Granger Smith’s Call to Discipleship - Purity 1469 - 10/05/2024

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm 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 group of men gathered around an inflatable mechanical bull platform under ethereal October blue skies comes to us from yours truly As I captured this quick pic as Starpoint Church youth pastor Jake Hackle took the mic to kick off last evening's Man Up men's ministry event with prayer. Well, it's Saturday, and although my shifted tour has me at my place down by the river waiting to go to my secular day job when I prefer to be with my wife in the Great White North, I'm content this morning because no matter where I rest my head and no matter what circumstances the day brings, I know that the Lord is with me and I can rejoice. As it is, uh, the shifted tour coinciding with Starpoint Church's Man Up event last evening works out pretty well because the time demanded for ministry would have kept me from my wife anyway, and I prefer not to have to go to my secular day job from her place. Uh, man has to know his limitations. And as much as my usual workday morning routine and daily spiritual practice helped me to start my day on a solid foundation of faith, it has caused me to come to expect having the space and facilities that I am used to— used to, um, I am used to— make being disciplined easier. Yeah. While I don't mind making adjustments and deviations from my normal routine on the weekends or when I travel, I have become so accustomed, uh, to my process and know its benefits that I don't like to stray far from it because when I have in the past, it has always resulted in me feeling less than fresh and usually begins a slide into compromise. Uh, being a disciple and being disciplined go hand in hand, and I don't like monkeying around with the variables of something I, that I know that works. However, I want to be clear here that it is not the disciplines, you know, the exercise, the Bible study, the meditation, the prayer, in and of themselves that give me peace. I suppose each one of those things does, but it is the fact that they are used to bring me into the presence of God that really matters. The joy of the Lord is my strength, and the peace I have comes from the Prince of Peace, Jesus. I never mean to suggest that doing certain activities, even if they are spiritual or religious is the secret to my success or contentment. It's my relationship with God, my relational connection to him, that drives this train and leads me to seek to know him more, him all the more. When we come to faith in Jesus, we're supposed to be transformed by God's love to compel us to follow him with the way we live our lives. You know, last Evening, the Man Up event speaker, guest speaker Granger Smith, shared a heart-wrenching testimony of personal loss and how the enemy tried to use, tried to use his grief to cause him to commit suicide. Thankfully, in the depth of his despair, Granger, who admitted to only being a cultural or nominal Christian at the time, called on Jesus to help him, and Jesus was faithful to answer and save him. Ranger testified of how until that nefarious night and that— and the miraculous morning that followed, he wasn't truly a follower of Jesus Christ. Ranger made an analogy about faith with the example of a deer hunter. A man claims to be an avid deer hunter, you would rightly expect that he would be familiar with hunting techniques and adept at being— using the various pieces of equipment used in hunting. But you would also expect that he would spend time in the woods hunting and may even enthusiastically lead others to discover the joys of hunting. If a man claimed to be an avid hunter and you found that he didn't actually go hunting, you would have to say that he wasn't a real hunter. He just talked about it. Likewise, if someone claims to be a Christian but doesn't go to church, read his Bible, live according to its principles, and do things to serve or bring others into a relationship with Jesus, you would have to say that they weren't a real Christian. After experiencing the real presence and saving power of Jesus, Granger described how the joy of his salvation not only gave him great peace, but it caused Granger to want to know more about Jesus and to commit his life to following him. After being saved, Granger had a deep desire to read the word of God and to follow Christ in earnest. Ranger exhorted the men gathered at the Man Up event last night to take a look at their faith and to determine if they were just a cultural Christian or if they were real followers of Jesus Christ. And he made the impassioned plea for them to commit or recommit themselves to being true disciples of Jesus Christ by trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior, connecting with God personally through prayer and reading God's word every day, and by living according to its principles and being committed to share God's truth and love. It was a call to action that would prove that the ones who answered it were not just cultural Christians but were real followers of Jesus. At the end of the evening, the audience of men was invited to join together in small groups around fire pits that were assembled on the church's lawn for s'mores and were encouraged to answer the question What is the next thing that you're prepared to do to move forward as a follower of Jesus? I was a fire pit leader, and I was blessed to hear men, young and old, be honest about their lives, and who, and who all committed to surrender different areas of their lives to God. I gave a short version of my testimony and shared how I have recently been convicted to say never to the items that drive my food addiction, of how I've discovered that rather than trying to figure out how and when I can indulge in the foods that cause me to lose control, I could just say no. And I, with the Lord's help, I can say it and remain in the peace of good health and freedom from the addictive cycle, cycles forever. I was tested last night at the event. At the event, with the events catered mac and cheese and sweet desserts, and proved that I was serious about that commitment to say never again by saying no. It will be a battle that I'll have to fight one day at a time, but the Lord has been faithful in the past to help me, and I know I can trust him to help me in the future when I pick up my cross and follow him. And we took the long pause there to tell us that the Today's Bible verses, um, come from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on forgiving others, and today's verses are Ephesians 5:1-2, um, from the New American Standard Bible. The word of God says, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Today's verses fall under the sixth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on forgiving others, and that sixth point says, be imitators of God. Today's Bible verses encourage us to be real Christians by being imitators of God. Jesus's— Jesus Christ's living example is our blueprint of how to build a Christian life. We are to do the things that Jesus did. We are to pray, know God's word, speak God's word, and to do good works in his name and for God's glory. And we are to do it all as an expression of our love for God. We are to walk in love as God's beloved children. More than following rules or knowing certain facts about faith, we are to let the joy of our salvation and the knowledge of Jesus and God's truth transform our hearts to act out of love. So draw close to the Lord and be an imitator of God by walking in love. 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 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 2 Peter 1, and from that chapter he shares a portion of verse 4 which says, exceedingly great and precious promises. And Stephen Alford writes, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning that we, through the patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. Romans 15:4. For all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him, amen, to the glory of God through us. 2 Corinthians 1:20. How grand it is to be able to claim such promises as, as are revealed in this grand book. And to claim them in positive faith too, even as did Abraham. For he staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, being fully convinced that what God had promised he was able, able also to perform. Romans 4:21. Faith makes the promises reality. And Alfred ends by praying, oh, to enter into the blessings of God's promises now, Lord. Amen. Amen. Yeah, the great and precious promises of the Lord, you know, eternal life, peace, joy, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, and self-control. You know, those are, those are the more or less the basic promises. Um, those are the ones you can hold on to for the disciple. You know, we have eternal life in Jesus Christ, and when we walk in the Spirit, we can have the fruit of the Spirit. And, uh, anything else is a bonus, um, you know, spiritual gifts, blessings, you know, ministry blessings, whatever the Lord has for us, physical healing, whatever he's— you know, the sky's the limit with an infinite God. So we should believe because our faith can move mountains, but you do have to believe and you do have to follow, um, to inherit the kingdom. You have to, you have to put your faith in Jesus and follow him. Otherwise, you know, you run the risk of being called out by Jesus as someone he didn't know. And that's one of the scariest propositions to think you're a Christian, you know, to say, yeah, I'm, I'm a Christian. I believe I went to church last year. Um, you know, uh, what do you want from me? Uh, well, God wants your life. And so we ask the question every day, you know, have you fully surrendered to God? Um, are you following him? Are you a real Christian or just someone who says he's a Christian? Um, you know, we— there's a difference, and we invite you to discover it by following the Lord, by reading his word and making a commitment to, um, to, to live and serve his kingdom. You know, yeah, you know why? Because it's, it's the only way to live, quite frankly. You know, without Jesus, we perish. And he calls us to an abundant life that he gives to us when we follow in his footsteps. So we highly recommend it. It's transformed my life, and I can't, I can't encourage anyone else to do anything else. You must follow Jesus. And the good thing is, is when he does, he comes alongside you and he helps you. He gives you his strength and his blessings, and he'll lead you in the way you should go. For me, it's led me to Starpoint Church, and, uh, to— luckily I've been blessed with being able to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group that meets on Wednesday nights at 6:30 PM for Christian recovery/discipleship. Where we, you know, tackle the hard questions of how to live this Christian life. How do I do this? How do I get free? Um, you know, what am I supposed to do? You know, I've been this, you know, I lived in darkness my whole life and now I'm in the kingdom. What do I do? How do I do this? I never could do it before. I never had hope before, but I believe and now I want to follow. So what do we do? Well, come and find— come and see, as they say. Um, basically we teach from Celebrate Recovery, but more importantly, we encourage life skills, uh, of being a disciple of Jesus Christ, on how to, you know, practice gratitude and walk in the Spirit, know who you are in Christ. These are the foundations that lead to freedom. And so we, uh, we, we basically encourage those, those skills from the beginning, regardless of what the lesson might be teaching on a daily, you know, on a weekly basis. So we invite anyone in the Capital District to come on out to, uh, Starpoint Church in Clifton Park to, um, you know, to get free. And, uh, if you can't make it to Clifton Park, we encourage you to check out our YouTube channel, uh, M.T. for Christ 247, and look at our playlist page, uh, because on there you'll find resources from great Christian theologians like R.C. Sproul and, uh, John MacArthur, uh, and you'll also find the teachings that I did at my local church back in 2021, uh, for the Bondage Breaker The Victory Over the Darkness and Freedom in Christ. And last year's Celebrate Freedom Discipleship course is on there too. And they're all filled with scripture and the teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson and myself to encourage you to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. And, you know, we have to ask the question, you know, are you empty for Christ? Are you willing to let the Holy Spirit come into your life to make a difference? And when you, when you make yourself available for God, great things happen. So if you are, quote unquote, empty for Christ, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we suggest you pray and ask for the Lord to help you, uh, to follow him. And prayer makes things happen. So we encourage you to pray, and that's why we're going to pray right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for the fact that it's Saturday and so many of our friends and family have the day off today, uh, to enjoy, their peace, their rest, their leisure. Um, that might not be my case, Lord, but we're happy for them. And, uh, Lord, we're just, uh, praying for you to move us ahead to the end of the workday for me today, to, to get me safely, uh, up north, uh, in the presence of my wife again. Um, looking forward to that, Lord. We're asking for you to help us with that. And Lord, we're also asking for you to, um, help anyone who's listening or reading today's message or watching it on YouTube that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith, Lord, because, uh, living a new life is difficult and, uh, we, we need your help with it every, every step of the way, Lord. So we, uh, we ask all these things of you. Open our eyes to the things you want us to see. Lead us in the way we should go, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, Lord. We need a lot of help with that, Lord. We thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.