I Need “the One” to Complete Me!– Lies of the Enemy #40 – Purity 1052

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 a trio of people gathered near a tree on the shores of Lake Ontario to take in a magnificent sunset sky comes to us from Celestial Blue Photography as Rocco Seja captured the scene back on May 22nd, 2020, commenting at the time that they were that the people were 6 feet apart, albeit with a winking emoji. Well, it's Thursday, and as my ministry night has shifted from Thursdays to Tuesdays to Wednesdays over the years, I'm not really sure which day of the week I should share a pathway photo to encourage my friends— that's you— to get on or to stay on the path of Christian discipleship. But while I mostly share this photo because of its epic beauty, uh, it does have a shoreline walkway on display to visually represent, uh, the path that leads to amazing things and a life filled with the fruit of the Spirit. Last night I led the Celebrate Freedom growth group in a quieting and affirming exercise with the intention of leading my newest friends to find a moment of peace and to encourage them to embrace what their Heavenly Father says about them. After the group's initial prayer, um, and icebreaker, I decided to step out in faith and try to lead the group into an experiential knowledge of their identity in Christ. Instructed— I instructed the group to relax and let go of the stress of the day, to shake it off, and and to release it by doing box breathing, to inhale and exhale with a 4-second count and holding the breath for 4 seconds in between exhales and inhales. If you'd like to give it a try, inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4. I'm actually exhaling. Hold it, 1, 2, 3, 4. Now exhale. 1, 2, 3, 4. Hold it. 1, 2, 3, 4. And repeat. For those who don't like counting, or that counting be— or that counting becomes a distraction, I advise just to take deep breaths in and out. Breathe in and breathe out. I then invited them to keep breathing, to relax, and to close their eyes if they wish to, and to listen as I told them that I was going to read through the 'Who I Am in Christ' list, but that I was going to read through it as if addressing them personally by changing the verbiage to 'you.' I told them that the 'Who I Am in Christ' list was based on scripture, and in essence, it is what God wants us to know about ourselves as his adopted children. I wanted the group to listen to the— to listen to the list and invited them to embrace what the list had to say about who they are personally. And so, to repeat the exercise, if you're listening or reading this, breathe in and breathe out and try to receive in your spirit what the Lord has to say about you, who you are in Christ. You are accepted in Christ. You are God's child. You are Christ's friend. You have been justified. You are united with the Lord and one with him in spirit. You have been bought with a price. You belong to God. You are a member of Christ's body. You are a saint. You have been adopted as God's child. You have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit. You have been redeemed and forgiven of all your sins. You are complete in Christ. You are secure in Christ. You are free forever from condemnation. You are assured that all things work together for good. You are free from the condemning charges against you. You cannot be separated from the love of God. You have been established, anointed, and sealed by God. You are a citizen of heaven. You are hidden with Christ in God. You can find grace and mercy to help you in time of need. You are born of God, and the evil one cannot touch you. You have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. You are confident that the good work God has begun in you will be perfected. You are significant in Christ. You are the salt and light of the earth. You are a branch of the true vine, a channel to Jesus's life. You have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit. You are a personal witness of Christ. You are God's temple. You are a minister of reconciliation. You are God's coworker. You are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. You are God's workmanship. You may approach God with freedom and confidence. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. If you made Jesus your Lord and Savior, and you know in your heart if you have, every single one of these things are true about you. And I pray for the Holy Spirit to work in your heart and mind to embrace and accept who you are in Christ. Amen. This is our new life in Christ, so believe it, receive it, and decide to live it. I personally love the Who I Am in Christ list and practice it daily. Some of the statements speak louder to me at different times, but today I want to point to the last statement under the I Am Accepted in Christ section: I am complete in Christ. If we have placed our faith in Jesus, we are complete. And while the world, the flesh, and the devil strive to tell us that we are lacking or that we need to do something to be complete, Christ says, "It is finished." We are made whole, made complete in Him. And that brings us to our current series, The Lies of the Enemy, which is an examination of some of the common lies, sometimes sneakily whispered into our minds as first-person statements, that the enemy tells us to cause us to doubt our faith, lose our peace, cause division, or influence us to not follow the Lord with the way we live our lives. We've decided to end this series as a 40-day devotional, so today is the last day, and I have decided to take on perhaps the biggest lie of the enemy, the one that tells you that there is something or someone out there that will complete you other than your relationship with God. Sorry, Jerry Maguire, the idea that you complete me is a lie from the pit of hell. Because if I believe that and focus on finding my one, or my quest, or my idol, or whatever, uh, to the exception of seeking the Lord, I'll discover that my searching and worshiping one of God's created things, or something I've created or built up in my own mind as the ideal, will eventually separate me from God and consign me to perdition. As I rejected the only one who truly knows me and who will never leave me or forsake me. So today's big lie, big and final lie in this series, is lie number 40: I need the one to complete me. Again, as we examine the enemy's lies that would lead us astray, we have to admit that the things he uses to ensnare us are often good or true in some ways, but But because he is evil, Satan will call what is evil good and will use good things for evil. Our need for human companionship or fulfillment are good things, but the enemy entices us to make, uh, to, to make us put our focus, um, on those good things only, and thus giving them godlike status in our lives because we rest our hearts and minds on them rather than God. With the myth of the one, Satan takes our desire to be loved and accepted and makes it the all-consuming passion of our lives. The myth of the one can make us obsessive to hold tightly to our one if we should find them, or to lead us to despair if Mr. or Ms. Right hasn't come around, uh, yet. This myth can also lead us into sexual sin as we decide to try as many ones as we can to make sure we haven't overlooked anyone. The desperate, the desperate search can make us depressed and even make us addicted to love, as our search for true love is corrupted and compromised into sexual sin and striving to find meaning in one, one of God's created beings rather than him. The myth of the one tells us that some, somewhere out there is, in this world, there is an us, there is a soulmate for each one of us who, when we find them, will complete completely fulfill us, making us complete. While scripture encourages marriage, it doesn't really indicate that husbands and wives are, are the means to our fulfillment. Christ is. He completes us. The myth of the one can also be transferred into the realm of personal accomplishment, accomplishments, or obtaining obsessions. Being diligent and amassing wealth or prestige can make us feel powerful, wise, or important. But in the final accounting, all the possessions of this world or accomplishments of men will mean nothing when we are called into eternity. We, we can't earn our or buy our salvation. Only faith in Jesus can do that. I know I always tend to go to the ultimate things in my blog because frankly, we need to be concerned with the next thing, what happens, you know, when it's all been said and done. Uh, and while I will encourage people to seek after their dreams and to find happiness in their personal relationships and through accomplishing their goals or obtaining and enjoying their stuff, I feel compelled to make people aware that those things are temporary, and the things that really matter are the unseen spiritual realities— God and his kingdom— and that we need to seek him and find our way, his way, Jesus, to live. So don't believe that, that lie that I need the one to complete me unless you know that the one that completes us and gives us eternal life is Jesus Christ. In Christ, we have everything we need. So seek him and follow him to see what good things come when you decide to answer his call and purpose for your life. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation's Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Psalm 92:1, and it— and the word of God says, it is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name, O Most High. Today's verse tells us that it is good to give thanks to the Lord and sing praises to his name. This is our spiritual practice, guys, to give thanks and to sing God's praises. Gratitude, thanksgiving keeps us grounded in the good news for— of all, of all, yeah, of all, grounded in the good news of all that the Lord has done for us. And that leads us to joy. And singing likewise has been proven as a means to joy. And I would say that singing worship songs to the Lord with sincerity and feeling can move our knowledge of God and his presence and love for us from our hearts to— from our, from our minds to our hearts. I gotta correct that. And so I would just simply say practice these things. You know, the word of God is replete to give thanks in all things, so let's do that and let's sing his praises. There's things to be thankful for even when things, you You know, when, when bad things happen in our lives or we have to struggle through things, our faith grounds us in what really matters, and that we are secure, significant, and accepted in Christ. So, um, there's that. Anyway, um, we also, as always, we also invite you to go to mtforchrist.org where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with our walk. Um, today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, and I believe we're into chapter 4, which is The Deities of the Holy Spirit. And so what in the world does he mean by that? Well, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that basically the names describe his character and so we're gonna share that and you can read it. But yeah, it's different phrasing for sure. But if you want to read all about it, and you know, reading about the Holy Spirit is very rewarding usually, we invite you to check out that resource at the end of today's blog post. And keep walking and talking with God. As always, we encourage people to check out our discipleship teachings that help you know who you are in Christ and help you to defend yourself against the spiritual forces of darkness and to find your freedom in Christ. And those lessons are Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. They're all based on the work of Dr. Neil Anderson and the Word of God, and we have them for you for your listening pleasure on the podcast or YouTube channel M.t. for Christ 247. So we invite you to check that out. We also encourage, exhort you to read your Bibles. Every day. That's what Christians do, so do it. And so, and if you need a commentary, you know, if you need teaching or whatever, there's Bible commentaries to help you, you know, have a companion resource to help you explain. Right now I'm doing the— I'm using John MacArthur's commentary as I read the Bible each morning. We encourage Bible study, and the way we do it here on the blog is, or the podcast, is that we do a topical Bible study every week with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti. So if you want to check out our Bible study, just look for that under Bible Study with the Sincottis. As a reminder, I'm going into the woods this weekend in Vermont to a cabin, hiking into the woods a few miles, and, uh, gonna, gonna rough it with no electricity. So there will be no pod, uh, no Bible study this weekend, or at least no podcast of it. My wife and I will be bringing a Bible in into the woods, and we will do a Bible study of our own. Um, so we encourage that. Um, and of course, we have a day of work ahead, so let's encourage each other. You know, as I 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. Um, Lord, for saving us and making us new. You change our identity. And you tell us who we are in Christ. And Lord, we, we want to agree with that and live it every day of our life. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you would bless them and come alongside them and their prayer request and their walk of faith. Um, Lord, we need your help, all of us, and, uh, we're just asking for you to be with us and to, and to show us the way. Um, Lord, so go before us today, set things up, help us to walk in your paths, and, uh, open our eyes to the things you want us to see. Because we know that when we walk with you, we're on the right track, and, um, you know, it's a wonderful journey. So, Lord, we just, uh, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.