If You Believe, You Can – I Can Do All Things #4 - Purity 1359

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 view of the sun blazing through the trees of a forest comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene while hiking the Gallop Road Loop Trail at Merck Forest and Farmland Center near Rupert, Vermont back on May 13, 2023. Well, it's Saturday, uh, of Memorial Day weekend, and I am happy to report that my wife and I will be backpacking and staying in a Vermont forest cabin for the next 2 nights to enjoy the wonders of God's creation, the peace of its relative solitude and silence, and the joy of each other's company. I'll be off the grid for a couple of days, so there will be no Bible study with the Sankatis tomorrow, but I should be back and better than ever come Tuesday morning. Our lives are to be enjoyed and appreciated, and as we contemplate the lives lost to the service of our country on Monday, we should take a moment to thank God for their lives and for His goodness, as His Son Jesus Christ gave the example of dying for the good of many long before America was ever imagined. God is the author of life and freedom. And He will give and take it away according to His purposes. But there is hope for all men because of Jesus. So, experience true life and freedom by trusting in Christ as your Lord and Savior, and by surrendering to God's will for your life. Some may wonder if they have the faith to do that, to be a Christian and live for God. But I know you don't have to earn it or work hard to clean yourself up in order to be a disciple of Jesus.

You just about—

you just have to believe in him. That's it. If you can, if you believe, you can. That brings us to our current series on I Can Do All Things, where we are sharing from Neil Anderson's Who I Am in Christ devotional to explain how it is we can do that, that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us and see God do the impossible in our lives. So we turn to the good doctor's advice who contrast the difference between truth and lies in today's section on New Age versus Christianity. And Neil Anderson writes, New Age philosophers say if you believe something enough, it will become true. They argue that we can create reality with our minds. In order to do that, we would have to be gods, which is precisely what they are saying. That lie goes all the way back to the garden.

You will be like God, Genesis 3:5.

Christianity says it is true, therefore I believe it. Believing something doesn't make it true, and not believing something doesn't cause it to go away. Jesus prayed for us concerning this in his high priestly prayer in John 17:15-17, where he prayed My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. We believe in God and walk by faith according to his word. In my book, Victory Over the Darkness, I share the following, and Anderson shares a poem called If You Believe You Can. If you believe you can, you can. And it says, if you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, don't. If you want to win but think you can't, it is almost a cinch you won't. If you think you'll lose, you're lost. For out of the world we find that success begins with a fellow's will. It's all in the state of mind. Life battles don't always go To the stronger or faster or the faster man, but sooner or later the man that wins is the one who thinks he can. That poem has an element of truth and expresses the power of positive thinking. The Christian community has been somewhat reluctant to buy into this well-known axiom, and for good reason. Thinking is a function of the mind and cannot exceed its inputs and attributes. Any attempt to push the mind beyond its limitations will only result in moving from the world of reality into fantasy. Believing something beyond what we know to be biblically true is not faith, it is presumption, and we dare not presume upon God. That was all from Dr.

Neil Anderson and his devotional, Who I Am.

In Christ. So here, Anderson advises us, uh, on our only reliable source of truth, the Word of God, the Bible, and tells us not to presume upon God to try to push our minds beyond our limitations. God is not here to do our bidding, and his Word is not to be twisted or manipulated to say things it doesn't say, or to be used as a set of magic words to make our dreams come true. New Age philosophy would have us be little gods, and so we must be careful of those who take the Christian faith and try to name and claim prosperity and blessings as their right, because although they may sound holy, their hearts may be saying, "My will be done," rather than "Thy will be done" to the Lord. So believe You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, but be aware that the overall context of that quote-unquote promise included having to suffer for your faith. It had more to do with being content in all things more than manipulating the circumstances of all things. God is in charge, and he giveth and he taketh away, so trust in him and know that his ways are higher than our ways, that we are not always going to get what we want, but in Christ we already have more than we will ever need. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John J. Kruse. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on decision-making, and, uh, today's verses are Hebrews 11:24-25. The Word of God says: By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. Today's verses fall under the fourth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on decision-making. And that fourth— or actually the fifth point, uh, is, um, Moses Moses' decision is a good example to follow. Today's verses present the example of Moses to encourage us in our faith and to refute the idea that material prosperity is more important than a relationship with God. Moses grew up in a palace, but when he realized that it was pagan and oppressing God's people, he rejected its provision and comforts to be right with the Lord. Likewise, our sins of the flesh may feel good and provide temporary pleasure and comfort, But when we realize that our actions go against the will of God and make us subject to his wrath, we need to turn from our sin, seek God's forgiveness through Jesus, and commit ourselves to following God's ways. So following Moses is a good— is a good decision, following his example to submit to the Lord. As always, we invite all to go to mtforchrist.org or .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 morning and evening. And today's chapter is Romans 2. And from Romans 2, he shares from verse 1, which says, and whatever you judge another, you you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And Alford writes: Here is a law of God. When Paul wrote it, or emphasized it, he was addressing the apostate Jew; but as a law it is applicable to all. The law in essence is this: I must not practice anything for which I would condemn another. The Lord himself propounded this same law when he said, "Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but do not consider the plank in your own eye?" From Matthew 7:1-3. And Alfred ends his devotional by saying, by praying, "Give me the grace, O Lord, to to live what I preach. Help me not to judge if I would not be judged. Amen. Amen. And, uh, yeah, Alford, uh, basically is saying, you know, don't let me be a hypocrite. Don't let me judge for someone for what they're, you know, judge them, judge someone else for the things I do. Um, is to say, oh yeah, he's really bad, but then you're doing the same thing.

That's You know, yeah, so it don't be—

it doesn't say not to judge. We are to—

we can judge that, wow, they're not doing right, but, uh, uh, work to write— judge rightly and realize that we may have something in our own life that needs to be repented of.

And we—

that should be our focus, is our personal sanctification rather than trying to sanctify our brothers. Our sanctification is our will for God's life, or is God's will for our life, and we're to try to grow in holiness. And we're not necessarily supposed to make other people holy. That's the responsibility of the Holy Spirit. It's not our responsibility. So we can encourage people, and, uh, but we shouldn't try to judge them for it.

And that also goes along with, "Why are you doing that? You're a Christian.

You should, you know, that's not who you are," rather than, "You're a no-good lying sinner." You know, there's— that's a big judgment. There's a difference there. You know, your behavior isn't consistent with who you're trying to be versus you are, you know, a liar, a thief, or whatever. So that's that. Well, today is Saturday and I'll be hitting the road to Vermont later. So I'm gonna wrap it up and wish everyone a happy Memorial Day weekend. If I don't come back, there's no message for me on Tuesday, call the people at Merck and say we either got a squatter or a bear found that couple in the woods. I'm not sure what, what'll happen. I don't expect anything like that, but there are definitely animals out there. Oh yeah. Um, whether or not we're gonna run into Grizzly Adams or something weird, um, you know, we're praying for the Lord's protection. So we're going to be smart and watch each other's backs. So we'll see what happens. I have an axe, so watch out.

Uh, anyway, uh, let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom.

We thank you so much for all the what you've done for us, Lord, and, uh, the way you set us free and gave us life. And we appreciate that. And Lord, we do appreciate the, the loss of life that is celebrated on Monday, that people, you know, served our country and died for it. And, um, it reminds us of, of the, the preciousness of life, and it reminds us of your sacrifice for us, Lord. For we'd never be forgiven and we'd never have new life if it wasn't for you. So we thank you, Lord, and, um, we pray for you to bless anyone who's listening today's message, that you would bless them, come alongside their prayer request, and guide them in the way they should go. And Lord, today we're praying for your protection and guidance. Show us the things we need to see and lead us in the way we should go.

So all we want to do is, uh, represent you in your kingdom.

Lord, we need your help with that. So we're praying all these things today.

Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.