In this devotional‑sermon recording, M.t. Clark opens with a brief personal greeting and a photo credit note before moving into a pastoral reflection on the recent men’s “Freedom in Christ” course. He shares his own testimony of being set free from alcohol, drugs, sexual immorality, and food addiction, acknowledging ongoing struggles while affirming that God’s deliverance is possible for others. Clark questions the recent drop‑off in Zoom attendance, suggesting possible demonic interference that discourages believers from pursuing freedom. He then delves into biblical teaching on identity in Christ, addressing a participant’s objection about Paul’s statement in 1 Timothy 1:15 and explaining why the verb tense does not excuse ongoing sin. Clark weaves together passages from Romans, 1 John, and 1 Thessalonians to argue that Scripture calls believers to progressive sanctification, especially regarding sexual immorality and drunkenness. He emphasizes that while believers are not sinless, they are called to rely on Christ’s power to overcome. The sermon transitions to a comfort passage from Isaiah 40:10‑11, presented as a shepherd‑like image of the Lord’s coming reign. Clark then introduces a devotional excerpt from Stephen F. Alford’s “According to Your Word,” focusing on Matthew 9 and the miracles of Jesus, using it to illustrate the limitless power available to a surrendered believer. Throughout, he encourages listeners to apply Scripture, pursue holiness, and live in the freedom Christ offers. The recording concludes with a heartfelt prayer for daily guidance, victory over sin, and spiritual growth, and an invitation to visit mtforchrist.org for further resources.
Chapters
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 setting on the horizon of a large unknown body of water comes to us from a similarly unknown Facebook friend who shared this serene scene on social media on or around June 22nd, 2023, causing me to save it for today's use Um, if this photo is yours, give me a heads up and I'll give you photo credit to where photo credit is due by updating the blog after the fact. Well, it's Tuesday and I wanted to clean house by liberating another photo from my phone's photo gallery, but can I tell you, it's even more liberating to talk to my brothers and sisters in Christ about experiencing their freedom in Christ by sharing what the Lord has done for me. Last night I hosted the second meeting of the men's Freedom in Christ course, and although I was encouraged by the return of the faithful who showed up, we had 3 empty spots on our Zoom screen that were occupied last week. While the NFL playoff games, busy schedules, and prior commitments could explain those empty spots, I have to wonder if their absences are the product of demonic interference that could subtly suggest that these men didn't need the Freedom in Christ course, that it was a waste of time, or was something they just didn't want to go through with. In my initial presentation, I didn't hold back in declaring the full scope of the freedom that was possible when you follow the Lord. I gave testimony of how the Lord set me free from alcohol, drugs, sexual immorality, and food addiction. I'm still fighting that one, and despite a weekend indulgence, I'm still winning. And I declared that what the Lord had done for me was possible for them. But change is hard, and the idea of freedom and the reality of actually walking in freedom can be two different things. And sometimes the enemy will influence Christians to believe that purity or freedom are nice ideas but just aren't possible in quote-unquote the real world. Yesterday we went over the lesson on our identity in Christ, and I attempted to encourage the men to understand that the things on the "Who I Am in Christ" list weren't just doctrinal or theological principles. They are spiritual realities that can manifest in the real world if they accept them in their hearts and minds and decide to live according to the truth. As compelling as the material is in making the case that Christians are no longer sinners but saints, albeit some— albeit who sometimes sin, those ingrained beliefs about ourselves can be hard to throw off. And even though I thought, um, the lesson dealt with this issue adequately, I quickly learned that the renewing of the mind is a process, and these new ideas may take some time to get used to. One of the men actually did a Bill Clinton on me by asking about Paul's statement in 1 Timothy 1:15, where, where he said, um, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of who I am chief. Although Bible scholars point out, um, that Paul is likely referring to his past sins rather than a current degenerate lifestyle He was spreading the gospel and building churches. He was imprisoned for his faith, not his sinful life, after all. This man pointed out that Paul didn't say, "I was a sinner." He said, "I am a sinner." This man's question was a good one, but if we recall the enemy's tactics in the Garden of Eden, "Did God say?" I have to wonder where his heart is, or where his head is, because his question is the devil's advocate for a permissive attitude towards sin. The logic goes like this: Well, Paul is the chief sinner, so sin is okay or impossible to overcome. This argument is usually backed up by the sinner saved by grace crowd with Romans 7 or 1 John 1:8, which, that says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But these same Bible verse cherry pickers ignore the fact that the whole counsel of the word of God encourages us to repent and to say no to sin and to become more and more like Jesus, who didn't sin, right? Oh, and Paul, the chief sinner, right? He also said in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality." Not only does Paul clearly say that God's will for us is to be sanctified, to be holy, stop sinning. He is specific to include the sin that trips most people up, sexual immorality. Instead of seeing the big picture of trying to follow Jesus' sinless example into a lifestyle of progressive sanctification— it's progressive for us, we need to walk and grow into it, only Jesus was sinless— this man's question was about the verb tense of the original Greek word that somehow would create a loophole through which he could be a chief sinner. Nonsense. And, and, and that's what happens when we refuse to follow the Lord, when we refuse to see our sin as something that needs to stop, or that gets overly concerned with arguments over doctrine. What if someone points this verse out and says they don't have to stop sinning? Well, point to the rest of the book. Maybe, maybe, uh, point to Jesus. Maybe, uh, the one who was without sin. Oh, and remember, even though we are trying to walk in his footsteps, we are not Jesus. So did Paul sin? Yes, but nothing from scripture indicates that he was walking in darkness. This is a big problem amongst Christians. We think we have to be perfect when we can't be. That's why we need Jesus. Our best efforts won't be good enough ever. Try as we might, but we will sin, either by doing something or failing to do the good we could, which is also sin. So there you go. But gross sins like sexual immorality and drunkenness— a couple of my favorites— those can be overcome, they can be repented of, and you can be set free from them by the Lord's power in your life. So don't get it twisted and look at verb tenses to excuse your failure to trust in the Lord to help you repent. Instead, walk in the power of a close personal relationship with God, where your motivation to be cleansed from sin comes from the love that you have for the One who is sinless and gave up His life so you could live, not in the darkness of sin and shame, but in the light of a life that is pure and peaceful. So keep on walking and talking with God and follow the Lord into progressive— into the progressive life of goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, peace, joy, love, and self-control that you will find from walking in the Spirit. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on comfort and And today's verses are Isaiah 40, uh, verses 10 and 11 from the New Living Translation. The word of God says, yes, the Sovereign Lord is coming in power. He will rule with a powerful arm. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. Today's verses fall under the 19th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on Comfort, and that verse, uh, that point is: The Lord Tends His Flock Like a Shepherd. Today's verses encourages us that the Lord is coming in power, and He will rule and reign like a shepherd who lovingly provides and cares for his flock. These are messianic verses pointing to Jesus' millennial reign where He will rule He will rule forever and ever. Hallelujah! God will punish evil, but he will carry those of us who put their faith in Jesus with love and will lead us in the way we should go. So until he picks us up, let's follow the Good Shepherd's voice that we— that is heard in our spirit and written in the word of God. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.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 According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford, which is a collection of devotional journals from 1940 and '41. And the way this, this devotional works is it prompts you to read a section of Scripture. Today's reading would be Matthew 9. So if you need to read the Bible, you could do that. And then there's some comments basically in some of the texts that Alford reads from Matthew 9, and today's verse is Matthew 9:33, and he quotes, "It was never seen like this." And Alford writes, what a difference the presence and power of the Lord Jesus makes. This chapter in itself contains a remarkable record of Christ's miraculous power. He cured one sick of palsy. He cured the bloody issue. He raised Jairus's daughter. He gave sight to the two blind men. He cast the devil out of the dumb man. This amazing demonstration of power called forth from the marveling multitudes the very true statement and testimony: "It was never seen like this." And yet, there is no limit to the power of the Lord Jesus. It is beyond man's finite comprehension. What He did in each of these 5 cases recorded here in Matthew 9 he can do in the life of any man. In fact, to use the words of another, it is yet to be seen what God can do with a man wholly surrendered to him. And Alfred ends with a little prayer at the end: What joy, the promise of my Savior, you will see greater things than these, from John 1:50. And you just gotta love that. Um, yeah, he, uh, here Alfred points to all those miracles in Matthew 9 And he encourages us to say, you know, that God will do things like this in your life. That, you know, granted, that might not include physical healing, but I've seen that done and experienced it myself. You know, nothing dramatic, but you get sick, you pray, and suddenly you're well again. You know, we'll take it. And, you know, that's a lifestyle of faith. We need to lean on the Lord and see what's possible through him. And, uh, you know, rest, rest in the power of our faith. And so, um, Alford encourages us to do that with his little devotional, and I encourage you to do that as well. That's the point of this blog, is to show you these things are possible. You can live a life of freedom in Christ, and that's the, that's the important thing. It's in Christ. And when are you going to be free from the sin that besets you? You know, but you gotta fight it. You gotta, you gotta ask the Lord for help and walk in it, you know. And instead of picking apart the Bible and going, well, Paul said he was chief sinner, I'm gonna continue in my sin, listen to the rest of the Word of God where he tells you to be sanctified and to crucify the flesh and to, you know, confess your sins to one another so you can be healed, you know. So Let's walk in that. You know, these things are possible, but if we don't examine our lives and try to get rid of the darkness that we live in, we'll just, you know, live a life that's less than what the Lord would have us experience. He wanted us to live an abundant life of freedom, joy, peace, and love. When we walk in the Spirit, turn from the world, surrender to the Lord, we can experience it. And so that's why we teach what we do, because I'm nothing special. I just happened to, you know, finally, you know, the Lord blessed me and, you know, led me to follow him. And, um, you know, he'll bless you too, but you have to follow him, you know. Read his word, know what it says, apply it to your life. A disciple is one who applies the teacher's teachings to his life, and that's what we're supposed to be, as disciples of Jesus Jesus Christ. So, um, where things are running late and I need to get dressed and ready for work, or wherever the day will take me, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you do for us. Uh, you set us free and made us new. Help us to believe that. Help us to walk in that every day. Um, Lord, we just pray for anyone who's listening, uh, that they'd be encouraged in their faith and that they'd surrender to your will. And that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith to help them. And while you're at it, Lord, you can help us too. We need your help every day, and we thank you for another day of food victory as we're back on track after having sweets on Sunday. We're walking, walking free on Monday and now into Tuesday. So we thank you for that, Lord, and we just pray for you to go before us, 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 here on earth. And Lord, um, you know, I have to say it, we, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
