Old Fiends, New Friends, and Problem Patterns - Purity 1401

Good morning. Welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast for July 15th, 2024. I am M.t. Clark. Good morning. Today's photo of a view of the sky and trees above my vantage point on the— from my vantage point on the ground near a small beach at a camp on the shores of Scroon River in Chestertown, New York comes to us from yours truly, as I had the presence of mind to capture the moment as I lie— lay resting after playing in the water with my niece and nephews. Well, it's Monday again, and after a week— after weekend celebrations of a nephew and a niece graduating high school, I realized that I have a big family and I have a pretty good life. But I paradoxically Um, uh, came to the conclusion that neither a large family nor what is typically, typically sold as the good life in America were meant to fulfill us. America is the land of excess, and even though the parties I went to this weekend were pretty tame by comparison to what I experienced in my youth, there was enough sin and self-indulgence in the camp to remind me of how desperately wicked and ignorant mankind can be when it comes to living the life that God intended us, uh, intended for us to live. Obesity, divorce, drunkenness, drug abuse, bad relationships, adultery, sickness, rebellion, materialism, sexual perversion, bitterness, anger, and spiritual ignorance all came to the parties I attended this weekend. And it wasn't just because those things were in the shadowy reaches of my past. Uh, part of walking by faith is discerning the spiritual atmosphere. Even though— and even though the gatherings I attended were jovial and peaceful on the surface. The sinful patterns of behavior that were passed on from one generation to the next and between family and friends made me sensitive to the spiritual smell of smoke as I considered the final destination of the various, various attendees. The curse of knowledge, or the curse of expertise, is a cognitive bias where we incorrectly assume that everyone knows as much as we do on a given topic. When we know something, it can be hard to imagine what it would be like not knowing that piece of information. In my case, I know the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the spiritual reality of the kingdom of darkness, and the cause and effect relationship of sin and disbelief to our lives and our human flourishing. I have learned some hard lessons that come from living a life that was separated from God and now see the world through the lens of a Christian spiritual warfare worldview and find it positively painful to watch people suffer for lack of knowledge, failure to learn from their mistakes, and a determined choice to not seek the Lord. But I've been there and I've done that. I was once like them. In fact, I was once much worse than most. So instead of condemning people around me with a hellfire and brimstone plea to repent, I accept them for what they are and try to encourage them to do what is right where I can. As a person who struggled with an addiction to alcohol, it pains me to watch friends and loved ones drink. As a person who is in the midst of winning, winning the fight with food addiction, although a few rounds were lost this weekend due to these parties, it hurts me to see other people suffering the weight of their food choices. But as much as I am pained and hurt by seeing those suffering in addictions, um, they're and addictions they are surrendered to, it angers me to see the same people encourage others to follow in their footsteps. I had to hold my tongue in the name of peace, but when I saw older members of the tribe encourage younger members to follow in their wicked ways, I wanted to ask them, really? Look at yourself. Is this honestly the life that you would have them lead? Do you really want them to end up like you? Uh, but I didn't do that. And to their credit, the youth seem to resist the bad advice from their drunken, obese, and otherwise broken elders. Good for you, kids. However, my hope for the next generation is tempered because of the lack of good examples of a Christian life for them to emulate, and the state of the church in America is a mixed bag of confusion. Despite my disappointments over what was on display at these parties, I was encouraged by a few examples of people who have learned better, learned from their mistakes, or who have decided to follow the Lord. There were actual prayers spoken at one of the, one of the parties, but although many heads were bowed, I know that all who seem to pray have a relationship with God, although it can be hard to discern who does or who doesn't have faith at times. Yesterday, before the party I attended, I got word that someone from the recovery ministry I oversee was exhibiting inappropriate behaviors that indicated that their confession of faith and and sober living were a facade that were covering some real darkness that the enemy decided to expose to the light in a dramatic fashion. Um, if you can hide in this, you can, you can hide in the shadows and pretend to be living a Christian life, but if you, if you're living with secret sins, uh, they aren't hidden from God, and they have a nasty tendency to come to public view in unexpected ways. Uh, after the reports of behaviors that would compromise the safety of our support group, I made the tough decision to inform this person that they would no longer be able to attend our support group meetings. While I am called to forgive everyone for everything, as a support group leader, I have to think of the group over the individual at times and have to remove toxic people from the safe space I seek to offer to the members of the group. While you can live whatever way you like to outside of the camp, biblical standards of morality and accountability are going to govern the Christian support group that I lead. And if your conduct, speech, or attitudes go against what we are trying to do, you will find yourself outside the camp with no way back. The potential members of our support group are coming from a place of hurt as it is, and I have to try to provide them with a place to come where they can heal from their hurts, habits, and hangups and not be re-traumatized. Oof. Sometimes I hate knowing what I know and have to make people feel the consequences of their actions, but God shows us a way to walk through life, and I owe it to him and my fellow man, uh, to be faithful to point people to Jesus, encourage them to follow his ways. So, uh, repent and believe in the gospel. Uh, doing things your way is more than likely the wrong way, and a lot of suffering you experience in life will be healed when you start walking and talking with God. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the, uh, well, from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crowes. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on false prophets and teachers. And today's verse is Matthew 7:15. From the New King James Version, the Bible says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Today's verse falls under the fifth point of our Counseling Reference Guide resource section on false prophets and teachers, uh, and, uh, the fifth point is Jesus warns against false prophets who are wolves in sheep's clothing. Yeah, those are the words of Jesus, not just the words of the Bible. Um, you know, today's, uh, verse exposes— oh, we got to go back— exposes the fact that some false prophets are hard to identify and come across as seemingly harmless. In light of my experiences at the family gatherings I attended, uh, that I went to this weekend, I would extend false prophets as anyone who would encourage you to live a selfish or fleshly lifestyle. In hearing conversations around me this weekend, I assessed some of the speakers to be not worth listening to because they were deceived by the world, the flesh, or the devil, if not all three, and were preaching a lifestyle completely removed from God. That's not only not good advice, but it's also being a prophet of destruction, as they unwittingly were preaching for the devil as they were dressed in sheep's clothing, uh, in the sheep in the sheep's clothing of a friend or family member. With friends and family like these, who needs enemies? Anyway, beware of false teachers. And as always, we encourage people to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist people with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament with Stephen by Stephen F. Alford. And in his devotion, uh, Alford prompts us to read a chapter of scripture each day. And today's chapter is 2 Corinthians 11. And from that chapter, he shares a portion of verse 28, which says, deep concern for all the churches. And Stephen Alford writes, herein is an amazing truth. The apostle in the preceding verses has numbered some of the sufferings and afflictions that he has endured for the sake of the Lord Jesus. But last of all, he adds, besides the other things, what come— comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches. Verse 28. Paul lived so close to the Lord that he was sensitive to the minutest suffering of any member of the body of Christ. Notice he says deep concern for all the churches. That included every member. In this verse, Paul proved in practice what he propounds in theory in 1 Corinthians 12. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. 1 Corinthians 12:26. And he also writes, does not this explain the mystery of some of the sorrowful times I go through? Do I pray for the suffering— do I pray for the suffering ones? And Offord ends by praying, Lord, create in me a spirit so sensitive to suffering that I too develop a deep concern. Amen. And yeah, you can pray for all the churches and all the people in the churches because our— even though we can all be of one faith, one baptism, one, you know, have one Lord and Savior of Jesus Christ, we're going to have different levels of understanding and levels of success in our Christian walk. And when there's variance, uh, between us, some will suffer more than others and, you know, not be convicted of their sin and live in sin and hide in sin. And some will be exposed at the end of time by Christ to be, you know, not known by him. I— depart from me, I never knew you. Whereas others are just going to, you know, suffer suffer through life, uh, instead of prosper through life. And it's not about a prosperity gospel, it's about living in harmony with God and, uh, free from the bondage of sin. We can progressively grow in that, um, as the word tells us, God has given us everything for life and godliness. So, you know, um, the, the mystery of some of our sorrowful times, you know, definitely is, uh caused by the, the relationships we have, um, watching other people suffer, um, for lack of knowledge. So that's, that's our ministry here, is to encourage people to follow the Lord, because we've discovered great wisdom and help in his presence and in his word, you know, to overcome the pains that this world and your bad choices will, will create. And, uh, that's why we do the podcast, the blog, uh, and everything, and the ministries we do. And, uh, speaking of which, you know, have you surrendered? Have you fully surrendered to God? Um, if you do so, you'll, uh, you'll eventually experience peace. Um, but, but we, we direct you to mtforchrist.com where we have our blog posts, we have a video, um, a playlist of our teachings that are on YouTube, um, to encourage you in your faith. Because believe me, as a new believer, you can sometimes feel all alone in this thing and have no idea how to live a Christian life. And it's all about our spiritual disciplines and our choice to follow the Lord and to live according to our faith. That gives us the victory. And, um, if you need help with victory, we can help you with that. Um, we can support you in that anyway. The Celebrate Freedom support group Uh, locally here in the Capital District of Upstate New York, um, at Starpoint Church meets on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM. Uh, when we begin our new battery of meetings, um, on July 24th at 6:30 PM at the church. So if you'd like to join our group, go to Starpoint Church's website, look at support groups, find Celebrate Freedom, and register., and we can know who you are and know to expect you. Um, and so we encourage anybody who's— who wants to learn how to live a new life according to their faith in Jesus Christ to come to Celebrate Freedom, to experience, uh, the freedom that you have in Christ. And for men, we offer— this fall we'll be offering a discipleship class through Freedom in Christ Ministries. Um, there's an online men's course, Freedom in Christ, that I'll be leading on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 PM Eastern Time starting on September 3rd. Registration is now open, and so you'd want to go to ficm.org and look for courses, and you'll find a whole slew of different courses for Freedom in Christ, Victory Over the Darkness, um, and some other courses, um, basically that are available. Um, you can sign up and register for any one of them. Interested men, uh, who want to be in the, the course I, I do, you would just have to look for the Freedom in Christ course on Tuesday night at 6:30 PM Eastern Time. All right, well, um, that's the message for today. Feel a little tired after the weekend with the, with the two parties and you know, indulging in some sweets that I shouldn't have. But there's grace for that, and today's a new day. God's mercies are new every day, and we're, we're pressing into repentance style once again, um, as we feel much better lately because we haven't been indulging in that stuff. But, uh, we don't feel too badly because we did put some limits on it. But we got to move forward in victory. We're going to do that today. But before we do, we're going to pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for the victory you've given us and the truth you've shown us. Lord, we just pray for, for everyone, um, everyone just to come to you and follow you. But specifically, we're praying for the people who are listening or reading, uh, today's message or watching today's message, that you can come alongside them, their prayer request, and their walk of faith. Lord, they need your help, uh, they need to be shown by you how to live. And, um, guided by you how to live. And Lord, um, while you're at it, you can guide me too. Um, so we're just praying for you to open our eyes today, the things you want us to see, and help us to walk in your ways, Lord, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, and we're definitely going to need your help with that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.