Happy New Year! – Reflecting and Looking Forward - Purity 1544

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 the sun shining over Franklin Falls Pond and some Adirondack Mountains in the distance comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene yesterday when I decided to pause for a moment to enjoy the magnificent view outside of my two-day accommodations in Bloomingdale. Well, Happy New Year! Uh, it's the first of the year, and as I was up late last night, um, to celebrate the arrival of 2025 with my wife Tammy Lynn in the Adirondacks, I will keep this message short and utilize most of the message I sent to my friends and supporters in an email yesterday. As we are now in 2025, I invite you to take some time to reflect on the past year and to anticipate the year that is now underway. While it is important to grieve what was lost and to remember the challenges of the past year, to appreciate all that we have been through and to have a balanced view of the year that was, that we're leaving behind, it is also important to celebrate the good things., we experienced and to acknowledge the things that we have accomplished. Um, yeah, um, spiritually, professional, uh, personally and professionally, 2024 was an amazing year of milestones and accomplishments for me. Uh, last year, I am happy to report that I continued to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church for a second year. Um, or was it a third year? I, yeah, I was the second year. Um, I led, I led online Freedom in Christ men's discipleship courses for Freedom in Christ Ministries in the spring and the fall. I continued to produce a semi-weekly Bible study with Arthur and Susanna Cincotti and my daily purity series of Christian encouragements via my blog, the podcast, and the M.t. Clark 24/7 YouTube channel, which you're watching now. I was— I finished my certification as a certified Deeper Walk prayer minister. Uh, by, uh, through Deeper Walk International School of Ministry, and good help and a lot of help from, uh, Julaine Karath, uh, Kamrath, that we must acknowledge. And then I, I also completed Starpoint Church Wild at Heart men's course that Scott Salvador led, and I went with Scott to the, uh, 2024 Pennsylvania Band of Brothers Wild at Heart themed boot camp weekend to get further equipped and trained in, uh, all things John Eldredge. Uh, I also graduated from Light University with certificates in, uh, mental health coaching and professional Christian life coaching. I launched mtforchrist.com and began my Christian life coaching practice, M.t. for Christ Christian Life Coaching LLC, and was blessed to see my clients thrive. Blessed to have clients and to see them thrive, make progress toward, and achieve their personal and spiritual goals. I completed my studies at Bob Larson University, successfully graduating from Larson's International School of Exorcism, Advanced Academy of Deliverance, College of Apologetics and Demonology, and the Institute of Supernatural Studies. Uh, and finally, I led the M.t. Clark Christian Life Coaching LLC's the very first ever online men's discipleship group coaching, Grace for the Holidays, in November and December to end the year's ministry activities. While I also suffered some significant injuries, illness, and losses personally and through my community of friends and family in 2024, I choose to thank God for all the past, all that the past year taught me about life and faith, and look forward to what he will guide me into, guide me to experience and learn this year. The new year will be similar to last year in many ways. I'm already scheduled to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church once again, and we'll begin facilitating yet another, uh, Men's Freedom for Christ course for FICM online in just a few days, and have decided to step out in faith and record 25 weeks of Celebrate Freedom online, um, something I always had a heart to do. So the year has just begun, and many of my days are full of opportunities to serve and learn from the Lord, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Um, it is my prayer that this message finds all who read or hear it or watch it on YouTube well, and that all of, all of my friends and supporters, uh, know how much I deeply appreciate you. I pray for the Lord to bless you and your families in 2025. God bless you all and Happy New Year. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on humility and pride, and today's Bible verses are from Matthew 18:1-4, where the word of God says, at that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to him a child, he put him in the, him in the midst of them and said, truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Today's verses fall under the third point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on humility and pride. And the third point is Jesus rebuked the disciples, office bearers, for their proud attitude and called them to Humility. Today's Bible verses remind us not to think too highly of ourselves when we decide to serve the Lord. The apostles were pretty excited about their being used by God to do some pretty amazing things and to be one of the Messiah's inner circle. Um, but when they started to boast and argue about, uh, which one of them was the greatest of Jesus's disciples, their master used a child to illustrate that their power came through their dependence on God. Likewise, Yes, we haven't received, done, or produced anything that the Lord hasn't provided. So as much as we can be super proud of the fact that we are walking with the Lord, we should remember to walk humbly before our God and thank him for his mercy, grace, and provision. As always, we encourage everyone, uh, 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. And today we continue sharing, uh, from Day by Day Along Along the Way by J.E. Adams. It's a 365-day devotional, and we're on day 43 as we begin the new year, where J.E. Adams shares a portion of, um, 3 John 3, which says, I say this because I was delighted when the brothers came and testified about your truth, that you are walking in the truth. And J.E. Adams writes, in this next letter concerning hospitality to teachers, Gaius is commended for housing and supplying true teachers. Indeed, he had even been thrown out of the church by a self-seeking pastor named Diotrephes. For doing so, John commends Gaius and urges him to continue to support itinerant missionaries who needed lodging as they went about preaching the gospel. Doing so made him a fellow worker for the truth. Doing good works, then, is not merely doing good, but doing good that furthers the faith. Do you understand the difference? Are you a do-gooder without regard for the truth? Liberals of all sorts are guilty of such activity. Walking the walk is always a matter of walking the true walk. To distinguish truth from error is essential. Are you capable of doing so? If not, it's time to learn discernment from the Bible. Amen and amen. And you know, that's a really great point that Jay Adams makes, is that there's lots of good things you can do, uh, out there. Uh, random acts of kindness, uh, serving, um, you know, serving your community through volunteer organizations, or, you know, helping your neighbors, or, or, you know, doing all kinds of things. Which are good, and they're probably prepared for you by the Lord. But, um, you know, to be a do-gooder without regard for the truth, um, means we wouldn't, um, you know, we wouldn't— we'd keep silent on the things of faith. We just do good works and not necessarily let people know about Jesus Christ, uh, that we would be content to be— remain silent on, on when it comes to truth. And that's the difference. That's where we, we fail to to walk in our walk, the walk, uh, as, um, J.E. Adams writes. Um, people should know that we're a Christian. Um, they shouldn't just think we're a great guy. Um, there are lots of nice people out there who do good things, um, but they don't know the Lord. And as good as they— their works become a trap and a stumbling block, actually, because they, they consider, you know, they look at their good works and say, wow, I'm a good person. Truly, if there is a God, truly I will be blessed when I go into eternity. But if they don't acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior, they won't have a place in his kingdom. And so we, we should remember to always share the gospel and do good works in the name of Jesus Christ, uh, to let people know, um, about the truth and that they desperately need him to live anyway. That, as we always say, have you fully surrendered to God? Are you— are you— have you made Jesus your Lord and Savior? Are you making him known to anyone you can? And are you doing good works in his name? We encourage you to, you know, if you haven't somehow watched this message and haven't given yourself to Christ already, we really encourage you to do so because I mean, it's a matter of life and death, first and foremost. You need Jesus to enter into eternity and to, you know, cover your sins and to lead you into everlasting life. And, um, when you do so, he'll change your life. He'll give you hope in a future, and he'll, he'll guide you out of the darkness that you live in and to experience the truth and to live it. And that's why I do these messages, because You know, I was a, I was a, I was a big sinner and pretty prideful and was lost in darkness. And, uh, it was only through the Lord Jesus that I came to know the truth and that, uh, the truth set me free. And so I'll be sharing this message as often as I can in 2025. And, um, that's why we do it basically almost every day, um, is just to remind ourselves that we've been blessed by the Lord and to encourage others to find that blessing too. So, um, when you come to the Lord, he'll, he'll, he'll change your life and he'll give you a purpose. And as I stated earlier, part of my purpose is to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church. Happy to announce that we'll be doing that a week from today, Wednesday, January 8th. And, uh, we're open. We have a few new registrations, and, uh, somebody asked about whether or not we're still doing the group who was registered and never arrived at our meetings. Um, but we're hoping that this year that'll change. Um, it's one thing to sign up, it's another thing to show up. And, uh, that's a big part of our faith, and it's a big part of your healing. Um, so we encourage anyone in Upstate New York who, who wants to walk with the Lord and out of the darkness they may be locked in, or anything they might be stuck in, any hurt, habit, or hang-up, um, to come. To our meetings on Wednesday evenings, uh, for Christian Recovery and Discipleship. Um, and that's Wednesdays at Starpoint Church. Um, as I stated, we're gonna also record, um, the message of Celebrate Freedom, which is really Celebrate Recovery plus my insights and comments. Um, basically, uh, we're gonna record 25 weeks, uh, of the Celebrate Recovery teaching and, um, put it online. And make it available to my Christian life coaching clients. Um, so if you sign up, you can, you can get those. Uh, it's a one-time cost, and you get the— it'll be like a subscription. You get 25 weeks as I produce them, uh, in the new year. And, uh, I'm looking forward to that. I already have some PowerPoints created for that purpose, and I'm still leaving it open for registration, but I think at this point we might shut that down and just sort of, uh, you know to, um, produce the teachings and give them to anyone who would ask. Um, and then we'll see, see where we get with that as the year progresses. Anyway, um, as always, we, um, always encourage people to check out our online teachings that you can get for free. There's a playlist on our YouTube channel for, um, that we believe can find and help you to find or increase your freedom in Christ for victory. And the courses include Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, and so our very own Celebrate Freedom discipleship course. So We encourage anyone who's seeking the Lord to, you know, consider checking out these teachings to, you know, encourage you and help you in your faith. All right, well, that's the end of the first message of 2025, and we'll end it as we always do by asking, are you empty for Christ too? Have you surrendered to God? Are you trying to allow the Holy Spirit to come into your life to guide you in the way you should go? If so, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to pray, pray for the Lord to reveal himself to you, and pray for him to move you to make Jesus your Lord and Savior. We know the Lord answers prayers, and so we encourage you to pray those prayers, uh, to, you know, begin the journey that'll change your life forever and lead you into God's kingdom. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you for the past year, um, 2024, that's now in the past. And we thank you for all that you moved us through, um, helped us to accomplish and to survive, um, last year. And we thank you for, um, the love that you've given us, um, through your presence and through the people you put in our lives. Lord, we, we thank you for that. And, uh, Lord, we're asking for you to be with us today and every day of 2025, that you would, um, move us to do what you would have us do, and that you would reveal more of yourself and your truth to us, Lord, to help us. But we also pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you come alongside them in their walk of faith this year, and, uh, to guide them in the way they should go, because we all need your help, Lord, and we're asking for it. So, uh, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.