Healing, Commitment, and Grace in Recovery – Purity 1170

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 the sun shining in an ethereal blue sky over what we believe to be Heart Lake in the Adirondacks comes to us from Lisa Warner, who shared this scene on social media on Monday. Well, it's Thursday, and while I didn't share a pathway photo as I normally do on Thursdays as a visual reminder and encouragement to my friends to get on or stay on The path of Christian discipleship. I can assure you that Lisa had to take a path to get to that, the destination in today's photo, as Lisa's post confessed that while the hike to Heart Lake was a short one, it proved to be personally challenging for her as she has recovered from RA and a knee replacement surgery. It was a physical and mental challenge as she pondered whether or not she should go back or press on. Lisa decided to press on and got 'er done, and we celebrate her achievement today by sharing her photo. Lisa and I were more than friends in college, but were veritable strangers following graduation, but reconnected via Facebook and became friends again. After I became a Christian and went into recovery, I apologized and made amends for the way I treated her in college. That bit of repentance resulted in healing and inspired both of us to pursue physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. As I am filled— and I am filled with joy when I see Lisa sharing photos of another hike. Anyway, speaking of recovery, last night the Celebrate Freedom, um, well, growth group met at Starpoint Church again to encourage one another and to review Celebrate Recovery's gratitude lesson. Which instructs us to practice gratitude for God, for others, for our recovery, and for our church, indicating that living with an attitude of gratitude is a great defense against relapse. If we are focusing on the Lord, the positive people in our lives, our spiritual home— y'all need a church— and our recovery, the fact that things have changed, our inclination to go back to our old hurt habits and hang-ups will be greatly diminished because we will be focusing on the here and now and moving forward into the life that we have— we always wanted to live but never thought we could. The topic of relapse came up as some in the group confessed to giving in to temptation, but they attended the meeting last night to get the support and, uh, get support and to show that while they may have fallen, they were choosing to rise up and get back on the road to recovery, freedom, and victory by being honest and committing themselves to try again. With my recent deviations from my food plan, I could relate to relapse and how it can be very disappointing when we lose focus and choose to do the things we wanted to stop doing. However, relapse can actually fuel our fire for freedom and provide us with a lesson in humility. For those in Christian Recovery, I remind people that it is because of Christ that we were saved, and likewise, it will be through our relationship with and reliance on Jesus that we will be able to be more than a dry drunk. And live out the transformed life we received when we put our faith in him. I told the men in our small discussion group last night that I, I sell the whole package of a surrendered life of Christian discipleship that would seek obedience to God's word in all areas of our lives, because that's what Jesus instructed his disciples to do. And I have discovered that Progressively surrendering to the Lord's will for my life has led to victories, freedom, and an empowered purpose for living that has given me peace, love, joy, and the other fruits of the Spirit in increasing measure. Matthew 16:24-25 tells us: Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me." For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. I have answered the call to be an authentic Christian, to follow the Lord with the way I live, increasingly with the Lord's help and guidance, and I have found my life because I decided to lose my life for Christ's sake. I decided to stop living how I did in the past and start following Jesus, and it has led to an abundant life of peace and joy. I used to decide what I would obey and what I wouldn't obey in God's word, and I still do in many respects. I don't obey everything perfectly just yet, and you'll have to be patient as I've discovered that the Lord is gracious enough to allow me to attack and defeat one stronghold at a time. But I know I could be more obedient to God's word, and we'll get there when I get there. Um, while I don't do everything I could or should, I no longer say I won't or can't when it comes to the prospect of being obedient to the principles of morality and behavior that are outlined in God's Word. I know God's way is the right way and hope to continually be transformed into the image of Christ with the way I live. My sponsor and mentor, Pastor Bob Costello, used to tell us that— tell us about but Christians and therefore Christians in regard to Christians who seem to seem to like to pick and choose what they would believe and do about God's Word. But Christians would say, I don't— I know that the Word of God says this, but I'm going to do things my way. I'm not doing that. Therefore, Christians, on the other hand, would say, God's Word says this, so therefore I will do what it says. I'll do my best to to do that. So we try to be there for Christians, but the realities of relapse can cause a major problem in our walk of faith on the road to recovery and freedom. If we relapse—

when—

as if, you know, not when we relapse, as if it's a foregone conclusion that we, we, we are destined to relapse, although we very may well, as I have in the past. But let's try to not do that. We have, you know, you know, if we relapse, we have to avoid the extremes of quitting recovery. It's, it's not about perfection, it's about progress, okay? And of beating ourselves up or condemning ourselves. I offer Romans 8:1-2 and 1 John 1:9 as the remedy for those who fall into temptation. Romans 8:1-2 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." Now here Romans 8:1-2 tell us not to condemn ourselves, encourages us to walk in the Spirit, and reminds us that we have been made free from the law of sin. If we are in Christ, our old sins don't have authority over us anymore. We can say no, but we have to walk in the Spirit, aka pick up our cross and follow Jesus, to experience our freedom. Don't stop following Jesus. And 1 John 1:9 tells us if we confess our sins, he is faithful— God, uh, to and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So when we slip up and relapse, do not keep it a secret. Be honest and confess it to your accountability team and ask for the Lord in prayer continuously to help you to be cleansed from all unrighteousness. So if we relapse, we give ourselves grace. God has already accepted us. When we put our faith in, in Christ, our recovery is not about being accepted by God. We are already accepted. Our recovery is about our love for God. We love him and we want to be obedient to his instruction for the way we live our lives. We also want to experience the peace and joy that comes from being in a harmonious relationship with God that is increased when we obediently follow God's word with the way we live our lives. While we give ourselves grace and don't beat ourselves up if we relapse, we should also— should take our relapse seriously. We should try to learn from it, uh, from our mistakes, and recommit ourselves to living a righteous life by making total freedom in Christ our goal. And to endeavor to make relapse a non-negotiable. Just like a but-Christian can say, "I'm not doing that," to the instructions in God's Word that seem difficult, we can say, "I'm not doing that anymore, ever again, because it's not who I am anymore. I don't do that anymore because of who I am in Christ. I am a new creation in Christ, and I'm choosing every day to live like it." Recovery will lead you to healing and freedom if you abide with Christ and walk in the Spirit and have a "this is who I am in Christ now" mentality that simultaneously gives us grace when we are less than perfect and drives us to make a continuous commitment to make sin a non-negotiable for our lives. We take it easy on ourselves if we make mistakes, but we don't take it easy on the sin and compromise that would lead us away from God's ways for living. So go easy and keep walking and talking with God. It gets better the further you get down the road, but you have to keep following Jesus to experience it. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on Assurance of Salvation. And today's passage is 1 John 3:1-3 from the NASB. The word of God says, see how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God, and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, we now— we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is. Everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Today's verses fall under the sixth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on Assurance of Salvation. That sixth point is: Now we are children of God, and we shall be like him. Today's verse reminds us that we are in the family of God now. The moment we put our faith in Jesus, we are in. We become adopted by God the Father and become co-heirs with Christ. And because we belong to God's family, the Holy Spirit indwells us and will lead us to become holy as God is holy. We fix ourselves on Jesus and purify ourselves just as he is pure. So represent the family of God by following the Lord with the way you live your life. 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 as we continue, uh, in chapter 29, The Spirit Confirming. And, uh, today there's The topic is More About Ernest. So they introduced the, the idea of the Holy Spirit as Ernest, or his seal on us, um, and today they'll continue that.

So if you want to see what A.W.

Pink has to say about, uh, more about Ernest, uh, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a lifestyle of Christian discipleship. Why? Because it sets you free and it results in the fruit of the Spirit growing in your life.

Um, it gives you purpose and meaning and hope and joy and peace.

And if you don't know your freedom in Christ, we recommend the Steps to Freedom in Christ, and we can prepare you for that, uh, for going through the steps by, uh, if you review our lessons that we provide on our YouTube channel and our podcast for Victory Over the Darkness, the Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ course. Those are all based on the word of God and the teachings of Dr.

Neil Anderson for Freedom in Christ Ministries, and they were transformative in my life. So I got certified so I could lead a community freedom ministry and teach that material and In 2021, I recorded the audio of it, and I provide those for your listening and viewing enjoyment. Um, and people actually click on it, so I'm very encouraged that people are checking them out. And I pray that the Lord uses those to bring people into a deeper walk with the Lord. Speaking of walking, we're going to have to walk out the door soon to go to work. It's back to reality. Day 2 of the shortened work week that continues through Saturday, but it's okay. We have to provide for our needs and do what's right, and just being a good steward to our bodies, our family, you know, taking care of what's ours by doing the simple things.

And so our walk of faith doesn't have to be complicated.

But, um, I do recommend a spiritual daily practice to ground yourself in gratitude and in truth, as we recommend prayer and Bible study and giving thanks every day. Anyway, let's, uh, thank the Lord in prayer. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you so much for all that you do for us.

Lord, we thank you how you've led us out of the darkness and increased our victory and our freedom as we followed you.

And renew our minds to your truth. And we pray for you, Lord, to guide us and, uh, guide us in that way even more every day.

Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message. We pray for them to be blessed.

We pray for you to come alongside them in their prayer request and their walk of faith.

And Lord, we pray for ourselves too. We pray for you to go before us to, to protect us and guide us as we pray for the protection of our friends as well.

There's some people in hurricane zones or whatever, tropical storm zones, uh, that might come into our country. So we're praying for them today as well. And we're praying for ourselves as we go through the work day.

We just pray for you to guide us and protect us, open our eyes to show us the things we need to see and lead us in the way we should go. Lord, all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom here on Earth and encourage more people to follow you, Lord. So we, we're asking for your help, and, uh, or we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.