we lovingly accept one another and hold each other up while we're both falling down. Tammy Lynn is a mother and dispenses unconditionally— unconditional love freely, which is a which is good for a mother and a wife, I suppose, as long as it doesn't turn into enablement, which is— which it so often does. And as their unconditional love becomes abused, um, we use it as an excuse to really test, test it with bad behaviors. And if your significant other does hold you accountable, you run the risk of holding things from them hiding things from them and causing division in your relationship. So although I will love my wife and speak the truth to her, I am making myself accountable to someone else going forward. Number 2: I stopped marking progress on my goal. Another mistake I made is that I stopped marking my progress on what I wanted to accomplish. I want to lose weight to the point that I don't have to use a sleep apnea mask. So I figure 200 pounds or less is the magic number I need to get to before I consider doing a follow-up sleep study. But I will, I will never get there if I don't stay the course with treating food as fuel rather than something to be comforted by. Food is a substance and I abuse it. For a time, I made great progress toward my goal because I was treating food as fuel and because I was making myself accountable to myself with weekly weigh-ins. Taking a photo of the scale reading to be able to have a record of my progress. Somewhere along the line, I stopped doing that. So today I weighed in and it revealed I am 238.9 pounds, which is probably about 8 pounds more than I was before my vacation. It's a wake-up call to get serious. So I'm back at it, kicking it old school recovery style. By enlisting a brother to receive my daily reports of victory or compromise. And I am hopeful that this will bear fruit and that I can actually make progress and get to where I want to be. Anyway, all of this is, you know, was a great demonstration that even when we have areas of great freedom and victory in our lives—I am still clean and sober and sexually pure, praise the Lord—we We can fail to learn from our experience and be subject to self-deception. I took too long confessing all this, so we will have to pick up with the material from the Steps to Freedom in Grace tomorrow. Uh, I had learned all the lessons about accountability before, before, but forgot them and hit my head enough to realize that I have to stop this periodic vicious cycle by humbling myself and using the tools that I know will work. Uh, this morning's meditation verse, uh, comes from the section on affliction. Well, well, it does come from that section, but it does over and above that comes from this Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. And today's morning meditation verse, um, comes from the section on affliction, discipline, chastisement, and trials. And today's verses are 2 Corinthians 1:10-11, where the Apostle Paul says, "He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us. As you help us by your, by your prayers, then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many." Today's verse falls under the 20th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on Affliction, Discipline, Chastisement, and Trials. Um, and that's number 20. Paul says that God always has and always will deliver him. Today's verse encourages us that God will deliver us when we set our hopes on him. Paul learned from experience that God was faithful to deliver him, and he knew that, that there was power in prayer, which many, uh, have described as a conversation with God. That's why I stress walking and talking with God, because when we keep him in our presence, he will deliver us. He can give us His strength, He can give us His wisdom, and He can give us His love when we feel all alone. I'm short on time, so, uh, so believe that God will deliver you because He is faithful to do so. But don't forget to pray and to ask others to pray for you. When you keep the conversation going and set your hopes on the Lord, uh, you will see just how faithful God can be. As always, I 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 A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, and today we continue in chapter 20, and today's section is on the duty to mortify sin. And so, yeah, mortify sin. I wonder what that's like. Anyway, maybe it's like crucifying the flesh. But, uh, if you want to be sure on that, you can go to mtforchrist.org and see that resource at the end of today's blog post to see what A.W. Pink means by mortifying, uh, the duty to mortify sin. As always, we encourage a lifestyle of Christian discipleship and progressive victory, where we claim our victories and walk past them and then start fighting other fights. I'm in the fight against food addiction, and and good physical health. So, you know, we're going to keep fighting the fight, and we're going to, you know, I don't worry about the things I've already gained victory over, praise the Lord. But I didn't stop the struggle because the flesh manifests in all kinds of ways, and, you know, the Lord has a better life for all of us, and when we realize these things and repent. So, That's why I share, um, the podcast and the blog and the, the old lessons I gave back in, back in 2021 for The Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. They're all available on the podcast. Somebody reached out to me yesterday to ask for the teachings, um, uh, for The Bondage Breaker, and I sent them out an email. So if you, if you wanted the, uh, the class materials for any of those courses, uh, email me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com. Because apparently someone read that. I would do that because I haven't said it in a long time, but they apparently read it on the blog and sent me an email asking for the material on the Bondage Breaker, and I sent it out this morning. Um, another reason why I'm running late, but I'm happy to do it because I know how transformative those teachings can be. And last night at Celebrate Freedom, I recommended the book Restored, and Steps to Freedom in Christ to our group members, basically to, to do a house cleaning, to resolve some personal and spiritual conflicts by going through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. It worked for me, and that's why I recommend those, those, those teachings. And I'm happy to say people are checking them out on YouTube, and I'm blessed just by every view. And, and when people reach out to ask for those those materials. So, um, yeah, sort of running short on time. I do recommend Bible study every day, and we have a Bible study called Bible Study with the Sincatis that you can check out too on weekends. But we got a whole archive going back to 2021, so if you want to, you know, join our Bible study, we invite you to do that as well. So let's— I'm gonna pray because I gotta run to work. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for your grace and your mercy and love But we also thank you for your conviction to lead us to look at what we're doing and to really repent and to change the course by setting goals, marking our progress, and following good practices for recovery and not making our significant other our accountability partner. Big mistake. You don't want to cause havoc in your relationship. By doing that. I forgot that lesson. I don't know if I was taught it, quite frankly, but that's— I think that's pretty basic. It's not spelled out in anything, any of the materials I have, but if I'm writing materials, I'm going to include that. Anyway, that's not really a prayer. Lord, Lord, we do pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message. We pray for you to come alongside them and their struggles, to help them set goals and to to be accountable, um, and to follow you and to trust in you, Lord, because we all need your help desperately. So we just ask for you to go before all of us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, lead our steps in the things you would have us do, because, Lord, all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom on the earth and live a good righteous life where we can represent your kingdom and people say, wow, I think I want to be a Christian, rather than you know, to be afraid of us. Um, Lord, we just thank you for your love, your grace, and your mercy. We, we love you, we thank you, we praise your name, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.