God Given Relationships and Our Personal Accountability - Purity 1504

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of a solitary palm tree in, in the fading light of day in the land down under comes to us from Dave Bond Photography, who shared this scene on social media on or around September 3rd, 2023. To check out Dave's photographic work, uh, go to his website or follow Dave on Facebook by following the links on the blog today. Well, it's Friday, and I share Dave's photo, uh, today to welcome us to the last day of the work week and what I hope will be an oasis of the weekend. I've never met Dave in person, but I made his acquaintance through social media and have his permission to share his work. His photography gives glory to God, and so I share it for that purpose and to support Dave as well. Dave and my relationship is a very simple one, but I appreciate, appreciate it because it gives me joy to share his work, and it is just one of many relationships I've made along the path of Christian discipleship that I never would have experienced if it weren't for God. Similarly, before coming to faith in Jesus Christ, I never, ever, ever would have thought that I would one day become a Christian life coach. As a Christian life coach, I really just offer men a relationship with me, a relationship where I pray for you, encourage you, advise you, educate you, and keep you accountable to pursue your life goals in the context of a Christian lifestyle. My clients and I just do this thing called the Christian life together, and I often find myself receiving as much as I give in the relationship. Our relationship, however, does have that expectation that my clients will be honest with me and that they will be accountable to at least try to walk in the Spirit by using their faith and relationship with the Lord as the context and catalyst for their journey through life. Today's In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotion addresses our personal accountability, and I'm sharing it on the blog today to assure us that— us all— that accountability relationships are indeed biblical and should be part of our Christian lives. Dr. Charles Stanley writes, our personal accountability: Ask the Lord to help you find a godly friend who will love, encourage, and challenge you. Being involved in an accountability relationship, relationship is one of life's greatest gifts. Consider some of the excellent examples from Scripture. Jesus is accountable to the Father. The church is subject to Christ, and Paul felt beholden to the church at Antioch. When we have someone with whom we can share our failures, weaknesses, successes, and longings, we benefit in several important ways. One thing— for one thing, accountability helps us develop a sense of responsibility. It also promotes integrity and protects us from making poor decisions. What's more, learning to examine ourselves keeps us honest and humble. Because an accountability partner can see our weaknesses, he or she is a good— and is in a good position to offer counsel, encouragement, or a loving rebuke. To choose the right person, we must look for a spirit-filled believer who will offer godly wisdom. Also, we want to be accountable to a person who accepts and loves us just as we are, but who also possesses the courage to confront us. So, where will you find such a person? Possibly in the pew at church or among your friend group. Begin to pray today for an accountability partner and ask God to help you become one yourself. Amen. You know, AA founders used Christian principles of con— uh, uh, the principle, uh, Christian principles of confession, fellowship, and accountability to develop the 12-step model to help people overcome their struggles. While they understood the importance of having someone to talk to and to be accountable to, the first steps in that model, 2 and 3, demand that you believe in a higher power and make the decision to turn your will and life over to God. Uh, so that's the first thing: surrender to God's will and care for your life. I stress that because God is the one who transforms us. But we are not called to go through life alone. God wants us in relationship with other people. God wants us to be vulnerable and to trust someone else with our secrets and confessions.

God knows it is not good for man to be alone, so we shouldn't be.

That means marriage for some, but in terms of recovery or discipleship, men are to be spiritual leaders of the home, and our weaker vessels are not always the best choice for an accountability partner. Their love for us and their own weaknesses may cause our honest confessions to be a burden that they can't carry, and the struggle of our efforts to change may cause disruption to the peace between man and wife. So let's not do that. Thus, we, we look for another Christian man or men to be accountable to. And likewise, Christian, uh, Christian woman needs to be accountable to other Christian women. Let's not fall into the temptation by starting an intimate relationship—

accountability is very intimate—

with someone of the opposite sex. Christians need the fellowship of one another, and accountability relationships meet the need— that need for friendship and for assistance. We need to speak and act on our intentions to be changed and to be authentic in our commitment to pursue our freedom. So let me encourage you to trust in another brother or sister in Christ to be an account— to be in an accountability partner relationship with with you to help you to take on the things that the Lord has put on your heart to change. God has given us the gift of one another in the body of Christ, but unless we step out in faith and utilize the gift of one another that he has given us, we won't fully receive the blessings he has for us. So go to the Lord in prayer and talk about it. Ask him to help you to decide what battle you need to fight and what brother or sister in Christ you should trust to approach and ask to enter the fray with you. A friend in need is a friend indeed. We all need each other, and if we want to be the person that God created us to be and to have some company on our journey through life as we keep on walking and talking with him— 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, uh, Proverbs 19— well, from the section on giving. And today's verse is Proverbs 19:17, which says, he who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and he will, and he will pay back what he has given. Today's verse is the sec— a third, actually, of, of 5, uh, passages of scripture that, uh, fall under the 8th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on giving.

And that, uh, Eighth point is God requires us to be merciful and give to the poor.

Um, today's Bible verse, uh, asks us to consider our giving to the poor to be a loan to God and to rest assured that whatever we give will be paid back with his blessings. Again, we're not trying to encourage giving to get, but the truth is that we, when we practice generosity, we often receive more than we give. When we give, we become more like our Heavenly Father.

That alone should be enough to convince us to be generous with what God has provided us with. So give of your time, treasure, and service to others, because we reap where we sow.

And the more seeds we plant, the more, the more the potential we have to reap a harvest of blessings from the Lord. 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 Day by Day Along the Way by J.E.

Adams, uh, A Year's Devotions. Um, now, and so we share what would be day 3, um, and J.E.

Adams shares from Acts 22:4, which says, I persecuted this way to the death binding both men and women.

And J.E.

Adams writes, former persecutor of the way, Paul became its staunchest advocate, traveling throughout the Roman world to propagate the faith. He endured trials far beyond those that most of us will ever bear. But before his conversion, many suffered from his brutal attacks upon them. The suffering and endurance of the saints throughout the ages is legendary. Indeed, the apostle himself said that all All who would live godly lives will be persecuted. This kind of persecution has not yet come to America. Does that mean we are not as godly as we ought to be? Uh, however, the day when it shall come may be drawing nearer.

Whenever the Way is persecuted, the unfaithful fall away, and the persecutor focuses upon the godly.

God has not promised that people of the Way will be free from pain, suffering, and death, but he has promised grace to withstand every trial. Are you prepared to do so? Strong faith comes through the study and appropriation of God's truth in the Bible. Now is the time to prepare what may soon become the inevitable. And wow, like prophetic words from J.E. Adams, and that, and you know, just solid biblical truth that if we follow the Lord, we can expect persecution. And if you've been open about your faith, I'm sure you've experienced it.

You know, some people will reject you when you come to the Lord. It's very sad to say. And as for the falling away, you know, when persecution comes, you know, the persecution, you know, I would say we had some in 2020 as, uh, you know, the government wanted to shut down the churches, and there are some churches that refuse to do so. Um, John MacArthur stands out as somebody who really stood up, uh, for the church in that age. And, um, you know, the, the more secular and depraved our society becomes, the more anti-Christian it'll become. And so I know many people look at the election and think Trump is going to, you know, help, help religious freedom, and I certainly hope he does. Um, but, um, you know, this is— there's a lot of negative, uh, there will always be a lot of negative connotation towards Christianity as the world, the flesh, and the devil seek to just, you know, kill, steal, and destroy us. Um, so that's why we, we have to know what we believe and why we believe it and to have a love relationship with the Lord because we're going to have to endure persecution. And it's only through love that we can overcome it. So that's why we ask the question: Have you fully surrendered to God? Have you made Jesus your Lord and Savior?

Are you trying to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit?

We recommend it highly because it just happens to be the pathway to peace, as walking in the Spirit results in peace, love, joy, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, and self-control. You know, that's the way to go.

God will call you to repent and, uh, you know, start living right.

And when he does, when you do that, he also gives you a purpose usually.

And part of my purpose is, well, as I stated, I'm a Christian life coach. But another part of my purpose is to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church on Wednesday evenings.

We meet at 6:30, and anyone in the Capital District who wants to join our fellowship of Christian discipleship and just— and recovery, uh, welcome to do so. Look us up online at Starpoint Church's website, and there are support groups, and you can register and/or just show up, and we'll be happy to see you there.

Um, beyond that, for the guys out there, we're offering Grace for the Holidays, an online teaching and support group, online Monday nights, uh, starting this Monday, uh, November 18th at 6:30 PM. Go to mtforchrist.com, our group, group teaching, uh, group coaching event page, and you can register for that.

Uh, we have a few guys signed up already, and, uh, it should be, uh, you know, a good graceful journey through the holidays as we go through the Grace Course, uh, to encourage one another, um, you know, at the greatest time of the year.

Um, beyond that, if we're looking ahead, uh, to the new year of 2025, where we, uh, are going to be leading another Freedom in Christ, uh, men's course, uh, online on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 PM, um, basically.

And, uh, we have people signed up for that already, uh, at ficm.org.

You can go and register today, and registration for, for that course, even though it starts in January, ends on December 10th. So we're, we're telling people to register now. As I say, there's limited space, and there's already people signed up.

So we encourage you to do that.

Beyond that, if you're a woman or, or can't make it to our Celebrate Freedom meeting, we encourage you to go to our, our YouTube channel, M.t. Mt4christ247, uh, and, uh, you know, to find or increase your freedom in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes on YouTube.

Um, we've done those studies before— Freedom in Christ, Bondage Breaker, and Victory Over the Darkness— as well as our own, uh, Celebrate Freedom discipleship course. So there's a, a bunch of playlists on our playlist page, um, and you can find it on YouTube or by going to mt4christ.com to see the, the playlist we've done. Produced ourselves over the years. So we encourage everyone to do that.

And we end today by always asking the question: are you empty for Christ too?

Have you surrendered?

Have you— are you making space for the Holy Spirit to come in your life and to guide you in the way you should go? If you are, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. And if not, we encourage you to pray, Pray for the Lord to reveal himself to you and pray to make Jesus your Lord and Savior.

When you invite him in, the Holy Spirit comes in, and that's when things really change. So we encourage you to do that today because we believe that prayer changes things, and that's why we pray every day, like right now.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom.

We thank you so much for another work week.

Lord, we pray for you to get us through today, to get us to the weekend.

We're looking forward to what you have for us. And, uh, Lord, we're just asking you to, uh, come alongside anyone who's reading or watching today's message, um, to encourage them in their faith. Lord, we ask you to come alongside their prayer requests, to help them and to lead them in the way they should go. And beyond that, Lord, we are also asking for you to help us. Please go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go. Because, um, we, we just want to represent you in your kingdom, and we definitely need your help with that. So, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.