“Painting by God” and the Work He Does in Us– Purity 749

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 morning sunrise scene of dazzling colors comes to us from a friend who captured it yesterday morning near their home in Clermont, Florida, describing on social media it as a painting by God. Well, it's Saturday and we made it to the weekend. Praise the Lord! There is nothing quite like enjoying the beauty of creation that the artist that made the universe continually presents for our enjoyment. Just last night, my wife, stepdaughter, and I went to Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville, New York after dinner for a short walk, and we were blessed by another painting by God as the sunset and the setting had me standing in awe and wonder. Over the sheer beauty of what God has given us, causing me to comment that the scene from the bridge at Hudson Crossing Park at sunset last night was just as beautiful as anything I have seen in all my travels, including my trips to Africa and Guatemala. Often in life we feel that we have to journey to some exotic location to see something worthwhile, but the truth is that God is present throughout the earth. And the beauty of His creation isn't based so much on specific locations as much as it is found in seeking it, appreciating the— and appreciating the beauty close at hand, and giving credit where credit is due. The knowledge of the Creator and His story relayed to us in the Word of God ups the ante of our enjoyment of life, as our experience— experiences are rightly seen as a product of His handiwork. "Experience a moment on this earth as a painting by God" is a little more meaningful than saying something like "pretty sky" because the first comment gives credit to where credit is due and it emphasizes our relationship to the artist and our love for the artist and his work. So it is my prayer that all my friends take this take time this weekend to appreciate the beauty of the artist's work, to thank the Lord for the day that he has made. And while we're at it, we should also thank the Lord for the piece of work that he has created in us and for the work he continues to do in our lives. This morning I will have the pleasure of watching the artist's work as I will be leading one of the participants of the Freedom in Christ discipleship course that I facilitate on Zoom go through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, which is a process of prayer and a tool for repentance that Dr. Neil Anderson developed from his experience as a Christian counselor and from the wisdom of the Word of God. Uh, the Lord has already been working on me this morning as I decided to prepare for this morning's Freedom Appointment by going through the steps myself. Even though I have already resolved the big personal and spiritual conflicts in my past and am living out my freedom in Christ, I use the Steps to Freedom in Christ as a periodic tune-up to repent of any sinful attitudes or actions that I had or have done since the last time I went through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. The good news is that by continually walking in the Spirit, there is less to repent of these days. As I endeavor to take every thought captive and reject the temptations to sin that come my way. The bad news is that until we are glorified by God, we will not be perfect. As my pastor shared in a recent class on Christian doctrine, he said, as Christians, we are not sinless, but we do sin less. And when we continually walk in the— with the Lord on the path of Christian discipleship, we can have victory over sin far more than, before we made Christ our Lord and Savior. As I testified to before, the Steps to Freedom in Crisis also addresses any unforgiveness we have in our lives. I'm happy to report that I have already forgiven much, and my list of people to forgive was less than last time, but I remain faithful to the process and take any attitudes of unforgiveness to the Lord, because as we walk through this life, our relationship with others won't always be perfect. We may find that we are holding some bitterness towards people in our lives that frustrate us or who are not acting as we would hope they would act. That hard edge we can develop toward people we have difficulty with might be the bitterness of unforgiveness. So it is best to take our hurts and offenses to God, tell him what these people have done, how it made us feel, and then decide to forgive them from the heart. And to choose to never hold those offenses against them again. Acknowledging the offenses, the pain it caused us, and then releasing it to God by choosing to forgive is a liberating process that results in peace and joy and brings us closer to God as, as we place our trust to he— in him to heal us and to deal with the people that we forgive. The Steps also helps us to forgive ourselves. In obedience to God, we recognize his authority and his forgiveness of us, and thus can release feelings of condemnation over the pain we have caused others. God forgives us. We are forgiven. Accept it. However, some of us may feel bad about particular situations in the past that caused them to lose their peace of mind. They regret what they have done, and rightfully so. If this is you, scripture indicates we are to attempt to make amends and seek forgiveness from others. Matthew 5:23-24 says, therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Here Jesus teaches us that as far as it is in our power, we are to try to be reconciled with our fellow man. So if you hurt someone, ask for their forgiveness and offer to make things right and accept what happens. No matter if they accept or reject your apologies and offers to make things right, you have done your due diligence as far as God is concerned. So Some— I guess so— so some may never forgive us, but God has. Because he has, we can have peace. We don't put someone else or our personal pain above God. Once we are obedient to God, we can have peace. So seek forgiveness, make amends, and give forgiveness when necessary. This is an essential key to experience our freedom in Christ and in maintaining it. After going through the steps again this morning, although I didn't think I was carrying anything, I felt tremendously relieved knowing that I have released the burden of the weight of my sins and my sinful attitudes by seeking God's forgiveness, by forgiving others for the offenses that they have done to me, and by affirming my commitment to my relationship with God and my intention to walk in his ways. So enjoy the weekend. It's a new day, it's a new life, and the Lord will give you the peace you seek when you live a lifestyle of repentance and keep walking and talking with God. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Matthew 20: 28, and it says, for even the Son of Man came to be served— but came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. Today's Bible verse encourages us as disciples of Jesus Christ to serve others because even the Son of Man came not to be served, but came to serve others and gave his life to set the captives free. Christ paid the cost of his life to set us free and encouraged us to follow him, to live like, like he did, by loving our neighbors as ourselves with acts of service. Telling someone you love them is wonderful, but when you— we also show our love for others by caring for them and serving them, we reveal the love of God in us. The refusal to serve others reveals our pride. Which just so happens to be the sin of Satan himself. The idea that we really are somebody, that we are like God in a way, and that we are worthy of praise and can do things my way. But this attitude of being the captain of our own soul and just worrying about ourselves is the antithesis of the life God wants us to live. First, pride is based in ignorance. Stupid! There is— stupid! Uh, there is a God over and above all things. And as much as you may think that we control anything of significance in and of ourselves, we have failed to look up. Um, the things that are significant are the things that last forever, and that is God's business. The works of our hands, like generations that have gone before us, will one day be dust. All our friends and loved ones will also enter into eternity where we will all answer to God. So pride is really dumb. That's why Scripture directs us to be humble. It's the appropriate response of the magnificence of God and the acknowledgement of our complete dependence on him for our significance in eternal destiny. Second, pride puts ourselves up above and separate from others. Prideful feelings will prevent us from loving and serving others. Prideful people love and worship themselves and will find themselves separated from God and all that is good when their lives expire. So listen to our Lord and Savior and choose to humble yourself and choose to serve others like he did. Jesus showed us the love of God in the flesh. He came to earth to heal us and save us. So pick up your cross and surrender your life to serve God's kingdom and share the love of God by serving others here on earth. Today we can— well, as always— oh boy, yeah, well, that's the end of today's message. And as I stumble and stutter, um As always, I like to share things basically with my brothers and sisters in Christ to help them with their walk. Today we continue sharing from John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life, but, um, and we're sharing, um, from his book, uh, the heading is The Gift of Passionate Leaders. Uh, senders are unashamed to embrace the cause of going. The startling effect of the church then, but what about today? And we will not, not know him fully outside of this mission. So if you want to see what those sections of Piper's book have to say, go to M.t. Clark to check out that resource. We provide that resource and the other resources we provide on our blog and podcast for, for your benefit, uh, you know, to help you in your walk in with the Lord. As we have discovered that when we follow the Lord, when we, when we try to live a discipled life of repentance and turning towards God's ways instead of the world's ways, we discover the fruit of the Spirit grows in our lives. So a life of peace, love, joy, goodness, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control are all available to us The trick of it is just to follow out our purpose as disciples of Christ by living, living like Christ did. So we encourage that. And as we prepare today to lead someone through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, I can, I can assure you that when you seek the Lord and repent, you, you will find your freedom in Christ. He's good and just and holy, and he gives new life to those who make Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior and gives us the power to overcome our personal and spiritual conflicts when we, when we take those things to God and affirm our relationship with him. So that's why we lead people through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. If you're interested in the Steps to Freedom in Christ to go through, you can go to the website of the blog and you'll see all the different labels of topics that I've labeled posts as, and one of those topics is the Steps to Freedom in Christ. And you can check out those posts, and one of them is a complete walkthrough through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. I've also done a podcast on walking people through the steps. So research that, you'll be able to find it. Seek it, you'll find it. You'll find your freedom in Christ. All right, well, it's the weekend. I don't want to be on here all day. I got things to do, people to see, and freedom to try to share, you know, through the power of the Holy Spirit, of course, not through me. Um, and I'm looking forward to it, and I'll be in prayer from now until that. So we just ask for your prayers today if you're listening, uh, for the freedom appointment that we have for our friend, and, uh, that the Lord would do a mighty work in his life, uh, to lay down the burden of his sins and unforgiveness and, uh, to experience his freedom. So That's one prayer we're asking for. But let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you for all that you've done for us. We love the fact that you showed us the good news of the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ, um, that gave us our freedom and gave us a new life. And for— and we thank you, Lord, for showing us how to walk out our faith and, and allow it to give us freedom here on earth, freedom that comes from knowing that we have a relationship with God and that he has set us free. And when we walk in that freedom, we experience joy. Lord, we just thank you for that. And Lord, we thank you for everyone listening. We pray for you to bless them, Lord, with healing and with insights and with you know, your favor as we go about this weekend. We just thank you so much for this, for this life that you've given us. And we pray for you to go before us today, to open our eyes, to show us the beauty of your creation and the things that you want us to see. And, uh, Lord, we just pray for you to lead us into the good works that you've prepared for us today, whatever they may be. We just pray. Thank you for guiding us through our lives, and we pray that you use us to give you glory. All these things we pray in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.